Back at the Wheel

Caen stood in the blank field, the flat floors of the training hall thankfully being empty this late at night, the moon throwing some dim light through the glass dome above him. He hadn’t seen combat in months, with no serious threats tearing their head, the hedgehog had busied himself with a long tour of a play. With that now over, he didn’t have a fat lot to do. So he decided to train.

He stepped forwards, swinging his swords in an outward motion, following it up with a short hop, thrusting his right blade forwards, before swinging it and using the weight of the blade to spin his entire body around. He brought his left blade downwards, the blade clanging against the floor. The hedgehog’s blue coat soon settled behind him, draping on the ground as he breathed heavily. “Shit. I’ve gotten rusty in these past few months...” he muttered to himself, standing up and dusting himself off, sheathing his dual blades. 
“My footwork is off-balance, sloppy. My stance is too narrow, it’d be easy for a solid blow to send me to the ground. No doubt my flames will be less accurate, too.”

There was a reason for Caen to be so harsh on himself. If someone like Alastor was to arise again, less-than-perfect swordsmanship and pyromancy would only lead to his, and others’, death. 

“Right. Let’s try that again.”

Clash was whistling to himself as he walked through the halls of the guild. Until he heard the familiar sound of the air being sliced through.
He searches around for the source of the noise until he finds the red hedgehog, practicing some sort of combo attack.

"Hey, That's an interesting technique."

As he had nothing to do, Bryni was in the training hall of the guild. As he swung his sword at a training dummy, he saw Caen's dual sword technique.
"Say. That's pretty good. A little more practice and you might have a good combo out of that." Bryni said.
"Although, might I suggest adding a spinning kick to the end of your second swing?" Bryni suggested.

Rez walked through the doors of the guild headquarters. He couldn't sleep. Neither could his wisp partner Spiral. So they decided to head on over to the training hall to practice. As Rez neared the training hall, he happened to see some other people training as well. As he walked through the doors of the training hall, he said,

"You guys can't sleep either, huh?"

Caen was about to practice the sameness three slashes again, when he was interrupted by three newcomers to the training hall.

 The first, a hedgehog, commented on his unorthodox technique. “Yes, well... I developed a simple fencing style into something with more speed and offensive capability. It’s not really that-“

He was cut off by a wolf, suggesting that he change his moves entirely “um... well... I would but a kick can be somewhat easy to catch, and then you can quite literally be thrown off balance.”

The hedgehog turned his head when a falcon, followed along by a wisp, commented on the time of night. He simply shrugged his shoulders and said “it’s quieter around this time. Allows for more intensive training.”

He looked around at the three and said “I haven’t seen any of you around the guild hall before. Are you all new?”

Clash was surprised at the sudden appearance of his friends, but that didn't stop him from answering the question given to him.

"Yeah, we joined the guild not too long ago." "If I'm going to help people, might as well be official about it, right?"

The hedgehog had seemed to be practicing before they got there, it couldn't hurt to try and grow his powers a little more. So he cracks his knuckles and asks:

"You mind if I join you? I do sword stuff myself, so it would be good practice for both of us- er, all of us, I guess."

"Ah. I see what you mean by that. You must have some experience fighting huh." Bryni replied to Caen's comment.
"I'm Bryni. This is Clash, and that's Rez." Bryni said motioning to Clash the hedgehog, then Rez the falcon who had just arrived.
"Eh. I could use a bit of training myself. Can't hurt to join in." Bryni said after Clash's request to join Caen.

Rez was glad some other people were here. Especially people that he was aquatinted with. Well except for the red hedgehog. So Rez decided to introduce himself.

"Yeah. Us guys are new. And Llke Bryni said, my name's Rez. This here is my little buddy Spiral. What's your name pal?"

Caen chuckled softly at Bryni’s comment, scratching the back of his head. “Yes, I’ve certainly seen my fair share of fights. I’m a little rusty, though.” 

Upon Rez introducing himself and his wisp friend, Caen bowed, replying “I’m Caen. Caen Flare.”

“As for sparring, if you wish to practice, I’d love to! Frankly I don’t get much room to enjoy battles, normally.” He ran up the steps leading to the controls “but perhaps we should change our battlefield. This plain flat floor is hardly realistic.” His fingers slid along the various sliders, until skyscrapers and buildings sprouted up around the bird, the wolf, and the hedgehog. 

Rushing back down the steps, Caen jumped up onto a car parked on the street, the chassis giving way slightly under his weight. He drew his blades, pointing one outwards. “Rez, you’re with me. Bryni and Clash, I hope you’re both ready!”

Clash was quite surprised at the capabilities of the training room, with a smile, he takes off his red anklets.
After a moment, his eyes turn blue and he rockets up onto a skyscraper, where he looks down at Bryni.

"Let's have a good spar Mr. Bryni!"

Clash then puts the anklets back on and readies his Chaos Saber.

"I expect we are going all out, seeing as you have a Chaos Saber ready?" Bryni said, as he drew his sword and ignited the blade.
"Alright then. Just one thing, I'll try not to inflict any mortal wounds. Alright?" Bryni said, as he then jumped up and between the walls of two closely spaced buildings. Easily, and quickly, making it to the top of one of them.

Rez looked at Spiral and nodded. Spiral nodded back before fusing with Rez, as a white burst of energy emanated from Rez's body.

"Here we go! Been needing a good workout!"

Rez jumped up and flipped onto the top of a lamp post, his scarf flapping in the artificial wind made by the training hall vents.

As Caen stood atop the vehicle, he found his shoulders relaxing, as though a weight had been lifted from them. This was the first fight in a long time where he could really let go, to just enjoy the thrill of the fight! A wide smile grew on his face as Rez prepared in front of him.

Wisp fusion. That’s interesting. At least, that’s what Caen thought as white energy emanated from Rez. He widened his stance, readying himself for battle as his eyes silently encouraged Rez to attempt to make the first strike.

"Ok!"

Clash focuses his power and dissappears, reappearing in front of Bryni, while shouting:

"Think fast! Chaos Punishment!"

Clash is about to hit Bryni with a barrage of slashes.

Bryni hadn't expected Clash to teleport right next to him, but being trained in battle he had great reflexes. So when Clash said think fast, he rolled backwards over his shoulder. Easily dodging the attack.
"Alright then!" Bryni said as he readied himself for an attack.

"Come on... Let's dance!"

Bryni is aiming a flying sidekick at Clash's ribs.

Rez looked up atop a building at spar that had just commenced between Clash and Bryni. 

'They look like they're enjoying themselves!' Rez thought. He then looked over at his opponent, Caen, who had prepared himself for the fight. He thought to himself,

'I assume he's probably waiting for me to strike first, and then he'll have a counterattack ready. But what the heck, might as well humor him.'

Rez took a flying leap of of the lamp post. Doing a 360 aerial before landing on the street onto one knee, Rez called upon the hyper-go-on energy of his partner. He sped off faster than the human eye could track, zig-zagging through the artificial city.

'If I can get a good sense of the battlefield, maybe I can get the jump on him later on.'

After scanning the field, Rez rushed back into the street where the car Caen had taken position atop of was parked. 

"Hey Caen! I hope you're hungry. Cause I've got a knuckle sandwich with your name on it!"

He then ran around the car in circles, hoping to confuse Caen, before jumping towards the wall of a building next to the car. He then leaped off of the wall with his fist outstretched, attemting to hit Caen and knock him off of the car.

Caen glanced upwards at the first few blows exchanged between Bryni and Clash. They were quick! “I don’t blame them. A little friendly competition is meant to be fun, isn’t it?” He replied tin Rez’s remark, a smirk creeping onto his face.

At once, Rez seemed to disappear, in a trail of bright white light. “What?” He asked aloud as the bird sped off “that’s... odd. He... retreated before even attempting to make the first blow? No way. He has sped as his advantage, which would mean...” The trail started to move back towards the car, to which Caen nodded to himself “just focus on defence, Caen... Your time to strike will come.”

As Rez started to circle around the car, Caen took in a deep breath, blowing out slowly as he tried to listen for a strike. After all, there was no way his eyes could keep up. Rez jumped, and was moving in with his fist from behind. He turned, holding up one blade, and deflected his blow with the flat side of the blade. Given the force of the punch, this blew him off of the car, to which Caen landed heavily, skidding along the asphalt underneath his feet.

“I hope not all of your strikes are that predictable!” He called out, as his eyes started to glow a faint orange. “Let’s do this!” He crouched down, before jumping forwards, a pair of fiery wings flickering to life at his back. “Prepare yourself, Rez!”

Clash merely teleported again to go for another Chaos Punishment, while Carter appears under Bryni to attempt to fling him into the air.

Bryni hadn't expected Clash to teleport away at the last second, when he did Bryni ended up falling flat on his face with a pronounced "Oof!" Bryni had just enough time to dodge, but decided to go on the defensive for a bit.

Rez rolled over his shoulder and landed a few feet away from Caen. He was hoping he could get a better strike off, but nobody ever gets everything they want. He then looked up towards his adversary.

'Okay! That was unexpected!' Rez thought when he saw Caen sprout wings made of fire and launch forward towards him. Rez heard a voice in his head. It was Spiral.

"Quick Rez! Up the building!"

'Good idea Buddy!' Rez thought as he turned away from Caen and sped towards the side of the building he had jumped off before. Gaining more momentum as he ran, he leapt onto the side of the building and began to ascend up the side of it.

"So you have wings huh? Well let's see how well you use them!" Rez shouted down to Caen after he reached the top of the building.

'If he does decide to come up here, I'll use the rooftops to avoid him. He's got the advantage now.' Rez thought as he waited for Caen to make the next move.

He didn’t expect to actually connect with the falcon, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him now sprinting towards the tower behind him, moving up the walls with ease. Caen swung his arms towards the ground, his wings following suit and flapping, an almighty gust of wind launching the hedgehog upwards.

Utilising the momentum he had gained, his wings flickered away, before he locked his eyes on Rez, now on the rooftop. As he started to slow down in the air, he held out his arms, and started to float, his coat billowing as though there was wind blowing him upwards. Then, as he floated, several flames burst to life around him, shaping into arrows, that burned with an intense heat. He threw his arms forwards, shouting “heat arrow!”

Each arrow took off at a fast pace, curving towards its target. Caen’s wings sprouted back as he was about to fall, using the smallest movements to allow him to easily land on the rooftop, before disappearing again.

The flaming projectiles in the backround reminded Clash that now may be a good time for his own flames.
Clash jumps back and takes off his bracelets in mid-air, causing him to gain a red aura, as well as his eye color shifting to red.

As he lands, he dashes at Bryni, faster than before, And goes for a gut punch.