Style Quest: Gard

“Your guild handler has arrived and requested your presence in the training room,” Tabious explained as the wolf hawk captain guided Varick through the ship’s corridors. After several weeks aboard the ship, Varick assumed the captain was his handler. This morning the mahogany Clydesdale was proven wrong as the captain came to fetch him. Usually, Tabious would’ve sent someone else to do this chore, but he had a personal interest today.

 

    “Who is my handler,” Varick inquired as the horse tailor tried to map out the spaceship in his head. However, like every other time he tried to do so, the Clydesdale just ended up confused. There were too many twisting and turning corridors on this ship. Varick would end up lost if he ever tried to find anything aboard himself.

 

    “Just an old friend of mine,” Tabious laughs as he opens the door to the training. Varick walked into an expansive open empty room save for one person standing at the far end. As the blonde Clydesdale walked into the room, he could see that it was a red-skinned tiefling wearing torn pants and a blue silk boxing robe. Tabious shut the door and leaned against it, ready to watch a show.

 

    “Come, friend and take off your shirt so that we might fight as brothers,” the tiefling yelled as he threw his robe into the air. Varick stopped, confused, and looked down at his vest, shirt, and tie. He wasn’t about to take these off for a fight. Varick’s clothes had enough enchantments to help him in a row.

 

“Who are you, and why are we fighting,” Varick asked, unsure of what was happening.

 

    “Names later, for we fight now,” the stranger insisted as he started to move in on the Clydesdale. “Throw everything you got at me! It won’t be enough!” Varick looked back to Tabious, who chuckled a bit.

 

    “You might want to move, or he’s going to hit you,” the wolf hawk instructed as he continued to lean on the door. The brown horse turned back to see the tielfing was almost on top of him.

 

    “What I seek is FLASH,” Varick yelled in a panic as he touched the center button on his vest. A blinding light erupted from the button allowing the horse to dodge the tielfing’s attack. There wasn’t much time until his assailant recovered from the light. A flurry of punches forced Varick to dodge backward quickly. “What I seek is fire,” the blonde Clydesdale shouted, holding out his hands. Gouts of purple and blue flames shot out of his sleeves but did nothing to stop the red-skinned tiefling’s advance.

 

    “You use fire versus someone tainted by the abyss,” the brawler laughed as he walked through the flames unharmed. “It will take more than that to stop Gard Guyner!” With a growl, Varick grabbed the vial of needles off his sewing kit and popped the cork. In a smooth motion, the Clydesdale tailor flung the contents of the vial at the tiefling. The needles caught fire as they flew at Gard, but his left arm effortlessly deflected them all. Desperate, Varick grabbed the scissors from his talisman sewing kit and wielded them like a dagger.

 

    “No one is completely fireproof,” Varick growled as his mane and tail ignited in blue and purple flames. All he had left has to try and overload Gard’s fire resistance. The scissor’s blades caught flames and elongated as Varick pushed excessive amounts of magic into them. A punch came right for the horse’s face, which he ducked and tried to stab Gard in the stomach. Varick suddenly stopped when a hand grabbed his mane and hauled him upright. The tiefling grabbed the horse tailor by the throat with his free hand.

 

    “How did you beat Syph,” Gard inquired as he tightened his grip. Tabious loudly cleared his throat, causing the tiefling to roll his eyes. Carefully Gard let go of Varick and set him down. “My name is Gard Guyner, and I’m here to keep you alive. Get some armor, and I will train you to fight.”

 

    “Kriv already taught me how to fight,” Varick coughed slightly. He was mildly insulted that he needed to learn to fight again. The fight with Syph wasn’t standard, but Varick came out mostly unharmed.

 

   “Kriv taught you how to survive a fight; I’ll teach you how to win one,” Gard shouted as he retrieved his robe. “Be back here every day before lunch and get some armor. You’re dismissed for now.” Tabious and Gard started talking like old friends as Varick sulked away with his throat and ego bruised. What kind of armor was he supposed to find that fit him correctly? The Clydesdale didn’t like his new handler, but there must’ve been a reason if the guild sent Gard specifically.