Heavy Hands, Soft Step (Raven, Open)

[Xalet]

Xalet had to take the time to remind himself of a few key pieces of advise when dealing with unarmed combat. He remembered to keep his hands loose, which was appropriate as throughout combat he felt them tightening. Loose hands traveled faster than tightly balled up fists. He had to remember to breath, don't hold your breath, let your breath be controlled by your pace in combat. Don't take in too much air, don't take in too little. Too little air brought about tunnel vision, and to be skilled at unarmed combat you had to view not only the entirety of your opponent, but the field of battle upon which you fought as well. The training grounds within Syliras utilized only by the the Knights had such obstacles to keep squires and Knights cognizant of the hazards of fighting in the open.

"So be unpredictable?" he responded as Andresciel made his assessment. Xalet had to think of a way to land a strike while they worked on their technique in front of the others. As well, he wanted to make sure Raven got her chance to practice anything she was picking up. Attempting to put a bit of that unpredictability into his attacks, Xalet concentrated less on his power and attempted to utilize more speed and technique instead.

Putting pressure on his rear foot, Xalet darted forward quickly in a shuffle and through a backfist with his leading right hand. Shortly after he retracted the same hand an in a jabbing motion, brought it back out for a limp wristed eye rake as he didn't want to actually damage Andre's vision if it did land. Keeping his right arm to the left crossing his body, he stepped through the attack and brought up his right leg to lead his stance. Crossing his left leg behind his right he then pushed off of his left leg and moved into a side thrust kick. Wearing his armor meant that he could not fire any kicks above the waist level of his suit, but that was often good enough for striking the abdomen or chest of a Human sized opponent.

[Andresciel]

He shook his head as he allowed himself to fall backwards, avoiding both the fist strike, and the kick as he simply came up onto his hands and back onto his feet twice. It was a rare technique, but he was wearing lighter armor, built more for speed then enduring.

Now his body twisted as he threw himself forward, using the upraised foot to his advantage as his own body dropped into a slide, his foot lashing out at the only foot remaining on the ground. He lashed at the knee, a weak point in most opponents as he smiled, holding back in the blow so that the Akalak would only feel it and it would do nothing more. He could tumble the opponent but the slide would drop him.

Hit or miss, the slide would carry him under and behind Xalet, where he rose, hands loose, fingers extended as he smiles.

[Xalet]

Andresciel was quick. Xalet was no slouch, but dealing with the heavy armor he wore all over his body made his attacks lag behind the lighter fighter. It was a task of catching the Mage Knight in the middle of an attack, or restraining him in a hold. Or even landing something. Taking away some of that mobility seemed to be the best possible solution, but Xalet couldn't quite figure out how to make it happen. He was being aggressive, more so than usual, as his desire to improve his own technique burned deeply inside of his Soul. That desire wasn't alone, as there was another Soul that wished for the same mastery of the unarmed skills.

As Andre came in for a counter attack, Xalet experienced his first instance of thinking ahead of just a simple string of attacks. During his battle with the incredibly experienced Markus, Xalet noticed that in each instance of him attacking with a kick, Markus would attack his remaining leg. Each time Xalet would attempt to fight against the motion meant to bring him down, but it never went well. Xalet was strong, and he was heavy, but with half of his base removed from him, he could only impose a fraction of his overall strength. That was when he determined he had to go through the attack.

Xalet's hands pushed forward as he lept off of his remaining leg, his arms poised forward as if he was diving into the hot springs at the Sacred Arch just inside of the Cobalt Mountains. His head tucked deeply into his neck and the ground contacted his left shoulder, where upon his body rolled forward. With the remaining momentum he kicked his feet back under his hips and came back up from the forward roll in the correct forward stance.

Xalet barely had time to take more air into his lungs, he knew he had to press forward. Dropping a bit he lunged forward and swung his ring hand around into a hook punch aimed high. Afterward he moved to grip his right fist into his left hand while remaining in a lowered stance from the previous lunge, brought his back leg up and then slid forward once more with an elbow thrust toward the mid-line of Andresciel.

[Andresciel]

Andre smiles, watching the squire jump, even as he shook his head. The move had been to teach, nothing more. Andre had never hoped to land such a strike, even as he came to his own feet. It was an impressive display, and one he had seen training with his own Lord. But then, most things he saw these days were nice.

He steeled his thoughts, focused his mind, and danced back, leaping backwards as the elbow thrust swept through the air in front of him. Andre moved like a dancer, light on his feet, and quick in thought, though he knew the strength of the bigger man was great then his own.

But He was here to teach and help develop a young Squire into a Knight.

And with that in mind, he shot forward, ducking low as if going for a low attack. But at the last second, the moment of striking, he stepped to the side, swinging his hand forward in an open palmed strike towards the Akalaks shoulder, a strike to throw him off balance.

[Xalet]

There had to be some rhythm that Xalet was missing. When he spoke with his Patron about combat, the lady had remarked how combat plays much like a song, where rhythm and tempo can be seen by those with the vision trained enough to see. Xalet found that if he maintained a rhythm his attacks were more fluid and faster, but if his opponent determined that rhythm would he be at a disadvantage? Would he instead need to be able to change his rhythm to another at a moments notice? Could he determine Andresciel's rhythm? It didn't seem like he could, not quite yet.

The two men worked their techniques back and forth, and Xalet found himself unable to get into an appropriate range for his strikes to land upon Andresciel. All the while though he fought to understand the man's technique, fought to improve his own technique. Xalet regained his normal right handed stance and looked forward to the Knights attack. With his ability to view a spectrum of light not typically utilized by Humans he could watch as the heat signature given off by the both of them intensified due to the exertion of the training. That heat signature then moved and he could see the attack coming.

"He's coming!" Xalet thought, attempting to get his body moving as quickly as his thoughts, although at his level of training such a thing was still impossible. It was at that moment that he decided he would not dodge the attack. He would take it, accept it fully and meet it with his weight. There it was, the Knight moved in low and Xalet reflexively began to bring his hands in closer to his body. Keep those hands up, get those elbows in! he could remember the advise given to him. He focused on his stance, trying not to let it break, although no matter what his body was going to shift. That as it was, he shot his hands out to grip Andresciel's attacking hand and place it into an arm bar lock. Catching the faster man was difficult, and so the squire decided he would try to let the man come to him instead.

His fingers tightened as he fought to keep his balance centered, his armor clanking within the forest as the plates moved from his motion. He had tried before to lock the man down by being aggressive, but now the chance had come to try the same maneuver before in a different atmosphere, one where Andresciel instead brought his body close to Xalet's.

[Andresciel]

His leg lashed out, the strike stopping before it actually connected to Xalet's chest as the wind rotated around the strike. "Never accept a strike from a Reimancer Xalet. You do not know the kind of strength they could throw behind it." He sighs as he taps the bigger man on the chest, dropping his leg to the ground.

The Reimancer skipped back a few steps, "Well. I suppose that was enough training for one day, unless you'd like to continue to try and hear my battle song." The Man spoke of his rhythm as a song, and to him, it was a song. He struck when the chords of the song were high, and defended when they were low.

"But personally, I'd like some water and thats one thing I can't call on with Reimancy." He chuckled, smiling at Xalet "And you did improve. You saw me coming, I watched you tense. But, I also saw what would come next. To draw me in was brilliant." He praised the young squire.

[Xalet]

Xalet could feel the competitiveness of his Akalak nature overcoming a rather typical training scenario. The warrior's blood inside of him wanted to feel the pressure of his opponent's body pressing against his hands and feet. There was nothing more intimate in the world of combat than unarmed expressions of that inner warrior, but Xalet did not get to experience it today. He could feel his vision starting to contract, that was the limitations of adrenaline once it started to get into his system. It worked it's way through his sight, permeated the taste on the tip of his tongue with it, and let his finger tips tingling.

Then the Knight spoke, and it was over. It took a moment for those words to reach Xalet, as he was clearly very concentrated on the sparring in order to gain the maximum knowledge from it. Once he finally grasped that it had come to an end, he lowered his hands and pulled his feet together, standing up in a more typical stance. "yes." he replied, but that wasn't all there was to his answer. Inside he had decided that with enough training, it was his plan to be able to accept anything from anyone. He knew there was a way to gain that kind of strength without the dilution of magic. One day he would accept a strike from a Reimancer and diffuse it with nothing but pure physical prowess.

"Oh, thank you." Xalet wasn't so good at dealing with praise. His Patron said some nice things now and again, and his mother always spoke highly but that was her matronly duty he supposed. To hear it from another Knight was something he wasn't quite prepared for. It felt good, but he still wanted to do everything he had just done better. Perfectly even. It was so difficult though, when part of his attention was always absorbed in making sure he never became too infatuated with the combat. When that happened the darkness had a tendency to erupt, and if he wasn't prepared for it, it could swallow his personality and leave him...different in the eyes of those who watched him.

"Right, something to drink. That is good." the squire replied, but also left time for Jon or Raven to get in any questions they had for the resident unarmed Knight in attendance, Andresciel.

[Raven Nightfoot]

Raven had been quietly watching the fight unfold intently. It seemed like more of a real fight than a sparring session, but she had definately learnt alot. She learnt unpredictability was the most important key, also she picked up some knowledge on how to strike, fully extending the limb to increase force.
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Raven stood up satisfied with what she had learned for the day, she walked calmly toward the two men who had just finished their training session. "Wow, you guys were amazing to watch. Thank you, I feel like I've learnt alot for just one day" she said sweetly and honestly. If only these knights knew what her reasons for wanting to improve her unarmed combat were. It was rather ironic, a knight and a squire teaching her to fight so that she could use it on knights. She smirked subtly to herself at the though.

[Andresciel]

The Knight glances at Raven "That was nothing. You should see my superiors fight. I only have an edge because of my reimancy." He chuckles softly, shaking his head as he turned back towards Xalet "You are welcome. Keep up your studies Xalet." The Reimancer smiled as he slipped over, and knelt to search around his bag for a flask.

With a grin, he stood back up, sipping the water from within the flask. He had borrowed it from another knight for his training outside of the city, and away from the others.

[Jonathon DuFraine]

Jonathon had been quite the entire fight, watching intently. It hadn't lasted long, so he hadn't even thought about striking up a conversation with the other non-combatant.

Jonathon clapped, slowly, with a small smile on his face. "Aye, it was a good fight! I haven't seen anything of the like before. Certainly entertaining... and not altogether uninformative." Jonathon knew next to nothing about fighting unarmed, but the way they moved about didn't necessarily have anything to do with combat. The stances, the fluidity of motion, they could be applied to stealth and acrobatics... Not to mention the tidbits of advice on actual unarmed combat.

"Interesting, but... How does one really use such a skill in a fight?" Jonathon seemed a bit quizzical. "In a brawl, I can see it being enormously helpful, but I'd think a weapon would be more useful in a battle then your hands. Especially for defense; unless those hands of yours can deflect blades and arrows." Although the magic might be able to do something like that.