The Second Griffon War (Casual Thread - All welcome!)

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Expellix's ears twitched at the sound of Trixie's voice. He lifted his head and turned around to face her, giving her a very solemn nod. "I notice a few weeks ago that the animals were suffering very badly in the Everfree Forest suddenly. It started out small; just some normal cuts and bruises and stuff, something you'd acquire just from living out here normally." He looked back at the undead corpse. "It has progressively been getting worse. I was finding animals who had broken bones, huge gashes, burns, and even entire limbs torn off. Not just any random ones, specifically things like legs and skulls. A normal animal here would just devour the thing whole."

He paused and put his hand on the undead creature again, feeling the dark energy. He drew it out, a smoldering black orb appearing in his paw, floating a few centimeters above it. He stood up, walking towards Trixie. "I thought it was just coincidences at first. I'm sure we both know what kind of things are here, it wouldn't be uncommon to see some bear or something killed by a Beholder and just left to rot. But now that there are undead creatures walking around...?" He shook his head. "No, someone or something is causing this."

 

[Dreamweaver]

Dumbledoof
Starstreak and Aurelia were currently touring the barracks of Canterlot. With the war coming up, Aurelia was taking as much time as she could to be with Starstreak and now was finally showing Star around her place of work. The only rule was that Aurelia had to keep an eye on Star at all times. She was not allowed to wander wantonly around the guard barracks, for obvious reasons. The couple got more than a few looks, a few of which were amused smirks by other guards who noted Aurelia's lack of armor. It was her day off after all. 'Look, her armor isn't melded to her flesh' the guards teased and remarked when she walked by.

While the pair were passing through the training grounds, one of the instructors recognized Aurelia and called her over to give a 'lesson' to the assembled class.

That lesson consisted of pitting her against 5 new recruits. The recruits thought this was a joke, but the truth was that none of them had ever really even been in a real fight before. When all was said and done, all five of the recruits were reeling around on the ground suffering from various injuries and Aurelia... Had a hair out of place. She quickly swiped it back into place and smiled sweetly at them rolling on the ground. "Better luck next time, boys." She said with a roll of her eyes before setting off again with Star at her side.

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Star made an absolute point of not going anywhere except staying right next to Aurelia's side. Actually, he stayed close enough that their flanks would occasionally brush together, which meant that it happened frequently and the purple hippogriff was not ashamed in the least. Her marefriend was preparing to go off to war to fight a bunch of griffins, she was going to make the most of the time they could get together. That meant she was frequently working away from work next to Aurelia, anything to at least be near her. Perhaps it was a bit clingy, she just hoped the bat pony appreciated the gesture.

Although... the guards got a bit of a silver tongue from her whenever they made a comment about Aurelia, most of which left them slightly slack-jawed or even one was outright flustered in rage. She wasn't a genius for nothing. Star occasionally asked questions about the barracks, mostly just what some things were and their purposes when she saw something that she did not immediately recognize. And watching Aurelia beat the tar out of some recruits and not even taking a single hit was hot in of itself. As soon as she was close enough, Star nuzzled her.

"That may have been more fun for me to watch than it should have," she commented lazily, casting a look at the battered recruits. The instructor was currently giving them an earful while they were in the dirt. "You should bring me more often." She purred. "So, what's next on the tour?"

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
It had been 2 days since the griffin emissary had left. The day following, Luna had put out a number of orders to the varying places around Canterlot. She would go over the full list of them soon after Avedon arrived. At the moment she was sitting in her office, with her desk in front of her, a map of Equestria laid out, and a folder for various ideas and other such things. Her large black chair sat in front of a drape along the wall which simply had the symbol of the moon on it.

Once Avedon arrived at her office, she gave him a nod, offered him a drink, then began. She herself had a glass of scotch; it wouldn't affect her at all, but the bitter taste helped her focus and she had grown to like it.



"So far, I have called for the evacuation of Ponyville, Cloudsdale, Appleloosa and Dodge City." She says, pointing at those cities on the map. "We can comfortably fit them in the confines of Canterlot mountain. All cities to the west of us will be safe from the griffons, as they will have to go through Canterlot to face them and it wouldn't be worth their time. However, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare..."

She points at those three cities on the map. Each one was on the eastern ocean edge; close to Griffonstone. "... I don't know what to do for those cities. Back in my day, these cities were tiny and we could easily fit them all inside Canterlot mountain. But no more. Before we begin devising plans, let me list our resources."

"We have..." she pulls out an official looking document and opens it up. "500,000 troops, with more being recruited each day. 10 airships equipped with canons and unicorn battle mages for wide-spread spell casting. 10,000 more soldiers coming from the Crystal Empire. They will replace our front line. Slashing and piercing weapons are next to useless against crystal ponies."

Dumbledoof
Aurelia smirked at Star and blew her a kiss, complete with a wink. "Next we will go to the armory. I'll show you my armor and weapons! Not the kind you see me perform guard duty in, the one I use for actual fights." She chuckles slightly and leads Starstreak to the armory.

After around 10 minutes they reach it. Aurelia goes to her area of the armory and cracks open the tiny vault there, revealing an armor stand. Her armor was dark black with a spike on top of the helmet, used for goring things. Her wings were protected by a thin metal liner across the front, though it left her leathery membrane free to be damaged. All-in-all it was pretty heavy armor but not too heavy. It really only covered her head, neck, back and down to her thighs. Her belly and lower legs would be left free.

A belt hung around the armor, containing two daggers. They were humming with magic and gave off a black glow when unsheathed.

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Avedon turned down the drink, he had brought his own. Secreting out the cup of tea he brought with him under his hat. Avedon rarely if ever drank, especially when he was working. The Commissariat had been a dry-society. even coffee was pushing the limits of what he was taught. He went for a much more nerve-relaxing drink rather than the string and crash of caffeine or the dillution of alcohol.He listened to her early reports, knowing there was alot between them to go over. He decided to just brief her on the extremely basic things he had set into motion

"Ive already put in the call for our reserves and raised the standing levies in the burghs to ensure we're at full power. I've also begun funneling all volunteers to the west to ensure our rear supplies are stable."

He put his hoof on the table to the cities she pointed out.

"We can't evacuate them. We have nowhere to go with them and we need their industry. If we give the griffons the coast we'll soon be finding theyre as well-armed as we are let alone more numerous. I suggest we move our fleet to Baltimare. The cover around it provides a natural barrier that will help prevent griffin bombadies from setting our ships ablaze through sheer numbers. We can expect the griffins to arrive in 6 weeks at the least if their entire armada was already prepared to embark but it'd be foolish to think otherwise. We also have to take into the account the idea the Griffin king did not even wait to hear of Ironbeak's response and already sent his armada across the sea and will intercept our dear ambassador. "

"However I cannot approve of evacuating Cloudsdale at this time."

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Star had a stupid grin on her face and she puckered her lips as if accepting the kiss blown at her. "Oh, I finally get to study your armor and weapons now?" She asked, suddenly excited about the prospect. She hadn't really gotten to look at them much, mostly just because she hadn't... well... looked. Her eyes were usually trained on Aurelia's pretty face and eyes than what she was wearing.

When they reached it, Starstreak skipped ahead to the armor rack and circled it. She examined it from different angles, getting an idea of what the armor was like. You could almost literally see the many different mathematical calculations and what-not going on behind her eyes, the gears in her brain moving quickly. She was learning it from simply just looking at it and could guessimate most of the measurements. Perhaps down the road she could actually measure it. Or just measure Aurelia. That would probably be easier, considering, well... being her marefriend and all.

She raised her talons to touch it but paused just before she did. She quickly drew them away and then looked at Aurelia, silently asking for permission.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
Princess Luna tapped on the map where Cloudsdale was and nodded slightly. "You don't want the griffons using the abandoned city as an outpost against us, I assume? Since they can cloud walk about only a third of our population can, it makes sense. I never thought of that..."
...
"... I'll call off the evacuation immediately and instruct pegasi guards and an airship to protect Cloudsdale?" Luna asks Avedon while scratching at her chin. She had only given the evacuation order yesterday so it wasn't too late to call it off. "As for Baltimare, I see and understand the natural cover you are talking about, but do you really mean our whole fleet? The ships I understand, but what of the airships?"

Dumbledoof
"It was custom made." Aurelia said with a chuckle as she watched Starstreak inspect the armor. She could see Starstreak looking at all the different parts of it and could almost see the equations popping up above her head. When asked if she could touch it, Aurelia simply chuckled and nodded her head towards it with a smile.

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Avedon smiled at her catching on quick
"Precisely. Imagine if they take it and can use its factories to send thunderstorms of blizzard hailing through our farmlands or distant cities. We will already be hard-pressed to defeat the griffins in the air. We will need to support them with the airships. I suggest using cloud cover to disguise them or perhaps putting them behind the water at Neighagra falls. Cloudsdale is close enough to Canterlot that our unicorns might be able to support the air forces. A high concentration of unicorns for long range casting and perhaps even a few who might know how to grant the temporary cloud-walk ability. I'd also suggest we start our own pegasi producing storms we can launch over the coast. A hurricane even if we have the time to batter their ships or at least slow them so we have even more time to prepare our defenses..."

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
She nodded at Aurelia with a smile, reaching out and actually placing her claws on the armor now. She was careful not to accidentally scratch any of it, lest she get an earful from Aurelia. She was mostly just feeling it out, gauging how tough the metal was. She tapped it lightly with one of her talons and then moved on to the dagger, noting the magic coming from it.

"What are these enchanted with?" She asked. She could obviously feel it, being much more receptive to magical auras than any griffin normally should be.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
"Each airship has a dozen spell-casters on board who can assist Cloudsdale. Creating cloud cover for our airships wouldn't take much time at all, but would certainly provide a large advantage. I would also suggest hiding archers behind cloud cover and using it to launch surprise attacks. However, one large question must be answered before we can look at anything else." She taps her hoof on the map and takes a sip of her scotch.

"How do we divide up our airships? 6 at Baltimare, 3 at Canterlot and 1 at Cloudsdale? I will also be disrupting the enemies when they reach our doorstep. Cloudsdale can send storms to mess with their supplies when they camp, but I can also deny sleep to at least 30% of their army each night."

 

[Dreamweaver]

Dumbledoof
"It heals me when I hit things. Vampiric magic." Aurelia said with a smile and a nod telling Star that she could go ahead and touch it. The dagger hummed lightly when she touched it, after which time Aurelia motioned for her to follow. "That's about it for the barracks. You've seen all the exciting parts, the rest are just offices which are off limits."

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
"Hmm I'd recommend a more spread division of our airships. They are our best tool to combat the griffins for air supremacy but I don't think they should operate in any less than twos or be too vulnerable. Better that they cover each other..."

"Look at the western coast. We have three major cities there. We have Manehatten in the north to overlook the only land bridge to Equestria from Griffinstone while Baltimare is our most powerful harbor. Baltimare is a natural seaward fortress while while Manehattens position on an isle will leave it vulnerable to encirclement but likewise easy to contain even if they do manage to take it eventually."

That brings us to Fillydelphia..."

Avedon's gazed moved to the central city

"The retarded leg on the centipede that is our defensive point..."
He didn't feel bad for not being good at metaphors. He knew Luna was worse!
"It's the closest direct path from Griffinstone and it's railway connects straight to Canterlot as well as providing a flanking opportunity to Baltimare. Now we can try to fortify the city and its unlikely they'd make landfall directly on it's harbor. If I were Ironbeak I'd set up staging areas north and south of Baltimare. As you can see it's the only approachable area of coast on that side of the nation. We have hills to the north which might offer us some decent defensive emplacement but the height would not slow a griffon advance. The forest to the south is somewhat better. if they try to proceed through it we can expect the canopy to shield our grown forces as well as divide their own. If they try to simply fly past it they risk outrunning their supplies and opening their underbelly to our archers."

"We'll have to use the docked fleet at Baltimare to assist Fillydelphia when possible but it still leaves us with looking at our options. Even if all three cities manage to hold their line, we can expect the sheer numbers of the griffons to advance past them. They should be able to encircle us to keep our forces there from hitting their flanks and thus it will be important each city has been set up to be able to operate independently for long periods of time. Dragon-mail might assist on us getting some communications in if we have any to spare to these places."

"So focusing on best-case, we can see the griffons will have the easiet time pushing over the hills through Hollow Shades. That will put them north of Canterlot as well as cutting off the rail-line to Canterlot. From there it's very open plains and they will be able to advance very quickly and can expect them to be able top wrap around far enough to Ponyville if they really wish. Galloping gorge won't slow down a flight-based army much but we can still use it as a strogn defensive area to cut their supplies and provide a back line to halt any further advances in the west from the north.

"Alternatively they could fly over the blue-mountains or flank past Fillydelphia to move in from the south. We can't defend in the Everfree as we'll take far too much attrition which again leaves Ponyville open. However I suggest that if we can hide some ambushers in the quarry or even bribe or threaten the diamond dogs for assistance as partisans to attack the griffons from behind we can cut off any supplies there and punish their rear echelon.

If they take Baltimare or Dodge City they will also have a strong staging ground and supply lines on the abandoned rails AND the riverways."

He takes a deep breath
"That is my full report on the current situation your majesty. Now we can discuss options as you see fit..."

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Star gave her a quiet nod, looking over the daggers for but a few moments longer before pulling her eyes away from it. She stepped back and moved over to Aurelia. "Alright. Would you like to go and get some lunch, then?" She asked. Hunger was gnawing at her stomach. "Or, if you're busy, I can bring you a snack or something later."

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
Luna listened to the stallion speak while keeping her eyes trained on the map, following along with where he was pointing. Everything had changed while she'd been gone, cities had grown and landscapes had bee radically altered through deforestation. All of this was new to her so she leaned heavily upon Avedon's advice. It was moments like this that she was glad he was on her side and she wasn't stuck with a different general.

"Unicorns are our best tool to combat the griffons." Luna says after a moment. "We know three things about our enemy. The first is that their army is primarily made up of citizens who want no part in a war. The second is that they have no airships, and as such they will have to transport their provisions by land and sea. The third is that they have no magic. Unicorns won us the war against them the first time, and I have a feeling the same will ring true again."

Luna taps her chin, and then her horn flashed a bright blue. Several figurines appeared on the table. She laid out ten airship figurines, and 100 soldier figurines; each counting as 5,000 soldiers. The figurines were evenly divided between unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. There were roughly 33 of each figurine to account for the even dispersal of pony races.

She also added another 2 figurines, which counted as crystal ponies. She also pulled out on giant ship, which counted as Equestria's whole naval military.

She laid 2 airship figurines around each primary city; 2 for Baltimare, Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Canterlot and Cloudsdale.

She also laid the giant ship in the Baltimare harbor to account for their naval portion of the military.

She levitated the pegasi figures out and set them in a pile off to the side. "Flankers and air combat." She took 5 of the pegasi figurines and laid them around Cloudsdale. That was 25,000 soldiers.

She levitated out the earth ponies and crystal ponies. "Assault the ground troops which will have to protect their supplies. Hold choke points."

She levitated out the unicorns. "Take advantage of their lack of magic."

"So plan with me. Set up as you see fit."

Dumbledoof
"Do I look busy? I don't work today." Aurelia said with a chuckle and a shake of her head. She quickly lead Star out of the barracks and into the street. Now all they had to do was find a place to eat!

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Avedon smiled. He was glad to help Luna. Time away or not she was still the warrior he admired most in the world and she certainly didnt lack in spirit or intelligence.
"We have no idea of the griffons numbers except that there will be more of them than us..."

he took some featureless pieces to mark the enemies, and began placing them in spots likely to be landing sites and movements.

"Do you think we should burn Hollowshades?"
He asked as he got to the point with a frown

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Star rolled her eyes at Aurelia. "The question was meant towards if you had anything planned for your day off, dear," she sighed, but smiled gently and followed her marefriend out of the barracks and into the streets. She looked about between the different buildings, gazing at the restaurant names and other cafes that lined it. She was in a particular mood for meat, honestly, and not the vegetarian kind.

"How about something a little different than the norm here?" She asked airily. "Are there any restaurants that serve any meat?" Starstreak chose to ignore the suddenly alarmed looks she received from any of the ponies that heard her.

 

[Anonmare]

Dreamweaver
Salacia scowled at her sister, if looks could kill Silvanus would be a walking zombie right about now. She tried her damnedest to will Silva to just catch fire from sheer willpower and shot her a glare that seemed to say, 'You're not the favourite; I am!'
Whether Silvanus saw and, or, understood the intent behind Salacia's glare was something only she knew and her to decide as to whether she would acknowledge Salacia or not.

Salacia wasn't enjoying this outing so far, she Silva was getting all the credit and making Luna think she was the better sister! It's not fair! Silva probably set this all up just to show her up, well, Salacia wouldn't fall for her tricks – she wouldn't play her game! She's onto that deceptive filly and she's going to expose her if this isn't a genuine adventure at all!

“Okay mommy...” Salacia said as Luna took the lead, shooting Sila another suspicious glance. She wouldn't put it past her to be up to something. She couldn't see in the dark as well as Luna, but not as poor as a normal Pony would either. She couldn't make out details but she could still see just enough to make out shapes without Luna's light.

When they got to the bottom of the stairs Salacia saw the door and another pair of statues. It looked like the one on the surface but Salacia didn't see the point in having two doors that can be opened the same way one after the other. So, assuming this wasn't a Silvanus' prank, she presumed that the statues were relevant to the door somehow. She took a closer look at the statues, trying to look for clues or a hidden mechanism like in a Daring Do book or something.

She really didn't like books at all, honest!

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
"I created that town for the bat ponies..." Luna said with a frown, obviously thinking over the act. "... Burn it, but not until the griffons are close to taking it. I want the town and the surrounding forest to be scorched earth when its done burning. The mountain ranges to the north and south will stop the flames from spreading too far, and if we time it right we should have a load of baked griffons."

"Their military has roughly 1.5 million members." Luna says, looking up for a brief time to flash Avedon a devilish smile. "I spent a lot of time inside of Ironbeak's dreams while he was here, as well as other prominent members of the griffon military across the seas."

Luna positions more soldiers on the map. She put several earth ponies at the Baltimare mountain ridge, along with a group of unicorns.

Further back at the river behind the Baltimare mountains she positioned another choke point. They would have to take their supplies over that bridge; there was literally no other way.

Above Dodge City she positioned more troops at that river.

She drew a large X through Hollow Shades and, surprisingly, the Everfree Forest as well. "They cannot go through the Everfree, it is on our side and they'll be slaughtered." She explained. "We have to consider the possibility that they will go up past the Ghastly Gorge and into Ponyville, but that journey will take them over 3 months from Griffonstone with their land-based supplies."

Finally, she put troops at Ponyville, and at each entrance to Canterlot's base. "We can shield the city but not the base. That would be our last defense."

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Avedon watches silently, nodding and studying her plans. He let out a sight and a grim smile.
"They have enough strength that we can delay them and try to limit their points of access but inevitably one front or several will give in and we'll have to fight at Canterlot itself. It's the crown jewel of our country. Most of our industry is here, and it's a powerful symbol. if they take it Cloudsdale will fall soon afterwards and they'll have uncontestable dominance of the surrounding farmlands. Additionally the entire nations railray runs through here and will give them supplies and the ability to move their forces incredibly quickly throughout the nation while divind our own to the corners of our own nation...to put it bluntly, if Canterlot falls, EQUESTRIA will fall..."

 

[Dreamweaver]

Avedon
"And that is precisely why Equestria won't fall." Luna shoots him a grin, although it wasn't a warm one. "Or ponykind I will die protecting it. Celestia and I didn't build this country up just to have it taken by a bunch of mangy griffins."

She taps Canterlot. Now they were on the centerpiece of the discussion. "You're right about saying one of the fronts will fall. Probably all of them. When that happens, we will retreat to the base of Canterlot Mountain." She points down at the small tunnels where the trains would normally come in. "Both Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor will be staying in Canterlot during this battle. Both are able to generate a force-field around the city, which we have seen before during the Changeling invasion. With the two of them working together, they should be able to maintain the force-field indefinitely. Which leaves Celestia and I able to lend out firepower to the fight where needed."

"All earth ponies and crystal ponies can guard the entrances of the base mountain. All unicorns can back them up. Shining Armor and Cadence can periodically lower the shield long enough to let some pegasi out, who can then attack and retreat back to the safety of the city."

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
"This will work but we're looking at an extremely long and bloody war. We should recall that these griffons are civilians. Offer them no quarter on the battlefield but allow the weakest in their ranks to capitulate. The quarry near Ponyville might form a natural prison but it may be better to send them north to the Crystal Empire and a neutral party perhaps. I think on the small towns we must abandon near the coasts we should leave propoganda on Equestria's strength, moral high-ground, and the allegations of the madness of the Griffon king as well as our stance on surrendering. Of course we can't be TOO soft. We need to make the battlefields bloody"

"Hmm...a thought my Princess, do you have any connections to the Buffalo in the south? Perhaps we can, instead of abandoning Dodge City or at least Appleoosa, see if they might be able to help us."

 

[Wylfen Shepard]

@Dreamsthefox
Latios
"How long has this been going on?", he hooded Dragon asked in a seriously solemn tone. Cass couldn't put much into words at the moment. THe very thought of Equestria going to war was indescribable. What in the world happened? From what he read in his history, Equestria was in the middle of a time of peace.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Cyan Hide
"Let's be thankful that Princess Luna let us use her private training room. I'm afraid we might not have gotten anything done in the regular guard chambers, with the way we'd be swarmed and all. Everyone there would want to talk to us." Shining Armor said with a little chuckle and a shake of his head. Right now they were standing in Luna's private training room; on the back wall were racks upon racks of weapons, of all types. Crossbows, swords, maces, shields, bows, halberds, you name it and it was there. There were many functions to this room that neither of them knew about, but for now the idea was simple; Shining Armor would train his wife in melee combat.

Because you couldn't always rely on magic to get the job done.

"Test some of the weapons and see what you like the feel of." He said while withdrawing his own shield and blade. He was a rather simple stallion; longsword and shield fitted him the most.

Avedon
"The Buffalo were here before ponies settled into Equestria. They've always had a small population but even back when the pony races were all fighting among themselves, the Buffalo were friendly with all three races. They remain our friends. I believe that I could get them to lend assistance, yes. They don't take well to aggressive third parties coming into our land either." Luna said with a nod of her head and a chuckle. "But the fact remains that Dodge City is hardly more than a village, and the same goes with Appleoosa. These places are too far away and don't have the population to defend themselves. They must be evacuated."

"The Buffalo can join our army. They outweigh the griffons by several times and their trampling tactics would be invaluable against anyone trying to guard the supplies who would have to be land based. The Diamond Dogs can be easily bribed with gems, of which we have millions..."
...
She lays a hoof on Ponyville. "When this town falls... Should we burn it? It'd serve the enemy as a very close base to our capital."

 

[Cyan Hide]

Dreamweaver

Cadence watched her husband as he talked about training in the guard chambers. It was true that they had both gotten a particularly warm welcome from the Solar Guard, many of whom still considered Shining Armour to be the Solar General, not just because that position is currently vacant but also because his successor's actions hadn't exactly made them popular. There were even a few of the elderly guard staff who remembered Cadence from her time here as a student, then Princess-in-training, then as babysitter for the current Princess-in-training. It had been nice to catch up, but today was training day. Shining Armor had brought up the idea with Luna that they should all know how to fight and both Princesses had agreed.

Cadence went up to the wall to choose her weapon. A crossbow....well, if there was a situation where a Princess' magic couldn't help, a crossbow definitely couldn't...Cadence tried a sword in her hand, but it was a little too heavy for her to swing very well. She couldn't even lift the halberd. In the end she went with a mace and small yet sturdy buckler.

"Okay, um, what's next?" she asked feeling just a little undignified holding weapons.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Cyan Hide
Shining Armor just chuckled and smirked at his wife. She looked adorable standing there holding a buckler and mace, and looked awkward as could be too. It was fairly obvious that she'd never held a real weapon before. "Next you learn how to use that buckler. Defense before offense after all. If for any reason you are put into a situation where you have to use that mace, which I hope you aren't, simply wait for a chance to strike back and counter."

Shining levitates over a wooden sword which he'd be using for this spar and gives it a few test swings. "Alright so now you will learn how to block. Don't hold the shield so that my sword hits dead on, you want to hold the shield in such a manner that the weapon deflects past you. That gives you an opportunity to counter."

He swung the sword down at her. It was a pretty slow swing, she should really be able to block that...