ZOMBIE FORUMS

Had he wanted it to be, I'm sure he could have.

He is using magic after all :rolleyes:

Errr, where did that ever get said? Seeing colors and heightening your sensory input does not imply you can't see your opponent. We do know they find it uncomfortable and distracting, but nothing said about it being that strong. An experienced fighter like Sarine should have spent quite a bit of time getting used to it.

Also, if the last swing was aimed for a cut, why are we seeing the flat of the blade? It implies it is at an angle not quite aligned with the direction of movement. It was, after all, a strike from above. And if Sarine was to have followed the direction of the sharp edge, Sara would be missing some of the cloth on her back, at the least.


I want an unicorn in my bedroom by tomorrow. It's magic right, so no problem? And no, not one of those inbred ones.

What I don't get is, if Sara is going all out, why isn't she using time magic, or if she is using time magic, why was Sarine so taken out by it when Warrel used it?

That just bothers me somehow.

I think it's just because Anita wanted to prove a point to the rest of the order.

'Here I am, with a DECORATIVE weapon, and I'm beating the crap out of you. I can take something complete impractical, and make it work, because you SUCK!'

Well, there's two likely reasons; Sara wants to show she can fight without cheating, or she knows Sarine has prepared some nasty traps against it.

Or, a sub-assumption of the latter one, she can't cause Sarine countered it somehow.

Sara probably wouldn't know how to use a sword if her training's so blinkered she uses a weapon just because the head of her order uses one, you need different body skills to use a sword over a staff and vice-versa.
Neither is inherently superior though, they just suit different ways of fighting.

I find it interesting that once magic comes in to the equation, it's assumed that anyone using it could do anything they wanted to. The magic ability to lift the sword without touching it, or call it to your hand, isn't the same as the magic ability to activate a touch-and-concentration-activated weapon before you're touching it.

How do you know that they are not both using time magic? You only know that they are moving at the same relative speed.

When Warrel used it, it was a complete surprise.

Sarine is no longer surprised. She implied that she had some way of countering it or impeding its use. I doubt anyone from the time monkeys ever surprises Sarine with their tricks again.

IIRC, Warrel healed his stomach wound before returning to the fight.

Just to point out something regarding this comment: right after being shot in the stomach and dropping his weapon, the weapon appears turned off. Considering that the crystal needs magic to be flowing to be indestructible, it stands to reason that it would have a safety mechanism to become small when the fighter using it isn't making it work.

I'm with Slamlander on this one. Sarine is owning so much in this fight she's even got the time to banter away and make fun of her opponent's choice of weapon. If she was having trouble, she'd congratulate the girl on holding her own with such a crappy weapon. Or even remain quiet, seeing as she'd be busy not being sliced.

I think that very true point goes the way of the catgirl when it comes to fantasy webcomics. Story supersceeds physics, especially when someone has something really cool to say during a fight. And when you're writing for an audience with as short an attention span as we do. Go back and look, the only one who doesn't talk during fights are Sara and maybe a couple of those unnamed time-ninjas.

And yeah, I think Sarine won the actual duel to start with. That was a hard fall on her wrist- she landed straight-armed on the butt of her palm after appearing to roll an ankle. If she'd done that on purpose, she'd have bent her elbow at least a bit in order to absorb some of the shock, cause I can tell you from experience, landing like that hurts like living fuck and is a good way to break your wrist. When she flat-edged Sara on the back of the head, I think there was an indication that Sarine was counting coup, and inviting Sara to do the same- "best 2 out of 3? or shall we get on with trying to eviscerate one another?"

There's also an element of building trust there- "That's one time I could have killed you, and didn't. Are you going to return the favor, or just decide to be an asshole about it?"

But if I'm not completely off the mark, Sarine's inviting and I think Sara's agreeing to turn this from a Duel to the Death to a practice session- albiet a very hardcore slicey practice session that can still kill either of them if one or the other screws up.

*slaps palm against forehead*

At no point has the dolon left Sara's hand. Getting biscected didn't cause Warrel's Lancea to instantly depower; suggesting that a dueling weapon with literally milenia of operational use would have the weakness that it stops working if you get some hairs cut while dodging is stupid anyways. Nobody got "bapped on the head". Sarine isn't "owning", this is a sparring match and Sara's had to pull at least one stroke by sudden weapon-depowerment to avoid something lethal occurring. You can actually make an argument that Sarine is ahead based on that, but not a good one.

We aren't. Look at the hilt of in the last panel of the previous comic - nearly horizontal. Look at the way her arms are positioned - straight out, as if she were swinging it horizontally. Look at the strands of hair flying off.

Sarine went for a horizontal strike. Sara ducked under it. Today's comic follows too nicely from the previous for it to be anything but. I was actually expecting Sarine to win easily, but Sara so far is coming off better. Sarine looks like she's tiring (that "oof" in the first panel, the expression on her face in the second and fifth) while Sara just looks like she's concentrating.

I agree Sarine will probably win the fight in the end (it makes sense storywise) but I think in these two pages, we're being shown that Sara ain't no pushover.

Exactly.


first it was "sara's a scared little girl and won't know how to deal with sarine". then it was "sarine's asserting herself as alpha-bitch".
Now it's "sara's no match for sarine," and "sarine is obviously playing with sara, but sara's out for blood," and "sarine won the fight when sara landed hard on her hand"

Which is why she's sweating hard and Sara's not, and why Sara just used that "injured" hand to do a one-armed strike.
*sigh* If this keeps up, Sarine will wind up beneath Ellis in the party pecking order.


It's much more likely that they'll come out of this respecting each other. Sparring -which is what this is- induces bonding and camaraderie. Jon will likely be less than amused.

Interesting, except that this fight hasn't gone on long enough enough for me to get winded, let alone a 3000 year old immortal warrior. Hmmm . . . .

Then why is she sweating?

We don't know how long the fight has been going for. That last page could have covered ten seconds or ten minutes.

If you look two strips ahead of the one you've linked, you'll see that Sara's blade withdraws within moments of her losing consciousness. Sarine is still casting her spell; Jon presumably has no idea how to force the weapon to withdraw; Sara is incapacitated. Logical conclusion: it takes conscious effort to keep the blade active. This is not counter-indicated by the fact that doesn't deactivate instantaneously.

Look, Monday's comic is not a 24fps action reel; it is an abstract presentation, accentuated by an intentionally loose and sketchy art style. Both of Sara's legs change position between frames five and six, and Sarine is swinging at a very different angle. If Poe were making the important but subtle point that Sara intentionally withdrew her blade to avoid skewering Sarine, I do not think he would sneak it into a tiny sketch at the end of a montage page.

But according to you, it does deactivate instantaneously. Why else would it deactivate at the exact moment of impact in the previous panel?

We just don't know enough about them to say either way. Perhaps the weapon draws magical energy from mages on it's own. Perhaps the flow of magic from the mage to the sword is instinctive, and won't be released until death or unconsciousness, or unless the mage wants it to turn off. Hell, for all we know it has a killswitch that deactivates the weapon if it is released (yes, just like a lightsaber. Or a chainsaw).