Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
Auron     It's been a while since Auron's visited Alfheim Online. Things have kept happening that he's been having to deal with. Those Things, man. But now that he has some free time, he's decided to log into the game and see what's going on. And to knock some of the dust off. Hence why he's gone to the practice area in Aarun.

    So here he is, a Cait Sith entering the area. He's not particularly small, hilariously enough; the machine seemed to render his body about right in digital form. But even in the waking world he's not huge. Muscular, but compact. He does, however, have a large pair of cat ears atop his head, poking out of his silvery mane of hair, even if they're set a bit lower than an average Cait Sith.

    Looks like he's been smart and hidden his tail behind a robe with a long panel at the back. It probably doesn't offer much protection stats-wise, as it's basically a long sleeveless vest over a one-sleeved tunic and loose pants. But it covers his tail!
Kain     In the training area as well is a rather average height Salamander, as noted by the red armor. Well... armor is subjective. It's primarily leather, and his weapon of choice definitely shows his reason for wearing it.
    A Rapier. A very stylized one, at that. It wasn't too high a level, but the... well... he's not a little kid, but he wasn't exactly an adult either... probably sub-20, but no younger than 17. At least, that's what the Avatar looked like... anyway, the kid seemed rather well-practiced with this blade.
    His own training here consisted of him practicing one move in one spot on a wooden dummy. It started out him just dashing in towards the dummy, then disappearing for a split second before attacking from a random position then disappearing again, only to repeat from a different position. And he kept doing this, the speed between his hit and his disappearance and re-appearance getting faster and faster the more he attacked, all the while only making small jabs and never going too deep into the attacks he made... on purpose? Who can tell, but the kid definitely seemed extremely focused on this seemingly menial task.
Auron     Naturally this much effort expended in one direction is going to get Auron's attention. So he gravitates towards where this is going on. It is pretty difficult to tell the age of a person from their virtual avatar. Most of them seem to be set firmly within the same age range to casual observation. So Auron kept his casual observation to the technique itself.

    A Sword Skill, it seemed. They'd been added to ALO some time ago, and Auron had been glad to see it happen. He pauses to watch this, head tilted. He's not making racket or getting in the way, but Kain's probably going to notice him there sooner of later.
Kain     It definitely does not take the kid long to notice the onlooker. But he doesn't stop. In fact, he gets a more determined look on his face as he presses himself to go even faster! As he does, his wings manifest and he's now not even touching the ground, which actually does seem to increase his speed quite a bit. It's to the point now that there's visible after-images as he's moving about the training dummy, always still careful to only make micro-stabs. Using a skill like this would be incredible enough... but to keep focus enough to only deal the minimal amount of damage with each hit? That's some hardcore focus.

    It's not long before in the middle of the technique, the Salamander calls out, in the middle of his Sword Skill, "How's it look from the outside? Still trying to perfect it."

    As he speaks though, his feet visibly touch the ground for a split second. But even then, it's enough as suddenly his right leg just seems to crumple and his momentum falters, causing him to tumble rather quickly a few yards away from the dummy, sliding the last few feet along his face before landing unceremoniously on his stomach.
Auron     Auron's just about to call an answer when the Salamnder falters! He starts over, but he's not quite quick enough to catch him. He does come to Kain's aid as the Salamander comes to a stop. "Looked fine until right about then," he says, with a chuckle. Though he does make to assist Kain to his feet again. "Are you all right?" he asks.

    Once Kain's on his feet, he'll tilt his head. "You're getting faster, I noticed." Even just watching for that length of time. "Trying to improve attack speed?" he inquires curiously.
Kain     The kid is helped up and dusts himself off, including his face which got quite a few red marks from damaging effects. "Yeah, I'll live." He chuckled a bit as he wiped his face a bit. He then looked down at his right leg, squeezing it a small bit... as if to assure that it was still there...

    He then looked at the guy, shaking his head. "Nah, I'm working on a new Sword Skill. I heard a story a while back about this character that made their own personal Sword Skill, and I'm trying to see if I can do the same. I don't even have a name for it yet... and it's not completely finished yet. I'm still not fast enough..."

    He grimaces over towards the Training Dummy, going over to it and examining the stab points. "My goal here... is to be able to have as high a speed as possible while still having complete control over the attack strength of the weapon. Death by a thousand cuts, as it were."
Auron     Auron notes the pixellated 'damage' effects, and takes a step back. Spellcasting pose is assumed, and Words are selected. A small healing spell. Not too powerful, but Kain probably doesn't need a very powerful healing spell. Surprisingly Auron's decent with magic here. Practice makes perfect, after all, and judicious use of Familiars tends to give rise to the ability to heal one's Familiars!

    His brows raise when Kain's aim is revealed. "I see," he notes, an upwards lilt in his tone indicating that this does interest him. He takes a few steps over to the training dummy as well, as Kain goes over to it. "You look like you're well on your way," he observes. "Spatial awareness will be your best ally when controling the penetration of the blade into a target."
Kain     Kain sighs as the healing magic heals him, smiling to the Avatar. "Thanks for that." He looked down at his leg again... but quickly looked back up. "It'd make sense Cait Sith would have good healing magic for their Familiars." He nods.

    He then examines the log a little more before it then goes back to looking unscathed as the 'combat' ended with the log. "Yeah, that's not the problem though... I'm trying to do this with a stabbing weapon, whereas it'd be much easier to do more damage with a slashing weapon... with stabbing, if you're moving too fast and dig the weapon too deep, you're just asking for yourself to get imbalanced. Hence the smaller, shallower stabs."
Auron     Auron nods. "It's a skill I've had to pick up," he acknowledges, of the healing magic. He too examines the stab wounds in the log, before they disappear. He nods to Kain's appraisal of his main stumbling block. "You have a point," he agrees, admitting, "I'm used to slashing weapons, so that wasn't something that occurred to me. But you do have a point. All it would take is one mis-aimed stab, and off your center of balance goes. And it only takes a second to lose the advantage."
Kain     The kid nods. Then looks over the Cait Sith a bit... "So... haven't really seen you around here. New character? Or are you like me, coming back after a while...?"

    Regardless, he hops up into the air, lounging in the air as if on a cushion, his wings beating furiously to keep him floating softly. "Either way, name's Kain. Nice ta meetcha, Swordsman."
Auron     "Returning," Auron replies. "It's been a while since I've logged in." He pauses as Kain hops into the air like that, looking at the wings with a raised eyebrow. The introduction gets a nod. And in return, he offers his avatar name. "Stial." It's pronounced a lot like 'steel'. "Pleased to meet you as well."
Kain     Kain nods. "Stial. Neat name." He lands again, landing on his left leg for a while... but then he puts the right leg down soon after. "So since you're coming back, I assume you're just getting practice in to dust off the 'controls' as such?" He chuckles and shrugs. "I'm kinda doing the same. Not because I was gone for a while. I'm just always wanting to keep in top shape. Kind of a habit I picked up from... from my Summers with my Uncle." He sounded like he was about to say something else instead of that...
Auron     Auron nods at the question. "That's right," he confirms. And he does indeed pick up on the hesitation. But he's got enough discretion not to point it out. He's curious, but that sounded personal. And he doesn't know this person well enough to ask him for that kind of information. "There's been a lot going on outside the game," he notes. "So I haven't had the time until now."
Kain     Kain nods again. "Yeah, understandable. IRL can be a pain most of the time..." He looked at his leg briefly before looking back at Stial. "Well, guess I'll get back to it. This ability isn't going to make itself, after all." His wings reappeared again and he floated over to the training dummy as he drew his Rapier back out again, getting into a very determined stance before starting his maneuver again!