The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

Between making Merlin move his stuff back into the dorms and picking up Brynmor from the 'pet shop', Arthur still managed to find himself in the salle at his usual time. He'd invited Zack to show up, after all, and if even half of the usual crowd showed up he'd have plenty of distraction for the morning.

He was even feeling fairly optimistic about living with Leto again for the next few weeks. It might help him get a few-- things out of his system that he didn't particularly want to have to deal with. Or shouldn't, if a certain someone's reaction was anything to go--

He took a practice sword, got into stance, and practiced off a dummy for a good while.

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[puppy_fair]

"The kick helped that," Zack admitted, taking another breath and grinning sheepishly even as he ducked low to avoid taking another blow. "I'll be fine in a moment."

Actually, he was already finding his feet again, bringing his sword upward as he stood, aiming to slash across Arthur's chest.

[bitchprince]

Arthur had shifted, footwork-first, to catch that blow. It wasn't as perfect as he would've liked, but it would do. He'd just need another opening to take Zack out without actually slicing him to bits.

He threw the next blow at Zack's hip as soon as he could.

[puppy_fair]

And once again, Zack was going to take advantage of the fact that the best way to not get hit by something was to simply not be there as he dove to the side to avoid the attack, rolled, and found his feet again all in one deft motion.

And there he went, running back toward Arthur, this time from the side, hoping that he could get to him and throw another blow for his shoulder before he could get himself properly turned around.

It was a pretty thin hope.

[bitchprince]

A very thin one, as Arthur had already half-spun the moment his blade found air. Barring enhancements like Reno's, Arthur's speed was fairly unparalleled where he came from, and he trusted it still out here.

His sword clanged off of Zack's noisely, but he wasn't much for caring, as he ducked under them on the next and tried to strike at Zack's side with the blunt end.

[puppy_fair]

Incoming!

Zack attempted to move out of the way again, having actually seen this one coming, but Arthur was quick, and Zack was at a bit of a loss as to how to counter, considering his sword didn't do him any good at all at such close range.

And so he took the blow to his side, and soundly. He felt it.

And at right about the same time, he let go of his sword with one hand and swung his fist downward toward the top of Arthur's head.

Hey, if he was allowed to kick...!

[bitchprince]

...Then Zack was allowed to punch, yes.

Arthur caught it along the side of his head as he shifted away - that was going to bruise but good - wincing on the inside, but the rest of him was running on carefully trained reflex, pulling him out of the vicinity before he could even feel it, his hands still firmly on his sword.

He retreated, head now pounding, and pulled up his upper lip as an only response to the pain. "Better."

[puppy_fair]

"I still need work," Zack decided. "That's two for you, now."

His hand returned to the hilt of his sword, in spite of the fact that he was aching to rub at where he'd taken the blow. He'd grab a potion for that later, instead, and it wouldn't be an issue.

"Keep going?"

[bitchprince]

"You'd rather back down?" Arthur asked, in a tone of voice that implied that that would be, for lack of a better word, lame. He shifted back, ignoring the pain further, and readied his sword.

[puppy_fair]

"I don't think we're done just yet," Zack decided, grinning again. "I have to catch up, after all."

And that meant that he was running at Arthur again, slashing downward.

Zack had a very hack-and-slash approach to swordfighting, yes.

[bitchprince]

Which was appreciated in terms of how easy it would be to make Arthur feel better about the whole lot of this.

That considered, he only barely caught the low edge of Zack's enormous sword - really had to get one of those - as he parried.

[puppy_fair]

Zack wasn't about to let up, this time. He was parried, sure, but that meant he was going to swing his sword out sideways and bring it in again, aiming for Arthur's side. If that was parried, well, Zack was going to have to attempt it going the other direction, instead!

Someday, he'd get Arthur an enormous sword of his very own. Or, at least, he would if he was ever made aware that Arthur was looking for one.

[bitchprince]

Hey, Arthur would like to let Zack know that his sword was--

Ahem.

Of course, it being that swords were very sharp, it was probably a good thing that Arthur did parry, as fast as he could, on both ends. This was mostly a game of looking for when to disarm - and not in the way that featured losing a lot of limbs - or when he could find an opening to bodyslam Zack to the ground.

Arthur liked bodyslams.

[puppy_fair]

Sure, Arthur's sword was of a decent side, but it wasn't exactly enormous, was it?

It was okay. Size wasn't all that mattered. Really.

Parried twice now, and still looking for an opening, Zack was going to attempt a slash on the diagonal, just to really mix things up!

There would probably be an opening for a bodyslam sometime soon, all things considered. It might be easier than trying to knock a sword out of the hand of a guy who had broken his last one in a clash of weapons before actually letting go.

[bitchprince]

Please. When Arthur grew up, he was going to have a magical sword. He had it somewhere. His manservant threw it in a lake.

The idiot.

He blocked that one barely, his own sword straining at a bad angle. Just ignore the fact that he was starting to sound a little winded himself. Sword exercise. You know how it got.

It would probably be best to end this before he started to exhaust himself. Somehow.

[puppy_fair]

It would be magical, but it probably wasn't half the size of Zack's next sword. That particular future hand-me-down was six feet long and one foot wide!

They called it a Buster Sword for a reason.

Bow-chicka-bow, and all that.

Zack's next attempt was going to involve a step to the side and just a straight sweep across, from left to right. What he was lacking in finesse, he apparently made up for in stamina.

Stamina was also a good thing to have when you had an enormous sword.

[bitchprince]

That just sounded terribly impractical. What did you do with a sword that size? Wouldn't get it near anyone.

The stamina, on the other hand...

He caught it again on the edge of his own blade, but the strategy he'd instinctively gone for - pushing the sword away to give him an opening - was the one that had previously failed him and yes he was never going to manage that.

So go on, Zack. Have Arthur's shoulder shoving at your own, instead. (At least Zack gave him some exercise)

[puppy_fair]

It was just impractical enough to take on an army with!

Really, it was totally what you did with it that counted, not the size. And the stamina was amazing to have, especially with a sword that massive. Against an army.

Really, the innuendo was too easy.

"Whoop!"

There was no such thing as manoeuvrability with his sword at such a close range, so as he felt Arthur's shoulder meet his, the best he could really do was plant his heels against the floor and hold his ground.

This was about to turn into a shoving match, wasn't it?

[bitchprince]

Arthur, by now, was mightily impressed by the narrative, that much was certain.

It may well have turned into a shoving match. As it was, it was looking to turn into Arthur-shows-off-all-the-dirty-tricks-he-learned-in-knight-school, which at this point involved bringing up his left foot slightly to pull on his calf-knee-thereabouts, to trip him.

This also did not give Arthur the best balancing position, but he was confident he could take it.

[puppy_fair]

Falling! Falling!

And, of course, the best thing to do while falling? Grab something that didn't happen to be falling, in the hopes that it could steady you on your way down. Right?

That was why, while one hand held his sword as far off in the opposite direction as he could get it so that he wouldn't land on it in very painful ways, Zack's other hand was making a reach for whatever happened to be most handy. Arthur! Arthur happened to be handy!

[bitchprince]

...

Arthur was starting to wonder why so few of these people had the decency of falling without taking him with them. Was it so bloody hard to do the civil thing and drop like a rock without bringing him into it?

All indignance aside, Arthur at least had the sense of letting go of his sword before he went crashing down on Zack. Oof.

[puppy_fair]

Oof, indeed.

"You win," Zack decided, rather without question, from the flat of his back on the floor.

Air. Please.

[bitchprince]

"Yes," Arthur agreed, sensibly. It still took him a few beats to even start to get up.

Blame it on Zack's giant sword. Or something. He planted both hands by Zack's sides eventually, though, and pushed up.

[puppy_fair]

Totally the fault of the giant sword, yes. Zack would be willing to blame it on the sword, too. Why not?

Oh, that was what it felt like to breathe, again! Zack had nearly forgotten since Arthur had landed on top of him.

"Good fight," he said. Mostly just to verify that his lungs were capable of doing more than sucking in air, really.

[bitchprince]

Honestly. Why did people keep doing that?

Once he was back onto his feet--

Well, scratch that. Arthur had dropped himself on his back next to Zack with an exhale. "Maybe," he said, grudgingly, to the ceiling.

[puppy_fair]

"You had something to land on," Zack noted. Because that totally made everything better, didn't it? At least it was said in a mostly friendly tone.

Friendly, with some kind of wheezy undertones.