Jericho
Tenebris In Lucem
Part I
The villagers and guards around the perimeter of a village in Naboo watched in awe as a man with brown eyes and brown tattered robes ran lap after lap by the village gates. On top of his white clothes there were package shaped boxes with cloth around it filled with metal and tied around his body, ankles and wrist. Each ankle and wrist package weighed at 25 pounds each and the body package weighed a resounding 100 pounds. One could say this is torture but to this man, this was a normal work out. He started from the break of dawn and continued his run until the early afternoon when the heat wave hit. Sweat covered his tan body and he had to occasion whip his eyes with a hand to keep the sweat out. He panted softly as he ran occasionally taking small bottles of water offered by the children of the city and drinking it to keep him hydrated.
"499....Just one more lap to go!" He exclaimed in his mind to motivate himself to run continuously. He began to feel his ribbed cramp lightly, his mouth with dry once more, he could feel the heat raise as the sun shined down on him. He continued to pant lightly to keep his breathing regular as he could without his breathing mask. His heart pumped fast as his blood level rose. He wiped his eyes once more, a calm look remained on his face. Despite how he felt this was just helping him wake up. He laughed as he neared the end of his final lap. Men, women and children who had been watching from the start, mainly cause they had nothing better to do and wanted to watch a jedi train, clapped as he began to stop. A kid happily running to him with wooden cups of water trying to reach for his mouth, Jericho standing at 6'5 knelt to the child to allow him to feed to the water to him after having patted the kid on her head. "Thank you." He said calmly with a hint of lightness in his tone. looking up and waving to the people around him.
Unlike his seemingly cold demeanor, emotionless attitude, his way of doing things to get the job done deep down the Jedi was warm hearted. His lighter and softer side, though, was more shown to the women and the children. He calmly with his eyes mostly closed so he doesn't scare the people off with is emotionless looking eyes. The few scars on his face scared most people enough already.Though he didn't expect them to be so happy to see one of the officers to be able to do this. But then again him and Burai were extremely different from the average person. He began to untie the weights off his wrists and ankles and placed them over his shoulder. "Again you have my thanks people of Naboo." He said respectfully to those who stayed back for his training then bowing his head, in return the people around him bowed with respect. As he left they began to murmur of him as they continued with what they were doing.
He made his way to the inn where they were staying, to drop off his weights and pick up his sabers, while in the room he figure since he was up to do a little more work outs. Using his fingers he hooked onto a wall and began to pull himself up and down to work his upper body after doing fifteen sets of twenty. He then laid on the ground and began to work on his abs doing twenty sets of one hundred. After another few hours of working out he walked out he rested the sabers on his sides while rolling out his right shoulder, his body still full of sweat. It was more peaceful out here, far from he city, far from all the talk of propaganda and fierce battle, in this small village here a they really talked about was how the farm was coming and about who could out drink who. This quiet little area was a perfect place work on his swordsmanship and hand to hand fighting. Later in the day the walked to the back of the inn, where it was only more beautiful views of the field of grass unlike the city where it would just be a dirty and murky alleyway.
As master Qae Shena instructed and from the panels of reading Jericho did he began to train in the skills of Echani combat. He started off in a very low in a deep and solid horse stance, his legs two shoulder widths apart, feet point outward, his arms chambered back to the extent where he was flexing and working the muscles doing so in front of a thick block of wood. He inhale deeply and exhaled slowly, relaxing mind and ignoring the growing pain. After twenty minutes of staying in this low stance doing nothing, he remained in the stance now doing punches. With a mixture of training regiments he adapted from the Jedi archive he adjusted things he learn about force abilities such as enhancement of physical prowess, he self taught himself and learned more from Master Seren and put it into his training to have a better mastery of it. For another twenty minutes he would do a three different set of four punch in intervals of five seconds. One set of punches to the thick block used force speed to steadily increase speed of his punches each time. The second set involved him increase his own strength of each punch using the force steadily growing stronger. While the last set involved him using his bare knuckles without the help of the force so he would be able to endure and not have to rely on the force solely.
After finishing all that he switch to the next stance in the form, the bow stance, the one stance he felt was the most awkward but still he would have to get a better mastery for it. His feet went apart by a little over one shoulder width wide and two deep, almost like he was standing on two parallel rails. His back foot turned out facing slightly 45 degrees forward and straighten out, and the front foot pointed in the same direction with a bent knee aiming foreword, as though aimed at his target. As read and instructed two-thirds of his body weight was on his front leg down to his foot. He did the same for this stance, for the twenty minutes he stood there gaining the muscle memory but so one stand would not be superior to the other, he switched legs and did the same again for the same amount of time. Again he did the similar regiment from the stance to the strikes but with his stance he was more focus on the kicks. He split the block between high, medium, and low. So he would add some flare to this style instead of the usual kicks, the front, side, crescent and hook kick he would perform a round kick. A kick that could be used both for speed and power.
He adjusted his bow stance by a little bit, instead of the usual the one by two shoulder wide stance, he went into a one and a quarter wide by one and a quarter deep, a higher stance. He bounced on his toes lightly, back and forth then side to side and back again repeating the fluid motion. He did the same with the punches, but instead of four punches, he did five kicks for each leg for high, medium, and low. Same intervals and same type of sets, speed, strength and normal for the same duration of time. After finishing that set of twenty minutes he sat down and rested giving himself time to stretch his body out to keep his body warm and limber while he rested so that he could easy get back into his training. After taking a few minutes to do that and getting himself water to stay hydrated he went back to his unarmed combat training.As his regiment required, he trained in the other stance and incorporating the appropriate strikes to go the each specific stance to utilize properly the stance and each strike. Doing each stance and strike set with the time he required himself to do. Crouch stance, Empty stance, and rest stance.
The next part of his own unarmed combat training was the combinations and speed switching stance to fully utilize the strikes. For the 'famous' echani kick, the whirlwind kick he specifically did it's own regiment due to the fact that the kick was so similar to is already fluid style of fighting. Jericho did his first kick starting low with a slight twerk of the hip to get the motion down, he did this forty times for each leg in sets of ten. As he progressed the number of reps lowered by five every time he went a little higher for each leg while the set number remained the same. As he kicked higher and higher, he increased the speed of the kick more and more working his hip to turn and increase his speed and spin. He did so until he reached his limit doing and constant flurry of 540 degree whirlwind kick. To keep from getting to dizzy, he focus his eyes on his target so with every spin, his eyes would snap back right to the enemy. He did this with three different targets, for spotting not actually hitting, the thick wood target, a near by tree and the door to the inn. He chose three different target surrounding in case he was attacked by multiple enemies mid-spin so he could switch target with greater ease with out having to vomit on them from all the spins. Conditioning himself to get use to it, a tactic that he would used when spinning in a ship or rolling down a hill or just for his generally motion sickness he got from land vehicles.
Jericho did ten sets of ten reps for each combination to it was be integrated with his mind as a fall back in case his already unorthodox style of fighting became overwhelmed though the combinations had a mixture of the traditional strikes and other strikes to make his own style of the martial art. And as he did each different combination of strikes and kicks he would tell himself in his mind the fundamentals of the echani marital art. A mixture of his style while still understanding the fundamentals and the basic strikes.
The ol' one, two punch. Jab, cross.
"Stay Rooted"
Measure the distance with the straight punch, close the distance with the front kick, using the cross strike to distract your foe, and end it with a powerful reverse side kick to their gut. Straight punch, Front kick, Cross, spinning side kick.
"No Excess Movement"
Stop my enemy's advance with slight lean and a swift but strong side kick to the gut area, ideally to the ribs or solarplex. While they are winded, quick drop to a crouch stance sweep their front leg to get off balance, using the momentum of the 360 spin palm strike upward to groin, end with grabbing the back of the head and knee to the face. Defensive side kick, sweep kick, palm strike, knee strike.
"The Best Defense Is A Good Offense"
Basic, measure, distract, end with a chop to the throat. Jab, cross, Chop strike.
"Strike Vital Points"
Measure, close, distract, Aim the front kick to the chin; do not drop the leg when ending the front kick rather continue the attack with the same leg and strike with a side kick to the gut area while their hands are up distracted by the front kick. Jab, Cross, Front kick, Side kick.
"Breathe Out"
Basic start, hook punch to their face so they raise their guard, low hook with same hand to strike their body or lower the same arm, end with twist of the hips and use of your full body weight end with a chop to the side of the neck. Jab, Cross, high Hook punch, low hook punch, chop strike.
"Hips, Not Shoulders"
Measure and close distance with two fast jabbing strikes, once close spin clockwise striking with my elbow their guard will be up from the jabs, I want that. I damage their arm and cover their sight with their own arm, then spin counter clockwise to side kick them in their gut. I'm not going to stop my attack there. I lower my kicking to get back into a strong stance, using my full weight I strike heavily with a thrust kick their gut, possible causing more rib damage but the idea is to gain more distance between us so I can spin hook kick the side of their head while they are recovering from the last blow. I continue my barrage with a whirlwind kick then a grab to keep them from falling, while they are disoriented, I continue to hold their head keeping the neck nice and straight and ending with an almost simultaneous heavy full force chop to the back of the neck and knee to the front of the face.
Jab, Jab, spinning elbow, spinning side kick, thrust front kick, spinning hook kick, whirlwind kick, grab, chop strike, knee.
"Your Whole Body Is A Weapon"
Feign a chop to the neck, instead use entire forearm to prevent opponents arms from stopping you to strike their solarplex with a spear strike. This will hurt my enemies but possibly break my fingers. No, mind over matter applies to this combination, my spear will not break only go through my enemy. Forearm chop, spear strike.
"Mind Over Matter"
Jericho inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly once more, finally done with that part of his training. Jericho gather blocks of wood and stacked them to his waist level, keeping s square space around the blocks and made sure it was sturdy enough to stay in place. He sat down and began to meditate gathering energies of the force and the energies of the martial art he was training. He reflected on his training, how he could improve his conditioning and strength as well as the form and stances. Like for his lightsaber, he began to use the force and gather sand and small pebbles visualizing all of it go into the square area of the blocks. Once it was full, Jericho opened his eyes and walked over to the make shift training block and shifted it from left to right to insure that it was secure. It was. Jericho proceed to to spear strike, punch and palm strike into the sand and pebbles continuously for hours, taking a minute break after intervals of five. By doing so he would strengthen his fingers, knuckles and his palm making his strike ever stronger and fiercer.
After finishing his unarmed combat training, he found himself as gross as a hutt and decided to take a bath out in the public bath of the village as he made his way to the baths he spotted a woman in armor. His basic cautious instincts took over, Who was this woman? He had never seen her before; this village was a place he came to more than often after doing a mission here with his former master. Was she part of the Mandorlore army? He did not know, nor care for all that matter, he wasn't part of any factions or was really part of the war. He sighed for a moment realizing he was still rather sweaty, he didn't mind whether or not she was actually part of any army. He felt wouldn't ever see her again any way, well unless she decided to cause any trouble then he would have to intervene, so rather than investigating her he continued on his way to the bath. He started a warm bath and rested in it, allowing his body to relax a bit from the whole time he was training. He got out of the bath, dried off, and went back to the inn and did ten sets of fifty of push-ups and ten sets of one hundred sit-up before going to bed.
The dark blue sky began to go bright as the sun reached the peak of the sky. Signifying the morning day has began in the village, lucky he made it passed the hassle and bassle of the village morning market trade and made it to the village the start of his travels to the forest was this place. He made sure he had the necessary rations to last a week out in the forest. Food, a reusable water container with build in filter, extra pair of cloths just in case he needed it, his sabers, his breathing mask, smoke grenades; looks like everything was in order. a Before he made his way, he overheard some rumors from a couple of merchants coming in. It was about a ghost that took the form of a young girl, that resided in a cave filled with wolves. Wolves? Just wolves? Not boar-wolves? Or something giant and ready to eat you? That was interesting to hear. But He didn't pay much heed to it, after all, if there was some sort of ghost girl that lived with wolves there were many caves, many waterfalls, and so on in the forest. Besides he never believed in ghost it was so....Trivial.
"You heading to the forest, sir Jedi? Mind accompanying me for a while? We can part ways when I reach my destination."
A voice called out to him while he was thinking about the rumors of the suspected ghost girl. The tone of voice and a similar calm to his tone of voice, but higher and more feminine. Jericho turned his attention to the calm voice and to much of his surprise he saw the same woman from the last night, armor and all. The woman had long red hair, it was straight and down all the way to her lower back. She had hazel-green eyes, looking into them he could tell that she had been through a lot in her life. Her armor shined bright and gray, with trims of red symbols of the mandalorian race. The way she stood, straight up; proud, arms to her side and hands clenched into a fist; always ready for battle. Examining her more he had a vibroblade at her left side, so she can pull it with her right and a blaster so she could pull it with her left. From what Jericho could tell, she was stronger with her right and faster with her left, he would have to watch out for that in case she would attack him, if he chose to accept her offer of companionship. Jericho blinked a bit wonder why such a woman as her had come out the blue and ask him such a question.
"I won't strike you or anything while we travel up there together, Jedi. I personally want to fight one of your kind but only on the battlefield. That's where the glory is, not in some village." She said as if she was reading his mind. Being caught off guard by her statement, Jericho merely remained silent. "Catch you off guard? or just the silent type? Or both?" She asked with a slight laugh, giving Jericho a playfully pat on the side of his arm. Jericho again remained silent only watch her actions as she made them, feeling no murderous intent he just stood there. "You are the silent type then, great." She said her tone back to calm and completely far from amused. "Well I spotted you looking at my hands then at my weapons, that's a dead give away." She said tip toeing up to him face to face looking him dead in the eye. "You do that to any other mandalorian, they would scrap with you right then and there." She places her index finger on his cheek. "Here's a tip, if you're gonna check some one out then use your 'full' vision or your line of sight, instead to looking a specific things so you don't give yourself away to anyone that is skilled enough to see that." After making that statement she leaned back down standing at the heels of her feet. "Well since I just gave you a tip, you're going to have to come with me now, only fair right? Plus your master taught you manners too right? Can't leave a woman on her own while traveling to a oh-so dangerous forest." She said adding a playful and sarcastic tone at the end of what she said.
Again the mandalorian woman has caught him off guard, twice in a row within minutes no one has been able to spot his analogical ways thus far. Then she just up and said that they were going to travel together now. He blinked slightly confused at what had just transpired in the last few minutes, at one point he was thinking about the rumored ghost and the next the mandalorian woman volunteers him to walk with her up to the forest. He was still not aware as to why, just from speaking to her and from how she looked, she was more than capable enough to go on her own. But she said was was in need, she did not pose a threat to his person, and it was on his way. So in the end he had to oblige this woman. Jericho nodded to the woman accepting her demands and they made their way to the forests of naboo. When they met to her destination, she kept to her promise and gave the man a short head bow and he did the same to her. After a few more hours of going deeper and deeper into the forest, of course putting marks up so he could make his way back more easily.
As he walked he reached his destination a waterfall near a cave, he saw an open fire, but paid little attention to it. But the man automatically assumed that there was a person there, was it the mandolarian woman? No it couldn't be she went the different direction of him when that parted. No matter; as long as they did start trouble with him, they would start with it and he would end it if needed. But instead of staying near there he continued on and found a much better spot. He placed his sabers and other equipment on the ground next to him, taking a knee, he removed his upper robes revealing his scars from previous battles with sith, slavers and other kinds of people. It was also revealing his larger and muscular physique, showing just how much the man trained every single day. After doing so, he quietly cleaned his face with the water. It was a nice day, a warm day, no fights, no war, no hassle, just peace. A peace that he wanted to himself.
Hopefully it will stay that way, on the first couple days he was just going close his eyes and merge himself in the force. He training his his ability to sense other energies as well as the senses of smelling, hearing, touch, and sight. He pictured the sound of a distant waterfalls and heard the sounds of varies animals, he took in the smells of the forest and felt the warm air breeze as it brushed lightly passed his equally warm skin. He did not focus on anything else, not his growing and lingering hunger, not his thirst, not the thoughts of the past. He was only basking, his mind thinking only of gathering the energies of the force, empowering himself, becoming stronger, becoming one with the force. And for three days straight he continued to do so, feeling only telling the difference of time through feeling the changes of the sounds and feeling difference of warm and cooler air.
In the darkness the light of brimmed over him ever slowly, he stood under it's glorious light basking in it and taking the energies around him. He sat there meditated in the deeper part of the nabooian forest. It was his safe haven for him despite all the mighty beasts that dwell within it, a place that he could do his own training in peace. Feeling like the time was time for meditating was over Jericho opened his eyes and saw the darkness loom over him, with only the light of the moon to show him the way. This was a perfect time to train in stealth and the art of Sokan. Jericho stood up as far as a knee and took the time to eat some food for some needed sustenance and of course drank some water before he started his training in the dark.
Once ready, he moved his equipment to the side and hidden them perfectly and grabbed out his lightsabers. He looked around for a moment, wiping the sweat from his forehead, after three sets of a hundred side strikes with his blades, meaning 600 all together with both his arms, he was growing wary of his practice and wanted to take a break but he didn't he was going to push himself and persevere. Doing so, he made his move; his movement was silent, his strikes swift and deadly. As always, he trained long and hard and the break of dawn. He had to be strong, he had to be smart, he had to be wise, in order for him to help all those in need, the innocent, the weak and the injured. He looked at the sky as it became a light blue from the darkness. As the morning came, his eyes began to slightly close. This was becoming his expertise training in the dark. He was beginning become fond of his nickname because of his training. At first it was a mocking name the other kids gave him but now he accepted it. The name of Ghost.
