Advanced Sword (Xind'el, self-mod)

[Riconus Xind'ell]

4th Brightening in the Month of Optia in the Season of Summer, of Era II of the Celestine Mandate (Current Pattern) Era XI Post Fractum in the Age of the Darkening, the Mageocracy of Julos the Mad.
Paradigm Shift: Schism in the Church of the Faith

The elf returned to the Circle of Seven, dressed in a light shirt and trousers, loose and flowing. Of course, most of his fights were fought in at least a good breastplate, but then again most of his fights were fought under the watchful eye of Aslan and warding spells. His hair, as always, was allowed to flow freely, and at his side hung his sword, revealed now without his general's overcoat to obscure it. Training weapons were all well and good, but if live weapons training was to be conducted again then the elf would much rather have the Cyrallium in his hand than some poorly constructed human weapon. Besides, he hated going anywhere without a sword in reach. Too many enemies of Empire were about, and too many that knew the Aslanite by name if not face.

"Serale," Riconus said as he entered to the training room. "My name is Riconus, I'm here for training?"

[Riconus Xind'ell]

The receptionist at the center looks up to the approaching elf. Recognition sparks her eyes as she remembers the elf from a few brightenings before. She thens her back to grab a folder from the small wooden shelf behind her.

'Serale, sign in here. I will get someone to take you to your class. Your instructor will be Nikoli Trac. She is an interesting young lady, but very talented.

Good luck...'

The receptionist then leafs through several sheets of paper and places Riconus' paper work before him. A thin quill rests in a ink pot near the front of the desk. While the new student makes his mark, the receptionist's hand slams down hard on a bell.

Almost immediately a young boy arrives. She hands him a form from Riconus' folder and asks him to escort the new student to the training room.

The mouse haired boy silently takes the lead and leads Riconus through the building. The building has a main room which serves as the reception hall, various halls lead from this main room. The boy leads the elf down one broad hall that runs past many studios with more or less private areas. The escort leads the student quickly past the training areas and stops in front of a studio with a plaque above the large wooden door, it that depicts a longsword on a colorful starburst.

'Mistress Nikoli will be with you shortly. Please wait inside, and give her this form,' says the young escort before leaving in a hurry.

The studio is a large room with a hard packed earth floor. The four plain wooden walls have multiple rows of weapons, ranging from a shortsword to a large halbard. To the left there is a small row of cubby holds for students to place thier belongings. In the right corner is a small cluttered desk, and a wooden bucket containing water. Hanging from the bucket are several towel.

Before Riconus becomes familiar with the room the door creaks open once again. The most particular sight enters, it must be the instructor. A medium built human female struts in. She wears a tight green top that clings to her back, the muscles of her back and arms flexing with each movement. Her pants are clinched tight around a thin waist, but loose on her legs. The drawing detail was her hair, which was fairly long and pulled into a warriors lock, better known as a pony tail. The hair was colored to every hue of the rainbow, in a radiating pattern from the crown of her head.

"Serale, I am Nikoli Trac. I assume you're here for some sort of sword training. Do you have your enrollment papers?

So, please tell me, how much training do you have and why do you want to pick up this style. Will you want to learn a duel hand particulars?"

The strong looking woman halts several paces before the elf. Her hands on her hips she smiles showing her pearly whites.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

More paperwork. The elf did it almost by rote, signing the paper in his usual smooth cursive, all the while thinking how much he disliked paperwork. A mark of chaos in the world, without a doubt - if chaos had not existed, then there would not be a need for such trivial formalities, no need for anyone to be able to prove his enrolment with such trifles.

As the child approached, the elf could not help but be reminded of the children he had sparred against with his training against the Knights. They would grow to become masters of their arts, no doubt, mighty champions of the Prince of Aetheria if they could best one of the Prince's most dedicated in their youth. They were but human, though, and Riconus would be still passing his prime by the time they had aged and passed.

The dull cracks of wooden training weapons crashing barely registered in the elf's mind. It was a sound he was used to, having spent so much time training in the blade during his time in Port Constantine. The training room that he was led to, however, was a different story. Appearances could be deceiving, and to lose his sharp focus could be dangerous, even when sparring.

Seeing the cubby holes to the side of the room, Riconus began to move over to them, unbuckling his sword as he did so. Before he had even reached them, however, he heard the sound of the door opening. His head turned to look over the newcomer, his instructor by all accounts, but he continued walking to place his sword in one of the holes before walking over to hand the human his papers.

"Serale, Nikoli. My papers are here. I have trained previously with the Imperial Marines, the Alyssan Imperial Guard and the Prince Maverius Regiment, with the longsword on all counts. I want to better my skills, especially in duelling. One on one."

[Riconus Xind'ell]

"Ohh the marines and the AIG, interesting. I would be glad to assist you in furthering your skills. I know a thing or two myself.

So what brings you to Riparia?", she asks with a smile on her face.

Her gaze goes up and down over the student before her. He does look as if he has benefited from a class or two and a few real life practices. Nodding in approval she spoke again.

"Ok, I would like to see what you have learned so far. So after a warm up show me what you know."

[Riconus Xind'ell]

"Business." the elf replied somewhat, hiding all the details of his quest with an open smile. "This is a nice town. Dangerously close to the Forge, perhaps, but accommodating."

Words remained unsaid, as was the elf's way. After warming up with a few stretches, Riconus took down the closest thing to a practise longsword that he could find on the walls, preferably one lean and long. Taking a few swings to get used to the weight, Riconus shifted into a fighting stance, lowering his body while his left foot slipped back for support. His sword was held comfortably in his right, angled slightly to one side to cross his body again, ready to parry. The elf's style was graceful, and defensive, never striking until he had the perfect opportunity, and nothing made that clearer than his fighting stance.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

Once the elf was ready, Nikoli sprung into action. She had readied herself with a longsword and was going to perform a few testing strikes.

The tip of her sword moved towards the graceful elves body three times. First the tip dropped and moved around the outside of his weapon moving to score a hit on the students chest. The second thrust dropped the tip once again, but swinging under in a counter clock wise motion. From this counter motion she attempted to tag him again on the chest. The third and final blow came in an unexpected manner. After the last thrust Nik stepped back, and spun. While her body twisted she brought the weapon around. It's practice edge moving quickly towards Riconus' head.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

Watching in interest as his tutor picked up a practise weapon of her own, the elf's blade moved slightly, drawing his position as close to perfect as he could. He had asked for the best they had here, and he had little doubt that in Nikoli, that was what he had received. Still, even Lientive had started his better by far, and he had ended up besting the Vigile blademaster in live combat. Now, it was just a wait until Nikoli ...

The first strike came, totally unanticipated, leaving the elf somewhat annoyed with himself for not being ready. Protecting his chest should have been his primary concern, especially from a thrust from a longsword. That was the surest way to kill with the weapon, save perhaps a double-handed strike to the neck.

Nikoli's second thrust, the elf was a bit more ready for, although not quite. Noting the attempt to tag him on the chest again, Riconus pushed back off his front foot to try and get away from the tip of the wooden practise blade, before moving forward again with an upward stroke to try and meet his trainer's practise blade and try to knock it off course. His aim would be not to stop the blade, but simply to knock it off course and hopefully make the woman overbalance.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

Riconus' sword taps aside his instrucotr's weapon. The first test thrust and the dodge got him out of the way of the second. Nikoli did not stop there, she advanced and presented her third thrust.

Though Riconus reacted well to the first two, Nikoli was a little too quick. The edge of her longsword dropped below his raising blade. Thus ending with a stinging smack across his ribcage. Riconus knew that it would be black and blue in the morning.

"Ok, now you present an attack on me. Ready." she says with a smile.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

Riconus' breath was expelled violently as Nikoli's practise sword slammed home against his chest. He would have to remember to heal that before the next day's training, otherwise the bruise that would come would severely inhibit learning. For now though, it was a sharp throb that he would have to deal with as he prepared his assault. The woman was a master of swordplay, and had much to teach, but there had to be some way the elf could outmanouevre her. There always was.

"Ready."

The words started the first wave of the assault, a quick feint to the right that the elf would draw back almost as soon as he released, to see how good a judge Nikoli was. She had proven she could react to it, but could she recognise the subtle signs that differentiated a poor feint from a thrust? Regardless, for the moment he would step back and launch forward again immediately, hoping to catch her off guard with a second thrust and a third stroke from whereever his blade ended up after her parry or dodge. He did not expect the second to hit, but hopefully the speed would cause it to be deflected with poor form and leave an opening.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

Nikoli was not going to get ahead of herself. This was just a test, to see where her student's skills where. The noble elf wanted advanced training, but Nikoli wanted to be sure he could handle it.

Riconus' feint was fast, it drew the instructor's line of vision. Nikoli's moved from it's ready position down to parry the feint. Riconus saw the opening and thrust foward, towards the instructor's undefended torso. Lightening fast reflexes were shown as the eccentric female pivioted. Her turn allowed the thrust to move past her.

Soon enough the elf recovers and thrust again. Nikoli deftly dropped back into her defensive stance, her eyes inadvertently watching the center of Riconus' chest. Seeing the tell-tale sign of movement she easily parried the final thrust.

With her free hand the teacher signaled for Riconus to
continue the attack.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

Every thrust, every swing, to no avail. Riconus couldn't even touch this human. He was forced to - grudgingly - admit that this might be more of a challenge than he had originally anticipated, that he might indeed find much to learn from this young and somewhat unorthodox blademaster.

As she beckoned for a second assault, Riconus turned to another approach. Rather than manoeuvrability, he stepped forward and swung down across her chest, before taking another step forward with a thrust. Both would be executed with as much speed as the elf could muster, before a third swing that would be slightly slower and executed with a great focus on control. She would undoubtedly be able to parry it, but it was not contact with her body that the elf sought.

The moment the elf anticipated that their blades would meet, he would twist his blade along his tutor's sword so that all his force came front on rather than a sweep to the side. He also tried to twist the blade so that the flat of the sword was facing him, so that he could place his free hand somewhere near the tip and give it more force as he pushed off his back foot.

The whole point of the exercise? To turn what would undoubtedly be a successful parry on the part of his tutor into a push to knock her off balance. Whatever the result, he would have to retreat quickly to either take advantage of the situation with a few thrusts, or parry the counterstrikes that would undoubtedly come if he failed.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

Riconus' first attack met Nikoli's blade hard. The ring of metal on metal pierced the room. Not bothered by the sound Riconus continued with his next attack. This thrust was fast and on track and came close to scoring against the human
instructor.

With a speed belaying human heritage, her torso twisted. The elf's thrust barely missed the instructor's moderate cleavage. Nikoli's eyes widen in slight surprise and a grin crossed her face.

The commander's final thrust was much slower than the rest of his tempo, and his movements followed the path he had planned. Still being in quick battle mode, or just to be sure the student didn't get such a close call again, her
movements were quick. She quickly parried the slow attack, and was stepping forward to press her own.

That is when the student did something suprising. His grip switched and the side of the blade was facing him and he 'pushed' towards Nik. She stumbled back and dropped to her hunches. Her face disappeared during the following tuck and
role, but Riconus could almost see the smile grow as she rolled. When she came back up in a low crouch they were several paces away from one another. With a wave of her hand she signaled the trial complete, and lead the elf to the barrel that held fresh water.

"Well done, that was an interesting technique you have there. I did notice one thing, your stance and foot work. It could use some work, for the caliber of skill you are wishing to achieve. Let's get back to work.' She said before gulping a laddle of water."

She then awaited the elf in the center of the training ring. She silently assumed a starting stance and looked to Riconus to match her. Her right lead leg was staggered ahead, and was bent at the knee. The left leg was pressed back, with the heel firmly securing the stance. The toes of both feet pointed straight ahead. The feet were about slightly shoulder width apart, and she let her hips drop.

Once he mimicked this position, Riconus could tell it was slightly uncomfortable. What the stance did provide was a sturdy and strong base to launch attacks and defensive manouvers.

"Ok now move from ready to the fighting stance. Back and forth, now...
Ready..."

Her voice repeating the commands over and over for the elf to practice his stance.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

Riconus' feet slid back again as Nikoli fell, her tuck and roll warding off any plans of a following thrust. He suspected from her smile that the sparring session was more than likely over, but the elf's blade stayed in a ready position until Nikoli's was lowered and the wave of her hand calling off any further assaults. The elf's eye turned to the barrel as the human did, thirst finally revealing itself as he took a ladlefull himself. After that, he turned back to his instructor, taking in her observations about his fighting carefully. The only way to learn was through the observations and practise against betters, and it was rare that you could get both in such quick succession.

As Nikoli slid into a fighting stance, the elf tried his best to mirror her position. His right leg slipped forward, an ever so slight distance further forward than his instructor to compensate for the extra height. The leg bent at the knee, allowing his left leg to push back and giving him some stability. His toes slipped to point forwards, causing some dull ache with the stretch, but not enough to discomfort him as a fighter.

At each of the woman's commands, Riconus slipped as fluidly as he could from stance to stance. Ready to fight, and back, pushing the stance into the very depths of his subconscious. With practice, it would hopefully become the stance he took by route, but it would need his concentration now. Ready ... fighting ... ready.

[Riconus Xind'ell]

"Excellent. That is much better, you should be able to feel more strength in your stance and thrusts."

The eccentric lass commented. She walked around the elf as he moved between the positions. With the tip of her blade she corrected Riconus' postion.

"You have a firm grip on attacks, was there another avenue you could use? I have seen good use of the blade as a weapon, and repositioning to find an attack.

There are other avenues for attack and defense. Can you think of any right off the bat?"