Sparks Will Fly [OPEN to Knights and Lords]

[Sinistra]

For the lessons on lightning, Sinistra had requested a wide open training area with a row of ballistics gel dummies at the other end. The gel would scorch and burn where the lightning touched and it would give the students something to focus on.

Sinistra waited in a fitted, black tactical suit with her mask firmly in place.

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[cheshire_kitty]

Dressed in his standard army uniform, Konrad arrived at the training area at the Sith Academy of Glee Anslem. There was no such thing as too much power so if there was an opportunity for him to train; he would not allow it to escape him. Already waiting there was a feminine figure dressed in a tactical suit with her face covered by a mask.

"I assume this is where the lightning lessons are being held?" Konrad asked as he glanced at the gel dummies. Konrad's interaction with other Force users were quite rare outside of the few in the army so he did not recognises this woman but he could sense her superiority in power.

[member="Sinistra"]

 

[Sinistra]

"Indeed it is. Have you learn anything of force lightning before?"

Sinistra looked over the crisp uniform of a Brigadier General, the bars and code cylinders stating his rank very clearly for anyone looking his way. Sinistra could not begrudge him his chosen career path, some lords preferred things away from the arena of betrayals and backbiting that seemed to permeate the upper echelons of Sith hierarchy.

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[Shaddi]

After having learned so much of Force lightning already he wished to master the technique to it's apex of power. As he walked into the training hall with his simple robes on as well as his mask while the hood of his robes over the upper parts of his head. As he noticed [member="Sinistra"] and [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] he gave bow a cursory bow before he looked towards the rows of ballistic gel dummies with a small gestured he engulfed one with red force lightning that erupted from the ground under it. The look of that scorched dummy was oddly satisfying and before he would scorch each and every one of them he stemmed his urge to at least learn something.

"My lord what are you going to be teaching in this class?" He then asked as he looked towards Sinistra and ran a small electrical charge between his hands. He was excited to learn more of the skill he had already vested heavily in.

 

[Sinistra]

Her attention was drawn to a newcomer as Darth Erebos entered the room and fried one of the ballistics gel dummys in the red plasma of called lightning. She sighed quietly to herself beneath the mask. The endless need for posturing among the Sith grated on her occasionally, but she spoke plainly, the tin sound of her vocoder filling the space.

"A foundation in the basic ability to call forth lightning is required for more strenuous applications of the power. Lightning is such that it follows the path of least ionic resistance. If you summon it forth, it will settle on the target you choose, but where it strikes them is still left to the whims of physics. Multiple targets requires a greater summoning and therefore greater focus and concentration."


She gestured to a group of three dummies that were situated with one in the front and two behind it to either side. Sinistra cast her hands out, blue lightning arcing out in thick bolts that struck the first dummy and then jumped to the other two dummies behind it. She ceased the power, smoke rising from the burned surface of the dummies.

"Flesh is conductive. You can use your enemies against each other by making them into conduits for the path of the electricity. Striking the first target with such an abundance of power will force the electricity to seek alternate paths and jump to others in the vicinity. This is known as chain lightning."

[member="Darth Erebos"] [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos sighed a little and channeled his force lightning into his hand allowing it to build around his hand before he cast it straight at a row of four dummies. The bolt that came from his finger tips ran through the first one, literally carving a hole into the first before impacting the next one and from there it arched into the other two. "I've already learned this skill, isn't there something new you can teach me?" He asked as he put his hand out and with a combination of telekinesis and Force lightning he created a ring of electricity that arched through a tube created by the telekinesis.

[member="Sinistra"]

 

[Sinistra]

"No", she replied shaking her head.

"Further from this point requires creativity and imagination for application of the technique. As you seem to already have a steady grasp on all of that, there is nothing further I can teach you. My abilities stop at chain lightning."

She gestured to the dummies again, her vocoder rasping out her words.

"However, you are welcome to practice your techniques."

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

Now he felt a little annoyed, he had come hoping to learn more in the ways of force lightning but instead the teacher was either a little less farther along than him or at the same level as he was. However [member="Sinistra"]'s words did ring in his head. Creativity and imagination, well he was quite adept at those at least in his own opinion.
Melding Telekinesis in a sphere above his hand he began to fill it with force lightning until there was an orb of force lightning in front of him, he felt that the bubble of telekinesis was about to breach and threw it forwards causing the sphere to expand in and explosion of force lightning as it landed on one of the dummies. "It seems you are right in that regard, Sinistra. Thank you for that." He then said as he turned his head to look towards her.

 

[Sinistra]

She could sense his disappointment or annoyance, but she felt no shame that she could not teach him further. In her experiences, the acolytes she had come across might have been taught basic skills in force lightning but the knights were less than advanced than Erebos.

"The different uses of lightning all come from the basic technique. You've demonstrated a barrage already. The more strenuous applications like chain lightning or force storm are the only things that really require further instruction along the lines of the basic power. However, once you have the basic power, it all becomes how you choose to use it. There are colorful names for a number of ways that historic lords have used lightning, however, as long as you are inventive, you can find your own signature use for the power."

She chuckled again.

"I am a sorceress and a spy. I have no need for summoning an electrical storm that can target everything in a room. However with the manipulation of darkside tendrils and the infusion of lightning, I can incapacitate a subject during interrogation. Rather than rely on sorcery, you have showed the capability for manipulating the power through other means."

She spoke a word in ancient Sith, and from her fingers, blue arcs erupted, wrapped in wisps of black to encircle the closest dummy, binding it like plasma ropes.

"Frankly, Darth Erebos, you are at the level of a lord with your usage. But that doesn't mean you cannot be an innovator for new techniques."

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

With that Erebos smiled under his mask. "Well I've already created a force technique to help me see better when the force is weak in the area I am in." He said as he let loose a force echo from his hand, the entire training room was saturated in force energy almost feeling like a very, very small force nexus for a moment. "I've seen how lack of innovation and improvement destroyed the ancient sith orders and as such have molded my own skill set to have it ever improving." He said a small hint of pride in his tone as he then placed his index finger against the chin of his mask. "Might I ask you to teach me that spell?" He then asked, his thirst for knowledge rearing it's dominating head.

[member="Sinistra"]

 

[Sinistra]

"I can certainly try."

There was a joking tone in her voice, as he had come in for a lightning lesson and now they had moved to sorcery because he was too advanced for her lessons. She was waiting for him to be already well versed in her chosen skill set and make her feel completely useless but since he asked to be taught this, it was probably alright.

"Tendrils are pure manifestations of the dark side. In order to call them forth, it requires complete focus and intent. I'm assuming here that you already have a basis for sorcery, so visualize the ebb and flow of the darkside. Generally I can see these vibrations and worls. Focus on it. Form it, kneed it in your will. The black wisps will begin to mass around the target."

She had been staring down at a dummy, as a thick black mist in a nexus formed around the base of it.

"Tendrils require refining the mass. My teacher left that to me, so what worked best for me was to shape them with movements from my hands while I spoke the word for tendril in ancient Sith, however your mileage may vary."

She murmured the word again, her hands moving around each other in a spiral upwards as thick, inky vines snaked up from the floor and intertwined around the dummy, causing it to slice apart in large chunks and fall to the floor.

"When I do it with lightning, I do not call such a potent force."

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[cheshire_kitty]

"I have prior knowledge of this skill but there is still room for improvement," Konrad replied to the Sith Lord.

Not long after [member="Darth Erebos"] arrived, the Sith Knight temporarily took his leave of the two to answer a call on his HoloLink. It seems one of his incomptent underlings had gotten themself into a spot of trouble. Annoyed that his time was being wasted, he mad no offer of help to the man and ordered him to solve the unfortunate situation he had gotten into himself.

When Konrad returned to the training ground, it seemed another type of lesson was in progress. The Knight listened curiously as the Sith Lord and Knight conversed curious about the skill they were talking about.

[member="Sinistra"] - Sorry, I did not get a notification when you replied so I didn't reply. I only got one when you and Erebos posted and tagged me today.

 

[Sinistra]

Sinistra turned her attention to Konrad, leaving Erebos to practice the spell for himself.

"There is no need to apologize Major General. When duty calls, we must answer. Now with basic instruction in lightning, we can branch our use out. The ability to cast chain lightning requires a depth of focus and determination and is the natural progression in the step up of the use of lightning."

She walked to the other side of the area, pulling another dummy out in front of a pair to serve as a grouping for the purposes of the lesson.

"Generally when we target lightning at a subject, we make them the end destination of power. In chain lightning, you have to view them as a conduit, a carrier of that power to others close to them. This requires a greater charge to be expended as some of it will be lost when it is grounded by the first victim."

She gestured to the lead dummy.

"I want you to visualize the bolt that a summer storm would produce. The smell of ozone, the heat of the zap. That kinda of arc. I want you to summon that our unfortunate dummy down there."

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

Spoiler

Don't worry about it, it's all good. I never get notifications for half my stuff on Chaos.

 

[Shaddi]

Erebos had to think on this now as he stared at the dummy, absentmindedly swirling the energies of the dark side around him and at the base of the dummy. Moving one hand towards the base he poured his energy into the swirling mass of dark side energies that he had swirled up around the base of the dummy. The black mass began to form as he focused more and more and then refined it with his intent of crushing the dummy.
Moving his fingers in a tendril like manner he refined the black mass into the tendrils. "Iskusti" He then said as the tendrils slowly came out of the black mass and coiled around the dummy but then they crumbled down while the black mass remained. A slight sound of frustration could be heard from him as he pulled his hands back and he began to pace a little while he thought it through on what he had done and what he might have done wrong.


[member="Sinistra"] [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[cheshire_kitty]

Konrad tried to visualize a bolt from a summer storm as [member="Sinistra"] had suggested. It did not come easy to him as he was never one to pay much attention to weather so instead, he visualized a normal bolt of lightning bouncing around and shot it at the dummy. The lightning made a streak in the ballistics gel from its power. Chain lightning was more difficult than it had sounded.

The bolt of lightning had taken quite a bit from the Sith Knight. He had intended to shoot a small bolt of lightning in order to conserve his force reserves. Although he was able to use Sith Lightning, he lacked control over the power often shooting a stronger bolt than he had first intended draining his force reserves faster than he had intended.

[member="Darth Erebos"]

 

[Shaddi]

He tried again this time he poured every single ounce of power and focus to bear as he manipulated the tendrils that rose from the black mass. Under his mask small beads of sweat began to form and leak down his face as he felt the strain of it already. "Tegu tave iskusti iv tave jen' vulti nuyak laikas." He then spoke in an oddly calm tone even to him as he felt the strain lessen and the tendrils coiled and slithered around the dummy and then crush it when he clenched his fist.
As he saw that he had managed it he breathed out, not having noticed he had held his breath after speaking, and moved his hands down against his knees as he almost keeled over from the feeling of the strain leaving his body. "I'll have to practice this one quite a bit more to get it right it seems." He said to himself as he raised himself up once more to look at the mangled dummy that had been his test subject.

Sith translation
Tegu tave iskusti iv tave jen' vulti nuyak laikas = Let the fingers of the dark attack my enemy

[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] [member="Sinistra"]