The Luck of the Irish (Open, Hunters)

The blade on his spear disappears and was put away, now he is currently holding a simple pole as to ensure that he doesn't hurt anyone while they spar and fortunately he found a good old sparring body. He turned towards the young lad with mechanized fingers and a sharp sword, he grimaced and pulled out a cigar, hugging the spear as he puffed a smoke. "A swordsman eh? Well then, let's see how you do." Culan had to take account that there are enhancements added to this young hunter, regardless of how he managed to get them he'd careless.

"You know me as one of the Lancers of Kalidas, Culan Ulster, now your name laddie?"

He puffed a few more before throwing the cigar away and stepping on it to put out the spark burning in the nicotine. He twirled his pole up and caught it with his hands. "Well then, I better do my best not to allow that blade to cut me or I may end up trying on prosthetic as well." He memorized the length of his blade and stared right at him but not the weapon itself. The best part is that the weather wasn't even windy.

With one step, he dashed and covered the distance in a mere second, kneeling down and cleaved in an attempt to trip him down, followed by an attempt to poke his head.

Well one thing is for certain, he is quick with his hand, there are a few rules in engagement against a sword and that's something Culan was taught, one is that one handed weapons can easily strain the wrist at it channels the force of the swing. If its a two handed weapon then its much stronger but for inexperienced fighters, two handed weapons can deliver strong strikes but for novices it leaves an opening. They were both pushing at each other until Durant tried to knock off the pole he's wielding but such as the rule of two handed weapons, strikes are expected to be stronger and they aren't easily disarmed.

He stabbed the pole to the ground and the sword was parried.

Now it was time to liven things up a bit, simple strikes and attempted pokes will only draw his sparring buddy closer to him so there was one thing left to do.He had to harass the noobie by simply twirling his lance and making three strike per instance, two were pokes directed to target his shoulders and one was a diagonal strike, afterwards he would twirl his lance as by means of his defense. This were to continue on for a few more tries until he drew his pole back like a pool stick and poked him with the intent of poking his stomach which would be a surprise attack. The idea for his attack was simply to test his defenses, the pole or simply the lance is a mid ranged weapon and would more or less have the advantage given its range, defending against three consecutive strikes from a poke per instance is good practice for swordsmanship but the bad part about it is that if a swordsman is able to read the pattern of a repetitive attack they would be more or less mesmerized and conditioned to defend from such technique and nothing else.

Fighting is about conditioning your opponent not just clashing your blades as well as awareness. The more alert, the more sharper the reflexes. Though for someone who has a bionic arm they wouldn't have much trouble handling the force of the swing.

"HAAH!" He did so while keeping an eye out for his blade, his bionic forearm and his eyes. But from that simple surprise, its noted that he's capable of drawing the spear back like it was a pool stick.

Well in all honesty, Culan wasn’t being a bit fair to the noobie having to use this technique to condition him, this was a suppression technique he learned as Serina’s student, in comparison to a rifle, this was just a mere “Burst fire mode” in a form of melee combat with the spear. He’s good at reading patterns and that was exceptional, the part about him having some prosthetics had given him advantage when it comes to standoffs. Though there was supposedly a “Full auto suppression” technique with the lance, he’d look like some kind of bully to the newbie, that’s why he went for the quick huge poke.



It was a relief to know that this lad isn’t mesmerized by having been conditioned to defend from a single attack pattern or dodge it even, there were a few mistakes and if Culan were to draw the stinger, Durant would have completely lose control on one arm, whether he had that prosthetic or not.



The dangerous thing about spears is that the moment they sink deep into flesh, how they are pulled out was more dangerous than being poked by them, unlike a sword thrust, the moment the spear thrusts through the body, pulling it would result in a damage artery or having muscle fibers torn and pulled out from the hole, blood spurts a bit more from a poke that a cleave of the blade or a simple blade thrust. Swords do not have the tendency to pull muscle fibers out and only spears, as spears were meant to “pierce” not “cut” as swords do.



Culan knew that, he withdrew the stinger before their spar even began and killing them or giving them a reason to get another prosthetic would make him quite much of an arse.



His attempt to poke him was blocked and Aeon simply slid down with an attempt to sweep him off balance. Though Culan was quick on his feet, Aeon’s method worked and succeeded in throwing him off, Culan had bad footing causing trip and fell on his buttock and had let go of the pole before scratching his head.



People were chuckling that Culan was beaten by a newbie in a spar. He didn’t mind that at all and would only chuckle himself. “Well, looks like I underestimated you and you managed to throw me off even if your weapon didn’t hit me.” If this was a battle to the death, Durant would have killed Culan then and there.



Of course now his status as a contender to become “Kalidas’ Lance” is in jeopardy since someone from the higher authority saw Culan’s mistake but by observing Culan, it hasn’t crossed his mind to rob him of his contender status.



“Well guess I didn’t bully a newbie today!” He stood up with his poke which was stabbed to the ground before he lost his footing and fell. “You’re pretty cool kid.”

He chuckled with a grin grabbing Durant's hand and had spectators clap with his victory. If Culan was something, he's humble in defeat, it was good exercise for him as a matter of fact, its been awhile since he went up against a swordsman since most of his training involves dodging and defending from the four elements. Culan waved off and sat by a bench, putting away his pole to rest as a lot of sparring partners come to challenge Durant.

The receptionist came to Culan and giggled.
"Boy he did showed you huh?"

"He's got potential to become stronger and probably would have more bloodlust than me." He drew a cigar and started to smoke.
"I noticed your pole was stabbed to the ground as you tried to dodge his blade off..." She said.

"You know you could have done that circus trick when a Lancer looses his footing so why didn't you? You just risked your chance to become a contender of Kalidas's lance, even the higher ranks were watching you fall like that."

Culan blew another cloud of smoke and stared off into space. "I don't know perhaps maybe I didn't want to become some kind of newbie crusher? People will look down on me trying to beat the hell out of a newbie even if he did answered my challenge." But there was one thing that surprised him and that was that Durant was able to find a way to break through the suppression technique Culan used on many of his sparring buddies before, he's probably the first newbie to plunge himself and break it risking his own safety of being hit.

No.. he knew the window of opportunity from the beginning.

"Hey.. can I get a read on the kid's file? I need to know a bit about this Durant, he learned basics but it seems that he has some experiencing fighting armed warriors." That was the thing that he noticed about Durant or was he wrong to believing in that guess he made up just now?

"Sure, just go to the Archive hall yourself" The receptionist knew that Culan wanted her to go and get it but she ain't doing it.
"Aaaww.. come on I'm tired already, can you do it for me?"

"Cut with the act Culan, a spar like that doesn't tire you even though that I'm glad you didn't bully him." She smiled as she walked back towards the help desk. She so happened to be on her coffee break when she saw that display. The thing wrong about Culan is that he only had captured a few magi but had not killed any of them personally which makes it hard for him to earn his keep. He only works for the money and to claim bounty and avoids killing anyone he captures as much as possible. Some would resort to killing magi on the spot and if you were to look Culan that way, he's pretty much an oddity as a hunter.