The impact of Naphtis hitting the ground was rather audible, but was quickly overtaken by his yelp. It was more a cry of frustration than of pain, but his fellow soldiers would certainly not see it that way. All three of them were chuckling to their hearts content with wooden weapons in hand.
"Come on, child. What kind of soldier yells in pain when he's hit?" Naphtis only glared without response. "Child is the perfect word! We'll have him crying for his parents soon," another said.
They continued to provoke Naphtis with their words and laughter while his anger visibly grew. Or so it seemed. Napthis was still rather confident that he could beat the three of them alone and their premature celebration gave him time to contemplate how he could safely take down all three of them. With only a few moments' passing, he conjured up a way to handle each of his comrades.
Giving no prior warning, Naphtis began to sprint at the three, who were stand shoulder to shoulder, from his position on the floor. He wanted to give them the appearance of a blind, rage-induced rush, but while he was just out of their immediate range, he quickly sidestepped to the right with a powerful horizontal slash to the leftmost soldier; he was the one with the slowest reaction time so he was an easy first target. The hit connected and dropped him to the ground while Naphtis landed out of range of the other two, who were, to his left with one in front of the other, meaning it'd be difficult for them to both counter attack at the same time. Napthis position himself for a stab while the one closest to him ran in with his own attack. Naphtis charged at him, but slipped passed him dodging his attack while going in to stab the other of the two remaining soldiers, who was not prepared for such an attack. He got the wind knocked out of him and was knocked onto his back leaving Naphtis with his back to his last opponent, but his opponent was in the very same position as Naphtis. Since they were so close whichever of them recovered, turned, and attacked first would likely win so Naphtis decided he would instead crouch with his turn to avoid the horizontal attack he expected and would aim for his opponents legs to break his stance, which he could then capitalize on.
He predicted correctly and dropped his last opponent with a sweep to his legs, but just as he fell, the first one he defeated leapt over his falling comrade delivering a powerful vertical attack that connected with Naphtis's head. Naphtis could not help, but stumble back, but was surprised to find that he fell back into another strike to the back, likely from the other opponent he thought he defeated. He fell forward into the last opponent he thought he had won against only to be kicked in abdomen by him.
Naphtis began to analyze what error he made. "Stop, Naphtis. I know, you're about to think 'If I had just executed those attacks a little faster I could have moved into a safe position before they all recovered.' That's wrong. You executed your strategy perfectly," the one who last kicked him said after recovering to his feet. "We were holding back so that you could prove to yourself you could do it, but we can't let you get too full of yourself," the one on the right said with a chuckle. "Prove what?" replied Naphtis. The one in the middle continued on, "We were watching you in the last battle. We saw how you were almost wounded by those bandits when three of them attacked you at once. It's obvious you asked us to spar with you to prove that something like that would not happen again and we simulated their skill so that you could find out you were right." The one on the left finally spoke, "But the thing is everyone here knows you could have beaten the three of them. The only reason you had a close call is, because you were distracted and underestimated them like an idiot."
Naphtis almost felt touched that they observed him while he fought even though they likely had their own hands full. Still sentimentality was not appropriate right now since they were likely going to drive their point home with pain. Naphtis knew there would be consequences for arrogantly challenging three trained soldiers of House Serathquen, but he knew that losing to the best was the only way to propel himself past them.
It was a few hours past midday when Naphtis was able to muster up the strength to get out of bed. He was bruised all over from his spar earlier, but he was too restless to simply lie there. He made his way out of the house wearing the clothes similar to many of the other villagers and only armed with a concealed dagger (anything else might suggest he was willing to spar and he most certainly was not).
He lazily strolled through the village with no particular goal in mind. It was just his preferred way of thinking. While walking his eyes fell upon an unfamiliar face. He had spent his entire like in Tohk and it was not exactly the most ideal spot for tourism so it was easy to spot a stranger. He changed his path a little so that he would walk right past her. As she got closer he felt strongly that he had seen her before, but could not quite make out from where.
"Hey," Naphtis said to get the traveler's attention. "That sword," he continued on with a bright smile. "It looks rather impressive at first glance. May I get a better look?" Naphtis's eyes were basically begging for a yes, but before she could answer he quickly said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I just have a love of all things combat. I completely understand if you don't want to show me."
