46th Summer 517
Samuel had begun to find a rhythm with his day to day life among the Drykas. He would turn up at the Warstorm Pavillion and he would teach those that were sent to him in either bow or blade. Sometimes Drykas would come just to test his abilities, wanting to match themselves against a knight of Syliras. None but a Tavehk of The Watch had managed to overcome him in swordplay among the challengers, but the knight knew that the Champions completely outstripped him in terms of ability. So while they taught those skilled with a weapon, Samuel was left with those who were more inexperienced. Which often meant younger students. The tall man had had enough of adolescent Drykas thinking they could surpass him in a spar, ignoring his instruction in their drive to defeat him. Such rivalry could be useful in a lesson, but only if it was correctly channelled. So far Samuel had struggled to make progress with the more difficult students, the language barrier often making his job more complicated.
Today, however, was to be something different. Samuel had been told he would be teaching a young woman to fight without a weapon. The swordsman suspected it was a test, to see whether he could teach skills he was not so proficient at. He did not mind, it would be a good experience for him. Not to mention the fact that he could brush up on his own ability while doing so. The Knights did not explicitly teach squires much unarmed combat, focusing on more lethal forms of fighting. However Samuel had been disarmed too often to doubt the effectiveness of knowing how to fight barehanded, planning for the worst was an important part of battle.
In preparation for the lesson, Samuel decided he would warm up with a simple exercise with a sword. It would get his heart pumping, but also keep the boredom from keeping in while he waited for his student to arrive. Picking up a training blade he stepped over to a dummy. But he paused, realising it might be better to practice the very thing he was about to teach instead. So he placed the longsword down and stepped up once more to the training dummy. Samuel raised his fists, then swung his right arm in a wide arc.
His leather gauntlet struck the hard wood of the dummy with a thump, eliciting a grunt of pain from the large man. He swung again, a low blow with his left hand. He winced as his wrist bent slightly in the wrong direction as his hand made contact. Stepping back, Samuel shook his left hand with a grimace. Not a good start, he thought. Next he kicked, lashing out wildly with his right foot. He made glancing contact, just managing to regain his balance before he fell. Stepping forward once more, he drove his fist into the wood. For the next few chimes the large man focused on striking the dummy with consistent force. The stationary target made his job easier, but his lack of experience meant that some of his blows were ineffective at best. But he kept on working at it, wanting to be as ready as he possibly could for the lesson ahead.
Many thanks to Prophet for the box code.