Serenity Garden
8th Vhalar, 718
8th Vhalar, 718
Although he’d had his reservations about it at the beginning, Tio found that he had no regrets about becoming a Seeker. With Ozbourne instructing him he was learning things about the arts of magic he’d never known before, especially about the spark of defiance and the power of the elements. Yet to his surprise not all of the lessons revolved around magic; sometimes Oz told him stories about the hidden history of the world and the unseen role magic played in it, or other times engaged him in conversation about philosophy or politics. Although the magical arts were always his main priority he often expressed his belief that a master’s job was to teach his disciple not just the one subject but anything they needed to become a well-rounded master in their own right, and that a great magician was made of more than just their skill with a spark.
It was for this reason apparently that he had brought him here today, to the ever-peaceful and aptly named serenity gardens. In his recent lesson the elderly mage had been stressing the importance of never pushing your magic past its limits, for to do so was to invite terrible consequence upon oneself. He’d been doing this ever since Tio had told him about how he’d gone too far during the Darbyton Derby, and about the winds in Scalvoris had been overeager to respond when he asked them for help ever since.
“What was it that caused you to go too far during the derby?” Ozbourne said calmly, looking out to sea as the wind tugged gently at his long beard. The two of them were standing right at the edge of the garden, only a few steps away from falling over the cliff and down into the water below. “You claim it was to save the life of a fellow contestant, which I will admit is very admirable of you, but that is not the whole story now is it? You used your magic recklessly to take a shortcut even though other routes were available to you, and because of that you did not have enough ether at the moment when you really needed it. You’ve become complacent; too willing to use your power to take the easy road.” He sighed. “And perhaps I share some of the blame for this as well. You have talent boy, more talent than a cocky brat like you deserves, and I’ve been so keen on teaching you how to wield it that I’ve neglected to teach you how not to. Well-... it’s time to remedy this situation.”
He turned and began to walk a short distance back in land, gesturing his Tio to follow. “I have shown you how to fight with magic, but now I see that I must teach you how to fight without it. During my youth I often involved myself in all manner of dangerous situation, and to help me fight opponents without risking pushing my spark too hard I learnt another way to fight.”
He stopped talking and turned to face Tio, striking a pose with his knees slightly bent and his arms extended in a manner Tio was unfamiliar with. “Long ago the Sev’ryn developed a way to fight that wouldn’t hurt the opponent unless absolutely necessary, a fighting form that redirects and reflects an enemies own strength right back at them. Armed with this knowledge a true master can engage a dozen enemies and defeat them all without breaking a sweat by turning their own fists against them. It is my hope that by imparting this skill on to you then you will use it first when in danger, and only call upon your spark when all other doors are closed to you.”
“You mean you’re going to teach me how to fight?” Tio asked, a cheeky grin growing on his lips. “Are you sure you’re up for this old man? Wouldn’t you rather sit down and rest those weary bones of yours?”
Ozbourne shot him a small, fond grin. “Ha, cheeky brat! As I said before this form of fighting is about turning your enemies flow against them. Done correctly it takes minimal effort on the practitioners part. Here, let me show you what I mean. Punch me.”
Tio’s grin slipped from his face in shock. “Okay, hold on a second here. Are you sure about this? I mean I really could-...”
“Don’t insult me boy!” Oz snapped. “Just hurry up and do it!”
Punching old men wasn’t something Tio was normally comfortable with, but it was hard for him to refuse master when he got all serious like this. Reluctantly Tio assumed his street fighting stance and launched himself forwards, aiming a punch at Ozbourne’s chest.
And not a single trill later found himself face down in the dirt, with the arm he struck out with pinned behind his back.
Ozbourne stood behind him, grasping his wrist in a soft but firm hold. As his mind recovered from the shock of what happened the memories of what had just occurred finally sank in. Just before the punch landed Oz had spun around and grabbed hold of his wrist, then continued to twist it around and kneed him in the back of the knee so that he sank to the ground. What was unique about it however was that at no point had Tio felt Ozbourne pushing him in any way, only moving him subtly so that he fell under his own weight.
“Do you see what I mean now?” Oz asked with a chuckle. He let go of his wrist, allowing Tio to scramble back to his feet again.
“Aye, I think I do.”
“Good, then you are ready to learn.”
While Tio brushed the dirt off his clothes Ozbourne continued his speech. “The first, and most important, lesson that you must learn is evasion. Your enemy cannot hurt you if they cannot hit you after all. The task I have for you now is a simple one: I will attack, and you must continue to dodge. Sound simple enough?”
Tio shook his arm, trying to brush off the lingering discomfort at having his strength manipulated. “It sounds it, yes. But as all things with you I get the feeling that it won't be in practice.”
A glint flickered across Ozbourne's eye. “Now you're learning. There's only one way to learn evasion, and that's by doing it. Focus on preempting and avoiding all of my attacks. Now, let's begin.”
The elder man launched at him with a surprisingly quick flurry of blows, which Tio had to really focus to avoid. He'd forgotten that Oz had been quite the warrior back in his day. The attacks were timed to be just fast enough that he could dodge them, but only if he put 100% of his attention into it. Any less and he'd get a sharp slap to the targeted area. To make things even more difficult Oz randomly changed the patterns and directions of his attacks every now and then so that Tio couldn't get used to them.
Although he took a lot of hits at the start, through trial and error Tio started to learn some tips about evasion that he hadn't realized before. The first was that when evading it was import to only move the minimum amount necessary to avoid the blow, since over-evading caught you up in a momentum that made you slower to dodge back the other way if you needed to. Sometimes Oz would pull back for a particularly powerful punch and Tio, wary of the heavy hit, would put too much distance between himself and the blow, only to find himself unable to avoid the speedy jab Oz launched with his other arm that immediately followed.
The second was balance. As tempting as it was to back away from every blow, Tio quickly found that it was nigh impossible to evade while in the process of stepping back. His balance was so askew that whenever he tried all he ended up doing was falling over.
And the final one was foresight. While dodging a few punches just by reacting them as they came was possible for a short while, it was far too difficult to maintain that level of concentration flat-out for an extended period of time. Staying on the reactive gave him no time to take control of the battle, and in a real fight would give him to opportunity to strike back. However as time went on Tio began to notice the way that Ozbournes balance would shift before he attacked with certain limbs, and started to predict how the attack would come at him ahead of time. Naturally this failed quite a lot, and Tio took quite a few painful hits from strikes he had mistakenly walked into, but the pain of those hits helped him to remember his mistakes, and bit by bit the yludih’s guesses became more and more accurate. After what felt like three or four breaks of fighting neither Tio or Oz had the energy to continue anymore.
“Pretty good Tio. Your dodging isn't too bad at all. Make sure to keep practicing and you'll be untouchable one day.” Ozbourne praised. A wicked grin crossed his lips. “Next time we'll try dodging sharp knives instead."
Tio began to chuckle at what he thought was a joke, but stopped as he noticed that Oz'd grin hadn't faded. He was joking right?
...right?...
