as written by Script and Krysis
By the time the call came for Luca and Celeste to take their places in the ring, the hubbub surrounding the Bear's injury had somewhat subsided. Many of his fans had left in order to follow him to the hospital, and as a result the crowd was a little less boisterous than it had been for the past few fights.
Luca checked the straps on his helm and the rest of his armour one final time before he stepped into the arena, shutting out the cheers of the crowd and the faces of his fellow proselytes watching on from the sidelines. For now, it was just him and his opponent - a luxury afforded by tournament matches like this.
He took his position in the ring and waited for Celeste to join him. This would be an unusual spar - good practice.
Celeste accepted last minute good wishes from her neice and nephew before she hefted the blunted practice axe and hurried into the ring mere seconds after Luca. As she barely knew the man, she suspected it would be easier to face him in the ring. No history to cloud the issue. No thoughts of what went on outside of the ring.
She gave him a wordless salute as the referee spoke, ready to begin when the official gave the signal.
Luca nodded his head in return, his expression neutral. The referee glanced between them for a moment, seemingly anticipating some form of pre-match banter (as had been so prevalent in a number of the earlier matches), but upon realising that they were both remaining stoically silent, he stepped back and gave the signal to begin.
Luca raised the hilt of his sword up, the blade tilted downwards in an aggressive ready-stance, but one that afforded plenty of mobility. This wouldn't be a match for parrying, not against an axe. He might be able to deflect a few blows, but it would wear him down quickly. No, he had to rely on his ability to avoid the weapon's swings altogether where possible.
He opted to let Celeste take the first move, though he began to circle around, ready to strike if an opportunity presented itself beforehand.
The athletic female was hoping to end the match quickly, to lessen the chances of either of them being too injured or winded to continue after, so her approach was rather aggressive. She was partly counting on the unfamiliarity of her choice in weapons to give her an edge even beyond her skill. The only problem she forsaw was that she couldn't recall ever practicing with Luca, or even seeing him fight before.
Celeste's axe was surprisingly fast for the size of it. She started with a two-handed sideways swing that seemed standard enough, but abruptly changed the angle downward as she let go with the forward hand to extend the reach. At the same time, she turned her torso sideways, anticipating a counter attack as she tried to sweep Luca's leg. If the weapon had not been blunted, she would have expected the blow to cut instead of sweep. Since she believed the ref to not realize the destructive capablities of the actual four-foot long battle axe, it seemed more prudent to demonstrate more obvious blows instead.
A hasty hop backwards just barely carried Luca out of the arc of the axe. The low strike had been unexpected. It made sense in hindsight - with a sword, it was seldom worthwhile to aim for the more heavily armoured leg area, but with the momentum of a battleaxe such strikes became a lot more potent.
He needed to get within the axe's reach, to minimalise the advantage that the lengthy weapon gave his opponent. Utilising the opening that he hoped the missed swing would afford him, he advanced aggressively, turning his body to cut down diagonally towards one of the joints in the armour on Celeste's left.
The brunette followed through with the momentum of the axe, letting it contiue to turn her so that the force already given to the heavy blade would not have to be reapplied. It meant that she had to drop her elbow and deflect Luca's sword with a blow of her forearm to the flat of his blade. That was exactly the sort of blow she had expected though, which was why she had already started to turn, so the tip of his blunted blade would barely skate over the plastic and metal of her side.
While he was so extended, however, she took advantage of it. The axe continued, upward this time, with only a slight slowing with gravity as she followed through on the turn. She dipped her torso a little, again anticipating a counter, but also so she could use her powerful thigh muscles to help speed the flashing axe. Hopefully, if his arm was still moving up and back as she spun, the blow would land in the area of his armpit.
The path of the axe had not been ignored, however. Luca's two-handed slice had been conservative enough that his momentum was not so great as to prevent him from reacting to Celeste's whirling weapon. He tipped his body back and away from its path, ducking down to let it pass over him. He felt the displaced air from the weapon's passing on his face.
Another close call, but it was too early to say whether Celeste had as clear an upper hand as it appeared. As the axe passed by, Luca brought his weapon down into a lower stance, only to drive the point up at Celeste's own underarm.
And the axe was there, dropped into both hands again as Celeste used the weapon as a shield as well. A poor shield, with all the gaps in the metal for the needed flexiblity, but they served also to catch a blade, so she could twist the weapon and yank away the sword of an opponent. Or even break it, if she managed to catch it just right.
Celeste grimaced in annoyance behind the visor of her helmet, having wanted to save the sword-catching for a particularly formidable opponent. Now that everyone watching had seen the purpose of those slots, it was unlikely that she would be able to pull that trick again.
Scowling as his weapon was caught, Luca chose not to pull back, instead pressing forwards into a shoulder-barge. Though far from Izaic's size, the proselyte was athletic, and had more than enough upper body strength to follow through on such a maneuver. He hoped to catch Celeste off-guard with the unexpected move, staggering her enough to get a quick finisher in before she could regain her balance.
It was very unexpected. Celeste never thought that anyone would make it easier to take their weapon by stepping into the attack. She twisted the axe like a huge lever as she stepped sideways and braced, to try to yank the sword out of Luca's hands. As she was just as athletic and strong as he, and he only had a single step of momentum, she barely slid back six inches as his shoulder caught her on the same spot, high on her left side, that his sword had barely scraped over before. The brunette girl's stance was still steady, though it was unexpectly awkward to have the very proper male almost in her arms that way.
She lost hold of the axe with one hand, and the heavy weapon swung down with gravity as well as the pressure from the hand still on it, most likely still tangled with Luca's blade. Her right hand was freed up though, and a quick punch to her opponent's neck while he was so unexpectedly close was the next order of business.
Luca had underestimated Celeste's sturdiness, and didn't gain as much ground as he'd hoped. What's more, he was disarmed, the sword wrenched from his grip and landing in the dirt a few feet away. He wasn't one to give up, however. He all-but dived away, simultaneously ducking out of the path of the punch and aiming to snatch his sword from the ground before Celeste could go back on the aggressive with her axe.
Celeste barely had a split second to change her attempt to punch to an attempt to grab. Naturally she didn't get a good grip on Luca's armor, and when he tore out of her grasp, it left her fingers first painful, and then numb in the confines of her glove. At least it had to have slowed him a little as he dove for the sword, and drew her along in the same path a step or two.
Close enough that she could slash at the boy while he was on the ground. She advanced with an upward swing of the axe that passed close enough to the dirt of the arena that the blunted spike above the blade cut a streamer of dust to plume behind the whirling weapon. It was more likely to be a glancing blow that way, but also wouldn't get stuck in the ground and cost her valuable time. Time it was clear that she didn't have to spare, since Luca was obviously better trained than she had thought.
His hand closing around the hilt of his sword, Luca barely had time to roll to his feet in a crouch before the axe was swinging towards him. The sound of metal scraping on metal announced the connection of the blow, scoring a line over Luca's chest-plate as he scrambled backwards. As predicted, it had only been a glancing hit, but it kept him from attempting anything in the way of retaliation, still fighting to properly regain his feet.
Celeste took the opportunity to kick dust at Luca's face while he was down, not minding if her heel connected with his head as well. She was counting on his helmet to save him from injury, but not make him immune to a temporary befuddlement of the senses.
If he couldn't see, he wouldn't be able to stop her from scrambling to swing her axe at his middle, this time straight down with the blade at the boy, only slightly angled to prevent sticking in the dirt if he somehow managed to dodge again.
The spray of dirt caught Luca in the face as he came up on one knee, startling him and forcing him to blink furiously to clear his vision. It left him unable to judge the angle of the incoming attack quickly enough in order to make a decision on where to dodge. Instead, he was left with bare moments to act. With those moments, he brought his sword up, angling the flat of the blade towards the strike and using his off-hand for support in an attempt to catch the haft of the axe and parry.
The axe hit his block with a resounding clang, the shock of the impact sending a spike of pain through Luca's arms. The blade was halted inches away from his shoulder.
Celeste yanked backwards with her axe, aimming to catch Luca's fingers between the blade of his sword and the back of the axe blade, mostly just so she could get a few more inches to spare. She let her hands slide back on the axe haft too, so she could retreat to the end of the four-foot length, just in case he let go of his blade and tried to swing at her.
When she reached the end, her grip abruptly changed direction and shoved the blunted spike at the top of the axe at her opponent. For once, it didn't matter to her where she hit, since the face, neck, and chest were all in line with the business end of her weapon, and any would be a 'killing' blow, even to the most uneducated referee.
Releasing the blade of the sword with his off-hand, Luca avoided Celeste's attempt to catch his fingers, taking his weapon briefly into one hand. He rose into a backstep, aiming to clear the range of her weapon, but the extra time it took to go from one knee to upright was too much. All it took was Celeste taking a step forward to match, and the spike of the axe slammed into his chest plate.
"Lethal strike!" The referee called out. "Victory goes to Celeste Hogan!"
As the crowd burst into applause, Luca let out a long sigh, letting his sword-arm drop to his side. "Well fought," he said with a small smile, extending his free hand to shake. "You had me on the back foot from the start."
Celeste pulled her blow the moment the ref spoke, not wanting to actually hurt any human being. She shouldered her axe and pulled off her helmet to grin at Luca, then had to juggle the peice of armor to the other hand to be able to shake his. "If I hadn't been so aggressive, you'd have beaten me. Your form is very solid, hard to get around, even with this monster."
Then she gave a nervous laugh and admitted, "You pulled more tricks out of my bag than I wanted to show just yet." as she looked around to see if Izaic was watching. Maybe the color in her cheeks was just from the exertion, but maybe she really was embaressed.
"Thanks," Luca followed Celeste's gaze, unsure what she was looking for. "I made a mistake with that shoulder barge. Ah, but analysing the fight can wait. We should make way for the next match. And for what it's worth, I'm certain you'll do well even if your next opponent has more of an idea what to expect than I did."
With that said, he started to make his way towards the edge of the ring, reaching up to remove his own helmet with a relieved sigh.
"Looking forward to it, Luca." Celeste smiled at the lad then waved to the crowd as she jogged over to where Liz was still waiting with the kids.
