A Tale of Two Roses [Ruby Red]

[DrabberRogue]

"Oh?" It took Jace a second to process exactly what was happening. A rather small, incredibly awkward girl had just challenged him to a duel. Albeit she had done so in a somewhat reserved and slightly cute manner, but she had in fact challenged him to a duel. Then again, with the way she was acting, it did sort of make sense. Her entire demeanor had changed a bit when she brought up the subject of dueling, and she seemed rather eager to issue her challenge. "Alright..." He finally said, a little smile crawling onto his face. He'd never been one to turn down a 'game', and he got the feeling this girl might have a reason for being so enthusiastic. "I accept your challenge."

[Ruby Red]

Rose smiles broadly and hops to her feet, excitement taking hold. She bounds a few feet away from Jace and turns back around. "So come on!" She calls, "Let's get to doing stuff!" Waiting a few meters away, she intended to give him the first move.

[DrabberRogue]

The tactician slowly rose to his feet as Rose moved an ample distance away from him, his own excitement building. His right hand almost automatically headed for the ornate hilt of his rapier, wrapping around it before he noticed something a bit off. "Don't you have something to duel with?" After all, he'd feel a little awkward if he was the only one drawing a weapon.

[Ruby Red]

"Psssh, naah" She playfully says, "Swords are for newbies!" A jibe at Jace specifically. Since her mother happened to use such, Rose only meant to tease him. She parts her cloak slightly to lower her hood completely, which in turn reveals the two objects adorning her waist. Clipped to her clothing is the silvered container she showed a glimpse of earlier, along with the single, black baton beside it. Rose puts her right foot slight in front of the other, still smiling, eagerness showing in her eyes. The stance isn't any lower, just slightly readier than before.

"Well?" 

[DrabberRogue]

"Is that so?" Jace responded, a tone of mock indignation tainting his voice. No sooner had he spoken than a metallic ring filled the air as he drew his elegant steel rapier from its sheathe, bringing it down in front of him in a fencer's salute before twirling the sword and lowering it to his side. The little smile he'd had before grew as his ability began to kick in, the savory tension of a duel about to begin mixing with his initial excitement. Both his ability and his common sense told him that the girl was waiting for him to move first, a rather odd show of confidence from her, considering all their previous interactions. "Hmm..." In fact, she seemed considerably more confident now that a duel was about to begin, giving Jace the impression she might actually be quite skilled. Well...There's only one way to find out.

With his sword casually remaining at his side, he began taking deliberate steps in Rose's direction, leaving his guard down. As he approached, he took the time his slow advance gave him to observe the girl he was about to face. She'd lowered her hood, which resulted in her cloak parting to a degree, revealing what appeared to be her weapon of choice. It also gave a bit of insight into what she looked like without all that bright red, and for the first time he got a somewhat more complete image of Rose's appearance. He had to admit the rather pretty girl had exceptional taste, it seemed that more than their names aligned. But all that aside, he would be in striking range in a few more steps.

Left...Right...Left...Right...Left...Jace abruptly stepped forward into a lunge, without warning, quickly thrusting his blade at the stationary girl. Only, he didn't fully commit to the motion. Rather than actually lunging, he stopped all his momentum before the blade would be able to reach her, placing the majority of his weight on his right foot. In effect it was a rather well executed feint, attempting to force Rose to make a mistake right off the bat.

[Ruby Red]

Jace might be the tactician of the two, but his opponent certainly had her own intelligence to call upon. Already hesitant, Jace seemed to suddenly move from timid and nervous of Rose's apparent defenselessness to stalwart attack, his previous persona fading away in a mere instant. Suspicion was easy to place upon the shift of coldness - previously he had shown to be caring.

Rose's confidence came not only from her actual skill, which she very much wanted a chance to test and show off, but also from the theory that it was him attempting to make her recklessly move first instead. Though, standing completely still as one's opponent strikes would probabky be considered much more reckless. Nonetheless, that's what she did; Just stand there with a smirk, counting on his nature to shield her from harm.

Reckless. Very, very reckless.

[DrabberRogue]

Jace had figured the girl would give one of three responses to his feint, three branching pathways that would lead their duel in three different directions. The first was that she would try to punish his apparent aggression by avoiding the blade and counterattacking, which is what he'd hoped she would do as such a response would be ineffective against a feint, and would've left her open. The second would be for her to reflexively try to dodge the sword, which would put her on the back foot, giving Jace the advantage. The third is what she actually did, not even responding to the feint, which really got them nowhere. Of course, Rose was at least somewhat right about him, there was no way he would actually run her through. In fact, he intended to finish the duel without his blade ever actually touching her. However to him, 'finish without cutting her' was very much synonymous with 'win without cutting her', and not drawing blood was about as far as he'd limit himself for fighting the girl.

Jace had stopped the forward momentum of his blade in order to perform the feint, the weapon hovering between him and Rose after suddenly stopping. However that lasted mere moments as he quickly realized the girl wasn't going to move. Without wasting a breath, Jace lashed out again, shifting himself slightly forward from his position and rapidly extending his arm. This time he actually followed through with the thrust, its trajectory aimed to take it right past her neck, missing the girl by mere centimeters if she didn't respond to it.

[Ruby Red]

Rose maintains her poise as the sword hangs in the air, at that point rocking on her heels back and forth, still smirking with a look of victory. Making sure that he's actually be trying was a main aspect of her own brash plan, and that meant she meant to find a way to either trick or persuade him to do his best. The latter began with such actions as rocking on her heels an ant's breadth from injury, in the form of a swinging sword moving closer to her neck.

[DrabberRogue]

Jace blinked a couple times, now not too far from his opponent's face as the hilt of his weapon now effectively rested against her shoulder, he wasn't quite sure how to take what just happened. It was one thing to ignore a feint, that was just good prediction, but ignoring an attack on her throat? "Rose..." He finally said with an irritated sigh, his icy blue eyes looking into hers from the uncomfortably close distance he now stood at due to his thrust. "You do realize I could've killed you just now?"

[Ruby Red]

"buuuuuuuuuuut you didn't, cuz you're not even trying. There's no fun in not trying." She replies, still smirking. The backwards way of thinking had still stubbornly taken hold. A tilt of her head, and she continues, "Guess swords really are for newbies." A playful grin, "Well, anyways."

Hands still underneath her cloak, Rose springs into the air without changing her stance. The blade laying across her side couldn't help but attempt to follow her, as the same forces would transfer instantly. Once in the air, fluttering crimson cloak amidst the slumbering sky, she spins her newly-extended baton, a two-meter telescopic quarterstaff in reality, to slap Jace's sword in a direction away from him, hoping to disarm if the previous move hadn't or simply to smack it further away if it had. Her short slight ends with Rose falling directly behind Jace, continuing her rotation, flattening across the ground for a moment in a crouch, and sweeping at his legs with her staff.

[DrabberRogue]

The issue one had to deal with when fighting Jace was that, due to his ability, he was almost impossible to surprise. The realization that Rose was about to try to disarm him hit while she was still in the middle of teasing him with that cute irritating smirk, which was likely the reason why her teasing didn't bug him all that much. As a result, he had tightly wound his hand around the hilt of his rapier a few seconds before the girl tried to smack it away. Having kept himself from getting disarmed, Jace then reflexively rolled away the moment she landed behind him, his feet leaving the ground shortly before her newly extended weapon reached where they'd been. The roll ended in a crouch, from which the tactician proceeded to take a couple bounds away from Rose, he needed a bit of space for a moment.

She...Wants me to try to kill her? Jace had never been in a duel in which he was expected to go for the kill, most people valued their lives more than a bit of extra excitement. Of course he'd done a lot of practice with a sparring rapier, a weapon specifically designed for sport and therefore incapable of taking another's life, so he was very familiar with not holding back. But this girl wanted him to try, without even the limitations he put on himself for a non-lethal encounter, despite the fact that he wielded a weapon specially designed to kill.

The young man took a deep breath, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth, taking a bit of enjoyment from the fresh Serendipity air. "So you want me to try..." He muttered under his breath as he looked down the blade of his sword at the girl, now well out of range. Even as he pointed his sword at her, he seemed a bit reluctant to go all out. But gradually, as he stood there thinking, the desire to try became more and more prominent in his mind. It wasn't long before his competitive desire overcame his concern for his opponent. "Fine then." Jace's voice was suddenly a lot more decisive than it had been before, his bright blue eyes shining with an icy determination. "I certainly hope you're good enough to deal with this..." He once again brought his weapon up to his face in a fencer's salute, once more twirling it in the air bef-

The tactician's long legs carried him across the space between them in a streak of black and silver, immediately closing the gap and bringing him into range. "En garde!" He shouted with a competitive grin on his face as his sword whistled through the air. Rather than make any single, dedicated strikes, Jace effectively began a flurry of precise thrusts. Each successive attack tried to build off the one before it, with Jace using his ability to try to predict how Rose would react. From there he would try to counter her response before she could even get it moving, striking at any openings her reaction might reveal. The girl wanted him to try to hit her, and as a result the limit of 'win without cutting' had changed to 'win without killing.' Every attack, if not responded to, would leave a cut this time.

[Ruby Red]

The smirk never fades. Excited for the chance, she could only take good fun from the skirmish.

Rose reacts in due, swatting away each strike as fast as he musters them towards her. The taps and ringing of noble blade against glorified stick fill the air, a symphony to the deadly dance it arose from. Swirling crimson before onyx and silver hues of fury, she was matching his flurry of jabs and thrusts with a flurry of parries, ascending alongside his speed. Obviously, a more agile girl with magic specifically for speed could easily surpass him in that regard, even without using the magic. She'd prepared quite a long time for it, and knew her own strength was that agility. Rose twirls and extra time during one of the parries, a counterclockwise motion with her outstretched staff. It would swing into his side if it continued along its path, her first true attack against him.

[DrabberRogue]

Jace was delighted.

No one back home in Connlaoth had ever been able to pull off what this girl just did, such a calculated and relentless assault was generally what won him most of his sparring matches, or at least gave him the advantage. But Rose had managed to completely negate his flurry of attacks, even finding an opening against him to strike. The boy quickly leapt backwards to avoid her swinging staff, his eyes lighting up with the joy of meeting a fun opponent. Then he did something a bit unorthodox, especially considering his weapon. Jace immediately dashed at Rose again once her attack had passed, a rather normal thing for a rapier wielder to do, but as he did so he wrapped his left hand around his right on the weapon's hilt. He then made a rapid two handed slash, not targeting the girl, but instead going after her staff. The tactician figured the momentum of a spinning staff would be difficult to control, especially if an outside force were to try to abruptly alter that momentum in an awkward direction.

[Ruby Red]

His idea worked in theory, but Rose had already proven to be able to control her weapon proficiently, even at a much greater pace. The idea was to set her off balance by simply smacking her staff to an awkward path, yet his motion could only help her in the end.

Rose doesn't stop her rotation to attempt another strike in the opposite direction, as Jace might have expected since his actions depended more so on that eventuality. Though she had certainly planned upon him immediately parrying, versatility came with the swing, enough for her to change her plans on the fly. She steps to his left, cloak flowing through the air, helping obscure her movements, and spins with her staff, still moving counterclockwise, only at this point she's moved the pivot of her weapon closer to herself by gripping further along the structure. As the staff nears his left side again, while Jace's own outstretched arm begins passing by where the rotation began to the right, Rose bends her knees, lowering her stance.

[DrabberRogue]

"Hm..." He was quite honestly impressed, the girl's tactical sense and skill with her weapon exceeded what he'd expected of her. What had started as an awkward encounter with a random, socially awkward girl was rapidly turning into the highlight of Jace's day. For the first time in a long while he actually wasn't certain of his own victory. It was such an exhilarating feeling to face an actual challenge, so much so that it brought a smile to the young man's face.

But Jace really didn't like being flanked, and despite her cloak's best effort to mask her maneuver, it couldn't quite hide Rose from the boy's tactical sense. His outstretched arm didn't stay outstretched for long, quickly retracting away from her staff as he dashed back and to the right, making a lateral movement in a direction that would put him at an inconvenient range were Rose to make an attack out of her spin again. His front now facing her once more, Jace positioned his blade in a low guard, bending his knees a bit and turning his body to the side as he took on an actual stance for the first time in their duel. His icy blue eyes locked on to Rose's, ignoring the twirling weapon, for once deciding to wait rather than brashly assaulting her.

The girl had made him look incompetent with her seemingly effortless response to his aggression. It was high time for a change in tactics, and to start formulating a strategy. After all, it wasn't often he got to dance with someone so fun, he might as well return the favor.

[Ruby Red]

Whilst Jace meant to formulate a plan, Rose's was still in action. She jumps, retracts her staff into the baton once more, then twists it so that it faces vertical, and finally re-extends it again. Digging the end of the staff into the ground as it extends to full length in her hand, while also jumping, adds further velocity to her ascent, propelling her tiny form well above Jace, and his reach. She was flying, and she was upside down as well, looking back down at him with a grin, giving a cheeky wink at him. Rose twists again, then kicks off of her staff to help reverse her flight, then rolls easily to a stop behind Jace again. Rose pops to her feet quickly at the second revolution across the grass and readies herself to counter his reaction. Baton likely moved under her cloak again, she keeps her hands hidden in the same way, giving no hint to which way she expected to move.

[DrabberRogue]

While very impressive, Rose's attempt to flank him was a bit too showy for Jace's taste. Too much form, not enough function. The tactician's response to her flamboyant acrobatics was to simply turn around, pivoting on his left foot and bringing his right side around to face her, he was already in position by the time she'd rolled to her feet. In addition, Jace's sword was perfectly poised to make an attack, so as he turned he sprung into a lunge at her. Only he didn't actually do that. His knees bent as if he were about to strike, as they had many times already throughout the duel. His sword abruptly moved from its lowered position, thrusting forward at the girl's torso only to pull back at the last second. His entire body lurched as if he were making a sudden strike without warning, but he didn't actually move from his stance. All of it was one massive feint, telegraphing the same type of attack he'd been throwing at Rose all throughout their dance, trying to use her own impressive reflexes against her.

[Ruby Red]

Rose begins to take a step back, but halts in an instant. His feint wouldn't hit her, but she almost fell for it, thinking for a moment that he'd called her bluff. In actuality, he'd taken the bait instead, and entirely forgotten how the physics of kicking off of something worked.

Her staff, now landing with a crack across the top of his head, bounces once, and begins tilting in the air towards Rose at the apex of its bounce. Rose, a blur with petals in her wake, dashed forward with a gust of air, grabs it out of the air on her way past him again, and swings it much like a golfer once she twists, to sweep his legs out from under him. The bluff of acting like she still had her baton underneath her adornments had fooled him effectively enough to land it atop his head, it seemed. An opening provided by the stunning blow was not an opening squandered.

[DrabberRogue]

A sharp pain erupted in Jace's skull as the mysteriously missing staff from Rose's acrobatics made its reappearance, it seemed he hadn't been paying enough attention. The tactician's vision went black for a few moments, severely limiting his situational awareness even as he tried to discern what had happened. All he could perceive was a rather prevalent headache and his ability screaming at him to roll. So Jace did what any supernaturally gifted tactician would do in such a situation, he followed the advice of his only reliable source of information. Though he was effectively stunned, his tactical sense never stopped feeding him insight, and even with a pounding headache his reflexes were still sharp enough to act on what little knowledge he had of what was going on. So Jace rolled, or tried to roll, over Rose's staff. Unfortunately his footwork wasn't the best at that moment, so rather than rolling over the staff he more so tripped on it, going into somewhat of a makeshift roll from there. Better than completely losing his footing, at least.

The roll ended with Jace in a kneeling position, his vision just starting to come back. Knowing Rose would be behind him, he then quickly stood from that position and turned to face her general direction, a light grimace decorating his face as his headache got worse from moving so quickly. His left hand shot up to his forehead as he reassumed the stance he'd had before, his right eye casting an irritated glare at his opponent while the other was concealed by his hand. Before, their game had been a tie, neither one of them scoring any hits. Now, Jace's head was throbbing, and his right shin hurt from where the girl's follow up attack had hit him. Rose was now effectively beating him, having scored two hits to his none, and having almost managed to do more.

It didn't seem that Jace had put much thought into his stance this time though, his left foot was too far forward, his sword pointing slightly too far to the right. This meant his torso was squarely facing Rose, presenting her with a much larger target than his stance had previously allowed, and on top of that his guard appeared to be flawed. From all available observation, the stance seemed to be just cobbled together so he could try to buy himself some time. Of course, those who sparred with him back in Connlaoth would know better than to try to exploit that apparent opening, for they quickly learned that Jace Rose was never quite as vulnerable as he seemed. Question was, did his silver eyed opponent know that?

[Ruby Red]

His silver-eyed opponent didn't seem to notice, or care. Jace had made a wobbly escape with all the air of the hit being much more damaging than she wished. Causing him harm, ironically, was something she'd never intended past a few smacks, certainly never as far as a concussion. Seeing him wobble around and provide a much more vulnerable stance, especially with the angry look he was giving, made Rose incredibly nervous that she'd actually hurt him. Her grip on her staff softens, along with her expression, which changed from an almost mischievous glimmer of excitement to a worried gleam of compassion. Eyes full of the latter, Rose's demeanor changes to that of exactly how she felt. "Are you... okay, Jace...?" She asks, no longer confident as before. "I'm sorry - I~I can help if you're hurt..."