[M] The Dimension Door (Holey & Ashen) IC

[Holeypaladin]

If there was one thing Lyonel had learned about Kyu, it was that the servant's lack of self-efficacy was his greatest flaw. Well, that and his complete lack of magical talent. He was intelligent enough and capable enough that he could have made an archmage, had he the requisite aptitude for magic, which he unfortunately seemed to lack. Lyonel wasn't the type of person to shower the servant with praise like Kyu himself tended to do to him, but he would at least tell him when he could succeed.

Nodding at the way the servant was able to add up the numbers in his head, the knight said, "Of course. I see no need to try and live like kings, and inn prices are geared towards travelers on a budget. So we'll be fine." He nodded again at how the servant always seemed to prepare for contingencies... packing and such was the sort of job that Lyonel found tedious and boring, but Kyu always took it seriously.

As they rode through the orchard near the village, the knight looked at the fuzzy fruits that hung from the trees. "Looks like it," he agreed. Though the core kingdoms of the Empire lacked the exotic spices that flowed in from abroad, they at least maintained a wide variety of tasty fruit, such as peaches, apricots, and plums. Some of these trees weren't native to the land, but had taken well enough to the soil and climate.

[Ashen]

The orchard was peaceful, or, peaceful enough to the hard of hearing scribe. He didn't notice the bush below him begin to quake, and only noticed something was wrong when his horse stopped walking. "Eh?" he murmured. "Come, boy, walk." But the horse refused, and soon the bush stopped rustling. A small, furry creature rushed out from the bush and scratched at the horse's leg, causing it to violently throw its rider. Kyu winced as his tailbone hit the sandy path. His horse galloped ahead without him.

The scribe was up in a matter of seconds, chasing after his spooked horse. The creature that had attacked was gone now, but Kyu assumed the horses had scared it, too. He caught up with his horse and approached from its side, careful not to stand where he might get kicked. "You are alright," he said in a calm tone to the horse. "It was just a little animal, perhaps a fox. You are bigger than it. Did it hurt you? Here, let me look." He rubbed against the horses' body, prompting it to raise its hoof. Kyu had to get dangerously close to see the scratches, the thin specks of blood in the horse's dark hair. "Sire?" he called. "It was a small scratch. We should be fine to continue." He stood straight and patted the horse's neck. "See? You are alright. It is only a scratch."

Kyu mounted his horse again. His back was killing him now. He couldn't risk injury like that; he needed to be as able as possible for when Lyonell needed him. He stood perfectly straight still, hoping the knight wouldn't notice the pain. "I do apologize for that. I should know better than to walk by the bushes like that." He turned to Lyonell again and saluted. "It shall be smooth riding from now on, we can hope!"

Though he did worry about his tailbone. Nothing was broken, but he wondered if, when they arrived at the arena, his new injury would get in the way. He had to win, and he would push himself extra hard if need be. But... If he was injured like this after just a fox, how would they handle the bigger, harder foes? Kyu cast his worries aside. He needed to concentrate on moving forward.

[Holeypaladin]

Noting the way Kyu's horse suddenly stopped walking, Lyonel turned to see what was going on. Before he knew it, the horse had flung him to the ground. Wincing slightly, he watched the spectacle unfold. Fortunately the fall, though it looked painful, didn't seem to cause any real injury to the scribe, as he was up almost immediately and after his horse.


Making his way over to the scribe, he knew the man had to b in more pain than what he was showing. Shaking his head slightly, he decided to comment. "Horses are such dumb animals at times, aren't they?" Riding up next to the scribe's side, he chuckled slightly. "You alright? Well, I suppose you wouldn't admit it even if you weren't, would you?"


Reaching out, he lay a hand on Kyu's shoulder and incanted, "Irisv ezoukeic, mitne." A restorative energy radiated through the scribe's body... not a particularly powerful healing spell, but enough to patch up cuts and bruises like the ones he had suffered in his fall. "That should help," he remarked. "It's best to begin a duel in optimal condition, is it not?"


He continued on as if nothing had happened, neither chastising the servant nor waiting for the inevitable gratitude that would likely follow.

[Ashen]

Lyonell was chuckling, but Kyu couldn't help but think perhaps he was the butt of this joke. It hadn't been the horse's fault. If only he'd heard the rustling, he would have been able to avoid his horse getting spooked. He was about to answer Lyonell--No, I am alright, thank you--but the arcane knight answered himself. He hesitated. Lyonell had been right, he'd been completely willing to lie about is well-being, but Lyonell did not seem to mind. With a sigh, Kyu let it go.

Lyonell moved to hold onto Kyu's shoulder. The scribe couldn't help it, he flinched. He uttered a healing incantation that Kyu remembered, and suddenly Kyu didn't hurt so much. There was only a dull pain now, one he could handle. Lyonell's strong suit was not restorative magic, but he was grateful the knight had any magic affinity at all. "Thank you, sire," he said with a bow. "What would we do without you?"

Thankfully, they continued on as if the ordeal had not happened. Kyu paid closer attention to his horse's steps, feeling the pattern instead of listening for abnormalities in the patterns. They continued on until they finally reached their destination. It had been a few hours, and in addition to the dull pain from his fall, Kyu's body was sore, too. He hopped off his horse and walked into the new town. A band was playing some uplifting music. "Seems we have arrived at a good time."

Kyu arranged for the horses to be tended to at a ranch. He then walked with Lyonell to the arena. The place smelled of booze and sweat, a sweet smell to the regulars. Kyu looked over the two already in the ring. One was a large man with a great axe, the other a lanky fellow who was an amateur mage. "I think this will not be too horrible," he said, motioning towards the mage. "His stance is wrong. I place my bets on the larger man. Shall I register us?"

[Holeypaladin]

Chuckling at the scribe's comment, Lyonel shrugged. "I imagine we wouldn't be on this quest to begin with without me," he remarked. It was true enough... the entire reason for this quest was because the knight was somewhat eager to see the world, meet new creatures, and kill them. Knowing Kyu, the scribe would be just as content spending the rest of his life in a library writing things.

As he reached the town, Lyonel headed towards the arena to see who was competing. He was somewhat surprised to see a mage... mages weren't exactly known as gladiators, nor were they incredibly common in this part of the world. However, by the looks of the mage, it was a mere apprentice. While a powerful mage was more than a match for any warrior in combat, low level magic was much less effective, and in this particular case, Lyonel figured the mage was at a disadvantage.

"You are correct," he said with a nod to the scribe who had noticed the same thing. "Go ahead and register us, then... remember you're a man at arms, and try to slot yourself for the fight right before mine. Once word spreads that an Arcane Knight is here, more spectators will gather, meaning more bets." It didn't really matter much to Lyonell whether Kyu faced a warrior or a mage... he knew the mage incantations well enough to predict the spells before they were completed, and his sword skills were quite impressive. An archer might be a problem, but... so long as he used a proper shield, arrows wouldn't harm him much.

[Ashen]

Kyu nodded to Lyonell, and prepared to head towards the registry, but something in the ring stopped him. Kyu stopped to watch the mage, suddenly interested in the spell he was using. From all the cheering around him and the distance between him and the mage, Kyu had no chance of hearing his incantations, and he certainly could not read his lips from this distance. Still, Kyu could see the mage was struggling. He had to wonder if the fellow was a too-prideful student, because he clearly was not a fighter. He stood, muttering to himself, messing up some spell. Before he could get it to work, the real fighter brought down his axe, and he swiftly ended the match.

Remembering his task, Kyu registered himself and Lyonell for the fighting. He looked over the list of contenders, only recognizing a few names from previous battles. Then he made his way back to his knight. As he started off, he could hear someone behind him, their muffled voice barely meeting Kyu's ears. "... arcane knight? In this... now? No one... a chance against ... all dead." Kyu paused, trying to make sense of the garbled syllables. Someone was obviously impressed with his knight's rank, as they should have been. Knights of his kind were near unheard of here. Kyu walked back, feeling a bit of pride for his friend and assurance that they would most definitely not leave here empty handed.

By the time Kyu did return, the fighters in the arena was changing. The axe-wielder remained, but now he was fighting two swordsmen. "Have they deemed him worthy to take on a pair?" he muttered to himself. "My, he must be quite the fighter." Remembering the list, Kyu shifted. He might have to go against him. His hand dropped to his sword. Was he ready? He turned to Lyonell then. "I will not be going in for another two matches. That gives a chance to observe this man, in case I must fight him. He fights slow, I can tell. This is good to know." He moved closer to Lyonell to speak more softly. "Some of the crowd seems rather scared of you, sire. I can imagine some rash fighters may be excited for your presence. I look forward to you fending them all off."

[Holeypaladin]

Lyonel more or less ignored the words that went around regarding the Arcane Knight. He instead focused more on the competitors that Kyu was likely to face... the noteworthy one being the axe user who had defeated the hedgemage. He was indeed strong and skilled... but because he was so much bigger than his opponents, he relied mostly on brute force, furthered by his choice in weapon.

While axes were powerful weapons, they were heavy and all the weight was in the head, making their balance quite a bit different than that of a sword. This meant that once an axe wielder began his swing, it was extremely difficult to stop or adjust the swing in a significant way, making axe blows rather predictable to dodge or defend against. No doubt Kyu realized this as well, as the scribe's martial skill was quite a bit more than any scholar aught to have.

He listened to the words of the servant, who pointed out many of the same things Lyonel himself had noticed. Nodding at his words, the knight said, "You've fought enough axe wielders to know how to handle him. A sword won't be effective at parrying his attacks, but a shield would work, and they're far from impossible to simply evade."

He shrugged somewhat at the excitement of the crowd. "Really, I'm more of a publicity stunt to pull in more spectators. I don't expect they'll make me fight a person... probably some monsters that they caught in order to entertain a crowd."

[Ashen]

"I'm not so sure..." Kyu surveyed the crowd again. He looked to the registry area, where a few people were already looking over Lyonell's name. He doubted they would only put the arcane knight up against a few stray monsters. No, Kyu was sure he would have some humans to fight, some young fighters too filled with gall to know reason. And of course, none would best him. That, at least, he was sure of.

The axe wielder did well in the next two matches. He had taken out the two swordsmen with little difficulty, something Kyu would not have predicted. The scribe commented on the way the swordsmen were not using their agility to their advantage, and that he would take a different tactic. Afterwards the fighter was placed with two more foes, a man wielding daggers and a bowman. The arrows did hit his skin, but they hardly seemed to damage him. Kyu was amazed by this, at the muscled man, and he took many mental notes.

Then it came time for his own battle. He offered a small smile to Lyonell, then found his way to the arena. He unsheathed his sword, and was about to take up his shield when he hesitated. Then, the scribe turned his shield down with a shake of the head. Unprotected, he only looked like a lanky man who had been forced into this losing fight. That, he knew, would cause even more bets against him, and more money in their pockets. Besides, he didn't need a shield. This man was too powerful; even blocking his hits would take up too much time and energy. Kyu had to dodge, to dance between him. That was how he would come to win.

The axeman took one look at Kyu before chuckling. He said something about the change of pace, and perhaps he was right. This man had just taken on two pairs of men and had handled them just fine. Now he was going against a single man, who wasn't even using magic. Kyu wondered if he were in danger after all. He looked out at the crowd. The mess of colors blended together, but he didn't dare squint. In the arena, he didn't need his enemy to know he couldn't see clearly. Then, it would be quite easy to exploit that, and Kyu would be powerless.

The battle began. The axeman charged Kyu right from the beginning, a move the scribe had predicted from the matches he'd watched. He moved out of the way easily, and struck at the larger man with his sword. His sword made contact with the man's armor, though the clink of the metals fell on deaf ears. He moved aside again, and watched as the man came charging again. A smirk played over his lips. Effortlessly, Kyu moved out of the way of the heavy head of the axe. He struck at the man again and again, dodging every hit. The crowd was in an uproar at his ability to move, though Kyu couldn't pay attention to them. He needed to concentrate, and give the people just what they wanted.

Finally, the axeman saw his loss. He'd get nowhere with his axe, and so, he tossed it aside. The action surprised Kyu, though he understood. The man charged him again, opting for his bare fists. They were harder to dodge, but Kyu still danced out of the way gracefully, avoiding every punch and meeting him with the edge of his sword. The man was growing more annoyed, and more determined to catch Kyu. He could see his concentration slipping. So, when Kyu secured his moment, he pulled it off. As two fists came flying towards him, he ducked out of the way, sidestepped swiftly, and struck at the backs of his thighs. Blood flew from the exposed flesh and the man fell with a great, satisfying thud.

[Holeypaladin]

As the crowd began to place bets on the larger man who had proven successful so far, Lyonel was one of the few who bet against him, favoring the skills of his servant. Even if Kyu ended up losing the fight, Lyonel would never have regretted placing his bets on the servant's success... as he felt a need to support the scribe as much as possible to repay him for his dutiful service.

Watching as his servant faced off against the brute with the axe, Lyonel frowned slightly as he opted not to use a shield at all. Quite the risky move, that one... but then again, Kyu probably wasn't quite as good with a shield as he ought to be, as a skilled shield user didn't attempt to take a blow full force, but instead deflected them. Still, evading the axe was a good idea, and it eventually proved successful.

As the announcer announced the defeat and upset of the large man, the crowd gave a round of cheer and applause, which intensified when the announcement for the main event came. The Arcane Knight Lyonel would be accepting all challenges, they said, which was quite boastful of them. Stepping in to the arena, Lyonel soon found several foolishly brave young men stepping up as well... surprising, really, as the voices of the crowd even went so far as to whisper their foolishness.

He lost count of the challengers at around half a dozen. "Send them all in at once," he said, nodding towards the marshal in charge of this fight. Tapping into his Foundry circuit, he summoned forth an intentionally nonlethal arming sword which he could swing to his heart's desire with very little danger of killing anyone... though it would cause serious pain and incapacitation, particularly due to the paralysis enchantment.

As he heard the announcement to begin, a man with a crossbow designed to pierce his armor raised his weapon and fired, yet Lyonel tapped into his Foundry circuit once again, summoning forth a dancing shield which hovered in the air and blocked the projectile before it reached him. The shield began to dance of its own accord, deflecting melee and ranged strikes alike as the knight began his own dance of death, bringing his blade solidly across the body of a young man no older than fifteen by the looks of him. A shock of electricity caused the kid's body to freeze up as he fell to the ground, parlayzed and unable to continue the fight.

With so many attackers, however, the knight knew better than to rely exclusively on his skill at arms to defeat them. With the incantation of "Tairais, birk vhira," he revealed a portion of his Arcane powers, slowing his own relative time in order to move faster and effectively counter enemy strikes. To his opponents and outside observers, the knight suddenly moved with blurred speed, evading enemy strikes and countering with lethal precision. It was due to the nature of his sword that his blows were not, in fact, lethal, but his challengers began to fall one after another in this display of magically enhanced skill.

Before long there were only three enemies left... a warrior, a mage, and a priest, by the look of them. They had stayed back away from the initial rabble, and by the looks of them, they were quite a bit more skilled as well. "I take it you're my real opponent," said the knight, gazing at them and gauging their power and abilities as he considered how to defeat all three of them.

[Ashen]

Kyu was glad that his own fighting was over. As good as he was on the battlefield, the thought of his loss always gave him anxiety. He wasn't scared of losing himself, not even scared of getting killed; no, Kyu was afraid that, injured or killed, he would not be able to aid his arcane knight as was his job. So, he walked off the battlefield, triumphant. Perhaps he would be called upon it once more, to take on even more foes. But for now, finally, he could breathe.

That feeling was very short-lived, however. Kyu stepped back into the crowd just in time for Lyonell to step out of it. The arcane knight took up an enchanted sword. It was a paralyzing sword, Kyu knew, and he would comment on the knight's choice later. It was perfect for arenas, an excellent weapon in not killing, but demobilizing foes. Kyu was confident, until he counted the silhouettes on the field. Lyonell intended to take on so many men? He swallowed hard, hoping for the best for the knight.

It took him a moment to remember to place his bets. Kyu counted up the money they had, determined how much they could go without--not that they would--and he placed that on Lyonell's victory. He then rejoined the crowd and fought to the front so that he could just make out what was going on. In only a few moments the battles begun. Lyonell took on these men effortlessly, even without his magic. However, there were too many of them for his sword alone, and Lyonell seemed to realize that too. Kyu watched in fear as his knight fought, constantly paranoid that he would get injured.

But he didn't. As always, Lyonell handled himself just fine, and Kyu could breathe once more. He was down to three men now, a simple task. Kyu squinted at Lyonell, tried to see his face for signs of fatigue. He could not make out the finer details, so he just hoped the man was doing well. He squinted at the opponents. One was a warrior; Kyu could see the reflection of his shiny armor anywhere. Another seemed to be a healer, perhaps, or a user of minor magics. The other, he couldn't tell. He thought up ways Lyonell could take on the trio, devising different strategies in his head. He almost wished he could convey these strategies to the arcane knight, but shouting them would destroy their chances of succeeding. So, Kyu stood firm, and he hoped. It was all in Lyonell's hands.