Intermediate Katana - Xanta (Self-mod)

[Xanta'Kun]

3rd Thera of Cryxatum, Summer of Era XI PF

Xanta arrived at the appointed room on the second floor of the Circle of Seven Institute at the appointed time, and waited for his instructor to appear. He took a seat on the floor, and crossed his legs as he waited. The room was almost barren, besides a rack of wooden swords and shields at one side, no doubt intended for the beginning students. Another rack held an assortment of thick leather vests, probably for dueling practice. Cuts and gouges covered the floor and walls, and there were even a few on the ceiling. How they got there, Xanta could only imagine.

At last an elf entered the room. He was a paleskin, probably Esh'lahier, but he also appeared to have some human traits, probably from far down his family tree. Xanta stood to greet the man.

"Serale, I am master Fenn T'qui. You're Xanta'Kun, correct?"

Xanta nodded and shook the elf's hand. "Very well," he continued, "we shall begin immediately. To assess your skill with your sword we shall have a duel, and from there I can teach you what you need to know."

He walked over to the rack with the vests, and threw one to Xanta. After putting it on, Xanta drew his katana as master T'qui did so. Without further ado, they began. Master T'qui was obviously going easy on him, but he was only a beginner at the moment. Xanta used all the skills he knew: blocking, parrying, footwork, thrusting...

After a couple hours of dueling, master T'qui lowered his sword. "You have been trained well, and are quite adept for a beginner. Tomorrow we shall hone your skills further. You are dismissed."

Xanta sheathed his katana and returned his vest to the rack, then headed out.

[Xanta'Kun]

The next brightening Xanta arrived at the same place at the same time, and Master T'qui was already waiting.

"Today we shall begin the refinement of your swordmanship. Your sword is not a crude weapon of skilless destruction like a hammer or axe, it is a tool with which you craft a wonderful work of art. Your sword is like a quill writing out an epic novel, and you are its master. You will learn to treat your sword as a living being. Now, show me your strikes."

Xanta performed the strikes as ordered, hoping it would be to the standards of T'qui's rigid ideals. After only a few swings, T'qui stopped him.

"No! You wield your sword as if you are trying to hack me to bits. You do not hack! You slice, you incise, you carve. Treat your sword as a craftsman would his knife. Go again."

Again Xanta carved the air. "Better, but with more finesse." Yet again, he tried to feel the movement rather than control it. "This is good. If I see you hacking again, you will do 100 pushups. This remains true for the rest of your training. I have here an apple. Cut it." Xanta did as instructed. "Once you have reached the expert level, you will be able to do this without disturbing the apple at all."

For the remainder of the brightening, Xanta and T'qui worked on his finesse and control. Several hundred pushups and candlemarks later, Xanta headed out.

[Xanta'Kun]

Master T'qui looked up from his sword as Xanta entered the room the next brightening. The blade was freshly sharpened, and it's sharp edges shone in the morning light. "Serale," T'qui said without even looking at Xanta. "Today we will continue with your technique. Put your sword on the ground. You will not need it. Today you will learn to balance." Master T'qui produced a long, thin stick and a small block of wood. He balanced the block of wood on the end of the stick and went through a series of turns and spins, all the while maintaining the balance of the stick and wood.

"If you can control your body and your sword, you can control the fight. By doing this, you learn to keep your sword at the ready and in your control regardless of your physical position. I do not expect you to do as I have done today. You must merely balance the stick and the wood while balancing your body. Control, dexterity, and poise are a swordsman's best weapons." He handed Xanta the wood and the stick, and folded his arms across his chest as he watched. Xanta balanced the wood on the stick without much trouble.

"Now, balance yourself on one foot." Xanta did so, and he lost control of the stick for only a second, but it was long enough to lose control. "One second is all the time your opponent needs to strike you down. One hundred pushups, then start again."

That day Xanta performed more pushups than ever before. One bonus to this class was that he would definitely be building some upper body strength.

[Xanta'Kun]

The next brightening when Xanta entered the room, Master T'qui just handed him the stick and the wood without saying a thing. Xanta groaned inwardly but didn't show any signs of dismay. He place the wood on the stick and balanced it in his hand. He started by standing on one foot, then switching to the other. He didn't even lose control of the stick for the first half an hour.

Eventually though, his control wavered, and 100 pushups ensued. T'qui didn't even say anything, just observed, occasionally frowning, and even more rarely, nodding.

"That will do, Xanta," he finally said. "Now, draw you sword, and show me what you have learned." T'qui raised his own sword, and the two began dueling. Xanta felt like he had better control of his sword, and he could feel an imperceptible difference in his fighting technique.

Eventually, the fighting stopped and T'qui smiled at Xanta. "I hope you could feel the difference in your technique. I could see it and feel it through your attacks. Your patience has paid off, but I regret to say it isn't yet over. You have only slightly improved, and by the time we are finished here, the difference with by obvious. You are dismissed."

[Xanta'Kun]

T'qui was waiting outside the next brightening, his sword hanging from his belt and his arms folded across his chest.
"Today, we run. Come now," T'qui said. Without any further introductions, they began running.

"Where are we going? What are we doing?" Xanta asked impatiently.

"Silence. You will see," was T'qui's quick retort. They passed out of sight of the Circle of Seven and headed into the merchant district, and before too long they were heading out the huge gates of Riparia. "Dexterity and swiftness are essential to a swordsman's technique. Up ahead are some lava flows that have cooled in a peculiar fashion, such that the rocks are like closely packed pedestals. We shall duel upon these, to improve your footwork. You must be conscious of your whole body at any time during a fight."

After another few minutes of running, they came to the spot T'qui had described. Xanta took off his robe so that he was only wearing his pants, and unbuckled his belt, dropping it to the ground. The two began dueling, and for a long while Xanta seemed to be performing well, though nothing compared to T'qui's agility. But curse his luck, he stepped wrong and his foot went in a crack between two pedestals, and he fell flat on his face, unable to control his fall. "100 pushups," T'qui said without missing a beat.

After Xanta's moment of embarassment, the two continued as incessantly as before. At the end of his training session, Xanta had fallen only 7 times, and hadn't sustained any major fractures or mortal wounds, so he felt he was doing good.

[Xanta'Kun]

As Xanta entered the Circle of Seven, he took a minute to stop and read some of the plaques. When he reached the plaque of the swordmaster, he found his surname to be T'qui. It struck him that Master T'qui must be his descendent, some generations down the line. No wonder he was such a good swordsman, it appeared to run in his blood.

Upon entering the room, T'qui turned to face Xanta. "Serale, today we continue your agility training. You will begin with the stick and wood, then I have another test for you."

Xanta did as instructed, he was used to T'qui's military style of teaching and didn't waste any time with idle banter or questions. After a couple of candlemarks with the stick, Xanta was stopped by T'qui. "You have done well today by not dropping the wood. As I suspected, you are ready to move on. Help me place this beam of wood in the middle of the room," Fenn said, indicating a long, thick piece of wood that was much like the support beam of a building.

"We will duel atop this wood, and if you step off, you will do 100 pushups. Let us begin." As the two dueled, Xanta found it to be more difficult than he had suspected it to be. In the first few minutes, he fell off twice, and 200 pushups resulted.

Eventually, the candlemarks passed and his time was over. Xanta was grateful, but he also wished he could stay and work harder.

[Xanta'Kun]

The beam was still in the middle of the small room when Xanta returned. He suspected he already knew what would be happening today. Master T'qui donned a leather vest, as did Xanta, and the two began dueling.

After several candlemarks and a hundre pushups, T'qui called it quits for the dueling. "Xanta, do you know how to sharpen your blade?" he asked, taking Xanta's katana's blade in his hand. "As you see, it has become dull and dented in places from our dueling."

Xanta said that he didn't. "Very well, follow me." T'qui led Xanta out of the room and down the stairs to the Circle. They passed by the statue of a Saurid and headed into another hall. After passing innumerable doors, T'qui opened a particularly large steel one, which led into a forge. Several dwarves trundled about, making weapons, repairing weapons, and tinkering with finer work like gems and jewelry.

T'qui walked to a stone wheel mounted on a wooden axel. "This device is used to sharpen your sword. You have someone crank the lever, like so, so that the wheel turns. Then you place your blade against it, at such and angle that it will refine the blade, not dull it. If used improperly, this device can do that which it is intended to do the opposite of."

Xanta tried it out, and after a while had the technique down. "Since your blade was crystal dusted, it will take more time to sharpen, but it will also dull slower," T'qui explained, as if Xanta didn't already know.

After they finished in the forge, Master T'qui dismissed Xanta for the brightening.

[Xanta'Kun]

Xanta unsheathed his freshly sharpened blade, the steel ringing in the crisp morning air. T'qui had led him to this spot outside the city to work on his speed. He had lugged along a mysterious lumpy bag, which he now opened and revealed to be full of apples.

"I will throw these apples at you, and I want you to cut them. They must be sliced, not perfectly, but if you hit them without cutting, you will do pushups," T'qui explained, tossing an apple up and down in one hand. Without warning, the swordmaster unleashed an apple right at Xanta's head, and the elf barely had time to pull his katana up and nick the apple. "Good," T'qui said, "Now for more."

Soon the bag of apples was half empty, and Xanta had only done a couple hundred pushups. Before much longer, a considerable pile of apple pieces had congregated around him. By the end of the bag, Xanta was covered in apple juice and little pieces of apple, but had only done a few hundred more pushups. The lesson had gone well.

"Now I am out of apples, Xanta'Kun. You have destroyed them all. Now we will run back to the city, and then you are dismissed."

[Xanta'Kun]

Xanta returned faithfully the next brightening to the training room, and found that Master T'qui wasn't there. A tigron instead waited for him. "Serale," it purred, "I am Ralirr, your instructor for the brightening. While I am not as experienced as Fenn, I know that which he wishes me to teach you. Your master was taken ill and should return shortly."

"Today he wished that we continue with your footwork and dexterity by practicing on the beam. He has also informed me of your punishment should you fall, which I am sure you already know all about." Xanta had to agree with that. "Very well, let us begin."

The katta was indeed less experienced than T'qui, but he was much quicker and more agile, no doubt his feline qualities gave him an advantage when it came to speed and grace. Xanta took a few minutes to adjust to the newcomer's fighting style, and managed to stay upright on the beam.

The two continued on for several candlemarks, and Xanta quickly grew weary. The tigron seemed never to tire, and continued his relentless onslaught.

By the end of the practice, Xanta was even more tired than usual. For being less experienced than T'qui, Ralirr could sure put up a fight.

[Xanta'Kun]

When Xanta returned, Ralirr was still there. Unexpectedly, T'qui was still out, but should return soon, or so the Tigron said. Xanta's muscles already ached from the previous brightening's workout, and somehow they seemed to scream in even louder protest when the tigron drew his sword.

Xanta did the same, and the two continued their deadly dance where they had left off the previous brightening. Ralirr seemed still fully charged and ready to go, but Xanta's every move sent his shoulders into a silent protest.

Ralirr must have sensed his weakness, and they ended their deuling a little earlier. To relieve the pressure on Xanta's arms, the two went for a jog around the city, which went for several miles, and by the end Xanta was winded. Ralirr released him to go home so he could get a good night's sleep before his next session.

[Xanta'Kun]

T'qui was finally back the following brightening. And, not to Xanta's surprise, they began with a little balance practice, and then dueled on the balance beam. Brightening after brightening, Xanta did less and less pushups, and he went the first several candlemarks without even a singe one. That was a sign of much improvement.

As the brightening wore on, Xanta grew tired, but T'qui continued the fight nonetheless. He had Xanta do every drill they had practiced so far, and then some.

After a short time, Xanta was instructed to put away his sword. He had some physical training to do. They started with various stretches, then moved on to some muscle strengthening exercises, like squats and situps. T'qui had a whole routine worked out.

Xanta hurt like never before by the end of practice, but he had learned that that was a good sign; his body would be better off after it healed.

[Xanta'Kun]

The next brightening, more PT was scheduled. Xanta didn't even get to unsheath his katana, and T'qui had him doing everything he could imagine. He worked muscles he didn't even know he had. Some of the exercises were strange and even embarrassing to do, but T'qui seemed quite accustomed to them and Xanta didn't really want to challenge the swordmaster, lest he be sentenced to more pushups.

After a few candlemarks, the two warmed down and went for a long run, several miles by Xanta's estimate, around the city. He had never known he was so out of shape, and at the same time he hated and loved T'qui. He was helping him get lean again, and making him hurt like never before.

This brightening was far worse. By the end of practice, Xanta's arms and legs felt like jelly, and he still had work to do at the Inn.

[Xanta'Kun]

The next brightening Xanta was so sore that he thought about not even going to practice. Then the thought of what T'qui would have him do if he didn't show up got him out of bed.

T'qui was waiting for Xanta as usual, and Xanta was relieved that he was wearing some padded leather armor. That meant they'd be dueling rather than PT. He almost smiled.

"Today we shall work exclusively on your parrying ability. All I want you to do is parry while I attack; you shall not attack but defend."

T'qui started the duel by swinging some higher cuts at Xanta, who deftly parryed them to his side. T'qui then started some midsection cuts, which came alarmingly close to Xanta's thin armor, but he still managed to knock T'qui's blows harmlessly to the side. At last T'qui went low, aiming for Xanta's legs. He had a harder time blocking those, but still no damage was done, and he parryed as he had been taught.

T'qui stopped for a moment to note that he was satisfied with Xanta's performance for the brightening. Then the two again practiced on the balance beam, this time Xanta trying to score a hit on T'qui, who parried his every move. Xanta had finally come to appreciate the skillbuilding provided by the beam. He hadn't realized it before, but he was now able to walk with ease on the beam and keep his balance. The drills had payed off.

His footwork was also infinitely better, not doubt attributed to the balance work done by Master T'qui. After a while, T'qui raised his blade, an indication for the fight to end.

"I am afraid that you are approaching the point at which my teaching will no longer help you at this level. For the next few brightenings, we will hone what you have learned, and then you will take a final examination to prove that you have learned what I have taught to my satisfaction. If not, you can look forward to future lessons. Serale."

[Xanta'Kun]

"This, the first brightening in your review, will be the brightening that we review your footwork. For this, we will use the balance beam. I suggest you try your hardest, Xanta'Kun, because during the examination I will not accept mistakes," T'qui said sternly. Xanta unsheathed his katana and stood on the beam as was becoming all too familiar. T'qui did likewise, and the two bowed to each other before they begam.

They started off slow, Xanta doing most of the attacking and T'qui parrying just about everything, and not losing any ground. T'qui soon tired with the game of keeping Xanta at bay and pressed his own attack, which eventually drove Xanta back to the end of the beam. Suddenly, T'qui swiped at Xanta's lower legs, which the Thelyri deftly jumped, and landed squarely back on the beam. T'qui smiled.

The duel continued as such for several candlemarks, by far their longest duel. "Our sessions will be shorter these last few brightenings while I prepare you for your examination, but they will be more intense. Come prepared to practice form tomorrow."

[Xanta'Kun]

Xanta arrived on time the next brightening, and Master T'qui was standing in the middle of the room, which was now empty. He was wearing one of the leather armor sets and indicated to Xanta that he should don one as well.

"Today, as I said, we shall be practicing your form. You must demonstrate to me that you have learned to wield your weapon with the finesse and control that could be expected from an intermediate level swordsman. Let's begin."

Xanta swung his katana with grace and control, rather than force or speed, to demonstrate to T'qui that he had picked up the things he had been taught. That brightening wasn't about speed or power, it was about grace and dexterity. Master T'qui only parried his blows, not trying to duel but just to let Xanta demonstrate his skill.

After a while, the swordmaster began inputting his own attacks here and there, just to keep Xanta on edge. It was just as important to be able to defend as to attack, so Xanta made sure he was up to both.

After about a candlemark, T'qui lowered his sword, an indication to end the hostilities. "You have done well this brightening, and I am pleased to say I am satisfied with your form. Tomorrow I will test your physical strength. It is as important to any swordsman as his sword. Serale."