Testing your blade. (Open Martial Training)

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra sat with her legs crossed, another room taken up by her presence as she used this as another of her little lessons. It was a matter of waiting for a student to be proactive though, that moment of one coming into the room and seeing just what they were interested in. Alexandra remembered the old days of having to fight and suffer to become stronger, those days as a sith or alone and without a guide. These Jedi were so different and that was something she was curious of further seeing.

Today though, was different. It was rare for her to teach blade work, though not because of a unfamiliarity with it. She was a warrior, always would be one and never challenged that fact. But lately she took a safe like view on teaching, to look at how someone viewed their place and the force itself. To her, how one saw the force was ever more important in one's progress of growth.

Niman, Jarkai, Makashi, Ataru.

The names for the forms were something she had used before, that she had taught. All of them had their use and while she was not a practitioner of them she knew how to teach them.

So there she sat with closed eyes, waiting and watching through the force to see just who would rear their head. After all, it was the early ones that got there first, and received the reward.

 

[Dune Rhur]

Dune had decided he needed to hone in on his martial abilities. His recent encounter on Felucia with a Dark Side adept had proven this to him. While he wasn't without skill, he was fortunate to have only escaped with cuts and bruises. It was true that his talents mainly lay elsewhere but that didn't mean he couldn't strive to improve himself.

Today, he decided that he would work on the Jar'Kai method. Though he used a single blade the dual-blade method also served as an exercise in blade control.

He bowed his head in polite greeting to the woman sitting there cross-legged before walking to a rack and selecting a training saber to accompany his own blue blade.

[member="Alexandra Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Alexandra's eye cracked open as she looked over at the one who entered. 'A third time?' Her eye then drew to her side where the snow white furred wolf laid in her own tail. His words had mirrored her own thoughts as they moved into her mind, their silent conversation one sent through their bond rather than the force. 'It appears so, this this time though alone for now.' Her own response would head back to the wolf before her eye refocused on the man and she smiled a bit as he picked up a training saber. She had to often remember that not everyone was so inventive with their sabers and that they had those sabers for those without the energy controller.

"Hello, how is it that i can help you today Knight Rhur... I must say that your arrival is surprising considering you are a full fledged Jedi Knight. I'd have thought you be more comfortable with working with another of your order?" The man knew what she was like in full personality wise, a volatile mixture of grace and energy, yet there was few times she let the warrior show and that was something he would be experiencing for the first time if he was so inclined to try out. It seemed as though such would come to pass though. "Also, ive not seen your young follower recently. Is she missing?"

 

[Dune Rhur]

"A Jedi Knight is simply a step towards Mastery," Dune said with a smile "My learner, Joza?"

"Joza was knighted several months ago on Voss," he said with a note of pride entering his voice. His eyes shifted to her companion and back to her. Telepathy?, he wondered idly.

He took the training saber in his left hand and unhooked his own in his right. He nodded politely and walked towards the center of the room, thumbing on his weapons, one blue and one green. The Bith began to work deliberately through his sequences. He intended to continue to work until the others arrived.

His movements were intentionally slowed down, the full-sized lightsaber in his left hand felt a little strange. However, that was the point of the exercise for him today. Working on his weaknesses and becoming more viable in his ability to defend himself and others.

[member="Alexandra Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

She watched him with curiosity as she learned about the knighting of his youngling. 'A Silver... interesting. I did not think the two groups trained with eachother.' Her eyes flew to her companion again for a moment and after she was done she looked back at the man. "And now, you are here for my little lesson then? Very well then, lesson one is, you don't fight with the air."

The words had left her as her body rose and the outer robes fell from her to leave only her training tunic and trousers. Both as silver as the robes, and fit against her form while her tail curled around her like a belt. Her sabers hung from her sides along with a metal tube about the same length as a saber staff's grip in the small of her back. She move immediately from where she had been sitting, legs moving before she was even standing up straight, and positioned herself infront of the man with a small smile.

"Fighting with the air reinforces bad habits and poor form. Never fight or train alone when it comes to a blade as you can do a movement a million times, but all that practice will never make a warrior. Only experience with another force can improve a warrior, and even one as elegant as an artist with a blade, can never become a master with just the air to fight." Her hands raised from her sides and both crossed behind her back. "If your saber does not have a lower energy setting, set it down and grab another training saber... don't need to lose anything attached to me, training with the sith was a pain in that realm as it was." Her smile grew as she said that then nodded. "Once you are ready, i want you to hit me in three places with the sabers. The Neck, The Heart, and the Waist. Can you do that?"

 

[Dune Rhur]

The Bith stopped, mid-movement and deactivated his blades. Turning to face the woman, he would've cocked an eyebrow, had he any.

"Really," he said neutrally "Generations of Jedi Battlemasters might disagree with you on the point of training sequences being useless. Still, working with a partner is indeed more effective."

He made a series of small adjustments to his own weapon, restricting the energy output of the focusing lens. With that done, he brought the dual blades to life once again with the tell-tale snap-hiss. Without preamble, the Bith brought his lightsabers to bear.

First, his blue blade stopped in a backhanded slash centimeters from her neck. Close enough that the hair on her skin would be standing. Then, without pause, his green blade pointed at her heart followed by a fore-hand slash at her waist level with the right hand. He withdrew the blades with a quick flourish.

"Is that what you wanted?," he inquired.

[member="Alexandra Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

She smiled as each strike was halted before hitting her, the blade nearly touching her neck and her smile growing as he asked if that was what she wanted. In response she would detach the metal rod from the small of her back and hold it at her side before letting it extend to its full length and nearly smack Dune in the gut, its path veering off to his left as she held the now grown staff in her right hand. "Now, this time, don't hold back from landing the hit. I want to make sure that you can follow through with your precise strikes... and don't worry. Ive lost my arms to a bipedal feraxin shark, i think i can take a hit from you."

As she grinned her body dropped into a stance with the same fluidity to her movement, a action she had done a million times and as she landed into her stance she smiled wider. Her hands tightened as they both gripped at the staff now and spun it so that she had it pointed at the Bith's own throat this time, half a foot between the tip and his throat. Her eyes focusing on him as well as she seemed to change internally. Her entire body was relaxed and she seemed almost completely focused on him now. Her eyes seemed to even trace his face as she waited for him to react and move. "When you are ready."

 

[Dune Rhur]

His eyes never left hers and he didn't twitch though he could practically feel the staff touching him. As her staff began to move, he warded it away from his throat with his left like a main gauche dagger. Then he followed up with an attack with the right. So began their exchange with the Bith keeping his left weapon in close as a defensive tool, freeing up his right to attack.

[member="Alexandra Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

The right blade came in in the same way she was used to, smooth and swift. Atleast the man knew how to handle the blades but his speed needed to match that level or precise action and that was something no one could truly be a master of. None the less though the blade work was plenty worth the pain to face against.

None the less though, her hands moved to follow the blow from the left blade, sliding along the staff and shuffling her feet to switch her stance. Her hands then drew the staff up sharply as she smiled at the Bith with her eyes watching his blade collide on the metal of her staff. She stared at the glow and waited as the sound and vibrations traveled to her hands and ear. She was going to speak only she found herself too engaged to care about the release of words and instead only let the smile grow to continue her expression of excitement.

 

[Dune Rhur]

They continued to trade-off attack and defense, Rhur doing his best with the less familiar dual wielding tactic. Objectively, he was aware that Alexandra was humouring him. That didn't matter because this was training, a chance to improve. What was the point on only honing strengths after all.

[member="Alexandra Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Dune was holding up well, his movements controlled and she could tell that the man was trying to hone his blade work but it was not only your offense that needed work when you trained. So thus her grip on the force tightened and reached out as it pulled in and let the force come into her body. Twisting with the Bith's last strike she decided it was time to give the man a bit more of a challenge than she had been giving him.

First came the strike from above, a heavy downward slam of her staff and meant to have him focus on it. Only once it landed did she push into the next strike, bringing the far side of her staff up and aiming to hit him in the gut with the butt of the staff.

 

[Dune Rhur]

The Bith responded to the heavy overhead strike, probably as expected, he reckoned afterwards. He brought both blades up to meet the blow, knowing just one wouldn't be enough. Then the butt-end of the staff came up and he moved just a tad too late. The end clipped him in the stomach and he grunted.

The blow knocked him back a pace and he had to actively push away the pain and the shock of being struck....

[member="Alexandra Feanor"]

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Alexandra's eyes drew on the man's feet now as they were pushed back. She could feel Dune's shock of actually being struck and forgot for a moment that these were Jedi who were far more used to controlled training rather than unfiltered strikes. Even Daeda felt his shock and spoke in her mind as her body continued to move ever while these thoughts moved through her mind. 'Calm down Alex, hes not one of the Grey or the Sith...' For an instant she even debated toning down the strikes but then she remembered something that kept her moving, though now she spoke as the next strikes came.

"There is no Ignorance, There is no Knowledge. That is the first line of your Code is it not? You cannot ignore that there will be those who will not hold back. Nor about the past of those that you train with. This i agree with but there is one thing that i will not hold back and that is the second line." In conjunction with her words there was a spike from her force presence but also from her emotions. Instead of hate, fear, or rage though, it was something that would probably leave Dune a bit more confused. What he would feel is excitement, joy, compassion, love, and caring for the Bith in a way that one would attribute a mother towards a child.

Alexandra's spike in emotion though was followed by an obvious increase in her speed and power though, the strikes becoming a bit stronger with each one as well as speeding by. She twisted in the first one, swinging the staff at Dune's side about chest high, then pulling it back she jabbed out at his gut. It was finished then with the third quick strike aimed for his legs, looking to remove him from his standing upon the same ground. If it worked, or even if it didn't though, her words would continue. "Your Code, like your fighting style, sues for teh peace of mind and control of yourself in completion. I will not challenge that the Jedi code is effective but i will warn you Dune that you must understand there are those in the galaxy that do not hold back on strikes in training or in battle. If we had been enemies... and when we are enemies, you would be dead for a mistake like you made in the beginning. But it is that reason that we are not enemies and i no longer fight for the Sith."

She paused for a second before continuing. "I hope you have fought in earnest against others before, and if so it brings me a bit of happiness to know you know what to expect. But what i need to see now is that true effort, i want you to fight me as if it were in life or death. I want to see no hesitation, and do not worry about harming me because trust me when i say you will not. Ok?" Inside she stared at the man with a single line that followed her words. 'If he wants to live, then i will make sure he does.'