[Flashback] Swords and Shields (Coren)

[Eridanus]

"Yes, remember the feeling. For today we will go as far as executing strikes while maintaining both your grip and your stance. It is also likely that we may be continuing this until you get it right before we move on to new things."

Demonstrating how Coren should do it, Eridanus settled into the neutral stance again, bringing his blade up in a straight vertical motion, then bringing it down in a sharp precise manner. It seemed easy to do, but required plenty of hard work in order to slice in such a straight line with such consistent speed. His other muscles also seemed relaxed as he did so, utilizing the minimal amount of strength needed. Not too much nor too little. Just enough.

"Remember about the 'minimal amount of energy' concept. You should get familiar with this simple top-down vertical strike, taking note to maintain your posture as well as your grip while using the least amount of strength required to bring a consistent, clean and precise strike."

"Now try."

[Coren]

After giving having observed Eridanus' demonstration on how to execute a downward strike, it looked easy enough to accomplish, but by now coren had already learned to never underestimate anything, no matter how easy it looked it always was the smartest idea to approach it with the mindset it was a difficult task. It did wonders for the concentration. “Right, least amount of energy, doesn't sound to hard.” Coren muttered to himself before trying out the stroke. Coren brought up the blade a little bit to quickly and overshot the height Eri had brought up his blade to by a bit, which probably would have left his stomach open to a counter attack and brought down the sword way to fast and dipped way to low in executing the strike nearly striking the ground in the progress. Not only did he use way to much force both on going up his left hand was using more force then his right, pulling the supposedly straight downwards strike of center. As coren returned to the neutral stance, screwing up his stance slightly he already knew that his strike was seriously flawed. “Well. There were some serious flaws in that.” Coren said as he looked towards Eridanus for a small explication on whatever he was doing wrong and how to fix it.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus watched Coren bungle up the first attempt. It was perfectly normal though, for one with completely no experience in handling bladed weapons, and it was within the realm of acceptable behavior. The amateur teacher went forward first to physically correct Coren's stance.

Next, he placed his own practice blade in front of Coren but below his waist, aligning the sword such that it formed a bar across his body.

"For now, we will condition your muscle control. Do the strike, and aim to end the swing of your sword where my sword is. Take note of how loud the clattering sound is, the softer it is, the more it means that you're on the right track. Begin."

[Coren]

Coren didn't gave any comment, with body language or otherwise, as Eridanus pushed him back into the right stance. He just wanted to get back to work on working on getting this strike right and maybe move on towards the next one. Though he doubted that would be for this lesson by the way it was going. As Eridanus explained the next exercise and held out his practice sword. Coren paid rapt attention. Before nodding and beginning to repeat the strike, trying to dose the strength behind the strike this time a little bit better. While it still wasn't perfect as his sword hit eri's with a harsh clatter, but he had the feeling he hadn't overshot his head this time. As he corrected the small mistakes that had crept into his stance as good as he could he geared up for a second shot. “Say, Eridanus? What is the actual use of this strike in combat? I mean I doubt going for the head is such a good tactic, and this one does seem to leave open your stomach for a blade if your opponents knows what he is doing.” He swung his sword once more, this time the clatter against the other blade had died down a little bit. Showing that he was at least on the right path.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus motioned for Coren to continue hitting, taking special attention to note if the sounds of the clatter got nearer or not. There was actually the harder version of this exercise that also tested one's precision, but he would leave it for the next lesson or after this, depending if Coren could control his energy well enough.

"It is just a generic strike mainly to train your foundations, Coren. We cannot hope to jump over roof-tops without learning to walk, and similarly we cannot hope to learn techniques and swordplay strategy without conditioning and foundations," He said, over the clatter of the blades as Coren diligently continued his striking.

"Perhaps to use a more familiar analogy to you, I cannot hope to create huge and complicated shields without first learning how to extrude djed, yes?"

[Coren]

Coren obeyed Eridanus' request to continue hitting the wooden sword held at the man's waist as the man answered his question. When he told it was just a generic strike that trained up the foundations of a swordsman he let out a nod in understanding. That did make sense, when he mentioned jumping over roof-tops coren couldn't help but to pause for a few moments in his sword hitting and giving the man a strange stare, though only his raised eyebrow was seen thanks to his mask covering up the lower half of his face. “Jumping over rooftops? Is this something to do with the discipline of flux?” Coren asked as he restarted hitting the wooden sword. “I knew flux could enhance the user's body, but can it be enhanced to such a degree? Magic cruelly is frightening in its potential sometimes.” He said in a strangly calm tone for what he was saying. In between strikes coren nodded as eridanus brought up shielding. “Yes Extruding djed is one of the foundations of shielding and without a good grasp on that you cannot really be called more then a novice. Though I have to break your fantasy about being able to make huge shields by yourself. Even a master can't create the really big shields. One needs to work together with other shielders to gather the needed djed for such projects.” He stopped talking after he had said that as he slowly began to feel a slight strain in his limbs and breathing. Thinking it was better to concentrate on what he was doing than chatting right now.

[Eridanus]

"Well I don't probably mean really leaping over them; it has more to do with acrobatics and free-running I guess, though flux does play a part in it. Without the acrobatics technique required though, a flux-user will hurt himself upon landing," Eri replied conversationally.

Coren agreed with him on his shielding analogy, and he shrugged, "Well I don't know the true capabilities of shielding anyway; the example is more for purposes of understanding."

With that, the mage kept quiet in order to focus on controlling his muscles.

Clatter after clatter.

Eridanus' own limbs began to feel the strain as well as he held up the heavy wooden sword, having to tense his muscles in order to maintain the rigidity of the barrier he created for Coren to strike. With each strike he had to push his own blade upwards to prevent it from being sent downwards, and he had to time his own energy to match Coren's so that his blade would not go flying up as well.

It was a matter of delicate control, and one of the difficulties of being a teacher that students do not usually realize.

He would then watch the mage until he felt that he was getting too tired to improve any further, and he would stop him for a rest.

I guess the second part of this exercise will have to come the next class.

[Coren]

Coren gave a curt nod as Eri expanded on his previous example to make sure coren didn't have any misunderstandings. Though he kept his mouth shut as he already began to breathe a little bit more heavily from the strain the exercise put on him, no sense in wasting his breath on what he precised as mostly idle chatte and focused his mind on trying to work the problems out of his stance and the way he was striking with his wooden practice sword. Coren didn't have a clue how long had passed as while he had been doing the same exercise over and over, Only occasionally interrupted by eridanus as he corrected some mistakes, before the fatigue from doing the exercise finally caught up with him and he stopped for a moment to catch his breath. Dropping out of the stance and immediately eased back in his normal slouch. “Lets... take.. a break for now.” Coren said as he sat down on the snowcovered ground. “My arms feel as if they are made out of lead. While I catch my breath why don't you make a simple shield around your hand that blocks out light.” Coren suggested. “It probably is a good idea to revision the basics before we get started.”

[Eridanus]

"Alright, rest it is," the ethaefal agreed, and he let out a small sigh of relief as he relaxed the tension on the arms used to maintain the barrier formed by the sword for Coren's practice purposes. Stretching his arms, he massaged his biceps and triceps to get the blood flowing, especially in Avanthal's eternal winter. He was not like the local vantha population who were blessed with Morwen's mark that protected them against the cold; he had to rely on tangible protections.

"The first step is djed extrusion, yes?" He said in response to Coren's suggestion, though it was more of a rhetorical question. He had been practising by himself for quite a bit, and it showed in the slightly faster way in which he could call up the djed within his body.

Closing his eyes, he tried his best to ignore the cold and to focus on the internal aspects of his soul as he visualized drawing djed from his core, directing the flow of astral energy into his palms.

He held his breath unconsciously as he transferred the djed in his body to his palms, and cupping his palms upwards in front of him, he exhaled deeply as he pushed the djed out, seeing a misty blue substance that represented raw extracted djed, ready to be shaped and formed into a shield.

[Coren]

Coren nodded in approval as Eridanus began to recap the first steps on how to create a shield once more. “Yes, first extruding djed, then shaping it and then task it.” Coren said in a slightly winded tone as he watched Eridanus reach inside his own soul and try to force out his djed. It didn't really seem as if the man had any problems with the first part of the entire process as far as he could feel or see. “You are doing good so far, now why don't you try to create a small shield spanning between your two hands to block out light. Don't worry if there continue to be large holes in the shield, It takes some time before you are able to get it right completely. Like everything it takes practice. Though I don't doubt you already know this.” Coren pushed himself back on his feet and walked closer towards eridanus intent on keeping a firm eye on what he was doing. “After this I got another exercise my old teacher used to let me do all the time. It isn't a hard one but it trains more then just your ability to create shields. He was confident in the fact it also made it possible for you to recognize shields without relying on being able to see them.”