It could be better (Solo)

[Keido]

9th-Fall-511 AV

After beating the zith the other day Keido learned something. He learned that his attacking with the spear was not good enough. If he thinks that just stabbing the spear forward would win him his battles he will lose soon. The zith was a narrow escape. It was able to block and dodge most of Keido's wide open attacks and if it wasn't for his other weapons he would be the one dead in the Colosseum.

Keido decided to train with his weapons again. Especially his spear. From the battle he believes that the other skills are good enough to keep him in action for quite a while. Keido left his house and headed back to the place he tried to learn his new weapons days ago. When he reached there he was quite happy that again there were not many people to watch what he is doing.

He still had to warm up before he got to practicing. So Keido decided to try some shadow boxing. It was ideal to do this in the underground where there are only so many light sources which brighten up certain areas. Keido headed up to one near the wall. Putting his body in between the wall and the light source it cast a rather large shadow on the wall. He went closer to the wall until the shadow became as big as he was.

Time for a little test. Keido lifted an arm and saw that the shadow did the same instantly. Then he lifted the arm and saw that the shadow lifted both its arms as well. That was half the tests out of the way. Keido lifted up his leg forward as he bent his knee. It seems that he won't be able to tell any distance. All the shadow showed him was a shorter leg. It looks like he won't be able to test his leg. Unless...he lifted up his knee to the side. While he saw that made an effective shadow it would not suit his purposes to try and fight with himself. Nevertheless he would have to make do.

While Keido fought his shadow, he will be watching for flaws in his technique. So he started with his hands. The parts he knew he had to keep quick as a means to attack and defend himself. He choose which arm he wanted to punch with when he made a fist and watched the part of the shadow which did the same. Keido drew his arm back and saw that eventhough he was moving his arm, his shoulder was moving the same when its shadow's size changed. But thinking it was Alvadas, he thought the shadows were playing tricks on him just like everything else.

So Keido formed a fist and drew back his other arm. It was not a trick. He could see changes on the shoulder again. Were there tell signs all over his body? If only he could learn all this, he would be a better fighter. Not only he would know how his opponents would fight but he would confused them as well. However, there won't be enough time for that today. He would have to concentrate on that some other time.

Keido watched somemore when he decided to throw a punch. Looking at the shadow, he saw that the stump that was his elbow started to subside as his own arm straightened up when his fist moved forward. He took it was a real fight and weaved his shoulder backwards to dodge. Seeing that his shadow also did the same. The side of its body getting smaller in his eyes the further back he went. Then he straightened himself watching the shadow become whole again. Keido tried to use the other arm. Punching forward and then dodging back to see parts of the shadow changing in size just like the last try.

But what if he tried some other part of his arm? Keido normally went for a direct punch but sometimes using the other parts were necessary to add more damage and control his speed. Especially when he found himself in awkward positions. Keido folded his arms to try and use his elbow. Taking note that the most visible movement on the shadow started off with the end of his hands. Then continuing the attack he brought his elbow to point in the front, the rest of the arm getting smaller as his own arm's space went in front of him. Then he thrust his arm in a frontal assault.

As always he tried the movement again with his other arm. With all the piecemeal attacks out of the way, Keido wondered how one fluid strike would work. He tried a few repetitions. Bending his arm and drawing back his fist. Then sending a hook punch forward. Only to fold it back when it was nearing the front to point his elbow out instead of showing his fist. Then when the arm was fully folded, he threw his shoulder forward to thrust it. The attack was pretty fast that he could not even tell much with the shadow. After a few tried he noticed that the movements were distinct and different for each different part of his arm for each stage of the attack. But if he could not follow it initially, what more a person who only saw the attack once in a surprise blow?

[Keido]

Taking quite a while to understand how his own attacks with his hands would work and look, Keido decided to look at how it would work with his legs. He tried again to lift his leg up and saw that the shadow only showed a shorter leg. Then he extended his leg to a full kick. While he could not see the shadow kicking him, he could see its effects. The bottom end of the shadow, which is his foot came up higher and higher until it disappeared from view.

Keido wanted to try with his leg something else. How about kneeing? He bent his legs up again and pointed his knee upwards. Keido stomped his foot down and on impact bounced it up in a knee attack again. He kept repeating the attack to see how it looked and then like the arm attacks earlier he tried for a fluid movement. Bringing his knee up and extending his leg forward in a kick. After a while he started to get tired from the cycle of stomping and bouncing his foot up. Keido went and took a rest.

In alternates it went back to his hands. But instead Keido drew out his kodachi. He intended to practice it now. In theory, it won't be much different from his hand practices earlier. He pulled back his arm to see the shadow was exactly the same as it was when he begun. The only difference was there was a thin shadow from where his fist would be in the shadow. Keido slashed the kodachi forward. Seeing where the shadow was going, at the throat of his shadow, he quickly bent his knees down to a crouch to dodge and the blade passed through thin air.

Now Keido knew how a slash would look like. How about a stabbing attack? Keido drew his kodachi back again. Then he started stabbing forward. Seeing the shadow of his arm getting shorter as he stabbed forward. Keido continued stabbing into thin air, thinking that he was stabbing it into someone until he felt he was finally done.

The quick and weak moves done, Keido was going to try for his stronger attacks. Keido put both hands on his hilt and drew it back to his side. Noticing the awkward shape of the shadow in front of him where it was darker when his shadows crossed one over the other. Keido twisted his hips to pull back his weapon even more. He watched strange his body twitched and moved. After focusing some energy on his hips and his arms he struck. Twisting his hips back to the side to add to the power of his kodachi which was going forward. Then he extended his arms forward for a strike. The attack was truly big and with it it has its own weakness. It shows all his movements so easily. From the way the hand at the back of the hilt pushed the kodachi forward and the hand in the front had to bend his arm forward.

One more try at slashing. Keido brought his kodachi down. Right in front of his waist. Then he extended his arm out followed by turning his shoulder to get his arm pointed straight up. The shadow showed this but with not much since its only movements was on the shoulder which slightly went up and down. Keido saw this with a slight disappointed that he could not see much but continued on. Instead of in front of him he extended it downwards to the side. At least this time he could see it on his shadow. A long thin line extending out of the body. Keido slashed upwards with his kodachi and saw that the went straight to the top. The shadow passing through the shadow of the torso and then going straight up.

That was a good slash. But now Keido was tired after so long practicing his attacks. He took a seat down and took a rest to prepare for the next stage. Now with the warm ups done, he will proceed to his new weapons. Like his staff. Again like the last time he wrapped the weight as close as the spearhead as he could.

[Keido]

Keido knew when it came to the spear that he could only do direct thrusts and stabs at his opponents. His weakness was when it came to enemies who were capable of defending of blocking him like the zith from the other day. All he had to do was hit to the side and just allow it to continue forward. Wasting Keido's time for continuing the attack and recovering afterwards.

It probably worked the same when he used his kodachi to defend from other people. Keido would just watch any weapon which came towards him and parry it aside to make room for his own attacks with his fist. Some of his experiences he had with people fighting against him was that they moved their own weapons around during their attacks. Even if it was harder for them to do and cause their attacks damage to be reduced, they would at least get a blow in. Sometimes a well place blow could do wonders as he felt before himself.

He held the spear in front of him to try a few hits. Unfortunately, the spear was just too long for him to practice against a shadow so he would have to make so with something else. Keido went and stood in the middle holding out his heavy spear out while trying to balance its weight on his hands. As always he failed to see how and why putting the weight on the spear would help him get better. It made him tire out faster and that meant less practice for him. Unless there was something he could not see that the others can.

Keeping his spear up and pointed, Keido started to try and calm himself down. He started with focusing on his breathing. From his exercises earlier it made him breath a little bit too fast and hard. So he started inhaling and exhaling while keeping in mind that each time he did it, he had to make it shorter and slower. Keido kept count. Measuring how long each breath took compared to the other one. Until he felt that he has reached the point as he always breathed normally.

After that Keido turned his attention from his breathing to the space in front of him. His gaze was empty. Just staring into the empty space. Then Keido shut his eyes. The blackness was all he had. Slowly a human form started to appear in the middle of it in a brighter shade than the substance around it. It looked like the shadow that Keido had been fighting with earlier and in its hand was a long stick like thing. A spear just like Keido had.

Opening his eyes with the figure still in his mind he saw that the shadow was still standing there in front of him. A perfect opponent. One with no personality or skill to speak of. Just like Keido who was starting out with using his spear. Both of them brought their spears forward to point it at each other. Soon they will be attacking with their weapons without any restraint because no one has ever gotten hurt by a shadow before.

Keido kept his spear up as he watched the shadow's own weapon. He had an idea on his mind already how would he attack while the shadow defended. The spear was stuck out slightly at the shadow. Like he wanted to the shadow extended its own spear to try and block off Keido's own. Keido tried to do it like what he always did with his other weapon and circled the point around his opponent's spear. Getting past its defense and passing through in a thrust piercing the black figure.

Satisfied with his move, Keido tried for the other direction. He prepared his spear in its ready position, followed by the shadow. Keido held his spear forward towards the shadow in an attempt to test it. The shadow only did some responses. Twitching its body to reposition itself away from Keido's spear or pointing its spear at the same direction Keido was pointing his. Keido lifted it left and then lifted it right allowing the shadow to do the same. Then he thrust it forward. Again the shadow thrust its own spear forward as well. Seeing this, Keido dropped his spear a little and moved it across in attempt to avoid the shadow spear. Then he put his strength on it again and thrust his spear forward and aimed his attack true to the shadow.

By now, the shadow was gone. Its job was already accomplished. Continuing on, Keido alternated between circling his spear to the left and circling his spear to the right. After each repetition, the heavy spear in his hands started forcing him to drop his arms down. Keeping it lifted up began to be exhausting. But Keido continued on. Stomping and bending on his knees, he gave a yell to energize himself. Keido forgot about the weight on his hands and used his knees to lift himself up. Pointing the spear up into the air again. Then he started the repetitions again. Dropping the spear and taking it across before pulling it back across again continuously until the spear clattered on the ground when he could not take its weight any longer.

[Keido]

The spear was left on the ground as Keido took it as a sign to continue on to something else. Keido walked over to his net and picked it up. Although it had weights of its own it was nothing compared to the heavy spear. Keido could have removed the weight he put on the spear but decided against it. If he kept giving excuses to do something else he will never improve with what he needed to. He picked up the net on his hands, dragging it down on the ground as his arms was still hurting. But he took it and headed over to the middle of the grounds again.

Keido held the length of his net on his side. One hand was on the end and the other one was on the middle. After some adjustments on the hand on the middle so that the net would be floating directly above the ground, Keido begun. The hand in the end held its place. But the one in the middle started to move back and forth. The part of the net which was held by his hand started to move along with his hand though the end which was dragging down barely did being pulled down by the weights. But he continued on. Making his movements bigger until finally it started to affect the other end which started to move back and forth with his hand as well.

Eventually it started to move on its own. The weight started to pick up the movement and added its weight to the force. After that Keido could feel that his movements were not leading the net but following the weight at the bottom. Continuing on it started to move higher and pointed at the ground in front of him. Now, it was time for him to try a throw.

The weight went and pointed in the front. Keido let go off the hand in the middle and allowed the net to extended further as it wanted. But then it was also held by the hand which was holding on to the end of the net. It went as straight as possible to the front as Keido would allow it. Then Keido released his hand at the end of the net as well allowing the net to move even more further. When he released it, the net started to open in the air. Spreading its exposed area until it dropped on to the ground. Keido hoped that he did it right. That would be good if he could emulate it in a fight next time.

Instead of walking over to the net and picking up as always, Keido decided to just pull it back with the rope which tied it to his wrist. Keido gave it a tug until it reached his hands and spread it out in front of him. He was going to try out the second throw he knew. The net was in his whole field of vision when he lifted it up. Both ends extending far at his sides.

This was actually a simple move. One he had tried time and time again because of his inexperience. Keido had not enough confidence in his skill to throw the net accurately at his opponents. Neither did he believe that he had enough strength to throw it far. Which was why, Keido stood in front of his target which was the empty ground in front of him. He extended his arms forward quickly allowing the bottom part of the net to drag slowly to follow. Once he pushed it forward he released his hands. Allowing the net to fall down on the ground before him and wrap whoever became his target in the future.

Keido pulled up the net again with the rope on to his hands. There were two moves so far and it should be enough if he practiced with them right now instead of confusing himself with a multitude of attacks on a weapon he was still unsure about. He alternated between the throwing and dropping of the net. While their range was different, the rope allowed him to stand his ground while he retrieved his net. Allowing him the chance to see the different range he could achieve with the different techniques he used.

After a while the repetitive movements got his arms tired but by then Keido was sure of his net. Now he could try one more thing he wanted to try and do. There was no actual practical battle technique to this but Keido believed it will improve his speed and reaction time. He was going to use the net on himself. He figured that if there was no targets for him to use the net on, he could use the net on himself if he needed to.

[Keido]

Keido looked up at the sky. But there was no sky underground so all he saw was the ceiling of the cavern. The net would not reach that high but he knew that would be the first thing he sees when he tried this. Keido held on to the side of the net. He bent down a little bit and bent his knees. Yes, he would lift it up into the air and let it fall on him. With a heave, Keido straightened himself and threw his arms up. The net went straight forward like an extension of his own arm. At the top he released it and kept his eyes straight up. Waiting for the net to start falling down on him.

But instead of falling down on him, the net was flung straight behind him. Keido was shocked and started to think about what he might have done wrong. Then his arm started being pulled back by the force of the net acting on the rope. Keido straightened his arm in front of him to counter it and pull the net back. But when he did he felt something hit the back of his head and made it move forward somemore until long strings started to wrap around his head. The net started to wrap around his head.

Then Keido fell forward, his head captured by the net. The mesh was digging into his skin and it felt uncomfortable. Keido tried to move his head more but the mesh dug in to cause him some pain. Then he put his fingers through the holes and tried to pull the net out. Only to feel the mesh digging in even more and giving him more pain. Keido stopped and lay down flat on the ground to think how to get out of this. He decided to take it slow in the end. Running his fingers through the mesh to find the end of the net. When he felt on the weights and pulled the net apart to free himself. Finally his face was not wrapped anymore and he stood up with the net on his hands once more.

He held the net in front of him again as he did earlier and took his position of a bent body which will allow him to gather the greatest force when he straightened it. Keido hurried to stand up. Extending his arms in front of him to throw the net up. The only difference this time was that he released the net at an angle. Instead of his arms going straight up it was pointed up in front of him where he could see. Only then he dropped his arms down and looked up to face the net again.

Keido saw that the net spread out and opened on top of him. It went up getting smaller until it started getting bigger in his eyes as it started to drop. Having already experienced the net on his face, Keido had a new reason for why he did not want the net to capture him. He extended a foot forward then pressed it on the ground bouncing his body back. The next foot caught his body behind him and continued to bring him behind. Continuing the movement back while the first foot went behind him in a backwards run. After a few steps of fast movement, Keido saw before his eyes a long thin thing dropping which he knew was his net.

Having successfully avoided the net he did it again. He knew that it was only because he knew that the net was coming for him that he could prepare himself. Otherwise in a real fight if someone else threw the net at him he would surely be caught. Though he hoped that his exercises now will improve his ability to follow these weapons in a fight. Keido bent down to grab hold of the net. Then he stood back and threw it up again as he did earlier. This time as he watched he saw that the net was going slightly to his left. To better escape this he put his right foot to his side and brought his left foot right next to it. Then making as much distance between his feet to get as far from the net as possible in a quick sidestep.

As always, Keido continued his practice in cycles. Picking up and throwing the net into the air. Choosing a new direction to run to each time. Until in the end he got tired. But he was confident of his throwing running ability. This time he took the net into his hands but stood upright. He no longer wanted the long movements he had to prepare. Also that gave his limbs a little ache.

Keido just held the net to the ground as he took a few short breaths. Then after that he shut his eyes and turned his head to the top. Another few short breaths continued and then Keido quickly lifted his hands into the air. Releasing his hands once they reached the top. Once he felt the net leaving his hands he waited for a second before opening his eyes to see where the net was going. The net was very fast since with Keido's short movements it might not have been able to pick up enough speed. He saw it was falling and he would not have enough time to think.

He had to act fast. Hurriedly he turned his head back to look in front of him and quickly leaned forward. Keido stomped his foot forward and bounced his knees to the back. Attempting to get himself into a run to try and escape the net. But no sooner than he had moved forward, the net fell on him. His arms which were moving to assist the movements of his legs got wrapped up as well as his head when the net went all around to his body. But on instinct his legs continued moving up until he smashed into a wall in front of him and blacked out.

The next morning Keido would wake up with his body sore all over and no recollection of his last attempt with the net having made his way back to the inn on instinct. Still it would be a welcome sort of a hurt since Keido's pride would not allow for him to have fallen from his own net.

[Bedlam]

Thread Completed!

Player Name

Experience:
2 Unarmed Combat
1 Weapon (Kodachi)
2 Weapon (Spear)
1 Weapon (Net)

Lores:
Snaring Oneself