Your whole body is the weapon…

[Darth Timoris]

Melori had done her research - the Form she’d been using unknowingly was Ataru. And she’d also researched the option of a double handed lightsaber - but hadn’t wanted to give up on her first Form - which was Makashi.

So a few weeks later she had her new saber that converted to two individual sabers - and moreover had a tutor for the saber Form. Someone she’d met previously in a training session - plus she’d also contacted him in connection with the Academy she’d helped to construct on Tython.

With her Master still away on some Galactic tour, she’d not even bothered to ask permission but instead simply requested the training and was delighted the Sith Lord had accepted.

So Melori Rae arrived at the designated place early and ran through some of the moves she’d become familiar with but that needed more formal tutoring.

Spoiler

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus wasn't one to keep people waiting when it came to training. Training was a valuable asset to any Sith, no matter how much they thought of themselves or how little. [member="Melori Raaf"] , a powerful student and already proficient force user was one such person who not only accepted training, but went out of her way to get what she needed. The red man respected those with a thirst for knowledge, and especially those with an interest in sword play.

He would step into the room clad in his usual armor. Strapped to his left wrist as ever was his own order's hidden blade, but save for that and his two sabers on his waist, he was surprisingly lax on the amount of gear he would normally have. This was a training exercise after all, so he felt it necessary to go 'light' as it were.

"I'm glad you're here already, saves me a wait. Shall we get started then?" With that the Zabrak would reach down to his waist and bring out his blue saber, but it remained inactive. For now, he was still, but should the girl reach for her own saber he would only shake his head. If not, he would continue regardless. "Ataru is more than just swinging your sword. For now, you are going to be practicing the moves -without- your lightsaber. There is a lot of precision needed, and any misstep could lead to destruction of the world around you or dismemberment. Cartwheels, front flips, back flips. For now, I want you to go in that simple order until I say otherwise. Where or how you do it does not matter to me, so long as it is in that order."

Endurance was the unspoken rule in this little test. Ferus needed to not only make sure she had the aptitude and willingness to learn, but make sure she could keep up with the high tax on a normal body. As such, he would cross his arms and lean against the very door he came in, anxious to see how well she could do.

 

[Darth Timoris]

It was one thing to see someone lend a hand in a training session, quite another to receive one on one instruction. Other than her own Master, she’d sought ought a variety of teachers and her thirst for knowledge was unabated.

So she nodded to the Zabrak as he entered the room. She bowed to no-one. In part as she was sick of it when she was a Padawan - and she’d vowed never to bow to another Force-user. And in part as she never wanted to accept others were better than her. They had learned things she simply hadn’t been taught yet. Of course, she might not live that long - but that was a different issue altogether. Her Master had tempered her lack of patience but not her arrogance.

She was dressed simply - in black robes, and she’d already removed her black cloak. She had never worn armour and wasn’t planning on ever doing so. If she was worthy, she would live. If she needed armour to survive, she didn’t deserve to be a Sith. Her sister of course thought this an odd outlook. Her gauntlets - her prize from her visit to Korriban - were tucked into her belt and her double-saber was hanging from her belt.

“I am ready,” she responded simply to the Sith Lord, her blue eyes alive. She’d practiced the moves without the aid of the Force primality - her ballet training made her nimble and acrobatic and she regularly spent time doing gymnastic moves with and without apparatus.

So she did as instructed and simply used her martial arts training - as unorthodox as it was - to aid her speed and she allowed her relentless training regime to provide the stamina.

And so she made some space for herself and performed a cartwheel, a font flip and a back flip. She added no moves, no improvisations, no embellishments. And then she repeated them, over and over again. There was no break, no way of telling which move came first as they blended into a trio of actions.

After a while her muscles burned and she smiled. Pain was good. Pain meant you were working hard. Pan meant you were learning and pushing yourself.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Thankfully, Ferus wasn't looking for respect from [member="Melori Raaf"] . She had asked him to teach her, and he would do so, no more. With a grin he would watch. He had little else to do for this, but after some time his voice would cut through the silence of the work out. "Very, very good. You know what you're doing already, so this will be much easier. Now, take out your saber. For this next part I want to see what you can do with that. Simple cartwheel with a sideways swipe. Keep your footwork in mind and mind your saber. There will be no target at the moment, but there will be soon enough."

Red arms would cross over his chest as he watched and waited, and a smile ever present. This was working to be a quick lesson.

 

[Darth Timoris]

This lesson felt odd already. It was like being taught something you already knew – but didn’t know you knew. But already she could sense where the learning would come.

She could replicate specific moves in relation to specific actions from an opponent but it required a conscious access to memories. Way too slow for actual combat and if the attack were not precisely what she had in her memory banks, she had no natural response.

So her form and execution were good – but her decision-making was awful. So she’d probably look good until she had to do something that was opposed. Then her failings would show up.

She stopped and listened to her teacher. She unclipped her new double-saber and activated it. As she contemplated the move, Darth Ferus may have noticed the delay in her reaction. She was accessing her ‘memories’ looking to see when Maul performed a similar manoeuvre. Finding it, she allowed the memory to merge with her conscious brain and she executed a flawless cartwheel and performed a sideways swipe. Text-book but way, way too slow to start the execution.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

As [member="Melori Raaf"] went still a brow raised on Ferus's face. He had not seen anyone, even a droid, freeze for no apparent reason. His mouth opened to speak just as girl finally went on with the action, flawlessly. The brow would only be raised higher as he tried to figure out now why he was here to teach her. All of this seemed natural to the point that she was more than fluent with the form.

"Tell me, where exactly did you learn this form prior?"

Ferus wasn't insulted that he was called out to teach something the girl already knew. In fact, what it showed was that he could teach her much more advanced footwork and movements. Of course, he needed to know where she learned what she did, and how much she was taught. The last thing he wanted was to push her too far and watch a limb go flying, be it his or hers.

 

[Darth Timoris]

Melori suddenly found the ground very interesting. “I haven’t learned the Form as such, I have…observed it. I…”

She looked up; this would not work unless she was entirely honest. “My Master performed some Sith magic on me on Ambria. She put certain memories in my head. What I have demonstrated so far are pulled from those memories. It is as if I performed those moves years ago and that allows me to do them now, with probably decent form. But…but they are not natural. I have built up muscle memory for the moves but they are not instinctive. That is what I need to be taught. Assume I know little as for me to use them in combat; I need to be able to flow from one move to another and not wait for my memory to kick in and for me to replicate a manoeuvre. I need for me to be in control, not some dead Sith Lord.”

She looked him in the eyes. “Does that make sense?”

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

"It makes enough sense I suppose." Ferus offered [member="Melori Raaf"] a faint shrug. From his understanding, she knew the skills, but she didn't know them. Once she was shown, he was sure she would understand it well enough to keep going. So as such, he would wave a hand to a nearby wall. The force would shift, and he would pull out a portion of the wall itself with an audible crack.

The result was what looked like a step, and with a nod the Zabrak would motion once to it. "Part of Ataru is to use the world around you as your kickstand. As such, use that to leap off of. Pick how you will, but use your saber at the same time. You have to focus on your footwork, your bladework, the world around you, and your intended target."

 

[Darth Timoris]

Having shared her secret with the Sith Lord, she had a decision to make. To call up memories and execute perfectly or to rely on instinct and her recently developed muscle memory to aid her progress. She immediately decided on the latter.

She watched as he fashioned training apparatus with the Force itself and listened to the instruction.

Her immediate challenge was to avoid using the memory. Or at least searching for it. As she stepped forward, she held her saber in front of her – two hands on the hilt, the blade horizontal to the ground.

She took a couple of quick steps and planted her left foot on the makeshift step and then her right on the wall itself. It was a move she’d used in gymnastics but as she focused on the here and now rather than the past, she felt a natural tendency to twist as she performed the backward somersault that followed. Her saber snaked out and if an adversary were to her left, they would have been skewered. As she landed, she shot out the blade to her right and performed a low sweep. It was almost perfect, except in ensuring she got the second blow in, she’d landed on her butt, having stumbled backwards.

In her mind it was like a time with Maul’s training droids. The memory had guided her without dominating her. It was a step backwards in one sense but a proverbial and literal leap forward in another.

Two more times she repeated the move. By the third she had it right and even ended with a different saber move – this time a vertical slice. But it was against an invisible opponent. Her true test was some way away.

“Keep pushing me,” she said. “More.”

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

"More? Very well." With that, the Zabrak would turn to look about the room. What would exactly count as more at this point? She understood the movements well enough, and simple training routines would be enough. Well, perhaps not. Blue eyes focused on the lesser, unimportant furniture of the room. With a grin, the red man would lift up one of the items, and suddenly threw it right for [member="Melori Raaf"] .

"Think fast and keep moving. Do not stand still for longer then two seconds!" Already he was lifting up more of the furniture; chairs, tables, the like, all being ready to be thrown at the girl. One at a time they would come, giving Melori enough time to leap about them as need be. Whether she cut them up or simply evaded them didn't matter to Ferus, the point was to keep her moving, with a hint of danger for once.

 

[Darth Timoris]

This was more like it. She had no time to reflect on what she could access from her memory and she didn’t have the luxury of trial and error - less her head was impacted by flying furniture.

The first chair caught her by surprise. She tried to dodge it at the last moment but it caught her on the shoulder. She winced in pain but had no time to recover as a table came straight at her. This she split in to with her saber but one piece caught her on the hip and knocked her backwards a few steps.

Suddenly the focus of the here and now and natural instincts was what would keep her bruise free. And despite the early set-backs, once she had no time to react, her performance actually improved. It was as if the option to reflect was actually holding her back.

Not every move was text-book, but it was natural and the more she dodged or sliced, the better she got. Her shoulder and hip would disagree with that prognosis but she had taken the advice. Once an item was dealt with, she was moving again, giving the Zabrak a harder target to hit. Now it was more like combat, she was by now in constant motion, her balance helped by her dance training and the muscle memory helping her moves.

Was it faultless? Nowhere near, but she was progressing and the longer it lasted, the more the danger fuelled her performance. She was thriving on it.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

For a moment there was a hint of doubt within the Zabraks mind. [member="Melori Raaf"] , who had done so well with the moves prior, didn't seem to have the ability to react as she should when under pressure. He was tempted to stop after the second hit on her, but he found himself glad he didn't.

As she finally began to move and dodge, Ferus began to up the level so to speak. Sometimes there would be two objects flying, sometimes just one at an odd angle or constantly changing direction. It wasn't long until most of the furniture within the room was cut to pieces, but the red man simply continued by using those pieces themselves, large or small, from any angle he could make up in his mind.

It was odd training, that was certain. Ataru was a form meant for one on one, not against multiple targets. He wanted to show her this though the training itself, to emphasize the need to not find herself in a group. It was an unspoken lesson, but a lesson none the less.

 

[Darth Timoris]

The barrage of projectiles was relentless and to be fair, tiring. It was like fighting multiple opponents and she found the moves, although natural to perform, insufficient against the varied angles of attack.

"This...isn't...working," she shared through gritted teeth as her elbow was struck by a piece of debris. "Is...that...part...of..the...lesson?"

By now she'd split the saber into two, allowing each hand to fend off the shrapnel he was subjecting her to.

[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

With a single lift of his hand the Zabrak would halt the barrage, nodding once to [member="Melori Raaf"] . "Ataru has two key weaknesses you should be aware of. First, as I'm sure you noticed, you can and will become overwhelmed by multiple opponents. If you find yourself in a crowd, leave as quick as you can and lure them to a more one on one situation. Second, space. If you don't have enough space to jump around, it's useless. People of our size have a much harder time than those much smaller."

The hand would fall, as would the debris around her. For now the Zabrak would let his arms hand down by his side, offering a rather large grin. Melori had done well with this lesson, and Ferus couldn't help but be elated when things simply went right. With a slight bow of his head the red man would move to leave her, nodding one to one of the tables still together. "Continue to practice, and you will do fine. I suggest finding a sparing partner, one at your level of course. Steel sharpens steel and all that."

And with that the Zabrak would leave, slipping both hands behind his head. He had nothing else for her.

 

[Darth Timoris]

Melori nodded as the Lord spoke. When he'd finished she spoke. "I appreciate your time and your advice. I shall indeed continue to practice, to spar and above all to test myself."

Once he left the room she tapped into her memories and found a velocity she could perform. Over and over she would perform the series of moves, each cycle faster than the last. Then she reversed the order and finally did it all again with the saber joined together once more.

It would form part of her daily ritual and she made a mental note to seek a fellow Acolyte to train with. And a Knight. In her experience, you learned valuable lessons from those more gifted.

[member="Darth Ferus"]