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Xereva

Xereva

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Zmaster, you don't have to use the previous bio if you don't feel like it, but you're free to do so if you would like.

Also, Azi, you took the words right out of my mind. And some of the links off of my Youtube, as well. I've got several of these bookmarked myself—'Receiving Strikes on the Flat' is one of my favorites, along with 'Rediscovering the Chinese Long Sword.' Another quite awe-inspiring one is 'Unarmed vs. Long Sword Techniques,' seen below.

http://***.youtube.***/watch?v=xz-07Dtp-Qw

I reiterate, though: the assignment does not necessitate the use of swords, although if you can describe their use accurately (without getting bogged down in the details) you will earn my respect.

25-Jan-2013 01:43:12

Azigarath

Azigarath

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Thank-you for that one Xen, I did not see that before and learned a few new things. From personal experience, I will admit all the things portrayed are very difficult to do, and require, at least, a few years of practise to do properly and safely (honestly I don’t even bother; push-kicks, head-butting while wearing a helm, and shoulder bashes are much easier). It’s rare to find other people who will even let you “spar” with them, though. Of course, in a real fight, everything is much more challenging.

I suppose watching videos about boxing, UFC, judo or some other combat sport would help a lot too, but then again a fight between two characters who can’t fight would be pretty funny. Nonetheless, doing things in real-life is the best form of learning.

Huh, I might *** have the time this week. I did type two stories earlier but they ended up expanding too much so were deleted. I have to learn to follow the basics :/

25-Jan-2013 02:50:46 - Last edited on 26-Jan-2013 03:19:32 by Azigarath

Chuk

Chuk

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Welp, managed to write this week. Not driving 12 hours to go skiing over the weekend has its advantages. Yay writing!

~ Escape ~

The city burned. Aleth sat in an alley, leaning against a soot-blackened stone wall and head in her hands. Once, the wall against her back had been part of her house. That was before the invasion, before the fire. Now, it was just the one wall, the three others collapsed to ash and rubble. She felt like crying, but the tears would not come, already exhausted. Instead, the sobs were rasping, almost retching. Her throat was parched by ever present smoke and dust. It had been hours since she had seen a drop of water. Raising her head, she coughed, but the grit stuck in her lungs and throat.

Above, the sky churned, a cauldron of black and orange, grey and red, smoke and haze reflecting the flames. Silhouettes of shattered buildings rose into the gloom, hazy tendrils enveloping their jagged heights. Unseasonably warm and scorched dry as desert dust, air stirred against her face. For a moment, it was a pleasant change, but for a moment only. Then it became just another facet of the ruin.

Aleth sighed. She had seen no one except invaders for hours, now. How long exactly, she could not guess; with the smoke covering the sky and the fire giving light, she had lost all track of the time, lost in a vortex of swirling destruction. She had been stuck in the cellar while her home burned above her, and had gone on to wander the city’s blackened streets in shock and misery. At first, she had thought to find her family, and then just someone she knew. At the last, her only hope had been to come across anyone at all not wearing sword and armor. But she had found no one.

Now, hope expended, entirely exhausted, she rested against the remaining wall of her home, drowning in despair. There was no longer anything else to do. After a time, her eyes slipped closed, and in spite of everything, she slept.

28-Jan-2013 00:01:27 - Last edited on 28-Jan-2013 04:10:51 by Chuk

Chuk

Chuk

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Aleth lay in a field of grass, verdant with the life of spring, and the sun shone in a bright sky scattered with puffs of cloud. Somehow, it seemed odd. Some thought claimed that fire and ash and smoke were the world, now, not grass and flowers and sun. But that made no sense, and the thought vanished. Aleth smiled. Teren was with her, lying beside her. She turned over and met his eyes. They were beautiful, the color of the sea. He smiled, and it was warmer than the sun. Taking his hand in both of hers, *he shifted until his shoulder touched hers. He kissed her, and she closed her eyes, slipping into his embrace.

Rumbling, faint like a storm at the edge of the horizon broke into her awareness, and Aleth closed her eyes to try and shut it out. It was persistent, and with a sigh, she pulled her lips from Teren’s. She looked to the sky, searching for storm clouds, but it was bluer than ever, though the thunder still sounded in her ears. Teren looked at her, the question in his eyes.

“Do you hear it,” she asked.

He shook his head. “Hear what?”

“Thunder,” she said. “But there’s no storm.”

“No, there’s no storm,” he agreed. He moved a hand to her cheek. “But no thunder, either. Is something wrong?”

Aleth shook her head. The thunder was definitely there. It was louder now. *You’re sure you can’t hear it?”

Teren shook his head, his eyes welling with concern. He stood up and offered a hand. “Here. Let’s go home.”

She ignored his hand, instead moving her own to her head and closed her eyes again. The thunder was pounding now, so loud, and there was a rhythm to it, like drums.

Or footfalls.

Aleth’s eyes snapped open, and the field was gone, replaced by hard stone against her back. Not more than a dozen steps away, at the mouth of the alley, a troop of soldiers marched by, heavy boots ringing on the cobblestone.

28-Jan-2013 00:01:34 - Last edited on 29-Jan-2013 04:54:10 by Chuk

Chuk

Chuk

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Her breath caught in her throat, and she knew she was going to cough. Holding it back as long as she could, she rose to a crouch, resting on the balls of her feet and fingertips. Then she began to creep towards the other end of the alley, as careful as a mouse stealing food from a pack of lions. She made it maybe three paces before the cough shook lose, echoing off the stone.

“What’s that?”

“Look. There!”

She heard the two cries, and could feel the soldiers’ gaze shift to the blackness of the alley, and before she had finished coughing, she was on her feet, running as best she could. A hundred soldiers thundered in pursuit. She reached the end of the alley and turned onto the wider street, almost running down the leader of another company of troops. Spinning so fast she lost her footing, Aleth caught herself on one hand and then raced away in the opposite direction.

“After her!”

The first group of soldiers reached the mouth of the alley as the second was passing it, and Aleth heard curses float down the street after her. Risking a glance over her shoulder, she found the commotion had hardly slowed anyone, and that now there were more than two hundred soldiers focused on her. Straight on she ran, as fast as her legs could carry her, flayed by the whips of terror.

“Bows!” The call whipped her head around again, and she realized she had already gained on her pursuers; she had just herself to carry, not forty pounds of steel with a sword slapping at her hip. But she had opened a mere fifty paces of space, and if the soldiers’ armored legs could not catch her, a feathered shaft certainly would. The men at the front had already pulled bows from their backs and were reaching for arrows.

28-Jan-2013 00:01:39 - Last edited on 28-Jan-2013 04:07:18 by Chuk

Chuk

Chuk

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She looked back ahead, eyes roving for any cover, but there was nothing closer than another alleyway that was still twenty paces ahead. She whimpered and urged her legs to move even faster, though she was sure she was sprinting as harder than she ever had before. With five paces left, she glanced back again; some of the soldiers had arrows nocked, and bows drawn. She dropped to the ground, rolling and sliding in the rubble, and then she was back on her feet, scrambling the last few steps. A lone arrow, launched without proper aim, skipped off the wall to her right, and then she was around the corner.

Her panting breath was like fire in her lungs, and yet Aleth dared not slow. She reached the next street, went down it, and then turned again at the next alleyway. She did this a half dozen more times, always taking the first chance to turn, never going straight for more than fifty or sixty paces, even when it meant turning back in the direction she had come from, though down a different street. Finally, in a particularly dark and narrow alley, when it had been some time since she had heard or seen her pursuers, she stopped to catch her breath.

Her legs ached like fire, and yet felt like water, all weak and shaky, unable to support her weight. She huddled in a pile of rubble that hid her from both directions, closed her eyes, and tried not to give into fatigue, tried to keep listening and stay alert. She stayed there until her breath was back, and then even longer. The energy granted by terror leeched from her veins as the fear itself faded. Her stomach growled, but her mouth was so dry, she did not think she could have eaten anything. And then, just when she decided she was safe and shut her eyes, she heard voices.

“…she go? Quicker than a rabbit, that one. I’m thinking she’s gone, Bregh. Check that alley there, and head back. We’ll do a last check ‘round the streets.”

28-Jan-2013 00:01:48 - Last edited on 28-Jan-2013 04:07:53 by Chuk

Chuk

Chuk

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Aleth’s eyes snapped open. Shifting ever so slightly, she found a hole in the rubble and looked through it. The soldier had discarded his armor and sword, save for a leather jerkin. He carried only a long dagger in one hand, and a short bow and quiver on his back. For a moment, she considered trying to run again, but no; the alley was long, and she suspected the man wouldn’t hesitate to draw his bow. Besides, she had neither strength nor energy. Instead, she gathered her legs beneath her and found good purchase for her hands on the rubble just above her head. Then, listening carefully to his footsteps, trying to guess distance, she waited.

His steps hesitated, and Aleth held her breath. A stone flew above her head, bounced off the pile of rubble and ricocheted further down the alley. She just managed not to flinch. The man grunted, then muttered something under his breath, and resumed walking. A second later, he was there. Aleth’s muscles tensed, and as soon as the first hair of his head came into view over the pile, she leapt upward, propelling herself with arms and legs alike. Catching him full in the face with her forehead, his head snapped backward and he toppled over without a sound, except the dagger clattering to the stone. Aleth’s vision flashed for a moment, and she swayed but stayed upright.

The man, however, was sprawled on his side, unmoving. Aleth tottered over to him and found him still breathing. She picked up the dagger, pressed the blade to his throat, and found she could not break the skin. Closing her eyes, she tried to strengthen her will and shifted her grip on the dagger. It was no easier to press down. Slight pressure with a sharp blade broke human skin easily, she had heard, but she could not make herself do it, not to take a life in cold blood. She dropped the dagger, and turned to leave, but at the last second something caught her eye: a canteen, strapped to the soldier’s belt.

Water, she thought, and untied it.

28-Jan-2013 00:02:11 - Last edited on 28-Jan-2013 04:10:06 by Chuk

Zmaster07

Zmaster07

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She drew up her sleeve exposing the bare skin beneath.
'Thumb war?' Josh inquired hopefully, grinning weakly.
The hint of a smile appeared at her lips. Josh sighed and cracked his knuckles.
'I can't fight you Kate. You're a girl.'
She tore the pouch from her neck, and water splashed out forming into a giant ball as she gazed at it.
Both waited for the other to make the first move.
She made it.
'Suit yourself.'
Extending her finger, she caused the water to surge forward directly towards him.
He dived out of the way and the water clashed to the floor where it reformed into a giant snake that lashed out at him. He threw his hands up and fire slammed against water in a smoky cascade. Through the smoke she came, holding a long sword in front of her, point first. Josh scrambled out of the way, and when she swung the sword around, its weight dragged her to the side. He could tell she was inexperienced with a blade.
He drew himself to his feet.

'Kate! Stop!'
She ignored him and came in for another run.
'Fight me you coward.'
‘Have it your way.’ Fire escaped from his fingers, engulfing her arm as she lunged forward. She shrieked and dropped the sword. Holding her hands up, water streamed to them and swirled, growing in speed with each wave around.
He launched a volley of blasts that were deflected by her shield of water, and rebounded back towards him, forcing him to duck, narrowly missing getting hit by one of them. She put her hands together and the water collapsed into one vertical line that sped away from her towards him. He raised his arms and fire formed into a giant serpent; mouth gaping that swallowed the water whole, and darted towards her. He laughed. He was actually having fun. The serpent swallowed and her and collapsed. When the smoke cleared, she was standing there with soot on her face, and her hair frizzled.
‘You git! Look what you’ve done to my hair!’
She gestured to the water lying on the floor and it gathered in her palm. Josh made a fist and a ball of

28-Jan-2013 00:03:47

Zmaster07

Zmaster07

Posts: 416 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
fire appeared in front of him.
As one, they released their respective elements, and they crashed into each other in a ray of light. Smoke erupted into their eyes, noses, and mouths. The force, landing awkwardly on their chests, threw them backward. Josh got to his feet. He walked over to where Kate was stirring sleepily.
‘Kate?’ He asked nervously.
She groaned audibly.
Slowly her eyes opened.
‘Wh-where am I?’ She asked.
‘You’re safe.’
Josh helped her to her feet and she staggered, but refused his steadying arm.
‘You’re back Kate? Really back?’
She turned towards him, her irises black.
‘ Er- that would be a no?* Josh asked nervously.
She flung her arm out, catching his stomach and making him double over where she kicked him in the groin, and he coiled up on the ground.
She stomped on the ground, and a chuck of dirt collapsed on Josh.
‘You-‘ He choked. ‘You know earth magic? How is that poss-‘
In that moment he understood. Trembling on the ground, he watched her stand over his corpse, grinning wickedly.
‘You shouldn’t have ruined my hair.’
Suddenly a cocoon of water surrounded Josh, forcing itself into each nostril; he tried to breath but just gulped water. His vision was beginning to darken; he could feel himself growing distant. Not like this, he told himself, I’m not going to get killed by a girl. His eyes closed, and his consciousness flew. Suddenly, a flash of white, a beard worn by an old man wielding a blue staff, a burst of wind, and- Josh’s eyes shot open. He was no longer under water. Kate lay across the room, getting back up. It looked as if she’d been flung. ‘Impossible, no one knows air magic anymore.’ A warm feeling settled in the pit of Josh’s stomach. He heard himself mutter words, yet they weren’t his. Around him was a blue glow, and a silhouette of a man was around him. A stream of wind flew towards Kate, engulfing her, causing her hair to fly wildly. A tornado of air shot out of his chest and struck her in the heart. Her eyes dulled and roll

28-Jan-2013 00:21:40

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