Some Spare Time For Sparring

Krvavy holds out her hand, careful to not let the pointy metal claws of her half-gauntlet scratch the Countess as she helps the elegant noblewoman down and out of the carriage.

Rina subtly smiles towards the Drakling, politely nodding her head in thanks. Her ornate ankle-length dress and fancy heels are really not the best suited for this random patch of grassland beside the road, but she hardly seems bothered by that.

Vera shoots Krvavy a cold glare as she descends down the wooden steps completely on her own, clutching at her apron and dress as she pointedly ignores the barbarian’s offered hand.

“Feel free to stretch your legs, Krvavy.” The Countess dismisses her bodyguard in a calm tone devoid of its usual playful mirth. There are a lot of witnesses around right now, after all. Even if they are unquestioningly loyal to her. “You need not hover in my shadow here.” She pointedly looks over the protective ring that the convoy has formed and the many armoured knights milling about.

“Alright.” Krvavy rolls her shoulders and stretches slightly. While the carriage isn’t quite as cramped as it could be, it is still nice not having a ceiling hovering so closely above her head. Honestly, she’s lucky that it is high enough for her to be able to stand up straight in there. Even if just barely... “Well, I’ll be around, if you need me.”

The Countess simply nods again and turns to walk off, heading... somewhere. Probably to talk with the drivers and support staff, if what she did yesterday is any indication. Her albino maid dutifully follows after her, but not before glaring at Krvavy one last time.

“I take it that you are free now?”

Krvavy almost jumps at that sudden voice, turning to see the knight from yesterday – Piotr – standing off to the side with halberd in hand. “Yeah, want to spar right away?”

“If it is no trouble.” The armoured knight bows slightly, causing his visor to drop down over his face with a clang. “Tk...”

“Oil the hinges a bit too much, huh?” The barbarian lightly jokes, an amused smile playing at her lips as she passes her axe from her left to right hand. It’s just a bit more comfortable holding it in her dominant arm.

“So it would seem.” Piotr sighs back, lifting his visor up and away from his clean-shaven face. “Are you ready to spar now? We can wait until after we have a bite to eat, if you would prefer.”

“Nah, I’m good now. Lead the way.”

The knight gives another faint bow, making sure to keep a hand on his visor as he does so. “Please, follow me.” He politely requests while in the middle of turning around. His armour makes a faint clanking noise as he marches off.

Krvavy idly takes in her surroundings as she heads out of the protective ring of carriages. This is her second day of travelling with all of these people. And, in that time, she has learned only one other persons name – that of the man she is currently following. Granted, Krvavy has only had a few chances to even speak with anyone other than Rina or Vera, but still... She should at least try to get to know some of the other people here. Suppose that, in a way, that’s exactly what she’s doing right now...

“Here. We should be far enough away to not be a bother.” The knight states, trying to keep his tone calm and professional. But, despite his efforts, Piotr’s words are underlined with an eager excitement. He has clearly been looking forwards to this.

The Drakling raises an eyebrow. “Are we good to use our normal weapons?”

Piotr opens his mouth as if to say ‘yes’, but freezes as he lays eyes upon Krvavy’s axe. He glances between that oversized weapon and his own, much more reasonably sized, halberd. “We... could start off light?” He almost hesitantly suggests. “To get a sense of each others’ strength?”

“I guess...?” Krvavy’s brow furrows behind her mask-like helmet. Going slow kind of sounds a bit, well, boring. But she doesn’t want to actually injure this knight, or irreparably damage his armour. Or break his halberd. She idly chews the inside of her cheek, before perking up as an idea pops into her head. “What if...?”

The knight looks a little confused as, rather than explain her thoughts, the barbarian simply thumps her large weapon into the ground. The grassy soil parts, clinging to the axehead well enough to hold the entire thing in place.

Krvavy takes a deep breath. Her fingers glance over the leafy bracelet clinging to her heavily armoured left wrist. She has quite a lot of mana sitting in reserve and, with her new enchanted ring mimicking the effects of Calm Creature, absolutely nothing to spend it on. So might as well put that energy to use somewhere.

A twig stretches out from behind a soft leaf. It brushes over the barbarian’s bare palm, growing longer and thicker by the second. Its end bloats out, growing dense and heavy as it becomes a solid block with a pointed tooth-like spike jutting out from its side. It continues to grow beyond her hand, even as she pulls it free from the bracelet.

Mana flows through the channels in Krvavy’s arm like creeping vines. It takes a fair bit of effort to ensure that this branch doesn’t just grow into one of her Blackbriar Javelins. And it requires even more focus to make it resemble her Soulbound Weapon. But, bit by bit, a proper and almost entirely accurate wooden replica of her axe takes shape.

“Impressive...!” Genuine awe fills Piotr’s voice as he beholds that sight.

“Mmm...” Krvavy hums softly, hefting the reddish-brown wooden weapon in her hand. It is a bit lighter than her actual axe, but surprisingly not by all that much. And the balance seems alright. Not exactly the same, but similar enough. “Right,” she rests the replica beside the original, burying its dull axehead into the soil with a lazy strike. “We’re probably good to go like this, but... Want me to try to make a copy of your halberd as well?”

Piotr glances down towards Krvavy’s midsection, where the barbarian’s belly is on full display and is entirely uncovered. “Yes, please.” He slowly nods. “Do you need to hold it first? To get a sense of its weight and balance?”

“Sure, that’ll help.” Probably. It wouldn’t hurt, at least. “It won’t be perfect, but we won’t have to worry quite as much about causing actual damage to each other this way.”

“Understood. This is a simple sparring match, not a proper fight.” Piotr presses his fancy halberd into the Drakling’s hands, grey eyes gleaming with anticipation. “It does not need to be perfect, just usable.”

Krvavy’s heavily armoured fingers wrap around the halberd’s straight haft. She slowly lifts it up and down, slightly wobbling it about. This well-made weapon is wonderfully weighted. Especially compared to her top-heavy axe. The replica that she is about to make definitely won’t be quite as nice as this. But that is no excuse to not even try to make it as accurate as she can.

Mana begins to well up within Krvavy’s core once more. She takes a long, deep breath. The leafy bracelet on her wrist rustles as another twig stretches out from it. The considerably less armoured fingers of her right hand wrap around a straight stick, supporting its increasing weight and encouraging it to grow.

Krvavy’s brow furrows and her lips press together. Even with the halberd still in hand, right here and available for her to look at, it is... difficult to copy. She is just much less familiar with it than her own axe. The straight haft is fine, of course, but the ornate heads are a different story.

The reddish-brown wood slows its growth as the mana feeding into it is focused further and more accurately directed. A pointy crescent moon of an axehead slowly takes shape, expanding in tandem with the slightly hooked spike opposite of it. Both heads grow darker and more blood coloured as the wood swells noticeably thicker than its metal counterpart. The long and pointy needle that serves as its spearhead finally separates from the leafy bracelet, looking far more green and fresh than the rest of the weapon. Thin leaf-like veins cover what should be metal, seemingly replacing the ornate etchings and engravings that decorate the original.

“Ehh...” Krvavy holds both halberds out, one in each hand. “It’s... alright. Here.”

The Knight eagerly takes his halberd and the freshly grown copy of it back from the barbarian. “Mhhm... No need to downplay your work. This is more than serviceable: the balancing and weight are similar to what I would expect of a training weapon.” With a nod, he gently tosses his actual weapon onto the ground.

A soft clang rings out as it taps into the large metallic head of Krvavy’s axe.

“Ready to begin?” Piotr gives his wooden halberd a twirl, quickly getting used to it.

“Yup.” The Drakling nods, grabbing her own wooden weapon and wrenching it out of the ground.

“Good.” The knight sharply nods, knocking his visor down and into place. Presumably on purpose, this time. His gauntleted hands slip down the smooth wooden haft of his mock halberd, his left stopping around its midpoint while his right firmly grasps at its base.

Without warning, he raises the wooden weapon up above his head and takes a large step forwards, using that brief bit of momentum to give more strength to his already rather fast diagonal cut.

Krvavy shifts her axe around, swinging it towards that strike.

But the two training weapons don’t collide. Instead, Piotr steps to the side, curving his halberd around that obstacle and pulling it back towards his body.

Clack.

The two wooden hafts bump together as the knight’s rapid thrust is just barely deflected aside.

“Excellent reflexes.” He compliments, already twirling his deflected strike around for another go.

Clack.

The halberd’s crescent head collides with and then glides along the haft of Krvavy’s axe, hooking beneath the overly large bearded blade as a rough jerking tug forces the barbarian’s weapon towards the ground.

Or at least it would’ve if Krvavy was weaker.

The replica of her Soulbound weapon bends slightly as she overpowers that strike, flinging the much more reasonably proportioned halberd upwards. With nothing in its way, that large axe lunges forwards, crashing into polished plate.

Clang!

2.11 Damage dealt to [Piotr]

“Sorry, that was a bit springier than I expected.” The Drakling apologizes, quickly moving her weapon up to catch a retaliatory strike between its wooden spear and axe heads.

“A good spar always ends with a few bruises!” Piotr’s mildly muffled voice laughs out from behind his visor. “Not that your strike was enough to leave one!”

“Oh? Is that so?” Krvavy grins, swinging her axe wide and driving the knight back. “Guess I’ll keep hitting you about that hard then! But don’t worry, I won’t be too rough: wouldn’t want to dent that armour of yours~!”

“Hah!” The knight lunges forwards, shifting his swing into a stab at the last possible moment. “These wooden weapons would break long before that!”

Clack!

The tooth-like hook at the base of Krvavy’s axe catches the mock halberd, twisting it away from her body as she strikes back with an upwards swing.

Piotr deftly dodges that attack, freeing his polearm with ease.

Clack!

The momentum of Krvavy’s large wooden axe is taken advantage of as Piotr whacks the haft and further encourages it along its skyward path, knocking it quite decisively out of the way.

“Hhn...” The Drakling grunts, fighting physics as she forces her training weapon back down, aiming to strike with its hammer head. But she isn’t quite quick enough, missing the knight and... getting poked in the belly.

“Not even a scratch?” A note of surprise fills Piotr’s voice. “I held back, yes, but not by this much.”

Krvavy grins, putting her sharp and carnivorous teeth on full display. “I have a tough hide. Even without any spells bolstering it.”

Clack!

“I see.” The knight parries Krvavy’s strike, successfully landing a glancing blow on her heavily armoured left arm. “Then I need not be quite so careful!”

Clack! Clack!

Clack!

The barbarian takes one step back and then another as she struggles to block the flurry of blows suddenly thrown her way.

The mock halberd bobs and weaves around her wooden axe, half of its attacks nothing more than feints meant to trick and confuse her.

Thmp...! Thmmp...!

Her breastplate and one of her thick hip tassets absorb some of those strikes, the padding doing wonders in dampening each hit. She barely even feels them. But she is still getting struck. And Krvavy can’t just let that happen.

Thmp...! Clack!

The barbarian grimaces. Try as she might, Krvavy simply can’t block or dodge all of those attacks. And there are no openings for her attack back either. Not without her making one, at least.

Thmp!

Krvavy’s clawed gauntlet snaps towards the wooden halberd, grabbing at its haft and giving the thing a very strong tug.

Piotr fights back, but he isn’t quite strong enough to prevent his weapon from being pulled to the side. All he ends up doing is anchoring himself to the ground, keeping him from reacting fast enough as an oversized axe swings down towards him.

3.2 Damage dealt to [Piotr]

1.94 Damage dealt to [Piotr]

The knight’s legs are swept out from beneath him as his halberd is torn from his grip. The fully armoured man crashes into the grassy ground with a clattering clang.

“You good?”

“Nhh...” A groaned sigh emerges from within Piotr’s helmet. “Yes.” He responds after a long second, reaching up and grabbing the wooden weapon held out for him. With just a tug, he is back on his feet.

“Alright.” Krvavy nods, a faint grin playing at her lips. “Don’t need to take a break or anything?”

“Of course not. We have hardly even begun.”

Clack! Clack! Thmp...!

The wooden hammer of Krvavy’s replicated weapon bonks into the knight’s helmet with enough **** to be felt but not enough to really hurt. At the same time, Piotr’s mock halberd bounces off one of the Drakling’s upper horn.

“Hahh...!” Piotr lifts his visor and takes a deep breath of fresh air.

“Done already~?” The barbarian teasingly asks, ignoring the droplet of sweat dripping down the side of her nose. This odd headband, mask, helmet thing of hers does a pretty good job at keeping hair and sweat from getting into her eyes, but it isn’t perfect.

“If we would like to eat and have lunch today... then yes.” The knight’s clean-shaven face is flushed and glistening with sweat, but he doesn’t seem too out of breath.

“Tsk.” Krvavy clicks her tongue and softly shakes her head, disappointed but understanding. She is, after all, getting pretty hungry.

“May I keep this?” The knight holds up his mock halberd.

Krvavy blinks, glancing at the very disposable wooden weapon. “Yeah, of course. I was just going to toss mine into a fire, or something.”

“Don’t do that!” Piotr blurts out. “Save it, so that we can spar again later. And not just between each other: some of the others would surely love to get involved.”

“Alright.” The Drakling lazily shrugs. Both this and her actual Soulbound weapon should fit under the couch together, so keeping it won’t be too much of a hassle.

“You are quite the fine fighter.” Piotr idly compliments, leaning onto the reddish-brown haft of his wooden weapon as he watches the barbarian walk over to her real axe. “Self taught?”

“Heh, you could tell?” Krvavy lightly laughs and rolls her shoulders, before crouching down and picking up the knight’s weapon from where it was left on the ground.

“I meant no offenc–”

“And none was taken.” Krvavy cuts the knight off with a smile, handing him his halberd. “I am self taught, for the most part.” Technically speaking, she played plenty of IVR games with this sort of combat before she even became Krvavy, and while that isn’t exactly the same as actual professional training it is better than nothing. “I bought a fighting manual some time ago, but I haven’t read through the whole thing just yet. I did recognize some of your moves from it though.”

“Yes, those have been deeply ingrained in me through constant drills.” Mirth and amusement fills Piotr’s mildly tired voice. “I do hope that I was not too predictable by following them?”

“Hardly. I could never tell if you were going to go through with an attack or shift it into something else.” The barbarian grabs at the haft of her Soulbound weapon, giving it a tug and pulling it out of the ground, before resting it and the wooden version over different shoulders. “Really kept me on my toes.”

“As it should. Complacency in the midst of combat leads only to **** and defeat. That said... this was hardly comparable to actual combat. You are the type to utilize magics in a fight, yes?”

“Yup.” Krvavy makes the p sound pop. “Can’t really use most of it in a friendly sparring match though. I mean,” she abruptly turns away from the many carriages and slams her foot down. The grassy ground visible rolls, almost like a wave in water, as her Seismic Stomp travels outwards. “Just imagine that happening when I hit a person with my hammer. Tends to go straight through armour and turn their insides to mush.”

“How terrifying...” Piotr plainly breathes out, lightly shaking his head. “Sometimes I envy those like you who can cast such magics. But when I think more of it, I am content as what I am.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Krvavy curiously asks, slowly walking alongside the knight as they both head back to the protective ring of parked carriages.

“Were we on a real battlefield right now, you would be a priority target to take down and eliminate while I would be overlooked by all but those I am directly fighting. To put it simply,” he smiles wryly, “I prefer living over having more power. I would die if duty calls, of course, but I see no need to ask the enemy to put me down even faster.”

“Guess you’ve got a point, but then I’d say just be powerful enough to not have to worry about getting ‘put down’ so easily~.” A joking laugh underlines Krvavy’s words, even if there is a sliver of seriousness to her comment. After all, that is kind of the plan she has for herself, simple as it may be.

“Yes, but just how powerful would one need to be for that?” Piotr idly wonders, sounding rather thoughtful. “Even the Countess, as skilled as she is in the Arcane Arts, has a target upon her head. And the Lady may well be the most magically mighty person in the entire region.”

“She’s that strong?”

“Yes.” The knight calmly and plainly responds. “Almost certainly. Though I will admit that the true extent of her might is known only to her, for the Countess has not been properly tested upon the battlefield. But she has, at times, practiced her arcane abilities where others could view her. And what she is capable of is... truly remarkable. From her amethyst flames reducing a training dummy to mere ash in a split second, a dummy meant to resist and withstand such attacks might I add, to manifesting a hundred arcane arrows and weaving them together in a dance, not once letting them collide... Those who ought to know better than I, those who themselves are quite talented with magic, say that the Countess has a level of finesse and power unlike anything they have seen before.”

Krvavy slowly nods. What Piotr just said is pretty much hearsay. Rumours and probably a bit of propaganda. But Krvavy also has no reason to not believe it. Honestly, if Rina is that powerful... that just makes her even hotter. “Yeah, I can see that. She definitely has that feel to her. A certain kind of magical... taste.”

Piotr quirks an eyebrow, but shrugs a moment later.

Maybe he just thinks that Krvavy’s admittedly odd comment is some magic or Drakling thing? Or maybe he is just minding his own business? After all, this knight is part of Rina’s retinue. He probably has at least an idea of her secret affairs...

Which has almost certainly lead to some rumours regarding Krvavy. The fact that she is here, spending so much time effectively alone with the Countess, isn’t exactly subtle. And neither is her armour, for that matter... Armour that the Countess in question commissioned specifically for her...

“I suppose this is where we part ways, for now.” The knight idly states, glancing between his halberd and the wooden replica of it. “Are you up for more sparring when we stop for dinner?”

“Of course.” Krvavy nods, stomach grumbling quietly as she breathes in the scent of freshly cooked food. It smells like today’s lunch was some sort of stew. And freshly baked bread. Probably for dipping...