And I Do [open]

When Cori wasn't training with her brigade or going over strategies in meetings, she entertained herself by reading up on monsters and being sure that she was able to defeat whatever crossed her path. She sat on her bed within the barracks, studying what she needed for an hour or two before heading out into the world and then, eventually, to the practice fields to fight whatever she came across. She much preferred to fight monsters than to practice in the arena with other campers, though. She was either not good enough, or too strong when it came to the campers.

As she closed the book and left her living space, she put on a dark blue jacket over a black shirt and made her way towards the practice fields. As she left she noticed someone doing some insanely impressive battle moves in the arena. She stopped, enthralled. He was treating that dummy like it was someone who had personally attacked him, or offended him in some way. Needles to say, Cori was impressed.

She kept watching as the dummy was struck down to basically just limbs and body parts strewn around the arena. Cori didn't even notice how low her jaw was dropped. Would she ever be able to fight like that? Cori wasn't much for weapons. Noe, she would create an ice sword and use it in battle, regenerating it if it ever broke. She knew the physics of creating a sword. The weight, the length, the balance. She'd spoken to children Hephaestus and Vulcan. She shuddered at the memory of approaching one of those fire people. Once step in the forge, and she was sure she'd melt, luckily they had agreed to meet her outside the firey forge. She was entirely human, of course, but that didn't mean that Cori wasn't terrified of melting, even though it could never happen.

She nodded to the soldier who had practically mauled the dummy and stepped forward into the Practice Fields, ready to get some mauling done herself.

Deacon was not normally the type to take his frustrations out on inanimate objects. In fact, he very rarely showed any rage at all. But this morning have been especially difficult. A fellow Captain had spent a good portion of the morning lecturing him over why they needed to leave the safety of Concordia and wouldn't listen to reason. And as if that were not enough, he was elected to take part in this months Grand Council. He hated politicians, especially those that want to run over to Camp Bast and give the Titans a hug, like that would solve anything.

Now, Deacon could appreciate the desire for a bloodless finish to this war, but logically speaking, that just was not going to happen. The soon the Council stopped arguing about all that and acknowledged the situation, the sooner we may be able to return these people to some life of normalcy.

Deacon swung his sword over his head and watched the remains of a tattered dummy collapse to the floor like a dead body. He noticed the sand squeezing out of the slashes in the cotton binding and shook his head. What a disgusting show of rage. Exhibiting emotions this way held no true logical merit other than simple self-indulgence. Despite this, he did feel a little bit better.

It was in this moment that he noticed another person in the arena. She was part of the Pheonix group, if he wasn't mistaken. Deacon couldn't help but wonder to himself if she had noticed him attacking the dummy. It would have been truly mortifying to think that she had recognized his rage, but he decided to ignore it. What's done it done, "Why hello there." He chimed, smiling at her.

Cori cocked an eyebrow at him, "Impressive work there. Did that dummy steal your girl or something?" she smirked as she spoke. There could have easily been more going on than meets the eye with that display of his. But, he could have just been going all out with his training, either way-- she respected it. Cori was a fighter, it was all she really knew how to do and she loved every second of it. She didn't love the collateral damage, nor the casualties of comrades, but she loved to see an enemy fall. Especially one who really deserved it.

She recognized the fighter. He was a captain of the Minotaur Brigade. They hadn't spoken much, maybe at all. Their ranks were different, their brigades and also their Godly parentage. She tried to think back to camp, if she had seen him around with anyone, but she was having trouble putting a finger on it. He wasn't roman, though, she was fairly sure of that. No, she was one hundred percent sure. She had seen him at Camp Half Blood before.

The sand was now a nice pile on the ground at Deacon's feet and you could hardly see the cotton cloth that had held it all together up until that point. He kicked the pile over, letting it flatten across the grass of the field and scatter across the ground, "Oh you know, stole my lunch money back in the day. Was about time I got revenge." He laughed and looked at the other girl. He recognized her as a Greek. In fact, is his memory didn't betray him, he was almost certain she was one of those minor god babies. She lived with the Hermes kids because she didn't even have her own cabin. And, honestly, hi memory never betrayed him.

He turned and swung his sword gracefully, "Care to spar?"

This guy was clearly and even match for Cori. Heck, he was a captain-- he had to be pretty well versed with that sword. Cori took in his stance with that strange smile and the way he was swinging his sword nonchalantly. She shrugged, "Yeah, okay," she said in a bored tone before stepping further into the Practice Field.

She held out a hand to him, a respectful gesture before a spar, "Call me Cori," she offered, "I'm a tribune sergeant for the Pheonix Brigade." She spent the next few seconds going over what kind of ice sword she wanted to use. Granted, she was only good at creating a select few... it'd probably be the most beneficial to match the length and size of her opponents sword. Though, she did like her swords a little slimmer than the average. This help to create denser ice that would be strong enough against a real sword and not too heavy.

"Captain Jacoby, Minotaur." He said, returning her gesture of respect. Normally he would insist that people call him Deacon, but it never seemed right when they weren't at least of the same rank he was. So he made himself a compromise, "You have to earn you right for my first name." He said with a wink, positioning himself to start the duel, "Pick your weapon, Cori." He offered.

(ITS SO SHORT! OMG IM SOWWY! I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT IF SHE HAD ALREADY MADE THE SWORD OR NOT!!)

Cori nodded, "fair enough. I've earned everything I've ever gotten in my life, I'm used to it." She winked back as she took a step away, taking in his battle stance in a quick second. Then she lifted her hands as if she were already donned with a weapon. "Here it is," she smirked happily as ice started to slowly creep out of her fingers and palm in her left hand. The ice twisted and turned together creating a dense and well braided slender long sword. As soon as it was done forming she flipped it twice in her hand, "Usually it doesn't take that long-I'm just being a show off," she let a happy laugh escape her lips and she charged.



(Haha! Nah, she was just thinking about it. No problem! Battle posts are usually pretty short anyway. XD Wait... did we have this conversation on the other site? haha!)

He had to admit that he was a little impressed by her response. It made him respect her more than he would have if she had just blown it off or something. He also couldn't help but be impressed by her magic. It was amazing how a sword seemed to bloom to bloom out of the palm of her hand. Deacon couldn't help but thinking how useful a skill like that would be.

When she charged at him, Deacon was ready. He thrust his sword and held it in place to protect from her initial blow. He then swung it gracefully around to try for her rib cage, testing how fast she was.

The captain was obviously very good at what he does. His block from her initial attack was perfectly positioned and swift enough that she wasn't able to change course. Her sword went crashing into his and before she could react he swiftly and smoothly swung his sword around, aiming for her side. She quickly side-stepped just enough to lift the hilt of her sword to the side, causing the blade to, potentially, block his strike at a vertical angle.

She was fast, but it was clear that she needed to push herself in order to keep up with Jacoby. Good, this is what training was for. She then proceeded to bend her right knee, dropping down in order to straighten her left leg and swing it around in an attempt to trip him.

Her movement was too sudden for Deacon to react. As he fell to his back, he cursed himself silently and twisted so he would land in such a way that it would be easy to recover his ground. He popped back up and backed away two paces, trying to take in his surroundings.

Cori tried not to act giddy when her tripping him actually worked, but a smile did play across her lips. Before she could hit him while he was down, however, he maneuvered in order to pop back up. As he backed up, Cori did too, giving them space to think of what to do next. Well, now Cori didn't know what to do next. She stayed alert, watching him closely with wide eyes-- awaiting his next move.

Trying to decide what to do next would normally be a stressful situation. Deacon started to side step, turning so the sun would reflect in her eyes before charging at her with full speed. Just before he reached her, he ducked and attempted tripping her, much like she had done to him. Anticipating that she would attempt to moved away from his leg, he thrust his dulled sword where he assumed she would end up, not completely certain that she would even dodge his attempt to trip her.

As Cori tried to counter his move she realized too late how brilliant it actually was. The sun was suddenly in her eyes! She raised a hand as if to block it and felt herself get tripped. She came crashing to the ground and let out a cry of pain as she hit the hard ground. She looked up in time to see him stab the sword where she would have gone IF she had dodged. Dang, this guy was good. She took a swipe at his ankles with her own sword.

Deacon noted that she had fallen to the ground even before he tried to stab where she would have been had she dodged him. With this information he quickly jumped off the ground, narrowly avoiding a shot to his ankles. When he came back down, he fully intended to have his knees land on her shoulders and pin her to the ground, his sword at her neck in a decisive win, but of course none of that was decided quite yet.

His plan succeeded. Cori wasn't ready to be pinned down like that. As he landed on top of her, her ice sword cluttered to the ground and melted into a puddle of water. Water that was now getting in her hair. Her eyes widened at him, "Not bad," she said, clearly impressed. "Not that I expected any less, Captain," she smiled, "Guess I'll have to earn your first name some other time?"