[color=ed1c24][center][h2]Akeno[/h2][/center][/color]

Sleeping on solid rock with nothing but the vest on her back to protect her from the elements was not a pleasant experience, especially not when her muscles were burning with the after-effects of as much exercise as Akeno could force out of this pint-sized body. Even so, when morning came around she didn’t feel nearly as sore or as tired as she thought she would.

Orc’s were hardy things from the feel of it. They’d have to be to be able to survive the way they did.

Following the directions of the head warrior, Akeno made her way to the training circle and lined up with the rest. She recognised a few of the faces from the day before, including a handful that she knew to be like her, but there were just as many that she didn’t recognise. The head warrior’s bellowing brought to mind the kind of stereotypical drill sergeants she’d seen in movies and the threats of nonsensical violence would have fit in any one of them; as would the intensive, even excessive amount of physical exercise that followed.

Akeno was starting to regret the sit-ups and push-ups she’d forced herself to do before falling asleep last night. Even if she wasn’t feeling as sore as she’d expected, that didn’t mean her muscles weren’t complaining by the end of the squats, then screaming in protest by the time they were done with the rocks, then outright calling for mercy by the time the branches came out.

When they got to the wrestling it was actually something of a relief to Akeno. Grappling on the ground was not something she had any real experience with but the same could also be said of pretty much everyone else present here as well; even as she watched some of the other matches take place, all it really amounted to was a bunch of Orcs trying to trip each other up and push each other over, then overpower them or use their weight to pin them do. There were no arm bars, no triangle holds, no escape attempts that weren’t just trying to brute force throw their opponent away.

A few strangulation attempts though. She was pretty sure at least one Orc was foaming at the mouth by the end of things.

Grappling experience or not, Akeno definitely had an advantage when it came to takedowns, and when it came time for her own fight it was a fairly simple matter to duck under the other Orc’s grasping arms, wrap her right arm around the back of one knee and the other arm around their waist, lift one leg off the ground and spin them around so that they lost balance and fell to the ground. Akeno fell on top of them before they could get their bearings or try to get back up, but past this point she had no idea how to pin them down or keep them from bucking her off; somehow though, in the process of pinning them down her elbow found itself connecting with the side of their jaw and left them dazed enough to make pinning them easier.

Totally by accident.

The guy counting didn’t seem to care anyway.

After that they were led back to the weapon racks and she was told to pick a weapon to use. At first her eyes were drawn to the knuckle dusters and then to the leather wraps when she wasn’t sure if the former would disqualify her from her skills bonuses. Looking at her options though, she eventually decided on a small shield and a one-handed club. She could already fight unarmed so this was a chance to learn something new and even though she had no idea how to swing a sword properly, a club should be fairly simple to figure out. And she could just drop it if it didn’t work out.

She stepped into the circle against her opponent and when it was clear that he wouldn’t make the first move, began to walk forward with her shield raised and angled towards them until she was in range of their sword.

[@Zeroth]