Watching the homely atmosphere unfold around him, Connor felt a sense of peace. He was truly glad he made the decision to join Chroma Knights. The camaraderie he could feel emanating from the men and woman around him reminded him a great deal of his time in the military. It seemed as if everyone relied on each other a great deal.

“Look who I got up!”

Connor looked up at the commotion that had just been dragged into the room and couldn't help but smirk as the active 'Mother' of everyone here dragged the lazy Brian in to the kitchen by the ankle.

“What a splendid morning you must be having Brian.” He snickered to himself, but he didn't expect to be the next one to catch the wrath of Amelie.

"Hey, Connor!"

Connor quickly secured his smirk. 'Uh oh...' was all he could think to himself. He could see in her face that she wasn't very happy with him.

“Mind putting down the alcohol? You're not doing yourself any favors by drinking at 8:00 in the morning. Have some coffee instead. Coffee's good."

After taking a look at the now emptied bottle in his hand, he looked back up towards Amelie. With a giant grin on his face, he lifted the bottle and shook it like a bell.

“Come on 'Mel Mel', As Jimmy Buffet says, 'It's five o'clock somewhere.' And I need the calories.”

He wasn't exactly sure how she would react to his prodding, but he figured it was all in good fun. It wasn't like he was drinking on an empty stomach. He had already eaten before his run, but naturally not many would have known about that as it was fairly early in the morning when he left.

Getting up every morning, he would jog to central park. After finding a quiet spot, he would meditate for an hour while expanding his control of time. A month was not enough time to gain even a semblance of the control he needed to exert a large amount of control, but he was already making significant progress. In fact, he even felt that it was about time to test his powers in an actual fight.

"So does anyone know what the plan is for today? I was planning on sparring if anyone cared to join. Not many of the other knights can keep up minus those with experience but I can always tone it back for you guys."

Connor stared stupidly at the hulking giant across the table. 'Did he just read my mind? No, no, that would be crazy.' The timing was perfect though. He finally had an opportunity that he could exploit.
Connor wasn't much of a match for this titan of a Hammer, but that was exactly what he wanted. Someone that could push him to the limits of his power. It wasn't like he didn't have any tricks for fighting bigger guys anyway.

“Alright 'Wagon Wheel', I'll take you on, but you're not allowed to tone it back” Standing up he elicited his challenge to Darius. Of course the nick name was something he did for everyone and this time he was simply referencing the song Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker. He had an odd sense of humor, but he didn't really care if others found it funny. He could laugh at his own jokes.

Keira glanced over to Cayde and gave him a sympathetic smile as she gestured over to Amelie. They had been living together for a while that she was familiar with the black haired girl's mischievous streak. The impish grin on her face was proof of what she planned to do. "I guess you'll have to wait for Mel to finish causing trouble for Brian before we get to eat breakfast." She placed an elbow onto the table and laid her cheek against her open palm, watching silently and amusedly as Amelie made her way out of the kitchen towards the rooms. "Probably the megaphone," she guessed.

A few minutes later, an extremely loud noise from an airhorn couple with a loud shout, magnified as she expected by a megaphone, echoed through the whole building. "I really don't envy Brian at times like this. That noise probably shook the very foundation of the building...But it's Brian we're talking about. Knowing him, I'm sure he'll still insist of going back to sleep despite all that racket," she commented idly to no one in particular but looked as though she was talking to Cayde as her face was facing his direction.

She promptly fell silent, her mind once again drifting off. Thoughts about her father, the arrow knight that had rescued him and her father's eventual death began flashed through her mind again. She tried her best to keep the sadness at bay but on a day like this, it was a losing battle. She was, however, grateful for the distraction that Amelie was giving her. It helped.

And said distraction walked back into the kitchen, dragging the recipient of her handiwork by the ankle. An amused smile worked its way onto Keira's face, one that widened and was accompanied by a suppressed giggle when she finally saw the sharpie mustache and monocle on the sleepy boy's face. "Good morning, Brian. It's nice to see you up and well...thoroughly decorated," she reached out for food and filled her plate with just enough and then glanced over to Amelie. "Nice artwork," she commented.

In between bites, she glanced over to the big man of the group and gave him a polite smile. "You'd probably crush me if I took your offer to spar with you." When Connor took Darius' invitation, she turned her attention towards Cayde. "I'll probably just go out and practice, maybe spend some more time with Falco. What are your plans, Cayde? You're not going back up to your room and play games all day, are you?"

Resting his head in his hand on the table, he awaited an answer from any of them but it didn't take long for him to gain answer by none other than their resident temporean, Connor. When Connor stood to emphasize his seriousness, a glint of excitement entered into Darius' eyes. With a nod, he stood to his full erected height walked around the table.

"Then let's go buddy. We may need a healer present. Laura? Would you mind coming with us please? Amelia, you coming?" He glanced over to her with a light smile as he walked out of the room, expecting Connor in tow.

"Place bets if you want guys!" Darius shouted back at the rest of them as he turned the corner form the kitchen towards the training facility but first a pit stop to his room to grab his things. A few minutes passed before he reentered the hallway, adorn in his armor and on his back, the blade he dubbed The Crucible. Darius rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck and continued on towards the training facility.

---

The training facility was rather large, able to occupy a decent amount of knights and seemed capable of adapting terrain changes for whatever training was needed. For this case, its open field would suffice. As he entered he made his way over to one side of the arena and awaited Connor to set up. There were a few knights in the room who observed them. They didn't take much thought into Darius or his weapon as the older group have seen much large weaponry but that was not to say they were fairly interested in how one of the greenhorns had managed to gain the strength to wield something that large and the way he held it by the handle only helped pique their interest, former training of some sort they thought. As it stood, Darius currently awaited Connor to set up.

"Whenever you are ready."

Laura Tilney

Kitchen, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~7:49 am

Just one remark from Laura, and Amelie was ready to take action. She had a pretty good idea what fixing Brian's absence from the table meant, this wasn't the first time Amelie had taken it upon herself to rouse Brian from his slumber. Shaking her head slightly as the older girl exited the kitchen, Laura used the time to pour herself a cup of coffee from the pot that had just finished brewing, and took a seat at the table to wait.

"HEY, GET UP, LAZY BONES!" That was Amelie. Brian should be here anytime. Looking down into her cup of black coffee, she sighed. Why couldn't that boy-- actually he was a man now, at eighteen-- why couldn't he just learn to get up at a reasonable time? It was already past seven thirty, in fact, it was pretty much eight. Soon enough, there was another yell from Amelie that announced her arrival along with Brian.

Looking up from her cup of coffee, her gaze traveled over to the Brian on the ground, and her grey eyes gave him a long look. Not that he would see it, judging from the way that he still looked half asleep on the floor. It was a few minutes before he managed to summon up the energy to sit at the table, and it was then that Laura caught sight of his face. Punishment for sleeping late, huh?

She performed another small shake of the head before accepting the plate Amelie handed her with a thanks, and beginning to eat quickly while she listened to the conversation. Enough time had been wasted this morning already. Seemed like she wasn't the only one who wanted to get going that day, for Darius was asking for a spar.

That invitation definitely wasn't for her, but it meant that she might have to keep an eye on whoever decided to spar with Darius, depending on how far they decided to take things. She found herself raising an eyebrow as Connor took the invitation. Connor was the newest recruit currently, having only trained for a month. Darius, on the other hand, had been training for much longer. How long had Darius been training again? Fourteen, fifteen years? Well, she needed to come along for that. Laura couldn't pretend that she wasn't interested in seeing how such a fight would turn out.

But before going, she needed another cup of coffee. Seeing how the two men were already heading out of the room, she began to call after them. "Wait to start until..." There they went, probably hadn't even heard her. Halfheartedly, she finished. "I'm there." Oh well, coffee the first. The initial cup had been to wake her up properly, the second was to make sure that the effects lasted.

Holding her warm cup in both hands, she began to make her way slowly towards the training part of the base, careful not to spill anything on her clothes.

Looking at the heavily armored mountain in front of him, Connor couldn't help but inwardly cry. "How the hell am I supposed to fight that?", he lamented to himself, clearly regretting saying anything at all. With only the two knives at his waist, he realized that they may not be enough. They suited him just fine when fighting a normal enemy, but against this titan, they would be almost useless. Gandering around the arena, he spotted a host of weapon racks to be used for training. He grabbed a gladius from one of the racks and tested its weight. From among the many weapons here, it was definitely the most generic, but nothing could speak more for a sword then history and the gladius, with it's long background with the Roman Empire, had a solid record to fall back on.

Arranging himself across from Darius, he mentally prepared himself for the bout. Having been in many fights before, he was able to erase all nervousness and excitement from his body. Focusing solely on the task at hand he raised his guard as he prepared to meet Darius head on. The most important thing in a fight was to be able to gauge your opponents strength as well as his technique. And given the hulking man in front of him, it was clear that he wasn't lacking any strength. Connor was going to need to be quick and avoid taking a single hit. One swing from the sword would blow him clear across the room.

Taking Darius's cue, he flashed a cocky wink as if to signal the start of the fight. "May the most aggressive man win." Bursting from his position, he dashed head on at Darius. With the intention of responding to his opponents first move, Connor brought the short sword to his right side as if prepared to swing it from a low position.

"What is he doing?" Behind an expressionless face he questioned his opponent internally. The last thing someone would want to do is charge in head on, that's a rookie's mistake and could quite possibly cost him dearly. Darius sighed, with both hands he brought his blade around behind him in a position that would allow a swing from right to left. He awaited Connor to close the gap and then he made his move. It would seem to many outside of the fight that a blade of that size and weight would move slow but it was quite the contrary. Growing up he had held blades much larger than the typical short sword for training, his father made sure of that and because of the intense training he was given this blade felt as light as a regular sword. With an audible woosh it flew threw the air towards Connors mid-section but thankfully he was not one to swing at people with the razor sharp edge but rather its blunt side.

Seeing the giant blade reap its way through the air, Connor couldn't help but be amazed. The sword hurtling a coarse of destruction towards him was a frightening sight to behold. He naturally couldn't block such a catastrophe waiting to happen and was left with only one choice. He had to dodge it. His brain began working in high gear causing a rush of adrenaline to surge through his body. The world seemed to automatically slow around him. Connor deduced all of the possibilities he could think of in the coarse of milliseconds. With his course set, Connor gathered all of the might in his legs, forcing his body to roll to the right.

Given the range of motion of a shoulder, a swing from the right should provide him with just enough room to dodge when the blade pulls up at the end of its swing. Hopefully, when he lands, it should leave an open second for him to counter attack but Darius didn't slow his momentum. Instead, he continued the momentum, putting his body in a full spin, attempting to get Connor coming out of the dodge. His steps would match his spin so by the end of the rotation, he would be back in his starting stance.

Gritting his teeth, Connor saw the mistake he had made. Seeing the shift in Darius's foot work, he sensed that there wasn't going to be enough room for him to dodge at this rate. He needed to be faster. Welling up power in his gut, he activated his powers. Time around him abruptly slowed by a small degree and his body seemed to cut right through the fabric of the world. He completed his roll and slid back just in time to see the tip of the blade cut into his face. As the world came back into its proper motion, and Darius finished his swing; blood began to flow down Connor's face from a gash just below his left eye. The exchange only lasted seconds, but activating his power already put a visible strain on his endurance. Having not been able to fully grasp the extent of his power over the last month, he was barely able to draw out its full potential. Ignoring the wincing pain in his face, Connor immediatly charged forward once again.

Darius was slowly beginning to notice a pattern with Connor, dodge and charge. He clearly hadn't been in a lot of fights from what he could see and it showed in his style of hit and run tactics if one could even call them that. So he decided to bite and charged forward as well.

Using the momentum from his own charge, Connor pushed off the ground and entered the air. Throwing his weight to the side, he shifted his body and struck out with a thunderous kick towards the head. Darius watched as he jump up and smirked. Taking advantage of still remaining grounded, he released his right hand on the blade, letting it remain in his left as he brought his now free hand around to the broaden side of the blade. With his left, he twisted the handle, allowing the kick to make contact with the flat side of the blade. Once he felt the vibration from the impact he lifted up, twisting his body and bent down, allowing the blade to drag Connor to the ground with an audible thunk, so long as his opponent was still airborne and near him.

Connor never experienced a fight against an opponent with a sword and was banking off little experience in these kinds of situations, however he did practice the concept of Jeet Kune Do. One of the many principles of Jeet Kune Do is known as the economy of motion and it's entirely about anticipating an attack and finding an effective and direct approach to your next move. Having noticed that Darius favored the broadside of his sword in the beginning of the fight, he expected the natural counter to his kick to be exactly how Darius responded. When his foot made contact with the blade, instead of the toe of his boot, it was actually the ball of his foot. Pivoting his body around and coiling his leg muscles, he used the strong upward momentum of the blade to propel him several feet straight up into the air, with the blade passing swiftly inbetween his legs. It was a gamble to be in the air with no way to move, but Connor was counting on his fall giving him enough force to drive his gladius through the sturdy armor that adorned Darius's entire body.

Darius's eyes widened slightly as he watched the smaller of his brothers leap off his blade like a diving board, using his own strength to amplify the jump. "Nice move kid, heh." He internally congratulated him but his thoughts quickly returned to what was going on. Connor was still, by all intent and purpose, airborne. So it was time to take advantage of it. As Connor's descent came, he lept back, bringing the blade that was in his left hand across his body, the tip on his right...and lunged forward, broadside already passing through the air in the hope to catch Connor before he hit the ground.

Seeing Darius bring his blade into position, Connor knew that he was once again forced into a single action. "I can't seem to find a single opening," Inwardly groaning to himself, he reached for the knife on his right hip and swiftly tossed it at Darius's face hoping to catch the brute off guard. With the final few milliseconds of his fall, Connor twisted his body to the left, bringing the broadside of the gladius up to help bare the brunt of the swing.

The end of Darius's follow through faultered as the blade knocked into Connor, allowing him to escape the full brunt of the assault. Darius stumbled forward before hitting the side of his head onto the ground, roaring in pain. This pain-filled roar was laced with rage as it echoed through the arena and halls. Soon it became silent as he stumbled to his feet after nearly blacking out from the pain. He turned to face Connor with a strange look in his one eye as the other one continued to bleed. He was smirking, but one that was rather eerie, borderline demonic. Darius gripped the part of his blade closest to his face and yanked it out, throwing it to the ground with an audible "tink". He nodded as he licked the side of his mouth where the smell of iron was its strongest.

"My turn..."

He lept up, high into the air and twisted his body once again into a spin before he eyed up Connor and threw his blade at him like an eight foot kunai knife. Its aim held true but Connor's abilities would allow him to move and this is what he aimed for because as he came back down, he lept at Connor.

"Oh, shit", was the only reaction that Connor could possibly have when he saw the murderous look in Darius's eyes. As he watched the nearly seven foot tall man leap into the air and throw the massive blade like it weighed nothing, he was left speechless. Still disoriented from the massive collision he just took from the blade a few moments ago, he barely managed to side step to his left in time as the blade thundered into the ground, leaving sprawling cracks in its wake. The blade had pierced half of its eight foot length into the ground and caused the ground to shake. Stumbling to kneel on his left knee he still held the blade in his right hand. Lifting it up in the hope that it would prevent whatever was coming his way next, he had little expectations on being able to respond with his thoroughly exhausted body.

His gamble paying off, Darius landed next to his blade and with Connor on the ground he felt it was time to finish this. Gripping the handle hard with both hands he twisted his body and heaved the heavy blade out of the ground, the edge of the sword cut through the ground like butter as he brought it down upon Connor. Was this the end for Connor in this fight?

Struggling to lift the blade to defend himself, Connor watched helplessly as the steel carved it's path toward him. The gladius snapped in two as the already weakened blade could no longer hold up to the immense strength of Darius and The Crucible. The Crucible gleaned blood along its path as it split through Connor's body as easily as it carved the ground. Luckily, he was able to divert the path of the blade with his gladius, just enough to spare his life. But, moments later, Connor was lying on the ground in two pieces. His right arm disconnected entirely from his body leaving only a small stump, but covering the floor in a pool of blood. With his last remaining strength, Connor looked towards the man. As the blood from his cheek covered the left side of his face like a broken mask, he grinned with high appraisal at the man that could have soundlessly beat him from the very beginning. His conscious finally slipped from his grasp as the pain receptors in his body recognized his fatal condition and raked his body with mind-numbing electricity.

It took a moment for Darius to break stride from his numbing adrenaline to see that he had been victorious. With a light "heh", he walked forward a few steps before a reaction, similar to Connor's, came from Darius. The pain that had been suppressed came through in its entirety, shutting Daruis down where he stood.

The corners of Brian's lips quirked a little as he watched the reactions. Some of the reactions weren't quite as much as he'd hoped which was a pity, they were growing used to it. He'd simply have to work harder next time. If he was lucky, no one would say anything and then he could wear it to work too. His lips twitched as he imagined it. He looked forward to the results.

"Morning Bry. How'd you sleep?"

He simply offered a sleepy grunt as a response.

"Good morning, Brian. It's nice to see you up and well...thoroughly decorated"

For the girl, he offered an equally sleepy murmur. One might say he was biased. One wouldn't be wrong.

His nostrils flared as the scent of delicious food wafted into his face from a plate in front of him. After a few minutes he decided he'd waited long enough and opened his eyes and blinked owlishly. He looked around for a bit and then began to eat.

He'd worked his way through most of the bacon and was halfway through a piece of toast when Darius began to request for spars. He sent his gaze heavenwards. Hammers.

Then Connor eagerly piped up and even asked that Darius go all out. He froze with a piece of toast sticking out of his mouth and stared. There was a pregnant pause before he sent yet another beseeching gaze to the apartments above.

Newbies. Overeager puppies, the lot of them.

It looked like he might have to put his usual after breakfast smoke on pause. He stretched and rolled his shoulders a little and continued his meal with a faint glint in his eye. He ate for a couple minutes before wiping his mouth with a napkin. He pushed his plate to the side and nestled his head in his arms. He began his farseeing and waited patiently.

He was very familiar with the training room, so it was clearer than usual. Of course, the view that was clearest for him was his room here at the base, but the training room wasn't too bad either. He watched patiently for the spar to begin. If Darius took up the new guy's offer... well, the new guy wouldn't be around long.

It was another couple minutes before he watched the doors to the training room swing open. He sharpened his focus on the two as they positioned themselves for the spar.

Brian's body was tensed like a bowstring as he watched. His farseeing was blurry, and he hated that at this moment. He could tell there were several close calls there. Darius was holding back, but it was difficult fighting against the inexperienced. They had a tendency to do unexpected things that could make things take a turn for the worst.

He breathed in deeply, and breathed out, forcibly relaxing his muscles as he waited. His concentration sharpened as Darius went on the offensive. Brian's eyes shot open and he shot to his feet as Darius hit the ground.

He forced himself to calm down and closed his eyes. It took several long moments for his face to regain a tranquil expression.

He activated his farseeing again just in time to see Darius leap.

"Fuck! Shit! Fuck! Goddamn Cocky Newbies! Goddamned Hammers!"

Brian teleported into the viewing section of the training room. Without a clear line of sight, it would be risky to teleport into the middle of the fight. It took him a split second to reorient himself and in that moment, Connor's sword broke.

Brian's expression twisted and his stomach dropped. His eyes followed the arc of Connor's arm as it sailed through the air. In mere heartbeats, Brian snatched up the first aid kit, concentrated and teleported to Connor.

His eyes scanned the situation. The bleeding was bad. Deftly he opened up the first aid kit and retrieved medical shears and a Combat Action Tourniquet. With the shears he cut open Connor's shirt from the collar to down under his arm. Quickly he looped the tourniquet over the stump of Connor's arm, tighened the strap, twisted the windlass, and locked it into place.

It wasn't long before Laura reached the training facility, and pushing the door open, she stepped inside before immediately looking for Connor and Darius. They weren't hard to spot, for both wielded weapons and had already begun the fight. Without her supervision. Eyes locked on the fighting pair, it was only a few seconds after her arrival that she witnessed the first injury of the duel.

With Connor's skills still being at a lower level compared to Darius's due to the former's short time in training, the time slow that Connor performed still didn't give him enough time to doge Darius's attack. Thus, Connor sustained a gash on the face. Laura was too far away to be able to make out the depth and severity of the cut, but since Connor was still fighting, she hoped it wasn't too bad.

Still keeping her eyes on the pair, Laura quickly made her way over to the set of bleachers at the side of the training room. To protect the viewers from any mishaps that the people training might cause, the viewing area was separated by a low wall with wire fencing above it, a swinging gate placed where there was a small break in the wall and fencing.

Eyes still on the pair so as not to miss anything in the fast-paced fight, she took the few steps needed to take a seat on the bleachers without needing to look where she was going, and took a seat, placing the coffee mug in her lap.

Leaning forward slightly with her brow furrowed, she inhaled sharply as Connor's knife found it's way into Darius's eye, or rather, Darius's eye socket. "Shit, shit, shit," she muttered under her breath, now ready to spring up at any moment should things get worse. I think I better stop this soon. Biting her lip, she subconsiously brought the coffee mug to her mouth and began to drink, her head turned sideways to still keep an eye on the fight. How far should she let things go?

But just as she was swallowing down that mouthful of coffee, Darius lept at Connor. Eyes widening, Laura's immediate reaction was to try and yell at him to stop, but the mouthful of coffee she had taken caused her to choke. Slamming down the mug, she tried to force out a "Stop!" in between coughs, unsuccesfully. Daruis's sword swung, severing Connor's arm.

Amelie had just finished swallowing her coffee as quickly as humanly possible right as Darius lunged for Connor. "HOLY SHIT, STOP!" she stood up and screeched. But she was too late, as Connor's arm flew off. She pulled at her hair, her panic showing on her face as both of them wiped out. This had been a horrible bad idea. A newb Temporean fighting an old Hammer? That was a horrendous idea, and she should have put some reason into the two of them.

But lo and behold, she had not, and here they were.

At the moment, the most eloquent word Amelie could muster up was "FUCK!" Amelie usually didn't curse, so she was quite obviously panicking.

Not good. Really not good. As fast as she could, Laura began making her way along the bleachers and to the gate, noticing Brian's presence as she did so. Reaching the gate, she ran through and across the floor, where both Connor and Darius lay unconsious. Because of his wonderful teleporting, Brian had made it there first, already working on stopping the blood flow.

Trusting that Brian was capable enough of performing the first aid measures necessary, she only glanced at what he was doing quickly before snatching a pair of gloves from the first aid kit and running towards the nearby severed body part as she put them on.

Years ago Laura might have balked at even the thought of picking up a severed body part, but years of practice on the battlefield had made it so that she had no choice but to get her hands covered in blood. Bending over to pick up Connor's arm, she grabbed it around the elbow before turning and heading back, putting the arm next to it's owner.

It would be easier to transport the two of them to the base's infirmary rather than just treat him right there and then on the floor. Quickly checking to make sure that Brian had treated Connor's wound correctly, she decided that it was good enough for now, at least until she could reattach the arm at the infirmary.

"Brian." Laura spoke briskly. "He needs to be moved to the infirmary."

Brian nodded and quickly retrieved the stretcher and laid it down on the ground next to Connor. Carefully, he rolled Connor onto his uninjured side and nudged the stretcher under him.

Amelie rushed down the bleachers, flinging open the gate and rushing to their side.

Fidgeting anxiously, she asked "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

Brian glanced over at Darius then made eye contact with Amelie.

"Apply a pressure dressing to Darius' eye. Check him over for any other wounds and do what you can to deal with them, alright? Laura, I'm going to teleport us three to the infirmary."

His eyes flicked over to Laura, and then back again at Amelie.

"Amelie, I'll come back and help you carry Darius to the infirmary, okay?"

Amelie snatched the first aid kit, rooting through it until she found the gauze. She quickly layered it into a single, bulky patch the size of Darius's eye (and a bit of extra skin) and used some medical tape to tape it down firmly onto his eye.

When he saw that Amelie got to work immediately on dealing with that damned Hammer, Brian returned his eyes to Laura.

"You ready?" he waited for a sign of assent. "In three. Three, two, one." And he teleported all three of them to the infirmary.

Laura let Brian do the talking when Amelie finally calmed herself down and arrived at the scene. She wasn't happy with the way the older girl had freaked out, but now wasn't the time to think about such things. Double checking first to make sure that Connor lay correctly, she picked up the stretcher with Brian, then nodded to show she was ready. Together, they were teleported into the infirmary.

Brian felt a wave of dizziness when he teleported. He gulped down a couple deep breaths and steadied himself. His disorientation was less than that of his passengers, but in the end the effort he put into his jumps more than made up for the lack of disorientation. His clothes were sticking to his skin, already damp with sweat. He helped settle Connor in the infirmary before taking the stretcher and hurrying back out the doors to return to the training room. He paused just around the corner to close his eyes and catch his breath for a moment.

His complexion had simultaneously paled and reddened from the exertion making the dark shadows under his eyes stand out a little further. He used the trip back to the training room to cool down a little. It didn't take too long for him to arrive in front of the door to the training room. He put the stretcher aside just long enough to get the door open before grabbing it and going inside.

He quickly returned to Darius' side. He gave Darius a once-over, and then set down the stretcher and, with a little help from Amelie, got Darius situated on the other side.

"Amelie, you take that end of the stretcher, and I'll take this one. On the count of three, we'll lift the stretcher and walk to the infirmary, got it?"

Amelie nodded, heaving the stretcher to a place where it was comfortable for her to hold it.

Brian began his count down, and they managed to lift the stretcher with minimal jostling of their passenger. They began cautiously and deftly picking their way to the infirmary. The doors were a bit of trouble, but they managed to handle the doors at the training room. A few turns this way and that way and they found their way to the infirmary. It was a relief that the infirmary doors were wide open to receive them.

Amelie and Brian carried Darius in, and helped settle him down in a bed in the infirmary so the Asclepians could fuss over them.

Brian habitually gave the scene in the infirmary a once-over and, reassured that everything was well in hand, he left.

Brian paused outside the infirmary and with a wry smile, glanced down at his bare feet and somewhat bloodied hands and pants. Damn the floor was cold. With a slightly slumped posture and some of his exhaustion showing on his face, he headed back to the training room. He retrieved some cleaning supplies and cleaned up the mess in the training room.

Once that was done, he headed to the restroom and washed the blood off his hands. After that he headed straight to his room and made his way straight to his nightstand. He yanked open the top drawer and retrieved his lighter and a pack of cigarettes. From his dresser he retrieved a pair of socks and another pair of pants and pulled them on. His cigarettes and lighter went into the pants pocket. On his way out, he snagged his coat and shoved his feet into a pair of slip-on sneakers. His slightly bloodied pants were set to soak in a sink in the bathroom before he laboriously made his way up to the store above and out the apartment exit in the back.

The chill weather outside made him shiver a little, and he pulled his coat tighter around him. He looked around before making his way to his customary spot on a bench, a good 40 feet from any buildings. He sighed and rubbed at his face before fishing out a cigarette and his lighter. A deep inhale of tobacco and brisk air, a long exhale. After a few contemplative drags of his cigarette, he leaned back and stared up at the gray skies above. He sat there with his head lolling against the back of the bench before raising his cigarette to his lips again.

Even in the chilly weather, he could feel himself calming. He smoked his way down to the brown, discarding the ash into a portable ash tray, before discarding the butt in his ash tray. Immediately he fished out a second. This was a two cigarette sort of situation for sure. He sat there smoking as the chill seeped into his bones. His slightly damp clothes only made it worse. Only when he'd smoked his second cigarette to the brown did he haul himself to his feet and prepare to go inside.

As he lumbered over to the door, he reached into his pocket and paused mid-step. An almost inaudible sigh slipped through his lips and he ran his other hand through his hair. He furrowed his brows then flinched. Another wry smile crossed his face. He really was tired today.

After a moment he drew his keys out of his pocket and let himself back in.

Down a flight of hidden stairs he went into the Knight Quarters below. He made another stop by his room to hang up his coat, grab a towel and a change of clothes, and slip into some sandals before he headed off to the showers. Inside, he hung up his stuff and gave his bloodied pants in the sink a good scrubbing. When it was close enough he drained the water, wrung his pants out, and hung them up in an empty shower stall next to his to dry a little.

The nice hot shower washed away the grime and the last remnants of blood and his stress. He toweled his hair until he declared it good enough, and then returned to his room, dirty clothes in one hand. On his way there, he passed by the bathroom mirrors, and his lips twitched as his eyes fell upon the faint remnants of sharpie on his face. He tossed the dirty clothes into the hamper near his dresser then flopped into bed.

He let out a muffled groan before he eyed his clock. Relief shone in his eyes when he realized it wasn't yet ten in the morning. If he slept now, he could still get another three hours of sleep.

With a little more life in his movements, he popped in his earplugs, yanked back the covers and burrowed right back in.

Infirmary, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~8:02 am

Brian's teleportation into the infirmary left Laura feeling disorientated and dizzy for a little while, for even four years of being teleported to where ever a monster showed up somehow hadn't made her immune to the side effects. But even before the effects finished entirely fading, an Asclepian on duty was already hurrying towards them while a younger one trailed behind, and the older Asclepian helped Brian and her unload Connor onto a nearby empty bed.

Brian hurried out of the room soon after, and though Laura heard him go, she didn't even glance at him. He was undoubtedly going to retrieve Darius, and she didn't feel the need to go with him. She had seen that he had kept a level head and knew that he knew basic first aid measures. He and Amelie would be fine bringing Darius over without medic supervision.

At the moment, she had more urgent things to tend to. The black haired Asclepian man in the room was already preparing what was needed in order to reattach Connor's arm. Moving around to get the last thing needed, Laura held up a hand to stop the man as he reached for Connor's arm.

"Wait. Is it alright if I do it while you supervise?"

The man stopped, looking over at Laura. He pressed his lips together for a moment, before nodding and stepping back. "Go ahead."

Laura stepped up to Connor's side, taking the place where the man had been before. As she began the procedure of cleaning the arm and wound, she added, "For the experience."

It took a few minutes before Laura was ready to do the tricky part of putting arm and body together. Picking up the arm, she aligned it with the stub of arm that remained on Connor's body. At this point, the man came forward to help her hold it in place, leaving both her hands free to do the healing.

Wrapping her gloved hands around the point where the detached arm met the stub of arm, she concentrated and turned on her magic. Her powers now activated, she could feel the delicate strands of magic flowing from her hands and into the wound, though nothing changed visibly. Narrowing her eyes as the process began, she concentrated hard with her gaze fixated on her hands.

Moving those strands of magic so that they focused on the bone, she began to meld the two pieces together. First, the bone. Then, the arteries and veins. After that, she began to work on tendons, muscle tissues, and nerves. The work was painstakingly slow, and as she worked beads of sweat formed on her forehead. While she was working, Darius was brought in, but Laura didn't notice.

Instead, the younger Asclepian helped Brian and Amelie move Darius onto another empty bed, before going to check the bandaging on his eye to make sure that it had been done properly. However, the healer made no move to begin healing the wound by herself.

Even at her level, it took Laura around six to seven minutes before she was done, knitting the skin together as a last step. Where there had previously been no arm, was an arm, hopefully well connected. At last removing her hands from around Connor's arm, she took a look at the area beneath. A scar where the arm had been connected remained, but she had done what she could. He was lucky to have his arm back and functioning. Hopefully functioning, if she had done it correctly.

Saying that she was just tired would have been an understatement. She felt totally exhausted and was sweating all over, and now that she came out of the trance she had slipped into while healing, she could feel her hands shaking slightly. But she still wasn't done. Now that the most important wound had been healed, she reached over a placed a hand over the cut on Connor's face, healing that much more easily. Last of all she checked Connor's pulse and breathing, and finding that all seemed as normal as it could be under such a circumstance, stepped back.

"Done. Can you check?"

The man stepped forward once Laura spoke, placing his hands on Connor's arm just like Laura had done. Running his magic through the area, he checked for anything internally that Laura might have missed. Nothing had been missed. Turning to face her, he spoke. "I can't find anything that seems to be off. I'll check up on him once more after he regains consciousness, but you did well." Taking in her obviously exhausted state, he continued. "You should go change and rest, I'll keep an eye on him."

All the time that the man had been checking Connor, Laura had stood by anxiously, biting her lip. She breathed a sigh of relief as he pronounced the job well done, as far as he could tell. The moment of truth would come later after Connor woke up, when they would see if he could use his arm. Though tired as she was, she still made no move to remove her gloves or head out of the infirmary. "There's still Darius."

The man shook his head. "I will deal with that. You've done enough for today." To make his point, he walked over to where the younger healer stood by Darius. "Go on."

Laura was visibly reluctant, but she peeled off the dirty gloves, discarded them, then cleaned her hands. "I'll come back later if they haven't woken up by then." Exiting the infirmary on shaky legs, she stopped once she was a few steps down the hall. Looking down at herself, her gaze narrowed in on the blood spots on her yoga pants. The spots showed up nicely against the medium gray color. She must have accidentally knelt in some of Connor's blood.

Looking at those spots reminded her of the training room. The floor would still be covered in blood, unless the next person who had gone there had seen it and cleaned it up, instead of rescheduling training for later. She should check to make sure the floor was clean, just in case.

Making the detour to the training facility, she pushed open the door that now seemed much heavier, and entered. Scanning the floor for any sign of blood, she found none and turned to exit. Glad someone had the initiative to clean that mess up.

The next destination was her dorm, and once inside, she grabbed something clean to wear and headed for the showers. She didn't like the feeling of being covered in sweat. Her shower was a long one, and she came out feeling refreshed, though still tired. The clothes she pulled on were quite similar to the ones she had worn before, except this time it was a dark red elbow length shirt and a black pair of yoga pants.

Scrubbing her pants under the tap and using a large amount of soap, she was dismayed to find that a light red patch still remained. Argh. And this was all because of the two of them. Hadn't they set down any terms for how violent they were willing to have the spar become, and how they would determine the winner? That's how she would have done it. But Connor had turned out to be too reckless, and Darius too experienced and too easily excited. She would sooo give them a talking to later.

Wringing out her pants and hanging it up, she left the shower area. She'd deal with the stain later, but for now she didn't feel like it. Entering her room once more, she sank down into a chair and leaned backwards. Thinking back on the recently transpired events, she ran over what the reactions had been. Brian, surprisingly, had arrived on the scene quite quickly. He had no doubt been watching the spar from afar, too lazy to even walk to the training facility.

But at least he had remained calm. Amelie, on the other hand, had not. And for herself, well, Laura supposed she had done alright with tending to Connor and helping to get him to the infirmary. Though she really needed to work on her healing. It had taken her too long, and she hadn't even been able to heal Darius. The problem was that she could only practice whenever there was an injury, and she didn't want accidents or battles to happen more just so that she could practice. So most of what she learned was theory.

With a soft sigh, Laura got up and switched chairs so that she sat at her desk. Her textbook still lay there, and she opened it. Scanning down the page to see where she had stopped, she began to read again. But she was still too tired to focus properly, and she found that she kept reading the same paragraph over and over as she fought to keep her eyes open. After ten minutes of this, she closed the book and lay down in the middle of the floor.

A short nap before returning to her studies would be alright. But just a short one.

On a normal day, Keira would have changed her mind and opted to watch the spar. But today was far from normal. She wasn't her usual cheerful self and she didn't feel like hanging out with a lot of people. She silently ate her breakfast and looked at the two men who had agreed to fight each other. If she had to make a bet on who would win, she would probably place her money on the Hammer Darius. He had spent years training and with his bulk and strength, she had no doubt he could take anyone out with just a single blow. But then again, the smaller Temporean Connor could prove to be a challenge if he was faster. Well, I guess I'll just have to see which one of them comes out as the victor later on, she thought to herself as she watched them file out and head towards the training facility.

As soon as she had finished her breakfast, she silently cleared away her dishes, washed them and then paused at the door, contemplating on whether to ask Cayde to accompany her or not. Figuring he'd want to get back to his game that he probably put on pause, she shrugged and then continued out of the dining hall and back to her room. She took up the bow her father had made and then headed out.

As always, the moment she stepped out, a shrill cry rang through the air. With a smile, she raised her arm and Falco promptly landed on it. "Any time is always a good time to practice, don't you think?" she asked the hawk, earning her a tilt of its head and an approving hoot. With brisk but careful steps, she made her way to the ice covered forest where she had done the arrow ritual earlier.

An arrow cut cleanly through an ice encrusted leaf, splitting it in half before it flew straight back at Keira. She caught the magic arrown in her hand just as Falco made another screech. The Arrow laughed. "Boomerang Arrow. It's a pretty cool trick, right? It would be useful if I wanna hit several target at once. And... it would have been nice if I could show it to dad..." her words trailed off as the magical arrow dissipated. Falco, once again, landed on her shoulder and in a rare gesture of affection, touched the top of its head on Keira's cheek. The gesture immediately brought the girl out of her depressive mood and she smiled at the bird of prey. "But I'm glad that you're here and I got to show it to you, Falco," she said as she took a seat on a fallen log.

Her mind on the raptor that had settled to preening its wings while on her shoulder, she stared at the sky for a moment, wondering what it feels like to glide through it like Falco did. And just like how her arrows cut through the air the moment she releases it from her bow. It must feel great... she concluded, letting her mind drift to other things, completely unaware of what was happening to the others.

It took her several hours more of shooting before she was satisfied that she had enough practice for the morning. Bidding her raptor a fond farewell, she watched him soar through the air once more before she headed back to the house.

She stepped through the door and looked around. It was strange that it was so quiet. By now, she had expected the men to be back and bragging about who was better.

Darius didn't remember much after he took the jab to the eye by the knife. He remembered ripping it out of his socket, which in turn caused more damage, and then blacked out so waking up in a hospital bed was a bit odd. He glanced around to take a better look at the room. He saw the curtain, bed, door and a few chairs. But when he went to look to his other side, he noticed something...He couldn't see. He brought a hand up to his one eye and noticed the lid was closed. Him in his bright thinking pushed against it and winced at the pain but noticed that the eyeball was no longer there. Nothing round was behind his lid. With a sigh he sat up in his bed and rolled his neck hearing a few cracks before looking towards the door. He stood up, and decided to what he knew best...Work out. He dropped to the floor and begun a set of 5, 200 reps each of push ups and situps but something still dawned on him, what happened to Connor. He stopped halfway through and stood, deciding instead to leave and look for the others.

Connor lept out of his sleep, sweat dripping down his forehead and back. Looking around frantically, it took him a few moments to remember where he was. Bringing both his hands to his temples as if to rub away a headache, he tried to soothe the intense images of war running through his mind. It took an extraordinary effort to repress the painful memories, but this time it didn't take long. It quickly dawned on him what had happened as he brings his right arm down from his face to examine the fresh scar. As ironic as the concept is, he was certain the scar that now circumvented his arm just below his right shoulder, was not there a few hours ago. Yet it looked as if it was something he has acquired years ago.

Flexing his fist and rotating his shoulder, he was able to test his range of motion. After confirming that there was only a slight stiffness in his right arm he twisted himself off of the bed and slowly stood up to prevent himself from getting light headed. It felt like he had been laying there for a few hours, but he had no clue what time it was. Looking around the room, it looked like what you would expect from a typical hospital. It was very clean and orderly with white walls and white sheets. The only strange thing was that no one was around. Fortunately, it seemed as if someone had already redressed Connor in a pair of his boxers and a white t-shirt, so that he was not gallivanting about in nude. Pleased with the service that you wouldn't find in any normal hospital he quickly left the room and with what little knowledge he had, attempted to make his way make to his own bedroom. Being tired was no excuse to slack off on the training of his powers and after that sorry excuse of a battle he just had, he wanted to prove to himself that he could get to a point where he can finally affect time.

As easy as it sounds, training his power was difficult. Time flowed like a river with a strong current. A normal person would have neither the ability, nor the strength to fight against it. But Connor was given the ability and now all he lacked was strength. Spending time every morning, he would sit at the local park and swim against the river of time for as long as he could handle. Truly he only slowed the speed at which the current whisked him down stream, but with enough effort, he planned on being able to swim against the stream entirely, just as a trout would make its way upstream every year.

With intentions to double down on his previous efforts, he quickly made his way out of the infirmary, hoping not to run into someone that would stop him.

Her dorm, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~10:20

Her intended short nap turned out not to be so short, for when Laura woke up sometime later, it was... past ten. Groaning inwardly and scolding herself for not setting a timer, she got up off the ground. But that nap had probably been worth it, though an unfortunate usage of time. She now felt more refreshed, though still not at her full hundred percent. Her head too felt less clouded, and her mood was less irritated than it had been after healing Connor.

Would Connor and Darius have woken up by now? Heading out of her room, she made up her mind to go and check. Would it have been someone else from a different team, or someone she rarely interacted with in the base, she still would have gone to check. Laura was still feeling nervous about the quality of her work on Connor, and even though her work had been checked over, she wanted to see with her own eyes that his arm was fully functional.

Almost at the infirmary, she turned a corner and saw Connor's figure heading away from her down the hall. Quickening her pace, she walked past him before turning around and stopping in his path. "Connor. You're awake." That was the first thing she said. Connor was now fully in the spotlight, all of Laura's attention fixed on him. Or rather... on his arm.

"How's your arm? Does it feel alright? Any aching or soreness, any limitation of movement, any numbness? Do you feel dizzy, or weak, or anything else out of the ordinary?" Having run out of air by the end of her mini assault of questions, she drew in another deep breath. This time though, she just let it out slowly as she looked up at him and fixed him with a stern blue-gray gaze, waiting for her questions to be answered.

---

@PrimalOrigins

Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~10:20

Connor cringed inwardly as Laura stepped in front of him. As expected, a machine gun of questions spat out of the tiny woman's mouth catching him completely off guard. In his goal to try to avoid people, he managed to get caught only a few steps outside of the room. "I'm fine Laura, as you can see the only thing that has me disarmed at the moment is your endless concern." Rotating his arm in a circle to show of it's flexibility. The scar peeked out from underneath his shirt sleeve revealing the thick and jagged mark that was only a few hours old. If Connor was to be fully honest, his arm actually felt stiff and he had no sensation along the fresh skin of the scar. There was no need to admit the little things to Laura.

"However, I appreciate the concern nonetheless" He could see the sternness of her gaze so he put his hand on the head and ruffled her hair. Given that his arm had recently been separated from his body, he assumed rightfully that an Asclepian had done the work of putting him back together again. "I assume you had something to do with putting my arm back on. Otherwise I would have had to find myself a right hand man to help me with all the chores." He chuckled at his own joke as he tried to alleviate some of the tension coming from Laura's apparent stress over the situation.

"Since you're here though, I have yet to see Darius, how's the Incredible Hulk doing?" As well that ends well, but he still didn't know how well the big bear fared after the fight.

---

@VampireOracle

Hallway, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~10:22

Endless concern, huh? Eyebrows rose as she kept her stern gaze, until Connor's hand came out to ruffle her hair. Seeing it coming a second before his hand landed on her head, she trying to dodge, unsuccessfully. Taking a step back when he was finished to prevent that from happening again, she made a made a face as she smoothed her hair down. She still had neglected to tie it up, and she made a mental note to do just that once she returned to her dorm.

Connor's answer had mostly satisfied her, but she hoped that he was telling the full truth. Still feeling serious, Connor's joke didn't exactly have the desired effect. He was trying to joke things off as if nothing had happened, when a lot had happened. Now that he was standing in front of her, she could finally let out some of the frustration and worry the incident had caused. Pressing her lips together, she leaned her back against the wall and crossed her arms. "Not funny," she said crisply.

"If Brian hadn't been watching."

"If you would have neglected to tell me that you were sparring and just gone ahead with it."

"If he would not have arrived on the scene immediately after your... accident took place to help teleport you over, I wouldn't even need to attach your arm back on, and you would not need a right hand man, because you would be dead. Darius passed out almost immediately after you did, he wouldn't have been able to get you help."

She held out a hand just in case he was thinking of interrupting. "Sure. You can argue that there were a few other people in the training room. A lot them were newbies, they might have freaked and instead of treating you, might have run out to get help instead. Which normally wouldn't be too bad, except that in those maybe five minutes that it would take for them to find someone capable of handling the situation, you would have pretty much bled out. And even if someone would have taken the first aid measures to stop the bleeding..." she trailed off, suddenly looking tired again.

"I'm not going to waste my time listing all of the possible outcomes. I get it, you're new here. You probably don't know me too well yet, and until we go out to a fight together you probably won't. But I do not tolerate injuries that come from simple carelessness. Darius was the one who swung the sword, but you could have taken measures to prevent that blow. Did either of you set a limit to how far you were willing to go, and define how you would decide a tie or a winner? Darius can get carried away sometimes... as you saw, he can be very eager and maybe he forgets who he's going against. I wouldn't exactly know."

"But this was practice. This should not have happened."

"As for how Darius is... he should be fine. I left him under the care of another healer, Eric. You may have seen him once or twice."

"Right. Also," the hand that she had been holding up now pointed at him, "you better not be lying about your arm. That's something I also don't tolerate. If there's a problem, you tell me and I can see what I can do. There's no such thing as being "weak" if you admit that there's something hurting. Better I see what can be done now, not later when we're in the middle of a fight and a problem gets worse."

At last, she dropped her arm and leaned her head back against the wall too, so she was looking up at the ceiling. Pulling one corner of her mouth up so she was half smiling, she said one last thing.

"There's my lecture finished."

---

@PrimalOrigins

@PrimalOrigins@VampireOracle




He managed to come across the two of them and grinned as he approached.

"Hey Conner! Great practice today! I'm not sure what happened after I got hit in the eye with that dagger...All I know is that I woke up in the infirmary. Anyways...I look forward to our next spar, might not go all out again. I really don't want to lose my other eye..." He glanced over to Laura with a grin.

"Did you get a chance to watch the spar? I was hoping that we could go all out but in the beginning of the fi- that reminds me" He looked back over at Connor.

"What the hell were you thinking charging in at me like that? You can't always go head on against an opponent like that. When you decided to use my blade as leverage, that was smart thinking. You need to think outside the box more often like that. Never know when it can save your life, right Laura? Laura? Why are you looking at me like that?" He quickly became concerned as the scowl from Laura failed to fade away.

Hallway, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~10:28

What a coincidence. The moment Laura finished talking to Connor, or rather, pretty much lecturing him, Darius wandered in before Connor had much time to respond to her. Yes, she still needed to talk to Darius too. Couldn't he have decided to show up a few minutes earlier so she wouldn't have to repeat most of what she had just said?

Lowering her gaze from the ceiling, she watched Darius greet Connor with the eyes of a bystander. Observing while she tried to get a better grasp on her emotions. But what Darius was talking about did not help her mood. Just everything about what he said was making her upset again.

He didn't remember what happened after he got hit in the eye? Nice. So he didn't remember attacking a teammate with such lack of restraint and cutting off Connor's arm.

He looked forward to another spar with Connor.

He had the cheek to go and grin at her and say that he had been hoping that he and Connor could have gone all out with the spar. All out, huh? She had had enough difficulty healing the injuries from this match, and he wanted to burden the healers with more unnecessary work. But she couldn't blame him for going on so cheerfully about the spar, could she? Because Darius couldn't fucking remember.

The corners of Laura's mouth pulled downwards into a deep scowl as her mouth slightly opened so her teeth showed. Her eyes narrowed as her hands gripped the hem of her shirt tightly. "Why am I staring at you like that?" she echoed in a sickly sweet voice. "Oh, you need me to explain? Let me think."

Her voice changed so it was dripping with sarcasm as she glared at Darius, her grey eyes not as calm and mellow as they usually were. Perhaps one could liken her appearance to an angry wolf. "Maybe because... you just cut off his arm? Maybe because... you don't seem to care that both of you ended up in the infirmary? Maybe because," here her voice rose and became harsh, "not counting you two, more than half of our team was on site helping after the spar the two of you had to help deal with the mess that was created? Plus one other Asclepian?"

She took a step forward towards Darius before evidently changing her and turning to face the wall. Will not resort to violence to deal with your emotions. Violence solves nothing. That's not your strength. Placing her palms against the wall, she hit her head against it once. And again. Ouch. Too hard. When she spoke next, her voice was muffled, curtains of her hair blocking her face. "Go ask Connor to repeat what I said before you came."

Get a grip on yourself. This isn't you. You shouldn't get so frustrated and angry so easily.

Deep breaths, now. You need to stay calm, healers need to keep their cool.

This really wasn't her, and she didn't know why. Yes, it shouldn't have happened, but it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Maybe it was because she was on edge because they had not been out to fight for at least a month, worried that the next attack would be devastating. Or maybe not. She didn't know. Maybe she was just tired. She'd feel better tomorrow.

---

@FallenTrinity@PrimalOrigins

Hallway, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~10:28

'Poor guy is about to get laid into as well...' Connor saw Darius was making his way along the hallway. A verbal death trap awaited the man and by the grin on his face, he had yet to realize the amount of trouble he was in. Just as Laura started to lay down the heat on Darius, Connor quickly backed off and forced himself down the hallway. Just as he was rounding the corner he heard Laura reflect the last of her lecture onto Connor to explain. Perhaps she hadn't noticed that he was already gone and was making his way to his room. 'Good luck big guy, I'll be looking forward to another spar myself.'

Unlocking his door, Connor entered his room and quickly but gently closed his door behind him. Leaning his back against the wooden door he slid down until he was sitting on the grey carpet. Sweat once again poured down his face and back, soaking through his shirt. He clearly hadn't fully recovered and running around the base had taken a toll on his stamina. Staring at the fresh scar on his arm, his vision slowly faded to black. As he was passing out, a thought crept through the back of his head. 'Did I make the right choice? Will this pain ever go away?' He himself wasn't sure if he was talking about his arm, or if he was recalling a different scar, buried far deeper within himself.

@VampireOracle@PrimalOrigins




With a lot of confusion on his face, he was surprised that Laura ripped into him. In fact, he was a bit annoyed with her now. Did Connor not agree to this knowing full well what could happen? Did he not warn them about going all out? No, no. This was agreed all the way through.

"Wait a second, wait a second...Woah woah...Both Connor and I agreed to this spar and he was the one that wanted to go all out. I in fact held back most of the time. Plus from what you said it sounds like things were under control for the most part. Let me tell you something. When we get out onto the battlefield its going to be worse, much worse than what just happened. If you didn't feel comfortable with it then you should have opened your mouth back in the dinning room." He was starting to boil a bit. Why the hell was this his fault? Connor agreed. He agreed and Connor asked to go all out. This is bullshit he thought.

Hallway, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~10:30

What.

What was Darius trying to say? Laura had been attempting to calm herself down, but after hearing what seemed to her to be wonky reasoning from Darius, she felt herself getting worked up again.

Sure. Maybe Darius had been holding back, she knew that the Hammer was powerful from so many years of training. But he hadn't been able to control himself enough to hold back from cutting off Connor's arm. Holding back for "most of the time" and having things under control "for the most part" wasn't enough.

But that wasn't the main reason why she felt herself getting angry once more. Perhaps she would have been able to calm down and move on, forgive Darius for what he had done... if he would not have said those last two sentences.

"When we get out onto the battlefield its going to be worse, much worse than what just happened."

Did he think that she didn't know? She had been on the battlefield plenty of times as well. He knew that. She had had to heal comrades on the field, then watch them rush back into fighting without having a chance to rest. She had seen them die and blamed herself afterwards for not being able to save their lives. It wasn't that Laura thought she was the only one who had to go through that. All of her teammates, save Connor, had been out to the battlefield.

But if Darius suddenly thought that she couldn't handle it...

"If you didn't feel comfortable with it then you should have opened your mouth back in the dinning room."

Hah. Very funny. As if she had somehow been able to know that this would happen. It was supposed to be a training session, where they could test their strength without getting hurt like on the battlefield.

When it seemed to her that Darius was finished speaking, she raised her head and turned to face him squarely. On her face still remained that expression of anger. She looked around to see why Connor was not saying anything, only to realize that he had left without her noticing. The anger dropped suddenly and she seemed to deflate, shock and hurt flickering across her face for a moment. Had she been acting so unpleasant that he had needed to escape?

Without anger giving her that energy boost, she seemed to get more tired. Had she let herself go too far and get too worked up? Perhaps. She looked down at the floor, shaking her head once. The rebuttal that she had been forming in her head dissolved.

"I just... don't want to see you all get hurt." This was spoken in a quieter voice, before she regained a small spark of defiance, raising her head and meeting Darius's eyes. "I can handle the battlefield. But when injury occurs in this base, the place where we are supposed to be comparatively safe... I can't stand it. It should not happen."

---

@FallenTrinity