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The Armory was a pretty intimidating place. Rob glanced over at it as he made his way to where the practice dummies and padded weapons were laid out for their use. Monsters were real, Max had said yesterday on the tour. It didn't seem possible, but then, getting talked to by a god didn't seem possible either. Best to be prepared.

The punk musician watched as several people fought with dummies (which seemed to shoot bolts or beanbags or something, he realized as one whizzed past his head). Looked like yeah, some of these people had never been in a fight before. He grinned -- he'd been in his fair share of barroom brawls. He might have a leg up on them.

Then he noticed the curly-maned girl from dinner, Mercy. She was squaring off with a dummy without benefit of any weapons. Pretty hardcore, Rob thought, but then she was of Ares, so. "Oi, Mercy!" he called out to her with a wave. "Why not use a sword or sommat? Or would you rather bare-knuckle the dummy?"

Following Mercy to where the padded weapons were, Rob couldn't help but watch her, a bit of a smirk playing across his lips. Yeah, she was definitely cute. It was going to be fun going up against her, he could already tell. Even if she didn't know how to use any of these weapons -- they were on equal ground there, because he didn't either. He had, however, used a bat on occasion (his parents had him playing cricket of all things for awhile as a youth, which he quit after clocking some kid in the head), so he picked the one that looked most like a stick, the padded greatsword.

"Oooh, Robin Hood. Nice one. Two points for Ares." He test-brandished the sword, which was nearly as long as Mercy was tall. Even with the padding, it had a nice balance to it, almost what he imagined a real sword would feel like. Yes, this would do nicely.

He dug the sword's tip into the ground and leaned against it with a sly grin. "Yeah, dummies are for dummies. I think I'd stand a fighting chance going up against you, love."

[re-rolling]

"Compensating?" Rob looked at the sword. "Ohoho, very funny. Minus two points from Ares for taking the low road." The grin was still on his face, though; he didn't take any offense at the wisecrack. Why should he? He'd have probably said the same thing if he were in her position.

Then she swung at him, which caught him just a little by surprise. Failing to get out of the way in time, the head of the warhammer hit his leg with enough force to nearly knock him over. "Ow, s**t!" he swore, rubbing his thigh. That hurt, though not as badly as it could have had the weapon not been padded.

That was when the reality of the situation hit him. If this had been a real fight…

Raising his greatsword, he swung at Mercy. He wasn't playing any more.

Rob saw Mercy's blow coming, but he couldn't move out of the way fast enough. He took the full force of the warhammer on his ribs. Staggering back, he balanced himself with the greatsword as he caught his breath. Padded or not, that ******** thing hurt.

"One thing I'm gonna have to practice," he gasped, "is me dancing skills. Nice one."

Exhaling to collect himself, he readied his weapon again and got into his stance, then he lunged at her, swinging the greatsword like a bat. The concern of doing her some actual damage did cross his mind, about halfway through his swing. But oh well. She was certainly doing a number on him.

At least he was consistently connecting with the padded greatsword. Rob rehearsed what he'd done in his mind -- lunge, swing, follow through. If nothing else it would be good to remember for when he got in a real fight, with who knew what.

He bowed with a grin at Mercy's teasing and as he did, he felt the wind of the warhammer passing near his head, brushing his dreads. With a yelp, he straightened immediately, eyes huge and all traces of grin gone. "Oi, love, don't try to knock me head off!" he barked, heart pounding. He didn't mean to come off nasty, but that was TOO close. It had definitely got the adrenaline flowing, though.

Brandishing the greatsword, he lunged and swung at her again.

Mercy's aim was true, and the blow was solid, landing hard on Rob's thigh. He fell to the ground with a yelp, dropping his sword and clutching his leg in pain. That was going to leave a mark for sure. At least it didn't feel broken; it would have hurt a LOT more if he'd broken his leg.

He got to his feet, slowly and cautiously. "For someone named Mercy, you certainly don't show any." The wry smile on his face indicated that he was teasing her, clearly impressed with her native fighting ability. But of course she'd be able to fight well, she was Ares-Chosen.

Retrieving his sword, he used the big weapon to steady himself before getting back into attack position. Finally he gave a deep sigh and charged, not really aiming for any particular part of her but praying he got a hit in.