[Tasad R'rowl]

After an hour of striking at the post Icewind called another water break and Tasad drank greedily. The elf was a hard taskmaster, but the lionoid knew what he was doing. He was drilling him until the movement became automatic so that he would do it witout thinking. Having been engaged in battle before Tasad knew that one could freeze and unless the movements came automatically, without thought from the troop, then the likely hood of dying was greatly increased.

After a few moments in which to rest Icewind called Tasad back over and started the next lession saying,"For many swords the main attack is the cut. And although you will be using a thrust for most of your fights, there may be times that you will be able to use a slash against a lightly armored opponent. There are 9 different cuts; high, middle, low front cut; high middle, low backhand cut, front up cut to the groin, backhand up cut to the groin, and the cleave-the-skull-in-two cut.” The elf demonstrated each cut as he named them and then looking at Tasad said," You will perform the cut I call out until I am tired."

Walking to the side the elf stood waiting. Tasad wlaked up to the post again, waiting for the elf to call what attack he desired him to perform. The day was waning fast and Tasad guessed that this would probally be the last excercise for the day. As the elf started calling out cuts, Tasad responded as quickly as he could, striking the post deftly and as quickly as he could. His arm was tiring since he had, after all, been swinging the sword for most of the day, but he pushed through the burn anyway, knowing that in combat he would not be able to rest just because he was tired.