diatu | I've had my share of sand kicked in my face

I've had my share of sand kicked in my face

Who: Hendrik

unswervingcompanion, Eleven (the Luminary)

hyperdrivemonalisa.
When: After the bully event
Where: Courtyard
What: Training & Bonding times

Hendrik had to rescue the Luminary from bullies and wasn't happy. So that meant more training for Eleven and he decided more rigorous training was in order for the one destined to save their world. The knight had been particularly strict this time around and applied more discipline than usual.

Along with adding more rigorous training, Hendrik was trying to teach the Luminary how to move faster and made several comments along the lines of teasing.

"Move faster"
"Someone will easily be able to defeat you if you keep doing things that way"
"Where did you learn to wield a sword?"

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Initially, Eleven had thought an extra half hour of sparring a day wouldn't be any problem, and threw himself into it with the single-minded determination to prove himself. But after all, he found those last thirty minutes to be the most brutal. It seemed that no matter what he tried, he couldn't get around Hendrik's sheer mass. It kept the man rooted in place no matter how hard he fought, and steady whenever he worked to throw him off balance instead.

Still, he kept at it until his body began to tire and with it, his resistance to Hendrik's jeers.

Somewhere in his fatigued mind, Eleven knew that the next thing to pop into his head wasn't a good idea as far as strategies went, but neither did he particularly care. Morcant's balls, the man's face would meet the ground if it was the last thing he ever did.

Eleven threw down his sword with a toss of his head, and with no further warning than that, pelted unarmed toward his opponent. In a flying leap to close the last bit of distance, he launched his entire body at Hendrik's knees.

It wasn't a pleasant collision, but that didn't matter when Hendrik's weight shifted off-balance and the man fell to earth. Eleven crowed victory and quickly sat up to give his protector a wild grin.

"What was that.." he said breathlessly. "About always.. staying on your guard..?"

Edited 2019-04-12 07:31 (UTC)

He purposefully was being a jerk, digging his heels in so to speak to make things harder for the Luminary. Hendrik had been a touch scared since the other had faced more enemies than he'd been ready for and it reinforced his idea that Eleven needed a protector. But he couldn't say those words, not even if the boy had been drunk.

But he couldn't have been ready for the Luminary to throw his sword down and literally launch himself at his legs, which he had tried to keep steady and to use against the other. So down he went into the dirt with something akin to laughter. So his fearsome defense had been seen through and uprooted. Good, that was definitely a good sign.

The Luminary's words had briefly confused him, as it had the knight wondering if suddenly the Last Bastion had been recalled, but he highly doubted that. So instead, he waited and then grabbed the boy while he was off guard (two could play the off guard game) and pushed him face first into the ground, with one hand resting on the boy's back.

"Indeed, it is a lesson I shall remember."

The world spun, and quite suddenly, Eleven found himself with an impressive close-up of the individual blades of grass in his face.

"Ur-mmph!"

Squirming against the heavy pressure on his back, he fought to wiggle out from underneath the hand pinning him down. Failing that, he threw all of his weight into the heels of his palms for what was likely the world's most futile push-up until, arms trembling, his strength fled him all at once.

Eleven dropped back down with a grunt and spent several moments simply breathing and trying not to inhale the grass.

"Okay," he said finally between breaths, voice beginning to bubble into a laugh. "You win- this time."

The knight was patient and laughed low while the Luminary struggled. And he laughed further when the other tried to get up pushing off on his hands.

But then the boy conceded defeat and Hendrik was surprised when he heard the other sound like he was going to laugh. It almost gave the other the opening he'd need to get off of the ground because the sound certainly startled him.

Instead, he got up and held out his hand to the other, much like the Luminary had done with him after he'd recited his oath at the Last Bastion.

"You fought well this day."

Eleven sat up, then sat back and gave Hendrik a tired grin. He took his hand let the man help him to his feet.

"Desperate measures," he said, chuckling. His arm came up to wipe sweat and dirt from his brow. "I don't think I learned anything except that you're a rock. I wonder if it's even possible to win with my sword alone."

Hendrik couldn't help but chuckle at Eleven's words as he helped the other up. In the past, he'd heard similar comments about him.

"It is called an advantage, and one that is used most carefully, except when the unexpected happens." He definitely hadn't planned for the Luminary to knock him off of his feet and it was a tactic that he would have to watch out for in the future.

Meanwhile, from the corridor, there came the sound of clapping, as well as a slight snort. The perpetrator soon revealed herself.

Isabel sauntered her way into the courtyard, dressed--strangely, likely. She wore a pair of loose pants, but her shirt was tight to her skin. She had tape wrapped over her hands, and as she stepped in, she kicked her shoes off to reveal her feet were taped, as well.

She gave Eleven a friendly slap on the shoulder, but the older man, she bowed to, hands folded before her, before straightening up again and offering him a hand.

"You must be Eleven's protector. I'm Isabel. Hello, sensei." Her attitude might be slightly bemused and flippant, but when it came to introductions, she was polite enough.

Eleven stepped away to reclaim his sword only to stop short, searching about for their audience.

"Isabel," he said, surprised, but welcomed the gesture with a bit of a puzzled grin. She looked ready for a fight, though he was grateful that it was Hendrik she approached.

Eleven sheathed his sword and turned back toward them.

"Ah, his name is Hendrik."

Edited 2019-04-13 22:46 (UTC)

Blue eyes noted the girl come into view and wasn't sure what to make of her. Hendrik noted the taped feet and hands wondering the reasons for them but made absolutely no comment.

Seeing that she must somehow know the Luminary, the knight nodded but then was not sure what to do when she bowed to him. And for the life of him he had no idea what a sensei was.

Still, he reached his own hand out to take hers.

"Well met Isabel."

Isabel gripped his hand, warm but firm. "Hendrik-sensei, then. Or just Hendrik, if that's what you prefer. I know a lot of my teachers didn't like it." Neither did the ones here, but her father had practically drilled it into her. She glanced over at Eleven at his surprise, and arched a brow.

"You said you took sparring lessons after classes, and I figured it might be a good place to catch you. And, y'know, the more the merrier too, maybe. I figure your sensei could maybe show you how to tackle more than one opponent with someone else coming around sometimes."

It made plenty of sense to Isabel. Nhairis had always recruited people she knew when she wanted to give lessons in fighting multiples.

Eleven gave a tired shrug, still smiling.

"I'd be happy to, but I won't be much of a fight right now." His eyes slid to his self-proclaimed protector, smile turning a touch sly. "Hendrik probably still has energy though, if you want."

"I cannot say that I would or would not prefer the term of sensei." But this is because he doesn't know what the word even means.

The knight politely waited as Isabel and Eleven finished their discourse and he nodded. "A multiple would be a challenge, but if one of you is tired, that fight shall have to wait another day."

Hendrik then nodded at Isabel. "I am willing to do a one on one fight should you choose to do so."

"It's an honorific, it means 'teacher' or 'instructor', especially in some of the martial arts styles I'd learned back at home." Isabel was perfectly willing to supply the definition, though her eyes twinkled in amusement. She glanced at Eleven, though.

"Just how long were you sparring, and he's got you tired?" One brow arched. "You might just have to come running with me." Not like Eleven didn't remember how easy it had been for her to keep up with him. Then again, she didn't wear armor, which might be the one forgiving factor, there.

"Works for me, just try and hit with the flat of your blade? I can take bruises, but going to the chirurgeons with a deep muscle wound wouldn't be fun for either of us," Isabel said, brow furrowing, as she agreed with Hendrik.

Eleven glanced at the position of the sun and shrugged.

"It's usually an hour but it's been extra since the incidents." He plopped down on the fround a safe distance away with a sigh. "He's relentless."

And now that he had time to notice, his stomach wasn't too pleased either. Lunch felt like eons ago. A bath too, as sweat began to cool. At least he'd had the foresight to change out of his robes and into his travel clothes.

"Does knight training include martial combat?" He wondered aloud.

The knight nodded in understanding at the unfamiliar term. He could certainly have called Don Rodrigo a sensei then.

At the thought of the Luminary running every morning, Hendrik smiled. It was quite amusing to think about the other running just to get into shape. But it wasn't a bad idea.

"I have been relentless because there was no need for you to have run from those that you faced." And Hendrik would've not gone easy on any of them had any harm have come to the Luminary.

"Sometimes running is the wiser option, though. I imagine Eleven could have fought and even won, but some of the ones I encountered seemed to want to call their fathers in as backup..." Which made Isabel's lip curl in derision. She'd never in her life had to drop her own father's name; she'd always done her best to take care of any situation that arose by herself. And on her own terms.

"I'm not sure what kind of trouble that would've made for the school, so he might've had that in mind." Mostly because Isabel usually believed a person had the best of intentions. At least El seemed like the type.

"So..." And now she grinned. "Are we going to show him how it's done?"

Eleven huffed, but wrapping arms around his knees, leaned forward to watch the match.

"I'll be rooting against you, Hendrik!"

Hendrik nodded to Isabel as she spoke. Running was wise in certain situations, he'd give her that. But the knight was who he was and though he had to run at times, it always grated on him later.

Even with the situation in Snifleheim when he'd had the chance to round up the Luminary's party, his mind had been focused on the pendant belonging to Jasper that the Ice Witch had dropped. So he'd let them go, which had turned into being a better thing.

But at Eleven's change of heart, the knight shook his head as he looked over at his charge. Never would he root against the Luminary himself, but maybe this was something different simply because it was a different world.

Edited 2019-04-29 22:06 (UTC)

Isabel gave Eleven a brief, shocked look, then burst out laughing. "Dude, that's no way to talk to your protector!"

Not that she ever thought, even with that, that Hendrik would ever leave Eleven hung out to dry--he sure didn't seem the type--but she didn't think it was really fair for Eleven to goad the knight, either.

"Besides, this is for your benefit, so watch and learn!"

Despite all her cheery banter, Hendrik wasn't coming at her--so maybe she'd have to approach him herself. Sometimes, chivalry went a little too far...

Isabel dropped into ginga and started to circle the knight, never taking her eyes off him. And still, he waited for her to attack him...

"You really don't think his enemies will wait for El to attack him first, do you?" she asked with a slight grin, before she spun into a leaping roundhouse kick, heel aimed at Hendrik's head.

His brows knitted together when she said the word 'dude' but Hendrik readied himself for impact when Isabel had said this was for Eleven's benefit.

The way she was moving reminded him of the monks of Mount Pang Lai before His Holiness the High Lama had come out to dismiss the troupe. So his blue-green eyes watched her warily, but she hadn't attacked so Hendrik wasn't going to advance. It had been the same with Jade, she had attacked him first before he even tried to make any sort of move. He had only defended himself and didn't go after her until she had come after him first.

Being taller, the knight moved out of her way and continued to wait.

If he was going to make her attack, Isabel wasn't going to give him a break. She pressed it by landing in a crouch and sweeping her leg out in an attempt to take him down.

If that didn't work (not that she really expected it to, but she was going for subdual, and not harm, especially without a weapon), she'd drop back down into ginga and circle Hendrik. She realized he was canny as her instructors back home--not that that was a bad thing, she'd been aching for a workout with a true artist since then.

Even if Hendrik used a sword and was versed in an entirely different style.

Hendrik avoided the sweep easily enough and waited. He wasn't sure what she was doing but he made a mental note to go easy and his greatsword didn't come out. This was an exercise and the knight wasn't about to try and subdue her unless something extraordinary happened.

"I am looking forward to seeing what you know." Not to mention possibly learning it.

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I've had my share of sand kicked in my face

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