Chuuni practice

The training montage. In another world, it might show off a well-muscled, chiseled-jawed individual tastefully dotted with glistening beads of sweat, pounding the daylights out of a sturdy-looking punching bag.

But this is not another world. And in this world, Robert happens to be a spriggan. Thus, while the open door leading to the hallway reveals that he is dressed in the requisite dark clothing and giving the punching bag a spiritedly determined, grim sort of pounding, it's rather difficult to ignore one regrettable fact.

The bag is bigger than he is. Not by a little, either. And truth be told, it's not exactly responding much to his punches either. It just sorts of hangs limply from the ceiling, occasionally rippling before a blow. Anemically. It goes without saying that there isn't even an inspirational backup music score.

     The training montage in another world would make a decent anime to be honest. Probably would star some scrawny kid as he gets jacked or something. So really, Robert's efforts were probably fitting to an anime, at least in episode one before he finds some bullshit hacks that make him super overpowered at least.
     Honami, meanwhile, hears... what sounds almost like a 'pap, pap, pap, pap.' as she walks past. And she glances in. And sees... something that makes even her real life self look a little sad. And she kind of peers for a bit. Hmmm. Well then. He looks like he could use some help. She slips in through the door, and makes her way over to a conveniently nearby punching bag. She is also a spriggan, and not exactly huge. The difference is, of course, that she wields a giant two-handed sword.
     "It might not be my place to say this, but... it works a bit better if you put your whole body behind it. Like so." She does a full punch, using a decent amount of her strength and using her whole weight to strike the punching bag. Unlike Sprites, hers doesn't just react to her strike. It /moves/ about half an inch. Yeah she wasn't putting her full strength into it. She was trying to help, not show off.

And Robert is...well, he too has a sword. But it's a bit dinky. And he's better known as a mage.

It's also not entirely obvious -what- he's doing. His form is a complete and utter mess. He's just...smacking away. There's a final trio of three vicious, vindictive strikes (the bag still doesn't move), followed up by a frustrated kick (the bag moves...barely), and then he's done for the moment. Leaning over, panting, hands on his knees, he stares over at Honami.

"I -know- how to punch a bag," he informs her, tones nearing on the corrosive. But then he sighs, relents, brings his hands to his face to rub at his eyes and forehead. "Sorry. That was rude of me." Another pause. "And naw, it's your place. You're right, and I've let...this go to hell over the last year." His nose crinkles distastefully. He looks like he'd like to cuss a bit. He refrains. "Mind demonstrating again?" he queries after a moment. "This time without pulling your punch?"

     "Ah, I see. It's not to train, but rather a method of getting out your frustration." Honami responds after that snap in return to her and after observing the way he was hitting the bag. She shifts at the request, smoothly shifting into a punch on the opposite side, a firm strike that once again uses her whole body, even doing the wrist twist thing with the extend. Once again, the strike moves the punching bag a small distance. "Just like that. You were striking without putting much strength behind it. Though I suppose it's fair."
     She draws a training sword, holding it in both hands. "After all, swinging a sword uses a different set of muscles and style than punching." She says, bringing the wooden greatsword in an overhead strike to hit the punching bag diagonally with a firm THWACK. "And takes a different style of using your whole body to impart strength to your strikes." The training sword is put back away. "So. Would you like to talk about what actually is bothering you?"

"Figured it's best to take it out on this," Robert answers, smacking the bag with his elbow, "than on someone." So saying, his lips curve downwards into a frown. "Again?" he requests. "The punch first." The stance he adopts is an imperfect mirror of her own. A first approximation without any real attention to detail. No punch is thrown yet. He's waiting to tune his stance first. If there's going to be any psychotherapy going on tonight, it seems like it will be occurring with training. Not in place of it.

"Got shitkicked by a midget," he announces a tad flatly. That statement is easily uttered, though. Sure, there's a bit of shame, but mostly of the sort that is likely to be brought up in bars at the future. "Realized I'd been playing things fast and loose, forgotten the basics. Too keen on opening up a way home, I suppose, and jumped at short-cuts. Didn't seem worth it to build any kind of fundamental base if I wasn't even going to be here for long. A blink later, and I'm a year, a year and a half out of practice in...well.." His lips tighten, and he gives himself a swift thunk to the chest. "This."

     "That's a good decision generally." Honami responds, dismissing the sword and repeating that punch once more, this time going through the motions slower, her strike largely not even making the punching bag move much with it, any movement mostly just from a slight push. "Small people don't really have any weakness compared to taller people in this world, to be honest. I can fight a giant enemy on the same level as a small goblin, and the only thing that would make it more difficult is if the goblin had a higher level or more difficult mechanics to avoid attacks."

     Honami follows through with another punch. "The basics are important. What's your combat style, though? Because while this can be good to build your body up, it may be more efficient to train in things more relevant to your combat style." The dark knight responds, following through with another punch. "I mostly do this to maintain physical fitness. I don't know if you can get 'out of shape' as an adventurer, but either way it's a good habit to continue so I'm not out of practice when we return to the real world."

"Don't have one," Robert answers, gaze mapping her gestures. He retunes his stance and forms a fist. His movements match her own, but there is no speed, and once his fist makes contact with the bag he allows it to linger there. He then slowly applies pressure from the floor, through his legs and torso to his arm. This nudges the punching bag away from equilibrium. Again he pauses, gaze shifting shut as he fiddles with the formation of his fist, making sure it is properly formed and locked in with his forearm. He repeats the motion again, still slowly, and then once more.

"According to my stats it should be some sort of mixed magic-melee type build. But it's not clear to me how the two should be properly mixed. I figure it's best to start traditional then slowly work on the blend, but it's throwing things off. Assuming it's even realistically possible." An exhalation and a third punch. Faster this time. The sound is a solid thud, though the bag still doesn't go very far.

     "You... don't have one? Did you not play this leading up to the apocalypse? Because most people who played back then knew the game pretty well. And we've been here almost a year... and with the tower climbs... how have you not developed a fighting style yet?" Honami looks puzzled at that. She was /pretty/ sure Robert was a combatant. "Anyway. I'm actually in a similar boat, though it does depend a little on stats."
     She takes a deep breath, before drawing that training sword again, though this time she steps towards one of the more durable training dummies. Heavily armored to simulate enemies with strong defensive capabilities. Incidentally the one most commonly damaged. "For mixing melee combat, you can either weave spells into your attacks, like..." She swings a hard slash towards the dummy, letting the sword fall into a one-handed hold briefly as she quickly incants an arte, unleashing a dark ball upon it, before using her whole body to bring that sword around again in an overhead swing, initially only holding it with one hand, but fluidly grabbing the sword with her other hand to add an extra oomph right before the strike. "...So. Or, as many others do, there are sword artes that imbue your sword with elemental effects." She lifts her sword, swiping her fingers along its blade, earth runes sparking to life, consuming the blade as she incants a strength buffing song to herself in hard stone. She lifts the sword over her head and then swings it down in an overhead strike on the armored dummy with a heavy strike that makes the earth tremble around them, and a deep crack in one of the armored plates on the dummy to appear. "And, of course, there's always the option of just buffs. Buffs are good!"

"I mean that I don't have one for all practical intents and purposes," Robert explains. He's frowning now as he continues to throw his punches, fiddling around with the placement of his arm and how it connects to the half-circle twist of his body. But he pauses as she begins to demonstrate once more, observing her movements keenly. "I stab things. I set them on fire. I hit them with magic. But it's haphazard and catch-can, and it seems inadvisable to use something like -that- as any kind of fighting style starting point. But stats would seem to indicate a fast-paced, aggressive hybrid style."

As the dust clears from her final attack, it might be noted that he's taken a step backwards. Just in case. "I mean, I understand the general ideas of how to incorporate magic. But doing so in a way that feels natural, effective, and optimized is another story entirely. It's like...I'm using my sword. I stop. I use magic. I swap back to sword. And how to integrate this with all our movement skills--which, incidentally, throw off any sense of what a safe distance might or might not be, and what can hit you from where..." He sighs and scratches at his head, somehow balancing puzzlement with admiration for the cracked dummy.

     "A fast paced aggressive hybrid style. Hmm." Honami puts away her sword again, one arm crossing over her chest, while the other rests an elbow on her other arm for a thoughtful look. And the movement skills. "Well, part of what feels natural to you will have to be figuring out what feels natural. You can use spells that initiate from a distance and you close the gap as part of the spell, for instance." Honami says thoughtfully, musing over that a few moments.
     "But it definitely depends on how you want to play. Just because your stats /imply/ that doesn't mean you have to /follow/ that. I mean, I'm a melee-focused /Howling Arrow/ who uses very few ranged attacks that aren't just spells. My stats are somewhat stacked towards ranged attacks, though." Honami chuckles after that. "But the combination is amazing in other ways, it fuels the darkness within and allows me to use it to my heart's content~." She pauses, "But regardless. Experimentation will be important. But for now, you use a sword. Is it a one-handed sword? Two-handed like mine? Because if it's a one handed sword there's nothing saying you can't weave spells with your left while weilding your sword in your right. You don't have to stop and start over again. And you can even turn your sword into your magic focus. The combat system is fairly flexible that way."

One-handed, it would seem. A light, basket-hilted straight sword. Robert summons it from his inventory for ease of explanation. "I think at this point it's probably easier to work with my stats than to fight against them, assuming working with them doesn't result in some sort of abomination," he replies, handing the sword over to her for inspection. It has a name. 'Prototype sword #132'. Poor sword. Poor sword's predecessors.

He clears his throat faintly. "I originally tried thinking of it as an adapted dual-wield style, but found the roles to be just too different. Tried -actually- dual wielding while using the swords as foci, but it felt clunky. And I...well, maybe the problem is I just didn't spend enough time testing each style out to make it comfortable." There's a longer pause. "Er. How does that fuel the darkness within, again?" he queries, gaze lifting to lock on her face. This seems safer now that she's no longer demonstrating.

     A light basket-hilted straight sword. Honami hums lightly as she looks at it, turning it over in her hand, and even seeming to look closely at the smaller details. "Hmm. So a rapier style sword, more or less." Honami murmurs as she turns the sword over, looking at the name of the sword. 132? Geeze. That's a lot of iterations. She swings the sword in the air a few times, carefully aimed away from Robert. "Hmm." She holds the sword back out towards Robert. "Do you have much Air elemental affinity? It's very suited to movement and attacks because you can use the wind for movement and it 'sticks' to metal easily for imbuement. Fire is also very decently well suited, and of course there's the basic arcane magic of the dark element which can work with most things."
     She draws one of her leftover items from pre-apocalypse, a rapier that is now just rusted and weak. "Let's see, hum." She brandishes that rapier, darting towards a lightly-armored dummy, doing a quick pair of attacks, arcane energy spilling from her blade as she activates the Twin Darkness arte. "Something like this, where it's a spell that incorporates the attack." The rapier, meanwhile, being a pre-apocalypse rusted mess, just... shatters into a million pieces now. "Anyway, if duel wield doesn't work for you, just focus on the single sword, possibly get a shield as well if you have the skill, or a buckler to deflect attacks with your evasion skill if you don't." And then the last question. "Hmhmhmhm..! Well you see... as the darkest of the races, and combining the Hunter and the Bard classes along with being an outcast of my original homeland, it has fed unto me the deepest of darknesses!" She says, flashing a grin towards the other spriggan. "Or, in other words, a maxed Dark elemental stat."

"I. Uh. Tried a number of sword-mediated shortcuts," Robert explains as he accepts the sword from Honami, vanishing it into his inventory. "I..." Yet another pause, this time a respectful silence for the now-fallen blade. Or maybe he just didn't want to compete with the tinkling of an object polygoning out of existance. "But yes, I -do- have the air elemental affinity. It's decent. It doesn't excel, but I do intend to make much more use of it in the future. As for Darkness..."

Now it's time for a flashed grin of his own as the light around his form seems to fades with a forlorn, airy sigh into an aura of ominous, dancing, shadowy flames. Naturally his eyes blaze darker still, spitting malevolence.

Well, it'd be way more effective if one of those eyes didn't quickly shutter in a roguish wink.

     "Honestly, not surprised by that. You're also a spriggan from the outcasts, and a lot of the magical classes have dark elemental stat points." Honami says with a small nod. Evil, malevolent darkness. Dun dun duuuuun nah it's fine nothing wrong with that at all. "So the dark element has a lot of buffing potential and debuffing potential, so you could do a buffing and debuffing style, relying on enchanter-style spells to weak enemies and strengthen yourself to go in for melee attacks, rather than directly incorporating spells." She nods, moving over to a convenient bench to sit on somewhat lazily.
     "You could also look into creating another iteration of your sword with an enchanter's touch to inlay elemental enchantments. Or accessories, or... I mean.. there's any number of ways to incorporate magic and melee together, but for a haphazard style, I actually suggest starting with a more disciplined style so that you can get used to it. You might consider practicing with the landers of the holy empire of westlande and learning sword styles in their arena with their soldiers."

SpritesHero dispels his drama with a flick of his hand and, like Honami, takes a seat. Not, mind, next to her. Across from her. And while her posture may be lazy, his is an attentive forward lean, elbows resting on his thighs and fingers interlaced in front of him. "You're likely right about the discipline," he concedes after a few moment's thought. "Even if it changes considerably once I start incorporating magic, at least -some- of the principles should still apply. I went down the enchanted gadgets route for a while. Never could find the right gadget for the right occasion. Not during the heat of combat anyhow." His lips twitch, suppressing an amused smile as his gaze drops to the ground. Good memories, it would seem.

But he breaks out of his reverie quickly enough and redirects his gaze upwards towards Honami. "Out of curiosity, what did you do before all of this?"

     "Yep, and I mean. Whatever works, works, and you don't have to force it to change unless it stops working, too." Honami says with a shrug. "A haphazard combat style can actually be a good thing if you use it right, because it's also an /unpredictable/ combat style." She nods lightly afterwards, folding her hands together on her lap idly as she thinks on things quietly. Hum.
     "Well learning what /doesn't/ work for you is almost as valuable as finding what does, because it's progress, and any progress is useful." Pause. "Before all this? I was a writer. In fact, I joined Elder Tale Online to practice movements as an example for more realistic writing of my novel. Honami is actually the main villain of my book. Right before the apocalypse hit, I had my drafts approved for the final edits to start production and put it out as a light novel." She stands up. "I really want to get back to the real world. My life as a writer was just about to begin... and then this happened. And while this has been wondrous in its own right. I... have a life to get back to, you know? I'm sure you have something similar. A reason to go back."

"Had a reason, at any rate," Robert allows with a faint twist of his lips. He remains seated for a moment longer than her before popping to his feet. "A job that needed to be done. But it was time sensitive. I hope someone else managed to finish it in my absence. If not, it's probably too late now." His lips twist and tighten once more, a bit more sourly this time. But then he relaxes on a sudden exhalation. "As for now? I figure the least I can do is make sure that those who do have something to go back to at least have that option open to them. Regardless of what my own return prospects may be." Suddenly confusion dawns, and his head cants to the side. "Why would it be easier to explore movement here as opposed to out there?" he queries.

     "Well it was mostly for modeling combat scenes for my book to make them flow better and be more fluid." Honami pauses at the comment of 'had'. "It's... probably fine, I'm sure... and, well." She pauses at that. A bit heavy. "Anyway, so uhm. I used it to practice the combat for my book, even the spells and dark orientation was part of the character." Honami gives a light yawn. "Anyway. ...I should probably get on to bed. Good luck figuring out your combat style."

"Goodnight. Sleep well, and thank you for the instruction." Again that faint smile from Robert, accompanied by a parting wave, and then it's back to his punching bag. The punches are more disciplined now. Not perfect mirrors of Honami's, but much closer than before. He noticeably does -not- watch her as she leaves.