Vhalar 47, Arc 720
Since he had begun to conduct more complex alchemical research, the son of Ziell had taken to regularly training at the Fitness Centre. After all those long breaks in the laboratory, he needed a distraction and some sort of balance. He needed to engage in more physical activities. Unlike some of his colleagues at the Academy of Viden, he was not content with merely doing mental work and spending all the time handling reagents or brooding over books. In order to be happy and content, he needed to hone both his mind and his body.
Sometimes, he trained alone, but most of the time, he participated in a group session or asked his assistant Plia or his friend Taelis, a fellow chemist, to join him. In his opinion, it was impossible to advance beyond a certain point if you trained alone all the time. You needed to get to know different fighting styles and different strategies; besides, certain moves were hard to practice when all you had was a training dummy – or a construct in the world of dreams that you had created. In his opinion, the latter was a pale shadow of the real thing.
He had just warmed up – in his opinion, doing so was essential, even when you were as accomplished a swordsman as he was – and had moved into the center of the training room that he had reserved for the afternoon in order to go through a few Menochoros exercises, mainly various side kicks – when the door was being opened, and the person that he had been waiting for walked in.
Plia Yishnai Velenar, a young woman of mixed Eidisi and Ellune descent, had changed considerably since he had first met her – she had been a student in one of his Letter classes. The young woman was still introverted, but she was not afraid of her own shadow anymore, and what more, she had turned out to be a decent swordswoman. They had moved beyond him teaching her various moves and were actually sparring now – which was what they would be doing that trial was well.
While Plia went through a few warming-up exercises of her own, he finished his Menochoros practice. He raised his right leg and kicked, straightening it in the process before he did the same with his left leg and ultimately switched to a series of quick open palm strikes that he executed while he moved to the left and right of his imaginary opponent – when practicing Menochoros, it was important to never stand still for long.
Doing such things came easier to him nowadays. While he would likely never be able to perform extraordinary acrobatics feats – he had very little interest in doing so, anyway - his most recent training had afforded him a hint of additional flexibility. It also made it easier for him to maintain his balance.
Finally, his assistant was ready as well. They retrieved their weapons from a stand that was near the door – they used longswords made of metal, but with blunt edges; Doran had no interest in seriously injuring his student – and moved into the center of the room once more in order to face each other. Doran inclined his head, and then he beckoned Plia to come closer. As she was the less experienced fighter of the two of them, he would give her the advantage of making the first attack.
He was quite curious as to which one she would go for.
Since he had begun to conduct more complex alchemical research, the son of Ziell had taken to regularly training at the Fitness Centre. After all those long breaks in the laboratory, he needed a distraction and some sort of balance. He needed to engage in more physical activities. Unlike some of his colleagues at the Academy of Viden, he was not content with merely doing mental work and spending all the time handling reagents or brooding over books. In order to be happy and content, he needed to hone both his mind and his body.
Sometimes, he trained alone, but most of the time, he participated in a group session or asked his assistant Plia or his friend Taelis, a fellow chemist, to join him. In his opinion, it was impossible to advance beyond a certain point if you trained alone all the time. You needed to get to know different fighting styles and different strategies; besides, certain moves were hard to practice when all you had was a training dummy – or a construct in the world of dreams that you had created. In his opinion, the latter was a pale shadow of the real thing.
He had just warmed up – in his opinion, doing so was essential, even when you were as accomplished a swordsman as he was – and had moved into the center of the training room that he had reserved for the afternoon in order to go through a few Menochoros exercises, mainly various side kicks – when the door was being opened, and the person that he had been waiting for walked in.
Plia Yishnai Velenar, a young woman of mixed Eidisi and Ellune descent, had changed considerably since he had first met her – she had been a student in one of his Letter classes. The young woman was still introverted, but she was not afraid of her own shadow anymore, and what more, she had turned out to be a decent swordswoman. They had moved beyond him teaching her various moves and were actually sparring now – which was what they would be doing that trial was well.
While Plia went through a few warming-up exercises of her own, he finished his Menochoros practice. He raised his right leg and kicked, straightening it in the process before he did the same with his left leg and ultimately switched to a series of quick open palm strikes that he executed while he moved to the left and right of his imaginary opponent – when practicing Menochoros, it was important to never stand still for long.
Doing such things came easier to him nowadays. While he would likely never be able to perform extraordinary acrobatics feats – he had very little interest in doing so, anyway - his most recent training had afforded him a hint of additional flexibility. It also made it easier for him to maintain his balance.
Finally, his assistant was ready as well. They retrieved their weapons from a stand that was near the door – they used longswords made of metal, but with blunt edges; Doran had no interest in seriously injuring his student – and moved into the center of the room once more in order to face each other. Doran inclined his head, and then he beckoned Plia to come closer. As she was the less experienced fighter of the two of them, he would give her the advantage of making the first attack.
He was quite curious as to which one she would go for.
