Combat Training at Dusk

[Kai]

"Hmph." Nyota snorted contemptuously. He felt like Thried was trying to worm his way out of the question, but Mahiri was in fight mode now and he knew better than to argue with her when she gets like that.

There was a sudden, chilling change in the brothers. A single-minded focus overtook them both, their expressions blank. There was no snarling, no teeth-baring, no fanfare. There was just movement, and they were closing in with frightening speed on each side of Thried.

Mahiri's training seemed to have clicked in. They weren't thinking, just doing. The Prince was on the left and the Ghost on the right to strike with no holding back.

[Aceiro]

Threid's mind flashed back to his training as a youngster and he grinned. Three on one was a common exercise for him and almost immediately he recognized the type of attack and the potential it contained for the three before him. The now training dummy, waited for a mere moment to allow the trio to get closer. If he mistimed what he was hoping to do it could possibly cause him a tremendous amount of pain, and have next to no effect on his adversaries. During fleeting moment he also picked his first target out of the three doing a quick mental rundown of the siblings. Hamali still has a sore paw that I could use to my advantage later in this fight, the prince may falter into blindness if they begin to lose however I can’t count on that. Mahiri, His split second thought train paused, I have not seen her prowess yet, let’s change that.

When the trio got within one or two strides away from Thried, his body sprang into action from a stand still. He leapt forward a stride and brought his body as close to the sand as possible, positioning himself directly to the left side of Mahiri's pathway, trying to time it as she was a single pace away from him. He focused on driving his shoulder into the side of the lioness' underbelly in an attempt to throw her over his back, and hopefully into the pathway of her two brothers. Then, unless otherwise stopped, he would sprint forward a pace or two and quickly spin around to respond to any immediate retaliation.

[Narifia]

      Mahiri's body and mind was an ironworks in motion. Thried was not moving, which meant that he was familiar with their tactic in some way and was waiting for the opportunity to strike. Mahiri had expected as much--their Pincher technique was one of the most basic three-on-one tactics that she had learned from Zengea. It was easily predictable--and that is what Mahiri had counted on.

      Her eyes sharpened, waiting for any telltale sign of movement on Thried's part. In a flash she saw his muscles bunch in preparation for a short but powerful leap forward, and she had an inkling of what he was planning to do. She continued forward as though she had noticed nothing.

      Then Thried sprang forward--to the left!--and crouched low to the ground. An image of Zengea as crisp as daylight took Thried's place in her mind's-eye. When Zengea had done it there had been rocks in Mahiri's path, and she had thought quickly and used them to her advantage. There were no rocks here, but there was plenty of something else: sand. In the mere seconds it had taken Thried to position himself just right, Mahiri hunkered down and turned her body in answer to his movement, throwing all of her weight down and forward. In one giant sweep she kicked up enough sand to spray a small wall of the gritty stuff at Thried, hoping that it would surprise or disorient him enough for her next move to be successful.

      Using the hard ground she unearthed as an anchor, she sprang towards the left and caught Nyota's eye, thrusting her ears straight forward as a signal for the Prince to make his move. After giving her signal, Mahiri turned sharply around and bolted towards Hamali's direction. If she managed to make it to him, she would circle around behind him and they would shoot straight towards Thried one after the other, with Mahiri providing backup.

Legend:
"Speech" | 'Thoughts'