[Flashback][Training]Armed with Sticks

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This shining population center is considered the jewel of The Sylira Region. Home of the vast majority of Mizahar's population, Syliras is nestled in a quiet, sprawling valley on the shores of the Suvan Sea. [Lore]

[Flashback][Training]Armed with Sticks

Postby Wystern on January 4th, 2011, 6:21 am

Time Stamp: 17th of Spring, 504 AV.


Wys had to rest for a day or two, orders. He was coming down with fatigue, and a lack of sleep, the training wasn't being nice. "Don't worry," Jacob said,"I'm only running you harder than my master did me because I want you to be better than me. And you have the potential. It always gets harder with each generation, and you are going to run your apprentice harder than I did you. Just the way it goes."

Wys got up and stretched, feeling significantly better than he did a few days ago. Today was the day when he started weapons training. In a year or so, They would start off with armor, and it would just get more strenuous from there. Not that he could quit this lifestyle. Wystern's options were slim, and regardless of his education, and how smart he was, the military was spelled out for him better than anything else. Wys could get a job behind a stand, but then he knew he would feel empty inside, his life would be always missing something.

"Wake up, Crow!" Wys heard from the next room. His patron then stumbled into Wystern's small quarters in the barrack, if one could call them quarters. "Oh, you are already up. Good. Hurry, your training awaits."

"Yes, Sir,"Wys said without a slight excitement in his voice.

The pair walked outside, looking slightly unorthodox. One was armed and armored, and the other had a cloud of negativity hanging around him. The air was still a little bitter from the winter passing on. It felt like the patron simply had to stop by the Stallion, yet again, to flirt with one of the barmaids, whatever her name was. They arrived to the grounds half an hour later than planned.

"It's alright, Wys, we didn't waste that much time," the knight tried to justify himself. "The older you get, the more you become a fool for a woman. True story."

"Oh, you got that one right," Wys said with playful mockery.

"Please, shut up," Jacob said with a smirk.

He then disappeared into an armory with two pairs of curved swords, two wooden and two sheathed in black scabbards, with Syliran markings on them. The master leaned a pair against a nearby fence, and the scabbards shined in the morning sun. Jacob tossed the wooden sword handle first. Wys caught and examined the slender blade. It was about as large as his arm and was surprisingly heavy for its size.

"What is this? Where's the longsword?" Wystern asked with a strange uncertainty in his voice.

"I'm not teaching you to wield a longsword. This is a katana, one of the sharpest blades ever invented. Rumors have it that some can actually cut through steel. This is what you will be learning to use," Jacob explained with a smile.

"Why this, instead of the standard?" Wys asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Because normal is boring. And because it's what I was taught by my master. And it's also frequently more efficient than a longsword and is a faster weapon."

"So why do I not see other Knights march around with these?"

"They are expensive. They are worth almost seven times the regular fee required for a longsword. Even the ones up there are worth a hundred gold, each, but nobody would dare to steal them because with Syliran weaponry comes Syliran wrath. Alright, Crow, just hold the handle with both of your hands, dominant on top, and attack me."

Wys didn't have to hear the last bit twice. He gripped the handle so hard, the wood almost creaked. The master and the apprentice looked each other in the eyes for a few moments and Wys made the first move. Needless to say, the boy left a lot of openings with each attack, and with each obvious one, Jacob slapped him in the ribs with a broad side of the blade.

"Alright, you're lacking in your movement. We will first focus on your feet,"Jacob said after a couple of hours of beating Wys with a practice blade.

"Why my feet?" Crow asked between breaths.

"You can't dodge my strikes, and I'm barely even trying to hit you. You can't move out of the way fast enough, and you get hurt. Moving around is as much a part of swordplay as hitting your opponent. That should be evident, thus far," the patron said with a blank expression.

Wys sighed, and they kept going, his ribs were slowly easing up on the pain. It was just annoying, like a bee sting. Each slap stung harder. Wys was starting to make less mistakes, but swinging a practice sword that was actually heavier than the real thing was getting him worn out. Thwack! Wys gasped in pain and paused to catch his breath. This was Jacob going easy, and truth be told, he had every reason to raise the difficulty. Wys would climb steep learning curves for a living, this should be nothing. The pain was blinding, but the message was clear: unless you are better than him, stop rushing it, dumb-ass.

"You are too quick for your own good," Jacob instructed Wys.

Wystern didn't reply, just grinned his teeth and tried to contain the pain of his mistakes.
Last edited by Wystern on January 8th, 2011, 8:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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[Flashback][Training]Armed with Sticks

Postby Wystern on January 5th, 2011, 10:32 am

Wys pulled back the wooden blade and lashed out in a diagonal, dodging the upcoming hit to the ribs; much to Jacob's surprise. The knight smiled as Wystern seemed to grasp his weaknesses. The boy was making progress, nothing radical, but slow and steady. The trial and error seemed to be working out, he wasn't getting hit as much.

"Enough!" Jacob said, expertly parrying and disarming the squire. Wystern watched in a slight daze, wondering what just happened as Jacob nimbly caught the sword in his left hand. Wys was so caught up in thinking ahead that it took him a moment to realize that his hands were actually empty."Rest for a bit, catch your breath, the day is still young."

Again, Wystern followed an order without any arguments. He slumped to the ground, out of breath and aching a bit. The hits didn't really leave bruises, they were just annoying, and insulting, like a slap in the face. He was tired and sweaty, and shivered slightly in the wind. Still, the squire was surprised he wasn't hurt more than he is.

"Now you have a taste for the weight and a feel for an opponent," Jacob said calmly, the guy didn't even break a sweat. He stuck one of the swords into the ground. "Now listen up, squire."

Crow got up and looked up to his master. Jacob stood right next to him, his sword pointed slightly to the left. "These are going to be your drill points from now on, so you better remember them,"he started counting and moving his arm,"One-top left, two-top middle, three-top right, four-middle left, five-center, six-middle right, seven-low left, eight-low middle, nine-low right. From now on, we will practice your ability to chain strikes within those areas."

A confused look appeared on Wystern's face, on that his master caught almost immediately. "These are the areas where your imaginary opponents will be, and you will learn how to string hits together. It will get complicated as we go, but you should get used to it. For now, I just want to teach you to wield a sword, then we will add a shield, then we will add plate armor to the equation, and it should be all good. Take stance, the break is over."

Wys lifted the wooden blade out of the ground and took stance, trying to find the right combination of force to apply on the grip. He found a balanced pose and raised the katana to be square in front of him. "I'm ready," he whispered.

"Very well. Stab-four! Slash-four-nine, on guard! Stab-five, step back, spin-slash-three-one!" the knight barked out as his squire was completing each instruction.

Stab middle-left, slice to the right, Wystern almost lost his balance on the guard, too much force put on the sword; the second he regained it, he missed the timing for the guard command so he just kept going with the directions. Stab in square center, step back and sla-finally lose balance. Wys landed on his knees and his sword sticking in the ground. Jacob rubbed his eyes. Maybe he really was running the kid too hard? Nah... He stood with his hands behind his back and waited for Wys to get back up.

"Maybe the turning slash was a bit too much. Back on your feet! On guard! Thrust-seven! On guard! Slash-one-nine! Thrust-three, slash-three-nine, slash-nine-four, on guard!" Jacob said, laughing slightly.

Again, a pattern started to emerge. The last move would be the most difficult, and that was the one that would have the potential to bring Wys to his knees. The weight was starting to grow on his hands, his veins felt like lava was running through them. He didn't fall this time, but couldn't finish the instruction in the entirety. Maybe-

"Crow, you are putting the right amount of force into it. If you did it slowly there would be no point, it wouldn't hit a real target anyway. Think about it like this, this weapon is light, precise, but it can still bring down the wrath of the heavens.You are wielding a practice blade, it's heavier. This is how you get to wear the real thing. Oh, and I'm taking you to the mountains tomorrow, look forward to that. Now on guard! "

Wys calmly swore under his breath.
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[Flashback][Training]Armed with Sticks

Postby Wystern on January 8th, 2011, 10:41 am

Time Stamp: 89th of Spring 505 AV.
Two hours after sunrise.


"Bash-five, stab-eight! On guard! Tank! Bash-four, slash-two-eight. Block-seven, block-nine, kick-five, stab-eight. Faster, faster!" Jacob barked with an accomplished look on his face. Wys has been taught to combine the katana weapon style with a shield for a few months now. Going well so far, the only issue is the one that the style will always face: the weapon has more speed than weight, and its thrusting point is a little difficult to aim with. The curves make a frequent miss over a straight edge, but the upside is that the user really doesn't have to look at the scabbard to draw;in fact the draw is far more natural, which is why the Knight was training Wys to take advantage of it.

"Stop! Stand down," the master said with a satisfied tone, watching as Wys fumbled with the sheath. He looked proudly at his squire, the guy's already wielding the real blade. Maybe a little too big for him, maybe it's dulled so he wouldn't kill himself, but it's still the real deal. His drills were solid, efficient, and just aesthetically pleasing to watch. Soon they would start the armor training, but all in due time.

"Iaido-style," Jacob said. "That is among the things I'm teaching you. The point is to combine the ability to quick-draw, use the force to do precision slashes, re-sheath the katana and keep going, or maybe move around, depends on the situation."

"But what is the point? Am I not learning to do precision strikes and moving around anyway?" Wys said with a little confusion.

"You are currently learning batto-style. But this is among the things I will teach you so you don't have to fight your duels. And you WILL have your duels. Fortunately, a victory with a quick draw would still be a fairly honorable victory due to your speed and focus."

"Duels?"

"Some thing in this world, you simply wouldn't want to let slide. Some people you don't want to just kill, but also beat the snot out of. Maybe your fight will have to be held in held in public. Situations change, but in this line of work you have to know that they will happen, they always do. To be calm, relaxed, and fearless are the key points to surviving them."

"Then what do you mean by not having to fight them?"

"The draw is everything in this case, and if you get the draw first, you can end it before the real fighting even begins. Hence you win without the tediousness of going through the long and painful combat. And those things turn into half-hour matches, because the armor gets in the way of most strikes and you have shield for protection. But the Iaido-technique can get you to strike into the weak spot or into the visor before your opponent has any idea what happened."

"This sounds like a real cheap shot."

"It really only sounds like it. A death by an opponent's sword will always be considered an honorable death, so to speak, and the Knights will treat the body with the respect it deserves."

"It still sound cheap," the squire chuckled.

"It will be extremely useful for when you will be on duty and you will have to chase someone, and I repeat, it's still fair, and it's by far not the worst thing I'll teach you," the Knight said with an evil-looking smile. Wys shrugged. The last time he saw that look, Jacob made him run a few laps around Syliras...outside the walls. Wys remembered that day as the day that he was told to improve his stamina, and then ordered to do that every day, after training, for months on end. Heavy breathing, more lava-feeling blood, heart chiseling a sculpture on the inside of his ribcage. Those memories would haunt him for a while. Jacob's reasoning was that the kid had to get quicker somehow. Every now and then Jacob actually released an attack dog and made Wys run around the wilderness until the dog was called back. Wys shuddered again, remembering the barking and the mutt's teeth.

"Alright, drop the shield, left hand on sheath, right hand on the hilt, position yourself the way you do before you sprint," Jacob said as he demonstrated. "Now, with your left, position the sheath to act as a spring while you draw, and pick a target," he said and walked over to a few training dummies, "then draw, follow the slash down through, slash back, stop sheath, and pick a new target." He did the whole process in slow motion, stopping to show the key points.

"Now, I will show you how it's done." Jacob assumed the stance, shifted weight and dashed so fast that Wys almost lost sight of him. He ran up to the dummy, all Wys saw was a hand with a handle, a blade missing somewhere, then it reappeared out of thin air when it was put back in the case. The dummy still appeared to be standing for a few seconds, and then it suddenly fell apart into three main pieces. By then, Jacob was already through working on the second one, a few yards away. The second dummy behaved just like the first. This really spelled out the skill difference between this Knight and his trainee. The sheer experience, the speed, the handling, this is only gained with age and will. Wys realized that his jaw dropped a little at that exhibition.

"This, is what I will teach you," Jacob said with a smile, wondering if he left his little squire awestruck. "First things first, we will do draws and re-sheathing. You have to do that part blindly, which means that your body will have to remember where everything is. You will have to remember the angle at which you draw, and the angle of the sheath. It gets a little harder, because it is very easy to stab yourself, and in that general area, you really wanna keep sharp things away from it. And it doesn't get easier when you have to do it at a much faster speed, or the fact that this isn't custom-made for you, like mine is. I found one that was as close to your measurements is possible, but it's still a little off, just bear with it, the conditions won't always be perfect, another fact of life you should be familiar with."

"Very well, master," Wys said and got into the position. It felt awkward, it seemed a little off balance, and at the same time it offered a lot of movement, and turn would be done on heel in a second. Alright, breathe, draw, swing, swing back and sheath, almost. Jacob caught Wystern's blade between his palms.

"Too fast, too soon, too close," he said with a stressed look. The blade near pitted itself into Wystern's side. "Be careful, just slide it out slowly for now, get the feel for it. You can be a warrior some other day, just focus right now.The draw is crucial to your technique, you must learn to do it properly, and then add speed. Now do it again, slowly."

Wys nodded and started following the instructions. The blade slipped in and out of the sheath, in rhythmic patterns with Wystern's breathing. His arms were getting a little sore, just because the swing had to be so fast and the end had to be so slow. Shink-woosh-click. Again.
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