Solo Enter Brandon; The Batty Instructor

[Brandon Blackwing]

x

Day 39 of Spring 515AV
The Fighting Pits

Brandon stood quietly staring at the mountains of the Unforgiving, the vantage point that was the Fighting Pits actually providing him with a most excellent view. It was an Inartan thing to do no doubt; building an arena on an overhang without the safety of railing or other kinds of insurance. To him it mattered little, and the arena itself was embedded in the floor, so there was no real problem, but it still bothered him a bit. After all, the children he was supposed to educate were his responsibility now, and to be honest, he didn't like it one bit. Not that he doubted the Yasi -as the Inatra called them- would be stupid enough to actually fall off the edge, but still...

So I'm a teacher now eh? the bat wondered, scratching his head and staring in the distance, Well, I am pretty decent at unarmed combat, but that doesn't mean I can actually teach people. I don't even know where to start! He sighed, crossing his arms and pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and index finger. It's a good thing I asked for small groups, I doubt I'd be able to handle large ones. Sure, I can probably bully them into silence and paying attention, but for combat that isn't practical. I have to check their form, adjust it, observe them as a whole... Oh Gods, this is going to be a mess. Why is it again that I decided this was my most useful skill? I don't even make as much money as I did when I picked pockets and trespassed!

Another sigh, a deep one this time. What exactly makes a good teacher? How do I go about cramming my knowledge and skill in their bird-brains? Heck, how do I even get through that skull of them first? Hm... Bullying them into obedience isn't a bad idea... I could start with a demonstration, call one of the children to assist me and telling him or her to attack me with all they've got. Then I just crush them... no, first I make a show of dodging and acrobatically maneuvering out of the way, and then I crush him. With one move? No, no, that's impressive but not impressive enough... Maybe a barrage of attacks while I dance around the fellow? Argh, no, that's probably going too far, I'd get complaints and I don't really want those. My status is low enough as it is, gods damn these morons! They can't even tell the value of an artsy and elegant way of fighting such as martial arts! Archery, ha! Flying around on over-sized eagles, ha!

Some fingers came up to tap his chin, his mind still racing, thinking of the possibilities and different approaches. Maybe I should play the understandable, patient teacher? The easy-going good fellow who will explain everything a hundred times if necessary and with a smile? No, I would never be able to keep that up. Brandon sighed again. Maybe it'd be best to just be myself, don't act any different than usual. Still how do I get them to pay attention? A demonstration would be best, I imagine... Or maybe a speech? I wonder if that'll help? Hm, it just might spark their imagination.... Or.... I will pit them against each other every so often and use their competitive side against them. A tournament every ten lessons or so... Yeah, that might be good. Though I'd need a prize for that. Hm; what about honor? Or some sweets? No, I don't need a prize! Their prize is that they'll become stronger, those that don't pay attention will stay weak and will be destroyed during the tournaments... and they will probably hurt all over too. A wicked smile spread over the bat's lips, oh yeah, he could do this, he could make this work. True, he wasn't used to teaching, but he could give it a try.

The silence was broken when the Kelvic's sensitive ears picked up the chatter of Nari, spoken by high voices that belonged to children, no doubt. Their footsteps followed a moment later, slowly making their way inside and gathering at the back, probably settling down on the benches. With his back turned towards them, Brandon couldn't see a thing, but he didn't need to. This was it, this was the first class he'd teach. Hands were brought together in a single clap to get his mind focused and his brow furrowed momentarily while he let out a grunt-like sigh. In all honesty, the bat was a bit excited about this. With one last glance at the far-away mountains, the thief turned around and started to pace towards the group of yasi who were still chatting among themselves, a few curiously eying their new teacher. Excitement forced a grin upon him, and he didn't mind one bit; this was who he was after all, a grinning idiot. But a dangerous idiot nonetheless.

x

credit goes to Euthisa

[Brandon Blackwing]

x

“Alright, listen up everyone!” Brandon spoke, clapping his hands a couple times to get their attention. Slowly the chattering died down, and those that were still talking did so in a low whisper. “My name is Brandon, and I'll be your Martial Arts instructor from now on. Since this is our first lesson together, I'll start with some rules I'd like you to follow.” The bat pondered for a tick, trying to remember what exactly he had summed up last night. He'd outlined his own rules in his head before he went to sleep, but remembering was a bit hard. Ah well, he'd just start talking, he was good at that. It would come back eventually.

“Rule number one; whenever you're here, whenever I'm instructing you, you will speak Common and nothing else. This is so we can all understand each other, and it will help you practice it too. I do not believe I'm wrong if I assume that all of you dream to become Endal?” There was some agreeing murmur, “Well, you should realize that some Endal fly to other cities to trade and do business. Common is spoken almost everywhere, whereas Nari is only spoken here.” Brandon paused for a moment to let his words get through to them and deliver the message. “However, should I hear someone speak Nari regardless of this rule, that person will have to do the same number of sets as ticks he or she spoke in Nari. If more than half of you speak Nari at the same time, all of you will do the sets. Is that understood?”

They were quiet, and their eyes nervously shifted to their neighbors, apparently not quite sure what to do. One of them raised her hand hesitantly after what had appeared to be a mental struggle. “Yes? You have a question?” She nodded rather violently, her red hair bobbing back and forth. “What's a set?” She seemed to have a bit of trouble with the language, but she managed quite well.
“Good question!” Brandon exclaimed, nodding once. “What I mean by a set is this; ten push-ups, ten sit-ups and ten squats.” He then placed his palms on the floor, and stretched his legs so they only touched the floor with the toes. Once in position, the bat bent and stretched his arms, letting his body descend and then pushing it back up, he repeated this ten times. “Ten push-ups,” he declared, now lying down on his back, his legs raised so his thighs made a ninety degree angle with his hips, and his knees too were bent in a ninety degree angle. His arms were placed on opposite collarbones, crossing each other, and then he started using his abs to pull his torso off the ground ten times. “Ten sit-ups, and...” Now the bat was back on his feet again, his back straight, his arms outstretched in front of him, on shoulder level. Ten times he bent his knees so his heels almost touched his buttocks and then returned to his initial stance. “Ten squats.”

Fit as he was, this minimal bit of training wasn't enough to make him breathe heavier, let alone make him sweat. As such, he continued as if nothing had happened. “So, if I hear you talking for five ticks, you'll do five sets. That means fifty push-ups, fifty sit-ups and fifty squats. Of course, you can do them in any order you want and you may even do set per set if you wish. If I hear you talking for twenty ticks,” he spoke with a mischievous and utterly evil grin, “Which actually means; if I let you talk in Nari for twenty ticks and then decide to call you out on that, you'll do twenty sets. Two hundred of each exercise.” Was it just him or did they look shocked? “So, you see, it's in your best interest you don't speak in Nari.” He smiled his best friendly smile, though he doubted it would help at all.

“Rule number two: If you have questions, you ask them. I arranged small groups so I could better teach you. This way I can easily help if you need it, or correct you on some things. If you don't really understand what I'm trying to explain, let me know. I can't promise my patience will be endless, but I will do my best. Alright?” More nodding, but they stayed quiet. It seemed that Brandon had succeeded in making them shut up, which wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind. It didn't matter, they would start chatting soon enough, they were children after all. For a moment the bat wondered if he should add something to rule one, but decided against it for he didn't see any reason to do so yet.

“Alright, rule number three! If I'm explaining something, I want you to be quiet. If you're talking through me, I'll hear and I find it both annoying and distracting. The ones talking might have to do sets, depending on the mood that I'm in. Also, sets are the primary form of punishment here. The secondary form is not being allowed to stretch. Though the latter will be rare.” Another smile, another evil one. These yasi might not yet realize what was so bad about not being allowed to stretch, but they would find out soon. Whether they were being taught how to shoot a bow or not, that couldn't be compared to unarmed combat. Archery required the usage of muscles in the arms and the back, but unarmed used all muscles, and he'd have them work. By the end of the lesson they might already start to feel it, depending on how soon he was done with this introduction.

“Rule number four then,” Brandon started, frowning and trying to recall what exactly he'd wanted to say. “Ah, yes! Rule number four; every so often we will do a tournament of sorts where all of you will be participating in. Each one of you will fight every other Yasi present. The one with the highest amount of points wins. I will not tell you beforehand, so each time will be a surprise. As such I expect you to do your utmost best during the lessons and prepare yourselves for the tournaments... Yes?” he spoke, pointing to the young girl who had raised her hand. Her Common was much more fluent than the others, but it still needed a lot of work. “Why won't you tell when the tournaments will be?”

Brandon nodded, acknowledging her query. “Because I don't know myself when I'll hold one. And because in real life you won't know when someone will attack you either. It's not like you can wake up one morning and say something like 'I should pay attention today, someone will try to attack me during lunch.' That doesn't happen.” His gaze drifted over the small crowd, spotting another raised hand. The boy attached to it received permission to speak as well. “What prize do we get when we win the tournamnent?”

“Absolutely nothing. Maybe a pat on the back, perhaps some praise from me. But most of all the prestige of being the best of the class. That's what you get, nothing tangible I'm afraid.” The boy seemed disappointed. “But know this: if you are the worst of the class, you will have lost a lot of matches, and as such you will probably be battered and bruised. So, if you win, you get less of that.” The thief chuckled, actually having a lot of fun, and he hadn't even started yet!

x

credit goes to Euthisa

[Brandon Blackwing]

x

“Right, with the rules set and out of the way, I suppose I should get to the point. As I told you before, I will be teaching you the basics of Unarmed Combat. I will teach you how to defend yourself when you don't have your bow with you, or when your foe has closed in so much your bow won't give you an advantage. I will teach you how to properly punch, kick, throw and fall. I will train you, I will make warriors out of you. It might be a little hard, it might be difficult and exhausting, but by the end of your time as a Yasi, you will have access to skills the older generations of Inarta don't. We have a long way ahead of us, but-”

Brandon's words suddenly stopped coming as his ears picked up on a language he didn't understand, it had been whispered, but that didn't mean a thing before Brandon's superhuman ears. His eyes had caught the moving lips right before he'd stopped and the silence had descended upon the group. “You!” He pointed, “second row, third of the left.” It was a young boy, his hair more carrot orange than copper or fiery. He pointed at himself, his mouth agape and eyes filled with disbelief. “Yes you, two sets!” The boy got to his feet and cursed with a chirp. “Those two have just become three! Three sets!” Brandon grinned, and the boy walked over to where Brandon was standing, the bat's finger pointing at a spot in the arena, right next to him.

Scowling, the boy got into the push-up position Brandon had showed them and bended his arms, body closing in on the floor. The batty teacher pushed his foot softly on the boy's behind that was a little to high. “Lower you rear, no that's too low.” Some of the Yasi were laughing at the form of the boy, who was now resembling a seal more than the form he was supposed to assume. With his foot, the bat nudged the student to lift it a bit higher, but again it was too high. It took some time before the Kelvic had managed to get his student in the cortrect position, and then he gave him the sign to start. “One. Two. Three. Lower! Four. You have to be flat as a board. Retract your butt. Yes, five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve-”

By the time the boy had managed -barely- to reach twenty, his arms were shaking and sweat was already forming on his forehead. He was slightly groaning too, the effort probably greater than he'd expected. Trained with a bow or not, children were still children, and they had a hard time doing that particular exercise. “Right, for your sake we'll do the sit-ups now. Those are the easiest of them all.” The student got into the required position, and Brandon made some minor adjustments to his form, then telling him to start. Again, the bat counted, and while the boy had less trouble with this training exercise, he did still groan and moan near the end, though the thirty sit-ups weren't a problem at all. Believing it to be best to show him the true horrors of the sets, Brandon decided they would finish the push-ups first, and so it was done.

Sadly for the boy, his arms were still recovering from the last series of push-ups, and not in any particular good shape anymore, which made the ten that followed hard. At one point near the end, the boy had reached a stalemate, where his arms couldn't push his body up anymore, trembling even more than before, but he didn't collapse on the floor either. He gritted his teeth and his expression was one of intense effort, but it didn't help at all. Brandon's foot, which slightly lifted one shoulder a bit higher did though, and the boy managed to lift his body. The descent was fast and resulted in him almost smacking down on the floor. “Come on! You're almost there!” Brandon encouraged as the boy had once again been trapped in the stalemate, and the bat repeated the process that had helped last time.

“Right, now only the squats and you're done.” An evil smile followed, which might have unnerved the student if he had seen it. Though even if he did see it, it wasn't all that likely he'd understand what the bat found so funny about this. He would soon find out though. The boy had to stretch his arms in front of him, and with those arms that much feel like lead, that was a difficult and taxing task. After taking extra long to adjust the boy's pose once he crouched, the bat started the count again, the student finishing his punishment with a tired look on his face and ragged breaths. Then he trudged back to his seat and plopped down as if he'd just had done a day's worth of running. “Right,” the Kelvic continued cheerily, “Time to continue where we left off. What was I saying again? Ah yes, we have a long road ahead of us, and the first half won't hold any combat training for you yet.” Was it just him or did they seem to become a lot paler, expecting what was to come?

“The first step is to train your bodies! You cannot attempt to run before you can walk, or stand for that matter. Well, you can, but you'll fall on your face.” He paused there for a tick, as it was meant as a joke, but all he received in return were stares. Silent stares. “Ahem. We will work on your musculature, and stamina. When I am pleased with the results, you will begin learning combat techniques. Therefore, prepare yourselves for lots of sets and different exercises. And running! Lots of running!” His malicious enthusiasm only enticed a huge groan from the group, and the bat laughed for a brief couple of ticks. “Be glad it's me who's teaching you, and not my mother. She would break you!” Another laugh, followed by a sharkish grin. “Now, get down here and take your boots off. Line up, side by side. Make sure there's two armslenghts between you. One line, that's easier for me to watch all of you, there's not a lot of you anyway.”

x

credit goes to Euthisa

[Brandon Blackwing]

x

With everybody lined up barefooted, Brandon took his position in front of them all, and began to explain what they would be doing. “Right, we're going to be training the body first, this means we'll be doing the sets!” Everyone groaned, not pleased in the slightest. “Don't think that because all of us are going to do this that you can't be punished with more sets,” Brandon said with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. “So, we'll start with one full set, and then we'll be subtracting one from each exercise. That might sound a bit complicated now, but don't worry, you'll get it right away. To encourage you, I'll be joining in as well, though I'll do something different than push-ups. Now, get in position.”

They did, most of them with their rear sticking out too high or too low, but Brandon told them to imitate his pose as he displayed how it should be done. “Look at your neighbor and tell them what's wrong with their form,” he instructed, “that way you'll gradually know how your body feels in that particular position.” Once he was satisfied with the renewed poses, the bat stood up, placed his palms on the ground and swung his legs up, performing a handstand. “Okay, you will do regular push-ups, while I will do these push-ups. I'll count, ready. One!” keeping his balance was not the problem, nor was being upside down, but the fact that his arms were now carrying his whole body weight made this a difficult exercise that was useful to the bat.

Nevertheless, while counting, he managed to let his body gently lower and ascend with relative ease. It wasn't something he hadn't done before. Brandon could vividly recall the time he'd actually walked through a room filled with pressure-triggered traps on the tips of his fingers. That had been really difficult and he hadn't been able to keep it up. Doing this exercise with his fingertips touching down only was the next level, but he didn't feel as if he was ready yet. Next up were the sit-ups, and this time after having showed how to properly do it, Brandon did a different exercise again. This time though, he kept both his legs and shoulders off the floor. His legs were stretched and his whole body made a ninety degree angle. Despite the fact that it looked easy, it was difficult to maintain, because his shoulders and legs weren't raised that high. His whole body was tense and stiff as a wooden board.

Brandon was a show-off.

Last came the squats, and those the bat participated in as well, though this time he had no other exercise for himself. He just set the pace and did the squats as they were supposed to, sometimes pausing while crouching down when some Yasi slacked off, just like he had during the previous exercises. Once the first stets were done, they started over again, though this time they would do nine of each instead of ten. And then eight. Until they'd reached zero. That way they did a lot of sets, and still the Yasi would believe they did not. Until of course, they did the math. The exhaustion would kick in as well, which was pretty logical considering they'd done five and a half sets. The boy who'd been punished before had managed to keep up as well, even though he was complaining to his friends -in Common, being careful now, much to the bat's entertainment- that his arms felt as if they were made of stone, that his abs felt like the tomb of the Fallen, and that his legs felt twice as thick.

Of course, Brandon then taught the Yasi how to stretch, and made them do it too, even though some complained they believed it was unnecessary. For a moment, Brandon considered allowing those few not to do any stretching, but decided against it. They'd learn eventually, especially if they didn't do it right. They'd be stiff tomorrow, and sore. But, the lesson wasn't done just yet, according to Brandon's inner clock, he reckoned there was still a bell left. To fill that gap, they would do some running, all around the fighting pit. They would start slow of course, running for five chimes, then walking for two chimes, and repeat. The Kelvic had decided to let them run for half a bell, joining in himself too of course. As per usual, the punishment for slacking off -not running when they were supposed to- were the sets. Per step they walked when they should be running, they had to do one set. Needless to say that with their heavy arms and burning abs that wouldn't be pleasant.

“Do you want to know the best part?” Brandon spoke as the Yasi were complaining, “This is actually only what we'll be doing as a warm up in future lessons!” Their expression was so utterly shocked that Brandon couldn't help but burst out in laughter, the laughter that the Yasi would describe as Brandon's utterly evil “I am going to destroy you during our lessons” laugh.

x

credit goes to Euthisa

[Estrellir Konrath]

Brandon Blackwing

Tactics +1
Teaching +4
Rhetoric +1
Bodybuilding +1

Teaching: Punishment gets Yasi to obey rules
Unarmed combat: Requires fit body
Bodybuilding: Handstand push-ups
Brandon, the batty instructor

Notes

Nice little thread! I liked reading about Bran’s teaching methods and how the yasi reacted to them… looks like they’ll have a lot of fun (or not). I couldn’t think of any other lores, but if you see something missing, by all means contact me. Happy writing!