Completed Bow Beaten (Ximal)

[Savio]

64th day of Summer, 513 AV

Savio’s heart was hammering as his feet pounded the ground beneath him. The world around him moving past him in a blur of colors and sounds as the young man ran laps around the perimeter of Ximal’s school, Iron Fist. It wasn’t a punishment from the Master; Savio chose this form of training himself. He needed to get faster, and he needed to endure more if he wanted to have any hope of getting better. The extra training would help too with his Messenger job. Faster delivery meant higher pay, and Savio needed the mizas to pay his tuition if he wanted to keep learning under Ximal.

The sweat poured down his bare back and chest, having forgone his shirt long ago. The running gave him a chance to think, to tune out the world and focus inward. Savio had been training every morning for the last fourteen days, and he could almost see it when he looked upon his reflection. But mostly, it was his clothes that told him how his body was changing. His pants were loose around the waist but his tunic was getting tighter around his arms and chest. He also realized that he could do more for longer than he did before he joined Ximal. It gave him a bit of delight to see how he was progressing, but he still had much more to go before he was done. Perhaps he will never be done. Savio figured that the day he stops pushing himself to be better will be the day he dies.

After a few more laps around the school, since Savio had lost count, he finally came to a stop at the small pile of clothes he had left at the center of the training grounds, and picked up his water pack to take a drink. The water, though warm, was bliss to his dry throat. He even poured some on his head to cool down a bit. Perhaps he will go to The Post after he washed up to get an early start on his deliveries. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

[Ximal]

Xi slung his bow over his chest attaching his quiver and arrows around his waist...It'd been a long time since he'd been out with his bow on. He wanted to see if he still had the skill he'd picked up with it. Stepping out into the open air Xi watched a rather...Worn out looking savio stopping from what looked like a strenuous run. Xi smirked ans slipped his monster of a bow down from his shoulder. Looks like your taking speed training just as seriously as strength training." Xi smirked and then turned to this die letting his back face sav as he lifted his bow into the air and drew the bow string by pulling town with his rear shoulder muscles. Bracing it's weight he smirked acknowledging he could still draw the damn thing. Closing the string slowly Xi then drew an arrow from his quiver and turned back to let his front face towards sav as he pulled the bow string taught with a nocked arrow. Holding the arrow still he mentally adjusted for the wind and shot downrange aiming for the central column of the tree. A slow breath escaped him through his nose as he loosed the arrow firing it. The arrow hit the edge of the trees core as he lifted another arrow from his quiver. It was strange to not have Xi comment upon what he was doing but this was an exception he needed to hold his concentration else he'd massively miss. Loosing the next arrow Xi trued to glance at sav. "You've progressed a lot...Let's see if you can draw the monster." Xi smirked and tossed his bow to savio. Knowing full well the power this behemoth of a bow held.

[Savio]

Savio looked up from his water pack to see Ximal step out of the school building and onto the training grounds carrying a giant of a long bow. Savio shook off the spare water and sweat that was dripping from his naturally messy hair before continuing to watch the Master. When Ximal spoke to him, Savio’s response was quick and still slightly breathless.

“Yessir, I need to keep my speed up to still perform my acrobatics and to deliver my messages for my job. Plus, it helps to keep up with you.” The last part was said in a joking tone, but it was the truth. Ximal was fast, and Savio wanted to match him one day.

Savio rested back on his heels as he watched Ximal work with his bow. He made it look so damn easy! When Ximal loosed the arrow onto the tree they had been climbing the other day, Savio hardly saw it move because of the speed of which it was shot. Perhaps he could try his hand at archery one day. But surely, he would never be able to man a bow that large. It looked to be almost at tall as himself!

After shooting another arrow, Ximal returned his attention to Savio. Wait… Was that a complement? Surely no… But… It could be? He was able to snap out of his shock just in time to catch the bow that had been thrown at him. The bow was heavy on its own. Savio gave Ximal a questioning look before attempting to draw the bow… The string didn’t budge. He tried again, but with the same result. How?

He felt his heart sink lower, and his self-esteem crumble further. Even if he pulled the string using his foot on the bow and both hands on the string, it still didn’t move an inch. How did Ximal make it look so easy?

[Ximal]

Xi watched sav attempt to pull the bow to draw it with the same results as aleksi. He couldn't help but smirk not a harsh or a mocking one but a knowing one. "I call that bow a monster for a reason. Your not pulling it because you dunno how." Xi stepped over to sav removing the bow from his hands before pulling out an arrow and nocking it. Xi then lifted the bow above his head pulled back with both his upper arm muscles and his back muscles pulling the string open, with a practised ease. "This bow...Has the power to punch through plate mail. However...It's a bitch to hold at a full draw for too long. Just firing this thing it'self is a small work out. At most i can get off five shots before i start to feel the burn, and that's five shots without a long pause for each." Xi took a deep breath and lined up his shot drawing the string back from his chin to his jaw bone. Then exhaling he let the arrow fly letting it hurtle down range and embed itself into the tree a touch to the right. "The problem with this bow. Is the fact it's so powerful, also this bow is my height in length. So it's a beast at the best of times. and at the worst...it kicks like a mule. " Xi smirked and fired another arrow down range hitting his mark this time but visibly straining to hold the bow at full extension. "You've gotten better but this beast takes time and practice, when you reach a point where you can fire this thing...You'll know how much you've improved." Xi nocked and drew with a long pause between this shot. Exhaling slowly he struck the tree exactly where he wanted to aim. "So hows your courier job treating you? I used to work over at the quarries...That is hard labour..."

[Savio]

Savio rotated his shoulders; they stung from attempting to pull back the bow. Savio was already logging in his mind to make firing that bow a short term goal. But it was nice to know that Ximal had to strain slightly to use the bow. Savio looked down as his hands and arms. They were even becoming darker from the hours spent in the sunlight.

“My job? It is going well. I am not the best yet, and I am still learning the city. But over all I find it quite enjoyable. Its good pay and it helps me work on my free running. Eventually, I want to be able to use the close network of roofs of the city to deliver more efficiently. But before I can do that, I need to get more comfortable with heights and get better at climbing.” He then looked up at Ximal and grinned, a curious glint in his slate colored eyes. “How did you get so good at fighting? I have never seen anyone move the way you do… But then again, I haven’t seen much of the land.”

[Ximal]

A smiall smirk crawled across Xi's face. He'd done and coudl do what sav was planning on doing across the rooftops of nyka. "The thing is...With that all you have to do to get onto the roofs is keep your speed up. I can get up there and traverse the city-scape that is nyka from above however it's not always the best way fo getting around. Your more liable to do something dumb and take a wrong turn up there than on the ground level." A small smile crawled across his face with knowing humor. However that was shattered upon sav's next question. Xi sighed and remembered a time which he'd much rather forget..."In regards to fighting i ended up doing so because i had too...I never wanted to fight...I never wanted to be a man of destruction and death...We grow up wanting to be a lot of things...But few of us ever get to choose to be them...I learnt to fight or rather was forced to fight...In sunberth...It's teh closest thing i have to a "home town" however i'd rather not remember it. That's a city where either you learn to survive fast, or you die faster...I'm still here...So i suppose i did the former." Xi looked down at his hands. Hands that had had taken the lives of a lot of people and permanently harmed many more. "Some choose violence...others have violence thrust upon them..." Xi leant on his bow like a staff. "I'm proud of my skill and how much i can do. But i'm not proud of how i've ended up. I fight to test myself above everything I fight for a reason but i fight often without chance of life or death to see how my skill progresses...I'm not the best fighter in the world...I know that but i want to see how i stack up against the world. How i measure again the people that live in this world. However my real reason to fight is something that I keep personal...As it's an issue i'd rather not talk about..."

[Savio]

The drastic change in his Master’s expression was instantaneous; going from amused to stricken in an instant. The smile was also wiped from Savio’s face as he listened to his Teacher. His story was sad, and Savio had been clueless. The hardships this man had to have gone through had been hidden until now; his regrets were now visible in his blue eyes.

“I may not fully understand your reasons, or the regrets you keep. Perhaps I never will. Such understanding can only come from someone who has seen the things you have. So I hope that I never acquire such knowledge. But what it’s worth, you are a good man and a great teacher. In the short I have known you; you have earned my respect and maybe even my envy. I am sorry about bringing up old ghosts.” With that Savio forced a smile on his face. “Anyways, do you have any new lessons for me today?” Savio had hoped that his light tone would distract Ximal from the dark memories that seemed to cloud his Teacher’s mind. A man’s history is his own business, and no one else’s.

[Ximal]

At least this man before him held a shred of honesty thus far. He wouldn't be bale to understand what Xi had been through. There were few people who could..."Eh don't worry about it. Ghosts need exorcising eventually anyway, mine just happen to hang around longer than most others." Xi waved off savio's response with a light hand motion and a small smirk. Sav was also very forwards. "Do i have any lessons for you ? Sure I've got one. Ever heard of something called a diffuse ? It's a way to eliminate an opponent's strength by targeting their attack." Xi lifted his bow and slung it over his back the string biting into his bare chest. "Try and hit me and i'll show you how these work...This by the way os one of the three ways to "dodge" a strike. The other two are more well known for one and the other much less well known. So try and hit me and I'll how you how this works."

[Savio]

Savio’s smile turned genuine as he saw Ximal’s demeanor lighten up. He preferred to see his teacher like this; calm and a tad bit teasing. It lessened the tension in the air and Savio found himself relaxing as well. Ximal still intimidated Savio, and to earn the larger man’s ire was not the wisest thing a person like Savio could do.

Savio dropped his water bag on top of his tunic as he walked over to the large man, eager to learn something new. Once he got close enough he set his stance like how Ximal had taught him, which had become second nature now. Savio lead with his right foot as he punched with his left fist, using his body and shoulders to power the punch rather than his arm.

[Ximal]

Xi let savio close the gap and a waited him to throw his punch. Xi stepped into the punch and brought his left arm up back handedly into savio's elbow completely obliterating the power of the punch by messing up the punches arc. Xi then brought his arm back over like a hammer to savio's chest. "That is a diffuse counter. It's a medium tier skill. What it does is it nullifies the power of the strike by aiming for a joint. Then it used the positioning of the arm to launch a short sharp snapping punch to whatever the target your aiming at is. So aiming at a larger joint takes more effort to diffuse the strike but it takes more power out of it. And to capitalize your strike must be faster. Practice this motion." Xi held the same foot positioning that he'd always used but brought his arms up in a sharp motion from his sides twisting around his shoulder adn then letting his arm snap out from his elbow to full extension, the whole motion taking less than half a second fro him to execute. "Try to do that, with both arms one at a time and fifty repetitions each, it wont ingrain right away as it's a simple looking manoeuvre but the muscles you have to use to do it are much more difficult to pin point at the start.