The form and function of a saber.

[Shaddi]

Galaxy Location: Coruscant​

Planetary Location: The sith temple on Coruscant​

Interior Location: Deep in the bowels of the temple in one of the unused training halls​

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How long had it been? one hour, four hours? It didn't matter he was at his limit already as he stood on his thumbs in the middle of the hall. He had held himself like that for as long as he could, balancing himself without the use of the force. It had been a long time since he lost the feeling in his thumbs and a pool of sweet was below him, yet still he kept himself up like that.
Around him floated a few meditation rocks, four holocrons as well as his lightsaber in front of his face. He had spent the entire time taking it apart with the force and putting it back together without using his hands for direction or guidance. As he kept going all sense of time had just melted away as he focused on holding himself up and thereby train his body while also holding his focus on the force, all the while saying the sith code alongside the jedi code as a mantra in his head. The reason he was focusing on both was simple in his mind both held a certain merit were as the sith code would use emotion to empower oneself, the jedi code taught acceptance of things one can't change and to always have a cool head in any situation and not let one's emotions run one's mind, but instead control them.
At the far end of the hall was a medical droid along with a few Sith training droids he had "procured" from the training storage hall. The medical droid was the only one of the droid that was still on but it simply stood there in silence and would only intervene if T'zanith's health was in danger, mental or physical.
As his Lightsaber was assembled for who know's what time he placed it along with all the rocks and holocrons in a circle around himself and then came down to a crouch. His head swam as a wave of dizziness tried to take hold of him and he could hear the medical droid come to him. "Young master you have been in that position for six hours now I recommend rest and relaxation." The droid complained to him. "Give me something to help with the dizziness and something for energy then go back to your previous position." He ordered it and it complied giving him two shots and then walked back to it's original place in the room.
T'zanith could feel the sweet release from the dizziness and a rush of new found energy as he stood up and used the force to move his saber into his hand. Over the passed weeks he had seen that his training in the force had made his study of Lightsaber combat and forms take a back seat and as such he would now catch up to that. Even if it meant having to lock himself inside the hall for a week to get up to speed.
For that came the sith training droids and holocrons which he pilfered from the archives right before he ad gone so deep into the bowels of the temple were rarely if any acolytes or knights ever went to. A perfect place to do some training in peace, quite and most of all secret.
Moving one holocron into his hand he opened it and soon saw a masked sith standing over it and then gestured towards T'zanith. "Welcome this holocron holds the forms and functions of forms one, Shii-chi a good introduction to using Lightsabers, and two, Makashi a form dedicated to dueling others with Lightsabers. Now please tell me what form you wish to learn." The masked sith asked after explaining the holocron's function. T'zanith smiled, thankful for the one sith's influence on the most recent holocrons as they didn't try to kill the one wishing to learn and instead just taught what was asked for.
"Form one to begin with." T'zanith replied and then turned his Lightsaber on as the holcron's hologram turned his own on and began to go through each of the forms move set and attacks, all followed closely by T'zanith as he went through each and every move and attack.

 

[Shaddi]

After an hour or so following though with each of the forms moves sets and attacks, he felt confident enough to begin trying it out on one of the Sith training droids he had procured specifically for this purpose. He had procured three droids just in case as he got a bit overzealous in his training and ordered the first to come towards him with it's training saber ignited.
With adept movements the Droid began on the offensive forcing T'zanith to take a few steps back as he defended against each and every single heavy blow inflicted upon him by the droids unrelenting assault. He moved to the side to allow the droid to make a large swathing over head downwards slash to miss only to be then stopped as T'zanith stopped his Lightsaber just before he'd decapitate the droid.
He had figured out that Shii-cho was a bit clumsy and mostly aimed towards disarming rather than injuring enemies as a weakness but it was also wild and raw, allowing for deliberate tactics as well as if mastered would make his attacks highly randomized and unpredictable. T'zanith didn't like the droid's performance and instead of resetting it to the initiate level and instead set it into the adept setting and began to fight it again but this time he attacked it first.
Keeping on the offensive T'zanith transitioned from overhead strikes to leg sweeps and even to sideways upwards slashes. He kept the droid on the defensive until suddenly it spun it's saber around and slashed in a back handed swipe towards T'zanith, making him have to take a step back as he defended against the droid. Then once again he was on the defensive as the droid brought down a barrage of randomized and wildly powerful strikes. As T'zanith began to plan out what to do but then he but his saber down his back to block a sweep aimed to cut through his mid rim and he used that moment to quickly turn around and strike upwards at the droid. He had won but barely as he felt the droids training saber so close to his back as his own was stopped nearly against the droids head.
As both combatants turned of their sabers and stood back and bowed to one another T'zanith smiled a little. It was an interesting form to build the others upon as well as a thought process retaining towards free flowing tactical thinking while in the middle of battle. As the droid took a few steps back T'zanith moved to the Holocron and started it up again to Learn about Makashi and it's thought and form set process.
Makashi seemed to be more designed for fluidity, economy of motion, precision, balance and great footwork aimed at outmaneuvering opponents. It didn't rely on strength and it was clearly aimed towards fighting another Lightsaber wielding opponent. As this was the Case T'zanith decided not to learn it and instead moved towards learning a bit more about Shien and Djem so, as that was a style relying on directed defense with blaster bolts and strong offense with strength oriented attacks in lightsaber duels.
As the Holocram came out it began to describe each of the two styles withing the form, He stared with Shien.
"Shien is well-adapted to guarding against blaster fire and enemy strikes without compromising one's ability to launch into powerful counterattacks, it works best against multiple opponents and is typically less effective against single adversary. The form relies on mostly two-handed grip which enables for powerful step-through strikes to be utilized more easily. Shien users also learn a maneuver referred to as the "Barrier of Blades," which defend the user from blasterfire and redirects some of the incoming blasts. "Shien Deflection" is another technique familiar to users of this variant, allowing practitioners to simultaneously deflect weapons fire and leap toward an opponent. However, Shien is not without its shortcomings—it is particularly weak against a single opponent." The hologram then explained and showed some of the forms move sets as well as the counters that made up the form.

 

[Shaddi]

To train in this form T'anith made all three droids attack him at the same time as he went through the forms, rather clumsily at first but then got better the more hits he got. He kept going and soon he figured out he had an aptitude for the form as he kept defending the strikes more and more. It took him around half an hour to fully get with the forms move sets to guard against all three droids attacks as he kept it going for fifteen more minutes to be sure he had gotten the hang of it.
After he was done with this he rested as he activated the holocron again and listened to more explanations on the form. He stayed still for another half hour which he spent studying the form and it's thought process of using the enemies attacks against them. Once he had rested enough he ordered the droids to attack him once more and this time he managed to guard against all of them quite quickly as he began to try and get through to counter attack them. His solution was to guide one of the droids attack over to the other before he swiped his saber against the third ones attack to throw the saber away and open up the droids body to swift kick away. Then the last one was quickly dealt with, with a sweep of it's saber out of the way and kicking it's legs to make it fall down.
He had gotten the hang of it quite well in his oppinion at least but he knew he was no master, far from it but he was intent on studying this form and both it's variants as he wanted to master it fully. As he put on the holocron again he spent the time eating a food bar as he listened to the holocram.
"Djem so is designed to attack immediately after defending against an opponents strike, bringing the force of the opponents own blow against them and seeking to dominate a duel. Djem so places a heavy focus on brute strenght and pure power, with wide and powerful strikes and parries followed immediately by counterattacks. Unlike Soresu or Ataru however, Djem So requires the user to not only counterattack, but also to press the assault, combining Force-enhanced strength with powerful blade combinations to overpower and overwhelm an opponent's defenses. Djem So's sheer power, when combined with physical and Force-imbued strength, is capable of defeating a user of Makashi, a lightsaber form focused on dueling, finesse, and elegance, when employed by a skilled practitioner."
This intruiqed T'zanith more as it was a more in depth explanation of the form than Darth Ferus had given him on the forms and their functions and a part of him wondered why he hadn't decided on doing this sooner instead.

 

[Shaddi]

As he finished going through the Djem so forms movements and the like he stood once again and put on of the droids in a mode to attack him. Every ten minutes he had another droid attack him and to not relent unless he told them to stop. After forty minutes he had all three droids against him and was being pushed back, even though he got a few good hits in but it also allowed him to develop a better feel for the gross guard function of his saber as well. Using it to block and maneuver his opponents sabers to a position were a counter attack would be possible but unable to follow through it as the droids worked perfectly together, which was the point of this exercise.
As rare as it was to be brought into a Lightsaber duel with multiple opponents it was a good skill set to have and T'zanith was all about a functional skill set, which was the main reason he was practicing his forms and their thought processes to get a better handle on the forms functions.
As the time reached fifty minutes he reached his limit and was pushed down to one knee by all three droids and was forced to concede the spar to them. The droids moved back into their original position from earlier and he sat up against the opposite wall panting as exhaustion seeped into his muscles. As good as his stamina was he was nowhere near the near superhuman levels that some of the old sith and jedi had displayed in the past, an Ideal he strived to achieve.
Slowly his force sight began to narrow before he feel into the seductive embrace of sleep brought on by exhaustion.

 

[Shaddi]

He awoke the next day feeling the familiar texture of the tongues of the three little Tuk'ata pups he had found on Korriban. He still hadn't named them yet but he was waiting until they formed a more comprehensive consciousness to name them by.
"All right, all right I'll feed you now settle down." He said with a smile as he made quick hand gesture which he had taught the pups as the gesture to sit in a row in front of him. Given their young ages it was easy to teach them different gestures and commands to follow. With a look at the medical droid he ordered it to go and get him and the pups something to eat and drink. While the droid did as it was commanded he used the time to order the pups around a little to train them to coordinate with one another as he moved a single rock around the room with telekinesis and played a little with them using the rock.
He had a pleasant smile on his face as he kept going like that for a while and was then swarmed by the little puppies as they were brought to such excitement by the stimulation to their hunting instincts, though in their case the simply were barking excitedly and tugging on T'zanith's robes ends.
As the droid came back T'zanith put the food for the pups into the corner along with his own as he ate his meal alongside the pups, who slurped and devoured the meat that had been brought for them. The puppies were quite happy and content with their meal and as the food refreshed both them and T'zanith he made them stay in the corner while he continued his training, to which the pups seemed quite content with play fighting in a bundle in the corner as T'zanith turned on his Lightsaber again and began to train in Djem so against the droids once again.

 

[Shaddi]

T'zanith spent the remainder of the time before noon rose over the temple, in a deep meditative training with use of both djem so and shien until he not only felt comfortable in using them but also felt comfortable with the use of his own Lightsaber as he hadn't gotten that much training with it, to get used to it in his hands.
The pups had grown bored and instead were napping in the corner huddled against one another while T'zanith trained against all three droids and then in one on one segments. As Noon approached T'zanith simply took a long swig of a flask filled with water with nutrients and vitamins added into it, in place of waiting for the droid to bring lunch to him. After this he began to train in Shii-cho for four hours against one droid at a time before testing himself out on adding one more droid into the mix before eventually facing against all three droids with a randomized and versatile fighting style relying on all forms he had learned this included Shien, Djem-so, Shii-cho and finally Juyo as well. This style he tried out for an hour but soon found that his training with the forms wasn't sufficient enough to construct a style all of his own.
As he reached his stamina's limits he stopped the droids and turned his saber off as he moved back to the Pups and began to train himself in motionless use of telekinesis as he moved three rocks around which the pups chased, barking happily.
"Master you have been here for two day's now, I would recommend returning to your quarters to rest and recuperate." The medical droid then chimed in and then told him that the second day was coming to an end as well. "I guess your correct..." T'zanith conceded and walked to his quarters all the while focusing on moving a single rock without guiding it with his hands, playing with the Tuk'ata pups on the way. He had commanded the training droids to return the holocrons back to the archive before they'd go back into storage, the medical droid was left to clean up the training hall and then to return back to it's post in the medical wing of the temple.
As he entered his quarters he placed his masters holocron next to the holocron of Karness murr he had found on Belgaroth along with the two books pertaining to alchemy and sorcery he had also found on the world. Getting out of his robes he headed to the Refresher and straight into the shower, around his legs as the water cascaded against T'zanith's body were the Tuk'ata pups running and snapping their jaws at the water and seemed to be having fun in the water. Once he left the Shower he not only dried himself off with a towel but the pups as well after this he put on an under robe around his waist and then moved to the very welcoming bed in his bed.
As he surrendered to slumber he could feel the Pups snuggle up against him and he moved another blanket over them before he fully fell asleep.