Private Tales First Darkness, Last Light

[Rhidian]

There was nothing out here for him to punch without magic, but for days now; no, weeks, Rhidian had been filtering a rage he only felt when he came into possession of his magic. Krixus had helped him understand then, had been the one to help start him controlling and honing his magic that without his help and patience, Rhid was sure he would not have graduated. There was still a ways to go, but all thoughts and plans for his future felt futile. So many of them were made when he had thought Odessa Urahil would be there with him, but now... the realities of the real world after graduation had taken her away from him.

Even as he went to go fight for her, he was beaten down for it and sent back to the barracks he was to live in.

Best way to get over that sort of shit was to be busy. But even missions were not enough to stop him from thinking, remembering, and sinking deeper into the void-like bitterness.

No bag filled with sand to punch, Rhidian channelled magic into his fists, turning to the cliff face and charging measured punches into the rock. Deafening cracks filled the air, heard for miles around but he was far from the campsite. If he woke anyone, fuck it. Not his problem.

There was only one problem he had, and no other way to express it other than taking it out on something that could not fight him back.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

Wake someone he did, and perhaps the worst person to have woken.

At first King was simply irritated that his sleep had been disturbed. The mission had already been grinding at his nerves, a long and arduous journey that had seen nothing but misfortune at what felt like every turn. Having to waste time pulling one of the group's horses from a bog had been so tiring that King had assumed nothing would've woken him from the depths of slumber. Color him fucking surprised.

However, as the D'Amour boy laid eyes on who had gone about making enough noise to wake a devil, he couldn't help but feel a sadistic smile pull at the corners of his mouth. Dreadlord Rhidian. A recent graduate, and if rumors were true, one who had only barely scraped by. He was dead weight, and isolated in the middle of night as he was, a perfect target for venting King's frustrations on, even as Rhidian vented his own.

King approached from behind and waited for a pause in his "superior's" antics. When the opportunity presented itself, he piped up.
"A little late in the night to be getting in a training session, don't you think?" he jeered as he walked up, hands sunk lazily into his pockets. He inspected Rhidian's work, eyeing the soot and crumbling stone. "I suppose a wall is the only thing you'd be capable of actually hitting though, hmm? Perhaps if you practiced with moving targets you wouldn't be struggling so badly, o Ser Dreadlord."

 

[Rhidian]

"Come to offer yourself, D'Amour?" Rhidian spared him a glance, barely, but took the interruption as a point to pause his aggression against the face of the cliff towering well above himself and King.

Rhidian lifted his shirt to wipe at his face, his breaths heaving and panting as he came to slowly recover from his vigorous workout. "You know, I am in the mood to put my fists against something other than hardened rock. You've been a right shit of an experience on this mission, Initiate." He remembered D'Amour and that other girl in the year below him, terrible and yet all the same gifted with immense power. It pissed a lot of people off, and probably not a great idea for him to pick a fight with an Initiate now he was made Dreadlord, Rhidian was itching to teach the little shit a lesson.

"Come on, King. Fist to fist, you and I? No magic to show off?"

And then his shirt was pulled off in a smooth motion, once more wiping his sweating face and being tossed aside to the ground. "Or you going to crawl back to your tent and not get your hair messed up?"

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

Ooo, so quick on the draw! King had barely even begun to torment Rhidian and already he wanted to brawl over it. Perhaps that wasn't too surprising. He had been angry enough to wander off in the middle of the night and punch a rock wall, after all.

"Touched a nerve there, did I?" King grinned, folding his arms across his chest. He watched the shirt sail aside, then cast his eyes back towards the budding Dread and quirked a brow. It was neither a threatening nor seductive display, though some secluded corner of the D'Amour boy's mind thought it a shame that looks were so often wasted on failures.

King took a confident step forward, arms now beckoning Rhidian towards him.
"Initiate or no, we both know you won't be able to lay a finger on me. Even with a 'no magic' handicap," he laughed. With magic involved King was confident he'd have to struggle to avoid killing Rhidian by accident. "But by all means, you're certainly welcome to try. After all, I'm the best duelist in my class year. And what are you? A laggard who wouldn't have survived graduation pre-revolution?"

King gave a thoughtful shrug.
"I think my hair will be fine."

 

[Rhidian]

It was true that it took Rhidian considerable amount of time to begin besting his classmates soon after his admission to the Acdemy, but what he learned with growing up with family serving the Guard and soon his own enlistment and training, it was hard for the Dreadlords in training to get an edge in with him.

But King was someone with a unique magic and ability to harness it. The smallest waves could be made into a tidal wave, the coldest breath made into an icy blizzard.

And perhaps Rhidian was after such a defeat.

"Yeah, we weren't all killers as children." Rhidian beckoned him closer. "Come on then, show us what the best duellist of your class looks like."

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

King shook his head, half laughed, half scoffed. What gall...that someone so lowly would invite a D'Amour to a brawl. The boy sneered.

"Very well. Try not to bore me, will you?" he taunted Rhidian before pulling his own nightshirt off and hanging it over a low-hanging branch. Best not to get it covered in his opponent's blood.

King drew up in front of Rhidian and took an old-fashioned stance, his right arm tucked close to his chest with his left arm held outwards and upwards, both hands curled tightly into fists. His status as a duelist, of course, was much better applied to his swordplay; the falchion and swordbreaker were a deadly pair that felt like elegant extensions of King's own body, ones that he regularly used to trounce his classmates. That wasn't to say that he didn't know his way around hand-to-hand, though. King favored quick footwork and rapid strikes, just like his swordplay.

Rhidian had already been out here wailing on the wall for who knew how long. He was sure to be exhausted already, so starting simple was the obvious choice. King stepped in, jabbed twice with his left fist, then delivered a cross with his right, all while paying sharp attention to how Rhidian would respond.

 

[Rhidian]

Exhaustion was never something Rhidian felt after exercising his magic, not when Alistair Krixus had taught him ways of using magic in a way that did not deplete his magical reserves so easily. After that lesson, he had begun to control his detonations with such determination and concentration, he likely thought it had helped him graduate.

Kress, wasn't he glad for that. Otherwise he'd be stuck with this guy.

Rhidian took the jabs well at his chest. He expected it as soon as King took that step forward. Rhid threw up an arm to block the crossing of his right fist, his other hand moving to reach and grip his wrist and pull him in closer where little damage could be done in such close quarters.

His next move was to pull his arm behind his back, moving around the Initiate to pin his arm and stretch it at an uncomfortable angle.

"Come on, D'Amour. You're boring me."

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

"Nnggh!" King let out a muted grunt of pain as his arm was bent behind him. Right...so, not only was Rhidian not tired, he was also rather nimble. King made mental note of that.

Annoyance bristled through him, but this was far from over. Rhidian wanted things more interesting? Fine.

"Here I thought you just wanted a round of boxing. But if you'd rather go full contact--" he began before interrupting his own statement.

In one swift motion, King reached back with his free arm to grab a handful of Rhidian's hair, stomped sharply on his foot to pin it to the ground, and swung his head backwards to slam the back in a reverse headbutt.

 

[Rhidian]

He took the hits, gladly, but it did nothing for the trained brute to release his hold on the younger male. No, it was calculated by Rhidian to release a few seconds later, letting his mouth and chin become covered with blood that only gushed from his nose.

Thank Kress this kid was not gentle, because that was not what he was after tonight.

The pain felt good, made him exhilarated. The night was warm, the moon hidden behind constant cloud cover, and Rhidian had no intentions of getting a wink of sleep tonight. There was simply too much to think about, to process, but that was a pain he did not like. He was powerless to it, useless and unworthy.

But here, as Rhidian bared his teeth in a crazed grin, lifting his gaze to watch King. He made no true move to attack again.

He waited.

Invited.

"Good job on drawing first blood, D'Amour." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, but trickles of blood soon covered them once more.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

How tough! Rhidian took the full brunt of every hit and didn't let--wait, he did? Of his own volition? But why?!

King rushed a few steps away once freed and whirled back to face his opponent. He was bleeding from the impact of King's skull, but...smiling? Like a lunatic, in fact.

"What the fuck is this? Fancy yourself a masochist, Ser Dreadlord?" King hissed venomously, annoyed at how their little opening spat had played out. Rhidian had already danced around King and restrained him like it was nothing, and now he was just...inviting another hit? Somehow that made a rage begin to boil in King's chest. "Don't you dare patronize me!"

No more testing the waters! If Rhidian wanted a proper fight, then he'd get one! King rushed in this time, a hail of practiced punches and kicks ready to be unleashed.

 

[Rhidian]

Rhidian took every hit. He made no move to defend himself against the flurry of attacks, just grunting and grimacing and wheezing whenever King struck him.

He was sure his kick to his ribs broke something, or at least bruised him so much that he was sure it would show come daylight. Rhidian's feet stumbled, trying to keep his upright position as the Initiate gave no reprieve, and it was inevitable for him to fall to the ground. It was as if something clicked in his mind once he hit the grass. Numbness took over, made him hollow inside and out.

And Rhid hated that he couldn't feel anymore. He liked the burn of anger he had come to know since finding out his first love was not meant to be. It made him dangerous, reckless, and to the point that no one could truly say they feared the heat of his magic as he wasted no energy in destroying anything he was ordered to blow apart.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

The onslaught that followed was perfectly one sided. Ordinarily King would have been pleased; after all, very few could say that they held a candle to him, let alone could claim to be his equal. King took no pleasure in this beatdown, though. No, instead he could only feel frustration and confusion welling inside him. Rhidian had already proven he could pose a threat to King...he was allowing this.

King panted, his annoyance brimming as he stood over Rhidian's crumpled form.

"What is wrong with you? Huh? I thought you said you wanted a fight, then you just stand there like an imbecile. Now here you are in a bloody, pathetic heap! What a waste of my time!" he shouted at the other boy, angry beyond what his composure usually allowed him. King was better. He knew he was better. Why wouldn't this fool let him prove that?!

 

[Rhidian]

Rhidian slowly began to relax against the grass, panting as he stared blankly to the darkness above. There was a faint glow from the moon, the other hidden by cloud cover. He winced, hurting but the pain only seemed to bring out bubbles of laughter from him.

"It doesn't matter. None of it does. And what is the point, if I cannot truly feel this pain, cannot truly believe I deserved all of this..."

He was rambling now, but as he looked past the fuming face of King D'Amour, Rhidian could only wish that it was raining. That way, maybe he could pretend all that hurt, all that pain inside him, could appear to affect him. Raindrops would turn to tears, or perhaps the illusion of them.

"I can't feel it anymore."