[Flashback] Swords and Shields (Coren)

[Eridanus]

Day 90, Fall of 507 AV
Morning
The Windward Boardwalk

The vantha left his warm cabins early in the morning, draped in thick, pragmatic-looking winter clothing. Unlike the local vantha here who were blessed with Morwen's mark, he had no such mark and therefore no innate resistance to the cold. He did marvel at the way they can wear such little clothing - relatively speaking - and not feel the chill while he had to pile himself up with clothes to prevent himself from freezing.

He did not bring his swords with him, for he had no intention of training the mage with real swords - one of them might just get killed accidentally, especially when the person he was teaching was a complete novice to the art of swordsmanship. He did mention earlier for Coren to bring wooden swords to practice with, but just as a precaution he did not bring anything so that if Coren did not bring anything he would not have to use his sharp swords.

Arriving at the park, he strode to the bench that they were sitting on the day before when he was learning shielding and waited sat on the icy wood, taking a look around for the vantha mage.

[Coren]

Coren,was hurrying through the streets of avanthal and strangely enough for him he had left behind his thick cloak for something he could move in more easily. Though his ever present mask was still present and covering his lower face and he was still wearing a lighter cloak with the hood pulled up over his head. With a pair of old, battered looking wooden traing swords clutched in his arms. He was still a bit surprised that the icewatch gave him those training swords without that much hassle, then again they did look as if they needed a replacement quite soon. Pushing the why out of his head and focusing back on what was going on right now as he walked in the park he quickly began making his way towards the place they had agreed on meeting each other again. After a few chimes of walking he finally arived at the place Seeing that Eridanus was already there. “Sorry I'm late. I had to get my hands on some training swords first.” He held out one of the battered Training swords too Eridanus. “This was the best I could do, they look a little bit beaten up but they seem strong enough to last through a few teaching sessions at the very least.” He grabbed the hilt of the practice sword before looking back at Eridanus. “So can we start?”

[Eridanus]

Eridanus glanced at the vantha mage with a sort of mild interest. He looked slightly different today. The signature cloak and mask was still there, a habit that the ethaefal dismissed as an acceptable eccentricity judging from the vantha's ability as a mage - he had seen even stranger eccentricities back in Sahova. Perhaps it was the anticipatory energy in the vantha, or maybe he was just wearing a different cloak.

Eridanus shrugged.

"No problem, Coren," He said, taking one of the wooden swords and feeling its weight critically. Despite its appearance it looked like a pretty good practice sword, adjusted for the weight of the real thing, though its appearance was evidence of the sheer amount of practice duels it had been through.

"These will suffice," Eridanus remarked, judging that the swords were appropriate for their lessons.

"Before we begin proper, I need to know if you have any prior background, whether it be formal training or even just merely crude slashing. I need to know if you have ever held a sword before, or if you have ever swung one. Do not dismiss any details, and let me know every instances of it."

After which, he would ask the mage to show him what he would do if he were to face off an opponent if he were holding a sword. That would be a good start and he would begin correcting and teaching the mage the basic stance that all swordsmen use.

[Coren]

Coren relaxed a little bit as Eridanus found the battered practice swords acceptable to work with, it would have been a serious problem if they weren’t up to par. Tilting his head a little bit as dug through his memories. “Well before today I haven't touched a sword let alone had a swing with one of the weapons before.” Coren said after a few moments. “So I guess you have a completely blank slate to work with. Which might work in your favor for you training me though, since you at least don't have any bad habits to break.” Coren said in an optimistic tone before he began to think about Eridanus' next question. “I probably would go for the body, Its the biggest part so the chance I would hit it is probably a lot bigger” Coren said after a while of thinking as changed the wooden practice sword from his right hand to his dominant left one. “Just do a horizontal slash from the side as a hard as I could and try to end the fight as quickly as I can.” He very slowly demonstrate the slash he was trying to describe on Eridanus, stopping a few hands from the man's body and pulled back, holding the wooden practice sword loosely in his hands. “Though how exactly I would try to attack anybody with a sword probably would depend on what kind of weapons the other guy has. But I would try to go for the body if it was in any way possible.” Coren waited for eri's reply to both his answers.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus nodded, the mage showed common sense. It was great in a way that Coren had no prior background, for that meant he had more or less free reign in shaping the vantha's combat style properly. Most people who fought without formal training tended to gain some bad habits, and the ethaefal himself was not exempt; it took him several months to break his bad habits and to solidify the foundations of his combat form.

"Exactly. Most beginners try to go for flashy decapitations or stabs at the heart, but do realize that most torso lacerations are enough to stumble or incapacitate the opponent. Indeed, we generally aim for the torso because of it being the widest part of the body."

Eridanus moved to check Coren's grip on the sword.

"The first most important thing is the grip," Eridanus said. Demonstrating to the mage, he held his own practice sword in two hands, his primary hand gripping just below the cross-guard while his non-master hand gripped the bottom part of the hilt, around halfway to just above the pommel.

Something like this, but with the cross-guard just above the upper hand :

"Since you are left-handed, you will mirror my grip, as I am right-handed. Therefore your left hand should be above your right hand. This is what we call the Fist Grip. It provides the necessary power and is by far the most commonly used and optimal way of wielding a long sword in a two-handed style. Try it."

He would then watch and correct the vantha as he performed this basic operation.

[Coren]

Coren nodded as eridanus gave out some light praise for his common sense. “Well, I'm a great follower of practical solutions that requires the least amount of energy to carry out. Like anybody with skills like ours should be.” Coren left it at that though it would be obvious for eridanus what he was talking about. And the well known bit of advice that was contained in that sentence. Don't use more djed then absolutely necessary. As Eri walked over to inspect his grip he held it up a little bit so that the man could easier see what was wrong with his grip. As Eridanus just skipped the part on pointing out mistakes with his grip and went on with demonstrating how it should have been done. Wich made it clear that not only his entire grip had been completely off but that he should have been gripping it with his two hands from the start. As Coren changed his grip to match the one Eridanus was demonstrating he couldn't help but feel a little bit uneasy about it. His most favored magical discipline most likely could end up paralizing his right arm if he wasn't careful enough about it. “Eridanus, a small question. It is possible to wield a longsword in only one had right? Since I would have liked to have at least one hand free when wielding a sword.” Coren kept his mouth shut about the reason why he wanted to learn a one handed fighting style though. He didn't thrust the man enough to let him know that he also was a fairly competent projector.

[Eridanus]

"One hand free?" Eridanus raised his brow. It was possible that the mage might not feel secure with only a sword. Perhaps he wanted to dual wield the way the ethaefal did so, or to pair the sword with a shield for defensive purposes. Either way, doing so would still require working knowledge of the sword itself first before going on to more advanced techniques.

"It is possible, Coren. However, even if you were to use a shield you would need a basic level of proficiency in the sword before you should think of pairing it with a shield, or any other weapon, for that matter."

If the vantha had no intention of using the sword two-handed, he supposed that he could probably just focus on the one-handed applications of the sword. Either way, he had to get his foundations up first before doing so, and he proceeded on with the lesson.

"Show me your grip first, and what kind of stance you would think is appropriate."

The ethaefal was pretty much a practical kind of person, preferring his students to try things out and he would then correct them instead of theory and explanations. It would help Coren to learn faster too, if he were to try what he thought was the right stance, and being corrected as to the optimal stance to take.

[Coren]

Coren instinctively nodded as eridanus repeated his question with a raised brow and kept his face mostly expressionless as he waited waited till Eridanus replied to his question. After Eridanus had explained that the two handed grip was the basic one and that before you would even begin to try to wield the weapon one handed you should have a good grip on the foundations of fighting with a longsword. A bit relieved at the fact that he could use this skill even in tandem with his projection, or when worst came to be, if it took his right arm away. He once more followed eridanus' instructions. He shoved his left hand as close to the cross-guard as he could and gripped the handle as hard as he could, not wanting to drop his sword by any means. He grabbed the part of the handle right above the pommel of the sword just as hard as he was gripping the handle with his left hand. After he was sure he wasn't going to lose his sword he began thinking on how he was supposed to stand if he was going to try and wield his sword and coming up completely blank on the subject. In the end he settled for just holding the sword around his middle, the blade sticking up at an angle while just trying to brace himself for any kind of impacts. On the whole his entire stance looked confused, pretty unstable and coren was slouching over, a habit that should be broken as fast as possible. “I guess somewhat like this.” Coren spoke up after he had assumed his 'stance'.

[Eridanus]

He had not expected Coren to do it right the first time. If he could he would not have asked Eri to teach him the proper use of wielding a long sword in the first place. As the mage gripped the blade tightly it was evident that he was afraid of dropping the foreign object. That reminded the ethaefal of one more thing he had to tell him.

"Oh yes, don't tense up so much. This is called the Fist Grip. Only grip tightly with the first two fingers and your thumb for your left hand, and the rest of your fingers and your right hand should be moderately loose. Only when you start swinging your blade or when parrying do you completely clench your fists. This is to actually help you swing faster to react. If you don't understand the logic so far it's fine, just trust my words and follow."

After the mage loosened up his grip to a more acceptable one, the ethaefal would begin correcting the vantha's confused stance.

"Make sure your legs are a shoulder-width apart, but slightly bent," He said, as he used his own wooden sword to tap the mage's legs into position. He rapped Coren's back gently as he remarked, "Got to get rid of that slouch also. Keep your back straight."

He continued to poke and prod different parts of the mage's body to move his limbs into the right lines and angles until he was satisfied, and then he dropped into the same stance in front of Coren, facing his profile at a forty-five degrees angle so that Coren could see his body profile clearly.

"This is what we call the neutral stance. Now that your body is in position, hold your sword like this," Eri commented, while holding his sword in front of him loosely, but maintaining the fist grip. His hands were at a relaxed position in front of him holding the sword upwards. oocIt's basically a relaxed Kendo stance.

[Coren]

Coren gave a nod and tried to relax his grip just as Eri told him too following the man's instructions on how to keep a better grip. Thrusting the more experienced man to know what the hell he was doing and not to steer him the wrong way. After a while of coren trying to follow the man's instructions it seemed the grip was deemed acceptable he began to focus on his lousy excuse of his stance and began to poke and prod him, earning him a few annoyed stares from coren, he didn't like to be touched at all. But for the sake of learning something new he kept his mouth shut and just adjusted his body as good as he could. Though he rolled his eyes when he forced him upright and made a comment about his slouch, the guy sounded just like his mother, she always was nagging about that too. “Right, right, so feet a shoulder width apart, knees bend slightly and keep my back straight.” Any other things I gotta keep an eye on while I'm getting in that neutral stance?” Coren said as he mirrored the way he was holding his sword too Eridanus and tried to prent how he was standing right now in his mind. Hoping that with a lot of practice this would come a lot more easily. “So hitting something is probably next right now isn't it?”