Basic Dagger [Self-Mod]

[Nula Nutcracker]

Late Afternoon Aslanica
First Cycle in Cryxatum
Season of Spring

Nula had repeated the time and place in her little skull over and over throughout the remainder of the darkening and into the next brightening, determined that she wouldn't forget when and where to show up to her dagger lessons. The place was relatively simple: The same facilities she had visited the day before only within a different part of the grounds. Simple...so long as Nula remembered where to go.

Trudging through the streets, she relied heavily on the use of her nose and sharp eyes to recall the smells and sights she had passed when the boy led her to the Temple. She arrived soon enough at a room marked for training and Nula scampered in, straightening onto her hind-legs and scanning the room for her would-be teacher. The place was not particularly empty of life, as a student seemed to be reaching the conclusion of their own lessons, receiving some pretty strong instructions from a teacher as they walked past Nula. The only other individual there was a short human standing at five foot--well, this was tall to Nula--with black hair and a dark complexion. He was inspecting a dagger as his student walked in.

"I's here, I's here!" Nula declared, moving forward as fast as her hind legs allowed. She cringed back as the human's dark eyes set upon her, a sharp frown on his face.

"A rat? No one told me I'd be teaching a rat," he sneered, gathering up his small, bulky frame and staring imperiously down at the rodenti.

Nula glared back. "I's not a ratta," she countered irritably. "I's a relequis." Her fluffy tail flickered behind her and she would have grabbed it and waved it at him to make a point...but that seemed somehow out of place infront of her dagger instructor.

He shook his head, muttering "Fething bag of fur," under his breath, but Nula's sharp ears caught it and she felt her shoulders sag. Would she not be taught then? "Fine. You paid so...come with me." He started towards a door then halted. "You have your own dagger, right?"

Nula pulled the small blade from along her belt and grinned. "Yes yes!"

"Then come with me." He led her through a low doorway and into a large, marked off space. The floor looked well-worn, as if many feet had scraped over the surface. "My name's Belthis. You're...Nula...right?"

Nula nodded, wide brown eyes focused on the man. She couldn't believe she was actually going to learn to fight with a dagger. It almost felt like something straight out of the old battle stories!

"Right. Well. Let's get started, shall we?"

ooc: Mod-like-people, let me know if any of this needs to be fixed up!

[Nula Nutcracker]

Her instructor held the dagger out in his palm, the blade placed carefully along the full length. "A dagger is just like any other bladed weapon, Nula. It cuts. It can kill, if you used right. I assume you picked the dagger for a reason?"

Nula frowned, her large brown eyes narrowing. She thought she was here to learn how to use a dagger - not to talk about how to use the dagger! They'd better get to slashing things soon or... "I's wants to kill s' orcses!" Nula declared, puffing out her chest as she sucked in a deep breath, smiling. "Stinkin' orcses hurts my tail, y' know. They's deserves to be killed'd." She nodded her furry little head, tail flickering out behind her as she thought about the messed up fur at the very tip of it.

"Oh...okay." The instructor rolled his eyes a little. Most of his students seemed to come up with a pretty good explanation as to why they had chosen the dagger. Most didn't come right out say they wanted to kill somebody...but Nula wanted to kill orcs and that wasn't exactly frowned down upon. "Doesn't look like you can hold anything bigger anyway," he muttered. Indeed, the dagger was already a decent size for the small rodent's paw...anything bigger might be too unbalanced for her. "Aside from killing orcs, there are reasons to use a dagger over a sword...though the dagger has its weaknesses, too. Might you be able to tell me any? Strengths and weaknesses, I mean." He looked a little impatient, as if he didn't expect Nula to be able to tell him.

"It fits nice in my paw. That's a strength and...well...uhm...it cuts things," Nula offered. Those were handy strengths indeed. Weaknesses? Nula couldn't exactly think of any off the top of her head.

He sighed...a rather long sigh. "Well, yes...sort of. In a way." He cleared his throat, shook his head. This was going to be a long training session. "It is small and easy to conceal--though not so easy for you as it is for others. But, yes, most people tend to miss the dagger, looking for larger weapons instead. They also tend to underestimate it, but when used correctly, the dagger is a very formidable weapon." He flicked the dagger through the air with a few practiced motions that showed his own expertise. "The problem with a dagger is that it isn't as powerful or strong as a sword. The blade is smaller and this makes it a little harder to cut through the flesh and it's easily kept aside from armor. But...I'll show you ways around that. There are plenty of places on the body that, when damaged, can cause severe problems for any opponent."

Nula nodded, though she could feel her brain fuzzing a little. She would be expected to remember all that? "Okay...so...whens do I's gets t' hurts things?" she asked slowly.

[Nula Nutcracker]

The instructor's stare was hard. "You don't really get to hurt things during training, you just learn how to hurt things." When the relequis just stared at him, a little shocked at this declaration, the man shook his head. "I was getting to that, but first I wanted to teach you the different parts of the dagger, all right? It won't take very long."

Nula sighed, exasperated, but nodded, scooching a little closer as the man held out the dagger and pointed at the blade. "We'll keep things simple, all right? This is the blade. Different daggers have different blades. Notice how yours is sharp on both sides with a triangular point where the sides meet in the middle? Other daggers might have a saw-toothed edge on one side. Some points may curve at the end like a hook. Others may only be sharp on the one side. It depends entirely on the blade."

Nula's eyes were wide. There were really that many different kinds of daggers? Well, it was a short list, but surprising to her nonetheless. "Where's do I gets the other types?" she interrupted as he was about to go on.

"Oh...uh...usually at any type of forge."

"Really, really?"

"Yes. Really. Now..." He gave her a pointed look, hoping she wouldn't continue to ask questions at the time being. "This is the guard." He ran his hand along the the area of the hilt that protruded between the blade and the handle. "It protects your hand--err, paw--from sliding off the handle and along the blade. Some daggers don't have it. I, however, recommend a dagger with one. Just in case. And this, this here is the handle where you grasp the dagger. Together the guard and the handle make up the hilt, you see what I mean?"

Nula nodded. "Yes, yes. I see, I see. Now do I's gets t' slash anything?"

"Do you remember everything I just said?" he countered.

"This is the blade, this is the guard, this is the handle," Nula repeated, pointing to each part. "I's pass, yes?"

[Nula Nutcracker]

The instructor finally nodded. "Yes, you pass." He looked a bit surprised, as if he hadn't really expected the rodenti to remember much of anything--she looked too fidgety, not caring about the more simple things that were needed to learn...only the slashing stabbing. "Well, that's out of the way. We'll move on to some manuevers, all right. But first..." He plucked the dagger out of the relequis's paws, ignoring her firey protests as he held it out of her reach.

"Why's everyone outs t' take my dagger, huh?" she screeched irritably, stomping her bare feet. "I's gots a right to it, too!"

"I'm only taking it because I want you to use this instead." He held out another dagger, but this was wooden...far less painful or damaging than any steel dagger might be upon impact--though a wooden dagger never felt very nice when smacked against an arm.

Nula frowned down at the wooden weapon, turning it about in her hands as if expecting it to turn magically back into the steel piece she had held moments before. "But its so...so...silly lookin'," she protested, her tone glum.

"Yes, well, I'd rather not get skewered, so that's what you'll use." The instructor was not going to cave to the complaints of a rat, after all. "Now, let me see the way you hold it, all right?"

Nula grasped it around in her paw, an awkward thing to behold as she had no thumb with which to grip it. "Sees?"

He frowned. He saw. He was used to the grip that an ordinary individual with five digits used on a weapon. This was beyond him. But it really couldn't be all that different from the way a katta held a dagger. "Here, adjust your paw a little bit this way." He reached out, cringing, and firmly altered her grip. "There. That looks about right." He stepped back to get a different view and nodded. [b]"That looks fine.

"Great. Now that you've got that down... There are two ways you can hold the dagger, all right? You hold the dagger this way if you intend to use the weapon to slash. And you hold it this way..." He paused, picking the dagger out of her paw and adjusting her hold on it for a second time. "If you want to stab. See how the direction of the blade is altered and how the blade is angled downwards a bit more in the stabbing position? Slashing tends to give more of a surface wound, but stabbing is more difficult because it requires more force behind the blow since bone can often disrupt a stab. But...we'll learn more about that as we go through the movements."

Nula nodded, fiddling around with the different holding positions she had just been taught.

[Nula Nutcracker]

"You seem like you have that down for now, so...let's move on, shall we?" He hardly waited for a response before snatching up a wooden dagger of his own and settling into what Nula thought looked like a rather odd pose.

The suns must addle the brains of these poor surface-dwellers, she thought with some amusement as she stood back and stared at him. He was looking directly at her, as if expecting something. "What?" she asked. "Does m' tail looks funny 'r somethin'?" she turned, snatching up her tail to get a good look at it.

"What in Aeternia did I do to deserve this?" he muttered as he shook his head. "This is what you call a stance. You stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, one foot a little more forward than the other. You--"

"Which foots?'

"What?"

"Which foots go forwards more?" Nula pressed.

"The one opposite the hand you use to hold the dagger. That would be your left foot, if you're going to be holding the dagger that way." He cleared his throat as she 'ahh'd' in comprehension. "So that's what you do with your legs, got it? Now...the arms. You position your dagger in front of you, chest level. To balance yourself out a bit, you put your other hand about shoulder width apart from your dagger hand. Like so."

"Paws. I's have paws."

"Paws, hands. Whatever. This is how you position them." He rolled his eyes, clamping his teeth down on his bottom lip to keep from saying anything really foul. "And do you see how my body is angled? You don't face frontwards, but give your body just a little bit of an angle...and tilt your body forward, which is to help give some protection to your mid-section. This is a Forward Stance, best used for attacks, so hopefully you will be using this one more so than the other I will show you."

"There's 'nother?" Nula frowned.

Straightening out of the stance, the instructor nodded. "There are two basic stances: Forward and Back. I'll teach you the other once you've shown me you can execute this stance without a problem, got it?"

Nula nodded, brown eyes focused as she tried to mimic the instructor's previous body positioning. "This?" she asked, looking at him.

He pursed his lips, shook his head. "Angle your body a little more. Ye--No, like this." He reached out, trying not to grimace as his hands touched the fur, and corrected the angle of her upperbody. "And bend your knees a little. Left hand up a little more. There, that looks about right."

[Nula Nutcracker]

"Now we're going to work on the other stance, the Back Stance, okay?"

Nula adjusted out of the previous position that he had put her in as her instructor shifted positioning again. He faced a different direction this time and his right leg was to the back rather than the front, though both his legs were aligned with one another. He bent one knee, the left one, and he shifted his upper body so that he was nearly looking over his shoulder, the right one. "This is what we call the Back Stance. See the difference? While the Forward stance is best for offensive action, the Back Stance is preferred for defensive movements. You know what I mean, right?'

"Yes, yes. Forward, attack! Back, sort'a like a retreat."

"Retreat? Not really... Defending is more, standing your ground and making sure they don't hurt you without you having to run away."

Nula looked at him like he was a little crazy. "That's what I's means, yes yes."

"Right." He frowned and shook his head. Crazy little rat. "All right. Well, let's see you try this stance, why don't we?" He straightened and motioned for Nula to assume the back stance.

The rodenti did so quickly, but not necessarily correctly.

"Bend the other knee and the straighten the other one. Right. Much better. They're sort of similar, so you need to make sure you remember which is which. I'll quiz you on that tomorrow, got it?"

"Tomorrow?" Nula frowned.

"Yes, we're done for the brightening. Tomorrow I'll teach you a little bit more if you can remember what I taught you this brightening."

"Oh. Okay." Nula frowned, looking at the wooden dagger in her hand. "Can I's gets my dagger back?" She held the practice blade towards her tutor, waiting and expecting to receive the blade back.

He hesitated, but finally handed it over, taking the wooden one back and placing it on a rack of other practice blades. "Same time tomorrow, Nula. Don't forget."

[Nula Nutcracker]

Nula returned the next brightening, perky and anxious...looking forward to the idea of actually learning how to stab the orcses that had been plaguing her ever since the one had damaged her tail back in Imperia. To think a little relequis could be so scarred by a single occurence! But her tail was her pride and to be so damaged... Nula couldn't wait to prove those orcses that she could kill them...and kill them all! Nula'd be the best darn Orc Hunter you'd ever be able to find anywhere. Those stinkin' orcses would see that!

She skittered into the arena, same place as yesterday, where her instructor was waiting, a practice blade already poised in his hand as she entered.

"You're a little late," he pointed out, looking rather grumpy. "I'm being generous teaching you these things and I'd appreciate it if you could just...show up on time."

Nula scowled, but nodded. "Yes, yes. On time. I's gets it." She held out her dagger towards him and it was exchanged for a wooden one. She still was not incredibly happy with the notion of using a wooden thing to slap around, but at least it was better than nothing.

"Let's go through what you learned yesterday. The parts of the dagger are...?"

Nula turned the wooden blade over in her paws, wondering if anything changed because of the materials used to create the weapon. "Handle and guard." She slide her furry digits over the wooden hilt. "Blade." She tapped the extended part.

"Good, good. And can you show me the two stances...and their names as well?"

Here Nula faltered some, able to name them, but still needing direction for how to probably stood for each stance. He pointed out the appropriate corrections before deciding it was time to move on to the next order of business. "Today we're going to learn the best places to attack a body with a dagger and, if you get those down, we'll move on to stabbing and slashing."

Nula's eyes lit up and she waited, entranced, to find out how to hurts an orcses.

[Nula Nutcracker]

"There are several places that are best to strike at when you're using a dagger, all right? The chest and stomach, being rather large, are excellent targets...but only if there isn't any armor to block your attack. If someone is wearing armor, you could try and stick the dagger where the armor meets at the joints--such as under the armpit or just behind the knee." Nula would probably have trouble reaching the armpit on a regular-sized human and doubtlessly might have better luck with the back of the knee. "The chest and the gut can be critical wounds, if struck right, but under the arm and knee usually aren't, though they can help cripple, briefly or for a length of time, your opponent." He looked at her, hoping she was following.

Nula was rapt--this is why she had signed up, after all--to learn how to hurt people effectively. She nodded avidly to get him to continue.

"Other good places to strike are the thigh and the throat or even the shoulder. The throat is a target for obvious reasons--there's a major source of blood there and can kill quickly if you hit it just right. It's not always deadly if you miss the vein. As for the thigh, that's also got a rather large blood tube in it, and the shoulder...well, the shoulder's usually a good place to strike when you want to disable or hinder your opponent's fighting arm."

These were all very good points and Nula tried to store them away in her tiny little head for future use.

"So can you repeat back to me the points of attack I've mentioned?"

Nula frowned. "Throat, shoulder, thigh..." She tapped her chin, eying the instructor to make note of his different body parts. "Chest, tummy..." She trailed off, shaking her head.

"Armpit and knee," he finished for her.

"Whats 'bout the other parts? Theys cans be hit too, yes yes?"

He nodded. "Yes, they can be. These are simply the most effective parts to strike. Hitting the arm or the elbow or hand...the foot...those are excellent targets as well, but these I've mentioned to you are often the first points you should look for."

[Nula Nutcracker]

"So, let's get started with the basics on how to stab."

Nula perked up immediately, her paw clenching the dagger and her brown eyes bearing into the man. Yes, yes...this was even better than where to stab. How to stab made where to stab all that much more simple.

"First of all, you want to be in the forward stance, got it?" He demonstrated. "There are three steps to a stap: first you thrust," he jabbed the knife forward, body extending, his leg shifting forward slightly, as if actually stabbing someone, "then twist!" He twisted his wrist, keeping his arm and the blade elongated. "Then you recover." He pulled the blade back to him and looked down at the relequis. "Simple, right?"

Her eyes narrowed, digesting the information, Nula made a noise of agreement. "Yes, yes. Seems simple."

"So...let's see it." He stepped aside, giving her space to practice the movement.

Stepping into the forward stance, with only a few corrections from the instructor, Nula scrunched up her nose, eyes narrowed, as she recalled the movements. "Thrusts," she murmured, jabbing forward. There was a small pause as she stood there, arm a little shaky, then she nodded. "Twists." She jerked her arm around.

"That's a little too exaggerated of a twist," he interrupted. "You'll have the dagger inside of someone when you twist, so just keep that in mind while you're--"

"And recovers!" Nula jerked the weapon back to her, clearly disregarding her tutor's advice.

He frowned, shook his head. "Pretty good, but you need to put your body movement into the motions. When you thrust the dagger forward, you need to roll your hips a bit, step into the movement. When you recover, pull your body back into the forward stance so you're ready for any further attacks. And, as I was saying about the twist, it will be inside of someone--hopefully--and so you won't have as much room to move the dagger." He gestured towards her vaguely. "Let's try it a couple more times then I'll teach you the slash."

[Nula Nutcracker]

Nula practiced the stab movements a few times and each time there was a small critique made by her instructor. Occasionally he came forward and adjusted her posture. It hurt, her muscles aching...as if they were being forced into positions that weren't really natural. She grit her teeth through it, determined to learn a bit of something so she wouldn't die at the hands of some stinkin orcses.

Finally, Belthis declared her ready to progress to the next pattern: slashing. "Slashing's different from stabbing in that there's a variety of different ways you can slash. Just think of all the ways you can move your elbow without seriously skewing the bone. I'm not going to show you all the different ways, as I'm sure you can figure that out for yourself, but we are going to focus on two important ways to slash, got that?'

Nula nodded, bouncing on her toes.

"You get in the forward stance again, same as you did for the stab. The one that I'm going to show you first is how to slash from the outside of your body, towards the inside. Which means, that you'll start the slash away from your body and sweep the blade in front of you towards the opposite side of your body." He demonstrated, swiping the blade from right to left at an angle. "Make sure you bring the blade up on the same side as your blade hand--see, I use my right hand to wield the dagger so I start the blade on my right side--so that it's at about the height of your shoulder. See my elbow? Keep it slightly bent, just like this. Then, you bring the blade down at a slight angle." He demonstrated again several times, a few slow and a few at what he considered normal speed. "Now, I want you to try." He motioned for her to start as he stepped back.

She got into the position, the forward stance, this time receiving no corrections with the positioning of her body. Only when she began sliding at the air did he start correcting her: Bend the elbow a little more, don't pull the blade so far away from your body, keep things tight, your movements are a little jerky.

"Good enough for now," he announced and Nula stopped.

She felt more than just a bit exhausted, her arm aching. But he seemed to want to push on and Nula wasn't about to protest.

"Now, with the slash from inside to outside, instead of starting high up, you start with your blade at stomach level on the opposite side of your dagger arm. See, I start on the lower left over here, elbow bent, and swipe the blade up in the direction of the right shoulder." He paused, considering. "Think about your torso--from your shoulder to your waist--as a box. The outside-to-inside slash starts from the top-right corner of the box to the bottom-left corner of the box. The inside-to-outside slash starts from the bottom-left corner of the box to the top-right corner. Get it?"

Nula nodded fiercely. Sounded simple to her!

"Good. Give it a try, then."

Nula gave it another try, the movements from her first attempts at slashing helping her ease into this second slash motion. She was able to move a little faster now and soon Belthis told her she was doing just fine and told her to give it a rest.

"We'll meet again tomorrow, give your arm a chance to rest for the darkening. Be here promptly," he reminded her and the two parted.

[Nula Nutcracker]

Nula wasn't sure if she was on time or not and, in all honesty, she'd completely forgotten all about her tutor's warning from the day before. Oh, she'd remembered when she set out. Must get there on time, she'd told herself. So she left at what she thought to be a decent time. And then...then she'd gotten distracted...and more than just a few times at that. First it had been someone taunting her and Nula had chased after him, waving her little dagger around. Then some big old dog had interfered and Nula had run back in the other direction only to see a katta and Nula had nearly lost it...until the dog found her and she went off again.

But here she was now, dagger at her hip and breathing a little heavy from her escapades in the street. And she was late, which she suddenly remembered as she set her eyes on a very disgruntled dagger instructor.

"How do I drill a sense of time into you? Does arriving promptly just not make any sense to you?" Belthis snapped.

Nula glared at him, stubborn. "I's hads t' deal with slobber faces and...and...fethin' kattas! I's lates for a good reason!" she insisted, balling up her little paws into fists.

"Forget it. Not too many lessons left anyway." He rolled his eyes and snatched the blade from Nula, exchanging it for the wooden baton. "Today you're going to be learning how to block and parry. Now, the two go hand-in-hand, all right? As you block, you parry."

"So's...what's parryin'?" she asked, black nose wrinkling. She knew what blocking was....but parrying?

"Let's start with blocking, then I'll explain parrying," he offered, settling into the forward stance. "Blocking is when you move your dagger to halt the progression of your opponent's weapon. What you want to do is keep the dagger between yourself and your enemy. Yourself and the weapon. But...you'll want to do more than block the weapon when it comes at you, all right? You'll want to move away from the blow and then parry. Now. Parrying is when you redirect the blade away from you, knock it aside. For instance, if you strike at me from the right, I should step left, away from the line of the blade, while bringing the dagger up to block. With the dagger, you parry the blow to your right to create more space between you and the blade. If it comes at you from the left you move right and parry the blade to your left, all right?"

That had been a lot of words and Nula muttered a few things to herself, nodding some. "Okays, I's gots it, yes yes."

"One more thing: if something comes at your front, such as a stab, you want to move backwards. Now...let's give it a try, shall we?"

[Nula Nutcracker]

Both student and teacher got into their stances...though both found their way into forward positions. The teacher straightened immediately. "No, that's not it at all. When you block you need to be in the back stance." He waited for her to make the adjustment with a few corrections to be had.

Nula stood awkwardly in the back stance, still unaccustomed to the feel of her limbs being placed so, but she watched, trying to remain patient, as her instructor returned to his own stance and informed her that he would slowly perform a series of movements. She was to block them. His dagger slid to the right and Nula slammed her dagger forward forcefully, practically wailing his weapon aside.

"No, no. Try keeping your movements a little more fluid. Move with the motions. Watch how I move my feet when I move to block...and then parry. See? Step aside as you move your dagger to block and then flick the blade aside. Your actions are too dramatic. Let's see it again."

Again they tried and after a few more attempts Nula was becoming a little more "fluid" with her motions, or at least was getting the hang of the different movements that he had shown her. He tried several different slashes and stabs, moving a little faster with each effort he made. He got past her more than just a few times, slamming her arm or shoulder with the flat of the wooden blade to make a point. She yelped each time, her agile little paws dancing backwards as she chittered her irritation at her instructor. But it was all part of the lessons and she needed to learn somehow.

After several bouts of this, he finally desisted and the two separated. "That was fine for today. Tomorrow we'll go over everything and...I'll have a little surprise for you." He smiled thinly, almost as if it were a surprise that would amuse her more than him. Nula hardly noticed this and muttered some ill-things about the man as she, sore, made went on her way again.

[Nula Nutcracker]

When Nula arrived the next brightening to see her instructor, the little relequis was greeted not only by Belthis, but also a small boy of some middle-teen years. What age, Nula couldn't guess...she she had no concept of the aging of light-grubs. They might grow quicker than she, or slower. But he was much younger than Belthis, though he looked similar in appearance. Perhaps they were related?

"Nula, this is Tamar, my nephew. I've been teaching him the dagger as well and you're both about at that point where you should try your skills out on someone else...with practice blades, of course." He handed out the wooden blades and confiscated the metal ones.

Tamar looked rather disappointed as he inspected the wooden thing in his hand...as if he'd much prefer to stab the relequis than play pretend. "You sure I gotta spar with this...thing?" he whined to his uncle, glaring at the relequis.

Nula scrunched up her nose, scowled. "I's nots a thing," she snapped, indignant. Why couldn't anyone here call her by her actual race? Though she had problems with this in Imperia, too. At least she had been 'mouse' in Imperia...which was only marginally better than 'rat' here in Nexus Prime. What would she be in the next city? Possum? Mole? What?

"Rat. Fine," he hissed at her, glaring right on back.

"You can take it out in a sparring match, okay? Now...get to work." He stepped back into the doorway, arms folded as he leaned against the frame. Time to see if his time had paid off with either of them.

The two stared at each other for a moment, both eager to pounce the other and slash away. But with a look at their tutor, this behavior wasn't about to be tolerated.

So Nula got into the forward stance, going unchecked for mistakes by Belthis, and tried to remember all the different spots that were supposed to be nice to hit. The knees, the stomach, the armpits...the neck, yes the neck! As she was assessing these, Tamar slashed the weapon downwards, towards her face. Young as he was, he was still notably taller than she was. Nula bumbled backwards instinctively more than anything, though she did not bring her dagger up to block anything. The wooden blade wailed past her, just barely missing. Nula fought for her footing and found her back into her stance with a stubborn glare at the young man. Then she stabbed at him, her paw twisting around the dagger's hilt as she sought to jab it at his chest. It struck hard, as he was preparing to slash at her again, leaving his chest wide open. And he cried out in pain, nearly doubling over.

"Right. Should have gotten protective gear..." Belthis murmured thoughtfully, but Nula was the only one who heard it, with her sharp hearing.

Tamar quickly recovered and jumped at the relequis with another slash from right to left, this time smacking Nula in the shoulder. She yelped and thwacked right back at him, but found her play weapon blocked.

They continued this way for a good length of a candlemark, both blocking occasionally, while also getting quite a few whacks one another. By the end of the candlemark, the two were breathing heavy and about ready to collapse, though they couldn't resist jabbing at one another despite their wear and tear. Both were sore and when Belthis finally told them to step away from each other, there was relief in their eyes.

"You've both done just fine, given your capacity. I think you'll do well... You just need to work hard to improve a few things and you'll do very well." He focused on Nula then. "I can't say it's been a pleasure, but good luck to your, rodenti. You've no need for any more lessons here."

Surprised, Nula hesitated. Really? that was it? She exchanged the practice blade for the real thing and said her goodbyes. Well...as much as he seemed to dislike her kind, at least he'd taught her something. If only the other Nexus Prime people could at least attempt to do the same.

[Shorty]

Basic Dagger Approved!