Fight:Quintessa vs. Rorin

From HollowWiki

This is a Warrior's Guild RP.



Summery: Neophyte Quintessa challenges Swordsman Rorin to a spar, no magic allowed. They bond over the thrill of the fight.


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.



Rorin stood by the terrain changing orb, studying its dunes and scribbling in a small journal, occasionally concerning a page laden with shorthand marks. He was talking to another instructor about its history and possible construction, but unfortunately he wasn’t getting much farther than before. They knew how to use it, but not necessarily how it functioned. He scratched his head and considered scouring some sort of library while the perpetually winter winds whipped up snow outside of the designated grounds.


Quintessa was no stranger to runology, having studied the subject extensively during her apprenticeship at the Mage's Guild. Despite all of her study, however, the more advanced aspects of inscribing runes always evaded her. Still, the changeling's curiosity had brought her to examine the magic orbs more than once. What the hex blade didn't expect to see when she arrived here today was Swordsman Rorin, a guildmate that she was very interesting in testing her skill against. "Checking out the enchantments?" the young girl asks, her left hand idly resting on the hilt of her sword as she approaches. "I must admit, I was surprised to see such advanced magics outside of the Mage's Guild, but I suppose anyone can replicate the knowledge." Quintessa's mismatched eyes size Rorin up, trying to surmise just what kind of warrior he might be.


Rorin shrugged, “yeah, I know how to use it, I just don’t know how it does those things. I know some runes, but this is high level magic stuff, not like elves or dwarvish at all,” he trailed off for a moment in thought. His silver eyes were hard in concentration and he huffed as he moved a hand though his blueish black hair. His height, weight, and ears all pointed towards an obvious half elves heritage, among the other slightly exotic elements like his moon pale skin. Although he was lithe and wiry, it was easy to see that there was muscle there, compact and waiting. Markings of a religious nature and small artifacts were scattered around his body, and he had the air of someone well versed in his tasks. Speed, not strength, was clearly his bigger asset, but his hands were not shy of work, and his eyes had the clear mystic quality that came of a certain attentiveness. With a short breath he suddenly surfaced from his work and turned towards the person who’d spoken to him with a gentle expression of large lips and a day-dreamers downturned eyes. “I’m sorry, did you say- or, need something?”


Quintessa flashes him a row of pointed teeth as she smiles, her clearly sinister heritage obvious from her gangly limbs and penetrating eyes. A slender hand moves up to brush a raven lock of hair from her face, her messy bob as wild as her blue and hazel gaze. "Yes, I did." Already the murderous intent that lived inside her was bubbling up at the prospect of attacking a holy man. Admittedly, she'd never fought one before so she didn't know what to expect. "My name is Quintessa Dragana, I'm a Neophyte in the guild, recently recruited by Lionel. I was told I should spar some of the other members of the guild and your name stuck out to me the most." The changeling's grin grows dark as she chuckles. "I do hope you'll accept."


Rorin had a first impression of this girl as ‘dangerous’ (-ly cute) he shook that thought from his mind as he remained the essence of calm while she grew only more predatory and ‘menacing’. Having faced off against a large number of people trying to kill him, Rorin was having a hard time feeling it. “That’s wonderful!” He warmly replied, “welcome to the guild - Lionel was my mentor while I squired under him, but to be honest you probably won’t see him here much, he’s sort of allergic to office work. I’m not here often anymore either, but the rooms are nice.” He had to laugh a little - “I appreciate it, I’m no one too special, but sure, we can spar. Do you have any requests or limitations? Chosen weapon or anything like that,” he was more than happy to have a work out and test a new study at the guild.


Quintessa's glee is evident from the way she giggles at his words. "Wow, you were a real squire?" She was a girl who had grown up on books and stories of knights and heroes, but when she grew older she found out that the word was a lot darker than that. Still, the idea of meeting someone who reminded her of her childhood novels filled her with undeniable nostalgia. "That's amazing!" At Rorin's question about requests or limitations, Quintessa had to think for a bit. "I don't know, I'm not used to things being so formal. Usually I just follow my instinct and just fight. If you want to make a 'no-magic' rule that's fine with me. I'm really trying to improve my swordsmanship."


Rorin seemed a bit nostalgic about it. “After I finished my training under the Rangers in the Sage Forest, I had to look for someone who could help me complete my trials to become a paladin. Unfortunately, there aren’t many paladins left of my religion, so I squired for the first real hero I could find - and I’m glad I did too. Lionel’s a legend, I read about him when I was a kid, and tons of people like him. Those are the kinds of stories that inspired me to... sorry, I’m talking about myself again, hahah. Suffice it to say, Lionel’s a true hero, and he’s my hero too. I know that might sound corny...” he realized he was getting off track again. “I know tons of magic, and while we do train some sword-mages here, the guilds focus is in melee weapons. Regular swordsmanship is fine by me! Let me get fully equipped and I’ll meet you out here in five, all right?” He was already dressed in leathers, but didn’t seem to be holding weapons.


Quintessa nodded her head enthusiastically. "Yes, of course." While she was excited to test herself against a paladin's magic, she would be happy with a purely martial bout. Before the five minuets were up, Quintessa was already in the yard. In the warmth of the training area, she didn't have to dress in her winter garb, so she instead comes unarmored and in her necromancer's robes. She didn't train in armor, so it wouldn't be prudent to wear it now. At her side is her new katana, gifted to her by Lionel when she joined the guild. Already her stance suggests that she is ready to fight.


Rorin looks like an entirely different person in his approach. He had quiet confidence and an easygoing charisma before, but the man who strides up to the ring in half plate over leathers and a full helm with a closed face carried himself with practiced surety and admirable grace. He seemed serious and grim, cloaked in both a sense of focused intensity and the more worn physical cloak of a long traveled pilgrim. On his right arm was strapped a religiously painted round shield of wood reinforced with metal and curiously a long sword sat on his back to be drawn left handed. He spoke with a projected gravelly voice that had dropped all tones of friendship and invitation as he recited the rules and tapped the fluorite spear with his gauntlet. Moments later the wind would whip inside the training grounds, fiercely blowing with the biting cold, and the shift would bring out a construction of shapes among the sand. A towering pillar of stone, only a few meters wide, in the middle of a gap connecting the sides with old rickety bridges that swayed wildly in the wind, swaying in dangerous arcs over the visual trick of a chasm on either side. It was an identical set up to one of Rorin’s early duels in one of the last few titan of winter tournaments.


Spar Rules: Three rounds, ten minute time limit


01:52:51Quintessa was usually one who relied on a mixture of magical and mundane combat, but the limitation placed upon herself did nothing to shake her resolve. She continues to grin darkly at her armored foe, only giving him a moment to take his place before she was on him. With quickness only possible without the penalty of heavy armor, that changeling covers the distance of a couple of meters in only a second, her katana drawn forth in the ancient Iaijitsu style to make a horizontal strike aimed right for Rorin's midsection. With her sword drawn, she follows the attack through, flipping her blade around and making a second, diagonal cut aiming from his hip to his shoulder. To finish her flourish, the hex blade takes a step back, bringing her katana into a Gedan stance before thrusting straight out, attempting to impale him with her sword within the first few seconds of combat. With her thrust made, she brings her blade back to hang between herself and the armored paladin defensively awaiting a counter attack.


02:04:02Rorin || The paladins speed is indeed one of his greatest assets, and although one assume his armor may slow him down, he moves as if filled with liquid grace. Quintessa is an ounce faster, meeting Rorin on the last inch of his bridge, and his defensive style comes into play. His expertise involves both a proactive and reactive approach, and as he charges shield first he deflects the first strike automatically. The second one glances off, and Rorin pushes forward with a thrust of his own that bounces off his opponents katana. Not one to give up his footing so easily, he chooses to deflect it upward and out instead of letting it come back to rest, and moves to shove Quintessa off her feet with his shield, a guarded thrust coming in second before a flurry of slashes used to push himself onto the column mid battleground. Here he would step off and start the circle of the death march, where men and corpses are made. In a real fight, either of them could strike the fatal blow here, and as he walked around shield first, switching the position of his sword around his shield, he decided to strike first. Quintessa was fast - but was she smart? His next maneuver was both complex and fast, aiming not at her, but at her sword arm, a twist and a flick making to disarm her early in the fight.


02:15:29Quintessa is impressed with Rorin's defense, but she has only second to admire it before his shield comes closing in. Her left arm moves up to catch it but she is too slow, instead taking the brunt on the blow with her shoulder. The impact sends her stumbling back a few feet but she maintains her balance, bringing her sword around to parry his strike. When she notices that he is aiming for her sword arm she moves to engage him in a sword-lock, keeping his sword from cutting into the arm she used for combat. She didn't think she could overpower him, so she let's him win the sword-lock, instead sliding the blade of her katana down to the guard of he longsword before sliding it off to aim an attack for his stomach. Quickly, her lithe form ducks under his arm as she breaks contact, spinning around behind him to bring her sword up with both hands. She needed to somehow cut through that armor and the only way she knew how was to use all her strength. With all her might, she brings the blade down in a vertical slice, attempting to cut into the back of the paladin.


02:24:33Rorin is impressed with the sword lock but it doesn’t catch him up, sending her blade downwards instead of in - leaving the gap for her to move behind him. He turns to face her, seeing her rise up for an overhead strike, and is prepared to catch that with the edge of his shield, making room for a hit to her own abdomen using the pommel of his blade. Besides that he goes for another fancy technique, more martial arts than sword fighting, trying to catch her arm again between his shield and his knee. His last plan of attack is to bash her in the back of the head, but he had a feeling she’d be too quick once again. Rorin could see she was a wild opponent, and that if he had allowed the use of magic, there would have either been more injuries or a stand still of an arms race. He kept note of her technique, her movements, and the angle of her katana at all times. He studied her, and to be honest, he would be excited to have the chance to face off with her again, no matter which way this went when it was over.


02:37:01Quintessa curses when she sees his shield moving in to deflect her attack, bringing her sword down hard in an attempt sunder his shield. This brash attack, however, left her open to the pommel of his blade. The strike connects with her unarmored body and knocks the breath from her, leaving her slow to react to her arm being targeted. She calls out as the attack connects, crushing her arm as she shifts her weapon to her good hand. She was no stranger to pain, and let it wash over her quickly so she could react to the attack to her head. With the spiked heels, she kicks out at Rorin, pushing herself away as she wrenches her arm free of the attack, ducking her head as he tries to bash her. The changeling has no choice but to keep moving, stepping back a few paces before preparing another flourish. Single-handed, she breaks into a sprint, circling around him, trying to find a gap to slide her sword. When she thinks she's found one, she lunges at him, aiming a powerful thrust between the folds of his armor.


02:44:38Rorin couldn’t catch the kick coming, and so his prey slipped out of his grasp as her heel pierced his thigh. Giving out an uncharacteristically loud groan of pain. He took a step forward, stumbled nearly, and fell to one knee as Quintessa darted around him. The pain in his thigh did hurt - but it was nothing that would truly debilitating. He was simply giving her the widest room he could to strike. He didn’t watch her, but listened, his half elves ears twitching and the instinctual warning bells ringing in his head. The moment she moved in, he knew. With a quarter turn and a slash, he parried her blade and went to wrap his shield around her, aiming to lift and slam her into the ground. From there he was hoping it would be a simple coup de grace that would end the fight once and for all. Not that Rorin was planning to kill her - far from it. Every attack so far had been non lethal, and this was no different. It would be a rather cinematic finish to sheath his blade in the ground only a few inches from her head.


02:55:44Quintessa's left arm dangles lifelessly as lowers her stance, letting her katana drift naturally with the parry so she can bring it back up into a Gedan, but when she attempts to use her left hand she gets little response other than a sharp pain in her elbow. The distraction is enough to leave her slammed on her back, the impact silencing the world for her all except the loud ringing in her ears. She was down but not out. Mismatched eyes struggle to focus in as Rorin prepares to bring his sword down. With a burst of renewed vigor, Quintessa flips herself back, her spiked heels digging into the ground before she springs forward. She brings the tip of her katana to close to his face, but halts, the keen tip of the paladin's sword already in hers. Short of breath and dizzy, she freezes like this, each weapon hanging dangerously close to the vital points of the other wielders.


Spar end


Rorin gives a few small huffs and puffs before he lowers his blade. He always liked this part - there was little but steam and steel between them, and the adrenaline pumping told him exactly why people made songs just about this. “That was great!” He cheered as he stood up straight and opened his helmet. “Damn but you stuck my leg good.” He rubbed it a bit, and was not at all surprised to see the spot of blood. She had avoided his vitals completely. “ you’re pretty good with that thing, just as I expect. A real precision instrument, that one. C’mon, I’ll fix up your arm.” He would motion off to the side and sit, plopping down with a heavy sigh. “ I almost worked up a real sweat. If you’re that way when you fight with a sword, I can’t wait to see what level of magic you’d find exhausting.”


Quintessa gives a Rorin a smile, a legitimate smile, as her strength finally gives out and her sword hits the ground. The odd girl can't help but giggle when he calls out how great of a time he had. She had to admit, she always loved the thrill of battle too. It was the greatest things she missed about the Razurath War. "Shields are good." she remarks. "I can make one out of ice. I'll show you some day." Quintessa wasn't in the state of mind to explain anything eloquently. The changeling struggles for a moment, but she eventually returns her katana to her sheath and gently touches her left arm, wincing at the pain. "I think you dislocated it," she says flatly, "It shouldn't be any issue to fix if you wanna help me."


Rorin giggled a little. “Ice is good. I’ve learned to make them out of many things, but ice, ice is good.” He nodded to himself and set down his armaments, shirking off his gauntlets. He rubbed his hands together real quick and held them over his thigh, letting the light sweep through. A moment later and the pain, as well as the injury, was gone. “Of course I’ll help, I’ll do it for free if you let me. I joined the healers guild back a while,” he trailed off again as he thought about the earthquake that had shaken Larket soon after and how many corpses he had pulled out of the burning rubble. A breath later and her motioned insistently at her arm. “So, you know magic, you wear black robes - what are you doing with a katana and a rank in the Warriors Guild? Or do you just happen to be multi-talented, if you don’t mine my asking.”


Quintessa grins, "Of course I'll let you heal me for free. It's what I like about you healer types. None of you are stingy. I didn't realize there was a whole guild of you." The changeling allows Rorin to do what he can for her injuries, and though she was of a dark heritage, healing magic didn't seem to harm her. "I'm a spell blade." Quintessa tells him, giving him a smirk. "I blend the arts of arcane and martial. I guess I've always had a talent for magic, though, ever since I was a wee lass. Swordsmanship is something I've tried really hard to attain. Even before joining the Warrior's Guild, I studied under Master Kasyr. I still consider myself his student to this day."


Rorin healed her up and nodded along with the conversation. “There’s that and what used to be called the paladins guild - they renamed it the devout to be more inclusive though.” He didn’t sound like he particularly agreed with that. “Kasyr? We’ve worked with him before. Master swordsman, you’d find no better katana instructor in your life, I’m sure. Well, Quintessa,” he offered his hand to shake, “this was a lot of fun, I hope to do it again some time. I’ll see you around the guild! Let me know whenever you want to spar.” He smiled, and with a sigh, heaved himself up to go back inside.