Fractured Mana

[Icepelt]

Marissa walked at the front of the group, surrounded by escorts from her family. They were all silent, save for when they spoke to ask her if she needed something. She was almost treated like some sort of precious gem. Even Luke was getting the special treatment, and it was only because Marissa's father was a high rank. In what, she wouldn't ever tell the other members of her group. Thankfully, the tattoos that her comrades wore were covered by long sleeved and thick traditional clothing. All of them seemed to have the same demeanor of rough, cruel, and uncaring. There was a rustling behind Marissa on top of one of the many horses, each decorated by several symbols that appeared to be foxes. She grinned as she saw that James was just waking up.

"I'm glad to see that you're awake." she turned and then pointed to the large forest out in front of them. Squealing, she spun slightly and tried not to be quiet to Luke wouldn't wake. "Looks like we're close to the Naturatribes. Oh, I am hoping that I see Cole..."

[Sunwolf]

Balong and Huoyan had awakened much earlier than the others. As a smith, Huoyan was used to early mornings when miners would call on his smithy before the morning shift to repair their tools. They had gone a ways from the group and were at a clearing in the forest. Balong was instructing Huoyan in the use of the katana.

 

Huoyan blinked sweat from his eyes as he tightened his grip on the handle of the practice blade he was using. Across from him was Balong, holding his practice blade in one hand, looking calm and relaxed. “I told you before, don’t hold the blade too tightly, let the stances flow from you, don’t force them, let it come naturally,” with a sudden flick of his wrist, Balong executed a series of swift slashing attacks that seemed to come form all directions at once. Huoyan grunted slightly, barely parrying off the attacks. A glancing blow hit him on the upper arm and he winced slightly. Though the practice blades they used were dull, they were made of a heavy metal and a powerful blow from it could break bones. He was going to sport a nice bruise from that blow.

 

Balong paused as he looked at Huoyan with a slight frown. Huoyan was breathing heavily, his hands trembling slightly from the force of the blows. Sweat poured off him but he did not dare to pause to wipe them as he knew Balong would use the chance to attack. “That’s enough for the morning,” Balong nodded, “The others should be awake by now, let’s see if there’s any breakfast.”

 

“Hai! Sensei!” Huoyan answered and gave a formal bow. Balong bow back and handed the practice blade to Huoyan. Huoyan carefully wiped off the blades and wrapped a heavy piece of cloth around them. Carrying the blades, Huoyan followed Balong to the camp.

Edited October 4, 2011 by Sunwolf

[monkeyboy225]

Chaung and Yin followed behind the rest of the group they were traveling with because of Yin's small size it took her longer to travel places. "What are we doing here?" Yin asked as she looked at the open plains of the Naturatribes which was extremely different from the Geodynasty where they grew up."We are looking for another group of competitors so that we can defeat them and take their shards. Chaung answered her as he pulled his warm clothes around him and continued along the path using his longer strides to keep ahead of Yin. Yin hurried after Chaung as she also pulled her clothes closer around her, no matter what the weather was outside while they were traveling they both always wore their warm fur lined clothes.

 

"Stop making fun of my size and start walking normal or your going to have to start carrying me." Yin threated Chaung when she finally caught up and he suddenly started to walk normal. He had learned from experience that Yin can make good on any of her threats and dispite her size she could hold her own in anything that she did.

 

After a hour of walking, Yin started to complain that her legs where starting to hurt and that she needed to take a rest. Chaung gave a sigh and agreed to take a thirty minute break. "Why couldn't we just buy some transportation and travel by ourselves so that we aren't slowing everyone else down?" Yin asked Chaung as she messaged her sore legs. "Because we only have 100 gold pieces and if we always bought transportation than we would have been broke before we left the Geodynasty. After that Yin stayed quiet and just seemed to pout while chewing on some bread.

Edited October 5, 2011 by monkeyboy225

[Blobblarg242]

James tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes, a task that barely resolved his vision. It was so difficult for him to make anything out... He wished that the forest wasn't so bland. It was simply trees in every direction. There wasn't any way to differentiate. At least not to him. He had never been to the Naturatribes, and had never learned their ways of navigating the forest. Marissa was speaking to him... he should probably respond. "Who's that? A rival? I have a couple of people I'll be eager to fight. Namely, some jerk from a rival clan and my sister."

 

Zeke looked over at the participants from the Geodynasty. They had more or less been silent throughout the trip... perhaps he could convince them to be a bit more social. It wouldn't be too hard, hopefully. Pulling his favorite black coat over his head, he approached the two of them. "Hey. You two have been pretty quiet. We're all friends here. If you want, we can talk. My name is Zeke, by the way." Should he mention his last name? They weren't from the Aquaraiders, so it didn't really matter. "Zeke Fenris, that is."

[Icepelt]

"He's this arrogant ginger kid who thinks he can try and get the spot I desire." said Marissa, speaking about her red-headed rival. Even during their training days together, he had always been considered better than her. Their late master, who Marissa had feelings for, always treated him as if he were special. He may have been older, but it was only by about three or four years. The idiot had even gotten one of the cute younger boys, Byron, to follow him around like he was some sort of god. It angered the girl quite a bit. Scoffing, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. Marissa's heels digging into the forest floor. Her eyebrow twitched as she spoke. "He disgusts me. Oh, how thrilling it would be for me to rip out his heart. Decapitation would be my first choice, though."

[monkeyboy225]

Chaung looked up at the person who had approached them and saw that it was one of the participants from the Lightningclans. "Sorry I'm just not used to traveling in big groups is all and this is all knew to me." Chaung said as he stood up and helped Yin to her feet. "My name is Ming Chaung and the short one there is Ming Yin." He said as he patted Yin on her head to emphasise her height. Yin looked frustrated and socked Chaung in his stomach. "Don't tease me about my height though or you'll end up like this idiot here." Yin told Zeke as Chaung doubled over from the force of Yin's punch which was a little low for comfort.

[Blobblarg242]

"...That's really, really screwed up." James said simply. "Listen, I don't think it's healthy to be in that line of thought." Obviously, most would see this as a strange thing coming from a Lightningclansman. However, most simply assumed that they were mindless rampaging killers. Which they weren't. "Just because you don't like him doesn't mean you should kill him. Killing is... wrong. For no other reason than it robs you of the chance to humiliate your rival a second time. Plus, the tournament officials discourage it. It's like an unspoken rule or something stupid like that."

 

Zeke chuckled a little at the other participant's antics. "I don't intend to make fun of you, for height or anything else. I don't make a habit of it." The Geodynasty participants were actually a bit of a mystery to Zeke. They had been very quiet throughout the trip, and nobody had ever really interacted with them to an extent. "So... why didn't you guys talk to the others beforehand? Just shy or something...? I don't mean to pry, though." He added.

[monkeyboy225]

Chaung had finally recovered from Yin's punch and gave her a light push to give him the distance he needed to get out of her arm reach. "It's not that we are shy or anything, it's just that we have never traveled outside the Geodynasty before and this is all new for us. Now here we are south of the equator and far away from home." He told the Lightningclans' weapon partner while Yin rolled her eyes at Chaung's response to the man's question. "That may be his response but as for me, I just didn't feel like talking as it was fun just to bug this guy right here." Yin said as she gestured over at Ming Chaung who was making sure to stay out of her reach.

[Sunwolf]

Balong and Huoyan reached the camp just in time to see two short fellows in conversation with James. “Ho oh!” Balong exclaimed, his eyes twinkling with delight, “How is it possible that we did not notice that there were participants from the Geodynasty with us?” Even though the Pyroshogunate has had many differences with the Geodynasty in the past and their people were not on the best of terms, Balong seemed to like people from the Geodynasty.

 

With large strides, Balong reached the group and nodded at the two newcomers, “Ni hao! I’m Balong and this is my apprentice Huoyan. We are from the Pyroshogunate. May I know your names please?” Huoyan sighed softly and followed Balong. His sensei was very sociable and loved sharing stories, especially about the time of war with the Geodynasty. He hoped that would not scare off the newcomers.

 

((Ni hao (Chinese) - Pleased to meet you))

[monkeyboy225]

Chaung turned toward the newcomers and took a step back when he noticed their height. "Ni hao." He replied as he gave a slight bow as he sized up the participates from the Pyroshogunate. "My name is Ming Chaung." He said and before he could introduce Yin she stepped up and introduced herself. "And my name is Ming Yin. Wow how did you two get so big?" Yin said quiet bluntly and Chaung inhaled as to stop Yin from inquiring farther. He wasn't a person to dwell on the past but the old wars with the Pyroshogunate was a sore topic within his family because their noble name had taken a beating with the Emperor during those dark years. "What may I ask are your names?"

 

((I can speak a little chinese but I'm not very good at it. ))

[Sunwolf]

Balong grinned broadly when Ming Yin asked her question, “Well, we mainly eat bears for breakfast if we can find them, if not, I guess an elk or moose.” Balong winked at Ming Chaung, “And we run laps around the mountains carrying big heavy slabs of rock for exercise.” Balong indicated Huoyan’s thickly muscled arm, “See this? This guy here can crush rocks easily with a squeeze.”

 

Huoyan sighed and said, “Sensei, please don’t mislead people.” Turning to Ming Yin, Huoyan bowed, “I’m sorry but my sensei likes to joke. Please don’t take it to heart. In my village I’m considered an abnormality as most people in my village are actually quite short. Perhaps my height has to do with my profession. I’m a blacksmith by the way.”

 

((Balong had already introduced themselves. ))

[monkeyboy225]

(( I over looked that a couple times. ))

 

Chaung chuckled as Balong spun a story for Yin about how they had gotten so big. "Don't worry about her size. No matter how small she is she still as a bunch that feels like getting hit but a solid granite hammer." He said as he dodged her punch and made sure that he stayed out of her range. Yin cracked her knuckles with a evil smile on her face after she missed Chaung, but tried to edge closer to him so that she could get a good hit in. "I'd be interested in your fighting styles as people from the Pyroshogunate and your practice styles to stay in shape. Perhaps we can train together some time." Chaung offered as he wanted to see how these people fought as more of a rivalry as these two were from the Pyroshogunate and were the main opposition to the Geodynasty.

[Icepelt]

Marissa snickered and poked her tongue out from between her teeth, "But they never said that we couldn't." The girl turned back around, waving her hand dismissively. "You obviously don't know how I work. The sooner he's out of my way, the better. If you think that's messed up, then you should really see our master. He's known as a cold, uncaring monster. Have you ever heard of a man they call the 'King of Demons'? That's my master, who has trained me for a majority of my life. Oh, to make him happy would please me immensely. Cole would no longer be in my way of his affection if I killed him."

[Sunwolf]

“Ah, you just missed our morning training,” Balong said as he watched in amusement at Ming Yin’s antics. “Perhaps tomorrow we might have a chance to spar. It will do my apprentice good to have someone else besides me to spar with.” Balong looked around the camp, “I wonder if breakfast is ready. Huoyan, go take a look.”

 

Huoyan nodded, “Yes sensei, after I had washed myself. It was a very thorough workout this morning.” Balong nodded absently, “We are getting closer to the other participants. You will need to train hard if you want to have any chance of beating the others.”

 

Huoyan turned back to the forest. He had noticed a small pool fed by a stream when he was on the way back and that looked like a suitable bathing spot. When Huoyan faded into the forest, Balong turned back to the two Geodynastians. “So if I may ask, what kind of fighting style do you two prefer?”

 

[monkeyboy225]

"That's a shame that we missed your training session for today. We prefer to train later on in the day when it gets warmer." Chaung said and Yin nodded in agreement as she pulled her brown fur lined coat around her as if for emphasis. "As for what kind of style we prefer, that would be hand-to-hand combat." Ming Yin said and tried to make contact with Chaung again with her small fist. Chaung dodged the fist but just barely since it caught him by surprise. "Yes, we were too stubborn as children to learn how to use weapons so we always just sparred with our fisted and developed our fighting style off of hand-to-hand combat instead of weapon useage." Chaung explained to Balong as Huoyan had already left for the woods to go wash up before breakfast. It already felt like the day was starting to warm up for Chaung so he unbuttoned his heavy coat to reveal his red silk undershirt that he always wore when he was traveling under his heavy coats, Yin on the other hand still felt the bite of the morning and decided to keep her heavy fur coat on.

[Sunwolf]

“Hand to hand combat? Hmm… that means your weapon partner is also related to that? A cestus perhaps? Or a dagger?” Balong said thoughtfully, “It would be most educational for my apprentice if he can watch your training. Is that possible?” Balong blinked when he heard the exchange between Marissa and James. While it was frowned upon to kill your opponents in the tournament, it was not unheard of for accidents to happen and it seemed that Marissa would arranged for an ‘accident’ to happen. Balong smiled inwardly, he had met a fair few people who were like Marissa before and he was not really bothered by how she worked. Besides, he had heard of this ‘King of Demons’ guy although he had never met him. He had lived for a very long time and there was very little he had not heard or seen. “Marissa? Do you think we can have some breakfast please? I’m absolutely famished!” Balong smiled and nodded at Marissa. “After that, perhaps we can discuss our next move.”

[Icepelt]

Marissa's head whipped around to face the man who had spoken to her. It was strange, she had swore that they had already eaten breakfast quite while ago. James should of been the last one to eat his meal because he woke up so late. With a sigh she leaned placed a hand on the shoulder of one of the members of her large family and stood on her toes to speak to him, "Make breakfast for this man and anyone else who has not had breakfast as well. Try to save food. Everyone gets the same amount of food. Don't waste it, got me?"

With a nod, the man headed away into another tent, ducking inside behind it's opening. After he was gone, she bowed slightly, "I apologize. I thought for sure that everyone had eaten."

[monkeyboy225]

Both Chaung and Yin both stifled a laugh as Balong tried to guess what their weapon of choice was. "No, no. Nothing as complicated as that. We prefer good ol' fists over anything else. We like some spiked steel guantlets which we use in a fight instead of any bladed weapons." Chaung explained to the Pyroshogunate as Yin shifted from foot to foot. "Now what is it?" Chaung asked looked down at his short partner. "I'm hungry." "You've got to be kidding me. For the love of the Emperor." Chaung said with a sigh as he fished into his bag and gave her another piece of bread.

 

Chaung followed after Balong as Yin sat down to eat her bread. "She's such a little kid sometimes even though I'm younger." He muttered as walked up behind Balong and another person. "I was wondering what our next move would be." He interjected and than looked at the person he hadn't met before. "Forgive my intrusion. My name is Ming Chaung from the Geodynasty." introduced himself with a bow.

[Icepelt]

One of the men guarding the tent that Marissa slept in tensed as one of the other contestants approached her. She lightly placed a hand on his shoulder, talking in a low voice and ordering him to calm down. After a small conversation about the young man that had introduced himself as Ming Chaung, she approached him, a wide smile on her pale face. Like most other males, he was much taller than she was. From what she could see, he was well-built and his eyes were a deep brown. The grin on her face only got larger.

"Well, hello," she said, stepping closer to him and batting her eyelashes. He did look a bit older than she was, but she was sure it didn't matter. Marissa threaded her fingers together by the edge of her thigh-length pink dress. Flicking her wrist, she flapped a fan in front of her face. "Hm...You're awfully good-looking? You said your name was Chaung?" She pulled up black stockings she wore. "I'm Marissa Fokku of the Mechanorepublic and I'm single." With a giggle, she winked at him.

Edited October 8, 2011 by Icepelt

[monkeyboy225]

Chaung bowed again as Marissa introduced herself. "Yes, my name is Ming Chaung and I am also not taken." He told her as he he wondered why he had added that, it was probably because she had mentioned it first. He tried to ignore the comment about his looks since he knew that could only bring trouble in his experience back in the Geodynasty. Yin had finished off her bread and finally caught up with Chaung and Marissa. "Greeting there. My name is Ming Yin and I am Ming Chaung's weapon partner." Yin said with a slight bow and Chaung stole a glance over at her with a raised eye brow as she was being more formal than usual. "What is with the troop of guards that travel with your?" Chaung asked as he looked at the men that were giving him dark looks.

[Icepelt]

"Oh, that's great because I was hoping that-" Marissa was interrupted as a young woman walked over to them and introduced herself. Looking at the weapon, she bowed, just as her family had taught her. Blinking, she flashed her a grin as well, though she would admit that she was rather jealous of this girl. Her weapon partner actually seemed to have a decent brain. Unlike Luke, who was currently in his animal form and chasing butterflies around. "I am Marissa Fokku of the Mechanorepublic." She tipped her head when asked about the several men that were almost on constant guard of her, her smile staying implanted on her face. "Hm~ That's for me to know and you to find out. Let me just tell you this," she suddenly reached out and took the hair of the man next to her. He grunted, but absolutely refused to struggle against her. Her smile becoming a bit more sadistic, she struck him across the face. He didn't even show that it had hurt him as she released him. "I can treat them as poorly as I want and they still have to do what I say. The rest of it really isn't your business." A small metal knife was created from the surrounding metal in the ground, appearing in her hand for her to twirl around. "Unless, of course, you wish for me to kill you." She giggled then. "But I really don't think I could kill a pretty boy like you, Chaung."

[monkeyboy225]

Chaung raised his eye brow again as Marissa displayed how she could treat her entourage but didn't say anything about it. "I would prefer not to be killed during the course of this tournament." Chaung said and Yin cracked her knuckles as Marissa complimented him on his looks. Chaung rested his hand on her pat to keep her from doing anything that wouldn't be very pleasent. "Well I would love to stay and chat with you Marissa, but the day as moved on far enough so that it is time that Yin and I can go train for the day." Chaung said as the day grew warmer. "That is a lovely idea, Chaung." Yin added with a smile to Marissa as she turned away and headed into the forest to go and find some cleaning to train at. "I hope we can meet later today." Chaung said to the younger girl as he bowed once again and started to follow after Yin.

[Icepelt]

" I knew he would warm up to me." said Marissa at the boy's parting words. Though, she was more than a little annoyed at the way the woman had looked at her. If was like she had been personally attacking her. She had no right to give her such evil glances. The black-haired girl scoffed and leaned against one of the poles holding her tent in place. Crossing her arms, she wondered what could've possibly driven them away. While it was great that they appeared to be freaked out by her comment about killing them, she really didn't want a cute boy to be afraid of her.

[monkeyboy225]

Yin turned around when they had reach a clearing which was far enough away from the camp she turned around to face Chaung. "I don't like her." She told him and than added. "Just remember not to get involved or anything, you promised your family and pleaded yourself to the Emperor until the end of the tournament." "Yes, I remember. Nothing will happen with anyone while the tournament is in session." He told her and muttered the last part under his breath. "Well let's start training than." Chaung said as he pulled his jacket off an folded his red silk shirt on top. Yin nodded and pulled off her fur jacket and placed it next to his jacket but kept her blue silk shirt on as she turned into the steel gauntlets and Chaung picked them up to place them on his hands. He then punched the ground and ten stone practice dummies rose from the ground ready to be pummled into dust.

[Sunwolf]

Balong looked at the camp food with a raised eyebrow, “On second thought, I should probably leave enough for Huoyan since he eats like an ox.” Balong walked off slightly to one side and when Chaung said that they were going to train, he followed along behind the two Geodynastians.

 

Meanwhile, Huoyan had finished his bath. Taking up the practice blades, he walked back to camp to find that Balong was not there. His sensei seemed to have wandered off somewhere. Shrugging to himself, Huoyan began to eat. He was ravenous after the morning practice and soon finished the food. Huoyan looked around; it seemed that some of the participants were not up yet. Feeling quite full, Huoyan decided to go for a walk.

 

((Edited ))

Edited October 11, 2011 by Sunwolf