Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-25268570-20150216024744/@comment-24901923-20150321032839

Arcturus smiled in approval as Aizen gamely took the position opposite him in the sparring ring. The wolf Faunus opened the bout much like Electra did previously, showing Aizen how he blended into and redirected his enemy's attacks to get him used to how he fought. There were significant differences between them. While Electra's style was more refined and technical due to her specialization with the sword, Arcturus was unquestionably more fluid and aggressive. He left few "tells" as he made his attacks, going gracefully from one move to the next as if they flowed together naturally, and seemed to strike without intention. His sword also impacted with much more power. Arcturus caught one of the freshman's swings in a perpindicular block, and took the opprotunity to rapidly slide his blade along that of his opponent, causing unpleasant vibrations that made Aizen flinch.

"Now you know why Grimmslayers use a waved edge. The blade's shape and wieght distribution gives it all the power of an axe without the mass. It also lets me do this.", Arcturus quipped, before reversing the orientation of his sword so that the sharpened inside of the curved upper blade was facing forward, parried Aizen's defensive strike, and hooked his knee to send him sprawling. Arcturus leveled the point at Aizen's neck, and then moved it aside to help him up.

"Fatal blow. Arcturus. Reset.", Adena called out.

The next bout was over almost instantly. Arcturus used his sword's shape to hook both of Aizen's swords out of the way before resting it on Aizen's neck. Arcturus urged Aizen to use the style he had beaten Electra with, and in their third bout, he did so. Arcturus grinned at the challenge as Aizen's speed forced him onto more even footing and caused him to take a few minor blows. He put his off-hand on his sword's lower back edge, and half-sworded a bit, landing a few slashes and pommel strikes before ending the bout by hooking his sword around the back of Aizen's neck and pressing him into it. Arcturus spoke again as they seperated.

"I really like that style. You have really mastered the use of explosive motion for speed. But you need to use the intentionless strike, and make thought and action one. The most important attribute of Grimmslayer fighting styles is that we fight with flow, moving from one thing to the next so seamlessly as to make it all appear one motion. We are like wind and water, soft and fluid, yet strong.", Arcturus remarked.

Meanwhile, Bjorn approached Aiden as he waited for the other four to recover, and asked him to spar hand-to-hand. Aiden accepted, and the two moved to a free sparring ring.

"Look out, Aiden. Bjorn might look like a big bruiser, but he's really a wrestler. You better break out of his grapples quick or his claws will tear your Aura up.", warned Elysia, one of the team leader's subordinates and Adena's dirty-blonde fraternal twin, who had chosen to referree the match.