Fortunes of war (OPEN)

Connor actually smiled a bit. "Now that was a wisecrack." He snapped back into stance again as Cora stood up. He confirmed to himself that she was faster than him, and that he would need his strength and reflexes to counter her speed and agility. With his arms kept tightly towards his body, Cora's shoulder kick would give him an opening, raising his arms up in an attempt to grapple her leg and sling her around. If he was successful the worst it would do is send her dragging on the ground about a foot away, nothing harmful either. Even if it failed, it was a not so hard kick, allowing him to shrug it off.

Either way, his brow would furrow a bit as he felt she wasn't giving him his all. "Don't start going easy on me, I'm sure any injuries here can heal. Show me your spirit, warrior Cora."

Cora smiled, she let him drag her on the ground, as he raised his arms. She kicked again but this time in his solar plexus and as hard as she could. As she landed on the ground again, she jumped up and made a kick on his nose.
There were excactly two parts on the human body you couldn't train to not feel pain. The nose and the crotch. In a real battle Cora would always aim for those two points but in training she didn't do it.

Connor lost his breath as she kicked the sweet spot in his chest, sent reeling back as he gasped for air. He didn't anticipate the kick to the nose, or any attack above the neckline, so he wouldn't have time to defend against it while regaining his composure. It was a strange pain to him, his nose flattening, blood pouring out of the now collapsed nasal passage forcing him to breathe through his mouth, that terrible tingling that shot up to his sinuses made his eyes water.

He growled, applying that pain to his fury as wood to a fire pit, and decided to give her no more ground. He rushed forth like an angry bull, his defensive stance turned into a more aggressive one, raising his elbows to prime both arms into stronger hooks while sacrificing his forearm defense on his body. He stayed on the inside as best he could, attempting several hooks to her waist.

Cora recieved some bad punches on her waist and she flew back. This time she didn't get up so fast, he got her really bad right now.
She turned on her side to get up and stood up. He was mad now, really mad. She dodged him and was now standing behind him. With a huge jump she mad an attempt to land on his back. If she succeded she would hold herself tightly and hopefully wouldn't fall down. If not she would probably make him stumble a bit forward or maybe even fall but that was very unlikely.

Connor pushed the assault as he gained the upper hand, but Cora was far too quick. One thing that never weighed on him was the possibility of Cora not being able to feel pain, and therefore would not be held back by it. In his igniting anger, he wouldn't have registered it until Cora finally stood her ground, avoiding his bull rushing offensive and clinging to his back. He rolled around on the ground as he attempted to wrench her off of him.

Cora found herself on the ground with someone weighing more than twice as her on top. A situation she was not so comfortable with. She was now unable to breath and small black dots already appeared in her visual field.
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. She thought and put one arm infront of his throat and squeezed it. If he would keep her much longer in this position she would pass out.

It was a wise move for Cora, even Connor wasn't hotheaded enough to stay in rage mode while he could no longer take in oxygen. Once it got to a point where he calmed down, he attempted to get up while patting her elbow frantically. "That's enough...That's enough...!" he managed to gag the words out. With her small frame, her arms had a sharper press down on his windpipe, so his loss of breath was about as bad as hers with all his weight on her.

Cora put her arm aside and waited for him to get off. She hoped it would be soon because she was just one step away to passing out. She could only see a little bit in the middle of her visual field clear. The rest was black.
She started to cough, letting out the last bit of air she had in her lungs. The punches she recieved from him earlier cause her to have some blood in her mouth.

Connor got up quickly, breathing in deep and exhaling slowly. He'd look at Cora, reaching for a hand to help her up as he stood. "You are a good fighter...and worthy of respect." Connor praised in a solid voice. It was a relief to him, getting a chance to show the hardened warrior in him after he had spoken soft words to her on the wall before. "We should be practicing disarming soon with the knives...can you still fight?"

Cora took his hand got up and bowed a bit down so that she could better get the blood out of her lungs. She coughed and she could slowly see something again. She raised her torso again and stumbeled a few steps back.
With a husky voice she said, "I can I can...woohooo...dammit I have to find my sense of balance again!", she stumbeled against Connor.

Connor quickly clasped an arm around her shoulders, keeping her on her feet. Did he really do enough damage to cause internal bleeding? "Easy now...I must've gotten carried away again. Just take deep breaths." He started to smile. "I've not lost my cool like that in a long time...you must have been giving me a good beating." Connor gave another praise, just in time for several drops of blood to fall off his lip from his nose.

Cora's eyes widened as he clasped his arm around her. As she had found her balance again she grabbed his arm and put it of her.
"You gave me a hard time too. I think you got that made because I ignored your warning with your face.", she grinned and coughed again.
"Want me to get those knnives?", she asked.

Connor shook his head. "You actually avoided my head. I wouldn't have felt a thing if you had struck me in the forehead or the temples, so hitting there would be a waste of energy. It was the nose break. It's never been broken before." Having said that, he attempted to realign his nose, his left eye closing tightly as he groaned to put it back in place, relieved to be able to breathe a bit more smoothly through it though the pain was like his nostrils were on fire. He even started to laugh at it from hurting so bad. "Damn that hurt."

He nodded at her offer to get the knives. This is the part he was somewhat expecting to lose in. When it was down to hand-to-hand combat he knew he stood a chance, even against a slightly more dexterous person. But knife fighting was a different story, as speed and agility was all that was needed while the knife did most of the damage.

Cora grinned and made her way to the knives. She coughed a few times, some blood was still coming out and wasn't really enjoyable for her.
"Hey Cora...you ok? You and Connor really messed each other up!", their instructor said. She just nodded and went back.
"I got the knives but first...", she searched for something inside her pocket, "Let me fix that nose!"
She finally found the patch and came closer.
"Sit down, you are bigger than me! Oh wait I forgot. Do you want me to fix it? It could hurt a bit!", she said, "I will get it in the right position."

Connor sat down, chuckling as she asked for his consent. "It could hurt a bit, she says." He just smiled and nodded. He knew it'd hurt, but he wasn't going to let pain keep his nose looking wonky. "Do what you must, as long as my nose is still attached to my face I should be fine." Once again, he was a good patient, able to stay still for as long as the healer needed him to.

Cora grinned and carefully felt the edges of the fracture. It seemed to be a clean one. He was lucky it didn't shatter. She quickly moved his nose back to the way it was before. The edges fit perfectly together. She put the patch over his nose and watched out that it stayed this way.
Cora coughed in her sleeve and took a quick look. Still some blood, dang it.
"Let your nose heal and don't let anyone break it again. Also if you are a stomach sleeper sleep on your back."
She handed him a knife. "You only fight if you really want to, ok? Or we simply practice the simple stuff everyone else is doing here."

Connor's eye twitched and watered every now and then as Cora fixed his nose up keeping his jaw clenched. Really the hardest part for him was resisting the humongous urge to sneeze which he was able to relieve once she let him go, turning his head as he heaved in a breath and got the sneeze out of his system, splattering some of the blood built up in his nose into the ground. He took a deep breath through his nose and sighed. "Oh yeah...much better."

He took the knife and got up. "I think we'd end up killing each other so...for now lets just keep it educational. Besides, I imagine your a far better knife fighter, if your fleet hand-to-hand skills have anything to say for it."

Cora smiled, "You are right... normally I always use a knife too. I love fighting with knives. ", she supressed a chough, "But don't think you are badder than me when it comes to hand to hand combat, ok? Because you nearly made me passt out and those punches in the waist weren't that nice.", she held her stomach and tilted a bit forward as she started coughing again.
Cora raised her torso and wiped the blood of her mouth with her sleeve, "Let's see what we should doo...", she looked at the others, they were just training basic disarming.

Connor rose a brow and sighed. "Well as long as you won't die from them, you'll be alright." He tried to sound firm about it but felt genuinely concerned for Cora. Even he knew that coughing blood was a bad sign. "Lets just use this lesson to pass the time for now, so we can both finish the day and spend some time to mend." He rarely wielded a dagger, the shortest weapon he was familiar with was his machete, which made it all the more awkward when he started carrying the dagger like a short sword.

Cora had to hold back a laugh when he held the dagger, "You know seeing such a big guy like you wielding a dagger is funyn enough. It looks even smaller when you wear it.", she looked at the others.
"Let's do what they are doing. ", she said. Cora made a slow movement symbolying an attack to the stomach. Mid way she started coughing again but she finished her movement. It was Connors task now to disarm her.
The others watched them to see if they started fighting again.

Connor took a breath before the session began. Now was the time to practice his self control, one of the things he lacked, at least this scenario would be something of a cakewalk. Connor shifted his abdomen so the thrust would slip under his arm in an attempt to grapple her knife hand and get an arm lock. If successful, his grip would begin to apply pressure to her index, thumb and pinky knuckles in an attempt to numb her grip on the knife. All harmlessly of course, but it would lend Cora an idea of what a big guy like him could do in a knife fight, for the biggest counter against speed is control.

Cora let the knife go. He was obviously not using all his strenght but if would he would surely break her hand very easily.
"You are good. Wanna try that faster?", she asked. Cora coughed blood again. She wiped it off with her free hand. "Dang it...why do these things always happen to me?", she whispered and supressed her next cough but it only ended in her coughing even more.
Their instructor looked over to them with a questioning look. Cora just smiled and he looked somewhere else again.

Connor rose a brow as she continued to cough blood. "As long as your injuries aren't getting worse, we can." He began as he crossed his arms, reminded of what Doctor Geist once told him about a minor injury being able to worsen. "I doubt you want to be straining yourself if your coughing up that much blood." He was clearly not willing to risk further injury to her in her current state.

Cora looked at Connor slightly angry, "If I can't even train with injuries like that how can I fight? I will train, if you want or if you don't want it."
She crossed her arms, "It doesn't hurt. It just annoys me. I can live with it!", she claimed and picked her knife up again.
She attacked Connor, this time faster but slow enough for him to notice that she had started.

Connor started to smile again as Cora protested against his concerns. It was all he needed to be reminded of her spirit, and that she was made of different stock than the other trainees. He certainly wasn't about to coddle her if she didn't want to be coddled, so he got into position and awaited her attack. "Alright then...come at me."

Connor once again attempted to catch her arm, though it was reasonably faster and therefore he could miss his chance to lock her arm. It would become clear that he didn't have a variety of tactics to counter a knife fighter other than an arm lock.