Fire Emblem: Rebirth Supports
Drake and Alexian C
It was past midnight. By all means the swordsman should've been asleep hours ago. His anima, Wilderwind, had already gone back to his tent already, which was a sign in and of itself as to how late it was. But Drake couldn't help himself, he felt antsy. So, he grabbed his practice sword and headed to a small clearing in the forest where his group had set up camp. Holding his blade low, he began slashing at the air, pretending he was in the middle of an epic confrontation. Occasionally, he would mumble something under his breath about saving the day. After deciding that no one else could hear him, he began saying his lines out loud.
What he had failed to notice was the fighter watching him from a distance. After a few minutes, Alexian rose quietly from his observation point and turned to leave. As he began to walk back to camp, he snapped a twig.
"Huh?! What? Wh-who's there? And how much exactly did you hear?" Drake called out, his cheeks visibly red in the light of the moon shining above. Alexian's heart raced, but after taking a moment to compose himself, he responded.
"Sorry to interrupt your practice session, sir, I was just on a walk." "Alexian?!" At this moment, more than anything, Drake wanted to slink away and hide forever. "Y-you don't need to call me sir. We're both of the same station, remember?" "Well," Alexian said, as he exited the forest and entered the clearing, "I figured it was proper given your status in Petrea." Drake's grimace quickly faded into a disapproving grin. "Don't talk about that. I don't really want to think about what they think of me back home anymore. I just want to be Drake right now."
Realizing he had plucked a nerve, albeit unintentionally, Alexian quickly changed the subject. "So doing some late night training, huh? Practicing your swordplay?" "Exactly. I want to fine tune this stance. I'm having some issues with my footing and that's slowing my swings down but overall I think I'm decently proud of it."
Alexian took a moment to examine the swordsman's stance. Drake held the practice blade in front of him with both hands, his arms positioned in front of his waist. His legs were apart slightly, with his right foot in front of his left. The positioning of the blade struck Alexian as odd. "Why do you hold your sword like that? That leaves a huge opening for attacks." "Ah, but that's where you're wrong!" Drake said proudly, "Here, take that branch there and let me show you. Go ahead and swing at me with everything you have!"
Alexian grabbed a fairly thick branch off the ground. He wasn't too familiar with swordplay, but using some basic training he had been given long ago he took a few swings at Drake. With every swing, Drake was able to quickly parry or dodge with relative ease. After a few swings from Alexian, Drake moved and struck a clean hit to Alexian's side, causing him to collapse to his knees.
"*Gasp* Libera, Drake! What the hell was that?!" Alexian exclaimed, gasping for air. Drake extended a hand and helped the larger man back to his feet. "That, my friend, is a Fool's Guard." He grinned proudly. "F-Fool's Guard? What?" "Simply put, this particular stance is designed to catch opponents off guard. Upon first looking at it, I appear to be completely vulnerable. Like you said, I appeared to have several openings. However, thanks to my stance, I gain the ability to predict opponent's moves fairly easily and, as a result, get the opportunity to parry and attack quicker. My only issue is that my footing is completely wrong, so my responses are a bit slower and weaker than I would like." "Well," Alexian said, after catching his breath, "You appear to have it figured out. You've come a long way after abandoning lances. You'll have to tell me the story behind that decision later."
"Of course my friend, but that's a story for another time. As for now, I think we should both be off to bed. We've got a long day ahead of us."