[Flashback] Bloody Blades and Bruised Knuckles (Koa)

[Siiri]

Siiri watched as Paen accepted the knee from Koa, a solid blow that seemed to knocked some of the air out of him. The warrioress caught the man grimacing as it hit, though he schooled his face back to that annoying grinning leer a split second later as he dropped one dagger to catch Koa's empty hand by the wrist. His other hand, still clutching his trademark dagger, moved to a stab at Koa's neck, just as the younger Myrian's modified glaive came to slash at his chest. Both weapons stopped just before they reached their intended targets, each fighter frozen momentarily in their stances. Both were staring hard at each other, Paen with his smiling sneer, Koa with her stubborn and haughty glare.

Stalemate, Siiri thought. She had the utmost respect for Koa's skills but she thought Paen was intentionally being sloppy with his moves. Upon closer inspection however, she realized that the man was flirting with his junior, throwing the younger girl a playful wink before he relaxed into a docile stance. Siiri merely shook her head in amusement at the man's antics.

“I go play with the other kiddies now, little Kitten,” Paen drawled, sheathing his daggers. “You go tussle with Siiri now, she has plenty to teach. Maybe you can show me what “ground” skills you learn next time me meet, eh?” Another wink and he was off to join the other sophomores who have yet to take their turns in the sparring matches. Ackaris was bellowing again who would partner with whom.

It was all a familiar dance for Siiri, knowing the older Myrian's routine like the back of her hand. Ackaris would watch and observe as each of the sophomores took their turn sparring against the more experienced ones while she as delegated to train those who were done in unarmed fighting. Koa was the last to finish among her batch so she waved her over. She was already familiar with the girl's skills but the fighting proficiencies of the others were unknown to her.

“Gather round,” the Snapping Jaws fighter instructed, motioning for the five others to sit on the space she's cleared before her. She waited until everyone had settled down before speaking again. “I expect everyone's caught their breath from that little warm up we had just now? Good. Fighting with weapons is well and good, gets the job done faster, especially if you're using the right tools. There will come a time in your lives, however, where you will find yourself unarmed. I'm here to make sure you don't end up as a free kill in such cases. If you must die without a weapon in your hand, you will take down at least one enemy with just your body as a weapon so you will not shame yourself when you meet Myri on the other side.”

Siiri paused then and met the eye of each and every one of the trainees before her, giving them time to absorb her words. Their reactions ranged from doubting uncertainty to, in Koa's case, stubborn resolve.

“I'm not here to teach you unarmed fighting, however. I expect everyone one of you to at least know how to fight without weapons. If you don't, you shouldn't even be here, you should be playing with the children in the street. What I am here to teach you is to be versatile when fighting unarmed, be it grappling on the ground or trading blows standing up. You want to be able to counter and defeat every style you encounter, and I will arm you as best I can with the weapons to do that. The best weapons you have in your arsenal will not be that big sword or mace strapped on your back, but this.” Siiri tapped her temple for emphasis. Pointing at the girl she sparred with earlier, the woman asked her name. Ayet, the girl replied, and Siiri asked her how she managed to get herself chosen as a warrior when she was built more suitably as a scout.

“By fighting smarter whenever I can't match how hard the other warriors hit. I didn't want to be at the back of my fang shooting arrows or darts; I wanted to be in the thick of the action. So I worked doubly hard to get to this position.” A twisted smile marred her face as she offered Siiri a slight nod. “Of course, it seems I didn't work hard enough since you beat me so easily.”

The heiress of the Snapping Jaws chuckled. “Don't beat yourself over it, I'm not that good. I'm juts familiar with the style. You must know Janna; you practically have the same weakness in your styles.” She shrugged at Ayet's surprised expression. “It would have been ridiculous for me to surrender such knowledge to you now, wouldn't it? You could have devised a different attack routine if I did. Like I said, the best weapon is here.” Siiri tapped her temple once more. “At any rate, you will be my partner for the duration of our exercises. We'll start at the easiest for me: grappling holds. Specifically, the choke. Come over here. You’re going to help me demonstrate some things.”

Ayet did so, eyeing Siiri warily as the older Myrian made her stand in front of the others. Siiri stood at her back, her right arm snaking from behind to hold the girl on the opposite shoulder, forming a ‘V’ just below Ayet’s neck.

“There are two types of chokes. The first is called an air choke, where you deprive air from your opponent by blocking the passage of air through their windpipe. Let me demonstrate.”

Siiri leaned close to Ayet and whispered to the girl to tap her arm once she felt the hold to be too painful before locking her right hand in the crook of her left elbow, using it as a brace to prevent the girl from breaking her hold. With her right forearm now pressed against Ayet’s throat, Siiri slowly tightened the hold, hiking her shoulders up slowly as she pushed Ayet’s head forward with her left hand. Barely halfway into the hold, she felt the girl tapping frantically on her bicep. She could imagine the girl grimacing in pain as the bone of her arm dug painfully against her neck. Siiri immediately released the hold, not wanting to cause her fellow Myrian any undue pain.

“As you can imagine, this kind of hold takes a while to choke out your opponent. It is also very painful. Your opponent will be kicking and screaming the whole time until they pass out from lack of air. This gives them the opportunity to break your hold, so this is a very inefficient way to choke someone.

“And then there is the blood choke. This type can knock out your opponent in mere seconds. As the name implies, you block the flow of blood, rather than air, with this hold. Notice the difference of application.”

Siiri shifted her grip on Ayet, this time positioning the crook of her arm under the girl’s chin while her forearm and biceps pressed against the sides of the girl’s neck. Her left arm still kept the hold in place by trapping her right hand at the crook of the elbow while her left hand held Ayet’s head steady. Without warning, the warrioress tightened the hold, catching the girl by surprise. Ayet struggled against it for a moment, but it was sunk in good. A second passed, and another, and another yet. On the fourth count, Siiri felt the girl’s body grow limp against hers, unconscious as her hold deprived much needed oxygen from her brain. Siiri promptly released her hold and slowly eased the girl to the ground, then raising the girl’s legs up. The technique was meant to stimulate bloodflow back into the brain for her to regain consciousness and prevent any lasting damage from the hold.

Siiri continued her lecture as she knelt beside Ayet to fan the girl’s face with her hand. The girl seemed to revive almost immediately but she appeared groggy. “As you can see, the effect of this hold is very fast. An enemy caught unaware by it will be unconscious before they figured out a way to counter it. It’s good for subduing those you want to bring back to the temple altar for sacrifice. There will be no lasting damage if you release the move quickly. A word of warning however: keeping the hold locked longer than a few seconds will kill your victim. Or worse, inflict them with brain madness. I’ve seen some who have had the move applied on them a little too long come out of it not right in the head.”

Ayet seemed to have regained full control of her senses now and Siiri pulled her hap, clapping the girl on the back to tell her she meant no harm by knocking her out. It was time to wrap things up and let the others try out the hold she just taught.

“Alright, practice time, but let’s make this interesting! Partner up and each of you to try and apply the blood choke and at the same time defend against it if you find it beign applied to you. I don’t care how you get yourself in position to apply it, just do it. No weapons! Go!”

The trainees moved to obey. Siiri found Koa partnered with the big, lumbering warrior earlier, the one she labeled Chubby Cheeks. This would be interesting.

[Koa]

It was done, stalemate, a beautiful defeat in the eyes of a curious and rather charming opponent. Koa couldn’t help but have a shadow of a smile on her lips when he winked at her, and she stood upright, flexing her arm in an attempt to get the kinks fully settled and relaxed. Siiri had waved her over, and Koa promptly followed, taking up her position behind a rather short girl in terms of Myrian heights. Her attention was undivided, however, as her friend began to speak about the various positions one would be able to use during unarmed combat, and any situation thereof.

She watched with amusement as the Snapping Jaws took hold of a girl warrior and promptly deadlocked her. It was impeccable, the girl could barely move and Siiri was rocking out her capabilities. The older Myrian continued to speak as she did so, then she moved on to the blood choke. This technique intrigued Koa so; a short, clean victory, a measured sense of dominance over the opponent, it was only the matter of finding one’s way into such a position that it became difficult. Koa made a mental note at the demonstration, the placement of her body in conjunction to her opponent.

When the Snapping Jaws revived the girl, Koa held in a closeted smile. She was excited, so excited she felt her heart pound against her ribcage, and her fingers twitched in retaliation. Of course, she hadn’t expected her opponent to be the large, meaty warrior boy that now stood across from her. Koa grinned and cracked her knuckles, although she was also somewhat skeptical if she could even wrap her arms around his fleshy body.

“Don’t hold back, big boy.” She winked, and found Chubby Cheeks didn’t buy the flirtatious comment. Koa gave a dramatic sigh, then motioned for the boy to come at her. To her surprise he obliged, charging with such agility Koa barely missed his outstretched arm, the muscular fingers grasping a strand of her hair and jerking it loose. Koa backed off several feet, just as CC straightened himself then turned his head to direct a rather devious grin.

“Look what you did, you big ape. You tore my hair out.” Koa was irritated, but that didn’t stop her from locking onto every jerk of his arm, every movement in his legs. This time, when he came at her, she ducked, shot a long leg out and swung it about her, forcing his legs to buckle and his inevitable collapse. There was her chance! “Urgh!” He cried out, as her arm wrapped around his neck, but he was far too big, she was easily tossed over, landing on her side as CC began to scramble to get his old on her. His hand found her shoulder and gripped tight, but Koa would not allow herself to lose so quickly! Her knee shot up and slammed itself underneath CC’s chin, “By Myri--!!” He roared, blood dripping from his lip, but Koa would not allow him a moment of rest. She rolled behind him, and locked the crook of her arm beneath his chin, just as Siiri had demonstrated, and tightened her hold over his neck with her forearm until she willed her muscles to contract and cut off his circulation.

She hadn’t the strength to control his flailing arm, so it wasn’t long before a punch was directed to the side of her head, and Koa felt her head roll. Her vision blurred from the impact, hold slacking. No, no! You’re so close! Almost instinctively, Koa channeled every ounce of energy into her arms, wrapping her legs around CC’s waist to prevent him from moving his upper torso. His flailing gradually slowed, until finally he succumbed from the hold, his head lolling back against her, making her grimace in disgust at the drool and blood.

“Karai, that was ridiculous…” When she glanced about, she noticed the rest of her peers were lifting the legs of those they had knocked out, and Koa couldn’t help but sigh once more as she did that for CC, although his legs were quite a pain in the ass to lift. He immediately came too, coughing and spluttering blood lodged in his throat, and groggily sat up. Koa extended her hand to help him up, “Sorry about that, good duel.”

[Siiri]

Siiri clapped her hands twice to get everyone's attention. "To those who were able to execute the move: good job. To the others, you just received your incentive to knock your opponent out next time.

"This is but one of the many holds I will teach you over the next fifty days. There are other holds, of course. You'll learn to dislocate and break limbs, as well as how throw your opponent if they catch hold of you. But that will come later. Right now, let's discuss fighting tactics."

The Snapping Jaws heiress gestured for Ayet to stand by her side once more as she continued to speak with the others. "I've watch your different styles during that short bout just now and I think you all could use a little sharpening up when it comes to technique; it could save your lives down the road. For example, you," Siiri pointed at Koa, "made excellent use of your knee when your opponent was down. A few inches off, and a little bit more force, and you wouldn't have needed the choke; he'd have choked out on his own from your crushing of his windpipe. Against a standing opponent however, a straight up knee wouldn't do much good - even if your clinched."

To demonstrate, Siiri faced off against Ayet, interlocking her fingers at the back of the other woman's neck to form the clinch, and threw her knee up - slowly so as not to injure her partner - while at the same time pulling Ayet's head forward and down to try and hit her chin.

"She could block you with her forearms, dissipating the force of the blow -" Ayet obligingly crossed her arms before her chest to block Siiri's knee before it got halfway up. "- or she could break your hold and just dodge her head back before your knee even reaches her chin." This time, Siiri let go of her hold on the other warrior, and Ayet moved back just as Siiri's knee shot up.

"Knee to chin make seem like a short distance, but in fighting a lot could happen before you close that gap and connect. What you want is to hit something closer, and how you do it should still cause some damage. When throwing a knee, imagine yourself thrusting a spear. Like so." With great balance and agility, Siiri stood on one leg as she drew the other one up, holding it by the ankle. She thrust it forward, like a spear just as she had said, leaning back to give the limb its maximum stretch. "This opens up several avenues of attack as a follow up... If you were able to connect, no doubt your opponent would be doubled over in pain, giving you an easier time to hit his lowered head. I prefer a roundhouse kick. It flows naturally from the knee, giving you momentum to throw your leg out as soon as your other foot sets down on the ground. And the less flexible of you don't have to stretch too far up to hit the head."

In mock demonstration, Siiri pulled Ayet close to her once more, grabbing the smaller warrior by the nape once more and driving her knee in the woman's gut. She did it slowly for the benefit of her audience, and with no real force behind the blow. For her part, Ayet pretended to clutch her stomach in pain. Siiri released her hold then as she planted her foot on the ground once more, only to snap her other leg out towards Ayet's face. She stopped her attacking limb just before it connected, just tapping her shin against the woman's cheek before bringing it down again.

"It all depends on your prefered choice of attack of course. Some would rather throw heavy punches and crush their enemies faces. Do what works for you.

"Now let's say your opponent managed to evade the attack just in time, or you just faked throwing the knee, you can follow up by kicking your opponent's leading leg to blow her knee out -" Siiri's right leg shot out to tap Ayet on the inside of the knee of her leading leg. She retracted it then kicked out again to tap her shin against the inside of Ayet's thigh. "- or on the thigh, to take away the spring from her step and leave her flatfooted. Again, do what works for you."

The warrioress faced the trainees once more, bringing her fists up this time. "I know to all of you are comfortable with attacking your legs. Everyone here likes to punch, right? It's the first and most basic form of attack we learn. But don't swing like a drunkard when you're in too close, like when you're clinched or just have your opponent pressing against you. Chances are, those blows don't have much force in them. Those are what we call 'arm punches' - the force that power them only come from your arms and torso - and they tired you out pretty quickly. Real punches start from the ground up."

Siiri took on the traditional fighter's stance, left foot forward and right foot back, with most of her weight nested on the back leg. She started rocking back and forth, putting her weight on her front leg for a second only to settle it on the back leg once more. She did this several times before she opened up into a boxer's stance, feet wide apart, and threw a short right hook, torquing her hips into it and letting her upper body follow the movement as she completed the punch.

"Whenever you shift weight, the ground's pushing up on your legs as much as your feet are pushing down on it. You use that force to power your punches, letting it flow up your hips, into your torso, and finally into your fist, unleashing the energy as you connect with your punch. When you start sparring under Ackaris' eye, you'll often hear him shout 'Put your ass into it!'. What I just told you is what he means by that. That twist that starts from your glutes and work its way to your shoulder, that's the power of a real punch right there.

"Now, as I've mentioned, everything I just said is near to useless if you're up close and locked against your opponent (except for those of you blessed by Myri to have the power of a war hammer in your fists). In situations like this, you should use your elbows. It would only use half the time it takes for you to throw a punch and there's still plenty of force behind it as the momentum isn't wasted traveling up the length of your arm. Having a sharp elbow helps too; it means you can open up your opponent's face with it."

Knowing her role by now, Ayet moved in front of Siiri for the warrior's demonstration, and took up a similar fighting stance, her fists up and ready to protect her head. Siiri swung her elbows against her partner's face in slow motion, doing it multiple times, calling out her targets to the audience.

"Temple, cheek, jaw, nose, neck - all viable targets. Don't hesitate to hit what's exposed! If your opponent has a lapse in her defense, exploit it and make her pay for it!"

Thanking Ayet for her help, Siiri clapped her hand to signal the end of the lesson.

"Alright, sparring time again. This time i think we'll have a little twist to it. Those who lost earlier get to be the attacker this time - you have to press the attack on your opponent, don't give them any breathing space. For the defenders, you can only counterattack, meaning you can't initiate an attack of your own, the other person has to attack you first. No grappling or holds this time, only striking. Same partners, I expect the losers would like some payback for getting choked out earlier!

"As a parting note, always remember that an attack should serve one of these two purposes: to give you an advantage over your opponent so you would win, or to take away your opponent's advantage over you so she doesn't win. Now, go, partner up!"

As the trainees moved to obey as instructed, Siiri winked at Koa, hoping that the younger Myrian picked up a lot from her short lecture. The next bout would show just how much the girl has learned.

[Cayenne]

Another great thread - have I ever mentioned how much I love Siiri's versatility? Warrior, teacher, friend, daughter, cook. I love it. I never know what I'm going to get to read Siiri in next, and it was very nice to see her in the mature role of teaching the younger people. This thread is very true to Myrian tradition and the way that they carry on. I enjoyed both of your contributions very much! I hereby award Siiri the following: Tactics: 5 XP Leadership: 5 XP Observation: 4 XP Weaponry - Greatsword: 3 XP Teaching: 5 XP Unarmed Combat: 3 XP Lore: Myrian Motivational Techniques Lore: Countering Dual-Weilded Blades with Slayer Lore: Myrian Anatomy Lore: Various Choke Holds Lore: Stimulating Bloodflow Lore: Proper Punching Techniques Lore: Attacking the Head and Neck