Elemental Exercises

[Praetorum]

43rd of Ashan, Arc 719

Prae had sparred with Balthazar up to now using very little defiance, partially because he had wanted to figure out how to fight another mage without using magic of his own, but also partially because the elements had been somewhat uncomfortable with the idea at first. Still, they seemed to have settled into the groove of the spar now, understanding that they weren't really trying to hurt each other, and furthermore, with their elemental protections, it was somewhat difficult to do so at all. 



So, for this second stage of the fight, Prae was eager to test out a few tricks of his own before he tried them in a real battle or spar. Which was why he had called to the earth to envelop his weapon, to coat the blade and shaft with solid stone. This was a trick he'd been working on for a few trials, and he was eager to see how it fared against a real opponent. 



So, twirling his scythe, Prae stilled, finding his balance, then leaped at Balthazar, sending a flurry of jabs at the martial artist. Would he draw close, Prae wondered, or would he dart out of the way? Either way, Prae had a plan in place. 



If he ducked in close, Prae would further close the distance between them, slamming his shield into the human; but if he darted out of the way, Prae would do the same, dodging back and avoiding projectiles from the human while finding a good angle for his next shot.

[Balthazar Black]

43 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | Yaralon

Having been healed by Prae, Balthazar felt like a new man. He could feel his spark- his defiance spark to be exact- burning within him. It was a spark that had felt more like a bonfire than a spark ever since he'd chosen his kin element and as he prepared for his second round against Prae his spark grew excited by the prospect of growth. His rupture spark stirred as well but not for the same reasons. The combat Balthazar had chosen to learn was a highly physical one that included a lot of rapid movement. Those rapid movements appeased his rupture spark's longing to move. Balthazar watched Prae encase his weapon in earth and took note of it.

He knew better than to try and coax the earth on the scythe to do anything but he would keep it in the back of his mind. In a pinch, he could always shoulder the scorn of an element to save his own life. If he pushed the earth in order to create a life saving opening and it struck back, so be it, but he would not be faced with such difficult decisions in a sparring match where victory didn't matter and failure was arguably more productive. Prae lunged into his attack and Balthazar responded. His golden eyes tracing Prae as he moved closer.

The flurry of jabs came swiftly and Balthazar instinctively decided to retreat. Prae had encased his scythe in earth and the could lead to many problems if Balthazar got in two close. It could lead to many if he stayed at mid range as well. Balthazar slipped through the first few jabs and then smacked the scythe aside with the back of his hand as part of a circular motion. As Balthazar's hand moved in the circle a stream of flame trailed behind it. The flame wasn't powerful enough to do any real damage it was mostly a bluff to keep Prae back while Balthazar retreated. A flashy effect and distraction that set his combat apart from others.

Balthazar backpedaled out of the reach of Prae's scythe and sent three fire missiles toward Prae to buy himself a little more time to get further. Balthazar stopped retreating when he'd gained about a thirty foot gap and shot off two more fire jabs towards Prae who had done a fairly decent job of avoiding his attacks so far. Balthazar took some mental inventory of how the jabs made him feel. He was breathing in and out with each set of jabs to help him control how much ether he expended with each strike but he knew he'd be switching elements very quickly soon so he was trying to build some up.

[Praetorum]

43rd of Ashan, Arc 719

Balthazar dodged, and Prae admired the smooth motion the martial artist used to deflect his weapon; Prae was accustomed to blocking and parrying being clashes of strength, not this redirection of motion. Raising his shield, Praetorum stepped back, the metal catching the flame that spewed from the human's hands. 



Three missiles came in quick succession, and Praetorum, having gotten the hang of reading his opponent's body language over the course of the spar, side stepped each in turn. Then, another two that caught Prae off guard, focused as he was on his own position. 



This time, he called the wind to aid him, and as he stepped to one side, the wind swept to the other, sending the projectiles just enough off course that they missed him by a hair. With the momentum from that movement, Prae shifted to his offensive, his scythe sweeping through the air in front of him. 



He was still too far from the retreating Balthazar to hit him, of course, more than two scythe lengths away. That wasn't the point here. 



As Praetorum's scythe cut through the air, the stone that coated the blade slipped free, and, hurtled towards the martial artist, a perfect imprint of the scythe's head. Then, a moment afterwards, the stone around the shaft crept up onto the blade, molding again around the blade to prepare a second projectile. 



Taking advantage of the distraction of a projectile, Praetorum followed after it, falling back into mid-range to continue his attack against Balthazar, his stone coated scythe coming in for a proper blow this time.

[Balthazar Black]

43 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | Yaralon

Even with the distance he had put between Prae and himself, Balthazar struggled to react to the incoming rock scythe. It wasn't so much that Balthazar didn't know what to do- it was very clear to him that he should move out of the way- but Balthazar's mind was racing with the hundreds of possibilities that could emerge from him attempting something similar. Could he encase his arms in stone and propel smaller rocks like crossbow bolts? Could he- oh and right then Prae's stone scythe slammed into Balthazar who hardly got his arms up in time to absorb the worst of the impact.

The rocks collided with Balthazar and knocked him onto his back. Balthazar braced himself with his hands and when they touched the ground they sunk inwards slightly. Balthazar coaxed the earth to encase his hands and it overachieved- it began to spread up his forearms as well. Balthazar didn't move from the ground as Prae charged him because he was coaxing stones from the ground onto his hands and wanted it to appear like he was still recovering from Prae's attack... which in all honesty was a side benefit to remaining on the ground. The distance closed, the ithecal arrived, and Balthazar pushed himself up onto his feet to meet Prae's attack.

Prae's scythe came in for a meaty strike and Balthazar parried it with his stone encased hand. That was when he discovered smacking the scythe hurt a lot less when your hand was covered in stone. However at this point Balthazar had noticed Prae adapting to his more standard moves so Balthazar tried something a little more bold. He directly stole what Prae had just done to him. As Balthazar's left hand parried the scythe his right hand jabbed inwards towards Prae's shield arm and the stones encasing it shot out in the crude shape of a first towards Prae's shoulder. Balthazar's hope was to weaken Prae's shield arm but the gambit was that he had not pushed into Prae's space and therefore when Prae struck back, Balthazar would be perfectly in the scythe's range.

[Praetorum]

43rd of Ashan, Arc 719

Balthazar's response had been slower that Prae had expected, and he couldn't help but worry when the man took the blow head on. As he drew closer, his concern only exacerbated at the amount of time Balthazar spent recovering on the ground. Just as he closed the distance with the other defier, though, he leaped from his prone position, arms now encased in earth.


Gauntlets, he thought as Balthazar parried his scythe blow. Then, the man's other arm jabbed out, slipping past his shield, and sending the stone echo of a fist flying towards him. Clever man, turning his own tricks against him. Prae had to admire that sort of quick thinking. Rather than bother trying to dodge or deflect, Prae simply called for the stone to soften into mud, and took the now much softer impact as his scythe swept in for another blow. 



This time, Prae took advantage of the man's newly earth encased hands; after all, Balthazar was unlikely to be accustomed to his arms being so heavy. And with one parrying and the other punching, the martial artist was likely far more front heavy than he was used to. So now, as his scythe swept in, Prae too stepped forwards and to the side, putting him at just the right angle to use the shaft of his scythe to sweep the feet out from under the human. 



It was a quick maneuver, but one that put him within Balthazar's striking range, and over extended his weapon arm; he'd never have used it in a real battle, but in a spar like this, he felt it was worth the risk.

[Balthazar Black]

43 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | Yaralon

Prae was correct to think that the stone gauntlets were slowing Balthazar down. They were. He had spent the majority of his training focusing on fire and as a result he didn’t have as much physical strength as one would normally need to wield two slabs of rock on their arms, well one now that Balthazar had shot a gauntlet at Prae and watched it reduced to mud in the air. Balthazar noted how Prae had weakened the earth rather than physically block it and he made a mental note that another defier’s projectile could still be defied and moved on. Seeing his gauntlet soften told Balthazar his strike would fail and he immediately began preparing himself to counter whatever Prae came at him next with.

Balthazar could feel the staff of Prae’s scythe coming around towards the back of his legs because of his rupturing spark and Balthazar- still a little front heavy- decided to root himself rather than leap over Prae’s swing as part of a spinning kick. Balthazar reasoned if he tried the spinning kick the stone gauntlet on his left arm would weigh him down too much. Instead he coaxed earth up from the ground up to encase his feet so that when the staff of Prae’s scythe smacked into the back of his legs- which was already painful- Balthazar wasn’t knocked off his feet. The stone booties would fall off his feet as soon as they’d done their job because Balthazar didn’t want to trap himself in the spot.

In one moment Prae’s scythe smacked into the back of Balthazar’s legs and in the next Balthazar swung his stone encased left arm around in a haymaker towards Prae. He was expecting Prae would block the punch with his shield because Balthazar had made a point of swinging on that side. In truth the punch was a distraction, meant to conceal the fact that Balthazar was reaching out towards Prae’s overextended weapon arm to attempt to pull Prae’s spear out of his hand.

[Praetorum]

43rd of Ashan, Arc 719

The wooden haft of Praetorum’s scythe jarred as the martial artist did the one thing Prae could not have anticipated: nothing.

Praetorum winced at the sound of wood slapping against flesh, well familiar with that particular pain; poor bastard would have welts from that. But he had to admire his opponent’s quick thinking, in rooting himself to avoid being overbalanced, as well as his discipline in letting himself get hit like that.

Perhaps Prae could do something similar in the future, he mused as he raised his shield to block the incoming strike from Balthazar. Encase himself in plate armor made of stone if he was caught without it.

Balthazar’s blow glanced easily off of Prae’s tower shield, and he found himself somewhat disappointed. The human should have realized by now that quick blows were the way past Prae’s defenses, not heavy ones. Strange, that he would change to a losing tactic halfway through the fight.

Then Prae felt a tug on his scythe, and his hand squeezed tight on the haft. It was a good idea, but in some things, brute force beat technique every time; Prae might have been over extended, but he was larger, heavier, and stronger than the human by quite a large margin. He didn’t quite have the leverage needed to yank the human close to him, but he could certainly hold on to his weapon as he stepped forwards, and threw his shield out in a slam towards the martial artist.

[Balthazar Black]

43 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | Yaralon

It hadn't taken long to realize that he would not be successful in pulling Prae's scythe from his hands. It had been a vain hope to think he could use his speed to disarm the ithecal. A scythe had far too much space on the shaft for Prae to realize it was being pulled and close his hand around it. Balthazar made a mental note of that for the future. For the moment his mind raced through ways to deal with the fact that he was standing in front of a tiny dragon with a tower shield who was about to wack him. His last stone gauntlet had actually cracked and started falling off after it hit Prae's shield so it was hardly going to be useful for defense this time around.

Balthazar released the scythe and tried to bring up his right leg to kick back against Prae's shield. His plan was to push backwards off Prae's shield and use the momentum as he fell backward to blink behind Praetorum and crash into him. It would have been quite the sight and a good plan for someone just a little bit more skilled than Balthazar. Or at least someone who hadn't just freshly had his legs smacked. He didn't get his leg up in time. The shield smashed into him and sent him rolling backwards across the ground for a few feet.

Balthazar had a little trouble getting up which he signaled immediately by holding a hand up towards Prae to signal for him to wait. In a real fight that wasn't an option but this was sparring and he hoped the man would interpret his signal. Balthazar was taking a mental inventory of his injuries as he stood. The back of his legs felt like they were on fire in only a metaphorical sense. Being a defier, actual burning didn't hurt at much. His left shoulder had taken most of the shield so it ached as well. Balthazar decided that those were injuries he could fight through. Adrenaline was a miracle drug.

Balthazar rose to his feet again and raised his fists like a boxer for a moment before taking in a deep breath and resuming his open palm stance. He could feel his ether straining under the demands of his fighting style but he knew that it had to be this way. His spark could never grow- as it so adamantly wanted to- if he did not push it. Yet it always seemed to push back harder. "I'm ready when you are." Balthazar said as he settled into his stance with his palms facing outwards toward Praetorum. There was a little distance between them now and Balthazar had a few ideas on how best to use that distance.

[Praetorum]

43rd of Ashan, Arc 719

Prae had expected the martial artist to dodge or deflect his blow. But while Prae could see that Balthazar had started some sort of maneuver, it seemed that either he'd messed it up, or mistimed it. Either way, the result was the same; his shield crashed into the human with the force of a small rockfall, and Praetorum winced a little in sympathy as the force of his blow sent Balthazar flying backwards. He started to advance, only to stop when the martial artist held up a hand for a break.


He took the opportunity—as Balthazar was picking himself back up—to give his limbs some time and space to loosen up, shaking out his hands and legs. There was a persistent tingle in his claw tips, but he chalked that down to the after effects of his scythe slamming against the human’s legs, sending vibrations all up his arm. 



Rolling his shoulders, he considered his options. It was unfortunate that against another defier, he had no way to trap his enemy that the other man couldn’t get out of. Prae’s training in the Legion had been focused on taking down enemies lethally, and protecting others, but especially here in Yaralon, where duels not to the death were common, Prae was beginning to see that the ability to immobilize one’s enemy without killing them was vitally important. 


Well, he'd bring it up with Edyn. For now, all he needed to focus on was Balthazar. Prae took another moment to steady himself, then nodded to his opponent. 


Again, there was a little more distance between them than Prae would need to attack normally, which suited Praetorum fine. Planting his feet, Praetorum hefted his scythe, and sent a flurry of jabs at Balthazar. This time, rather than stone, plumes of fire were launched from the tip of Prae's scythe with every movement, shooting towards the defier he'd stolen this very idea from. 



Prae didn't expect this to deal any real damage to his opponent. All he needed was for it to function as a—pun fully intended—smokescreen, as Prae stepped forwards and slashed at his opponent's arm.

[Balthazar Black]

43 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | Yaralon

Balthazar almost immediately regretted his decision to resume the spar. His legs burned as he stepped backwards and away from Prae. He was quite ready to give up the distance even if Prae was beginning his attack. Balthazar knew the risks of what he planned to do but he was not going to let risk alone stop him this time. Balthazar looked past Prae at the ground behind him and he did his best to capture every detail that he could see before Prae attacked.

Balthazar saw the bursts of flame coming off the end of each of Prae’s jabs and it caused a small smile to spread across his face. Balthazar quickly rooted himself where he stood and brought his arms around in wide circular motions in front of him- calling to and dancing with the fire Prae had provided in order to save some ether for what came next. As the flames neared Balthazar they grew more intense before suddenly shooting up into the air front of Balthazar and creating a thin wall of flames that obscured Balthazar from view entirely. Balthazar had not know Prae’s flames were merely a smokescreen for Prae but he had done his best to turn it into his own.

With the wall of flames between them Balthazar took a deep breath and turned to kick Prae in the back. As he turned Balthazar summoned his ether and looked to the top of the wall of flames. He knew he could not blink somewhere he could not see so he kept his eyes trained above the wall he’d amassed to hide his action.

Suddenly he felt Prae moving in for his real attack and Balthazar jumped backwards. As he passed through the air a small portal just large enough for him to fit through opened in the air practically touching his back and swallowed him whole. The egress appeared directly above Prae and the young sorcerer came falling from it- far more drained than he had been expecting and therefore unable to do much other than tuck in his arms and legs and fall downwards onto Prae like a bag of bricks.