Closed [Iron Fist School]Thrust Slash Strike[Savio]

[Ssafirsotibones]

56 Summer 513 Bones had another training session today, with a student new to him, Savio. He had found an interest apparently in using a Gladius, a blade Bones was skilled with, and so he was teaching him its intricacies. But before heading off to teach, Bones wanted to work out a bit. He looked about the room, trying to think what was heavy enough to work out with. Ximal's words the last time they had met rang through his head. But if he wanted to build his body, build his muscles, he would need to get creative. The bed would not do, so he went over to the chest of drawers, which was more or less empty, and began to stretch. Flexing his arms, stretching them out over his head, behind his back while leaning forward. He spent a few chimes on his legs, leaning on them in turn spread out, touching his toes by bending down without using his knees. He let out a heavy breath, trying to slow his breathing, keep calm, even, natural. He ended doing some squats, bending till his rear nearly touched the ground, and then popping back up, doing it in repetition. By now he was good and loose, and so he was ready to lift some things. He stretched his arms around the chest of drawers, careful to bend with his knees and not at the waist, so as to not put the weight onto his back, and lifted it straight up. It was solid enough wood, so was of a decent heft, but more so the problem was it was big and unmanageable. He gripped the wood, lifted straight up till he was standing with it erect, and began to lift it higher till he was holding it by the base above his head. And he held it there with his arms extended, for a chime... Two... Three... When his arms began to ache, and scream in protest, he slowly began to set it back down, down to head level, swiveling his arms, down in front of his chest. Then he began to bend his knees again, till it was lowered back to the ground. But he set it in the middle of the room, instead of by the wall were it had been. Laying down on the ground, he turned it so the flat back side was facing towards him, and then brought his feet up to lay across the back. Then he tilted it, and began to heft the weight on top of him, till his feet were propping it up. He began to push up, unbending his knees, making the chest of drawers slowly slide up the wall, till he had his knees fully extended, with him still laying on his back. He did some more repetitions, bending his knees till they were close to his chest, and the weight of the wood was nearly upon him, and then unbending and straightening his legs again to be fully straight. One, two, three, four, over again with his legs. This took much longer, as his legs were strong, so he had to continue on for a decent bit of chimes to make his legs sore. Finally though they were, and he settled the chest back down, tilting it back to set down correctly, and turning it back with the back to the wall. With a sigh, and a wiping of sweat from his brow, he stretched out, took a sip of water, and headed for the training hall to meet Savio. If he was not already there, he would go and sit down as he had last time. If he was there already, he would tell him to go fetch a wooden gladius, and would go and grab one for himself.

[Ssafirsotibones]

Bones was unsure how long he had been sitting there. He had simply been sitting with his eyes closed, trying to calm himself for the day, letting his heart rate return to normal after his workout for the morning. He checked his breathing, making it slow and even. Breath in. Out. In. Out. Over and over. Trying to ignore the sounds and smells and sights that existed amongst humanity. Sight clearly was the easiest to deal with, as he could simply close his eyes. Even at the best of times he was not good at telling time, chimes, bells, he could not say how long he sat as such. It was likely more than a dozen chimes, but less than three or four bells. But after it, he did feel a bit calmer, a bit more soothed. So when he heard the voice of the human Savio, he opened his eyes, and slowly stood. He did not respond to the humans explanation of why he had been so long. Excuses were pointless, either he was here to learn or not. And whatever he said, it would have no affect upon their current lesson, on him fighting, so why did he even try to explain himself? Besides, Bones had not specified a specific time to be here. He might have been aggravated if he had, but he had not. Bones headed over to grab a wooden gladius of his own, and walked back to the center of the room with Savio, who had taken one also. He gestured towards himself, and said simply, "Come at me. Ssshow me what you have learned." He held the gladius up across himself, and looked at Savio, his arms and knees slightly bent, and he bore into his eyes with his warriors glare. speech : "Come at me. Show me what you have learned."

[Savio]

It was a relief that Bones didn’t seem too mad. This brightened up Savio mood as he stood in front of his teacher. He held his weapon at the ready. His posture was a bit better than before.

Savio stepped into Bones’ space, swinging his Gladius at his teacher’s right arm. If the attack landed, he would follow it with a stab towards the man’s gut. But if his slash was blocked, Savio would have to take a step back and attack again, this time aiming for Bones’ thigh with another slash swinging from the other direction.

Savio’s attacks were a tad bit faster than his last meeting with Bones, since he had practiced his movements and strikes. Their last spar had inspired him to do better. It was nice feeling that he was on a more equal playing field with Bones than he was with Ximal or Revy. The weapon also felt a little more familiar in his hands. But the blisters that had formed the other had stung.

[Ssafirsotibones]

It was only a few ticks, and Bones was once more into the realm of battle, fighting with blade and sweat and blood, and on instinct letting his body act without reasoning or conscious thought. Of course, being on a practice fight, with wooden weapons, the blood was not all that likely... He came in with a swing aimed at Bones right arm, to which he reacted to with a swing of his own taking the opposite trajectory, smashing his wooden blade into that of Savio, attempting to send it back the way it had come. Hopefully directly back at Savio, if his angle was right. If not, it would still likely send it flying wide in some direction, from the force of the blow which was a bit stronger than a human could normally muster. No where near his full Dhani strength, but still more than a average human. As Savio took a step back, Bones paused for a moment. He could have followed up with another strike in that pause, but decided to give him a moment, to see what he would do. Next he tried to slash at Bones thigh, making a low cutting motion. Bones simply took a step back, out of range of the blow, letting it whiz by. He would then take a step forward, and make a thrust aimed right at Savio's belly, turning his strength back down to that of a normal human.

[Savio]

It didn’t take Savio long to quickly realize that Bones had stepped up the training regimen. He slashed back at Savio’s sword with great strength, knocking his wide and almost disarming the young man once again. It was only Savio’s hard grip on the handle that prevented it from flying away. Savio continued with his motions, only to have his next attack complete avoided and leaving Savio slightly off balance.

Bones then took the offensive with a thrust aimed for Savio’s stomach. It was thanks to Savio’s training in acrobatics that he narrowly avoided the attack with a quick twist of his body, and while Bones was still leaning into the thrust Savio took a swing at Bones’ head. It was a quick reaction, almost a reflex. After the swing, Savio tumbled away until he smoothly got back onto his feet and his gladius held at the ready for Bones’ next attack.

[Ssafirsotibones]

Bones managed to send the first blow flying, and avoided the next one. As Savio clutched at his blade, working to keep it from flying out of his hand, Bones added in a small bit of advice, after all it was a lesson. "Firssst lesssson for today, if you can disssarm a foe, ssey lossse sseir initiative in a battle. In fact, sssome people will be ussselessss wissout a blade in hand, ssso disssarming ssem might even end sse battle, if ssey are not ssskilled in fissst alssso." Savio swung out of the way, lightly avoiding the attack with a twist. This of course was fine in practice, but in a real battle the sides of the blades were sharp, and it would have left him open to a sideways swipe after the thrust which might have lain his side open, with a spurt of blood. He swung at Bones head, forcing him to duck and retreat, popping back up once out of range, which was soon as Savio was also backpedaling in order to regain his footing. He held his blade up at the ready for Bones next attack, once he settled in. "And in a real battle, I could have jussst sssliced you open down sse ssside, don't forget ssat a ssrussst can be turned into a ssslash or hack, and sse sssidesss of sse gladiusss are just asss dangerousss asss sse tip. Nice reflecks-sive counter blow ssough." Bones paused for a moment, examining Savio, and then came in at him with a series of blows at fast pace, coming in with a slash aimed at the left side of his chest, then a kick aimed at the side of his right knee with his own left foot just a moment later. Then a thrust aimed at his head, only to pull back on it if it missed, to attempt to catch him from behind with the edge of the blade, aiming it downward or whichever which way he was afterword should he dodge and the initial thrust was avoided. speech : "First lesson for today, if you can disarm a foe, they lose their initiative in a battle. In fact, some people will be useless without a blade in hand, so disarming them might even end the battle, if they are not skilled in fist also." "And in a real battle, I could have just sliced you open down the side, don't forget that a thrust can be turned into a slash or hack, and the sides of the gladius are just as dangerous as the tip. Nice reflexive counter blow though."

[Savio]

Savio took the short moment that Bones had blessed him with to gather his wits and catch his breath. Savio watched his teacher as intensely as he was being watched. When Bones came at him again, Savio was ready. The attacks that Bones had rained down upon him was rapid, and Savio struggled to keep up. He blocked the slash with his Gladius and then swung down in a swift slash at the incoming kick as he moved his body out of the way.

While swinging down to attack Bones’ legs, his body naturally ducked, unknowingly dodging the thrust at his head. He then had just barely enough time to raise his weapon to block against the downward slash that had quickly followed Bones’ thrust. But that wasn’t enough; Savio had misjudged the angle of his Gladius and quickly found his own Gladius smacking him dead in the face with Bones’ force.

The shock knocked Savio down onto his back with a bark of pain. Instinctively his free hand went up and held the area on his face that was damaged. He could already feel the warm dribble of blood drip down from a cut that his mock sword had created over his left eyebrow. His other hand held his sword up in a defensive position in case Bones didn’t stop.

[Ssafirsotibones]

Bones way of teaching was perhaps a uncommon one, but not uncommon here at the school of the Iron Fist. One learned through practice, through practical exercises, and through experiencing real battle in all but the blood and death. Which was how Bones had learned, except for one thing... For him, the threats had been real. The beasts had wanted to kill him, the enemy was just as skilled and ready to destroy him just for the crime of existing... And even amongst his own people, it was little better, barely less vicious when their race was so close to the brink and could afford no weakness... In that regard, this training paled to Bones own. Petch, he had wrestled a bear, and come out on top! Perhaps it was more than one, he could not rightly recall at the moment. He blocked the first slash, as was expected, and tried to intercept the kick with his weapon. Then there was a confusing tangle of limbs and wood as events happened to fast for him to process with his eyes, as both attempted various attacks at once, and Bones caught him off guard with a surprise backward hack. Savio fell, and was down, knocked in the face by his own weapon. Bones saw a trickle of blood... As he did, he tensed, blade raised, for a moment a twitch as he almost moved to finish him, but then he recalled this was just training and not real or life and death, and so he quelled the impulse. He held out his free left hand to Savio, to pull him back to his feet. If he took the offered hand, he would pull him up. Either way, once Savio was up, he would head over to the training dummy, and poke it with the tip of his gladius. "Ten ssrussst to sse head, ten ssslash to each of sse four limbsss, and five thrustsss and five ssslashesss to sse torssso." With that, Bones would head back over to the weapons rack, while he left Savio to his training exercise. speech : "Ten thrust to the head, ten slash to each of the four limbs, and five thrusts and five slashes to the torso."

[Savio]

Savio groaned as he took the hand that was offered and allowed himself to be held up. He managed a sheepish smile as he looked at his hand and saw the blood. “Well… It’s not a good day until I get hurt in some way, huh?”

Bones didn’t look too amused at the small joke and sent Savio to do drills on the dummy. Savio sighed as he wiped the blood from his forehead and then wiped his hand onto his shorts as he walked over there. The bleeding will stop eventually. Once Savio was done with his training, he would go and wash it out.

Savio then stood in front of the dummy and readied his stance before attacking the manikin as instructed. After yesterday’s “training” with Revy, this was a cake walk. The memories of yesterday flooded back and started to make Savio temper spike. That woman was insane. What kind of teacher would WANT to hurt their student? Savio understood that some pain was good, it was a good motivator. But to intentionally berate and mercilessly attack someone who had little to no skill for what seemed to be pure sport? That was wrong and dishonorable. He hoped that Sayren didn’t have to learn from Revy. The poor girl wouldn’t be able to take the pain.

Even the thought of Revy doing to Sayren what had done to Savio yesterday made his temper hit a peak. It wasn’t until he felt the wooden gladius crack and break that he realized that he had let his anger fuel his motions. Savio stopped and blinked in surprise. The dummy was covered in deep indentations and was also crack in a few places, and Savio’s favored wooden gladius was now broken in half, its ends both splintered. Had he really done that?!

“Um… Oh shyke…” His face turned a beet red as he looked to Bones, both his surprise and embarrassment was evident on his sweaty face. “I… I will pay for that. I didn’t mean to… Oh man, Ximal is going to kill me.”

[Ssafirsotibones]

Bones did not really get Savio's joke. More to the point, he did not really realize it was a joke, so it simply seemed an odd thing to say to him... Was he one of those people who enjoyed pain? He could not recall the common word for it... And their was a word in snake-tongue for it, but that referred to someone who enjoyed Another persons pain, not ones own... He was not sure if such a concept even existed in Snake-Tongue, for why would one enjoy ones own pain? It was only his long time spent amongst humans that the possibility of such a human existing, even seemed plausible. But he had met some odd humans over the decades... Bones was lost in his own thoughts, when he saw the wooden blade copy break. Bones set his own gladius back on the rack, and then walked over to Savio, and took a piece of the broken gladius, before proceeding to toss it to the side at a wall. He figured it must have been old or damaged, since after all even wooden weapons attained a decent bit of wear and tear over times. "I doubt he would kill you over ssat, it isss only a wooden play blade. You would need to break sssomessing more valuable than ssat before he were to kill you." Bones said this very seriously, with no humor, once more missing the fact that Savio did not mean it literally... He was simply rebutting him, and saying he would not actually kill him for such a slight. He turned back to the weapons rack, and then back to Savio, before gesturing for him to come closer. "Ssso, sssince you broke sse play bladesss, what do you know of fissstsss and fighting wissout bladesss? Any good? Want to try sssome of ssat? Alssso... What ssstylesss do you know?" Bones of course was pretty diverse in his styles, he knew basic disciplined unarmed combat, was also decent with wrestling and straight up brawling, and had tried his hand a few times at boxing. Though his skill in the last was still pretty sparse... He had only used it a few times. But the first three he was much better at, with his best skill being in the most common style of basic unarmed combat. speech : "I doubt he would kill you over that, it is only a wooden play blade. You would need to break something more valuable than that before he were to kill you." "So, since you broke the play blades, what do you know of fists and fighting without blades? Any good? Want to try some of that? Also... What styles do you know?"