Solo Rapier Wit

[Daedalus Dagwood]

10th Day of Summer, 507 AV
(Sunrise/ 7th Bell)
(Daedalus's Appartment; Daggerhand territory)

Daedalus Dagwood stared at the Rapier sword, laying on the table, for a long time. Despite Daedalus's outgoing nature, as a true Introvert he preferred to learn new things alone with as little noise or interruption as possible. He enjoyed learning, though could never really get any work done in class settings, preferring to first process new ideas by thinking to himself rather than by speaking to another person. The only indication of any emotion on his stoic face being the way his eyes slowly blinked in intense observation. With the eye of a Weaponsmith, he sat down at the chair in front of the table to examine the Rapier closely, yet never touched it. The rapier from what he could see was composed of five basic components: the blade, the guard, the quillions, the knuckle guard, and handle-pommel.

Finally, his gaze strayed from the rapier to two different books that also laid on the table. The first book was simply a blank book that he used as a persona journal. The second book however was a Rapier Dueling Manual, a book filled with personal thoughts on the art of rapier fighting by duelists. He had bought the book to learn the basics of sword fighting on his own, then maybe one day he could defeat his brother Darik Dagwood in a fight. A smirk tugged at his lips as he reached out to open both his journal to a blank page and the manual to a page full of text.

Their was a quill and a vial of ink on the table near his journal. Daedalus picked up the quill in his right hand then touched the nib, tip of the quill, to the ink. He slowly began to write about what he observed about the Rapier.

"The first component of the weapon is its slender blade. The blade has a tip and two edges. The blade is divided into three major sections in and of itself. They are; the forte, the foible, and the tang of the blade. The section that goes through the handle and should be of appropriate strength to not break during combat is called the tang."

He was a weaponsmith, and as such wanted to learn about the weapon itself before learning how to fight with it. The quill laced ink across the blank page as he sat in silence. Only allowing the words on the page to speak for him.

"The strongest part of the blade closest to, and forward of, the guard is known as a forte. It is apparent that this portion of the blade is used for parrying. The componate that is part of the blade closest to the tip and is used for cuts is known as the The foible."


Leaning in over the table he lowered his head to allow his eye to linger inches from the swords Guard. "Hmm" the sound echoed from his throat as he sat back up to dip the quill into the ink. Soon writing down his thoughts. "The Guard is elaborate and with metalsmithing can come in a variety of forms. I believe a guard that offers the most protect to the hand from cuts and thrusts would be a A cup hilt or cage hilt. The Quillons used to protect the knuckles used mainly for defense seems to be the last complex component on the handle before the pommel screws onto the tang and holds all of the parts of the weapon together permanently."

Setting the Quill down, he was finished learning about the components of the weapon and found it time to actually start practicing with it. Standing up from the chair as he picked up the Rapier Dueling Manual, slowly glancing down at a page of text as he read while pacing around his apartment.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

Daedalus stared at the book in his hand with intent filled eyes as words started murmuring from his lips. Softly, almost like a prayer or chant. They were softer than the sounds of his slow bare footfalls along the ground as he continued to pace and read. Restraining an exquisite eagerness, his hand roved over the consort of a page in the book after turning its page, his finger guiding his eye along a paragraph as he words grew coherent.

"There are five cardinal rules that help govern fighting with a rapier: The straight line is more efficient than an arc or compass. The shortest thrust is efficiently better than a cut. Secondly, That which is near, strikes quickest. Keep your blade close and never to far off your center line of balance. Thirdly, A circle that spins holds more force in the circumference rather than in the center. Always strike with the tips of the blade since it always bares more force. Fourthly, it is better to withstand the lesser energy of a great force with strength. While parrying use the forte of the blade not your foible. And lastly, Every moment is achieved in time. In combat the principle element should be tactics and strategy over speed. Time, measure, judgment, place. Judge the situation, identify the place, find your measure, time your attack and end combat with victory."

Walking over to the table, Daedalus placed the open Rapier Manuel down on the table. For the first time since studying the weapon, he picked up the rapier in his right hand. Feeling the grip fit loosely in his palm. The crescent knuckle guard protecting his knuckles. He held the handle with a hammer grip, allowing all of his fingers to choke the handle. It felt bulky, clumsy, and wrong in his hand. It caused him to quirk an eyebrow then use his free hand to trace an index finger along a page of the book. Looking for any information about a proper grip technique. "Place your index finger above the quillons and wrap it around the ricasso of the blade. Your thumb should rest and wrap around your middle finger." As he read, he shifted his index finger, the former clumsy feeling of his grip vanished as he felt as if he had true control over the blade.

He moved to stand at the center of his apartment. He had already read over the proper stance and now worked to preform it correctly. With his weight evenly distributed between his feet, his Your center of gravity was slightly forward because his free hand was held just in front of his torso as if ready to throw a punch. His feet at a shoulder length apart with his right forward foot pointing directly forward and his back left trailing foot held at a right angle. The right hand holding the rapier was held at a fist length from his leading right hip in an offensive stance with his knuckles down.

The tip of the blade held out forward not allowing any forward movement if he were facing an enemy, not giving an opponent an opening and giving quick moment to any parry he might make. The stance felt natural as he felt comfortable enough with the weapon to start preforming a set if shadow-fighting and sword drills listed in the Manuel.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

"Brother, you will be surprised." It was a statement that stood alone, low enough to a whisper . Daedalus was no small man but was still smaller than his younger brother Darik who stood at a towering six foot six inches in height, but with every shift in height, Daedalus was still the eldest and wanted to beat his brother in a challenge of blades. Out of all of the family, it was his younger brother who couldn't craft metal for the life of him and decided to become a fighter. Honestly, whether or not that he wanted to take up the family craft didn't matter to Daedalue even if his parents hated his brothers choice. He walked over to the table to glance down at the book to read a few lines along the pages. His eyes drifting from sided to side, back and forth, as he read about a drill a novice Rapier duelist could practice alone. All he would need is a chair and a wall.

Pulling the chair with his free hand not holding his sword towards a wall, he turned it so that the front of the chair was pressing against the wall which wouldn't allow someone to sit down. Since he was relatively new to the sword, he had no eye for distance so he would drill to familiarize himself with the length of his rapier and mush arm strength it would take to hit an opponent. Daedalus stood behind the chair taking his offensive stance with his feet at a shoulder length apart with his right forward foot. He lifted the rapier with his arm extended so the tip of the blade touched the wall. He started to gauge the distance from the wall in his mind. Adjusting his grip on the handle as he felt the tension of the wall pressing against the wall as the force of the tip pushing cascaded down the blade to put stress on his shoulder.

The straight thrust attack to the body or face of the opponent was the primary attack of a duelist. Pulling his elbow back, Daedalus returns to his guard position. The drill required him to stab at the wall, only allowing the tip to graze it. In short, not stabbing the wall or missing the wall. He reached forward with his free hand to grab the back rest of the chair to pull it down. Laying the chair down on the floor so the back rest was on the ground in a position where the chairs legs were now on the wall. The chair now increased the distance from the wall, changing his perspective and allowing an appropriate attack range to preform a full force thrust attack.

He made no circular motions, just a direct line from point to target. Adjusting his stance, he took a slight step forward so the tip of his led right foot touched the top of the chairs back rest. In a quick motion, he extending his arm in a straight line towards a target area on the wall as the tip of the blade, vertically in line with the arm, stabbed forward. To Daedalus's shock, he missed the wall completely. He curiously looked at his feet, then the blade, before turning to go look at the Manuel. "Continue the attack if the first attack has gained advantage. Keep ones footing, lounge the thrust if your strike falls short during the advantage. Focus on calibration before speed." He read to himself as he nodded in agreement. "That makes sense."

Retaking his attack potion in front of the laid down chair. He held up the rapier at the level of his chest with his palm facing downward that was holding the handle of the rapier. Then lashed out with a quick forward thrust. This time allowing his body to lean forward, naturally increasing his bend of his forward leg as his he lounged into the thrust attack. A soft scraping sound rang out as the tip of the blade landed against the wall. Landing a proper strike. Daedalus stood up to swiftly return to his starting guard position. "Blade length is two foot seven inches from Guard. Overall rapier length is three feet two inches. Lethal range of attack..." He looked at the length of his arm as he held the sword forward, slowly bending his knee to take the lunge stance again as the blade touched the wall. "Lethal striking range, five feet seven inches."

[Daedalus Dagwood]

For the past forty chimes of a bell the metalsmith had shed his creative shell to wear the mentality of a duelist. Daedalus knew he would never get better without practice. So with hard work, determination, and dedication he aimed to drive the memory of attacking with a thrust into his body, and Daedalus wanted to make sure it would become second nature. The tension in his arm had lessened over the past few minutes as he adjusted his grip. It was something he slowly began to learn on his own even without the Manuel that he needed to keep his arm muscles loose during the initial strike. It would allow him to easily retract his arm if he needed to parry an attack. He only drove in with force once the tip of the blade was only inches from its mark on the wall that was now nicely scrapped from the blades tip. As the tension in his arm decreased, the stability of his foot work increased as he balanced on the balls of his feet to adjust to the motion of his body during a lunge thrust.

Daedalus's arm erupted forward as he guided the rapier's blade into a thrust that grazed the wall, scraping at the wall, as he imagined a person in front of him. He began to picture a bisecting line running from top of the persons head to the bottom and another horizontal line forming a cross at the imaginary 'man in the wall', as Daedalus called it, waist. The imaginary man was then divided into four areas by the lines forming four quadrants of attack. The first two areas of attack were the 'High outside' where his imaginary enemies sword hand side was above the waist, and the 'High inside' which was where the off hand side above his wall-enemies waist. Daedalus adjusted his feet to widen his stance as he lunged forward to stab at the section of the wall that made up the right shoulder of the imaginary man in the wall's arm that held its own rapier.

The more Daedalus used the weapon the more he came to realize that even though the rapier was not a cutting weapon. It did have sharp edges that could slash efficiently with precision strike, but due to its lack of weight its slashing and cutting power wasn't effective. From what he could tell, cutting wounds would only be made to vital areas of the body. The slender blade could slash a cut above the eyes causing bleeding into the eyes. An act that he imitated as he made a quick arching slash, letting his wrist roll into the slash to cut at the wall. Or a slash along the wrist to cause an enemy to bleed to death. He laced the attacks together as the downward arch of his previous stroke to the head area of the imaginary man fell to cut at the walls wrist in the high-outside quadrant. He looked at the rapier to take note of how he would need to practice making slashes to the neck,under the arms or inner groin to better himself at making cuts with the tip of the blade.

It wasn't until he felt comfortable with the weapons attacks that he started to imagine the 'the man in the wall' fighting back. He smirked as he shadow-fought against his imaginary opponent. He quickly made a fein attack, extending his arm to trigger his imaginary opponent into responding. Faking a slash to the thigh which the wall-man moved its blade to block. Deadalus with his arm lose changed his slash into its true attack which was a thrust to the neck. With a heavy thud the blade stabbed into the wall as his smile turned into a grin. The wall splintered slightly after he pulled the blade from the wall to flick his wrist to make a slashing x-shape into the air.

Now with his morning practice complete it was time to start his day as he set his rapier back down onto the table.

[Twister]

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Experience Award

Daedalus Dagwood

Grade :

Experience: Scrutiny 1, Weapon: Rapier 3, Weaponsmithing 1

Lores: Weaponsmithing: Basic Components of a Rapier, Weaponsmithing: Design of a Rapier Blade, Weaponsmithing: Correct Terminology of a Rapier's Components, Rapier: Keep it Close to Your Body, Rapier: The Ideal Fencing Stance, Rapier: Range of a Forward Lunge Thrust

Miscellaneous: N/A

Comments: ... Informative! It got a little too preachy after a while, perhaps, but it was still easy enough to read. All the different terms and words got me confused in the first couple of posts, but I got over it. All in all, an interesting read!

If you've any questions or concerns about your grade, drop me a PM!
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