[Flashback/Ishkaral's Home] To Seek a Master (Ishkaral)

[Eridanus]

Day 62, Spring of 510 AV 15 Chimes after the 13th Bell Ishkaral's Home, Alvadas Finally, Eridanus found the place he was looking for. Weeks of travel, combined with the many detours an adventurer usually takes when on a non-urgent journey, made him a little bit weary of travelling. It was great that he finally arrived at his desired destination just as his wanderlust began to wear out. Ishkaral, probably the only teacher of Sanctus Peccator, an Akalak Martial Art that resonated pretty strongly with the Ethaefal's beliefs. Truth be told, his interest got piqued when he got his divine rear handed to him in an unarmed brawl by the Akalak quite a while ago. His interest died down when other events of his life started to bother him, but when the rumor mill told him that a new teacher of an Akalak martial arts has set up shop, his curiosity got the better of him and his passion for it rose again. He investigated, and now, the results of his investigation lay before him. Eri glanced at the broad lightbrown board above the house to confirm that this was indeed the right place and sighed with relief. No more traveling with noisy merchant caravans. He knew that he could just travel alone, but the protection and safety promised by a merchant caravan in exchange for his own protective services while awake was a deal too good to be missed. He was used to it though, for it is a common deal that adventurers struck with merchants that benefited both parties. The complaining was merely a ritual that he does to himself every time. Just to relieve some of the boredom of traveling. Eri rapped the door loudly, "Hey, Ish, ya around?" The Akalak had known him as a Vantha as he had never seen Eri at night before, and now this very same Vantha presented himself before Ishkaral's training facility, with the very same black hair rife with aurora highlights, with the only difference his eyes now blazing red in excitement.

[Ishkaral]

Silence, not the sound of wind or the chattering voices of people talking...and distracting Ishkaral during his training, the very main reason he purchased this building. To be able to train and hone his skills without interruption from people he had no business with. Granted, it'd be different if he had a pupil to teach and there would be noise coming from practicing with him. It wouldn't be as distractive and even if it was, it would help him get ready for combat outside his comfortzone.

Standing in the middle of the room with his eyes closed, Ishkaral was mentally preparing to be attacked by two imaginary assailants, one in front of him and one coming from behind him. He was standing in an unguarded stance, as if he were sleeping standing upright, this was training to see how well and fast he could react to an "unexpected" attack. How fast he could adapt and how efficiently he would react. The moment of letting go was coming near, he was waiting for the sign.

" FROM BEHIND! " The voice suddenly screamed through his mind, Eshacro was a great enemy and trainingpartner to have, aswell as a realisticly dirty fighter.

Ishkaral reacted fast, not fast enough though, after a wide horizontal swing with the back of his fist...spinning on his feet, he found himself in front of his "attacker", following up with an instinctive forward kick to the midsection of the invisible attacker. Before his feet had landed back on the ground he heard Eshacro's voice again.

" RIGHT MIDKICK "

Ishkaral reacted by instantly, a fraction of a second after hitting the floor with his toes, raising his knee in a defensive manner to block the kick with his kneecap. Which is one of the hardest parts of your body.

" TOO SLOW, LEFT AND FRONT! "

Ishkaral froze for a second, unable to react instantly at a double attack, but hopped backwards trice to create a distance with his attackers and keeping them both in front of him.

" DON'T WAIT, ATTACK! "

Ishkaral's body followed Eshacro's command without hesitation, he had trained with him for a long time now and knew that Eshacro had the better insight in combat and tactics, Ishkaral was better with reactiontime and technique considering he was the one mainly using the body, but being a backseat-soul gave Eshacro alot of tactical knowledge and observational skills. Ishkaral rushed back to his original spot and fought the two attackers head-on.

Giving straight punches and swift short hooks at face-height to one attacker first before imagining that that attacker ducked and covered his face, finishing him with two swift low uppercuts before making a pushing motion, in order to again create a distance and possibly make him fall. Without losing momentum he turned on the spot to face the other assailant. Two lowkicks aimed at his invisible left innerthigh followed and were finished by a lefthook aimed at the enemy's temple.

With every punch and kick, Ishkaral's actual target was beyond the spot that he "needed" to hit, to increase the actual traject and power of the punch or kick. Since the power and speed is increased if you imagine that the target you need to hit is farther away aswell as losing the inner inhibition to slow down in order not to hurt him or yourself too much.

" TOO SLOW, LEFT AND FRO--- "

Suddenly a quick rattle of knuckles on the door alarmed both Ishkaral and Eshacro that they had a visitor.

" Son of a --- Who the hell is that ? "

" Don't know. "

Glistening with sweat and slightly trembling on his feet from the combat-adrenaline, Ishkaral opened the door to see the Vantha he had met before.

" Wow, didn't expect to see you at all, come on in. Sorry for the mess and smell, this is the training room you see. "

" What's up mate? Came for a spar? Haha." Ishkaral was glad to see his mate and the adrenalinerush quickly faded.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus raised a brow. It seemed that the Akalak had been doing some self-training before that. How typical, the very first time they met in such a long while and instead of inviting him in for a cup of tea and other civil formalities, Ishkaral proposed a sparring session. One that would probably result in earning the Ethaefal's divine rear yet another bruise. But that was the reason why he liked the Akalak, for civil formalities are a waste of time to him, having lived on the mortal plane for so long and interacted with the mortals on it. Mortals tend to have the ability to make formalities last an eternity longer than they usually should. Eridanus made a note to do an in-depth study into the relativistic experience of formalities someday when he had the time and appropriate passion for it. For now, it was the time for some physical exertion, and though the Ethaefal self that took a backseat shrugged dispassionately, his reckless mortal form relished the opportunity. "I'm all ready, ol' buddy. A lil' stretchin' and we're all ready to rock." He entered Ishkaral's house and proceeded to prepare himself.

OOC: We can probably go straight up to the spar; up to you to gloss over the details leading up to it. It'll be boring to RP the 'walk to the sparring room and etcetc' part.

[Ishkaral]

Ishkaral hadn't expected the Vantha to accept his joking invitation for a spar but he was more than happy to oblige. So far he has almost never gotten the chance to train with anyone else. He relished this opportunity and quickly lead Eridanus to the center of the room after closing the door behind him.

" Ok mate, first some stretching and then I'll see how good you fight and what could use improvement, we'll use the Advanced Training Dummy for that. " The T-posed humanshaped wooden object was hanging a bit loosely from the chains attaching it to the two wooden poles next to it.

Ishkaral started to stretch his legs and arms and after a few minutes he awaited Eridanus close to the A.T.D.

" Feel free to take your time and cut loose, but first put on these padded gauntlets. That way you don't have to hold back much, otherwise you'd hurt your fists and other parts for sure. "

He quickly went to the pile of padded armor and gear and returned to Eridanus, giving him a pair of padded gauntlets.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus stretched his limbs quickly, his body used to the fast 'jump-start' that he usually subjected his body to. A bandit waiting to gut you on the road would not wait long for you to stretch, and a strained calf is most definitely more preferable than a dismembered calf. Still, it was a luxury offered to him and he was grateful for it. The Vantha accepted the gauntlets, and nodded in appreciation to the Akalak, putting them on. That was all the 'warm-up' he needed, and he did not see a purpose in punching a dummy when one could be punching something else. Or someone else, for that matter. "Nah, I'd be reserving my punches for ya, buddy." He assumed the common fighting stance of tavern brawlers and motioned for the Akalak to initiate contact.

[Ishkaral]

Ishkaral chucked hearthily at the eagerness of his friend but it went without saying that he accepted the proposition, he walked over to the pile of protective armor and gear and grabbed his own pair of padded gauntlets so he wouldn't do more than simple bruising if he didn't went overboard.

" He's underestimating you, bring his ego down a peg. " Eshacro maliciously whispered in the Akalak's mind.

" He's just eager, relax. " Ishkaral assured Eshacro, although the seed of doubt had been planted and he wasn't sure of his own statement anymore, not that it mattered much to Ishkaral though but he wouldn't particularly like it if it were true. He still had every intention to teach and not to harm though, he got in the basic agressive stance since Sanctus Peccator was focused on agressive and fast take-downs. Defensive techniques are definitely also practiced, but he has been taught-hammered into his body to switch from defensive to agressive as soon as possible. And since this was a premade battle, there was no need to start defensively.

With a nod he indicated the trainingsession had started.

With a broad base of balance due to standing firmly on slightly spread legs and with his elbows pointed outwards to make slightly easier and faster elbow-hits, he approached seemingly slowly but the moment his first step was made he pressured his foot and kicked himself off towards the Vantha, closing the gap between them and following up with several fast but held-back blows to the body and face, aiming in particular for the liver and sides.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus prepared himself when he observed the Akalak going into a unique stance. The stance that so far he'd only seen one person use, and that was the person in front of him. The Ethaefal prepared to attack, but his reflexes immediately quashed all thoughts of that when the martial artist launched himself towards Eri with a blinding fast combination of strikes. Eri warded off a few blows, sustained a couple that punched the air out of him, and rolled out of the way, uttering a few choice Vani swear words. He had gotten complacent on the actual skill level of Ishkaral. Not one to easily give up, however, Eri slid forward on the ground, keeping his body low. It was an unorthodox move, definitely, but that was how you learn on the streets and in the battle grounds. Whatever works, you keep it. Whatever didn't, well if you're still liave after that then remember not to repeat that. When he reached the Akalak, he swiped his leg towards Ishkaral's knee-joints in an attempt to destabilize him. Then followed up by straightening up from the ground and delivering a series of punches aimed at the Akalak's chest.

OOC: Yes, that a Street Fighter Ryu leg sweep attack lol.

[Ishkaral]

Ishkaral was naive, he hadn't followed up on his attack when his friends rolled away over the floor but instead held his distance out of respect, he knew that this was a trainingsession but his compassionate and friendly nature got the better of him even now. He had even went as far as to lower his guard and when Eridanus' attack came, Ishkaral was unprepared and slow. He was able to raise his leg to avoid impact for the side of his kneecap but was too slow to avoid it completely, the sweeping kick hit him on the lower and thinner part of his shin and he could feel that the kick was lacking a bit of power from the weird position it was launched from, yet had it hit him on the soft part of his knee...He would've definitely felt the hurt.

Momentarily losing his balance, he couldn't instantly retalliate his sparringpartner and just after Eridanus got fully up, Ishkaral had regained his composure yet was slower than Eridanus in picking the fight back up.

The first few incoming blows he managed to redirect by manoeuvering his wrists and arms from the inside of the incoming fists to outside the zone of his body, making them hit thin air. While his jabs were without much power behind them, the Vantha was able to strike swift and sharp. His punches were at an equal pace with Ishkaral's redirecting manoeuvers giving him no window to change the course of the session.

Ishkaral was knowledgeable in Sanctus Peccator to utilize more than just his fists and arms though, while redirecting a blow to the left of his body he rotated his hips along with it and lashed out with a swift lowkick to Eridanus' thigh. Following that movement up by an opposite motion of the hand which he used to redirect the last blow with. Aiming to throw the Vantha completely off-balance by pushing him by the side of his head to the side of the leg that was aimed at with the lowkick. While it was a simultaneous attack, they followed eachother up rather fast.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus growled in frustration when the Akalak redirected his flurry of blows. It was fortunate that the Ethaefal's style of fighting was the kind that used minimal investment in blows, preferring to put force only into the one blow that would turn the tables. Thus, it was fortunate that he fought the way he did, for if he was like the usual tavern brawler who put weight behind a punch, Ishkaral's effortless redirections would cause him to stumble in the direction he was deflected to. The martial artist twisted deflected left, and attempted to kick the Ethaefal but he was ready for it. He had gotten pretty much defeated by this very same technique when he brawled with Ishkaral a few year's back. At that time, he was still putting alot of force into his blows. This proved to be his detriment for when Ishkaral redirected his blow to a side, the force that Eri invested into that blow caused his weight to stumble towards the area where the Akalak intended him to go. The destabilizing kick that followed had been the deal-clincher, fully causing him to become off-balance suddenly and painfully. Without blinking, Eri shifted his profile in a parallel manner to the kick, being able to do so due to the low effort he put into the strikes. This allowed him to use his free hand - the one that was still recovering form the deflection - to intercept the Akalak's kick by striking the thigh. He was not strong enough, however, to fully disable the attack and winced when he felt the force of the kick, even though he had dissipated some of the energy behind that attack from the interception. While he was focusing on that, he noticed Ishkaral aiming to strike his head. He had been focusing on using his recovering hand to follow-up with further strikes, but the disorientation he suffered from the kick slowed him down long enough to prevent him from effectively blocking the Akalak's final attack and he took a padded gauntlet to the head, momentarily seeing stars. He did what reflexes told him to when all else fails, and rolled away once again, panting heavily and trying to regain his orientation. He blinked once and the room started to regain its clarity to him. Constantly side-stepping so that it would be difficult for the Akalak to fully face him up front, he lunged forward with a flying kick. This would be more effective than attempting it up-front as Ishkaral would have reduced options to block it effectively. And if he dodged it, Eri was ready to roll again to prevent fall damage. If he was somehow blocked or redirected as well, he was ready to kick off against the block and land somewhere far away from the martial artist's melee attacks to prepare for another assault.

[Ishkaral]

Sanctus Peccator wasn't a style of fancyness, rules or codes-of-honor, it was a style of efficiency and swiftly dealing with danger. When Ishkaral felt a quick strike to his attacking leg, he couldn't do much about it since he was completely in the momentum of the attack and he wouldn't have let it stop him even if he was able to stop his attack, he knew his innate Akalak strength and (moderate) experience in Sanctus Peccator gave him the advantage at head-on attacks, but he disliked being struck since it showed signs of inadequacy nonetheless.

After smacking his open, padded, palm against the side of Eridanus' head, he wanted to follow up by a few jabs to the nose and chin but the Vantha reacted instinctively and had rolled away, effectively creating distance between them. This time Ishkaral had no intention to wait for him to recover though, this was training and every Akalak takes his training rather seriously. It was a way of life and discipline afterall. So when Ishkaral stepped up to him while keeping his guard up, slowly rather than rushing headfirst into things...He had closed part of the distance between them when Eridanus had gotten up. His sparringpartner was ready to continue and was sidestepping around him while Ishkaral kept closing the distance slowly while turning his body to face him, which slowed him even further.

He was near striking distance when suddenly the Vantha made a reckless attack, an awkward jumpkick which he clearly had never practiced before yet it was a surprise and Ishkaral had no time to reflect upon that, Ishkaral's body reacted by instinct and turning on the spot while lifting his leg up so that the heel would connect with the nearby grasshopper-assailant. He minimized his own targetarea of Eridanus' attack while evading the straightforward kick by turning and bending his upper body, meanwhile his heel was rising upwards diagonally in the direction of the Vantha.