The Knight, The Hero, and The Mafioso (Spike/Brianna)

[Cillian McWolfe]

Cillian was near the training grounds with a whip in hand, he had mentioned to Brianna that he was proficient in it, and thought it might be fun to show it off a bit.

"So you want to make sure to stay back, it has surprising reach.  Also it's a bit tricky if you decide to start picking it up.  I can't tell you how many times I hurt myself when I was learning how to use it." 

[Brianna Valdyr]

Brianna stood a a decent space away from Cillian, watching with interest as he showed her the weapon she'd asked about.

"I can appreciate a few bruises," she admitted with a small grin. She may or may not already be consider giving it a shot. "What makes it tricky?"

[Sage Sudeki]

Spike was heading to Cabal Academy's training grounds as well. It was a nice place to train away from the prying eyes of the families at large. However he did note the other two, and they were talking about something. A Qi? A weapon? That's when he spotted it, the whip at the man's side. That is an interesting weapon choice. Spike himself now had two swords at his side and that seemed to be the common weapon among the territories without specialists. He would approach.

"Hi there, don't mean to interrupt, but I couldn't help but notice the whip you carry, is that your weapon of choice?"

[Cillian McWolfe]

"More than bruises. It will break skin easily. Yours or who you are swinging it at. My trainer's said that it could break something called the sound barrier. Which basically means it travels super-fast."

He uncoiled the whip, giving it a few light shakes to loosen it when someone else approached.

"Oh, it's no problem. Just make sure you don't get to close, I don't want to hurt anyone." He said with a grin. "Not my main weapon of choice, but it is one I'm proficient in. I was about to give a demonstration to Brianna here if you wanted you are welcome to watch as well."

[Brianna Valdyr]

"Really?" Cillian definitely had her interest, her head cocking to the side as he mentioned something called the sound barrier, a brief look of thought on her face as she tried to place the words, but nothing came to mind. Her father never taught her to use the weapon.

She looked up at the sound of a new voice, grinning with a cheerful wave at the dark-haired young man who joined them.

"Hey there!" She nodded in agreement; the guy was fine with her and wasn't causing any problems. "Not really my weapon of choice but I'm interested in it. Cillian's good with an audience if you want to; I don't mind."

[Sage Sudeki]

Spike would nod and wave his hand and nod his head at Brianna. He kept a fair distance resting his wrists on his katana hilts for a relaxed position.

"Yes, I would like to see a demonstration of the whip. I haven't seen anyone proficient in it since the war, thank you."

[Cillian McWolfe]

Cillian nodded, bending down to grab one of the large branches he had stacked up next to him for this demonstration he would toss it up into the air. Following it with his eyes before whipping his arm toward it, the whip uncoiling toward it as Cillian snapped his arm back, a loud CRACK ripped through the air as the branch fell to the ground in half.

[Brianna Valdyr]

Resting her hands behind her back, Brianna looked up to mark the distance of the stick, but her focus returned to Cillian as he drew back the whip, jumping slightly at the loud sound that went through the air worse than the sound of broken bones or a fire's crackle.

"Nice!" Totally not acting like she didn't jump.

[Sage Sudeki]

Spike would clap his hands with a large grin.

"Nice form. Very nice demonstration of the precision, speed, and devastating power of speed and finesse versus raw weight and power."

[Cillian McWolfe]

"So you can imagine what it can do to the flesh, or even bone if the strike is right. But as the gentleman said, it can also be a weapon of finesse."

He'd toss another branch up, this time when he unleashed the whip, letting it coil around it rather than snapping it back. Yanking back on the whip to pull it toward him allowing him to catch it in his free hand.

[Brianna Valdyr]

"I can see why." Brianna nodded at the explanation, having to trust in Cillian and the stranger's explanation of finesse and speed; she could see the precision needed in the movements, the ability to pull the branch to him instead of breaking it, let alone catching it.

"It doesn't lash out the way I thought it would. I thought it would be straighter." Instead the whip coiled and hit at a different spot, but it seemed to be right where it was wanted.

[Sage Sudeki]

"Depends on the wrist flick and the hand eye coordination of the user. Whip fighters have a very specific focus, at least for beginners. But you can watch the thumb knuckles to know the direction of the slice of the whip for emergency."

Spike says to explain some of what he knew of fighting people with a whip. Though he would shrug.

"Though that's only what I remember from the few that I had to deal with."

[Cillian McWolfe]

"You're not wrong. But even then the timing can be hard to predict. It's easy to feint and pull back early the cracking of the whip is usually enough to disorient or keep most people on their guard. But it's not a common weapon, so most people don't train with it, or against it."

[Brianna Valdyr]

Brianna's gaze flicked to Cillian's grasp on the whip with the explanation, trying to figure out what it meant for someone using it and what it might mean fighting against it. She wouldn't have any way of knowing and probably would have gotten beat with it multiple times.

"So it's also used to discourage other people fighting?"

[Sage Sudeki]

Spike would look at Brianna.

"Well ask yourself. If you came across someone with one of those and they whipped it out with that snapping noise would you not hesitate?"