The first of the forms (Shii-cho, Combat class, open to those that want to learn)

[Shaddi]

The room had been made readily available as a training hall. At one end of the room was a table with a chair, upon witch sat Darth Erebos, around him floated ZTS droids dressed in acolytes robes, a whim of Erebos's for this training session. On the table however was a neat line of Training sabers that Erebos had brought in along with the droids for this class.
While he waited for students to come into the room he was using his time to practice telekinesis as he made his own sabers hilt fly around the room, similar to a fighter plane of old. However he wasn't moving at all as this was training to use Telekinesis without having to move his hands or any body part for direction of the object.


[member="Kayden Ouron"] [member="Gorteko Graye"] [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Darth Grimoire]

[member="Darth Erebos"]

Dueling. A skill even her mother did not pursue. But, Grimoire ventured to be better, it was her ambition to be an unparalleled saber duelist - much like Sith Lord legends of old such as Tulak Horde who is said to have made others of his time appear like mere children with toys. Lord Erebos held a reputation as an adept and proficient saber wielder.

Dressed in a high-collared black tunic that was held together at the waist by a leather tight bodice Grimoire strode through the threshold like a black spectre, with only the pale glint of her skin revealing any color to the complete bleakness of her appearance. She approached the Lord and bowed her head, resting her hand on her chest in salute.

"I am Grimoire my Lord." Grimoire, "I have come to learn. So that I may best serve."

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Generic corridor; generic entrance; generic training room; not a generic trainer.

Being ushered into the room. Joycelyn Zambrano stared at the masked individual at the far end with his floating lightsabres and the whirring training-droids. She did nothing to hide it. If anything, she appeared to openly her curiosity about the individual. It was not the most flattering look.

At first, one may think the mask was what made her curious, but everyone and their nerf wore a mask these days. Some for protection, some for respiratory problems, some wore it simply for the fashion. It was not the mask that tickled her curiosity, nor was it the droids. It was the set of levitating lightsabres that made her so curious.

Was it a viable strategy? Quite possibly. Was it a neat parlour trick? Certainly! Joycelyn quite liked parlour tricks and impressive feats of prowess. To an acolyte such as her, the trainer's display of telekinesis was indeed impressive. [member="Darth Erebos"] had her attention.

Her attire was simplistic and loose-fitted, made from cottons in hues of dark grey and trimmed with black. Her hair was braided down her back, kept neat and out of the way for the training ahead. She did not speak or make salutes. First of all, she did not know whom to salute, no names had been given to her. Secondly, she had been raised in a tradition that dictated that a trainee introduces oneself when spoken to by the trainer, not before.

 

[Niysha]

Things had become somewhat different for Niysha the closer she'd come to recruitable age. When she was younger, combat training had been much lower on her list of priorities than things like history, use of the Force, and a basic, well-rounded education. She was a supplicant, however, and didn't have the relative freedom of a full apprentice yet. One couldn't avoid lightsaber drills forever.

At the very least, Niysha hoped that this time she wouldn't be thrown to the ground with a training lightsaber held to her skin until it burned because her instructor had become impatient attempting to teach her simple maneuvers. Things weren't looking up, of course, since the moment the Miraluka walked in she could tell that the majority of the class had been invited by name. Trying to get between a Sith instructor and his favorites was one of the first things you learned not to do. Better to linger juuust out of sight.

Niysha walked in and procured a training 'saber in silence, taking her place somewhere to the side of the room, to avoid notice. Judging from the potency of his aura, the man at the head of the class today wasn't a full Sith Lord. That was...a mixed blessing. Sith Lords were more callous with how they treated lesser beings, but mid-level Sith tended to have a greater chip on their shoulders. It was trickier to skirt the line of "beneath notice" with them without winding up as prey.

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] | [member="Grimoire "]| [member="Darth Erebos"]​

 

[Shaddi]

As [member="Grimoire "]entered the room and came to him to introduce herself, Erebos nodded to the woman and then turned his masked face towards [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] and finally towards [member="Niysha"] as they arrived into the training room. Standing up, his lightsaber flying into his belt to stay there as he did so, and walking to the other side of the table he gestured for all three to come and stand in a rank and file line in front of him. He wanted to be able to look at all of them at once.

"Welcome to the first training session in the very first form." He began as behind him three of the training sabers raised up into the air and moved to be in front of each acolyte. "Consider these your enrollment gift into this class. They will not burn or cut anything as a normal saber will do but getting hit will be uncomfortable and numb the area hit so please be as careful in handling these as you would the real thing." This he said in a joking and humorous manner and waited for all the acolytes to take the hilts floating in front of them before he continued.

"Shii-cho is the first form developed for lightsabers and is focused on unpredictability and the proper way of using the saber itself. I have found that only knowing the very base foundation of this form will help you in the long run to learn the other forms when the time comes." He didn't put on airs nor did he try to be intimidating at all, even though his mask did deepen and distort his voice a little. "Now as acolyte Grimoire has introduced herself I want you two to do the same. If you have any skills or martial arts under your belt I would also like to know them as well. This will help me in structuring your learning curve to suit your needs."

 

[Niysha]

Oh. Lovely. A small class meant that each student would get more attention, which was fantastic for education but ironically was the last thing Niysha wanted. Her temperament remained even, as always. No small amount of stress would change that. When she spoke up, the apprehension wasn't quite audible in her voice. "Niysha, my lord. I have no substantial combat training." Coruscant Academy classes likely didn't count.

This was going to be a challenge. Either she'd be matched up with or carefully monitored by the instructor. The center of attention was not a place the little Miraluka thrived, but...it was becoming clear that opportunities to fly under the radar were quickly drying up. Acolytes were far more important than students, and faced actual observation. Hopefully she'd find apprenticeship under a rather reserved master soon, because the constant tightrope walking to stay off the menu was getting tiring.

There wouldn't be any hope of staying unknown in this room, though, so she did her best to stay understated and, hopefully, competent. It wasn't her interest to be a genius with the blade. Just adequate enough for this specific instructor.

She was quickly cut off by another student, late to enter and loud. Perfect.

 

[Gorteko Graye]

Gorteko entered the room shortly after [member="Darth Erebos"] began speaking. 'Late. even though this class was recommended for me since I've had no formal saber training. at least they haven't started the actual training yet.' The man then walked over the where the other acolytes were. He only recognized one of the other acolytes and the instructor, but that was to be expected; the academy was a big place after all, with growing numbers every day.

Given that Gorteko had never formally trained with sabers, with his short time in the empire and the lack of instructors in the cartel; he often wondered what the point of the lightsaber forms were. He never had trouble using his personal style in combat, and rarely resorted to his saber to begin with. Most opponents never made it that close anyways.

The acolyte took note of how the knight used force to move objects without channeling it through his body. 'It appears we've undergone similar training. I can sense a clear difference in our power, there's no mistaking that. However, In this one aspect, I wonder if it's possible that we might be equal? After all, this is the only aspect I've trained in since I was in the old empire, the only skill I could hone while working for the cartel. One might argue that simply through strength in the force he could overpower me. I suppose I'd rather not find out anytime soon.' The acolyte would wait for the others to introduce themselves as he was the latecomer and didn't want to interrupt.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Normally, Joycelyn would be sizing up her fellow trainees, but in this instance she kept her eyes fixed on [member="Darth Erebos"]. She lined up as instructed. Her deep brown eyes surveyed every movement of the Knight and his floating sabres until she was presented with a training sabre. Joy did not hesitate in taking it, nor was she too anxious. Her grip was one of determination as she lowered the hilt to her side.

As the first spoke up in introduction, Joycelyn turned her eyes upon the figure. Why was she blindfolded? Blind? It was the first time she had seen a Miraluka who had not fallen into the fashion of full masks. This made [member="Niysha"] something of an oddity in Joycelyn's eyes. However, the seeming meekness of her character hampered her curiosity. Why would a blind and meek person need lightsabre instructions? She even allowed herself to be interrupted. Joycelyn decided she would seize the moment.

"My name is Joycelyn Zambrano."

She paused for half a breath, letting the name sink in with those who knew their Voices.

"I have martial arts experience from Panatha, including blade-work. However, it was not my speciality."

Her physique did speak of one who had practised martial arts. She was lean, but strong in her posture and focused in her manner. Combined with her considerable height, a genetic trait from both her Epicanthix and Vahla lineages, she could pose as an intimidating presence.

[member="Grimoire "][member="Gorteko Graye"]

 

[Shaddi]

When he heard [member="Niysha"] speak he felt a little annoyed, to see a fellow Miralukan acting so meekly was annoying to him however he kept silent to allow the acolytes to speak. [member="Gorteko Graye"] Arriving late caused a slight punishment as the training saber shot towards him, it was up to him to catch it or not, if he wouldn't catch it, it would impact into his stomach with the force of a punch. Then [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] spoke and even though he had met her before he was sure she wouldn't remember him. "Acolyte Zambrano, I wish to tell you that your linage will give you no favors in my classes. You might be related to a voice but I respect the strength of the individual NOT their next of kin." His tone was slightly venomous but he wanted to make sure that she knew that to him, she was just another acolyte to him.

Looking towards [member="Grimoire "]he then turned around and clapped his hands which activated the droids that had been behind the table, all moved to hover a short distance away from all four of the acolytes. Looking towards Niysha however Erebos moved in front of her and leaned down to seem to stare directly into her nonexistent eyes. "Do not embarrass your own kind acolyte, you are sith not a servant." He said just loud enough for her to hear and then turned back and walked to sit on the table.
"Now turn on your sabers and the droids will go through the basics of Shii-cho, they will teach you the basic moves and strikes after that however you will all spar with one another under my watch."

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn truly had no idea who this individual was. She only knew he was a Knight under whom she would be taking a class on lightsabre combat.

​

"Of course, sir."​

She cocked a half-smile when her lineage was addressed. Joycelyn did not expect to be spared the rod, quite on the contrary; she had found that some judged her far more harshly in the light of her blood. Only the Ember of Vahl had ever looked past her name entirely. They were only concerned with her dedication to the goddess.

Even this instructor judged her lineage. He said he would only respect her actions. However, his words betrayed him. By giving the threat, he had already judged her. Still, his judgement was preferred over the few who tried to win favour with her family. She would rather have a painful truth than a comfortable lie.

Some would wonder why she let her name sink in if she did not use it for favour, as had been presumed. The answer was quite simple; it was a test. The test told her if she could use her name for favour or if she could trust the person's integrity. It was also refutatio; to address a point before it was used against her. She was perhaps not the most clever, but she had some tricks up her sleeve.

Joycelyn did not waste time on an inner monologue, however. Once the droid came floating in her direction, she tightened her grip on the lightsabre and slid her thumb over the activation button. The blade burst out with a furious hiss and filled the air with it's hum and red light. Joy could feel the power in her hand as she moved the blade back and forth, judging the weight.

Her eyes set on the droid waiting for her to get ready. How soon would it come at her? Knowing Sith, she did not have much time to wait.

[member="Darth Erebos"] [member="Gorteko Graye"] [member="Niysha"] [member="Grimoire"]

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

OOC:

Spoiler

It's been a few days, so I'm just going to go on with the Joy vs. Droid part. Or, some of it.

The droid moved into a position, leg drawn back and blade vertical, to the front and a little to the side. It was a very basic position in swordplay, and easy to copy. From there, it shifted into a position with more weight on the back leg, again a basic position for duelling, but with another purpose; Defence and offence. The third position brought the first shift in blade, placing it horizontally in front. Joycelyn copied as best she could, now they were moving into actual Shii-Cho territory.

The droid clicked a response, and Joycelyn adjusted her position. She had to shift her weight a little more and keep her blade quite horizontal. Nothing too major, her experience with similar weapons helped her much.

From there, the Droid showed four attacks, one from each cardinal direction: Overhead, inside, outside, underhand. The strikes were wide, swooping cuts, straight, and deliberate in form. After going thoroughly through the cuts, she would briefly be shown the adjustments she had to do to the cut dependent on the position she was in, and how to safely manoeuvre into thrusts.

It was not easy work, even for one with experience. The simplicity of the form made it difficult to perfect. There were no flurries or wasted movements, but just simple cuts and thrusts in their most pure form. She had not felt this clumsy and out of place in swordplay for a long time.

Next, she was drilled in the corresponding defences. Mostly, it was static blocks perpendicular to the attack. The Droid showed how to put sufficient force into the block without sacrificing too much mobility. Essentially, the defence formed a box around her. It also showed how to use the edge of the box to move away a thrust as in a parry.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

The Droid stepped back into the first shown position, the Jedi knew it as 'Jedi Ready'. Joycelyn stepped into the defensive position correspondingly. For a brief moment, she expected to be corrected, but the Droid appeared to accept the situation. From there, the instructor-droid showed combinations of the previously shown attacks and responses. It started out slowly as the agressor, Joycelyn applied the appropriate block.

Once it had gone through the sequence once, it reset and did it again more quickly. Joycelyn had to resonate with the speed and apply her blocks and parries in time. The droid repeated this to a total of five times, each time quicker, untill Joyce had a natural and fluent transition between the defences.

After the five given turns, they switched places, Joycelyn was the aggressor and she followed the same pattern: Horizontal attack from the outside, inn; rising cut to foremost knee; thrust to abdomen; overhead cut to centre line; end with outward cut to the neck. Each time they went through the sequence, the instructor droid picked on details of her bladework; anything from angle of blade, to hyper-extension, to smoother transitions and better position of the feet.

At the last of Joycelyn's aggressive turn, the droid added a new element to the mix: The Disarming Slash. Where there was formerly a stale block, the droid now shifted and demonstrated a cut that intercepted the path of the blade and attacked the opponent's sword-hand. After the display, it drilled Joycelyn in the transition from the last cut and block to the Disarming Slash.

A few more turns were taken, in which they alternated as aggressor and attacker and incorporated the Disarming Slash. The droid did not actually cut Joycelyn's hand, but it did not protest to her striking it. She gained a very basic understanding of the movement, but applying it to combat would be a whole other matter.

The last thing it showed her was the Sarlacc Sweep; an attack directed at multiple opponents. Much like the Disarming Slash, she only got a general feeling for it as it was all basic instructions.

Joycelyn and the instructor droid stepped back from each-other. Its' lightsabre extinguished and so did the Acolyte's. Her eyes turned to the other students. Up until this point, she had been completely engulfed in the practice of swordplay that she had not paid any attention to the others. Was she the last to finish, or perhaps the first? Furthermore, who would be her opponent in the sparring?

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos watched [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] begin her lesson and she seemed to quite easily become absorbed into it, she had talent as a duelist it seemed. However [member="Gorteko Graye"], [member="Niysha"] and [member="Grimoire "]seemed to be hesitant to begin their own lessons. "The droid's saber will only numb you were it strikes do not be afraid of it and try to learn what it can teach you."

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Joycelyn nodded to [member="Darth Erebos"]' instructions and turned her intent on the droid once more. It appeared dormant, but the moment Joycelyn activated her practice sabre once more, it sprung to life and assumed the basic Shii-Cho stance with the horizontal blade-position. Joycelyn mimicked the stance and exhaled to focus on the remainder of the lesson. The droid clicked out the description of a new sequence, allowing her to drill the elements more thoroughly until the others caught up. Joyce nodded, she would start on the defensive.

First strike was an overhead, the tall near-human raised her blade to create a barrier. She did not think of the blade as 'dull' or incapable of killing. When she imagined the danger of the plasmic blade slicing her clean in half, she found her senses vastly sharpened.

Next, the droid swept its' blade around to cut for her lower abdomen. She realised that the overhead was done in order to draw her arms up. Strategy was beginning to play into the blade-work. Swiftly, Joy let her arms fall into a batting motion as she just managed to put her blade into a vertical position and stop the blade from hitting her hip.

The Droid did not stay bound, but cut for the side of her knee on the opposite side. This one was a little easier to parry, but she saw her hands being awfully low. Again, the droid shifted its attack and made a thrust for her throat. As she had thought, it would lure her hands down before attacking high. This was all part of the deliberate tactics of Shii-Cho.

Joycelyn brought her blade up in defence and managed to just barely knock the tip of the blade aside. Shifting her stance, she stepped to the side and whipped her blade around into the path of the thrust, connecting in the approximate area of where a thumb would be. She put a considerable force into the Disarming Slash and managed to pull the entire droid a step forward as the lightsabre was fixed in its grip. She was quite sure that the strike would have efficiently disarmed an opponent. That would be her chance to turn the strike around and take the head clean off the shoulder.

However, before she could make such a final, decapitating manoeuvre, the droid slipped back and re-entered the standard position. Joycelyn did too, albeit with a little more confidence. It was her turn to attack, same pattern.

Spoiler

I'll just keep having fun with this until someone's ready to spar.

 

[Gorteko Graye]

Gorteko's assigned saber came at him surprisingly fast, he just barely caught it before it would have hit him in the stomach. 'It seems [member="Darth Erebos"] doesn't take kindly to tardiness, though who does really? There's certainly worse responses to my being late than slightly excessive force in training.' The sith thought to himself, looking down to the weapon he held in his right hand.

While the man could have simply began training, he didn't know where to start. Having received no formal combat training, he knew nothing of the saber forms. The sith had only ever used the personal style he developed during real combat. His lack of training left him to rely on studying from books in an attempt to self teach. The problem with this method was that Gorteko was more of a hands on learner, without an outlet to pour his attempted training into, he could never really learn. When he first entered combat, real combat, it was a day where everything seemed to go wrong. Needless to say, everything he thought he knew counted for nothing when it came to life and death combat. The style with which Gorteko now fought was basically a refined form of street fighting.

Instead of just fighting the droid, he would wait, and watch [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] in her training. Studying her movements, and the movements of the droid, perhaps mimicking her form would provide enough of a base to allow Gorteko to master the Shii-Cho form.

When the instructor addressed the possible fear of the acolytes Gorteko couldn't help but smirk, after all, who would be afraid of a training saber? ​"I apologize for the hesitancy, I was merely trying to get a better understanding before I began." At this time Gorteko would step up to his assigned droid and begin his training. While his for was technically correct, his movements were too deliberate and crude, it was clear that the sith was trying far too hard. He would be a work in progress, though Gorteko didn't care to know how to use the forms with his body. He only wanted to know the actually movements of the saber, so that one day, he could master all the forms along side his hands free telekinesis, this would allow him to attack an opponent with every form at the same time. The thought alone invigorated the man, he continued his training, as he cycled through the forms movements, his actions seemed to be getting more natural.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Beginning to get the hang of the movement pattern, Joycelyn started putting more power into her strikes. The practice sabre hummed furiously as it sheared through the air into a crashing overhead strike. The droid put its blade up in good time, but Joyce could feel it sink a little under the pressure of her blade. However, it also made her slower at withdrawing her weapon. As she lifted her blade away, she had to take half a step back to avoid the droid's blade from crashing into her neck. Instead, it struck her across the cheek and nose. A burning, stinging, numbing sensation spread through the left side of her face.

The droid once more assumed the opening position. Joycelyn wiped a hand over her numbed face before stepping into the corresponding stance and attacking once more. Her new attack drew power from her anger, but she played it safer. Her strikes still held a considerable amount of force, but less than her first. A smaller opponent would potentially find her battery to be quite frightening. A smile drew up the right corner of her mouth while the left drooped, her cheek numb and irritated.

She was not discouraged, the fire of the Vahla burned fierce in her heart.

 

[Shaddi]

"Excellent movements Acolyte Joycelyn, but you shouldn't overplay your hand and moving to much forwards it will leave you vulnerable." Erebos remarked on [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]'s growing skills with the saber. "Acolyte Gorteko, this isn't a rigid miner's dance." He began as he gestured for the droid to move back and took out a training saber of his own. "Observe the first movements work your way through them, Shii-cho is fluid and unpredictable, let that set into your mindset while you go through the motions." He said as he began to slowly move in the movesets, strikes and blocks of Shii-cho for [member="Gorteko Graye"] to see and get the hang of. Erebos was patient and calm throughout all of it and even though he was beginning to think that [member="Niysha"] and [member="Grimoire "]were just too afraid to begin by themselves this was also a little for them to see. Once he was done showing Gorteko the movesets in slow motion twice he moved on to Joycelyn and gestured for her droid to stop while Gorteko's droid moved back to him.
"I believe you are ready to spar already but given the lack of opponents I shall be your's. It should also give you the right amount of caution when facing a superior opponent that you certainly will at some point." He said right as he gave Joycelyn a makashi salute and then stood still with his blade pointed downwards and away from his body, wide open to attacks.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

As [member="Darth Erebos"], their tutor, stepped in and dismissed her droid. Joycelyn took several steps back to give room, expecting him to show something or give commentary. Her blade retracted and the hilt turned to the floor to neutralise her aggressive stance to one for observation. However, as it was revealed that he was there to spar with her, she cracked a crooked grin. Her left hand wiped her numb cheek, removing sweat and the dribble that threatened to emerge from the corner of her mouth. She lowered her head in a sign of respect for her opponent.

"It will be my pleasure to spar with you, sir."

Joycelyn's blade sprung back into form as she adopted the newly learned Shii-Cho stance, weight evenly distributed and blade held horizontally in front of her. She knew the other stances better, but this was about learning to use the form. She might as well use it for all its worth.

While adopting her stance, she observed that of her opponent. His body was open, but she could not afford to underestimate her opponent; that would make for a very short session. However, she knew she had to take the chance and initiate the attack, it was her best shot.

Quickly, her right foot stepped forward to close the distance while her hands whipped her blade up in an overhead attack. Rather than adhere to the perfect vertical and horisontal lines, she put the line of the strike closer to a diagonal aimed for the back of Erebos' shoulder and upper arm.

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos had constructed the shii-cho style he had mastered with the thought of economy of movement and as such he brought his blade up to block [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]'s diagonal overhead strike. "Remember even though Shii-cho is among the most simple of styles it is also very unpredictable so rely on that when you fight." He then said as he flicked his wrist once more and with a sidestep he turned in a circle starting from were he had blocked her attack and moved over behind Erebos and coming in with a two handed swipe towards her shoulder.
He wouldn't fight Joycelyn at his own level, it would only serve to hinder her own growth so instead of fighting at the master level he was at he fought her at more of the level of someone proficient with the style. He was still fighting her at a higher level than she was at but it was a much more manageable for her than fighting a master.


[member="Gorteko Graye"] [member="Niysha"] [member="Grimoire "]

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

Her strike blocked and moved to the side, she saw Erebos moving in behind her and intended to cut him off by turning swiftly and striking first. However, she was not quick enough. Instead, she turned just in time to bring her blade up and block Erebos' attack against her shoulder.

In retaliation, she figured she would heed his advice and go for the unpredictable. Whilst keeping his blade occupied with her block, she lashed out with a swift low kick aimed at his ankle to break his balance. It had worked for her in other forms, so why not now? Following the kick, she would try to push the blades against her opponent. Further working against his balance. It was unlike the push she had done against the droid in that she kept herself more guarded. This manoeuvre was far more calculated than what she had done against the droid.

He had experience and training on his side. She had strength and hopefully some unorthodox methods.

[member="Darth Erebos"]