Annealed or Tempered (Open Group Training)

[Lilia Dur'iar]

"Isn't that what first dates are for -- getting to know people you've just met?"

Lilia shrugged, a twitching movement with one shoulder, as she changed to a one-handed grip to block a second, slightly faster stroke from her opponent's lightsaber while sidestepping to avoid the small and slightly frightening lurch of the blades towards her body. That's gonna hurrrt if it connects...

Then the falling swipe came, and her earlier thought rushed back with renewed velocity. Stepping forward and twisting as if to about-face, the turn brought Lilia's lightsaber around in a horizontal slice at the boy's waist. With the direction the lightsaber was coming from, the blade would hit his back first.

@[member="Kale Arkin"] @[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen's training kicked in. Allowing the force to surge through his mind, he drank up Kale's maneuvers. Each movement was captures and cataloged within his mind. First conflicts were terrible for a fox, thus it only made sense to keep such meetings in the mind where he was perfectly safe. Vulpesen's size tended to make him underestimated. To most this would be peeving but he found the inattention strangely welcome. By the time he could be registered as a problem, he had already beaten his opponent several times over within his mind. The last step was to execute the maneuvers. Though not full proof, it had led him out of some hairy places such as Nar Shadaa, and now he was beginning to appreciate his abilities even more, when his future opponents would likely be far from the drunkards he had to handle in the past.

 

[Arkyn Rane]

She smoothly pivoted right around my falling saber and directed a horizontal strike toward my open back. My fourth step was forward, trudging steadily head; I pushed off with my back pivot foot and spun away from the swipe, guiding my blade with twisting wrists around and up and meet her saber with another spark spraying clash. The fifth step took me back to the opening stance, and the sixth was a repeat of the first, faster now, elbows raised so that when I dropped my arms and angled my blade down toward her, the blow carried all the force of my forward momentum. I had the advantage in height by about half a foot, and I was sure I was stronger, but my reach and strength were offset by her quickness. That spin had been pretty impressive. Smoother than mine, anyway.

@[member="Lilia Dur'iar"]​

 

[Lilia Dur'iar]

Lilia returned to her original two-handed grip, blue eyes wide open, taking in any little detail she could. A repeat of moves. Note to self. She thought quickly, then unconsciously compensated. Well, almost.

The Jedi Padawan stepped sideways and preformed a simple thrust with her blade at his exposed side while his arms were extended.

@[member="Kale Arkin"]

 

[Arkyn Rane]

"Ow!" I stepped away and dropped a hand to my side in a futile attempt to rub the pain away. The area around my ribs stung something fierce. "First point to you," I said with a mild grimace -- the pain was almost as bad as the sting of a sandwasp.

I resettled into my stance and took a deep breath; when I exhaled, the pain was all but gone, and my ever-present grin had returned. "So how long have you been a padawan?" I extended my arms away from my body, increasing the reach of my blade, angling the saber horizontally, level with my chest. She was too nimble to allow any closer than the combined length of arm and saber -- I didn't much fancy a second sting to match the first. One was enough.

@[member="Lilia Dur'iar"]​

 

[Lilia Dur'iar]

"First point to you."

Lilia's face flickered in a grin. "I try." She said mildly, holding her saber in the basic medium style stance as she waited for him to recover - left foot forward, holding the hilt of her weapon in a two-handed grip ever so slightly angled forward.

"So how long have you been a Padawan?"

"Thirteen years. I joined the Order when I was five." She responded, jerking the blade down in a basic feint before rolling the hilt between her fingers in an uppercut that would land on his wrist if he didn't bat the strike away. "What about you?"

@[member="Kale Arkin"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen continued to watch the duel growing more and more interested in the fight. A slight flicker of surprise lit his features then the girl had landed on the one he had already dubbed "Flyboy". Seems kinda harsh for a first date, he thought in silence. As the duel continued he listened in on the verbal exchange. All battles aside, it was fun to watch people's faces when he occasionally guessed their names without being told. His own hand itched to participate in a spar, changing his grip on the training saber, Vulpesen continued with his velocities, slashing with wide one handed right, then flowing into an over head parry before giving his lightsaber a balancing twirl which flowed into a quick jab.
Though he preferred the balanced philosophy of Niman, his mind and body were automatically driven towards the elegance of Makashi. Normally he'd curse himself for being unable to stick with any one style, especially when he was using simple shii-cho, but being a Jedi now meant that he may come in contact with enemies such as the sixth. The main enemy of the Jedi, and one of the reasons that the second style was invented.

 

[Arkyn Rane]

"Thirteen years. I joined the Order when I was five."​

​

Woah. Thirteen years was a long time. I reckoned she was about my age -- that meant that she'd started her career as a jedi around the same time I assembled my first droid and joined my father's crew.

My musings were cut short when she moved to attack. I didn't react to her opening move, as my blade was already in position to block, but the attack turned out to be a feint anyway. Her saber swerved towards my wrists and I pulled back, angling my blade to swat hers away with a tight swing and a twist of my hips.

"What about you?"​

"Me?" I decided, for now, I'd maintain my defensive posture. It was what I was best at. "I joined the order last week."

@[member="Lilia Dur'iar"]​

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Je'gan watched in approval. He was exceptionally busy. But this sort of thing was supposed to be self-led anyway.

 

[Lilia Dur'iar]

"Me? I joined the order last week."

"Look out, we've got a newbie." Lilia cracked, going with the momentum to draw her training saber back so it was upright, with the hilt at shoulder height, for about half a second before it snapped down in a two-handed grip in a defensive pose across her upper torso, waiting for him in initiate the next attack.

@[member="Kale Arkin"]

 

[Arkyn Rane]

"Look out, we've got a newbie."​

​

Another barking laugh escaped my lips. "You won't mind us making a wager then, since I'm a newbie?" I had my mind set on defense, and started circling jer with slow, deliberate steps. "If you win, you get to choose the sight of our next date; if I win, I choose." She didn't seem to have an inclination to attack either, because she didn't attempt a single offensive maneuver. I foresaw this being a long day, unless...

"Oi, guy!" I didn't know his name. "Care to join us?" Offer made, I turned my eyes backed to Lilia, voice lowering as I said in aside, "And if he wins, I won't bother you anymore." My grin returned, wicked and curved like a scythe. "Unless, of course, you enjoy being bothered?" I punctuated my words with a half-assed swipe at her blade, just to initiate a little contact. My brain was racing, running through the sequences I learned. Any one wouldn't be enough, but if I could manage to string a few together...

@[member="Lilia Dur'iar"] @[member="Vulpesen"]​

 

[Lilia Dur'iar]

"If you win, you get to choose the sight of our next date; if I win, I choose."

"Now what in all the worlds would make you think I want a second date?" Lilia asked, a slight smirk forming on her mouth as she matched Kale step for step, so they circled each other like gdans in a territorial spat.

"And if he wins, I won't bother you anymore. Unless, of course, you enjoy being bothered?"

Lilia laughed. "Oh, now I have some incentive to loose." She teased, stepping backwards to let his swipe pass a centimeter or two in front of her blade.

@[member="Kale Arkin"] @[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen stepped forward with a lopsided grin. "Vulpesen Espadus Torrevaso, at thine service. Vulps for short." He ignited the blade with a familiar snap-his and held it infront of him in the customary salute. "And yes, I'd be happy to join you." He swung the blade experimentally and closed in on his fellow apprentices, already remembering the information he had gathered in the few engagements he had already seen. "Now then, who wishes to fall first?"

@Kale Arkin @Lilia Dur-iar

 

[Arkyn Rane]

"Oh, now I have some incentive to loose."​

​

"I'll just have to win then. It's for the best -- you'd probably choose meditation or something." I backed up a few paces, putting myself equidistant from the both of them, Lilia on my right shoulder, and Vulpy at my left. I squared up, knees slightly bent, shoulders straight, blade held horizontal, level with my chest. "And this ain't one on one. This is a free-for-all. Unscripted chaos." I took a deep breath and my excitement settled into a nice, steady calm. "Bring it."

@[member="Vulpesen"] @[member="Lilia Dur'iar"]​

 

[Vulpesen]

"What do I get if I win?" Vulpesen asked as he struck out against @[member="Kale Arkin"]'s mid body with a short jab. He kept caution over @Lila Dur'iar as he did so and made sure that he kept his position on the end of the line of people. He remembered well the days that his master had pummeled the rules of said combat lines into his head.

 

[Arkyn Rane]

I dropped my arms and gave a step, smacking his blade down and away from my body, before resetting my position, mindful of Lilia. I felt far more comfortable sticking to defense, guided by my instinct as opposed to trying to execute a specific sequence. This was much more natural. "You get a high-five and a congratulations," I told Vulpesen.

@[member="Vulpesen"]​

 

[Lilia Dur'iar]

Lilia backed up a little, saber held two-handed pointing down towards the ground as the girl's eyes flickered back and forth, observing the fight with tense attention. It would be better let them go at each other then get involved in a free-for-all right away. That didn't mean she would be lowering her guard any time soon though...naturally. She thought.

@[member="Kale Arkin"] @[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen continued his engagement, using the style of makashi to weave a defensive shield of light while striking out with fluid attacks, first a bottom right to upper left slash followed by a short lunge which flowed into a spinning right slash. He'd studied his opponent well, and was happy to see that his favorite style would be the best against @[member="Kale Arkin"]. Makashi was designed especially for lightsaber combat, and thus Vulpesen used its stills to his highest advantage. "I think I might want a bit more than that. After al, if you win, you get the girl. You and I both know that's a much higher value than what I've been offered."
@[member="Lilia Dur'iar"]

 

[Arkyn Rane]

I batted his upward rising slash back to the right with a twist of my hips, stepping aside as he lunged forward. His saber spun past my moving form, hitting nothing but air. He was doing way to much -- who did he think he was, Count Dooku? He was quick -- almost as quick as Lilia -- but he hadn't the grace to pull of such a move as what he'd attempted; not yet anyway. That's why I stuck to simpler moves. We were beginners, after all.

"What you want ain't my concern, I'm afraid." I noticed Lilia wasn't joining in. A free-for-all was no fun with just two people. "Win or lose I get the girl," I told Vulpy. "S'just the way of the universe.

"So, madam." I spared Lilia a glance. "You gonna join in, or are you just gonna stand there looking pretty?"

@[member="Vulpesen"] @[member="Lilia Dur'iar"]​

 

[Lilia Dur'iar]

"You gonna join in, or are you just gonna stand there, looking pretty?"

"Well, for now I'll take the second option. Since I do it so well." Lilia replied with a sweet smile. She was still miffed over the 'get the girl' comment. "And since when was I a trophy?" She asked offhandedly.

@[member="Kale Arkin"]