Post by EriChar on Oct 5, 2012 17:56:05 GMT -5
His movements aren’t too bad, for a guy his size… A drop of blood falling from the furthest most tip of his blade, the eyes of Charlemagne Strangeways shifted their focus from the very slight staining of crimson at the end of his sword, to the pirate who had snapped backwards from it, with a fresh line of the same colour now dripping from the large captain’s cheek. In all honesty, Charlie was rather impressed by his new foes speed and reflexes, able to avoid a neck cleaving blow that struck from the man’s blindside, and come out of it with only a slight scratch on his face.
No wonder the little miss had trouble… Even an encounter of battle potential as brief as what had just been exchanged between Young Master Strangeways and the captain, whose name remained a mystery to the attacking Charlie, was enough to convince the sword wielding challenger that this man was indeed a step or two above the level of the flunkies that had been engaged previously, and would not easily be done in by the simplistic level of assault that had been so effective in the battle earlier on.
I’ll need to lift my game up… Still having not quite managed to draw level with the pace that his lungs demanded, Charlie raised his weapon up to defend himself this time, as the burly pirate fellow seemed to lose patience with the standoff between them, and launch into his own assault. Snapping back lightly on his toes, Charlie demonstrated that his own fighting style was different from what the pirate captain had engaged before, the movements of the Strangeways son being fleet and fluid, himself dancing around the battlefield as heavy blows rained upon the spots where he had moments before been standing.
I don’t have the brute strength to bowl him over like our penguin princess did… Charlie knew that outright strength was not his forte, particularly in a case where an opponent was so dominating in the field of physical strength as this one was, and usually in battle relied more on her wits and quickness to counter foes; after all, you can have the power to crush a man with a single blow and still be useless if that hit could not make its mark.
“You dance around even more than the little girl…!” Plainly, the pirate’s lack of success in planting one of his efforts upon Charlie was frustrating the man, who offered an attempt at insult, either from dissatisfaction or intent to bait the ‘dancing’ swordsman.
“My moves are pretty good, eh?” Whichever was the original source, Charlie had honed weapons against both, which he worded now. In the case of frustration, the act of interpreting the remark as a compliment had a good chance of increasing the man’s vexation, and in the latter, well, Charlie wouldn’t be such a good poker player if he were so easily drawn in. Despite his retaliatory remark, Young Master Strangeways was decidedly less chatty a combatant in his action against the captain, when compared to how he had behaved when whacking his way through the man’s subordinates. Out of what he would consider his full combat fitness, the sword fighting gambler’s silence was born more from necessity than choice; talking would take away energy, concentration and breath when he really couldn’t spare any.
“Stop messing around!” It became apparent from the roar preceding massive man’s subsequent motion that the former of Mr Strangeways assumptions was the correct one; a hammy hay-making fist was thrown his way shortly after the outburst, which was likely powered more by frustration than intention, but none the less forced a rather rapid increase in distance between the pair on Charlie’s part. Unfortunately though, the sword-wielding ship-owner’s lacking recent combat experience showed further in his attempt at dodging the wild blow, as he ducked backwards to find that his spine was now pressed against the wall against which his current opponent had previously been cast by the penguin-themed young lady a few minutes before.
“Nowhere to run to now, twinkle toes…” Likely the captain’s action had not been dictated by strategy, but the man still shone a broad grin as if everything had come up according to his grand design. His face growing a little lighter from the blood fleeing from it, Charlie brought upward the solid shaft of his sword sheath to shield himself as he watched one of the massive, meaty mitts rear backwards, ready to destroy the wall along with the man who was pinned up against it, but found that his beloved lady luck had not yet turned her back on him.
The hard hand never being sent his way, instead its path was intercepted by the body of one of the lackeys, which bounced across the battlefield and as luck would have it, into the path of the blow aimed in Charlemagne Strangeways direction.
My luck hasn’t run out just yet… Seizing the chance to rectify his error, Charlie ducked down and rolled forwards, around the back of the pirate that loomed over him, drawing his weapons in front of his body as he returned to his feet in a crouched position. Conscious that he wouldn’t get many more chances like the one that he had now, the young blonde swordsman readied himself for an attack on his opponent, wanting to seize the chance to strike at the pirate whilst the captain’s guard had been torn away by the untimely intrusion of an ally bouncing into his face. Drawing the grip of his glade back so that it was level with his cheek, Charlie held the baton in his other hand perpendicular to the edge of the blade, lining the two weapons up together in a manner not entirely unlike that of a bowman readying a shot.
“A good gambler always has an ace or two in the hole…” Like any good combatant, Charlie knew that the path to specialization was one paved with possible success, but intersected with the occasional crossing road of failure. Someone who strived too hard to be good at just one thing, would inevitably be caught up by their lack of accomplishment in other areas, so a truly successful individual would be necessitated to add a few more strings to their metaphorical bow, in order to round their form and skillset out enough to make the holes apparent in it a little less visible; the cracks a little less vulnerable.
While Charlemagne Strangeways predominantly employed manoeuvres in his arsenal that emphasized speed and technique, that did not mean that he hadn't developed measures for himself that were completely devoid of power. The move he set up now, was one of those moves that he had prepared with a little more oomph; that added ‘muscle’ behind it.
With his eyes meeting the pirate captains for the briefest of moments, Charlie staring into his opponents window to the soul as the large man tossed his supposed ally away from him, the son of the Strangeways family left no chance for the other man to counter, forcing his body into action in the moment that he saw his target’s attention distracted by an attempt as evasion. Lunging forwards, the club within the blonde’s left grip was flung out first, swinging with a wild force against the arm that the pirate captain tossed into the fray in an attempt to defend himself. Charlie was, obviously, not a match for this man in terms of raw physical power, but he did not employ this club with any sort of intention of having a contest of strength with his opponent, rather it was merely there to create a window, no matter how brief that opening was. Clashing cane against fist, Charlie’s opening gambit paid off, as for the briefest of seconds, the meaty defending mitt was delayed, and the follow-up motion that the blonde employed was permitted an open track to success. Thrusting the tip of his sharp weapon forwards, Charlemagne Strangeways poured all the strength that he could into the plunging blow, the line of his attack tearing across the temporarily exposed shoulder of the foe that his faced as the swordsman’s rushed forwards and past his opponent, screeching to a sudden, hopping halt mere millimeters from the edge of the dock to prevent himself being carried into the mess of boats and water below.
“The cards… Have been dealt.” Panting slightly from the sudden use of exertion that had become somewhat unfamiliar to him, Charlemagne Strangeways closed his eyes calmly, placing a now bloody blade back into the sheath which was gripped within his other hand, as a howl of pain boomed noisily from behind his body…Asso nel foro (Ace in the Hole)
Starting from a stationary stance with both his sword and sheath in hand, Charlie holds the reinforced cover in front of him, his left arm at full stretch and the shaft of the scabbard crossing his body at slightly off-parallel angle. The sword in his right hand is drawn back, somewhat similar visually to a bowman pulling back an arrow, with the grip of his weapon next to his ear whilst the tip of his blade is just behind the guarding sheath.
When ready to strike, Charlie lunges forward into a fast leap, swinging the sheath across himself with all the might in his left arm to deflect an opponent’s weapon or counterattack, Charlie simultaneously performs a driving thrust with his sword to stab or perform a sliding slash through his opponent.