private The Mute And the Outcasted (1x1 With The Ceberus)

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple looked at the stance itself seemed alright save... "Well your stance here implies you're going to attack me, Meaning I have enough time to raise my guard. Which will result in the next thing That I want to show you, Leap at me so I may show you rather than explain it." Maple readied the weapon making sure that the leather was secure on the blade before he lept.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Speechless thought about what Maple said, it was a good point, it would be more effective to surprise the opponent by not showing them when you were going to attack, that way not showing where you were going to attack also came lot more effective. But Speechless didn't fix his pose yet, after all, the point was to find the flaws in his original style. Speechless then charged like Maple had asked, going with the same tactic as before. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

When Speechless attacked her she sidestepped him, swinging her weapon overhead bringing it down swiftly. Speechless would feel the leather hit his back it hurt a bit, but had the leather not been there it would've done much more damage. Maple relaxed the weapon. "That's what else I wanted to point out, You'll need to adjust yourself mid-strike otherwise when you attack it's nothing more than an opening for a foe."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Speechless was surprised by both Maple's sidestep, and by how surprisingly hard she hit with the weapon, but he didn't show it in anyway in case Maple would start feeling bad if he did. After Maple's suggestion, Speechless looked confused, he did understand the part about the opponent getting an opening with his current style, but he didn't know what Maple meant with adjusting mid-strike, changing direction? pose? speed? or something totally different?

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"What I mean is... Whenever you go to strike... You need to be able to change the direction you're moving or just how you're hitting, Lets say I was you..." Maple positioned herself in front of him a ways back she lept landing to the side "And I went to bite you, but you avoided like how I did. Then what you'd need to do next is to either turn mid-jump or hit with the wing. The wing is a much faster option so I'd recommend it."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Speechless looked thoughtful for a moment while he thought about what Maple said, but he did understand it this time, so he eventually nodded. Again it made sense, it was important to be ready for counter-attack when you attacked, and to be ready to act accordingly , especially when you're fighting someone who is prepared to fight someone like you. He looked at Maple with anticipating expression, waiting if there was more. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Allow me to complement a majority of the way you fight, It was hard to tell where you were going a lot of the time, The only other complaint I have is that when you'rea attacking when you hit..." Maple set her wing on Speechless' chest, "You stop and back up" Maple did as she had seen him do, "What I'd say works better is that if you hit, blocked or not you go forwards and turn around," Maple demonstrated, she dashed at speechless her wing touching his chest and she quickly pulled it to her side ending up behind speechless and stopping "Sorta like that."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Speechless nodded again, yet again, it made sense, and he started to wonder why he hadn't though any of these things himself, but quickly came to conclusion that it had to be just because he hadn't ever really thought about fighting in general. As he waited for Maple to either continue or ask him to try to do what she had told, Speechless considered to ask Maple to also teach him to use some weapons, because though he found them little clumsy for non-unicorns, he did recognize that even with the weapons Midnight had brought, his claws by themselves wasn't too effective in the long run. He choose not to ask until he was strong enough to actually do that if Maple accepted. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"As long as you just react to your opponent while striking I imagine you'll do fine, those spikes look like they can hurt... They wear leather so with those don't stab, slice them Leather's great against impaling strikes but it's not very good at blocking slices. Metal armor like mine is the opposite so perhaps leather would protect me better from their Crossbows?" She shrugged. It could help but she'd have to still mostly dodge bolts

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Speechless just shrugged and nodded as a reply, he didn't have anything worth writing to comment and he neither disagreed or agreed what Maple said, because he didn't know anything about weapons and armors so he couldn't comment on Maple's point on that, and he still didn't want to bring up using weapons yet. He started gesturing to ask if they would now try what Maple had explained, but he was cut short by a yet another knock on the door, it was similar careful knock like Midnight's, but a bit louder. 

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple moved over to answer the door again, She noticed Speechless wanted something but it would have to wait, Maple removed the leather from her spear, She figured this was either the hunters, or Crimson, She was almost sure that it was the latter as she advanced to the door holding the spear close to her side ready to thrust it just in case she should be in dangered.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Almost immediately after Maple had opened the door enough to be seen from outside, familiar voice was heard "Oh, good, it's you Maple." Maple's guess had been right as it in fact was Crimson, though that wasn't necessary obvious from his appearance, because he was wearing a full armor, thus looking quite different from his usual looks. His armor was combination of metal and leather, the leather being rather thick, especially around the chest and sides. It was mostly black, with some crimson-red decoration. Crimson was equipped with similar spikes on his wings as the ones Midnight had brought to Speechless, but he also had similar spikes on his fangs, and a sword sheathed on his side.

There was one more detail that could catch one's eye, in parts of the armor and in the hilt of the sheathed sword,there was an icon that looked like bloody fangs with wings. "Has Midnight been here?" "She didn't arrive to our meeting location."

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple lowered her spear "Unfortunately... She did come here and well... We fear for her right now..." Maple flew into the guest room and grabbed the letter from before, "This... Was given to us... We don't know who left it... I don't like it... This is a trap... For you. But I don't want to send you there and you get hurt... or worse. I want to go... For Speechless, however, I won't. I don't really know what you'll be expecting... I never saw their base..." Maple looked at Crimson full of sorrow and regret she hadn't been there for Midnight despite her having no knowlage she was being targeted at all.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

While Maple explained things to Crimson, Speechless had gotten the cape from the guest room and dropped it close to Crimson. Crimson didn't say anything for a while, but there was a quite obvious flash of anger in his eyes and he seemed rather tense. He finally spoke with calm voice, but he also sounded intimidatingly angry, almost bloodthirsty, "I know you feel responsible for this in way or another." " But I would ask you two to stay out of this and focus on your own safety." 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Yes, sir. We'll stay here..." Maple told him "I don't wanna get hurt... nor do I wish for your son to be found by the hunters again... They know of him now and will hunt him just as much as you and I... I'm going to keep him safe. You go save your wife I'll keep Speechless here... Don't worry about us." Maple finished saying with a confident nod and matching grin. She looked at speechless softly taking a deep, calm breath. "Good luck Crimson."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

"Don't count on them not knowing he's here, they may have been following you for longer than you think." Crimson warned, before taking the cape from the ground and folding it on his back, he turned towards Speechless an Maple "Stay safe you too." before leaving and closing the door behind him. Speechless sighed, he hated to leave everything to his father, not because he was worried for him, but because he felt so useless. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"We will," Maple said turning back to Speechless "Staying here... Suddenly feels less safe... However, I don't know how we could safely get to canterlot castle nor anywhere safer for that matter. We'll just say here... for now. Did you want something a moment ago? It kinda looked like you had something but I'm not the best at reading expressions." Maple said brushing the top of her mane with a hoof.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Though he didn't show it in any way, Speechless agreed with Maple's statement about staying not feeling as safe now, but he also wondered if they would actually be safe anywhere else either, after all, they were facing ponies who hunted ponies for living, and there was no doubt that they would wait patiently for the right moment. He felt fear creeping up to his mind again, he had never thought that he would know what prey feels like. 

Speechless did 'whatever' gesture before taking the notebook and writing "It was nothing too important, I was going to ask if I should try out the changes you suggested for my fighting style.".

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple nodded to speechless "Sounds like a plan. Let me get ready." Maple placed the leather sleeve back over the blade of her weapon and spun the weapon overhead, Going back into her defensive stance. She shifted around a bit before saying "Alright, show me what you've got. Remember, stay low." She added just to be sure he remembered.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Speechless was slightly surprised by the quick change of topic, but he figured that practicing was a good way to keep thoughts away from the bad stuff. He put the notebook away and got ready, this time making the effort to not take the attack pose before attacking. He charged, and like Maple had instructed, he looked for counter-measures and reacted accordingly, and continued moving instead of jumping back. One thing that one could notice, especially every time Speechless turned around, was that his movements were unexpectedly agile. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

This time around Maple was struggling to keep up with Speechless, She attempted to follow him with her eyes yet, He seemed to be faster than what she anticipated. After a while Speechless started to feel her armor from his hits, meaning that he was hitting Maple and she wasn't managing to keep upi with him "Good... Good. I'm going to start hitting back. You ready?" 

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Speechless gestured for Maple to wait a moment, checked his bandage again to make sure it wasn't going to fall off, and then gestured again that he's ready. He charged again, doing everything mostly in a same way as before, but this time focusing on Maple's counter attacks and trying to dodge them when they came. He really didn't want to get hit, but it wasn't because he was worried about failing, but because getting hit with the Naginata hurt even with the cover on. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple had defended like before she had lightly tapped Speechless several times "Very good... I can't seem to hit you with anything more than a tap. Keep it up." It continued until Maple started to take it too seriously and she swung her weapon across her whole body in a full spin, nailing Speechless in the snoot with half of her overall strength. Maple gasped when she saw and dropped the weapon. "Oh, my 'Tia! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you that hard. I'm sorry."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,771]

Speechless had started getting tired from the fighting, and was thinking of stopping after next attack, but then he got hit to his snoot, causing him to collapse to the ground with a yelp and to hold his snoot with his front hoofs. The hit wasn't hard enough to do any real damage, but it hurt nevertheless, and it did cause him a nosebleed. Speechless got back up slowly, still holding his snoot with one of his hoofs, he really couldn't hide that it had hurt, and even if he could have, the nosebleed would have given it away. He took out his notebook with his wings and pointed at "Don't worry."

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple knelt down near Speechless "I'm still sorry, Let me..." Maple hurried to go get some cold water for him from a well outside. She brought it back inside and put a rag in it. After a few seconds, she lifted the rag out of the water and gently set the cool, wet rag against speechless snoot "Is... this helping any?" She asked him worriedly.