fandomhigh | Basic Sword Skills [Thursday, Period Three]

Entry tags:

fencing

Basic Sword Skills [Thursday, Period Three]

The class was set up almost identically to the way it had been the previous week. "Today," Max began without preamble, "we will be seeing how much you've learned. The exercise is simple: each of you will select a weapon and an area of terrain." His smile was slow and lazy. "And then you'll show me what you've learned."

"You're free to warm up before you make your decision, or to talk to your fellow students."

Max's grin grew slightly predatory. "Good luck."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well then," Max shrugged easily. "Let's see what you learned." He drew his gladius and waited.

Okay. She had the reach advantage, which was good as long as she kept him from closing in. She also had a bunch of rocks around her that she could use to buy her a little time to keep him at distance -- she hoped -- as long as she could keep an eye on where they were. Because avoiding tripping would be good.

Gabrielle maneuvered so that a knee-high boulder was in the direct line of approach between herself and Max, then feinted out with the bladed end of the polearm.

Max's grin said that he thought this was a pretty good start. He batted the blade to one side and circled to the right, trying to get a clear line of approach.

Gabrielle countered by circling left around the boulder and jabbing out again. She already knew Max had the speed advantage on her; she hoped there was a way she could turn that on him.

As soon as she had the feel for how this was going to go.

Max smirked a bit as he dodged and leaped forward suddenly to land on the rock.

Oh, minotaur droppings.

Gabrielle swung the butt end of the naginata at his ankles, jumping back and sideways to avoid smashing her back painfully into the taller boulder behind her. She still skinned her elbow (that was going to sting later), but at least escaped the prospect of severely colorful bruising.

The shot at his ankles was pretty well-timed, clipping him just as he landed. But Max didn't do more than stumble slightly before recovering his balance and leaping down off the rock in her direction.

Gabrielle let out a dismayed squeak, but, awkwardly, used the blade end of the naginata to try and disarm Max. Awkward because it was the blade end, of course.

Max rolled his eyes as he batted the blade away with his own. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Well, explaining that to you would be silly, wouldn't it?" An apparently wild backswing off his parry sent the blade smashing into a nearby boulder (though Gabrielle was careful to keep the shaft squared across her body), but not hard enough to do much but send painful vibrations up her arms and draw a spark or two from the rock.

Which did not, however, deter her from backpedaling another step or two and pivoting hard on her back foot to bring the shaft of the naginata in toward his kidney.

With an amused snort Max tossed his blade to his other hand and reached out in an attempt to grab her shaft. That was one disadvantage of not using a blade.

Sadly, yes. Gabrielle was all too familiar with it. Angling back toward the tall boulder, she dug her heels in and pulled as hard as she could, as if she thought tug-of-war with someone about five times her size was a good idea.

[[Sigh. I thought I'd posted this an hour ago.]]

Max rolled his eyes and tugged on the haft hard before letting go abruptly. He wouldn't expect that to work with most people, but...

[I hate when that happens...]

Gabrielle let go at the same time -- most of the thug/bandit types she ended up in that situation with were just dumb enough to fall for it. "Son of a Bacchae," she complained, wobbling back a step or two.

That actually drew an amused laugh from Max. Though it wasn't distracting enough to stop him from stepping forward to put his foot on the weapon. "Does that usually work for you?"

"Some of the time," Gabrielle said, cringing when she realized she wasn't going to be able to just grab the naginata again. "Surprisingly well, when it does."

"Uh huh." He quirked an eyebrow. "And when it doesn't?" Like, say, now?

You could not possibly have manufactured a more practiced oh, great, now I'm in trouble look of embarrassment than the one on Gabrielle's face. "This is usually when I --"

Take off running. Like the way she was now.

Max just shook his head and watched her go. Well... at least that was probably the right tactical decision, given the situation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Basic Sword Skills [Thursday, Period Three]

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam

Re: The exam