Fight:Quintessa and Kazeem Spar

This is a Warrior's Guild RP.

Summery: Lieutenant Quintessa challenges Neophyte Kazeem to a spar, but Quintessa doesn't treat it like a spar and it turns into a knock down drag out fight. Kazeem is not amused with Quintessa's overzealousness.

Snowless Training Yard

One would never know this patch of land once held the bloody remains of innocents killed long ago, for all have been cleared away and given proper burials nearby so that this area could be reborn. And reborn is has been, transformed from a battered street to a wide yard fenced in by a low, black stone wall. The yard sprawls out on either side of the iron gate that serves as an entrance, and the expanse seems to be sectioned off into four large rectangled areas by strange white lines drawn upon the ground--deeply embedded strips of marble, if one were to examine these closely. The ground itself is a peculiarity too, a soft, golden sandy surface without a single speck of snow upon it, as if the weather refuses to go near it. In fact, even the numbing chill in the air seems to be buffered while within the yard's boundaries. You suspect the four orbs of pulsing fluorite--white in the north, black in the south, crimson in the east, and cobalt in the west--that decorate the corners of the fence have something to do with this, riddled as they are with elaborate etchings of runes, sigils, and other arcane markings. Here lies the training yard for those learning the art of outdoor combat in Frostmaw, a blank slate to be altered as teachers see fit in instructing their students through the rigors of environmental conditions, for it takes no more than an adjustment upon the fluorite spheres to produce any arrangement of climates within their given battlefield. Rain, sleet, arid desert, howling wind, or boggy swamp, the four fields are infinitely mutable in their existence, as is to be expected of an institute devoted to the art of combat around the world. To the west looms an immense building, even by Frost Giant standards, with behemoth double doors of a darkly colored pine bearing the stern facade of Aramoth, God of War, chiseled across their collective front. One can safely assume this is the training academy proper, where various dojos, studios, and classrooms can be found, and unimaginable lessons attended by eager students of the art of War.

Quintessa is doing katas in the training yard, her katana exiting and entering her sheath as she practices her drawing cuts. Despite not being an elf herself, the changeling always admired the sylvan elves's ancient style of swordplay and did her best to emulate it from the old texts she had found on the subject. Dressed in simple, loose fitting robes and her spiked-heeled boots, she continues to make her blade whistle in the empty air as she waits for her sparring partner. After her fight with Mathollak she remained unsatisfied with her swordsmanship was trying to learn new techniques. The young hex blade hoped the desert born man, Kazeem, could teach her a few things simply by fighting with her. After all, nothing tempered the prowess of a warrior quite like the heat of battle.

Kazeem enters the training yard from within the confines of the guild's headquarters for the first time this day as he has been spending it in reflective meditation in preparation for the upcoming fight he was to have with one known as Quintessa. And so, as the hour neared, the desert born donned his battle regalia that fit his fighting style ( a mixture of leather and cloth with some possible other items) and took hold of what could be considered his most notable weapon, his spear. Golden eyes scan out from underneath the hood of the cloak he wears that covers most of his lean form, quickly finding the woman he had been given a brief description of earlier. From across the training yard the man simply makes his presence known by calling out. "Yo." His center found, his mind cleared and his body fit and ready, he stands prepared for the battle that is at hand.

Quintessa turns to face the man who had called to her, her katana returning to the sheath where it would remain until the fight. "Yo," she replies, her mismatched eyes falling upon the spear he carried. Spears were notoriously good versus swords so she would have to be extra clever with this opponent. "You look prepared. That's good." Quintessa lowers her stance a bit, excited to go up against a new foe. "Are you ready?"

Kazeem studies the woman for several moments, from her size, stance, weapon and distance it is all taken in as the wind howls through the training yard as night starts to fully set in. His hand upon his spear, the man answers simply with. "Let us begin." And will say no more until the battle ends.

Spar Rules: Three rounds, fifteen minute time limit

23:49:46Quintessa Dragana wastes no time at all charging Kazeem when he confirms his readiness, sprinting across the training yard in an attempt to close the distance before he has a chance to set his spear against her. Ignoring the perils of rushing a man with a spear, she moves quickly, unhindered by armor or hesitation. When only a meter of space exists between the two, her right hand quickly moves to draw her blade, brining it out in a horizontal slash like she had been practicing a moment before. This first attack was aimed for his midsection, enough force behind it to cut through the leather armor he wore. This slash, however, was simply a ruse. Quintessa feints to Kazeem's left, letting her blade level out between them as she circles around him. Hoping he has trouble mobilizing with such a long weapon, she flips her blade downward and aims a diagonal attack at his calf, hoping to slice his leg enough to slow him down. With her second attack performed, Quintessa skids to a halt behind him as her left hand finds the hilt of her sword, and the hex blade brings her katana into a window guard before stepping forward with a single foot. With her right foot planted on the ground the changeling bends her knee and assumes a low stance before thrusting outward aiming again for Kazeem's center of mass. Quintessa didn't know how to hold back, as was evident in the way she tried to impale the newest member of the Warrior's Guild.

00:03:06Kazeem Ansari is a man of discipline that has been honed from years spent under the tutelage of his former master, Jhefari. So, as the battle at hand commences the lancer calms the storm that rages within all warrior’s hearts with commendably little effort for once still as untested as he is. Brigands and various monsters that dwell within the desert have fallen prey to his prowess with his spear, but such things pale in comparison to crossing blades with another truly talented warrior, such as the one he faces now. The woman explodes into action, closing the distance with surprising speed across the training yard and unleashing her calculated barrage of aimed blows upon his person. But even as fast as she was there was still time for the warrior to react, and in this moment, he is already on the move. The spear is brought to bear with precision and skill, effortlessly moves between his adept digits and gripped firm as she slashes towards his midsection first with a quick spin of the longer weapon that causes sparks to fly that briefly illuminate the ever growing darkness that night brings. As she stalks about his person the spearman simply stabs the earth beneath his feet and propels himself up into the air with swift and agile movements that help him avoid the leg slash, leaving her blade to only hit air. Spinning his lean and muscular frame from atop his new perch, Kazeem shifts his weight and uses the moment to do two things as Quintessa stops her rush and launches her thrust upon where his person previously was. First the spear’s blade is brought up, causing the desert native to begin his plummet back down towards his foe. In this action the earth in which his spear’s tip was just buried is launched forth towards the woman’s face in an effort to blind her while the neophyte falls, hopefully cloaking his decent and his next action, which is top lift up that spear with startling celerity and use the power and velocity of his downward decent to slam the flat of his blade square atop the woman’s head. As much as she seems to be going for killing blows, as expected of any swordsman, Kazeem is more trying to fight with less deadly force. If his blow will land, the man will simply land and resume a defensive stance as if this were a sparring competition in some arena. If he misses, he’d tumble down into a roll opposite the woman, hoping that her forward lunge will offer enough time to regain a bit of distance between the pair.

00:18:48Quintessa mentally notes this man's skill with a spear. The resolve he bore mirrored the gritty determination felt within the hex blade's heart but his experience killing desert monsters and brigands seemed to eclipse her own. As she trusts out with her sword she winces at the dirt that was flung into her eyes. "Damnit-" she mutters, her head turning to rub against her shoulder, trying to get the dirt out before she is counter-attacked. With the blunt end of Kazeems spear knocking against her head, Quintessa knows she has acted too slowly and withdraws back from melee combat, growling at the simple ruse that worked so well against her. Still blind in one eye, the changeling takes a few steps back, her left hand rubbing the debris from her optics. "Dirty play, but lets she how you handle this-" With the dizziness she sustained from the blow to her head still present, Quintessa lifts up her katana above her head and channels all of her mana into it, letting the blade ignite in enchanted fire. "Tân!" she calls, bringing her blade down in a vertical slash aimed for Kazeem. As she speaks the words an arc or fire races towards him before she allows the momentum to carry her blade around into a second slash. "Tân!" she yells again, announcing her second flame spell before she brings her sword into a defensive pose. Perhaps the use of magic would surprise him...

00:38:36Kazeem is glad to see that he faces a capable and adaptable opponent for what he was told would be his first official display of skill to the warrior’s guild. And even as his blow lands, the man knows this is far from over. His landing is that of a well-timed roll in which as soon as he back on his feet he is creating distance between the pair. The blinding tactic used seems to have brought him that time needed to do this, and so as the hex-blade raised her weapon to begin channeling her mana into the blade, the spearman does the only logical thing. Instead of foolishly sitting there and waiting for her to finish her charged attack, Kazeem knocks back his spear and whispers the infernal blessings that have been placed upon him and his chosen weapon. And so just as Quintessa would unleash her volley of fiery damnation upon his person, so too would he send forth his spear with alarming speed, power and Hawkeyes aim. Quintessa’s own flashy attack may very well hide this action, given the sudden illumination of light within the darkened training field, either way just as Kazeem’s spear meets the flames of Quintessa’s magical assault does the weapon seems to alarmingly gain velocity , cutting through the flames and sailing towards the woman’s heart. Maybe he was not so much against using deadly force when it seems his own foe has the intention of doing the same? Either way Kazeem is not safe by any means, as the flaming slashes still travel forth to rend his flesh from bone, causing the warrior to do all he can with his agility and limited time. The first swipe is dodged with a spin that has the cloak he wears singed terribly, but luckily leaves him unharmed. It was the second blow he didn’t see coming due to the eruption of light from her first attack, and thus as he dodged the vertical flaming strike the horizontal slash is upon his person with naught but a mere heartbeat for him to react. He does the only thing he can and drops as hard to the ground as possible, though even in this he is not nearly fast enough. He raises his left arm to shield the upper part of his chest and his face but is horribly burnt in the process, electing a snarl of pain to escape his otherwise mute person. He crashes to the earth, the pain from the burn tormenting him but at the same time being almost absorbed by the infernal mark upon his person. Fire was the element in which the creature he has struck a bargain with reigned over, and so he was offered some protection from its excruciating torment upon his person. This does not mean he isn’t still burnt, and possibly have lost mobility within that arm, but where once it may have been a lost limb is now only a terrible burn. But the fight rages on, and Kazeem (hoping his spear has met its mark) rises to the occasion once more and uses his right hand to reach next to his side and draw forth three slender throwing daggers. Back upon his feet, the man erupts into motion once more, backpedaling to keep distance from the woman before he unleashes those daggers in rapid succession upon her person while he whispers once more in his own native tongue. The blades fly towards Quintessa’s person, be she impaled by his spear or not. This woman has gone for blood since the opening moments, and thus Kazeem will now return the favor.

00:58:11Quintessa begins to cackle as her flames close in, but her mirth is cut short by the glint of light sparkling from within her magical flames. The changeling narrows her eyes just in time to spot the spear racing towards her and she turns her body as quickly as possible to avoid being stuck like a pig. The blade of the Kazeems weapon manages to slice her across her chest, ripping through her robes with ease before continuing on to stab into the ground behind her. "That was-" Quintessa doesn't even have time to finish speaking before she has to react to a new series of attacks. "-Crys rhewllyd!" she utters frantically, the flames on her sword dissipating as she swaps her mana into a defensive spell. A disc of ice quickly materializes before her forearm, absorbing the blow from the dagger as it is deflected away from her. The second and third daggers, however, carry enough force to shatter her icy buckler completely, leaving Quintessa without a shield to defend herself with. She was becoming desperate, and as the sting of the slash across her chest grew worse she knew she needed to come up with a new attack. Lifting her left hand the changeling's mana builds up again to manipulate the chunks of ice from her shield, each shard levitating from the ground to point there most sharp edges at the man. "Cyllyll oer," she utters, bringing her hand down to launch the dozens of shards at the man, attempting to rain down her ice sickles upon Kazeem.

01:15:42Kazeem was still very much in motion regardless of his daggers finding their mark or not, for movement meant he wasn’t dead yet, and this training spar turned fight for one’s life has him reacting with survival instincts. A quick glance of his golden gaze allows him to see the raising of those icy-shards and their sudden volley towards his direction which causes the man to turn from his previous direction in a sudden change of course directly for the hex-blade herself. Fight or flight in full effect, it seems fight has won out and taken the wheel. The storm of razor-sharp projectiles seem to mostly fly towards were he was previously running, as hitting a moving target usually requires anticipating their movements. But since the man’s chosen path leads him now in a collision course with his bloodthirsty opponent, Kazeem inadvertently realigns himself with more than a few and is sliced on his cheek and left thigh in unison. The pain almost hinders his forward charge all together, and to Quintessa it may very well seem so, for the man suddenly stop several yards in front of her and calls out in his native tongue with the previously spoken commands he was whispering moments ago. His spear, which now rests behind the woman (whose attention is hopefully fully upon her opponent) launches forth from the earth in which it was just buried to return to its master’s eagerly awaiting hand with incredible velocity. Its intended path is quite literally, straight through Quintessa, and given that even the butt end of the spear has a sharp enough point, if the woman doesn’t deduce the man’s own adept ability to use magic she will be impaled through her chest as the weapon’s returning enchantment commands it back home. Of course waiting on such a ploy to play out is foolish and too much of a gamble, so Kazeem quickly acts out the deft hand gestures of a spell to feint a more direct assault that will hopefully keep Quintessa’s attention squarely upon him while his spear does the real dirty work. Distraction, misdirection and even out right playing dirty are all game in a fight, and Kazeem learned that lesson a long time ago to be foolish enough not to utilize them in such a life or death situation as this crazed woman has made it.

01:35:50Quintessa had sustained more damage than she thought she would already but the fight wasn't quite over yet. Mismatched eyes of blue and hazel follow him cautiously, her wicked aura swirling around her as she stands still. Blood was already starting to pool at her feet and a knot was forming on her head, but the changeling still had a bit of fight let in her, specifically in the form of her reserve of mana. Quintessa narrows her eyes when Kazeem speaks a foreign tongue, her aura reaching out to sense the spell he was surely about to cast. With the bulk of magical theory memorized, Quintessa could recognize most verbal and somatic components used to cast spells, but something was off. She was being fooled again, but how? The sharp senses of the changeling barely have time to react to the sound of an object increasing in velocity behind her and instead of turning to see what it was she decided to turtle up instead. "Wal rhewllyd!" she screams, her hand gesturing in the air with her fingers curved into claws. Quintessa would use cryomancy a second time to defend herself as a wide circle of ice juts from the earth to collect into a dome over her head. As the ice materializes it catches the spear in its icy grip, halting the projectile before it can be driven through her body. As the tip prods against her shoulder blades she exhales. This fight was over and she was impressed. Placing her hand against the dome before her, it slips open like a curtain as Quintessa steps out from inside, her katana stabbing into the ground to show him that she was done fighting as she catches her breath.

Spar end

Kazeem recalls his spear once more, the potent enchantment yanking it free from the icy-ward of the hex-blade before sailing back into it's master's grip. With one last twirl of the weapon, Kazeem stands down and begins to walk off without saying anything to the woman who just took what he was told to be a practice spar into a full out fight for one's life. The neophyte was not happy one bit.

Quintessa on the other hand was quite happy with the bout they shared, a wide smile growing across her face as she begins to laugh at her own folly. She had seriously underestimated Kazeem and he made her pay for it. "You did well," she calls after him, the taste of blood building up in her mouth, "The rank of neophyte is beneath you and I intend to let Lionel know about it." With that the changeling spits out the blood in her mouth. Did she have some internal bleeding? She'd need a healer to tend to her wounds quickly.

Kazeem pauses a moment to angle his head back, which is now mostly covered by his hood. A fight was a fight, but the man was wholly unprepared for the intensity of this clash and the possibility his life was on the line during training. In many ways he feels set up, being a foreigner to these lands and a newcomer. Maybe it just anger, or confusion, but he had anticipated a far more casual encounter and even though he has been acknowledged by the woman, he still has a lingering desire to rend her through. But, logic wins out, and he'd seek a healer before he'd find clarification on how things are done here in the Warrior's Guild. And so, Quintessa would only get a stiff nod in return before Kazeem exits the training yard.