Kelly vs Fenris (Round 2)

(I refuse to believe it's that difficult to tag me yet very few people seem to get it right on their first try....)


As Fenris got into his stance, his sword in both hands, Kelly sauntered into the ring.

"Hey, Fenny." She said optimistically, waving a little. "Heard about your fight with that Asger guy. Don't worry, I ain't gonna ask that of you. Hell, I expect you to go all out on me."

She turned her body slightly so that her left shoulder faced Fenris head on and drew her rapier free with her left hand. Holding it out at a 90 degree angle to the ground (with the tip slightly facing towards Fenris' left shoulder), the two blade tips were about five feet apart from one another.

"Though considering our practice run, I have a feeling I know how this fight's going to go. Though one question before we begin...your name, it's derived from the famous god-eating wolf of legend, yeah?"

"Hmph. If you insist..."

With a smirk, Kelly took a single step forward, her stance not changing save for being half a foot extended further out. Her arm was still outstretched, her blade tip angled slightly.

"So if you're not interested in the prize, I got a proposition for you- if I win, nothing changes, but if you win, I request you give me that plot of land. If you're only here for practice I don't see any reason for you to keep it."

"Well, the satisfaction of helping a literally homeless woman naturally." She mused. After her first step she began to inch along an invisible circle around Fenris. The first step was followed by her back right leg shifting to her right side, angling her around Fenris in a counter-clockwise fashion slowly, one step at a time. The distance between them remained and her sword stayed steady and true as she kept her eyes focused on Fenris' shoulders. The gaze would've pierced him if she was looking directly into his.

Her movements were different from their sparring. They were more sure, determined, practiced. Did she have another session with Lamina? No, a single practice wouldn't have been enough. Something was off about her movements, they didn't match her sloppy fencing from before. Before him was most likely not the most skilled fighter he had ever faced by far, but she seemed certainly more capable than she was the last they fought by simply how she held her pose.

To clarify he only let go with his right hand, hes still holding the blade.)

By the way @banditkelly had been watching his shoulders, he knew she would be expecting a lunge. However he had not perceived any particularly threatening responses from her. She proved him somewhat wrong with her wry move. In it he saw the technique of Lamina, she was her teachers' student indeed. But by virtue of fighting Lamina Fenris was more careful than to give an opening so easily. What's more to him at least, it lacked the decisive precision of her teacher. To him it seemed more like a "Warning" a "Message" that said "It won't be so easy this time." and he embraced that message whole-heartedly.

His blades aforementioned turn caused it to slant, and as it missed its mark, the path of the sword carried it towards his right causing his arm to chamber as well as retract seamlessly within the timing of her swipe as a continuation of the thrust rather than a recovery. It was just barely enough however. Whats more the path of his blade would potentially see its path intercept that of her own swords line of attack displacing its momentum just enough to cause it to veer off.

He gave a fanged grin along with a low impressed whistle as she stepped back, his sword now placed over his opposite right-shoulder. "Bwaahahahaha! You've been holding out on me..." Even as he spoke he hunkered down and adjusted his blade into a different position. He was lower to the ground, his knees bent, while his right hand grasped the pommel of his sword again, though this time gently. The swords hilt level with his hips, slanting upward with the tip.

He closed in past the bit of distance she had mad in her previous retreat, and he did so rather quickly at that. Not quite rushing, but somewhat bold considering the prowess she had just shown. His arms remained only half extended, as he kept his sword slanting upward with its point towards her, till it dropped somewhat threatening to contact her inner right thigh with the upper-edge as his arms extended slightly. Essentially seeking to close in and apparently not that concerned about leaving openings.

He could sense her frustration as @banditkelly viciously pressed the attack, it was palpable. And her sudden aggression was impressive. He was cut off. Alright, she wanted a "serious" match he was going to give her one. Her rapier flickered interrupting his attempt to regain the initiative, as he fell into the guard of "wrath".

In her sudden aggression she might have miscalculated the timing as his guffaw happened after his blade had entered into its position over his shoulder. There was also the fact that despite her swift speed she still had to make up the timing from her retreat. Even so, she was pressing his defense. The only way to make up for her sudden quickness was economy of motion, and sacrafice. His right hand which had been moving to grasp the pommel instead saw his forearm move with graceful almost precognitive swiftness to intercept the rapier from beside it. She had scored her hit, but even a sharpened-edge rapier was not particularly good at cutting especially if it was unintended. If nothing else, he wanted to avoid the hypothetical "killing" blow. Exchanging it for a less "lethal" blow.

His forearm would would come across from his left to right to divert her thrust, perhaps drawing blood despite the wards, as his laughter abruptly became a feral-snarl. His right leg pushed off the ground as his left leg slid forward with it, as he bounded suddenly forward making use of her mad rush, and bypassing the distance between them in all but an instant as he mirrored her attempt to close forward both in practice and in intensity.

In her attempt to strike him, she had stopped playing her game, and had started playing his. If she had seen his last fight, she would know he was very comfortable up close, much more than any "pure fencer" should be. If she wanted to make this a contest of pure-aggression and close-combat prowess she would be in for a rough-ride.

He would seek to bound past her swords reach in the timing of his arms-parry, and even as he blocked her sword, he brought his own to bear. Truth be told as a fencer he might be something of an amateur, but his experience as a warrior showed him paths that were sometimes unthinkable to a duelist. But still, his skill as a fencer was brought to bare as his blade was brought down in a decisive diagonal slash from over his right shoulder seeking to move with the force of his forward momentum and striking as her sword was diverted off course.
It sought to slash across her left shoulder and down her hip, for a good draw-cut. Regardless of success or not the blades path if not somehow impeded would carry it to rear back towards his lower left and pointing behind him, while he sustained that momentum and sought to continue to lower his body, as his right arm remained free and tucked to his side, while he potentially (and very likely) took things to up close and personal, since that seemed to be what she wanted. A slight welt and a bit blood trailing from his forearm unless the wards really took all the teeth out of the weapon.

An Ironic defense on the part of @banditkelly ; given it was the exact same movement he had used to avoid her initial swipe at his arm at the beginning of their engagement. She wanted him to take her seriously, he always has been, but now he was foregoing the typical "holding" back he did against those he was "friendly" with. Now they were nice and cozy, just the way he liked it.

As her blade-reangled he would bereave her of the opportunity to draw the edge against his arm, as his right hand shot-out to grasp her conveniently placed upper right forearm near the elbow in an iron-clad grip. The surprising strength she was displaying would now have to contend with the pressure of his blade with his bodies full weight and momentum behind it, as well as his hand pushing her arm down and into the way of her off-hand aiding the swords force, and complicating her attempt to stab or cut him as she would have to reach across her body and around her arm to get him.

This allowed his blade to continue its course, only it would be much steeper and would see the edge press against her throat for the "first" contact. (1) This "first" contact however was only a tertiary movement as the hilt of the blade only scant inches from her head would suddenly jerk forward as he sought to viciously strike her suddenly in the face with the end of his cross-guard from her front for the "2nd" contact. (2) The move was so quick following the "draw-cut" that they were almost in the same tempo. If nothing else it was also meant to stun her and delay her from drawing or bringing her knife to bear. Though the attacks happened immediately following her defense, in a seamless transition.

From the inception of his first response, he continued moving forward and sought to step around her body turning towards his left and acting quickly as that knife was certainly a danger, but also relying on positioning. He was seeking to step around her left-flank and with a single tilt of his wrist bring the pommel down exceptionally hard into the right side of her neck/shoulder in a short falling motion for the "3rd" contact. (3) Each attack happening in a quick stacatto-burst all in the span of a second more or less.

Each attack had happened at more or less point-blank range, while his foot-work would bring him around her flank. It was meant to end with him 3/4th's of the way behind her. Admittedly his attempt was "ambitious" but it was time to be decisive with the trickyness she had displayed, and for some reason he seemed intent on ending the engagement as quickly as possible now. As if something else had caught his attention, and his fight with Kelly was merely a means to an end. He was not angry as he had been with his last opponent, he was now... Cold, almost clinical with his approach.

@banditkelly was tenacious if nothing else. She wanted to maintain her advantage, but every move she made had consequences. Fenris was not thinking ahead as much as fighting on instinct. With her body so low, and her left leg sliding out to trip him up, she may have unknowingly compromised her balance, and the bend of her knees would impede her ability to extend her leg out.

The Duck down would not save her the draw-cut, as since he was already grabbing her arm and so close, the blade simply "followed" downward till it reached her neck, following its original diagonal trajectory till it reached the resistance of her throat. He was also lowering his body as well though obviously not as much as her. The attack had not been at an horizontal angle to duck to begin with, as it had originally and always been diagonal, so the momentum would not carry it over her head, as it had always been on its way down, and had been striking at such close range since it had been striking from the distance of their previous close-quarters bind. She did throw off the hilt-strike however, but her own movement would work against her as well.

As she sought to cut off his attempt to flank, she would instead present herself to his bodies momentum, while she sought to extend her left-leg, the "insistance" of his strength would inflict a counter-balance. His pivot to his left coupled with grabbing her arm, and his weight now crashing against her left side would basically slam her towards the ground and end with her landing on her right-side beside his left. Throwing off her knife-attack in multiple-ways and sending it veering away from him, with her body an angle where it could not hit him, before causing her arm to become trapped against the ground, while his movement continued to put him behind her, he did let go of her right arm in the process though. His blade blade tilted afterwards for a quick diagonal rising swipe at her body from below from his right to left, while his right hand moved to unsheathed his short-sword, a "Langes-Messer"

It was also worth noting the slam-down was from particularly and considerably close to the ground already, lessening her chance of a recovery, while this also did not clear the distance between them all that much as well, still not bringing her into the "proper" range of her rapier.

It seemed the draw-cut hit. That was one. He was not sure if the threw count, and she had managed a recovery. However he was satisfied if it had been a real fight the damage he might have inflicted would have proved mortal. Still @banditkelly was tenacious as ever. But he followed her roll with a brisk pursuit. His presence almost "brusque" as his blade just barely missed her fleeting form with the swipe. His left leg ahead of his right as he gave a short hop to keep up with her escape not letting her get the distance she wanted with linear movement.

His blades motion saw it end with it aligning forward. So as she popped up with her weapons at either side (in an obvious bait) as soon as she did so, his blade would be pressing against her chest in her open guard, his arm only half extended. It was not even a thrust as much as him just moving his blade to where she would be in order to intercept her. An almost casual and lazy movement, that begun before she even popped up, as if he knew exactly what she was going to do, and perhaps he did. Or perhaps this was a misdirection as the casual movement allowed for a quick transmutation of his angle and intent.

His Langes-Messer now free and in his right hand, was ready to parry or thrust. The blade swaying as his arm moved slightly back and forth as it remained reared back under his Krieg-Messer. Their relative distance between the optimal reach of her rapier, and the practical reach of her dagger. If she attacked with the dagger she would have to get past the length of his sword, while she might be able to rear back or alter her angle to thrust with her rapier, but his off-hand blade was ready to parry and he was in a position to get right back in her face again for the moment. His left side was leading, and he was continuing to press her with forward movement that was not exactly a rush but more of a brusque purposeful shuffle, left leg ahead of right.