Page 13 of Homesick, Lovesick
Ronan stripped off his hoodie and long-sleeved shirt, leaving just his tank top.On his right arm was his sword, and on the left arm was his armor.Thankfully, he almost never had to use armor.When the armor came out, things werebadbad.
On his upper right arm was the only other magic permanently imbedded in him—a protection spell meant to be used for things like sparring.It could also be called up for actual fights, but mostly that wasn't necessary because Match could do infinitely better with little effort.This was just a minor thing meant for sparring and other practice, so dumbass paladins didn't hurt each other while showing off.
He activated the protection spell and then drew his sword, spinning it easily in his hand, an old habit for settling into 'paladin mode'.
Four Corners sparring was, obviously, four people, one at each point.North and East started, sparring for one minute.Then it was East and South, then South and West, then West and North, then North and South, East and West, then it started over.For basic warm-ups, or newbies, two full cycles was more than enough.The longest he'd ever been forced to go was forty-eight minutes, which was fucking brutal.He had not enjoyed that dayat all.
"How long we going?"he asked, rolling his shoulders and stretched his neck.
"Twenty-four?"Agatha suggested.
Ronan gave a thumbs up, as did the other two.She set the timer, and it chimed a countdown to give everyone a chance to position.As he was the west point, he got to wait a couple of minutes.General rules were no going for the face, no crotch shots, no dirty moves.Four Corners wasn't really about causing damage, anyway.It was a training exercise for learning how to move, and done for fun amongst paladins otherwise.Some asshole trainers had ways of making it about damage, but none of Ronan's had tolerated that nonsense.There were better training exercises for that.
The start chime sounded, echoing across the field, and Lynwood moved with a speed that Ronan was forced to concede was impressive.It was also clear that these three trained together often.Which he'd kind of already known, but it was still interesting to see in action.
George wasn't as fast as Lynwood, but he had better movement, dodging and weaving elegantly where Lynwood was much more brusque, more lunging and retreating.The end of the first minute rang out, and Lynwood dropped back as Agatha surged forward.She was, obviously, way more force and muscle than the rest of them.Much more on par with Benny's build.Watching those two in hand-to-hand would be awesome.
The chime sounded and Ronan surged into motion, easily countering Agatha's first swing, sliding out of the way of the next, ducking, shifting his weight to his free hand and kicking her feet out.He was well back on his feet before she'd recovered hers, and they'd barely squared off again when the chime came.
He blocked Lynwood's first swing, got clipped trying to dodge the second, but managed to block the third and send him reeling back.Before they could go much further, the chime sounded.
So it went for the next several minutes.For the most part, he was having fun, but every time he matched with Lynwood, the bastard seemed particularly nasty, far more vicious than he was with the other two, though it was clear he saweverythingas a competition and had to be top dog.
Right as the minute chimed, Lynwood lunged—and cut Ronan's arm.
Swearing, Ronan withdrew, banishing his sword because he was fucking done now.They only had a couple of minutes left anyway.He scowled at the cut, a nice long slice on his forearm, just a hair away from cutting across his tattoo.
"Sorry, man," Lynwood said, not looking very sorry at all."I don't know how that happened.Is something wrong with your protection spell?"
"Match's mother did it for me, so no," Ronan replied icily."You wanna tell me—"
"Oh, sweaty Paladin with his guns out, my favorite," Match said.
Ronan turned, ire fading as he grinned and wiped his brow with his left arm."Hey, handsome."
"I am definitely not the handsome one."Match tugged him down into a kiss, smiling when he drew back."How—" His smile vanished."Why the hell are you bleeding?"He reached into the satchel that he was almost never without and pulled out a little paper envelope filled with powder and a small wooden bowl.He poured the powder into the bowl, tipped out a bit of water from the bottle clipped to his bag, and stirred until he had a thick paste.Scooping out the paste, he consigned the bowl to the ground, grasped Ronan's arm, and smeared the paste across the cut, completely uncaring about the blood.
Ronan braced for the next part, and despite the pain and all the eyes watching them, smiled faintly as Match reached into his pocket, drew out a box of matches and struck one, then grasped his arm again and set the flame to the paste.
There was a rush of not-quite-painful heat, the paste turned to gray ash, and Match stuck the burnt end in his mouth, smiling around it.Removing the match, tongue adorably blackened, he said, "All better, paladin.What happened?"He immediately examined the tattoo on his bicep."Spell is fine."
"Of course your mom's spell is fine.I want to know what the fuck is on his sword," Ronan said, glaring at Lynwood again.
"Nothing!"Lynwood insisted."I don't need tocheatto kick your ass."
All of a sudden Ronan just didn't fucking care anymore."Whatever, we're done here.See you at dinner, I guess."
Match took his hand, and they headed off, ignoring Agatha when she called his name.
Back at their cabin, before they went inside, Match took his arm again and with his bottle of water and a soap rag taken from his bag of goodies, meticulously cleaned off the ash.All that was left behind was a hairline scar, though even that annoyed the piss out of Ronan, because it shouldn't be there at all.Not from a round of Four Corners.
"I don't know much about Paladin swords, a problem I should have fixed by now, I'm sorry," Match said."Is there anything about them that could bypass a protection charm?"
Ronan shook his head."Nothing legal, and the illegal stuff isn't worth the hassle unless you're like, competitive.And even then, it's so hard to get away with, and the punishment so extensive, it's not really worth the hassle there either."
"What are the illegal things?"
"The most popular modification is called a bite.It does…well, basically this.It can punch through the protection spell just enough to slice you up.I don't think there's a single instance of it being fatal, mostly it's to startle and distract, so you can more easily disarm your opponent.Doesn't make any sense.This was a stupid, so-called friendly Four Corners."
