Elrithos had waited for his next combat in meditation and patience. He was relaxing himself for this event, making sure he wouldn’t get too caught up in the fights. He wanted to remain calm and appreciate these duels. To say, he hadn’t had this much fun in a long time, as he was mostly a messenger and constantly traveling between kingdoms and nations. Yes, he had a good time with the Southern elves before joining the crew, especially with Lissandra and her friends and family, but it was more peaceful and quiet than this. It would be quite exciting to see who he would face next.
His eyes opened at the mention of Tirian going to fight someone. The name of the opponent sounded very orcish like, but he wasn’t sure. It intrigued him and wanted to see how this warrior with the bloody past would fight in something like this. And so, from his seat, he stood up and joined all the other duelists going to watch this match. He had to squeeze his way to it, making himself small space to see. Elrithos was excited again. He wanted to see what seemed to be a well awaited fight.
His eyes stayed upon them as they moved, seeing that Tirian wasn’t using those brutish techniques in this kind of fight. It was a lot more sophisticated and he was starting to see that the young man had a real talent for fighting. It still worried him slightly with what he had seen the past few days, but he was not a lost soul. He could still be taught some principals that might take away from his… ways. In all cases, he kept watching until the fight was over. Something seemed off with Tirian’s movement, but nothing he could wrap him mind around. Yet, the combat was impressive and everyone seemed to be entertained, which made the desert elf smile. He walked over to Tirian coming back to the crowd, giving a warm, gentle smile.
“That was quite impressive Tirian. Your talent for your age is beyond what I have seen from many of my brethren soldiers in the Aavi desert. A good fight with the man too.”
And at that moment, he heard his name called up with the name of an elven woman. Interesting. Elrithos simply walked off to the arena to meet his next opponent. As he expected, he was met with a tall and slender woman with silvery hair, a cold, icy gaze. She had no smile, more of a shrug as she saw the Aavikanian approach. She crossed her arms and spit on the ground.
“They had to send me an elf from the desert to fight… Great.”
Elrithos didn’t understand why she would treat him that way, but he kept a gentle smile as he bowed in front of her. She shook her head as she drew forth a rapier and a main-gauche. Having seen this, Elrithos drew both his scimitars and placed himself in an offensive position. The woman didn’t take much of a stance, simply raising her rapier up towards him. The shout to begin echoed in the coliseum and Elrithos took the charge, but seemed to keep his weapons at bay. The woman waited and stepped forward, going to try and out-reach her opponents blade. A hard parry as Elrithos pushed the blade off to the side and went to bring his second blade up to her chest. And solid counter as the guard stopped his blade. They both took a step back to disengage, but Elrithos pushed back forward. Le elven lady was a little surprised at such a quick move back to the offensive, evading the blades and stepping back.
The fight had continued in this fashion, the Aavikanian seemed to be pushing a lot harder on his offensive than the lady. She was having a hard time keeping it with the sudden attacks back towards her, not letting her any space to even counter-attack. The crowd was roaring at this impressive display of speed, accuracy and aggressiveness. It was completely different from what he had done in the last battle. He wasn’t going to use the same two styles twice it seemed, but that left to wonder how many styles of combat he knew with his weapons.
After a minute, Elrithos eventually gained the advantage and successfully disarmed the rapier and placed one of the blades under her neck, stopping dry in his movements. Again, she was taken aback by how the desert elf had been so much more agile and quick than she was… The two disengaged and Elrithos bowed down. The laid frowned and sighed.
“So you really are the “Blazing Wind”.”
This poked his curiosity, as very few people knew him by that name… And there was good reason for it. His lifted his head and was about to ask something, but she left the arena… Elrithos didn’t want to be impolite and chase after her, but she clearly knew him when he knew nothing of her. It was odd… But the crowd seemed to cheer for the new found warrior who had impressed people once again. Elrithos joined back with the others and scratched his head, waiting whatever next battle he would receive.
As Aaerynn had left, Vordan went to work on his bandages. He first unrolled fresh ones, four in total. He made sure they were completely clean without traces of produce he didn’t want. It was a very particular step, as he looked at every inch of the tissue to see if it was the right one. When done, he started pulling out some oils which he pour and the tissue carefully, spreading it out with his finger. He recovered every part of the tissue and then took a deep breath. The dangerous part would start… He opened the first vial, which smelled horrible. He poured a small amount of the liquid into his mixing bowl, along with a few herbs he picked up. Mixing it all together, he then took the vial of troll blood and put a small amount into the bowl, mixing carefully. A few more minor ingredients were put in and then he looked at it for a moment… He was hesitating. It was an existing recipe in which he added a new healing factor. The reaction could be potentially destructive.
He took a moment to look at it, analyze it and make sense of all of it in his mind. Everything seemed to be fine; nothing would trigger an unwanted reaction. And so, he spoke a few words in the language of the Makers, not too loud. “Recuperandum curabo vitam regeneratus.” With those words, the mixture took a light green glow, washing away Vordan’s fears… But then the light intensified and he stepped back. Something had changed and he didn’t know what. The color and magical presence stayed the same, simply more intense. He recorded the new recipe immediately, its reaction and the whole event that had just happened.
He preceded to the last step. He spread the mixture onto each bandage and let them set. He would record it and take that time to pull out his new clothes and wash up a little.
Elrithos eventually got called to his next battle, which was nothing really surprising. Yes, his human opponent was skilled, but it was nothing that Elrithos hadn’t seen before. He still took pleasure in the battle, but it seemed that he shouldn’t have gotten this far in the tournament. He wasn’t going to complain. What stayed stuck in his mind was still that elven woman who called him Blazing Wind. Most of the wood elves who were alive during the time of the Dark Emperor knew a little bit about his story. A single man was able to stop a full regiment of soldiers of the Emperor by simply stalling the line with a few of his fellow soldiers. It had permitted for part of the Southern elves to retreat further into the woods where these men would have a harder time getting through. Elrithos, by the tales, was mowing down opponent upon opponent, being reckless and thriving for blood.
What little people knew about this story was the fact that part of it was true. Luckily enough, almost no one associated Elrithos as that character of tales. He preferred it that way, as he was seen in a much different image from those tales. He didn’t want to be seen a blood hungry warrior because he wasn’t like his time of youth. He became more mature and had finally seen the true art of the Aavikanian warriors. He sighed as he tried to stay concentrated… But he then got called to a new match. The events of this day would probably torment him a little and he hoped that he could get some answers.
Vordan has finally changed into his other set of clothes and what it difference it made. There were no more pieces of armor or straps of leather besides the belt on his hips and the magical gauntlet in one hand. He wore a white long-sleeve shirt without any stains, some black leather jerkins and cleaned up leather boots. His two pieces were his long, sleeveless brown long coat with silver threading and a few pieces of jewelry; two rings and a single pendant with a symbol of a sand clock. He looked like a fairly wealthy merchant now and it would probably let him in wherever they were heading. He grabbed his pouch of coins and tied it to his belt and brought along one of the rolls of bandages and although slip his dagger into his coat. You never knew what could happen.
Satisfied of his attire, he stepped out from his room and locked it behind him, stepping down. He wanted to see if Cealis and Faith were around first, as he wanted to talk to the both of them for a moment. Unfortunately, the only one he could actually find was Rudolf which he approached. He seemed to have started drinking and Vordan shook his head with a smile. “Hey Rudolf! If you see Caelis and Faith, tell them I want to talk to them tomorrow!” He then waved at them and marched off to the outside of the Inn, awaiting for Aaerynn to arrive.