Closed [Canopy Training Area] Weapons, Weapons, Weapons (Ana, Xi)

[Ximal]

Xi smirked lightly at ana barking back at him, that was the ana he knew not the one smiling and acting sweetly, being honest though he actually preferred the moody ana to the light and chirpy one. Taking a deep breath he lowered his axe and tried a feint type strike. Bringing the head of the axe around heavily but stopping just shy of the target and smashing the heel of the axe into the dummy's torso. On his own axe the spiked heel would have torn that wooden dummy a new mouth but with the wooden practice ace it was a bit more of a blunt force trauma. then spinning the weight of his body inot the turn he brought the axe head down it's remaining space driving the blade into the join between the dummy's head and it's shoulder. Straight into the joint of the neck and the collar bone. Taking a slow breath he retracted the axe from the dummy before bringing his body into play...He was more apt with that than any other weapon after all. A sharp elbow to the dummy and he could feel the wood cracking lightly from the force of his hit. A slow breath escaped him as he rolled his shoulders and walked back towards the training weapon shed...He'd gotten so used to the feel of his hands he couldn't put his full force behind a weapon it didn't translate his body's movements as well as his body did. He could feel his teeth gritting and grinding lightly just as he heard zand speak about moving to a ranged target. Something he could perhaps do hiself to take his mind off of the current state of things. Dropping off the axe and the hand axe he picked up a few training arrows not wanting to waste any of his arrows. Sliding his monstrous bow from his shoulder he hefted it's great size up supporting it via his left arm and lining the shot up with his right, instead of focusing on the arrow, today he thought he'd try out what he let his body do, focus on the target and then let his body react. Closing his eye's he lowered the bow, knocking the arrow into the string and then lifted the bow up and lined up the shot. Snapping open his eyes he locked them onto the bale at the end of the range. The target range clear and his shot lined up in his head as he pulled his arm back slowly locking the shot of no more than thirty feet a slow breath being pulled in as his arm hauled the string back and his eye's locked on the target. Holding his breath for a few moment's he let his mind clear and focused, centring his thoughts into just one. Hit the target. An exhale and his fingers loosed on the string allowing the arrow to snap free, the arrow flying free of the string and soaring towards the target dipping lightly and just scratching the red centre of the bulls eye at the far end of the range. A sharp grunt followed the light exhale. Damn it. He';d missed the bulls eye from that range...He'd hit the target sure but from thirsty feet that wan't much of a challenge now but hitting that damn bulls eye was a challenge. Furrowing his brow he locked his eyes on the target reaching for another arrow. He needed to get his shots on point or risk permanent failure. And costing one of his friends their life from a failed shot.

[Ana Sol Starris]

"This is petching stupid" Ana muttered, breathed out as she struck the dummy again before she retreated from it. No one would be stupid enough to just allow themselves to be beat up, to just stand there, to take it like a dog would. No one. This dummy was a mockery to the real thing that could happen, real people did not simply stand around, and if they did then they were fools. Just striking the effigy of a person pent up all the humility she felt, the rage, and hate, the pain which came with exherting ones self continously and all it did was feed her growing need to beat the crap out of something that could actually move and flee, if need be. Gritting her teeth, she held the buckler up and moved around the dummy again, circling, raising the buckler to defend an overhead swing, and then bringing it back down to protect her front. Repeating this, but this time when she raised her shield up, she snaked the wooden blade to stab into the dummies would be abodomen at the same time. Again she jabbed the weapon, again, and again, and again until the movement lost all meaning and she was attacking the dummy for the sheer heck of it without any thought, any mind to what was going on around her; she just needed to release the tension that had built up over so many years, she could feel it about to blow. The harder she hit the dummy, the more vibrations she felt shimmy their way up into her hand, her grip so hard on the wood that her knuckles were porclein white. Once more she stabbed the dummy, turning her hand so the 'sharp' side of it would cut flesh and stepping away, she held the buckler away from herself by only enough to run the swords tip across the belly area as she moved. She was not attacking out of defence, or subtlty, she was attacking the dummy with a mind to kill it. Well, kill, if the poor thing was actually alive. The move however, she had lost balance with the buckler and therefore fell backwards from its combined weight with her own momentum, the balls of her feet had been too tipped backwards in the effort to move away from the dummy. Ana layed there, slightly dazed by what had just transpired, tired, she could feel her buckler arm burn ever so slightly, as well as the grip on her sword sting inbetween her hands palm, as if it had just begun to be rubbed raw. Blinking, she sat up, stared at her feet as the blood rushed from her head and left her a bit light headed from the action; she looked around and noticed how entranced both Zandelia and Ximal with their own training, she watched them lightly. Examined them, before discarding the buckler and getting up. Pushing it away with the toe of her boot. Ana perked up when Zandelia mentioned ranged practice, her head swivelling lightly to look at the older woman as she talked "with something from this place, or of your own, Zand?" She questioned lightly, a pant to her voice. Sweat just seemed to pour itself from her head, and her armpits; she would definitely need to have a bath soon, otherwise she would stink horribly later. Ana shook her head lightly, feeling the tingling sensation dance about her former buckler equiped arm from the lack of said buckler. It felt light to her now, with the weight off. Her grip would tighten, and then loosen, only to repeat the process with her sword hand as she held it at the dummy, her shoulders slightly slumped and her feet spread apart from eachother with a bend to the knees. Though Ana had completely disregarded Zands words from before about practicing at her own pace because of her self induced rage at the dummy, she contemplated them now. She turned her body away from the dummy, and held the wooden blade up to it whilst her free hand rose only slightly to help keep a sort of balance to her now wobbly legs. The rage she had let loose before felt like it had hiked away from her for miles, she felt a freedom she hadn't in many years, or at all; as if beating on the dummy, and pouring her frustrations out onto it had left her with a certain clarity. How often did she ever get to really vent her anger out onto anything, or to let it control her for but a few moments and wear itself out? This time she went slower, she noted every step she took, and where she put her feet.

[Zandelia]

“Oh, I’ve brought my new best friend with me Ana, sitting right over there,” she gestured her right arm towards her composite shortbow where it rested against the posts of the training dummy frame, almost seeming to will her to pick it up, “but a bit more tonfa first methinks, can never be too careful these days” she finished, turning towards the swinging dummy once more and deciding what to practice next.

Strikes, swings and combinations done. Only thing left is the jabbing… she nodded to herself before settling back into her starting position, squared stance and tonfa at her hips.

She knew how to punch, of course, however it was a little bit more technical when one was wielding tonfa. With her hands there was so much adaptability in terms of what she could do – from grabbing to shoving – that technique did not matter overly much unless one was up against a decent opponent. With tonfa, however, their power came from very specific body movements that took much repetition to perfect – she still had not come close to it she was sure, her jabs were relatively weak compared to her other abilities with the weapon. In truth she had never needed to use them but something about the future whispered to her that such a short, sharp and unexpected assault could save her life one day.

And I’ve never been one to ignore instinct, it is often more accurate than rationality she mused as she loosened her form a little, relaxing the muscles just enough to garner the initial momentum she would need from looseness of being.

She lashed out her right fist, tonfa gripped firmly and forearm aligned to pulse as much force into the blow as possible, and rammed the butt of the weapon into its ribcage. Meanwhile her left tonfa tucked into the side of her body as her torso twisted, hips moving to try and transfer the extra force into the blow. It was this technique – the lashing out of one and the tucking in of the other – that gave the punches their strength. Momentum, transferred or not, counted for more with these weapons than muscle power. She then lashed out her left tonfa, pulling the right one back and into place at her hip quickly, to strike out again at the dummy. She settled into the rhythm of jab after jab, ech time trying to perfect the motions on the other side of her body from the striking side – any fool could punch but not all could do it ably.

“Left, right, left, right, left…” she muttered under her breath as the exertion began to take its toll on her.

She kept it up for some time, feeling the force of her strikes increase only marginally, but increase nonetheless. It was frustrating and yet pleasing at the same time. To know one was improving and yet not improving enough for one’s liking was a delicious horror. Still, as Zandelia began to lag and pushed herself back to a mere standing position once more she could at least expect that if she did need it to save her life one day it was at least developing into something of virtue. She walked over to her Composite Shortbow, threading her tonfa into their places at her waist, and picked up her ranged weapon – she would no doubt need to improve this ability too, it was far more useful for more secretive matters she knew.

“Right, on to ranged then Ana. Care to try your hand at something other than the sword or do you want to keep at that today?” she asked the woman, wishing she was able to use her real name – it seemed far more apt to her now.

Ximal has already made his way onto his Longbow too it seems. Let’s see what we can do to catch up to him she told herself, an air of competition now brewing around her.

[Ximal]

Xi held his bow turned to a slight angle so the arrow would sit in the groove between the bow and his hand tightly. Nocking the arrow Xi pulled back upon the bow strong the torsion of the bow huge and resistant to his puling as usual, drawing the bow string back from this angle he could get the bow string back easier as well as smoother. The groove the arrow sat in made it easier for him to control the pull and this time instead of using his biceps alone to pull the string instead he thought about using his back muscles. Pointing the bow towards the floor Xi knocked the arrow and began to draw. His back moving slowly with the motions he took to pull the arrow. Hoisting his shoulders up and rolling them back he managed to draw the strong easily and then came the hard pull. Lifting the bow and pulling out with his back muscles simultaneously he drew the string back and pulled the last few inches to his haw with his biceps. The slight turn on the bow giving him clearer sight of the target and an easier shot for what he'd already slowly ticked to figure out, that using the target to focus on as opposed to the arrow tip would be a better choice. Holding the shot became easier when his back muscles were used. taking a deep slow breath he let his body take it's time, working out the shot, taking the moments to balance the distance over the power. Taking a deep breath he began a count down in his head. 3...2..1... With a slow exhale xi released the string and watched the arrow tip fly from his bow the shot probably only took a half of a second to reach the target but in his eyes he could dee the path clearly the snap shot. And he knew he missed the bulls eye but however he did hit the blue ring around that yellow dot. He'd missed the centre but at least he'd hit the target. Now the center of the shot was his focus. But firt he thought he'd inquire. "You two gonna beat the living crap out of that training dummy all day or are you gonna come and join me ? Either way it's your training i'm just inquiring.!" Xi smirked lightly toward the pair but then refocused himself, he'd be damned if he didn't learn to use this bow before spring.

[Ana Sol Starris]

Ana gave a glance over to the bow that Zandelia had gestured to, somewhat envious of the craft, and weapon, she figured that since the older woman had it- she also knew how to use it (though that was just an assumption.) Shrugging her shoulders, and then rolling them, she groaned as she struggled to keep the buckler at chest level with herself as she would lift the practice sword up and arching for an overhead strike to the dummies shoulder. Displacing her feet quickly afterwards and shuffling to the right, and then in the same motion as of striking first, she pulled her arm down to let the tip of the wooden blade travel down the side of the chest before thrusting her arm forwards to jab into the dummies gut. "How will beating these lifeless effigies up help us in any way Zand?" Ana muttered out loud, just high enough for the older woman to hear. There was a strain in her arm that she felt pull itself, in response she gripped the handle of the practice weapon harder; all it seemed to be doing was proove the point all weapons were good for was killing, not defending. If this had been a real person, and a real weapon, Ana was certain that the poor fool would have died from blood loss and extreme pain by now; and if it had actually been a real person, they would have been fighting back, or fleeing. Petchin dummies! Ana seethed underneath, she wasn't the one to be imaginative when it came to these types of things, she needed real practice with other people- she needed experience in a fight beyond training; hastily as she was thinking. Jab. Jab. Hack. Slash. Jab. Jab. Step. Step. Left, to the left Right, to the right. Step. Step. Hack. Jab. Slash. Jab. Ana repeated, mentally chanting within her mind; it wasn't hard to notice but Zandelia had been doing a rhythmetic beat to her strikes, and only then did her flow begin to seep into Ana's own rhythem (unbeknownst to Ana herself.) Frustration poisoned her flow, from the ache and growing pain in her body, and especially her arms and legs; all she was doing was dodging, and attacking, little to no blocking or defending. Cursing outloud she wanted to throw the buckler and practice weapon down, how was she suppose to learn how to incapacitate someone if all she was doing was aiming to harm them? What would happen if she accidently killed someone? Dark, lingering thoughts loomed over her mind. JAB. JAB. Slash. Step. Hack. Step. She raised her arm, halting it, up high to take an over-head swing, blocking it and then dancing away. Block. BLOCK. Side, to side, she brought the practice blade to protect her from being flanked. JAB. The block she performed became a forward thrusting motion of her arm, the blade a mere extension of it as it became a gut churning stab of death to the dummy. Cringing, she felt a muscle push and pull, pinching in on itself and straining all the way up into her shoulder and across the collar bone pulling at her neck. The feeling was enough to make her stop in pain and drop the weapon, neck jerking the way it wanted to go to make the sudden contraction in her neck loosen up. She squeeked out in pain and tried to bring both hands up to massage and hold the area, if it hadn't been for that dastardly buckler getting in the way. The edge of the buckler had smashed into her own face when she tried to do so, it hit just under her nose and over her teeth (thankfully she didn't lose any.) With a surprised shout of pain she bent over and tried to get the buckler off, at the same time trying to nurse the area she had hit, as well as her neck; she settled for just sitting on the ground at that moment, rocking back and forth slowly. Petch that stings! Ana screamed internally, hot tears rolled out of her eyes for a few moments, leaking, and then stopping. Ana shot Zandelia a strange look from over her shoulder, and whilst holding her upper mouth and nose, feeling something gooey begin to leak out to cover her hands slowly. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. You are a stupid, useless, good for nothing fighter, you can't even protect yourself, from yourself! Ana repeated spitefully at herself, turning away as she continued the repetitive word in her mind, ignoring Ximals comment about ranged weapons. She waved her hand in the air, still holding her mouth as she did so. Get yourself together Ana, she spat at the ground and got up, a twitch in her actions saying she was ready to explode at any given moment if pushed just right. Instead of running to the first aid tent, she just gathered her buckler up, and the practice weapon and put them with her cloak (as they were her property, and not the Spires) and stalked over to Zandelia, hiding her nose with both hands. She wouldn't let the older woman see, and so she spoke with a slightly nasal tone of voice "Don't know how to shoot.. But I'm done with that... that.. the shortsword..today anyways..." She felt her nose itch horribly on the inside. Eyes watering as she tried to make it seem like she had recovered perfectly fine from her little screw ups.

[Caelum]

Thread Award Name: Ana. Skills: Larceny +1 Observation +1 Stealth +1 Running +1 Weapon: Shortsword +4 Notes: I'm afraid Ana is once again the only one who receives a grade in this thread as everyone else is either retired or does not have an updated ledger. If any other thread participants return to game and update their ledger's accordingly, please PM me and I will be happy to provide you with your grade. Sorry for the inconvenience, but that's how it rolls. Please delete or edit your post with this thread link in the grade request thread if able and, as ever, don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, concerns, or cobbler.

[Caelum]

Thread Award

Zandelia

Skills

Persuasion +2
Leadership +2
Detection +1
Observation +1
Running +1
Acrobatics +1
Endurance +1
Weapon: Tonfa +3
Dual Wield +3
Teaching +1

Lores

- Tonfa: Jab Technique

Notes

Way to stack up your posts. Lovely as ever and don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.