Princes of the Universe Continues

Posted on Fri Jul 31st, 2020 @ 10:59am by Lieutenant Verdeath Newmark & Lieutenant Lei Shan

2,049 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Storm
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: 3 Days into voyage home.

OLD

"You are all talk." Newmark chuckled, ready for another trick. "Might we also ask how low the standards are for 'a lady' in his case?"

"You..." She growled and charged with Cross pattern slices meant to drive Newmark back; he stood ground and parried the more high energy consuming attacks.


NEW

Shan turned a little to keep her back to Newmark but she did move forward a bit to get some more room. Heally was young, had been young when he 'died' the first time, and it didn't seem like it had been very long. He carried himself like a big man who was used to being the biggest and strongest in the room. He thought he was invincible- immortal. Well, he was Immortal. But only until today. That was about to change.

Heally crashed in again, slamming his sword down at Shan and forcing her to block hard. He was strong. If she took too many hits like that, her hands would go numb. She needed to be quicker than him.

As Heally kept hammering, Shan moved. She was dodging as much as blocking, using her sword to deflect rather than stop. All the while she watched him. She hadn't run into such an inexperienced opponent in a long time; she wasn't entirely convinced it wasn't an act on his part, but she was getting impatient at playing defensively, as she dodged the next blow she slashed at his exposed forearms and was rewarded with a curse of pain- and a quick change of direction that indicated he wasn't quite as off-balance as he tried to appear.

Newmark had the skill more than his oppnant; she was a bit more nimble as she tried to get to his side; he noticed her keeping track of her partner. He ris a thrust that the tip caught her in the side; feeling the safety fields cutting in to keep her safe.

She gave some ground and he pressed her a bit.

"Keep your eye on the Prize." Newmark taunted.

Shan's patience continued to wear thin and she tried another probe, drawing Heally into another heavy clash and dancing out even further to the side to go for his leg and getting a long, deep slash across his thigh for her efforts. She felt the way her blade 'caught' on his leg and recognized it as the holodeck safety feature stopping real harm. She had been on the receiving end of that safety feature before, so she knew that the blood wasn't real, but that Heally- whoever he really was on the other end of a holosuite- was feeling some pain as the holodeck applied pressure to simulate being injured.

She got a little to close, and Heally shot out a backhand at her, clipping her shoulder as she skipped away. It was a hard enough hit to throw off her balance a touch, and would probably leave a bruise. She scrambled away and regained her footing just before he closed again. He was limping though, so she figured she won that exchange.

Yana jumped away from Newmark and brought her blade to stike at SHan.

"Change up." She announced.

Heally toke his chance to make a full on attack with Newmark deflecting the blade with the clang of the enemy sword glancing off the Guard and force put Newmark back a step.

"I suppose this is Open Dance Card night." Newmark commented.

"Rather rude of them, wouldn't you say? Without even a by-you-leave," Shan said as she responded to the attack from Yana and took the offensive with a series of fast, rhythmic attacks designed to lull the opponent into a false sense of a pattern while determining a level of speed and strength.

Yana had speed and the steps of a dancer; she stayed in the center of her balance and her footwork was on point. She gave a few thrusts and did the 'hit/ retreat style testing. Keeping the best thing swordplay requires, distance so not to give any openings. The fast flurry of attacks were more provocative than meaning to do harm and Yana took any ground Shan gave tentatively.

"Breakable doll here." She lashed out with one lunge just to test.

Instead of retreating, Shan combined a block with a sidestep. Yana's lunge closed the distance between them, and Shan snapped out a kick at her forward knee- the one currently supporting most of her weight- driving the joint sideways to bring Yana down to the ground.

Yana howled in pain and rolled aside and to a painful crouch; her blade still between Yana and Shan.

"You Minx..." Yana cursed and tried to get up enough to be defensive. "Your head will be mine yet." She tried to keep steady but in this condition a bad limp will cut her options.

From up her sleeve a small throwing knife sailed from Yana to hit SHan's left arm in the bicept, too close to her shoulder and obviously off target.

Shan staggered just a little and a Chinese curse slipped out. Though not quite dead at her side, the left arm was not going to be much help in the rest of this fight. Growling through the pain, she stepped in. Yana's footwork was going to suffer terribly, and she needed to take advantage of that, which she did by circling fast to Yana's side before stepping in for an attack, then repeating again, then changing directions to attack from the other side. She was now the more maneuverable one.

Newmark was used to some 'Brute force' being used but this man Heally seemed to have quite the constitution with each of his timed blows with force, pressing ground; separate and conquer seemed likely. Newmark side stepped a couple of blows so not to get too far from Shan; not give a view of her back to the man attacking him. Rules are all good in tournament but this contest was Win/Lose and the progression dependent more upon 'Win.'

Heally kept driving forward, not letting up. True, he lacked the finesse of other fighters, but to many blocks of his strong blows would cause the hands to numb and the grip to slip. He disarmed his opponents by never giving them a chance to readjust the grip, to regain each tiny loss, until finally they lost the blade altogether, leaving them defenseless when he went in for the kill shot.

Newmark had been taught to keep a grip on his sword; like a little bird, if one held too loose it flew away and too tightly killed the bird. While a little firmer than usual, he did leave enough that the vibration did not affect hi as much. This 'Hacker' opted to bludgeon his way to victory. It was fine with Newmark as there was one way to deal; an extra half step back and be at the ready. a few seconds to make it seem he needed the break, but in reality with allowing the Hacker to force Newmark to his right they had come into position.

Naturally to keep the 'punishment going the Hacker will need to pace Newmark and quicken his pace, in that step to catch up; the extending of a stride gave Newmark a chance. Charging to cut the distance and not allow Hacker full blade reach Newmark deflected the blade that came with force and with a full arm motion to redirect the blade punched the man in the nose with his open hand and continued the advance to pass by the Hacker who clutched his nose.

"Hard to fight what you cannot see." Newmark was a doctor; he knew the first seconds of a broken and bleeding nose would put the Hacker at a disadvantage.

Now if he is smart he will back away; if angry try to bull-doze Newmark. Either way the blade in Newmark not numb hand was ready. What Newmark did not expect was for the man to pull a revolver. The first shots were really wide as Newmark made for a near by Bench, thankful stone is used in this park. He had to think fast before the man got a chance to clear his eyes.

Just as Heally's eyes were half clear a shadow was leaping at him, the flash of Newmark's dark coat gave him away.

Heally slashed one handed in the general direction with his blade to keep his opponent back, while at the same time lifting the revolver and firing blindly.

Newmark had cut left as the slash that cut his coat would not be where the man shot, that was the side for the advantage, at full extension cutting the man's forearm would make it useless, the sharp blade was for slashing so it lived up to design cutting the man's forearm with the gun to the bone.

Heally brought his blade back as the gun dropped from unusable fingers but Newmark had continued to pass by and the cut of his sword as he ran. At least the man would not have the ability to ring down such punishment this time as Newmark took the chance to duck and roll to a ready position well away from the Hacker.

The first crack of the gun startled both Shan and Yana. Shan was too committed to her next action to stop, though, and was dashing into a full half circle around Yana to come at her from the other side yet again. She couldn't stop, even as more shots rang out.

Yana knew the gun might be involved and with her bad leg keeping the Minx at the end of her blade was worth more than wondering if Heally had done his job? But with a bum leg getting around was not as easy as she saw the blade coming at her and all Yana could do was put up her sword and hope it was in time?

The sword was in place in time. But Shan knew the block would be weak, and the stance weaker still, so even though her blow had been softened, she bulled forward, driving right into Yana and bowling her over. But this time she gave the other woman no time to roll away, she followed up, hammering down with her blade at Yana's sword, knocking it from fingers that had loosened instinctively when Yana tried to break her fall.

She still didn't stop, still pursuing, not allowing her to scramble away. Her blade came up, then descended in an arch unerringly aimed for Yana's vulnerable neck.

"NOOOOOO!..." Yana roared just before the cut.

Shan didn't let that stop her. She continued the cut, and Yana's body slumped to the ground, her head bouncing once before rolling away.

Lightning streaked across the sky several times, the body vanished in a flash of light, and the holodeck sent a mild simulated electric shock through Shan, like being the last person in a chain of too much static. The crack wasn't really painful, but it certainly got your attention.

And Shan grinned through it all.

Heally roared in pain and fell back, slashing wildly to keep Newmark bay. His trump card was played, he was injured, and his partner had not yet come to his rescue. He continued to back away, towards a line of trees.

"Not in the short rest of your lifetime." Newmark intercepted easily and with a simple 'Stop Cut' is when one interrupts an opponent's attack pattern andh drives the point home. It was a risk with a healthy man but simple now. Then a withdraw of the blade from the chest and lateral slash separated the head from the body.

The simple maneuver had the man fall over minus the head that fell opposite him. No blood; just some sparking and a small electrical 'pinch' to Newmark before the body vanished.

Grasping the simulated wound in her arm, Shan made her way over to Newmark. "Made it again, huh?" she asked, grinning widely. This little battle was exactly what she'd needed.

"We live to fight another day." He smiled and picked up his coat to wrap p the sword. "Though it does play havoc with my wardrobe choices."

OFF:

Lieutenant JG Lei Shan
Operations

&

Lt Verdeath Newmark
Medical Officer.

 

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