Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

Raine glanced down. “Oh. I guess those were getting old anyway.”

—————

Shuffle nodded. “And then I pushed it away.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Yeah," Jerry stood up and tapped the badge, turning it off, "It's probably tied to your mana pool, so you wouldn't be able to last like that forever anyway." She fished out another thing from the bag, the angry looking dragon head buckle, "This should help with that end, once Erina's finished everyone's clothes."

---------------------
"No, you pushed the bottom out," Joanne shook her head. She took the hammer off her back and held it up. "Push the bottom like you did the trunk." When pushed, the top of the hammer swung down at Shuffle's back before it was caught. "That is how trees fall, Shuffle."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine gave a nod as she sat down on the edge of the table and held the badge in her hands. “Alright. I’ve never used magic either.”

—————

Shuffle stared silently for a few moments, visibly processing the information. “...so, I should hit the top.”

 

[Darkling0096]

Veo nodded, "Most of us haven't either, till we joined the party."

"Niudisa and Jerry use soul gems to augment their mana pools," Adran offered, "Might have some to spare for you."

----------------------------
A smack sounded through the forest from Emfa's facepalm. "No, Shuffle, watch," Erina picked a small tree and started hacking at it until she'd created a suitable weak point, and then stepped to the side to take out the rest. The tree shook, leaned, and snapped, falling in the direction of the original weak point, away from Emfa and onto the back of one incredibly unfortunate blight hound.

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine nodded. “A weapon would be more reliable though. It doesn’t just run out.”

—————

Shuffle tilted her head. “So... you hit it, then you go around and hit it again.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Speaking of which, where's Emil?", Jerry looked around for the bard, "Pull the sword out of the quiver, you're getting a crash course in 'Pointy end goes in bad guy'." The quiver, along with the crossbow, had shrunk as Raine did, the contents matching her small size.

------------------------------------
"Yes, basically," Emfa nodded, "But we gotta get this tree back in the forge for Adran to work with, so let's get back to work," she set about hacking the trunk of the tree she'd already chopped into more manageable pieces.

 

[Fangs9090]

“Oh.” Raine looked to the quiver and took a moment to retrieve the sword.

Fia spoke up. “I think Emil is in his tent.”

—————

Shuffle didn’t have anything for hacking, so instead she started taking the cut pieces back to the forge. She rolled them, if she could, or otherwise just picked them up.

 

[Darkling0096]

"I'll get him," Veo went to go back to her tent, "Emil, Jerry's looking for you."

Jerry stood up from the table and switched her magic hilt to rapier form, "Emil and I use rapiers, but mine can change form, so we'll see what you need and go from there."

--------------
Moving pieces back to the forge took some time, since they had to stack them where they could be quickly moved once the door was opened without blocking it. Emfa also had the only thing that could cut a tree efficiently, so Joanne and Shuffle shared log-moving duty.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil looked over from his lute and nodded before getting up to go and see.

Raine looked at Jerry as she hopped off the chair, holding the sword with both hands like she was afraid to drop it.

—————

Shuffle was content to have a task to focus on, especially one that involved moving stuff.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Get your rapier," Jerry said to the bard once he appeared, "We've got to give Raine a crash course in swordplay." Emil was way closer to Raine's current size, anyway.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil blinked and drew his sword. “Ah, right. Just for the record, I only know rapier techniques.”

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry nodded, "That's fine." Skill mattered more than individual techniques, and Raine was incredibly inexperienced, anyway. "Just, uh, don't do any damage."

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil nodded. “Of course. The best place to start would be making sure she’s holding the sword correctly. A good grip will keep the weapon in your hands and off the floor.”

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry agreed, "Show us your form," she instructed, and then corrected where Raine was having trouble. "Don't squeeze the life out of the hilt, you'll make it easier to be disarmed."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine took some swings at the air before being stopped. She was mainly having trouble in that she was using the same kind of form one would use for swatting a bug with a stick, and still using both hands for the one-handed sword.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Edge alignment," Jerry crossed her sword to Raine's, "You won't do anything productive with the flat or the blunt, try again. Try and hit me." She even tturned the rings on the hilt to put the blade away.

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine looked at the sword before looking at Jerry. She almost asked if Jerry was sure, but even she knew she couldn’t do much to her. Of course, that lack of confidence showed when she made her overhead swing, broadcasting her attack clearly and following through slowly.

Emil sighed. “We’re truly starting from scratch here...”

 

[Darkling0096]

Raine's attack was not successful, Jerry simply stepped to the side and poked Raine in the chest with the pommel of her hilt. "Dead. Try again." She glanced at Emil, "It's either we teach her to use a weapon or someone's dedicated to keeping the Feeders off of her."

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil nodded. “True.” He looked to Raine. “That sword is meant to be held in one hand. Holding your hands on top of each other like that will limit how you can move. Use one hand, start getting used to the weight.”

Raine listened before looking at her sword and holding it just in her right hand. She looked at Jerry and swung again, coming from the side this time and stumbling a bit in the after swing.

 

[Darkling0096]

Well, that wasn't quite a correct statement. True, there was room on the hilt for one hand, but any sword could, and for the sake of power behind certain strikes should have another hand driving the blade, but for their purposes getting Raine to use the sword with one hand was important. "Normally," Jerry agreed sidestepping again, "You'd be using a shield of some sort, a buckler maybe, with that style of sword. I use parrying daggers, but duel-wielding is a high-skill technique." She gestured to Emil, "He's closer to your size, it'll be easier for you to get basics down with him."

----------------------
Eventually, they got the wood stacked and were ready to go back inside. Joanne knocked on the door and some constructs pushed it open for them to return inside with their payload. "Adran, we've got your wood!"

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil nodded as he stepped forward. “Make sure you control the blade. Don’t just swing and hope to hit. You have to be able to stop it just as easily. Practice that, then come at me when you have your balance.”

Raine nodded, swinging the sword a few more times before trying against Emil, only for him to parry and throw off her balance. “Control your sword.” Raine furrowed her brow and huffed before she kept trying.

—————

Shuffle was panting lightly, but she was still going strong as she helped move the wood in.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry took a seat and watched the two, taking mental notes of what Raine was doing. Jerry never had a formal education in swordplay, but she was experienced enough that she could see where Raine was making beginner errors and trying to figure out how to begin to correct them.

"Good, we were started to- that is a lot of wood." Adran paused mid-step at the volume of wood. "Did you guys want a bunch of..."

"We had assumed that we may find other uses for wood," Joanne explained, "Perhaps we will need to assemble more carts to bear the items we keep outside of the bag."

"You okay, Shuffle?", Emfa asked once she set down another log. She'd never seen Shuffle get winded before.

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine seemed to be picking up on her errors and making an effort to correct them, with pointers from Emil when she couldn’t figure out how.


Shuffle looked at Emfa and nodded. “Wood is heavy.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Some of these logs look like they weigh as much as you do," Adran shook his head, "You can take a break if you want."

"We can handle this," Joanne agreed, "You have done your part."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked at them. “But I like helping. I can keep going.”