Ask Sernpidal Not Fair

[Natalie Hope]

Natalie felt the Force push against her back, and tumbled forward. She'd been in this position before with her spar against Ezra. A tuck and roll later, she was on her feet with enough distance between them that another physical attack wouldn't be viable. Natalie turned to the Padawan, her right hand spinning the wooden saber leisurely. It wasn't a wind up to another strike, but rather just absent minded twirling. Sitting still wasn't exactly her forte.

"That was good!" Natalie said. "You know what you did wrong? I gave you my sword arm, but instead of disarming me you went for a body shot. Targets of opportunity will arise in a fight, and you're going to have to recognize them and take advantage of that. You did good with that Force push though." She let Zessel explain that he played games. That was good. She could liken real fights to those.

"Well in games you usually have to weigh in cost of actions, right?" Natalie began. "Every action has a consequence, and you as the player have to decide what consequences you're trading for your actions." Now it was time to tie it into the spar. "You had a prime target in front of you that could do critical damage, albeit I could still probably fight on. Instead you went for a one-shot and ended up taking more damage than you dealt. See the correlation?"

@Zessel

 

[Zessel]

Zessel smiled after hearing Natalie's words. He could have still left his guard a bit open, but at least this time the half-Arkanian was able to do something before falling with his rear on the floor again. Really, how many times would it happen until the end of this class?

He hoped that it would have been the last one.

When she started to talk about the relation of their fight and games, Zessel made an effort to maintain focus and understand what was being said to him. It took some time for him to make sense of her words, with the half-Arkanian staring at her in silence while the gears on his mind worked.

After a brief meditation on her words, which he thought came to him faster than he had expected, Zessel finally understood the correlation that Natalie was trying to explain. “Yes. When I'm fighting, I need to find a way of dealing damage, but also being careful to protect myself. I also need to find my enemies’ openings, without leaving mine apparent. Isn't it?”

The Padawan immediately rose from the floor and stood in a defensive position. “In this case, I want to try again!”

@TheDudeMike

 

[Natalie Hope]

Natalie gave the kid a small smile and a nod. "Alright, we can do one more but then class time is up and you gotta head to your next class," she said. Despite it having felt only like a short period of time, they'd been at it for a while. The other Padawan in his group were starting to tire, and it showed. Some of them had even been following along with Natalie's teachings with Zessel, and now sported some good old fashioned black eyes and busted lips. She found the ultimate counter to Padawan aggro: themselves.

Just like before, Natalie spun the wooden sword a couple of times beside her before entering a combat stance, this time making sure to keep her distance. Keeping her right leg in front, she thrust her right arm forward, aiming the tip of the wooden blade at the kid's chest. It was at a range that they would have to close a step or two before being able to do any sort of damage to Natalie's torso, but having her body still squared up with the kid meant she could redirect the attack anywhere it needed to go with relative ease.

@LouJoVi

 

[Zessel]

”Fine.” Zessel said, not feeling much excited to go to his next class. It was going to be astronomy. He hated this class, together with mathematics and meditation. There was no fun in sitting in a chair and doing endless calculations. It was boring and offered little rewards for the Padawan, besides a headache.

The half-Arkanian focused on Natalie’s movements, while thinking in ways that he could counter-attack without leaving himself open to her, like how the Knight had explained. He saw her move the stick toward his chest and quickly crouched, allowing her to point at empty space.

While she did it, the Padawan would have already moved his own fake lightsaber. With a fast movement, he would make it hit her wrist. In a normal fight, she would have lost her hand with this movement.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Natalie Hope]

His lack of excitement of the class time almost being over was something Natalie felt on a spiritual level. It was hard to find something that was fun and interesting, and once you started it was hard to ever stop. Rules were rules, though, and Natalie wasn't the normal teacher for lightsaber combat; she was just filling in. She was a Jedi Knight, one that had no problem going out and searching for darkness to bring to the light. That alone made her worth more in the field than in a classroom, and the Order knew it.

Natalie watched him duck the thrust, and even though he was already moving to take her wrist. She let go of the training saber, pulling it to her left hand with the Force in a split second. As his blade smacked into the underside of her wrist with a loud thwack, Natalie used the blade in her left hand to come down on Zessel's shoulder. He took an arm, but because of his crouched state he was vulnerable and likely unable to dodge.

"That was good," Natalie said with a smile, shaking her right wrist out to extinguish the sting. The kid still had a lot of time to learn what worked and didn't work. The dejarik game that was lightsaber combat was an ever moving, and ever fluid thing. She stepped back, lowering the training saber. "But.... you could have side stepped just as easily. Crouching limits your movement, but widens mine. Unless you're taking aim with a blaster, or really need to crouch, it's better to stay standing and ready to move."

With a flourish, she spun the training saber from her left hand to her right, then ended the flourish by extending it out to the kid hilt first as if it were real. "Here, take them both and practice in your own time. You've got plenty of time to figure out what works and doesn't, but make sure you try to make some friends to practice with. Sparring with a partner is always better than practicing by yourself."

@LouJoVi

 

[Zessel]

Unfortunately, Zessel’s plan wasn’t as clever as the Padawan had hoped. While the Padawan had been trying to hit her wrist, Natalie had already moved to trust the stick on his shoulder. It signaled that he once again had failed in his attempt to properly defend himself. At least this time he wasn’t going to fall seated on his butt.
He was already on the floor, anyway.

Like during this entire class, Zessel was once again in front of Natalie while she explained what he did wrong. He was taking note of everything that she was saying, with his focus coming naturally. Perhaps it was because he could see how abilities had improved a bit since early that day.

“A blaster…” he whispered, louder than he had expected. With a hand holding his chin, Zessel contemplated the possibility of getting one. It would be another weapon to defend himself and help people. After this moment, he would not rest until he got his hands on one.

The Padawan returned to the present when Natalie gave her stick to him. The white-haired boy stared at it briefly, before looking back at her. “Thanks, I guess. I don’t know if they will want to train with me, but I’ll try.”

It seemed to be the end of the class, with Zessel needing to go to his astronomy one. Before he left, the Padawan looked at Natalie one last time. "Can you go with me talk to a Healer later? I don't know what to say." the boy knew that he had a problem with focus, but he had no idea of how to explain it to someone else.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Natalie Hope]

Natalie shook her head. "Unfortunately I won't be able to. I'll give them a detailed note though- you'll be fine." She gave the kid a smile. There was a lot going on in the world of Jedi, and Natalie was almost always in the midst of it. While she was teaching classes today, tomorrow she'd be off on some planet kicking someone's ass or getting hers kicked. It was the way it was.

"I'll check in when I can though, make sure you're doing alright." She looked to the class that was putting their practice swords away and shuffling out of the room. "Now get going before you end up late to your next class." She jerked her chin toward the group of Padawan, signalling he should join them. Natalie had to hunt down the ones that skipped, and then hopefully not have to teach classes again.

@LouJoVi

/endthread