Fanfic:Above the Green Ajah Halls
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Only the main building of the Grey Tower loomed overhead, all else was sky and the vista of the Mountains of Mist.
Caden Ives stood at the intersection of two walkways above the Green Ajah Hall. The railing was all that protected him from the high fall to the rooftops below. The walkways were broad and the railing reach to his waist-level. Even though these old walkways were seldom used by the occupants of the Grey Tower, it had been here that the incident that resulted in Miahala and his first Bonding took place. They had been following a sparse trail of evidence that indicated activity of the Black Ajah. Ambushed, Miahala had stumbled upon the Aes Sedai and Warder that they had been searching for.
Caden had arrived in time to save her life, but not to spare her from mortal injury. In order for her to survive, he had offered himself to Bond her - so that she could draw from his strength. She would not have survived the shock of the Healing if she had not done so.
This time, he was here because of a altogether different reason.
He was dressed in a loose white shirt with hiked-up sleeves and baggy black breeches with open ankles. The fabric stirred in the harsh wind, chilled his sandaled feet. His long wheathen hair flailed behind him, but the silken white mask that covered half his face was as immovable as his stern features. He spent his time reminiscing the past while he waited.
He carried only a wooden practice blade in his left hand.
Durent walked through the Green Ajah Halls, a place very familiar to him. He ascended toward where he was to meet Caden nimbly. He had just been for a run through the Gardens. It was shorter than his usual one, not wanting to tire himself out before his training session/spar with Caden. He was dressed in a sleeveless emerald green shirt, ever loyal to the Ajah he was technically no longer a member of, and loose black pants. In a bag slung around his shoulder were his weapons. The greaves and vambraces Caden himself had had fashioned for him.
As he emerged onto the walkways that crossed over the various Ajah Halls, he saw Caden waiting for him at one of the intersections. This place will make an interesting spar, not as much room to move around. He greeted his old friend with a warm smile. He saw Caden holding a wooden practice blade. He quickly put on his vambraces and greaves over his bare arms and feet. They were truly remarkable, and he couldn't wait to learn to use them more efficiently. After doing a few quick stretches he turns to face Caden.
"How are you my friend? Congratulations on your new position. It seems you and I are doomed to endless Administration. You and I should visit the Citadel soon...get a little...fresh air," he said with a grin.
The spectre of a smile fleeting across his unburned lips, Caden inclined his head to his friend the Keeper.
"Doomed is a heavy word," he rasped slowly, the mirth plainer to see since the burned side of his face was covered, "but aye, it seems the Pattern is head-strong." He thought briefly about how Amora en'Damier had prophesied his ascension and how he, in turn, had just made a grave understatement. Even though he had been formally absolved from his shortcomings from the time when he had been Gaidin Captain, it still didn't sit well with him that his position had been more or less forced upon him. "Makes one wonder if there is any point in making decisions, promises, in life, since you and I are clearly intended to be nothing else than what we are."
He had made promises to Miahala Sha'hal that he would never take on any duty beyond the one he had to her as her Warder. In the end, his solemn words had turned to dust in the winds.
"And if you call the air of the Blight fresh," continued Caden and shifted his sword to his right hand, "I will call you a liar and accept your invitation, if not only to let my sabre sate its thirst, to prove you wrong."
With his calloused fingers curled around the hilt of his wooden practice blade, Caden entered the classical opening stance for battle against a single opponent, Lion on the Hill. Before, Durent had only sparred with him on equal terms, hand to hand, but not this time. Caden had superior reach and was even more experienced with a single sword than he was in unarmed combat. On the other hand, Durent was now armed too, and it might prove that it was a factor that would decide the outcome this time. If his old friend learned how to use his vambraces and greaves to its greatest potential during its course, it might very well be Caden who lost this match.
"Are you ready?" he asked in a low voice, his hair dancing on the winds. He would let Durent gain the initiative of the commencement.
Durent finished stretching and took a look at the weapons now attached to his arms and legs. They were remarkable, and he had taken some time to practice with them already, but he had yet to spar with anyone. He closed his fists, revealing the sharp crescent edge that formed along the knuckles. Before these, any actual blows in spars would produce, at worst, broken bones. His punches would now double as cutting blows but could also be turned into slashing movements.
When asked if he was ready, he quickly did a few routine moves, various kicks, punches, going through the forms away from Caden. While light in weight, they did slow him slightly, his response time would be slightly lower. His style while wearing these would have to be altered. There were of course, plenty of benefits to be reaped from them.
After finishing his forms, he nodded to Caden. "I'm ready, begin when you wish." Durent slowly circled Caden, standing in the defensive position, hands at the ready, waiting for Caden to begin his attack.
"Then here I come," rasped Caden solemnly and closed the distance. It was the heralding words of the onslaught he directed at Durent.
He came in hard, with Striking the Spark, overhand blows raining in rapid succession against Durent"s vambraces. The echoes of the impacts bounced against the main structure of the Tower and fleeted out into the empty sky. He followed with Boar Rushes Down the Mountain, then Tower of Morning. Their exchange would be heard distantly over the whole tower ground. A pair of mountain falcons took flight from their nest close by, screeching their alarm.
Now, in the beginning, Caden would not relent; to make sure Durent had to explore all the defensive factors of his weapons " vambraces as well as greaves. There was not a moment"s rest between the attacks that he threw against his friend, thus straining his body's limitations as one should not do in the beginning of a fight. It would tire him, later on, but he counted on it. Almost like a berserker, he forced Durent to defend himself. Wood met engraved steel in non-seizing strikes.
The Heron Spreads its Wings turned into Arc of the Moon on the way back. He fell down on one knee and slashed across again with River Undercuts the Bank. He leapt forward from his lowered position with Swallow Takes Flight, a rising cut immediately followed with a thrust. The thrust turned into Lighting of Three Prongs, a short slash to the side sprung directly from the thrust, then became a thrust again with Bundling Straw. Several quick chest-level thrusts aimed to pierce the Keeper's defences, followed by an arc and a paired return arc.
And so on it went " the Void for now stopping him from feeling the brutal abuse on his stamina.
Durent watched carefully as Caden brought his practice sword to bear against him. Having assumed the defensive position automatically, Durent quickly made a point to dodge and avoid as many attacks as he could, his speed being a bonus to him. At first he was afraid to take a blow to his arms or legs, now armored, because he'd never been able to before, especially from a sword. Allowing himself to do so, he felt a surge of confidence, knowing he could deflect attacks with his new greaves and vambraces.
Caden's attack was relentless. He shifted masterfully from one form to the next and just kept coming. It was literally all Durent could do at first to offer blocks and try to anticipate where the flow of forms would lead. Durent employed very basic blocking techniques using his forearms at first. In most cases he tried to use these blocks to meet the sword at a right angle, so as to prevent the sword from sliding up or down his arm. Only occasionally would Durent find a way to use his vambraces to block a sword attack, and then only when it was a low sword thrust.
The noise of their duel echoed above the Green Ajah Halls, with wooden sword meeting metal. Durent used various blocks, bringing his arms vertically, or off to the side to deflect various blows. Once, near the end, Durent thought he had an opening to direct a punch in, but Caden deflected it easily with his sword. Caden immediately increased the speed of his attack as Durent knew he would after a counter-attack was attempted.
Durent tried to continually shift stances, trying to flow between different defensive positions, attempting to match Caden's increasingly complex forms. After what seemed like hours, Caden's speed outmatched his and three quick attacks all made it through his defenses in quick succession, leaving welts on his arms and chest.
As this happened, Caden took a step back, raised his hand in an order to stop. Both men were breathing heavily, and Durent finally could detect the level of fatigue his attack had given his good friend. At least I'm not the only one who's gasping for breath. Durent bent over, hands on his knees, allowing his heart to slow, while waiting for Caden's critique.
His chest heaving like the bellows of a forge, Caden swallowed the bile in his throat. "I have a couple of things you need to consider," he said between breaths that gradually came more easily, "yet in overall, you did well."
Taking a few steps over to the railing of the walkway, Caden leaned the practice blade against it and faced Durent. "For starters, you are not taking your greaves into account when defending yourself," he said and entered Offensive stance, left side forward. "Your leg can deflect a slash or a thrust and consecutively attack. Watch."
Bringing his right leg forward with his knee bent, Caden preformed a horizontal block in waist-level with the side of his lower leg, and then kicked straight out from his hip, the outer edge of his foot aimed to connect with an opponent. He returned to Offensive stance again, and this time, he swept his leg high in a block and began to pivot on his left foot while he did it. When the right leg came down, he had turned and promptly delivered the same kick he had just showed but with the left leg. The third time he returned to Offensive stance, he swept his right leg high again in a block, and then he immediately snapped his foot back in a kick with the sole of his foot " preformed by bending the knee in mid-air. "Understand?"
He moved on. "Also, while I am using a wooden sword, you need to take into account that a real blade might very well cut through your armoured arms and legs if you do not perform the blocks correctly. Do not misunderstand, your weapons are well crafted and will serve, but a direct strike with a longsword might clave the plate nevertheless. Remember many years ago how I taught you to twist away the attacks of an unarmed foe when you block" The same principle applies here. Avoid, if you can, blocking directly, instead, you should focus on your deflecting parries more than you just did. The advantage of this technique is that you direct the energy of your opponent's weapon elsewhere and enables you to gain more time for a counter-attack than if you simply stop the attack short."
Picking up his practice sword again, Caden stretched his neck. "For last, I have a fact that you need to incorporate into your fighting style. Watch, I have but one weapon in my hand," he rasped and held his wooden blade up by his side, "how many weapons do you have"
"Logically, you need only one of them to deflect my blade, while you have three more besides your forehead to drive past my guard before I can pull my blade back to defend myself."
Correcting himself, Caden gave a small chuckle, "True, I am an expert to fight with my hands too, and my free hand might stop you, but do you think all swordsmen think like that? You will most likely take most opponents unaware, and they won't know what happened."
Entering Lion on the Hill, Caden fixed his half-covered face in Durent's direction. His long hair danced on the winds while his body was perfectly still. "Now, I will strike you from various directions and you can practice to use your greaves to deflect the attacks. I want you to perform the counters too, and please use your experience to come up with other ones. Remember that you can also combine a block with one of your greaves with an attack with your arms too."
Thus said, Caden began to deliver one attack at the time, coming from different directions every time after he stepped back to strike again.
Durent nodded with understanding as Caden refreshed earlier teachings to him as well as showing him new techniques to use with his new weapons. Having for so many years avoiding attacks at all costs, learning to parry them was a hard mental block to break. After mimicking some of the moves, he nodded to Caden and prepared himself. For the first attack, Durent intercepted a low thrust from Caden by bringing up his right leg to block the attack and then immediately kicked out with the same foot that was diagonally blocking, causing the blade to slide off his foot and also delivering a kick toward Caden's midsection.
As the fight continued Durent was able to practice that first block a few more times, while moving on to the other two. The third block he was taught was easily mastered, but the block where he pivoted while blocking and then kicking with the opposite foot took more practice. He eventually was able to get at least a comfortable familiarity with it before moving on.
After dodging a few attacks, Caden came at him with a horizontal slash from his left side. Durent brought up his left arm and blocked the attack. As he brought up his arm to attack he deilvered an attack immediately with his right leg, a side kick out from his hip, doing so kept Caden's sword at bay while being able to deliver an attack.
Soon after, Caden aimed a stabbing thrust at his chest. Durent brought his right arm out in front of him in an arc, sweeping the attack off to his side. As he swept his arc out, he punched Caden's sword arm with his left fist, attempting to perform a disarming move.
Soon, Caden raised his hand to signal another break in their duel. Durent tried to catch his breath while waiting for Caden's response and critiques.
Dropping his hand, Caden flexed his sword-arm as he spoke.
"Very good, old friend. You are slowly learning to adapt your old skills to your new armament. What you learned before applies in full now, but you are learning that precautions you have taken before does not apply anymore, and that the potential your techniques hold have increased with the deadliness of your augmented arms and legs."
Tapping his temple with his free hand, Caden allowed a small smile slip over his unburned lips. "You have begun to think along new paths. I was going to show you a few disarming techniques, but you have already shown me that you have the insight to deploy these already. The principle is like you have guessed; lock the blade with one gauntleted fist, then strike the weapon away with an attack to the opponent's hand or arm. Very good, we will move on right away."
Placing himself in the middle of the intersection they were standing, Caden lowered his practice blade in Apple Blossoms in the Wind, a defensive stance. "Now, attack me with all you???ve got. I will not counter your attacks unless I'm forced to, because I want you to realise the full extent of your potential. Do not hold back, unless you find yourself about to insert that edge along your knuckles into my throat," he rasped, and widened his stance, his sandaled feet digging into the stone walkway, "unlikely as it will be."
The finishing comment had not been a boasting one, only a truthful one delivered in a flat voice.
"Come on! Here I am! If you start to slow down, I will be swatting you with my stick! Get over here!"
Durent nodded to his teacher as he finished speaking. Caden would not be an easy opponent to strike, he would have to try to use specialized attacks, perhaps even a trick or two. Entering the offensive stance, Durent advanced on Caden. He went into it with all the speed and force he could muster, delivering blow after blow. Near the beginning of the assault, Durent threw two punches toward Caden at shoulder level, hoping to bring his defenses up, followed by a quick low kick, towards Caden's knees. However Caden blocked and evaded all of his attacks.
Later on, his barrage continuing, he tried a more powerful kick, a roundhouse, aimed at Caden's shoulders and head. Caden jumped back, up against the railing to evade the kick.
Knowing Caden to be a man of his word, Durent had no intention of slowing down his attack. He seized saidin and let it flow through him, the world sharpened, and it helped him to ignore any fatigue. He continued his attack, trying to get more complicated. He threw in elbows, spins, and other maneuvers and forms to try to catch Caden off guard. After many minutes, Durent was still pressing the attack. In a last ditch effort, and in trying to draw a powerful strike. Durent grabbed hold of the railing with his left hand and jumped, leaning to his left, and delivered a powerful kick with his right leg as quickly and as hard as he could...
Suddenly, it was like Durent's disposition in the spar changed, like something otherworldly leaked into his armoured frame, and they were suddenly fighting on even ground.
Durent carried himself into the air with the help of the railing, and his lower body scissored into a kick that drove straight into Caden"s raised guard, and beyond. The Master of Arms felt his wooden practice blade slam into his chest and he slid backwards across the stone walkway. His sandaled feet scraped across stone, and even though Caden"s long experience kept his balance intact, the Void shuddered in its foundations from the impact against his ribcage.
The worst thing he could possibly do as a trainer at this point in the spar, was to stop. Durent was breaking new territory and Caden had driven him to a point where all factors were disregarded save for the momentum of combat.
The only thing he did, was to raise the stakes.
He did not need words to explain to his friend that the nature of his role in the spar changed. He would not merely defend himself anymore, nor would Durent just have to be on the offensive. He just had to act, and make the change evident. As if Caden had fallen back against a clock spring after Durent landed his hit, Caden reversed the motion.
His sandaled feet clapped against cold stone as he closed the distance. It was a feint, for he veered of to the side and rolled, his blade never touching the walkway. He executed River Undercuts the Bank when positioned Durent"s right side, then rose to his feet with Low Wind Rising, coming back diagonally across Durent's chest. Yet the momentum of the rising strike did not stop there, and Caden's feet left the ground. With his loose shirt flapping in the air of their high altitude, he spun clockwise in the air and completed a full circle with his blade, delivering a consecutive third strike, which also opened for the eventuality of having to block one of Durent's counters.
He landed with two feet and one hand upon the edge of the railing, sword raised to the sky, the moment of suspension towards gravity promising that Caden would leap away from the railing again the next instant or fall over on his side. Caden locked eyes with Durent, the white eye staring out of the eye-socket of his mask, and the next instant, he leapt at him.
The final strike cut diagonally from high to low, and the Blademaster landed in a crouching guard. The strike itself served as a guard before he could get back on his feet, for it had been one of such momentum and ferocity to grant him the protection. But Durent was not fighting at his usual capacity, and Caden feared he might have made a mistake...
Durent sensed the shift in intensity in the battle. He knew almost before Caden advanced that his all-out offensive was over. He needed to act on both the offensive and defensive now. The instant he saw Caden begin to advance he started moving slowly backward, shifting to his defensive stance. He blocked Caden's attack to his side with a raised leg and continued to slowly back up. Seeing Caden's next attack coming he turned slightly to his left, bringing up his right gauntlet to glance off his diagonal slash. Durent jumped back as far as he could as Caden jumped into the air, Caden's third attack missing him just barely.
Caden's jumping attack had landed him on the railing. Durent advanced, hoping to maybe take advantage of his friend's new positioning. However, Caden locked eyes with him and leapt at him. Durent brought up both gauntlets to deflect the attack that was coming down like a blacksmith's hammer in power. Durent had to bend his knees slightly to absorb the bulk of the strike. Caden ended in a crouching guard. Arms still feeling the vibrations of Caden's attack, Durent advanced into an offensive of his own.
Time passed, and they continued to deliver, counter, and defend mighty blows. Durent kept his fatigue well outside the void, but he knew it was growing. The noise of their fight echoing above the Green Halls, probably reaching out hundreds of feet. He wondered at this point whether they might even have spectators.
After some time, Durent misjudged a feint from Caden and received a welt across his stomach. Turning the pain into fuel, he advanced again, delivering blow after blow. He delivered a four punch combo, then spun into a roundhouse aiming for Caden's upper torso. Keeping the momentum of the spin he tried to spin within Caden's guard and aimed an elbow for him.
Initially, Caden snapped his wooden blade left and right to make the first two attacks pass by him. The third he had to step back from while making ready to strike the fourth from above. There was no thought involved in his actions at this point. His body reacted on its own to the threats Durent supplied.
When the fourth punch came, Caden's blade struck down on top of the extended arm, and he was about to make it change direction and go for Durent's face when he realised the final punch had merely been a cover for the twist of his friend's foot.
The spinning kick came high, so the Warder had to bend his legs with the block he had just made and lower his right knee into the ground. Inclining his head as the attack came, Caden managed in avoiding it.
They were the lords of the moment, but Caden found himself unable to seize it. Had he seen the kick earlier, he would have ended the fight by striking Durent while he supported himself on one foot alone. But not only was Durent quicker than he used to be, Caden also found that Durent had a sixth attack in store to drive home if the kick missed him.
The elbow-attack came without mercy towards his blind side, and Durent managed to pay in kind for the strike he had landed across his stomach. Caden took the edge of the attack by rolling away with the momentum, but it was a true strike nevertheless. It was only made harder by the edge of Durent's vambraces.
Coming to his feet, one hand on the stone railing for brief support, Caden shook his head to clear his pale blonde strands of hair from his vision. Blood from a cut in his brow began to soak through his silken mask. But there was no more repercussions than that. The setback did not stop him from launching himself at Durent immediately.
Fatigue was not a factor when subtracted by the Void. Surprise was not even considered in the equation. It was time for the final test.
He used Bundling Straw, five consecutive and interlocking thrusts followed by a sweeping high arc " finished with a low return arc.
Fatigue was definitely becoming a factor for Durent, all of his years of physical training notwithstanding. The fight may very well have been going for close to an hour at this point, the two of them had been trading blows for so long. Fatigue was seeping into the Void, threatening to disrupt it completely. Durent knew that an end to this spar was coming soon, one way or another.
Durent knew he had scored a good hit on Caden with his last attack, but there was no time to be proud or even excited about it. That would have to wait until after the battle. Like a true fighter, Caden wasted no time in returning with blows of his own. Caden's attack came swiftly, with no real physical warning as to when or where they would strike.
Durent reacted on instinct as Caden came down on him again, blocking each of the first five blows, raising an arm or a leg just in time to avoid being struck. As Caden came at him again with a high arc attack he brought up both hands to defend and stepped forward as if to try to counterattack. However, before he was able to, Caden delivered a quick low arcing attack that caught him square in the stomach. Staggering back a few steps, Durent knew he'd been beaten. Signaling with a hand over his chest he ended the duel. Clutching the handrails of the walkway for support, and breathing heavily, he allowed a smile to come for his good friend. "Quite a fight, Caden, I'm quite spent. You always have been and always will be a worthy opponent. One of these days I might beat you." With that he grinned and waited for his friend's response.
Lowering his wooden blade, Caden's chest heaved as he worked to catch his breath. Though he was utterly spent, his hair sodden against mask and forehead, he stood tall and tilted back his head to accommodate the wind against his face.
Durent was leaning against the railing, and feeling like his muscles were leaden weights around his bones, he carefully walked over there and sat down with his back against it. He rested the hilt of the practice sabre against his shoulder. He had known that the level of exertion he had deployed against his friend would be taxing, and he was now suffering the consequences.
"...one of these days I might beat you."
Caden did not reply at first, as he pulled off the mask that was covering his face. The white half of the face that he had lost, made to resemble the side that he still wore, was now cut across the forehead and streaked with red blood. He could imagine that the scarred side of his face was a proper mess of sweat and smears of blood. The mask was one of many, and now ruined. He would never be able to cleanse it from the blood. An insignificant loss.
Then again, maybe not.
He handed the mask to Durent, and when he took it in his gauntlet, he spoke. "This is the evidence that you will someday," he rasped hoarsely, lowering his hand, "You are nigh there, my friend. This day, you almost managed to beat a Blademaster fighting at his best. With those things strapped around one's forearms and claves, I doubt I would have been able to do the same. There is nothing more I can teach you. Today, you made that evident."
Caden leaned back with his head against the railing. He rolled both his green and his white eye towards Durent. "Keep the mask as a reminder of this day - a reminder of how far you have come. Very soon, I will be able to engrave the herons upon your vambraces."
