"It would be a matter of seeing who would succumb to their injuries first. A draw seems fitting, and I must say, it's been a while since I've had such an intriguing dueling opponent."
Gracious indeed. Jaidan detected no condescension in the remark, yet he suspected that the towering Jedi was giving him the benefit of the doubt there. Jaidan had pushed through pain and injury in the past, of course; even in the days when mastery with a blade was his true focus, he was not so preternaturally skilled as to dive headfirst into the thick of battle with warriors of famed skill and ferocity only to come out unscathed every time. He was no wilting flower, and yet his approach to fighting was centered around finesse, a clean and technical answer to every challenge. Thus, he suspected that a warrior more inclined to take an injury on purpose would more readily shrug it off.
But that was mere speculation, and likely fueled by the inevitable self-recrimination that came with a mistake, so he didn't give any voice to it. Instead, he simply gave a short nod and collected himself.
"Thank you; my sentiments are similar. It may require some reflection to make full use of it, but I believe this is the instruction I sought."
Twirling his saber lightly, Aurelio continued, "Another bout sounds perfect to me, though I'll be on the offensive this time." He settled into a high guard stance.
"As you wish," he stated just as shortly as he assumed the low guard in answer. Jaidan generally preferred that stance of the two anyway. It kept his blade closer to his body, and thus quicker to move between said body and an incoming attack. And that's precisely what he had in mind. If Aurelio wished to go on the offensive, then Jaidan would present him with as impregnable a defense possible to test it against. And that meant Soresu.
He had heard once, early in his Jedi training, that Soresu was the most common choice among the old Order in their last years. A younger and more ignorant man then, he had initially assumed this meant it was likely the easiest of the seven to learn, and perhaps the least effective in light of what became of those Jedi. The style of the rank and file who'd died in droves, not the exceptional few. He'd recalled this notion with some embarrassment when the name Kenobi came up in his lessons, and that feeling had intensified as he delved into the style more deeply.
Yes, Form III had its weaknesses, and his attempts to cover them had led him in turn to Form II. And yes, at its most basic, the idea of Soresu was simple. Keep your blade in close, in position to await the coming attack and respond with minimal effort or delay. But practice diverged widely from theory. For one, it required the practitioner to placidly await an incoming blaster bolt, or even a
lightsaber, and endure that again and again while restraining the instinctive need to remove the threat as quickly as possible. The sheer mental and emotional discipline to do such a thing well was considerable, and the physical side of it was no less daunting.
Case in point: taken at face value, Form III could potentially be a disastrous choice for Jaidan's current predicament. It forced him to allow an obviously more powerful opponent into close quarters, a mistake this close to his body would be the end of him, and even if he put his saber in the way of Aurelio's without fail, a blade lock could easily end with his own blade shoved right back into his face.
The answer required that his entire body be engaged and acting in perfect concert. His footwork had to be spot on. And so it was. Two hands gripped Jaidan's weapon now, but it wasn't simply a static block that awaited the duke's slanting cleave, but a quick and elegant darting to the side, outside the blade's ard to ensure that his block worked WITH the momentum of the attack rather than against it. The next strike made that particular defense impossible, coming in directly from the side in an apparent attempt to box him in even as he was worn down by superior force. Thus, he slid away from the strike with his back foot even as he threw the block up to ensure he wasn't trying to stop the full impact of the swing cold. The third strike, coming in from the opposite side, he DID have to absorb more directly. But he angled his blade to apply the optimum leverage of both arms, and he leaned into the block with his legs and torso, thus providing the physical oomph he needed before sliding back to create distance.
A resolute, but steadily evolving defense. But he was no passive recipient to all of this, no matter how thoroughly his earlier aggression seemed to have died away like a snuffed candle. He was watching, he was waiting, and he was
learning.
Jaidan Shatani
