Swords 101

[rememberher]

Who: Lux Crownguard, and you!
Where: The Hall of Glory
When: Back-dated to early-to-mid September
What: A new weapon means learning a new way to fight.
Rating: PG probably? idk

[ Knees bent, feet at shoulders width, posture relaxed yet at the ready.

Repeating that mantra in her head, she moved swiftly, the gems on her bracelet the only light shining through the early morning darkness. Her breaths coming in gentle puffs, made visible by the cool autumn air, she moved through each training dummy with ease, practically dancing as she moved, and leaving yet more light in her wake.

Knees bent, feet at shoulders width, posture relaxed yet at the ready.

And with each one she passed, they began to glow, telling where she had been, where she had struck, bathing them in faint, golden light. Marking them. But with what? Perhaps the gently glowing form of what looked to be the hilt of a sword might have something to do with it.

Then all at once, she would dart away, quick on her feet (quicker than she might appear, as if someone had been training her, teaching her how she should move), casting out her left hand and— ]

Fosopye!

[ Prismatic light blossoming from the palm of her hand, it shattered into shards of iridescent glass, flying at each marked training dummy and imbedding themselves before detonating her golden mark.

Knees bent, feet at shoulders width, posture relaxed yet at the ready.

They were going to need more dummies at this rate. ]


[[Brackets or prose, doesn't matter to me. I'll match styles regardless.]]

Comments

[rememberher]

That's a good way to look at it. As they say, a magician's only as good as what she knows.

[ She moves in a very textbook fashion, meeting his thrust with a parry. But the way that her feet move, it's as if she wants to do more, trapping whatever fluidity of movement she might have and holding herself almost rigidly to what she's read. ]

So being able to take in everything and be inspired by it is important.

[ Ironic, for that seems to be the opposite of what she's doing here. Keeping her to this simple back and forth will likely keep her in that rigid box that she's set for herself. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

[Ed doesn't read emotions well, but in combat he's learned to read opponents. Their body language often tells what they're about to do, and knowing that gives a good wizard a way out. It's why her sudden forced rigidity doesn't escape his notice.]

Um... Just now. It felt like you were going to follow up somehow, but you stopped. Why's that?

[rememberher]

[ Lux stopped, surprised by that. He noticed? ]

Oh, ah...

[ How to explain. Hm. ]

I'm not sure if I can do it right. If I'm mimicking someone else with my illusions, then I don't have to worry about things like limitations of movement, or my own limits. I can see something in my head, and in theory I know how it works, but...

[ Basically, she was overthinking. And might (is) a perfectionist. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

Picturing it is step one. Trying it is step two. Refining is step three. Step four is mastery. [Pictured: a person who only gets to step two, maybe three.]

Just try it. That's the only way to learn new stuff--a-and I'm saying this as a person who has to figure out a way to do melee combat with a very uh. Esoteric. Set of weaponry,

Let's try it again, but faster. [And without warning, he's right back to the thrusting stab from before.]

[rememberher]

[ Try it, huh... Even if she might fail.

Well, he certainly wasn't going to give her time to think about it, was he? Seeing the attack, she moved with a dancer's grace, turning and side stepping, then thrusting at his flank. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

[He takes a quick extra pair of steps forward to get out of the way of the thrust, turning and slashing as he does in response. It seems like he's already speeding up to keep pushing her onward.]

Th-that's not bad at all!

[rememberher]

[ And she meets her blade with his, hesitating again out of habit.

(Was she going to attempt to duck under his blade?) ]

...Really?

[ She sounded a bit surprised herself. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

[She hesitated again.]

It was. Don't hesitate. [And he follows through on his own attack with a follow up, a horizontal swipe in the other direction.] Trust your body a little! It's better than you may think at not getting dead!

[rememberher]

[ Don't hesitate, he said.

Sucking in a breath, she moved on that instinct, ducking under (and cutting perhaps a bit too close for actual combat, or maybe not) and using her height to her advantage. Keeping her momentum, Lux moves to his back, arching her sword upward in a diagonal strike. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

[She's behind him, and he's a bit slow to turn around--she nails him and he goes rolling across the ground with a small grunt.]

[There's blood. But he's not even frowning, instead hissing out a healing incantation.]

Heh... n-nice! I wasn't expecting that one. My bad.

[rememberher]

[ !!

She assumed he was going to dodge, and wincing, she gripped her sword tighter. ]

Ed, are you all right?!

[ She wasn't the best healer herself, being a Queen, but crouching down, she let her left hand hover over his back, a light gathering at her palm. ]

To ease your pain.

[ It's a bit cool, but it probably feels good after that. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

Who, me? Yeah, of course I'm fine. Just a lesson for a cocky teacher. [He's turning around so she can see the cut--he got away from most of it so it's not deep, but it was a little more than a knight's single heal spell could cure. With hers added on, it vanishes quickly.]

Doesn't look bad, does it? We'll just heal it off and keep going--this happens all the time when I train.

[rememberher]

[ ...She wasn't used to inflicting these kinds of wounds, and while she didn't wince, it certainly took her aback. She was capable of something like that. ]

You'll live, to be sure, but Ed, I didn't mean to...

[ Chewing on the inside of her lip gently, she looked genuinely sorry. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

Don't worry about it. Like I said, it happens all the time. A bullet hole here or a burn there or a cut somewhere else, it comes with the territory...

A-anyways, don't worry about it. If you don't come at me like you mean it, you won't get any better--and I can't get any smarter either. This is sort of how I learn best. [He loves reading about formulas and theorizing about magic, but at the end of the day Ed is a kinetic learner.]

[rememberher]

[ Bullet holes and burns?! Ed!

Heaving a bit of a worried sigh, she moves her hand away once the wound closes. That's not going to look very good in a day or two, sorry friend. ]

Maybe I should switch over to a practice sword, just to be safe...

[ She really doesn't want to hurt him. Truth be told, she hadn't anticipated that that strike would hit as true as it had. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

[He'll live. Ed's got more than his share of scars left over from botched or hurried healing magic and the sort under his shirt already anyways.]

Oh... y-yeah. Now that I'm thinking about it, that would have been a safer way to do things. Sorry, I should think about stuff like that sooner.

[rememberher]

No, no, I should have—

[ Hmm, it was probably best that she stop herself, or else they would fall into an apology circle.

Jogging over to grab a practice sword, she returns, a sheepish smile spread across her lips. ]

All right, now we have less threat of me actually hurting you.

[ Unless she accidentally wallops him with the thing, which is entirely possible. She'll do her best to make sure that you don't have a Bad Time, Ed. ]

[fuhrinkaed]

[He gives her an approving nod, tapping his practice sword against his shoulder.]

Alright then. Now, I know you're concerned with what the form says to do, but you're letting that hold you back. Um... I'm not exactly an expert at this? But while fundamentals are important, everyone has their own internal balance. Let's stick to the fundamentals, yeah, but if your balance is telling you to do something else then let's give it a shot.

Now! Have at you!

[It's an easy overhead chop--his favorite opener.]