Out of Character:
As he walked through the hallways, Lice reflected on his last battle here. Things hadn’t gone so well then. Lice had ended up hanging upside down from a plank with a knife nailing his foot down, unconscious. His opponent had gotten lucky, Lice thought grimly, even though Lice had the circumstantial advantage that time. That wouldn’t happen again. It was only a few days after that battle. He had awoken to find himself in the infirmary, resurrected by the monks from near death. Apparently they wanted him to fight again. Shockingly, Lice found himself accepting their offer.
Perhaps that was a mistake, Lice wondered, as he walked down the hallway for the second time that week. Something about the monk's expressions had lended Lice to the opinion that his continued battling was not optional. At least this time things might be different. The setting seemed like it was going to be, anyway. Either the monks had done some very hasty remodeling, or Lice was in a different part of the Citadel, because this looked very different. He had gone from stone corridors to a long, narrow wooden hallway. Early in the walk from the infirmary there had been monks hustling about, doing…whatever it was that the monks did around here. Lice wondered about that.
“Hey buddy, what is it that you guys do anyway? What’s a monk but a guy lucky enough to find a job without much heavy lifting, eh?”
The monk that was escorting Lice did not respond in any way shape or form. The hallway they were walking through turned from simple wood boards to construction entirely from…twigs? It looked like a crudely made child’s fort, loosely formed into the shape of an arch. Then the hallway suddenly ended, and Lice looked into the sunlight. It wasn’t very much sunlight, was the first thing Lice noticed. Just dimly lighting the arena.
And what a strange arena it was. It was a grove of aspen trees, extending as far as Lice could see. Finding the enemy might be just as much a challenge as defeating them, in this arena.
“Hey buddy, who’d you say my opponent was today? You gotta be kidding me, I’m fighting in the woods, these look just like those from right by my village!” Lice exclaimed, but when he turned to the monk, his silent guide was gone. How typical.
Well, there was nothing for it now. Lice would just have to make the best of what he had. For a moment, Lice considered climbing one of the trees and trying to jump down on his opponent from above.
Oh, yeah, because that worked so well last time, did it?
Never mind that plan. Lice had at least learned a few things from his last battle. One, don’t expect ambushes to work out properly. Two, use the environment to your own advantage.
How could Lice possibly use a forest to his advantage when fighting? Well, it wasn’t as if elves were the only ones to know everything there was to know about forests, anyway. Lice had lived right near Concordia forest his whole life, so his experience there must count for something. So what was it about a forest that Lice could use? Well, this was a wintertime forest. That meant no leaves. Looking down at the ground, Lice confirmed this fact. The ground was entirely dirt, and that meant it would be easy to be stealthy.
Lice grabbed some of the dirt and snow from the ground and rubbed it in his skin. The result was that he looked like a muddy goblin. Well, maybe that wasn’t such good camouflage.
Despite his utter lack of "A Plan" Lice walked into the forest. The best thing to do would be to find out his opponent’s location before they found is. And the best way to do that would be from a high place. Sighing, and disliking the fact that he was doing the same thing again and again, Lice latched himself onto one of the nearby trees. Aspen trees are not particularly easy to climb, but Lice managed to wriggle his body up halfway up the trunk. There he turned his head down to the forest floor. He could barely see more than before from here, really. At least this way he would be able to see the opponent before he or she saw him. Maybe. A drop from this height would probably not be a good idea though. Lice hadn’t even considered how he was going to get down. Cursing himself for nearly getting stuck like a cat chased to a high place by a dog, Lice scooted down to the bottom.
Instead of trying that again, Lice started to walk towards the center of the arena, thinking as hard as he could. It certainly seemed like he had lost this battle before it even began.
Out of Character:
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