VIGIL 3: Uh... can we get a mulligan?

[Murkus]

[Memorial Service]

"I will. I feel I'm going to need something to take my mind off..." he makes a vague, broad gesture around him, as if to say "everything".

"Good to hear," Adir say with a companionable grin. "And what am I saying? You never hesitate." The stag gives a dumb little wink and makes his way back toward his wife. "Use that phone, Wendy!"

[Zefir]

[Field]

Wenomir is waiting for Mia on a stretch of open terrain not far from Felandria's house - he'd basically pick whatever was closest. The priestess' training has been progressing, so Wenomir decided to put her to a test.

[Field]

Mia will arrive soon. She doesn't want Wenomir to wait to long. She got the longsword on her back as Wenomir told her.

"Hi Wenomir . What are we doing today?"

[Morty]

[Memorial Service]

Wenomir nods. Given all that's happened, he decides to let the usage of the nickname "Wendy" slide this once. That's probably it for the memorial service.

[Field]

"You've been learning for a while now, so I decided to give you a more general test," Wenomir says. "We'll do a pretend-fight of sorts. You'll try to hit me, and I'll defend myself. It's not ideal, but I don't have other students or better equipment."

[Lost_Deep]

Makeshift Conference Room

Cessie raises an eyebrow. "Just how large is your company miss Caravan? Since I'm not sure we'd be able to protect the entire staff and customer base of a company that stretches over several realities. Even if such threats aren't common."

Caravan leans back, taken aback by such implications. "Of course not! I wouldn't expect anything of the sort. You're a Nexus-native organization, and therefore your concerns are strictly Nexus-oriented. Quite understandable, I wouldn't expect anything else."

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL Ruins]

That's a good assumption as "Oaks" simply levitates off the ground without any visible effort. "I've already scouted this place. There is nothing here." She insists.

They're wandering down a desolated landscape that easily could be called apocalyptic. Even outside the crater he can see that a great deal of trees around what was once the base have been knocked down flat on the ground even though it wasn't a singular explosion but a lot of smaller blasts.

Even after walking around through the rocks burying the base of the crater the Portal won't find anything more than rocks and dirt. Yet if he looks up he can see a singular black figure against the clouds. Looks to be a large bird of some kind. "Why are we even looking here? Why would anyone stay around this crater? Not like there is anything valuable left here."

As luck would have it The Portal does indeed notice the black figure in the sky. At first he dismisses it as just a regular bird and continues wandering around the crater, but it slowly dawns on him that the bird isn't moving. He figures it's probably nothing, but without any other leads it seems smart to check. "Hey" he says, turning to face Oaks, "you see that weird black bird in the sky? It's just been hovering in place ever since we got here. Does that mean anything?" There is a hint of embarrassment in his voice, as If he expects he's making a total fool out of himself.

[Zefir]

[Field]

"You've been learning for a while now, so I decided to give you a more general test," Wenomir says. "We'll do a pretend-fight of sorts. You'll try to hit me, and I'll defend myself. It's not ideal, but I don't have other students or better equipment."

[Field]

"Ok." Mia says and draws her sword. She waits for Wenomir tio be ready, befor she will go for an attack. An uup down hit , right the way she learned in her second lesson. Wenomir sure notice that she holds back a bit. She don't want to accidently hurt him.

[Morty]

[Field]

"Don't hold back, Mia," Wenomir says as he parries her attack. "Even if you hit me, those swords are blunt."

[Shadowcaller]

Makeshift Conference Room

"Okay, so only nexus-related incidents. That's much more agreeable. I'd like to include a clause that allows us to renegotiate our contract in case we get more jobs than we can handle. Otherwise I have no objections towards this deal." Cessie replies.

[VIGIL Ruins]


"Oaks" looks up at the bird, having to cover her eyes to see it because of the sun. "Nope. Wasn't there last time. Should I kill it?" She points a finger at the figure.

[Zefir]

[Field]

Ok, I thought she fights with her real sword or at least a sharp one.
Mia draws back soon after Wenomir parries her attack. She then swings the sword again, making an attack as his left side. This time a bit stronger.

[Morty]

[Field]

Wenomir will keep parrying Mia's strikes. He wants to take a measure of how well she's executing them. He won't attack or respond for now. There'll be time for it later.

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL Ruins]

"Uh, I'd strongly prefer it if you didn't. In fact, if possible I want to avoid killing anything today." states the Portal. He squints hard, trying to get a better look at the figure in the sky without much success. "Maybe you could go up to it make a lot of noise with your lightning trick?" he asks, turning to "Oaks". "If it's an animal that should scare it off, if it's something else ...well I guess we'll figure it out from there."

[Zefir]

[Field]

Wenomir will keep parrying Mia's strikes. He wants to take a measure of how well she's executing them. He won't attack or respond for now. There'll be time for it later.

[Field]

Mia will continue with the learned attacks. She will try to trick Wenomir by using an attack pattern for some time and then change is to suprise him.
It looks like she got the moves well, but her body is still not able to perform them perfect. Wenomir can see that sometimes her steps are to slow like she still needs to think about her step instead of instinctively doing it. Her stamina is still not good. she makes deep breaths after several hits and starts to sweat soon. Still it improved related to where they start. Mia will continue with her attacks as long as Wenomir wants or her arms can hold the sword.

[Morty]

[Field]

Wenomir observes Mia's strikes, and nods approvingly. Finally, he raises his hand to signal her to stop.

"That's enough for now. You're doing well. Varying your attacks and trying different directions is important, so I'm glad to see you're trying it."

[Zefir]

[Field]

Mia nods. "I'm aware I can't land a hit if I just strike. I could only try to confuse you for now."

[Morty]

[Field]
'
"That's good," Wenomir says with a nod. "You need to use any advantage you can find. Your opponent will try to predict your movements, so you need to make it harder for them."

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL Ruins]

"Uh, I'd strongly prefer it if you didn't. In fact, if possible I want to avoid killing anything today." states the Portal. He squints hard, trying to get a better look at the figure in the sky without much success. "Maybe you could go up to it make a lot of noise with your lightning trick?" he asks, turning to "Oaks". "If it's an animal that should scare it off, if it's something else ...well I guess we'll figure it out from there."

[VIGIL Ruins]

"Wait, you're asking me to give it a warning since it might be an animal? I'm just gonna shoot it down. You're clearly not very good at this." "Oaks" states confidently. She lifts her hands into the air and suddenly her body seems to shift, turning into a wisp of lighting that moves in a flash towards the creature above. There is a screech and the Portal can see how the creature seem to have been hit and is quickly falling towards the ground.

[Zefir]

[Field]

Mia nods.
"It's still a far way until I can be of help with those skills." she says. "I can just hope I don't need to rely on them soon."

"How is the base building going on?"

[Morty]

[Field]

"It's best to avoid heading straight into combat for now, yes. We'll get you a proper sword soon, though, and you should keep it with you. Even a small amount of skill is better than nothing," Wenomir says. "As for the base, we have a plan to acquire a floating island, and build a base there. I found out about such an option while researching a flying base."

((It's held up by another player's deadtime, but hopefully it'll start happening again soon.))

[Lost_Deep]

Makeshift Conference Room

"Okay, so only nexus-related incidents. That's much more agreeable. I'd like to include a clause that allows us to renegotiate our contract in case we get more jobs than we can handle. Otherwise I have no objections towards this deal." Cessie replies.

"Very well! I don't have the material prepared to make any such contracts at the moment, but I'll prepare a few things for you to approve or disapprove later," Caravan says. "Anything else? Anything you want to know, or show off, any notable dates I should keep in mind?"

[RyanKoopa]

[VIGIL Ruins]
The Portal grumbles loudly in frustration. On the one hand he knows his no-killing policy is his alone, and not Oaks. But on the other hand, if he watched while she killed something or someone, wouldn't that make him complicit in their deaths? The Portal moves a few feet away from where the bird will fall. He concentrates, and an invisible area forms around the bird where time slows down. He manages to slow it's descent to a point where the fall shouldn't kill the bird. By the time it hits the ground he is sweating heavily and panting, clearly forming such an effect isn't easy for him.

[Zefir]

[Field]

"It's best to avoid heading straight into combat for now, yes. We'll get you a proper sword soon, though, and you should keep it with you. Even a small amount of skill is better than nothing," Wenomir says. "As for the base, we have a plan to acquire a floating island, and build a base there. I found out about such an option while researching a flying base."

((It's held up by another player's deadtime, but hopefully it'll start happening again soon.))

[Field]

Mia nods again. "Oh an floating island? Sounds like it's even a rare thing in the Nexus. I would really like to know how it should move, but I guess you already know a way."

"So back to the topic, do you know a blacksmith we can go , if I'm ready?"

[Morty]

[Field]

"There are many competent blacksmiths. We'll just pick one of them. I tried to find one that'd be significantly better than the others, but I couldn't," Wenomir says. "Are you ready for another exercise?"

[Zefir]

[Field]

Mia nods and makes herself ready. There isn't much to say right now.

[Morty]

[Field]

"Let's make it more varied this time. After each of your attacks, I'll attack myself and you'll have to defend yourself," Wenomir says, assuming a defensive pose.

[Zefir]

[Field]

She nods and after both are ready she starts with her first attack. It should be mentioned that Mia doesn't wear armor. So even a blunt sword can hurt.

[Morty]

[Field]

Wenomir defends against her attack, and then makes a thrust at her right shoulder. It's slow, so she has plenty of time to react. If it connects, Wenomir will make sure it only jabs her lightly.

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL Ruins]

Calling this thing a 'bird' is being generous as has more in common with a bat than anything avian. It's appears to be a mish-mash of different animals with the body of a large hulking bat but with huge bulging eyes that would be more at home on a Owl's body than a mammals. It's fur is completely white, the same color as clouds. It would have been very hard to spot if it hadn't flown right over the sun like that.

But the scorch mark "Oaks" appears to have left on it's body seems to be spreading, or rather it's fur is changing it's color to match the mark. The creature makes a guttural sound and collapses on the ground. The Portal might note it actually have eyes, or the semblance of eyes, on it's wings.

A moment later the wisp of lightning returns and oaks once again takes her human-ish form and walks up to him and the creature. "Wasn't so hard right? Though I think you just saved the life of a blackblood. Nice going." She points at the creature which still appear to be moving.

"Very well! I don't have the material prepared to make any such contracts at the moment, but I'll prepare a few things for you to approve or disapprove later," Caravan says. "Anything else? Anything you want to know, or show off, any notable dates I should keep in mind?"

Makeshift Conference room

"We don't have anything special planned but we will probably move from this location soon enough. Have to get a proper base for our operations. If what you claim is true though, we probably won't have any trouble signing those contracts however." Cessie claims.

[Zefir]

[Field]

Wenomir defends against her attack, and then makes a thrust at her right shoulder. It's slow, so she has plenty of time to react. If it connects, Wenomir will make sure it only jabs her lightly.

[Field]

Mia's reaction a bit slow, but she manages to wipe the attack away befor it hit's. "That was close" she says. "It's hard to foesee the counter attack." If Wenomir answers, she will wait, but then goes for another attack. The exercise doesn't end with one attack after all.^^

[Morty]

[Field]

"It is. But it's a core skill that every warrior needs to learn," Wenomir says. He parries Mia's strike again and makes another one, this time at her left leg. "You need to be always aware of what your enemy does."

[Lost_Deep]

Makeshift Conference Room

"Good. I'll call up some contracts for you to choose from, please keep me in the loop if anything terribly big happens?" Caravan asks as she hops off the stool.