[Training Fields] The Art of the Fat Lip (Basic Zinn'ka - Laeon)

[Aratar Mori'ithil]

(OOC: Just as with my other training, I will be self-modding this in accordance with GM Steve and Eyvind.)


Timestamp: Early Morning; 46th brightening in the Month of Kalendryas, Winter
Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XV Post Fractum


Shield Daekin Maximilian Venture Of the Silvered Blades was, in general, a decent fellow. He had been training most his life, and currently he was very skilled with a sword. Only slightly lesser-well-known was his skill at unarmed. Not quite as talented, but enough to teach a greenhorn a few tricks. So, when he'd heard that the new Mercenary, Aratar Mori'ithil was looking for a trainer compliments of the Imperial War Ministry, the curious Max Venture had answered his call. He could have taught the youth earlier, but he was already occupied with his longknife training with one of the Blades of Carmelya. With his crash course in that skill complete, the next task was to learn how to defend himself if he was ever without his knives.

So, Aratar stood before Max, smiling politely. There was no one and nothing else there except for a single wooden, rope-wrapped training dummy. Aratar had left his knives at his bunk so as to be unencumbered. He was a far more congenial man then the mongrel elf's previous trainer, but he was just as strict a trainer.

"Alright, I know you've spent the last few brightenings conditioning your body with your knife training. I know you're tired, but the more you learn, the better able to defend yourself you'll be. You're no use to the Legions dead, after all." He chuckled softly at the joke, even though there was a note of sad seriousness to it.

"To start with just start warming up until your muscles are loosened out as I really don't want to have to stop half way through the lesson because you've pulled a muscle. Concentrate on the leg muscles, that's where the damaging work is usually done from experience..." Aratar nodded and stretched a bit.

Stepping forward with one leg, he stretched his back leg to full extension, so that his front leg, his left, made a ninety-degree angle. All the while he kept his back straight, leaning even farther forward ever so slightly, so as to stretch the calves. After that, he switched legs, and did the exact same procedure.

Then sitting down on the ground, he tucked his left leg into his right inner thigh and has his right leg fully extended, toes facing skyward, as he leaned forward, keeping his leg straight, reaching for his toes, to stretch his quads. He switches after a few repetitions.

Standing up, he spread his legs to just over a shoulder-width apart and shifted his weight over his left leg, bending it, as he fully extended his right, then after a few repetitions, switched.

Now for the arms. He then proceeded to pull his right arm across his body as his right foot lifted off of the ground to bend behind him, the heel of his foot touching his glutes. He then switched arms for a few seconds. Next he reached behind him with his right arm and touched right between his shoulder blades, then using his other hand to help push it back slightly farther still, then switched arms. Finally finished, he glanced up at Max to see what was next.

"Good. To start there are three basic stances. We start with stances as they are perhaps the most important thing in a fight. There's no good being the strongest or fastest fighter if someone can simply outmaneuver you or take out your legs because your not stable enough. Once I try something, you then repeat it as best as you can and if you feel the need ask any questions such as it's use and so forth." Max took the Forward Stance as he spoke.

"You already know the Forward Stance from your knife training, so lets help you learn the other two. The second stance is the Back Stance. It's primarily used for defensive fighting rather than aggressive which you'll find the Forward Stance is more than capable of."

Still in his forward stance, he started to shift his body in some minute ways until it was apparent that the entire stance had in fact changed. Turning his hips firth of all, his body now faced forwards the left before he then shuffled his right leg backwards so that both of Max's feet were in line with one another. When he did this, his left leg which was previously straight and behind him was now bent at the knee slightly and on his side. Once all this had been finished to Max's approval, he then turned his upper body to almost look over his right shoulder.

Ar watched carefully as he took the stance, and shifted his own body to copy it. He was slow in doing so, but quickly became comfortable with it. His training to fall into a Forward Stance easily seemed to carry over, so once he became familiar with the Back Stance, it felt natural to fall into it too. It seemed his longknife training was having additional benefits on top of what he'd thought. Aratar noticed that most of his weight is now shifted to his rear leg, so that the front leg may also be used for blocking of strikes with faster reaction times. He found himself nodding in amazement at what a few simple shifts could accomplish. Max smiled appreciatively, nodding.

"Good! Your body's already getting intimately familiar with falling into stances naturaly. Good thing. Try and widen your stance a little bit more and it'd be perfect. The final stance you'll be taught is a simple and one that some feel is absolutely useless in a fight. It's called a Squat Stance. It's basically just a squat which is designed to keep your center of balance low and even." He demonstrated quickly by pulling himself from his current stance into a normal standing posture, then spreading them out on either side of him, trying to land with his legs just over a shoulder-width apart, bent VERY low, trying to keep it under a foot and a half from the ground.

Aratar mimicked the stance. It was an easy one to shift into, so he'd have no problems with that one, but he quickly felt why it would probably be the most difficult to maintain. It was absolutely killing his calves and thighs. He could see the benefit of the stance, but it'd take a lot of training to be able to maintain regularly. Max nodded.

"Good! Very good. Now, next is the very basic attack. The punch. All I'm going to ask you for is a standard one-two punch as that's about the most basic combination you'll ever find that you use. Open with a jab, follow up with a reverse punch."

Stepping forwards as a simple example, he doubted it was necessary, but some people were rather slow, and he wanted to make sure the merc's chances of survival were as high as possible. There wasn't much tot he punch as he first of all gave a quick jab towards the head before following through with a return punch from his other hand, his hips being used to help give the punch more power.

Aratar nodded and took a forward stance, offering the quick one-two combo that he was being shown. Max grinned. He'd heard of the basic training style Ar's previous instructor had used, and decided to use a similar approach to help condition and train him at the same time.

"Alright, I'll be back at mid-brightening to progress the lesson. Until I come back I want you to practice the Back Stance and the Squat Stance, and shifting between the three as well as falling into them from a regular walking posture. In addition, I want you to practice fifty repetitions of each punch type from each stance against the dummy. Repeat them over and over until I come back. It'll hurt, especially with your body still hurting from your past training, but push through. This is conditioning. We're helping build you a fighter's body." Aratar nodded, and when Max headed off, Ar turned to the dummy, doing as requested.

His body was screaming in pain after a few candlemarks, but he did what was necessary. He was conditioning his body to hold up better, last longer, and punch harder. By the time the suns were at their peak, his knuckles were bloody, but his body was becoming adjusted to the sensations, and he could feel calluses already beginning to form on his hands. Inside from his weapons training, and outside from his punching. They were painfully sore, but he was surviving. He was toughening up. After all, this was nothing compared to fighting off orcs.

[Aratar Mori'ithil]

"All right," Max began, "Show me your punch."

Aratar stepped forward, his left hand darting out for a quick, light strike with his fist at the dummy, not even using much of his shoulder, just relying on his arm muscles. He immediately followed this up by recoiling his arm,as his right lashed out, throwing his shoulder forward as he rotated his hips hard, trying to put as much force as possible into the dummy, but not so much that it loses speed or accuracy, as his left arm tucked under his shoulder, tensing up to help add momentum on the twisting hips. Max nodded.

"Very good! Alright, simple enough. Let's move on to kicks. The legs are more powerful than the hand, and kicks are used to bring out the power of the legs. The two basic kicks are the Front Kick or Forward Kick, and the Side Kick."

The move primarily consisted of starting in a forward stance and bringing up his right leg so that it created a right angle at the kneecap in the same shape as an 'L' that had been turned 180 degree's counter-clockwise. Shifting his hips back a little, he then pushed forwards with his foot, extending his leg so that it would of hit someone about chest level before letting his leg drop to the ground, his guard raised the entirety of the movement.

"Very simple, very basic. You try."

Ar started in a Forward Stance with his left leg forward, his fists up in a guard position. His right was close to his jaw, his left about eye level close to a foot and a half from his face. His hands switched positions as his shifted his weight, bringing his leg in the air, but recoiled, his leg cocked, his right leg perpendicular with the ground, his fists up all the sudden, ready in a defensive posture. It continued on to strike out at the imaginary opponent, toes drawn back so as to strike with the ball of the foot. He tried to thrust out his foot hard at chest height, letting his weight shift forward with the strike, so that when he struck, his foot drew back to where it was before the strike, just before stomping with his right leg on the ground, now in a forward stance with his right leg in front, his left hand still near his jaw, his right still at eye level a foot and a half away. Max grinned, surprised.

"Wow! You're doing really good! You're a quicker study then I thought you'd be. Impressive. Let's progress to the Side Kick. Follow my movements."

Max set himself in a Forward Stance, fists up defensively, leading with his right leg. He lifted up his right leg, putting the weight on his back leg, and drew the kicking leg up parallel with the ground before, true to his word, he fired the kick out sideways rather then in front of him, the striking point of the foot was the heel. The kick fired out in a hard snapping motion, and after the force was exerted, he pulled the leg back, chambering it, before dropping his leg again, shifting his weight forward to put it all on his front leg once again.

Aratar attempted to emulate it, throwing a lot of driving force behind the kick as he tries to 'power through' the strike, envisioning the blow going through the point of contact, so the end point of the strike was actually several inches past where the imaginary target was supposed to be.

"Good. Same as before, until the suns set, I want you to practice those kicks with each leg, doing at least twenty repetitions with each, in the varying stances, cycling through them repeatedly." Aratar nodded and continued his training and conditioning, so focused on his practice that he didn't even notice the suns sink into the horizon until it was almost too dark to see his target. Exhausted, but noticing the definition his muscles were beginning to take on from the several straight brightenings of harsh practice, he wandered back to grab a quick snack before falling asleep.

Regardless of his exhaustion, he was still back at dawn, practicing on the dummy, when Max arrived. It was time for brightening two of the training...training that compared to swinging around bladed weapons felt disturbingly simple.

[Aratar Mori'ithil]

"Alright," Max began, "Time for the three blocks. Upper Block, Lower Block and Middle Block. Inventive and original naming, I know," he chuckled, even as he fell into a Forward Stance. "The first one is the Low Block."

This time his left leg was forwards, he brought his left hand upwards so that the back of the hand was about a centimeter from touching his right cheek. His right hand was slid downwards to help keep a better guard in place before pulling it back to his hip as he moved his left arm to complete the block. Hitting down quickly, it looked like more or a strike that a defensive technique in truth as his forearm moved to guard against attacks to the groin and stomach area.

"Simple in execution, but it can stop attacks to the lower body that can be pretty painful. Alright, now you try."

Ar stepped forward but this time he lead with his left leg. His left hand moved up to his jawline on the right side while his right hand guarded his lower abdomen before he drew the left arm down to the left hip in a clockwise type motion. He tried to move fast enough to make it look like a combination strike/block, rather then just a block. Max nodded slowly.

"Pretty good. Just add a little more snap to the motion and you'll be set. Remember that these can not only be a full-on block, but they can function as a simple deflection too. Let your enemy tire themselves out by exherting themselves while you use minimal effort. A very useful thing. Now, on to the Middle Block, which also goes by the name of Outer Forearm Block, or Outer Block."

Stepping forwards again so that this time his right leg was forwards as before, his left arm moved into a guard position as he brought his right arm so that it looked like he was flexing his biceps before smashing it in front of him to complete the guard.

"Again, a simple move, but effective. The Lower Block guarded your abdomen and groin, where the Middle block guards the rest of your chest." Max watched as Aratar made his own execution of the move.

Aratar again returned to his "right foot forward" stance, and the left arm protected the mid-section while he attempted to bring his right around to briefly look like a flex, before he swung it in front of him to form the guarding move. Max nodded and grinned.

"Great! Now, last block--the Upper Block, which also goes by the name of High Block." He took the forward stance again, this time leading with his right leg, and as his left arm pulled back to chamber under his shoulder to help add snap to the motion, his right arm came upwards. The move was almost identical in appearance to the Middle Block, but instead of making a vertical 'L' shape with the arm, the forearm perpendicular like in the Middle Block, it was instead a horizontal 'L' shape with the forearm parallel to the ground, and the forearm was raised up to his hairline.

Aratar watched with interest, and when he received the nod from Max, he attempted it himself. His left arm snapped back and under at the same time that his arm snapped upwards, flexing his bicep as he felt his fist tighten, also flexing the muscles along the outside of his arm that was intended to block the incoming attack. Max watched curiously, and when he finished he smiled politely.

"Not bad. The blocks are simple, yes, but they can do you a world of good. Now, interestingly enough, blocks can be used as a form of attacks too and aI encourage you to use blocks to hit back or even to unbalance an opponent." He glanced at the dummy and chuckled.

"Blocks obviously won't work well on a dummy, but I want you to spend until mid-brightening practicing your blocks in the different stances. Twenty repetitions of each block in a stance before moving on to the next one. Do it over and over until I come back. Once you've done that, we'll take you for a spin and see how well your skills hold up. I'm going to do a test spar against you." At Ar's worried look, Max chuckled softly.

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you, I just wanna test how your skills are doing." Atratar nodded and Max grinned, heading out as Aratar got to his practice until mid-brightening.

[Aratar Mori'ithil]

"You ready?" Max asked as he approached, and Aratar turned to face him. When he'd first fought Fritz, it was his first time in combat , training duel or otherwise.. He got a feel for how things worked and how fast-paced it all was. So, when Max came at him, this time he was prepared. He noticed that Max wasn't as fast as Fritz had been, as Max had more of a focus on power then speed, unlike Fritz.

Aratar backpedaled as Max came at him, and when Max's fist flicked out in a jab, Aratar, who could have blocked it, decided otherwise. No, he threw himself into a Middle stance and threw his weight behind his left leg as he pushed off with it, hurling his body to the side as the jab came. Max shook his head and spoke even as his jab missed

"Too much energy ex-" He didn't get the chance to finish as Aratar, who'd been leaning to his right so as to dart to Max's left out of the way of the left-handed jab, cross-stepped to plant his left foot firmly, putting all his weight under it again so he could push off once more...but this time it was with his right leg extended as his body was turned sideways , perpendicular with Max. The end result was an unexpected combination of a Side Kick and a Thrust Kick that landed square on the left side of Max's gut, his fist having only just recoiled from the jab, and so near his own face.

He didn't resist the kick, falling back with the effort so as to lessen the effects by rolling with the blow, so to speak. Even still he was surprised that Ar had pulled out such a move...thrust kicks usually weren't covered in Laeon, but they were effective none the less, and the principle behind them was used in more advanced techniques.

"That was a nice one. Surprised me there." Ar would never hear a phrase like that come out of Fritz's mouth, and his mother certainly never praised him. The only other person to have ever done that had been Adanessa...

...but no. He was trying ont to think of her. It pained him too much...and besides, he had to focus on the fight. "I know its informal, but that was a semi-custom technique that we'll informally call a Lance Kick." It had a nice ring to it. Lance Kick. Aratar didn't have time to think on it much, because Max unleashed with a move Aratar didn't know...a Jump Spinning Hook Kick. He was completely caught off guard, and when the kick connected with the back of Ar's skull, he remembered how Max had not tried to stand his ground but moved with the momentum, and did the same. Throwing his weight forward he went into a forward roll, coming back on his feet he spun to face Max, fists up, in a forward stance.

In retrospect, he was surprised. When using that tactic rather then trying to 'play tough', it hurt far, far less. He'd have to remember that...it would most definitely help. In exchange, he shuffle-stepped forward, advancing on Max, and opened up with a jab-jab-punch, and Max saw it coming, reaching out to deflect the punch wide and circle Ar much as Aratar had done in his opening move...but the punch was a feint.

Had he learned the two skills of unarmed and knifeplay separate of each other with a lot of time between them, he would likely have viewed them as two different lessons...but he didn't. He found himself, unexpectedly, blending the lessons so that he took some skills from one and some from the other, using them to compliment each other rather then think of them as separate and use separate approach...and feints were really much easier to do when you had the flexibility of no weapons versus trying to wield and combat against blades.

As Max dodged to the side exactly as Aratar had predicted he would--just as Aratar had in the opening of the spar--he chambered his leg and flared it out as he pushed off with his left leg, his Lance Kick going out again. Max was ready for it this time, though, and caught his kick bare-handed, trapping it between his hands. Aratar, surprised, felt slightly flustered as he held his leg up for lack of being able to bring it back down, and tried to think quickly on what to do.

He came up with nothing, even as Max slid in and with a quick sweep, took Aratar's remaining leg out from under him before lunching forward and in a downward motion, throwing his weight behind the move so as to use his grip on the leg to create an improvised, if slightly awkward, piledriver. Aratar had no move he could make to escape the trap, and was slammed down on his back hard. Because his foot was still trapped he could roll out of it, so he was pinned to the ground as Max twisted his leg at an awkward angle that made it impossible to stand.

The soldier held the move for a few more seconds to emphasize that he'd taken Aratar, before letting the leg go and stepping back, motioning the inexperienced elf to his feet so they could begin again.

"You're not doing bad, Aratar. Rather well, in fact with how inventive you're being. You won't always win, so don't take it personally. Come at me again." Ar stood, sighing, positioning himself at the ready. before trying to formulate how to approach it. With a grin, he remembered giving it his all..treating every fight like a kill or be killed situation, and he comitted himself

Iluve. Guts.

He chargued forward, leading with a front kick. It was telegraphed quite clearly, so Max saw it coming and sidestepped, breaking out a Round Kick. Aratar released a middle block, stopping the kick cold, and stepped into the block, again throwing his weight behind the move.

What began as a Middle Block became a full-blown body check as with a popping motion he forced a backpedal out of Max,who stumbled back one two steps before he'd regained balance, moving forward in an attempt to palmheel Aratar in the chest. Aratar let loose another Middle Block and stepped into the block again, but Max expected it and stepped back...which was good for Aratar, because he fired off a front kick and Max's backpedal gave him the appropriate distance to land it...or it would have been, if before he got his attack fully extended, Max used a low block to throw the kick wide, then stepped in and, tucking his thumb into his palm so the front edge of his hand was as smooth as the back to make a ridgehand, and slammed it against Aratar's throat. Aratar stumbled back, choking and gasping for air, as Max advanced, ready to make the final blow. Aratar dropped to his knees, and just as Max executed an axe kick that should have brought his heel down on Aratar's head, he started with a high block to knock the kick off-course as he rolled out of the way, still gasping.

It bought him a few seconds and he struggled to his feet,trying to suck air into his bruised windpipe, so that he gave a jab to Max's face, trying to get him to back off and let Ar get a chance to catch his breath. The chance never came, because with a Step Side Kick aimed once at the stomach than another at the face, performing a Double Kick without ever even dropping his leg, Aratar found himself crumpled on the ground writhing.

Max realized he put quite a bit of force into the attack and smiled sheepishly, dropping out of his stance.

"That's good enough...sorry about that last one." Aratar nodded, moaning slightly from the painful blow, and slowly staggered to his feet.

"Good job...you pass. Practice, maybe have a spar or two to get some experience under your belt before you come back for more lessons." Aratar nodded.

"Thanks," he wheezed as he smiled weakly before limping away. Practice and spar, yes...but rest and not-hurting came first. Yes...rest sounded very very nice right about then...

[Steve]

Awarded 2 XP in Basic Zinn'ka.