Elder's Trial, Sanara - Medium Quest [COMPLETE]

[Sanara]

Elder's Trial

Difficulty: Medium

Description:
The Yaidratian Elder has noticed that your progress is coming along nicely. He's decided to give you his trial. It will be one of great mental strides. He sends his best fighter at you, claiming that you have intentions to destroy Yaidrat. You must defeat him with words alone... how will you do it? Are you clever enough?

Reward:+600 zeni, +5 DP, +20 all stats, + 5 Rp Credits

Bonus:+55 all stats, +8 SP, +1 free Elder taught technique

Available: Yes

Requirement: Must have trained with the Elder for 2 weeks and must be under 20,000 PL.

This post has been edited by Sanara on Nov 7 2009, 05:08 PM

[Sanara]

Sanara pushed gently on the oaken doors, slowly walking through into the room beyond. He saw his latest master sitting on the floor, cross-legged and meditating between the candles that were slowly burning themselves down on the walls surrounding him. That was probably the one thing he found most ironic about the time he had spent here; even though he had been emphasized on more of meditation and peaceful methods of training, this was also the place he had learned the most powerful attack he knew... and soon an even better one.

He slowly bowed down before his master, kneeling on one leg before the elder and awaiting the time when he would address him. He had also learned patience during his training, especially when it involved his master's meditations... last time he had interrupted them, he had been sent outside of the settlement and forced to stand dangerously close to the volcano's core. He had then spent the next hour repairing the tears in his outfit and trying to figure out just how long it would take his eyebrows to grow back.

As it turned out though, he wouldn't need much patience. Only a short time after he entered, short enough that none of the candles had even melted down a noticeable amount, the elder began to speak. "So, you have completed your time with me. Well, then, I suppose it is time for you to begin your trial. Though I think it might not be as simple as the other trials you have had thus far."

Thinking back to the times he had done these trials before, what with Roshi's evil twin like android, and Kami's nearly impossible unless your life was on the line kata, he really didn't want to think what a more complicated trial might be like.

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Words: 302/3600

This post has been edited by Sanara on Nov 1 2009, 05:08 PM

[Sanara]

"So, what is my trial going to be then?" Sanara thought as the elder took a brief pause in his speech, but due to the aforementioned volcano incident and still regrowing eyebrows he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

"For your trial... you shall have to defeat the man awaiting you outside." He said ominously. Sanara hadn't noticed anyone standing outside when he was there, but then again he had been pretty focused on preparing himself both mentally and physically for the trial ahead of him. It wasn't exactly hard to believe that he had missed someone while in that state of mind.

"Master, if I might say so, that doesn't seem as complicated as you made it out to be..." The Youko said, wondering what could be added onto what seemed like such a simple task to make it more complicated than the other things he had done so far.

"Well, for one thing..." The elder began, stretching his arms and pushing himself up off the ground and slowly walking over towards a door at the edge of the building, motioning for Sanara to follow. "...this is one of my finest students, a resident of Yaidrat who has been honing his skill not as a fighter, but as an assassin. A master of one on one combat and an enemy of all those who mean harm to Yaidrat."

"And you got him to stop his vigilante duties for one day to come fight me?"

"Well... not exactly." The elder said, somewhat nervously as both of them reached the door and he pulled it open.

"What does 'Well... not exactly' mean?" Sanara said, now much more suspicious than curious. The masters always had been known for their trickery about things like this...

"Well, you see... he thinks you're a threat to all of Yaidrat and I hired him to kill you so that you would have no choice but to fight him and to top it off you're not allowed to hurt him you just have to convince him not to kill you before he actually does it HAVE FUN!" The elder said in what must have been the longest, and fastest run on sentence ever as he shoved Sanara out the door and then immediately slammed it behind him.

"What the FU-" Sanara said, cut off as a bolt of lightning flashed across what he realized now was an open, and suddenly STORMING section of Yaidrat, ringed by trees on all sides. "Well... sh*t"

Post Total: 2/10
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This post has been edited by Sanara on Nov 3 2009, 07:56 AM

[Sanara]

Sanara's first instinct was to turn around and, master or not, beat the crap out of the elder for putting him in this situation in the first place. However, as soon as he found that there was not even a handle on the outside of the door - the reinforced and nigh unbreakable door, to top it off - he went on high alert. From what he knew of assassin skills it was very unlikely that he would even notice the man until after it was already too late and the blade had slit his throat. He probably wouldn't even feel the pain when it came. Not exactly a comforting thought, but still...

Suddenly he saw a movement from his right, and he had to suddenly jerk backwards to avoid a knife that seemed to have flown out of the trees. It stuck in the wall behind him, quivering slightly. It was rather impressive, considering the fact that the wall was made of a nigh impregnable metal. Whatever the knife had been made of was very strong material.

But before he even had time to get himself back on his feet, there was suddenly a man in front of him with a sword held high above his head, preparing to bring it down on the poor Youko. Sanara instinctively reached out, grabbing a hold of the man's wrist before he could even bring the blade down. He pulled himself up on the man's wrist, already bringing his palm forward, prepared to palm the man in the face and do some serious damage when the voice of his master echoed in his head.

Whether it was simply his subconscious telling him that he was making a mistake or the master directly giving him an extra chance at passing the trial, he could have sworn he heard the elder's voice yelling in his mind that he was not allowed to harm the other fighter.

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Words: 1041 / 3600

This post has been edited by Sanara on Nov 5 2009, 09:53 PM

[Sanara]

Perhaps a centimeter away from his opponent's face suddenly Sanara's hand was simply no longer there, vanishing into thin air at what may have been the last fraction of a millisecond before it would've been too late for even Sanara to stop the blow with his discipline.

Meanwhile, the Youko himself appeared in a small copse of weeds just outside the tree line, trying to figure out how he was going to go about his quest. After all, assuming his master hadn't lied to him then there wasn't really a particular set of words he had to figure out... that was the worst part, this guy was actually trying to kill him and he thought that somehow the Youko was a threat to all of Yaidrat. Which was definitely not going to be the easiest thing to convince him the opposite of... what was he supposed to do, plant some flowers and hope that the guy would see he meant no harm to Yaidrat?

However the man didn't seem too worried about Sanara not being visible very much any more, and in fact the Youko could make out him smiling. A grim smile, one that could've chilled the blood in Sanara's veins if it wasn't pumping so fast to try to keep his brain thinking about what to say to calm this man down. "I don't know much about you... but I do know two things. One is that you can't fool me by simply stopping an attack." Obviously, the man had noticed the attack. Then again, he would have had to be blind not to. "The second... is that you can't hide from a master assassin!" The Yaidratian yelled, spinning and throwing a knife straight at Sanara.

Somehow, this knife was different than the other he had thrown. It traveled at a much higher speed - high enough that the friction from the air alone should have been able to slow it down as it moved. But it didn't. Sanara rolled to the right, barely avoiding the blade. It stabbed into the ground less than an inch from him, and the Youko was instantly on the move, trying to keep away from the flurry of knives that were already in the man's hands awaiting launch.

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[Sanara]

Knives buzzed through the air as Sanara ran horizontally along the tree branches. Suddenly he vanished, zipping through the air at an ascended speed to land behind the man. The assassin was fast, though, and showing his true colors enabled him to match the Youko point for point, Sanara simply trying to get a non-offensive hold on the man so he would be forced to listen but finding himself matched by the man's martial arts skill and more often than not focusing on simply dodging the attacks that the man sent at him.

But there was no way for the assassin to know the true extent of his abilities, or the true extent of his techniques. So he suddenly burst forward, with a renewed burst of speed and strength as Kaioken took over his muscles. He was suddenly behind the man, grabbing through both of his armpits and holding the man tight. "Now, listen to me for just one minute and I'll explain the whole situation..."

"I don't need an explanation from you!" The man said, jerking his arm back with enough force to Sanara's sternum that it knocked the wind out of his chest, even causing him to lose concentration and descend from Kaioken as his grip loosened and the man escaped. He was almost immediately on the offensive again, throwing a set of ninja stars at Sanara.

"Are you an assassin or a ninja?" Sanara said, tired of seeing all the thrown weapons.

"Two professions very closely related... but with my own special mixture. You'll see what I mean when one of these hits you!" The Yaidratian yelled, throwing another set at the Youko who was pushing himself now to dodge between the ones that were thrown directly at him and doing his best to keep ahead of the ones thrown behind him.

"Note to self... don't ever get hit." Sanara muttered, as he vanished once more, this time hiding in the tree line trying to figure out what to do. The man wouldn't listen to him when he tried to talk, and even getting close to him with whatever lethal substance he must have put on all his weapons was a serious risk. He just needed a distraction, something he could use to buy some time... and that's when he got his idea.

Posts: 5 / 10

Words: 1803 / 3600

This post has been edited by Sanara on Nov 6 2009, 11:17 PM

[Sanara]

The assassin was just beginning to turn in the direction of the tree that Sanara was hiding in when the Youko came flying out of it, fist raised at the ready. The man pulled out two daggers from his side pockets, crossing them in front of his body for where the fist was aimed. But instead of punching him the Youko stopped right in front of him and spoke to him. "Listen to me! You've been lied to! I don't mean to destroy Yaidrat in part or whole! Just believe me, I'm here in peace not war!"

"Of course you don't mean harm to Yaidrat, and I don't mean harm to you when I do this!" The assassin countered, uncrossing his daggers and stabbing forward with one. But instead of hitting its mark and either poisoning or bleeding the Youko to death the dagger simply passed right through.

The assassin was more than slightly confused to see this happen, and so the real Sanara took advantage of this and came out of nowhere, pulling out a vine he had cut off a tree and wrapping it around the elbows and chest of the man before he could make a move. It took a fair bit of ki to increase his speed enough to get away with it, but the bindings were semi tight and reinforced with his own energies so it was likely to hold him for long enough to at least get a few sentences out.

"You're being deceived! I'm not here to do anything but train, and as soon as I finish fighting you I'm going to leave this planet. Probably once and for all, I mean this planet is kind of barren and boring..."

"Nobody insults my home planet!" The assassin said, spitting a blade he had hidden in his mouth straight down and slicing clean through the vines, then immediately coming after Sanara once again. This time, though, he was a bit more creative, using a blade that he had strapped to his side. There was no poison on this one - Sanara could see that since there was no gleam of a deadly liquid around the edges like the knives had had on them - but it was still a lethal weapon, especially with the skill he could see the man possessed.

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Words: 2190 / 3600

[Sanara]

Sanara ducked between the blows as best he could, trying to figure out an effective way to both defend against the blows and try to talk at the same time. But every try to get a word out ended exactly the same; as soon as he dropped his attention from the blade coming ever nearer to him his head almost got taken off. And once again he would lose whatever measly words he had come up with.

It actually took him a second to remember what he could use to defend against the sword - a much better method than praying he didn't get hit. He palmed the side of the sword as it was in mid-air, a risky move but it paid off and the only consequence was that his palm stung a bit from where it had been sliced by the very edge of the blade. Using the little time he had bought from the man's attacking, he reached down to his waist and pulled out the blade that hung there. It was his first time actually using the thing, and in fact it had been so long since he bought it he had almost forgotten about his Katana.

The battle suddenly became a lot more even. Blocking took much less effort, both physical and mental, and freed up at least some part of his brain to think up exactly how to word what he would say next. "Okay, so maybe saying Yaidrat had nothing on it was a mistake, but think of it like this. I've got to be one of the only non-Yaidrats on the planet. I'm training under the elder. With as few foreigners as I see running around here, you have to know something about that."

Although the man didn't directly acknowledge Sanara's half question half statement, the Youko could have sworn that as close as they were and with his enhanced sight he could just about see the recognition flashing in his eyes. The man's blade hesitated for just a fraction of a second, and Sanara took advantage of that to bring the blade up, sliding it across the man's chest. But he kept the blade a half an inch away at all times, trying to send a message to the man.

"That's twice now I could have injured you." He said, backing off a bit to give the man a moment or two to think.

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Posts: 7 / 10

[Sanara]

Once again Sanara thought that he could see some conflict or realization within the eyes of the assassin, but whatever it was didn't stop him from coming at Sanara again. But as he moved he reached into his side pocket and pulled out something, that Sanara recognized as a vial only a second or two before it was shattered. The man smashed it against his sword, spraying the liquid across the length of the blade. It didn't take Sanara long to guess that it was probably the same kind of poison that had coated the knives and stars from earlier.

With another element of danger added to the equation Sanara moved swiftly through the air, doing his best to keep himself even farther away from the blade than he had before. For all he knew just catching a drop of the liquid in his mouth from the blade might prove fatal. He powered up, going into just the first level of Kaioken to keep himself just that much faster than his opponent.

"You know its true..." Sanara began, ducking under a swing that went just a little bit high. "...because you heard that..." He continued, this time bringing up his own katana and parrying a side swipe that nearly took out a good chunk of his rib cage. "...there was an off worlder working under the Elder." He finished, jumping to the side just as a swipe coming straight down vertically nearly cut him in half. The man's sword swings were becoming less accurate as time went on, obviously he was having to think about something other than the fight for once. All the better for Sanara; he was having trouble avoiding the blows even with the enhanced speed he possessed in Kaioken.

"So, tell me this, don't you think that maybe your Elder would ask you to do something like this to test me? Seriously, I could have killed you about three times by now if I didn't have a restriction against hurting you in any way." He said, as the man took a brief pause in his attacks to regain his momentum. The man was starting to doubt himself, now for the final push...

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Posts: 8 / 10

[Sanara]

The man came in close again, with what could have only been a speed teleport that took him closer than would have been comfortable even if the blade didn't have deadly poison on it, and pulled the sword around himself, spinning in a circle and bringing it right at Sanara's neck. Sanara parried the blade and suddenly flipped overhead, getting behind the man and putting his free arm around the man's hand that didn't hold the sword while still doing his best to keep the sword and the man's other arm pinned against the assassin's chest.

"Now... just listen to me... you can ask the elder for all I care... I'm not here to destroy Yaidrat, to do any harm to anyone, I'm only here to train, and you can't tell me that you don't know that the Elder is smart enough to come up with a trial like this!"

"Of course he's smart enough; he's far smarter than you!" The Yaidratian said, suddenly releasing his sword altogether and spinning around, using Sanara's grip on his arm against him and putting himself into the almost perfect position as a dagger appeared out of the man's sleeve and headed straight for the Youko's throat.

Sanara twisted slightly and leaned backwards, letting the dagger pass directly overhead and then grabbing ahold of the man's arm. He brought his sword up and cut straight through the air toward the man, who was struggling but lacked the strength to pull free from Sanara's Kaioken enhanced state. The blade's edge stopped maybe a centimeter from the man's arm, the assassin totally unable to break free still.

"That's a third time that I could have seriously injured you and haven't." The Youko said, flipping backwards through the air to put some more distance between himself and the ever increasing number of weapons the assassin seemed to have stored everywhere on his person.

"Stop trying to fool me with your tricks!" The man said, his words and voice portraying him as still completely loyal but Sanara could see on the man's face just how conflicted he was over what to believe. If he could just give a little more evidence then maybe the man would finally stop trying to kill him.

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Posts: 9 / 10

[Sanara]

"Wait a minute, you know there's a really easy way to solve this don't you?" Sanara said, surprised he hadn't even thought of it before.

"And that would be?"

"Ask the friggin' Elder. Hell, if he won't settle it then I feel no need to win his approval."

"Yeah, right. I'm going to fall for that. I know every dirty trick you could possibly pull on me, I AM an assassin after all. As soon as I go in there you'll either stab me in the back or run off never to be seen again."

"No, I won't. I'll be right here."

"And why should I trust you?"

Sanara raised his right hand, resisting the urge to laugh at how ridiculous the situation was. "Because I, Sanara Youko, give you my word as a fighter and as a Youko warrior that I will not only stay here while you enter the building, but if the elder still says I'm here to destroy the planet or to kill someone important or whatever he said to you, then I will LET you stab me in any spot you want with any of those poisoned weapons of yours."

Surprisingly this seemed to appease the man. Probably a lot more room for honor in their profession than in the world of being a fighter. "Very well... I shall return." The man said, disappearing almost immediately as he heard a closing sound come from the door back on the way to the complex. Funnily enough, the man had moved so fast he hadn't even seen the door open, just heard it close.

Not a half minute later the man came back out, holding his sword at the ready.

"That... doesn't look good." He said, as the man walked ever more quickly toward him.

"Well, I assume you intend to keep your word." The man said, raising his sword high over his head.

"You've gotta be freakin' kidding me..."

"Yeah, I am actually. Congratulations on finishing your trial."

"... Son of a bitch. Why would you do that to me?"

"Well, the Elder told me to. I wouldn't normally agree but you have to have a sense of humor in these kinds of situations. Farewell."

"Hold on, just a minute."

"What is it?"

"You're going to need to stay here and try to kill me again."

"Why is that? You said you meant no harm to this planet or the Elder and he just confirmed that."

"Yeah, but if he's going to scare me like that then I really AM going to kill him!"

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Posts: 10 / 10

COMPLETE