Saturdays On Campus (IC)

[Scuffles]

Glow nodded as she looked at the staffs Etain had selected, and used her telekinesis to float one of them over to her. She stepped far enough away from Etain to be safe and then took it in her hands for a few experimental swings. She certainly didn't look like an expert with the weapon, but seemed comfortable enough as it whooshed through the air a few times.

"These seem about right, I could see myself using one of these!" she said as she held the staff out in front of her with both hands, then gave it a slightly awkward experimental twirl. "Have you trained with a staff before?" She asked Etain as she let go with one hand and let one end of the staff drop to the floor so that she could lean on it. "I'm guessing it's a good way to collect a few nasty whacks!"

Nasty whacks or not, Kristin still had a grin on her face, obviously enthusiastic about the idea of learning a little about staff-fighting.

[Aoiroo]

"Not exactly, but spears are not terribly different so I think I can manage."

She gave the weapon a test swirl with her hand only finding she really couldn't pull it off. It was no matter, she wasn't really taught to spin her weapons, it had no practical application in real combat. Walking over she put both hands near the center and adjusted her stance,

"Would you like to try the first hit then?"

[Scuffles]

Kristin stepped out onto the mats opposite Etain and giggled "I have a sneaking suspicion you're probably going to be pretty hard to hit.." as she lifted her staff in both hands and gave it another experimental swing.

She settled into a comfortable fighting stance and stepped into range, then brought the staff up to a ready position. She paused to ask "how hard do you want to go then? Proper sparring or a bit of play?" before thrusting the end of it at the other girl's chest in a rather half-hearted attack.

[Aoiroo]

She blocked the attack with little more then a flick of her wrist pushing the end of the staff out of her way,

"Proper sparring would involve us actually using our powers. So yes, a bit of play, maybe only aiming for the hands or knuckles. Like so,"

She slipped the staff forward aiming for a light rap of the knuckles but missing as Kristin moved back and hitting the bo instead.

"Really, no need to be terribly rough."

[Scuffles]

Kristin adjusted her grip as Etain counterattacked and slid her hands further apart, pivoting on her front foot as she caught the return blow near the center with a nicely timed block. With a step to her right she adjusted the angle and swung with the low end of the staff, the shot aimed at the fingers of Etain's left hand. Her attack didn't even come close to the mark as Etain simply swayed out of the way.

As she hurriedly tried to retract her weapon and reset to avoid a possible counter attack, she laughed "Oh a little rough just makes it more fun!"

[Aoiroo]

Etain didn't really have to move much to avoid the attack, just shift her stance and let the swing go by,

"If you insist."

With a switch pivot she slipped her staff under Kristin's forcing it up and throwing off her defense. She then twisted the staff and rapped her against the knuckles with a switch hit before regaining her stance,

"You signal your movements, try to be more concious of that."

[Scuffles]

The twin attack from Etain was too quick for Kristin to follow. The first looping attack knocked her staff up high and would have left her entire midsection open for attack. As she desperately tried to bring her weapon back into position Etain's switch rapped her painfully on the knuckles.

With a yelp Kristin reset her defenses and stepped forwards again, then stopped briefly her head cocked to the side as she asked "I signal them how?" Another step brought her back into range, and she once again swung at her opponents hand, paying more attention to her own movements than her target. The swing barely troubled Etain, and didn't even make contact with her staff, let alone her hand.

[Aoiroo]

She backed away from the swing,

"Posture suggested a slight crouch so you were preparing for a body swing, you also step in by putting your weight on your front foot suggesting you were trying to shift your weight into your swing from an upward position. Your eyemovement while you were following the swing showed me the path as well."

She switched her own stance by reaching forward and grabbing Kristins bo staff and holding it in place while she slid her other hand down the hand and swung the staff back like a sword and tapping Kristin lightly on the back of the head,

"You should not feel too bad about it, most of that is basic form for someone who has been trained properly. You adjust your posture, your stance, shift your weight, and follow certian movements before you execute an attack to insure the most effective result. Though someone trained to find these exact signs can always avoid an attack."

[Scuffles]

Kristin stumbled forwards off balance as Etain trapped her staff neatly, and didn't even see the attack coming before it tapped lightly against her head in what she recognized as an obvious fight-ender. She paused there for a second and winced "Where did that come from? I didn't even see you set it up!" before she pulled back and yanked her own staff free.

With a pivot on her left foot she swung her weapon in a low arc, hoping to catch Etain off guard. It didn't work, and her more skilled opponent easily stepped over the obviously telegraphed attack.

[Aoiroo]

"I switched styles."

Etain stepped past the swing and blocked it slipping her own staff under Kristins.

"When I told you to look for posture and positions you naturally starting looking for stances you yourself would be familiar with. So I switched my stance to that of a sword stance instead of a spear stance then weilded the staff one handed."

As she spoke she stepped forward and used her knee to pushed the staff upward and tapped Kristin on the chin with it's edge before tilting and bouncing the staff up past the red heads face and snatching it back before regaining her stance,

"You may be vaguely familiar with bo staffs, but you know nothing about fencing."

[Scuffles]

Kristin saw the end of Etain's Bo staff as it flashed up at her face, but even her best effort to dodge wasn't good enough, her head reflexively snapping back a little at the light tap under her chin. She reeled backwards another step as Etain completed the swing and the butt of the staff whooshed past the tip of Kristin's nose.

As she regained her balance Kristin danced back out of reach for a moment then tilted her head to the side a little as she asked "Surely the staff is a little to long to wield properly with one hand?" she asked as she experimentally tried it herself. With a shrug she looked back at Etain and grinned. "You're really really good. So far out of my league that it's pretty funny! If we really went at it I'm pretty sure I'd be on the floor before I could even blink!"

"I think I really had to fight you I'd pretty much just have to try to grab you with my Telekinesis and hold on tight. Until I ended up on the floor anyway!"

[Aoiroo]

"Well yes, but only because I would rather simply put you to sleep instead of causing you any actual pain."

Etain held one end on the ground and tapped the other with her finger,

"I was never formally trained to use a bo staff, I was trained to use a spear. From the age of thirteen onward I have been spending years with almost every form of bladed weapon imaginable and maybe one or two forms of hammers. Given, where I am from the matches did not work with taps like we are doing now, they worked with full frontal assault of the bladed end from almost always the very the beginning. Which for the others I trained with was nothing more then a mild inconvience, if not for the readily available regenerative magics I would have several more scars right now as well as several less limbs."

She spun her staff,

"But it is good to be able to train like this, the way I have become the way I am was quite painful, and really unsuited for a world such as this."

[Scuffles]

"Well going to sleep is just a boring way for a fight to end!" Kristin laughed. "I had that happen in Judo once though. Guy choked me. It had a little bit of pain as well as the going to sleep. I got the worst lecture for not tapping out too!"

The next part shocked her more than a little. "Wait wait wait. You spar full-contact with bladed weapons and hammers? With stabbing and everything? Isn't that a little dangerous even with healing magic? Wait. Healing magic? Cool. But stabbing? What if someone gets a sword in the heart or something, isn't that a little bit.. well, fatal?".

They have teenagers train full contact with blades..? wow. The whole idea was equal parts horrifying and intriguing.

"That has to be most amazing thing I've ever heard" She decided. "But I bet it gives you incentive to learn fast if your opponent is really trying to stab you. I always learned fastest in Judo when I sparred with people who would really choke me out if I messed up!"

[Aoiroo]

"Well it was a concern for myself, but everyone I was fighting could take hits that would be considered fatal normally and pass it off as nothing. They felt pain, but they regenerated quite quickly so that mortal blows were in some instances the only ones that counted as a solid enough hit to count. Of course I do nothing of that sort here, and it does give incentive to learn fast. I have suffered many injuries that I would not wish on anyone learning how to fight, so began to watch carefully so that I will not be hit in the first place."

She picked up her staff again,

"Though you could try to see if you can bypass that if you like."

[Scuffles]

"Did you not regenerate the same as them?" Kristin asked curiously. "That sounds a heck of a lot more dangerous to you than it would to them! Still, healing magic like you said I guess?"

She tapped her staff on the mats again as she looked Etain up and down. "You want me to hit you for real?" She asked, then chuckled "well, Try to hit you for real is probably a better way to put it!" After a moments thought she shook her head. "I wouldn't want to do that unless you were going to hit me back too. I know I'm not very likely that I'm actually going to hurt you even a little bit but I'd feel bad trying if I know I'm not going to get whacked back!"

The air in front of her shimmered green for a moment. "And besides, I can maybe use my telekinesis to block a little bit. It'd be good practice and I might even stay standing past like 5 seconds!"

[Aoiroo]

"No I did not, afterall I am human."

She adjusted herself back to the base spear stance she had before,

"Please, do make arrangements so that will not end to quickly. It is hardly practice if it ends too quickly for you to learn anything."

Etain smiled, which was probably the last bit of it she saw as she closed the distance between them with two long steps. She used her back foot to hold her weight as she lunged forward with the staff and plunged over Kristin's staff and into her stomach.

[Scuffles]

Kristin's eyes widened as Etain's lunge caught her off guard. Her feet had only just started to shift as the attack flashed past her staff far too quickly to block... then stopped cold about an inch in front of her undefended stomach with an audible thunk and a little flash of green light.

A grin spread on her face at that little success as she got her feet moving, then snapped her staff down on top of Etain's in an attempt to keep it out of position. A moment later her counterattack whipped out towards the older girl's head but missed yet again as Etain nimbly swayed aside.

[Aoiroo]

"Interesting,"

Etain swayed past the counterattack and did a low spin that tilted upwards on the last second colliding the bow staff in a more heavy handed swing right into the girls shoulder. She danced back giving the staff a playful spin,

"That seemed to connect, so this will require a little more force then normal. Lovely,"

There was no sarcasm in that last word, it was a thrill to fight, and a thrill for a challenge. She didn't need to cheat or to show off, she just needed to work with what she had here.

[Scuffles]

Kristin's attempt to evade the blow was once again in vain as Etain's harder swing punched through her telekinetic barrier, but a twist of her shoulder was enough to turn it into a glancing impact. "I'm going to try to make you work for it at least!" she laughed as she sized Etain up once more and then stepped forwards onto the attack.

As Etain's staff spun, Kristin switched her grip into one more natural for a bat than a staff, and leveled a hard two-handed swing at her opponent's hip. A resounding "Thwack!" echoed around the gym as Etain met the blow with a solid parry.

"Hey I actually made you block one!"

[Aoiroo]

Etain smiled at her,

"Yes, you are slowly gaining some footing."

She took a step back and did a quick snap down with her bo staff but Kristin managed to sidestep her hit. Her smile didn't falter as she moved back into her stance and prepared for a counter attack,

"It is quite fun to use something that you know will not draw blood of another, I am really not one for bloodshed myself."

[Scuffles]

Kristin's smile widened as she actually managed to avoid a blow completely, with her feet moving smoothly about the mats as she skittered sideways. "Blood is a little over the top for practice!" she replied, her voice a little strained with the effort of another counter attack.

Her grip shifted on her staff a little as she tried to loop her weapon over the top of Etain's only to be met again with a solid parry.

"Of course I'd like you to not break any bones either.." she laughed as she brought her weapon back to a defensive position. "Being able to walk back to my room when we're finished here is preferable OK?"

[Aoiroo]

Etain smiled, pushing inward as to apply pressure on Kristin from the parried stance,

"I am not sure which is more curious, that you believe me physically strong enough to actually break bones or that you think I would need to do so to take someone out. Also, please clench your teeth dear, it may be bad if you bit your tongue."

That was the only warning she got because like before Etain turned the staff in a straight position and popped it up with her knee at an angle that brought the butt of the pole up right up under her chin. Though this time it was no mere tap as it was a full force blow

[Scuffles]

Kristin recognized the attack, having seen it just a few minutes ago. That wasn't enough to do anything about it though, as her parrying staff missed by a couple of inches. The blow was lessened by her telekinetic shielding, but still snapped up under her chin with enough force to shut her jaw with a surprisingly loud crack.

The younger girl reeled backwards a step as her head snapped back, seeing stars for a second before she shook her head clear. A fierce grin lit up her face as she tasted blood in her mouth. Almost completely unphased she stepped back in and lashed out with a straight stabbing attack, the butt of her staff missing Etain's chest by a couple of inches as the nimble girl easily dodged aside.

"You have to teach me that one!" she grinned, "I see it coming and I still can't get out of the way! And remind me to bring a mouthpiece next time. I like my teeth!"

[Aoiroo]

"That is simply because I am too close for you to avoid, for example,"

She closed the distance between them in an instance and aimed a quick blow at the eyes with the edge of staff, though instead of hitting her across the face the moment Kristin closed her eyes and raised her staff to try and parry out of reflex Etain lowered the blow at the last second and got a solid hit onto the red heads throat. Etain backed away, with a step and regained her stance,

"The most effective way to deal damage in close range combat is to close the distance so you can exert your force most effectively. The disadvantage to this is that closing the distance is dangerous because people can hit you back, unless you force them to take the defensive. Both times I hit you on the chin you were trying to guard instead of attack. Same as this time, you instinctively protected your face which left your throat open."

[Scuffles]

Kristin missed most of the lesson.

She flinched as the staff flicked towards her face and raised her guard instinctively, only to completely miss the reversal and take a solid whack to the throat from the opposite end of the staff. Already off balance she sprawled backwards with a choked cry, landing on her butt on the mats.

Unable to breathe for a panicked moment she rolled to the side and dropped her weapon as she clutched at her throat. A moment later however, she managed to get a breath into her lungs and struggled back into sitting position. Obviously a little bit distressed and still struggling to breathe she croaked "Ow, nice one!", but despite the pain she still managed to give Etain a wry grin.

"See now I'm glad we're not training with the real stabbing.."