Soldier Training: Basic Offense/Defense

[Asfaloth]

With the ever-increasing number of recruits coming in to The Farm each day those in authority had assigned Nakor the task of teaching a class the very day he'd earned the sword pin marking him as one of the Dedicated. The morning had started off nicely, a small ceremony at sunrise to present the pin and instruct him of his new duties and priveleges. Then he was told that he had a class to teach and the students would be meeting him in a clearing to the southwest of the Tower's central area.

 

As if that wasn't enough, it seemed since it was his first class as instructor there would be an Ashaman observing as well. That was fine with him. Nakor actually worked better under pressure.

 

 

When all of the students had arrived he began the lesson. "My name is Dedicated Nakor Zorrander. This class will cover the basics of using Saidin as a weapon, both offensively and defensively. We will start with something relatively simple, wards. Wards can be used to do almost anything, you are limited merely by your imagination and ability. Let's see what you can do."

 

Nakor then grasped Saidin, proud of himself at the marked progress he'd made in his time here. Especially in his control of the Taint. He then demonstrated a few simple wards to get the class started and then made his rounds watching and helping the Soldiers work through their own.

 

OOC: Ok, this is lesson one. Be creative with your wards. Feel free to TPC Nakor helping you.

[Aldazar]

OOC: Guess ill jump in now

 

IC: Aldazar woke up before sunrise a habit which had been needed working on his da’s farm and then was later enforced by his work as a merchant’s guard. He had only been in the farm for 10 days but he had learned a lot in that short week the first of which was a way to ignore the heat and the cold by simply refusing to let them touch him.

 

After readying for the day like usual getting dressed in the fine black coat cut in the Andoran style he shaved and using the mirror on the washstand to see if he had missed any lather he looked into his own blue green eyes, after which he re braided his hair in the two long braids as they were usually and then tied the usual silver bells he had always worn since his fourteenth naming day when his mother had given them to him. Leaving the room after strapping his two swords on his back he headed to a clear spot where he would practice with his swords until his class.

 

In his shirtsleeves he moved from form to form fluidly, the bells in his hair chiming in time with his strikes, losing himself in the work he kept going until time for his lesson which he only noticed because of the sun blasting him in the eyes. Quickly he got back into his coat and sheathed both swords in their scabbards and all but ran to his class.

 

When he arrived he realized he was not as late as he thought he would have been arriving before his other class mates. On arriving he made the proper salute fist across his chest and said “Soldier Aldazar here for the lesson†after which he stepped back and waited for his other classmates

 

When everyone had arrived the teacher said loudly enough to be heard "This class will cover the basics of using Saidin as a weapon, both offensively and defensively. We will start with something relatively simple, wards. Wards can be used to do almost anything, you are limited merely by your imagination and ability. Let's see what you can do."

 

Light, what am I supposed to do? Taking hold of the true source took two tries because he was panicked. He wove awkwardly making the only ward he knew well enough to perform alone, it was a ward useful for if you didn’t trust your sleeping companions, made to cover an area so that if someone moved inside you would be awoken immediately after he finished he waited for the next instructions.

[jasonr]

ooc: are we allowed to make up wards??? I didn’t know that us Soldiers were trusted with complicated weaves like Wardings. Hope no one minds me using a little Spirit to strengthen my weaves. This might be a little odd because I had to edit after I had posted, no biggy though :D

 

IC: Noy woke up right around sunrise, a little late for him. Noy had been told that he was to have a class on Saidin today, so he would not have to wake up early for physical training. Noy stretched a hand over his head and felt how messy his jet-black hair was. He grimaced and grasped Saidin and wove with Water. No matter how he strained or tried, he could not get the weave to work; he simply was not strong enough in Water. Noy smiled, he would get to try out a new trick he learned. Instead of weaving pure Water, he bent the threads of water strongly around threads of Spirit. Noy chuckled in success as water was dumped onto his head, plastering his hair to his head. “Perhaps I should work on that a little.†Noy grimaced as his hair touched his brown eyes, perhaps he should cut his hair too.

 

Noy stretched to his full five feet and eleven inches and walked out the door. Noy loved working with the Power; it was even worth experiencing the Taint just to hold it. Although his strength in Air, Fire, and Spirit was the same, Air was his favorite. Most people did not know that Noy was Amadician. Noy used to be in control of his life, but coming to the Farm changed that. He felt that his life was being steered and learning to control Saidin would help him get control of his life again. Mastering Air was one step closer to controlling Saidin, and Noy had a fascinating with Air. He found himself wondering what they were going to do in the class, and whether it would help him in his goals. With a start Noy realized he was standing in the middle of his room looking into space. He rushed outside and tried to remember where he was supposed to go. After going to the Inn, and a few other places, Noy remembered where he was supposed to go; the class was going to be held in the southwest area of the central part of the Farm.

 

After he and all of the other Soldiers had arrived, the Dedicated teaching the class started by telling them to experiment with Wardings and then demonstrated a few for them to try out. After Noy struggled through the few wards that Asfaloth assigned, he decided to try a few of his own. Noy thought of all he knew about Wardings, which was very limited. He knew that his mentor, Isha Talcontar, warded his house against Shadowspawn so Noy decided to try that. He started weaving the threads and found that he could not weave anything close to the size of those weaves. He made his threads much smaller but the Warding was still far to complex for Noy to do and it ended up collapsing and draining his energy. The Dedicated had told him to be creative with the Wardings so Noy decided to experiment with something else, something that he had never seen before, something of his own creation. Noy decided to try the ‘Spirit trick’ again. He bent threads of air around threads of Spirit to create a wall of Air. Noy tried to think of a way to make this into a ward.

 

He let the weave of Air dissipate and then wove Air and Fire into a weave that would heat the air. Noy grinned at his accomplishment but soon his grin turned into a grimace when he realized what he had done. He had just created a white flame that was hard to see. Noy tried to think of how to make a ward. Suddenly a thought hit Noy, flames were the byproduct of heat, but you could have heat without a flame. Hmm, but how to make it, obviously Fire, but what else. First Noy wove a net of Fire, but that didn’t seem quite right. Maybe add some Air to the mixture, to give the heat a medium to travel through. With his first attempt, all he succeeded in doing was to sear the grass inside of the ward. Less Fire, more Air, maybe that will work. Noy made the Fire more prominent, to reduce the heat, and increased the amount of Air, so the heat had more places to go and didn’t flair up and sear things, like it had to the grass.

 

After making up a semi-complex pattern twining threads of Air and Fire into a net, Noy laid the ward around a large space away from him. The air heated more slowly but still erupted into fire after a while. Noy reduced the amount of Fire in weave and it worked, although he knew that it would create a fire again eventually. Suddenly, an idea hit him, what if he added threads of Water to make the warded space more humid and less dry. Noy wove Water into the mix about as strongly as the threads of Fire, and examined his ward. His face split into a big smile, there would still be the problem of the fires breaking out, but Noy knew it would take much longer for it to burn. Noy cautiously wove the ward around himself and joy swept through him when he felt the heat increasing around him. He kept it up only long enough for Asfaloth to examine it, then he let the ward dissipate. Noy hoped that the rest of the lesson would be found as successful as this part of it.

 

ooc: I hope no one minds me tweaking the heating ward a little, and we can always just say that it is just a very basic and primitive form of the ward if there is any problems.

[Guest Faile1987]

Ged had woken up early again this morning another of his eternal hauting nightmares having made him start upright only to find himself in his own bed despite a burning down inn. Having waited for the violent thumping of his heart to ease somewhat he had contemplated to put himself to sleep again by using Saidin as he had heard was possible. But the prospect of what could happen to him if he applied such a complex weave on himself ignorantly was enough to deterr him and with a sigh of resignation he swung his still weary and sleep-deprived legs out of bed.

 

It only was some hours past midnight, he judged but he found himself unable to go back to sleep again as he used to after all his nightmares which still hadn´t ceased despite he had been at the Black Tower for quite awhile now. Somehow Ged knew they never would cease entirely and that prospect didn´t contribute to lighten his mood either.

 

Silently he dressed and buttoned up his black coat, a garment that somehow fit his mood although he couldn´t imagine ever having liked a piece of clothing less than that black coat which marked him so clearly as one of the lost ones as he liked to put it often. Ignoring the hollow eyed stare his reflection gave him when he looked into the mirror to shave, Ged finally buckled his sword and descended the stairs of the farmhouse heading for the Training Ground to practise his Sword forms.

 

If he wasn´t able to sleep Ged rather often went there and cloaked in the emotionless flow of the void, he worked himself untill he finally realized the first sun rays creep over the horizon.

 

Only then he remembered that he had to attend another Saidin class this morning. One that would teach him and his fellow Soldiers the basics of attacking and defending himself with Saidin. Dismissing any reluctance on having to use the One Power to kill one day again, Ged finally made his way to the location he was told the class would take place.

 

Entering the room, Ged´s mood lightened up as he recognized Noy among the Soldiers waiting for their instructions and nodding to him in welcome he did the same to he other young man present.

A new recruit that must be, he thought and stopped right next to the new man waiting for his teacher, a Dedicated who didn´t seem to be much older than he was himself, giving them their instructions.

 

On hearing they were assigned to practise wards though, Ged looked around and noticed the slightly irritated look on the faces of Noy and his neighbour mirroring his own feelings about that task.

 

Frantically he searched his mind for any bits and pieces he had picked up about wards and watching Noy and the other man trying to build up wards of air, spirit and water combined in all sorts of combinations, he ponderd what he himself could make out of this task.

 

Suddenly it hit him though what he had once heard about Aes Sedai using a kind of shield that would protect them from any sort of attack and he wondered if it would be possible to create a similiar weave around himself even though he didn´t know which threads to use to make it work.

 

A combination of Air and Spirit might work, he thought and was pleased to apparently have found a weave he could use without fire, an element he seemed to be strong at, but also the element which had caused losing everything he had held dear once and he almost frantically tried to avoid using it even though that might be considered throwing away a great talent.

 

Yet he discovered that when he wove Spirit he seemed to also have very little problems to hold it steady and weaves only consisting of Spirit seemed to come as naturally to him as did those with Fire involved. Another problem was Air though and it took him several tries to finally tighten his grasp on this element and manage to add the required amount of it to his weave, or at least what he assumed must be the right amount since he could only guess.

 

Small wonder thus when his first ward simply dissipated again after he had applied it on himself, whereas the second one suddenly drew tight around him and in a panicky moment he felt as if strangling by his own weave and it took a considerable effort to remove that peculiar combination again.

 

Gasping for breath, Ged for an instant was reluctant to try again wondering what still might happen if he would use a wrong combination again. Finally he decided to minimize the amount of Air and give more influence to Spirit so the ward would waver less and become more stable.

 

Fortunately it worked quite as Ged had intended this time and he beamed in sudden satisfaction about having succeeded in finding the right combination and actually feeling that it wouldn´t only hold on in battle, but would even block whatever weave would be directed at him in battle. The thought of something he had heard about a weave called balefire occured to his mind but Ged quickly dismissed the thoght again, not wanting to ponder such a gruesome thing right now.

 

Still holding the weave around himself, he for once actually enjoyed the flow of the One Power surgin through him even though the taint on Saidin made him want to empty his stomach the same time, but he fought back and stood up agains the temptation and dizziness of the taint, waiting for further instructions, for now oblivious of both his reluctance to work with the One Power and the longing of his sleep-deprived body for some rest. That was of no account right now.

 

OOC: Sorry for my long-windedness again (wonders how often she has said that already ;) ) Hope that ward was ok.

[Kalthandrix]

Sitting on the edge of his bed, Vykor was staring at the three things on the latter backed chair across from him. Taken separately, they could have been just things, but together, sitting there on that chair, they were more then just objects; they were his life and death. An odd combination to go with an unadorned worn, leather satchel, a long hilted steel sword in a brown leather scabbard, and a high necked black wool coat. Such innocent looking things really.

 

Shaking his head, he threw off his reverie and stood up. He had a class to get to and heading out now would be better then sitting in his room. Usually, he would have been out before the sun began lightening the sky of a new day, practicing with his sword, but instead he was taking his sword-work in another direction. His fascination with the blade had led him to ask question- a lot of question. Some had been answered politely, some not so, but all of them had helped him and taught him something. Battles were fought anywhere, anytime; without regard to your health, fatigue, or pleasure. So he no longer held his extra morning training in the traditional manner- in an open clearing he had found with level ground and space to move through the forms. He was forging his own path.

 

Shrugging on his coat and buttoning it up all the way he focused his thoughts back on to this mornings class. Today he would work with sadin and use it as a tool to shape the weapon he was becoming. Looping his satchel over his head and taking up his sword, Vykor walked out of his room and shut the door behind him. He moved silently through Isha's big house, most likely an unneeded precaution as it seemed the whole Farm rose before the sun, like the more common place it took its name from. Except weapons were grown here, not corn, wheat, or livestock.

 

Walking out of the house and into the cool morning air, Vykor breathed in deeply and began the walk to the area where the class was to be held. He arrived a bit early and so he crouched down in the trees on the edge of the clearing off of the path and began a mental exercise- trying to recall all of the details of things he had seen in his walk to class, training himself to be more observant and to remember the things he had seen. When class ended, he would walk the same route he had taken here and see how well he did with his memory game, but for no he waited.

 

Not long after sunrise, black coated men began to drift into the clearing and so vykor stood up, smoothed his coat and ran a thumb under the two leather strap crossing his chest- one two his satchel and the other two his sword which he had began to wear there after an incident that happened last week during morning exercise class.

 

When everyone finally came together, Dedicated Zorrander told them what they would be doing and Vykor's heart gave a bit of a flutter in his chest. 'Lets see what you can do he says!' he thought to himself. He remembered his last several classes working with sadin and the time he had spent with Isha working on his control, which was shaky at best. 'Not this time.' he growled mentally. 'I will do it and do it well this time.'

 

But what to do? He could feel the weaves being made around him, a skill he was just picking up and understand. Standing there he was lost in though for a time, filtering through those weaves he knew and those being attempted by his fellow Soldiers.

 

"You going to weave something or just stand there Soldier?" came a voice from behind Vykor, starteling him to the point he actually jumped a bit. Spinning around a bit and cursing himself for not being more aware, he seen that it was Dedicated Zorrander who had spoken. Composing himself he said, "Sir, I am just thinking about what to do. I...uhha...do not want to burn anything down sir."

 

"Burn what down Soldier? The trees! Do not worry about them. Most likely they will come down anyway as the Tower grows. What you have to do now is weave a ward- at this point in time that is your only purpose and reason for living. Everything else is nothing. The doubts you are having about your abilities make you hesitate and second guess yourself, and in the battle of controlling the Power, those doubts will burn you out or kill you when you hesitate with the One Power. Wielding sadin is a battle and one that you cannot afford to lose. You know what you supposed to do and I do not want you to think about it. I want you to do it Soldier!"

 

Face turning red from embarrassment, Vykor clenched his jaw and gave a sharp nod to the Dedicated. Turing back around he dove into the Source and took hold of the raging storm that was the male half of the One Power with a vengeance, diving though the filth of the Taint and tapping the Power before he realized it.

 

Ignoring the urge to spew the contents of his stomach out from the wretchedness of the Taint, Vykor began weaving, taking strands from all five elements for his ward. Sweat instantly broke out on face as he began to weave. Never before had he attempted to take up so many strands of the Power at one time, but he refused to drop any of them with the Dedicated standing at his back looking on.

 

Strands of Fire twisted Air and were in turn anchored to the earth with cords woven from Earth and Water. At the same time, several strands of Spirit were all wove between each of the other strands and stretched tight, pulling the other lines of Power into a shape of a net or a web. At the center of the net and also at the corners Vykor wove the stands together into knots. When he stopped his weaving, Vykor was sucking wind in like a race horse and he could feel his body shaking and sweat streaming down his face. His discomfort and fatigue were all fed into the Flame in his mind, allowing him to remain slightly detached from his body's weakness as he examined his work.

 

In a voice that sounded slightly slurred to his ears, Vykor said "I do not really know what it will do, but I do not think anything passing through that will no come out happy!â€

 

OOC: I was aiming for this weave to be an explosive ward. It would be a very difficult weave for Vykor and hope this is okay. Oh- I hope I wrote you character alright Asfaloth. I was kind of unsure how you would have handled it but you did say we could use Nakor a bit.

[Asfaloth]

OOC: Perfectly fine. Might not have been the exact words Nakor would have used but close enough to make no difference.

 

Here's lesson two!

 

IC: After seeing what the Soldiers had to offer by way of imaginative wards Nakor spent the next several hours teaching them the basic offensive and defensive wards they would need to know to perform sentry duty at the Farm.

 

As the sun reached its highest peak around noon he called a halt to their practice of these wards. "Alright, that's enough for now. Take an hour for lunch and meet me at a clearing further down on this trail. Dismissed!!"

 

Nakor ate his food quickly and went to the clearing they would meet at. The clearing was on fairly large, and divided into two uneven sections by a small gulley. The near of the water held about ten mannikins of straw and wood, the far side held nearly eight times that many. These mannikins were constantly being destroyed and replaced as clases used them so Nakor was relieved to see they were still there.

 

Having come to the class this morning directly from his informal promotion ceremony he had been forced to wing it during the morning's portion of the class. He planned to do better with the rest of it and spent some time planning the rest of the day's activities.

 

Eventually the students returned. "Alright, now for the next par of our lesson. I want each of you to select one of the mannikins on this side of the gulley and destroy it. Picture in your mind that it is an enemy of the Lord Dragon and it is your duty to kill it. You may kill in any way you wish, using Siaidn of course, whether it be a simple stealth kill or an explosion. Whatever your little hearts desire."

[jasonr]

ooc: arg this is gona be a shorty

 

IC: Noy set off for the Inn, to eat lunch as Asfaloth had instructed. He made sure to eat a good pile of food, to get his energy up, then he waited for the rest of the hour to finish, giving his food time to settle. The hour was nearly up, so it was time for their next set of instructions. Noy hoped that this one would be as succesful as the last.

 

"Alright, now for the next par of our lesson. I want each of you to select one of the mannikins on this side of the gulley and destroy it. Picture in your mind that it is an enemy of the Lord Dragon and it is your duty to kill it. You may kill in any way you wish, using Siaidn of course, whether it be a simple stealth kill or an explosion. Whatever your little hearts desire." Noy shuddered, it was so crude, but at the same time, the most effective way to say it.

 

Noy did not thing that he would be able to imagine a face on something that he had to destroy, it was the exact opposite, to destroy something, he would make sure that he did not see the face. Noy decided to destroy the maniken with fire, it was a far ways away, so it was harder to weave the threads needed to burn it. His aim was also off and a few other, undesired things fell victem to his threads. After missing and setting many things on fire, then laborously putting them out, he finnaly burned the maniken to the ground.

 

After he did that, he waited for Asfaloth's next set of instructions, so far, the day was proving very sucessful, and his jorney to becoming and Asha'man, and taking control of his life, had taken one more step. Noy could not wait to see what he would be told to do next.

 

ooc: Hmm, I coulda made this one much better... anyway, I don't see how we all missed this one...

[Kalthandrix]

Watching Noy's straw manikin go up in flames caused Vykor to swallow back the bile that rose up within his gut. In his mind he could suddenly see a bar of white hot fire soaring through the air, only to find it's home within the chest of his best friend.

 

Shaking the memory from his thoughts and spitting the taste of ashes from his mouth, Vykor knew he was not ready to kill anything with Fire, even if it was only a straw man. Absently he adjusted the twin leather straps crossing his chest. Feeling the weight of the sword one his back shift slightly with the movement, reminded him that he had other weapons to use this day.

 

Remembering back to his earlier classes using sadin, Vykor knew it was possible to push things with Air or to even move objects with the proper weaves. Forming the plan in his mind, he prepared himself.

 

Fighting through the raging storm of fire and ice that was the male half of the True Source and the taint of the dark One that lay over the sweetness of the Power, Vykor could see the stark detail of his chosen target and could see each strand of straw that made up the tied bundles. Every sense was heightened beyond normal limits while he held the Power and the ecstasy of holding the power was new and wonderful every time he experienced it, though the Taint was always there, covering everything with its foul touch.

 

Pushing away all physical and mental distraction, feeding them to the Flame within the Void, Vykor began his weave.

 

Using nothing but a few strands of Air, he maneuvered his sword from its leather scabbard at his back. Then twining a few additional strand of Air into one thick cable he caused it to whip way back and then slingshot forward. The whipping action hurled the steel blade through the air link an arrow, and the tiny filaments of Air he had left attached to the blade, guided the shining three foot missile straight toward its target. The blade hit the manikin with enough force that it buried the blade over half of its length within the straw and wooden chest of the straw man.

 

Smiling slightly at his innovation, Vykor turned slightly to his instructor and said. "Dedicated Zorrander sir. I believe that would qualify as a kill sir."

[Aldazar]

Following Noy to the next training area Aldazar assumed the Void but did not reach out to the light of Saidin. The utter calm of the Void washed over him. Arriving at the next area he noticed a pile of mannikins behind the teacher he moved into position and awaited the command.

 

"Alright, now for the next par of our lesson. I want each of you to select one of the manikins on this side of the gulley and destroy it. Picture in your mind that it is an enemy of the Lord Dragon and it is your duty to kill it. You may kill in any way you wish, using Saidin of course, whether it be a simple stealth kill or an explosion. Whatever your little hearts desire."

 

Awaiting his turn Aldazar reached out for the source, slipping through the Taint which covered the True source like oil on top of water, it made him want to sick up, but somehow it didn’t feel as bad. I must be getting used to it, the thought scared him a little but what happened, happened, dividing his flows he grabbed the manikin with flows of air and held it there, it was not necessary to hold onto it with air as it was not alive and it was held in the ground for stability but he thought he should practice the weave how he would use it in battle, using a large portion his power in earth he made a spike that went up through the middle of it after which he let go of the flow of air, maintaining two flows was hard, he then put all his strength into the spike and divided it into 4 separate spikes that he then moved to the ground so that they were pointing out like the spokes on a wheel this left the manikin in four separate pieces.

 

Holding onto Saidin he waited for the next instruction

[Guest Faile1987]

Having accompanied Noy and his other fellow Soldiers for a good and rich meal at the Inn, Ged returned to the training ground only to find his heart suddenly sink at what he was seeing, feeling himself filled with some dread of what he felt was now to come. Eyeing the propped up mannekins suspiciously as if they might come to life to go after him, Ged shook his head, angry about his own imaginations. Yet he had a feeling as if he knew what was to come now and Nakor´s next words only affirmed that suspicion.

 

"Alright, now for the next par of our lesson. I want each of you to select one of the mannikins on this side of the gulley and destroy it. Picture in your mind that it is an enemy of the Lord Dragon and it is your duty to kill it. You may kill in any way you wish, using Siaidn of course, whether it be a simple stealth kill or an explosion. Whatever your little hearts desire."

 

Ged swallowed as his mouth suddenly seemed full of bile, his stomach wanting to empty itself of the food he had eaten all at once. He had been right after all. It would begin now. His way to become a killing machine for the Lord Dragon had begun. Despite his repeated reasurrances that he was here for a worthy cause and to be helped to deal with his ability to channel, his gift, his curse, Ged still was all too painfully aware of the real cause of his being here: to kill. To destroy, to burn, to hurt.

 

Now it had begun and Ged knew there was no way back. He hadn´t chosen that way his life went now, but he knew he had to follow it, if he at least wanted to have a chance to hold on and prevail against the tempting and destructive taint raging inside him. The taint that would drive him insane eventually. Inevitably. The Black Tower and the Training he received here was the only shred of a chance he had left and willing or not, he had to cling to it, like a man would have on a wild horse in gallop.

 

Yet the prospect of being directly confronted with the order to kill "however his heart desired", made his knees watery and his mind to collapse. All too vividly, the pictures of his last "kill" occured in his mind, burning, crying, dying. No, he would never be able to do this again, Ged knew, not to anyone he knew and not to anyone he didn´t either. Enemy or no, he´d never be able to forgive himself for his past and even knowing that he would have to kill in Tarmon Gai´don didn´t help him at all.

 

All he could think of as he stood there, head bent low, dimly realizing his fellow Soldiers burning, stabbing or smashing the dummies they had been assigned to kill, Ged couldn´t make himself embrace the Source, too terrified of what the tempting torent of the One Power might do to him. All too aware of what had happened the last time. Ged swallowed dryly and just remained there standing, unmoving, his eyes trying to avoid the mannekin he was to imagine an enemy to kill.

 

As he was standing there though, words of his father suddenly came back to life in his mind, clearly envisioning the man standing before him telling him with a serious voice: There might come a time in your life when you want nothing more than to run. To hide from the responsibility, the duty laid on your shoulders. Still you know you cannot run. There is nowhere to hide. There is no one but you and you know it. Now you can run off like a coward and everything you did will be wasted or you take the chance. Take the chance like an archer uses his last arrow to make a clean shoot. Will you use the arrow and risk failure or will you be too afraid to even try?" Ged suddenly couldn´t help a little smile stealing on his lips as he recalled the time he had spent brooding over that question when he had been a boy and his father had told him that.

 

Now was the time. Now he knew he had no other choice. The Black Tower was his last arrow. The Black Tower or die. And since dying meant that his parents and all the men he had killed would have died in vain, without him ever having the chance to try and make up for it again, Ged knew what he had to do.

 

Clenching his teeth and bracing himself, the void all of a sudden returned and engulfed him with a faint sweet sense of distance and oblivion. Inside his mind he clearly pictured that arrow he meant to use and since he still was reluctant to use Fire when channelling - afraid of ever using Fire again to kill, even if it were only dummies, Ged suddenly had an idea he meant to use.

Despite having experienced that his ability in Air wasn´t as good as in other elements like Fire or Spirit, Ged once had seen a weave created that was used to cut solid objects by using only air. He actually had seen one of the Asha´man cut a tree with that weave. Air razor it was named, he recalled. And what would work with trees, must as well with straw dummies and - although Ged refused to even think of that - human beings.

 

Taking a deep breath, Ged finally embraced Saidin, bracing himself against the ever-present struggle agains the taint wanting to overwhelm him, he reached out and after a litte difficulty at the beginning, managed to create the weave he had once seen, creating a blade thin and sharp, shining in the sun like mist, yet it was as solid as cold steel.

Not thinking about it as an instrument to kill anymore, Ged didn´t need to aim carefully to send the weave directly through the throat of the mannekin, his potential enemy making what Nakor might think of as a "clean kill". No fuss, no trouble, no thoughts.

 

Still Ged was breathing hard as he released Saidin again, sweat beading his face and regaining his composure he knew that the effort he had put into the weave was only a minor part of the cause of him sweating. Still he clung to his father´s words like a mantra: Use your last arrow and risk failure. He would hee those words and face whatever might come yet.

[Asfaloth]

OOC: Joasonr, just a friendly reminder-you're instructor's name is nakor, not Asfaloth

 

IC: Nakor was pleased with the students' progress thus far. Some of them seemed reluctant to kill but none had showed any hesitation to obey his commands. Some had even showed an uncommon amount of creativity with their chosen method.

 

"Very good all of you. Just remember, most opponents won't stand still for you to kill them. If you're going to use one of these methods be sure your victim doesn't know you're there."

 

Now to see what they were really made of. "However, you are here to be forged into weapons. When the Lord Dragon needs your services it will probably be in a battle. Therefore, you need practice in such circumstances as well. You need to be able to kill as many enemies as possible as fast as possible. The mannikins on the other side of the water are here for that reason. Let's see what you can do."

 

OOC again: The mannikins are setup in groups of about twenty or so. Each of you should take at least one group. If you want to you can experiment with different methods on multiple groups, but that's yyour call.

[jasonr]

ooc: *looks at post* oops...

 

IC: "Very good all of you. Just remember, most opponents won't stand still for you to kill them. If you're going to use one of these methods be sure your victim doesn't know you're there." Stelth then? Noy knew the perfect weave to do if Nakor wanted them to be sneaky. "However, you are here to be forged into weapons. When the Lord Dragon needs your services it will probably be in a battle. Therefore, you need practice in such circumstances as well. You need to be able to kill as many enemies as possible as fast as possible. The mannikins on the other side of the water are here for that reason. Let's see what you can do." This cast doubt on Noy's theory, it was not the perfect battle weave.

 

Noy imagined a battle, a real one, not just a few straw manikens, and nearly sicked up. He was not a killer, how could he possibly pull this one off. They were just manikens, not real people. "But what will you do in a real battle?" Noy thought to himself. Noy had no idea what he would do then, but he had to focus on now, on the manikens.

 

In the end, Noy decided to use the weave after all. He made a weave called "Poof". It was a small fireball, about the size of a tiny twig. Noy made a few more then wrapped them up in flows of Air. Noy watched as they went zooming towards their targets across the lake. His first try got no where close, but that was ok, Poof was very small and unnoticable. After re-adjusting his aim a few times, he finnaly got what he was aiming for. With his Saidin-enhanced eyes, he could see that five of the manikens had just had Poof balls shot through their heads. Immidiatly, he made about fifteen more, not all at the same time, and shot them through the heads of the remaining manikens.

 

"I beleive a Poof, although weak, through the head would kill instantly, Dedicated Nakor." Noy's stomach still swayed at the thought of killing, but he had no other choice, he had to fufill his goal. Noy had to become an Asha'man... a weapon... a killer.

 

ooc: slightly better than last time...

[Aldazar]

"Very good all of you. Just remember, most opponents won't stand still for you to kill them. If you're going to use one of these methods be sure your victim doesn't know you're there. However, you are here to be forged into weapons. When the Lord Dragon needs your services it will probably be in a battle. Therefore, you need practice in such circumstances as well. You need to be able to kill as many enemies as possible as fast as possible. The mannikins on the other side of the water are here for that reason. Let's see what you can do."

 

Aldazar new what he was going to do straight away but had do some calculations to be sure. After a quick scan of the ground he found what he was looking for, a small boulder about the size of a trollocs head. Using flows of air he floated it in front of him and with fine threads of fire wove a explosion ward inside it lifting it with a flow of air again he hurled it into the middle of the group of mannikins, it exploded with a load bang as it landed on the ground central to the mannikins, chunks of rock were sent into the mannikins. Now to see if his calculations had been right. YES. the closest piece of rock to land was at least 30 paces away leaving no need to make a shield of air to protect himself and no other group of mannikins were damaged as the rocks lost most of their force on the initial explosion.

 

With a satisfied smile Aldazar stepped back to allow another to take his turn.

[Guest Faile1987]

"Very good all of you. Just remember, most opponents won't stand still for you to kill them. If you're going to use one of these methods be sure your victim doesn't know you're there. However, you are here to be forged into weapons. When the Lord Dragon needs your services it will probably be in a battle. Therefore, you need practice in such circumstances as well. You need to be able to kill as many enemies as possible as fast as possible. The mannikins on the other side of the water are here for that reason. Let's see what you can do."

 

Ged still stood there with his head bowed slightly and waiting untill his breath and his bumping heart would ease down. You need to be able to kill as many enemies as possible as fast as possible., Nakor´s words shot through his mind again. A weapon of mass destruction. Yes ,that is what you will be, that is what they will make of you. Your only purpose is to kill after all. So, now do your best, will you? You already proofed to be capable of doing quite a good job with that, remember? Biting his lip, Ged remained still and silent where he was, not even trying to fend off the voice inside his head, his conscious. Well, he knew how true it was what it said and now he only was getting an assignment to practise what was to be his life´s purpose later on. Why make such a fuss about something he had done without even thinking about it? Where had his scrouples been when he killed all those men? Where had his scrouples and his conscious been when he had killed his own mother, too blind by rage to think straight? Yes, he knew he had done it without knowing what he did, but what was done couldn´t be undone and he had to live with his curse. He had to live up to whathe was or he should better end it as soon as possible.

 

Yet as it was, Ged didn´t want it to stop and knowing what he would do, he unconsciously channelled a weave of Air and Fire, not even looking at his targets. He wouldn´t miss them no matter if he looked at them or not. Right as he hadn´t missed those men in Baerleon. Standing there with his head still hanging, Ged sent off a Fireball he had just created into the direction he had been told the manekins would be. The deafening sound of the impact and wood splittering and burning, the smell of burning flames he hated so much biting in his nose, Ged raised his eyes eventually to see two of the groups of manekins being burned to smoking tinders leaving the ground black and marred next to the already destroyed dummies of his fellow classmates.

 

He hated Fire, Ged knew and the Light help him if he was to use it in Battle deliberat ely some day. Yet he dreaded he would have to do that exactly one day, maybe even before the Last Battle. Praying to still be sane enough to resist the blind rage inside him when it was time to, Ged clenched his teeth and resisted the urge to put his hands to his head in a vain attempt to cover and block out the anguished and agonized screams of the people he had killed in Baerleon. No, as long as he was sane enough, he wouldn´t forget this one night and he wouldn´t use Fire against anyone living if he could avoid it.

[Asfaloth]

OOC: Vykor, if you want credit for the class your next post will need to include the prior lesson as well as this one.

 

IC: Well, they'd all accomplished their objective, there was that at least. Nakor tried to think back, had he been that scared as a Soldier? Well, scared or not they had succeeded in learning the more basic offensive weaves, it was time for defense.

 

"Good work boys. Now, I want one of you to attack me. Cast a fireball, throw a rock, whatever you want." He waited a moment for them to get over the shock of what he'd asked them to do and then wove flows of Air, strengthened by Spirit to raise a shield around himself as all of them attacked at once.

 

"Very good, it's nice to see you've at least learned some obedience in your time at the Tower. Now, you'll notice none of your attacks got through. That's because I raised an Air Shield. I hope you were paying attention."

 

Then, to test if they'd payed close enough attention he attacked them one by one with a simple fireball. Some struggled but they all blocked it.

[jasonr]

ooc: ok... not really sure what the lesson is, so I will just post my reactions to the stuff you posted.

 

IC: "Good work boys. Now, I want one of you to attack me. Cast a fireball, throw a rock, whatever you want." Noy was shocked when he heard Nakor speak this. He was certainly stronger than them, but this was arrogant to the point of danger. Did the man really think that he could stop all of their weaves at once?

 

Noy did not want to hurt Nakor, but a small part of his conscious was smirking, that small part of him wanted to shove Nakor's arrogance down his throat. But that was only a small part of Noy, and the rest of him did not want to injure him. He ended up grudgingly making a club of Air. For most Soldiers, this would seem uninteligent, because their clubs were not very strong. Noy was an exception, he was unusually strong in Air, his could break a man's skull.

 

Noy laughed as his weave was deflected by a sheild of Air, he should have known. Noy studied the sheild before it dissipated, he wanted to remember this for later. "Very good, it's nice to see you've at least learned some obedience in your time at the Tower. Now, you'll notice none of your attacks got through. That's because I raised an Air Shield. I hope you were paying attention."

 

Now Noy was very glad that he had payed attention, for a fireball had just been flung his way. He was slightly startled but wove with Saidin. He struggled through the weave, weaving as fast as he could, and barely managed to get it up in time. Noy grinned in his success, but knew that it would probibly be short lived. Noy was still grinning, but he knew that he had just barely saved himself from a very painful injury.

[Kalthandrix]

OOC:

Sorry for the late post- it was my 5 year wedding anniversary this last week and my daughters 2nd birthday- so I was kind of busy. I hope this works for both of my lessions.

 

IC:

Vykor was deeply torn; on one hand, his revulsion in using Fire as a weapon made his guts clench harder then when he took hold of sadin, but on the other hand he new Fire was his strongest element.

 

Steeling his resolve, he knew what he had to do. He had seen one of the others cause a ripple in the earth that had bowled over his targets with ease and he had a similar idea, but instead of Earth, he would use Fire.

 

He knew that he wanted to get all of the manikins in one go, so he added thin threads of Spirit to his weave to make the Fire more powerful and also a singe thread of Air to allow it to fly through the air. Throwing his hand forward, a small pin-prick of fire leap forth from his finger tips and sailed over to his selected targets. When it neared its destination, he dipped his finger forward, like one would do when touching a pool of water, but the reaction was anything but benign. The single point of Fire had settled in at about shoulder height and when Vykor dipped his finger forward, the knot of Fire and Spirit swiftly unraveled, and like the ripples on water, a thin sheet of flame rolled forth like a small wave, instantly igniting the straw heads of his manikin foes.

 

'And so it begins I suppose.' He sighed inwardly with a hint of resignation. 'Death to the enemies of the Lord Dragon!'

 

After that, the rest of the day’s lessions seemed to flow by like a dream. When ordered, he sent a hardened wedge of Air at the Dedicated, only to watch at it was harmlessly avoided with a Shield. After that demonstration, all of the Soldiers were instructed in how to form an Air Shield, a task that was immensely difficult for Vykor, but one that after several attempts, and after having to throw himself on the ground to avoid a few of the Dedicated’s Fireballs that he had failed to raise a shield against, he finally was able to master himself enough to do the task.

 

When Dedicated Nakor was finally satisfied and moved on to the next Soldier, Vykor let go of the Source. Working with the power all day had left him shaking with fatigue and his skin was alight with several painful pin pricks needling into his flesh, a feeling he had been told that happened when one drew too deeply on sadin. And though he was physically capible, working with the Power for a majority of the day left him feeling as though he had been put through a laundary mangle. Sleep would be a Light sent blessing; provided he was able to make it through the rest of the day.

[Guest Faile1987]

After Nakor had given them their next instructions, Ged just remained immobile for a second not sure whether he really had understood the Asha´man right. He wanted them to attck him? Now? Light, he had known that this moment would come some day, the moment he would be made to use the One Power against someone on purpose, being completely aware of what he was doing. But he wouldn´t have thought that day would come so soon.

 

Shaking his head angrily and reprimanding himself for his own foolishnes. After all he was here to learn how to fight and how to control the torrent of the taint surging through him. And anyway he wasn´t forced to use Fire against Nakor, was he? No, this wasn´t the same as it had been in Baerleon, he still could control himself and he would.

 

Stepping back as he watched his fellow students try their best with Nakor, Ged raked his mind for a decent way to attack his teacher that didn´t involve Fire and wouldn´t make him lose control over himself. After a second though, he had it. Seizing Saidin, fighting against the nausea and the temptation of the taint inside him, Ged wove a little amount of Air to create a Whiplash, slashing out at Nakor, although he already knew that this kind of attack was more than useless against a full rank Asha´man. Yet it was an attack, however riddiculous it was.

 

So he wasn´t surprised how easily Nakor fended his attack off. Yet the weave he used to do that, did surprise Ged, because all of a sudden he was not only hit by a shield of air blocking his weaves out, but he also saw a gigantic rock soar through the air abou to crush him in a second.

Ged acted without really thinking and gathering all his power for now, he created a mix of all five elements, unconsciously added a little more of Fire to it and slammed a ward between himself and the rock flying at him, which exploded in a loud bang and fire and smoke as it hit the rock.

 

Knocked off his feet by the sheer impact the power of the weave had on him, Ged got to his feet still staggering a little uncertainly. Yet he received an approving nod from Nakor telling him he had done well and despite Ged was a little scared about what he had just done all by himself, acting on instinct only, he couldn´t prevent a smile betraying his pleasur about having completed that next task.

[Asfaloth]

"Good job today boys. Now, replace these mannikins so the next class can use them and you're free to go."

 

Nakor sat down to watch the Soldiers at the chore he'd set them, revelling in his new position as Dedicated. A position that enabled him to delegate work such as this onto other less trained individuals while he relaxed under the shade of a tree.

 

OOC: Yeah, I know, short post. Anyway, this class is finished whether you post again or not. Aldazar, you still have to post for the defensive lesson from last week to get credit for the class. If any of you need any more classes pm me and I'll start one up for you.

[Guest Faile1987]

"Good job today boys. Now, replace these mannikins so the next class can use them and you're free to go."

 

Ged blinked as he heard Nakor speak up again. That was it? Looking up into the sky, the sun already standing way past its zenit, Ged realized that he didn´t even notice how late the day had drawn as they had been working. Now, as he did as Nakor had told them replacing the mannikins, applying the One Power to mend what he had damaged, having to reconstruct most of his mannikins completely as it was, Ged let out a sigh of relief when it was done.

 

After all they had passed their first lesson of using the One Power in battle and they felt exhausted all together as though they had spent hours with runnings lap under Isah´s strict supervision. Yet comparing the Physical education and their training in the One Power, Ged didn´t know which he had found harder. Both classes left him completely exhausted and in some way the training with the One Power had even been more exhausting than the physical strain Isha was putting on them. For now, all that Ged wanted was to rest and to forget about the things he had been pondering about during this training lesson.

 

Yet he knew he was supposed to practise all of these weaves and he wouldn´t be able to avoid channelling Fire altogether even more so as it ironically proofed to be his strongest element which came to him almost without his own wanting it. Letting out a small sigh, Ged was determined to always be on his guard whenever he channelled and trotting back to his rooms and the inn alongside Noy and the others, he only hoped he would be able to keep up his guard long enough. He didn´t want to use what he had just learned against anyone, if it was necessary to save his life or not.