Completed The World Is Full Of Angles II

[Kelski]

Timestamp: 40th of Winter, 517 AV

Continued From: The World Is Full Of Angles

Kelski practiced with Darvin for quite a while until the sweat was dripping down her back and between her breasts. Breathing hard was a new thing for her, but he seemed to like to push her each and every time they got together and began working out. One thing Kelski immediately decided, no matter how many moves Darvin taught her in regards to attacks, her favorite was to stab wile stepping forward with the side she was holding the dagger on. And she found she was good at it, shifting into that position at the last moment often caught Darvin off guard. It was like the man didn’t realize her whole body was conditioned for such predatory moves being Kelvic.

Another thing she quickly learned was that since the dagger was definitely a thrusting weapon, to present a thread, the tip or edge must be directed at the opponent at all times. That meant, to be effective, the dagger must travel in straight lines at all times. It forced Kelski’s human form to learn new ways of bending and twisting. Darvin wasn’t just teaching her how to fight with a dagger, but he was teaching her how to move. She found the easiest ways to do this was to follow a series of arches, which was more natural for her body to accomplish than odd bends and twists. And she also learned that as she grew better, she was able to arch her body and keep her weapon straight rather than vice versa which was just plain bad form.

Muscles developed where there had been none before and definition started to happen. And something else immediately began to occur. Kelski’s hunger grew. She’d been surviving on the dregs of thin soup and crusts of bread at the Lodge where the Sun’s Birth ate. Being a slave, she could expect no more. But the angles of her body grew more pronounced as her form robbed her of any sort of extra mass to build the muscles she needed to fight. When she looked nearly starved, Darvin started feeding her extra. She needed meat, and lots of it, to sustain the training he was giving her and the drug abuse he was pushing upon her after the training. What he supplemented her feed with wasn’t enough and she was forced in desperation to look for other sources.

The Barracks provided. Rats were plentiful in Sunberth and it turned out that big ones, even the ones the size of dogs, were excellent at providing the nutrition the Kelvic needed. Plus, being a raptor, rodent was one of her favorite foods. It came down to the fact that she needed to hunt, she needed to practice her dagger, and one of the lessons Darvin was going to give her was how to throw them. This lent itself well to killing rats. When one was hungry and a fat juicy bloody rat was available if one could hit it with a thrown dagger, one was motivated to hunt in such a way. The reward was delicious fresh meat, and a body that reacted by filling out the hollows and slowly becoming corded with muscle.

[Kelski]

So, between Darvin’s training sessions and Kelski’s hunting, she was doing better than she had been in a long time and feeling stronger and less powerless over her own situation. Back in Darvin’s makeshift training quarters, it was time to learn more moves and she’d reported for her lesson, knowing he was cooking up a new batch of drugs that night he’d want to test on her.

“Kelski…” Darvin asked. “… what are the targets of choice on an opponent.” The Dragoon quizzed. Kelski tilted her head and thought a moment. She was never quick to answer with Darvin, but it was not because she was slow. It was because she was bright and always suspected a trick.

“The head and face. Mainly the eyes, neck, and if those are not available, any vital organ or artery. If one cannot get to those, cut off the fingers and hands of an opponent. This won’t kill them, but if one wounds the hand or fingers, especially by cutting off the thumb, they can’t hold a weapon to continue to fight.” The Kelvic responded.

Darvin smiled. “Good. You are learning.” He added, smiling. “It’s time I taught you how to remove a thumb. Its actually a technique in dagger fighting.” He said, looking thoughtfully at her. He’d long since taken away her wooden dagger and had replaced it with a cheap iron one.

“This technique completely exemplifies the long range aspects of keeping yoru body and yoru dagger out of your opponent’s reach. It teaches that the first moment you can safely cut your opponent’s hand, you do so right away. Practice defending through different angles using slashes and hacks to the fingers, hand, wrist, and forearm. Cutting the weapon hand or arm is one of the oldest methods in blade combat that there is. You strike, dragging your dagger across the attacker’s thumb, removing it completely.” He demonstrated the technique in slow motion, having her come at him in a typical slashing motion with her body bladed.

Instead of parrying or blocking, like she thought he’d do by the way his body lined up, at the last minute, he turned his blade and dragged it across her thumb. She felt stunned. If their training daggers had been anything but blunt metal, the digit would have been gone and so too would her ability to fly. She nodded, understanding, and he repeated the lesson with her stabbing at him this time. He moved so slowly she could see the last-minute changes when he countered.

Kelski repeated the process back at him and then they sped up the fighting until she had the move memorized. “This is going to work great against someone with a lot of armor, a neck protected, a helm, and even someone with gauntlets. I can slip right under any thumb guard this way.” She theorized and Darvin nodded, pleased she was using her head. The Kelvic preened under his praise, having gotten it so rarely. Even when she made beautiful things for Jaren, he never really said thank you. It was just an expected thing in exchange for giving her a place to stay and tools to use. And that was fine with Kelski, though she did enjoy the praise, surprisingly.

[Kelski]

“Now, lets learn ‘Cut The Hand’. In this scenario, Kelski, you have a good forward grip on your dagger and wait for your opponent to take a reverse grip and try to close in with a high stab. It won’t work unless they have a reverse grip on their weapon. The reverse grip will force him to close, because he will be unable to match your superior range with your forward grip. You try to stay at a long range, and look to evade and slash or hack the opponents hand as he attacks. Against the downwards stab you slash across the hand with a backhand motion. This gives the defender a good possibility of cutting off the attacker’s pinkie. Remember, if they can’t grip a weapon, they will drop it and try to protect the injured hand and that’s when you can kill them.” Darvin said with a grin.

Kelski really understood, during these lessons, how much of a killer Darvin could be. They did the same thing with the Cut the Hand as they did with Remove the Thumb, practicing the attacks in slow motion and then slowly speeding them up to real time until Kelski understood what she was doing. They were both good moves to know and she was slightly startled he was teaching a slave. But he was…. so she didn’t question it.

“Next, I want to teach you a triceps hook, Kelski. Do you know what the Triceps are?” When the Kelvic shook her head no, Darvin elaborated. “Your biceps and triceps are the two muscle groups of your upper arm. The biceps run across both the shoulder and the elbow. These muscles are at the front of the upper arm, starting at the front of the shoulder and ending at the elbow. You can feel the biceps by flexing your arm this way. The biceps flex the arm, such as when you lift a something up off the ground. They also help rotate your forearm, such as when you reach out to twist something like a door handle.” He demonstrated then continued on with the lesson. “The triceps sit at the back of the arm. They start at the back, lower part of the shoulder and end at the elbow, where the ulna, one of the two bones of the forearm, begins. The tricep is a far larger muscle on the back of the upper arm of humans and humanoids. They are called triceps because it splits and has three points of contact. Triceps are important because it is the muscle principally responsible for extension of the elbow joint. If it gets damaged, your opponent can’t straighten their arm. The triceps also work with your back muscles, to extend your shoulder, such as when you brace yourself to get up off the ground or push a door closed.” Darvin traced both muscle groups on Kelski’s body lightly on both sides of her upper arm so she knew exactly where he was talking about with each group.

Kelski nodded, understanding completely.

[Kelski]

Darvin continued, having explained the important muscle groups to Kelski. “So a triceps hook is an easy move to learn and one you really want to know. “So say your opponent stabs with a center thrust and you defend by parrying the wrist of the attacking arm from the inside with their free hand. Grab the wrist upon contact if possible with your free hand, and immediately hook the dagger behind the triceps, and deliver a deep pull-cut with the edge of the dagger. Use your hip rotation to power the pull by simply reversing the body mechanics of the initial blast.” Darvin demonstrated the move on Kelski after asking her to center thrust at him using the proper angle of attack. She did so and was shocked at how fast he had her wrist captured and her triceps hooked with his dull blade running it across her arm where it would literally be partially cut off.
Eyes wide, the Kelvic snorted in surprise and tried to surge backwards, but with her arm ‘cut’ she knew she wouldn’t have any control and would likely drop the dagger and die.

“That’s amazing. I would have never thought to do that.” Kelski said, as she stepped back and Darvin took an attack position. It took her a few moments to get the move right, doing multiple things at once. It was something she was going to not only practice over and over again, but visualize completely so she could get it right. She also realized why Darvin was harping on her to get stronger. If an opponent was stronger, like Darvin was, there was a good chance he could wrench out of her grasp before she could slip in and cut the triceps right open. The pull cut was also a new move. It involved stabbing the body then pulling the dagger through the fresh opening a deep gash.

They kept working on it, practicing back and forth until Kelski was starting to get a grasp on how to do it. After twenty chimes though, Darvin called a halt so she could drink from her waterskin and catch her breath. After the initial teaching, he was always prone to speed up the action. He didn’t want Kelski used to things on the sly, slowly being executed. He wanted her to know how to do things quickly and lethally, so that she could disable, disarm and more importantly kill. Killing was important. In fact, he preached that as much as he could. Kill before they could kill you. Kelski happened to agree.

When she had caught her breath and had rehydrated, Darvin was ready to move on with the lesson. “Next, I want to get a but crude. I’ve taught you all I know about fighting dirty and a basic level, but the next move is kind of the crown of dirty moves.” He said, pausing to make sure she understood.

Kelski did. Darvin would never be a saint. He was definitely made of more grounded stuff.

[Kelski]

“The crown of dirty moves…. the hack and stab.” Darvin paused for drama and then explained further. “When your target stabs at your body, use your left free hand to parry or hack it aside with a low outward and downward blow then immediately counter with your own stab.” He paused to demonstrate this, because the move was more complex than most and he felt he had to break it up. “This quick stab and counter makes an excellent back and forth style for sparring. From here on out we will use it quite a bit. In this scenario, Kelski, the closer you can deliver the stab after the parry the better. This is why I preach getting faster… going faster… moving faster. Timing and rhythm can really make or break the move, so dagger fighters who can also dance are especially apt students at this move. Take some dance lessons. Smooth out your choppy motions. Gather grace. If you are too slow and make it a "1 and 2" kind of exchange you are giving the opponent a window of opportunity to interrupt your pattern and counter you on the half-beat, or the 'and'. If you think of a parry as a "1" and the stab as a "2" you want to be striking at the "And" of the "1 and 2". “ He said, explaining plainly and then moving out into the center of the room to demonstrate.

Darvin had her stab at him and showed her neatly once more how to do the hack and stab. Then he turned and started attacking her repeatedly until she broke the move into 1 and 2, then slowly melded them together until they were a smooth seamless, concise sort of motion. To Kelski it felt like the ultimate battle and something very intimate because she had to get close and stay close. Darvin coached her through the whole thing, urging her for speed, smoothness, and to be consistent.

They broke for water again, and Darvin nodded. “You are doing well, Kelski. If you keep this up, you are going to be a force to be reckoned with if you can get a blade in your hand. Soon enough I’m going to try and start you on using daggers in both hand and dual wielding. That will take away some of these moves but it will also add a bunch more. There’s not going to be much that can stop someone in close contact when you have blades. That’s especially true after I teach you how to throw them and indeed how to counter sword work when you get face to face with someone with a superior reach. But that should be easy. Swordsmen and Swordswomen often underestimate someone with a dagger. They forget that not only are they the ultimate melee weapon, but they are also a thrown weapon so they can surprise the crap out of an opponent who isn’t expecting a person wielding a dagger to break one of the fundamental rules of fighting…. NEVER THROW YOUR WEAPON AWAY.” Darvin laughed, pinning Kelski with a sharp gaze.

The Kelvic nodded, the lesson coming home bright and clear.

“But we do… as those who wield daggers. We do all the time. That’s why we carry daggers we can throw away verses daggers we hold onto and save our lives with. And it gives us an acute advantage.” He said, tapping several places on his body that held weapons he could indeed throw.

Kelski nodded her understanding, dragging down another deep drink of her waterskin. After Darvin gave her a breather, they launched back into the lesson.

Continued In: The World Is Full Of Angles III

[Kelski]

Kelski

Experience: +5 Dagger, +5 Observation, +1 Medicine,

Lores: Dagger: Strike Straight With Tip Pointed At Opponent, Dagger: Targets Of Choice – Head, Face, Head, Neck, Vital Organs, Artery, Fingers, Hands – Especially Thumbs, Dagger: Remove The Thumb Technique, Dagger: Cut The Hand Technique, Dagger: Triceps Hook, Medicine: Triceps And Biceps In Human Anatomy, Medicine: How Triceps/Biceps Function, Dagger: Hack And Stab, Dagger: Must Learn Dancing, Dagger: Never Throw Your Weapon Away, Dagger: Pack Daggers Just For Throwing Away