Over The Bridge

    The bridge over the water gives those that come and go from the Town of Beginnings to Alne or the other way, from ever getting their feet wet.

One such adventurer stands on he bridge with a fishing pole in hand, attempt to catch fish. Perhaps at his own failure to do so. Who is this one attempting to do what he doesn't have the skills for? Xander Scaleharth!

Who as he pulls up another fish, watches another failure, being an ol' boot, and chucks it over his shoulder. "... Come on game... Just give me a fish or three..." He rumbles softly.

    "Careful, Xander," the voice of Uta warns as she approaches. Hands behind her back, insouciant posture, currently looking into the distance at some unspecified point low in the sky, she reaches the spot where Xander is. "If those things work like cooking vegetables or preparing potions, you might end up pulling one up, hold it in tirumph, and discover that it explodes in your face." She turns her back to the parapet, places her palms on it, and jumps up to sit up on the slab. "Ah, Elder Tales Online. Where you can boast with your friends that, sure the fish you're showing is big, but 'You Should Have Seen The One That Blew Up.'"

    Wynfei walks up to the bridge, having been doing some thinking lately, hence why he's not been seen a lot lately. Things have finally settled down and hit him, as much as he's been trying to talk with others and help them, but now he's been feeling the effects as well. Not too much negative effects but just in general.

    As he nears the bridge he sees Xander and Uta. He walks over to where the two are, "Hey you two." he says as he nears the two of them. "What's going on?" he asks.

    "More like forever get old boots, junk, and well, more junk." Xander says as he goes to pull the reel back in and stares at a moldy ring, before chucking it as well.

"Like cooking. I am best apparently at cooking something if a Flash fire it. Use the normal cooking skill? Ha!" Xander sighs softly. "Frustrating really."

    The Salamander looks over to Wynfei, "Oh hey! Wynfei, right? Met you by the lakeside if I recall." He taps the side of he own head gently with his scaled finger claw, before casting the line once more. "How you been?"

Uta turns to face the direction Xander is greeting in, "Oh, hey, yes, it's Wynfei indeed! Hi Wynfei!" She turns to Xander. "You two know each other already? Good. This way I won't have to introduce you." She turns to face Wynfei again. "We still need to have that sparring session together at some point...", she mentions, then, turning to Xander again, she resumes, "See? I'm meeting new people and then beating them up. I guess you could say I'm bootstrapping a social life, by the standards of this world..."

    "Yeah." he says as he looks to Xander. "I'm alright, been to myself for a good little bit." he says to both Xander and Uta. "Just been dealing with a few things but I think I'm alright now." he smiles. "How're you two doing and yes we do need to have our spar Uta." he chuckles. His monkey like tail dances about behind him.

    "I think you two should spar. Uta could use more experience in fighting different types of people. Learning her strengths and weaknesses." Xander admits as he gets a hook. He goes to pull it in. Only to find himself staring at a lobster scarab humanoid that snaps its claws at him. "NOPE!"

And he YEETS that back into the water with a heavy sigh. "Okay... I think I'm done with fishing for now." Xander goes to place away the fishing rod before turning to look at them both as he leans his back against the railing. "Maybe you two should spar right now."

    "Glad things turned out fine. If you ever need help, feel free to hit me up." Beat. "...as in, 'contact me', not 'punch me in the face'. Just to be clear." She turns to Xander, and lets out a squeal at the sight of the lobster scarab humanoid, scrambling, plummeting face-first, but-

    In the blink of an eye, Uta has readjusted to hit the floor hands-first, shifted her weight to curl up in a ball, tumbled, and propelled herself up again in the air, flips, and lands in a fighting stance, right next to Wynfei, still looking terrified. "THE HECK IS THAT!"

    Once she sees that the threat has been yet (How's that verb's paradigm anyway? Does it follow the 'meet-met-met' structure, going 'yeet-yet-yet'?), she scratches the back of her head, "...Oh. Uh." She looks at Wynfei, a bit cross-eyed, then back to Xander, then Wynfei again. "If it is okay with you, Wynfei... I'm not sure I'm up for a proper /duel/, yet, but I guess we could have some casual practicing of random techniques on each other. I guess it /would/ provide valuable experience to the both of us..."

    She squints sideways at Xander, with a smirk, "...and entertainment to the onlookers, huh?"

    Wynfei quirks a brow up at Xander, "Huh?" he asks as he looks to him and then look to Uta as she lands next to him. "Uhhh...sure?" he asks and looks to Uta then to Xander. "We can do something casual." he says to her. "I don't think I'm ready for a full duel myself." he laughs. "My main goal is to show people that those of us who only use our hands and feet and maybe a staff how dangerous we can be." he grins.

    "I'm still recovering from dealing with the First Floor boss." Xander says idly to Uta, with a bit of stretch. "I was of the few Tanks still standing."

He glances back toward Alne, "Though honestly after doing that..." His eyes look distant for a moment before he softly smiles as he looks back to the two.

    Xander looks over to Wynfei, "If people honestly don't believe hand-to-hand to dangerous, then I guess they never tried to deal with a martial arts expert or someone trained in the armed forces." He muses. "Though most are just kids anyways who still think this is just a video game."

The Salamander crosses his arms over his chest, looking to the stone floor of the bridge. "... If only."

    "Uhm, I'm not sure how dangerous I can be, to be honest. Still figuring that out." She turns her back to the others, to reach an appropriate distance from her sparring partner. As she does so, her face still unseen, her eyes pop open in realization as those dreadful words reach her.

    "One of the few..."

    ...can that mean... does that mean... that the oters...

    Her pupils dart in the direction of Xander, with worry, but due to the angle, nobody is going to see anything, neither Uta Xander nor Xander or Wynfei her face.

    Someone is in dire need of being cheered up. This is the kind of good cause one can spare a little bit of dignity for.

    When she pivots on one foot to face her prospective sparring partner, hands held into each other behind her back, no trace of what has just transpired is visible on her expression.

    "That's absolutely true, Wynfei!", she exclaims, cheerful. "Xander has been training me in the noble art of unarmed combat, and I'm soaking up every single one of his lessons. I've got this thing down pat!" A swift movement, and she's assumed a textbook guarded starting position. "STEP ONE!", she exclaims at Wynfei, intense, "You must compliment my appearance!" She turns to face Xander, she flashes him her most convincing 'SEE? ME LEARNED GOOD!' clueless smile.

    A breath escapes him, Wynfei looks to Xander for a long moment as he speaks. "Sorry man for not being there." he says a bit unsure of things. "I was there to clear the floor but not there to help you all take out the boss. That will not happen again." he says as he looks at him and offers a bow of his head.

    "They should be worried." he gives a mischevious grin. He looks to Uta, then looks back to Xander, "You're a Godhand as well?" he asks. "I'm sorry, I don't normally ask classes but lately I want to find out and see who are going on that path so we can maybe create a Dojo of some sort to help those who are going on that path. Me, I'm Godhand/Blademaster, So Fully I'm a Martial Artist." he states. He looks to Uta and smiles to her and he walks over to where she is, "If you're learning from Xander, than show me what you can do." he says as he assumes a relaxed stance.

    Xander gives Uta the most dead-pan stare, "... I didn't teach you anything about hand-to-hand. Just gave you some general--" He hears what Uta says and then rubs the bridge of his nose. "... And that wasn't even the lesson."

The Salamander just shakes his head and sighs. What ever going on in that draconic man's head, he was keeping to himself at this point.

    Though his brows furrow and he places his hand up to his ear, he says something, before his hand lowers. Sounds like he at least said something about 'I'll head over'.

Xander then looks over to Wynfei, "It's alright, man. Honestly you probably missed a shit show. Ton of people got graved and it wasn't pretty by any means. Consider yourself lucky." He then pushes off the rail, "And no. I'm a Rune Knight. Uta though, well, she probably can learn more from you than me honestly."

The Salamander then raises his hand, "Anyways, I need to go catch up with someone. You two have fun and you know, make sure to send one another a duel request. Hate for the system to flag someone red." Xander then goes to make his way into town.

    "Bye, Xander! See... you later..." she says, beginning to worry...

    No. NO. Don't let emotions get the best of you. THAT was the lesson, of course.

    She turns towards Wynfei. says, "Ok, then! Time get this started!" A duel request is sent, accepted, and when the signal is given that the duel may commence, Uta modulates a melodious a cappella tune, slow, stately, and a golden light swirls around her. When that is over, she focuses her breathing out with a single, loud vocalization, and she lunges at her opponent, beginning with a bang, or rather, a flurry of attacks. Punches, kicks, more punches, yet more punches, kicks, punches, they keep coming!

    Wynfei doesn't know what skill level Uta is at right now. He isn't going to take her lightly, but he wants to see what she can handle. Accepting the duel request, he smiles and gives Uta a bow of his head to her. "Don't take it easy on me Uta." he says to her.

    He sees her movements and as she comes in towards him. He quickly spreads his fingers and bring his hands up to his face, "FUZZ!" he calls out sending out a blinding light to attempt to blind Uta, though it doesn't matter she is able to get through that causing Wynfei to begin evading.

    Wynfei flickers backwards with Uta still on him and only a few of her strikes managing to strike but none that were too damaging. He rolls his shoulders and his tail begins to whip around him and he smiles as he looks to her.

Kauchemar had been out for a simple stroll looking for inspiration when the flash of light catches her attention. Interesting. The nightmare hums a few bars of a haste song and sprints in that direction to investigate.

Uta replies, "I won't take it easy on-WAUGH!"

    She leaps backwards, doing a flip in the air, hands clasped over her eyes, and, due to being unable to see, she miscalculates her landing, stumbles backwards, and falls back-first. Light glows where she falls down, to signal loss of HP, but she's quit to spring up to her feet. "THE LIGHTS! THEY BURN! TURN THEM OFF!" She exclaims, groping with one hand in the air. "...or turn on the dark! That works too!"

    Tendrils of darkness, black and purple, grow out of her, and intertwine into a bubble of void that surrounds her, writhing and slithering, as some sort of Hamster of Darkness...

    She squints at Wynfei. "...better," she states, her voice cold and chilling, with a hint of a growl, her eyes glowing in the darkness, and all of a sudden, a circular kung-fu move which ends with Uta extending both hands to Wynfei, together with a flick of her dark wings, and the sphere of dark energy is focused and shot at her opponent.

    Once she's done disposing of her darkness, she goes, "...phew. MAN, does that technique creep me out. Sorry Wynfei, hope that one didn't creep you too much!", her voice back to being warm and cheerful.

Large birds are the popular mount in this world so the sound of hoodbeats is an uncommon one.

The rhythmic thump slows to a stop as Kauchemar reaches the sparring match. "Oh good, you are getting some fighting experience."

    Seeing the darkness surround Uta, a smile shows even more on his face, "Ah yea!" he says as he gets ready as he sees that she is getting blinded until the darkness begins to offset the light he used against her. "Good." he says to her.

    As that darkness is fired at him, he dives to his right and rolls away getting smacked a little by that blast, he misjudged the attack and he grunts, so far shes not taking much from his own attacks, though it was fine, this is a spar. So grins, "Buzz!" he calls out again attempting to blind Uta again and he quickly repositions himself after flitting in towards her to attack again.

Uta grins, "You underestimate me! My focus is unfaltering, my attention unyielding, my mind a piercing needle stinging into the- Oh, hey Kauchemar! Nice seeing you around-WAUGH!!!"

     Having turned off to a side to greet Kauch, she gets blinded again, she stumbles backwards, as the countdown for the timed duel goes seven... six... five... four..." "MY EYES! THEY BURN!!", leaving her vulnerable to any punch that might come her way.

"Yes! Use the Darkness against the light!" Though the cheering cuts short as Uta gets blinded again. "Uh... hi?" She shrugs. "Sorry that was partially my fault distracting her."

    A smirk crosses his face, "No one was underestimating you Uta." he says to her as she calms down. "Also don't worry about someone doing that or not." he says to her. "You fight, you don't hold back, you allow yourself to feel the fight, understand your surroundings." he says to her.

    He looks to Kauchemar and he bows his head, "Hello." he says to her. "My name is Wynfei." he says to her, he stretches and yawns and his stomach loudly make itself known. He blushes, "Uhhh....sorry." he says as he rubs his stomach.

    ...three ...two ...one

    Timeout!

    "...I know you weren't underestimating me, Wynfei, but, you know 'you underestimate me', is a pretty standard line to deliver during a fight and... I cannot resist delivering a topical line when the opportunity arises." She wobbles to her feet, still rubbing her eyes, and catching sight of a silhouette she recognises as her sparring parner, she heads towards it.

    "That was a good fight you gave, you are a worthy opponent," she begins, still squinting, "at what I feel is just the right level for me to train at. It was great, and I'm looking forward to do this again!", she offers, bowing right in front of- uh, Kauchemar.

    Seems like it'll still take a bit for her eyes to adjust...

Kauchemar gently grabs Uta by the shoulders and turns her towards Wynfei.

    He understands and he chuckles as Kauchemar turns Uta in the direction of where he is. He shakes his head and mouths, 'Thank you.' to Kauchemar. "I'm glad you approve Uta." he says to her. "Well if you wanna spar again, please let me know, I would like to do this again."