lifeaftr | Let's Train in 100 Times Gravity

Entry tags:

Let's Train in 100 Times Gravity

Who: Anyone who wants to come by! Tag in, thread with Yuka, thread with each other, whatever you want.
What: Combat training/practice.
When: Sunset, each night for a week minimum.
Where: East end of Islet 1.
Warnings: Possible blood if things get out of hand, implied 80s training montage songs

Yuka chose this location because the ground was level, there was enough space for people to move around, and nobody was really using it for anything else. No wild beasts, no fish people to disturb, no strange psychological effects... the ideal place for people to gather for an hour or two and get some good-natured fighting in. The snow on the ground wasn't ideal, she supposed, but that stuff was everywhere, so they'd just have to make do. It'd probably be snowing during the invasion, anyway.

Each evening, as the sun inched towards the horizon, Yuka set her other tasks aside to come out and wait. Jug of wassail sitting at the edge of the space, bundled in warm clothes and scarves, Yuka paced, wondering if this was really going to be worth the time. Are there people willing to spend that much time to train others when there's so much else that needs doing? Can someone even learn enough to make a difference in this little time? For that matter, are these shadow monsters something you can even fight with your fists? If nothing else, it would be good to do some physical activity in just to get her mind to stop going in circles.

For those who arrived early, there would be less to do, but even just talking through what different fighting skills people had would be useful for later on. Once more people arrived, those who use similar weapons could work together, and those with more combat experience could work with those with less. Or, people who know each other or are curious about each other's abilities could seek each other out for a sparring match.

So: Fight, teach, learn, take breaks, drink, chat. Bring your own wassail if you can - Yuka's can only stretch so far.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is true; they are fast. That is the one credit they have to their style of combat. Predicting the arcs of his bat as it whooshes across the space between them allows for sufficient time to dart easily away. Their reactions are somewhat slowed, when they shoot forward again, careful to measure their strikes so they are not carving a wide, cyan arc across and through a great beast with the intent to kill.

Fortunately, they are not strong enough to imbue a truly lethal strike behind the whacking of the flat of a hard light blade against someone's thighs or knees, which is what they aim for now. They can only chip away at an exterior until eventually the creature dies from a thousand cuts, worrying it beyond belief. Only the smallest and weakest of them will fall to their blade at once, and even then, the Drifter themself is fragile enough to die by any one of their hands or teeth or claws, if they are not careful.

Their pool of vitality is so limited, after all.

The Drifter's strikes do hit but if they were blessed with speed, the Batter was gifted with endurance and he keeps pressing forward. Battles in his own world could take hours and the Guardians much longer. Enoch comes to mind. The Puppeteer had been in charge of guiding him through it but without them it was up to him. And he was not inept in combat.

His enemy's advantage was speed and the Batter could be considered the slower one between the two of them. The Drifter has probably picked up that the purifier's' style was to get in and immediately shut down his opponents. He was not using his own Competences because this was a mock battle, but as he explained, Alpha could easily bind and blind someone while the Batter went in for the kill and Omega could stop that happening in reverse.

But the Batter wasn't against changing strategies if needed. He suddenly backs off, not to call the match off but to make the Drifter come to him if they wanted to attack. The Batter will block as best as he can but it seems he's more interested in dodging.

Let's see how well the Drifter deals when someone who is proficient at enduring damage decides to play an endurance game.

They do, indeed, elect to shoot after him and press against the perceived retreat while they can. The Batter is implacable, apparently counting on being able to tank the hits as they come. That manner of strategy would never function where the Drifter is concerned, but others of their world could implement it with great success. The Hierophant, the Hanged Man, the Hermit - all had been capable of enduring hit after hit without faltering.

The primary indication of when they were growing close to cutting them down for good was the increase of the risk; how fiercely their attacks would redouble in power and speed.

This is not the case, yet. The Drifter's blows are light taps, flurrying, intended to build to something untenable over time.

The Batter's perception of himself was not of an invincible being. Certainly he had choked the life out of a world but that did not mean that between the man, the monster and himself the purifier was immortal. He got back up again and again thanks to the Puppeteer. Without them, he would and did die.

This was a mock fight where death should be something to be avoided. However that meant the Batter's usual strategy was out. He could heal them both but it was probably best not to need it at all to begin with. So time to change things up.

He suddenly starts to press forward once again, increasing the speed of his strikes to try and match the Drifter blow for blow. His attacks may seem random to begin with but they are targeted. Particularly they're aimed at the Drifter's sword arm to see what it would take to make the other drop the weapon.

But that's not the only trick he's going to pull. If the Drifter continues with their current strategy, then he will eventually drop to the ground and lash out with a foot, trying to knock them off balance. He can't blind the Drifter but he sure can try and keep them on their toes.

They do not drop their weapon. When the Batter switches to the offensive, so does the Drifter flick to the defensive and evasive; after the first few strikes manage to bruise the edges of their arms and come far too close to their helm and sustaining genuine damage, they start to wheel back.

They are nothing if not adaptive. If they are aware that the Batter's strategy is intent on disarming them, they do not show it, nor do they relinquish their hold on their weapon. When his foot darts out to tangle into their legs, it drops them in an uncoordinated spill and tumble.

It does not floor them for long; they keep the momentum and convert it into a roll that staggers them to their feet in a manner of seconds.

It's pretty clear both of them are adaptive and willing to shift things around depending on what their enemy does. There would likely be differences when faced with more then a one-on-one fight but the Drifter has enough flexibly to roll with whatever the Batter dishes out.

There is one thing, potentially, that could take them off guard. But the Batter had deliberately provoked a shift in perspectives once before and would not do it again. It...well, he's still trying not to think about waking up from a campfire dream and desperately trying to suppress the panic that bubbled up from his throat. Not again.

So back to it. The Drifter clearly isn't going to drop their weapon so disarming them was probably an exercise in futility unless the Batter stopped holding back and aimed to break their wrist, which he won't. His trick did cause them to fall but again, the Drifter was back on their feet in a matter of seconds.

Clearly they were used to people trying to pull the same thing. So for the moment the Batter is simply going to continue his attacks while he observes how the Drifter plans on moving forward from here. He can't keep it up forever but the Drifter can't play at defense forever either.

Make your move.

Defense, no. Evasion?

They can dodge forever, it seems, or something very near to it. The breath strains in their throat after a time, but their movements are still unflinching, unhesitating. The longer the Batter presses his assault, the fewer and farther between their answering blows become, until gradually they cease entirely.

Their focus is now devoted wholly and utterly on anticipating the next strike, and swerving to avoid it.

Once again, it boils down to simply being unable to hit the Drifter. Normally the Batter was not one to play fair in a fight. He had identified a few weaknesses within the other: without sight the Drifter could not block him unless they knew how to rely on their hearing for the duration and paralyzation would cripple their reliance on speed. While this was not a fight where someone would 'win', it still paid to know these things even if you had no plans on using them.

But at the same time the Batter was rapidly starting to learn some weaknesses of his own. Still, now was not the time to devote all his thoughts on it.

The Drifter was focusing on simply dodging his swings so he needed another plan. His strikes slow and he backs off for a moment, again trying to get the Drifter to come to him rather then the other way around. It's true the Batter is getting slower and it's likely he's not going to last much longer but that's not all he's planning. If the Drifter presses forward attacking, the purifier will wait until the last second to block...

with his bare hand. And no, he doesn't care if it catches the sharp end. It's a cheap trick but if a deliberate attempt to attempt to harm himself puts them off guard, he'll take it. Here we go.

It's true, that when presented with an opportunity to strike, they will gladly take it. They've not encountered opponents cunning enough to make use of tactics such as parrying a blade with a bare hand. The Drifter draws back at once, startled, their combative posture immediately folding into one of concern. The blade disappears in the folds of their cloak, and their blue strip of skin curves down into an anxious frown.

They didn't mean to hurt. They didn't mean to hurt. That isn't their intention. They didn't mean to hurt.

hurt?

The Batter has to immediately silence the urge to keep going because the Drifter was presenting him a clear opportunity to kill them. He's never been above taking those moments of vulnerability to kill someone if needed. So instead he just breathes.

"I am fine." Of course there's a nasty welt across the palm of the Batter's hand when he holds it up for the Drifter to see, since it's pretty obvious they're worried. But he can heal that in a minute. "I intended for that to happen."

So it's nothing to worry about. If he had caught the sharp end of the Drifter's blade then it would be his fault his trick failed. That's all.

why

The question is immediate. Why. Why? They didn't intend to hurt someone unduly. If they'd known that the strain was going to require that he parry the blade by hand, they would have stopped. He is a seasoned war, they know, they understand, but their intention is not to hurt those who do not intend to hurt them.

That is never their intention. That is never their intention.

No matter how many sticks and fists and rocks are raised against them, they will never raise their blade in turn.

Instead of responding, the Batter simply curls his hand slightly and the wound heals. There's no special effect to it, nothing flashy. It's just gone. A skill suited for a man who seems to express nothing.

"That was the only option left." It's a simple explanation. "Your guard was up so something unexpected needed to happen."

And it's clear that the Batter was fine with taking the risk of hurting himself to get it done. Because that's what matters in the end. This was a fight with no winners or losers but it was still in his nature to push as far as he could go and take what he could to finish the fight.

And judging from the Drifter's reaction, he has to wonder if they would have acted the same if this was a real battle to the death.

It was a tactic. It was a...tactic?

The Drifter's face is not wholly visible by default, but a dark furrow creases the cobalt skin visible beneath their helm, from just above their mantle, a hurt bewilderment that they cannot wholly quantify, because the idea of using one's own injury as a tactic strikes them as...

If it means that what must pass will pass, then perhaps it is not an improper strategy. But it is not a tactic they would ever think to employ. It is not one they would willingly employ.

Their gaze skirts away from the Batter's blank look, falling to survey the snow-stained ground.

did not intend to hurt

The Batter was inept when it came to understanding and expressing emotions. Even with the lessons he learned from Zacharie and...others fresh in his mind, it still was a struggle to express anything. But he could still pick it up from others via observation.

And it's obvious he did something wrong here.

It was not a usual tactic employed by many for obvious reasons. At best if things went wrong the purifier could have lost a few fingers and a worst his whole hand. And it may be a byproduct of having the Puppeteer - and now the Storyteller - on hand to revive him, it meant little. Of course, to the Batter his life...

...no. That train of thought would just lead into another loop in the purifier's mind and he did not need that right now. Focus. Address the situation at hand. Talk.

"It was my choice to make. I am incapable of regretting it." The Batter has done it with a clear mind, after all. It wasn't a desperate last-ditch attempt or anything. He reached out to grab the blade with the intent of catching the Drifter off guard with the move. That's all.

His brow furrows slightly as he tries to find the words. "I am unsure if this is the correct thing to say. But if I have upset you, I am...sorry? I think that's it."

That should be it, if he recalled it correctly.

Edited 2018-01-15 07:39 (UTC)

Incapable of regretting it. Incapable. A curious phraseology. He apologizes, despite that, and that in and of itself is its own unique occurrence. He stumbles over the words, as though they are unfamiliar. I am sorry?

Does he not frequently issue apologies? Are they unnatural, aberrant, strange, where he is from? He has difficulty expressing the words. He has difficulty, when the Batter has always been direct, unfailingly blunt, sheathed in his own certainty across every avenue.

They will start with the first, the most confusing aspect, their head tipping slowly to one side, inquiringly.

incapable
?

He always has, yes. But that was in avenues he understood. Zacharie had stated he was a being that only spoke in pain and the merchant was not far off the mark. Offering little in conversations because they mattered little and pour the rest into battles and the need to continue. Keep going.

But now the Batter was trying things that he had absolutely no experience with and was floundering worse then a fish out of water. He wasn't made for it and possessed a knee-jerk reaction to crush down anything that managed to sneak by his notice. Yet here he was. And the purifier probably should explain.

"I do not possess emotions." It can explain a lot of things, least of all making the decision to block a blade with his bare hand. Someone could come to that conclusion but actually doing it and fighting the fear and pain was another story. The fear the Batter felt was largely metaphorical and physiological and not something he was going to talk to the Drifter about.

"And I am still learning. So I may not understand what you are feeling even if I can see it."

He can tell when someone was happy, sad, angry and so on. The Batter was good at observation. But putting himself in the person's shoes was another story and something he was not good at. He never did before. An child in an adult's body.

To say the least.

It does not make much sense, considering. He seems to be perfectly capable of experiencing and processing emotions. He had seemed pleased enough with the concept of rainbows, hadn’t he? Pleased, even wistful and fond. Perhaps, as a fellow warrior, he has learned to do what most drifters do, and not express such things in overt and therefore unseemly fashions. Perhaps that is what he meant?

That is a far more familiar sentiment. They can manage that.

doing very well

And they can even be polite about it.

Perhaps if the Drifter ever learned what the Batter was, they'd understand. But the last time it came up, it ended even worse then he thought it would. So he won't.

Still, it is kind of a surprise they choose to comment that he was doing 'very well'. The Batter had been judging his progression through other people's reactions and it did not seem he was getting anywhere.

"Ah...thank you." Good. That was good. It was slow but something was happening. Where exactly it was going to lead, he doesn't know. The end of the road was returning home and his coma, but things may be different along the way.

...but it's hard to keep it going. So the Batter is going to direct the conversation back towards combat. "Do you always rely on speed in combat?"

He responds in manners other than the clipped fashion they've come to associate with those who progress on a plane askew; the Drifter themself has been subject to the very same, subject to and subjected to, as is requisite for those who fight and face death. They understand their fragilities. They wrap their concerns in cloth and helm, muzzle reactions that might be untoward.

In that regard, the ravaging of their vocal cords had almost been useful.

yes
illness inflicts frailty
little room for error

Combat was significantly more easier to talk about. It was related to the upcoming event and was geared towards what the Batter was created for.

The mention of an 'illness' is curious and yes, there is a knee-jerk reaction to ask more about it. But the Batter has been trying to ignore it lately when it came to the stranger residents of the island. So he moves forward.

"And if you cannot move?"

They'd be in trouble then if they couldn't.

use range

They slip one of said ranged weapons from the folds of their cloak. The Zaliska has a strange look, with its rounded barrel, flared at the edges for the projectiles that burst from it in crackling, glasslike orbs of powerful energy. Even when constrained, they are far from helpless - though it is best if they do not squander their ammunition on a simple sparring match.

limited here

The Batter actually hasn't seen a gun before. His world did not have them. Maybe in a comic book, but nothing farther.

But it makes sense. The Batter relied on the Add-Ons to get to places he couldn't and it became a disaster when neither couldn't. The fight with Japhet came to mind and all the times he ate the concrete because close-combat was his forte and a flying target made things difficult. So it makes sense that the Drifter, with a short-ranged weapon, would make choices and bring weapons that covered what they normally couldn't.

"Limited how?"

ammunition
refills daily

A difference from the ease with which they could refill their weapons via fierce action alone; striking enough blows, rending enough enemies to pieces with great swipes of their hard light blade, to eventually allow the kinetic energy to charge into something tangible, something more.

It is such that they must be considerably more careful, here.

So if they run out of ammunition then the weapon couldn't be used. It was something to keep in mind, much like how the Puppeteer - and now the Batter himself - had to keep track of everyone's CP, least they both have no accesses to special attacks and healing and revival skills.

The sun going down was going to turn into a battle of resources and stamina when it happens. Hopefully everyone is prepared by then.

"It is useful to have."

A nod of their cloaked head, apparently satisfied with that deduction, and the Drifter stows the weapon away again, secreting it wherever weapons such as that dwell until such a time that they need them.

So, that is his question answered:

if mobility is limited
use range

functional strategy

Let's Train in 100 Times Gravity

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