And now it’s self-defense…Peter spun on his heel and brought his kanabō up to knock Havengarad’s rapier-like thin bde away, following through with his swing and, when his arms got to their natural extensions, flexed and shifted his grip to bring his mace back across himself for a back-hand swing. There was a deep vhoosh as he did, causing Havengard to take a jumping step backward to avoid the blow. “Hah. A typical brute.” Havengard snorted.The Adventurer that was Peter’s sparring partner squawked, “You swung first! If anything he’s defending himself!” “Quiet, peasant!” Havengard snorted, pointing his sword at the Adventurer.

  Peter took that moment to charge, staying quiet and not announcing himself as he rushed forward, bringing the kanabō down in an overhead swing.He aimed for the sword, rather than this Havengard’s arm, or head, and as his mace connected with the steel Peter bodied the proctor, ramming his shoulder into the other man. This sent Havengard stumbling back, staggered, bringing his sword up to block Peter’s next swing and doing an amiable job of it. “Hey!” Peter called out, sparing a sideways gnce to the Adventurer, “Is his armor protected like yours?”The Adventurer, blinked, looking to Havengard, “I… I don’t know.” “You needn’t worry, barbarian. You won’t nd another hit on me.” Havengard stepped back, bringing his sword up, and holding the cane/scabbard behind his back. His feet were pnted strongly and he sited Peter down the bde of his cane with a disdainful gre.

  The otherworlder took his own stance, feet wide, knees bent. With his body twisted to face Havengard it wasn’t exactly a ‘horse stance’ as he knew it.His kanabō was raised over his head, left hand chocking up under the ‘cross guard’ ring while his other hand was about halfway, almost three-quarters, down the haft of the weapon near the pommel-loop. Peter, too, gred at his opponent.However, Peter’s gre was one of concentration. C’mon… C’mon…He muttered internally, trying to focus his vision — Three times now he had met people who could sense or see one’s athyrik aura; Jhe’fuh, Vaunn, and Jensa. Jensa made it seem, to Peter, that any of her race would be able to do so while the priests made it seem like it was an ability any one of any species could be born with and Vaunn specifically mentioned it was fairly uncommon. Not rare but not everyone seemed to have it. Peter’s logic was simple: Why couldn’t he have it? Why couldn’t he learn it? If this body can manipute athyrik particles on instinct to create that bde and barrier just by my thinking about them…He began to try to focus, or perhaps unfocus might have been the better process. He tried imagining that athyrik particles would give off some sort of energy or aura that, like a fme or lightning bolt, could be visible if the conditions were right. He needed to see how those particles interacted with the normal particles in the air, he needed to sense the energy a charged athyrik particle had to give off.It didn’t make sense that if something was enchanted it would just be… inert. There had to be some reaction, right? Even if it was an always active enchantment like a protection spell — a glow or sparkle or something! ?Well, since you asked so nicely~? Na’at giggled, and Peter’s vision seemed to explode, making him flinch as his sight was filled with exactly that — glowing and sparkling items. The Adventurer’s armor, but not the weapon.His bde, from Xtha’leri’gath, was glowing brightly from within its scabbard at his side. And, most importantly at the moment, Havengard’s equipment: His outfit/armor and his sword were both lit up like a Las Vegas sign. Okay, so it’s enchanted… Now, what exactly am I looking at…Peter thought. |Looks like durability enhancements on both the armor and sword.| So the sword doesn’t break as easily. |Exactly| Di’si’thy ‘nodded’, |For the armor, it would make it harder to crack or break when, say, someone took a blunt weapon to it.|Mhm. |It’s also enchanted against piercing and sshing for what it’s worth| She paused, |You weren’t pnning on using that sword Xtha gave you?|Hells no, He isn’t ‘worth’ it, and I… I don’t feel any ‘need’ or ‘call’. Nah, this guy is getting the kanabō. ?With your strength?? Na’at chuckled, ?You’ll be able to handle that enchantment? |I’ll help you understand all the different types of magic and their intensities. Na’at is right, I think. With your strength, you’ll crack that nut.| “Why are you smiling, barbarian.” Havengard growled as he charged at Peter who turned to the side to dodge the sword.However, the Proctor was quick, flicking his sword out for a sshing move that made Peter jump back in turn.Quickly pivoting, Havengard thrust his thin rapier at Peter who pnted his kanabō to block. The rapier hit a metal band, screeching off of it as Havengard’s momentum carried him closer to Peter.Peter, still not answering Havengard’s question, lifted a boot and kicked fairly firmly, not just making him stagger back, but pushing him back a good three feet and fighting to keep his bance. “Bastard.” Havengard hissed as he readied his sword again, hand at his gut. “Don’t you dare insult my mother like that.” Peter growled and, taking a bit of inspiration, focused on his own athyrik particles.If he could pull this off he was going to ugh. Just a quick, and careful, pulse of athyrik energy. A quick “gush” from the “water faucet”, as it were. Just something to agitate the particles in the air surrounding him and…

  WHOOM

  The dust in the room was blown back around him, creating a visible circle of effect. As well as pushing into the Adventurer and Havengard both, rocking them like it was a gusty day outside. Peter even heard a few boxes shift.He grinned, There we go… Looking down at himself he saw his skin glowing golden with an aura of purple beyond that. “You… think a fshy show of your athyr will scare me?” Havengard scoffed, igniting his own in a fsh of green and blue, a smaller circle of dust pushed away from around him.Peter… didn’t feel pushed back, though he did feel a slight ‘breeze’ as the mana reaction washed over him. “Well. All that did was teach me that my lil trick isn’t something new.” Peter grinned, shrugging as his aura disappeared since he wasn’t sustaining it. “Far from it.” Havegard scoffed, his aura pulsing again as he let more of his energy out, ‘reinforcing’ his show of strength.This time Peter felt a decent gust of wind rush over him as Havengard charged forward.Again, Peter shifted, letting his body react more naturally than carefully holding himself back. “Wha…” Havengard blinked, not realizing Peter could move so quickly.Peter smmed the head of his kanabō into the floor of the testing room and heaved himself up, using the long mace/club as a lever, to give him more leverage and momentum to kick Havegard in the stomach hard. “HURGH.” Havengard was, again, shoved back a good three feet.This time he ended up having to take a knee, pnting his rapier’s tip into the ground for bance, “Bastard.” “You wanted this fight.” Peter warned him, “I said no and you attacked me anyway. Now?” He asked, setting his kanabō onto his shoulder, “Now, it’s self-defense on my end.”

  With a growl Havengard shot forward, his aura fshing once again and his speed increasing greatly. It caught Peter off-guard, with the sword slicing into his tunic and cutting his skin. “Hah.” Havengard pressed his attack gleefully, charging forward again and sshing. His speed was impressive, the silver metal of the bde fshing as it stung again and again, slicing into Peter’s tunic, ripping cut after cut and gash after gash, “You should have run, regardless, fighting a Havengard is folly and will be your end.” He growled. “Threatening me?” Peter growled back, at his wits end with the logic loops that the Havengards seemed to jump through to not only justify their actions but retain their supposed superiority over others, “And you even called me a coward for refusing to fight!” He called out Havengard’s hypocrisy, “If I ran you’d have done the same!” “It matters little now.” Havengard ughed, his sword singing. Sometimes he got a cut in, but now Peter was blocking more hits, so sometimes he’d hear metal-on-metal, or metal-on-wood “This is a duel of honor, and those end only one way.” “You’re a loony is what you are.” Peter snapped back. “Hah! You should have picked a better weapon if you wanted a chance at sting.” Havengard snarled, “You can only block, and make clumsy attacks. You can’t riposte, counter…” He drew back for a heavy thrusting attack.

  This time Peter was able to dodge the attack, sparks flying as the sword bde slid against the metal band wrapped around his weapon. “Rgh!” Havengard snarled as he thrust not his sword but his other hand “Parry this, you filthy peasant!” A bolt of blue-green energy swung out from the hand that gripped the cane/scabbard and smmed into Peter’s weapon and… the metal changed color. “What…”Peter grinned, “Mahoukin.”The Adventurer called out, “Oh! So… that’s not just a big metal-banded club then!” “This is an oni kanabō.” Peter confirmed, swinging the now blue-green metal around.Havengard blocked with his bde, bracing his other hand against the ft of the bde after dropping his cane/scabbard.

  CLANGPeter brought his kanabō around with a backswing as Havengard righted himself from the first blow, crying out as the long-mace caught his wrist and hand and sent the cane-sword flying across the room.With the kanabō now back over Peter’s shoulder, the otherworlder took a stance. Setting his booted foot down with a heavy thud, heavy enough to shake the dust from the floor, gripping his kanabō and making the leather wrap around the haft squeak before he swung again.

  The door to the testing room burst open, revealing three figures: Glenawyn, Vaunn, and a beastkin woman with a thin cat tail and ears, hair in a short bob cut, wearing tight britches and bck thigh-high boots, with a sharp cut, long-sleeved bodice and a vest that was reminiscent of a sea-farer’s uniform. This was the Guildmaster and she did not look happy.

  KRUNCH

  The trio saw Peter’s swing connect with Havengard’s midriff, nearly folding him in half around the kanabō before lifting him off his feet and unching him across the room into the wall with a room-shaking thud. As the otherworlder swung, the energy that had been absorbed into his long-mace was expelled, an enormous gust of wind accompanying the swing and propelling Havengard into the wall, leaving a spiderweb of cracks in the pster, chunks breaking off and falling around him as the proctor’s body slid down to slump to the ground, barely conscious… but he was, at least, conscious.

  “Care to expin what in Xtha’s great blue fming hells is going on here?” The Guildmaster snapped, her cat ears pinned back against her head in deep irritation, “Starting with why I shouldn’t have you arrested, at the very best?!” She pointed at Peter demandingly.

  It was the Adventurer who spoke up, as Peter just let go of his kanabō and stepped away from it slowly, holding his hands up and trying his best to look non-threatening. Good luck, he snarked at himself. “It was self-defense, Guildmaster.” They expined, “Proctor Havengard failed the applicant here, and when he tried to help me off the floor after my shoulder got wrenched, the proctor swat at his hands to get him to stop… when the applicant grabbed at the proctor’s hand and told him not to touch without permission, the proctor demanded he be let go. He demanded satisfaction, Guildmaster, but the applicant refused, even after the proctor called him a coward.” “So… more sense than bravado.” The Guildmaster nodded, crossing her arms, “You said self-defense…”Peter nodded, “Yes ma’am. I walked away, trying not to fall for his goading… but he attacked me from behind.” He expined, “After that, well. It wasn’t an ‘honor duel’ anymore, now was it?” “We’ll have to wait for him to come back around.” The Guildmaster said, nodding to Havengard, who was currently groggily trying to get to his feet. “Not necessarily.” Vaunn smirked, holding out his hand as a figure appeared; a foot or so tall, looking like a feminine figure with butterfly wings, soft/smooth looking lizard scales over her entire body with three-toed lizard-like feet and a horse-like tail with the straight, pointed horse-like ears sticking up from the top of her head. In the pixie’s hands was a pnt of some kind but instead of a bulb or petals… there was an eye. “What… is that.” Peter balked, feeling his eye start to twitch and having to look away from the thing after a moment.Vaunn grinned triumphantly, “A magical recording device.” “Please don’t tell me…” “We call it an Eye-res.”Peter sighed, “… Thanks, I hate it…”

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