Shady Business (closed; PM for entry; Violence)

Cora was simple and fast. She jumped up turned around and kicked where is head was. It was an easy kick to block if you payed attention. As she landed on her feet again and one punch in his stomach area followed.

//OOC: I think the fighting post are going to be pretty short. And also if I write that she kicked or punched somewhere, it doesn't mean that she hit him.

Auth dodged the kick backwards into a full step, then observed Cora's arm movement. As she was begging to punch, he blocked the hit while leaning in with his body weight, as to bring her on a lower level. Without waiting a single second to see whether she had been pushed forward or not, he made an uppercut towards her head. He also moved forward a full step, placing his right foot just slightly behind Cora's foot. This had the objective of making a lateral dodge at least uncomfortable.

//OOC: Of course. After all, the time interval changed from 10-20 seconds of normal interaction to the 1-2 of combat. And also, of course that not hits are automatic. That's a core roleplaying rule I believe.

Cora saw his hand but also his foot. She let him punch her right on the chin causing her head to get thrown back. While that happened she lifted her right leg so high that her knee was on the height of his head and 'kicked' him. Some blood ran out of her mouth from the punch she got earlier but she didn't care about it. As her foot was back on the ground she turned around her back facing Auth and kicked with her left leg in his stomach.

Auth felt the punch connect, but not a single second expected that Cora would trade blows. As such, received a knee in the jaw in return for his punch. Not a good trade, if you asked him. Still, he'd now know that Cora, despite her constitution, would take a hit to give another. Noted.

As he saw her spinning, he instantly started to close in. Auth made one long step, entering a quite low position, and blocked the kick at shoulder level. From there, he threw it with his hand towards the side, and advanced again, once more placing his foot behind Cora's. This time around though he merely pushed his guard onto hers, as to send her backwards, tripping off his foot.

"A foot in the air means a foot in the pit" he thought. An old saying his family held to when fighting. And it applied quite well here too, as Cora was in a situation where neither of her feet would be able to sustain her weigh.

Nevertheless, Auth's advance with had his other foot still in it's initial position, thus crossing the legs. From this position, he could unleash a sweeping kick at any moment, as the position had half the movement already finished.

Cora tripped over his foot.

Mental note number 1:
He is strong, alot stronger than us.
Number 2:
He likes to trip people.

Cora fell and rolled over her back into a kneeling position. She quickly stood up again, spat some blood on the floor and jumped up in the air, she kicked once on his shoulder and made a midair 360° turn and kicked with her heel on his head. She landed not as swiftly as she had planned.

Auth saw Cora jump. If this wasn't a spar, it would have ended here and now, with a spinning kick to her torso while mid-air. This way though, he had to make sure to aim it so that it wouldn't hit the diaphragm or ribs.

He took the first kick to his shoulder, then responded to Cora's second with his own attack. It was a spinning push-kick, not a striking one, as that would have been much too dangerous to use in this situation.

He still had his hand in a position to intercept that second kick of Cora's, but it was more of a supplementary safety measure. It was quite unlikely she'd be able to hit him after being flung backwards. There was a small chance that she would be able to finish her move, either Auth missing, or her weighing much more than she looked. But honestly, both those chances were extremely slim.

Cora recieved a kick in the rips, he wasn't aiming for them but still hit them slightly. She flung backwards but that didn't stop her from finishing her kick. She herself wasn't really sure if it would still hit him. As she landed on the floor the air got squeezed out of her lungs and she wasn't able to breath for a second.
How she hated to fight against people weighing more than her. The chances of her being able to kick him back were nearly not existent. She stood up again made some fast kicks on his head and torso and as she placed her other foot slightly behind his she jumped up, she pulled his foot away and made a kick on his solar plexus. With that technique even a small person was able to bring down someone way heavier than herself.

Auth saw Cora fly backwards, but was unable to rush on her before she got up again. A few quick kicks and a few quick blocks were engaged between them. Auth prepared himself, as this was clearly just a set-up to some more powerful technique.

And he was right, as in the next second he found himself yanked from the ground. "A double-kick takedown, eh? Two can play that game, dear Cora." he thought to himself. And rightfully, too.

He raised his own foot towards Cora's upper one, near her shoulder, then used the downwards momentum to whirl his body around. With Cora's other foot still around his, and with the whirl going to opposite direction her sweep had gone, he basically made almost the same technique in response.

The difference was, he now fell cleanly forward, mitigating the shock greatly with his palms, entering a position similar to that used when doing push-ups. Cora, on the other hand, would be forced by the position of his feet to fall on the side.

And to finish it up, as soon as he hit the ground, instead of stopping and going back up, he continued the rotational movement, reaching a position from which he could strike with the side of his palm toward his back and towards Cora's plexus. In the meantime, his legs would lock Cora's, disallowing her to either dodge or get back up until he wanted to let her do it. Only problem was that it applied to him as well.

//OOC: Note: the move described is something real. I sometimes do it when fighting irl and my opponent manages to sweep me down.

Cora found herself lying on the floor unable to move. How unfortunate! She thought to herself. If this was a real fight, she would just grab her knife and kill him with it. But it wasn't.
Cora grinned, "You got me!", she said.

Let me! Let me! I can kill him! I can!
You don't kill him!
But I could...
No you won't do that!
No...I wouldn't but I could, let me? I can get us out! I will use some different techniques!
Oh shut up.



//OOC: I think I know the move. Taekwondo people don't use anything like that. We have the most advantage if we have really long legs.

Auth had heard Cora basically resigning, but his own code of honour dictated him to end with showing the possibility for a lethal move. Thus, he quickly disengaged one of his legs from Cora's, moved up to have said leg pinning her chest down, and darted one hand towards her neck. One it reached there, he merely pressed it harmlessly on the side of her neck. She certainly understood what the move would have meant in a real fight.

He disengaged her completely and went back up. "That should shut up some of those smart-asses inside your head, I believe." He took a seat, then finally spat some blood. He usually just swallowed it back during a fight, as not to give his adversary any sign of weakness.

"Still, you're really quite good. But given the situation, I think I have to explain a bit about myself. You see, I've got three styles which I use when I fight. This one was made to counter kicks."

He stretched back a bit, and smiled widely at the huge amount of dropped jaws around them. It looked like the whole room had stopped to see them fight.

Cora looked at Auth, he was better than her. And she respected him for that.
She nodded, he was right. Nec and Vex wouldn't shut up, they always belived that they would have done better.
"Three styles? I normally use my knives, too. They do better damage!", she said and grinned, "I have to talk to you in private, follow me!", she said and shoved the people around them away.
Cora went to the place Max had shown her.
"I want to know how and where you've learnt fighting! And who you are, you confuse me alot and that makes Nec nervous.", she said and lifted her hand a bit. It was shaking.
"I can tell you something about me, too.", she didn't say anything about that it made it harder for her to keep them under control, but she was sure that Auth would manage to survive if he faced one of them head on.

Auth followed Cora to the more private room.

"Where I learn to fight, eh?" He looked towards the roof. "I'm a vi Rauco. We're ex-nobles. As in, before the titans came."

It brought some melancholy to him, talking about his family's past.

"We've been a whole line of MPs, every one until me. I'm Scouting Legion, but that's a different story." Auth started to unravel the bandages on his hands. "My father thought me to fight. It's some old, mostly forgotten techniques. From him I learnt all you saw me do when we took that bag, as well."

He finished un-bandaging his hands. "That's why I'm a Crow, too. A blueblood family line. I myself... well, I'm not much more than the one you see in front of you. My own backstory isn't all that impressive."

Auth continued to tell Cora in broad terms about his connections to the MP and, of course, under-the-hand business. He also explained a bit on his fighting style and how he trains.

"That would be about it. Also, you really don't have to tell em anything. in exchange." He grinned. "I'll inevitably find out by myself at some point."

Cora listened to him and made some mental notes.

Blueblooded? But his blood wasn't-
You are remarkable dumb.
Don't underestimate me!

"Thanks for telling me...it calms them down. You will find some things out, but not all. Not everything is known to all people. Like Nec and Vex...nearly noone knows about them!", she said, "And please do me this one favor, don't tell anyone about them or about my past. I want to separate the military and the mercenaries-"

Auth waved his hand. "It's no problem talking about my past. I've nothing to hide really."

He made a meaningful pause. "As for talking about you, stay calm. I know a lot of things, but I rarely tell them to others. Consider your secret safe." He smirked. "Also, you insist that I won't find out some things. I believe you're wrong. After all, the fact I do know of Nec and Vex should speak for itself."

Taking once again an optimistic tone, Auth continued. "So, how's been here until now?"

Nothing to hide, uh? Cora didn't believe that, everyone had something to hide.

"The fact that you know about them is because I was drunk and neither Nec or Vex were...and they wanted to...well...Nec always wants to protect me and Vex loves to kill. I told you about them. And there are some things only Nec or Vex knows. And I don't.", she looked at him curiously, "You really are someone who loves to question things. Not only scientific things mainly people, don't you?"

"Kinda boring...they are not so well trained.", she looked on the ceiling, "You should meet the pack..."

Auth left out a laugh when he heard Cora's argument regarding the context in which he learnt about Nec and Vex.

"Indeed, you told me. I kinda wonder though, would you have spoke to the others as well and as openly, were I not there...? No matter though. Oh, and about questioning, of course I like doing that. If you know someone, you know what to expect from someone. If you know what to expect, you can determine what could happen. If you can determine that, you can determine what will."

Auth waited for a bit, to let it sink in. "Well, in theory, at least. You'd really have to know everyone's thoughts to do that. And as far as I know, the big oversized fake human dudes ain't that smart either."

Auth had purposefully excluded talking about the Pack. He himself never knew anything for certain, but had heard rumors. In any case, letting out an air he didn't know about them wasn't the best choice. Much better to leave an air that he merely cared for Cora and maybe was afraid of how Nec and Vex would react if he brought it into discussion. He mentally noted that the pack had to be priority on his list of investigations though.

Cora thought about that for a while, "I'm honestly not sure if I would have told them...I don't know. To the knowing and determing part, I just wait for what happens and react to that. I normally don't really care for what happens. I normally can't change it and that's why I don't care."
Cora was quiet for a moment, "Nec wants to know something, you don't have to answer if you don't want, ok? Nec wants to know how you react if someone close to you is in danger, really close to dieing or dead."

Why the heck do you want to know that?!
Personal reasons...you know for protecting you.
That's bullshit I can watch out for myself.
I don't think you can, otherwise we wouldn't exist, wouldn't we?

Auth was caught off-guard by the question. He raised one eyebrow, then started to answer.

"First, tell Nec he's one cunning son-of-a-bitch. No offense to you, Cora. Second... I really don't know. It almost never happened, even with all the missions beside the wall I went on. The few time is did happen, I had to run so that I could save the others and myself. Not a situation I'm familiar on."

He thought a bit more.

"I think... I just think, mind you... that I would at the very least try to save them. And I'm pretty sure that I'd also sacrifice myself so long as it's the only thing lost. You see, I'm not afraid to die." Auth very quickly wavered off the thoughts about Death that came to him. It would NOT have been a good idea to start one of his philosophic moments right now. "And if he'd be dead... I might or might not avenge the death. It would depend on mainly who it was the killer, and of what plans might the killer have."

He leaned back. Now that was one of the questions he never asked himself. Noted that the first time it does happen for him to be in that situation, he should be mindful of what he did as soon as he's done. It's interesting data about himself, naturally.

You heard him Nec.
What the heck? I'm not-
Look who's talking, stoney-face.
You two shut up I have to think!

Cora was staggered that he wasn't familiar with situations like that. It seemed to depend on the enviroment you grew up.
She smiled, "He or she. Honestly Vex and I aren't sure what gender Nec has...and you're right. I - No let's say, my brain 'made' Nec first and then Vex came, I don't remember why but Nec knows.", Cora took a quick look at her hand that started to shake again. Nec was pissed now. He (or she) didn't react to anything Cora said now and definitly didn't want to be in the same room with Auth.
"You made Nec pissed.", she said but then continued with her conversation, "I...", Cora stopped and carefully puzzled the next sentences together, "I don't know about avenging deaths of persons. As long as I know they live, I will do everything to save them. Unless they are as good as dead. And of course it depends on the person."
Cora asked herself if she would save Auth, definitly was the answer. She had a lot of respect for him and he wasn't like the normal military guys. He knew something about her.
Cora stood up and stretched herself. Had Auth realized that they wouldn't be free to go, yet? Probably not.
"Erm....I wasn't sure if...Nevermind. I'm pretty tired."

Auth raised an eyebrow at the part about Nec becoming angry. That was interesting, since he didn't seem in the least someone to take an insult that seriously. Which meant it was because of his answer to the question.

"You know Cora, if Nec's getting pissed this quickly, you really should try to teach him some basic anger management. I'd be for his own good." This was, of course, a joke. But it was also a way for allowing Nec to realise his reaction would be generally not in Cora's favour.

"And about being tired... now taht you mention it, I also realised I haven't slept at all last night. So let's call it a day." he slightly lowered his voice. "Tomorrow, we'll have the strategy meeting with Rusc. Be prepared for it."

With that, he himself stood up, and took a quite straight course for the dormitory. Sleep was indeed important, especially given what the next few days held in stock for them.

Cora grinned and nodded, "You're right, I should teach Nec how to manage his anger. Why did you even react like that?", she whispered the last sentence.
Cora followed him into their room as they entered it she threw her boots into the corner and laid down, with the rest of her clothes and weapons on.
She looked at him, "You now him, right? Can you tell me anything I should...like not do? Something specific? If not I will just do it how I would do it if I didn't know that you know him. Wow, that sounds complicated, you know what I mean? Because I'm not sure if I said it right.", she smiled.

Auth removed his boots and laid on the bed, on his back. He smirked slightly as he heard Cora's "complicated" sentence.

"Yeah, you did say it right. And if you're used to the "I know you know I know you know" business as much as me, it sounds really simple too." He slightly lowered his voice again. "And yes, I do know Rusc. Unfortunately, I can't tell you much because I'm not so sure myself. But as a caution, I'll tell you from where I know him... " The next words were a mere whisper. "He used to be MP. Tread carefully."

With that, he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. Sometimes, he could manage to instantly fall asleep like he just tried to do, but today wasn't his lucky day. Probably too stressed and too much to think about for tomorrow.

Cora eyed Auth. Knowing, so much knowing. She realized that they had alot of differences more than she had thought of in the first place.
She once was very interested in knowing everything. When she was two years old. But knowing stuff only complicated things now, it seemed to cause danger. Or at least pain. But now...now some things had changed maybe questioning things and knowing wasn't as bad anymore.
Auth knew so much more than her, he could fight AND he could think. Cora was slightly envious for that but also respected him.

"A MP, he?", she whispered. Good to know that...again knowing, knowing everywhere! Cora thought about about that for a while. After some minutes she came to the conclusion that knowing something could prevent pain and maybe questioning caused it.
Apropos questioning, wasn't she doing that right now?
Cora decided to work not only on her physical but also on her psychological training.
Soon after she fell asleep.

As Cora woke up in the morning Auth was still sleeping. She took her boots, sneaked out of her room and got herself something to eat.
Prepare for Rusc, Auth told her. How should she prepare? She quickly checked if all her weapons were at their place by moving around abit.
Now she only had to wait for Auth.

Auth hadn't really slept too well that night. It wasn't common for him to be haunted by shadows of the past, but he guessed that meeting Rusc had awakened some. He woke up, but didn't move a single bit. Then he as quickly as possible jumped out of the bed, and dressed up. He was wearing his own armor, and fitted it with all the knives he had. He also took the Crow mask and hanged it in a hook at the belt that was specially made for that. He now was fully awake and ready for business.

He noticed Cora missing, and he went to the main room. As he had thought, she was there, finishing eating. He took a seat near her, but didn't get any food. He was going to skip breakfast, due to the nature of what might follow soon enough.

"We now only have to wait for someone sent by the Fox to come tell us we can go in." He purposefully avoided calling Rusc by name. Here, if people found out he knew and used that, it would draw even more suspicion than he had already.

Cora was happy to see Auth being here so quickly. She didn't know why Rusc wanted to talk to them. Better to have someone here who might have the slightest idea of what was going on.

The boys sitting around them eyed them estimating. They weren't really sure what to expect from them and were a bit frightened.
Cora suddenly winced and gave the boy sitting in front of her a cringe, she laughed quietly,"I love doing that!", she whispered to herself and finished her breakfast. It wasn't really good, as always.

A boy around Cora's age came to the table.
"Master fox wants to talk to you. Follow me!", he said. Cora stood up and followed him into the private rooms of the higher-ups