Training at the Crescent Academy

Goldenblade is in the main yard of the Crescent Academy, bashing a training dummy with two swords, working on her technique. She's always been a big advocate of training, a throwback to her RL on-the-job experience, which heavily emphasized training, and complemented by her impatience with sitting still. She's almost always doing something, and bashing a training dummy keeps her busy and in shape, if the bashing-a-training-dummy diet ever takes off. It certainly burns calories. Or it would, if calories are counted in a game like this. Can you get slow and fat? Is there an arthereosclerosis mechanic? ... The mind drifts while the body works.

The last time Vertina was here it was to have a duel with Goldenblade. Today's agenda as she walked onto the yard was different , but related. The Salamander martial artist had won that match, but Goldenblade had still impressed her with some of her moves.

She pauses for a bit, watching the swordwork and not wanting to heedlessly interrupt. Instead she waits for a break in the activity before finally speaking up "Hey Goldenblade! Already hard at work I see."

Goldenblade has reached a pausing point in her routine, sweaty and panting, and she looks up to smile to Vertina. "Hey there," she calls back, smiling as she takes a towel and wipes it across her brow. "How's it going?" She chuckles about being hard at work, but nods. "I try to keep busy. Working out new techniques, keeping up and polishing the ones I've developed. How're you doing?" she wonders.

She sheaths her two swords after looking over the blades. No nicks or damage so far. "What brings you to my little clubhouse?" she asks with a dry chuckle.

Vertina gives a nod. "The proper attitude for training. There's always room to improve, and hone what you do know." She was a martial artist as well as an athlete in real-life too so she's familiar with the methodology. Vertina brushed some stray hair out of her face with a hand, tucking it behind one of her horns. "Which is why I am here.. I wanted to see if I could learn that blazing evasive move you used when we were dueling back when the League was starting out."

Goldenblade nods gravely about training, though she learned it in her job rather than any sort of personal effort. No athlete in real life, though a bricklayer's job is pretty physical. She nods about the move Vertina speaks of, and says, "I'd love to teach it to you. I have an improved version, also, but it's a bit more taxing. It's much more evasive, though it does less fire damage to the opponent. It's a tossup which is more useful, I think it's entirely situational."

And so she'll repeat the Blazing Dodge that Vertina is familiar with, skipping aside so fast she leaves a flaming trail on the ground, and then demonstrating the improved version, her Inferno Dodge, which evades so fast that the flames hardly have a chance to flare up.

Vertina takes a step back to give Goldenblade room as she demonstrates. Let's put an impressed whistle at the improved version. "I don't think you perfected that one yet when we faught." She shifts a bit with her weight to stretch. "That's impressive you can do that through sheer speed and without magic! ... But if there is one thing I've learned it's best to work your way up to the more advanced techniques."

Goldenblade nods about not having had that when she'd fought Vertina, and again about working one's way up to advanced techniques. She explains, "The trick is to tap into the elemental fire that's in your nature. It's not magic per se, is the reason that it works. I'd never be able to do anything like that in real life. This is movie-level stuff, like the old Hong Kong/Wuxia type action."

She grins, wonders, "So, you know how to tap into that already? That's where this all starts."

Vertina laughs as she finishes stretching, her tail flicking a few times as she does. "My spirit IS Fire. And the more versatility in how I can use it, the better. Most of my existing defensive flame techniques are more barrier than avoidance. Useful but I can't keep on the move as much, which crimps some of my style ."

Goldenblade nods slowly, understanding the difference between barrier and avoidance techniques. "I'm better at the avoidance techniques, myself. But I developed this," and she demonstrates a strange technique, drawing forth the element of Dark, it seems, into a physical thing, creating a barrier like steel. It -is- steel, in fact, though that dissipates back to Earth when she's finished demonstrating her Black Shield technique. "Not as useful as the dodge," she admits. "But I wanted to work out how to bring a few techniques I don't use as often into play."

"The same, I prefer to stay mobile so having to slow down and flame up my aura can be a bother." Vertina nods. "And being good with one style is no reason to neglect the other"

She holds a hand up and out, just shy of actually touching the shield. "I sense Earth's resilience but the darkness is beyond my scope."

Goldenblade nods about staying mobile. It's her thing, too, really. But she agrees about not neglecting other styles. "Precisely. Sadly, I don't have a lot of call to use it. Or, better to say that between my Blazing Dodge and another technique using Darkness, I don't keep the shield ready."

"So," she says with a smile, "When would you like to begin training?" Seems there's no time like the present! "Or if you don't have time right now, I have a fair amount of free time coming up."

"No time like the present!" Vertina replies with enthusiasm even as the Salamander shifts back into a ready stance. "Besides it'd be a shame not to use your facility for its intended purpose. Then I can always practice on my own later."

Goldenblade nods gravely, but is smiling as she does so. "Excellent," she says, and assumes a standard sort of fighting stance. "Breathing is important," she explains. "So, you take a breath, and feel the flames, put yourself just on the point of embracing them. You'll feel time start to slow a bit, and you dash to the side, and let the flames fill in all behind you."

She demonstrates slowly, and it's more a whoosh of flame than an evasion at that point. But that's the technique. "Embracing the flame is easy, but letting it fill in where you just were is the hard part."

Vertina tilts her head to observe as Goldenblade gives a more in-depth explaination this time, and demonstrates at a slower speed the movements. "Breathing is always important," she adds with a nod. "A tired body is a vulnerable one." She puts her hands together and closes her eyes to inhale and then exhale, not unlike the way she takes a moment for some of her existing techniques. A breath deep to focus the mind and body, legs tense faintly to be ready to move while the rest of the body remains limber, tail swishing the other away to keep balance in check. And then, she moves.

Vertina is already quite fast on her feet, that part is undebatable. But when she stops after the swift motion and turns to look, there's only a bit of smoke and some scorch marks on the ground. To which she.. actually smiles a bit. "That's ... actually kind of what I expected. This is a different method than my usual techniques. It will take practice to hone to proper focus and projection."

Goldenblade nods to Vertina about breathing, "That's a fact. A tired mind makes mistakes, which are never good when playing with fire." She chuckles. "But you seem to have the basic part of it," she gestures to the smoke rising, "it's a matter of letting the flame flow out and down. Imagine that it's a lubricant and you're greasing your path with flames." Which might make sense if you're more of a home handyman type than a karate person. She's done more with lawnmowers than punching people. "But yeah, if you can keep at it, so that the flames come first time, every time, and just when you need them, then you'll have perfected the technique."

"That is kind of a weird anology." Vertina squints a little as she eyes the burn marks she'd left instead of actual flames. "But I think I get the jist of it. It's not use leaving fire when you move, it's using it to help you move. The flames to keep the attacker at bay are part of the result." She nods, settling back into her stance to prepare herself and try again. Probably repeatedly before she gets more formidable results. That is the point of training though. This is a bit less stressful than having to start from scratch though.

Goldenblade can only shrug at the weirdness of the analogy. "Yeah, sorry. The weekend before I joined this game, I had to take apart my lawnmower." She's from the generation that actually did things like that. "But it looks like you're getting it," she agrees. "Once you can get the flames pretty reliably, you can start putting in the movements. It'll feel a little boosted at first, like ... uh ... like jumping off the couch, at first. As you get stronger in the technique, it'll be more like jumping off the porch, or off the roof of your car."

On the other hand that anology gets a hearty laugh out of the Salamander. "Oh trust me, I've been there! I was one of the brave reckless kids that would climb on the roof and jump off after watching one too many anime episodes." Vertina resumed the pre-technique breathing posture. "I learned to bend my own light for Mirage Phase, I can learn to bend fire in a new way for this. Everything just takes time, and effort."

Goldenblade nods about time and effort. "That's the truth," she agrees. "Anything that can be done takes time and effort. And the more worthwhile it is, the more time and effort it takes." She smirks about jumping off the roof after watching anime, admitting, "My kids did that when they were like seven." She shrugs. "But yeah, if you can keep working it like that, and then it's in the hips when you slide away." Because there's always something more. Sadly, she's not a great trainer, technique-wise.

Honestly the demonstrations were probably more effective anywyays. Vertina can work from what she's seen others do and develope from there more easily than trying to comprehend all the technical details. Very much a learning by doing sort of person. When Goldenblade mentions it being 'in the hips' she pauses, then snickers and makes a few overly dramatic sashaying motions. "This is when having a tail is actually useful!"

Goldenblade ohs, she hadn't even thought about how having a tail might affect the move. "Don't burn it," she warns. She's not even sure if it can happen, she hasn't done that experiment. "If it helps you move, then it's good. Extra movement is good. If it makes it harder to move, then it'd be tougher. I honestly have no idea," she admits sheepishly.

Vertina chuckles a little. "Hey, I had to relearn how to walk with reconstructive surgery and braces. Learning to run with a tail is easy by comparison!" At the moment she's started just practicing the motions, before trying to wind them all together into one package. But bit by bit and piece by piece she's working her way through it. She certainly doesn't seem to mind that training takes the time to do so. It's a good workout besides.

Goldenblade ohs, nods about walking after surgery. "You're a step ahead of me with that, then," she agrees. "I think if you just keep at it, you'll get it in no time." She watches the technique, but hasn't got anything to add just yet. "More smoothly," she advises, but she seems satisfied with how things are going. "It took me a while to work it out, but I think you'll get it pretty quickly."

Vertina pauses to tap a heel against the opposite shin, knocking some dirt off her foot the same way a field player would clean some sod from their cleats. "Yeah. It's a matter of practice and stringing the basics together. Time and patience is the only thing that's going to hone that." She gives a nod of satisfication, and turns to bow to Goldenblade. "Thank you. There is no doubt I will be able to put it to good use once I've mastered it."

Goldenblade nods sagely about time and patience. "That's a fact," she agrees, returning the bow, "You're very welcome. I wish you good luck!" She adds, "Feel free to use the grounds here as much as you like. Obviously, there's not a lot else going on just at the moment." She smirks, sighs. "More's the pity." But she'll get back, then, to her own training.

"Give it time, and a chance for word to spread," Vertina reassures her. "Reputation is another thing that takes time to build. Besides, you're out on quests a fair bit, people just need to see more of your techs in action, like I did."

Goldenblade nods sagely. "A bit of advertising doesn't hurt, either," she adds with a grin. "But at least things are starting to pick up. I've got a friend who'll maybe want to learn my ninja trick, I think." She seems enthuses. "It was slow starting, but I think things are going to pick up."