Seti

Grove shouted at the now skirmishing pair. "STAND DOWN. SAVE IT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WE ARE FIGHTING!" At that moment Grove summoned a razor thin spire in between the two men, halting the charging man's assault. "I don't care who the hell it is. If a swordsman is EVER fighting another again in this camp, I WILL confiscate your blade. You will become a regular soldier and diciplined. IS THAT CLEAR!?"

Grove took a breath and regained his composure.

"On the other hand. That is good news Ryu and I will consider that later. But now I will discusswhy I have kept you here. As swordsman, you are the most eminently qualified to be officers. But I am going to take it that none of you have ever been in an army much less commanded troops. But before I get into that, I have one more thing. Now, I want you to attack me. This is your one chance to userp me. Strength is what is important right now, and If none of you can kill me then I retain control of this army. I'd say thirty minutes will do for this, I can't have it go too long can we? And if you will not attack, forfeit your blade now."

He slowly drew his sword and got into his battle stance, before smiling a bit and talking once more.

"Oh, and one more thing. I will kill you if you are careless."

This is the part where Grove was most calm. He was a soldier, and this is what soldiers did. However, it was also the riskiest part of his plan for this army, but also the point where if it went well, he would completely obtain the respect of his generals. That's what he needed. He needed them to understand WHY he was leading the army, why he was capable of it. And he needed to test them. Maybe a few would throw down their swords right now and run, and he was fine with that. And he was not joking about killing them. It was necessary. IF he lead them into battle under an inept commander, it would be commiting suicide for all of the good soldiers. Sure, it may injure some, and that might hurt him a bit short term, but if everything went well, only those with the desire and the resolve to lead troops ino battle would be left. And then he could truly begin, starting from the top down.

"Come on!" He said as he braced himself for the first wave of attacks.

Grove smiled as he saw one swordsman leap forwards toward him. So this man was the first to go, but was quickly surprised as he threw up his cloak as a screen. Well, that meant that he couldn't see what Grove was doing. He danced backwards from the cloak and watched as shards came piercing through the cloak. Luckily, Grove had dodged backwards, so was able to avoid any serious damage from the attack, but one of the shards caught him in the shoulder. So this man was offensive, and produced shards. He was clever, but that trick only worked once. HE still didn't know how the projectiles were fired but he had a good guess.

Suddenly the man came tearing around the cloak falling to the ground with his sword in a surprising reverse grip. He was fast! But as he aproached he switched to a standard grip again and attacked. Grove again dodged, manuvering his blade so his sword slid down. So he had to create distance again. He had a plan. He tried to deliver a quick left uppercut, as it was faster than using his sword and jumped backwards, creating a spire where he had been standing. Perfect, it was set.

But not really. He slashed his sword around his body as one of the girls wielding a surprisingly large sword dashed back out of the way. He was jucky she didn't have as light footsteps as the other guy. He created another quick spire to cause her to jump back and he turned sideways, in a straight line between te two that had attacked him, and his back to his tent. He didn't want any more surprises from behind.

Grove locked blades with the man over his head. He was surprised that he could still swing his sword well enough to attack him. Granted, his sword was not made for especially close combat, but he was not helpless. He was about to throw a punch as he saw his hand as a knife jerk toward his neck. Why like that? A fist would have been far more effective. Grove ducked down below the blow and immediately countered. He wanted to turn this to hand to hand combat. His counter was a sweep of his leg designed to take out his opponents legs. At the same time he summoned a spire at an angle behind his opponent, the spire designed to hit his opponents side, in order to incapacitate him.

The leg sweep should distract him long enough to either cause him to jump and be doomed or kick his leg away and be doomed or to do nothing about it and be doomed.

Ashtan's leg's were already in the motion of jumping when a pair of feet hit his chest and caused him to fall at an angle. Instinct took over, and he rolled regaining his footing the choice few words he was about to deliver dying as he spotted where a spire had erupted, right where it would have incapacitated him. He swallowed the words and noticed his savior, a short-haired woman, slashing at the commander's face as she soared. He realized the opportunity and would have snapped off a quick barrage, but the Commander had reset himself.

Instead Ash bounced back to his feet and switched back to a reverse grip eyeing his current opponent with newfound respect. He had no doubts that he would offer his loyalty to this man when the battle is over, but battle was battle and his current companionship was to his savior and the other swordsman who refused to run. He slowly made his way towards the commander's side, hoping to catch him in a flank attack with his rescuer.

This was what Grove had been waiting for. With his blade in a reversed position, if he got in close, it would be impossible to switch back to a standard grip. And when engaged with a reverse grip, attacks are all circular and spinning or moving around your target. While it would confuse an unfarmiliar opponent, it requires great speed to use due to its excess movement. At the same time it reduces that speed making it a hard style to battle with. You can frequently end up with an enemy at your back. Grove launced forward toward his opponent while his grip was still reversed. He had to engage before he changed his grip back. He swung a diagonally downward swing with both hands from upper right to lower left. If he was to block he would have to put himself sideways to rove and Grove could disengage and end up behind him easily. Or maybe he would not expect him coming, and end it here. Either way, this is what he was looking for.

Finally! The fight between Grove and the other man had taken a long time, especially with all the people jumping in to try and surprise the commander into a loss. But now that was all done. It was his turn! Ryu stepped forward toward the commander and drew his sword. This wouldn't be an easy fight for either of them.

"Grove!" He called out, "I am your next opponent. If anyone here even tries to interfere with this fight, I'll kill you myself! It's be awhile since I've had a good fight." He stopped about five feet away from his opponent, sword drawn an ready to strike at a moment's notice. After all, everyone else was still around here. But he had one more thing to add before the fight began. "Listen," he said, "I propose that we just use straight swordplay here, nothing else. You already have seen my power, as I have seen yours, and mine is not suited to simple injury, I'm afraid. Do you agree?"

As Ryu wound up for a beatdown on his guard Grove raided his left hand, so it was on the opposite flat of the blade that Ryu was hitting. The result was that grove's sword did not move. So that was most likely the most pure strength he would see out of Ryu. So that assessment was done. However, Ryu changed his tactic immediately. Instead of trying to overpower Grove, he began to use quick attacks in groups of three. Why three? Someone of Ryu's skill should be able to execute a greater number of attacks. As Grove blocked the attacks, pondering this he realized something.

This has no bite to it. This is setting something up. The groups of three are intended to make me think that's his patter, or something like that. There's no bite to his attack, it has no desire to reach me. Well, whatever it is. I'll let him set it up. That should be what he expects to kill me, so that should be his best move. Then I may beging my attack.

So Grove just continued to block by the book, when advanced on too far he backed up and blocked the blow. This should be interesting.

Lee nodded to the swordsman and picked up the body. He hefted it over his shoulder with ease and began to move away. He pushed his way away from the crowd and back to the labyrinth of tents. It was easier there, most of the soldiers watching the fights. Lee silently maneuvered back to the hill where he had observed Grove's speech. He placed the body there and draped his cloak over it. He shook his head at the corpse.

May you make better decisions in the next life, thought Lee. If only we lived in a world where strength mattered less. Alas, that world may never come.

Lee turned back to the fighting and made his way back to the crowd. With a little bit of force he once again pushed his way to his former spot, next to the kind stranger. He turned to the man and spoke briefly.

"I placed the body on the hill over in the distance," said Lee. "I placed my cloak over it, so that no birds might feast upon it."

Lee felt the cool breeze against his face as the two combatants came together once more.

"Please." Ashtan grunted, he grabbed a spire and began to lift himself from the ground,"I don't want to potentially damage myself anymore then i want too."

He lifted himself to his full height, still holding the spire as a support when a man rushed towards them carrying the body of the previous swordsman who fell. Over the roar of the crowd and the clashing of blades Ash could hear him asking one of them to move the body to somewhere safe. The outlaw smiled, but said nothing as another joined their small group, a young swordsman with grey hair who offered to move the body. Ashtan sighed, resisted an urge to look at the current fight, and held out a hand. "A little help please?" he asked "I'd prefer to get to a medic before i bleed to death." he said, an innocent grin on his face.

Akins watched as the girl stood and he took an assessing glance at her hands. Damn brave broad, that was for sure. She would do nicely, her thought. But essentially, it was all Grove's decision. To bad good looks didn't get you into the Templars. Akins could have gotten in on those alone, but he was just so damn good at sneaking around.

Keeping the oh-so-charming smile on his face, Akins insisted he help his countryman.

"No please, I can handle this one." Giving the wounded man a quick thumbs up, Akins tossed him over his shoulder. "I hope you don't mind? The medical tent is just a few yards away." He began walking, assisting the young woman with his hand on her back. He couldn't help but smile. A Gechutezan on his shoulder, a beautiful woman at his side... Akins white teeth were shining. The woman didn't move though.

"This way, pretty one," he said to her, noticing she was still enthralled in the fight. "You can get your wounds bandaged. I'm sure Grove will still have this man fighting when you are finished."

He tried to peer over his shoulder at the Gechutezan. "My name is Akins, I am one of the Templar. It is quite the pleasure to meet you to newcomers." He smile broadened so much, his eyes disappeared into little tiny slits.

"I was hoping to offer my services to the Templars," spoke Lee. "I'm a sword smith, well a very advanced apprentice to be precise. I'm hoping that my time here might help me to find a particular piece of knowledge."

Now that he thought about it Lee wasn't sure how good of a chance he had of being accepted into this Grove's company. He couldn't consider himself a master just yet, though he knew he was probably a better smith than anyone else in the company. He wasn't being cocky either, it was just something he could sense. There were very few true sword crafting masters in the world, and only a handful had apprentices to speak of, and Lee was at the end of his apprenticeship. Still, really skilled apprentice didn't carry the same weight of a title like master. All he needed was the answer, than he could truly grasp the title he so eagerly desired and so return to Chen with honor.

"You?" he asked.

"I'm just a person trying to do what's right," Rinku replied almost hollowly. "And obtain revenge from the king." He paused, staring off into nothing. "And get my life back. If death is going to come my way, so be it, as long as I see the king's head on a plate."
He smiled a bit, trying to lighten the mood. He glanced at Lee again. "Let's just hope Grove sets us on the right path. He seems like a strong and dedicated man to follow. So, a sword smith, eh? So you made your own sword?"

He withdrew his own sword and held it. "My father gave me this."

Grove was again surprised. Well, not really at the question, but at who said it. The man whom he had just declared his vice commander had asked him the question he really wasn't sure how to answer correctly. HE had his motives for fighting this war, but it was hard to convey in words.

"Well." He started. "I swore an oath. To protect the country of Kirtian from harm from those who would wish to harm it. I swore that oath upon taking up my blade. But, I have the insight to see where this country is headed. Without our people, we're nothing. Although, I'm not a foolhardy hero who will say this is for the content of the masses. I will not make all happy by doing this, but it is out of my oath to my country and to my own honor about what would have been asked of me, had I had let the situation lie. The king has changed, and it is time for a new successor to rise. I have sworn my blade to that person who would rightfully rule the country on the throne. I have no allegance to this fallen king and his misrule. I can only hope to dethrone him so when a proper king arrives that I would have served him."

"I am one who lives by a code. Nothing more."

"But I will add one thing. As evidenced by my pointing earlier, I do not yet know your names. Would you please state your name before you talk to me from now on? At least until I learn them."