10-28-2009, 12:10 AM
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 Jantus tilted his head slightly, before closing his lone eye and shrugging. It would be impossible to convince him. Ultimately, size came first, in his view. If someone was naturally bigger, they were naturally the winner unless the smaller fighter compensated in some way. Size was the first thing one noticed when sizing up an opponent, and it was the major factor that instinct told wolves to look for in gauging their chances against one another. He knew there was more to it than that: Skoll had beaten him, and he knew people beat larger opponents all the time, but chances would always be against them unless they had more ferocity, more skill, more experience...something to offset the fact that, naturally, they were weaker. "Yeah, he was." Jantus's ears fell a little at the change in subject. He'd just been entertaining the idea of starting a debate on the finer points of fighting, but he supposed paying respect to the dead was more important. "The best I've ever seen, actually. He was smaller than me, but bigger than you...maybe in between us. He beat me once with the skill and technique you're talking about." He laughed to this, though it was at his own expense. Somehow, he felt like Skoll would have given the two of them an answer that was inbetween their current positions. Made sense, given that between the two of them, he was a good middle size. "Did a lot of crazy things. Didn't hesitate to use his size when he had it...you know, half the time I got the idea that he was so far beyond the level of most of us that we couldn't even really appreciate the moves he was using. Mind you, I know a fair deal about fighting; even the skill stuff you're talking about, hah, I know a fair deal of that, even if I count my size as my best asset." He got a contemplative look on his face. "Still, some of it was pretty amazing stuff. A mutual friend got more out of him about his past than I did...from the sounds of it, he'd learned most of it from one wolf, over half a year of training for hours every single day...and he was the Skoll we knew when he came out! Ha...it sounds like it's from a story, but Aivyr--that mutual friend--swears it's true. I guess he probably learned weapons--the war I had with him had a lot of human tools--along the way somewhere." He shook his head. "One of a kind, or so I thought. I heard the wolf that killed him was every bit as unbelievable. In fact, I saw the wolf that killed him was unbelievable...I just wouldn't have believed that after escaping Pine the bastard could hunt down and take Skoll on alone. I remember he was good...scary good, but I didn't think anyone could fight Skoll alone, not without being bigger even than me, rare as that is." He found himself shaking his head again. He was caught between knowing he should feel sad, and revisiting the awe that had accompanied his early meetings with Skoll, and every time he'd seen the older wolf fight. It didn't look fancy...there were no wasted movements or artful stances, everything had been brutal and practical, and it had all been inexorably effective in every case Jantus had seen it employed. Clearly, the wolf Asmodai had known a comparable fighting style, if not entirely the same one. Jantus still didn't know the fine details behind everything, though he supposed Aivyr did. The white wolf still wasn't completely comfortable on the subject, though, and he felt bad about digging for details. "That's a pretty impressive title, there. You must be very good at what you do. If it were a different time, and I didn't have a job to do, I might suggest a sparring match, to pit your technique and skill against my size and strength. Still, for the present, I'll simply be glad of the directions you've given me." He smiled down to her, with just enough quirk to his eyebrows to let her know he might still be interested later on once his business was finished. In reality, though, he didn't think he'd come back this way many more times, and the chances of running into Cwmfen when she could be anywhere along the territory's long border seemed unlikely. Besides, she had duties to attend to here, and it wouldn't do if she got hurt fighting him. |