Whitefish River but the boy survived his refusal to believe...

wintersbane notes the large gash on the boy's shoulder — attention drawn to it when the young man spares it a glimpse — and expects verbal coaching as the answer mere seconds before illidan gives it. that gash wouldn't have stopped a younger ( and much more stupid ) wintersbane but he hadn't been anywhere near as conscious about his own mortality when he'd been illidan's age. recklessness was how he'd coped with all the trauma he'd endured ...coupled as it was with forced amnesia. the family before everything else. he'd done it to protect them and they'd all left ...and the only family that he knew of that still lived in the wilds wasn't even family to him anymore. it was better that way. mallaidh and him would never get along so long as all they wanted to do is see how deeply they could cut one another.

pretty deep, evidently.

sounds like a good deal, wintersbane agrees. it would be hard to offer advice when he has no idea what level of skill illidan's at with his training. so instead he wracks his brain for things he wished that a more experienced warrior'd told him when he was younger. maybe you've already been told this before and maybe you've already figured it out for yourself but not every fight's going to be the same and you'll have to adjust your strategy and tactics to counter your opponent. sometimes, you'll get lucky and aggressive and bully attacks are all it will take, he thinks of his last fight with malliadh. his sister wouldn't cow before him but his fighting style that day'd been determined largely by the emotional turmoil she'd caused. telling him that he'd killed lotte had brought forth a rage and hatred towards her that wintersbane had never known he'd been capable of feeling. those hadn't been his ex-sister's words verbatim ...but they may as well've been. his attacks had been unceasingly aggressive that day with the single intention of wanting to hurt her. to make her feel the physical representation of how she'd made him feel inside. an eye for a mother fuckin' eye. thinking about it causes those feelings to stir beneath his skin where they'd lain dormant and while not forgotten about out of reach of the surface. a muscle in his shoulder twitches and he quickly shifts gears in his mind, eager to move onto the second half of his point.

other times you have to be calculating and hit where you know it's going to hurt. wear them down. going for the legs is an effective way of getting an opponent down and closer to victory but it can become predictable, advice that he'd also meant for himself because lately without much practice to keep his skills sharp wintersbane felt that he'd become predictable with his moves. the ribcage is a very sensitive area. also good for getting your opponent down on the ground. it was a dirty move if because it could crack or break ribs ...but wintersbane wasn't above fighting dirty. life wasn't fair so why should fights be?