[Sunset Falls] School Is In Session. (Training)

[Nero Czan]

Nero had never gotten completely comfortable with a teacher of his own, most likely due to his childish idolization of his one and only true teacher. This however, was different. It was more like, Supervised Study. Nevertheless, Nero was determined to understand, and benefit from, this mysterious art, which controlled one of the most natural "fluids" in existence. Nero was not one to give up easily, and he had a feeling he was going to especially need that persistence for the day. He began by closing his eyes, and, piece by piece, shutting out the world. He had long ago learned how to properly isolate the mind, or else the childish torment he had endured may have gotten the best of him. As he visualized the road-map of pathways, a network of untapped power, just waiting to be used to it's fulled potential. With an imaginary hand, fitting for an imaginary map, he gently swept the streaming Djed, as a river turned downhill, and diverted most, but not all, of the ethereal liquid from his left arm, into his right. His concentration twitched for a moment, as a strange sensation entered his physical body, his arm, skeptically receiving the new found aid, felt pulsing, a dulling power swirling around, before dissipating due to his lack of concentration. Conversely, his other arm was almost hollow. It's strength had not necessarily vanished, but it seemed to become a false strength, as in a tempered pot may be, where after years of use, a slight tap would knock it into pieces. Granted, his arm was not made of clay, but the sensation was noticeable. He sunk down into his mind, re-iterating the effect, and once again, allowing it to sustain for a few seconds before popping up to physically feel the effect. He shook off the feeling, his right arm tingling for a moment. He took a deep breath, which was one component of meditation he had never fully learned, and spoke. "So? How did I do, Master?" He still had the good nature to smirk, even though the title was only half mocking. For all intents and purposes, he was the teacher in this situation, and whether he liked it or not, Nero would not simply deny it.

[Ryshaltze]

Ryshaltze resisted the natural impulse to swear, knowing that although technically he was the 'master' in this situation, the Drykas probably could not resist the chance to take another dig.

Why are all my friends bloody wisecracks?

He punched the Drykas good-naturedly, and nodded with satisfaction. At the beginning, he could not see what was happening, except for maybe the slowed breathing and the reduced movement, almost as if he was entering a meditative or intensely focused trance. He supposed that a background in martial arts would provide one with the required training to do that. Intense concentration or meditation really helped when one is dealing with the re-direction of Djed in the body, for a misdirection would tend to be highly painful - and at high levels it would be deadly. One would not want to accidentally pull off a supersonic headbutt in the messy midst of battle. Although it was subtle, Ryshaltze's own little knowledge in the art and his observation skills enabled him to see the little movements in Nero's body as he seemingly tried to manipulate the flow again. He was no master in Auristics, but he could see Nero's right arm minimally twitching, but twitching with the potential of much, much more. Conversely, he could very obviously see that his left arm lay dead. It was not being limp or anything like that. In fact it remained in its original position, but Ryshaltze could somehow feel that it was 'dead' in a sense, and lacking the typical vigor one should have.

"You more or less got it on the second try." He glanced at the tome, and flipped it a few pages forward to reach the part labelled 'Aid'. Briefly paraphrasing and summarizing the section of the book, he continued, "You can make use of incantations or gestures to help in your focus and so reduce the delay needed to manipulate the astral stream within you." He shut the book and placed it on the ground beside him.

"When I started off I used gestures that very much follows what your mind imagines. This is to help you to actively visualize the focus and be more accurate in directing the flow until you're more used to it." He took a breath, and focused on the astral stream within him. Mentally tapping into it, he circled his right arm towards his left, his left hand then following forward then towards his chest. The left hand pushed the air forward, though angled towards the right, and went back to its original position while his right arm, palm facing foward in a standard unarmed strike pose, slowly extended, then contracted towards his chest. Without warning, there was a blur as he struck forward in an unnatural burst of speed, and with that same speed returned to its original position.

He glanced at Drykas, "I hope my demonstration didn't look too weird. Gestures and incantations are usually different as every individual have different ways of visualizing it, and since this was the way my mind visualized it was quite useful to physically simulate the flow as well."

"When you're more used to the concept, however, I'd suggest sticking to incantations over gestures. Or none, if you are already competent in it. Since one would tend to use it in a fight, gestures would impede your stance and compromise your guard, so incantations would be more logical that way."

[Nero Czan]

Nero nodded at the advice. He had grasped his meaning, and the demonstration, while a tad confusing, had done a well enough job of making an example. There was no possible way he could afford to shut himself out during a combat situation, but that was already established. He mentally shrugged as he considered what gestures would be appropriate, but it didn't take long for that answer to come to him. He had learn at least a dozen 'meditative aids' during his study of Marakazen, which until now, had been blatantly useless. Everything has a purpose after all... As he skimmed over the ones he could recall, he briefly decided how each would correspond to a motion inside his body, or rather, his astral body. He kept his eyes open this time, a fatally-intense stare occupying his mind, not too unlike the one he took upon himself during an actual fight. He swiftly pulled his arms in front of him, one on top of the other, hovering above his chest. His left arm being on 'top', or farthest from his body, with a matching speed his leg sweeped out to the left, his foot making a 90 degree angle with his other, while his body sub-consciously took a back stance. With his weight slightly pushed on his right leg, his arms split as he had done millions of times, as he set himself into a traditional fighting stance, his front arm, (The one farthest from him), exploding into a middle-block, as his back arm, in this case the right, set itself in a guard against his abdominals. It was during this change in stance that he focused deeply on the astral stream of his body, hoping to use the explosive power of his motions to power a burst into the swing of his arm. The power was either changed by minuscule amounts, or he had failed. With a sigh, he reset himself. As is usually the case, Nero's mind tended to wander, and his attempts to deliberately multi-task had caused him to narrate the moves that had long ago become second-nature, unfocusing himself on the matter at hand. With a second attempt, and a clearer mind, his envisioned the strike of his arm as a furious current, a wave of glowing liquid snapping into place. He had left his right arm pressed against his chest for support, as to prevent it from dropping limp. Once again however, he had over-estimated his control over his Djed, and, although feeling a lot more confident in his basic movement from one side to the other, it did little more than give an extra push for his hit. It was obvious to him that this would require a lot of mental practice before being applied to his fighting style, as he recounted the myriad of precision strikes and fluid, continuous swings. It was ironic, as the founder of Marakazen had intended this as an adaptation on the ancient Suvan forms, which incorporated Flux considerably. Well, better get practicing then. As he returned to his neutral stance, he looked to his companion. "Any thing you see wrong Mas- Rys? I can envision in clearly, but when it comes to moving it, it's as if only skimming the surface of a stream, and each time I end up taking only tiny portions." He absentmindedly flexed his arm, which had at least noticed the influx of some proportion.