A New Barrier To Overcome

[Zavzen Sae'ryx]

Zavzen sat waiting for his mentor to come. He had asked [member="Krest"] to teach him how to use Force Barriers and now he sat waiting for him to turn up. Zavzen was wearing his usial outfit of a brown cloak over the top of a black leather tunic that was half open and black leather trousers. He was sat on top of a hill on Ession, leaning back against a tree looking out over a field that was being bathed in the morning sun. He thought it was a rather lovely scene to look out over while he waited.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Krest moved up to [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"] , resting both of his hands behind his head. With a slight nod, he would motion for the boy to come closer. "Aha! there you are. Shall we get started then? Barriers is what you wanted right? Then, lets get started." Rolling up his sleeves, the man would bring up his hands, wiggling his fingers. "Just your hands for now, aye?"

 

[Zavzen Sae'ryx]

[member="Krest"]

Zavzen turned to Krest when he addressed him. " Loverly scene isn't it?" He asked, referencing the view he had just been looking out at. "That's fine, using my hands. Gotta start somewhere after all." Zavzen said, also rolling up his sleevee. "So, how do I begin?" He asked as he drew opposite Krest, an inquisitive look over his face.

 

[Darth Ferus]

"You know how to use things like Force Push right? Think of it like that, but instead of sending the energies outwards, you freeze them in place. Sounds simple right?" To demonstrate, the red man would bring up his hands, and his signature barrier would come to life, the shimmering blue filling the air. It was basically a shield made of pure force energy, and Krest was keen to forming them with ease. Lowering his hands, the barrier would fade, and Krest would nod once to [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"] . "Now you."

 

[Zavzen Sae'ryx]

Zavzen nodded as Krest was speaking, the theory behind the method was sound but he knew that it would be hard to do the physical portion of the ability, it may of sounded easy but he had a feeling that it wouldn't be.

Taking a deep breathe, Zavzen focused on slowly creating a force push, making sure it spread slowly unlike how he usually did it, explosively. However, part way through his first attempt he lost control of the wave of Force and it rushed forward. Zavzen froze for a few seconds before chucking nervously while rubbing the back of his head. "Any other advice?" He asked slowly.

 

[Darth Ferus]

"Picture it like glass. Light can go through, but nothing else. No air, no blasters, water, what have you. Act as if you were pressing your hands against glass." Krest would sit at this point, already forming himself a little fire pit for some tea. He would talk to [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"] without actually looking over to him, clearly in no hurry to do anything. "Don't rush yourself either. It doesn't have to be large."

 

[Zavzen Sae'ryx]

[member="Krest"]

Zavzen took a few deep breathes to help centre himself before tryin it again, following Krest's instructions this time. He started slowly again, like last time, keeping in mind the thought of only letting light through. A few minuets later (and with one final mental push from Zavzen) a translucent barrier appeared in front of the pale zabrak. However it only held its form for a second before wavering and shattering. Zavzen let out a frustrated growl at how close he had come to doing this task as he ran his left hand through the hair on the back of his neck.

A few moments later he sighed and cracked his neck and tried again. This time trying to do it faster as he had decided to focus on the speed in which he could form the barrier first, afterwards he would focus on expanding the time in which he could hold the barrier.

 

[Darth Ferus]

"I said to not rush yourself. Focus on making sure the barrier stays before trying to get it to form faster, not the other way around. A quick brittle shield will be worth less then a strong slower made one." This was speaking from experience. He had a tea kettle set upon the open flame, waiting for the water inside to boil over and make the famous choo sound all kettles would do. Still with his back to [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"] , he would watch through the Force alone, feeling the shields as they would be formed. Of course, he would occasionally look over just to make sure the boy wasn't going to hurt himself, but it all seemed fine for the moment.

 

[Zavzen Sae'ryx]

[member="Krest"]

Zavzen took on Krest's advice and changed his attempts. Taking his time, he focused on making the barrier at strong as possible. A few minuets later the barrier was formed and he focused on holding it for as long as possible. It was only 15 seconds later that the barrier failed. Focusing he tried again, 10 seconds. Again, 18 seconds. Again, 16 seconds. His goal was to sustain a strong barrier up to 5 minuets. It was 10 hours of constant work when he finally managed to hold the barrier for 5 minuets at full strength, however it took him 2 minuets of preparation to achieve that.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Long before Zavzen was able to finish his ten hour practice the red man had finished not only brewing his tea, but drinking it. Yet as he sat there, he watched [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"] work, ever impressed at the younger Zabrak's determination. He would not speak, rather keeping to himself as he was sure it was taking quite a bit of concentration on the Sixth's part. And so he would go about making himself another round of tea, fairly certain this would take a lot longer.

 

[Zavzen Sae'ryx]

[member="Darth Ferus"]

After he had finally managed to reach his goal on holding the Barrier for a long time, he planned to move onto bringing it up as fast as he could but the heaviness in his eyes and limbs convinced Zavzen to get some rest first. So, turning towards Krest he asked, "Do you have any suggestions on where I could rest? I didn't think we would be out here so long and didn't plan out a place to rest." He dearly hoped his mentor had an idea, he felt like he was going to collapse any second.

 

[Darth Ferus]

"Under the stars would work, no? Unless that's too primitive for you." The Darth offered a slight wink to [member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"] , patting him on the shoulder. "But, for now, this is all I can show you, for now of course. I would suggest continuing to practice." Ferus would turn at this point, walking to leave the younger Zabrak to himself, but he would glance over his shoulder and speak once more. "Oh, and really. Enjoy the outside air for once."