Bringing Blood to Paradise

[Hailwing Of The Citadel]

(Closed to Flamebird)

Hailwing appeared in a flash of bright blue light, his arms crossed over his powerful chest and his yellowed eyes shut. He could feel vitality flowing into him as he reached the land of the living, as he was released from his statue form.

It was warm here, wonderfully so, and it felt tremendous to him to have the sun beating lazily down upon his cool skin. Mist wafted gently from his nostrils as he exhaled, and finally opened his eyes.

He stood on a gray, slick rock by the shore of a reasonably-sized spring. Around him, he could see multiple similar platforms, and could imagine hopping along them in order to make his way to another area. A waterfall splashed into the water on the other side of the water, all around it were jagged cliffs making a natural wall - no, not natural, he reminded himself - this arena was created by the monks of Ai'Brone.

Truly, this cliff wall wrapped around the entire arena. This left Hailwing with no small arena to battle within, however, for beyond the spring were other elements. A beach of pebbles and sand surrounded the shoreline, and beyond it, a treeline gave way to a shallow forested area. Between the rock-laden spring, the beached area, and the woods beyond it, there was plenty of room to move about.

He appreciated the sun, most of all. It seemed to be very close by, bigger than the Althanian sun, and its friendly shine had rays reflecting off of the water and the soaked, rocky platforms.

He leaped from one rock to another and took in a deep breath. Yes, he thought, this was a fine place to do battle.

[Flamebird]

Neat. The monks did it again!

Felicity Knopsnider readjusted her dark green, leather coat as she stepped onto a sandy beach. It was a bit hot, the redhead already moving her wrapped arms to wipe her stupid, big forehead.

"Phew!"

The teenager removed her coat, careful not to knock her iron flamberge off from her back. She threw the coat carefully down, her loose shirt of a slightly brighter shade of green rustling. Beneath her shirt, iron, leather, and cloth brigandine offered protection to her top. The bottom of the armor was seen below her shirt's size though, covering her torso and some of her upper legs. She had her usual, tight, brown trousers on her. She scuffed the sand with her brown, leather boots. She grinned at the idea of being back, even if even removing her coat didn't cool her down. She started to move forward, looking for her opponent, her twin arming swords (one on each side) swinging from her belt.



~~~


Felicity grinned as she made it to a group of bland, grey, boulders. She grinned as she jumped up on one, the small girl spreading her arms out to maintain her balance. She pulled her bandage wrapped arms to her sides again, putting them on the hilts of her steel arming swords. She only had to survey the landscape for a moment before she caught sight of her opponent.

He seemed human, for the most part, but she noted... either extremely clammy skin or scaled. She beamed, she had seen plenty species of hominids since she first set off as a warrior in training, but this was new. Felicity was an explorer, boldly facing the unknown-

-"Hi, dere!"-

-with a happy demeanor and toothy grin. And her lisp.

The halfling waved at him, "I'm Fewicity!" she called, "Who aw you?"

Any notable warrior, her own mentor among them, could face palm over her cheerful introduction in a battle zone.

[Hailwing Of The Citadel]

The sun had enough time to thoroughly warm his bare shoulders before Hailwing heard movement behind him. He turned toward the sound, his tattered shorts the only protection he had against the elements.

There, atop a cropping of waist-high boulders, he witness a chipper and expressive young woman. Her hair looked amber in the light of the sun, tied back in a loose ponytail. The expression on her face was unlike any he'd seen before, for Hailwing existed solely within the Citadel - she was smiling happily, with youthful mirth and playfulness. Were he capable of it, the warrior would have been confused and taken aback. But this was an arena, and he had but one purpose at all times. To battle with his opponents as a training exercise.

It took him a moment to decipher her greeting, foreign as it was to him. "Good day to you, Fewicity," mimicking her pronunciation without a hint of mockery. "You may call me Hailwing."

The name seemed to send vibrations through the water surrounding his temporary platform in the spring, but perhaps it was a happenstance breeze.

It took him a moment to note that despite her small stature and excitable introduction, Felicity was considerably well-armed and seemed entirely comfortable with the steel she carried. The soothing crash of the nearby waterfall prevented total silence between them as he considered.

"Have you come to train?" he asked, unfastening his heavy glaive from his back and bringing it to rest by his side. "It is not in my nature to do anything but push my opponents to learn and adapt. If you have any concerns or stipulations, now is your time to provide them to me."

[Flamebird]

Felicity bit her lip; she knew a tone similar to that well.

She was jeered at all her life.

Yet, this was not like that jeering. It wasn't friendly, but not a joke being pulled at her lisp. A stubborn expression came across her face. She tightened her grip on her weapons, less than a minute into their meeting and she had... not bad, but bad feelings about this guy. None the less, Felicity was a good fighter. She could take him! As the wind blew, filling the silence the two had for that moment, Felicity leaned on one leg, her chin slightly lifted. Her eyebrow slightly lifted, "Give me 'yo wowst."

She instantly whipped her two, steel swords up, connecting them together to form a sword staff. She pulled the weapon in front of her, blades pointing to the east and west. Felicity was serious.

Another gust of wind blew, but it did not stifle the heat. Neither did the wind of confusing words stifle the redhead's flame. She jumped off the rock, landing in soft sand. She retreated a small bit, pulling her swordstaff behind her, one hand up front in a karate based, flattened hand. She kept the pose as the sound of mighty waved crashing against the shore sounded in the background. Glorious waves, but the waves of life could not drown even a troubled soul like Felicity's, as she was indeed quite troubled.

"If you need to, head towards an even battle ground. Don't be afraid to use your environment to your advantage, bend it to your style."

Felicity hissed, forcing her mentor out of her head. She needed a clear mind to engage her opponent, and her troubles with her teacher would not at all help.

[Hailwing Of The Citadel]

He watched her carefully, cloudy eyes moving from her head, to her feet, to her hands as they manipulated her curious weapon. He observed her form as she leaped from her perch and landed easily, as well. Hailwing was confident that he had a considerable strength advantage against Felicity, but he could see clearly that she was quick, agile, and determined.

Moments passed until she settled in a stance, not far from the edge of the shore. Hailwing did not need permission to begin the battle - he needed only utter confidence that his opponent was ready to start.

He burst into motion, pushing off of the slick rock and leaping to the next. Two more strides brought him to the last in the sequence, and a final leap had him on the same shore as Felicity.

Rotating his glaive - the weapon longer than Felicity was tall, and the blade itself more than a foot long - Hailwing brought it up over his shoulder to rest as he charged forward. Muscles taught and eyes locked on his opponent, the draconic warrior rushed in range and brought the polearm to bear, slashing downward in a strike intended on making Felicity move; if she did not, the sharp iron would certainly crack through her collarbone and into her chest.

Hailwing, six feet away from her, knew he needed to keep his distance if that did not happen.

[Flamebird]

At the sight of the heavy pole-arm falling down, Felicity managed to step aside. The wind of the iron weapon was felt even though she was well out of its path. She let out a light gasp, still processing the heavy blade's landing. Even now the cloud of sand was still dissipating. As the waves crashed into the loose sands in the distance, the teenager snapped into action. Felicity lifted her steel double sword staff up; it was a much skinnier weapon, but it would do. While Hailwing's weapon was still in the ground, Felicity attempted a stab at his arm, going for smaller attacks at the limbs. After that slash, whether it would win or not, Felicity pulled the weapon back into a defensive posture. From there, she planned on larger strikes aimed for his head and chest.

Of course, using her prized weapon in its staff form required not just discipline, but the entire body. While twirling was required for adjusting grips and aiming faster attacks, she still found herself needing to get into close enough quarters to still land hits, which required moving her posture and body as a whole. Yet, at the same time, this was not a close quarters weapon form. While simply moving either end of the weapon to block an attack would seem easy, and was, this left her chest vulnerable as she only had her hilt lined up to it. She knew that if the fight would continue far beyond this point, she would have to pull the staff into two separate swords again. Using two or one one-bladed swords was far easier and comfortable, as she was not adapt to pole arms and staffs -

- either wielded by herself or by her opponent.

Just like the grueling sun above them, beating down like a rain of arrows from one army to another, she knew this would be a difficult fight. Wasn't that what she was here for though? To grow? She had enough of fighting her mentor, who only used swords, for the time being. However, her tough training sessions had prepared her for situations for this. She would endure through. I've trained for this! ...

Duh.

[Hailwing Of The Citadel]

The glaive's blade dove into the sand with a heavy whomph, and Hailwing was already choking up on the shaft in order to bring it back into his control. He stepped forward and left as he pulled back, putting the weapon between himself and Felicity as she began to move.

He wasn't quick enough, he realized, as she rapidly stepped in in response to his attack.

Hailwing had to abandon his idea of quickly retrieving the weapon. Rather than remaining high up on it, he slid his arms down toward the end of the shaft to avoid the reaching prick of Felicity's weapon - it still came close, prodding the air inches in front of his right forearm. He tugged on the weapon, his powerful arms dragging it inelegantly through the sand back to position.

He would need to be quicker, he realized, and employ a deeper strategy than simply trying to bisect the youngling from steps away.

He strafed to the right, the glaive extended out between the two fighters, and walked toward the treeline. Felicity's position had her back to the trees, and he tried to work his way over so that the two of them were parallel to the treeline - this would have her back towards the water, and he could try and press her toward it to try and gain an advantage.

With a resounding roar, Hailwing kicked up his leading foot and drove it back down, stabbing forward with the glaive as he did so. Two strikes, one toward her shoulder and one towards a thigh, as he attempted to step forward and take control of the direction of the battle. Thrusting, not slashing, would also allow him more control over the polearm.