Open Reforging an Empire

[Madrar]

Veridas must have dozed off again, because once he awoke, he saw three men: the Nord knights, and his interrogator, all talking. Apparently, the sparring session was over for now. Then he noticed the high elf woman glancing at him. At first, the assassin dismissed her, but something about her hair reminded him of something...and her eyes. He suddenly realized why she seemed so familiar. Vampire. However, he couldn't remember seeing her at the Bloodlet Throne, which meant...The Thalmor Embassy. He recalled seeing her somewhere in the embassy when meeting there for another assignment.

For a moment, he wondered how the others would react if he revealed that she was a Thalmor agent and a vampire. But then again, he was probably a dead man either way, especially since if the vampires didn't get to him first, the rebels would eventually execute him. He needed to strike some sort of deal with the woman...

 

[Hale Loneshadow]

Smiling sardonically at Arillious' words, Hale replied with a slight smirk, "Oh, I have no doubt you can break a bone or two...IF you can hit me! En garde!" Noting that the large but foolish young man could probably swing that wooden battleaxe with some ease, Hale nevertheless put his sword up and above his head, the tip pointed out towards his opponent, and twisted the dagger over in his left hand. Crouching low to use Arillious' height against him, the Ranger gripped his weapons stalwartly and leaped forward, not wanting to even give the man a second to be able to size him up or think, for the Ranger had a strategy he had long been wanting to use against this kid.

However, he did not spring directly at Arillious. Instead, the deft ranger quickly hopped onto the edge of the same table he had stabbed earlier and tightened his core and leg muscles for an explosive release. Hale launched his body into a backwards leap, doing a full 360 as he came down behind the large man, and on his landing instantly went back into a crouch, striking his sword arm into a vicious twirling strike at Arillious' right arm, and stabbed his wooden dagger forward hard at the back of his left knee, where the thigh meets the leg.

 

[Gunnbjorn]

(OOC: Saw Hale's post early this morning, but I wasn't given enough time to respond as I had school, I was able to think all day of how Arillious was to react, and this very descriptive post is what I got - hope you like it.)

Arillious watched as Hale made preparation to make his first strike. Hale gave him no time for analysis and instead launched his first attack quickly and smoothly. In battle, Arillious could care less about his enemy getting a few hits off of him - but in spars, just one blow can cost you the duel. Losing was something Arillious did not like, especially to someone like Hale.

He watched as Hale hopped onto a table and launched his body, a daring move - Arillious could have easily swung his axe into the air to punish Hale for attempting such a fancy little move, but he was slow on the draw, and now only had time to go to the defensive. While Hale was in the air, he launched himself out from under the imaginary arc Hale was jumping over, barrel rolling away from the possible 'danger.' With this, Hale landed with no advantageous position, and Arillious was free to quickly get himself together and plan an attack of his own.

Without giving Hale much time to recollect himself from his acrobatic move, he began to thrust forward with his axe, pretending as if it were a spear. This allowed him to keep his distance away from Hale - as he had weapons with far less reach. He needed to check and see how he moved, and how he would evade and parry Arillious' attacks. He had poked in the direction of Hale about 5 or 6 times as he moved closer and closer toward him - then, as fast and as powerful as possible, he crouched low, and took his left hand off the axe, and with his right hand, he held the axe at the bottom of the shaft, and began to spin 360 degrees, with the axe swinging with him, grabbing momentum the first 300 degrees, allowing him to slowly build up the strength he had in the swing, the last 60 degrees was exerting that power in the area Hale was.

His plan was to hook Hale's legs with his axe, if it may be a devastating hit only to Hale's right leg, but he was hoping it would sweep both legs, tripping him into the air, in which he would follow with a devastating Headsman-like execution aimed at the upper torso, this would hit Hale as he is still falling from the sweep. The impact of the axe, plus the impact of his back on the ground, could knock the wind right out of Hale - but most importantly Arillious would win the duel undoubtedly, and make a fool out of the Ranger.

This is if all goes well for Arillious, he is completely aware that Hale could easily dodge this attack, his feet are perfectly balanced, something that he mastered during his 'Battle-Axe training' (what he likes to call it) with the Nords in the Bruma Mountains between the ages of 6 and 16. He has also mastered the ability (and has the strength) to immediately stop any swing he could make with his axe, this skill would be very important if Hale is able to react quick enough and jump over his sweeping attack, because he immediately has the long shaft of his axe to use as protection against any counters Hale may execute during this time, unless he decides to ditch the position and start over.

All of this goes through the mind of Arillious within the few seconds he was poking, spinning, and swinging, at Hale.

 

[Hale Loneshadow]

As Arillious barrel-rolled out of the way and began his obvious stab-like feints with the ax, Hale scampered backwards and held his weapons out in front of him, careful to always be a couple of steps behind the poking ax.

Hale's experienced eyes noted that these feints only served as a distraction, for Arillous seemed he was about to switch tactics abruptly. As the man's hand position on the weapon changed, the swift Ranger's eyes went wide as he guessed that Arillious was about to attempt either a sweeping attack or perhaps an overhand chop, and jumped immediately to his left, back onto the top of the table that he had vaulted off of. Nonetheless, Arillous' ax ripped Hale's cloak from his body, though he narrowly avoided having his legs cut out from under him. All this happening withing milliseconds of each other, Hale was in action even as he was in the air. With deftness and quickness that truly demonstrated his honed abilities over his many, many years as a Ranger, as Loneshadow was in mid-jump, he twisted his body around and whipped his wooden knife straight at Arillious' chest, where the sternum met the neck. Even if it meant the loss of a weapon, the knife would be less than useless in his current predicament in any case, and it would take the agility of a vampire to dodge it, figured the Ranger.

 

[Gunnbjorn]

Arillious knew that his sweeping attack wasn't going to be successful, yet he was still angry.

He watched as Hale jumped away from his sweep, the second he noticed the axe had made contact with nothing but a little cloth, he stopped it instantly.

He watched as Hale climbed for a second time up onto the table he had previously launched himself off of. Arillious, annoyed now, could see Hale changing his position with his dagger.

He lifted his axe, so the beard was rotating near his head and upper-torso.

Arillious had battled with a couple dagger-throwers before, but Hale was the quickest.

The dagger was thrown, and it was headed right towards him, he charged forward as fast he could, but no way could he get away from the dagger, it hit the heavy armor that was protecting his right shoulder. He felt no pain, only the ricochet of the dagger bounce off the back part of his shoulder guard - it was gone.

Arillious, with a loud roar, wound up for a strong swipe as if trying to split Hale in two - swinging from the left, he would connect to Hale's waist on his right side. The blow, if hit, would be painful, especially to one in leather imperial armor. The spacing was bit closer than before, but still far enough that Arillious wouldn't have to worry about a sword reaching him. A block with a sword would only absorb a little bit of the hit. The conclusion, Arillious could only predict would be devastation.

 

[Hale Loneshadow]

His eyes going slightly wide as the brutish man kept charging forward through the strong dagger-throw, Hale braced himself, having only a second or two to react.

As the leftward swing came in, Loneshadow accepted the fact that he would not fully avoid the blow, but knew a clever way to lessen it significantly that he did not think Arillious had thought of. In any case, pain was the least of Hale's worries after his experiences.

This man thinks his strike will give you pain?? How much and more have you suffered at the hands of that Arch-Devil through Garumn?

As Arillious came near, Hale flexed his whole upper body, cording his muscles as he firmly gripped the wooden sword in both hands. Just before the vicious strike connected, Loneshadow exploded into a fierce downward strike on the flat of the ax.

The result was, while the ax strike still clipped Hale's right leg, the Ranger directed the majority of the ax's kinetic force into the heavy oaken table, instead of his own side.

Although, the Ranger was still clipped on his muscled thigh. Instead of letting his leg being cut out from under him, Hale essentially rolled with the hit, launching himself backwards onto the stone floor.

He was up in an instant, though his thigh ached slightly from the blow. Hale only had to fall back to the dark memories of his brutal, continuous torture at the hands of the devils to push that annoyance to the back of his mind. The heavy table was now in between himself and Arillious, giving the Ranger some seconds to think.

Grabbing one of the wooden chairs near him, Hale did a quick 360, whipping the chair around and hurling the makeshift projectile straight at the man.

 

[Dabiene Caristiana]

Soldin studied the fight with anticipation. He watched every movement with his calculating eyes. Although Arillious was hardy and had reach along with with swipe that in a real life situation by his hands, would be devastating to the adversary, Hale had agility on his side. Which of course Soldin promptly smiled as he did those tricks and flips to try to gain the upper hand. After Hale through the dagger though, he saw that Arillious was about to reach his breaking point. Rubbing his chin with his other arm tucked under his elbow, he narrowed his eyes with concerned look. Arillious let out a loud roar of frustration as he prepared for a brutal strike. Even though they had wooden weapons and leather armor, he knew how painful wooden weapons can be. Heck he even got hit on the head by a large branch one time by a bunch of vagabonds. Bran took care of them shortly after.

Such a good mutt he is... He thought with a smirk. That smirk quickly went away as he looked at Simus. Soldin was clearly concerned. The Werewolf Nord immediately noticed upon meeting the boy that he was brash and like to jump into things. And always wanted to be right, no matter what. No offense to the poor boy, but I'm starting to feel sorry for who ever has his fancy... Heh, it's none of my business. Although, I hope Simus calls this off soon, or someone is going to get hurt. Whether emotionally or physically, both can be just as painful... Looking over at Simus he gave him a look that told him that he himself would step in if he wanted to. But apparently it wasn't needed, as Hale 'the Quick' as Soldin now dubbed him, knocked the blow away but not without being clipped in the thigh of his right leg. After succeeding in the move Hale back away, grabbed a chair and promptly chucked it at Arillious. He could tell both men were getting slightly frustrated and knew that somehow there was bad blood between the two. Soldin just knew it.

Looking at Simus with a concerned look he hoped that he could understand what he meant after saying one word. "Sir?" His chisled face laced with concern.

(OOC: I know there are probably tons of spelling mistakes but I'm tired, have a headache, and I'm starving at 11 o'clock at night. and probably can't sleep really. Hope this works...)

 

[Gunnbjorn]

The strike connected, yet Hales clever ways continued to shine.

He was able to direct the force of the blow to lessen the impact it had on Hale, and allowed himself to be launched backwards, hitting hard on the stone floor.

It was all fun and games 'till now, the adrenaline started to pump, and he got a little crazed. His body was starting to heat up and his veins started to pop.

Hale found a chair during this time, and had already picked it up and launched it over the table dividing the two, and straight toward Arillious.

In a fluid motion, Arillious dropped his Axe. He raised his arms and caught the chair. In a rage, and smashed it down on the floor, breaking it into pieces.

Without a second thought, he picked his Axe back up, and with the full force of his body jumped up on the table, and took 3 giant, powerful steps he was able to make before reaching the end of the table. With a roar, he lifted his axe over his head, and jumped.

His monstrous body flew through the air with the axe raised over his head. He was headed directly at Hale. As he got close enough, while still in the air, he began to bring his axe powerfully downward. The plan here was simply to cut Hale completely in half from head to groin.

Arillious was no longer taking this as a spar, his competitiveness was getting the best of him, and he was looking to kill and not to defeat.

Contact or no contact, he was guessing Simus was to step in at any moment and end it, as it seemed to be escalating at a rapid pace.

 

[Hale Loneshadow]

While the rage-filled boy, for that is what he was to Hale, leaped high into the air with a yell of anger, the Ranger kept his calm. His thigh still ached from the stinging blow, but unlike Arillious who had abandoned all sense of strategy and simply hurled himself up and down at the Ranger, Hale cocked his mouth into a small smile. He knew Arillious was looking to severely injure or perhaps kill him, and he used that to his advantage.

He swiftly and agilely ducked under and to the right of the flailing boy, and as the war-raged Arillious was still in mid-air, Hale drove a fierce uppercut with his wooden sword, right into the cocky lad's nose. Unfortunately, Arillious' massive elbow caught the Ranger squarely in the forehead, stunning Hale and giving him a second achy spot.

 

[Dabiene Caristiana]

Soldin reacted by flinching violently and his right hand grabbing the wooden Claymore that lay next to him. He took a step but stopped. He knew Simus could handle this if need be. There wasn't anything to be done. Not by his hand anyway. Yes, Simus could handle it.

He breathed deeply and tried to calm himself. His blood started to boil and his Knightly duties were engraved into his very soul. Making it very difficult to make the young men stop. This wasn't sparring anymore. He felt their Aura come off in waves. Arillious' aura was full of anger and spite while Hale had more of a calm wave to him. But Soldin stood firm, waiting for orders from Simus, or to leap into the fray if things got too out of hand.

 

[Gunnbjorn]

Arillious' attack was out of pure rage, it was what drove him, and he didn't know how to fight any other way.

Hale easily dodged it, as he should have suspected, and gave him a good smack on the nose with his wooden sword, but Hale didn't leave untouched, for he felt his elbow make contact with a part of his head.

The uppercut hit him while he was in the air, he hit the ground with his shoulder and turned it into a barrel roll, to lessen the painful effects a cold-stone floor will give to someone who rolls on it.

He immediately got up, his nose wasn't bleeding, but he could feel the discomfort. He casually dropped his axe, and went over to help Hale up. The anger was gone, and a strange sort of humbleness came over him, for the first time ever, during a competitive situation.
"I'm done, there is no more - Good job Hale." he said to him, as he lifted him from the ground.

 

[Dabiene Caristiana]

Soldin immediately went slack and smiled at the Chivalry that Arillious bestowed. Putting the greatsword aside he raised his hands and began clapping all the while still smiling. "Good show! Good show... I wonder who's next?"

 

[Hale Loneshadow]

Realizing that his left eye was swelling slightly, Hale was legitimately astonished that Aurillious had actually conceded...especially after what he just attempted!

Narrowing his eyes, Hale said, "You tried to kill me just now. Do not deny it. You let your anger get the better of you, yet again. As I have said before, you are no more than a boy with undeniable talent, but holds himself back through his cocky, invincible attitude. While there is no denying you fought like a warrior, you fought like a berserker."

Nevertheless, Hale took the boy's hand and accepted the help up. "Just heed my words, as my comrade in arms: control your anger, lest it will control you. I've seen talented soldiers fall prey to and die because they let their emotions get the better of them in the heat of war."

 

[Gunnbjorn]

Hale had been lecturing about his apparent anger issues even as Arillious had helped him up.

When he was finished, he chronologically rattled off his retorts.

"I did try to kill you, my competitiveness got the better of me, as it always does. My rage wasn't toward you personally, surprisingly, I was mad I didn't win in the first ten seconds of the duel. My cockiness is part of my competitiveness, and I was taught to think myself as invincible, and it has only shown me success on the battlefield. The day I die is when I'll know I'm not invincible, and I'll gladly accept death on the battlefield. I take Berserker as a compliment, because it's exactly what I would like to be known as. Your words need not be heeded, because anger only occurs in battle."

He looked at Hale, calm and serious, dead in the eyes.

"You are coming off as nervous, Hale. Sparring is taking the battlefield in the training room. Was I really that scary? I like my power but there was nothing I did just now you couldn't easily evade. If you can throw daggers like a bandit why can't I crash down on you like a troll? Your the one that threw a chair at me - Was that not intended to hurt me? No - it was for distraction right? Well, consider that final move as something to keep you on your feet."

 

[Simus]

Arillious became a raging bull as the sparring match-turned-street fight took the two all over the room. In less than five minutes Arillious had single-handedly smashed a chair, put a large dent in a table and nearly split Hale's head open. A less agile man would be on the ground bleeding by now. Everyone who watched was nervous at how out of control the boy had become, especially Soldin. He beseeched Simus twice to stop the match but Simus did nothing. This fight was a long time coming: It needed to happen for as long as necissairy. The only way Hale and Arillous could work together as soldiers was if the sorted out their bad blood and this was the way to do it.

Simus wasn't entirely suprised when Arillious helped Hale up and conceded the match, the former with a red nose from a few popped blood vessels and the other with a big bruise on his forehead, but it wasn't entirely expected either. He smiled at Arillious' show of sportsmanship and Hale's grateful acceptance of it. They immediately started arguing again but they had shown that they had it within them to be friends. Simus knew they had it in them.

"Congratulations Hale." Simus said, before their argument turned nasty. "You've won the match. Enjoy your morning off tomorrow. Arillilous, I hope you like chamber pots because you'll be spending plenty of time with them tomorrow. Both of you get up against the wall and take five. I want you both to think about how you fought and why the match ended the way it did. Don't answer me just yet: mull it around in your heads for a while and reflect upon it. You might learn something."

 

[fellowknight]

Baroth could do nothing but watch as both Hale And Arillious fought. He watched as the rage-filled match started. He saw the tension already between the two,before it even started. Then the tension got even worse,as he could see Arillious was getting angry.


Then,as all battles do,the climax point came. He saw Arillious Catch the chair,smash it on the ground,jump on the table and finally lunge himself at hale,aiming to chop him straight down the middle. But the attack was quickly avoided,as Hale uppercutted him in the nose but took an elbow to the forehead. Then the match ended,with no one victor,but both won equally.


He saw Arillious help Hale up,as he had fallen upon impact of the elbow. The two began to argue,Hale told Arillious about how he tried to kill him with the rage attack,But gave him friendly advice for the near future battles. Arillious argued about how he threw the dagger and then the chair and asked if that too,was not intended to hurt him.Then Simus addressed the twocongradulating them on a duel well done then telling them to think hard about the fight,why it ended that way,and that they might learn something from it.

 

[Hale Loneshadow]

Closing his eyes for a few seconds to calm his inner self, Hale opened them and responded to the man.u

"Arillious, my intent was only to deter you. I figured a big, strong man like you could easily take a small wooden knife to a well armored shoulder. As for the chair, I hoped you would've caught that bulky thing, else what kind of elite warrior would you be?!" Hale replied with a laugh.

Then, he got serious once more, his advice obviously being ignored by the brutish young man. It wasn't that HE himself was being ignored, rather that Arillious seemed to care so little about his own well-being.

"You are my comrade in arms once more, friend, and I only give you such advice because I would like to see us all survive the coming battles. If you truly think yourself invincible, you are a fool. And I know deep down, you are not a fool at all. You are a strong, trained warrior. You remind me very much of a barbarian I knew years ago, in another land. He too, was as strong and agile as you, though he eventually recognized that no man is invincible, that we must calculate our flaws and take them into account. For if we think ourselves invincible, we will never improve. And that, my friend, is when death comes."

Looking now to Simus, Hale asked, "Simus, if you don't mind, I would like to hunt along the plains of Whiterun for a little while? It is a tradition that calms me down after a fight and allows me to reflect. At the same time, I would also like to perhaps slip back into my garb to be incognito; it seems that more than a few randoms have found us, and it would perhaps be prudent to make sure that unwanted persons have not caught wind of our efforts as easily."

 

[Dabiene Caristiana]

Just when Soldin thought he was going to make it through all the matches without getting hungry, Hale mentioned about going hunting in order to 'reflect' after the well drawn out fight he had with Arillious. Soldin's stomach growled fiercely and he desperately tried to cover the noise with a loud cough and sputtering. Out of embarrassment the banged his fist onto his chest but that only served to make more racket as the steel clanked and made loud sounds as his armor got in the way. "Ahem, AAAHEM Hum... Sorry I uh, arrrrh, got something in my throat. Ahem..." He stepped away and went to a far corner out of embarrassment. Simus and possibly many others now knew that he was a child of the wolf, and having a huge craving just now really didn't make things look good for him. Just him imagining the deer prancing in the imaginary fields in his head was enough to make him salivate. Sighing he prepared for the worst. He wasn't exactly an optomistic person, but not necessary a pessimist either. He knew people could be cruel-not that he cared-but enough though Simus still let him stay even after flashing his pearly white canines he still felt bad. Yea it would be a boost for them to have a werewolf and a few vampires on their side...

Soldin stopped that train of thought. What good could come out of him? Yes he was a Knight, a master of Claymores, a soldier down to the very core with Chivalry engraved upon his soul, with kindness still left to spare after a big day of bandit slaughtering, and lady saving. But what good would it do to have a hungry monster rampaging around on the field of battle. Sure he hadn't hurt his friends on the battlefield, but even then he wasn't in beast form. What would happen if he was? What would happen if he was forced to? He seriously needed a guide. Someone who could understand him. Someone who could just... Be there for him.

By the divines he missed his parents.

(OOC: Could this possibly be the first part of a Dabs/Soldin son mother or romance? Pfft, I don't know. Probably more of a family pairing. Kinda weird having very different people get together... Then again, we all saw how romance is in Skyrim.... *wink wink* Tell me what you think...)

 

[fellowknight]

Baroth walked over to Simus,"Shall me and Soldin keep sparring or shall i get my gear?" He asked,crossing his arms,somewhat troubled by the recent events. He also noticed how Soldin's stomach growled when Hale mentioned a hunt outside of Whiterun. He watched as he tried to cover it up with a fake cough and banging on his chest,like as if to bang the cough out. He then proceeded to the corner in embarressment. Baroth watched as he quietly regretted what he just did. Baroth turned to Simus,"Excuse me." He said,walking over to Soldin.

He placed his hand on his shoulder and spoke in a hushed tone. "Listen,i know what you are and i know how it works. I do not hate you or shame you for it. It probably wasn't your choice to change,but it happend either way. All i want is for you to know that i support you completely,because,to be honest," He said,looking around then returning his gaze to him,"We could use a beast right now." He said, nodding with understanding of the frustration he was going through.

 

[Gunnbjorn]

Arillious took a deep breath, and went into a more sincere voice.

"Hale, you are strong, quick, and acrobatic. Your ability to react is remarkable, I did get a little carried away, I'll admit that - but I've been trained in terms of power, and in order to exert as much power as possible in battle, I must go into a rage, get the adrenaline pumping, that sort of thing. That last strike, although I may have forgot that this was only a spar, I knew that in the back of my head I wasn't going to hit you. There was so much time between me breaking the chair, jumping, running, and launching myself into the air that you could have rolled away, and you did, as well as smack in right in the nose with that stick."

He grabbed Hale's shoulder as he looked down at him.

"I'm not arguing, I got carried away and I was wrong, simple as that. As far as this 'invincibility' thing goes, sure, I carry myself with a sense of pride and am overly confident. I had no childhood when I was born, my father told me stories of nothing but battle, he taught me the history of my family, and the Empire at a young age. At 6 years old, he told me "Your going to go away for awhile - don't argue with me, and don't cry. Your going to be a soldier for the Legion, and your going to do something great and represent the family. Your training begins today." A bunch of Nords came and took me deep into the mountain, blindfolded, so I wouldn't run away. For 10 years, I trained to become a fierce, dominant warrior. They taught my body how to activate adrenaline in combat situations, and taught me how to use rage to further improve the devastation in each swing. When I returned from the mountains, my father immediately enlisted me the Imperial Legion, and at 16, I was already 10 years ahead of everybody else. All of the drills were a breeze, none of my fellow recruits could last more than a minute against me, and it's usually always been like that. I liked this, and I almost praised my dad for sending me to train.


My entire life has been committed to nothing but war, I didn't choose it, I just got it. I never questioned it either, I accepted the fact that my life is like this, I accept the fact that I have a huge burden to bear in doing something great in battle, so when I die I can be remembered for something. In a way, I am invincible, because people think death is stealing a life, but we should all know that there is life after death. The Dragonborn himself fought Alduin in the very realm of Sovngarde.

If my only flaw is being overly confident because of my training, and taking a huge risk in a spar that involved wooden swords, and the consequence for loss is washing pots, I think I'll be quite alright. We will be maybe a few hundred against the thousands of Stormcloaks and Ulfric in this war, I'll be sure to think twice when I'm in that battle."

He took his arm off Hale, and went over and stood next to Simus, he observed everyone, then asked, "How is Alice holding up, by the way? I was a little delusional back at the house."

He question was a little interrupted by the loud grumbling and coughing Soldin was making. He looked over to see him banging his hand on my chest, to help himself with his coughing - this made a large clanking sound due to his armor, but he looked rather embarrassed.

He stared with a puzzled face, and watched as the man escaped the eyes of the crowd and retreated to a corner.

He looked back at Simus, awaiting a response.