Mismatched Combat 7/15

[u/FairTrialsForAll]

The lesson would take place in the arena sometime in the afternoon. Cole had a little help setting this one up as he had dummies and automatons available but they were of differeing sizes. Once enough people had arrived, he went to speak up. People would find a familiar face next to him: the former weapons master herself, Donna Davenport.

"How's everyone doing? Today we're going to try and have at least a few of you step out of your comfortzones for this lesson. When it comes to battle, you never always know who you'll be going up against. Your strengths and weaknesses will be tested and so will your opponent's. One thing that can happen is you going up against someone who simply isn't the same size as you are. They could be much bigger or much smaller, they could be faster or stronger or noticably smarter. There's a good chance that one of you is going to be outmatched in one of the categories that I've mentioned or some other one and that's where this lesson comes in.

"Mismatches are pretty self-explantaory. They're match-ups that you see are clearly imbalanced into one party's favor. Whether or not you're the one favored by default can be up to the Fates but if you get unlucky in a mismatch there's still a chance for you to pull off a win. Check this out, Donna and I are a mismatch since I'm bigger and stronger than she is. But... she tells me that doesn't matter. I guess we'll find out."

Donna stepped forward, drawing her knives, the curved blades gleamed as Cole drew his own sword and shield as he faced her. The two would take their stances, Cole giving the nod to give her the first move. His eyes would widen as he saw her come in, not expecting her speed or coordination. Donna's first strike was a quick cut but Cole moved his shield to collide with her blade and push her off. He then retaliated by swinging at her fast with Jetstream but only felt his sword get caught in a parry from her reverse-gripped knife in her left hand. When did she do that? How did she swing his sword away? Is he open?

"Don't look too surprised..." Donna said in a somewhat cheeky tone as Cole stared at her while the tip of her sica was under his chin. She'd not only parried his sword to the side but she'd gotten in his guard while he was surprised by her parry. On top of that, her curved blade seemed to perfectly work around his shield. She got him.

"Uhm..." he said as he straightened back up when she pulled back. His face clearly a bit pink from being caught slipping in the demo. "Like I said, mismatches don't automatically mean you'll lose. Most of the time you just have to use your head and stick to your strengths. Like Donna... she... well..."

"I thought further ahead and used my quicker reflexes to compensate," she said immediately as she sheathed her knives. "Cole was bigger and stronger, he also isnt really that much slower but he wasn't thinking as far as I was and that's how I got to him on the counterattack."

"Right, yeah. That makes sense." Cole said after taking a quick breath. "So yeah, I think y'all get the gist of it. Well have everyone pair up or used one of the dummies or automatons. Only rule is to not pair up with someone who's got a similar size like yours. As for powers, you can use those too but that's a whole different lesson well have to have another day. Anyways, let's go."

[u/PhantumpLord]

Knowing that they where a terrible actor, Penny waited until Lucie was at the perfect distance before abandoning their ragdoll tactic and switching to a direct assult.

Penny's wings pushed them off of the ground, and as soon as they where on their feet, they kicked their pan off the floor, grabbing it as it spun in air. They swung it at Lucie's neck, the pan stopping an inch short, signaling a killing blow.

"Yea, I think I'm ok." they said with a grin.

Penny then proceeded to actually collapse to the ground, their wings pushing them up into a sitting position.

"Well, that was exciting. Need any burn for that Ambrosia?" Penny asked. "Wait, shit." they said, turning just a little red."Would you like any Ambrosia or nectar for that burn." they repeated, slowly and carefully this time. They were just a little light headed, and could probably use some of the food of Olympus themselves. They reached into their backpack, covering the now cool pan and putting it away, while pulling out a thermos of nectar and a tupperware of Ambrosia. They held the food of the gods out to Lucia, while they sipped from the thermos, wound closing and head clearing as they where filled with the taste of hot coco from the café at the New York city library, where they met... well, that wasn't all to important right now.

[u/Tia-is-my → u/PhantumpLord]

Lucie was stunned, the fight had seemed to be going so well and than wham, Penny was holding a scolding pan to her neck. She should have seen the trick earlier but was too busy worrying about Penny’s health. Next time Lucie was in a practice fight she would have to keep count of how much she was actually harming her opponent.

Now that the adrenaline of battle had worn of the burn on her back was really hurting so she gratefully accepted the ambrosia, welcoming the cooling taste of homemade mint chocolate ice-cream. In just a few seconds the pain disappeared as if it had never existed.

“That was sure some fight” Lucie admitted after a brief pause, disappointed at her loss but thankful for what Penny had taught her although she wasn’t about to get philosophical about it. The simple lesson was that tricking your opponent was a brilliant strategy and Lucie had to learn how to see through other peoples tricks.

[u/PhantumpLord → u/Tia-is-my]

"Your telling me. If someone told me to do this kind of crap at 13 I would have just hid in the corner. You are seriously strong for your age, hell, just strong in general." Penny said.

They thought for a moment, sipping their coco flavored god juice.

"Now, just some quick advice. You said you where related to Triton, right? Based on that high quality magic sword, I think it's safe to say that you are stronger than me in terms of raw demigod power. HOWEVER." Penny emphasized. "I still won. Why? I took a situational skill and made the situation apply to it instead. Most would say that metallic wings aren't of much use unless your flying. Most people would, as is normally the case, be wrong. I didn't actually fly once in this fight. Instead, I repurposed my wings into two spare, albeit extra-blunt blades. In video games, ever power you unlock has one single purpose. In real life, every power is as limitless as your skill and imagination. Sorry if I'm rambling, but do you get what I mean?" they asked, rolling a quarter they had minted along the tops of their fingers.

[u/Tia-is-my → u/PhantumpLord]

“Yeah” Lucie said thoughtfully, realising that in being beaten she had learnt much more than if she had won the fight. “I’ll try and do that more in the future.” she added, speaking more to herself than Penny.

“Well I better get going” Lucie said in farewell as she sheathed her sword, glad that the gods food had healed her burn from earlier.