Short and Sweet - Printable Version +- HELOVIA || The Way to the Sun (http://helovia.com) +-- Forum: Out of Character (http://helovia.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=1) +--- Forum: Archives (http://helovia.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=11) +---- Forum: Battle Archives (http://helovia.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=64) +---- Thread: Short and Sweet (/showthread.php?tid=25300) |
||||
Short and Sweet - Tembovu - 09-26-2016 Set a fire deep in my soul; One I can't contain, one I won't control.
The glass spears were unwieldy between his thick, black lips. Some warriors on the plains had opted to fight with spears or other weapons, but the Elephant General had preferred to fight bare. Even armor, lightweight leather and (rare) heavy metal, had been too restricting and confining. And his massive size required so much material, the Makutano could cover two small Banderi soldiers for one set of his armor. “Rohan!” His booming shout was muffled by the weapons he held in his mouth, much to Mbwene’s chortling amusement. The Elephant King shot her a warning, sideways glance; the bonded pair’s relationship was taunt and frayed ever since his spar with the Icebound. He snorted once, before dropped a glass spear at his feet and then tossing the other far in front of him in the small clearing he had halted in. It was an amorphous shape, wider at the north and and narrower at the south end. And it was densely surrounded by the rough, flaky bark of pine trees. He had chosen this clearing because it was so tight—made even smaller by his great mass. It would mean close quarters for sparring with these glass spears, forcing both he and Rohan to use them. “Sergeant! You’ve been absent from your training too long. Show me you know how to use our weapons!” His bellow moved easily through the thick forest, so accustomed was he to to calling for others in the Edge, now. He was glad that the mist was not as tense today; he would need all of his faculties to fight with this unwieldy weapon. Already, he could feel tension crawling into his withers. He would be much more relaxed if he was about to spar with just his body and his magic… Slowly his head bent, taking the double-headed spear into his mouth. The glass was angled, allowing his teeth to take purchase on its length; though the sensation of enamel gritting against glass was strange. Still, he readied himself for battle; massive slabs of shoulder squaring and hooves spreading to a base-wide stance in the Edge’s rich soil. Great, heavy haunches were planted in the southern, narrower part of the clearing; chest facing the wider part, where his opponent’s glass spear lay glinting in the sun. His thick tail swayed once at his hocks, dark blue gaze staring into the morning’s murk of the forest. And he waited. A: 0/3 WC: 406 Damage tracker: -- Summary: Tembo calls for Rohan; it's early morning, light mist, in a small clearing thickly surrounded by trees. Note: They will be fighting with glass spears; @Rohan RE: Short and Sweet - Rohan - 09-27-2016 RE: Short and Sweet - Tembovu - 09-28-2016 Set a fire deep in my soul; One I can't contain, one I won't control.
The Sergeant’s appearance in the clearing is lackluster. He does not burst out of the trunks, rallying to his King’s call. He appears slowly, unenthusiastically, from the trees. For a moment, some forlorn thread of nostalgia for the previous warm camaraderie he and the Wallander had shared wraps around his chest—though it is quickly snipped by the wry smile that crosses his dark, hairy muzzle. The King’s lips, stretched around the circumference of the glass spear, attempt to return his grin with a small (if somber) smile. And, despite the near reluctance (or was it dread?) that the soldier seems to view the glittering glass spear at his pale hooves with, Rohan’s pursed lips part to pick up the weapon. And the King is surprised by the relief that clashes with his initial, cold readying for battle. Part of him (a part he hadn’t realized) had been worried that the finely antlered man was gone; that he had abandoned his post and the Edge for whatever demons that haunted him at the last meeting. But this, clearly, is not the case, as his smaller, but stocky, body circles around the King’s massive form. Tembovu’s own mouth adjusts to the strange shape and weight of the spear. He swallows—there was so much saliva produced in the mouth! It would make for tricky, slippery handling if he did not pay attention to it. Luckily, though, Anzanie is thorough in her knowledge of crafting glass: the spear is well-balanced and razor-sharp. Just unwieldy in the King’s mouth due to its newness (for now). His heavily horned head follows the muscular man’s circling body. Either the unfamiliarity of the weapon or his absence from the battlefield apparently have made the Sergeant slow, however, for his steps toward the King do not imply attack. They are deliberately placed, and the Elephant watches him closely, chin tucking and head dropping slightly as the soldiers come into close quarters. He takes a half-step backwards, a hind hoof sliding in the thickly pine-needled floor (those would be slick for maneuvering, he notes). And it is this movement that allows his head to move just out of the blinding, glinting light of Rohan’s carefully placed spear. Tembovu grunts in approval of such an attack; using the spear’s reflective properties is resourceful. There are few other weapons that will reflect light as well as the Edge’s glass. But, alas, the best laid plains oft go awry, and Tembovu’s movement breaks him free of any blinding glare. With a backward shuffle (partly slipping on pine needles and hitting a tree trunk with his haunches) and a forceful lunge to the left with his shoulders, the King just barely escapes the Sergeant’s murderously sharp tines. His black-rimmed ears pin back as they hear the branching antlers whistle through the air past them. Though the King does not pause in his motion. Using the tree trunk his haunches hit against in his backwards shuffle for support, he halts his left-ward momentum. A cream and ivory left foreleg trembles once, straining against the massive forces—though the King trusts his body (if not his heart and mind). His neck drops and sweeps powerfully to the right, bringing the sharp and glinting right spearhead towards Rohan’s body. He aims for the chest, hoping to carve a shallow flesh wound; but, admittedly, his control of the weapon is not quite skilled. A: 1/3 WC: 573 Damage tracker: --- Summary: Tembovu moves backwards into a tree trunk and ducks left to miss Rohan's attack. He then (using the tree trunk to help stop his left-ward momentum) sweeps his neck/head to the right, seeking to cut Rohan's neck/chest area with the spearhead. @Rohan RE: Short and Sweet - Rohan - 10-04-2016 RE: Short and Sweet - Tembovu - 10-05-2016 Set a fire deep in my soul; One I can't contain, one I won't control.
The King’s intended shallow jab at his Sergeant’s chest easily cuts through the striped, tawny skin. The glass blade is sharp and sinks—deeper, deeper—into Rohan’s flesh. Black rimmed ears tilt backwards; he hadn’t meant to injure his friend so deeply. But the blade was sharper than he thought, and he hadn’t accounted for the antlered man’s forward momentum. Navy eyes glance at the dripping flesh wound, watching the blood well and flow freely. He understands, now, why the Moon Goddess had wished them to fight with her glass. Before this moment, he had understood in an abstract sense: she wanted them to fully understand the glass’s strength against enemies. But now, here in the moment, the King understands and realizes the damaging extent their glass spikes may have on friend and foe alike. A reluctant shred of respect for the goddess drags through his chest. After the clearing the bramble thicket and ridding her of her creatures, he had grown a healthy mistrust of the Moon. But now, appreciation weaves through his suspicion. Though his mind wanders with these realizations, his navy gaze still tracks the Warlander’s movements. His body shifts, or tries to shift, in response to his opponent’s pivots and approach towards his right flank. But, unfortunately, the Elephant’s haunches are still backed against the thick trunks that line clearing’s edges. “Makende!” he curses himself aloud; though his earlier movement, which had backed him against the trees, had allowed him to avoid Rohan’s first attack, he now is trapped for this new attack. Though the Elephant King does not sit idly and wait for the Sergeant’s sweeping glass spear to land its blow. Ears pin and teeth grit as he readies himself for the pain, but he also takes a half-step forward and to the right with his forehand. Readjusting his teeth’s grip on his own glass spear, he readies himself for his next attack as Rohan’s blade carves neatly into his flank. A guttural groan bursts from his chest; the pain cannot be ignored. The gleaming, glittering spear slices deep into the musculature above his stifle. His half-step forward has spared the soft tissues of his flank and barrel from the sharp blade, but it also had put the thick muscle of his haunch’s meat right in the path of the sharp blade. Thick skin cleaves with ease, a burst of bright red against black and cream skin reveals gaping and cleanly cut muscle bellies. The adrenaline surge from the painful, gaping wound clears the Elephant’s mind of the pain; he has but a moment with Rohan in close quarters to mount his next attack—if the Warlander is even still near him. The King throws his adrenaline pumped body up and to the right, though he must balance on his left hind as his right haunch trembles and fasciculates with pain. Teeth clenched around the smooth surface of his spear’s handle, he arches his neck to the right and tries to drive the gleaming, blooded spearhead into Rohan’s right side. Blood runs in muddy red rivulets down the black and white right hindlimb, flesh wide and gaping in the Edge’s misted air. A: 2/3 WC: 530 Damage tracker: Deep flesh wound above right stifle; Summary: Rohan's attack lands on his right haunches, carving a nasty wound. While they're T-boned, Tembo half-rears and curves his body around the right, trying to skewer any part of Rohan's right side with his spear! (image) @Rohan RE: Short and Sweet - Rohan - 10-11-2016 RE: Short and Sweet - Tembovu - 10-15-2016 Set a fire deep in my soul; One I can't contain, one I won't control.
With his hooves slipping on the thickly pine needled floor, Rohan does not evade the Elephant’s attack. Even the King, though he has called this fight to test his Sergeant’s dormant battle skills, inwardly winces as the spear’s sharp edge carves into the Warlander’s flesh and slightly clips against bone. His teeth tighten, creaking against the glass’s smooth handle, as the blade drags through meaty muscle and thick fascia. Black-rimmed ears pin against flush with his neck, feeling a warning crackle from the glass against his mouth as it begins to give from the strain of battle. Navy eyes darken as he watches Rohan pull away from his spearhead. Large ivory hooves land, sinking into the carpet of blood-drenched needles. He allows the Sergeant to move away, not seeking to chase him in another attack, because (truthfully) his injured right haunch could use a few breaths of respite from attacking. His pounding heart pushes blood from the wound as his navy gaze follows the flap of skin hanging from Rohan’s back with a combination of morbid interest (the glass spears were effective) and regret. He did not mean to injure Rohan that badly. “Sorry, my friend,” his deep voice attempts to sound around the spear he clutches between his teeth. Slowly, he begins to shift to face his opponent in his new position, but he is forced to favor his right hind leg in the process. And so, with his attention distracted by the wound’s ache, it is nearly too late that he sees the flash of glass through the forest’s green-filtered light. With a grunt and an instinctive duck of his massive skull, the sharp crack of glass against glass slip the air. Somehow, the Elephant King moves quickly enough to block Rohan’s airborne spear with his own, sending it sailing to the left of his head, rather than impaling his skull. However, another contributor to the loud cracking noise is his own spear. He did not heed its warnings, and so the shaft breaks where his teeth tightly hold it, sending splinters of glass into his gums and a jagged edge of glass into the roof of his mouth. Spitting the broken glass spear out from his mouth, blood follows the gleaming splinters. Sharp pain pierces through his mucosa as his tongue swipes over his hard palate, feeling the small slice of flesh and tasting the metallic iron in his blood. It is not a deep cut, but the injuries of the mouth are felt so much more acutely than other wounds. Gingerly holding his mouth slightly open, both from the discomfort and to allow the bloody saliva to stream from his thick black lips, he slightly shakes his head. And then he looks to his opponent, navy eyes assessing the bleeding Sergeant. Part of him wishes to stand down—Rohan was his friend. But a soldier would not see a pity-forfeit as a favor. No, it would be shameful; embarrassing, even. So the King, still limping on his hind right limb, approaches his friend, attempting to come head-on with the antlered man. His navy eyes briefly seek to meet bright greens, before he barrels forward in an attack, falteringly leaping over the now-forgotten glass spears (they have done enough damage). He aims to crash is massive, heavy, thickly spiraled horn against the forward-sweeping tines of Rohan’s antler.s His body is heavy, drenched in sweat and blood. This battle is bloodier than the King had anticipated. But he is glad to be testing his Sergeant. They both need to know he is still fit for this job—and he most assuredly is. A: 3/3 WC: 612 Damage tracker: Deep flesh wound above right stifle; sliced mouth from Summary: Tembo apologizes, deflects Rohan's hurled spear with his own spear which splinters in his mouth, cutting it. He then rears (again) and attempts to bring his horn down on Rohan's antlers. @Rohan RE: Short and Sweet - Rohan - 10-17-2016 RE: Short and Sweet - Tamme - 10-19-2016 This fight ended with a 20 HP gap, so there is no rubric. Rohan is awarded 1 EXP. Tembovu is awarded 1 VP and gained a new buff! (Review requests can occur in the growth center board) |