#THIS TOOK FOREVER TO PUT TOGETHER AND IT'S MOSTLY BECAUSE OF THE GIFS DSKJDANSJGSLD

[tareloin]

What do you think Frey and Allon's fighting styles are? Do you think they've had practice spars with eachother? o.o

What do you think Frey and Allon's fighting styles are? Do you think they've had practice spars with eachother? o.o

Thanks for sending in an ask, Marlin! <3 Putting a read more because this thing is gigantic.

Word count: 1,560 (not including TL;DR)

TL;DR is also provided below!

=== TL;DR: ===

Frey is strictly melee and is limited in speed due to his axe's weight. He makes up for this by fighting efficiently and using his warhorses to travel quickly and thin out large crowds of enemies. Allon has a little more flair in his fighting with his swifter attacks and quick movement. He utilizes magic to increase his range, but melee takes preference as magic takes time to cast. Yes, Frey and Allon do spar with each other (mostly for training) and they're pretty much on equal playing fields, especially if they're using the same weapon. They also take responsibility for the other if they ever manage to harm the other on accident.

=== RAMBLE START ===

As we'd expect, there's canon fighting styles that we need to account for before I get into headcanon territory.

Unfortunately, I don't have a high quality gif collection of Frey or Allon's skills. I might get them in the future and update this post when I do, but for now... just text, gifs, and links to videos. Sorry! :'D

ALLON (ONE-HANDED SWORD)

When entering battle, Allon will sometimes jump and tumble into the battle. Yes, it's canon, and no, I have no idea how he gets so much air. Usually though, he just runs up to the enemy.

His standard attack is just a slash to the right.

Another attack has him swinging his sword backwards before thrusting it forward. He then swings it back again before reverting to his attack stance. (This attack is provided below.) There's also a variant of this attack that sends out a spinning blade when he stabs forward.

[Fun fact: Knight's Stinging Flurry skill was actually taught by Allon, who showed her the technique!]

Allon also seems to have a "buff" skill (aka he "shouts" like a Super Saiyan and gets a blue fire effect around him). I don't know what it does, but I assume it increases damage and possibly even attack speed.

You can see more of his attacks in this video (0:35-2:31) and this video (2:30-3:30).

FREY (ONE-HANDED AXE)

There's not much to say here (thankfully)! (The reason for this is because Frey doesn't appear as often in dungeons compared to Allon.)

Frey enters battle as you'd expect (running up to the enemy). He also has warhorses that he rides into battle with (but we never see him riding it because game limitations lolol)

When attacking, Frey's usual attack is just a slashing motion from left to right. Like Allon, he also has a "buff" (it makes him glow red in-game) that only appears during a special attack. This attack consists of a spin jump and an axe slam at the end.

Here's some gifs from Sky Fortress's launch.

Okay, that's all for canon stuff.

=== HEADCANON TIME WOO ===

Since the two of them use different weapons, it's going to be hard to give an even comparison. I watched one video a while back about the differences between axes and swords (therefore take all my statements with a grain of salt), and axes are generally heavier than swords.

It makes sense then that Frey would have more moves that rely on momentum for impact, which is reflected in his attacks. It's important to keep the weapon moving in a fluid motion rather than sharp/sudden motions (like stabbing) because the axe's blades are pretty heavy (especially if you have four like Frey does)! It's going to leave you exposed as you're reeling back from your swing.

I imagine that final blows are done with the spin jump because it uses the entire body's momentum for impact. The amount of dead time for recovery also wouldn't be ideal either if you're still trying to swing at an enemy.

I also want to mention that since Frey was (probably) trained by Condor, he likely shares a similar moveset. (See Condor's attacks here.) It's possible that Frey utilizes these attacks during battle, but it's not certain because Condor's axe is more likely to be lighter (thus opening up more possibilities).

I mentioned Frey's warhorse earlier mostly because it's related to his general combat. They're trained to trample the enemy to death and possibly even gore enemies on their armor (Alexion, for example, is very spiney and has armor with a horn on the top). We as the player are allowed to mount on one of Frey's warhorses and have a skill that has us charge into enemies, so it's not unreasonable to assume Frey's warhorses are made to ride in and kill.

Frey's axe may look unwieldy and be more difficult to use swiftly, but he makes up for it in blunt-force damage. His attacks are probably pretty devastating when they need to be at the cost of speed. That's why I imagine he often prefers to use warhorses for swiftly cutting down masses of enemies and goes on foot for smaller, close-contact groups.

That's not to say Frey is slow-hitting. He's just slower than people like Allon, who have lighter weapons.

Speaking of Allon, unlike Frey, it seems that a lot of his attacks rely on stabbing or swift sweeping gestures (as opposed to methodical sweeps of the arm). This is probably due to the lighter weight of the weapon in general, but also possibly because of his capabilities as a Lumiknight.

If you looked at the videos for Allon (provided above), you probably noticed a lot of magic being used in compound with his physical attacks. This is likely due to his Lumiknight status as they (probably) have some sort of magical capability that can assist them in battle/whatever they want, really. This is due to their connection with the Goddess of Light. I imagine that the magic puts Allon at a greater advantage due to their range, but since it's not his focus, he's not capable of holding these ranged attacks for long.

Instead, Allon moves swiftly to close the distance between enemies. If the distance is too far, then he might resort to magic to deal damage while still rushing forward. When he's closer, he can make up for the lost time by maiming the hell out of them with his sword.

But you might wonder... what's the point of the tumble roll? Is there really any time saved using it? And my answer?

lmao no

I feel like Allon is just an extra sort of person. In fact, he used to have/still has a taunting motion (it looks like beckoning) that sometimes triggers when he's fighting enemies. Unfortunately I can't find the gif of it because the link expired some time ago, but believe me. That is by far the cockiest thing one could do.

His skills are flashy and sometimes unnecessary, but if it gets the job done, then so be it. Actually, I imagine that's one of the bigger differences between Frey and Allon's fighting styles.

Frey doesn't necessarily need extra flair for his attacks. All actions are done for a reason and are quickly executed, mostly because when he's on foot, he is limited by not only his weapon speed, but the weight of it too as he travels from place to place. But hell, he sure can do some cool stuff with his axe if he's not in battle.

See? Wow, so cool, spinning a literal axe in his hand! Guy must have hella arm and hand muscles.

Allon has a little more leeway in the way he can attack due to his advantage in speed. Plus, a sword swing can only do so much. I can't imagine it can do as much damage as an axe could, so what the sword lacks, magic makes up for it. And since Allon isn't exactly a magic user, the more devastating magic skills he uses likely take more time to channel (especially holy light, which is what I imagine he uses).

Compared to other magic-focused users such as Orde (who is a wizard), he's pretty slow! But put against other melee-focused characters (see: Rolling Thunder), he has a much greater advantage.

=== DO THEY PRACTICE SPAR? ===

Short answer: yes!

They're friends, and I can't imagine a better way to refine your skills other than to beat the hell out of your friend and assert dominance over them fight against an opponent who is on an equal skill level as you.

But you also might be wondering how they do that if Allon has a significant advantage over Frey, with all his magic and faster movement. (You might also be wondering how Frey doesn't kill Allon either with his axe, lol)

That's also a simple answer: they agree on what should be and shouldn't be done during training. It varies depending on what weapon they're using, too!

Frey used to be a guard (or at least a cadet in training) whereas Allon used to be a knight/squire. It's not unlikely that both guards and knights are trained to use a multitude of weapons in the event they need to be moved to another post/have a shortage of XYZ weapon users. For example, you can see Tria guards with a variety of weapons: a spear, sword, crossbow, and even knuckles.

Of course, Frey and Allon both have preferences for their current weapon. But it's not to say that they aren't proficient in the other weapons either! They both believe it's good to be well-rounded and flexible in battle so they probably swap out weapons for some spars.

When using their regular weapons without utilizing magic, Frey and Allon are pretty evenly matched. Allon probably does have a slight advantage still, but honestly... they both make up for each others strengths and weaknesses. Plus, they don't really keep track, so neither should I!

Sometimes, though, they get caught up in the fighting. They don't mean to hurt each other, but whenever it happens, they make sure to tend to each other's wounds. The injuries aren't severe, usually it's just a scrape or something similar, but there's still a sense of responsibility over the other.

And I think that's it! Thanks for reading, and thanks for asking Marlin!! This was really fun to think about :]