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Character of the Season
Frail in body but dangerously quick of mind, Nikandr is the sort of character who proves that curiosity can be just as perilous as any weapon. A necromancer, inventor, and problem-solver with more ambition than self-preservation, Niki approaches the world like a puzzle box begging to be opened, even when what’s inside has teeth. Blunt, dry-witted, fiercely independent, and carrying a history best left partially buried, he has a knack for making even failure feel fascinating. Whether he’s raising the dead, moving across Caido to King's End, or experiencing a hangover for the first time, Nikandr brings a wonderfully strange spark to Caido, and we can’t wait to see what trouble his brilliant mind wanders into next.
Congratulations, Niki!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
After ensuring that the puppies would be ok, Sah headed out for a brief visit to Torchline. He had a hunting commission to complete and was hoping to relax some as well. But first, he needed to train.
The Wild Thunder could handle magic, hand-to-hand, swords, knives, and even bows. But spears or axes? He had no idea what he was doing. It was better to have a handle on at least all weaponry ranges, so he knew he needed a mid-range option. Thus, here he was. In the middle of an island, attempting to figure out how to use a spear.
The thrusting motion felt awkward and heavy. It was too slow and not agile enough for his usual fighting style. Stabbing it into one of the targets he set up, the Abandoned winced, "Who the fuck even willingly uses these things?" He tore the weapon out and twirled it around his hand. That part was doable but, actually using the weapon was another story.
Alys had her berth back aboard the Peregrine again so Tal had told Sah he'd meet him in Torchline. Now that the hunter could teleport it definitely made things easier to travel, even if it meant the wolves couldn't come with him. Then again, given the proclivity for the local jungle to bite back, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing! Even Boreal had been left to accompany Sascha back in Haulani to keep the dragon from finding trouble on the carnivorous island.
So it was just the two of them, fucking around in a clearing where the crimson plants rustled restlessly at the edges, and sweating balls in the tropical humidity of Longheat.
"Eh, they're not so bad," Tal shrugged, switching his Dagger to his right hand and taking a few tentative swipes at a boldly crawling vine. The move was awkward in what was clearly his non-dominant hand. 'I trained with 'em for awhile. Wanted a magic spear, actually, but... Frey set me up with the Dagger instead." There was still a moment of hesitation over the deity's name, even if it was no longer quite so raw now that he'd found solace in worshiping Mort. "Th'footwork's a lot more important with a spear than just about anythin' else, though." Sure, footwork was always important, but at least with a sword or a knife you could compensate for bad feet with brute force. With a spear if your feet were off balance or out of sync with your arms, you were proper fucked.
Sah grumbled under his breath, "Makes sense." Swordsmanship and daggers were more like dancing or flying. The spear was clunky and rigid. It wasn't versatile like the Abandoned's weapons of choice.
Noticing that Talyson switched to his nondominant hand, Sah turned and leveled his spear at the courier, "Since we're both handicapped like this, what do you say we spar and see who can adjust quicker?" Talyson had the advantage of still working with a familiar weapon but sparring with his frenemy was always better with an added challenge.
If he lost like this, at least his pride wouldn't take too bad of a hit. It was his first time working with a spear, after all. On the flip side, if he won, he'd never let Talyson live it down.
Slashing at plants wasn't exactly rewarding, even if they were carnivorous plants. At the offer of a spar Tal lit up with a grin, shifting his target to the Abandoned with an eager nod. "Hail yeah. An' don't worry, I'll patch y'up after," he assured his best frenemy with all the smug confidence of an annoying older brother.
He cracked his neck and shook out his left hand - and fuck if it didn't feel wrong for it to be empty, but he knew he needed to train both hands in case his dominant one was injured - and measured the distance between himself and the Wild Thunder. "Ready?" It was all the warning Sah got - and more than he should have given, but maybe he was getting soft on account of the new pups - before Tal lunged to try and get inside the spear's range. And after all that talk about footwork? He made a stab - albeit a clumsy one - towards his opponent's front thigh!
09-05-2024, 08:28 PM (This post was last modified: 09-07-2024, 04:18 PM by Sah.)
Sah
The forest never sleeps and the wolf never dies
Sah snorted, "You know I have healing magic." It might not be as powerful as the courier's ring just yet, but it was enough to handle the results of a spar. Usually.
Tal began the spar with a very generous warning that the Wild Thunder didn't manage to heed. He underestimated how difficult quick maneuvers were with a spear. He tried to twist, but his own weapon blocked his progress, and he was unable to dodge the Messenger's strike. As a result, Tal's clumsy stab somewhat worked.
It grazed the Abandoned's thigh, but the courier's knee ended up knocking into Sah's thigh with decent force. More bruised then sliced, the Wild Thunder gritted his teeth. He swung the staff around and attempted to smack the inside of Tal's knee to knock out the joint.
"Yeah, but mine's better," Tal shot back smugly. And... well, they'd probably need both to patch Sah up if he got hit with the Dagger... which kind of soured the sweet taste of victory for the courier as his grin slipped towards an apologetic grimace with his thoughts. Sah couldn't know what he was thinking, but that was okay: they had some training to do, and Tal didn't waste more time on teasing.
The sooner they got it over with, the better... and he could ask Sah for that favor he needed when it was over. If he still had to.
A light graze was probably not enough for his quest, but it was plenty for a sparring point! Even if his knee had technically done most of the damage. Whoops? It did make it hard to get out of the way of the hunter's retaliation, however, though at least Tal wasn't tripping over his own weapon. He managed to get most of the way disentangled from his frenemy before Sah could wrestle the spear around, but it still struck a glancing blow against his kneecap that had the courier swearing under his breath and flailing a somewhat off-target slash towards one of the hands holding the spear - with the blade itself in such close quarters, rather than with its distance-magic.
Sah scoffed, "For now." The twitch in his lips betrayed the teasing nature of the comment even as he tried to scowl. There was something off about the courier's mood, but the Abandoned couldn't place it. Maybe after the spar, he'd try to pry a bit out of the man. He'd bribe him with puppy cuddles.
Tal failed and the Wild Thunder hissed as the blade cut the top of his hand. His grip on the spear tightened in reflex. Sah needed to make some distance between them in order to properly use his weapon. He rose his knee up and attempted to slam it into the courier's wrist where he held the knife. If it made the man drop the blade, great. If not, it'd hopefully at least make him take a step or two back and Sah could regroup.
Tal was easily bribed with puppy cuddles, and quite happily so, but some things were better left unsaid unless there was no other choice. And he really hoped he wouldn't have to tell Sah that he'd gone back to Ludo after the last time. The hunter had been traumatized enough. And, hail, if the Dagger didn't get naturally christened in this fight, he could always go ask Ru for a favor.
But those were thoughts and anxieties for later. At the moment the courier was fighting for his life pride, and as usual in his fights with Sah that meant a whole lot of beating the shit out of each other.
Neither could seem to get the upper hand while struggling with unfamiliar weapons or fighting on the wrong side. Tal might have grinned in triumph when his slash went home but he didn't have time before Sah's knee hit the underside of his hand. The only thing that saved his wrist was the pommel of the Dagger, but the weapon was jostled in his less-than-perfect grip and he had to scramble to grab onto it before it was knocked free. Sah was able to back up in that time, but Tal snorted and backed up, too, opening the distance even farther between them to stay out of the spear's reach as he stabbed awkwardly with his Dagger and the invisible force lashed across the clearing towards the hunter.
Sah would be furious if he knew that Tal had returned to the death herald. But he'd be even more furious if he found out the courier hid that fact from him.
The Wild Thunder tried to guess where the invisible strike would land, predicting Tal's use of his dagger's ability. He guessed incorrectly as he stabbed his spear out. The hidden blade scrapped the side of the spear and bounced off to slice the Abandoned's shoulder. Hissing Sah, attempted to return the favor by aiming his spear for the other man's hip. He intended to pull back at the last minute so as to only cut Tal.
But it seemed almost like Tal wasn't returning the same courtesy with his last strike. Sah's eyes narrowed, "Careful there, Errand Boy. Or I might think that you're actually trying to stab me."
It sounded like Sah was going to be furious either way...
If he ever found out. Which made it all the more important for him not to, amirite?
The hunter closed the distance so he could get back into spear range, but Tal was nimble enough to actually twist out of the way in time, nose wrinkling in annoyance at the accusation. "Hey, I just figured you were better at dodging! Guess I prob'ly should give y'some footwork lessons if you're gonna-- whoa, HEY!"
So tied up in fighting each other, the boys had missed the eager rustling of the carnivorous foliage around them, especially as blood was spilled. A Preying Orchid lunged out from the edge of the clearing to sink its jaws into Tal's butt and the courier stumbled forward while trying to swat behind him to knock the damn thing loose. At the same time a slithering, thorny vine twined between Sah's ankles. The courier flailed, half spinning as he fell forward with his Dagger unfortunately just as likely to catch his best frenemy in the line of fire as the hungry plant he was awkwardly trying to cut off him!
As Tal twisted away, Sah attempted to lower his spear and cut the man's lower calf. But then a domino effect happened. Tal apparently tripped and the Wild Thunder let out a huff of air through gritted teeth as the dagger sunk deep into his thigh. As he tried to twist away, a thorny vine wrapped around him and the Abandoned was knocked off balance. Instead of grazing the courier's right leg, the tip of the spear stabbed into the side of his left calf.
"Fucking hell, Talyson!" He dropped his spear but didn't yank it out. Hissing through his teeth, he grabbed the courier's wrist that was holding his dagger, "Let go." The vine still wrapped around him quickly turned to ash with a quick and precise burst of flame. Despite his pain-induced anger, Sah made sure not to burn the courier with his actions.
Well, now Tal really had something to howl about as a spear pierced into his calf, catching and severing muscle and tendon as well as tearing the tough cloth of his pants. As the muscle separated and blood flowed freely down to the thirsty soil of the carnivorous island the courier's leg collapsed, taking him down and down hard. He released his Dagger even before Sah spoke in favor of clutching at his own injury and trying to hold the wound closed around the spear still sticking out of it so his Ring could do its work without him losing even more blood.
...Except he couldn't, because Sah had grabbed his wrist for some gods-be-damned reason.
"Fuck your own hell, Sah!" He growled back through gritted teeth, panting against the pain as he jerked his arm free - later he'd be surprised at how easy it had been to break the hunter's hold - to clap his hand over his cut and activate the Ring.
Healing swept through him, pushing the spear's blade out of swiftly-knitting muscle and skin and the tension in his face and neck eased as he was finally able to draw a full breath again. As the spear hit the ground he finally looked over to his frenemy with an apologetic grimace. "Sorry about that. That time I wasn't even tryin' t'hit you. D'you need an extra boost...?" he asked, wiggling his fingers so that the Ring glinted benevolently in the dappled light.
Tal released his dagger just as Sah grabbed his wrist, rendering the Abandoned's attempt to stop the man from pulling the dagger out pointless. He was about to loosen his grip as the courier ripped his arm free. Dropping to one knee with a hiss of pain, the Wild Thunder put pressure on the stab wound as he carefully took the blade out. Tossing it aside, he instantly started channeling his healing magic to close the wound. His mageglass warming against his skin was the only reason he could even do so. It took a few bursts, but the wound was sealed, even as a bruise remained.
Sah met Tal's grimace with a fierce glare, "Yes." He took the offered ring and fully healed his injury before tossing the item back with a heavy sigh. With the pain fading, his head cleared, and some of his anger cooled. "Seriously. What happened? I know I tripped when a vine grabbed me after you stabbed me, but what knocked you over?" He eyed where his spear had previously stabbed the courier before letting out a tsk, "I'm sorry too." The guilt was heavy in his throat, and he had to blink to make sure it was Tal in front of him and not a certain redhead.
Tal had been intending to simply touch Sah, Healing his friend himself, but he didn't argue when the hunter took the Ring and did it himself. He only winced and waited for the item to be returned before slipping it back on his finger.
The hungry island rustled around them, drawn to the scent of spilled blood and the clearing seemed to grow smaller as foliage leaned or crept or wriggled closer, but Tal kept his attention on Sah to make sure the other man really was okay before he finally exhaled and went to collect his Dagger. As he turned away from the Wild Thunder to do so he accidentally revealed some of the answer to the question: a set of large tooth-holes in the rear of his trousers and the squashed remains of the Preying Orchid he'd sat back on when he'd fallen from his spear-wound.
"Somethin' bit me in th'ass," he grumbled, carefully cleaning his weapon before sheathing it. "I was tryin' t'knock it off when I stumbled into you." He straightened and turned around to offer Sah a hand up. "C'mon, let's get outta here. Th'island's gettin' restless, an' I don't think we should stick around for lunch!"
