Grace and Form (Azhure)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Dasquian sat in one of the small training courtyards, cross-legged, with his saber resting in his lap. Today he was going to be having a combat lesson with Azhure Darkstone, on the mechanics of form IV. Everything was prepared, all that was left to do was to wait for her arrival.

[Azhure Darkstone]

::Azhure walked in, with her black combat pants and cool red top. Her saber swung at her side and she took of her scabbard from her back with her katana in it, keeping her bodice daggers where they were and bowed her head at him.::

Greetings Dasquin. 1 pm as we agreed.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Rising to his feet, Dasquian returned the slight inclination of the head.

"Greetings Azhure. I see you have come armed and ready," he said with a smile, "As you requested this session, I'm going to presume you already have some knowledge on Form IV and its principles. It is a physically demanding technique to practice, and many of the manuevers within its kata will push your body to its limits. We must conduct a short warm up, therefore, to avoid any injury. Press-ups, sit-ups, crunches and stretches."

Dasquian stretched his arms above his head and began.

"Once you feel you're done, let me know."

[Azhure Darkstone]

Jedi Knight Dasquin, I bring weapons everywhere. I know this of form IV: form IV is the most acrobatic Form, heavily emphasizing the Jedi abilities to jump, run and spin in phenominal ways (as well as multiple saber fighting). It was used by Master Yoda and as I am more acrobatic than muscles it suits my natural state. I wanted to start somewhere now that I'm a little more...stable. AS for specific rules I have yet to know.

::Azhure sat down crosslegged with her katana in front of her, length ways.::

[Dasquian Belargic]

“You can put that katana aside,” he said, nodding down at the blade.

“We’ll be practicing with training sabers. There’s far too much room for injury with this Form to work with anything lethal.”

This said, Dasquian fished a hilt out of his robes and tossed it to Azhure, before igniting that which was in his hands. A twist of the hilt and the blade seemed to dull, showing that its setting had been altered.

“I think one of the hardest things about this form is not hitting others, but avoiding hitting yourself. Your body is twisting so many ways that the momentum and gyroscopic effects of the saber can overcome you. We should practice first by getting used to being on the moved and keeping the saber in control. Perhaps trying hand-springs, cartwheels and such, with the saber in hand, would be a good way to start?”

[Azhure Darkstone]

::Azhure nodded. She remembered training sesssions similar to this with her assasin training and it felt familiar somehow accept a saber could deal more damage than a blade and she had a few accidents in the first few ones. Fortunately she learnt quickly but there was no room for mistakes here.

She practised a few carwheels, twists, turns, and flips that ended up in different positions without a weapon to begin with then took out her saber and ignited it. She then made sure her wrist was at a certain angle and made two simple flips, to show she had the gist of it but she knew he meant it in more difficult terms. In battle you couldnt just concentrate where your wrist was, and dealing with emotions as well, especially if you werent good dealing with emotions and also concentrating on where the enemy was and what he/she was doing and his/her weak spots depending on their body language.::

[Dasquian Belargic]

Dasquian opened one of the boxes of equipment in the courtyard and retrieved a remote droid. He did not activate it yet though. “Now I want you to try that again, only this time I will be using the Force to try and knock you off balance – so that you have to divide your attention between both tasks.”

[Azhure Darkstone]

::She nodded, listening to the wind around her, feeling the force around her, knowing she will rely on both with this exercise, as well as her own balance. She did a few flips listening and 'talking' to the wind using the force, having taken some time to develop 'communication' with the force in her masterless times.

The air started to become unbalanced and she presumed that was the tampering so she continued to concentrate on her body stats as well as the force, using it to rebalance the air around her. She was going pretty well after a flip when a sideways knock got her and she fell to the ground, rolling neatly at the last minute and then standing, waiting for him to tell her she was on either the right or worng track, or to give advice. If he said nothing then she would try again, taking it as a sign he intended to let her try again unguided.::