With the world in disarray, Hadama looked forward to his regular training sessions with Noah as points of stability. A chance to see his friend and take a step back from duty also made each visit a pleasure, no matter the bruises that might arise by the end of it.
This time, though, he had requested they mix pleasure with a small task: seeking out some of Vi's Roses while they trained their respective strengths. Doing so in the shade of the Mathair, seeking the goddess's blessing on their task, only seemed courteous to the visiting Mer, who finished his offering to the great tree where the waters lapped closest around her roots and then retreated from beneath her spreading canopy to a safer distance.
He had no desire to accidentally catch her in the crossfire of their sparring and earn her wrath.
The wind moved around him as he waited for his friend, half out of the water and working on his control over the air until Noah arrived. He had his trident and his armor, and once the demigod appeared the mermanta nodded, eyes glinting with quiet humor. "Welcome. Ready to begin?"
Noah hadn't been to the Greatwood since the twins were newborns. Since before he had been chained to the Grounds. But as he entered, he took some time to look for Phoebe. Liam said she hadn't been seen in a while, and Noah had lost track of that until Hadama's suggestion to go there. Worried about the demigod -- but hoping that it was another ploy of Frey to keep her close to them and safe -- Noah arrived a few days early and looked.
But found nothing.
It was with heavy shoulders that he finally came upon Hadama. He forced a smile of greeting to his friend, but shared with him the heaviness he was feeling by explaining that he and Phoebe were friends, and she was missing, etc. etc. Once that was shared, he was ready to move on to their tasks at hand.
Armed with nothing but magic and small enough items to hold in pockets, Noah nodded towards his friend. Then, he moved as if he were pulling a bowstring back, and two celestial arrows formed and shot directly towards the merking. the forsaken
Hadama, too, knew Phoebe and had tentatively called her friend. He had helped her with her diligent efforts to improve the Greatwood after the War and her absence was troubling, indeed. He listened soberly to Noah's concerns, sharing them and offering to keep an eye out for the demigoddess and let Noah know if he found word of where she'd gone.
At the moment there was nothing else they could do for her but train to defend themselves and their people, and the mermanta prepared himself as his friend and opponent took up a strangely weaponless stance nearby.
The arrows that manifested from thin air caused a slight widening of emerald eyes and Hadama twisted to the side in the water, feeling the sizzle as the arrows cut through the air close enough for him to feel their heat - and for a thick lock of steely hair to fall into the water, sliced free by one of the arrows. In response he called upon the winds to swirl faster between them, whipping water from the river to obscure the Forsaken's vision as he attempted to encase Noah in a waterspout.
A slight smirk appeared on Noah's face as his keen eyes caught Hadama's hair falling into the water. He hadn't expected to catch his friend by such surprise, but Hadama and Noah had a way of keeping each other on their toes....tails (fins?)....and that was part of what kept Noah looking forward to their seasonal trainings.
There was not much time to revel in what he considered to be first strike success, as the merking was already throwing an assault of his own. Wind and water whipped and ripped around the demigod. Had he not had the ability he was about to use, he might have shifted into his basilisk form to keep himself from being thrown by the gale. But, that was not needed at the moment.
Instead, Noah blinked to the other side of the merking, on dry land again, and called upon his spirit stag to charge Hadama.
the forsaken
A new ability was always hard to anticipate, whether it was in the form of a weapon or a new shift. And both he and Noah had a habit of trying new tactics on each other with every spar, keeping things fresh and exciting every time they met. The arrows might have been a surprise, but two could play the teleportation game.
As the water spout tore through the space where Noah had been and passed without resistance, leaving no sign of the Forsaken Sentinel in its wake, Hadama did not waste time looking around to see his friend and opponent. Some things were almost reliable by now, and the spirit stag was practically an old friend at this point.
Though the type of friend who routinely left bruises in its wake.
Instead the Tidebreaker Aquaported to a different stream a little ways away before taking the opportunity to scan the forest, emerald eyes quickly spotting the demigod nearby, and the stag that had indeed charged him. Though he lacked any new abilities, his old ones still served their purpose. Three icy spheres the size of softballs formed in his hands and he threw them in quick, silent succession at Noah's back.
Noah had a theoretical working knowledge of most of Hadama’s abilities at this point, just as the merking had for him, but Noah found himself still surprised when the king disappeared from view. Her spun quickly, glacier eyes searching for him to reappear, as his brilliant sunlight stag dissipated in the twinkling of stars behind him.
The ripple of water was the only indication that the mer would be appearing, so Noah locked in on it. However, the appearance of the merking was not what Noah should have been focusing on. Two hardened snowballs thwacked against his chest and the third barely missed his shoulder. A blunt guffaw filled the air as Noah laughed at the retribution, but quickly he took aim again and sent celestial arrows towards his friend.
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The birds had fled the scene, seeking safer perches away from the flashing lights and snowy missiles, but squirrels still rustled through the leaves of nearby trees, trusting in their height to keep them safe as they watched the combat with curious, beady gazes. Lower down even than the ground, half-submerged in the shallow stream the mermanta's emerald eyes gleamed with amusement, a small smile cracking the King's usual facade as Noah's deep, bright laugh rang through the trees.
It was just as well that he wasn't inclined towards quips or witty reparte. There was little enough time to do so as his friend turned back to the attack, testing his new arrows out once more. There was little time to react to such swift procjectiles, and he could not Aquaport again so soon. Hadama tried to raise an ice wall between himself and Noah to absorb the arrows, but his magic wasn't quite fast enough. The rising ice deflected the first arrow harmlessly away, but he couldn't bring it up in time to stop the second, which struck him squarely in the shoulder.
He grunted at the impact, a hiss escaping as he worked through the pain and twisted under the water. No sooner had he done so than a small thirty foot-wide tidal wave rose up from where he had submerged, sweeping towards Noah with drenching force.
Thankfully water wasn't something that Noah was scared of. With his strength and durability, getting drenched was a risk he was willing to take. Celestial light swirled around him, creating a brilliant and awe-inspiring shield. Bearing down, Noah stayed in place as Hadama's wave crashed over him. He stumbled back slightly, just a few feet, but was able to keep himself upright as he braced against the merking's assault.
The shield dissipated just as Noah ignited his next and final attack -- Divine Opposition. Hadama was familiar with this ability -- Noah knew as such -- from both sides. The merking had been an "enemy" while in training spars and juxtaposed (and more often) had been an ally. He has received both healing and damage from the attack in the past.
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Water could be dangerous indeed, but Hadama was trying to avoid lethal force in their trainings. Knowing that Noah could heal them both meant that they could go a lot harder than he was comfortable doing with anyone else, however. It made for an interesting spar, and a more realistic one as he had to work past the pain that radiated from his arrow-struck shoulder, jaw clenched as he strove to stay in the fight.
It was still too soon to aquaport again, but Hadama recognized the set to Noah's shoulders as the demigod regrouped and prepared to unleash an ability that was arguably his most troublesome to deal with. Having no desire to absorb any more damage on top of the celestial arrow already embedded in his flesh, the mermanta chose wisdom over pride, abandoning his next attack plan and diving into the stream, shifting into his full manta form as he raced the manifestation of the dome. Broad wings stroked with the current as he let it add just a little extra boost to his efforts, and blood trailed behind him, reddening the water.
It was a near thing. A very near thing. Hadama had never moved so swiftly in his life, and one instant of hesitation or missed stroke of a wing would have left him within the dome as it pulsed into being and sent its power coursing through the area around Noah. But he made it, if by the skin of his long, slender tail, and the mermanta drifted to a halt a little further downstream before turning around and making his way back at a more sedate pace. Enough, he called through the Attuned bond. Mercy, Noah. I yield.
Noah was not unfamiliar with the reactive emotions that burst over the attuned bond. Not even in this setting. During their first spar, the one that ignited this tradition, Noah had been the one to experience such a reaction when Hadama had wrapped him in tentacles and held him beneath the water. He had been afraid of drowning, and since then had not had the bravery — stupidity? — to battle the merking in the water.
But with the merking’s yielding, Noah nodded and then blinked to where he saw the water rippling, to the land closest to where he thought Hadama would surface. ”Should we move on to the next phase, then? I can heal you in just a few minutes, when that replenishes.” He said, indicating the dome.
FIN the forsaken
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