Discipline Over Fatigue II (Solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 3, Winter of 511 AV
Evening
En Route to Syliras

One day further away from Zeltiva, and one day closer to their destination. The sheer time the group spent together was sufficient for each member of the party to be aware of their roles and responsibilities within the group.

The decision to stop traveling and set up camp, the preparations required to set up the tent-site and gather various materials such as wood and food and to erect a rudimentary shield around the tent-site (courtesy of Ionu's agents) were all done fairly quickly and soon enough they were back to the routine of supplying their bodies with nutrition.

As an ethaefal, Eridanus did not require such mortal means of nutrition, instead relying on the rays granted by Leth's divine presence in the sky to fuel his body. He had came to a startling revelation the day before, and throughout the day he had been passing the boring and monotonous riding with methods of which he could solve the flaw he discovered.

He had been waiting the whole day for this time when he could finally have some alone-time and the needed space to experiment.

[Eridanus]

Excusing himself to the side of their campsite, the ethaefal made sure to keep himself within the borders of the basic shields and glyphs placed by the wizards in the group to ensure their general safety to try out the few countermeasures he had thought of.

First, he had come to the realization that one can never have complete, perfect form at all times. It was simply not possible, for sooner or later fatigue would set in, and the strength of the mind and body would cause such efforts to fail. Rather than insisting on the unrealistic ideal of perfect form, why not develop countermeasures and alternatives to patch up these flaws?

These methods would be more sensible, and would be undoubtedly more pragmatic. He could always work towards maintaining as perfect a form as he could, of course, but that would be delegated to the same priority as the upkeep of his fitness and combat readiness. Instead, his first priority would be to develop the techniques that he had formed in his mind while traveling to patch the possible flaws that he had envisioned.

With that in mind, he first began by going through the drills taught in the Academy back in Denval slowly, warming up his body and allowing his muscles and joints to be prepared for what was to come. At the same time this allowed him to refresh already familiar concepts so that he did not have to waste time revisiting them when he tried out the ideas he had later on.

With an iron-will to complete his task within a set time limit, no earlier and no later, he dedicated this moment to Wysar as a testament to the domain He governed. More importantly, he dedicated this moment to himself, for the ultimate goal was to better his abilities and understanding, and Wysar did not suffer fools of blind faith without personal restraint and diligence.

[Eridanus]

A cut through the air, moving so fast that it left behind after-images of moonlight reflected off steel to the gaze of inferior eyes. The creature of the moon was dedicated to his task, the windows to his soul fortified with determination, and the concentration showed in every movement. Every action, every step, it all seemed like a graceful dance executed with ease to the untrained observer.

It was hardly the case.

Years, even decades of hard work, of diligence, of risk, all paid to the result that was today. The ethaefal had the biggest advantage against mortals when training his craft, and that was time. That luxury afforded him the sufficient time required to slowly and gradually hone and perfect his abilities.

Moonlight shone off his gradually glistening skin as he tirelessly worked through the motions. It was hardly a flawless display in skill and mastery of the art, yet the very actions themselves were a flawless testament of the potent mix of mental stamina and physical conditioning that were required to pull this off.

He was not one of the blue-skinned warriors, a race of which Wysar was suspected - but not confirmed - to be of as well. But he had the perseverance and fortitude to match one.

[Eridanus]

The preliminaries done, it was time to move on to the real stuff. The part of the day that he had been looking forward to since breaking camp early in the morning. It was this part that kept his mind off the monotony of riding, that kept his mind active in constant thought during the day.

Eridanus recalled the moments of weaknesses in different frames of time and parts of his body when executing various techniques that he had observed the previous day, and started on one of them.

What happened if he were to leave an opening? During the day he had thought of different alternatives to plug the hole that was the vulnerability of the form. A stance was a dam, and any less-than-optimal execution of any techniques was a hole in the dam, and the river that was the opponent's onslaught would come crashing through.

The first was of careful attentiveness. By sacrificing some of his focus on the opponent's next movements he could focus more on the space around himself, visually guarding parts of him where his physical body could not. Yet, that meant awareness of his physical ineptitude, and one that was hard to notice unless he carried out his movements with vulnerabilities on purpose.

That meant that this was only useful during last minute observations when he realized that an opponent had deduced an opening.

His arms moved, and the silver flash of cold-iron followed along with that trajectory. The ethaefal had been keeping close tabs on his form, and -

There it is!

An opening by the side, his legs had been unconsciously twisted inwards instead of outwards. That meant instability, and a simple kick there could stumble him easily.

He sharply corrected that mistake, but he realized that he had kept his attention away from his upper body in doing so.

Fatal mistake.

[Eridanus]

What else could he have done then? Paying too much attention on himself was suicidal, yet not paying attention to his body would prove to be a mistake. He needed to compromise, and so it was time to set forth the next idea that he came up with.

Unorthodox adjustments.

Steel was a weapon that could cut, slice, and mortally wound opponents. It was most undoubtedly a weapon. However, the body was a weapon as well. Each limb, each strike, each position was a small calculation in the complex gears that was mortal combat. The body was an auxiliary component to the flash of steel, but when required it could be steel, and it was this realization that differentiated skilled warriors from simple bandits.

What if he used his body to patch his weaknesses?

Moving back into a guard, he simulated an attack coming from several sides, one arriving at his body a split-second after the other. Brows furrowed in concentration, the ethaefal diligently parried all the attacks with his blade, and he realized that he had up the standard if he wanted to give himself any challenge.

Instead of staying at one guard, he spontaneously decided on a random series of three guards, one belonging to each category of stable, transitional and finisher guards that he would be shifting through while defending himself from the invisible attacks.

[Eridanus]

Starting from the Boar's Tooth, he proceeded with a sharp thrust up to guard an incoming blow from the top. A diagonal cut to the right to block the next attack, and his legs shifted rhythmically in response to the commands his mind sent to his body.

Time to change stances.

As the ethaefal shifted to the Two-Horned, he realized a vulnerability in the way he lifted his arms when his weapon wobbled. Imagining a powerful blow about to land on the length of steel he reflexively stepped back, gripping his fists tightly on the hilt, the increased ground his feet now covered providing the necessary stability to absorb the blow.

More attacks came at him, randomly generated by his hyperactive conscious mind, and the ethaefal fought to block these attacks with attacks of his own, and though he still managed to do so his arms were beginning to feel the ache from the vigorous activity.

Kick it up a notch.

Finally shifting into the Falcon, that was where he realized that a vulnerability lay. As he lifted his arms to the appropriate stance, he was able to block attacks coming from the top and side, even cuts from below. But a thrust from below, that was where it killed him.

Two low thrusts came at him, one with an edge parallel to the ground while one perpendicular, merely split-seconds apart. His hands were tied up high, and so the only response he could muster was with his legs.

Raising his left leg he released a snap-kick that would deflect 'perpendicular-edge', and using the momentum he sailed his legs over to the other thrust, directing the trajectory so that he could stomp his leg down on 'parallel-edge' to disable it on the ground.

[Eridanus]

The Falcon was the perfect guard to deliver a killing blow, as expected of guards belonging to the 'Finisher' category as classified by the Suvan military. A swish from up high, and the light from the bonfire at the middle of the campsite reflected from the moving steel as the ethaefal imagined his invisible opponent being rend into half.

Two ideas down, and one more to go. This would require more concentration on his part, and before he started he placed his legs together, forcing himself to take long and consistent breaths to regulate his body's pulse rate.

Lend me strength and clarity of mind for this last bit, Wysar.

With that little prayer, the ethaefal sought to calm his body down, and so in turn his mind, and he proceeded to the last idea that he had been playing about with while riding during the day.

What if he used to Flux to increase his speed just for that bit to counter his weakness? Of course, magic was not a catch-all problem-solver, but surely it could be a last-minute life-saver, and when combined with his first alternative he would be able to be in time to save himself.

The only problem that lay in that was the time needed to activate the necessary djed streams to provide him with that split-second boost, and he knew that he could not call upon them fast enough for the idea to work, not at this stage.

Thus, what he could do was what he called Preemptive Casting.

Breathing deeply, he imagined the djed streams within his astral body laid out like the arteries and veins in his mortal shell. Spreading his consciousness throughout, he mentally placed metaphorical fingers on djed streams scattered throughout his bodies, separating these fingers as equally as he could.

However, he merely grasped them, and not push or nudge them as he normally would when going through with his flux spells. Doing so would still consume djed as time passed, but the consumption would not be as high as if he had actually gone through with the entire spell.

Of course, this meant that he had a limited time in combat, but engagements rarely lasted long, it was always a short and brutal dance to the death.

[Eridanus]

Keeping his mind clear and focused only on this task, he briefly went through the original drills he executed earlier as a warm-up to this session. It was a much different sensation, for now his mind had a huge task, which was to continue the gentle grasp on his djed streams, not releasing his metaphorical fingers but also not accidentally nudging the streams. It was to maintain status quo, but yet paused at the moment just before a flux spell can be cast.

As he went through the drills with his firm grip on his djed streams he could feel his astral strength slowly dipping, though it did not decrease at the large rate it usually did when there was vigorous physical exertions combined with dramatic re-directions of his djed streams.

Next he imagined attacks coming at him, and that was where he found the true problem to this solution. A thrust came at him, and he blocked it, though the sudden sharp dip in his djed made him look inwardly to realize that as he parried he had jerked one of the djed streams in his thigh upwards to his chest quite suddenly. As he settled the astral energy back to its default position, he kept a firm eye to prevent accidental casting, but realized that if a cut had came while he was doing that he would have been sliced due to his inattention.

Therein lies the problem. Simply put, at this current stage he was unable to maintain his flux spells at their preemptive state while effectively performing in combat. He required more mental fortitude and multitasking, and that meant more work. More meditation, more practice, more sweat and more focus.

I will try my best, but Wysar please help me see through this where my strength may be lacking, and I will fortify Your blessings in multitude where I can.

[Eridanus]

Now, he slowly did the drills in slow motion. Changing his stances, shifting his footwork, twisting his body whenever required. The imaginary blows now came at a very slow pace, at a pace that allowed him time to think and time to consolidate his thoughts.

Keep at an eye on the streams.

Now focus on the cut.

Keep a firm grip on the astral threads.

Parry.

Double-check astral threads.

It was monotonous work, but it had to be done to get his mind used to the idea of having to focus on two extremely important tasks at a time. He had always used magic, then rush into combat, then magic, then combat. It was time to integrate it properly the way Arnold Lugheim loved to do, and the only way to do it was to split his mind's attention efficiently.

It was getting late, and the chatter decreased to a minimum as more of the group retired to their tents. That signified the end of his training, though involuntary, and the ethaefal knew that he would need the rest for tomorrow.

Fortunately, he also knew where to work on next, and as he calmed his body with cool-down stretches he mentally checked through his astral body for any accidental re-directions, pushing any djed streams that were out of place to their default positions to avoid unintentional overgiving from extended use.

Returning to his tent, he went through with the usual fare of self-reflection and meditation, putting in a final prayer to the God of Conviction for a blessing as well as appreciation for the important realizations that he had came to for tonight and the last night.

Good night, world.

[Liar]

EXPERIENCE AWARD Eridanus Skill Points Acrobatics 4 Long Sword 3 Observation 3 Meditation 2 Flux 2 Philosophy 1 Body Building 1 Lore Strength in Dedication Fighting Phantoms Vulnerability in an Inward Stance Vulnerability in an Upraised Weapon Longsword Attack: Boar’s Tooth Longsword Guard: The Falcon Preemptive Flux Streams Notes Not sure where the unarmed combat came in, because I had to assume you were holding and using the longsword the whole time. I gave you acrobatics and observation for his movement awareness and study of his own body. You need to keep your skill and lores updated so that points can be awarded according to your most recent record, and so awarded lores won’t be redundant. I mention it only because I noticed my last grade for you has yet to be included, and as your skill levels increase, different considerations must be taken. For example, it’s hard to tell whether the moves you’ve described are new to Eridanus. Seeing as you’re now expert level, I gave you points for analyzing what he knows and not for practicing moves he’s already memorized. I’d be glad to hear a petition for more Longsword points once your CS is updated. PM me with any questions or concerns.