Doc Doctor

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

Aye, but he had predicted those actions and accounted for them by timing his swing to hit her before she hit him. They were a part to your reaction to his counter, but that counter didn't come as a surprise. I was quite specific in covering all the bases. In fact, she'd have probably needed to slow down to properly suplex him without actually having her forwards momentum bowl him over. He timed his blow for her to outright smash into him bodily, hence he actually prepared for her to be faster than she'd likely be moving, giving him the edge he needs to hit first. The only time his axe wasn't in position to swing was when he simultaneously switched his stance and his grip, which would've been before she was in place to attack again. She's fast, but Kull had timing and read her strategy, so he had the benefit of acting in tight coordination with her. He moved from one clean swinging stance into another, and as mentioned many times, he's very careful about having good footing. Perhaps her mass might topple him over if she really threw her ass into it, but keep in mind where the axe is positioned, ready to go. She'd still have it thunder into her chest and kill her, or so I'd think.

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich
He knew what she wanted to do if things turned sour. She planned to try and either knock him one with her free hand (assuming she had enough time to recover from the trident thrust), or lunge, roll, or otherwise seek to use her wily physique to escape to either side or perhaps crash into him.

@Doc Doctor

Kull had very much predicted such a change in strategy, and had intended to hit her with the axe before she was close enough to meet him bodily.

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

In combat, possibly the most vital asset is good footwork. Don't cross your legs. Keep your balance centered at all times. Keep your footing firm and level. This lesson had been beaten into Kull ever since he was old enough to swing a shortsword. It was one thing to walk or quickly stride towards an opponent, and another beast entirely to outright charge at them as Selandra intended. With Kull steadily closing in, she wanted to take him off guard with the old one-two buckle my shoe, net and trident, a combo meant to make him focus on two drastically different places at once. With her formidable size and speed, most would have been taken aback by the surprise assault and left out to dry. Kull had been calmly studying her the entire time though, ready for something like this. She didn't have much of a choice but to either go on the offensive or be backed into a wall, which would have been certain defeat.

Kull wasn't quite so agile as Selandra, nor quite so quick. He compensated for such things with a honed and intricate knowledge of combat and the reflexes of a professional boxer. He was watching her core. The core is called the core for a reason. Most bodily motion originates from the core. The way the torso squares before throwing an attack, the twist of the waist. That's how high level fighters divine where the first blow of the one-two comes from, how boxers can bob and weave through strikes that move faster than the eye can see from mere feet away. It was plenty easier to see the net and trident coming than a punch.
As Selandra rushed down Kull, he stopped short, left foot leading by a small margin a shoulder's width from his right, allowing her to bound the scant distance required to reach him.
He knew what she wanted to do if things turned sour. She planned to try and either knock him one with her free hand (assuming she had enough time to recover from the trident thrust), or lunge, roll, or otherwise seek to use her wily physique to escape to either side or perhaps crash into him. To hit him in time she'd have to awkwardly reach across her body, and even then she might not be close enough to touch him with her fingertips. At any rate, the closer she was, the worse it'd be when Kull hit her first.
There was to be no escaping the captain's sheer experience. The net swung in, the small stone or metal weights presumably adorning it smacking heartily against his left bicep and flank and draping across his fists only to slip off, but failing to cause discomfort through his bronze plate armor. The netting wouldn't have much to catch on. The bottom of the shaft of his axe was well below his waist line, and the head was too high. The practical application was null without anything to snag, and even if it could catch on something, the minute ridges of his gauntlets for example, well...

With her right hand free she thrusts her trident towards Kull's left knee, the intention of crippling him in her mind.

@Tristwich

She had released her net to free up her hand, maybe to draw a weapon, which there was to be no time to do. Even if she had caught something, she'd no longer have a way to try and jerk him off balance or further bind him. There was no reason why he'd not have at least a few feet of leeway to move his hands regardless of whether or not the net wound up draped over them. It wasn't like the coil of a python, or a dog catcher's noose. It couldn't draw itself tight or consciously restrict him in the right places. It was a haphazard swing with haphazard results. So, Kull didn't worry about it. Just after the net hit he deftly swapped the great axe from a right handed grip to a lefty, quickly swinging it betwixt his hands like a pendulum and bringing it to bear in a New York second, left hand over right instead of right over left, axe ready to be swung from his left shoulder.

(I don't usually do this, but seeing as this is a ranked fight I wanted to make doubly sure it was clear how Kull swapped his grip. It's vital for a fight writer to be able to express virtually any action with words alone, but y'know, this medium isn't restricted purely to words. I'll always be willing to provide resources to make my emotes as understandable as possible. As can be seen, I'm a pretty lean guy and that's a ten pound sledgehammer. I can only bench about 170 and I've never trained with anything heavier than three pounds in my life, yet I can still move that fast with that much weight. Kull then, who specializes in heavy headed weapons, could very easily perform that maneuver much, much more quickly and efficiently than I ever could.)


At the exact same time, immediately judging the trident's trajectory, he neatly asserted his right leg forwards to bump the thrust off kilter with his knee, utilizing masterful timing, striking the side of its head so it'd harmlessly shoot past his rear leg. He didn't think she'd be able to try and trip him with it or otherwise bring it to bear again before he ended her life. Footing was, again, the key. Selandra probably had a definite idea of when she'd thrust in cooperation to being able to lunge into an escape. You had to have your rear foot planted to bound off. By taking that sudden step forwards to deflect her trident, Kull would have prematurely closed the judged distance and likely caught her at a closer range than she'd been expecting, right as her weight probably shifted onto her lead foot after having shoved off her rear leg to power her thrust, unless she had thought a weak stab with no proper footing would cause significant enough injury to prevent the hyper aggressive manslayer from chopping her down through her attack out of spite. An unlikely error given her experience, ignoring the problems with the net. She didn't want him to touch her, she wanted to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, not trade blows and risk lifelong crippling injury and disfigurement.

There was absolutely no indication that she'd be in a position to dodge during her thrust, anyways. Eyes hardening into icy slivers, lips curling into a snarl of effort, he screwed his left heel into the ground and threw his entire upper body into a maniacal clockwise swing, intending to lash the axe over her extended left arm and into her torso with enough force to cave in her armor and split her sternum in two. If need be, he'd increase his reach by letting his left hand slide down the shaft, maybe to catch her if she were somehow able to position herself in time to try and escape. All of Kull's weight had been put into this devastating two-handed stroke, and if it hit it'd wind up killing most of her momentum and absolutely flooring her. He doubted that her speed would help her dart away quickly enough to keep her from barreling right into his counter with lethal results. Momentum could be a potent enemy. She couldn't very well block or deflect the blow with her left hand, seeing as she'd have to reach across her own body to try and awkwardly stop over seven kilos of razor sharp metal swung by a man who could bench press Sel's body weight twice over.
Even a skidding, glancing blow could take off a limb, smash bone, and tear open arteries, not that Kull's accuracy currently had any reason to suffer. Plate armor had its limits, and Kull's axe and raw strength was mean enough to break them.

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

Just two things I need to make sure I get. Her trident is in her left hand and the net in her right, yeah? Also, how and where is she throwing the net? Flailing it from the side, or attempting to cast it above? Going for the flank or arms or head?

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

In my case, I'm not exactly providing you with "What If" moves so much as forewarning you about potential openings and mistakes. I'm not having Kull commit to any attacks, as can be seen, which is vital to the difference. The point of doing this could be purposed to make an opponent hesitant to attack, or to open them up to the mental possibility of losing, all good applications. Note that in my last OOC post, I stated that "What If" moves could provoke metagaming. This isn't provoking metagame. This is called mindgaming, trying to influence an opponent's actions by providing them with observable information that may be fairly and realistically divined. You're doing it too, so you may already know what I'm talking about. Your posts ooze confidence and assurance. You constantly refer to my character, from your character's point of view, as prey. You make your advantages crystal clear to invoke feelings of unease and uncertainty in opponents. All classic examples of mindgaming, just like how I detail Kull's sure death radius, building him up to be as intimidating as possible. Keep in mind that though the two may intermingle, mindgaming isn't always the same as bluffing, though that doesn't become apparent without results. Results, after all, define whether or not what we do is genuinely effective or not.

Consider what'd happen if I didn't know how to use a sword when a fight started, despite using a character stated to be an expert with blades, and I Googled it the day after because my opponent suggested it. That's perfectly acceptable. You aren't learning some nasty secret integral to my battle plan, or a fact about my character that you shouldn't. You might just be enlightened on your own character's build, information I'm freely sharing with you to my own detriment, which, depending on how you process it, may either positively or negatively influence the fight. I'm making this obvious so it's a positive influence, hopefully. Purely informative. It's always a good time to share information, and to learn!

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

Kull tucked his chin in, snarl curling up into a grin as his opponent ceased her approach and began keeping a distance instead. His fighting style was meticulous, despite his appearance as a brutish manslayer. He made no apparent mistakes, his shifting balance was always steady and firm, his sardonic eyes never wavered from her core. A single error was going to be the last where this one was concerned. He'd stride in the direction she attempted to circle to, making sure not to cross his feet, seeking to press her towards the wall and box her in in a matter of seconds, encroaching with the inevitability of a steamroller. It looked like she'd realized it. She was faster on the uptake than most. That hemisphere of death encircling Kull, the point of no return. An invisible, inky shroud that ate up anything that stepped inside of it. Most would have foolishly stepped inside it by now, entered into Kull's effective killing range and immediately paid for it.
Selandra could only be evasive for so long. This was such a small arena...

Kull knew the exact purpose behind her words. He himself relished the art of trash talking mid-fight. Rather than provoke him, it sparked up a jolly cackle.

"HAW! What's the matter!? Too tall for your shitkicking bed? Seems like you've gotten the cold feet, woman! Don't worry that pointy, pale egghead of yours. I only want to make sure your death painless! I can't end you seamlessly if I have to stretch for it, you dysentery-afflicted milk toothed bungwhopper!! I might get a cramp or pull a muscle!"

It seemed like Kull knew something she didn't. The Galervs and the Manica. A special piece of armor that warriors who used nets typically wore on their left arm. Though her elven armor was certainly tough, her left flank was still more or less wide open. The Galervs and Manica served as a shield substitute so that the gladiator wouldn't be left defenseless when they threw their net.



It was comparable to wielding a blade made of glass. Sure it could cut, but it wasn't likely to do much more than get one killed the moment they swung. What's more, there were only so many ways a net could be thrown effectively with one hand. To cast it overhead and envelope a significant enough area to entrap an opponent properly would require both hands. Many gladiators of course were trained to be able to hold both the net and trident in their main hand, but that was because they could use the Galervs and Manica as a defence whilst the trident was unable to be used effectively during the throw. And even then, she had only once shot with the net, and Kull wasn't about to let her draw another weapon.

It wasn't due to any fault on her part. It was the culture. In traditional gladiator fights, the gladiators often lived, actually. Stables were expensive, their training wasn't cheap. Because they lived to fight another day, they learned. Here, death was the norm. Few, if any, had lived long enough to fully evaluate all the strengths and weaknesses of the net. Kull was one of the few who knew. Hence he continued stalking towards Selandra without hesitation, radiating purpose.

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

Kull was indeed so bold as to continue moving towards her, though he'd slow to steady, mindful steps in expectation of her swinging the net for his legs. He drew in breath and exhaled through his teeth, brimming with anticipation and eager to see how close she'd let him get. Some people have a frenetic energy about them, a sort of unseen vitality that can be felt but not measured. The same kind of liquid mercury lethality that large predatory cats and coiled vipers bear, in whose presence one may feel like they walk the edge of a precipice with no bottom. Of course wild animals aren't terrible to behold on paper and screen, but the reaction of seeing one up close at the zoo, even out of its environment and partially domesticated, is typically the same. That phrase young children gleefully yell at their parents. "I didn't know they could be so big!"

Kull was in his environment, and his domestication was a device instigated of his own free will. If Selandra so allowed him, he'd walk right into her arms, within but a few feet of her, callous eyes half-lidded and lazy with no mere sexual lust, but a slow burn desire to express his interpretation of physical violence in as many and varied ways as could be imagined. At what range would he be most inconvenienced? His tree stump stature and lithe latent power suggested close range, but the great axe looked like it could be scarcely manipulated well within an opponent's guard. At the fringe of Selandra's reach, he'd likely be able to parry and dodge virtually any assault with contemptuous ease, though who was to say? Only one thing could be divined as fact. If he was allowed into her reach, there'd be no extricating him from it unless he so desired. He didn't look like the kind of warrior to retreat.

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

Nothing to be embarrassed about, really. It's super common and far from a fatal mistake in most cases. What's more your setup is one of the best, next to the old shield and pike combo. You even have appropriate side weapons. The greatsword is a bit gratuitous though. I assume it's on her back? That's just a Hollywood invention. Greatswords never come with frogs, rather, warriors would carry them in just their scabbards to and from battle only, leaning the sword in the crook of an arm or against their shoulder. It'd be a huge hinderance sitting down or walking through many doorways with such a weapon on the back, and it takes too much time and effort to unsling it from the back on short notice, particularly in an intense close quarters scrap.

That's just general advice based on an assumption though. It's not for me to say whether or not your zweihander is of use where it is. For all I know you may have a special trick to incorporate it into the fight.

You want to improve, as do we all, so I'm just telling you a few things I found out for myself on the off chance they may also prove beneficial to you. I honestly can't rightly critique anyone without actually seeing how well they use their character, so take my words with a grain of salt for now.

Ah, but one more thing. Kull is examining Sel's grip on her weapons and trying to estimate their approximate reach. Could you reread my last post and then edit the relevant information into your own last post? I'm gathering info I.C'ly.

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

'What If' moves should generally be avoided unless you're trying to coral an opponent into a trap. You told me what you'd do if I swung diagonally at you before I made any genuine offensive intent clear. Now, that wasn't my plan, but if it HAD been, you'd have just given me a warning that might have helped me to avoid damage. Of course you might also state such a thing to prevent an opponent from following that train of thought and opening with a telegraphed swing, but I see no reason why you'd not want someone to go for broke and wind up wide open.

Likewise, it's not good because it also may put an opponent into an iffy (and not in a good way) situation if they had actually been planning a similar move. It might make it look like they saw the heads up and specifically avoided it and performed a slight variation, thus appearing to metagame.

Again, it's fine if you're trying to herd an opponent, but there are a lot of situations where it's not practical. It usually just provokes opponents to metagame and gives you one less opening. Better to let your opponent make mistakes rather than try to openly corner them. A cornered beast fights harder, after all.

Let The Blood Run Rampant

@Tristwich

So, how long have you been into T1? I can tell you know what you're doing.