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 Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 6:00 am
Almere smiled. She was stronger now. Her spoon-sword actually was take as much imagination to think that maybe she could use it to vanquish evil. It had proven to be really effective for fighting monsters. She could hold it in both hands, and whisper, smite, and that didn’t make it start glowingo or anything but she could usually get a youma to poof into dust in a few hits, all the same.
She wondered what kind of monsters she would find skulking around the city tonight. Maybe it would be a snake king, with a small army of loyal and evil tiny snakes as its subjects. Maybe it would be a shark that could swim through the air.
Oh. That aura was a person. A captain. That was okay, though. She wasn’t a baby page anymore, that had to run away or risk other people telling her that it was too dangerous, that she was in over her head. She was at least as strong as this person, and as she rounded the corner, she held her spoon-sword out towards them in both hands.
“Are you doing anything evil?” she asked. “Because if you are, I have to oppose you.”
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 6:22 am
Borax was on patrol. Honestly, for the time of day, it was nothing atypical. He was looking for any auras that he could use to perhaps either analyze or add to the count of starseeds he had selected that day. It was nothing personal. After all, there were people above him who needed those to survive, didn't they.
He did sense The Squire Aura, but he didn't immediately pursue it. Of course, perhaps he didn't need to. He sensed that it was getting a bit closer, but that didn't necessarily tell him where it was until she was suddenly nearly on top of him.
Pointing a spoon at him of all things.
Her question earned an undignified snort of a laugh.
For her sake, he turned to face her, eyebrow quirking.
“Are you serious?”
Lysithea Squire. Interesting. He knew for obvious reasons his particular General-Sovereign had a particular dislike of these knights. He had not hesitated to kill them before. Perhaps he could add another one to the pile.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 6:23 am
Serious? Did he not think she was acting seriously enough? Was it because she was wearing the puffy skirt and the hat that looked like it belonged at a tea party? Those things didn’t make her any less serious. Clearly, he hadn’t read enough books about warrior princesses.
She blamed the patriarchy.
“I’ve never been more serious in my entire life,” she said, trying to channel that stoic warrior princess energy.
“Now, explain yourself,” she said, taking half a step forwards and shifting into that stance she’d practiced, with one foot slightly forwards and her spoon held in one hand, in the guard position in front of her.
“Or else cross blades with me!”
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 6:28 am
This child was absolutely, 100%, bonafide serious. She was going to fight him. With a spoon. After asking if he was doing anything evil.
Really.
“Sweetie,” he drawled, leaning toward his spear as he observed her put the spoon as if she was going to defend herself. “Of course I'm going to do something evil. It's in my goddamn name. I take souls.”
Borax wasn't interested in monologuing, though.
He lifted his spear to suddenly attempt to smack her spoon out of the way as one way to cross blades.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 6:29 am
He took souls? That was awful. That was really bad. She couldn’t think too much about it right now, though. She couldn’t give into despair or worry. She had to be brave. She’d been practicing for situations like this.
“Then, Soulstealer?” she called out, with all of the bravery she could muster, “On your guard!”
He did not go into the guard position, crossing weapons with her as was proper at the beginning of a fight like this. He went straight for the surprise attack, trying to dislodge her spoon. Underhanded, but at least she was in a proper position. She redirected the momentum of his spear away from her.
Then, as a follow up, she lunged forwards to try and score a hit with her spoon.
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 6:32 am
She was warning him to be ready to fight which honestly just made his life easier. This honestly would have been cute if it wasn't pathetic. Was this what the White Moon was sending out now? Was this what Lysithea was as a faction?
Honestly, it would make them easier to dispatch, at least. He thought of the similarly young one he had took out a few months prior. That one had seemed mostly… confused. Probably because he had the misfortune of awakening in front of him.
Knights really needed better methodologies.
Borax quirked a brow at her as she told him to be on his guard, rolling with the way she shoved the spear away from her with the overly large spoon. Knight weaponry would be comical if it wasn't so common. She lunged forward, and Borax took a rolling side step to try and get out of her way before sweeping his leg out in an attempt to trip her up.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 6:55 am
He was kicking? She wasn’t ready for that. She probably should have been ready, she had practiced some hand to hand with Mechelen, but he had a spear. She didn’t see why he would resort to something like that.
So, it caught her off guard. She tripped. She went down on one knee, squeaking slightly. She still had the spoon, though, and she knew how to guard her head.
And she knew how to smack out with it from this position, which she did. She couldn’t be losing to evil. What would she tell the boys?
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 7:59 am
Perhaps she has been expecting him to be a bit more reasonable with his attacks, but his primary concern was to take her down. The sweep had done its job to a degree, with her now down on one knee with a squeak instead of on both feet. That was a good start. He just needed to get to her starseed next.
Of course, she was now guarding her head with the gigantic spoon. Inconvenient. The spot he needed to get at was not quite guarded, granted, but so long as she had that spoon he would have to at least bend more to get at it.
It was too bad she wasn't completely prone.
He swapped his spear from his proper hand to his off-hand as she worked to smack out with the spoon. The right hand was usually a bit easier for people to defend against, but the sudden change might also be unexpected. Once again, his primary goal with the spear was to knock the spoon out of the way. If he succeeded, then he could act more definitively.
There was another method percolating in his mind as he considered how stubborn this kid was. He was not an honourable man, after all.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 8:19 am
She was doing okay for herself, even having been knocked down to her knees like this, but she knew that it wasn’t the best position, and that blindly striking out with the spoon wasn’t going to get her very far either. She didn’t think she hit him once.
She needed to get back on her feet, so she could get back to her lunges and to the things that she’d spent more time practicing.
She did so. She shifted her weight, scrambled back to her feet. She was still mostly holding the spoon in the guard position, but she was keeping her eyes on his right hand. She wasn’t as ready for the attack from the other side.
He successfully pushed the spoon out of the way, and Almere even took a stumbling half step back.
It was an opening for him.
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 8:21 am
It was an opening.
It was an opening that Borax was eager to take advantage of. Without hesitance, he lunged. His spear was jabbed forward with the intention of sinking the spear into wherever he could get that would make the girl stop struggling.
And once she stopped?
The starseed could be his.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2024 8:32 am
Her spoon slipped away, and she wasn’t fast enough to slip it back into the block position or fully roll out of the way before the spear was partially jabbed into her hip. At first, she only felt the impact of it. She gasped, but it was from surprise. It was only a second later, when the warm blood started to well up, that the pain hit her.
Oh. Oh no. Had she just gotten stabbed?
Before she could stop it, the tears were welling up, too. Suddenly, things felt a lot less about ideals and a lot more about being in over her head. Everyone else was right. She couldn’t handle this. She wanted to prove them all wrong. She wanted to win, to beat Soulstealer over the head with her shining spoon-sword until he had to be the one to go home.
It hurt, though. It hurt and she didn’t want to die.
So, she met his eyes with her own teary ones. Then, she ran.
She sprinted as fast as she could, channeling her new magic as she did it, so that she tasted sugar and the edges of the wounds stopped throbbing so much.
She kept running.
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