Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

In the scramble after he was tackled, Balthazar caught a knee to the stomach. It hurt for a moment, but it hadn't been a hard enough or well formed enough strike for the pain to last long. Balthazar pushed himself into a little roll with his elbow to get on top of the man who'd tackled him. Balthazar swung his arm out just a little and them slammed it down like a hammer onto the sides of the man trying to keep him on the floor in a flailing mess of limbs and body mass. The hits seemed to hurt the man more than his knee had hurt Balthazar because the Flame Trooper felt the man's grip on him slipping slowly. Balthazar managed to push himself free of the big man and get onto his feet again while the man tended to his ribs.

Balthazar threw a quick glance around again, looking for Woe, and found him dislocating a man's arm. He saw him for a moment before the battle cry behind him stole his focus. Like he'd done before, Balthazar dropped into a low spin and swept his leg out to trip the next charging opponent which finally got the message across that they shouldn't charge at him. The charging man crashed onto the ground and two more moved in a little more cautiously with their hands raised. One moved from the front and the other moved in from a little bit off to the side. It was strange, in that moment, that Balthazar felt a certain clarity. He remembered his last Crucible perfectly. He remembered the mistakes he'd made that he paid for in pain. He- oh a fist was coming towards his face.

There wasn't quite as much time to reflect in combat as there was in conversation. As the first fist flew in Balthazar shifted his head to the left, causing it to fly over his shoulder. He grabbed the man who'd thrown the punch by his overextended arm and turned to swing him towards the second man only to find the first one a little more sturdy on his feet than expected. The second man's fist caught Balthazar across the face and while he didn't drop his grip on the first man, Balthazar did stumble to the side a little- and he dragged that man with him.

The first man, the one who's arm was trapped over Balthazar's shoulder, threw a jab into Balthazar's stomach and as he drew his hand back for the second swing, Balthazar gave up on his plan to throw the man. New plan, take them down. He let go of the overextended arm and smacked the second jab aside. With two steps Balthazar got behind the first man and delivered a paralyzing jab into the back of his calf. The first man groaned in pain and the second man rushed in to hit Balthazar while he was distracted but Balthazar caught his fist by the wrist, pulled it to the side, struck him with an equally paralyzing blow into the bicep. Balthazar dropped quickly and struck the man in both of his thighs with the same force as he'd hit the man's bicep.

The work done, Balthazar pushed the second man into the first man and they both hit the ground hard. He moved towards where he'd seen Woe last and caught a brief glimpse of his ally again. In this case, his perfect memory helped him keep track of the direction he'd last seen Woe in but even then it was a test of focus because Woe wasn't exactly standing still. When Balthazar saw him this time, Woe had just lifted his legs and allowed his body to roll backwards. Balthazar made it about another two steps and in that two steps he came dangerously close to Woe- not dangerously close because he was in Woe's reach, but dangerously close because now the bodies they flung and the people they shoved would certainly impact each other.

Balthazar wanted to get to him to make sure he didn't take too hard a beating. He wanted Woe to come out of the Crucible looking good by more than a Yari standard. He'd almost reached Woe when the brute who had lifted the mortalborn into the air began to rise from where his tumble had left him. Thinking it would be better to stop him first, Balthazar shifted in his path and once the brute was reasonably on his feet, Balthazar slammed a shoulder into him to put him onto his back again.

"Sixty trills!" A voice that Balthazar struggled to hear over the fighting called out.

Balthazar did not recall them calling out times the last time he had fought in the Crucible but he had been altogether less perceptive and skilled at that time. He still struggled with the same questions Woe was. Had it been sixty trills or were there only sixty trills left? It didn't feel like the fighting had been going on that long but it never did when you were focusing on not being bludgeoned to death by many men. Balthazar brought his knee down on the brute he'd leveled to keep him down for a few more trills before backing towards Woe who was battling a man who'd almost taken Balthazar from behind. Woe used the man as a shield very well, in Balthazar's opinion but Balthazar didn't want to make Woe do it for long.

He delivered five remarkably fast jabs into the back of the downed brute's calf to stun the muscle, then he pushed off the large man and swept the leg out from under the fighter who was attacking Woe's human shield. Balthazar came up again and stomped on the stomach of the tripped fighter, pushing all the air out of his lungs to buy more time. Balthazar turned, trying to get a glimpse of Woe again to see if he'd moved and instead he saw a fist flying towards him. He was faster. He seemed to be faster than most. So he pulled his head back and out of the way of the swing just in time to avoid it and just in time to deliver his own jab into the armpit of the newcomer who'd swung at him. The newcomer cringed and grabbed his armpit, dropping his guard so that Balthazar could move in with a hard elbow to his chest that threw the fresh fighter onto the ground. Fresh didn't mean skilled all the time.

"Any time." Was about all the verbal response to Woe's thanks that Balthazar could get out before combat took his focus again. Woe went to his back and it gave Balthazar a very defined set of opponents to fight. They were getting smarter but they were getting more tired as well. Balthazar and Woe probably had more endurance between the two of them than most of the fighters but they were certainly testing that limit. Balthazar further from Woe than Woe did from him when he went on the attack again. He launched forward with a series of quick punches at the closest brawler who fumbled to block them. He managed to get his hand up for the first two, but Balthazar struck precisely. His punches slipped past the tired guard into his opponent's shoulders and abdomen to weaken him.

Balthazar knocked the man down with an uppercut before turning to the next closest and blocking a haymaker with his forearm. One arm blocked and the other lashed out like lightning, striking hard in the middle of the brawler's chest and knocking him backwards. Another approached from the left so Balthazar abandoned his current fight to block a low kick with his shin. It hurt, not the best block, but he was Fire Forged so the impact hurt the one who'd kicked a little bit more. The kicker stumbled backwards off balance and Balthazar hooked his right foot behind the kicker's to pull him off his feet.

How many times could they fall down and get up before they were too tired to get up again?

Even Balthazar was beginning to feel the strain. His combat showed it. He stopped surging forward and began waiting for them to come to him. When they did, rather than strike back he would redirect them into each other. One fighter ran with a wide hook so Balthazar caught his arm, turned his body with the momentum and then flung him into the legs of another charging brawler. There was the unfortunate consequence that as Balthazar adopted this strategy of throwing people into each other, he accidentally tossed someone Woe's direction in a poorly aimed shot at someone near Woe. People were unconventional thrown weapons.

It seemed like it would never end. Every time Balthazar knocked someone down or threw them one way, someone else showed up to take their place. Balthazar had almost abandoned normal striking completely and instead began relying entirely on throws and sweeps to knock opponents down. If they couldn't stand, they couldn't fight. The problem was that while this approach bought him more time than a simple punch would, it didn't really hurt the other brawlers as much as his fists and feet would. It did the job though. It kept the larger number of fighters occupied long enough. He threw body after body into body after body until suddenly-

"STOP!" Durden's voice called out, booming over the cheering of the crowd and calling the unfiltered brawl to an end. Balthazar wasn't sure if it had ended because they'd run the timer or if it was because Durden had seen someone get seriously injured so he stumbled backwards with his guard still raised for a few trills. He caught a glimpse of Woe holding another fighter in an arm-bar before looking over to see what Durden had to say. The cheering began to quiet down and the brawlers who were left on their feet seemed to relax. Durden looked to Woe. He was waiting for him to disengage the arm-bar and when/if he did, Durden would continue. "Welcome to the Decked Halls." Durden said to the two of them. He offered Woe a hand to help him back into an upright position and didn't seem to pay Balthazar as much attention. "Get some water. We're taking a short break and then the next fights will start. You did well."

I wish Rakvald could have seen that. Balthazar kept his thought to himself and doubled over a little to catch his breath. He remembered his first Crucible with the creature of man and he remembered how it felt after. The pain and aches from the hits that slipped through began to rise and the adrenaline would begin to fade but for the moment it was still doing its job. Balthazar approached Durden and Woe once he'd caught his breath and said "You're not half bad without the whip."