training sessions // darius //

[mint alicia frost]

mint

An extension of her figure was a sleek, steel schiavona . The weapon had been in use for maybe eight years at the camp, and damage had begun to show in chips and markups alone the blade. The hilt lacked much design. The reason she had chosen it was the feel, the weight. Toad stickers and thin rapier like swords. Mint uttered a sharp noise as she jabbed at the air, angling her body in a sweeping motion. The very feel of the weapon in her hand made her light spirited, dancing with it as she would an opponent, When her movement began to catch up with her in the form of short breath, she moved faster, viciously almost. Muscles in her arms were starting to feel strain although she had been at it for only a few minutes.
Mint had natural sword skills, could string a bow quite well. She rested her head and back against the wall. Sweat was forming on her clothes. Not armor. Mint preferred things of little substance that allowed for flexibility to help her parry blows. She was not quite the best fighter in camp, yet she was hoping to work her way up as a formidable opponent. She almost dropped down to do pushups, but her body seemed to be in protest as it was.
Weak, she thought bitterly. Is that how I am? Mint relinquished her weapon, giving it a break as it clattered onto a shelf. Raising her arms over her head, Mint stretched to her sides. Feeling almost defeated, she sunk into an arm chair placed for combatants. No major matches had taken place of late, and she wasn’t sure she would have competed. She took a swig of water, refreshing her body. She checked her watch irritably, a newly found Ares kid was supposed to meet her for some basic tactics.

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[Darius Falco]

Darius arrived around noon; his father apparent father escorted him himself, a very awkward car ride to say the least. As he was lead to his new home he began to hear the clash of swords and muffled screams in the distance, immediately Darius was full of energy, someone was getting some action, and he wanted in. as they approached the gates, his father stopped, he would go no further, he merely placed his hand of Darius’ left arm “Have this, so will never forgot where you come from, a searing pain took hold of his upper arm, “Ow! That bloody hurt!” The god just laughed and disappeared in a flash. Alone Darius entered the gates to the camp. As he walked through his new home, his bag spear and shield still in hand, he was overwhelmed with all the faces, some took the time to look him over, but darius payed them no attention, he was still unknowingly walking to the sound of battle, he looked on a all the new faces practiced all manner of combat, sword, spear, bow, and to his surprise elemental, he wondered if he had any elemental powers, but he had wiki’s his father before he left, and the prospect of that was looking grim.

Darius arrived at the arena, it was full but he spied on girl that seemed to be fighting herself, it was quite amusing, but he respected the fact that she took the time to work on her form. Darius dropped his belongings and sat on them, watching the girl practice, he decided to wait until she was finished to speak, as he himself would consider it rude to be interrupted.

Once she had finished and sat, Darius worked up the want to speak, it did not take long, as he had begun to be prodded by his father in his mind, “Excuse me, a voice in me head said you’re the one I’m looking for, I know it sounds crazy, but hey…”

[mint alicia frost]

mint

“Excuse me, a voice in me head said you’re the one I’m looking for, I know it sounds crazy, but hey…” A spectator started, and it was a moment before she registered the fact that it was she who had been spoken to in this trailing-off manner.

Mint’s vision flickered to the boy immediately, eyes hawk like and judging. She looked at him skeptically, expression stony and unchanged. He certainly has some of the build… she acknowledged silently. Her father had told her to be their earlier, a favor for him. This wasn’t much of an issue because most of her time was spent in the arena on a daily basis. Mint tapped her fingers on her legs absentmindedly.

“I’ve heard worse,” she replied with a faint smile. Mint shifted her weight off the chair as if she were getting up from a siesta. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that you’re the one who I happen to be waiting for, being that you need to learn some basics of swordplay. I’m Mint, daughter of the god of war. I suggest you arm yourself if you want to be schooled on how not to die.” She gestured to the well-stocked areas of the arena and then picked her schiavona, testing its weight in her hand. All means of blades were scattered on various shelves, ranging from thin, needlelike swords to much heftier claymores. A signature Ares child was not unlikely to head for the broadest of the bunch. Mint continued to eye him with apparent curiosity.

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[Darius Falco]

Darius looked on as the girl replied to him; she seemed to have the same indifference to which he so desperately clung to. “I’m sure” he replied but he did not speak out loud, he had grown accustomed to keeping his less important things to himself. Darius stood up as the girl did, a natural instinct not to caught off guard, he looked her over, he could tell from her eyes that she was strong in heart, a rare first impression in his travels. Once again his father had taken the liberty to plan thing ahead for him, he was curious as to why the god took so much interest in him now. Darius gave a small smirk when he was told of his father’s request for this girl to teach him, the basic, the arrogant side of him laughed a the thought of a women beating him, but his mothers logic kicked in, pointing out the possibility of this girl turning into something, or maybe even drowning him, like he was sure the group of kids down the path could. When Mint introduced herself as a daughter of Ares, the only thing he could think of was that all of these years he had thought himself an only child and now he stood before his half sister, “My Darius, but no one calls me that, call me Duke, and I’m a Son of Ares.” Darius had so many questions for this girl, but he held himself back. Like music to his ears she instructed him to arm himself, he trotted over to the armory rack, and began to choose a worthy blade.
“Traditionally a sword was the last resort for a Greek soldier, only after he shattered his spear, would he use it, but since I like my spear, and you’re the teacher….we do it your way for now.” Darius stumbled upon a thick skin covering a box, “Ello…” Pulling way the hide, he uncovered two swords, one was shorter than the other, double edged with a razor sharp tip, the other was slightly longer, but it was thicker, heavier, the defense shield, Darius threw down his shield, and gracefully swung the two swords in his hands, two extensions of his arms, he turned facing his sister, with a nod he showed he was ready.

[mint alicia frost]

mint

In turn, the boy introduced himself as Darius. Duke. As she had suspected, they shared blood. Darius had not faltered at her request; it was she who lost ground when he pulled two weapons from a sack, two pieces she would have to counter. A flash of adrenaline jolted her veins as she glimpsed the blades. She could not help but wonder if his choice was the product of his actual knowledge and fighting style rather than thoughtless tactics.

“I’m going to run through a few strikes and see how well you can respond to my attacks.” She stated plainly, raising her weapon expertly.

It did not cross her mind to pick up a second blade. Darius gave and Mint flew at him, calculating rapidly how to parry the set of weapons. His grip seemed firm and it wouldn’t have been reasonable to try knocking one from his hands. Looks could be deceiving, but she had a feeling he packed more muscle mass than she. Mint decided to test this factor first in order to see how his posture could be used against him in the next turn of events. The daughter of Ares liked to pride herself in knowing most of the fighters’ weaknesses. It was with distain that she knew she had to hold back rather than risk injuring him. She wasn’t worried about sustaining an injuring from this skirmish. Her newly forged wind-enchanted weapon lay in wait on the wall, safely away in a polished sheath and although she was tempted to take it, Mint wanted to show how she could best him with this ancient piece of metal. Merely testing him, she turned the flat of her weapon against Darius’, exerting considerable force to unbalance him.

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[Darius Falco]

Darius was not expecting such force out of a small body, and neither was his shoulder as it was pushed out when Darius fell to the ground, he did not idle, he used the energy inflicted on him to complete a roll backwards, on to his feet, “that was naughty,” he thought to himself as the area around him was filled with the crack of him throwing his shoulder back in. he did not flinch he gave no indication of weakness, he would use the pain as he always had, Darius began to circle Mint finally arriving at her front he grinned has he slid his swords slowly up and down the length of her sword, he stepped back and prepared to attack, it would have to be a blow she was not expecting, he could tell she had skill. Darius switched his stance from defense to attack, he charged at with his attack sword above his head, he let his blow fall halfway before he revealed his bluff, he went into a crouch, and conducted a spinning kick, in attempt to take her footing, he hoped that she didn’t think him weak since he was new to this camp, if that was the case she would know a better here after.

[mint alicia frost]

mint

Triumph flickered in her thoughts, yet she knew that such could be deceiving in battle. One must act always as if they are the one on offense. A muffled crack echoed and Mint felt a pang of sheepish guilt, yet a wounded and wolf is quite possibly more dangerous than one in its usual state. Darius gave her no quarter, and Mint met his eyes as he shifted in front of her. Darius brought one of the blades down, a fierce attack. She whipped her sword up to meet his and only felt a light pressure as it collided, an impact which couldn’t have possibly mirrored his actual strength. She swept backwards away from her opponent as slid into a crouch. What was this tactic? On instinct, the teen took a hasty step back yet not quick enough to miss a much hit on her calf, knocking some of her away from her. Normally she would’ve resorted to her weight on her other leg, but the force pulled her aside. To her grave disappointment, she found herself on her side, sword a few inches away as she had to use both hands to minimize her force on the sand-like floor. She tried not to let the impact to the ground phase her and she began a quick movement to regain her footing. She could not quite label his move as swordplay, yet it was not a poor improvisation to normal fight.

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[Darius Falco]

Darius pushed out of his crouch and back steeping to regain his footing, this put him out of position to deliver a kill blow as Mint would retrieve her sword before he could pin her properly, Darius took this brief moment, to rotate his shoulder, to make sure everything was sorted out. Darius watched as Mint regained her footing, and he was happy she did, because to his surprise he was actually learning something, he whipped his hair out of his eyes and ready hi8mself to charge, “Your holding back…Don’t” Darius moved forward both his swords angled downwards, he didn’t raise them until he was within striking distance, he raised his attack sword high and horizontal over his head, the other sword was low in the same position, perpendicular to his belt. Darius look into Mint’s eyes, looking for some sign of weakness, he didn’t find much, so he was convinced he would have to fight it out of her. With that he moved forward to begin his second assault

Darius back peddled, he would need a running start, he would try to beat her back with a combination of momentum and steel, he sprinted at Mint, opening with a slash at the mid section he did not stop, the followed through, with his last movement his high sword fell into position, he brought screaming into a slash from top right to bottom left, quickly bring it back up to meet its sister sword to end his onslaught with two downward slashes.

[mint alicia frost]

mint

What am I DOING? Mint thought, gritting her teeth as she turned to Darius, on her feet. I can outmaneuver those cleavers with this sliver of metal! The opposing teen rushed at her again, both weapons clearly intent on attack. He called to her not to hold back, no restraint. Yet she knew there would be no way to give it her all. The inexperienced fighter would be easily felled if he left an opening. Mint was disappointed to find she could’ve sidestepped him suspecting his speed would have unbalanced him and quite possibly caused him to stumble.

Mint parried the first slice, tongue between her teeth as she looked directly at her opponent and not on the sharp points of the weapons. Gaining forward momentum herself she met the next set of slashes where her blade was the strongest, near the hilt. Almost evenly, Darius’ weapons fell over her head, neither pointed to defend. Mint shifted to the left to avoid having to block his blow from under it. In an instant she clamped her second hand around the hilt of her schiavona and swung it in an upward ark combating Darius’ steel, feeling the impact rattle her arm. Mint was aware that for every millisecond the blades were touching, she lost ground. She flexed and tightened her hold on the hilt.

With a grunt of effort as to holding the blades over herself, she turned them away from herself, turning the weight of the swords. She stood awkwardly by her opponent, double blades nicking the edges of her friendly seeming schivona. “Hey Darius.” she smirked; trying to think of how to counter him while her weapon was still— her thoughts were interrupted rudely when the pressure dropped completely. For the first time, her eyes flickered sharply to the weapon she’d had in hand. A few inches from the hilt the thin blade had broken off. Her first instinct was panic, now that his arms were freed. Before another move could be made, the sheath containing her newly made weapon caught her eye. She stepped back, arms up, telling him to pause. “I’ve got a replacement,” she stated briefly. Would it be cheating of her to use the fastest, sleekest weapon in camp against this newbie? He certainly had a mark of potential, and he had told her not to hold back. It would be dishonorable not to tell him what she was combating him with, but she figured the direction of the training could be altered somewhat, especially if she had a blade that could be used to block repeatedly with no worry of break. She walked briskly over to the sheath and connected it to her side, hooking firmly. Gently, Mint unsheathed the pale, robin’s egg blue blade from the case. It was considerably thicker than the ruined schivona yet had almost no additional weight. The weapon felt perfect in her grip.
(quite a lot packed in, the sword movement is meant to have taken place over a few seconds.)

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[Darius Falco]

Darius could feel Mint slightly buckling under his strength, she was as big it was to be expected, but still he worried about her speed, and made sure that she would not get a quick opportunity to short blade him. When her sword broke Darius kicked the broken blade away from her, thinking she might try and pull a crafty move on him, but to his dismay it was worse than he thought. Mint notified him of a replacement, he crossed his swords his chest and stepped back, he turned taking a brief second to drink some water, when he turned to face her again he dropped his bottle. Mint had unsheathed a dazzling sword with a blue blade, he was happy he had a second sword. Darius considered to switching to a spear and shield but decided that it would be too pointless, he didn’t know what the sword could do, for all he knew it would turn him into a naked mole rat.


“Now dhis should be fun…” Darius approached his half sister cautiously at first, but when arrived at a comfortable distance he ready for the Mints attack, seeing as since she just pulled out a weapon that clearly was not natural, or at least his definition of the word. Darius set his feet and bent his knees getting low to the ground, awaiting the first blow of Mints new toy.

[mint alicia frost]

mint

Darius appeared to have picked up on the unusual blade. It was quite vibrant in color; such true blues were rarely forged in swords as most preferred to keep to a gray color. The hilt was thin and was patterned with the same shade of blue. Another trait of the metal was glossy finish, making it look like something that should be nailed up over a fireplace rather than swung in a fight. Because she didn’t want to continue simple swordplay, she decided to have him try an exercise she’d been forced to perfect in her apprenticeship.

“Strike at me as many times as you can, though rest assured I shall knock your blows aside.” Mint paused. “I will attempt to get a solid slice on you and I cannot accommodate your request to not, well, hold back. Or rather, give me incentive to.. If I draw blood, you’ve lost. However, if I can counter you a total of fifty times without having a chance to nick your flesh, you’ve passed. This blade is likely fasted than any you’ve encountered before, make me need such a fast weapon or else I think I’ll find myself bored. I begin.” She took a step forward and turned the flat of the blade against Darius, more testing her blade than him. The weapon flew effortlessly in his direction and she found herself slowing its horizontal path.

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[Darius Falco]

Darius gave a nod of the head, agreeing to Mints’ instructions, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he pushed everything around out of view when he opened his eyes the only thing he could see was Mint, in a flash he was upon her, he opened with two diagonal slashes, each blade swung to the opposite side of his body, he brought them back furiously at the same time, drawing a x on her body In his mind, used his left sword to curve her downward to the dirt, he stepped on it, but to his surprise it was slipper and he fell to one knee, rolling out of the way he rethought his strategy, he continued his onslaught with fevered blows, each fall right behind the other, her sword was strong, but it meant nothing if she could not wield it, he planned to over whelm her, make she didn’t get to comfortable.


Almost effortlessly he continued, not faltering, only increasing the force behind each swing, he found repeated opportunity to take her to the ground, but that was not the object of this exercise, technically he was on the defensive. Darius continued with a two upwards strikes followed, a quick slash to the abdomen, then he finished his attack with a huge side kick which he followed through with a whip of both his blades at Mint, he ended up coughing with both blades on the ground, to get out of dodge he back flipped stopping a safe distance away, crouched, his blade pointed towards Mint, brought close to his body, in a ready position.

[mint alicia frost]

mint

Mint’s heart pounded as she knocked at his blows viciously, her endurance wavering with the increased movement. The blade was working to her satisfaction yet she hadn’t been able to break his defense, to his credit. In the beginning, she’d counted each clang of the metal, but now her thoughts were focused on the impacts. A bead of sweat rolled down her neck. At a one point she found herself knocking away his shoe, a third target. She had every impulse to drop what she was doing and call it quits, realizing as her patterns become sloppier.

Darius retreated and Mint sucked in breath, letting her sword hang limply at her side. Her muscles pulsed for more, yet the exercise seemed to have beaten down her strength. Her hands dropped to her knees in what was almost an involuntary movement.

“Not bad,” She panted, clenching her weapon. He had not relinquished his guard, and again she thought to stop him. To be honest, the demigod hadn’t intended to have such a toll from this. Darius seemed like he knew more than basics. Had Ares been testing her to adapt to her opponent? “I lost count, but I have no doubt we overrode fifty.” She couldn’t bring herself to put down her weapon, so she merely sheathed it for the moment.

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[Darius Falco]

Darius finally relaxed, he sheathed his swords behind his back, this was around the same time that his shoulder began to really ache, it was not the best idea to keep fighting after a injury like that, but he was a son of Ares, there was no room for weakness in his life, especially if he thought himself good enough to be sent on a quest. Darius watched Mint, she seemed a little bit out of breath she hid it very well, espials taking the blows of the swords of basically a full grown demigod, in size if not years. Darius walked away kneeling down to pour some water over his head.

Darius stood back up waiting for what was to come next, where they to do some other fancy drill or where they, don’t for today, Darius could have went either way, as long as they did something, Darius walked over to Mint with his arms crossed smiling, he was very impressed with her, a good fight, someone he could trust to watch his back, if he ever got into trouble.

[mint alicia frost]

mint

Strained muscles were bothering her an amount that was not inconsiderable. Darius’ hair was damp with both sweat and water, a sign that she’d also managed to have an impact. Her hairline and neck felt sticky, yet it was not something she wasn’t used to. No cool breezes came into the closed arena boundaries.

“Would you like a break?” she asked lamely, more for herself than for the larger sword bearer. This would’ve been a pristine time to attack her. Recalling her own training, she’d had to watch her back constantly. He was new… better not to test him more than the camp already was. “And how’d you end up over at the camp anyhow?”

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