[Aratar Mori'ithil]

"Alright, So far you aren't sucking, but that can change fast. Try to follow me again if you can in the next few moves in the kata." Aratar chuckled softly as he took a forward stance just as Fritz did, and watched intently as his body moved in imitation of Fritz's slow-motion movements.

He took his left arm in to cut across an invisible opponent’s midsection and at the same time did a stab at an angle up underneath his chin area. It was not quite a vertical stab, but it was not horizontal either. It was a compromise between both. The mongrel elf watched him, taking note of the odd angle of the second attack and then stepped forward with his right foot, settled into the stance he had been taught during his last class. He began with a horizontal slash and followed up with a stab with his left hand weapon at that rather odd angle. He performed the move three times, to give Aratar a chance to fully grasp it.

Once both were moving in sync, Fritz stopped, eying him curiously.

"The first move was a distracting move, the second the killing blow. It took you a little longer then usual. Dunno what was up with that, but try to keep up, pointy-ear." Ar nodded, ignoring the racial slur, instead feeling slightly frustrated. His arms felt like lead, and they were moving frustratingly slow. He matched slow-motion speed easy enough, but he could barely keep them in motion at half-speed, and it took almost everything he had to keep up with Fritz.

"Alright, you're flagging, and I can see that. We'll let those be the last ones in the kata for you. Rest for the first half of the brightening. You've been training so hard that you can barely move your muscles. If the orcs moved on our camp here, you'd be useless; a meat shield and nothing more. Once you've rested and gotten some energy back, practice the full kata. Don't worry about the slash movements. Once you can do the entire kata at full speed we'll do a test spar and call it done." Aratar nodded, sighing, and fell to the ground panting. Fritz snorted and walked away, muttering something about weaker races. Aratar lay there, relaxing, and eventually fell unconscious despite the cold winter air, right there in the middle of the training field.

When mid-brightening arrived, Ar felt a boot connect with the sensitive area right below his ribcage. His eyes shot open wide and he sucked wind, gasping for air, as he climbed to his feet. His lavender gaze shot angrily to his persecutor, but Fritz was standing over him with his arms crossed over his chest, a look of disgust on his face.

"If I were an orc and we were under attack, you'd already be dead. If you're going to lead a life of battle, you're going to need to learn to sleep lighter, no matter how exhausted you are." The anger faded from Aratar's eyes--not easily, he forced it into the back of his mind, determined to get along since Fritz was the best person to help him now and in the foreseeable future with his knife training--and he resumed a stoic presence. "Get to practicing." Aratar grinned.

"Worried about me?" Fritz snorted and stalked away, and Aratar grabbed the training longknives. He began to practice, the rest having done him a world of good. He could now do half-speed without much trouble, though his muscles were still aching painfully. His muscles screamed at full speed, but he was adjusting to the feel of the burning, finding himself able to operate during the painful moments rather easily, so long as he ignored the sensation of pain. Now that he could move at full speed, he practiced the entire thing in one long string, cycling it over and over, trying to make each movement flow into the next; each step look less like a step and more like part of one long dance.

As he practiced, a thought occurred to him. He was used to manual labor, and even though he wasn't used to this amount, he was exhausting himself faster then he should have. It was an honest puzzlement to him. He'd messed up several times during the early training, and had would have cut himself on many occasions had it not been for the fact that they were dull training blades.

The entire rest of the brightening he trained, his movements flowing smoothly despite his muscle's protests. When the suns set he retreated back to his bunk. He wasn't as exhausted this brightening as usual...his body was getting used to exertion. He ate his meal before heading to bed, even staying up for a bit before eventually falling asleep. His rest earlier much have helped him out, making him not as tired. He slept well, and come the next sunsrise he arrived at the field again, and Fritz was there waiting for him. Without being asked he performed the full kata at full speed, almost to perfection.

Fritz nodded again, quirking a brow.

"Time for a sparring match." Aratar blinked, staring at him, and spoke up in objection.

"I'm not ready..."

"I'll tell you when you're ready. Training in midair doesn't do you much good at this stage except to build muscles. You know the moves, you've built enough muscle to combat consistently, now there's practical application--combat against someone else, so quit your bitching and prepare yourself." Fritz thought for a second before brining up a last minute inclusion to his instruction, almost like an afterthought.

"Which reminds me. Parries and feints. They're basically deflecting an opponents blade with yours. We're not gonna go into detail on them, because they're easy and often times instinctual. If you can't do them, then you're worthless. However, there is also the cross-blade parry, which isn't as obvious, which, like the name says, crosses your blades into an 'X' shape to catch the opponents blade and guide it into the center where your blades meet. It's a good way to control an opponent's weapon and force an opening. Double blade parries aren't really worth mentioning because they're just as obvious. A single blade parry against a heavy weapon is stupid, so don't do it if you can avoid it. use a both blades to block at the same time to even the weight distribution and soften the blow, your second arm will help absorb the shock. Occupies both your arms so you can't counterattack, but it also makes sure your arm or blade doesn't break and helps make sure they can't penetrate your guard and slice you in half.

"Now feints...they are a trickier monster. They are false attacks that look real--or false openings in your defenses that look real--to force the opponent to commit to an attack or defense so that you can properly predict their move and come up with an appropriate counter. Hard to do...you as a beginner probably won't be able to do it, but you should be aware of it in case an enemy tries to use it on you." He thought for a moment, then nodded to himself.

"That should cover it. Got all that?" Aratar nodded, hoping he could adjust to using parries and spotting feints on the fly, since he didn't get the chance to practice them.

"Now, lets do this, pointy-ear."

Aratar nodded and raised the two training blades.

This was probably going to hurt.