Training (OPEN)

Bri walked into the arena for some quick training. Her long celestial bronze sword hung at her side from her jeans and it bumped into her side as she walked. She looked around with her crystal blue eyes scanned the arena to see that she was alone to train by herself. The daughter of Aphrodite grinned. She always preferred to train alone, since people were always shocked about how skilled she was with a sword considering her heritage.

Bri winced at the thought. She always hated the idea of the goddess of love being her mother. Bri wasn't into all the things that the other children of Aphrodite where: clothes, make-up, dating, etc. Aphrodite was the last goddess she would have ever expected to be claimed by when she came to Camp Half-Blood. This made her a little spiteful -- doing things that she knew the other children of Aphrodite would do; like being a skilled fighter and not caring about her looks in the slightest. She would have joined the Hunters of Artemis, but she never got to meet them before to do that. It would be ironic; the daughter of love swearing to never get involved romantically with anyone.

Bri took out her sword and started slashing and jabbing slowly at the wooden post that was shaped like a person. She started slow; turning and doing complex moves before increasing her speed. The wood soon had multiple nicks and scratches on it as Bri let out some steam. She was always a good fighter and liked to fight with swords, but she never found anyone to spare with considering she hasn't been at camp very long and she wasn't very close with her cabin mates.

"Nice swing," a voice said behind her.

Phoebe had observed the girl slashing away at the wooden dummy, sitting on the benches. Her break was not over yet, she was looking at the different demigods training in the arena, carefully analyzing their style in case there was something she could work on. This girl there was skilled, almost as swift as a Hermes kid. But she knew she wasn't from cabin 11; Bri was Phoebe's sister.

The plus-size Aphrodite offspring lifted herself off her bench and strolled over. She was wearing a crop top, a snapback, and had gym pants high on her waist. Nothing in her clothes let on that she was one of the trust fund kids running around camp.

Her large spear laid across her shoulders. "Wanna train against a moving target instead?"

Bri looked up from the annihilated dummy and turned to see one of her sisters, standing with a spear on her shoulder.
Bri grinned. "That would be great."
The blue eyed girl walked over to the center of the arena, readying her sword. She was excited to finally be sparing with someone else for a change. This was a test to see how well she could stand up to a real opponent. She waited for her opponent to make the first move.

Phoebe smiled then swung her spear without warning. She'd been doing jujitsu at home for a fairly long time, and a spear was not much different from the bo staves she usually trained with. If anything it was just heavier at the ends.
Celestial bronze flashed as she hit and parried, swinging her spear down on any spots that seemed unprotected. Phoebe may be a large girl, but she was strong and precise.

Bri's arm moved without her control to block her first strike. Her arms screamed with the jolt as Bri spun out and started her own offense. Her sister was easily stronger than herself. Bri knew the bigger girl was easily stronger than her 5'5 frame, so she had to use her speed (which she hoped was faster than Phoebe).
Bri spun and went in for a fake right jab before turning quickly and moving her sword sharply downward.

Bri was a quick one. She slipped through some of Phoebe's more advanced techniques like an eel and defended herself fiercely. She was ripping the Aphrodite's "no combat" reputation to pieces.
Her own training had given her a feeling for attacks, so when Bri faked a jab, she sensed the strike coming just in time and jumped over the blade. Her body jiggled as she landed, and she thrust her spear at her sister. Bri was a skilled fighter who had probably spent the last year training with demigods. Even with her own combat background, Phoebe felt it was time to take the level up a few notches.

Bri wasn't expecting Phoebe to not fall for the jab, but moved quickly when she shot her spear at her. Bri blocked the tip of the spear and slammed her foot down on the shaft and slammed her foot downward. Bri never had the traditional fighting style. It wasn't an exact art, she just attacked with some moved she learned and mostly improvising.

Unlike her sister, Phoebe liked her fights to be pretty -- good form, good stances, no messy strikes or half-baked feints. Everything had to look like it just came out of a swordfighting manual. She swung and parried, not hesitating to fight dirty when needed. To Hades with honour.

Bri bent her back under the swing like and spun low before coming back up in a wide sword arc that arced towards her side and she was counting on Phoebe to block it.

Lana had been spending the past week fighting and wrestling with her siblings in the camp and it was growing a bit old, she needed new meat to tenderize. Spending time stretching and practicing her typical go to moves with her twin swords. Strapping one on each hip the demigoddess began walking through the training arena as if she owned the place, which she might as well. With the amount of time her siblings as well as her self spend in the arena it's like a second home for all of the children of Ares.

Spotting a dueling pair, one of whom she knew to be an Aphrodite demigodess, she smirked and walked a bit closer. Analyzing their movements carefully she got a bit excited as far as fighting someone decent went. As of late Lana has been stashing a spare dagger in her training boots for close combat fights if need be and even went as far as stealing one from her younger brother to have it on her more often.

Remaining soundless in words she watched the two spare and a bit more and moved to sit on the edge of the fence with a bit of a cocky smirk on her lips as her blonde hair was up in a high ponytail.

Bri changed her direction in the last minute, swiping her sword down to Phoebe's legs, preparing for her to get her off her feet to put the sword to her throat and win. Bri was always changing her mind quickly, one moving ending half-way through to move into another was her way. It messed up her opponents.

Phoebe got slightly distracted by the girl sitting in the bleachers. Her smug smile made her wonder if she was about to attack one of them from behind -- it happened all the time in the arena. Fair fights were rare.

She smacked her spear into the sword and circled it up, pushing back to give herself some space, preparing for another attack, but did not see Bri's feint coming and looked down at the tip of the blade. "Nice moves. Did you train with Athena kids?"

"Only a few times. Mostly by myself," Bri said before moving in for another upper slice, bringing her sword down fluently. "And you?"

"I try to, but they rather train amongst themselves," she panted, deflecting the sword with the shaft of her spear. She twirled it around, aiming at her sister's exposed shoulder. "I usually train with Demeters for swordfighting, and Ares for spear techniques."

Bri blocked her sister's spear and pushed it away before spinning and trying to attack to the other side.

Lana happily watched as the two sparred and at the mention of spear training with an Ares she couldn't help but chuckle. Most of the time demigods would come to the children of war for training and even still she was keen on simply using them as training dummies.

"You're training shows it," Lana eventually spoke up towards Phoebe and laughed a bit afterwards as she continued to sit on the railing of the arena and watched the two spar.

Phoebe glanced over her shoulder to see who had talked. It was the girl from before -- she was very pretty, but she didn't feel like flirting right now. She was too taken by the fight.
Their weapons clanked and rang as the two sisters exchanged strikes, moving back and forth and circling each other. The celestial bronze flashed. Eventually, Phoebe deflected a blow and held up a hand. She was sweaty and several purple bruises had started blotching her skin, accompanied by three red cuts. "Break," she said, "I need some water." Looking at the girl again, she gave a smile. "Wanna join?"

Bri let out a breath, sweat dripping down her skull as she caught sight of the blonde girl that had been sitting and watching her fight. "Hi," Bri said, out of breath as she grabbed her water bottle and took a sip, savoring the cool tang going down her throat.

Lana laughed a bit and shrugged a bit as well, "I do not feel like fighting either of you today, I'm in more of a mood to watch you both duke it out and see who's the better demigoddess."

The daughter of Ares was not usually one to be mischievous but there were times when it was called for and also times when it would benefit her knowing about her enemies as well as fellow fighters. It was something she had picked up from watching her siblings fight all the time, it was also how she learned their weaknesses in fighting however few they may be.

Phoebe raised an eyebrow. Maybe it was just her, but the girl up there reminded her a lot of some kids at her school.
She gave a mock courtesy. "Well then, milady."