Ethan!mun: though I think for the first couple decades Ethan would be more likely to lead an opponent into a trap and kill them afterward

Lance: How?

Ethan: *smug* anyone coming after me in territory I've hunted for seventy years or more is at a distinct disadvantage. Also, I trap animals for a living

Lance: ¬.¬ Trapping is one thing. If another Immortal is out to kill you, it usually means they've brought a sword with them... snares aren't going to last very long against that

Ethan: Snares no, metal traps yes

Lance: Jaw traps aren't very useful either. All it's going to do is piss them off even more

Ethan: If they're pissed then they won't have their head as in the 'Game' as they should, would they? Angry people make mistakes

Ethan: All it has to do is slow them down long enough to get an arrow, tomahawak or bullet through thier heart

Lance: It's a distraction, true, but your target is to remove their heads before they can get to yours
Lance: you're still thinking as a mortal
Lance: aiming for the heart won't kill them. It will only buy you a few minutes at least

Ethan: A tomahawk in thier skull?

Lance: Better, but no. They'll still recover. It has to be decapitation. Their head or yours.

Ethan: the idea is to slow or injure a more experienced opponent long enough for me to either take thier head or get the hell out of dodge

Lance: Getting the hell out of dodge isn't an option. Once you have been challenged, you are honour-bound to kill or be killed. *wonders if Ethan has ever heard of a duel*

Ethan: that's stupid

Lance: No one ever said The Game was supposed to make sense. The whole point is to survive, and to do that, you must learn how to relieve your opponent of his head
Lance: or hers

Ethan: that makes about as much sense as your soldiers marching in rows with such pretty red coats for target practice

Lance: ¬.¬ Those red coats were doubtless inspired by the old adage "never let the enemy see you bleed"

Ethan: snorts

Lance: And, yes, the advent of firearms made such tactics obsolete
Lance: But I seem to recall that you Americans were still using such tactics nearly a century later

Ethan: I was talking about the redcoats, not the romans
Ethan: and we paid a high price for it. Fortunately Lee never got over his love of Napoleonic tactics
Ethan: though I was out west fighting guerilla style, on horseback

Lance: *about the redcoats* As was I. The tradition of wearing red to disguise wounds was doubtless borrowed from the Romans who, in turn, had assumed it from the Greeks, or better the Spartans.

Ethan: that may make sense out in the open, but its like wearing a big red 'shoot me' sign in the woods

Lance: *wry smile*

...

Lance!mun: hopefully I'll come up with a good reason for (or a way to explain) Lance's agreeing to teach Ethan... something about his own personal code of honour... if Ethan died without being taught, Lance'd feel all properly guilty & such

Ethan!mun: well, nobody's just said 'hey you seem like a good guy, let me help you' to him before and he doesn't know how to deal with it

Lance!mun: and Lance isn't the type to say "right, you know about The Game, best of luck, I'm off to make sure someone doesn't get herself killed..."

Ethan: you've got it bad my friend


{OOC Note: Ethan is noblewarrior}