backdated to just before Black City - Part III

Master Vargas had mostly left him alone, in recent days--to guard the door, now that he trusted he and (occasionally) Mirac to do their duty. Right now, Mirac was not with him; instead he bore his trusty halberd, fingers gripped around its cold haft. The Leviathan had come to him, today, and with an unusual request; it seemed he was doing, at least, the bare minimum. 'Find as many of the Chaos Forge as you can,' the Master had told him, 'and practice with them. Ensure they are keeping up their training, and offer what you know.'

He didn't know why he'd been chosen for such a task, but he accepted it, as he always did. Right now, he was searching for one he'd seen pass through this way only an hour or so before: the winged canine creature Esther.

He knew their name, but not much about them; only that it was time to test themselves against one another.

"Esther," he called out, the word unfamiliar in his rasping throat.

Perhaps they were close by-?

@Esther

Esther was feeling pretty well, to say the least. Having recently stabilized and eaten. Nothing could possibly go wrong - and if they stopped thinking about the storm before everything would be fantastic. It wasn't anything for them to worry about anymore, not really - not with Draconua tearing her way through Tahi-shei's troops before. Nothing could control that beast, anyway. So instead of dwelling on that, they took to sticking around Draco for a little while - at least until they figured out what they felt like doing. Vargas surely would denounce them for being lazy, but Esther honestly didn't care too much.

Maybe wandering around Draco became a sort of proclivity lately, it might look like they were patrolling. For what? Esther didn't know - but if the random bouts of void they'd been seeing lately said anything about it something was going on. Or their magic was doing something wrong. Either one could be a pretty equal possibility. An ear lurched back at their name suddenly. Who -

One they'd spotted, but never spoke to before. Esther couldn't recall his name off the top of their head.

"Yes?" if they knew about training, then they might have approached the alien about it before being hunted down themselves, but they didn't.

@The Sentinel

Ahh, there they were.

The Sentinel turned, every line of his (admittedly fairly expressionless) face and body speaking only of duty. His was a plodding walk, a solemn stare, as he approached the winged canine.

"Master Vargas has ordered the Sentinel to seek those who require training. Practice. Sparring." The three words were rattled off in quick succession, a list.

Hand tightened idly around the halberd as its butt was braced into the rock. "It has come to ask if the winged creature requires these. It offers them. A spar, without mortal injury. Teaching, what the Sentinel knows: of magic, of battle, of combat." Despite his strength in butchery, he was well-versed, too, in the few aspects of the powers of Chaos that he held. He felt himself capable of imparting those, at least, to others--with the knowledge of their drawbacks, and awareness too of his own ignorance of other aspects. He knew that some could call up black fire, for example, but he himself could not. But the Sentinel could banish an opponent to a distant realm, between strikes of his blade, and that was something perhaps worth teaching.

For a moment, the world fell away, and the Sentinel stood as if empty and hollow--as if not quite there. In truth his vision had shifted; Esther was no longer there. As he'd even thought of the spell, it had swam past him like a fish dipping through the darkness of his entire reality. And reality itself had faded. He was left in the void, staring into a dusty dark, cold, empty; motes of dust drifted through Draco's voidlight.

When he blinked, Esther had returned, and he shifted from that eerie stillness back into speech and motion--however slight. "The Sentinel offers what it knows, to Esther. The Sentinel offers what it can do. It may request what it wishes."

Apparently he'd become, in essence, a travelling combat vending machine: here to dole out whatever Esther might ask of him.

@Esther

Esther watched curiously as Sentinel explained what was going on. It definitely made sense - Esther trained a little bit, but not with others very often. Truthfully it was pretty boring to try and train alone - just using magic on things and seeing what worked. It was easier with someone else there that knew more to help instruct them on what they were doing wrong or what they could improve on. Plus, Vargas wanted Esther to train before, so this seemed to be a good idea.

Esther held avarice for magic, and the spells they did know seemed to work for plenty of things, but they hadn't tried them out on much at all if they were being honest. It was dangerous for many... In a way that Esther did not want to hurt anyone with their magic if they did spar together. A lot of the Chaos Forge would not be affected, but they had other jobs and Esther didn't talk to any of them often despite living in the same space as them. Which was, admittedly, another thing they could work on. It was a thought for later.

"That would be helpful." Esther paused and watched as the gembound seemed to stare off into space. A familiar look... Did he have the same drawbacks? Or was Esther just making it up?

"I'm trying to focus on getting better at magic."

@The Sentinel

"Then we will spar," the Sentinel informed them.

Halberd was lifted before him, angled cross-wise across his chest, held forward. One clawed foot braced before the other. "The Sentinel is ready. The Sentinel will attack. It may use whatever magic it wishes. He will not perish," he assured them. "The Sentinel will use blade, and magic both. Prepare," he added, and waited a long moment.

Then he swept forward, swift strides carrying him toward Esther. The halberd was swung in an arc before him: held upright, but swung down to one side, then back up, then down around, like fan blades churning toward the maned wolf.

It was the sort of thing that wouldn't really hit them unless they stood stock still: they could easily avoid the hits so long as they moved away. But it was a good thing to practice against, having to avoid it and cast magic at the same time.

Round 1/5
Attempt: A barrage of strikes
Defense: None
Injuries: None

note: these hits aren't intended to strike easily; Esther's free to move out of the way while attacking if they like

@Esther

"Alright." the maned wolf replied to the alien.

Their eyes trailed to the blade the gembound held when he mentioned he would be using it. If the two of them were out to actually cause a lot of pain, the item could do a lot of damage that would take time to heal. Of course, there was a lower chance of that even happening since the two of them were just sparring - but Esther was not going to take their chances with the swiping attacks that were now coming their way. Maybe flying would have been the easier answer, but Esther jumped straight to their magic...

Not a lot could be used for dodging, but the maned wolf went for magic anyway.

Round 1/5
Attack: Attempting to dodge [I know you said you can't use this on yourself, but if this works i wanna see the lore reason why and will GM tag]
Defense: None
Injuries: None

@The Sentinel

The maned wolf made no move to... well, move; and the Sentinel pulled up short, faintly puzzled. He had left it simple enough for Esther to simply step aside.

"It must not remain in the blade's path," he informed them, and then launched another strike.

He'd pulled up short because he hadn't wanted to actually chunk the halberd's axe-head into maned wolf meat. A spar was a spar; this was for training, not real injury.

The Sentinel's next swing, then, was not really an attack so much as a maneuver: a sweep of the halberd's haft for Esther's legs--an attempt to knock them off their feet.

Round 2/5
Attempt: Trip Esther off their feet
Defense: None
Injuries: None

@Esther

When no return attack came, he stepped back and then away.

The spar, it seemed, was over-? Perhaps he had struck too hard. "It will avoid... injury... in the future," he assured Esther, and then backed away--making room, and ending their short spar.

exit due to inactivity