Sojaveña Wilds Clan Battlegrounds

[Jackie Cat]

Most cultures had spaces for work, and spaces for living. The Escarpa Clan had spaces for battling – by every campsite, there would be some well-used sparring spot.

Although the Escarpa didn't care to have anything close to designated, formal battlefields, laid out in neat white lines like the League pitches of human worlds, they did have a sort of favoured battleground for scheduled sparring matches such as these. A raised hillock of earth and stone sloped gently down to yellow grasses on one side, and looked down on a dusty patch of ground down a much steeper incline.

It wasn't elaborate or grand, which suited the Escarpa just fine. Scorch-marks, patches of sand left vitreous by stray bolts, and the faint scent of shed blood all showed that this was a spot in regular, frequent use. There was a faint trace of glittering dungeon-dust in the air, a sign of many wonder orbs shattered in the course of training here. The Escarpa were traditionally expert dungeoneers.

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It was a warm day, with a stiff, arid breeze, and the clan had gathered by the patchy grassland just upriver from the current camp. The Escarpa sparred regularly and often, for any and every reason from recreation, to combat instruction, to honour duels, to challenges for authority. On this particular day, they'd given an invitation to the Wayfarers to spar against some of the best Escarpa warriors – as a form of training, and as a test of their skills and teamwork. All part of the preparations to make an assault on Cipher's base at Terminal Two.

At the top of the hillock, a pair of Luxray warriors basked in the midday sun, awaiting the arrival of their opponents.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion didn’t have a watch, but he was pretty sure he was early. He didn’t want to leave Halcón waiting.

Now that he’d broken his helmet, he was going to have to relearn a lot of his combat reflexes. He couldn’t block with it, and a lot of his fighting ended up involving using it as a weapon. He still wanted to be able to hold his own, though. He fidgeted with his new amulet and tried to think about something other than nerves.

 

[Chibi Pika]

A bit of asking around would reveal that the 'Stomping Grounds' was a place in the Escarpa territory far to the north, where the clan usually did not tread. Where the rugged hills gave way to rolling scrubland as far as the eye could see. Without natural barriers, the winds would whip across the terrain at blistering speeds. Today, the wind lay eerily still.

The directions were given in low, somber tones. Dueling the Cyclone was not a joyous event, not even for the battlehearts of the clan. It was a serious affair, and they viewed it as such even when it was not their own that would be making the journey.

Dungeon items would make the trek take half a day. Plenty of time to reflect on what lay ahead.