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Post by bookity101 on Aug 29, 2009 20:13:35 GMT -5
Luxe smiled in triumph as the kit realized there was a trick, instead of just rushing in for the kill as it were. “Good, you are actually starting to use the thing in between your ears.” He said tapping him lightly with his own truncheon. He turned to the dummy.
“This is something that is quite ingenious actually..” He reached out a paw and spun the top two of the five tiers “It’s pretty basic Caden, I spin one at you, you block it, that keeps going because the momentum from your hit makes it come at you again, the different lengths make it more difficult, and the studs make it pack a punch if you miss the block.” He smiled and rubbed his arm, “They leave quite a bruise so watch out for that.”
Luxe took up a place behind the dummy. “I’ll let you get the hang of one before I start the second one spinning.” He placed a paw on it. “You ready Caden?”
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Post by Ladorak on Sept 1, 2009 9:30:31 GMT -5
"Hey!" Caden exclaimed, trying to push the truncheon away from him but Luxe had already retracted it from his head by the time the marten had gotten his paw up. "I DO think ya know!" he said, placing his paws on his hip. He listened though, trying to figure out how it worked. So blocking it only caused one more of the spokes to spin around and strike you? How could one possibly win this in that case? To Caden, it was about winning or losing, not just practicing all day long. There had to be a goal of some kind.
"Yeah...I'm ready." Caden said, nodding and raising his truncheon up as if it were a sword. He could do this....just like Ladorak. He could be as good as that stoat if not better! He had seen him fight, and it had bedazzled the marten at first....but now he was the one with the weapon. He couldn't lose this thing.
"Go ahead Luxe.....I'll beat this into the ground." the albino muttered under his breath. His pink eyes studied the limbs, noting they were all sorts of lengths and indeed, they did have studs on them, probably making them quite painful. Gritting his teeth, he tried to anticipate which direction Luxe would spin it, and hopefully be able to go from there....
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Post by bookity101 on Sept 1, 2009 21:14:26 GMT -5
Luxe smirked, but hid it behind the top tier on the dummy. "Ok then Caden, here you go." He spun the tier that was closet to Caden's chest, slowly, as he knew it would take to or three hits for it to gain speed enough for it to hurt him if he missed.
He let Caden use the truncheon as a sword till the second time he missed. Hoping that the strikes wouldn't leave to much of a mark on the kits body, he approached the kit, holding his truncheon differently than the sword grip Caden had. He gently moved the kit out of the way, starting the top two tiers using the modified grip, then he stepped back and turned to Caden.
"There's a difference when you hold a shorter blade when all your doing is blocking." He said, not really talking to Caden, but still telling him what he needed to know. "With a big weapon, its easy to get the momentum needed to strike a blow, so you hold it nearer the pommel." He demonstrated the sword grip that Caden had been using. "But, with a smaller weapon, you want control,” He switched to the hold he had been using. “unless your gonna throw the thing, then you hold it by the tip.” He flipped it over to a rough imitation of a throwing hold.
Luxe stepped out of the way and took his place behind the dummy. “Ready to begin again Caden?”
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Post by Ladorak on Sept 2, 2009 14:55:38 GMT -5
Caden saw the stick coming at him, and move to strike it, knocking it back, though not with enough force that he couldn't parry the next oncoming stroke, and then the next, and finally the next, but then he tired a tad and felt a sharp whack on his right shoulder as he moved to block what he could see as another incoming hit.
Gritting his teeth, he angrily whacked the offending stick away, but used too much force and was clocked squarely in the chest, getting knocked off of his hind paws and landing squarely on his back. He couldn't breathe at first, his head swam and his body just about exploded in pain. He needed air! And yet...try as he might...his lungs couldn't gather any...at least for a few moments.
Slowly....his lungs started to fill again, and he gasped, trying to get it all to come back at once. He looked up at Luxe in a bit of a daze. He was holding his truncheon wrong? But why!? Did it really matter? Pushing himself up to sitting, he took a couple of minutes to regain his breath. Gritting his teeth again, he got up onto his hind paws. Stupid dummy....his opponent would've been down if it wasn't made out of wood! At least that's what the marten convinced himself of.
"It's not fair ya know.....that thing's made out of wood!" he said, his eyes a bit angry now. Fine...he'd try this new way of holding his weapon. "Go ahead....spin it." he said, ready for the challenge.
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Post by bookity101 on Sept 2, 2009 18:51:44 GMT -5
Luxe hid, his grin again whispering to himself “Yeah well, neither is life Caden… Sooner you figure that out, the better”, maneuvering the tier to start again as he did. Stepping back, Luxe decided that this time he would simply let Caden get tired of being hit before he would step in again.
“When you get tired Caden, I’ll be working on the order that came in yesterday.” He grabbed up his axe and headed inside. “Just follow the sound of the hammer!”
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Post by Ladorak on Sept 3, 2009 23:40:09 GMT -5
Caden shook his head, not willing to admit defeat just yet. "Fine." He said, staring intently at the moving tier and then dashing in, swinging his truncheon the way Luxe had shown him. Whack! Smack! The marten knocked the spinning tier first one way, and then the other. Bam! Smack! He whacked away at it, the sound of cracking wood music to his ears.....and then he was on his back again, the world was spinning, he was out of breath and trying to focus.
Back up on your paws Caden....come on. He stood up, brushing grass out of his clothes and fur. Furrowing his brow, he charged back into the dummy, going at it once again. Bam! Smack! POW! On his back again! This time he'd breathed out though, and wasn't in as much pain. "OK..." He said, rising back up to standing. Swishing his large tail back and forth, he watched the spinning tiers. Almost.....almost.....now!
Lunging back in, he ducked, slammed his truncheon against a stick, and then quickly swung to block the stick coming from the reverse direction. Yelling out in triumph, the marten kept it going, spinning it this way and that. Back and forth and back and forth.....he was a white furred blur now, getting better and better...and sure he was knocked down, but he was able to fight for longer and longer intervals. After about 20 minutes of this, he finally tired out and trudged into Luxe's shop, bruised and weary.
"Alright Luxe." he panted, setting his truncheon down and collapsing into a sitting position. "I....I need some water." he said, his small chest rising in and out and his eyes drooping a bit in exhaustion.
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Post by bookity101 on Sept 6, 2009 14:17:11 GMT -5
"Alright Luxe." he panted, setting his truncheon down and collapsing into a sitting position. "I....I need some water." he said, his small chest rising in and out and his eyes drooping a bit in exhaustion.
Luxe had been working on a broken anchor , it seems that it had hit one to many rocks on the last voyage. Actually the ships captian should’ve brought the thing in weeks ago, he had been risking his whole ship working with such a badly damaged anchor, the thing could’ve come lose at anytime, leaving them in a major problem.
Luxe wiped his brow as Caden came in turning away from the now fixed anchor. He didn’t say a word as he got Caden a glass of water. He waited for him to drink it, and had the pitcher ready just incase. After Caden was finished, he handed him a towel, so he could wipe the sweat off a bit. “So Caden, what did you learn from this little exercise?” He poured himself a cup as well, drinking slowly as he waited for the reply.
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Post by Ladorak on Sept 8, 2009 9:58:31 GMT -5
"Ummm..." the marten said, trying to think of what exactly he HAD learned. He downed the glass in under thirty seconds, drinking thirstily from it and then setting it down with a pleased sigh. "I think that....well you need to be fast in a fight...and focus on what your opponent is actually doing, rather than concentrating completely on your own attacks." he said, sighing again, this time in a tired manner.
"What I still don't think is fair is that it's made out of wood! It can't feel pain, and you can't ever technically 'win' against it either!" the albino complained. "It's just not fair! Though I guess...it also prevents a real beast from gettin' hurt but still...it would be nice if you could smash that thing up into pieces!" he exclaimed, not thinking that that would cost a lot of money every single time you had to buy a new dummy.
"I dunno....I guess it helped, as I was getting pretty good at not getting hit towards the end there...but it DID hit me eventually....no matter how hard I tried to avoid it. That thing doesn't get tired out like I do either." the kit whined, sinking back against the wall and closing his eyes to listen to Luxe now, as he was sure the stoat would have something clever to say or point out something he was missing...why did adults always have to know more than kits?
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Post by bookity101 on Sept 8, 2009 21:57:11 GMT -5
Luxe rubbed a paw across the top of his lip, listening with a slight smile on his lips, but he covered it with a paw. Not wanting Caden to think that he was laughing at him. He just thought that it was humorous hearing the same questions from Caden that had come out of his mouth so many years ago.
Luxe picked the hammer, and walked over to put it away. When he did, he turned and leaned against the counter, watching Caden as he finished talking. “That’s the thing Caden.” Luxe waved a paw out the door back into the courtyard where the dummy stood. “The point of the rotating dummy, is not for you to beat it, or get a 'win' off of it.. It’s designed to give even the best swords beast , paw to paw fighter, or anyone for that matter.” He stood, stretching a bit. “The best work out of their lives. It never gets tired, is never the same way twice and it always comes back at you, no matter what.”
He turned back to the kit leaning on the table in front of him his own arms and back tired from the work he had done. “That thing is the best training exercise your gonna get.” Luxe stretched again. “But if you want to try something different after lunch.” Luxe shrugged, as if it didn’t matter, “I can arrange that.”
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Post by Ladorak on Sept 13, 2009 11:02:36 GMT -5
Yeah but....it wasn't fair. Caden wanted to say something along the lines of "what's the point of playing a game if you can't win," and he almost managed to get this out but closed his mouth again once Luxe started talking. So...the whole point was to just get a work out? But weren't there like...gyms and stuff for that? Why did he have to....this wasn't a game then? The kit was just confused now, but heard the stoat out nonetheless.
He tried to figure each factor into one another. So....this thing you couldn't beat...was just to help give you a workout? It even beat the best out there? Caden couldn't believe that! No way Ladorak would lose to it! He'd slice it in half with one swing of his might sword he had on his mantle! He wouldn't lose! It just....still wasn't occurring to Caden that the object was not to "beat" the dummy. It was to help him improve his skills.
The marten's ears perked up though upon hearing about lunch. "Lunch!? I'm starving!" he exclaimed, feeling his stomach growling as he said this. "What are we having to eat?" he asked eagerly, picking himself up from where he'd been sitting, suddenly re-invigorated at the prospect of food.
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