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 Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:05 pm
  Setting:An unfortunate midnight encounter between two Lunarians on duty.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:06 pm
Outcome
...see next post because I'm a derp and forgot to roll
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Kurama no Koishi generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
1!
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:07 pm
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:26 pm
A pair of purple eyes peered over a dark hedge, squinting to make out the figure standing erect just ahead. Van was alone—mostly, anyway. The rest of her company was farther back in the woods, waiting for her signal to proceed forward in the direction of the Noble safehouse ahead. Normally she would have been back with the rest of her platoon, as the captains and lieutenants were valued above the grunts, but an hour had passed since the scout had left to see if the coast was clear and it was down to Van to investigate what had gone wrong. Her fighter was nowhere to be seen even now, but it was apparent that they had an obstacle to overcome first.
Van shifted position, gliding quietly to the side in an attempt to get a better view. The moon was out tonight, but its light didn’t penetrate the thick forest canopy above them, presenting a problem as far as visibility. The identity of the Lunarian just ahead was yet concealed.
They couldn’t let this stop them, though. They’d scouted the area for weeks, mapping the terrain and plotting points where patrolmen were likely to be stationed. This had been one of them, but it was the best place for entry. It was the weakest area, punctuated by rough and unpredictable terrain and plenty of potential choke points. It was, naturally, the most fortified position, but the platoons had managed to shirk the guards or otherwise divert them in a different direction. There was only one fighter left standing in front of them, after all.
They weren’t without their losses, and this only compounded on the reasons they couldn’t turn back at this point. Van had spent too much time on this operation to also let her men die in vain. Flipping a small knife in her hands, Van didn’t hesitate in tossing it forward, aiming for the guard’s chest. The blade fell just short, to the captain’s dismay, and she wasted no time in jumping out of hiding, charging the man on the ends of her surprise attack. The black steel of her swords were nearly invisible in the night.
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 12:13 pm
The night was cool, and the camp mostly silent. He would complain about the boring job of watching the entrance that was most unlikely to see the enemy strike, but he was a mere fighter and had to be stationed where the Captain's commanded, even if it meant being where he would likely see little action. He made his patrols, blending into the shadows as keen eyes and sharp fin ears kept alert for any intruder who foolishly dared to come at their camp from this side, though from the Captain's briefing it sounded like no one would dare.
The night stretched on in what felt like endless boredom. Then came the first sign of trouble. Kiran sneaked up on the scout, knocking him out with a hard blow to the head with one tonfa. After dragging the body out of sight and tying up the Legionnaire so that he couldn't escape, Kiran returned to his patrol with his instincts sharpened. If there was a scout, he would bet that a squad of Legions wasn't far behind it. His eyes scanned the distant woods for any sign of an oncoming attack.
The Captain would expect a report right away after the discovery of a scout snooping around the camp. Kiran knew this, but he was alone on the watch in this area. If he left to report to the Captain, the area would be left unguarded for the Legion squad to make their attack. Even if he was only one fighter, it was better for him to stand his ground and hold off the Legions to the best of his abilities and hope reinforcements would be on their way. But how was he to alert his fellow Nobles without letting the Legions know that their scout had been discovered?
He had little time to think on that question when he heard the whizzing sound of a knife flying in the air. He leaped back to avoid a knife in the chest, but the effort was wasted as the blade failed to reach him. His hands went automatically to his back, grabbing his tonfas in preparation for the attack he knew had to be coming. He barely had time to take a breath before the attacker was on him. Waiting for her to come closer, he swung the moment she was in range, aiming for a hard strike to the head. But this would be as simple as knocking out an unwary scout.
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 5:35 am
Before she was even upon the fighter, Van could already tell that it was going to be a test of reflexes. The only concealment she would get right now, as she ran low to the ground, was the dark of the night. Unfortunately, she’d blown that cover with her failed knife attack. The man had to be expecting her, and that was why Van hadn’t wasted any time in allowing him to recover. Most Lunarians’ reflexive abilities paled compared to the captain’s qi-enhanced agility, but the speed with which this fighter turned to deflect the flying black steel of her swords was remarkable, and she’d only encountered such quickness in two Lunarians before this.
The crossguards of her twin blades met with hard wooden tonfa, and suddenly recognition flashed across Van’s eyes. “Kiran.” Her tone was that of thinly veiled surprise, but she did not back off, holding her position with both of their weapons intertwined in a temporary stalemate. Typically the Legionnaire remained wordless during war confrontations, finding that the silence kept her focus intact and the deadly aura seemed intimidating to her opponents. But Kiran was no stranger, and intimidation tactics would fall short just as the knife she’d thrown earlier had.
If she hesitated, it wasn’t apparent. “Pardon me,” she murmured simply as she turned and spun a kick aimed at the fighter’s ribs, her words stiffly polite compared to the rather offensive way in which they’d met tonight. Captain Van was different from daytime Van, even fighter Van; she couldn’t afford to balk just because she recognized the person she was fighting, not when hundreds of others were depending on her... and the last time she’d let her emotions surface in a fight, she’d walked away with more than just physical wounds.
“I hope you understand why I have to do this, darling,” she added, leveling a steel-fortified punch at the man as something of an afterthought.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:01 pm
The woman was fast, and her sword nearly invisible in the dark of the night. Kiran barely had time to redirect his attack to deflect the blade from carving out a dangerous, and possibly deadly, wound across his body. Their weapons were locked together, and he gritted his teeth as he tried to think of the next possible move. But his thoughts of strategies scattered when the familiar voice tugged at his ear fins. His eyes grew wider by a fraction in his surprise. "Van." But why should their meeting here, on the battlefield, be of any surprise really? They had fought more than enough times since their first meeting back as Academy students. She as a Captain and he as a fighter, it should be no surprise that they would be here. Yet it did surprise him.
He had fast reflexes, and he was quick and nimble on his feet. Still he didn't react swiftly enough to avoid the kick completely. Her foot grazed his ribs as he twisted around to dodge the kick. It stung and was proof that Van certainly hadn't been slacking off where it came to strength. But of course she hadn't. Becoming Captain should have made that fact clear enough for him.
Kiran recovered, blocking the pain from his mind. It wasn't a bad enough injury that would keep him distracted from the fight, though he knew there would some bruising tomorrow. The earlier scout and now the appearance of Van suggested that there must be a Legion squad not too far off, but for the moment, Kiran was thankful that he wasn't under threat of being strangled to death by a brute grabbing him from behind. But he thought it surprising that Van didn't call for her squad. He was one mere Noble fighter. He wouldn't be able to hold off the entire squad by himself, and he wasn't putting much hope on the rest of the Nobles at the camp coming to his rescue before it was too late for him.
"Sure," Kiran responded, bringing up his arms to protect him from the punch. The blow was stronger than he expected, and not even his tonfas protected him from the jarring, bone rattling blow. He winced, his arms feeling sore. "But we should really work on finding another way to meet. All this fighting can't be good for our relationship." He hardly knew what to even call the relationship they had. It would probably be easier on both of them if they just stuck to being enemies, but things weren't always so black and white. They had times when they could be friendly toward each other.
He brought his leg up as he twisted round, hoping to land a kick.
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 11:39 am
As serious as their situation appeared to be, Van couldn’t stop herself from chuckling when Kiran spoke. It was almost as if they were sitting on the beach again, exchanging friendly words and sharing snacks. She couldn’t let this distract her, of course, and the reality remained that they were neck and neck in a midnight battle that only one of them might walk away from. This time, nothing was misunderstood, and the reason they were fighting was crystal clear compared to their previous violent encounters. It was an interesting change of pace, Van supposed, but it only highlighted the fundamental difference between them... a rift that might never be bridged.
“Sounds good. You can take me to lunch,” the captain answered cheekily, swerving to avoid the kick she saw coming from him but failing to avoid it completely. Kiran’s foot brushed her ribs with enough impact to make her grunt, and she jumped back for a second, the smirk of amusement still half-fixed on her face. “But don’t think I’m going to go easy on you just for that.”
She let herself catch her breath for one second, ignoring the dull pain blooming in her side, before lunging forward to close the distance between them again. Staying low to the ground, she slashed at the fighter’s shins with the tips of her blades, intending to injure rather than maim. There were still a few things she needed from Kiran first (their lunch date excluded) before she’d allow herself to up the ante. “Also, what’d you do with my scout?” she asked conversationally, keeping in tone with their rather unusual exchange.
Van doubted he’d tell her so easily, not without some more coercion, but it didn’t hurt to ask. It was his pain if he tried to draw things out. She hadn’t called her squad for assistance for a few reasons, the first being that she couldn’t risk revealing their location to any other Nobles they’d missed in the area. The second reason? She was perfectly confident in her own ability to take Kiran on by herself.
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 1:37 pm
"Sure, sure," Kiran replied. Once there was some distance between them, he took the moment to shake out his arms after such a hard blow. He didn't know how many of those strikes his arms could take. Gripping the handles of his tonfas tightly, he watched her closely. "Are we playing loser buys then?" he questioned with a teasing grin. He half remembered Huang saying something insulting about how he smiled during battle. The fleeting thought soured his mood, and he quickly slipped into a more serious frame of mind. "I'd be disappointed if you went easy on me." He trained long and hard to improve his skills and to get stronger. How would he ever know if his training paid off if his opponent went easy on him all the time? He wasn't going to stand for another embarrassing defeat.
Catching her movement, Kiran made to dodge. The tip of her blade just barely sliced the skin of one shin, blood beading up along the cut. Putting weight on that foot, it didn't feel like the blade cut deep enough to affect his mobility too greatly. A relief since he relied a great deal on his speed and agility. He thrust downward with one arm, aiming to deliver a blow with his tonfa to one of Van's hands holding her swords.
"Your scout, hm?" Kiran responded as though pondering over Van's question. "Was there a scout?" He frowned like he couldn't remember there being a scout before hearing the knife that Van threw to initiate her attack. But of course he remembered. The scout was securely tied up and would later be brought before a Noble Captain for questioning. He wasn't going to tell Van that, though. As much as he talked, he could sometimes hold his tongue and keep from divulging information.
"But what are you doing here?" Kiran asked like their meeting was completely out of the blue, almost like they had met randomly on the streets during the day time. The answer seemed obvious when he looked at the situation. A Noble camp set up with fighters on patrol and a Legion Captain with, no doubt, a squad waiting in the shadows to strike? Clearly, the Legionnaires were after whatever the Nobles were protecting.
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:36 pm
“Loser buys?” Van repeated, allowing a similar grin to flash across her face, her white teeth gleaming against the darkness of the forest. “I can get behind that. I hope you like steak.” It wasn’t so much a cocky statement as it was one to humor the fighter she was exchanging blows with. The captain had always preferred to let her actions do the talking, but in this situation, their banter was almost welcome. While it was a reminder of the fact that sometimes, they weren’t quite enemies, it also kept her mind off the idea that one of them might have to kill the other tonight.
Yelping in pain as one of his tonfas slapped against her hand, she dropped a sword, hearing it fall tip down in the dirt next to her. She couldn’t bend down to pick it up without leaving herself even more vulnerable, and a quick change in plans had to be made, especially as Kiran didn’t seem to want to cooperate yet. Dropping her other sword behind her, Van remained low to the ground and pounced at his legs, a wrestling move that she’d mostly abandoned in favor of her new Shaolin tactics. There was always use for this one, though.
“Yeah, a scout,” she grunted, struggling in the dark mess of limbs and weapons, “I imagine it might have gone down something like this?” Van was clearly referring to the impromptu wrestling match they were engaged in now.
One hand feeling at the utility belt strapped around her waist, it was the captain’s intention to find a length of rope and eventually incapacitate Kiran, though it was proving difficult to spare an arm for long enough to do so. His next words nearly passed over her perception, but she answered belatedly and innocently. “Oh, you know, just taking a midnight stroll.” There was the faintest hint of sarcasm in her voice, but that didn’t matter right now. She’d finally gotten the rope, and, winding it around her arm, she went for another punch to the face.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 11:12 am
The grin appeared again before he could stop it and keep with the serious expression. "Steak sounds fantastic. I hope you can afford it," he responded with a cocky air. But it was easy to be boastful and talk confidently. Recently, his fights ended in losses. Even with all his training, he couldn't pull out a win. Luck, it seemed, had turned its back on him. He was confident that his skills were good, but sometimes a little luck could go a long way to helping a fighter come out on top in battle.
His mood improved when he saw the sword drop from Van's hands after his strike connected. Kiran started to move in for a second attack when Van's sudden change caught him off guard. He tried to avoid her, but she had her arms about his legs before he could move out of range. His arms pinwheeled, but with his legs locked in place, he couldn't find balance, and the momentum of the tackle knocked him down, slamming his back into the ground with great force. His grip loosened on one tonfa, and it went flying off somewhere in the darkness. He hoped he would be able to retrieve it sometime after the sun rose.
"I can't be certain," Kiran grumbled, struggling to untangle himself from he hold, or at least turn the tables so that he was on top instead. "But I'm pretty sure I'm not familiar with that move." He was purposely pretending to confuse her meaning, and he doubted she would believe him to be that dumb to misunderstand her question.
"Do you always throw knives at innocent people when you go on midnight strolls?" Kiran swung at her with his arm that still held one of his tonfas. If he could just break free, he might be able to gain the upper hand. "The scout thing is a bit strange too. I don't think many people send out scouts when they decide to take a stroll." He barely managed a dodge, her fist glancing the side of his head. It stung, and his eye refused to open more than halfway. Trying to get a foot under her, he thought he might be able to kick her off him.
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Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 4:02 am
Van had landed just as roughly as the fighter had, but the pain was a small price to pay for the advantage it was supposed to give her now that she had his limbs tangled with hers. At least for the moment, he wouldn’t be able to pull a killing strike on her. It wasn’t her intention to hurt him either, for he hadn’t exhausted his usefulness. Still, Van was determined not to let the momentum of her tackle go by without acting on it. “Perhaps I can remind you?” she answered airily, making a grab at the man’s wrists but finding herself deterred by the wooden tonfa he held in his hand.
“You Nobles put a price on my head,” she continued between her teeth, lacking the air to laugh during their struggle, “Can’t be too careful during my walks now, hm?” This much was true, at least—she’d nearly gotten her head sliced off one unfortunate evening just a few weeks prior. If they’d had the gall to plant an assassin right in her home, she was even less safe out in Noble territory, especially so close to a heavily guarded safehouse. Of course, now that Kiran knew she was on such a wanted list, she couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t also act on it.
She ducked under his swinging arm, though the impact grazed her headband and mussed her hair (which was the least of her worries). The fighter’s next move was exactly what she needed, though, and she caught his leg, using his sideways force to turn him onto his stomach. Moving swiftly, the captain knelt squarely on the undersides of his knees before pulling first one of his hands, then the other into the knot of rope she had prepared. Feeling no regret or mercy, she continued with his ankles, binding them with the same length of rope.
When she had finished, she sat back next to the Noble, as if to catch her breath. Pulling her handkerchief from one of her pockets, she dangled it in front of his face, a smile gracing her features under the dim moonlight. “Looks like you owe me lunch, darling.” Van allowed him a response before tying the handkerchief around his mouth, leaving her initials in plain view for whoever would find him. Standing, the captain collected her weapons and stowed them away, before leaning to drag Kiran into the thick forest, hidden from view.
She had the courtesy to bid him goodbye. “See ya.” Then, she disappeared back into the trees to retrieve the rest of her platoon.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:12 pm
"I don't think that's necessary," Kiran grunted in his struggle to gain some advantage in their wrestling. If only he had been quick enough to avoid her lunge and tackle, but he shook his head. Thinking "if this" or "if that" all the time in battle was a useless waste, a distraction for what was currently happening.
Her next comment gave him pause. "Wait. What?" Kiran questioned in absolute confusion. He had never heard anything about there being a price of Van's head. "When did that happen?" He knew he was nothing more than a mere fighter and didn't rank higher enough to be told about certain information. But he would have thought that he would hear some mention about his allegiance placing a price on any Legionnaire's head. A strong urge rose in him to seek out the nearest Noble Captain and demanded answers about this whole price on Van's head order. "Why?" The question kept repeating in his mind because he couldn't think of any reason Van to be on the Noble's wanted list. What could she had done to cause this?
Even though he managed to get a leg under Van, the move turned out to be useless to him. Van used it against him, and Kiran couldn't get the leverage he needed to overturn her. Flipped onto his stomach, he dug his fingers into the earth and struggled to pull himself from under Van's weight, but with her kneeling on the back of his knees, the attempt seemed futile. Before he could throw back an arm in the hopes of ramming his elbow into some vital part of her, his hands were tied behind his back. He growled into the ground as he tried to wiggle a hand free from the restraints, but they were tied to tightly. Bound hand and foot, Kiran could do little to escape this situation.
He couldn't really back out of the deal now. "Just tell me when," he replied, frowning up at her before she tied her handkerchief around his mouth, preventing him from calling out to his fellow Nobles. He glared at after she left him hidden in the forest and vanished again. Sighing around the handkerchief, he leaned his head back and stared up at the night sky, or what he could see of it between broken sections of the thick, leafy canopy overhead. He tugged his arms in different directions, struggling to find a way to get at the knots. This was going to be a long night.
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