Have you ever believed in a mirage?

[quickdrawlatino]

[Its bleeding early in the morning - the sun is but  short while away from rising. And where is Sam at this time? Training intensely! But not with his sword surprisingly - though it lies close by. Sam's on the deck of the ship - letting loose with a series of punches and kicks. What kind of style is he using? Its difficult to place - there's plenty of capoeira and judo peppered in - especially with how he's tossing around the dummies he's set up pretty darned hard. As in more than one. It seems he likes to practice on multiple targets at once.]

Mmmh... nothing like a good morning warm up...

[He rolls his neck in a relaxed manner as he flicks his sheathed sword up from the ground with his foot and snatches it out of the air as it dropped - resting it along his shoulders as he watched the sun rise. He pauses to look over at you with a raised eyebrow.]

I didn't think anyone else would bother waking up this early.

Comments

[paladin_robot]

[Richard's face kinda went skidding across the surface of the deck there, and he winces several times in pain as he stands up.]

S-Should have seen that one coming...

[He swiftly turns, holding his sword defensively.]

I've thrown it a few times, but really if I need to protect someone and I'm not fast enough on foot.

[Richard chuckles slightly.]

Trying to work on better using the magic too...

[quickdrawlatino]

Interesting... I hear a lot about magic. I thought it would be far rarer... and if you don't have your shield try to push the offensive. You aren't as well protected and your defense would take timing you haven't learned yet.

[And to illustrate the point Sam is going to rush forward and let loose a at blinding speeds - several rapid slashes from a multitude of arcs were launched at Richard. If this were his sword - there's no doubt the frenchman would be in ribbons.]

[But how well does Richard fare from defending himself from this attack?]

[paladin_robot]

Well, right now, its kinda limited to my machine...

[Richard sighs a bit... before his eyes widen as the sudden series of attacks come. Unfortunately, this where the gap in experience really shows, as for every hit that Richard can barely block, there's at least two more - often closer to three - that slip past.

Realising he's failing at the defensive though, Richard sees if he can at least mitigate things by going on the offensive instead - stabbing forward even whilst he's pretty sure he'll need to go to the infirmary for bruises.]

[quickdrawlatino]

[To which Sam ceases his attack and backs off. Why? Because you actually landed a hit on him! Just one though. But it was still a hit and that was what counts.]

You know how to take risks. Good. With how much armor your machine has you can probably afford such gambles... but the question is, can you do that if the stakes are your life?

[paladin_robot]

Better to risk my life than the world. And given the kinds of things we run up against, I wouldn't be surprised if my time came at some point. Already has for others...

Though, it'd certainly be inconvenient, so hopefully my options will stay open. I don't wanna leave my parents with nothing, and... some here have already lost too many allies, too many friends.

[quickdrawlatino]

Loss is easy to inflict, but always difficult to deal with... I never was much of a team player. It made things easy. Just you against the world, being able to live free of regrets.

[Sam turned his back to Richard to look out at the view.]

There's always options in battle. Sometimes they are just hard to spot... but they are there. Keep that in mind.