Downsizing

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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Going into this, Jae-Seong believed his opponent to be a formidable fighter, and because he respected that, the bar he’d set for her in his head was fairly high with regard to baseline combat knowledge. He figured that both of them would avoid using much magic in this scenario since doing so would complicate things and end up diluting how much of the duel was actually practicing the swordsmanship itself. That, and he was certain that Imogen was a far more potent mage than he was.

To his first move, her response was to dodge and then counter strike– wise; doing so meant he’d have to adjust far more to be in a position to strike again as opposed to dodging alone. Since his downward strike was angled diagonal and his other hand still remained tucked close to his waist, his leading arm naturally fell in close when he missed, forearm over forearm and with leading blade held outward.

To avoid her counter, the swordsman pitched his forward momentum slightly to the side, just enough to get out of the way, and then into a tight, graceful spin meant to both preserve and redirect his energy. To be pushed into this sort of maneuver was not actually that much of an inconvenience for his style of fighting, however, because in his dodge, the angle of his weapons made him dangerous to approach again as opposed to vulnerable– but it did waste time, creating a brief delay before he could strike again.

The nobleman let his momentum carry him forward through his spin at an inward, spiraling angle– when next his body faced his opponent’s, he was behind her. Rushing forward, he’d attack this time moving both blades in tandem. His arms circled forearm over forearm, his swords swiftly spiraling in a fashion not dissimilar to a vortex of wind. The upkeep of this technique required a lot of dexterity and control from him, but it was a skill he’d put a lot of time into making sure he could maintain. Difficult but dynamic, it was a swift and potent attack while at the same time providing excellent defensive coverage for the front of the warrior due to how quickly the blades spun, making it oppressive in duels.

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'Thoughts'

"SynskritTongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

Moon dodged and recovered with incredible speed; plainly, this is what his style was for. As long as you kept to circular movements, you always had one sword in a position to parry and one in a position to counterattack, and you could bring in the one for the other at any time. How was one meant to contest that with a single sword?

Well, one wasn't, presumably. That was the idea, right?

Outside of formal duels, nobody used a single longsword like this. They'd have something to be doing with the other hand. A shield, perhaps... but her shield was not a buckler, and there were certain other problems with that concept. She'd seen a fighter use a net for that purpose before, but nothing like that was easily to hand. So unarmed defense it would have to be.

As her mind worked, Jae spun around her. An annoying technique, to be sure. It was going to force her to either drop her guard or remain facing the wrong way while the man closed in on her back, and both of those options certainly ended with his swords in her skin.

The best response would have been to get behind him in turn, but that would have taken magic. The second best response-

Imogen began sprinting forward, feeling the air displaced by the nobleman's blade's at her back. The man was fast in his fighting, but while he was on the attack, he needed to focus on his footwork, which meant she'd have a second or two before he could overtake her, running as she was toward the opposite end of the yard. And by then...?

The Ork clenched her right fist, the empty-handed one, and focused on the violence slumbering in her blood. The muscles in her arm bulged, skin growing taut as opal scales pushed through to the surface, her hand growing larger and more claw-like. This, she felt, could hardly be called cheating; it was just another kind of physiological advantage Orkhan possessed. She doubted Jae would have seen it often; after all, for most Orkhan, their latent scaleomorphosis only triggered in times of extreme distress, pain, fear or rage. It took quite a bit of discipline and training to use it intentionally.

Once she sensed Jae closing again, Imogen stopped her sprint and spun, bringing her sword across her body in an attempt to parry at least one of his blades and sending her scale-lined fist directly towards him. It wasn't what you would call sophisticated, but the Ork had no problems with underhanded tactics.

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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To run away from his advance bought Imogen time, thus the only question that remained was what she’d use it for. When the duelists neared the perimeter of the field, his opponent abruptly ceased her egress, turning around along with the screeching sparks of steel against steel– her sword had struck against the nobleman’s leading blade.

In the same moment, he saw the follow-up swing of her opalescent fist.

Because Imogen had only brought one sword, Jae-Seong figured that, at some point, she would improvise in one way or another with her other hand. He knew she had Animus, and even if she’d reshaped the arm entirely into another animal’s natural armaments, he wouldn’t have questioned it; a single longsword, especially when one isn’t accustomed to using it, struggled by default against his style.

However, she opted to take a similar but slightly different route instead. As a people, the Orkhan naturally possessed dragon’s blood in their veins; he knew this, but in the past, he’d only ever seen them make these traits manifest in dire straits. For a while, Jae-Seong sort of assumed it was reflexive, more of a reaction than an action. But then, given what Imogen had said earlier about the style with which she wielded her greatsword, he imagined she’d had to have trained herself to use that ability at will.

He did wonder, for a brief moment, how much discipline it had taken for her to manifest such traits at will– and part of him wished he could do something similar with aspects of his Lycan form; force only his wings or talons, for example.

Nevertheless, the last thing Jae-Seong wanted to do was tank hits– especially not the fist of a woman with as much raw strength as he could guess she possessed.

But perhaps he could use her weight and strength against her?

Letting his leading blade slip away from hers as the parry broke, he threw it as half a plan, half a distraction. Then, he hopped to the side and spun with his remaining blade held defensively– the swordsman let himself twirl ‘round with one foot grounded to balance his own momentum, but at the same time, he struck her weight bearing leg with a low kick, hoping to use that weight and momentum to topple her.

His spin having allowed him to turn ‘round quickly, he’d rush her again with oppressive tenacity. Jae-Seong quickly maneuvered to pin her with both blades– he’d recalled the one he threw via the pact he held with it. Should she have fallen, he’d angled the return of the other sword such that it’d be almost impossible to dodge both weapons.

However, through Morphosis, he’d dulled the edges of his swords slightly, as he’d little desire to seriously injure his fellow duelist. He couldn't dull them too much, though, without affecting their weight or they way they cut through the air– but under normal circumstances, they were sharp enough to cut through substances far denser than bone…and that is not something he wanted to do to somebody he wished to befriend.

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'Thoughts'

"Synskrit Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

Moon's spin-kick was graceful and forceful- but when his foot hit Imogen's leg, it was like kicking a tree. No matter how excellent the form, how precise the application of force, you simply weren't going to manage to drop the damn thing.

When he turned and rushed, Imogen had just begun to reorient herself towards him, bringing her sword around on the one hand and her hand around on the... other hand. Perhaps shockingly, Imogen had already realized his plot with the thrown sword, and her dracomorphed arm intercepted it, smashing the pact weapon into the dusty ground with enough force to interrupt Jae's summoning. To her, this was a basic matter; she'd spent the last decade dueling other Reavers, after all, and you could never take your attention off a Reaver's weapon simply because it was no longer in their hand.

If the Orkhan girl had managed to parry Jae's second sword, it would have been a truly masterful recovery. Unfortunately, she did not. Her longsword came up too quickly, the tip barely touching the nobleman's weapon, producing a pure, bell-like tone. A moment later, Moon's sword came to rest in Imogen's gut.

If the pact weapon had been sharp enough, it might have killed her... but then again, who could say? As it was, the relatively dull blade penetrated only enough to leave a red line across the ork's exposed midriff. Almost as soon as the sword bit into her skin, Imogen stepped back, holding her sword pommel-up, the sign of a surrender. She let out a breath.

"Fah!" she exclaimed, "I should have let you trip me and rolled, I think. Got too fancy with that one."

The Sunsinger thrust the blade into the dirt to keep it standing upright for a moment, then reached down and wiped a thumb against the small wound Moon's strike had left, bringing her hand up to her eyes to see the red smear. She snorted, and scales formed around the cut, pressing it closed.

"Well, that's very nice. I've seen fighters as fast as you before, but rarely that smooth in movement. Attack melding into defense into attack, never presenting stillness... hard to hit someone who is in a different place and form each time you prepare an attack, and eventually they make a mistake in defense? Hmm. Yes, I see the logic in that. What do you think?"

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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Indeed, Imogen was a formidable opponent– Jae-Seong’s kick was swift and struck true, but the woman held fast. Orkhan in general were well built; he knew this from experience, but not all of them had the mastery of form it required to not succumb to one’s own momentum. With this in mind, the mercenary knew the strike was a bit of a gambit– hence why it was only one of three actions he’d performed.

His second gambit was actually done because he knew she was a Reaver– and a far better one than he, at that. He wanted to see how an experienced Reaver would counter such an attack, and even though she nullified it completely, her finesse in doing so was delightful to see. Most of his opponents were disappointing in this regard.

The only downside was that when the blade hit the ground, the force of it felt like it had reverberated back into him; perhaps due to his connection to it? It was an unsettling sort of aetheric pain, but the only sign of it he showed was a grimace as he followed through with the rest of his attack.

But still, that was only the second of three attacks– his alacrity allowed for him to perform a three pronged attack in his single maneuver, and to his relief, the third strike connected. Though if he were honest with himself, he would’ve been incredibly impressed with her if she’d succeeded in repelling all of his strikes there. He might’ve even found it difficult to be annoyed with his own failure in that scenario, inspiring as that would’ve been.

Jae-Seong was glad that he’d dulled his blade; it’d failed to cut deep at all. Even if she wouldn’t have been severed entirely otherwise, movement is incredibly painful were he to have sliced clean through the muscle tissue of her abdomen. Even if she were accustomed to pain, the swordsman wasn’t some senseless sadist; he didn’t want to cause undue suffering.

But with that, she surrendered; he’d hop back, adjust the grip on the blade he held, and return the fallen one to his hand. He’d rotate his wrists, flipping both blades such that they were facing behind him. The nobleman would smile at her and then bow.

Returning to his usual perfect posture, he responded, “Mm…maybe? But nevertheless, you did well fighting me with only one sword and no magic.”

It was interesting to see Imogen close the wound– her durability was fascinating to see, especially when he compared such attributes to himself. He could handle pain, but his body broke easily.

“Thank you,” he’d begin in response to the rest of her commentary.

“You’ve got the right idea– this sword style isn’t all that common amongst my kin, but when it was discovered my Rathari bloodline gave me a fair few bird’s features, one of which being light, fragile bones, my father initially didn’t want me to learn to fight at all. I…wasn’t pleased with that,” he almost chuckled.

“But I was insistent, and eventually, he honored my wishes and found me a tutor that would help me specialize as you say– never presenting stillness. My body won’t break so long as I don’t get hit,” he continued in explanation.

“You were insightful; it’s rare I fight against opponents of your caliber. Despite being uninitiated with the weapon and having no off-hand, your defenses were exceptionally solid. I enjoyed the contrast between us– your sturdiness against my velocity.”

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'Thoughts'

"Synskrit Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

"I'm usually better than that," said Imogen, sounding grumpy, "But I wasn't about to beat you on the first try, anyway. Don't think second or third, either. You're pretty good."

Imogen turned her gaze to her bescaled arm, flexing the claw where her left hand should be. "It's been said that the Orkhan are the children of Malgar, meant to suffer and grow strong thereby. We do take quite a bit of punishment before we go down, but I'm afraid that only gets you so far. A punch, a stab, a caster shell, sure- but I remember watching your, uh, prince Talon in Gel'Grandal make an attack which disintegrated a hundred shadow beasts at once. Some things you do have to dodge the first time."

The Ork relaxed, allowing her arm to twist and shrink, her opal scales melting (for the most part) away into her light green skin. She grasped the hilt of the sword, drawing it out of the ground and swishing it about experimentally. It still felt weird--and too short--but she was now confident that she could learn the thing. It was very different from her zweihander or her spear, but it was a difference of degrees more than one of kind.

"At one point, I viewed the primary purpose of the Cardinal Rune of Reaving as unification. That's how my master taught me, you see; that the Cardinal Runes all unified the mage's spirit with some aspect of reality. I spent years doing my best to reduce the distance between self and sword, so that there would be nothing for an enemy to exploit." Imogen ran a hand down the sword. "After all this time, it feels odd to use a weapon not tied to my soul for that very reason, like there's a gap between my intention and the sword which does not exist for a Pact weapon."

"But initiation into other Runes has convinced me that this perspective is limited. Animus exposes the gap between mind and body. Traversion shows the separation between soul and space. It makes me wonder if the truth of mortality is not that all separations are artificial, and the Cardinal Runes are just crutches we are given to overcome certain ones."

She thought again of her ruminations with the lemurs who had wanted to learn Reaving. The desire was understandable, but the gift would have destroyed them. Perhaps that's why the gods had given their worshippers incomplete magics.

"That's part of why I've been trying to study other styles of weapon, to improve my understanding of the rune."

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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Jae-Seong nodded, “I appreciate that."

Malgar was not a name he heard often in Kalzasi, and when he did, it usually wasn’t positive– but that was hardly surprising. A god whose entire motif is suffering is wont to be misliked by many, irrespective of anything else. And whatever incident it was in Gel'Grandal to which Imogen referred was not something that he’d been made aware of prior– he did know of Talon’s captivity, just not any of the finer points thereof.

“True– but divine wrath is best avoided by never arousing divine attention in the first place, rather than any martial technique.”

After a short pause, he’d add, “...and, I imagine, a bit of luck. Gods are…” he sucked in a breath, brow furrowing for only a moment, “...capricious beings.”

The truth of the matter was that divinity unnerved him– particularly so in younger gods and demi-gods in general. Too much emotion, too much humanity, he thought, for the amount of power they wielded.

“I was taught much the same,” Jae-Seong responded in reference to Reaving. “To seek unity with my weapons, to view them as extensions of the soul rather than mere martial tools.”

Gesturing to the blades he held with a nod, “Prior to my initiation, I had these blades forged as a pair specifically for that purpose; I used one in the rune’s acquisition and bonded to the other some time thereafter. Maybe redundant, as Reaving eventually allows for the creation of duplicates, but I’d prefer my weaponry to be fraternal twins, not identical,” he’d continue, punctuating the sentiment with a wan smile.

“I’ve seen the ways pact weapons evolve over time– I’m excited to see what divergent directions mine will go.” He knew most of a weapon’s alterations were intentional per the mage, but not all– some were reflections of the wielder’s soul.

“But about other runes? My experience with Elementalism is parallel–it’s connected me to the elements of the world, and on the surface, that feels unifying. But the necessity of such a bridge does, simultaneously, highlight a major disconnect I’d never been so…painfully aware of until it was built.” Sort of mindlessly shifting the grip on his weapons, the nobleman appeared thoughtful.

“And others are not dissimilar– Mesmer creates a heightened bridge between mage and mind, Summoning between mage and spirits. It does make one wonder about Reaving and its origins, its initial purpose.”

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'Thoughts'

"Synskrit Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

"Well, enough dawdling out of me, I think. Gotta get a few more rounds in, or I'll never be in a good position to bind this blade."

The Sunsinger twirled the sword again. These constant flourishes weren't just for show, though they were partially for show. It was important, both in Reaving and in any mundane discipline, to become very familiar with your tools. They needed to become one with you; literally, in the end, and that meant you had to know them both on an intellectual level and at the level of muscle memory. When the length and weight of the sword became second nature, the hard work of mastering it could finally begin.

Imogen assumed the stance she'd seen Moon take and closed her eyes, sending her mind throughout her own body. One of the more useful gifts of meditation was the ability to focus, which really just meant excluding all your thoughts and feeling only the things you wanted. Her consciousness trawled throughout her muscles, taking note of the tensions and where they could be loosened. She took a few experimental steps, relishing the sensation of floating that such movement mimicked.

"You know, I tend to agree. About the divine, that is." Imogen did not reopen her eyes. Her senses were sharp enough that she knew Moon had not yet decided to engage her, even while blind. "Stick to the easy things. Wagon guarding, lookout duty, maybe a light tour in the First Deep, style of thing. But the thing about Fate is that it'll screw you over in the blink of an eye, whether you're prepared or not. So it's better to have a trick up your sleeve for every occasion."

The ork lunged, though not at Moon, driving her blade into the air. It did not protest. Such was the lot of the breeze in this world.

"My masters taught me that it's good to keep your pact weapons simple, because the more ornamentation and ostentation you add, the more you come to feel they're something other than... apart, separate. Little thoughts and superstitions that end up reopening the distance which you'd learned to close while Reaving. I did name my shield, though, after something rather amusing happened to it. I'll tell you the story someday."

The witch practiced a few more strikes and swipes, keeping her eyes closed so she could picture exactly how Jae had moved. That image, fresh in her mind, guided her strokes; and though they weren't anything like as swift or graceful as Moon's had been, he could see that her eye for the technique was quite good.

"It's a bit of hubris, actually, to assume that we know ourselves that well. Maybe it makes more sense to decorate your weapons, to name them, to remind yourself that you don't really understand them? Arguments for both perspectives, I think."

Imogen finished her movements and drew herself up, then opened her eyes. "If you're game for another round, I am too. I wouldn't want to take your entire afternoon."

[Moon Jae-Seong]

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While Imogen continued to get a feel for the weight of her blade, Jae-Seong played the observer. Her form, however unfamiliar, was a good mimicry– it was speed and fluidity she lacked, but both of those came along as one gained familiarity.

Imogen’s comments about Fate pulled a breath of laughter from the nobleman.

“You're right about that. I've always tried to keep my life simple, but it feels like I'm working against Fate when I try to maintain such simplicity. I used to be able to see my life steady as a mercenary, but now when I think of the future, I am far less sure where I'll be as time rolls on.” He sounded almost tired, perhaps wary, that he was no longer able to picture what the future held.

Listening to Imogen speak of her masters was a funny thing.

“I very much doubt we were taught by the same people, or that our masters ever even crossed paths, but your masters seem to have been taught the same tenants as my own– tenants and notions that they then passed onto us,” he remarked, appearing lightly amused at the thought.

“I've no ostentatious goals for my weaponry, but it's the little things in life I find joy in; even small shifts would be fascinating to see. The other idea I'd like is tempering the blades to work as conduits for my Elementalism, but I've yet to grasp either rune well enough for that.” He tried to mask what disappointment he held in himself at the notion, though he wasn't completely successful.

And then to Imogen’s request that they spar again, he'd smile.

“I don't mind at all– I've no particular plans for the day.”

Generally, Jae-Seong avoided making plans; he preferred to live life like a petal riding the wind.

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'Thoughts'

"Synskrit Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

[Imogen]

Review

Jae

Points: 10xp, may not be used for magic.

Injuries/Ailments: None

Loot: Is not the gift of friendship the most important loot of all???

Notes: Thanks for the thread! I know it's tricky to write stuff that's mostly just action, especially against another PC and I thought you did a great job.

~~~~~

Imogen

Points: 10xp, may not be used for magic.

Injuries/Ailments: Several pokey ouchies

Loot: The gift of wisdom and experience

Notes: Maybe the best-written character in all of history, who can say?