Basic Axe - Grak

[Ladon]

Room 306

Master Go'axa was standing in the centre of the room. He had a new student that wanted to learn the use of the axe as a weapon, and this pleased him. If he could aid another in the use of his favorite weapon then he would be willing and also eager to help.

The Dwarf began to go through some warmup exercises so that he would be ready for when his new student arrived.

[Grak]

Climbing the steps early next brightening Grak wondered what the brightening was to hold in store. As he climbed the steps, his mail chimed softly while the axe over his shoulder rode silently. Third floor he counted to himself. Turn left and then third door on the left.

306 He studied the notation on the door and after a moment was satisfied that it was the right one. Nodding he gripped the handle and opened the door, it never occurring to him that perhaps he ought to knock first. Inside he could see a dwarf exercising and Grak nodded againm but this time at the confirmation of his previous brightenings guess as to the race of his instructor.

”Serale” he said after closing the door behind him and waiting for the dwarf to pause. ”Me Grak, you Go’axa?”. Still standing near the door and not moving out into the room, he displayed the ticket that had been given to him by the Katta receptionist and waited for confirmation, if such there was to be had.

[Ladon]

ooc - This should be fun

ic - Master Go'axa had heard the door opening, but he wasn't going to stop going through his workout for a student. They could wait. When he eventually finished he stood up and looked at the Orc that stood before him. He had taken classes with his kind before and was amazed at their strength, but most had the brains that made it hard to put their cloths on in a morning.

Serale, ey' I' Go'axa. Grak you say, eh? Well Grak your signed up for basic Axe training. I suppose you have ya weapon with you? If not you can use aone fron the rack ov' there.

Go'axa, was a good dwarf but didn't really like Orc's but it depended on the Orc as well the last one he had trained turned out to be a good friend bythe end of the training sessions. He pointed over to the rack of axes, and hammers that stood against the wall.

First things first, you will need to warm your body up. Even an orc needs to do this other wise muscles will be hurt and you will not be able to fight wil ya lad. So I want ya to run around this room twenty times and then do thirty sit-ups and thirty pushups. Remeber that ya will need to do this before ya come to the next classes, otherwise I will have ya do double when ya come to start ya training on the morrow.

Whilst ya do this lad, perhaps ya can tell me why ya want to learn Axe as a weapon?

[Grak]

ooc: lol, yes

ic: Grak had watched the dwarf with interest as he exercised; this was no academic layabout and he was impressed by the strength and endurance that he showed. The exercise had been vigorous and yet little sign of it showed, just a slight flush to his features and a slightly deeper than normal breathing.

”Me got weapon,” he responded to the question, but he followed the arm nonetheless and he viewed the rack of weapons with interest, his eyes cataloguing its contents hungrily. He returned his attention to Go’axa as he spoke again and nodded at the instructions. ”Run round room twenty times, thirty sit ups, thirty pushups, and do them before I come here next time.”

As he took off the bear skin cape that he now rarely took off and slipped the gold chains from around his neck into a pouch, he pondered the answer to the question and wondered if there was a right answer to it, fortunately however, of all the weapons he had been issued, the axe was his favourite. He also took off the axe and laid it on the cape, since it would make exercising a bit more difficult.

”Me like axe,” he said wondering how long he could keep up the orc grunt routine; it was one thing to do it when with the orcs but when talking to someone more intelligent he just knew that he was going to slip and speak normally while his mind was concentrating on the training.

He started running slowly around the room, feeling his muscles loosen and cursed the time he had spent sitting round in Orckon and then in the Ashkin woods for he had lost the edge to his fitness. By his tenth time round the room he was feeling better and he picked up a little speed, sliding into the lope that was so characteristic of an orc covering distance. Finally finishing the distance he stopped and breathed heavily for a few moments, realising that he wasn’t as fit as his thought and certainly not as fit as the dwarf.

The other exercises however were a simple test of muscle power and this he had in abundance. The thirty sit ups went reasonably well, but it was an exercise that he was unfamiliar with so it was awkward and it would have been much easier if he had been breathing a little less hard. The push ups were a relief, though an orc doing push up was a bit of an odd sight with his overly long arms, yet this he accomplished with ease, powering his way through them and ready for more at the end. He stood and awaited for the next instructions.

[Ladon]

Go'axa looked the Orc over as he watched Grak complete his warmup routine. There was a stiffness in some of his muscle groups that showed as he moved but by the end of the warmup the Dwarf was happy the the Orc should not harm himself to any great extent when he began to work out with his weapon.

So ya like axe do ya lad, well lets see first how you hold the weapon. Pick the axe up and show me lad, what you think the correct way to hold the weapon would be.

Go'axa's methods with all races was the same, if you were a natural, it made it easier for him to teach, if not then whoever it was, he would help out with correcting any faults, and teach the moves that would be required. Grak may be a natural to the Axe, Go'axa would find out in this one simple test.

[Grak]

Grak breathed in deeply, trying stablise his breathing after the exercise. His fitness was worse than he thought, and though he still had plently of strength his endurance left much to be desired and he could feel some of his muscles protesting against the unexpected workout.

He leant down and picked up the axe from the cape that had cushioned it from the floor with his right hand. It wasn’t much of a stretch given that his natural stoop left his hands down by his knees anyway. He straightened as much as possible and stood with his feet apart and facing the dwarf. He held the axe with his right hand towards the top of the handle, with his left evenly towards the bottom of the handle and with the blade facing out and the handle across his body.

He wondered what the correct way to hold an axe was, for clearly there was a right way to do it and thus also wrong ways to do it. He brow furrowed in confusion, for he didn’t like to appear like an idiot unless he was specifically creating that illusion, but he was here to learn, and that meant that he would make mistakes.

[Ladon]

Go'axa watched as Grak picked up his axe. Now depending on if the Orc was right handed Go'axa was impressed to see that the Orc at least understood how to hold such a weapon.

I presume from the way that ya are holding the axe laddie, that ya are strong in your right hand. If this is the case then I congratulate ya on your holding the weapon correctly. I would also say that ya standing correctly as well me lad. Ya have now attained the basic stance that ya should make at all times that ya not attacking or defending. Hope ya understand this because this is where we move to the other stances that ya need to learn lad. So, from basic stance I want ya to actually have a go and swing the axe in a slashing attack as if ya slashing across a humans chest, from right to left. I say this lad, because if ya had to do it to me, ya would be swinging around ya knee caps. so have a go and I will pick you up on any small thins you may do wrong, but I think ya may already know how to do this. Don't worry if you get it wrong mind 'cause this is why ya here to learn from me lad. So do this attack for me now.

ooc - have a go, be descriptive, so that I can see what you're doing and then the dwarf, shall pass comment

[Grak]

”Thanks, yes, right hand strong” said Grak, relaxing a little since the dwarf was clearly interested in the training and seemed to want Grak to learn. Slash from right to left across the chest It seemed a simple enough request and since he was already holding the axe at an angle across his body, the obvious thing seemed to do was to raise the axe and slash diagonally downward.

He thought for a moment, visualising the move in his mind before doing it, and recalled that the dwarf had said the the basic stance was for when not attacking, so it ought to be alright to move out of it for the attack. He made a final check to make sure that the dwarf was far enough away before making the move. With Graks long arms and the length of the axe, his reach was quite long.

With the attack now planned in his mind raised the axe, over his right shoulder, sliding his right hand down the haft towards his left hand. Stepping forward half a pace with his left leg, placing his foot across what would have been the centre line of his body, he brought the axe down, swinging it towards where he imagined the shoulder would be on a human and across the chest. The axe sped across the target area and he slowed it just in time to avoid the blade slamming into the floor, but even so the top of the blade dug into the floor.

Although he had planned the attack, Grak had not taken the planning beyond the aim of his slash and had failed to realised that holding the axe towards the bottom of the haft meant that his reach was indeed long. He rather shame facedly tugged the blade free and stepped back into the ready position and waited for the dwarf to lambaste him for his carelessness and the damage to the floor.

[Ladon]

Go'axa, used to training one of Graks race, smiled as the attack that the Orc brought to bare on the imaginary attacker, went the way it did.

Grak certainly had enough of a thinking brain to actually change his stance to bring the attack. Go'axa was impressed with this. At least it meant that there was hope for this one, as there was with the other Orc's that Go'axa had taught. Now the fact that the axe ended up embedded in the floor, the dwarf didn't mind that much but he did need to warn the orc about over extending his attack.

Well master Grak ya have a good thinking head on ya shoulders there, but next time I want you to think it through just a bit more as ya are now at a disadvantage, if this was a battle I would now be standing on ya beheaded carcass waving me arms in triumph. Think and control are two of the things that I hope to teach you these few brightenings. Don'tworry 'bout the floor it has had many a hit, and will most probably gat many a hit more before I've finished with it.

So I want yous to repeat the thinking except this time I want ya to apply this control lad, so that ya attack would stop just after ya have passed through the body of the critter ya trying to attack.

[Grak]

Grak nodded to Go’axa and was glad that his black skin did not allow the revealing flush that he had seen sometimes on humans. He gave some thought to what he had done and realised that Go’axa was right, he had fully committed himself to the swing and had something gone awry and he hadn’t killed his opponent, or there was more than one then he had made himself defenceless.

”Me understand. Control on strike.” He pulled himself back to the ready stance and prepared himself once more for the strike. This time he raised the axe as before and as he raised it, sliding his right hand down the shaft, he stepped forward again with his left foot. This time though he only powered the axe down until just after the point he imagined where it would have hit. Then he slowed the blade and pulled his right hand back up the shaft and stepped back.

[Ladon]

ooc: Sorry for the late reply. Work problems are now a bit less and I have been able to drop afew jobs on others in work as well, so I will have more time for this game. so if you're around this week I can progress your character a bit more.

ic: Go'axa watched his student as he went through the motions agin and this time performed a much better attacking move.

Aye, now that was much better lad. Ya see tha axe is a potent weapon, but if ya lose this control over the weapon, or over extend yourself then it is a slow weapon to recover a guard position from, so bear this in mind. but the was a goodly attack my orc student. Now you have performed an attack from right to left on an imaginary critter. So now will come another attack. This one is an attack from the left to the right. Now lad, this ones a bit harder to perform as two handed control of the weapon on the backhand side is not that easy to control. What most tend to do is lose the second hand from the axe and control it single handed. imagine your right hand has moved down on the right hand attack you have just made, see. Then loose your left hand from the axe and return the axe, turning the blade to face the right, and bring the attack back across the critter. This is not as strong attack as the first one, but will still give a critter something to think about. So you need to use your right hand to hold the axe and in your attacking stance swing from left to right. Be careful to try to control the finishing point of the swing as well. So off you go and have a go at doing this attack.

[Grak]

Grak nodded as Go’axa spoke and he brow furrowed into a deep frown as he tried to imagine what was being described. ”Put right hand down and change left hand.” He nodded and then tried it for himself. He held the axe in the ready position and he slid his right hand down the haft, the polished wood sliding through his horny fingers. It was already different to the last strike for he wasn’t lifting the axe. With his hand down he let go with his left hand and gripped the haft again higher up. Now the axe was upright in front of him and his frown deepened for it didn’t feel right and the axe wasn’t where he wanted it.

If it were possible for his frown to get any more furrowed, then it would have done so. He stood there with the axe in front of him while he thought about it, and planned the move in his mind. Finally he decided he knew what he needed to do and so he returned the axe to the ready position and started again.

This time he raised the axe slightly as he slid his right hand down and as he let go with his right hand he twisted the axe to the left so that it fell into his left hand as he moved it up. Remembering to twist the blade towards the right, he had completed the move with his right hand so that it was towards the bottom of the axe and as he raised the axe, his left hand joined it.

He stepped forward with his left leg this time, having decided that since he was swinging the axe to the right, he didn’t want his right leg stuck forward with the axe chopping towards it. The raised axe struck swiftly and viscously down towards the imagined shoulder of his opponent, but once again braking the move when it had struck his opponent, and he stepped back raising the axe once more into the ready position but this time with the axe to the left. He wasn’t sure if this was correct or if he should move it back to the right, but it seemed to make sense to be able to hold it either way.

[Ladon]

ooc: Nice post

ic: Go'axa watched his student go about how to put this attack in to place. The second attempt was eactly what was asked for and would have disembowelled an opponent of any sort that had their midrift anyway near his size. Go'axa smiled as the realisation came across the face of his student as to the way to work this attack. Go'axa was pleased that his student was progressing so well. for now came the nest attack that could be brought with this weapon.

Well Lad, you have the correct idea for the stepping in the way to add more power to your swing. Now the next attacking stoke. So you have the two basic slashing attacks that can be used with the axe. The next attack is the Split 'em in 'alf attack. The attack is basically a swinging attack that comes from the basic stance and then, stepping into the attack you bring the axe above your head, you bring the axe in a swinging motion in a straight line to the top of the head of the critter you want to attack. So have a go Grak. Lets see you damage the floor with this one but be aware of your balance, me Lad, for if un-balanced, then again I would have you over, and on your back as easy as blowing a blade of grass. Control and Balance Grak, If ya remember nothing else then these you should commit to that thinkin' head of yours. So off with ya and give me an attack to be proud of.

[Grak]

Grak grinned as Go’axa named the next strike, this sounded like the sort of strike that he wanted to learn. It sounded simple enough but the reminder to keep his balance was surely a hint that it was going to be easy to lose it. Having learnt from his last strike, he took the time to think through what he was going to do.

He shifted the axe back over, since though he could make the strike from the left hand version of the ready stance he had finished the last move in, it might be easier if he started from his more natural side. Deciding that he was ready, he brought the axe upright in front of him and raised it, sliding his right hand down close to his left, leaving the axe above his head.

Aiming for the head of his imaginary opponent, he took a pace forward with his left foot, half a pace, balancing his weight evenly over the two, his hips acting as the balance point and he brought the axe down hard, imagining his opponents head in front of him and imagining the axe splitting it in two. The axe, speeding downwards started to brake once he had hit the opponent but the speed of the strike was such that he could not stop it entirely, and as Go’axa had predicted, the floor suffered another strike, the blade penetrating in with a crash.

Still holding the haft, Grak tugged at the blade and levered it free, then returned to the ready stance with a questioning look at his instructor.

[Ladon]

Go'axa watched the attack that his student planned, and then put into action. It was a good attack, and the fact that the floor took another beating, didn't even register on the axe instructors eyes.

Aye laddie, you have performed that well, again tough the control needs just a bit of working on, but as it stands you have made a good version of the splice 'em in half attack.

Now the last of the attack variations that I'm going to teach you this brightening is the split the difference attack. now this is the opposite of the previous attack in that instead of the attack coming from above this one attacked a certain area around the groin. If this one got through to the critter under attack then they will be singing a few octaves higher than usual. . So this is performed by swinging the axe in an upward motion and attacking the opponent between the legs. The axe head will be upwards in direction, but be careful not ot over extend this attack as the only way this will go if you do not control it is towards you. So have a go at swinging the split the difference attack.