The Pointed End Goes Here? (Solo)

[Leto Sunsinger]

Timestamp: 60th of Winter, 510 A.V.

Having purchased himself a glaive that day, and making his way to the War Storm Pavilion, he would be seeking a teacher that day. Someone to teach him how to wield the weapon he had just recently purchased, given he needed some way of defending himself against a deadly creature he would summon, just incase anything like that ever happened. He would certainly hope that it woudn't happen, but there was always that possibility that something of an evil nature would come through that portal when he opened it. Smiling as he made his way into the War Storm Pavilion, holding the glaive with one hand, the hilt of it gently touching the ground, and his dark obsidian eyes looking towards it. It had a nine inch blade upon it, and a five foot hilt, was exactly the same size as Leto. Decently balanced, good for a beginner, which he most definitely was.

As he lifted it up, and made his way into the pavilion, one of the Diamond clan members greeted him in Pavi. Smiling back towards him, he then asked, "Do you know where I could find someone to teach me how to wield this weapon properly?" The Diamond Clan member grinned, and almost laughed at Leto. Leto was from the Ruby Clan, and didn't have any experience in wielding a weapon. He only chose this one as he thought it looked interesting, and might be simpler than a sword to learn. Little did he know, it would be much more difficult learning than someone with some combat experience. Leto had absolutely no combat experience or experience wielding any weapon of any sort, so this would be a test of his prowess with learning. The diamond clan member looked towards him, and then said, "I can teach you how to use it... do you even know what it is called?" As he asked, Leto nodded, and then said, "It is called a Glaive..."

He only remembered that since the man whom had sold it to him asked if he knew how to use it, and Leto answered very honestly, no, he did not. That was when the man directed him to the War Storm Pavilion, where he could learn the proper way to wield it, so that he didn't injure himself, or others when using it. "Well, at least you know the name of the weapon... let us go to the field where we can put it to practice and use!" the man said smiling, and Leto began to follow him, but tripped over his own feet, as clumbsy as he was, he wasn't sure he'd ever get the hang of using a weapon, but then again, he certainly would need to know how to for the future.

Making his way out into the field behind the diamond clan member, the man said, "Well, first things first, we won't have you using that weapon as it has a blade attached to it, we'll have you practice with a practice glaive that has a wooden blade, so as to not injure yourself as that weapon might do to you..." So with that, Leto set aside the real glaive, and took a practice one that was handed to him. "Now, we shall start off with the basics of wielding a glaive. The footing. Once you get the footwork down, other things should come more easily. First things first, when wielding a glaive, you're feet are going to be moving quickly, because you want your body to move with the glaive as if it was one motion all together. So, no more tripping over your own feet, you'll need to work on practicing not to be clumbsy, and watching what you're doing. Pay attention to your feet moreso than anything else for the moment. Now, stand how I'm standing," he then instructed, and then got into a basic glaive wielding stance.

He manuevered his feet so that they were about shoulder's width apart, and bent at the knees slightly. Leto would work to accomplish the same, and as he did, he'd face the trainer, his eyes carefully watching him. "When fighting an opponent, you want the area they can target to be as little as possible, that's why you will face them with your side to them, and head turned towards them, so that as little of your body is towards them as possible. It is difficult to accomplish at first, but the more you practice, the better you'll get at it. Now that you are in the basic stance, we'll practice stepping forward in it. Lift up your right foot, and then jump forwards with your left, landing both feet at the same time. Don't make a large jump, just enough to boost you towards your opponent..." he continued to instruct Leto as he did this, himself moving forwards quickly, lifting his right foot, and pushing forwards with his left to jolt towards Leto.

As Leto watched, he tried to do the same thing, but as he lifted up his right foot, it got caught, and he tripped over himself again, landing face first into the ground. "Well, that's a start, next time don't faceplant yourself into the ground though," said the man, as he watched Leto pick himself up off of the ground. Leto, whom was probably a little older than the man he had talked to, and had agreed to teach him, picked himself up off of the ground, and then got back into the stance once more. He would continue to practice moving forwards, but with little success at first, tripping, falling over, or just missing the way of doing it correctly. As he worked at the footing, he would notice that he was sweating, and panting, the man teaching him simply watching him as he did it.

Finally he said, "Stop." Leto looked up towards him, and saw he had a slight grin on his face. "That is enough for now. Let's have you see a healer briefly for all of those scrapes and cuts that are upon your body now." Leto looked down, and indeed his knees, and lower arms were cut up as he had landed upon the ground quite a few times through falling over messing up the footing and whatnot. This was going to be harder than he had imagined, he thought, and as the healer came and bandaged him up, he looked towards the trainer, and then said, "How come the footing is so hard?" The trainer looked at him, and replied, "It's most likely because you have no prior practice at something like this, and therefore can't move accordingly. Don't worry, the more practice you get at moving from side to side, towards your oppenent and away from him, the better you'll get at it..."

Smiling, once Leto was bandaged up again, he would continue his footwork practice, under the watchful eye of the trainer, trying his hardest to pay attention to his feet until it was second nature to him. But that wouldn't come for a long time, and once the day was over, Leto was still pretty bruised and bloodied up from falling quite a few times trying to get the footing right. So, he returned to his pavilion, the glaive in his hand, ready to go the following day to work on it again, and make sure he got it right that time, and got better at it than he was already doing...

[Leto Sunsinger]

Over the next few days, Leto continuously practiced his footwork, until he felt confident enough in himself that his movement was getting better. Although he was still a beginner, he was still working hard and diligently at trying to better himself at learning how to use the proper movements towards his enemies, in this case, the combat dummies set up for use with practicing. His instructor was getting more and more intense every day it seemed with the varying footwork needed to learn how to wield a glaive in the beginning. Moving back and forth, Leto was sweating most of the time, getting his exercise in this way as well, and preparing himself in case he actually needed to go into combat at some point in time. He never wanted to go into combat, but if he ended up summoning something that wasn't very kind, and it broke through the leash, and he was alone, he very well might need a way of defending himself.

So he continued to practice his footwork, in hopes to learn how to better himself at using the glaive. "Stop," his instructor said, and Leto stopped abruptly, panting, as he had just been moving as quickly as possible to dodge certain attacks his instructor would use on him, usually unable to though, and getting hit with the flat side of the instructor's wooden glaive, leaving bruises and bumps upon his body. "It will take time, but you'll get used to the pain, and the suffering of combat, if you truly wish to learn the arts well," he then said, and sent Leto off to see a healer to get his wounds bandaged up so that he would be able to continue practicing. Leto had it set in his mind that this was the form of combat he wished to learn, and in learning it, he'd work his butt off to figure out what he was doing wrong, and correct it.

Once his footwork has sufficiently been given a basis of which Leto was able to work off of, he began to learn the other basics of wielding the glaive. The thrust, parry, and sweep. Moving forwards the instructor showed him how to perform a thrust, stabbing the glaive forwards, and so Leto tried to perform as he showed him, thrusting the glaive forwards, and hitting no where's near the target. Frowning, he would start to work harder and continually thrust the glaive towards the target until his arms were tired, and couldn't thrust anymore. "I think that should be enough for today," said his instructor, patting Leto upon the back. "Come back tomorrow, and we'll see what we can't do about teaching you how to thrust better, and even parrying and sweeping..." he finished, and so Leto went home, a bit dejected that he didn't even hit the target once, but he would persevere, and make sure he hit it the next time. Obviously his accuracy and hand eye coordination needed a lot of work as well.

Returning the next day, Leto would work upon his thrusting some more, and finally hit the target, which made him quite ecstatic, but he kept himself humbled in the face of his instructor. Soon enough his instructor was showing him how to parry with a glaive, and Leto and his instructor were going back and forth, thrusting towards each other and parrying each other's blades. Unfortunately though this would take a lot more practice on Leto's part as he had to work extra hard to keep from getting hit with the wooden glaive the instructor was using. Unfortunately, again, he was a beginner, and had very little experience with dodging or parrying, so bruises and bumps galore had to happen to his body before he'd get any experience in with actually managing to parry his teacher's weapon, which didn't happen the first day he tried, but on the second day he managed at least one parry of his teacher's weapon, which ended up in him retaliating with a sweep that tripped Leto to the ground. "That will be the final thing that I am going to teach you," he said, and then began teaching Leto about sweeps.

Swinging the glaive sidelong, Leto would work on sweeping the legs out from underneath his teacher, whom skillfully dodged it almost every time, but allowed Leto to continue trying to catch him off guard between thrusts, parries, and sweeps. His teacher was slowly teaching him how to combine them all, but Leto was a slow learner when it came to combat, and his reflexes were not that quick that he actually ever managed to catch his teacher off guard, whom was much more competent at wielding a glaive than Leto would probably ever be. Finally, Leto ended up learning what it was to be a basic glaive wielder, through trials and tribulations of wielding the glaive. His teacher was quite glad to see that he worked out his differences with the glaive, and was getting better at it, albeit slowly, so that he actually wouldn't cut himself with it when he went to use the real one, and with time Leto would probably get even better at using it, the more he practiced...

End

[Cantrip]

Did you want something? Leto Treebearer: XP Award: Glaive +2 Lores: Proper Footwork; Enduring the Bruises Additional Notes: Fairly solid thread. There was a great deal of summary. That might’ve just been a choice of styles, but I’d have surely awarded more if you’d gone into depth on the exchanges, demonstrating how the glaive is actually used in a fight.