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07-24-2016, 01:22 PM
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Isopia Does your imagination try to make you what you wanted to be? Because I'm sorry I do what I did, but it came naturally Despite the fact that Isopia possessed none of the battle-instincts that the Gaucho's and Archibald's of this land did, she was a dedicated student of the world and a quick learner. Especially when pain was involved. She had taken her eyes off of the griffon once, and now her back screamed in pain for that mistake. As much as the girl tried to blot out the warm warbles of dizzying pain, it was impossible to completely ignore the physical remnants of having ignored one of her two opponents. However now that Hubris had entered into the fight, she didn't have to worry about following two foes at once. Watch the griffon. Isopia mentally ordered her dragon through laboured and pain-fogged breaths. The demi-goddess' head was held low (keeping it high strained the muscles that ran along her newly lacerated shoulders and withers), but her golden eyes were wide and alert, focused on the dark unicorn as she suddenly lunged away - towards the direction where Isopia vaguely knew Hubris and the griffon were. Because the Mountain knew that Hubris' attack had not been overly aggressive, she didn't think to assume that Sjal's movements were prompted by the near-death the unicorn wrongfully ascribed to the winged cat. Instead, the demi-goddess took Sjal's sudden lunge away from her as indicative of danger not inherent to their spar. Turning her head around (causing an arc of pain to snare through her neck), Isopia saw nothing that suggested harm. Confused, she turned her gaze back in time to see that Sjal had abruptly changed direction and was now heading right back towards her. Isopia had lost valuable seconds by buying into Sjal's misdirection (again, the girl wrongly ascribed more battle-strategy to the unicorn than she deserved), but she stopped herself before her teeth could clench together. A wave of calm fell over the demigoddess, for although she had fallen for one of Sjal's tricks again, it had given her the opportunity to control the animalistic tenancies of her body - namely teeth-clenching as a response to frustration - and for that, she was grateful. But now she had to focus on the task at hand. Running away was not an option, nor was flying. Despite the fact that Isopia's passive magic made her physically look rooted in place, the pain that consumed her flesh made her feeling literally rooted. Once again, she would have to rely on her magic. Summoning up a shield composed of the most compact earth Isopia's pain-fogged mind could create, Isopia held it in front of her chest, hoping to protect herself from Sjal's spear. However as the unicorn's head titled and shish-kebabing Isopia no longer seemed to be her intention, the demi-goddess thrust the shield of earth towards the oncoming unicorn, hoping to batter her in the face with the mound of earth, or, if her aim was compromised because of pain and quick-decision making, that it might cause the unicorn to trip at the very least. Saving her strength for the final few seconds when she hoped Sjal couldn't follow her movements, Isopia tried to dodge to the side. But because she was large and the pain in her body even larger, her movements were clumsy. The girl had thought Sjal meant to slam her body into Isopia's side, and so she didn't expect to feel hooves suddenly send dual shock-waves of dull pain across her rib-cage. Isopia barked a guttural sound as air was forced to leave her lungs. The dull throb from Sjal's hooves quickly blended itself with the flagrant pain extending all over Iso's back and shoulders. The maroon of her pelt would surely turn a lovely shade of purple from that kick, and Iso knew the next few days would be plagued by soreness and stiffness now. Vainly her mind searched for Hubris' to ensure that another attack wasn't coming. Quickly the dragon confirmed that it wasn't. Not from the griffon at least. Exhaling an exhausted breath, Isopia turned as swiftly as she could (which was actually quite slow), to try and face Sjal. By her count, the spar was now over (or at least 'over' as dictated by the arbitrary but never explicitly expressed rules of sparring), but the demi-goddess' muscles were tense nonetheless. "Good spar." She offered and was mildly surprised by the croaking sound of her voice. Isopia had never been this injured in a spar before (ever?) and despite the fact that her innate healing abilities had already started knitting her body back together, clearly there were parts of her body which weren't as receptive to pain management. WC: 765 Attack: 3/3 TEACHING NOTES WOOOP. Having Sjal worried about her companion was EPIC in this post. It isn't easy to write companions since you have to balance them 'being their own character' but also being intimately tied to your own. I thought you did a really good job of writing Ansgar's reaction to Isopia hurting Sjal, but the best part was obviously Sjals' reaction to thinking that Angsar was injured. It made me feel the depth of their bond, but also how young and naive in certain ways Sjal is. It made her feel more real and vulnerable as a character. I found it interesting that Sjal lowered her horn/tried not to kill Iso once she realized that her companion wasn't actually in a life or death situation, but she did keep charging at her. Now, I know it's a spar and you had to attack again, but it would have been nice to understand a bit of the emotion behind that decision. Was it like a "okay, you don't deserve to die but imma still kick your ass for hurting him", or was it more like, "oh. well shit, I can't really stop my charge now, so here goes nothing" ? Even though it was Angsar who took the damage in this post, I would have liked to see something about Sjal's physical condition as she ran towards Iso. After all, you said in her last post that she broken a few ribs, and so it seems like galloping towards Isopia and trying to kick her should have caused a great deal of discomfort. All in all I think you definitely have the mechanics of sparring down. Your posts are easy to understand, there's plenty of emotion, and you respond to attacks well. I think really the only things to work on going forward is to take appropriate damage and to be sure that you carry forward injuries when applicable. |
