Burning off the Darkness

[Fritz Jacobs]

High pitched whistles penetrated the walls of the gymnasium, making it clear that the weather outside was truly frightful. Fritz spared another glance at small windows near the gym's roof and shrugged. There was nothing better for him to do now, but practice his owns skills. His right arm crossed over, gripping Oblivion's handle and drawing the sword with only a small shing sound. Taking a few steps back, Fritz made the gap between him and Dream larger to avoid any injury whatsoever. Although the space between them had been decent, Fritz refused to have no error caused by another person. The tip of Fritz's blade pointed downwards, as he moved it side to side, his eyes trailing its' point. Strangely, Fritz was entertained by watching the point of Oblivion move back and forth, even if it wasn't a battle useful move. Amusement glinted and Fritz's eyes, this was one of the very few things he got easily amused over.

The immortal soon snapped out of his small trance, lifting the blade in a position to begin the usual practices. This position being an offensive one, of which he would soon switch to that of a defensive parry. Like a flash of grey, Fritz's sword moved from the offensive position to a parry, which would've blocked a downward blow to the head. Next, Fritz brought his blade down to slash leftward, then to the right. This little practice leaned towards the offensive moves, solely due to the Force Field ability Fritz had. For the most part, Fritz's face portrayed nothing, but seriousness and focus, but traces of content could be found by those good at reading emotion. His green eyes glanced sideways, taking a small glimpse of Dream. Rhythm and balance began to mark each move, which was a good sign. The slightest smile traced Fritz's lips, but the immortal caught it, and his face retreated back to serious and focus. With that, he continued a few more slashes and thrusts, his entire routine lacking any sorts of parries.

Eventually, Fritz began the next step of his offensive practice. Small, pale blue shields began appearing, all in locations where Fritz would have presumably gotten struck. Each circular shield had enough width to block a sword, and each had the density. The last few moves consisted of slashes that went left then right, until Fritz drew back, a blueish shield appearing where most swordsmen would have to parry. Before the last move was made, the shield dissolved, and with no plans to make another appearance. The final move consisted of a thrust, which would've presumably killed Fritz's opponent. The immortal soon drew back, the point of the sword drifting towards the floor of the gym. The point floated just above the floor as Fritz began to mentally review each of the shields that had formed to act as "parries".

[Dream Wolf]

Dream watched Fritz practice, watching his movements with the eye of someone used doing the same thing with others. He practiced his own balance without using his sword, just moving his feet from one position to the next. He watched the shields pop up and an idea struck him. He stopped his practice for a moment and walked over to one wall where a series of old battered swords, used more for decoration than practice at this point, he selected one and melted the metal and formed it into a long bracelet that wrapped around his left hand, like a gauntlet, but continued up his arm to the elbow. He then stepped away from the wall and began moving again, his sword flashing from point to point. He then raised his left arm and small disks of steel shot out like blobs of mercury, they did not hover, as he could not control metal to that point at this point, but they would slow an attack, and give him precious seconds to reposition himself, either for a block, or a dodge.

He pulled the metal to himself after it had hit the floor, and it rejoined its main body. Dream then pushed his arm up again, but instead of throwing out little disks, it formed into a proper shield, that he then bashed into his imaginary opponent. Dream quickly realized that fighting with a shield threw off his balance, so he adjusted to it. He began blocking and thrusting, occasionally changing the shape of his shield, as if responding to different kinds of weapons being used. He obviously had a lot to learn about fighting with a shield, but he was adapting quickly. by the time a half hour had passed he was sweating profusely, and was obviously tired, but his breath remained even, and his body kept moving. Finally he stopped, resting his sword on his shoulder and letting the shield form back into a gauntlet. He looked at the ceiling and laughed, one quick HA! that echoed.

[Fritz Jacobs]

Specific things came into mind when Fritz reviewed his shield work. Durability, size, and speed of creation, since the shields would be useless if they couldn't block a hit. Force fields had limitations, and if these limitations became too much of a nuisance for Fritz to work around, the ability would become practically obsolete in battle. They required the use of his thoughts, meaning that he needed to think fast about each shield placement. Fritz had long honed in on his shielding skills, but only in a defensive manner. His shields were incapable of reflecting attacks that tried to pierce through, leaving them victim to possible crushing or having to withstand heavy amounts of force. Fritz had yet to encounter an instance where one of his precious blue shields had shattered, but he'd tried his best to prepare for such an occasion. However, it was difficult when the force fields seemed so dependable, and even unbreakable. Fritz could feel the power exerted onto them, which could key into possible breaking, but lack of proper experience of such happened left him nearly clueless to the shield's capabilities.

During Fritz's thoughts about his shields, his alertness had dropped. Fritz simply stood, pondering and pointing out his own errors in judgement. Whether it was the durability, size or anything else, it was pointed out to be corrected for future reference. The high pitched whistles that echoed through the building had long been ignored, but any other noises, that was different story. So when the laugh reached Fritz's ears, he jumped a little, not expecting the noise one bit. Annoyance flashed onto Fritz's face, this was probably one of the many reasons the immortal worked better alone. Turning his head, Fritz found Dream with a new gauntlet formed, sword in hand, and a missing sword. Fritz grumbled out an inaudible swear, since the decorative sword that was there when he'd arrived was missing and he'd just been disturbed. In a few steps, Fritz was beside Dream, his green eyes looking at the location the old sword was. "What's all the noise about?" Fritz asked, a little bit of annoyance in his words. Disturbances were something of annoyance to anyone really, making the annoyance come with a certain clearness.

[ I wasn't sure if the hilt/handle/pommel/hand guard of the old sword was different material, so I presumed that it wasn't. ]

[Dream Wolf]

Dream looked at Fritz with eyes alight. "I saw you using your shields and thought 'Why can't I do something like that?' so I used one of the beaten up old swords to make a gauntlet, and made small shields shoot out from it, it's not perfect, but I never thought to use a shield before. I wouldn't be able to stop an attack with them, but I would hear the contact and be able to react faster."

He grinned. "There's so much more I can do with my power than just make swords or spears."

Dream was oblivious to the fact that he had almost no imagination outside of what he thought of when pondering what would happen if people found out about his darkness, but when he saw someone doing something, he often realized he could do it himself. So it was not so much a lack of imagination as it was his imagination needed a kick in the butt to get into gear.

[Fritz Jacobs]

The very mention of using the old sword to form a gauntlet made Fritz shake his head. There were clearly some unforeseen consequences to this recycling idea. Fritz had no clue where the sword originated from, and for all he knew, the thing was important to the school. With it "missing" the school staff may just go berserk searching for the battered, old thing. The sword in question served no use in combat, but could serve as a reminder of memories or even towards an end goal. The sound "shield" was clever, but the material it was formed from could very well have been precious. At the mention of more skills to the boys power, Fritz simply sighed. His gaze flickered top Dream, noticing the grin, then went back to where the sword was. "I can see that, but did you ask to use the sword? Because if not, this could cause some trouble." Most people would've thought that Fritz could tell if Dream had left the gym, but in all truth, his attention had been on his own training.

Improper shield placement was the last thing Fritz wanted to fall to. However, now wasn't the time to focus on training, for the possibility of trouble stirred in Fritz's head. The only thing that Fritz could hope for was that Dream had actually decided to check if it could be used, rather than just using its' materials. Fritz still had a grip on Oblivion, waiting to find out whether or not there was permission involved. Hope crowded Fritz's mind at the idea, for the last thing the immortal wanted to deal with was trying to solve a troublesome problem.

[Dream Wolf]

Dream blinked. "The last time I was here with the teachers, they called the sword a useless relic of bygone days, said it was there as an example of what happens when someone doesn't fight with a brain. It had several large cracks and chips in it, and it was mostly used a decoration... I didn't even think to ask for permission..." He looked at the floor for a moment then looked at the door as he heard a sound. It was just a teacher walking by.

Dream sighed. "Storm is letting up." He held out his hand and soon the gauntlet was a perfect recreation of the original sword, only it lacked the wear and tear of age. "This should give the teachers a slight heart attack."

[Fritz Jacobs]

A lack of foresight could've best summed up the situation that was occurring. Or at least that was the way Fritz thought of the situation. Even if the sword was beyond repair, along with its' severe lack of usefulness due to the cracks and chips. Fritz shook his head, disagreeing with the whole idea of permission being unnecessary, because of the damages. "Either way, you shouldn't use any materials that you haven't gotten permission to use." Fritz lectured, voicing his opinion on the matter at hand. Light footsteps could be heard, causing Fritz's eyes to flick towards the door. Another thought of concern entered Fritz's head, creating itself from the idea of being roped into the trouble. His attention was off of Dream, but soon snapped back onto the boy upon hearing that the storm was letting up. When Fritz's green eyes flickered back, to the gauntlet, watching it transform to a near perfect replica of the sword.

Wear and tear could hopefully be deducted as someone giving the old sword a kindly polish to keep the sword looking well. Fritz's eyes lingered on the sword, scanning the sword from pommel to the edge of the blade. A soft sigh rose from Fritz's throat, it was close enough for a replica. "Yes, but it's better than them conducting a search party," Fritz added. Slowly, Fritz returned Oblivion to its' scabbard, the leather holder gaining weight with the sword's return. A small time had passed since Fritz began carrying Oblivion around, almost as though he was a medieval knight bound to his sword since it displayed high rank. Despite the amount of time being little, Fritz had easily grown use to the added weight. "If it's letting up, I should probably take my leave soon." Fritz said, walking over to where his winter coat laid. Fritz crouched down to fetch the black coat from the floor to pull his over himself. Fritz loved the cold, but that didn't mean he was brazen enough to walk into a storm without a coat. Ears listening, Fritz continued to pull the jacket over his sweater, preparing for the harsh outside weather.

[Dream Wolf]

Dream nodded looking at the floor. He was impulsive and didn't always think things through. He looked at the doors to the main building.

"I am sorry I didn't think really." He sighed and turned to head to the main building, where he would find his warm clothes. "Thank you for the help."

Dream left, got his stuff and began walking home. He made it to the dorms without issue, though he sensed a couple pipsqueaks nearby, but that was normal.