Private Tales Attack on Fort Sade

[Kael]

Kael pulled out a spyglass and examined the wooden fort in the light of the moon. It was of simple construction, walls of logs sharpened to a point and bound with rope. Inside there were similarly constructed buildings, and what Kael believed to be the Saderzaine Vult, along with his proctor. It looked like a simple bandit’s enclave, but was put together by one of the proctor’s in a matter of hours. He wondered what secrets it held, traps or surprises left for him and Sade.

“I will now recite the rules of the exercise to the initiate.” Kael’s proctor began, old eyes piercing into the boy’s face. Kael wondered if Sade’s proctor was this formal.

“The initiate is the Mouse of this Cat and Mouse exercise. The initiate’s objective is to locate the artifact in the opponent’s stronghold and extract it. The initiate may defend himself from attack, but will be penalized for instigating combat or forcefully disabling his opponent. The initiate may use any tools he brings or locates in the environment to complete his objective. The initiate has no more than two hours to complete his objective. Am I clear?” The proctor rattled off the vague requirements with rehearsed clarity.

“Yes.” Kael replied, knowing this proctor would tolerate nothing else.

“Does the initiate have any questions?” The proctor asked.

“What is the artifact?” Kael asked.

“As a soldier, and especially as a Dreadlord, there are missions where you will only be given the bare minimum information necessary to complete the mission. You have all information necessary to locate and extract the artifact.” The proctor replied back. Kael resisted rolling his eyes. Nothing was ever easy.


“I have no further questions.” Kael responded.

“Very well. I will signal the other Proctors. Once your opponent and all proctors have signaled a five minute count will begin, then a horn will sound declaring the start of the exercise. Prepare yourself.”

 

[Saderzaine Vult]

Sader found himself at the exit of the training room with a proctor by his side. He appeared to be in some kind of replica of a fortress town and noticed that he was rather nearby a flag that had been placed at his side of the room. Veerrry interesting. Turning to the professor he stood at attention, predicting what would come out of the man’s mouth next would be instructions. He was right.

“I will now recite the rules of the exercise to the initiate.” Sader’s proctor began, his young face the picture of absolute exasperation barely held back. The boy felt no sympathy for his instructor, of course, but a small part of him imagined looking about the same if he had to explain something like Capture the Flag. By this point, he had participated in a mission and his opponent likely had too, so he could probably have figured out his role on his own.

“The initiate is the Cat of this Cat and Mouse exercise. The initiate’s objective is to incapacitate the mouse and render them unconscious or unwilling to fight. The initiate may use anything they have brought with them, and points will be taken away for missed opportunities for takedowns. The initiate has no more than two hours to complete his objective. Am I clear?” The proctor, Marius, if he had recalled correctly, spoke in such a way where it was clear he had some kind of script to follow. To their credit, they did so. Badly.

"Yes." he replied coolly, figuring that the sooner this all wrapped up the sooner he could plan his defense. The proctor gave him an odd look and seemingly thought of something, because more words followed. "This is no game, Initiate Vult. Treat it as you would a real task, or I will see and fail you on the spot." The proctor informed him as they turned around to leave and likely get to a place where they could oversee the training.

Before he could leave to go prepare, however, Marius turned a single time more. "A count will begin shortly, your mark to go is a horn that will sound." With that, the proctor finally vacated the area. Sader moved then, not quite entering the replica town to avoid breaking any rules, but looking from the path to see if he could familiarize himself with even a bit of his territory before the game started would likely not hurt.

Now, he seemingly had two strategies. Use the scope of this place to create opportunities to use the element of surprise, or provoke head-on combat by simply guarding the flag like a little dog to their food. It seemed most fun to start with the former, so Sader decided he would do that.

Kael

 

[Kael]

The blare of horns began to permeate the air around them, signalling the beginning of the exercise. Kael took out a half dozen small pouches and laid them out in a line on the ground. He then pulled out his bow and knocked an arrow. He then stuck the arrow into the first pouch, then raised the bow to the sky and pulled the arrow until the feather of the fletching was a sting's width from his cheek. He released the arrow and it flew through the air towards Fort Sade. Rather than watch the shot go to it's mark, Kael worked to replicating the process for the remaining pouches, changing the trajectory slightly each time.


It would be difficult to see in the darkness of the night, but if Saderzaine Vult was able to monitor the paths of the arrows he would notice the direction Kael was coming from. If he did not notice the arrows before they landed, he would hear an audible pop! as the pouches hit a surface. Upon impact the pouches would undergo a minor alchemical reaction with a primary aim of spreading the rest of the pouches contents. Namely a collection of seeds, nuts, and grains. The scent of the mix was faint but noticeable to the human nose, but would attract all manner of squirrel, mouse, and bird across different areas of the makeshift fortress.

After firing the six shots Kael would transform himself into a crow, and fly in an indirect pattern towards the fort, looking for a murder, or perhaps an unkindness to blend into. He aimed to blend in with the wildlife and penetrate the walls of the fort, but such strategies relied on some measure of chance.

 

[Saderzaine Vult]

Around the second shot, Sader made his move. It appeared that Kael had created some odd plan of attack that started from his base. Overpreparation was a thing, and Sader intended to take advantage of his opponent’s lack of discretion. He began to run through the fortress town before the second arrow had even gotten close to landing, using quite a bit of his magic to speed towards the open fortress gate.

Behind him he heard the gathering of animals and he wondered to himself exactly what it was that was shot. Looking up a bit, the young man would count a further two arrows flying far behind him. That was four. Wow, Kael was rather committed to this, was he now? He hid momentarily, waiting for Kael to launch the fifth arrow. The plan of action here was to use the slight lag between shots as a distraction.

Kael was a shifter, Sader knew that much. He guessed, judging by the amount of animals that had formed behind him, that the boy had planned to use them to blend in. He grinned a bit at the realism of the whole scenario, picturing Proctor Marius hunting for rats and crows to place nearby. Sadly, though such a plan was solid in theory, Kael worked too slowly in execution.

Too slow for him, at least. Sader moved as Kael aimed the sixth arrow, charging out of the fort and hoping he would manage to hit them unaware. The boy opted for a punch in the face, switching his spear to his non-dominant hand and swinging experimentally.

Kael

 

[Kael]

The sixth arrow loosed, the bow hit the floor, and Kael had begun to take the shape of a crow when Saderzaine Vult had closed the gap between them. Kress that was fast. How did he get here get so quickly? He thought instantaneous travel was impossible. Unless he had simply ran?

Kael didn't have time to put two and two together, as a swing came for the spot his face occupied. Kael had taken hits before, in fact learning to take a hit was something each initiate was expected. Kael took the hit and shifted into the form of a cobra, willing himself to move forward instead of merely recoil. Kael took advantage of the contact to wrap around Sade's arm and spit a venomous mucus towards his eyes.

Kael had figured the boy was fast, and couldn't take many more of his hits. He hoped his reaction time wasn't as quick as his feet.

 

[Saderzaine Vult]

Sader grinned a little bit at the fact that his plan had worked. It was always nice when that happened. He felt his punch connect but watched as his opponent moved with the punch and transformed, turning into a cobra.

The Kael-Snake wrapped around his arm and opened its mouth. Any Dreadlord worth their salt in a survival class knew what that meant. He dropped his spear and thrust his now-free other hand in front of him, blocking the expelled substance with his bare hand. Almost immediately did it hurt, and he found he could not help but lightly shake.

The boy decided his best move was to persevere. There were no injuries where the venom could easily enter and begin to dismantle him from the inside, so whatever was to happen to him would be a future problem. That meant, however, that he did indeed have a time limit.

“Nice. One.” he said, words squeezing into the air between gritted teeth. He slowly took a deep breath as he brought his hand forward quickly to try to get ahold of the snake’s neck or midsection. Having to deal with a smaller transformation like a snake was one of the trickier things Sader had guessed he would have to contend with.

At least bigger animals had a physicality closer to his own. They were in part predictable. However, where a snake was disadvantageous laid in the fact that its entire body was points of contact. If he got hands on the Kael-snake he would simply try to squeeze his hand and force his opponent to quickly change their game plan. Hopefully.

 

[Kael]

Kael figured Saderzaine Vult raising a hand to block his face his best opportunity to leave. Sade would feel the coil around his other hand loosening as the shapeshifter grew feathers and wings, taking to the sky. His competitor was fast, but could he fly?

Sade’s attempted grab was perhaps an arm length under Kael’s avian form. The angle he chose was steep, prioritizing distance from his opponent over closeness to the objective. Kael may have avoided the grab, but figured he was still in range of the opponent’s spear. After a moment of upwards flight his beak crooked into a slight angle, getting him a better view of the ground. Kael only had so much time before Sade's next move, if it hadn't already come.