Solo Guarded Knowledge

[Alric Lysane]

11th Winter – Proving Grounds It had been some time since he had entered the Proving Grounds, almost a season he knew as he took up his place, grabbing a practise blade after exchanging the required miza for the lesson, and waiting in his appointed place. He remembered the last time and how his muscles had tired far too easily, unused to using the blade and wondered whether he would find it slightly easier this time through. He had been through a lot and had trained in a few things that he felt sure must have given him some increased stamina and strength. Only one way to find out he told himself as others started to filter in. He had had to wait for the right lesson, having already taken the first one, but his job at Ruby’s was largely a dusk till dawn affair and so he had plenty of free time in the day. Nightmares be damned he was going to at least try to be ready for the inevitable confrontations. “Right! See some of you come back, some haven’t. Sword isn’t for everyone and those as are too soft don’t deserve my time anyway…so! You learned basic footwork, basic edge strikes and how to hold the shiny thing…yes?” Itzel waited for them to agree to her satisfaction before continuing. “Good, right so this time then it’s all about guards to begin with. Now this isn’t a longsword you hear? That’s the first thing to remember, you don’t have the luxury of outright stopping a blow with both hands braced, you only gots one hand so it’s all about basic deflection angles and movement. You want brute strength come back later and you’ll get training in another weapon…no? Good!” she nodded and jumped from her little podium to the packed dirt below, holding her weapon and circling it around herself, specifically its path outlined her head, shoulders, torso and legs down to just above the knees” “See these areas I’m circling? This is what I like to call the oval of death. Get a decent hit to anywhere inside this shape and you’re dead. Get cut across a major artery, dead. Sliced across ligaments to hamper movement or disarm, about to be dead. Anyone can get a hit elsewhere and it might not feel great, might make things harder, but you at least have a chance to stay alive, even if it means losing a limb. Understand?” They all nodded and she nodded back after peering across all of their faces. “So how do we defend with just this little broadsword you ask? Simple, angles is first. As you can see with four simple movements we can defend this oval we need to. If you’re left handed just reverse everything I do but…upper right your fist comes across and up, blade angled like this, ends with your fist shoulder height, outside your left shoulder, blade tip above your head. Get the right angle and any hit should absorb impact, slide down your blade to your hand guard and the rest comes later. Other side, same principle, right hand outside your elbow, angled up blade with tip above your head” “Now try it out. You only get fifteen chimes as we gots lower blocks to do next and I don’t want these taking up the whole lesson before you get to finally feel what it’s like actually getting hit!” Alric set about trying it out but it felt quite awkward, the first one more than the second, as if he were supposed to twist his body as he blocked but Itzel had not mentioned that yet, perhaps she would later he reasoned as he practised. He switched his stance to having is right foot forwards and left foot back, on the balls of his feet as taught previously. It felt odd as he was so used to the reverse when fighting without a weapon – he suspected he’d have to work on that or find his feet confused. Regardless he brought his right fist across his body, outside of his shoulder and his, and felt it almost create the angle automatically, so long as he focused on keeping the point where it was above his head. The first handful of times he kept forgetting, instead just sweeping his arm across, blade straight so as to leave everything open. He grumbled to himself and did it again and this time instead of focusing upon his fist he focused upon the tip of the blade, keeping it where it was and moving his fist. That worked better, though the angle of his blade was still off, the edge angled out too much. He frowned and corrected that though took another ten tries before he found a rhythm that allowed all there issues to be eliminated – though he thought they would crop up again and again without regular practise as they seemed instinctive to him. The second guard was easier, he thought, or at least that was his experience. He didn’t really think about any sweeping movements but instead twisting his wrist to rotate the blade slightly and then a little push out so his fist was outside his elbow and hip. It was almost like a flick or a backhand in some ways he mused to himself as he repeated it again and again. It felt more natural and so he didn’t have much issue with that guard as Itzel called them back to get their attention.

[Alric Lysane]

“Right, so those are the two upper guards, basic ones anyway,” she said, showing them again for demonstration as she passed before them from one side to the other, “if you learn these two and perfect them then you will be a dangerous fighter as most attacks will come from above, usually the left side as most people are right handed. That isn’t opinion, that is a fast. So learn them and you will stay alive longer” “Now, the two lower guards. Now these are a bit different and will protect more than just the oval I taught you. These will protect the whole leg area. Two reasons for this, first is legs are important. They are your mobility and you lose mobility I don’t care how good you are even a bloody sword master will die eventually in one place. Second is that mechanically it is the most efficient and strongest. Trying to angle your own blade across your legs is just asking for an injury that’ll leave you without a lass quicker than screwing her sister. So, pay attention” She began to demonstrate, her blade tip pointing down directly at the ground and her hand sweeping from side to side. Each end point had her fist outside of the rest of her body and the blade angled down and ever so slightly out but not by much. She did this several times to make sure everyone got a good look, moving to different sides to get different angles. “Now you’ll see that this is like a sweep motion but notice the wrist, keep your eyes on it, see what it does? Yes? Stays in the same damn place that’s what! Nothing fancy here, in fact you angle your body slightly as you move it so your wrist stays solid. This is important is this will always be your weakest guard. That’s okay, it’s close to the floor and with decent armour on your legs all you need to do is get whatever blow comes in below the knee and you’re able to fight on. Right, go practise, another fifteen chimes” Alric set about practising the motions, they seemed easier than the first two, though from Itzel’s words he guessed that the real challenge with these would be when they started actually trying to block impacts. To that end he gripped the blade tighter as he practised, hoping to get in some muscle memory to help with future impacts. He upended his blade, pointing the tip down at the ground, his fist at his belly button in height. He pushed his hand out to the left, noticing she had been right he had to turn his body to perform the full motion smoothly, ending with fist outside his hip and he angled his blade slightly. Too much it seemed the first few attempts, until he realised he was putting too much effort into it and instead relaxed the motion and simply did what Itzel had suggested – sweep. He went to the other side now and noticed this was also felt easier almost immediately and he wondered if left handed fighters would feel the same but about the opposite side. Was it the lead hand side that made everything easier with the lead side? It made sense but he was no weapon master. Not for the first time did he wish he could go and find his father, the man likely knew more weapons and things this Itzel could never have dreamed of. But…that wasn’t possible, so he made his own way and kept practising. Eventually, once more comfortable, he swept from side to side and managed to chain a few guards together without making a mistake and he nodded, satisfied as Iztel called the group back for the next stage of the lesson.

[Alric Lysane]

“Alright! So before we break away into pairs to practise spar hitting, guarding and more there’s just one more set of things to teach you,” Itzel stated with a small smile, “this is the easiest and most difficult thing to be mastered and it has won, or lost, fights more often that you’d all like to bed whores. Thrust” she demonstrated by holding her blade out horizontal, barely a waver in it, and lunged forwards to bring her arm and blade fully in alignment, tip first towards an imaginary target. “Easier with your lead hand foot as it gets you more range, but also more exposure. Less range with the non-lead foot but easier to step back and less committed,” she suited her words by further demonstrations, “the defence is the sweep. You hold your blade up, tip to the sky, hand at hip height, and push from side to side” she demonstrated by showing the motion, her hand again not stopping in its motions until it was outside of her body’s way. It was clear that should a thrust hit her guard it would be pushed aside to flash past the guarded, hitting air instead of flesh. “Right! That’s it, basic attacks and basic guards. Now, find a partner and slowly and I do mean slowly practise them all. One attacks the other defends, every attack and every guard. Then the other attacks. Until I say stop. You have a Bell get to it!” With that there was little to do but find someone, which was easy enough he just grabbed the closest to him and without introductions they set about practising. Alric elected to guard first, he liked to learn new things and perfect them. He had spent many bells with his salvaged blade, hitting out at air, to try to perfect his strikes. He had no idea whether they were better than when he had started but what he did know was that his guarding was likely less able. As the strikes came in he stepped back as his partner stepped forward, blade coming across and up to block a high strike, then across again to block its opposite high. Then flipping the blade to push away lower attacks on either side. The last was the thrust sweep which he only just avoided as he blocked and pushed aside a bit too late and even with the twist of his torso a real blade would have skimmed his chest. Even more annoyingly he repeated the same mistake with the second thrust to practise sweeping the other side. Then it was his turn to attack and his practised strikes came out, sweeping down from his high right to smack into the guard, which wavered and held, then high left towards, the edge holding true as edges met edges. The lower strikes went much the same though he felt his muscles tiring already as he went through the motions, thrusting twice rather sloppily but still serviceable to be swept away by his partner. Then it was his turn again and it went that way for the better part of a bell. They took a few chimes of breaks to clench their fingers in and out and rub their muscles but for the most part they stuck with it. Alric learned that it was harder to hit edge to edge then first assumed but with repeated practise he found it was more about knuckle alignment of his own blade than trying to hit his partners. Mostly what he learned as sweat started to stick his clothing to his skin was that he needed even more physical conditioning. His arm and shoulder were aching terribly by the end of the bell and Itzen’s call for a short break and some water. His breathing wasn’t as bad as last time, his season of physical activity had clearly helped though he still felt the beginnings of a burning in his throat. His muscles, though, were something different and he came to the conclusion that he would have to specifically focus on them at some point this season in order to bring them up to par with his endurance.

[Alric Lysane]

“Right, break over! Now, you should be getting the feel of it now. Movements at first will be awkward, there’s nothing to be done about that except practise. More you practise the easier it will feel and the smoother you will be” “That said, there is one tip that I can give you now, seeing as the speed on strengths of everyone’s attacks will now be half of what they are capable of. Not full or else I’m kicking you out. We learn here and I don’t want no deaths less we got no choice. Now, when you block you’ve all been thinking abut stopping the blade, yes?” she waited for the scattered nods and confused mutters of assent. “Natural right? Wrong. They’re hitting you with everything they’ve got in a real fight. You block with only half and you’re dead. So, I want you to think about blocking beyond their blade, push into it after the initial impact, force their blade to slide down yours out of harm’s way. Begin!” With that they began again, both Alric and his partner increasing their speed and force, though not by much the first few rounds back and forth. They nodded at each other after a while, silent agreement coming as they settled into the rhythm with no injuries and thus increasing their speed and force even more, bit by bit getting more with each back and forth until it seemed they were having a good, casual spar with each other. The guards came easier with repetition, hand moving outside of his body, blade edge angled just so and taking the impact of the attack. He found it difficult at times to catch it right with his blade, his guard bending when he wanted it to be strong. “You’re catching it at the wrong point lad. Not all of the time but all it takes is once. Look,” Itzel appeared as if from nowhere and pulled his hand forwards and out into a guard against an attack from his upper right, the blade angled to cover his body, “see how when my blade tip hits the bottom half of your blade? It’s strong and my attack is weak. If reversed though I can control and push your blade wherever I like, out the way and dead” she suited her words by showing it to him and he finally saw what he had previously missed. “Leverage” “Aye, leverage. Closer to your hand and you are stronger, further away and you are weaker. You want to catch the attack in the lower half of your blade with a basic block, it’s easier to deflect and the tip of your blade is already inside their guard…but those lessons come later. Show me she commanded. He set about putting her words to practise. He wasn’t successful each time, and every time he wasn’t she poked him with her knuckles to prompt him, and tutted disapproval. After a while he settled into the rhythm of the timing. As the attack came in he held his guard angled, protective but not fully committed, until the last few ticks where he pushed his hand out and almost swatted the blade away, catching it on the lower half of his blade and as instructed pushed it outwards slightly after the initial impact of the block. She nodded and watched him do it for every guard, including the thrusts, before giving a grunt of satisfaction and moving on to the next pair. His forearm was aching deeply now, pain spreading up from his wrist and up past the elbow, beginning to creep into his shoulder. It felt like more than muscle fatigue, he knew that ache and this was something more. After a while longer of repetitions, sweat building upon his brow and back, he figured out what it was. Absorbing the impacts was rippling up his arm, his joints and bones not used to the repetitive blows. His free left arm was fine but his right arm was starting to hurt, so much so that he had to grit his teeth slightly and force himself through until the next break. When it came he rolled his wrist and bent his elbow until it felt like it all eased away to a dull throb. He rolled his shoulder too, though it was only at the beginning of its pains. Sword fighting was more than technique indeed and the growing pains only highlighted his need for physical conditioning.

[Alric Lysane]

Your Grades Alric Lysane Skills Weapon: Broadsword – 4 Endurance - 2 Lores Anatomy: Killing Blows Broadsword: Block On Bottom Half Of Blade Broadsword: Block Past The Blade Broadsword: Leverage Protection Broadsword: Oval of Defense Broadsword: Thrust Broadsword: Upper Blocks Broadsword: Lower Blocks Broadsword: Sweep Block