Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri had barely enough time to assess what was going on when the arrows fell upon him. One arrow struck him square in the chest, embedding in the cloak he wore but failing to penetrate the cuirass hidden behind it. The second arrow buried itself in his horse's skull, felling it instantly. As the others formed up a shield wall ahead of his fallen form, others pulled Fleuri- shaken but unhurt- free of his fallen mount. Grateful to be alive, he rose to his feet and threw off his cloak. This was a bad idea, coming through this pass, he thought to himself as he off the cloak that had concealed his armored form, then put on his helmet and drew his greatsword from a scabbard strapped to his horse's saddle. They may be impervious to pain, but their maddened state would only make them easier to kill.

As he weaved through the knights, Fleuri took a moment to assess his opponents. No reaction to pain. No concern for self-preservation. Likely frenzied beyond reason, he concluded as he moved forward. He was not one to fight defensively, nor was he one to hide behind others. His opportunity came when the shield wall was breached not far from where he was, and two maddened women pushed through. One was masterfully incapacitated by the knight she had attacked, but the other pushed inwards, with no regards for her own safety.

"For Thaln! For Reon!" he shouted, rushing in. Lacking the room to swing his massive sword normally, he gripped it by the ricasso, half-swording it, and swung at the enemy's neck, decapitating her and putting an abrupt end her assault. It was gruesome business, but for the sake of the people behind him, it had to be done. Fleuri then made his way to the gap in the shield wall, stepping over the fallen knight and impaling an overzealous attacker on his zweihander. He was not fond of fighting defensively in a formation like this- he would much prefer to step out and take the fight to them, making heads and bodies fly- but duty demanded he hold the line.

One down... Klaus pulled out her bloodstained sword from the bandit's chest, spitting on that freshly-produced corpse as she noticed that she had caught quite an amount of attention from her enemies. She made her horse to turn back and disengage from the bandits. At the same time, she blocked one of the men's swing with her shield, and using another hand parried the other guy's attack with a slash towards the torso.

With full speed, she had her horse galloping uphill, back to where she was originally at before the charge. She looked back, seeing if any of those bandits have given chase. She would send the same cavalry charges at the mounted bandits over and over again if they are still locked against the shield wall. But, if they aren't giving me free kills for me... there will be something more interesting~ Klaus gave a smirk at the view behind.

His forward knee, god's be blessed that it wasn't his bad leg, collapsed slightly. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Without a more fit mans mobility his fighting style relied on planting his feet and fighting from an unmoving position.

As Indrau fell, he resisted the urge to catch his fall with his hands and instead extended his blade, arresting the tumble with an arms length of steel through the assailants chest.




She screamed in obvious frustration and used her own spear to pin the nearest of them to the ground to free both of her hands to grab the next closest and snap his neck with a savage twist. The limp corpse was raised as a shield against the arrows in one hand as her other arm batted aside blades with an armoured bracer and swatted their wielders to the ground to have their throats stomped in with terrible force.

No matter what sort of spell had been assisting the cultists, no matter how they were bolstered by their lack of fear and pain, such a thing can take a fighter only so far. As time wore on, more and more of their forces fell to the blades of the Iron Roses. Eventually, when the dust had settled, not a single cultist remained alive. A few allies of the Roses had taken injuries, but Fanilly's heart rose when she realized that none of the civilians were seriously hurt.

After that point, the injured were gathered to be given attention by healers, and the escort moved forward. The cult, it seemed, had committed the bulk of their forces to this attack and now lay in ruins.

To say that this mission had been a success was, perhaps, an understatement. It was regrettable that anyone had been hurt, but not a single innocent perished in the ambush.

They arrived at their destination safely.

The trip back home to Candaeln was a rather joyous one, though by the time they returned it was impossible to say that the Captain was anything less then exhausted. She slowly proceeded upstairs and was quick to take a bath, her maids assisting her as she did(Aralee, as usual, was somewhat grabby).

Given how tired Fanilly was, it shouldn't have been surprising that she overslept the next morning.

Perhaps it was up to someone else to awaken her.

"Whew---" After the battle, Klaus alighted down her horse, wiping away the blood off her longsword. The enemy cavalry were easy pickings for her, considering the fact that they aren't that focused on her as the target. She patted on her horse, who is obviously worn out after the whole day of running around the battlefield.

Klaus was disappointed that those warriors are too barbaric to be kept alive for questioning. So much on me thinking of ways to question them, away from Miss Fanilly's notice... From their irrational way of response throughout the battlefield, she doubted they knew much. "Still, this ambush is well-planned, the leader, whoever he is, is most likely far away from here... And, they're still alive, seems like the reaper isn't doing his job properly~" Klaus smirked upon the sight of zero casualities in this battle.

A expression of surprise riddled up Klaus when the whole escort trip went too smoothly. She had expecting this ambush to be nothing more than a mere skirmish. An army like that is too small to be called an invasion. But at least we completed our task, the task of escorting those loose baggage...

Klaus collapsed herself onto her bed once she has returned to her quarters at Candaeln, dozing off in seconds. It was a long tiring day for her.

Two possiblities, either we scared them to a broken retreat, or they are gathering a more solid force to contest us... As Klaus woke up, she descended down the courtyard, in light robes and a longsword strapped down her side. She began swinging her sword and honing her sword skills as daybreak approaches, feeling a sense of uneasiness.

Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri turned over another of the fallen cultists. This one's dead too. He had hoped that there'd be at least one left alive for the knights to interrogate, but it seemed that none were left breathing. Fortunately, and more importantly, none of the knights or innocents died either. Fleuri would need a replacement horse, but for now, he would make do with one of the fallen bandits' mounts.

What could their plan have been? Too few to overwhelm us, too weak to outmatch us, too aggressive to lure us into a trap, and too dumb to spring a trap on us. Were they even attacking us by their own free will? No, I'd best not overthink this, he thought to himself. He knew better than to underestimate any foe, but he also knew that over-analysis could lead to indecisive hesitation. For now, they would press onward cautiously and complete this delicate mission.

---

Fleuri arose from his bed in Candaeln, feeling restless despite the long and taxing day before, the ambush still weighing on his mind. Unable to go back to sleep, and with the captain and much of the order still seemingly asleep, he donned his boots, gambeson, and mantle, grabbed his dagger, and headed out to the courtyard to get some practice in with his secondary weapon.

As he stepped outside, it seemed he was not the only person out at this hour. One of the other knights was already in the courtyard, deftly swinging her sword. Her name was Klaus, if he recalled correctly. She was a younger knight, but still a veteran of the order of a few years. A peculiar lass, that one.

"Good morning, sister-in-arms," Fleuri said, approaching her. "I see I'm not the only one feeling restless."

The paladin was nearly silent on the journey back, offering up the only explanation the Captain was likely to be getting for how things had turned out in the end: "The Church saw to it." From there to Aimlenn, the normally vocal knight seemed to have nothing to say, merely grudgingly consenting to an offer to wash the blood from her armour rather than allow it to build up and tarnish the silvery metal once more.

She spent the night standing in front of Elionne's sword as usual, finally sighing in the dead of the night and wondering, "When will you return? With lies like those... are the knights not good enough?"

Perhaps this one question explained her taking note of those heading out for early practice, turning from her vigil and following Fleuri out into the courtyard. How long had it been since she had made sure that the knights were up to standard...? Too long, too much trouble spent trying to get that elf to have some sort of common sense. Yet she was gone now, which meant... all the rookies could be brought up to par. At least the true captain wouldn't be able to find fault with their abilities when she returned, then.

"Jodeau, Klaus. Do you think you could best me, working together?"

"...And there's another problem handled. Honestly, who'd have thought that there was so much paperwork involved in keeping people quiet...?"

Adding another slip of paper onto the top of the already-towering stack of documents at his desk, Tiral massaged his forehead and placed the feather pen in his hand off to the side. The last month had not been the most pleasant of times for him, especially given that a good chunk of the Knights had gone off to deal with... Some rebellion or something of the sort. He himself didn't quite understand the context of the situation, but ever since that whole 'shard' incident the College had been breathing down his neck about 'breaking contracts' and whatnot. Of course, the backing of the Knights meant that nothing too shady would come about as a result, but instead he had to work on the whole cover-up operation so that the entire populace of the city didn't fly into a panic.

Which meant lies, bullshitting, and bribery for any nonessential party involved. Not by him, of course; there were always unscrupulous people in the College who could handle those jobs instead. No, rather than any of that, he was saddled with the joyous task of handling whatever jobs that those people had left behind... Which also meant that his own research was being disrupted. Thankfully, that set seemed to have been the last of them, and his completion of the task couldn't have come at a more opportune time with the rest of the Knights' return. It was getting awfully quiet in Candaeln without half the usual noise and clamor that came with the order, and it wasn't as if Tiral himself disliked the silence, but... Well, monotony was monotony after all.

"I assume a representative will drop by to take these off to the College later," Tiral thought to himself as he quietly stood up from his chair and changed into his uniform before leaving his room. Even with his work completed, it wasn't as if he could go right back to studying and testing; even he needed some fresh air and human interaction. He wasn't a hermit, after all.

The question now, though, was what to do. Maybe a round of Raven's Game with someone to brush up on his tactical skills or something; that was always a good way to pass some leisure time.

"Morning," Klaus lowered her sword, looking at her fellow knight for a few moments. She isn't the kind of person to remember names, but for a fellow knight, Fleuir looks familiar enough. "My techniques are rusty, it doesn't rip through those barbarians' armour, not as much as I wanted to~"

Klaus continued her formal demeanor until she heard someone calling up her name from her back. A sense of dread trickled along her spine before she even turned around to look. She knew exactly who she will be facing with, a paladin rumoured to have fought side-by-side with the first captain and gained immortality. She regretted having seen Tyaethe unmasked before, and she doubted she would be able to talk to kids the same way after this training.

"Sure, that sounds interesting," Klaus regretted that she had let the slip of the tongue at the time like this, trying very hard at the same time to remove the childlike face of Tyaethe from her own memory. Sheathing her sword, Klaus turned took a few steps forward, drawing out her sword and facing Tyaethe as her mere end of formality of starting a duel. There's no need for me to bring down armour, 'cause it makes no difference at all for someone like her...

As the training starts, Klaus held her sword firm and steady. There is only one way she knows on facing an opponent of overwhelming odds: Go all out. Klaus charged at Tyaethe, raising her sword and making a downward swing towards the Paladin's head, with the full intent to pierce through that armour, and the full intent to kill. Klaus wasn't treating this as a 'mere sparring session', this is more of a life-and-death battle for her.

Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri considered Tyaethe's challenge. I'm not exactly in a position to do so. Not with just a dagger, up against an immortal, inhumanly strong paladin with centuries of combat experience. On the other hand, fate does not not wait for us to be ready, we must always be ready to face it with whatever we have at hand. And with another at my side, we may be able to...

Fleuri's internal musing was cut off as Klaus answered for both of them and rushed in, sword in hand. He shook his head and sighed- there was a fine line between foolhardiness and decisiveness, a lesson his young colleague had clearly yet to learn. Foolish girl. We should have at least attempted to coordinate, not just rush in blindly. As daunting a foe as Tyaethe may be, cooperation would have made her a much more manageable opponent.

Seeing no point in rushing in, he gripped his dagger but stood in place- there was a good chance that this was a fight he could not win, and he had no desire to make a fool of himself. That wasn't to say he was simply giving up- he kept his eyes on the combatants and his hand on his dagger. It was too early to gauge whether this fight could be won or not, and if the opportunity presented itself, he would act on it. No doubt Klaus would be rather disappointed in his seeming hesitation, but better to risk her ire than make himself look like a massive fool to Tyaethe.

Fleuri narrowed his eyes, ready to commit to fight or flight the moment the choice ceased to be premature.

---

OOC: My Dark Souls series co-op PvP experience in a nutshell.

In her haste to begin, Klaus seemed to have overlooked that armour would have greatly helped, because there was no way that the paladin would actually be using her normal sword. Though it might have been more realistic to use it, Tyaethe wasn't the kind to go around killing her fellow knights in training sessions. By attacking with only her normal clothes on, she had manged to set up a situation where she was more likely to be hurt.

At least the sudden attack had one guaranteed effect: it meant her opponent was somewhat handicapped by not having a usable weapon.

As she charged forwards, the paladin stood immobile until the last second, wondering if there was some feint hidden in the brazen charge. It was too telegraphed, too open; an attack like that would never hit someone with any experience. Yet as it was the attack, the armoured figure responded by sliding down and towards the side, forcing the sword to skitter off the slope of her shoulder--and leaving her uncomfortably close, her sword left embedded point-first in the ground.

After attacking so aggressively and at this range, it would be difficult to respond to the paladin's counter, and it would leave a very clear lesson: armour or padding would have been a brilliant idea, as a fist in the gut hurt, even if the other fighter was pulling her punches.

---

The duellist would have preferred to sleep in longer after returning to Candaeln--the beds were soft and the arms around her waist warm, but inevitably events made it beyond her choice. Namely, realising that the door to their quarters were open--which could only mean that somewhere in Candaeln, there was a child to find. It was probably going to be either where there was food or someone she looked up to...

On the plus side, it wouldn't matter that Fanilly's maids hadn't woken her. A child jumping onto her would do that quite well.

Klaus knew that her sword was a dead one the moment it slided pass Tyaethe, as she clenched her teeth to bear with the pain whilst receiving the punch. And she hasn't drew her sword yet...

Putting all her efforts to maintain that posture and eye contact towards her opponent, Klaus threw out a foot sweep across the back of Tyaethe's legs, to break the already close distance. Whether the attempt to trip that paladin works or not, her main aim is regain control of that dead sword at this crucial moment, because she is sure that she would die 7 times if she hadn't regained her firm grasp of that sword.

"Uwah?!"

Fanilly's eyes snapped open and she let out a yelp when she felt something small land on her stomach. Rubbing her eyes, the blonde-haired girl slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes, blearily perceiving a tiny white-haired form now sitting on her. After a moment's pause, where she was utterly confused, the sleepy knight-captain came to realize that this was Lilianna's young daughter, Vivien. Yawning, she reached out to pat the little girl's head.

"Hi, Vivien..." she said, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. What time was it? If Vivien was up and about, it couldn't be that early... Had she overslept a little? The smallish girl rubbed her eyes again as her gaze drifted upwards towards the window... and she saw just how bright it was outside. For a few moments, Fanilly's eyes were wide with horror. Not only had she slept in, but she'd slept in that late?! Oh... oh no, oh no...

Gently resettling the little girl with a quick apology, Fanilly quickly whipped off her nightgown and began desperately searching through her clothing. This wouldn't do, sleeping this late just wouldn't do, not for the Knight-Captain of the Iron Roses...!

---

Tiral would hear a distinctive voice humming to his left as he departed from his office, the tune a rather familiar one. It wasn't as if anyone could easily forget the Milk Bunny Song, after all. Unfortunately, this was the only warning the mage-knight would get before someone carrying a large stack of books collided with him. This sent the one responsible falling backwards onto her rear end with a yelp of surprise, catapulting all the books into the air and promptly scattering them across the ground.

The girl who had collided with Tiral was revealed, rubbing her backside.

"Ow ow ow..."

The pigtailed maid was likely easy to recognize on sight. One of Fanilly's maids, Alaree.

"Ah? Sir Tiral?" she asked, looking up at him, "Errr... you just kind of came out of no-where!"

It was a rather weak excuse, especially when the real reason was likely that the short girl was simply carrying far too many books to see over the stack.

Klaus learned an unfortunate truth in her attempts to trip Tyaethe--the paladin's footing was solid and her weight low; tripping her was simply too difficult without a lot more force. It proved meaningless an instant later, the red eyes glaring down at her backing away and the knight returning to her own sword. This time, she raised it from the ground and rest the blade against her shoulder.

"If I had any other weapon in my hand, that would have killed you. If you won't give me time to find a wooden blade, then don't slip up that much. I can't pull my blows if you run into them."

---

It turned out that her daughter wasn't in the kitchen and, therefore, could only be in the captain's quarters. Had she realised earlier, then maybe Fanilly would have been woken up more gracefully and not by having a small child trying to get her attention even whilst she was starting to dress but instead... well, when Lilianna opened the door and swept up the suddenly-distracted Vivien, she did her best to not look at the captain's body.

"I hope that Vivien didn't disturb you too much...?"

@Noodles@Crimson Paladin@VitaVitaAR

Fleuri Jodeau

As was the most likely outcome, Klaus' assault proved fruitless against Tyaethe. The paladin dodged the sword blow and withstood Klaus' attempt to imbalance her as nonchalantly as breathing- if she breathed at all. Evidently, two centuries of ageless service in a knightly order did wonders for one's reflexes. Having assessed there was no point in assisting Klaus or attempting to attack the paladin, he took his hand off his sheathed dagger.

"If you do not mind, Sir Tyaethe," he piped in, "Might I fetch my armor before sparring with you?" Even a wooden sword would be quite deadly in her hands, and after what he just observed, Fleuri wouldn't dare face her with anything less than full plate armor. And even then he would still be taking a risk sparring with her.

"Ah?"

Fanilly, clutching her dress shirt, glanced over her shoulder when she heard the door open... and almost immediately used it as a shield to cover herself and turned to face her former mentor. Her cheeks red, she hesitated for a few moments before looking away. Ah, not only did she sleep in too late, but she was walked in on during such an awkward time... it was somewhat shameful. She's the Captain of the Iron Roses, and yet this...

"... N... no, it's fine... I slept in too late anyway..." the blonde girl mumbled, almost to herself, though it was not entirely inaudible. She shifted where she stood, nervously. She slept in late, and now this happened... this had not been the best start, to say the least. Not one bit. Still, she would have to make the most of the day... thus far, there had not been any word sent to the Roses of some sort of new crisis requiring their attention. No, instead, it seemed as if Thaln had fallen into a few days of relatively tranquility, where any problems were easily dealt with by the local soldiery.

For now.

@Raineh Daze

And as what Klaus had expected, she has lost the first exchange of attacks to the Paladin. She lowered her sword and took a step back, still having her gaze fixated towards those menacing crimson eyes. Backing away from the distance of engagement, Klaus sheathed her sword. "I understand, will be back in a bit to grab my equipment."

She hastily went back to switch her weapon to a wooden one, as she returned whilst tying the last straps of her armour. With more proper training equipment this time, she wielded the training sword, waiting for the Paladin to resume the match. This sword is way too light, I don't like it...

The sudden collision whilst turning a corner certainly caught Tiral off guard, and though by no means was he taken off balance, the unfortunate person who he had bumped into had . With a slight reflexive step backwards in surprise, the mage watched as a bunch of book all came tumbling down in front of him. Though he managed to assess the situation in time to rescue two or three of them, 'two or three' wasn't all of them. With a bit of a frown, the mage glanced at the one bringing the books to wherever they were headed.

A member of Fanilly's maid brigade. Not particularly the best opponent for a game of strategy.

"Well, having a tower of books in front of your eyes would certainly make it seem that way," he responded, kneeling down to help pick up the books from off the floor. "Where were you headed to with these, anyhow? And why so many at once? On your own?"

His prying was, admittedly, unnecessary, but at this point most anything would sate his boredom.

Indrau woke in a legendarily bad mood, eclipsed only by a certain trio of maids attempting to serve him breakfast in bed on his birthday. The door to his rooms now remains locked at all times. Now he stalked the halls dressed somewhat more casually than usual. Under his pants his good leg sported a pattern of bruising in such vivid colour that it would have out several of the wall hangings to shame.

It was one of the few times that he used his cane on the even flooring. Usually it was reserved for rural roads and slippery cobblestone. Each step was punctuated by a rhythmic tap, somewhat more forceful than usual. With any luck, as long as nobody crossed his path in a way he might find irritating, his rage might just burn itself out.




Salz bore wounds of her own. The arm that had taken the arrow to the shoulder had also taken the brunt of a hammer blow to the forearm, leaving it both bandaged and splinted. She took it better than her adoptive brother, humming while walking towards the training ground with a bundle of staves under one arm. The outcome of the mission had done little to dampen her spirits either. Such a battle without any civilian injuries was a great success in her eyes.

It was unlikely that the injuries would leave her disabled for more than a few days but any down time was time wasted. Salz would have to put a lot of effort in to have a chance at impressing Indrau.

The knight nodded her assent, then looked thoughtful as the two went off to prepare. If she was armoured, there was no clear way to defeat her... the half-giant could definitely land a blow that would have an impact even with practice blades yet these two would have no such luck. She could admit defeat if a hit was landed, yet the entire purpose behind such armour was to shrug off blows that would injure or incapacitate a normal soldier and that would make the task entirely two easy for the pair of them.

Well, the cat was already out of the bag, so why not just remove the armour?

Indeed, when Fleuri and Klaus returned, the paladin was completely without armour. In the light of day rather than at a party, it was even more apparent how pale the child was. Even more so, it was obvious that Tyaethe must have been unusually tall for her entire life--and highly athletic. Not that the second was in question, with her hands around the handle of a blade and her body pointed towards the sky.

She dropped to the ground, heaving the wooden--yet alarmingly accurate--replica free and resting it across her shoulders, not seeming to feel the weight of a practice sword still larger than she was. Her expression seemed spectacularly difficult as she asked the two the last question: "Ready?"

---

"Your maids didn't wake you? Would you like me to ask Abigail to have a word with them?" the older woman asked, shifting the child. Her wife might not have had any authority over Fanilly's maids, even in the past but she was certainly someone to keep order... and reign in her unruly juniors, "I'm sure that she would be happy to do so after breakfast."