Cracking Skulls - Warden Training Pt. 3
Takes place after the Inglorious Rooks saga, specifically after 100 Venatori Scalps here: https://www.tumblr.com/wickedadaar/783577931683348480/100-venatori-scalps-inglorious-rooks-part-3?source=share
Featuring: Elysia and Fisara belong to @bubblecat-co Jerran belongs to @teamtakagi Kalais and Semar belong to @sleepingtodream Lin belongs to @warden-tabriis Dan belongs to @evans-endeavors Quinn belongs to @seizethemage-main Zaedrin belongs to @fret-not Alaine and Tamrian belong to @randomness-in-motion and Viridian belongs to @starlightarchery / @ofrevival and Darius belongs to @ennayeliah
It had been a week and a half since Minrathous was razed to the ground by a blighted dragon attack, which allowed the Venatori to overtake the city. Jin had given every a few days to rest and recover when they returned from their expedition in Minrathous. She herself was still nursing a wounded leg, but training must go on. She pulled herself up with the crutch Elysia had made for her and tried to put on her training gear. As she struggled with her pants, she cursed to herself as they grated against her wound. As she fought with her pants, her love began to stir as she heard the commotion. “Darling, just wake me next time,” Elysia lightly scolded as she moved to assist Jin. “I didn’t want to bother you, love,” Jin grumbled as Elysia helped her get dressed. Elysia made a noise that was a mix of a scoff and a chuckle, “I’m here to help you, whether you like it or not, love.” She meets Jin’s gaze, and that instantly disarms the Warden. Elysia knew Jin couldn’t say no to her and used that to her full advantage to make sure her paramour would recover fully and properly. Jin begrudgingly let Elysia help her finish getting ready, choosing to forego the boot on her injured leg. She didn’t want it to irritate the wound.
Those fucking darkspawn, she thought to herself. Jin was still replaying the attack in her head, trying to figure out how she could have done better, been quicker, quieter. They had just finished killing that lot of Venatori. Everything was quiet, things seemed to be okay. Suddenly, the building shook, sending bricks crumbling around them. Then the ringing pounded through their skulls. It was the piercing call of the new blight. It stunned all three of them, especially Jin. She had never heard a call like that, not even nose to nose with an ogre. She tried to shake off the feeling, but darkspawn began to clamber towards them quickly. They were moving at almost inhuman speeds. “RUN!” Jin ordered Semar and Jerran as the trio rushed back towards the entrance. When they reached a landing on the stairs, they tried to take a stand. Jin cut down all those she could while Semar and Jerran picked off the ones beyond the front line. “There’s too many of them,” Semar said gruffly just before Jin pressed them to keep going. “I’ll hold them off, you two get to safety!” she called over her shoulder as the creatures continued their onslaught. “Never!” Always defiant, Jerran grabbed her elbow and pulled her along with them as they ran. As they approached the door, one of the darkspawn grabbed her leg, tearing deeply with its claws. Jerran was able to kill it with an arrow through the face, but the damage was done. He and Semar had to help Jin hobble her way back to the rendezvous point where Elysia could heal her. Elysia scowled at Jin, having told her to be careful, until she heard Jerran conveying the details of the attack to Kalais and Lin. She studied Jin intensely before kissing her, relieved that Jin came back to her in one piece.
Since they arrived back at the Lighthouse, Elysia had not left Jin’s side. Even this morning, she escorts her love to the training grounds where she watches as Jin puts the Wardens through their paces. Today, they would begin cross-class sparring to help everyone fine-tune their skills against possible opponents. Today’s match-ups were as follows: Lin and Dan, Laine and Quinn, Tamrian and Kalais, Semar and Jerran, and, lastly, the two newcomers: Zaedrin and Fisara. Jin didn’t know the two elves very well yet, but they seemed to show promise. They had joined up after the group returned from Minrathous a few days ago, so they were still pretty green in Jin’s eyes. She needed to see what they could do, and sooner rather than later.
With Elysia’s help, Jin stood and watched as each pairing faced off. While Dan was a big guy, his weak point was flighty mages, which was Lin’s specialty. Dan struggled to keep up with Lin’s speed and agility. He repeatedly lunged at the mage, nearly missing him with his sword and shield on several occasions. Due to both of their large stamina reserves, while this was the first match to begin, it was the last to end, resulting in a draw. Both were too exhausted to continue.
Alaine’s experience was no match for Quinn’s shapeshifting ability and energy level. Her ability to take smaller forms with even smaller hit boxes had the advantage over the older Warden’s traditional fighting methods. As she continued to evade his strikes, he continued to pursue her, exhausting himself in the process. Eventually, he had to call it quits because he could no longer stand, much less attack. Her energy won out at the end of the match as Alaine collapsed on the training field. Jin rose to race to his aid, but Elysia beat her to it. She ran to the man, assessing his injuries. Once she determined he was okay, she turned and gave Jin a thumbs-up to let her know.
Kalais’s gentle nature was no match for Tamrian’s agility and magical prowess. Tamrian treated his magic as an extension of his spellblade, using it to cut and slice through the air at his opponent. Not wanting to injure the man, Kalais held his blows and took it easy on him. This came back to him in the ass. Kalais was able to block several of the attacks, but Tamrian was eventually able to knock his shield from his hands, rendering him largely defenseless and causing him to yield to the mage.
Jerran had the speed advantage over the dwarf, but unbeknownst to the rest of the Wardens (but highly suspected by Jin), Semar was much older and experienced than he seemed. Despite his initial stumbles, the longer the sparring went on, the more Semar’s ability seemed to improve. As Jerran continued to goad him into attacking, his patience was wearing thin, causing more of his true ability to show. As his temper took over, so did his instincts as he quickly knocked Jerran into the dirt with one swift combination of attacks.
Fisara and Zaedrin were fairly evenly matched. They were both fairly young and had been in the Wardens for roughly the same amount of time. They also had about the same amount of experience training with Jin and her drills every morning. It was not a long match, but it was intense. The two went at each other until neither could continue.
As Jin stood observing the Wardens as they wrapped up their sparring matches, Elysia brought her attention to a Shadow Dragon mage coming down the stairs towards them, followed by another Warden Jin didn’t recognize at first. As the pair approached, she recognized the older Warden as Viridian, an old acquaintance of hers from Weisshaupt. The mage, on the other hand, she had never seen before. Why is this guy interrupting our training? She thought to herself as he strode up to her, his arrogant nature permeating the air around her. She was all too familiar with the type. He carried himself like the nobles back in Fereldan did. As much as she hated to judge someone based on first impressions, this guy’s attitude was all too familiar, and she hated him instantly.
Jin had the Wardens all take a brief break before continuing with their individual training. She then turned her attention back to the two new arrivals. “Mage,” she said, her voice full of disdain, “what brings you to Warden training?” She eyed him up and down, trying to suss out any potential ulterior motives. “I recently joined the Veilguard, but I’m from a merchant family and have limited combat experience. I was told you could help with that,” he said as he looked down his nose at her. Jin resisted the urge to snarl and punch him in his stupid, conceded face as she felt Elysia’s hand on her arm. She moved her gaze to the older Warden as he approached. She cocked her head to the side as she recognized the man. “Viridian?!” “Sergeant Connor! Long time no see,” he greeted her happily as he shook her hand. “Who did you piss off to get assigned here?” she joked as she studied him. “No one, Sarge. I heard about the cause and volunteered,” he said with a smile. Jin chuckled to herself, “You would be the one to volunteer for this. Well, welcome to the team. I’ll introduce you to everyone after training is done. In the mean time, I need you to help train our mage friend here,” she said, gesturing to the Shadow who stood beside her. “Say, mage, what’s your name?” “Darius Konrul, at your service,” he said with a smirk and a bow. It took all of Jin’s strength not to knock him on his ass with her crutch. “Put him through his paces, Viridian. Just like we would any other new recruit,” Jin instructed with a wicked smile on her lips. Viridian nodded, matching her smile.
Viridian and Darius sparred for some time before Darius ran out of magic and had to rely on hand-to-hand combat skills, in which he was severely outmatched by Viridian. In less than two minutes, he was face-first in the dirt of the training field, much to Jin’s enjoyment. Viridan ordered him to stand, and he did. They repeated this dance for about fifteen minutes before Jin finally had mercy on the mage and called the match there. She had seen him endure enough punishment for one day. They could start fresh tomorrow morning.
[thank you to @ennayeliah for letting me borrow Darius :) ]
