remember that you can't save everyone
remember that you have to try
For all their prior prowess, the situation turned ultimately in the wrong direction. Staffs could be difficult, especially with their length, the occasional requirement of using both hands, and lack of a serrated edge. While he’d presumed some would be familiar with its techniques, not entirely different from a longsword, the cataclysm coming thereafter was a bit of surprise.Because all of them missed – some by wide margins, the staff swinging entirely by the immobile dummies’ heads, only making a curt sound in the breeze. Weaver’s somehow managed to stick itself into the ground, a mistake hinged on too much strength, and by the time he’d made it around to all four of them, the situation seemed a bit dire.
“Time for a break.” He placed his own staff down, encouraging some amount of stretching, and gesturing towards the table nearby with water. The notion that some didn’t have the endurance or fortitude for so many painstakingly onslaughts surmised in his mind, and part of him wondered if he should’ve been taking it easier. How much easier plied him with uncertainty, while he waited for them – mind already whirling towards other possibilities. There’d been no sense in critiquing each one in turn – the errors had flown all over the place.
He wasn’t disappointed; but insightful, pondering how best to strategize going forward.
Once they’d finished, he wandered back up to the front, beside his own target. “We will warm up properly.” Then he demonstrated, modeling, the faction of loosening up the hand muscles for such occasions – the staff going back and forth in a circle, slow at first, modeling the shifting of the wooden armament from hand to hand, until he’d developed a certain rhythm. Once it was established, he maneuvered faster and faster, swift, keen, but primordial muscles in palms awakened, determined to continue on, then ceased, waiting for them to do the same.
Thereafter, he nodded them back towards their dummies. “Try again.” Practice, diligence, and patience – none of them would own these details and particulars in a day.
--
Woof. All of you rolled a miss, and Weaver rolled a crit miss.
Take a break, warm up with your staff once more, and try again (we’re on our second to last round!). No post order!
out for vengeance
DEIMOS
