Reini and Lavender (CLOSED)
Cool! I'll start in a bit.
Okey Dokey!
Azmael pulls away from the training dummy angrily. His swords haven't even made a dent in its magical defenses, and he's starting to get tired of attacking. His biceps feel like they're about to tear in half, and he's practically ground his teeth into dust. He swipes the sweat from his forehead and tries to steady his breathing, but it's hard.
"Do you think you want to go down a level?" Cienth calls from the side.
"No, I'll get it. Got any tips?"
"You're using your swords too much. Try to use your magic more. You might actually hit it that way."
"That a joke?" he asks, chuckling under in between breaths. She joins him in laughter. "Fine, I'll give that a try."
Djynn walks into the gym. Vandar had recommended working on channeling lightning. She finds an empty corner and starts stretching.
Azmael trips over his feet and slips on one of the mats. He falls backwards onto the floor and sighs loudly. His back hurts too much to get up immediately, so he pushes himself into a sitting position and scowls at the dummy. Cienth looks disappointed, but he still can't make himself get up.
Djynn clears her mind, taking a deep breath. The hair on the back of her neck prickling as sparks of electricity snap to life at her finger tips.
Cienth finally comes over to him and helps him up. Her round face looks upset, but he knows she won't say anything to him. He's had a rough few days as it is, and now it's really showing.
"Maybe we should take a break. It might be kind of nice, you know," she suggests sweetly.
"I'm not quitting, Ci."
"At least wait a few minutes before trying again."
"I will. Can you get me some water?" He plops down on a bench as she nods. "Thanks."
He looks around while she's gone, studying techniques of different fighters. His eyes catch on the girl in the corner. With a quick scan of the room, he turns and narrows his attention in on her, waiting to see what she does.
As she feels the lightning surging through her she turns to a punching bag. She begins punching it, the lightning growing. As she gains momentum, she concentrates and steps back. She thrusts her hand forward, a lightning bolt leaps from her hand. It courses through the bag and it combusts. She drops her hand, amazed that worked.
Despite his better judgement, Azmael stands and limps his way over to her. He's so impressed with the lightning that he feels like he has to try and talk to her, even though he knows she's probably busy training. He sheathes both of his swords and taps her on the shoulder slowly, trying to avoid staring at the smoldering bag.
She turns, surprised. "Hi."
"Hey. Uh, sorry for interrupting you, but I saw you do that thing. That was pretty cool." He smiles crookedly, blushing a little. "Sorry. Guess I'm intruding, huh? Well, not that you needed to know, but I'm Azmael."
She smiles a little. "Thanks. You don't need to be sorry. I was done with that anyway." She says, gesturing to the burning bag behind her." My name's Djynn."
"Azmael- wait, I already said that. Right? Yeah, pretty sure I did. Well… this is going fantastically," he says and smacks his hand into his forehead, his blush darkening. "It's a nice name. Yours is, not mine. I mean, I guess mine's kind of nice as well, but yours is nicer. More nice? Nicerer? That one's not right. You know what I mean. Sorry, I guess I'm, uh, I'm kind of a mess today. If you saw earlier, I had a little trip. You didn't need to know that."
She smiles a bit. "What's your element?"
"Grass. Wait, no, not grass. I do like grass, though. I like flowers and trees, but… oh, you asked my element. It's nature." He peeks out from between his fingers, embarrassed, and laughs. "Man, I guess Ci was right. I could use a day or two off. What's yours?"
"Weather." She says.
"That's pretty cool. What else can you do?" He gestures to the dummy, then stops as an idea hits him. "Do you want to fight me? Not to actually hurt me, but just to see what we can do. It might be interesting."
She nods, grinning. "That sounds great!"
"Nice!" he exclaims, dragging her to the center of the room. He closes his eyes, breathes in, and then pulls out his swords. His body tenses up as he crouches. "You can go first. I'm ready for whatever you throw my way."
(Is the practice area outside or inside?)
(I was thinking inside, but it can have an open roof)
(Okay.)
Concentrating, Djynn pulls down a thick fog, making it follow Azmael's head.
Azmael sputters and squints, trying to make out figures that move through the gaps in the fog. He slashes one of his swords out in annoyance as he staggers about. Grass blossoms from the floor around him, allowing him to feel people treading nearby, and he raises the hilt to snap vines around Djynn's ankles and hopefully make her lose concentration.
Djynn tries to sidestep the vines. She dashes forward and tries to kick him in the chest.
Azmael wheezes as the kick hits him square in between the lungs. He goes skidding back onto the floor with a series of strangled sounds, but manages to gather enough focus while sliding to try and snag the vines around her outstretched leg once more. His hands smack hard into the ground, and feels one of his fresher sword cuts reopen. Blood drips down his arm as he raises his weapon again, his chest heaving to get the air back into his body.
Vines wrap themselves around Djynn's legs, and she falls to the ground.
Azmael rolls on top of her and grins impishly. His hair is sweaty and hangs in front of his eyes, and his lungs are still desperate for air. He drops his swords and sits up once more, wiping his hand across his face. A smear of blood comes off on his cheek.
"That was pretty cool for a short little fight, huh? Normally I'd say we could keep going, but I think my mentor's back."
She smiles, nodding. "That was cool! What you did with those vines was amazing." She sat up too. "It was nice meeting you Azmael."
He beams. "Thanks! I thought the fog thing you did was genius. I hope we can see each other soon."
Cienth rushes over to them, nearly spilling her water on the floor. "Azmael! What happened to you? You're bleeding!"
"I am?" he asks, genuinely surprised. He sheepishly smiles at Djynn and shrugs.