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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:49:22 GMT -6
Misc training thread for Rabbit Current creature: Tsuyu
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:50:29 GMT -6
Learning about ambushes was well and good, but it was the sort of thing that he felt that Aster would have taught him eventually anyway. Just maybe not right now, and maybe not for a good while yet, until right before he was actually about to let Rhys do anything interesting or useful or important. It was a part of fighting, but it wasn’t fighting. {Teach me how to strike an opponent,} Rhys demanded. This time, Rabbit had come to their meeting alone, without the half breed in tow. Rhys thought about what she had said--- ‘He goes where he pleases’. Evidently, he did not wish to be involved in the matter of Rhys’s training any further. Well, not that he had in the first place. But Rhys wondered if he was inconveniencing the half breed somehow, by monopolizing some of Rabbit’s time. He must have liked her a lot if he was willing to do what she asked. 1
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:51:19 GMT -6
Start: Bite
If that was the case, however, the half breed hadn’t made any fuss about it, and Rabbit was here, now, about to work with Rhys on something.
“Very well,” Rabbit said. Rhys immediately brightened, then subsided again as Rabbit brought out some… padding for her arm?
{What’s that?} he said.
“Protection. It is intended,” she clarified, “to protect you. We will be working on your bite, but my armoring makes me a poor target, as biting me is liable to damage your teeth.”
Rhys was caught off guard by that, both by what she had specified as their lesson today, and by the fact that he would be using her as a target this time. This was only training, and he wasn’t attacking her in earnest, but still… Wasn't it going to feel a little strange? At the same time, however, the idea of biting something seemed straightforward enough to him.
2
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:51:49 GMT -6
{Why do I need to learn how to bite something? I can do it already… You just open your mouth and sink your teeth in, don’t you?}
“This is true, but things will be different in a combat situation. The ability to strike a moving or otherwise resisting target, and the force required to do real damage--- I am of the understanding that you lack this knowledge,” Rabbit replied.
Upon hearing her explanation, Rhys had to concede that he… didn’t really know much about that kind of thing. He hadn’t even thought that far ahead, actually. It began to sink in, a little, that he would be fighting... Going in intending to put down the creature on the other side, and that they would be doing the same. A shadow of unease passed over him, and for a moment, he hesitated. Did he really want to do this?
3
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:52:14 GMT -6
But he shook it off. No, this was what he wanted. If he couldn’t handle this much, what would he be good for but staying within the confines of some safe place--- the house, say--- and, at best, running errands for the rest of his life? Even Aster seemed to expect him to do more eventually. He reassured himself that he was merely expediting the process with this.
It would be alright. He could do this.
{Okay,} said Rhys. {I’ll do it. Tell me how.}
“Then let us begin,” said Rabbit. “When I give you the signal, you will come at me and bite the padding. Please take care not to seize another part of me. I do not think it will be a pleasant experience if you miss.”
Just like that, the stakes were raised. Rhys braced himself, but didn’t back down from the challenge. {Alright,} he said.
4
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:52:31 GMT -6
Rabbit waited a moment, maybe to allow him to prepare himself, then said, “Bite.”
She held up the arm with the padding attached to it, and Rhys darted towards it, jaws open. He did his best to latch onto it and bite down hard--- which wasn’t as tough as she had made it sound, because she hadn’t actually moved around much. He suspected she’d do that a little later, when he had gotten the hang of, well, biting.
For now, he concentrated on exerting force. After a moment, he let go. {How was that?} he said.
“An admirable first attempt,” Rabbit said. She was studying the marks he left on the padding now. “A bite of this magnitude would do respectable damage against an opponent of similar size.”
Rhys read between the lines of her comment, and knew that he wasn’t going to be able to do much against bigger, tougher foes…
5
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:53:32 GMT -6
Start: Bite of the Divine
But he had more or less figured that anyway, and he knew that she was choosing his training regimen with the petite tournament in mind specifically.
He could be satisfied with that kind of result. {Let’s try again,} he said.
“Very well. Bite,” said Rabbit, raising her arm again so that Rhys had a target to aim for. Rhys did the same as he had the last time, moving in and biting down. If anything, he tried to pour even more force into it this time.
… And then something strange happened. He felt something… shift within him as he reached for more strength to leverage. He couldn’t really describe the sensation, but he could see, out of the corner of his eye, a glow…
Startled, he released Rabbit and backed off. {What was that?}
Rabbit considered him, and then the padding. “It appears you are not aware of the full extent of your abilities,” she concluded.
6
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:54:27 GMT -6
“Unfortunately, I am also unfamiliar with what you are capable of… But it would appear that you have some affinity for the light element, at least.”
Some affinity for light… Rhys inclined his head, trying to figure out what that meant. “This may be of use to you,” Rabbit was saying. “Some enemies will be especially susceptible to attacks imbued with light, while others may resist your more conventional means of attack. It would be beneficial to you to be able to replicate the effect.”
An advantage to him in battle, huh… He hadn’t considered how elemental abilities would bring if they came into play either, though he had known that there were means to attack beyond just physically hitting something. There really was a lot that he hadn’t considered. He supposed that finding this out was a boon, just like Rabbit had said it was, and he wanted to feel glad, he really did.
7
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:55:12 GMT -6
It just also felt a little overwhelming, the idea of trying to do something like put… light into his teeth. {I want to, but… I’m not sure what exactly I did,} Rhys said. {I was just focusing on biting as hard as I could, and…}
He fell silent after that. Rabbit waited for a time, but when it seemed clear that he wasn’t going to say anything more, she said, “For now, simply try to replicate it as much as possible. I believe it will be easier for you to choose not to use light after first figuring out how to do so on demand than the reverse.”
{Okay,} Rhys agreed. It sounded reasonable enough, and doing this kind of thing was her job, after all. He felt that he could trust her judgement on it. Neither of them seemed all that familiar with this, but at least she knew something about combat.
8
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:55:25 GMT -6
He felt that it was more reliable than his own judgement, considering.
“If you are ready… Then please perform a divine bite,” said Rabbit.
‘Divine’... That wasn’t the word he would necessarily have chosen, but Rhys supposed it didn’t matter. He came at her and did what he had done before, biting down on the padding on her arm. He bit down hard, but this time he also tried reaching… inward, toward some kind of power. Now that he knew that it was there, this didn’t feel as silly as it could have. It still felt strange, but not patently absurd, anyway.
But just wanting something to happen and actually getting it to happen were two different things. There was a brief flicker of light, but certainly not as much as there had been last time. Rhys concentrated for a moment longer, then gave up and let go.
9
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:55:41 GMT -6
“It was a good first attempt,” said Rabbit. Rhys wondered if she could sense his discouragement. “You were able to replicate the effect in a limited scope. You have managed to ascertain how to do so, and magnitude will come with practice.”
More practice. That was what a lot of training boiled down to, he was learning. Some of it was figuring things out, but a lot of it was just practicing until your body knew what to do.
If that was all there was to it, then he was sure he could do it. All it took was time and effort, right? {I’m ready,} he told Rabbit. The sooner he started, the sooner he could master this too.
“Divine bite,” she said.
He bit down again, concentrating even harder this time, shoving any thoughts of hesitation out of his mind. He was capable of this, he was going to do it… He’d do this no matter what!
10
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:56:00 GMT -6
“Very good,” said Rabbit.
Rhys hadn’t realized that he had closed his eyes, but he opened them now. If there was light, it had already faded, but Rabbit had praised him… {I did it, then?} he said, a little surprised.
“This was much better than the previous attempt. If this rate of progress continues, we may be finished with this exercise by the end of this session.”
Rhys blinked. That was high praise indeed. It would be fantastic if that turned out to be the case. Some of the hesitation and weariness left him at the thought of it, and he could feel something like enthusiasm returning in its place. {Okay, let’s try again then.}
“Very well. Divine bite.”
Their progress wasn’t quite so quick as what Rabbit had surmised; after the first jump forward, Rhys’s progress slowed, and there were no more dramatic advancements in how much power he was able to channel.
11
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:56:18 GMT -6
Still, his improvement was steady, if slow. By the end of the first session, it was at least clear that he could produce light on demand.
And so there was a second session, and a third. With more practice, he became capable of channeling what Rabbit deemed an appropriate amount of power into the bite, both in terms of force and in terms of light. As he practiced, he also became more efficient at it, so that his jaws hurt less and he had to expend less effort to reach for the light.
It took longer to get to the point where he no longer had to think about it to make the light happen, but eventually, they got there too. At some point, Rabbit said, “Divine bite,” and Rhys just rushed at her and bit down, sure in the knowledge that he was going to be able to do it.
12
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:57:04 GMT -6
End: Bite of the Divine
After he was done, he disengaged and backed away, and Rabbit took a look at the padding on her arm. She had had to replace it once already. It had become riddled with the marks of Rhys’s efforts, and the added elemental aspect wore it out faster than it would have done if he had been biting it normally. This one still had a little more life left, but not that much.
“I believe you have become proficient with this,” Rabbit said.
Rhys was glad to hear it, but not particularly surprised. He found that Rabbit saying this was merely a confirmation of what he had already known, on some level. He did have to perform to her satisfaction and pass her requirements, since she was the one with the background knowledge about creature versus creature combat, but even then, he was beginning to get a sense for when things were satisfactory compared to when they weren’t.
13
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 23:58:00 GMT -6
“Now we will work on your ability to bite normally, without the light,” Rabbit announced, having confirmed that he was completed with what they had been working on thus far.
Oh, right. That. He had… actually forgotten about it, if he was being honest. For a moment, he wanted to ask what the point was, but he thought about it for a moment and decided not to after all. Some creatures were weak to light, so it stood to reason that others would be resistant against its effects. Some more versatility in his repertoire wasn’t a bad thing.
{Okay,} Rhys said. {I’m ready.}
“Very well,” Rabbit said. “Bite.”
The training he’d done before had conferred some of the skills he needed already. He no longer had to worry about aiming for a moving target, for example, or using enough force. It was just the matter of control, of not reaching for the light…
14
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