[ We find Ethan training hard in one of the rooms set aside for such purposes. Lurking in the shadows just outside the open door, however, is a dark and evil Nebby. As opposed to other, theoretical varieties of Nebby. ] (Chipper Nebby! Waaaaai! ^________^) [ The Ethan continues training, unaware that he is being hunted. By the Nebby, of course. Let's see what happens! ] [ Minisession Start! ] [ Also, the idea of Chipper Nebby makes my head spin. ] * Ethan is in the middle of the training room, going through what looks to be a particularly intense set of katas. He's obviously been here for a while, because he's breathing hard and drenched in sweat. His tunic and mithral armor lay folded up a bit away. * Nebrinel looks on from the way-off sidelines. She holds her longbow in her left hand, and her right hand rests on the hilt of Plaguebringer. * Ethan lashes out with a spinning series of slashes, thrusts and blows with the blunt end of his glaive. He's still skinny, but he obviously has put on some muscle since Nebby first met him. She'd prolly notice a few minor scars on his torso, and one really nasty one running horizontally across the right side of his ribcage. * Nebrinel smiles in thin amusement as she watches. * Ethan pauses in the middle of his flurry, rolls right, and lashes out as if blocking some imaginary blow to his right, quickly pivoting to block another such blow aimed at his head. He quickly goes back on the 'offensive' with an upwards stab from his crouching position, spins to his feet with a high slash, and then launches into a lightning-quick five blow combination that sees him circle all around his 'opponent'. * Ethan then falls back into a ready stance for a moment before standing up and summoning a pitcher of water, which he promptly throws in his face, presumably to cool off. ( The water. Not the whole pitcher, of course. =P ) * Nebrinel slings the bow over her shoulder with a smooth motion, and walks out where Ethan could actually see, clapping slightly. "I believe you killed him." * Ethan shakes his head, then pushes his hair back out of his face. "Okay. Five minute break, Ethan, then it's another two hours or so before din-" *blinks; looks towards Nebby* "Yeah, that's the good thing about imaginary opponents. They die when you want them too." * Nebrinel looks at Ethan's chest, especially the scars, with the same thin smile of amusement she had over in the darkness. "Yes, they do." Be nice if all my opponents showed that much consideration... make my life a whole lot easier. Ah, but then it would be far less interesting. ... so what's up? You want the training room? 'cause if you need some quiet to practice, there's a couple dozen other places I could do this. * Ethan snorts. "That kinda interestin' I could live without." * Nebrinel says, finally looking up from his chest. "Yes, that is the side effect of having nobody who can kill you. I don't need quiet, though." Oh, there're people who can kill me. Few of 'em live in this castle. *blinks* Well, then obviously you've come seeking my legendary conversational skills. *smirks* * Nebrinel smiles slightly again. "Not particularly. I can get those any day. I simply moved on from my last training room when one of Xivilai's fighters came in and glared me out of the room." What, you didn't smack them around? *pauses* Actually, that would be pretty dumb. Good choice! I thought so. Yeah. Xivilai's fighters seem to give me some space, prolly 'cause they heard what I did during the war, and 'cause they know I'm working for her... but it's pretty obvious they don't like me bein' here. * Nebrinel rubs her neck slightly. "I imagine it is just territorial, although who knows what prejudice lies in the hearts of others?" Well, they can't be too happy about some human walking around with free reign of the place, or bein' in such close contact with their Lady. ... almost wish one of 'em would start something. Knock that arrogant smirk off their faces... I'm sure you've seen it. The 'What are *you* doing here?' one. * Nebrinel smiles thinly again. "Yes. I imagine I have. But that would make Ada unhappy, would it not?" Not if they started it. Can't help that. Eh, ain't like I don't have enough to do during the day. Trainin' Sei, eating, training myself, eating, reading through those military tactics books, eating... more training... * Nebrinel pulls the bow from her back, and it hits the ground point-first, resting in her hand. "Poor Sei. I think the training addled his wits." * Ethan chuckles. "I worked him pretty hard. Couple hours of him just practicing blocking strikes from an elven sword. Just tryin' to get him to the point where he can last a few seconds with a trained fighter without getting hacked up." Guy just ain't trained to be in melee... and that's fine. s'not his job. But if we're ever outnumbered, and some guys slip past me'n you and get to our back line, I wanna know he can hold out until I can come'n help. 'cause if our healer goes down in a fight, we're boned. * Nebrinel pulls an arrow from chestspace, and nocks it. "You'll just have to wait and see. I, personally, hope he remembers to keep his shield up instead." Well, yeah. That goes without sayin'. But his shields gone down in a fight before. And I might not be close enough to block the shot comin' for him. s'like when I did spell-dodging practice with Ada. Might not need it, but it doesn't hurt to get used to it, just in case. * Nebrinel aims across the way at a practice dummy, more set for melee than anything else, and draws. "No, it doesn't." Swoosh. Thunk. I shoulda done some'a that with Fyril, really... mighta given him more confidence goin' into some of our fights. He has talent... just doesn't really realize it. Nice shot. * Nebrinel 's eyes narrow, and she draws another arrow. "You would think so, but not everyone is cut out for this life." * Nebrinel nocks, draws, and fires again. Thunk. Nobody's cut out for this life. You gotta be cut for it, or cut yourself for it. 'nother nice shot. * Nebrinel pulls another arrow. "Perhaps he wants neither." s'his choice. But if he was willing to put in the work, he could do it. Hell, I can do it. And I ain't exactly the model of a warrior's spirit. * Nebrinel nocks. "Probably so. He's a bright..." she pauses for a second, then finishes, "Man." Pull. Whoosh. Thunk. Mmm... you got good form on that. One smooth motion. * Nebrinel pulls out _another_ arrow. "It is a necessity." Nock. Pull. "When you are competing against magic, your actions must be as efficient as possible." Thunk. I can shoot a bow, but I ain't nowhere as good with one as I am with any sorta melee weapon, much less a glaive. Or a magic weapon... what is it with everyone we face having grow-a-new- ass powers? * Nebrinel pulls out another arrow and nocks. "I have not seen many new asses, but you can't expect normal opponents in this world." Pull-woosh-thunk. * Nebrinel nocks another arrow, and aims, holding the bow at its full pull, which she actually hasn't been using, if Ethan has been observant. * Ethan pushes his hair back out of his face. "Well, fun as it is to talk shop, Nebrinel, I gotta get back to my katas... got two more hours to do before dinner." * Nebrinel lets it go, and the arrow goes straight through the head of the practice dummy. "You're a credit to your people." She stares off at the pincushion in the distance. "Would you rather practice against a more difficult opponent?" * Ethan blinks. "Like you?" * Nebrinel smiles into the distance. "I would hope I'm more difficult than an invisible man who dies when you are done." Probably. Though, the last time we sparred, you were a bit more compact. You sure having all that extra height to defend hasn't hurt you? * Nebrinel turns to Ethan, and makes her height advantage quite apparent by looking down at him. "I think the question is, Ethan, whether it would hurt you." Mmm... well, yeah, the extra reach with those big swords could be a pain. Only one way to find out. *grins* * Nebrinel smirks. "If you like, I could use human swords." * Ethan jogs to where his tunic and armor down, and lays down Pantryfiller, then goes to retrieve a similarly shaped practice glaive from a weapon rack. "And put yourself at a disadvantage? What'd be the point of that?" * Nebrinel goes to the weapon rack herself, and leans the bow against the wall. "Who says I'd be at a disadvantage?" You use elven swords. I ain't about to ask you to use anything but your preferred type of weapon. Be like you asking me to use a halberd. Sure, I can swing a mean halberd... but then you ain't facing me at my best. * Nebrinel says, now with an obvious small smile on her face. "And what makes you think my preferred type of weapon is an Elven Sword, other than the fact that I happen to have an artifact of great power in the shape of an Elven Sword?" Because you're an elf, trained presumably by elves, and elves don't use human swords? * Nebrinel pulls out two human practice swords, two elven practice swords, and pulls her whip as well, braiding the ends down into a leather ball. "I thought you recognized the place I was trained back in Menevia. Perhaps I was mistaken." ( Menevia? ^_^; ) (http://ardweden.com/chibi/aoc/aoc14.txt) ( Wasn't that in Elven territory? ) (Yes. Read what you said sometime. ^_^;) ( ... huh? I'm confused. ) I've seen a similar style before. Wasn't sure it was exactly the same... you trained in the human lands? * Nebrinel carts her load of weapons a bit away from the rack. "Yes. It was a very long time ago." She eyes the human-looking sword, and shakes her head. "They're balanced as daggers. It is always saddening." If it weren't for my not really being able to go home, I could show you to a few really good swordsmiths. Anyway... any particular rules or terms you wanna put on this? Other than 'friendly spar, not to the death/maiming'? * Nebrinel smiles a little absently, then holds the pair of human swords, one in each hand. Friendly spar is fine. I'll probably want to switch weapons, however. Okay. Just lemme know when. * Ethan wanders over to his gear and slips on his mithril armor and tunic, tieing a makeshift belt at the waist of the armor so it doesn't come down past his knees. * Nebrinel smirks, and starts moving fluidly. "Magical items already, Ethan?" She starts moving right, circling around him. Nah. Just my normal battle gear. Not like it does much to enhance my skill. * Ethan falls into a ready stance, and seems content to let Nebby circle him, swiveling in position as he does so. Ladies first? *grins* * Nebrinel suddenly moves in with a small jump, a strong sweeping strike from above, to the head, while the other sword follows across the chest. * Ethan brings his glaive up to block the overhead shot with the haft of his glaive, twists it slightly to bad away the horizontal slash. * Ethan then steps back while throwing an upwards diagonal slash, plants his foot, brings up a strike with the blunt end of his glaive from the other direction, then spins right and thrusts at your midsection. * Nebrinel steps towards Ethan's first swing, the overhand sword hit swinging down and ramming itself into the firsts hit as a block. The trailing sword barely catches the second hit, and the third just whiffs by due to her circular motion. * Nebrinel frowns as she strikes at Ethan's right shoulder twice, quickly, the other sword staying back to block. * Ethan blocks the first strike, then rolls under the second, coming up in a crouch on Nebby's right. * Ethan swivels in the crouch and thrusts out at Nebby's side, then spins up to his feet with a horizontal slash to the torso, followed by a strike to with the blunt end towards Nebby's knee. * Nebrinel catches the first two with the sword that's hanging back a little better than last time, and the last very slightly clips the front of her knee. She moves quickly sideways with a hop on the knee that wasn't hit, both of the swords defending. * Ethan grins slightly as he sees Nebrinel go on the defensive, and presses his attack, jabbing low, spinning, trying for another shot to the legs, and then stabbing high to try'n catch her avoiding the first two. * Nebrinel suddenly steps into the strikes, meeting them with her swords with jarring wood-on-wood. She follows the movement of the low strikes by striking swiftly in a cut that will cross his entire body. * Ethan seems surprised that Nebrinel worked her way through those strikes, and just barely twists his way out of the way of that cut, throwing him off balance slightly. * Ethan manages to spin with his momentum, though, coming up beside Nebrinel and trying to sweep her legs out from under her. * Nebrinel almost jumps over the sweep and it ends up clipping her feet and smacking them together, sending her to what will most likely be a very unstable landing. However, the momentum she had building up means that this brings her right sword whipping around quickly while the left one tries to catch him in a pincer of sorts. * Ethan blocks the right sword, and almost gets out of the way of the left one, leaving it to give him a glancing whack to the left shoulder. * Ethan blinks, and his eyes flash to Nebrinel's extended swords. Raising his glaive up quickly, he tries to push them both up into the air, disrupting her guard. He then follows up with a quick slash to the right side of her ribcage, and a blunt-end jab to the sternum. * Nebrinel goes to the ground, landing on one knee and stabbing the other leg out way to her right to keep from falling over. "Pfaugh!" Both swords are way out of the way, and so she takes both hits. Sadly, what once was her 'ribcage' is now her face, shielded by the arms that Ethan pushed up above her head, so some good hits to her upper arms are scored! * Nebrinel says, swords coming down with her looking a little up at Ethan (on her knees, she's STILL damn tall). "There goes my head. Very nice." Thanks. If that were a real fight, I might not've been able to pull that off, since you woulda sliced up my shoulder a bit. ( Was that an attack 'swords down', or a lowering swords swords down? ) (Lowering swords. They're basically in front of her face now.) * Ethan steps back, and lets Nebby get up. "Wanna switch weapons, or continue?" * Nebrinel pulls her outstretched leg in and pops herself to her feet. "I think I will switch." The swords drop to her sides and she chuckles. "The lack of range definitely hurts on leg defense. I am much leggier than before." s'why I was going for the legs so much. Even if you could reach down to block, it'd involve getting yourself out of position to effectively counterattack. * Nebrinel turns and picks out an elven long sword, and uncoils her whip, snapping it a few times loudly at her feet. She makes a face. "I will have to remember to make this longer too. I had forgotten that." A whip? Wow... it's been years since I fought a whip-user. * Nebrinel lets the tail of the whip rest on the floor. It only barely does so. "I have not found much occasion to use it recently. It's far more useful in human lands, when disarming an opponent has meaning." Disarming most elves comes in handy, too. s'why I've been working on living up to my last name using Pantryfiller. * Nebrinel smiles faintly, then the smile turns to a grimace. "Prepared?" * Ethan falls back into a ready stance, and grins. "If you've got your head back in place, then attack when you're ready." * Nebrinel goes to the balls of her feet slightly and moves backwards, striking at Ethan's hand with the whip as she lets the sword drift in a defensive manner in front of her. * Ethan reacts a bit too slow to that, seeming to have underestimated the range of the whip, and just barely moves his hand out of the way, catching the whip strike instead on his bicep. * Ethan winces, and charges Nebby with a thrust to the midsection, a thrust to the headish area, and a thrust to the legs. * Nebrinel continues dancing backwards, making these 'thrust' things fairly easy to handle. Once the last thrust is over, she dances to Ethan's right, leaving the sword in her left hand to defend as she once again lashes out with the whip, this time at Ethan's leg. * Ethan pivots, and leaps over the whipstrike into a foward roll, coming up right at Nebrinel's feet and throwing a strike straight up at her chin with the blunt end of the glaive. He then steps back, throwing a jab to the ribs to cover his movement. * Nebrinel moves her head with her motion to roll with the hit, which isn't quite the most effective thing to do. However, the jab is deflected when the sword comes across her body, smacking the glaive down even as she continues moving. A sloppy stalling whip strike goes to crack right in Ethan's face. * Ethan just flows out of the way of the whip strike, barely breaking stride, and Bum Rushes (TM) Nebrinel with a flurry of jabs and spinning slashes, topped off with an uppercut swing with the blunt end of his glaive. * Nebrinel takes hits. And lots of them. She _barely_ avoids the uppercut swing. However, during this whole battering, she has dropped the whip and swings the elven sword, hard, with both hands into a hard, committed hit. ( What kinda swing? ) (Well, based on the positioning, I'd say it's an uppercut.) ( Ah. ) * Ethan is somewhat out of position as the uppercut swing misses, and can't block the strike. Instead, he tries to twist out of the way, and partially succeeds; instead of "bisecting" him, it scrapes across the left side of his ribs, and knocks him back a foot or two. ... that woulda hurt a lot. * Nebrinel nods slightly. "As would've yours." I've been getting hit in the ribs too often lately... overextenting on some of my strikes. s'a bad habit. * Nebrinel holds the sword in her off hand and snaps the whip back to her right hand with a gesture. "Then it is good I could remind you of it." * Ethan nods. "And you..." *points with his glaive* "... need to be on the offensive more. If you just stay on the defensive and let me flow into my attacks, I'm eventually gonna break your guard down. You gotta force me off my rhythm." * Nebrinel frowns slightly, but then gives the barest hint of a nod. Block-and-counterattack works best against power fighters, in my experience, who leave a lot of openings after they attack. I'm a speed fighter, though... if you wanna beat me, you gotta force *me* onto the defensive, so I'm not free to maneuver around you and try to pick apart your defenses. * Nebrinel says confidently. "You are defensive enough to spare. No normal attack will force you onto the defensive in the slightest." * Ethan nods. "s'kinda true. I work hard on my defenses; still, you're a good enough fighter to give me some trouble if you were to commit to breaking down my guard... the question, of course, would be if you could take me down before I could effectively counterattack." And that, I hope, is a question we'll never have to find the answer to. *grins* * Nebrinel smoothly switches the large sword into, of all things, a knife grip, and gives it a few practice swings. "It is an interesting question, to be sure." * Nebrinel then brushes a few strands of her hair out of the way and puts the whip back on her belt. Any thoughts on my technique? Always looking for pointers from good fighters... try to correct myself, but that don't always work so well. * Nebrinel mms faintly, then gestures. An extremely bright white light flares into existance around her body. It makes it incredibly difficult to look at her. * Nebrinel then looks at Ethan. Or so it seems. Might be a little difficult to tell. * Ethan narrows his eyes, averting them from Nebrinel. "What's that?" * Nebrinel smoothly draws her whip and snaps it right in front of his face. "It's your greatest weakness. It's the reason Sei's sword training is not enough. If you train, and train, and train, you still have a gap to cross that you have not even looked at." The glow fades. "Understand?" * Ethan catches the whip with one hand, a few drops of blood dripping down as he squeezes it. "I assume you mean my utter lack of magical ability?" * Nebrinel says dryly, not tugging on the whip. "No.' I'm all ears, then. You've been alive thirty times as long as I have, so I have to assume you've acquired bit more wisdom than I have. * Nebrinel blinks a few times, then exhales noisily and pulls on the whip now. Whether it comes free or not... "You'll figure it out, I am sure." * Ethan lets go of the whip, wipes the blood off on his tunic, and eyes Nebrinel. "... see now, here I was, being all friendly-like, giving constructive criticism on your fighting technique, not being arrogant in the least, asking for your opinion because I respect your skills. And in response, I get cryptic bullshit." * Ethan tosses the practice glaive back to the racks, grabs Pantryfiller, and walks to the exit of the training room. "And yet, push comes to shove, if you ever ask for help for something, I'll do it. Alienating your allies ain't exactly good survival technique, Nebby." * Ethan walks out the door. (Hee, he called her Nebby!) (Yeah, he did. >_>) ( He was pissed off a bit. =P ) * Nebrinel frowns, then says to the empty room in a sarcastic tone, almost a _male_ voice (think the opposite of falsetto) "It's elven tradition." She pauses, and adds, brushing Plaguey's hilt and saying in a slightly more somber voice, "Survival is not much of an option anyway." [Session End!]