Zhou Yu
Private First Class
Posts: 20
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Post by Zhou Yu on Jul 28, 2008 7:16:34 GMT -5
So, I could use the practice. Any takers? I'm by no means any good btw ¬.¬
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Post by Eshmunbaal on Jul 28, 2008 7:59:25 GMT -5
(ooc duel right? Testing my skill after such a long time...)
A new challenger approaches, and to everyone big surprise, it is the Carthaginian general Eshmunbaal. "I accept your challenge Chinaman", he says mockingly before going into a fighting stance.
He placed his left foot towards the enemy, the outside of his foot facing Zhou Yu. His right foot is paralel with his left but further away from the enemy. Eshmunbaal's torso is turned to Zhou Yu's left, while leaving his left arm hanging without purpose. He brings his falcata up with his right hand. It is held right next to Eshmunbaal's chest, the tip of the falcate pointing towards Zhou Yu.
Bending through his knees slightly, Eshmunbaal prepared to repel an attack from the enemy...
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Zhou Yu
Private First Class
Posts: 20
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Post by Zhou Yu on Jul 28, 2008 16:05:52 GMT -5
Zhou raised an eyebrow at the challenger. It was an almost comical emotion, a brief flicker of feigned offense, a joke to Gongjin. He was wearing light battle armor, focused plates that concentrated around the torso, forearms, shins. The blackened plates were tightly bound clenching out the robes he wore beneath. Although seemingly sparse armor, it was thick in the few areas it was present; not weighing down Gongjin, yet protecting his weakest areas. A perfect combination in the eyes of the warrior.
He stared about the arena, of sorts. It was a large sandy arena, colleseum like in design, though far lacking in the class and grandeur of roman excess. A small crowd had gathered, many tens of feet over the sandy pit, circular. Their eyes glittered in the the sun, the light shimmering off blades, that deadly flicker of beauty in a blade. There was a hungry anticipation, the crowd; a single being, a voice, a howl, baying for blood.
Gongjin smiled, he was no trained warrior. He gave a look at the man of Carthage, a swarthy creature, each feature totally alien to Zhou Yu. He laughed gently at its coarse words, the simple beast. "Good luck.." he paused, a beautiful flick of liquid silk hair. "Dear generic westerner.." He had casually noted the posture of his foe, the huge 'cleaver' in its hands, the deadly blade, weighty and lacking the finese of a standard sword, far more like an axe.
Zhou lifted his own equipment, the gently curved longsword, twin edged, in his free hand, the left, was a shield, convex, forged from thick Iron. Although it slightly slowed down the warrior, he was still a man who was focused around speed.
The two figures were frozen in a moment, it passed unseen, except for those two, they were the gladiators, the champions, unknowing of the world around them; only caring of the moment, that perfect moment where steel clashed, were their bodys and minds were tested. Zhou moved quickly, small steps now, quickly covering the distance between the two, running slowly into the attack, leading with his shield side. The first attack was weak, in comparison to his full power, enough to threaten Eshmunbaal, but not over expose himself. His sword came across low as he leaned in with his shield arm. The sword was swung almost blindly, aimed at the foreigners nearest thigh, blade coming across diagonally, right to left, however, in this testing attack, most of Zhou's focus was on the defense, concentrating more on his enemy's defense than causing real damage. His raised shield, bound across forearm was brought up, covering his entire torso, at least from the enemy's perspective, the shield pushed forwards, overbearing on the Carthaginian, his slightly twisted waist allowing his frame to move deftly should the need arise. The entire motion of the weak slash brought his shoulder around, the raised shield in close proximity to the Falcata, well covering his defense at this point.
Just a skirmish before the real battle, a calm before the storm.
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Post by Eshmunbaal on Jul 28, 2008 16:46:22 GMT -5
The first attack was weak, in comparison to his full power, enough to threaten Eshmunbaal, but not over expose himself. His sword came across low as he leaned in with his shield arm. The sword was swung almost blindly, aimed at the foreigners nearest thigh, however, in this testing attack, most of Zhou's focus was on the defense, concentrating more on his enemys defense than causing real damage. ((You attack comes in low. Do you slash from right to left or left to right? Where are your feet when you are doing this? Where and how do you hold your shield as you are doing this? The usual *slashes* and the unexplained *block* will not cut it for me. This is a duel, treat it as such.))
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Zhou Yu
Private First Class
Posts: 20
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Post by Zhou Yu on Jul 28, 2008 22:07:53 GMT -5
(*sighs*, and this is going to be a painful duel. Edited regardless. )
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Post by Eshmunbaal on Jul 29, 2008 10:09:14 GMT -5
((Little hint for just about anybody: Doing the movements and actions you make your character do yourself, makes it easier to understand the fight, and discover possible weaknesses in said actions...))
Eshmunbaal cared little for the audience, as he saw only one thing to do in this situation; Give them blood. He completely ignored the spectators and concentrated squarely on his enemy.
Eshmunbaal examined the man's approach, trying to foresee his movements before he made them. Zhou Yu's attack seemed pitiful to Eshmunbaal, as if it were done to probe his weaknesses. Little did the man realise, by making his attack, he showed one of his own.
The blade slashed from right to left aimed for Eshmunbaal's thigh, while the man held his shield in front of his torso. Such an attack was not a very good way to beat someone in a fight since to do this, his slashing arm would have to pass directly under his shield, leaving the attacker blind to whatever happened lower to the ground, as well as leaving his entire right side exposed to any number of attacks. Eshmunbaal would surely make use of this weakness, after making sure the attack didn't hit him first.
The attack would be quite easy to dodge, as was the case with any light attack. This was the sole reason why Eshmunbaal never tested for weaknesses, and always assumed strengths untill a weakness was discovered. Eshmunbaal waited for the last moment, when Zhou Yu would be limited to change his current movements in the ways he might want, in others words, the moment Zhou Yu started to move back his blade to execute the slash.
At that time, Eshmunbaal naturally had no idea what Zhou Yu's attack was going to be, and as a simple yet basic defense he took a step back. He moved his left foot, which was pointed towards the enemy before, back a meter behind his right foot as quickly as he could. As he did this, Eshmunbaal turned his right foot in the sand, turning it to face the enemy. As he was moving his left foot back, Eshmunbaal's torso turned around from right, to front to left, the torso itself moving back about half a meter during this motion, relative to his opponent.
The stance he was in now, could be seen as the mirror image of his previous stance, except for ofcourse the falcata he was wielding in his right hand. The weapon was no longer in the same position as it was before either. It was maybe the only thing that remained in more or less the same position. While Eshmunbaal's body moved back for the most part, he moved his right arm forward (relative to his torso), twisting his wrist to move the weapon in a vertical position, the blade pointing to the heavens instead of at the target.
By the time Zhou Yu's blade got to the end of his slash, Eshmunbaal was already on the move to exploit the weakness that had presented itself to him. Using his right foot to push himself forward. While using his right to push himself forward, it was his left foot that covered the most ground. Being placed slightly to Eshmunbaal's left as he leapt forward, about as far as Zhou Yu's furthest foot was at. Eshmunbaal brought his blade up as he leapt, but not too high. He remained vigilant for whatever Zhou Yu might come up with, and refused to bring his right upper arm higher then his shoulder, instead bringing his lower arm up with the sword, to the left of his face. So in short: as he leapt to the side (slightly to the front) of Zhou Yu, he brought his falcata upwards.
Anyone can by now see what Eshmunbaal was doing. Once he got close enough with the leap, he performed a diagonal slash, going from "left up" to "right down", the aim of his slash was Zhou Yu's right arm, solely to incapacitate him. He didn't put all too much force into it, as the shape of the falcata would cause for enough momentum to cause some serious injury.
With the way Zhou Yu held his equipment, Eshmunbaal knew it would be hard to counter. But he remained ready all the same, always overestimating his opponents.
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Zhou Yu
Private First Class
Posts: 20
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Post by Zhou Yu on Jul 29, 2008 11:46:47 GMT -5
( correct me if I'm wrong, I just did an 10 hour shift but, you pretty much flipped one step backwards, to avoid the range of the slash, then leapt forwards, as I was finishing the attack, to attack my sword arm?) Zhou was a reflective kind of person, the attack had missed, predictable. However, the Carthaginian's defense had been almost too fast, it had allowed Zhou to shift. As soon as Eshmunbaal moved backwards, far too early, Gongjin already knew the attack would miss, the lack of force in his weapon already meant he could control the motion better than Carthaginian would expect. The falcata came towards Zhou's right arm, his opponent stood to his right also, the heavy cleaver like weapon was wielded with weight, not force. The sharp edge dragged down by powerful muscles, and gravity. Now admittedly, he wasn't a warrior, Zhou was far more a man of the mind, intelligence. And as such, he was able to perform a split-second calculation. The falcata was a deadly attack true, but the oppponent had simply forgotten Zhou's shield, seemingly having bypassed it and no longer caring. The motion was a fast one, a sum of many parts; Zhou's previously twisted hip was uncoiled, adding huge momentum to his body, his left arm, bearing the shield was slashed sideways, the iron rim slamming into the flat of the falcata, a simple action, knocking the weapon away. Gongjin was not finished, as previously stated, his hip twisted to the right, his right foot twisting backwards, moving at a right angle until it was again further from Eshmunbaal, until it faced Eshmunbaal. This again, aided his counter, merely milliseconds later his sword, having reversed its cut, an easy task, a light weapon that had little force behind it, Zhou simply flipped his wrist around, the cut slashed back across aiming for the carthaginians side. The blade, made use of its full length, the bottom of the blade, several inches above the hilt, would hopefully catch the warrior's flank, just above his hip. So, in summary, it was all in his twisted hip, using the motion he brought across his shield, hitting aside the falcata, jolting it away from vunerable flesh, his sword beneath the shield was slashed back, in a wide arc, aimed at the stomach, in a move that brought the two warriors closer to their original positions, facing one another again. It wasn't a risky attack, simply knocking aside the attack, then utilising the same momentum to shift his posture to better focus on his foe, and return an attack, a controlled and powerful slash, aiming for the right side of Eshmunbaal, hopefully the motion that knocked aside his cocked arm would leave the same flank vunerable.
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Post by Eshmunbaal on Jul 29, 2008 13:26:09 GMT -5
As Eshmunbaal had thought, the man had a defense at hand. Twisting his hip and his left arm in a dramatic way, he was able to save his own life in the nick of time.
Eshmunbaal who noted the movement of his enemy decided to put a little more force into it. Instead of letting gravity alone finish the slash, he forced it down towards the shield. If it hit, it'd hit the shield with great velocity, sending a rather big shock into the enemy's bones. With some luck, this hit alone would be enough to make Zhou Yu lose his balance, stopping his slash alltogether. (you were moving your shield towards my weapon, would be hard to keep my weapon from hitting that eh...)
Even so, it probably wouldn't, which forced Eshmunbaal to take some more drastic measures. He took a quick step, placing his left foot to the man's right side, closing the distance between them. Eshmunbaal moved his left hand to try and grab ahold of Zhou Yu's right upper arm, or at least some of his clothing or armour. Eshmunbaal would try and pull him forward, hopefully forcing him to the ground. As he did this, he moved his right foot away and behind his left (relative to Zhou Yu), to be able to get more force onto Zhou Yu if he did indeed grab his arm.
It also is worth mentioning, that right now his falcata was in a good position to block Zhou Yu slash if it did indeed continue. Should Zhou Yu dodge the grab, Eshmunbaal's falcata would find itself in the way of the sword. While indeed, the falcata would in this position have not that much stopping power, the movements to keep himself from being grabbed would slow Zhou Yu's attack as well, not to mention he couldn't have put much power into the thing to begin with, judging by the stance he was in when he slashed.
Eshmunbaal still remained vigilant. With Zhou Yu's left side away from him at the time, it didn't seem like he'd be able to use his free left arm to cause any damage. But Eshmunbaal was ready for anything today...
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Zhou Yu
Private First Class
Posts: 20
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Post by Zhou Yu on Jul 29, 2008 15:08:56 GMT -5
It was a mistake, intentional or not. Eshmunbaal, had instead of his original attack, forced his powerful blade onto the shield. This, as far as Gongjin could see was a failing. The convex shield... was designed to accept heavy blows, the kinetic energy spread around the large circular area. It accepted the horrific blow suprisingly well. Although it strained at Zhou's shield arm he pushed on to victory with his other.
To him, the path was open. His slashing sword was still slicing through the air, still parting nothing but air, only gaining power. Eshmunbaal placed a powerful hand on Zhou's bicep, somehow trying to stop the blow, wrench him to the ground. Mayhap this would have worked, had it been given time. But, this was a action of a brief second, whereas wrenching Zhou to the floor would require a lengthy moment of strength. However, perhaps it was enough, the deft movements, the force of the attack upon his shield, the yanking against his arm, knocking him off balance, the attack was now only enough to leave a wound, nothing fatal, a small mark against his foe... hopefully.
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Post by Eshmunbaal on Aug 10, 2008 4:39:35 GMT -5
[This feels like bringing back a dead thread... Sorry for waiting so long...] Success, Eshmunbaal got a hold of Zhou Yu's right arm, the arm swinging the sword, the arm without which Zhou Yu could hardly even continue his slash. It'd be nearly impossible, unless ofcourse Zhou Yu's elbow could turn both ways, then maybe, but it was highly unlikely. Keeping hold of Zhou Yu's right upper arm, the duel would soon be over. As Eshmunbaal held on to the arm with his left hand, he brough his Falcata up, the reason for doing so entirely obvious. Eshmunbaal intended to incapacitate Zhou Yu, a tactic he liked to use a lot. Not just a moment ago, Eshmunbaal had held his falcata to try and defend from Zhou Yu's attack as a last measure, but things were completely different now. Before long, Eshmunbaal brought his falcata down on the enemy's arm, which he tried his best to hold in place with his left hand. Eshmunbaal didn't move his feet at all, he simply did what is described above, seeing no need to move around. To him, the battle was over.
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