Let's Have it Out (Conor)

[Bree]

Ubriel was still simmering over Conor's latest display of head spinning contempt for anyone's attempt at earnest self-improvement. Somewhere in the part of her mind that was not seething, she knew he was just as earnest as she was. That knowledge did nothing to calm her at this moment. She could however take out her frustrations with him in a spirited attempt to beat him bloody. That was in point of fact precisely what she had determined to do.

Laying a challenge before him in a semi-public forum, she had dared him to meet her here in the training yards. She had brought with her a large and ostentatious trophy consisting of a wooden spoon wrapped about with a red ribbon atop a metal bucket. The bucket had been painted in an eye-wrenching series of yellow and red stripes. The ribbon was emblazoned with the words "Not the Loser".

Ubriel carried also her new axe and shield so recently completed and gifted to her by Zacharyn. I am going to beat the squirrel loving snot out of that idiot. She reached her goal and nodded at the Accepted on duty in the yards. She intended to have need of that girls' services very shortly.

[Carra]

Conor Palfrey Such Rage does not Become you Woman were confusing.

And Strange.

And full of weird contradictions.

For a man of his stature, Conor was not about to let the challenge go unanswered, but the nature of it was odd. What had made the Ji'dar pick him out of the crowd? Sure, there were glares still from when he had took a justified run through the Yard, naked, chasing an intruder. But here he was, Nava left to do whatever Nava did, strolling up to the yard.

There she stood. Her small frame and the scowl on her lips reminded him of Cairma and he couldn't help the hesitation, the poinient pause, in his step. It was like a flash back only she held an axe and shield. He couldn't help but chuckle. No, she wasn't the woman he had admired long ago. She was someone new.

"I don't suppose you have a Zwheilhander in your back pocket, do you?" He said to himself. Before he entered the yard, he held up a hand, "Wait, wait. If you have two hands..." And he walked over to where the practice swords were until he found one that was more comfortable in his left hand. If she had a shield then he could at least challenge himself too. He practiced on occasion with one hand and then the other, but never both at the same time. Didn't hurt to try.

He entered the yard and gave her a flourished but respectful bow. 'Did her scowl get deeper?' Na... "The lady sets the terms." Hopefully someone important was watching.. he'd hate to have her kill him. A weird feeling to be having... For a challenging spar.

[Bree]

"Ok Conor. This trophy to whoever does not admit defeat first. I don't want to kill you. I just want you to stop acting like a sun addled goat." Ubriel crouched at Conor's approach and gestured with her elbow toward the trophy sitting to one side. Ubriel noticed on the edges of her awareness, others arriving and gathering to watch. It was like noting the sun was up or that she was breathing. She was focussed and ready to fight.

The problem was that she seemed to be the only one really up for a fight. Conor was obviously willing to spar but he displayed none of the aggression that had motivated her to issue the challenge. She was going to have to make the first move. It was completely unlike her and contrary to her nature.

Moving forward, Ubriel side-stepped trying to gauge the reach of Conor's blades. She flourished her axe and feinted a swing low toward Conor's thigh that swung short.

[Carra]

Conor Palfrey "Hey!" He took a little offense to her request, and yet the look of the trophy was.. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Did she honestly try to make a trophy for herself or to him? There was so much about what she said that was really very confusing. Did she mean to lose to him? If she wanted the trophy she made then why didn't she make it for herself? Conor wasn't sure he understood her. Even the comment about the 'sun addled goat' went over a moment for a moment before she took the initiative and attacked him first. He moved out of the way in time with a jump back.

"You can take the feathers off a peacock, all you have is a sad peacock!" He gave her a cheesy grin, flexing his wrists with the swords. His left hand felt odd having the second blade in it, but there was enough strength to carry the weight of the blade with enough ease. It was likely not going to be his main swing blade, and he could block her hits.

Although he was not going to make the mistake that just because she was small did not mean she could not hard. His 5 foot something former-mentor wielded a 6 foot sword like candy. Her strength would not be pushed aside or underestimated.

Conor moved in to take an attack, forcing her to use the shield to block the blow towards her shoulder. He used his left hand to block the downward attack with her axe, it hooking on his blade but he kept it firmly in his hand. She was good, it wasn't a weak blow. Good. "It's not fair that You have set terms for this, and not I." Conor took an attack in, forcing her to block him with her shield. A tiny thing in comparison to his 6 foot plus build. He looked over her shield with a smile. "If I win, what then?"

A good spar didn't last only a few hits, and already there was a crowd closing in at the two of them battled. Many of them Greens. Conor wondered where Yani was, and if she could see him fight. Or Amairwyn Sedai. Lost in her library, no doubt.

[Bree]

Ubriel knocked away the blows with Conor's dominant weapon hand, with her shield. He caught her axe with his off-hand and she felt exposed. As she flowed through the parries and thrusts with the lummox, his comment about a plucked and sad peacock fluttered around the edges of her mind. She didn't have time to think about it carefully.

His inquiry into his winnings if fortune favored him in this conflict sounded like a kissing cousin to an indecent proposal. The gaudy trophy was supposed to be enough to lure the fool into the spar. She dismissed him and, with a deep, throaty grunt, aimed a kick directly at his knee as he peered over her shield.

At the satisfying grunt coming from the man, Ubriel freed her axe and rocked back on her back foot. Pushing off again, she rammed into him with her shield and and began an upswing with her axe to come up at his abdomen from below as she pushed her shield to her left to try to knock his sword arm wide.

[Carra]

Conor Palfrey The crazy woman tried to knock out his kneecap, a painful experience he would rather avoid, but her aim was enough to save him his knee but not good enough to have missed entirely and Conor had to step back to take the weight off the knee for a moment. But she did not give him a break. Onwards her attacks moves forward and she wasn't going to let up.

"No smile? Why so serious, ankle bitter?" Conor asked, blocking again a side swing of her ax. The shield was definitely an aid in her favor, but he could tell that she was only still learning how to use it. His strength could overwhelm her if he pushed her hard but since he was unsure of the why of this spar -aside it being a spar to get him to have less fun?- Conor didn't want to push her just yet. Not that he was holding back. The itty bitty woman was giving him a fair run for his money and his knee told him just that. Along with a scrape of skin on his arm, the inevitable bruise on his thigh...

Crossing the blades to catch the ax before it went through his head, Conor pushed the offense to keep her moving back. Every other swing to be blocked by her shield so she would drop it. If she dropped is then she would be down a weapon. He did not hold back on his strength on those swings, although he had to be careful. His sword got too close to her face - hard not to with her so short... But she dodged his offhand blade with her shield, and it bounced off and Conor heard her swear.

"So the lady does speak!"

[Bree]

Ubriel was grateful of the forearm strap and hand hold of her shield. The constant barrage of Conor's sword against it would have made her drop it if it weren't tied on. Still, it was getting heavy. She moved it up higher with effort and used the axe to swing low. Conor of course dodged but it gave her the opening to lower the shield briefly and swing upward in an effort to damage that sword arm.

"Of course I speak, you mongrel... We have spoken more than once. It is simply useless to speak to you!"

The carefully planned upswing punctuated the end of that sentence and she followed the axe with a charge of her shield. Following through with the arc of her axe, she swung it around to catch his off-hand blade in the spiral tooth of the axe's backside and twisted. She hoped to hear a satisfying grunt of pain from the twisting motion but disarming him would be quite sufficient to please her.

[Carra]

Conor Palfrey "Mongrel? I'm of decent breeding, ya'know!"

What was ever buzzing up in this woman's knickers felt less like it had anything to do with him. Projecting? Conor couldn't be sure without talking to her and her only way of talking was through insult and trying to put an ax through his skull. A feat for her given she was at least a foot too short and the reach she had wasn't great. What he really needed was her to drop her damn shield. Or at least make it useless enough that all she could do was hang onto it without full use of it.

They were holding their own weight well, but even he was beginning to tire. She wouldn't let up and if he tried to get space she rushed in using her shield to keep him from catching his breath. It also meant that she should be pretty damn tired too.

Then she caught a weakness in his off-hand, the painful fact that he was still not greatly skilled with two weapons, and instead of letting her break his hand he let his sword fly. Bloody... And in her self celebratory, Conor just took one leg and with all his might he KICKED her shield hoping to send her back and off balance. With her balance off, Conor quickly scrambled to regain his sword. Until she dropped that damn shield he would need it. Unless her tried to break off the head of the damnable ax.

Still, she was good.

"Speak? Yell, I suppose. Chances are you never tried, Lady Ji."

[Bree]

Ubriel felt the weight of an entire man collide with force on her shield. Raised as it was, it was enough to topple her backward. The only thing she could do was to drop straight down to divert the force of the blow. Allowing her knees to buckle and drop her onto them, Ubriel watched with dismay as the knave scrambled to pick up his lost weapon.

His mad dash, however, bought her the time she needed to regain her feet. Standing and facing Conor, Ubriel took three quick steps backward. She allowed both arms to fall, the weight of the shield and the axe pulling the sore tension from the muscles in each arm. She watched as Conor resumed his double bladed stance. She had disarmed him, partially. They each stood tired and bruised. He had fought her, not dismissed her and not held back as if she were irrelevant. Would this be enough?

Facing him and circling, ready to begin again if he rushed her, she said, calmly if somewhat out of breath, "You bandy words about as if you have no care or reason for being here. You act like a buffoon. You do not give anyone cause to respect you... Until you fight. Then you show respect for yourself and your opponent. You are a confusing and strange man."

Ubriel lifted her shield and axe once more. The muscles of her arms trembled and she blew at a tuft of sweat sodden hair that fell across her forehead. "We can go on until one of us breaks if you wish. I have what I came for. I leave it to you."

[Carra]

Conor Palfrey His stance ready, his blade in hand, Conor was a little disappointed that she still retained the shield but it was obvious that she struggled. He had cuts that stung beyond his mind's comprehension; a trick from his time in the White Tower and a woman stronger than any other he had met. Then again even he struggled. If he were to lose the second blade he could perhaps beat her that way, the second arm really was slowing him down, but listening to her he wondered if she were looking for a respectable way out. Or perhaps giving him a reason to bow out.

It was the calm in her tone that made him wonder why she had even been angry at all. Conor was yet again confused. She won't give up until she was knocked cold on the ground, and Conor made a point of not come across as a coward. Gentleman's law.

"It is not the words of a man you should watch out for, but the truth of his blade, my Lady Ji. You started this challenge so I leave it to you to end it. Whatever you came for, what ever you think I showed you, has nothing to do with me." He stretched through a quick form with the two blades and stood ready, "I will fight until darkness or death end me. Lady Ji or not, I will take you with me. Unless you have had enough."