Maria von Hohenzollern
Royal Capital Lugnica
Iron Bell Knights HQ
Fire.
Flame.
Burning.
Flare.
El Goa
not to be confused with the former portuguese city in India was a fire-based attack that would cause great destruction in the event the individual utilizing the attack had targeted Maria or her allies, but it appeared there was a completely different reason for the attack than what one could anticipate.
In the event that the man had performed the spell closer Maria’s blade would have likely taken the time during the cast to defeat her opponent. After all, Maria’s style of sword-fighting, as aptly described by the masked man’s frantic ramblings, was that of a “coward”. Her swordplay was about defeating the opponent through use of any advantage one has or any perceived weakness from her foe.
Maria was a skilled swords[wo]man, but her opponent seemed to have a few tricks up his sleeve. Normally one would expect it more prominent to utilize magics of the “Yin” class in order to defeat opponents. Creatively her opponent had set fire to the roof with his “El Goa” spell in an attempt to disorient his opponents.
It had worked.
In defense of the spell’s instantaneous ignition, Maria choose to cover her eyes for but a moment, but a moment is more than enough to get an advantage in combat.
Under normal circumstances, an individual who had looked away during their battle with an opponent as skillful as the Man with the Golden Sword, Mithril Blackblood himself, their head would have been cleanly cleaved off, their cathode artery slashed and their life rightfully ended. To take eyes off of combat when you know now the skills of your opponent was suicide.
However...
Waiting, watching, and testing opponents to obtain incite as to their choices during combat, then utilizing this information to come up with, not to create a pun, sure-fire methods of defeating opponents that were grounded in reality. Not to recreate an opponent’s strategy, but to reverse engineer their actions into appropriate stratagems employed by the Hohenzollern sword-style’s user.
A family of heroes without a heroic style of fighting. Perhaps it was not the idealisms of a hero that constituted a hero. It was merely being in a place at the right time. Perhaps it wasn’t about being the best swordsman, but the one who lives to tell his tale elsewhere.
The moment she had realized the attack was not to damage but to disorient, as someone who practices the Hohenzollern style of swordplay, there was a window. A moment of opportunity to protect against the threat. To understand the actions of an opponent was to win the battle, so long as there is an appropriate recourse for the action.
The silver of her opponent's sword came into focus but a moment later, and without the instantaneous realization that he was about to attack after the El Goa, she might have fallen for the blow. But Maria was tenacious. Maria would refuse this man’s actions to her grave, but her “grave” would not be here!
It was a jerking movement. A twist of the self. A simple jerking motion of “spinning” the body in a nearly horizontal position to avoid the attack. By reducing her current stature she was able to narrowly avoid the slash, her hair getting cut and her cheek grazed by the attack, bleeding as cut skin does, but because of this she was forced to crash into the stone tile of the roofing.
Perhaps if she wasn’t currently in heated combat for her life, something along the lines of
“Damn! My hair is already short as is! At least with my cheek I could get a healer to repair the scar!” But there was absolutely no time for that. Recovering from her self-induced fall, she quickly took a position to defend against the man’s barrages. The first of the attacks was aimed for her neck once more, but this time Maria was not momentarily blinded by the flame and was easily able to deflect the blow.
The temple,the collar bone, the ribs, the groin, Every attack a sure kill. Maria knew that if she allowed this man even a bit of room into her position that he would surely take her life. But aside from a few grazing blows, the coup d’grace never occurred and Maria still stood to oppose her opponent. Of course, a "grazing attack" to Maria was a bit ... Deeper than most would consider, but as long as she wasn't currently dead she would not slow down, even under extreme pain.
“H-he’s stronger than I gave him credit for. But there is something … off about him. For now, I need to create distance between us” And with that, the lady knight jumped back a step to gain a more defensive position on her opponent while began to study him.
Maria’s sword style was one that was able to understand the styles and purposes of another and use that to her advantage in a fight. However, the man seemed to have no “style” to speak of his own. Not in the sense that a unskilled swordsman would have an incorrect style. It was more so as if he was not using a style that “belonged to him”. Rather, he was utilizing several “styles” at a single instance, all to their own devices. It was as if the man before her was more than one person, but that would be impossible as Maria was able to understand from her reality. It was more likely to her that the man was merely a skilled fighter and nothing more. A crazed loony, but that didn’t mean that his swordplay, which held the same zeal a painter has when painting what he knows will be his magna opus, at all affected by his state of psychosis.
“You got some moves. Color me impressed. What is a skilled set of hands doing within the depths of insanity? Surely you could be a bit more useful to society if you weren’t swinging that ‘thing’ around like a madman, or at the very least if you swing that thing around like a madman at enemies you could be a hero within your own right, no doubt. It is a waste.” Maria had to come up with a strategy, or have either Tani or the Elf do something while Maria crossed blades with the madman. Otherwise this would be a lost fight. Maria knew that well. Unless Maria got lucky, she understood that this man would not stop until she was dead and it was likely she would be. Maria’s trading with the man had failed to come up with any strategy that could be used against him or reverse engineered and used to defeat her opponent.
Maria needed to be on the offensive or she would eventually lose her footing or fail to block one of his sure-kill attacks.
Even if she was outclassed
Even if she were to die here.
Good will always triumph over evil in the end.
She had a sworn duty to protect the people of this town as well as her fellow knights.
And Maria was not an individual to lie.
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