Danikat vs. Iman

[Danikat]

The desert was quiet, the only sound was the wind and the hiss of sand sliding over more sand as the dunes continued their endless trek across the continent. In the midst of this unending sea of sand was a patch that stood out like a clown at a funeral, verdant green in contrast to the burnt yellow around it. This oasis was a popular, often essential, stopping point for traders making the long trek from the distant ocean to foreign markets where their goods would reach a higher price. But today the camel trains were absent and the oasis reseted.

Until its silence was disturbed by a quiet 'pop' and a rush of cold air, followed instantly by the appearance of a huge goldren dragon in the sky above the Oasis. She circled 3 times before coming in to land carefully on the hot sand.

"You're sure you'll be ok?" Alzaranth asked, clearly worried for her riders safety.
"Yes, I promise I'll be fine. Just wait for me at the Fortress and I'll call when all this is done." Danikat assured her dragon, heartened by her partners concern.

She watched her dragon leap back into the air and dissapear. This morning she had awakened to a note pinned to the door of the Training Dojo, challenging her to a battle with her one-time foundling Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali and she had come out to this desolate place to await his challenge. Apparently she had beaten him here, so she settled into the shade of a palm tree to await his arrival.

((OK, just to establish a few details: this is a "friendly" battle between Iman and Danikat to be judged by Treesprite. You're welcome to watch but please leave the two to fight it out themselves.

If neither combatant wins the battle will end when both have 20 posts, at which point the thread will be judged and a winner declared. And yes this does count as one of my posts.

Oh and for the sake of fairness none of Danikat's dragons or other allies will participate.))

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

Iman had discovered the oasis during his many weeks wandering the Dojo alone. It had become the closest thing he had to home for a few days, before he set out again exploring yet more terrain of this world that was still so very strange to him.

Last week, Iman had discovered that a wanted murderer had escaped from jail and a price had been put on his head. Thrilled with the chance to take up his old profession once more, Iman had decided to look for the killer... however it had been a long time since he had had any practise in combat. Knowing that it was foolish to go after a target unprepared, Iman decided he needed to spar, but who with? It was then that he decided to make the trek back to the Training Dojo to challenge Danikat to a duel. She was the closest thing Iman had to a friend, and he knew from experience that she wouldn't take any damage he did to her personally.

Iman didn't have the advantage of a giant golden dragon to fly him to the oasis, so he had to go on foot. Naturally, when by the time he arrived, Danikat was there waiting for him. Deciding not to waste any time, Iman drew his sword and held it in the guard position.

"Thank you for accepting my challenge, Danikat... it's been too long since I've tested my combat knowledge. Not since before I entered this world, in fact", Iman said smiling politely before making a motion with his sword for her to make her move.

[Danikat]

Danikat returned Iman's smile, an expression which seemed somewhat at odds with her stance as she drew Kyr, her katana, from its sheath between her wings and brought it up into a ready position, gripped in both hands in front of her chest. She moved cautiously towards Iman and noticed as she did so that this environment would give him one advantage at least - the hot sun bearing down on her would be a distraction, whereas he was probably used to it.

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

Iman began strafing around Danikat as she drew her katana and held it in front of her. It looks like she wasn't going to make the first move no matter how much he gave her the opportunity.

Iman didn't like this... he was usually far more effective at countering than he was at making his own attack, but the extended length of time in between his last true training session and now had left him with an impatience that caused him to move in a reckless fashion he was always trained not to.

With the full force of his weight and speed, Iman lunged forward swinging his sword in a sideways motion hoping to break Danikats defenses.

[Danikat]

((If you RP Iman anything like you fight in Assassins Creed impatience will be the least of your problems.))

Unfortunately for Iman Danikat was ready and waiting for an attack. She couldn't do much in the time it took him to close the distance between them but she had time to dip Kyr so that his attack hit the flat of her sword. She felt a pang of dissapointment that she hadn't been able to bring the cutting edge around, it would be interesting to find out if Kyr could slice through Iman's sword. But she didn't have time to dwell on such possibilities right now.

Seeking to gain the upper hand quickly she bent her knees and suddenly broke contact between their two swords, simlultaniously she leapt into the air, flapping her wings once to propell her over Iman's head to land behind him. As she hit the sand again she pivoted on one foot, only sliding slightly on the unstable sand, and brought her katana around again at his back.

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

Danikat brought up her katana just in time to catch Iman's sword on the blunt edge. She's fast, Iman thought as she pulled back on her knees and jumped.

Iman quickly lashed out attempting to get in a strike whilst she was vulnerable in the air, only to find he'd completely misjudged the attack as she flapped her wings and jumped over his head. Spinning around as quickly as he could, Iman narrowly parried a strike aimed at his back which hit his sword with such force that it forced him backwards two steps.

The next second saw Iman force Danikat's blade to the side, breaking her defenses long enough to leave her vulnerable to a quick thrust to the chest.

[Danikat]

With everything happening so fast Danikat didn't have time to do much in response to Iman's strike. She threw herself backwards, her wings opening to help keep her balance but she still stumbled a step as she felt a white hot line of pain across her stomach.

Careful to keep her eyes on Iman and her sword raised she gently reached through the rip in her t-shirt and felt the cut. "Not too deep, I'll live" She thought as she drew her hand back. The wound would sting and would be uncomfortable while it was healing but it shouldn't be a problem for her.

Iman on the other hand very definately was a problem. Returning both hands to her sword she swung the katana in a wide arc aimed at his head.

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

Iman wasn't too shocked to see Danikat jump backwards to avoid his strike. He was just surprised that she seemed to react a little too late, as he felt the blade go through her top and pierce her flesh slightly.

He had thought that Danikat would've been more than ready enough for the thrust to escape, so after returning to his ready position he simply stared in wonder at the small amount of blood slowly running down his blade as she felt her wound.

A couple of seconds later, Danikat seemed to have decided that the small cut wouldn't cause her too much trouble, as she was attacking again. And this time she meant business - her katana was rushing towards his face so fast that he barely had time to turn to the side and jump backwards. Danikat's blade soared past his nose with barely an inch to spare at a frightening velocity.

Noticing that Danikat's strike had rendered her temporarily open to a counter-attack, Iman sent his right leg flying towards her stomach, following with his left hand which was still holding his sword. His hope was to buckle her over with his kick and immediately after knock her to the floor with a strike to the head with the butt of his sword's handgrip.

[Danikat]

Danikat was at too much of an awkward angle to avoid the kick but she was at just the right angle to see it comming. Unable to doge properly she did the only thing she could and moved with it, sliding backwards on the sand so she was well out of the range of Iman's sword.

But she was still taking too much damage for her liking, so she decided it was time to shift the odds in her favour. Pushing herself to her feet she crouched and leapt into the air once again, this time comming to land on top of one of the palm trees, wings open to keep her balanced.

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

Iman almost thought that his attack was going to work. He managed to land his kick... just about. She used the force of the kick to aid in propelling her backwards far enough so that even doubled over, her head was in the wrong place when he followed-up with the attack to her head.

With this, Danikat seemed to find a new resolve to win as she used her wings to propel her upwards and onto the nearby palm tree. Unphased, Iman formed a plan in his mind... quickly taking three of his throwing daggers from his pouch, Iman threw them each, one at a time. Within a second one blade was headed for her head, another slightly behind for her leg, and another behind that for her abdomen.

However, this was just the beginning of his plan. Whilst she spent time blocking or dodging those, she wouldn't be able to concentrate on where Iman was. Iman would use this to advantage, with a quick burst, he jumped, and placed one foot on the palm trees trunk. From here, he propelled himself into the air, slicing the leaves in his path with his sword in an attempt to tackle Danikat to the ground.

[Danikat]

As soon as Iman recovered from his botched attack Danikat was glad she hadn't taken her eyes off him since dodging his blow to her head. She never saw the actual daggers but the movement of Iman's arm and the flashes of sunlight as he did was enough for her to know what was going on. A quick, almost instinctive beat of her wings had put her above the second dagger and caused the third to pass between her legs, the first one came closer however and was only battered aside at the last minute by her sword, fortunately still raised in front of her in a defensive position. It had come far too close for Danikat's liking but she didn't have time to consider it as a bigger problem appeared in the form of Iman leaping up through the branches of the tree she had been standing on just moments before.

She attempted to dodge his lunge but was unable to get completely out of the way before he hit her, sending them both tumbling towards the ground. In the few seconds before they hit Danikat tried to twist around Iman, to get above him and open her wings out again to slow, if not stop, her fall.

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

For a small moment, Iman thought that his attack was about to fail. Danikat was moving faster than he had anticipated, and it was a shock when he did actually hit her, sending the pair of them flying out of the palm tree.

Danikat began attempting to force herself around so that she was on top, thus causing Iman to take the full force of the impact when they finally hit the floor. Iman struggled with her, and in the end neither of them were successful.

Both of the combatants hit the sand on their sides. Iman's left arm was crushed under him, and he heard a faint crack, despite the ground being a relatively soft surface. Within a second, he let out a brief cry of pain before rolling onto his side and grabbing the source of the sharp, shooting spasms of pain. Whether it was a fracture or dislocation, Iman didn't yet know. What he did know is that he couldn't let this minor wound stop him. Cursing himself, he began attempting to put the pain to the very back of his mind. He couldn't let it distract him just yet... not with Danikat sure to take advantage.

Wincing, Iman slowly began to rise to his feet again, using his right arm to push him up. When he was on his knees, he switched his sword to his right hand, and used that to push him fully upright.

[Danikat]

Thanks to her attempt to slow the fall Danikat caught most of the force on her right wing. The wing itself took little damage, the pinions folded themselves up and luckily she didn't land on anything that could tear the leathery membrane in between. Unluckily most of the force was transferred to the muscles in her back which spasmed in pain as the wing they were attached to was wrenched painfully backwards.

Her right arm and leg hurt a little as well, and would probably be bruised later but for now she could ignore it. Pushing herself to her knees she tried flexing her injured wing and gasped in pain. But nothing seemed too damaged, she could use it if she had to but it would be painful.

"Right, that’s it," she said through clenched teeth as she pushed herself to her feet and got a comfortable grip back on the katana that had never left her left hand. "You're going down." A little more slowly than usual she brought the Katana up into a ready position and began to move away from Iman.

[Iman al-Rashid ibn Aali]

[Danikat]

Danikat frowned slightly as Iman sheathed his sword and drew a knife instead. She had been in many fights over the years, and had seen many more so she had a fair idea what he planned here.

The catch though was that for the moment she had a serious advantage and as long as she could maintain that she might be able to beat him. She continued to move backwards, sacrificing the shade of the trees for the open space of the desert where it was imposible for him to back her into a corner and dropping her Katana to waist high made a sudden stab forward at Imans middle.

And not for the first time wished she could call on the help of her dragons.