Dueling an Asha'man (Closed)

[Phelix]

OOC: Taking off from his trip outside the Tower, Rhys duels an Asha'man. This is the final Historical post. I'll be waiting on official approval before beginning active RP.

 

~~~~~

 

 

“Did you enjoy your tri-” Dendric’s words cut off as Rhys’ fist filled the Asha’man’s mouth.

 

“I challenge you, Asha’man Dendric. Tomorrow, at dawn. Fists and the Power.”

 

The whole night, Rhys debated if he’d made the right decision. He knew he was close, maybe even ready, to earn his new rank… and he knew that part of earning it was this challenge… but a large part of him thought the challenge was a foolish exercise. He barely slept that night, but in the hours before dawn, he stretched and prepared himself.

 

The dawn’s light came streaming down over the mountains in the distance, and there was already a circle of men waiting to see if Rhys failed at this too. Dendric was there, and so was Paulin. The challenge needed to be overseen and recognized by a full asha’man.

 

“This isn’t exactly standard, Rhys. Are you sure you don’t want the battle to be swords and the power?” Paulin asked, looking concerned.

 

Rhys just shook his head, not trusting his voice. He and Dendric squared off, and Paulin pushed the circle back to a respectful space. Dendric wove big fireballs.

 

At Paulin’s command, they both seized the source, and the duel began.

 

Dendric went for his standard, flashy fire based attacks. There were gouts of flame, fireballs, and a whip made of fire, all rushing at Rhys in the first moments of the fight.

 

In response, Rhys simply wasn’t where Dendric expected him to be. He ducked and dodged, wove side to side, and closed the distance between them. He had to rush to get close enough that Dendric couldn’t use as much Fire, unless he wanted to roast them both. Once Rhys was within reach, he wove quick bands of air and tried to grapple Dendric with his arms and his weaves. Dendric skipped backward, trying to avoid the bonds of air and Rhys’ hands and feet, and the asha’man tripped over a stone, but caught his balance. The older man growled, and wove his own flows of air. Instead of bonds or whips, he wove hammers that extended directly from his forearms, adding two feet to his reach. He regained his footing and started marching toward Rhys, swinging the hammers like a wood cutter might swing twin axes.

 

Rhys wove a thin shield of Air and Water with a touch of Earth, making the exterior of the shield slightly sticky, and when Dendric landed a blow, the shield clung to the Air Hammer. Dendric swore in pain when his arm jerked to a stop instead of following through in the rebound motion off of the shield. It looked like his shoulder might have been pulled from its socket.

 

The asha’man released his weaves of air, and began hurling more fire at Rhys. The thin shield fizzled out of existence and Rhys had to duck to avoid taking a blast of fire to the face. There was an acrid scent, and Rhys looked over his shoulder quickly to see that where his hair had been worn in the style of Far Madding men, long enough to touch the base of his spine. Now, the ends were burnt off just below his shoulders. The knot was still secure at the crown of his head, held in place by a metal comb. Rhys growled. He had never cut his hair, except to remove split ends. There was 32 years of growth, gone.

 

Drawing deeply, Rhys began to meet each of Dendric’s weaves straight on. Where Dendric wove a whip of fire, Rhys tangled it with his own whip. Where Dendric sent a wave of flames, Rhys hit back with his own wave. When Dendric made the ground quake, Rhys sent his own quake back.

 

Rhys was beginning to tire out, and he could feel that the Asha’man was not tiring as quickly. He decided to take a risk.

 

He flared a wave of fire, hotter than ever before, causing Dendric to cover his eyes for a moment. In that moment, Dendric surprised Rhys with a second attack hidden within the fire… a shield of Spirit. Rhys was simply too tired to fight it off, and he sweated when the power stopped flowing into him. He looked to see if Paulin would call the duel, but he didn’t… apparently this was a fight until there was a clear winner.

 

Steeling himself, Rhys jumped through the fires that still burned from his own flame wall and then through Dendric’s wall. In a heartbeat, he grappled the asha’man and flipped Dendric face down into the ground. Dendric struggled and growled and tried to weave something to knock Rhys off of him. In that moment, Rhys grabbed Dendric by the hair and shoved the asha’man’s face into the mud.

 

The weaves fell apart, and Dendric began struggling to rise. When the asha’man got his face clear, he began to weave again, so Rhys did the only thing he could, and put his whole weight into putting Dendric’s face back in the mud. They kept struggling, rolling around in the mud and ash, until suddenly the shield on Rhys fell apart. Dendric stopped struggling. Rhys held him there for a moment, waiting to see if this was a feint… it wasn’t. Dendric was unconscious… he was still breathing, but there was mud covering him from the crown of his head to the soles of his boots.

 

It was then that Rhys looked at himself, and realized he was covered in mud too. Now that his shield was gone, he stood up and wove water, air and earth to force the cloth to release the dirt. It took him a moment to get clean, and when he did, he realized that the other men were laughing. At him.

 

“Shoves an asha’man’s face 6 inches into the mud, and he still stops to get clean before being recognized!” hooted a Dedicated in the back. Paulin was smiling, with some obvious amusement and impatience at Rhys’ delay. Blushing, Rhys quickly moved over to Paulin, who lifted Rhys’ hand into the air.

 

“Let it be known throughout the Black Tower that Dedicated Rhys has won his duel of honor against Asha’man Dendric. Let it also be known that he is also a skilled launderer.”

 

After the laughter died down, Paulin had a pair of Soliders help Dendric to his house. They were given instruction to bring his muddy clothing to Rhys for cleaning.

 

The next few weeks were full of testing all of the skills taught in the Black Tower, and after it all, he was woken one morning and brought to the receiving hall in the Black Tower, where the m’Hael personally waited. That morning, Rhys was given his Dragon Pin.

 

In the months since then, Rhys has made a study of objects of the Power, working to learn what they do, where they can be found, and how he can potentially create new ones.