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Another day, another adventure … or in this case, more training. Jayla had set herself up in one of the academy’s training fields with the intent to practice some spear wielding techniques. But having left in a rush to attend to other duties early in the morning, she had forgotten her prized weapon back at the dorm. Too lazy to go and retrieve it, the Garchomp simply makes do with a training staff and begins retracing the basics with simple footwork to start. There weren’t too many other students around, so she had ample space to move through as she worked through the movements.

T'vani herself had decided to go off to the training fields to work on her plants a bit, or at least perhaps a certain specific ones she can summon. Once she had gotten to the fields themselves, she began to start to move. Opening up her tomb which she uses to summon her plants and summons up four 6 foot tall Oak warriors coming with oak weapons, though they certainly looked sharper than anything oak could provide. One had a sword and shield, one had dual daggers, one had a lance, and the last had a large two handed sword. "Perfect, look at you all. Ready to go just as always." T'vani said, patting one of them, who seemed to show emotion as if happy.

Jayla initially didn’t pay the arriving Sunflora any heed. What difference did it make if someone else came to use the field? That was their purpose after all. But the sudden arrival of four summoned constructs was more than enough to bring Jayla to a halt. Looking over to the diminutive flower and then to her … minions, there was no questioning that she was some form of magic user. While she had nothing but respect for those who could tap into the arcane arts, she herself preferred to keep her distance from them as past dealings gave her enough reason to be apprehensive around them. Finally shaking off the thoughts, she tries resuming her practice; keeping an eye on the nearby flower and friends.

"Ready to spar you guys?" She said out to them with a bright smile. In which they'd give a small nod and take stance at her. T'vani began to jump several steps back to get ready for battle with them. "Alright, let’s start with the basics." She says out as she starts to move, grabbing a few seeds from her pouch and beginning to toss them about the immediate area. T'vani's book began to flip pages all on their own, almost as she didn't even need to think about it for them to turn to the right ones. And suddenly she would be summoning a few thorned vines out from the ground, they were about 6 feet tall and 5 inches thick. They moved about with her hands command, clearly controlling the tendrils. "Remember, work as a team." She said to them.

Again the Garchomp's focus was broken by the appearance of the oversized vines appearing from the ground. Jayla turns to watch the wooden constructs and their plant master work their craft. Her arcane prowess was clearly evident, but the way all out it all danced about the field, slowly turning it into a clodden mess, Jalya did her best to hold back her usual snarky commentary. Shaking off the sight in mild disdain, she resumes her practice, but not before letting one word of advice out. "Try not to tear the field up too much. Some of us still have to use them later." Though she didn't address them directly, she spoke in a loud enough voice that they were sure to hear from their vantage point.

T'vani began to direct the Vines around, whipping at them, clashing with their weapons as the Oaklings were doing their best to actually work on fighting together rather than beating it, just as T'vani asked. It may have been clear that they all had some sort of personality, perhaps even a certain small level of sentience, or maybe it only appeared that way because simply she willed it as such with her magic. Regardless though, when that voice called out to her. She'd say. "I could tear it to pieces and fix it up right away, you have nothing to fear." A particularly loud thump was heard, making an oakling looking indent into the ground.

Jayla listened to the response as she tried out a few strike techniques with her staff. Having worked with magic users in the past, she always found the process to be quite trying on her. Her favor towards immediate action was always granted to her at the end of her spear, involving the arcane arts always seemed to invoke delays. The loud thump quickly brought her attention back over to the meandering Oaklings, now one less by the looks of it. She knew it was rude, but the immediate reaction couldn't be helped as the Garchomp chuckled at the sight. "What, like your friend over there? Look, if you say that you can that's great. I'm just merely stating my humble observations that maybe you ought to tone it down a bit." As she spoke she emphasized her point by raising her hand up parallel to the ground and then dropping it a few inches.

"If I tone it down, then they won't learn as well." She said, raising the vine up into the air once more, the other three oaklings hurrying over to the one that got flattened and starting to help him out of the whole. Though they had no real faces, only outlines. It was clear that they could express feelings and emotions rather easily. "Now, if you want to attack them a bit and show them how much of a fighter you are. I wouldn't mind letting you do so." T'vani would say, folding her arms under her cheset.

The remark confused the Garchomp somewhat. How could these tree things ‘learn’? Weren’t they just summoned entities? As Jayla thought on that she looked on as they Oaklings came to the support of the other. She clearly had no understanding of how the magic that brought them into being worked. The Sunflora’s next set of words however put a smirk and Jayla’s face. “An interesting proposal.” Her gaze went from the Sunflora mage to her minions and then back to the mage. “Certainly beats just swinging around at air.” Twirling the staff around her, the Garchomp brings it to a halt while assuming a battle ready stance. “Any terms? Or just keep going until someone cries uncle?”

"You can go ahead and take it as far as you want, slice em up to bits even. They never truly die anyway. I can just summon them back up. Memories always stick with them though." It implies that these are probably the same minions being resummoned over and over rather than some random faceless drones. "They have to be ready for anything and everything, even brutal foes that show no mercy." Sorta implying that they were actually kinda softies. The one that was stuck in the ground was now out, seeming mostly unhurt by the attack though. Clearly they had a pretty good resistance to being crushed, at the very least.

Jayla couldn't help but smirk at the opportunity being presented to her. "Well if restraint isn't a concern ..." the Garchomp relaxes out of her stance and walks over to one of the nearby weapon racks, exchanging out the staff for a simple spear. Returning to the same spot as before, she tested out the weapon with a series of twirls and jabs. If only she had brought along her personal lance, she might have actually enjoyed herself then. "... I might as well use something that favors me more." Resuming a combative stance, she eyes up the summoned wood constructs knowing that if her strikes were to have any effect on them she'd have to maintain her distance. There was also the concern of watching her flanks, but she'd deal with that if the time came. Eager to get things moving, Jayla tries goading the Oaklings into making the first move. "So which one of you wants to go first?"

The oaklings watched her with seeming fearlessness, clearly if there is one thing they had it was not being afraid of something. But then why should they? Them dying is more of an inconvenience than anything else at this point right? "Took quite a few deaths for them to stop being afraid of dying." She comments out looking at them. "If you had seen them when I first summoned them they would have been scared out of their wits by you!" She said with a small laugh before tapping the one with two daggers. "Go ahead, you can go first." The oakling nodded and began to make its way forward, the rest backing up. It took a stand and seemed rather eager to fight, even having a bit of a bounce in its step.

The concept of a summoned creature like the ones before her having feelings, let alone a persistent memory, still baffled the Garchomp. Jayla couldn't deny the advantages that came from such a thing though. "The little saplings aren't so green anymore? Well good. Then they should at least offer me somewhat of a challenge then." Seeing one Oakling approach and the others back away brought some measure relief to her; only one target to focus on ... for now at least. Jayla held onto her spear as she began slowly advancing in a clockwise rotation around the creature. Until she could get into striking distance, she would try to get a closer look at her foe for any openings she could exploit.

Of course, the oakling watched silently as Jayla began to start moving in a clockwise motion, its body only turning enough to keep the Garchomp in sight at this point, it had a very defensive stance. Clearly expecting it to not be able to have enough of an advantage to go in or even take any sort of real offensive. "Yeah, with the stuff I threw at them since the start, they certainly don't have much fear unless you can really drive it home that it’s going to be a slow and painful death for them." She comments out, showing the fact that whenever she did kill them, it always had been quick and clean, not akin to suffering at all.

"I guess they'll be happy to hear that slow and painful isn't really my style then." Finding herself hard pressed to find any useful openings to take advantage of, Jayla figured she was going to have to make some of her own. Raising the back end of the staff she points the spear tip low before lunging in toward the Oakling, sweeping up for a hit to the hip.

"Yeah, good. They haven't really had any situation to put them through that, so it'd be literal torture." The Oakling kept watch and seeing Jayla move for an attack. The daggers of the Oakling swiftly moved, making a downward motion to meet with the spear tip. The daggers crossed as if trying to hold the tip of the spear between them and quickly tried to push it right, in an attempt (That wouldn't really work given the weapon) to disarm Jayla.

Without any openings to exploit, Jayla's next favored spot to target were the joints. And with her first attempt blocked, she uses the redirected momentum to spin around and come in with the spear again for a high strike down towards the shoulder. If the Oakling's proportions were any bit similar to a normal pokemon's, a hit there would limit their options quite a bit, but a miss on her part would leave her vulnerable to a counter strike. Still, this was her first fight against a magical entity. Some rules were bound to bend at some point.

The Oakling took back a defensive stance when it saw that she began to spin around. Once her weapon came down in a high strike, the Oakling moved to try to brace itself to the attack by putting both its daggers in front of itself to hold back the attack, which did end up leaving the Oakling itself vulnerable to a follow up. Or at least it seemed that way until the oakling moved one of its legs forward and tried to kick Jayla in the stomach in a attempt to make her back off, clearly knowing that it was open, it tried to do its best to stop that from happening.

Jayla hops slightly off the ground as she releases the spear with her left hand and pushes on the back end of the weapon with her right. Using the contact point of the daggers and spear-point as a fulcrum, the Garchomp barely manages to push herself away from the kick. Feeling the tangle of roots and bark brush against her middle was a jolt to her system. It also left Jayla momentarily vulnerable for a counter as she landed a few steps away attempting to pull the spear back into her other hand.

Seeing this spot to actually go in. The Oakling gripped its daggers tighter and began to make a few steps before rushing forward, its daggers aiming to punch into her shoulders, clearly seeming to not have the heart to aim for anything vital. Poor thing, it'll be its downfall multiple times rest assured.

Jayla smirked at her opponents approach. She took the full hit to her left shoulder, the force of which set her up for her next attack. Just as quickly as she was hit, the Garchomp brought up the hand of her impacted arm to grab hold of the creatures offending appendage. With spear held firmly in her other hand, Jayla thrusts the tip towards the Oaklings armpit with intent to cleave straight through. They were just summoned creatures anyway, why not have a little fun and push the envelope with severing a limb or two in the process. After all it wasn't every day you could do so and not get send to jail for it.

The Oakling when grabbed seemed to immediately freak out, squirming for what little time it had, trying to break free before its arm being cut right off, its body writhing in agony as limbs became severed, the thing still clear and thinking. Given it couldn't actually be killed by blood loss due to not actually having blood, it'd probably have to actually take more damage than just a severed limb or two to kill it. Regardless though, she could probably leave it now as it was clear that it wouldn't be able to fight back anymore.

Seeing the Oakling writhing about the Garchomp released the severed limb. Somewhere across Jayla's mind the thought that she might have overdone it came and gone. She had not expected to achieve this result so quickly, having honestly expected it would have taken more force and more tries. But who was she to complain, her opponent had been disabled. Jayla approached the oakling with spear held firmly in her hands, watching it attempt to adjust to its new condition. She waited for the creature to either stand or yield as a finishing blow now would not have sat well on her conscious.

The Oakling would eventually begin to subside in its squirming, still in agony. It almost gave the form and movements that it wanted to be stabbed and stop its pain, as it was one to always be cut down quickly and concisely in battle the only way it knew to make the pain stop was to die. "Come on don't be heartless! Finish it off!" She called out. "Can't you see your making him suffer by keeping it this way?"

Jayla's eyes narrowed at hearing the Sunflora's words. Being called heartless did not sit well on her shoulders. Looking to the oakling she used her spear to force it into a kneeling position. They may have been only summoned entities, but if the fact that their personalities stayed intact at each summoning was indeed true, then what would it hurt to offer up some small bit of wisdom. "Learn and live," she spoke in a low voice to the Oakling before swinging her spear tip across its neck. A strike that in itself wasn't anywhere near strong enough to behead a living individual, but seeing how easily the arm had come off, this would easily achieve the same result.

Of course the head came off and the body grew still once more. She starts to speak out to Jalya as she watched the whole thing went down. T'vani shook her head and said. "Poor thing can't manage to go for the vital points. I've been beginning to debate on whether to keep trying for combat on it or perhaps use it for more utility things such as carrying weights. Poor thing seemed like it doesn't want to hurt anyone at all sometimes." She comments out. "Which one do you want to fight next?" She would ask the other, curious. "Unless you don't want to anymore?" Having seen the hesitation that Jayla had before, she wouldn't blame her for not wanting to fight them.

Jayla watched and listened to T'vani as she spoke. It almost sounded like she was talking more about a hired service than a partner to serve alongside her. She looked to the Oaklings remains as they had begun to wither away. "I was hoping for more of a challenge. But if they really are as good as you make them out to be ... then I'll have another go. Might as well make our time here worthwhile after all." Briefly looking over the remaining Oaklings, she points her spear towards the one wielding the lance. "How about fighting fire with fire. Sir lancealot there."

T'vani honestly saw them as partners, just in her eyes she had a narrower look on everything and thus it just sorta comes out that way. In the end though, she starts to move and speaks up. "Yeah, they should be a lot better to handle combat. Hopefully your next one won't disappoint you." She moves to tap the one with the lance, saying. "You can do it, I believe in you." She taps its back as the one with the lance began to move forward and get ready for combat.

Jayla resumes her base stance of legs spread apart and spear pointing forward. Having the tip pointed upwards slightly as she held the weapon level with her hip, she watched the Oakling to see how it carried itself as readied itself for engagement. Jayla waited only a few moments before lunging in with her spear and aiming to strike at its hip. Sure she could have aimed at vitals for a quick kill, its just that the Garchomp found an extra degree of challenge, if not enjoyment, in disabling opponents through their joints and limbs.

The oakling took a stance similar to hers, one hand under the grip and the other actually resting on the base of the lance itself rather than the handle. It held it up and kept it pointed at her as it seemed ready to fight. But when Jayla charged right in, the Oakling moved, immediately rolling out of the way and taking a quick knee to try to jab the end of its lance into Jayla’s back, it beginning to stand up mid Jab as well. Clearly this one was less afraid of dealing damage than the other Oakling was.

For being nothing but brambles, roots, and bark, these Oaklings could move surprisingly quick. She barely had enough time to lean backwards to avoid the hit she saw coming her way out of the corner of her eye. The surprise of this reality caused her to stall ever so briefly. It was more than enough time for the Oakling to exploit, as the spear glanced across her back cutting into her leather shirt and scraping the skin underneath just under her dorsal fin. Spinning around to again face the Oakling she used the momentum with her spear to knock the oaklings lance away from herself. Now things were getting interesting.

The oakling felt the momentum of the strike and didn't even resist it. In fact it redirected it. Sticking his lance into the ground so that he could sling himself a bit farther off from where she was, the lance coming out of the ground again with said momentum. It began to take a stance once again. Clearly waiting for her to make a move. Perhaps it was fonder of reacting rather than launching a straight up attack. Which was almost counter intuitive of what you might have expected by an actual lancer. "Told you, they are no joke!" T'vani calls out as she glances over to one of the other oaklings, who simply gave a nod of agreement.

So her probing strike clearly failed and bit her in the back. Grand. The cool sensation she felt back there made her wonder if the strike had drawn blood or if the shirt had been cut big enough for a breeze to catch in. Whatever it was she wasn't going to stop now for something as meager as that. "So I see. I'm just hoping that's not the only trick they can do." Jayla did a false jab toward the oaklings chest before just as quickly pulling away in an attempt to gauge the creature’s reaction for any useful movements to exploit or explore further. "I've still got plenty fight left in me yet."

The Oakling began to move when the false Jab came, quickly turning the weapon sideways almost like he planned to try to knock away the weapon in a parry fashion. It certainly had a eccentric fashion of using that lance though. "Well if you had no fight left in you after that. Why would you even be fighting at all?!" T'vani said with a laugh. The Oakling suddenly began to start sidestepping around Jayla, clearly it must be planning something now, realizing being defensive wasn't actually getting either of them anywhere at this point and time.

"It'll take more than a scratch to dissuade me from a good fight. If anything, it only adds to the motivation to fight harder." The Garchomp watches her opponent carefully. After only making a few steps to her side Jayla twists around to face the Oakling and again lunges her spear at it. This time committing her full force to the attack. She wondered how would it cope to this a second time around.

"Good! That’s what I love to hear from a real fighter like you!" The oakling would start to move again as it saw her go with full force. He actually made a movement and pressed his lance against her spear, grinding it upwards and the oakling pushing itself forward so they were close up. The oakling then proceeds to try and head-butt her. Man these guys were good, but to be fair. As it appeared all it took was one hit and they were done for.

Jayla was rather amused by how these creatures committed themselves to direct attacks. Deciding to use that to her advantage, she lets herself get bowled over by the head-butt. Releasing her weapon, she takes hold of the Oakling with both hands by the head and rolls backwards onto the ground with that very same momentum it had just imparted to her. Pulling the Oakling along with her, she brings in her legs and as she comes out of the roll pushes them out against the Oakling to vault him over herself.

The oakling thought of course, that it was being a totally awesome badass like it envisioned itself. But as it turned out it only fucked itself over. Getting grappled and tossed, it dropped its own weapon and dragged along and pushed by her feet into the air, it went sailing forward, its hands moving as it saw it was going to hit against a tree. pushing its hands forward and hitting the tree, his body shuttered and hit the ground, it looked like it was in some pretty considerable pain, leaving it open for an attack.

Righting herself as quick as she could, Jayla scans the area to see where the Oakling landed. She winces after seeing it make contact with the nearby tree and the ground right after. Not wanting to waste any time, she reacquires her spear and the lance of her opponent. Taking a moment to judge the distance, she throws the oaklings lance back at it aiming to finish it off.

The oakling stares up at her as the lance was tossed at it, the thing would shift and move, letting the lance impale the tree behind it. It was clear it hadn't lost its will to fight yet. It moved to grab the lance and having it as a crutch to help it stand. Then it took a battle ready stance once again, though it was clearly weakened and in pain it still wanted to fight.

The Garchomp smirks at seeing this Oaklings resilience. Taking firm hold of her spear, Jayla charges toward the stricken creature. Instead of going in for a full thrust strike, she instead brings the spear around for a swinging strike against the Oaklings chest.

The oakling began to start moving its lance to block the strike seeming surprised when she changed tactics, its body moving back and leaving a visible mark across its chest. The oakling would shift and falter for a moment before trying to push its lance in return into the Garchomps stomach.

She apparently had a thing for misjudging the reaction speed of these creatures. By the time she realized its intent there wasn't enough time for her to bring in her weapon to counter. Pushing back with her feet and curling herself forward, she tried to lessen the blow of the lance to herself by twisting her torso out of the way. She could hear it tear into her shirt and feel it brush against her skin. If the lance were but a mere pitchfork, the strike would have certainly skewered her. Testing her luck, Jayla attempts to grab onto the arm of the Oakling that held the lance with her free arm to pull it into its own momentum to throw it off balance.

Success was the answer to that move. It would get flung, its body just barely catching itself as it stumbled and moved forward, leaving it in a perfect opportunity to get hit again, the Oakling was fast to move but likely not fast enough to turn around and block her attack. Now was the perfect chance, and judging by how back and forth the fight went, one of the only chances she would get to have a clean attack against the oakling without it being able to do some sort of attack in the way of counterstriking her in return.

Jayla released her grip seeing that the gambit paid off. With the oakling stumbling forward she continued the momentum of her pull on his arm into a spin, setting herself up to spear the oakling straight through its back. The move, if not enough to end the fight there, would give her the leverage to force the oakling to the ground.

The Oakling's body would push forward once the spear pushed straight through it. It stumbled a bit more, before falling onto its knee's, struggling to stand back up and force the spear out of her hand. Shame she could tell it was losing its strength and had no chance of successfully pulling it off now. Unlike the other oakling this one didn't want to give up despite the clear and constant pain wracking its body

Jayla paused a moment to catch her breath as the oakling fell to its knees. A twinge in her side made her look down to the oaklings last hit. Patting down the impact site confirmed what she thought and pulling her hand back doubly so; the attack managed to draw a bit of blood. The cut was shallow, but enough to remind the Garchomp of its presence. She walked over to the oakling and took firm hold of the spear still lodged within the construct. "I have to give it to you. You certainly have quite the fighting spirit and talent to match." Without warning, she rips the spear out from behind and sets herself up for a strike. "But you still have a long ways to go." Jayla brings the full force of her swing across the backside of the oaklings neck.

The oakling went out and lifeless immediately as the swing came across the back of its neck. T'vani would fold her arms and say. "Nice work taking him out, he really likes to go even when he’s down for the count. A real fighter just as you say. Shame he is so new and in experienced just like the rest of them." T'vani said rubbing the back of her head. "not to mention as well your probably one of the few they've fought that hasn't been me so they are probably not as good as fighting against something I haven't been able to regularly match them with."

"They're a little rough around the edges, but not bad as they are." Jayla takes her gaze from the fallen oakling back over to their Sunflora master. "Definitely wouldn't hurt to get in more 'outside' combat exposure if all they've had to go with was you. Variety is the spice of life after all ... or at least so I've heard." The Garchomp puts her hand onto her side again over the oaklings cut, the sensation was more akin to an annoying itch than anything else. "How long have you been training them if I might be so bold to inquire?"

She listened to Jayla and nodded, looking at the three that were left. "Yeah, they are not all that bad. But, it also helps that they are more used to fighting and co-operating as a group rather than one-on-one. They haven't really had too much of that either. Usually because of the fact that if I summon them, they will probably be fighting together. And as you can imagine, there are limitations so I can't just keep summoning them endlessly." She would say out to Jayla. "Maybe you can spar regularly with them then? It might do well for them to have a combatant they are not used to at all and seeing how they adapt to it." She then glanced at her hand and back to her. "How long? Not very, in comparison when I first was able to summon them without it being a chore. It used to make me exhausted to summon all of them at once." She said with a small laugh. "But at that point when I could regularly summon them, I'd say about 2 months, possibly three. It’s a tad fuzzy really. But if you want to know how long I've been able to summon them at all it’s been for the past year and a half."

Only a few months of actual combat training? Jayla was sure she misheard that. The first oakling may have fit the bill, but the second one she fought against certainly didn't. They must taking to learning pretty quick then. She was impressed. "Well I definitely wouldn't mind having someone new to spar with. It sure beats having to go solo against a training dummy that doesn't even fight back." Jayla chuckles. Truly that's all she expected to accomplish this evening, so having the Sunflora volunteer her oaklings was quite a welcome change-up to the routine. "Though as much as I am for new training sessions, the proceeds for this event felt a bit one sided. Your summoned friends and I got all the glory. There must be something I can offer to compensate you for your time?"

T'vani lets out a small laugh with her. "I can imagine. Fighting against nothing is always the dullest thing isn't it?" She then puts a hand on her hip. "Well we could probably doing one on one against each other too." She said, with a small nod. "Though, depending on how good our skills match up. One side might end up having a bit of trouble against the other. I'm still willing to go for it either way!"

The Garchomp relaxes her posture and jabs the spear tip into the ground. "Well I can tell you right now that the battle would be pretty much in your favor. Not because your friends there wore me down, but because I don't have much if any experience fighting mages ... only suggested tactics from my peers and readings." Jayla looks up towards the sky, noting the time of day. "Besides, I'm sure you had other things planned for the day than bothering around with me."

"Yeah. Actually I did. I planned to go see someone a bit later. But I still have some time." She chimes out as she starts to move a bit, leaning against the oakling with the sword and shield. "If you really don't want to go. We don't have to. I'll probably just find something else to do to pass the time really." She then glances up at it and then to her. "But I'm just saying. You'll never be good against something you've never fought against. And it'll be harder to deal with when it really matters if you don't practice."

"Well it was never my intention to keep you away from your company. But if you would grant me the opportunity to spar with you, I would appreciate the exposure." Jayla returns her gaze to the Sunflora and her oaklings, smiling appreciatively. "Most mages here don't usually have the time or much spine to respond to my challenges."

"Well luckily I currently have both. I can't imagine that'll last forever. Life has way of making you extremely busy after a while." T'vani said with a shrug and a smile, her hand starting to move a bit as she reached for a handful of seeds. "So I would say its best we begin sparring now while we both have the chance for it Jayla." She murmurs out.

Jayla nods in agreement. Life definitely had a way of gifting and robbing things from individuals at a moment’s notice. Plucking her spear from the ground, the Garchomp moves back out into the field before turning back to face T'vani. Twirling her spear around mostly for show, she sets herself up into a combat ready stance. "Then let us start using our time wisely." She smiles deviously. The oaklings were a welcome change-up, but to fight a mage ... this would be interesting.

T'vani watched her as she got in a ready stance, all T'vani began to do was start tossing seeds at the ground, as spread as she could really. "Agreed, we should really see how well we can do against each other. This should be real fun I'd say." T'vani murmured out as she started to turn the pages of her book rather casually to a certain one and looked up at Jayla. "Ready whenever you are."

The Garchomp watched curiously as T'vani spread seeds around. Coming from a Sunflora, Jayla figured they had something to do with a possible tactic of hers so she made a mental note to treat them akin to a spike trap. This was certainly going to be a trial by fire. With T'vani announcing her readiness to begin, Jayla darts towards the mage with spear pointing forward while trying to keep in mind the placement of all the seeds that laid in her path.

T'vani would quickly begin to move now, thankfully Jayla had given her time to spread the seeds about. Her hand moves upwards and a large vine coming out of the ground and quickly moving to bend and block the attack, the spear punching straight through it but stopping it from getting farther to T'vani. Her next move she began to move again, the pages of the book flying about almost on their own as she started to raise a couple plants from the ground by the Garchomp which seemed to have a sharp tip, they would quickly lunge their bodies forward in a attempt to stab at her knees.

Again Jayla uses her momentum to shoulder charge into the vine that both blocked her spear and the path to T'vani. The thickness of the vine translated into the Garchomp only bruising her shoulder in the attempt as it hardly budged. She quickly rips her spear out from the vine and spins her head about to locate where the Sunflora had run to. Once spotting her target, Jayla again makes herself ready to charge at her when sudden movement below caught her attention. More sprouting vines, only these looked slimmer, more agile and far sharper the others. Seeing them dart towards her, the Garchomp does her best to jump out of their way as they whip about in her direction. Though not quite hitting their mark, they more than made up for it as they tore into the weak leather protecting her shins and scuffing those up in the process.

T'vani watched as those plants tore into her outfit. Luckily while they did have a good attack distance, it was because they were stuck being completely stationary. T'vani kept sprinkling seeds around. Clearly she carried A LOT of them. T'vani would start to speak up. "I'll keep playing Defensive Jayla. First and best thing to do with Mages is get the right offense against them." She called out to her as she stood ready to respond to Jayla's next attack

Playing defensive eh? That pretty much eliminated any direct strikes the Garchomp had in mind. If only she had her personal lance with her, then Jayla could have done something to sweep those blasted seeds off the field. But as it was, all she had was the dinky training spear. There wasn't much cover between herself and T'vani, so no movement of hers would go unnoticed. Looking over to the large vine that had blocked her path earlier out of the corner of her eye, an idea came to her. It wasn't an ideal one, but it was worth trying. Holding the spear behind herself and one arm out in front, Jayla advances toward the Sunflora in a counter-clockwise movement from where she stood.

Of course, T'vani was making sure to expect anything as Jayla would really have to pull something out to really get past her defenses she even had a plan for if she did try to sweep them off, she could make them explode with a little move called seed bomb, useful really on many occasions. She started to flip through her pages looking for the ideal spell for it to sit on. Her eyes glancing up at her as she watched Jayla approach in such an odd fashion. T'vani began to start moving one of her hands forward, as if ready to cast her magic with Jayla made a move. A stalemate and occurred and you know what they say. Somewhere in the world right now, it was high noon.

Halfway between where she started and where T'vani stood, Jayla immediately changes direction and heads towards the large vine from earlier. Side stepping all the little seeds on the ground she could see, Jayla takes a running jump onto the heavy vine. She get two steps of verticality before pushing off with her third step in T'vani's direction. Having positioned the sun to be directly behind her, she makes an attempt at an aerial strike on the Sunflora.

Of course as Jalya started to make move for the large vine, T'vani began to move to have it try and attack the Garchomp, sufficed to say that Jayla was fast enough to take the jump before it could grab her. This caused T'vani to try to react by growing another plant, except that the aerial strike was high enough that the plant didn't grow in time, Causing T'vani to have to back up, causing a rather large chunk of the front of her outfit getting ripped revealing part of her undershirt which seemed to match with her pants. "Dang...I really liked this outfit." She mumbles out as she started to jump back again, the plant that grew moving to try to smack into Jalya now

That smug little grin of hers for having landed a hit on the Sunflora mage was short lived. That momentary lapse in focus brought on by her pride was more than enough time for T'vani to exploit. The newly grown monster of a vine whipped into Jayla’s side, unceremoniously flinging her into the first vine with a loud crack upon impact. The Garchomp crumpled to the ground onto her arms and knees as pieces of her spear rained down around her. Dazed and confused, Jayla remained where she was until her focus returned and stars went away.

T'vani would stare at the Garchomp as she gets launched. T'vani began to start hurrying over to where Jayla was, clearly fully believing that she actually hurt her. She would start to move and crouch down a bit by the Garchomp and would say out. "Sorry! I didn't mean to hit you that hard, certainly not hard enough to break the spear." She murmurs out to Jayla. "Are you hurt anywhere? I can help." She murmurs out as she began to start flipping through pages of her book, clearly with something in mind now to cast. She was now moving to grab a seed and start to push it into the ground ready to use her magic.

Still in a daze, the Garchomp didn't even register T'vani's approach until her voice could be heard right beside her. Upon hearing the question of whether or not she was hurt, she couldn't help but let out a strained laugh. "Other than my pride? I'll be fine ... just give me a minute." Jayla said while trying to ignore the throbbing pain from the base of her dorsal fin and a few of her ribs from having been bruised by the impact.

T'vani would let out a small sigh. "Judging by that laugh of yours. It doesn't sound like it Jayla." She would decide to sit and grow the plant anyway, a sort of small bluish plant with large smooth leafs began to grow from the ground. It only sat about 2 feet tall not including the leaves. She then would say. "I'll leave it here though if you need it. Just rub it on the afflicted areas and it'll dull the pain and perhaps even completely negate it if the pain is weak enough." She starts to move and now stand up again, starting to move herself back and letting Jayla recover.

Jayla watched T'vani and her newly sprouted plant out of the corner of her eye for a few moments before pushing herself up into a sitting position. She winced as the act aggravated the injury on her side. Reluctantly looking towards the plant, she carefully reaches out and handles one of its leaves "You know ... I never could understand magic myself. No one in my family line has the gift for it." She then plucks the leaf and with some struggle, tucks it underneath her shirt to gingerly apply it to her side. Her eyes were cinched shut as she rubbed it in, the pain going from stabbing knives to a dull throb. The Garchomp lets out a heavy sigh of relieve. "But I can't deny how useful it can be."

T'vani watched Jayla as she seemed really wracked with pain. She hadn't expected the plant to hit her that hard really, but to be fair. All she's really worked with on fighting was her oaklings and they were pretty agile if fragile so it was rather hard to gauge whether it'd do a lot of damage to her or not. At least she knew now, right? Still though. At least she was actually using the plant. T'vani would say. "Yeah, Magic can be real useful. For good and for bad, I just wished other Pokémon could see the large applications for good all types of magic can have. It's a shame really."

Jayla's soft laugh was cut short by the still present injury. "Agreed. It only takes one bad seed to spread like wildfire to the masses, and yet the good ones always take forever to bear any fruit." With one hand still holding the leaf in place on her side, Jayla looks to the two large vines that so swiftly and decidedly ended their sparring match. "Those things really pack a punch."

"Yeah they do, but as you can imagine they have some flaws as well. Even in their rapid growth they weren't fast enough to get you away before you could land a clean hit on me." She murmured out, putting her hand to her outfit. Which made it very clear that she probably would have had a big heavy wound going down her if she didn't get out of the way in time. "Man, if that was a couple inches forward I might have been bleeding to death." She mumbles out.

"So we apparently both got lucky then ... go figure." Another short laugh later, Jayla groaned as she pulled out the spent leaf. "I'll be honest though. The original plan was to pin you to the ground from above and force a yield." She plucked a second leaf and repeated the process. "But by the time I realized what my attack did to you, I was granted an impromptu flying lesson by your friend there. Sorry about the vestments ... and the scare." Jayla added the last part after realizing just how close she had come to doing some serious damage to the Sunflora mage.

T'vani would let out a small laugh with her, It dying off though as she heard the groan though. "Yeah, pretty lucky to say the very least." She nods a bit and then listed to the plan. "Yeah, shame thought it didn't work out. You would have gotten me good if not for the feeling that you were out for blood with that attack." She rubs the back of her head a bit and says. "And don't worry about these, I'm sure I can find a duplicate being sold somewhere. Or at least have a new one custom made. It shouldn't' be too hard after all." T’vani then would look around her a bit. "Shame about the spear though, I hadn't expected it to shatter like that either."

Jayla's gaze would follow T'vani's toward the spear. "I wouldn't worry about it that much. It was just a training piece after all. Compared to using my personal lance, I actually had to hold myself back while using that little toothpick." The Garchomp tries stretching out her back but only ends up aggravation the bruised dorsal fin. Grimacing through it, Jayla relaxes her posture again before turning her attention to T'vani and her torn garments. With her free hand she points towards T'vani's chest. "Doesn't' this kind of put you on the spot though? ... You did said you were meeting with someone later. Are you still going to have enough time to ... well, make yourself decent by then?" Jayla was in no condition to complain herself, although apologies were certainly in order. The sparring match did a decent number to her own vestments as well.

T'vani would listen to her and let out a small laugh. "If I didn't break it then, you might of done it yourself then, huh?" She then started to move a bit forward, watching her seeming to have pain through it. She still felt kinda bad with how bad a number she managed to do to her. Regardless of that though T'vani would say. "Put me on the spot? Well...I suppose a bit. But really, I was going to go head back to my dorm and change anyway, I am going off to the beach really. So as you can imagine that doesn't affect my current attire as much. It might make things a little annoying on the way back but other than that really, I should be fine for the most part." She would nod a bit and put a hand on her hip. "I don't suppose you'll need any help getting up?"

Jayla listened to T'vani as she removed the second leaf from her side. It still hurt, but at least now it was something that she could manage through. She was impressed by how much relief came from such a simple thing. There was some measure of relief to her mind at hearing that the Sunflora's plans were not hindered by the recent events. "I can manage on my own ... eventually ... thanks to your little friend here. But If your offering then I won't be one to refuse an open hand."

T'vani watched Jayla remove the second one, she really hoped that it was helping, the chemicals within the plant were supposed to help ease pain. The plant itself wasn't magic, but the magic was knowing the proper way to change the seed so it'd grow into the plant and the actual rapid growth into the plant was what made her magic, well magic. Each plant was different and required a different understanding to turn it into the right one and not to age it too far to where it'll wither and die or too young to properly stand against what she is facing. "Of course, why wouldn't I offer some help to you?" She said, leaning down and opening her hand for Jayla to take it.

The Garchomp smiled, reaching out to take the mages hand and propping herself back on two feet. The effort forced a groan out of Jayla, but at least she was still able to stand on her own. "You know ... all in all, I must thank you for the impromptu spar. It was a decent fight despite all circumstances."

T'vani would give her a small nod at the Garchomp as she puts her hand back on her hip and said. "Yeah, it was a pretty good one, glad we could do it." She murmurs out, looking down at myself. "You know, I should probably head back to my dorm a bit earlier, I can't imagine that it’s going to be fun figuring out what I'm going to do with this new tattered mess of an outfit." She said with a small chuckle

Jayla tries not to laugh too hard herself. "Well don't let little ol' me keep you from your evening plans. But if I might say one last thing, why not just have it adjusted into something that complements your figure? I only tore the front of it and it'd be a shame to trash the whole thing because of that." Jayla was just being practical. It wasn't like she could tell anything about the Sunflora's figure from the robes she was wearing.

T'vani would blink for a moment and look down at it. She began to start moving her fingers over the part that got slice and said. "I might be able to really. If I lengthen the tear, I could probably wear it more like a coat really at that point. I suppose that would work for hotter days out, wouldn't it? Thanks for the suggestion Jayla." She would nod, being actually a tad thankful, due to the fact she probably was going to honestly scrap it otherwise.

Jayla smiles and taps the side of her head. "It's not every day that a good idea actually manages to escape this thick skull of mine." Despite the pain, Jayla laughs anyway. As good as it is to live life to its fullest, it was just as equally enjoyable to not take it so seriously from time to time. "I'm glad to have met you T'vani. This has been quite an experience for me."

T'vani would speak out. "You know, you shouldn't think of yourself like that, if I did, I would have never thought myself to be the caster I am now you know." she said with a small laugh before shifting and looking just about ready to leave. "Yeah, I'm glad we met too Jayla, been a fun time sparring with you. Maybe we'll see each other around in the future." She starts to walk off now.

Jayla nods, half bowing in the process. "We'll see what happens." She smirks as she comes back up from the bow. "But until that time comes, you take care of yourself." Watching the Sunflora head on her way, Jayla goes back to gather her things before heading to her dorm for some much needed rest and recovery.

Description
Another day, another adventure … or in this case, more training. Jayla had set herself up in one of the academy’s training fields with the intent to practice some spear wielding techniques. But having left in a rush to attend to other duties early in the morning, she had forgotten her prized weapon back at the dorm. Too lazy to go and retrieve it, the Garchomp simply makes do with a training staff and begins retracing the basics with simple footwork to start. There weren’t too many other students around, so she had ample space to move through as she worked through the movements.

T'vani herself had decided to go off to the training fields to work on her plants a bit, or at least perhaps a certain specific ones she can summon. Once she had gotten to the fields themselves, she began to start to move. Opening up her tomb which she uses to summon her plants and summons up four 6 foot tall Oak warriors coming with oak weapons, though they certainly looked sharper than anything oak could provide. One had a sword and shield, one had dual daggers, one had a lance, and the last had a large two handed sword. "Perfect, look at you all. Ready to go just as always." T'vani said, patting one of them, who seemed to show emotion as if happy.

Jayla initially didn’t pay the arriving Sunflora any heed. What difference did it make if someone else came to use the field? That was their purpose after all. But the sudden arrival of four summoned constructs was more than enough to bring Jayla to a halt. Looking over to the diminutive flower and then to her … minions, there was no questioning that she was some form of magic user. While she had nothing but respect for those who could tap into the arcane arts, she herself preferred to keep her distance from them as past dealings gave her enough reason to be apprehensive around them. Finally shaking off the thoughts, she tries resuming her practice; keeping an eye on the nearby flower and friends.

"Ready to spar you guys?" She said out to them with a bright smile. In which they'd give a small nod and take stance at her. T'vani began to jump several steps back to get ready for battle with them. "Alright, let’s start with the basics." She says out as she starts to move, grabbing a few seeds from her pouch and beginning to toss them about the immediate area. T'vani's book began to flip pages all on their own, almost as she didn't even need to think about it for them to turn to the right ones. And suddenly she would be summoning a few thorned vines out from the ground, they were about 6 feet tall and 5 inches thick. They moved about with her hands command, clearly controlling the tendrils. "Remember, work as a team." She said to them.

Again the Garchomp's focus was broken by the appearance of the oversized vines appearing from the ground. Jayla turns to watch the wooden constructs and their plant master work their craft. Her arcane prowess was clearly evident, but the way all out it all danced about the field, slowly turning it into a clodden mess, Jalya did her best to hold back her usual snarky commentary. Shaking off the sight in mild disdain, she resumes her practice, but not before letting one word of advice out. "Try not to tear the field up too much. Some of us still have to use them later." Though she didn't address them directly, she spoke in a loud enough voice that they were sure to hear from their vantage point.

T'vani began to direct the Vines around, whipping at them, clashing with their weapons as the Oaklings were doing their best to actually work on fighting together rather than beating it, just as T'vani asked. It may have been clear that they all had some sort of personality, perhaps even a certain small level of sentience, or maybe it only appeared that way because simply she willed it as such with her magic. Regardless though, when that voice called out to her. She'd say. "I could tear it to pieces and fix it up right away, you have nothing to fear." A particularly loud thump was heard, making an oakling looking indent into the ground.

Jayla listened to the response as she tried out a few strike techniques with her staff. Having worked with magic users in the past, she always found the process to be quite trying on her. Her favor towards immediate action was always granted to her at the end of her spear, involving the arcane arts always seemed to invoke delays. The loud thump quickly brought her attention back over to the meandering Oaklings, now one less by the looks of it. She knew it was rude, but the immediate reaction couldn't be helped as the Garchomp chuckled at the sight. "What, like your friend over there? Look, if you say that you can that's great. I'm just merely stating my humble observations that maybe you ought to tone it down a bit." As she spoke she emphasized her point by raising her hand up parallel to the ground and then dropping it a few inches.

"If I tone it down, then they won't learn as well." She said, raising the vine up into the air once more, the other three oaklings hurrying over to the one that got flattened and starting to help him out of the whole. Though they had no real faces, only outlines. It was clear that they could express feelings and emotions rather easily. "Now, if you want to attack them a bit and show them how much of a fighter you are. I wouldn't mind letting you do so." T'vani would say, folding her arms under her cheset.

The remark confused the Garchomp somewhat. How could these tree things ‘learn’? Weren’t they just summoned entities? As Jayla thought on that she looked on as they Oaklings came to the support of the other. She clearly had no understanding of how the magic that brought them into being worked. The Sunflora’s next set of words however put a smirk and Jayla’s face. “An interesting proposal.” Her gaze went from the Sunflora mage to her minions and then back to the mage. “Certainly beats just swinging around at air.” Twirling the staff around her, the Garchomp brings it to a halt while assuming a battle ready stance. “Any terms? Or just keep going until someone cries uncle?”

"You can go ahead and take it as far as you want, slice em up to bits even. They never truly die anyway. I can just summon them back up. Memories always stick with them though." It implies that these are probably the same minions being resummoned over and over rather than some random faceless drones. "They have to be ready for anything and everything, even brutal foes that show no mercy." Sorta implying that they were actually kinda softies. The one that was stuck in the ground was now out, seeming mostly unhurt by the attack though. Clearly they had a pretty good resistance to being crushed, at the very least.

Jayla couldn't help but smirk at the opportunity being presented to her. "Well if restraint isn't a concern ..." the Garchomp relaxes out of her stance and walks over to one of the nearby weapon racks, exchanging out the staff for a simple spear. Returning to the same spot as before, she tested out the weapon with a series of twirls and jabs. If only she had brought along her personal lance, she might have actually enjoyed herself then. "... I might as well use something that favors me more." Resuming a combative stance, she eyes up the summoned wood constructs knowing that if her strikes were to have any effect on them she'd have to maintain her distance. There was also the concern of watching her flanks, but she'd deal with that if the time came. Eager to get things moving, Jayla tries goading the Oaklings into making the first move. "So which one of you wants to go first?"

The oaklings watched her with seeming fearlessness, clearly if there is one thing they had it was not being afraid of something. But then why should they? Them dying is more of an inconvenience than anything else at this point right? "Took quite a few deaths for them to stop being afraid of dying." She comments out looking at them. "If you had seen them when I first summoned them they would have been scared out of their wits by you!" She said with a small laugh before tapping the one with two daggers. "Go ahead, you can go first." The oakling nodded and began to make its way forward, the rest backing up. It took a stand and seemed rather eager to fight, even having a bit of a bounce in its step.

The concept of a summoned creature like the ones before her having feelings, let alone a persistent memory, still baffled the Garchomp. Jayla couldn't deny the advantages that came from such a thing though. "The little saplings aren't so green anymore? Well good. Then they should at least offer me somewhat of a challenge then." Seeing one Oakling approach and the others back away brought some measure relief to her; only one target to focus on ... for now at least. Jayla held onto her spear as she began slowly advancing in a clockwise rotation around the creature. Until she could get into striking distance, she would try to get a closer look at her foe for any openings she could exploit.

Of course, the oakling watched silently as Jayla began to start moving in a clockwise motion, its body only turning enough to keep the Garchomp in sight at this point, it had a very defensive stance. Clearly expecting it to not be able to have enough of an advantage to go in or even take any sort of real offensive. "Yeah, with the stuff I threw at them since the start, they certainly don't have much fear unless you can really drive it home that it’s going to be a slow and painful death for them." She comments out, showing the fact that whenever she did kill them, it always had been quick and clean, not akin to suffering at all.

"I guess they'll be happy to hear that slow and painful isn't really my style then." Finding herself hard pressed to find any useful openings to take advantage of, Jayla figured she was going to have to make some of her own. Raising the back end of the staff she points the spear tip low before lunging in toward the Oakling, sweeping up for a hit to the hip.

"Yeah, good. They haven't really had any situation to put them through that, so it'd be literal torture." The Oakling kept watch and seeing Jayla move for an attack. The daggers of the Oakling swiftly moved, making a downward motion to meet with the spear tip. The daggers crossed as if trying to hold the tip of the spear between them and quickly tried to push it right, in an attempt (That wouldn't really work given the weapon) to disarm Jayla.

Without any openings to exploit, Jayla's next favored spot to target were the joints. And with her first attempt blocked, she uses the redirected momentum to spin around and come in with the spear again for a high strike down towards the shoulder. If the Oakling's proportions were any bit similar to a normal pokemon's, a hit there would limit their options quite a bit, but a miss on her part would leave her vulnerable to a counter strike. Still, this was her first fight against a magical entity. Some rules were bound to bend at some point.

The Oakling took back a defensive stance when it saw that she began to spin around. Once her weapon came down in a high strike, the Oakling moved to try to brace itself to the attack by putting both its daggers in front of itself to hold back the attack, which did end up leaving the Oakling itself vulnerable to a follow up. Or at least it seemed that way until the oakling moved one of its legs forward and tried to kick Jayla in the stomach in a attempt to make her back off, clearly knowing that it was open, it tried to do its best to stop that from happening.

Jayla hops slightly off the ground as she releases the spear with her left hand and pushes on the back end of the weapon with her right. Using the contact point of the daggers and spear-point as a fulcrum, the Garchomp barely manages to push herself away from the kick. Feeling the tangle of roots and bark brush against her middle was a jolt to her system. It also left Jayla momentarily vulnerable for a counter as she landed a few steps away attempting to pull the spear back into her other hand.

Seeing this spot to actually go in. The Oakling gripped its daggers tighter and began to make a few steps before rushing forward, its daggers aiming to punch into her shoulders, clearly seeming to not have the heart to aim for anything vital. Poor thing, it'll be its downfall multiple times rest assured.

Jayla smirked at her opponents approach. She took the full hit to her left shoulder, the force of which set her up for her next attack. Just as quickly as she was hit, the Garchomp brought up the hand of her impacted arm to grab hold of the creatures offending appendage. With spear held firmly in her other hand, Jayla thrusts the tip towards the Oaklings armpit with intent to cleave straight through. They were just summoned creatures anyway, why not have a little fun and push the envelope with severing a limb or two in the process. After all it wasn't every day you could do so and not get send to jail for it.

The Oakling when grabbed seemed to immediately freak out, squirming for what little time it had, trying to break free before its arm being cut right off, its body writhing in agony as limbs became severed, the thing still clear and thinking. Given it couldn't actually be killed by blood loss due to not actually having blood, it'd probably have to actually take more damage than just a severed limb or two to kill it. Regardless though, she could probably leave it now as it was clear that it wouldn't be able to fight back anymore.

Seeing the Oakling writhing about the Garchomp released the severed limb. Somewhere across Jayla's mind the thought that she might have overdone it came and gone. She had not expected to achieve this result so quickly, having honestly expected it would have taken more force and more tries. But who was she to complain, her opponent had been disabled. Jayla approached the oakling with spear held firmly in her hands, watching it attempt to adjust to its new condition. She waited for the creature to either stand or yield as a finishing blow now would not have sat well on her conscious.

The Oakling would eventually begin to subside in its squirming, still in agony. It almost gave the form and movements that it wanted to be stabbed and stop its pain, as it was one to always be cut down quickly and concisely in battle the only way it knew to make the pain stop was to die. "Come on don't be heartless! Finish it off!" She called out. "Can't you see your making him suffer by keeping it this way?"

Jayla's eyes narrowed at hearing the Sunflora's words. Being called heartless did not sit well on her shoulders. Looking to the oakling she used her spear to force it into a kneeling position. They may have been only summoned entities, but if the fact that their personalities stayed intact at each summoning was indeed true, then what would it hurt to offer up some small bit of wisdom. "Learn and live," she spoke in a low voice to the Oakling before swinging her spear tip across its neck. A strike that in itself wasn't anywhere near strong enough to behead a living individual, but seeing how easily the arm had come off, this would easily achieve the same result.

Of course the head came off and the body grew still once more. She starts to speak out to Jalya as she watched the whole thing went down. T'vani shook her head and said. "Poor thing can't manage to go for the vital points. I've been beginning to debate on whether to keep trying for combat on it or perhaps use it for more utility things such as carrying weights. Poor thing seemed like it doesn't want to hurt anyone at all sometimes." She comments out. "Which one do you want to fight next?" She would ask the other, curious. "Unless you don't want to anymore?" Having seen the hesitation that Jayla had before, she wouldn't blame her for not wanting to fight them.

Jayla watched and listened to T'vani as she spoke. It almost sounded like she was talking more about a hired service than a partner to serve alongside her. She looked to the Oaklings remains as they had begun to wither away. "I was hoping for more of a challenge. But if they really are as good as you make them out to be ... then I'll have another go. Might as well make our time here worthwhile after all." Briefly looking over the remaining Oaklings, she points her spear towards the one wielding the lance. "How about fighting fire with fire. Sir lancealot there."

T'vani honestly saw them as partners, just in her eyes she had a narrower look on everything and thus it just sorta comes out that way. In the end though, she starts to move and speaks up. "Yeah, they should be a lot better to handle combat. Hopefully your next one won't disappoint you." She moves to tap the one with the lance, saying. "You can do it, I believe in you." She taps its back as the one with the lance began to move forward and get ready for combat.

Jayla resumes her base stance of legs spread apart and spear pointing forward. Having the tip pointed upwards slightly as she held the weapon level with her hip, she watched the Oakling to see how it carried itself as readied itself for engagement. Jayla waited only a few moments before lunging in with her spear and aiming to strike at its hip. Sure she could have aimed at vitals for a quick kill, its just that the Garchomp found an extra degree of challenge, if not enjoyment, in disabling opponents through their joints and limbs.

The oakling took a stance similar to hers, one hand under the grip and the other actually resting on the base of the lance itself rather than the handle. It held it up and kept it pointed at her as it seemed ready to fight. But when Jayla charged right in, the Oakling moved, immediately rolling out of the way and taking a quick knee to try to jab the end of its lance into Jayla’s back, it beginning to stand up mid Jab as well. Clearly this one was less afraid of dealing damage than the other Oakling was.

For being nothing but brambles, roots, and bark, these Oaklings could move surprisingly quick. She barely had enough time to lean backwards to avoid the hit she saw coming her way out of the corner of her eye. The surprise of this reality caused her to stall ever so briefly. It was more than enough time for the Oakling to exploit, as the spear glanced across her back cutting into her leather shirt and scraping the skin underneath just under her dorsal fin. Spinning around to again face the Oakling she used the momentum with her spear to knock the oaklings lance away from herself. Now things were getting interesting.

The oakling felt the momentum of the strike and didn't even resist it. In fact it redirected it. Sticking his lance into the ground so that he could sling himself a bit farther off from where she was, the lance coming out of the ground again with said momentum. It began to take a stance once again. Clearly waiting for her to make a move. Perhaps it was fonder of reacting rather than launching a straight up attack. Which was almost counter intuitive of what you might have expected by an actual lancer. "Told you, they are no joke!" T'vani calls out as she glances over to one of the other oaklings, who simply gave a nod of agreement.

So her probing strike clearly failed and bit her in the back. Grand. The cool sensation she felt back there made her wonder if the strike had drawn blood or if the shirt had been cut big enough for a breeze to catch in. Whatever it was she wasn't going to stop now for something as meager as that. "So I see. I'm just hoping that's not the only trick they can do." Jayla did a false jab toward the oaklings chest before just as quickly pulling away in an attempt to gauge the creature’s reaction for any useful movements to exploit or explore further. "I've still got plenty fight left in me yet."

The Oakling began to move when the false Jab came, quickly turning the weapon sideways almost like he planned to try to knock away the weapon in a parry fashion. It certainly had a eccentric fashion of using that lance though. "Well if you had no fight left in you after that. Why would you even be fighting at all?!" T'vani said with a laugh. The Oakling suddenly began to start sidestepping around Jayla, clearly it must be planning something now, realizing being defensive wasn't actually getting either of them anywhere at this point and time.

"It'll take more than a scratch to dissuade me from a good fight. If anything, it only adds to the motivation to fight harder." The Garchomp watches her opponent carefully. After only making a few steps to her side Jayla twists around to face the Oakling and again lunges her spear at it. This time committing her full force to the attack. She wondered how would it cope to this a second time around.

"Good! That’s what I love to hear from a real fighter like you!" The oakling would start to move again as it saw her go with full force. He actually made a movement and pressed his lance against her spear, grinding it upwards and the oakling pushing itself forward so they were close up. The oakling then proceeds to try and head-butt her. Man these guys were good, but to be fair. As it appeared all it took was one hit and they were done for.

Jayla was rather amused by how these creatures committed themselves to direct attacks. Deciding to use that to her advantage, she lets herself get bowled over by the head-butt. Releasing her weapon, she takes hold of the Oakling with both hands by the head and rolls backwards onto the ground with that very same momentum it had just imparted to her. Pulling the Oakling along with her, she brings in her legs and as she comes out of the roll pushes them out against the Oakling to vault him over herself.

The oakling thought of course, that it was being a totally awesome badass like it envisioned itself. But as it turned out it only fucked itself over. Getting grappled and tossed, it dropped its own weapon and dragged along and pushed by her feet into the air, it went sailing forward, its hands moving as it saw it was going to hit against a tree. pushing its hands forward and hitting the tree, his body shuttered and hit the ground, it looked like it was in some pretty considerable pain, leaving it open for an attack.

Righting herself as quick as she could, Jayla scans the area to see where the Oakling landed. She winces after seeing it make contact with the nearby tree and the ground right after. Not wanting to waste any time, she reacquires her spear and the lance of her opponent. Taking a moment to judge the distance, she throws the oaklings lance back at it aiming to finish it off.

The oakling stares up at her as the lance was tossed at it, the thing would shift and move, letting the lance impale the tree behind it. It was clear it hadn't lost its will to fight yet. It moved to grab the lance and having it as a crutch to help it stand. Then it took a battle ready stance once again, though it was clearly weakened and in pain it still wanted to fight.

The Garchomp smirks at seeing this Oaklings resilience. Taking firm hold of her spear, Jayla charges toward the stricken creature. Instead of going in for a full thrust strike, she instead brings the spear around for a swinging strike against the Oaklings chest.

The oakling began to start moving its lance to block the strike seeming surprised when she changed tactics, its body moving back and leaving a visible mark across its chest. The oakling would shift and falter for a moment before trying to push its lance in return into the Garchomps stomach.

She apparently had a thing for misjudging the reaction speed of these creatures. By the time she realized its intent there wasn't enough time for her to bring in her weapon to counter. Pushing back with her feet and curling herself forward, she tried to lessen the blow of the lance to herself by twisting her torso out of the way. She could hear it tear into her shirt and feel it brush against her skin. If the lance were but a mere pitchfork, the strike would have certainly skewered her. Testing her luck, Jayla attempts to grab onto the arm of the Oakling that held the lance with her free arm to pull it into its own momentum to throw it off balance.

Success was the answer to that move. It would get flung, its body just barely catching itself as it stumbled and moved forward, leaving it in a perfect opportunity to get hit again, the Oakling was fast to move but likely not fast enough to turn around and block her attack. Now was the perfect chance, and judging by how back and forth the fight went, one of the only chances she would get to have a clean attack against the oakling without it being able to do some sort of attack in the way of counterstriking her in return.

Jayla released her grip seeing that the gambit paid off. With the oakling stumbling forward she continued the momentum of her pull on his arm into a spin, setting herself up to spear the oakling straight through its back. The move, if not enough to end the fight there, would give her the leverage to force the oakling to the ground.

The Oakling's body would push forward once the spear pushed straight through it. It stumbled a bit more, before falling onto its knee's, struggling to stand back up and force the spear out of her hand. Shame she could tell it was losing its strength and had no chance of successfully pulling it off now. Unlike the other oakling this one didn't want to give up despite the clear and constant pain wracking its body

Jayla paused a moment to catch her breath as the oakling fell to its knees. A twinge in her side made her look down to the oaklings last hit. Patting down the impact site confirmed what she thought and pulling her hand back doubly so; the attack managed to draw a bit of blood. The cut was shallow, but enough to remind the Garchomp of its presence. She walked over to the oakling and took firm hold of the spear still lodged within the construct. "I have to give it to you. You certainly have quite the fighting spirit and talent to match." Without warning, she rips the spear out from behind and sets herself up for a strike. "But you still have a long ways to go." Jayla brings the full force of her swing across the backside of the oaklings neck.

The oakling went out and lifeless immediately as the swing came across the back of its neck. T'vani would fold her arms and say. "Nice work taking him out, he really likes to go even when he’s down for the count. A real fighter just as you say. Shame he is so new and in experienced just like the rest of them." T'vani said rubbing the back of her head. "not to mention as well your probably one of the few they've fought that hasn't been me so they are probably not as good as fighting against something I haven't been able to regularly match them with."

"They're a little rough around the edges, but not bad as they are." Jayla takes her gaze from the fallen oakling back over to their Sunflora master. "Definitely wouldn't hurt to get in more 'outside' combat exposure if all they've had to go with was you. Variety is the spice of life after all ... or at least so I've heard." The Garchomp puts her hand onto her side again over the oaklings cut, the sensation was more akin to an annoying itch than anything else. "How long have you been training them if I might be so bold to inquire?"

She listened to Jayla and nodded, looking at the three that were left. "Yeah, they are not all that bad. But, it also helps that they are more used to fighting and co-operating as a group rather than one-on-one. They haven't really had too much of that either. Usually because of the fact that if I summon them, they will probably be fighting together. And as you can imagine, there are limitations so I can't just keep summoning them endlessly." She would say out to Jayla. "Maybe you can spar regularly with them then? It might do well for them to have a combatant they are not used to at all and seeing how they adapt to it." She then glanced at her hand and back to her. "How long? Not very, in comparison when I first was able to summon them without it being a chore. It used to make me exhausted to summon all of them at once." She said with a small laugh. "But at that point when I could regularly summon them, I'd say about 2 months, possibly three. It’s a tad fuzzy really. But if you want to know how long I've been able to summon them at all it’s been for the past year and a half."

Only a few months of actual combat training? Jayla was sure she misheard that. The first oakling may have fit the bill, but the second one she fought against certainly didn't. They must taking to learning pretty quick then. She was impressed. "Well I definitely wouldn't mind having someone new to spar with. It sure beats having to go solo against a training dummy that doesn't even fight back." Jayla chuckles. Truly that's all she expected to accomplish this evening, so having the Sunflora volunteer her oaklings was quite a welcome change-up to the routine. "Though as much as I am for new training sessions, the proceeds for this event felt a bit one sided. Your summoned friends and I got all the glory. There must be something I can offer to compensate you for your time?"

T'vani lets out a small laugh with her. "I can imagine. Fighting against nothing is always the dullest thing isn't it?" She then puts a hand on her hip. "Well we could probably doing one on one against each other too." She said, with a small nod. "Though, depending on how good our skills match up. One side might end up having a bit of trouble against the other. I'm still willing to go for it either way!"

The Garchomp relaxes her posture and jabs the spear tip into the ground. "Well I can tell you right now that the battle would be pretty much in your favor. Not because your friends there wore me down, but because I don't have much if any experience fighting mages ... only suggested tactics from my peers and readings." Jayla looks up towards the sky, noting the time of day. "Besides, I'm sure you had other things planned for the day than bothering around with me."

"Yeah. Actually I did. I planned to go see someone a bit later. But I still have some time." She chimes out as she starts to move a bit, leaning against the oakling with the sword and shield. "If you really don't want to go. We don't have to. I'll probably just find something else to do to pass the time really." She then glances up at it and then to her. "But I'm just saying. You'll never be good against something you've never fought against. And it'll be harder to deal with when it really matters if you don't practice."

"Well it was never my intention to keep you away from your company. But if you would grant me the opportunity to spar with you, I would appreciate the exposure." Jayla returns her gaze to the Sunflora and her oaklings, smiling appreciatively. "Most mages here don't usually have the time or much spine to respond to my challenges."

"Well luckily I currently have both. I can't imagine that'll last forever. Life has way of making you extremely busy after a while." T'vani said with a shrug and a smile, her hand starting to move a bit as she reached for a handful of seeds. "So I would say its best we begin sparring now while we both have the chance for it Jayla." She murmurs out.

Jayla nods in agreement. Life definitely had a way of gifting and robbing things from individuals at a moment’s notice. Plucking her spear from the ground, the Garchomp moves back out into the field before turning back to face T'vani. Twirling her spear around mostly for show, she sets herself up into a combat ready stance. "Then let us start using our time wisely." She smiles deviously. The oaklings were a welcome change-up, but to fight a mage ... this would be interesting.

T'vani watched her as she got in a ready stance, all T'vani began to do was start tossing seeds at the ground, as spread as she could really. "Agreed, we should really see how well we can do against each other. This should be real fun I'd say." T'vani murmured out as she started to turn the pages of her book rather casually to a certain one and looked up at Jayla. "Ready whenever you are."

The Garchomp watched curiously as T'vani spread seeds around. Coming from a Sunflora, Jayla figured they had something to do with a possible tactic of hers so she made a mental note to treat them akin to a spike trap. This was certainly going to be a trial by fire. With T'vani announcing her readiness to begin, Jayla darts towards the mage with spear pointing forward while trying to keep in mind the placement of all the seeds that laid in her path.

T'vani would quickly begin to move now, thankfully Jayla had given her time to spread the seeds about. Her hand moves upwards and a large vine coming out of the ground and quickly moving to bend and block the attack, the spear punching straight through it but stopping it from getting farther to T'vani. Her next move she began to move again, the pages of the book flying about almost on their own as she started to raise a couple plants from the ground by the Garchomp which seemed to have a sharp tip, they would quickly lunge their bodies forward in a attempt to stab at her knees.

Again Jayla uses her momentum to shoulder charge into the vine that both blocked her spear and the path to T'vani. The thickness of the vine translated into the Garchomp only bruising her shoulder in the attempt as it hardly budged. She quickly rips her spear out from the vine and spins her head about to locate where the Sunflora had run to. Once spotting her target, Jayla again makes herself ready to charge at her when sudden movement below caught her attention. More sprouting vines, only these looked slimmer, more agile and far sharper the others. Seeing them dart towards her, the Garchomp does her best to jump out of their way as they whip about in her direction. Though not quite hitting their mark, they more than made up for it as they tore into the weak leather protecting her shins and scuffing those up in the process.

T'vani watched as those plants tore into her outfit. Luckily while they did have a good attack distance, it was because they were stuck being completely stationary. T'vani kept sprinkling seeds around. Clearly she carried A LOT of them. T'vani would start to speak up. "I'll keep playing Defensive Jayla. First and best thing to do with Mages is get the right offense against them." She called out to her as she stood ready to respond to Jayla's next attack

Playing defensive eh? That pretty much eliminated any direct strikes the Garchomp had in mind. If only she had her personal lance with her, then Jayla could have done something to sweep those blasted seeds off the field. But as it was, all she had was the dinky training spear. There wasn't much cover between herself and T'vani, so no movement of hers would go unnoticed. Looking over to the large vine that had blocked her path earlier out of the corner of her eye, an idea came to her. It wasn't an ideal one, but it was worth trying. Holding the spear behind herself and one arm out in front, Jayla advances toward the Sunflora in a counter-clockwise movement from where she stood.

Of course, T'vani was making sure to expect anything as Jayla would really have to pull something out to really get past her defenses she even had a plan for if she did try to sweep them off, she could make them explode with a little move called seed bomb, useful really on many occasions. She started to flip through her pages looking for the ideal spell for it to sit on. Her eyes glancing up at her as she watched Jayla approach in such an odd fashion. T'vani began to start moving one of her hands forward, as if ready to cast her magic with Jayla made a move. A stalemate and occurred and you know what they say. Somewhere in the world right now, it was high noon.

Halfway between where she started and where T'vani stood, Jayla immediately changes direction and heads towards the large vine from earlier. Side stepping all the little seeds on the ground she could see, Jayla takes a running jump onto the heavy vine. She get two steps of verticality before pushing off with her third step in T'vani's direction. Having positioned the sun to be directly behind her, she makes an attempt at an aerial strike on the Sunflora.

Of course as Jalya started to make move for the large vine, T'vani began to move to have it try and attack the Garchomp, sufficed to say that Jayla was fast enough to take the jump before it could grab her. This caused T'vani to try to react by growing another plant, except that the aerial strike was high enough that the plant didn't grow in time, Causing T'vani to have to back up, causing a rather large chunk of the front of her outfit getting ripped revealing part of her undershirt which seemed to match with her pants. "Dang...I really liked this outfit." She mumbles out as she started to jump back again, the plant that grew moving to try to smack into Jalya now

That smug little grin of hers for having landed a hit on the Sunflora mage was short lived. That momentary lapse in focus brought on by her pride was more than enough time for T'vani to exploit. The newly grown monster of a vine whipped into Jayla’s side, unceremoniously flinging her into the first vine with a loud crack upon impact. The Garchomp crumpled to the ground onto her arms and knees as pieces of her spear rained down around her. Dazed and confused, Jayla remained where she was until her focus returned and stars went away.

T'vani would stare at the Garchomp as she gets launched. T'vani began to start hurrying over to where Jayla was, clearly fully believing that she actually hurt her. She would start to move and crouch down a bit by the Garchomp and would say out. "Sorry! I didn't mean to hit you that hard, certainly not hard enough to break the spear." She murmurs out to Jayla. "Are you hurt anywhere? I can help." She murmurs out as she began to start flipping through pages of her book, clearly with something in mind now to cast. She was now moving to grab a seed and start to push it into the ground ready to use her magic.

Still in a daze, the Garchomp didn't even register T'vani's approach until her voice could be heard right beside her. Upon hearing the question of whether or not she was hurt, she couldn't help but let out a strained laugh. "Other than my pride? I'll be fine ... just give me a minute." Jayla said while trying to ignore the throbbing pain from the base of her dorsal fin and a few of her ribs from having been bruised by the impact.

T'vani would let out a small sigh. "Judging by that laugh of yours. It doesn't sound like it Jayla." She would decide to sit and grow the plant anyway, a sort of small bluish plant with large smooth leafs began to grow from the ground. It only sat about 2 feet tall not including the leaves. She then would say. "I'll leave it here though if you need it. Just rub it on the afflicted areas and it'll dull the pain and perhaps even completely negate it if the pain is weak enough." She starts to move and now stand up again, starting to move herself back and letting Jayla recover.

Jayla watched T'vani and her newly sprouted plant out of the corner of her eye for a few moments before pushing herself up into a sitting position. She winced as the act aggravated the injury on her side. Reluctantly looking towards the plant, she carefully reaches out and handles one of its leaves "You know ... I never could understand magic myself. No one in my family line has the gift for it." She then plucks the leaf and with some struggle, tucks it underneath her shirt to gingerly apply it to her side. Her eyes were cinched shut as she rubbed it in, the pain going from stabbing knives to a dull throb. The Garchomp lets out a heavy sigh of relieve. "But I can't deny how useful it can be."

T'vani watched Jayla as she seemed really wracked with pain. She hadn't expected the plant to hit her that hard really, but to be fair. All she's really worked with on fighting was her oaklings and they were pretty agile if fragile so it was rather hard to gauge whether it'd do a lot of damage to her or not. At least she knew now, right? Still though. At least she was actually using the plant. T'vani would say. "Yeah, Magic can be real useful. For good and for bad, I just wished other Pokémon could see the large applications for good all types of magic can have. It's a shame really."

Jayla's soft laugh was cut short by the still present injury. "Agreed. It only takes one bad seed to spread like wildfire to the masses, and yet the good ones always take forever to bear any fruit." With one hand still holding the leaf in place on her side, Jayla looks to the two large vines that so swiftly and decidedly ended their sparring match. "Those things really pack a punch."

"Yeah they do, but as you can imagine they have some flaws as well. Even in their rapid growth they weren't fast enough to get you away before you could land a clean hit on me." She murmured out, putting her hand to her outfit. Which made it very clear that she probably would have had a big heavy wound going down her if she didn't get out of the way in time. "Man, if that was a couple inches forward I might have been bleeding to death." She mumbles out.

"So we apparently both got lucky then ... go figure." Another short laugh later, Jayla groaned as she pulled out the spent leaf. "I'll be honest though. The original plan was to pin you to the ground from above and force a yield." She plucked a second leaf and repeated the process. "But by the time I realized what my attack did to you, I was granted an impromptu flying lesson by your friend there. Sorry about the vestments ... and the scare." Jayla added the last part after realizing just how close she had come to doing some serious damage to the Sunflora mage.

T'vani would let out a small laugh with her, It dying off though as she heard the groan though. "Yeah, pretty lucky to say the very least." She nods a bit and then listed to the plan. "Yeah, shame thought it didn't work out. You would have gotten me good if not for the feeling that you were out for blood with that attack." She rubs the back of her head a bit and says. "And don't worry about these, I'm sure I can find a duplicate being sold somewhere. Or at least have a new one custom made. It shouldn't' be too hard after all." T’vani then would look around her a bit. "Shame about the spear though, I hadn't expected it to shatter like that either."

Jayla's gaze would follow T'vani's toward the spear. "I wouldn't worry about it that much. It was just a training piece after all. Compared to using my personal lance, I actually had to hold myself back while using that little toothpick." The Garchomp tries stretching out her back but only ends up aggravation the bruised dorsal fin. Grimacing through it, Jayla relaxes her posture again before turning her attention to T'vani and her torn garments. With her free hand she points towards T'vani's chest. "Doesn't' this kind of put you on the spot though? ... You did said you were meeting with someone later. Are you still going to have enough time to ... well, make yourself decent by then?" Jayla was in no condition to complain herself, although apologies were certainly in order. The sparring match did a decent number to her own vestments as well.

T'vani would listen to her and let out a small laugh. "If I didn't break it then, you might of done it yourself then, huh?" She then started to move a bit forward, watching her seeming to have pain through it. She still felt kinda bad with how bad a number she managed to do to her. Regardless of that though T'vani would say. "Put me on the spot? Well...I suppose a bit. But really, I was going to go head back to my dorm and change anyway, I am going off to the beach really. So as you can imagine that doesn't affect my current attire as much. It might make things a little annoying on the way back but other than that really, I should be fine for the most part." She would nod a bit and put a hand on her hip. "I don't suppose you'll need any help getting up?"

Jayla listened to T'vani as she removed the second leaf from her side. It still hurt, but at least now it was something that she could manage through. She was impressed by how much relief came from such a simple thing. There was some measure of relief to her mind at hearing that the Sunflora's plans were not hindered by the recent events. "I can manage on my own ... eventually ... thanks to your little friend here. But If your offering then I won't be one to refuse an open hand."

T'vani watched Jayla remove the second one, she really hoped that it was helping, the chemicals within the plant were supposed to help ease pain. The plant itself wasn't magic, but the magic was knowing the proper way to change the seed so it'd grow into the plant and the actual rapid growth into the plant was what made her magic, well magic. Each plant was different and required a different understanding to turn it into the right one and not to age it too far to where it'll wither and die or too young to properly stand against what she is facing. "Of course, why wouldn't I offer some help to you?" She said, leaning down and opening her hand for Jayla to take it.

The Garchomp smiled, reaching out to take the mages hand and propping herself back on two feet. The effort forced a groan out of Jayla, but at least she was still able to stand on her own. "You know ... all in all, I must thank you for the impromptu spar. It was a decent fight despite all circumstances."

T'vani would give her a small nod at the Garchomp as she puts her hand back on her hip and said. "Yeah, it was a pretty good one, glad we could do it." She murmurs out, looking down at myself. "You know, I should probably head back to my dorm a bit earlier, I can't imagine that it’s going to be fun figuring out what I'm going to do with this new tattered mess of an outfit." She said with a small chuckle

Jayla tries not to laugh too hard herself. "Well don't let little ol' me keep you from your evening plans. But if I might say one last thing, why not just have it adjusted into something that complements your figure? I only tore the front of it and it'd be a shame to trash the whole thing because of that." Jayla was just being practical. It wasn't like she could tell anything about the Sunflora's figure from the robes she was wearing.

T'vani would blink for a moment and look down at it. She began to start moving her fingers over the part that got slice and said. "I might be able to really. If I lengthen the tear, I could probably wear it more like a coat really at that point. I suppose that would work for hotter days out, wouldn't it? Thanks for the suggestion Jayla." She would nod, being actually a tad thankful, due to the fact she probably was going to honestly scrap it otherwise.

Jayla smiles and taps the side of her head. "It's not every day that a good idea actually manages to escape this thick skull of mine." Despite the pain, Jayla laughs anyway. As good as it is to live life to its fullest, it was just as equally enjoyable to not take it so seriously from time to time. "I'm glad to have met you T'vani. This has been quite an experience for me."

T'vani would speak out. "You know, you shouldn't think of yourself like that, if I did, I would have never thought myself to be the caster I am now you know." she said with a small laugh before shifting and looking just about ready to leave. "Yeah, I'm glad we met too Jayla, been a fun time sparring with you. Maybe we'll see each other around in the future." She starts to walk off now.

Jayla nods, half bowing in the process. "We'll see what happens." She smirks as she comes back up from the bow. "But until that time comes, you take care of yourself." Watching the Sunflora head on her way, Jayla goes back to gather her things before heading to her dorm for some much needed rest and recovery.