Now I Am The Master

    When she's not out and about doing quests or soloing dragons (her claims, believe them if you will~) Yuuki makes her home at Eas. Which is where she has been lately, taking a bit of a break and helping Wake improve the place. So when she was approached by Yeowang to help her improve her ability to not get hit, Yuuki spent some time pondering some interesting training sessions and then had Yeowang come here.

    The message was not to meet at Castle Eas specifically, but rather in a field in the same general area. There's not much to this field, except that there appears to be a cemetary nearby. One known to be where undead monsters lurk.

    As Yeowang arrives at the meeting location, she'll find Yuuki is already there, waiting for her. She's simply standing there in the field, her eyes closed and an amused smile on her face. This is dangerous though, because she's not alone!

    A Skeleton Archer is nearby and it's currently trying to fill her full of arrows. It pulls back on its bow and releases one. The arrow whistles through the air straight towards Yuuki's back-

    -But she steps to the side, letting the arrow pass by her. The next arrow streaks towards the back of her head, but she ducks beneath it. The third shoots for her hip, but with a little fancy footwork she dances around it.

    All while keeping her eyes closed!

Yeowang is a habituee of Eas also, and Yuuki will remember her in a sort of aide de camp role to Wake in addition to providing substantial financial backing. She holds Eas's pursestrings, and is friends with Wake, having worked with her on several projects.

As to whether she believes that Yuuki solos dragons, she is given to believe that dragons have not been seen in-game, so with that and a lack of drops marked Dragon Bits, she will remain skeptical of the claim. But it's not an issue, per se, as Yeowang is sufficiently ignorant of gaming in general that the dragon hunting claim, whether true or false, does not change her opinion of Yuuki.

She approaches the meeting location just in time to see Yuuki's amazing prowess, and she nods thoughtfully as she draws closer. "That is fantastic," she says. "I've known teachers that have practiced all their lives who could not do that." There is clearly an element of what she thinks of as game fu involved.

    "Heehee, yeah. That's the great fun of games like this. Lets you do things you wouldn't be able to in the outside world!" Yuuki then coughs, "That said... While I have worked a lot on improving reaction times and the like, I am cheating a little bit."

    Yuuki moves a hand to tap an object currently stuffed between the side of her headband and her head, "This baby lets me see-or sense-things happening all around me. Which helps in dodging stuff without looking."

    The Skeleton Archer fires another arrow, which Yuuki dodges again. But this time she also reaches down and pulls her sword from its sheathe. A quick leap to cover the distance to the monster and a slash later, it explodes into a shower of pixels.

    Sheathing her sword again, Yuuki opens her eyes and smiles at Yeowang, "Right then! Dodging things one oh one. You probably know this stuff, so I'll keep it brief. It basically falls into two parts: One, be fast. No point in reacting to something if you can't move your body fast enough to avoid it. Two, react fast. No point in being able to move your body fast enough to avoid something if you can't react to it quickly enough."

    Yuuki then raises her hand, holding up three fingers, "I've devised three activities that should help you improve these two aspects. Activities that are, or fall close, to what I did to improve myself!"

    Yuuki grins, eyeing Yeowang, "A couple of them could be a liiiiittle dangerous though. So are you sure you're up for it?"

Yeowang listens quietly to Yuuki as she explains about cheating and her relic. She arches her brows, but says, "Just seeing it, that helps, but you have considerable skill involved also." That sounds like a professional opinion, the way she says it, but that's just her tone. Very succinct and matter of fact.

She nods about three activities, things Yuuki did, herself, and when asked if she's up for it, she says, "I've been practicing martial arts for twelve years. I have studied under several masters. I am almost certainly up for it." She must mean she's studied in RL, as the game hasn't been running for twelve years, even counting the previous incarnation. "I've faced danger," she claims, and leaves it at that.

    Yuuki grins and claps her hands together, "Excellent! First, we just need toooooo..." A few finger swipes later and Yuuki sends a party invite to Yeowang. Once accepted, Yuuki continues, "Annnnd with that out of the way, time for the first activity. Which will be right here! Though I'll need a moment to prepare... Sooooo, just wait here for a minute or two." Yuuki then spins on her feet and starts off in a dash towards the nearby cemetary...

    This does not bode well.

    A couple of minutes later, Yuuki is running out of the cemetery again, heading back towards Yeowang.

    And behind her, roughly a DOZEN Skeleton Archers are chasing after her!!!

    Yuuki runs towards Yeowang, calling out quickly, "LetsSeeHowYouDoAvoidingTheirArrowsDon'tWorryYouDon'tHaveToDoItWithYourEyesCloooooosed!" She runs past Yeowang, dives over a big rock and then ducks behind it.

    A moment later Yuuki pops her head up over the rock again to shout, "Don't worry! At this level they're not strong enough to kill you. But doesn't mean their arrows won't hurt!" She then ducks down again.

    The somewhat slow boney bois chasing Yuuki lose sight of her. So they come to a stop.

    Their glowing red orb-like eyes turn to focus on Yeowang.

    Soon enough, arrows start to rain down on her! Much as Yuuki warned, they don't do a lot of damage when they hit. But they do sting!

Yeowang accepts Yuuki's party invite, and looks baffled as she runs off. But she was almost expecting it when she returns, pulling a train. Not that Yeowang knows that bit of slang. But there is a difference between being ready and being able to do something about it, and she is limited by her charbit's skill, Yuuki may notice. Things she seems to intend don't get done fully, and her dodges are based on her avatar more than her hitbox, so she takes a few hits she wouldn't have taken if this -were- RL, and that seems to frustrate her considerably. She ignores the pain, it's a quarter intensity anyway, sometimes in the heat of battle she doesn't even note it.

Her ability to evade the skeletons is only soso, but she grits her teeth and takes it, moving in on each one in turn and smashing them with merciless strikes. Her defense may need work, but even juggling projects, her offense is formidable.

    Yuuki pokes her head up again after a short time to watch. She nods along as she does so, seeing Yeowang doing pretty well. Occasionally an arrow hits it mark, but she is doing well enough. And of course, her strikes against the Skeleton Archers are well placed and easily demolishing them into pixels. But that's to be expected given their apparent low level.

    As Yeowang is finishing off the last of this batch of archers, Yuuki wanders over again. She claps approvingly, "Not bad! Not bad! I think we can increase the numbers this time. Be right back~" Annnnnd Yuuki is off dashing towards the cemetery again.

    Soon enough, the Imp returns, an even larger group of Skeleton Archers following. Difficulty increased!

    ------

    After having spent some time dodging arrows, Yuuki decided it was time to move on to the next activity. As such, she led Yeowang on a relatively short walk towards a nearby forest.

    Thankfully there are no monsters in this particular forest, just the occasional wildlife bold enough to get close to the two. The trees here are actually quite large, both in height and thickness.

    As Yuuki leads Yeowang through the forest to some random spot, she raises a finger to explain, "Next we're going to work on raw speed. Being able to react fast enough to dodge arrows is all well and good. But that usually only requires small amounts of movements. Being able to dodge a fireball the size of a car launched by a boss... Well, that's going to require being quick on your feet!"

    Yuuki stops, glances around for a moment, then points to a tree, "There. That one works." Yuuki spreads her feet out a little, crouches down, narrows her eyes towards the true...

    And she's off and running! Yeowang will probably get the feeling that Yuuki is definitely not at her full speed. Still, she charges towards the tree leaps at the last moment, places her foot against its side and then starts running up it!

    Yuuki makes it several steps before she loses momentum and gravity takes over, bringing her back to land on her feet on the ground.

    Yuuki walks back towards Yeowang, saying, "It's simple. And seems stupid. But I did actually try this for my training and it got some interesting results!" She motions towards the tree, "Give it a try!"

Yeowang pulls out the spent arrows sticking out of her in various places as Yuuki goes to pull more skeleton archers. Her first inclination, as they return, is to take them all down with a massive attack. She's got a massive attack, though Yuuki may only know it by reputation. Yeowang was the second player, after Yuuki, to develop an Epic attack. But she does not use it, because she's training defense. The defensive skill is definitely not as broad as some players, and her class is often called a glass cannon, though there is a certain minimum capability all melee primary classes share. She /is/ absolutely melee primary, even if not all shadowfists are, her melee skill rivals Yuuki's as she engages the skeletons one by one, taking as little damage as she can manage by trying to remain clear of the skeletons' threat areas. This is difficult, given the mass of attackers, and only by a very careful application of speed and tactics does it result in a modicum of success.

The skeletons are disposed of quickly enough, and she follows Yuuki through the forest, then blinks as she runs up a tree. She pauses to consider that, and then to consider her boots. "You're not wearing golf spikes, are you?" she asks, just in case. But she expects that's a no, and so will take a good look at the tree Yuuki ran up on, and she will walk up to it. She then paces off several steps for a run-up, until she's about as far back as Yuuki started. She dashes forward as fast as she's able, then, and on the last step, she places her foot on the tree and pushes up. With her momentum, she gets a bit of lift and likewise runs up the tree, if not as far as Yuuki was able to before kicking back and flipping over to land on her feet. "That was quite impressive," she says of Yuuki's achievement. If I'd tried to run that high, I'd have landed flat on my back."

    Yuuki laughs and raises one of her boots for Yeowang to see, "No spikes! I wasn't doing anything special THAT time." Lowering her foot again, she says, "Buuuut, I did actually develop something interesting you may have heard of. I'll show you in a sec."

    Yuuki proceeds to wait and watch as Yeowang makes her own attempt. She nods along, "A good start! The thing with this is it's actually more about just speed. Anyone can run a marathon. As you do this more, you'll realize that foot placement, angle, where you apply pressure the most... It ALL matters."

    Yuuki takes another turn. Starting from roughly the same position, she's off in a dash. Faster, this time! Reaching the tree, she's running up it again, managing to make it several steps further before she is pulled back down to the ground.

    Walking back over to Yeowang, Yuuki is grinning, "Speed helps, of course. But another trick to really get the most out of this one is not think of this world like the outside one. There's SO MUCH more we can do here."

    Yuuki crouches in preparation of another attempt. Then is off in a dash. Once more she reaches the tree, but this time and she raises her foot to place it against the trunk, a soft green glow appears on the soles of her boots.

    Yuuki starts running up the tree. And running. And running! She's not stopping, blowing past her last attempt by a lot!

    In fact, Yuuki is able to get all the way towards the top of the trunk, before she leaps off and falls back down the distance. Yuuki then lands near Yeowang in a very intentional superhero landing pose...

    Before she rises and starts jumping up and down, waving her hand around, "Ow ow ow stupid fall damage."

Yeowang looks to Yuuki's shoes, nods about no spikes. On her return to the ground, she listens as Yuuki explains about doing more, and then demonstrates. That seems ... magical. It must be magical, she decides. "That's certainly more than I can do." she admits, "Even /with/ magic, which doesn't work very reliably for me. I haven't got the hang of the game yet, as far as magic goes." When Yuuki lands hard, she says, "You have to flex your knees more when you land, and don't be afraid to fall into a somersault." She has advice for the master, though just in how to jump down from a height. "I had a stuntman explain it once," she explains.

As to running fully up the tree, she shrugs, clearly not worried about that. "But that does make duplicating your feat impossible. But, as you said, that was about more than speed, so I will just work on the speed for now." She will dig out a bit of a starting block in the turf, just a couple pits like a runner's chocks. She dashes hard toward the tree, concentrating on placement of her feet, particularly with that leap from the last step before the tree, leaping so that her first step on the tree is quite high. She gets the same two steps before backflipping to land, but she got almost two-thirds of a meter higher this time. She considers the feat, and says, "I'm sure with some training, I could get another step on the tree."

    Yuuki smiles and shakes her head, "It's not magical. At least, it's not Magic exactly. I have absolute NO aptitude for magic." Strangely enough, Yuuki says this proudly, complete with hands on her waist, eyes closed and smug grin. Yuuki then explains, "It's actually a Sword Skill. Though yeah, you could call the actual result 'magic'. But it doesn't require an incantation like Wave Skills."

    Yuuki nods along as she is actually taught something, saying, "A somersault DOES sound cool... I will keep that in mind for next time. Thanks!"

    As Yeowang goes for another attempt, claiming that replicating the feat is impossible, Yuuki shrugs, "Right now, definitely. But I developed this skill by doing exactly this activity. Perhaps you'll also do it! Or develop your own!"

    Yuuki then claps her hands together at Yeowang's enthusiasm, "That's the spirit!"

    ------

    After some more time running up trees, Yuuki declares its time to move on to the day's third and final activity. She leads Yeowang out of the forest and towards a canyon. It's no ordinary canyon. Numerous stone bridges span across it, going from one wall to the next. They are often crossing over and under each other at varying heights. Tunnels carved into the rockface where the bridges end suggests that something actually lived here...

    Or lives here...

    As they arrive at the edge of the canyon, perched just above one such bridge, Yuuki actually says she needs to prepare and will be even longer this time, so suggests Yeowang take a bit of a break. She then runs off in a different direction.

    About thirty minutes later, Yuuki returns. She's carrying a big bang in one hand, filled.

    The contents appear to be squirming.

    Yuuki grins at Yeowang, "Okay, next we're going to combine the two aspects. You're going to run as fast as you can from one end of the canyon to the other. Buuuuuut, you're not allowed to touch the floor of the canyon. Which means you're going to have to use the bridges that crisscross along it. Jumping from one to the next. Until you get to the end. Annnnnnd, I recommend you do NOT enter the caves. The things inside aren't pleasant."

    As if to emphasize Yuuki's point, several pairs of glowing green orbs start to appear within the darkness of the caves in the opposing canyon wall. Yeowang definitely gets the disturbing feeling that they are looking at her.

    Still, this doesn't explain the bag. So Yuuki explains, "I will be following behind you, providing a little extra 'difficulty' and 'motivation'. Sooooo, off you go!"

Yeowang boggles at running up a tree being a sword skill. It seems beyond possibility, but so much here that's beyond possibility happens, so she's never positive. She considers running up the tree, and how her own Air affinity might help. That's magic, too, to her mind, but it's more usable.

Moving on to the next training site, she looks over the canyon as Yuuki excuses herself. With time to kill, at first she just looks around, peering at things curiously. Critters, those she can see, are looked over critically. Her Loremaster skill isn't particularly effective on places, but she gets a bit of info. What lives here would be good to know.

When Yuuki returns with a squirming sack, Yeowang smirks. But the task set for her seems straightforward enough. Apart from why Yuuki will be following her with a bag full of something that's unhappy about being in a bag.

But this is the training, so she dashes off along one bridge, covering the ground quickly, then leaping to another. This is quite complicated because she has to mind her footing, and make sure nothing comes out of the cave to waylay her.

    As Yeowang jumps to the first bridge and starts running, Yuuki quickly follows, bag in hand. She lets Yeowang run for a while without interruption, watching how she already clearly has an idea on proper foot placement. After the two have run the length of a couple of bridges and jumped to the next, that's when Yuuki begins.

    Yeowang will suddenly hear Yuuki call out from behind her...

    "Firesnake!"

    Firesnake?

    A very red, very annoyed snake suddenly goes flying past Yeowang's head. It tries to breathe a little fire on her as it does so, before its speed falls off and it plummets towards the canyon floor below.

    "Firesnake!"

    Another red snake goes flying past Yeowang on the other side, the process repeating.

    Behind Yeowang, Yuuki calls out, "Those were intentionally aimed away from you. These next ones are not!" She then reaches into the squirming bag, pulling out yet another red snake. She then calls out:

    "Firesnake!"

    And Yuuki throws the annoyed snake at Yeowang's back.

Yeowang is jogging along quickly along the narrow paths when Yuuki ups the ante. She had suspected something like this would result from the squirming bag. She's not familiar with firesnakes, but she understands fire and understands snakes well enough. Dodging, however, is less of an option, here. If her body goes left or right with much force, the momentum will carry her off the narrow walkway.

What she can do is hunching forward, bent over double, so the snake goes over her head. The next one, aimed a bit lower, she can jump over. Jumping and ducking both cause a small loss of speed, but not much of a loss of speed. She still gets fire breathed on her, but not badly before the snakes fly past.

"You know," she says. "You can sometimes get fire-based drops off those." Because Yeowang is a hunter, class-wise.

    Yuuki watches as Yeowang seems to be learning! It's true that the bridges don't offer a lot of room to get out of the way, so it requires some quick thinking and fancy footwork. Not to mention being able to glance behind you to see where they're aimed without a misstep that sends you falling. That is one reason why Yuuki is calling out-

    "Firesnake!"

    -Like a spell incantation. To give Yeowang a heads up on when to look. Otherwise it probably wouldn't be fair.

    Plus it's just funny to shout as she throws the snakes.

    As Yeowang informs Yuuki off the potential drops, she huhs, "Neat! I imagine the fall damage from hitting the canyon floor is probably going to kill them. We should check for any drops once we're done!"

    "Firesnake!"

    Throw.

    This continues until the two finally reach the last bridge at the end of the canyon. Thankfully it's fairly low, so Yuuki jumps the rest of the way down to the canyon floor. Complete with somersault.

    Yuuki plops down, empty bag in hand. She's breathing a little heavily, as this exercise has taken a little out of even her. But she grins at Yeowang, "Not bad! Not bad at all. I'm sure that with some more training, you'll definitely improve!"

The problem with letting a small animal fall to its death is that small animals don't hit the ground with a lot of force, and don't always die. They do slither away in pain, though. The call of 'Firesnake' is important, because Yeowang is plannning her route and watching the caves, and watching over her shoulder at the same time probably would send her over the edge.

When we arrive at the bottom, Yeowang drops to hang from the walkway, then lets go, landing in a crouch and straightening up, her long hair somewhat disheveled. She's breathing heavily, and sweating despite the cold, but her cheeks are flushed and she's smiling.

"That was quite a workout," she says, pleased. "I do need more training, but I have an idea now, of what to do."

    Yuuki raises a hand, giving Yeowang a grin and a thumbs up, "Excellent! If you need any more help, or someone to throw more snakes at you, lemme know! I'd be happy to do so."

    Yuuki rolls herself back and then jumps onto her feet, "Right then, we should head back. It'll be dark soon and that's when those cave creatures like to come out... We DON'T want to be around for that." Yuuki shudders at the thought, then starts wandering back in the direction of Castle Eas.

Yeowang looks back to the cave creatures when Yuuki mentions them, and we saw the weird eyes, or whatever those glowy bits were. She's got ways of finding things out that many do not. She looks carefully as we make our exit from the area, and perhaps she'll work out a bit of info about these terrible creatures. They like narrow walkways, for one. Whatever else she's learned will take some mental digesting before any conclusions can be drawn. "That," she says, "was interesting in several ways."