Aren't You a Little Short...(Wolf)

[Kaz Praxon]

Bastion Of Ren
Virgillia

As one of the myriad rooms devoted to the training of those who were considered potential future Knights of Ren, the trainee dojo was specially built to provide initiates and disciples a relatively safe place to hone their martial skills. Broken bones would have cost time, and so the floor of the room had been padded so that being thrown to the floor would hurt, but not seriously injure the unlucky party. The walls were lined with weapons, from simple wooden training swords to mock lightsabers, halberds, axes, and the like.

Giving the staff an experimental twirl, Kaz Praxon decided that it would do nicely. It was a long length of the native wood, and that was it. Nothing special. No technology behind it at all. It was a stick. Literally a stick. Sticking with the adage that a staff was supposed to be around the same height as it's wielder, this one was a touch over three feet tall. They'd had trouble actually finding such a small piece on the racks, and so after a miserable day trying to fight with a quarterstaff that was over twice the height of it's wielder, he'd ended up fashioning his own from a small sapling he'd found in a local forest.

His opponent was a human male, who was far bigger on brawn than on brain. Kaz suspected that he had barely been accepted into the Bastion, but perhaps he was unaware of other talents the man had. Still, this was his opponent for this match, and so he squared up with him, having to crane his neck to look up.

It certainly wasn't the first time he'd had to do so in recent months. These humans were tall.

The signal was given, and as his opponent was dropping into a ready stance, Kaz darted forward, sliding to his knees and bringing one tip of his staff up between the legs of his opponent. Sliding between the human's feet, he brought the other end around and behind his knee, dropping him to the floor. Spinning, he reversed the staff and brought it down hard on the initiate's nose.

For the third time that day, the Squib stood up, over an incapacitated foe, as the combat instructor looked pleased. At first he'd been less than thrilled with having been saddled with an alien, but Kaz had quickly proven that size wasn't everything...


[member="Wolf"]

 

[Wolf]

[member="Kaz Praxon"]

"Good." The combat instructor walked over to the side of the room, retrieving a double-headed axe that hung on the wall, before turning to face the Squib. The edge was blunted, but a direct hit would no doubt be painful, and with strong enough force could easily break bones. The combat instructor, Balfour, stood at 6'6" himself, his barrel-like arms draped under large black robes. He looked as though he was well into his thirties, and carried the disposition of a hardened warrior.

The man was a senior Disciple himself, but had reached a stage in which he was deemed suitable as a combat instructor, but continued to fall short of passing the strenuous trials necessary to become a fully-fledged Knight of Ren himself. The Order of Ren still found use for him in training some of the other Disciples however, and Balfour himself was an uncomplicated man who was only glad to serve the Supreme Leader in whichever way he could. Such was the loyalty that the Order instilled into its members. The large man turned back towards the Squib, speaking through his messy thick beard. "Your next opponent will be me."

Balfour was no doubt impressed with the display of power that the young alien had shown, and he wanted to test his strength for himself. He took great pride in the training of other Disciples who could one day become Knights of Ren, and even greater pride still in those Disciples who were worthy of surpassing his own strength. He would not make it easy for them however, no, the Supreme Leader demanded only the best to be his Knights of Ren, and Balfour was determined to fulfil his wish.

There was a sudden shift in the room, as though a wave of chilling darkness had enveloped them, and it seemed as though the lights in the room flickered, if only for a moment. Balfour's gaze shifted for a moment as he looked to the windowed door in the dojo. If Kaz were to turn around, he would see a robed figure, his face shrouded by his hood, behind the door that led into the training room, watching silently. The figure remained perfectly still behind the window, he appeared to be observing them. Was this one of the Knights of Ren? The strong dark presence that emanated from him would suggest that was a good likelihood. But why reveal one's presence so ostentatiously? There were many dark powers who found it wiser to conceal the Force signature that emanated from them. But there was something about this one's presence that was... sickly. It was as though the darkness that emanated from the hooded figure was not entirely voluntary, but rather an ever-present fragrance that travelled around with him, disease-like.

The combat instructor would give Kaz no room for further thought on the matter. Whether the Squib had turned back around to face the instructor or not would not matter as Balfour darted forward. He was surprisingly quick for his size, and the Squib may discern that in fact his instructor was amplifying his own speed with the Force. Within moments the huge man would be upon him, his right hand raising his axe high into the air and bringing it crashing down in front of him, with enough force to shatter bone as he aimed for the Squib's left shoulder. The alien had defeated three other Disciples, so Balfour felt no need to pull his punches. Now he could truly test what this promising canine was made of.

 

[Kaz Praxon]

The hulking, gigantic mass of human flesh that was Balfour was a constant source of both knowledge and terror. Every disciple he knew had at some point had the stuffing beaten out of them by Balfour. The man took pride in training those junior disciples who fell under his tutelage, and to his credit, every student who was taught by him learned a great deal about the science of combat. He'd even risen to teaching Kaz himself some ways to help minimize his disadvantages, while maximizing his natural talents. And while the young canine couldn't think of anyone who genuinely liked Balfour, everyone respected him to one degree or another, and nobody could doubt his devotion to his role and the Supreme Leader.

He was not, however, looking forward to facing Balfour again. The last time he'd faced off against the instructor, he'd spent two days in the med bay as a result. Balfour seemed to feel no need to hold back just because his trainee was less than half his height and a third his weight.

Given the sense of smell that came with having a large nose, Kaz smelled the new addition to the room before noticing his presence. The smell was less than pleasant, one of death and power. He'd felt it before from some of the more senior Knights of Ren who occasionally found a reason to come down to where the Disciples lived and trained, but not from others, and he had been told at one point that it was a natural aura that came from what they did and what they learned, but that some chose to hide it more than others.

Given the choice, he would have bowed politely as was custom, were it not for the woosh of air behind him. Turning, he had just barely enough time to jump off to the right as the axe came thudding down where he had been moments before. He dropped into a roll, soaring past Balfour, spinning around to aim a strike at the back ofhis kneecap. Kaz was a fan of this move, as it was one of the few weak points on humans he could easily reach.

[member="Wolf"]