Location: Training area
Des had done her own research on Broken Gate, and as she listened to Caltin's lecture and tenets most of it matched what she'd already picked up. As he went into demonstrating stance and technique she didn't bother waiting. She immediately set herself and went to mirroring each posture, regardless of the other students. She was focused on adopting and adjusting as they went.
Before she'd even left Arkania, a gran friend of hers had taught her martial arts skills and gran boxing. The martial skills had focused on weapons and applying those techniques, along with unarmed variations. Then she'd come to the Jedi Order, and her training with a saber had certainly benefitted from that bit of background training, having already had years under her belt. A large portion of what she'd learned had to deal with footwork, being in the right place at the right time. It wasn't fancy, but it was
effective as hell. While it didn't favor deep stances, it did get close to this. Adopting what Caltin demonstrated came almost like muscle memory. The techniques her friend had taught were a mix of hard and soft, allowing it to handle both situations. Working with the Jedi had built upon that as well. Broken Gate seemed to be more of a "hard" style, but it certainly had its merits.
Like Beltran, Des squared off against once the training droids when it was time. Also, like him, she didn't want to hurt a friendly. The first push almost dumped her, but she immediately adjusted her footing. The second one saw her lower her center of gravity in a wide riding stance and easily mitigate the push. The next ones were stronger, and though she didn't look like much in her uniform she was much stronger than she seemed.
After a few rounds of pushing and working on changing the direction of the incoming pushes, and sending some of her own back, she shifted into evasion. Triangular footwork allowed her to change angles of power, putting her in position to off-balance her opponent easily, and full-on counter-attack if she wished. Basic Makashi training allowed her to change ranges and play games of degrees. Shifting a foot to one side just enough so that a slight turn of her torso saw a push or strike sailing past.
Like Beltran, she went through her own counters when she finally tired of just evading. The first came swiftly. The training droid struck at her with a right cross. She shifted her left foot to the outside, pulling her center off the line of attack. Her right hand swept up intercepting the wrist with the edge of her hand and pushed, deflecting as the mechanical arm skidded along her hand. Her hand snaked over the top and locked down around the wrist. Pushing with the ball of her left foot, straightening her leg twisted her hips, her torso followed, firing the muscles of her core and back, along her shoulders. her left elbow came forward, her forearm vertical as her elbow intersected the droid's elbow with a loud impact and shrieking metal pop. Elbow destroyed, she used the momentum of her strike and power of her body to continue on. Her left foot left the deck as her pelvis continued to pivot. Rising partially onto the ball of her right foot, her heel turned inward as she applied power to the ground. The ball of her left foot snapped out, intersecting the droid's knee joint with a similar pop, creating so much wreckage. Releasing the wrist, Des brought around her right elbow, slamming into the droid's throat area. Not the face, not the chest. Both hands hooked onto the droid, left at the back, the right just behind the neck. The counter-motion from her elbow to the throat set up the next strike. Her right knee came up and around as she practically leaped a couple centimeters off the ground into the strike, slamming into where the solar plexus would be on most humanoids. Letting gravity take her, she anchored the droid into a bend and dropped her elbow onto the back of its neck. The machine went down, sprawled on the floor with limbs bent at unnatural angles.
Des huffed to herself. "
Reset," she commanded. The droid twitched once, twice, then the durasteel cable running down the center of its arm tightened winding back together. The joint resituated itself with several metallic pops, then the wrecked knee repeated itself as the droid returned to its feet. The next series of counters were just as quick and efficiently brutal. While her initial training had never been intended for battlefield use, it was meant for deadly street fights. It dealt with multiple opponents quickly, and single opponents too. Most of her counters started with limb destruction techniques. She would re-direct strikes to where she could literally destroy what was sent to destroy her, smashing incoming hands, arms, legs. She began mixing some of the softer wrapping techniques from her original system with the linear hard and percussive techniques Caltin had demonstrated. Things that gave her as much offensive capability as they did control. The deeper stances allowed her to become a relatively immobile mountain. She started to get a feel for her 'roots' and use that to strike like a battering ram, but move like water when she wished. In short order, she'd worked up a sweat, using new and old muscles, and generally throwing herself into the training with much enthusiasm. There were no other cares, no other worries, just moving and absorbing, incorporating all she was learning. It was probably as close to happy as Caltin had seen her.
Desbre Gensan
,
Milya Vondar
(both unless specified)
