Not your average mentor [Closed]

Hawkstrike walked across the territory with a proud smile and confident steps, his long fur acting as the perfect barrier against the cold at least for now. He stopped only for a couple heartbeats to turn his head and make sure his apprentice was following him. Since the mysterious death of his last apprentice he had been a bit grumpy, but this was his second chance, one he was going to make sure didn’t go to waste. He was going to make sure this apprentice survived to become a strong warrior someday.

“We are almost there Pantherpaw, keep up!” While he wasn’t the strictest mentor in SkyClan, he didn’t want to waste any precious second of training. It probably was because he had experienced first-hand how awful it was to be left alone and mentorless for a long time and consequently lac proper training for quite some time, he didn’t want that to ever happen to one of his apprentices. It wasn’t until they arrived to his favorite clearing that he stopped and turned around to look at him “Here we are. Today I’m going to teach you how to fight, so I hope you’re ready”.

As he was done talking, the rather eager mentor got on his usual battle stance, which was way more aggressive than the usual stance most warriors used. After all, he was trained to deal as much damage as possible regardless of how low he had to go to do so, as well as go for the kill as soon as he got a chance, while those trained under StarClan’s rules were more defensive and worried about their honor in battle and following the warrior code, not killing their opponent unless they had no other choice “Show me what you already know”.

Hawkstrike, uh? The young tortie tom followed his mentor looking at his back with narrowed suspicious eyes. He didn't know him very well... he wasn't sure if he was the strong warrior he needed to fulfill his goal.

He let out a grumpy growl when the brown-furred cat talked to him. How much time they had to keep walking? Pantherpaw hateful thoughts were always flooding his mind... each day of his life since that night. He couldn't forget what happened... he couldn't forgive.  The only he was looking for was revenge... for all his dead siblings. Batfang... that coward deserved to die after what he did to his mother, to his family... to him. However, he was too young and inexperienced. He needed someone who could teach him how to be stronger... how to be able to kill his father.

Pantherpaw's eyes finally showed a glimpse of excitement when Hawkstrike said what they were going to do today. "Finally!" The apprentice put his body into a battle crouch and, just like he practiced when he was a kit, he ran toward the older tom with unsheathed claws. Each time he practiced fighting on his own, Pantherpaw always saw on his imaginary enemy the face of his father... and this time wasn't different. He leaped toward him, attempting to bite the neck of his mentor seeing him as Batfang.

OOC: Sorry for the long wait, real life was a pain. However, I’m finally back! Also, I’m guessing you don’t want to use the battle system here?


Hawkstrike almost felt like if he was in some kind of flashback, back when he was training with Amberclaw, just with him looking through the eyes of his mentor instead of his own. Pantherpaw had the same willingness to fight he had, he also apparently forgot that this fight wasn’t serious…and he had the same hatred in his eyes that he had back on his apprentice days.

The chocolate tabby reacted almost instantly, easily figuring out the intentions of the younger tom as he targeted his neck. While true that he was smaller than the average warrior he soon showed the reason behind his suffix as he moved quickly and his paw connected with the flank of the apprentice. While he was careful to not use much strength and keep his claws sheathed to not cause him any damage, any cat would be able to know that even if he was somewhat small, he packed quite the punch.

His intention was only that of deflect the blow aiming for his neck, maybe even make him lose balance and fall, but he had little experience fighting opponents younger than him and could only hope he hadn’t used more strength than the absolutely necessary “You’re making your attacks easy to predict, you’re not defeating any cat like that. You’re not a kit anymore, Pantherpaw, if you want to last more than a couple heartbeats in battle you need to add technique to the attacks you’ll use, brute force means nothing if you never land a single hit” Most mentors would scold him for aiming to the neck, for performing an attack that could obviously become lethal, but Hawkstrike wasn’t like any other mentor. He hadn’t been trained to simply defeat his opponents, he had been trained to kill, and for the first time he had an apprentice that apparently followed such goals as well.

Without any previous warning the warrior rushed towards him with what appeared to be a simple tackle attack in mind, and not being the fastest cat in the clan such approach would be easy for Pantherpaw to predict and avoid, but at the very last second he changed his tactic, using all the strength on his hind legs to jump towards him and use his paws and own body weight to pin him down.

OOC: I’m sorry too for my delay!

IC:
The young apprentice’s breath was cut by his mentor’s strong hit on his lungs before losing his balc and falling to the dusty ground. Pantherpaw stood up angry and frustrated but he listened to every word of the cat I front of him with narrowed and lightly interested eyes. He always believed that the physical strength of a cat was the only thing it mattered during a battle, meaning that the cat with more brute force would always win. Now he saw how mistaken he was.
The tom nodded and crouched down defensively when te warrior ran toward him aiming to attack him from the front. But the inexperience of the apprentice cost him another strong hit that he didn’t expect. Pantherpaw hissed angrily feeling that border over his but he didn’t stay still for too long. Using his four legs, he managed to roll under Hawkstrike’s body, escaping from his paws and then he quickly struck him with his sheathed paw in the face with everything he got. Not losing a second, the young cat punched his belly with his hind legs, throwing the older tom away so he could stand one more time, breathing fastly because of the adrenaline and the excitement of the battle. ”How was that, Hawkstrike?” He panted, smiling a bit with a defiant look. The chocolate tabby was a better mentor than he thought... perfectly suited for a fighter like Pantherpaw.