For Mars

Cassandra's Gladius lay lying on the dusty ground, forgotten, dropped or knocked out of her hands it didn't matter, she rarely used the blade much to the disgust of her commanders. She didn't wear much armour, greaves to protect her legs, forearm guards to protect her arms and a helmet. She had a parmula equipped on her left arm, whilst held in her right hand a Imperial Gold Sica. She moved with greater speed and agility than her more heavily armed opponents. Already she had triumphed over three of them, over confident because she still was quite new to the Legion and much smaller than her foes.

Cassie parried a blow with her sword, bashing her shield into the helmet of her foe, knocking them off balance before a swift front kick to their larger shield which sent them sprawling onto their back. Before they could get up she planted a foot on their chest, the blade resting on their throat for a fraction of a second. Before she moved off, that made four beaten. She could feel sweat trickling down her brow, her breathing heavier than normal, a slight nick on her left arm trickled a small stream of crimson down her tanned skinned.
Her green eyes flicked back and forth, searching for another target another Legionnaire arrived ready to face her. Muttering a short prayer to Mars, Cassandra met him in a furious clash of blades. The fighting could have lasted for seconds, minutes, hours, days or maybe a month but suddenly the fight was over as her blade hovered near his exposed throat. He backed off beaten, humbled by his dangerous foe.

Cassandra had another nick on her right arm, this one barely bled however it wasn't much of a concern.

Sword fighting was one of Leandra's least favorite activities in the Legion. She was much less of a fighter and much more of a healer, however, despite not enjoying fighting, she was decent at it. Better with her trusty pugio or a plumbata than a gladius, but she could hold her own against many of the inexperienced fighters.

One difference between her and the inexperienced fighters was patience. The veteran medic was willing to wait and see how a fighter acted. Now she was up against a brash fighter who put everything into offense and little into defence at all. Leandra had watched for the past three legionnaire fighters against her. Her opponent fought like a Thracian, and that was easy enough to counter.

"Would you like to fight someone you own size now?" This wasn't actually true, Leandra was nearly half a foot shorter than Cass, and almost definitely weighed less. Her size made her a hard target, but it limited her reach. Her advantage was in speed, and experience. She knew how to fight against a Sica.

Cassie pointed her Sica at the girl who called out to her. "I would like you to point to someone my size then." She had already beaten several legionnaires taller and stronger than her. Speed had been an important advantage for her, Cassandra liked to strike fast and hard against her foes. Cassie wasn't inexperienced, she undergone many relentless drills before, dozens of sparring matches and won the majority of the fights she had been in.
Her real concern wasn't her injuries nor the size or skill of her foe, not even her armament troubled her. Exhaustion would be a far more powerful foe to fight her. Taking down several enemies in the hot weather would rapidly tire someone out, regardless of how fit they were.

Her opponents previously made the mistake of thinking her easy prey, many had seen her fight with Roman weapons and believed her to be quite a poor fighter. Give Cassie a Thracian weapon and she would appear to fight much better, though never give her a missile weapon for she shunned such cowardly tools. She preferred to fight close up rather than at a distance. She controlled her breathing her eyes not leaving her new potential foe, she scanned her visually, assessing her silently. "So be it." Cassandra said at last adopting a fighting stance, though due to her little armour happened to be far more mobile than most of them. Yes it left her more vulnerable however speed would make up for that.

That and faith in the gods.

Leandra moved into a fighting position that was flexible and ready, despite having an over-large shield with her. They his her plumbata, which she was more than willing to break out in a fight. She pulled her gladius, the blade shining brightly in the light.

Her eyes focused on the fighting stance of her opponent, also something focused on speed rather than power. Her opponent was larger, but still small compared to most fighters, so she had to capitalize on being small and fast, like Leandra. The Sica was curved, Leandra's lip pulled up slightly in a sneer at it. It was a weapon for a criminal or a gladiator.

Sic vis pacem para bellum. If you wish for peace, prepare for war. Leandra took a deep breath, then attacked with an easily telegraphed slash from above. Look weak, use assumptions.

She saw the strike coming and moved her Sica to parry the blow. They seemed to be evenly matched, both more reliant on speed than brute force or strength. Cassie kicked out with her left leg at her shield and aiming to knock her off balance, thus leaving her exposed from a slash from her Sica. Roman shields were good for kicking, but also for bashing. They were much bigger than her parmula shield. Her equipment required her to be on the offensive, she couldn't hide behind a large shield coupled with a skin of metal.

Cassandra had never cared for what her fellow Romans thought of her her choice in weaponry or armour. She fought far better equipped such than restrained by Roman armour and armed like a Roman warrior of old. Her foe had an advantage, Leandra wasn't tired, the advantage of being a fresh foe. She hid her exhaustion as best she could, testing her foe while searching for a weak spot that she could exploit and celebrate a victory.

Leandra saw her first opening at the kick. Holding the shield upright knocked the wind out of her and jarred her shoulder, but she twisted her gladius away from the parry and slammed the flat of the blade down hard against the greave of her probatio opponent.

"Little cocky there." She said, trying to cover the pain in her voice. She shoved forward, using to scutum as a battering ram.

The blow jarred her leg and she gave ground hastily, narrowly avoiding being rammed by the scutum. She refused to respond to her, not letting her words infiltrate her mind. Cassie was breathing hard, the fierce fighting earlier, coupled with the heat and the harsh training regime which left her too exhausted to dream when she crawled wearily into her bunk left her exhausted. But even so she resolved to finish the fight.

Recovering she flung herself into the attack, swinging her Sica down from above an attempt to passed her guard, thus being able to slash her back. At the same time she swung her parmula using the shield far more aggressively. It wasn't just a defensive weapon it could easily be used as a weapon in a fight. Of course throwing herself into the offensive left her open to the enemy's own attacks, unless she chose to merely block her's.

There were two good options for defense and attack that Leandra could see, her mind moving in a second. The first was violent, and would be the option in life or death fighting. Her scutum was large enough to block both blade and shield at the right angle, which would give her a chance to stab her gladius into the chest, leg or foot. None of which she wanted to do. That left her with her second, less effective, option.

Leandra spun, dodging the sica and moving with the shield, absorbing some of the impact. She grimaced, as she swung her gladius hilt towards the shoulder blades of her foe. If she wasn't careful, she could lose her balance, but she hoped her opponent wouldn't realize that.

Cassie flinched from the strike by the gladius hilt, she pushed however with a roar. Cassandra swung her sica aiming to strike her from the back. The close combat fight rapidly became a shoving match for Cassie could not afford to dance around and pick her foe apart. Especially as she seemed to be clever, not like the other fighters who had been over confident.

Leandra vaguely wondered what poetic and profound things went through the minds of heroes when they were fighting. Surely something more profound than Leandra's thoughts. She mentally went through every profane and vulgar word she could think of in English and Latin. The fight was not going as planned.

Blade coming at her, Leandra did the only real thing she could, she dropped to the ground, pulling her scutum up to block as she kicked hard at her opponent's legs, hoping to trip her. If not, she was toast. The ground was not where she wanted to be. Her left arm was nearly numb under the weight of the shield with the multiple jars it had taken earlier.

There weren't enough profanities.

Cassie hit the ground as was tripped up by what she believed to be an underhand dirty tactic. However in a fight, there is no rules, no code of honour, just survival. At any cost. Yet she couldn't find the strength in her to rise to her feet. Her chest heaved. "I yield." She called out. "Victory is yours."

If it weren't for the fact that she was panting and trapped by her own scutum, Leandra would have burst into laughter. She couldn't have bested the older girl if the fight had continued. She wasn't even sure if she could get up. "Good. So do I." She finally said.

Her left arm wasn't numb anymore, it was throbbing and sore. A sharp pain wracked her shoulder. Sharp pain usually indicated ligament or tendons, rather than muscle or nerve, but it could be a muscle tear. Still, she couldn't move the limp arm at all to push the shield off of herself. So in her considered medical opinion, it was probably a dislocation.

Leandra pushed the scutum off of her torso with her right hand, dropping her gladius. She pulled her left arm out of the brace with a heavy wince and sat up, looking at her opponent. "Good fight, but you need to watch yourself and those openings." She said, "Even if it isn't thee best for your offense, you need to protect yourself."

OOC: How old is Leandra?

She chuckled wearily, before replying. "Faith is my shield." Cassie happened to be very pious, with much of her time spent near the temples. If she couldn't be found in the camp then she would most likely be in one of the temples, worshipping the gods. "Though the best defence is a good offence." Cassie still lay on the ground looking up at the sky, she would need to visit the bath houses after this, the thought of that steam room, she kept forgetting the latin for it but she nicknamed it the boiler.
"I'll win the next fight." Her defeats didn't concern her, the daughter of Victoria was only concerned with victories.

OOC: 14

BIC:

Leandra looked at the older girl like she had four heads. She was obviously crazy if she thought the gods would protect her all the time. What was that phrase her dad used to say? "Gods protect fools, little children and ships named Enterprise." Leandra said, remembering the phrase.

She pulled her helmet off and enjoyed a good breath of fresh air. "By the way, I am Leandra, daughter of Angerona. Are you a'ight?" Despite years in California, her Southern accent was still decently thick, and sometimes just dropped letters all together from words.

OOC: Cassie is 13 :P

"You believe what you wish but I trust in two things, my Sica and the Gods." Cassie responded to that, Leandra was entitled to her own opinion, pious Cassie was entitled to her own. "I'm Cassandra daughter to Victoria and I'm good." She had beaten four better, more heavily armed, better equipped and better trained foes. "Gods be good next time I might make it unbeaten." She grinned at the prospect that would upset her Roman superiors.

"Good, care to help me pop my shoulder back into place?" Leandra asked, unhooking her brestplate and stripping it off. "I'd rather not have to explain this to the other healers...again." Again. This wasn't the first time, and wouldn't be the last time. Injuries weren't uncommon here at all.

"What makes you think I know how to do that?" Cassie asked pushing herself up with her arms so she sat up. "As honestly I don't know how to pop shoulders back into place." It was more her thing to pop them out when fighting well they called it sparring, she called it fighting with other Legionnaires.
There was normally at least one person injured in a fight against Cassandra.

"You mean you aren't a master physician as a probatio?" Leandra asked sarcastically. "I'm a medic, I can tell you how to do it. It isn't hard to do the Kocher method at all. It's been used by the Romans and Egyptians for thousands of years, even used today by physicians. Why? Because it's easy."

"I could just cut it off instead?" She responded hostilely to her sarcasm. "If you want my help I suggest you act a bit more grateful." Cassie was tempted to walk off and leave her with a dislocated shoulder however, such a thing would probably be frown upon.

Leandra was getting tired of this probatio's attitude. What ever happened to respect and discipline? She had been in the Legion for six years, and this was the first time a probatio had told her to be grateful for them doing nothing. "You have done nothing for me to be grateful for, you refused to help. I would suggest you practice humility and learn things when people try to teach you, or you're going to have a very long ten years service, Cassandra." Leandra said, pushing herself up to stand, then leaning down to get her gladius.

"Despite what you may think, Rome is not the enemy, and neither are we. Your gods are our gods." Leandra said, putting her gladius into it's sheath, then picking up her scutum with her right hand.

"I never refused to help you but I am now considering it since you brought it up Leandra." Came the reply. "I asked you to show me how and you respond with sarcasm, I suggest you practice your response to when people agree to help you out." She stood up slowly, brushing some of the dust off of her clothing. "You didn't teach me anything yet because you choose to give some speech about me refusing to help you which I didn't." She sighed, tempted to walk away and leave her here with her dislocated shoulder.

"You never asked for me to show you! Your words, your words were 'What makes you think I could do that? As I honestly don't know how pop shoulders back into place.' That isn't a request for instruction. And then you threatened to cut my arm off when I told you I could explain it!" Leandra countered, her voice sharp, but not loud. She was seething at this girl's arrogance.

"Do it yourself then if you won't talk civilly to me then you can deal with by yourself legionnaire." Cassie's temper snapped and she had to restrain herself from lashing out. With that Cassie began to walk away, furious at the rudeness and attitude of her fellow Roman.

"And what part of that was uncivil? Calling you on your lie or pointing out your threat?" Leandra snapped at the girl walking away. "Get your head out of your podex!"

"I don't lie never had never will. I might be many things Leandra but a liar is not one of them. Also if I did threaten you your still alive, those I threaten don't live so it was no threat." She called back to her. "Open your eyes you ignorant Roman. Your worse than a barbarian." With that she walked out of the field of mars, heading for the temples.