[Aratar Mori'ithil]

"Okay...so now what?" Fritz smiled in a fashion that made Ar very weary before he took a similar stance. His hands were still empty of the knives, and he did some practice unarmed moves of all things.

"We'll use the knives soon but for now we'll just start with the strikes and then speed things up a little..." He slid forward, bringing his left arm across his body, he struck in a Knifehand block before pulling it back quickly and following through with a Reverse punch, his body swiveling at the hips slightly to bring about more momentum. Aratar watched intently and waited as Fritz looked back up at him expectantly.

"Well?" Aratar flushed slightly and nodded, mimicking the moves with a high degree of accuracy. He didn't have the unarmed experience, so against an actual foe it might not have been very useful--he didn't know, he'd never tried--but when his only resistance was air it flowed well enough. He started off slow, making sure he had the moves down. Once Fritz nodded, satisfied, he went at half-speed a few times. Finally, once he was comfortable with that, he moved up to full speed, doing the move several times in succession. Once he was comfortable doing the block-punch combo, Fritz nodded again. He never really seemed to smile much, but he did wear a quirky half-upwardly-curved-mouth that didn't really count, though it was reminiscent of one. That half-curve was what he wore whenever he found Aratar's movements acceptable, that much the mixed-blood elf had determined.

Keep my feet about me...stance and footwork is essential to the combat style... He was careful with how he moved as he tried to practice the unarmed set, keeping his balance carefully placed and his consciously aware of his feet at all times.

Continuing onwards rather than stopping to give more instructions, Fritz brought his guard up and pulled his right leg forwards so that he was pretty much standing to attention with his feet locked together.

Spinning around in a incomplete circle--about 270 degrees to be precise--he stepped forwards into the forward stance at the same time as he used his right arm to do a backfist before striking over it with a reverse punch.

"What we're doing now are basic combinations and kata. I don't usually teach fighting as a series of moves like this but this class is a little different than usual so why not? if you've any questions as we continue then please don't hesitate...they're your lessons, after all." Aratar nodded, and again he attempted the move in slow motion, then once he was comfortable with it and was sure it was being done properly increased it to half-speed, before, eventually, doing the move full-speed. Aratar probably wouldn't do well in political or philosophical pursuits or debates, but if there was one thing the bastard child took to like a fish to water, it was practical application tasks and training like combat or manual labor. He'd grown up, essentially, on the streets. He was rather used to such exertions.

So absorbed in learning the movements was he that he didn't even realize Fritz's movements until he was literally thrusting the training knives, handle first, at Aratar. He took them, looking at Fritz curiously, and the trainer spoke with a shrug.

"You seem to have that down so far, which is acceptable. Now we're going to slowly try the first half of the kata with the longknives." Ar nodded, clutching the knives, and took a deep breath as he let his hands and arms adjust to their weight.

He let his arms drop to her side, as he stepped forwards with his left leg, settling into the 'forward stance'. Now familiar with the motions, he knew where to place his feet without having to look at it constantly. Twelve inches of space separated his feet, the left leg bent at the knees while the right leg remained straight. Leaning forwards slightly to achieve a better balance, he brought his arms up and positioned them as indicated by the bladesman: left arm straight with the long knife pointing away from him, right arm bent at the elbow with the blade pointing upwards.

Taking a deep breath, Aratar started performing the kata in slow motion. As before, he took two steps forwards starting with his left foot. On his first step, his left arm, bent at the elbow, came across his chest before snapping out, parrying an invisible weapon. Another step, and he performed a wide horizontal slash at about chest-height. As he rotated his hips to increase the momentum, he realized that he was vulnerable to an attack with his left arm out so wide. To compensate this, he brought his right arm down across his body, resulting in his hand hovering over his left hip, the blade resting at a horizontal angle. It clicked that in doing this, he could easily bring his right arm up to block any attacks of note.

"Alright. Second half." Aratar nodded and began the movements. Still in his 'forward stance' from his previous maneuver, he moved the weight of his body upon his left foot, as he stepped forwards with his right. Aligning his feet next to each other, he kept the weight concentrated on the ball of the left foot, but prepared to move it to his right foot should something warrant the change.

Moving slowly, he turned in a clockwise direction, his upper body leading the way. He found it harder to maintain his balance while moving slowly, but realized if he could achieve this, it would be relatively easier when moving at a faster speed. Bending his will, he kept pivoting on the ball of his left foot, until his whole body had turned 270°. Grounding his right foot to stabilize himself, he stopped momentarily to study his position. He was now standing in a sideways position, with his right shoulder facing his opponent. It was, he thought, a vulnerable position, one that left him unable to defend himself properly from an attack. However, he knew that the turning maneuver was made to lend momentum to the subsequent attack.

As long as I don't stop here, I should be alright.

Satisfied with his deduction, he stepped forwards with his right leg, moving into the 'forward stance' as before. Performing a wide horizontal slash with his right blade, he brought his left arm across his body in a defensive position as he did earlier. A moment of inspiration hit him as he modified the maneuver. He snapped his left arm outwards in the motions of parrying an overhead slash, before following through with a low, stomach-level stab with his right.

Completing his maneuver, he took a deep breath, and realized that beads of sweat dotted his forehead. He wiped them off with the back of his sleeve. Performing the maneuver in slow motion had required a high level of concentration, and exerted his will more than if he had gone through the motions normally. Fritz didn't seem to care, though. He nodded and spoke once more.

"Not bad. Not great, but not horrific. Now that we've done those basic movements to get a feel for how they handle, let's talk a bit about the basics. These are the basic strokes of bladed combat. I'll show them to you." He held his blade in the basic hold, with the sharp point sticking out in the same direction as his thumb was. He slashed in the air nine times: horizontally twice--left and right, vertically twice--up and down, diagonally four times, in downward slashing and upwards slashing X-patterns. And finally finished off with a basic forward stab. He stepped back from the target, and looked at Aratar.

"For the rest of the brightening, you're going to start out alternating those things. Twenty strokes of each type of basic cut with each blade separately, followed by a slow-motion version of the kata. Then twenty more, then a half-speed version. Repeat that over and over for half the day, then add a third set of twenty and a full-speed version. Come dawn tomorrow, I want to see you able to expertly strike each of those slashes as well as perform that Kata at any speed I ask you to." Aratar groaned, but Fritz narrowed his eyes.

"We're alternating here so you don't get bored. You're arms will be burning by dawn on the marrow, but you'll know the barest hint of how to hold these things. You'll be marching off to a likely death where this could very well save your life, so we don't have a lot of time. Because of that we're doing the high-speed version. You've learned stance, now you're not only learning basic strokes but you're alternating it with kata to learn how to attack and move at the same time. We're only scratching the surface here, but you need a crash course since you could be shipped out to the front lines at any time. This would normally take cycles, but we don't have cycles. Devote yourself for most of the brightening each brightening to my instructions, and you might come out of it capable of basic usage of these things in a short amount of time, but if you don't give me your full effort and cooperation, then you might as well stop now. I won't teach someone who half-asses this, nor will I teach someone who doesn't listen. So do it, and do it right."

Aratar didn't need to be told twice. Aeternia, he didn't need to be told once; Fritz had misunderstood the groan. The words reinforced something inside of him, though, and so with renewed vigor he followed the request. For the rest of the brightening until the suns set he devoted himself to practice with the dull blades. Dancing kata moves alternated with basic uses of the blade. Over and over, the repetition started off boring, but as the brightening wore on, Aratar saw one of the dual uses of this style of training. Not only was he learning the basic moves so he could create combinations himself, but it was also muscle conditioning. Training his muscles to not only learn the moves by reflex, but also just training them period. His arms weren't used to being held up all day, much less holding anything in them and being flexed from repeated use. After mid-brightening he was already slowing noticeably due to his arms' exhaustion. Had it been real combat he'd probably already be dead. By the end of this, hopefully he'd be able to sustain combat for longer then his arms were currently lasting.

When the suns sank below the horizon, Aratar could barely lift his arms. He returned to his bunk and collapsed into blissful sleep, missing his meal entirely. The next dawn he was re-energized, but true to Fritz's word, his arms burned like nothing else. Stretching them he returned to the field, the Vagaran was already waiting for him. He sighed, drawing the training longknives and waited.

"Show me full speed," Fritz asked. Aratar complied, and his movements were almost like a dance. His speed and precision was wonderful, and though he could feel his muscles screaming in protest, he noticed that the movements weren't even thought about. They were reflex. It was an interesting sensation.

The not-quite-smile that the Carmelyan Blade had become known for appeared on his face, and he nodded.

"I've seen better, but it'll do." Aratar was coming to understand that from Fritz, that was something akin to praise, and he couldn't keep from grinning as he waited for the next brightening's torturous instructions.