3rd wave | catchall for sword training

[rebonding]

Who: Korra and those poor souls who agreed to train her, plus anyone in the appropriate locations who would like to poke her
When: Various dates, mostly backdated, later dates may be added
Where: Isla Empieza and The Charming Murderess
What: Sword training in response to this
Warnings: none so far
Style: Prose, but feel free to switch.
Status: ongoing

Isla Empieza, afternoon of December 27
Shortly after Korra snapped her journal shut from her open request for a swordsmanship teacher, she retrieved her gift and made her way excitedly for the docks of Isla Empieza. It was barely mid-morning, but she was far too excited to care. She could wait. And... wait. When noon rolled around, she bought herself some sort of mystery meat (on a stick!) to tide her over through training.

She sat with her feet dangling over the edge of the docks, eyes peeled for Haytham and her swords sheathed at her side.

The Charming Murderess, the week of December 29 (note that Korra will return to the Spade Pirates as soon as this happens on January 3)
The trip through the Nav was no more difficult than stepping through a door, Korra quickly discovered. It was slightly disorienting, suddenly being on a ship, but little more.

The Murderess wasn't so different from the ship she was used to. Perhaps a little smaller, but that could have easily been because Ace's... erm. Loud personality wasn't ever-present.

"Sasuke?" She peered over the rail onto the main deck, taking a better look around.

Comments

[thethundersaid]

The kick was what forced him to let go, taking a quick step back to lessen the force of impact -- his breath still whooshing out with a satisfyingly solid grunt -- all the finesse of an Academy spar, but it had been a long time since he'd had a spar like this. He planted his right foot and transferred his grip firmly to her ankle instead, dropping into a crouch and yanking.

The intent was to send her flying overhead, test what her response with sharp objects that could cut herself as easily as an opponent would be.

[rebonding]

Thankfully, Korra was adept at managing anything dangerous while fighting. A sword may have been something new and uncertain, but she adapted relatively well. When Sasuke made a grab for her ankle, she tried to use his strength to her advantage, taking leverage on his grip to try to leap over and behind him. She was trying to get behind him.

There... may or may not have been a little gust of air underneath her to give a little boost. Korra knew that she'd kick herself later for cheating, but in the heat of the moment, winning was always more important.

[thethundersaid]

The flow of action was moving well, Sasuke releasing her ankle as soon as he felt her using it for leverage and spinning around to meet her -- but what was that brush of air? It felt almost like chakra, just a shade off, and when he was facing her again his eyes were red with the Sharingan, assessing to see if it was a fluke of movement or if she was channeling her energy like a shinobi might to cushion movement.

"You move well," he observed in the meantime. "But you're not using your weapons. You're just hindered by them."

[rebonding]

Korra knew that Sasuke's comment frustrated her because she was right. But this was a fight between two masters with the exception of the useless chunks of steel sitting in Korra's hands. She had a thousand other possibilities if this weren't for training, but...

Ugh.

"Well, I didn't exactly expect that you'd just come at me full force!"

She lunged forward with one of her swords in a stabbing motion.

[thethundersaid]

"How else are you supposed to learn?" It's a genuine question -- Sasuke isn't cut out to give Academy lectures about trajectory and poundage of pressure. He hadn't slept through those lessons, unlike others, but he hadn't gained much benefit from them either.

He's always benefited most from practical application, and that's what he uses now: rather than countering, he simply steps to the outside of her stab, throwing a hand out to give her a sharp shove on the shoulder.

It's not even an attack so much as an illustration of a point. "If you stab like that, you'll leave yourself open to a fast opponent."

[rebonding]

"Yeah, I know," Korra grumbled, growing frustrated. She recovered quickly from Sasuke's illustration and swiped around at him with her blades. Her skills were completely lopsided, like suddenly trading a lifelong airbender's power for Earth.

Maybe she just had to stop thinking about it.

idk why my tense changed entirely in that last post i'm sorry

[thethundersaid]

Thinking about it was precisely the issue; that much was rapidly becoming clear. The moment she decided to use the swords telegraphed intent, and the way she swung them around was easy to duck under, Sasuke spinning on the ball of one foot and dealing another shove to her right shoulder this time.

"You're deciding to use them instead of just using them," he observed. "Treat them like they're part of you."

It's okay I'm too freaking slow to notice...

[rebonding]

Korra paused and took a deep breath and to center herself. Extension of the body. Just stop thinking.

Fine. She was always bad at stopping to think anyway, so why should now be any different?

"Got it." She dashed ahead once again, this time with a more fluid motion. Just... think of it as bending. Without the water and fire and everything else flying around.

ALSO SLOW SORRY

[thethundersaid]

-- better, immediately, and without the distraction of cluttered intent it was much easier to see where her technique needed improvement and where it was solid. Balance was good, even with the added encumbrance of weapons she wasn't accustomed to, which meant it would be a good basis for training.

Speed wasn't bad, either: Sasuke had to bring up both kunai again to deflect the blades, meeting each one with a clash of metal and shoving her back. There was something interesting about her style that he couldn't quite put his finger on, almost as if she expected something more than movement to follow each movement, but he'd have to ask about that later.

For now, he followed that shove with a straightforward kick to her abdomen, testing to see how she would block now.

lol seriously don't be

[rebonding]

Korra rolled fluidly away from Sasuke's push and away from the kick. She moved in circles, flowing like an airbender would. That was the other thing that she needed to work on, anyway.

She looped around in her stance, using the torque from the spin to aim another swipe in Sasuke's direction.

[thethundersaid]

There; the flow of the fight was smooth, now, movement easing out into more skill. That meant it was time to mess it up.

Sasuke slammed the kunai in his right hand up to meet the arc of her sword, crossing the left-hand kunai over her blade in a quick movement and twisting the entire weapon with a sharp yank of both kunai. It wrenched out of her grip and spun into the air, where he reached up and snatched it -- tossing one kunai at her first, handle-first.

Following the same momentum to conclusion, he whipped around and swung in much the same way she had earlier, not waiting to see if she caught the switch in weaponry fast enough to react.

[rebonding]

A bender wasn't used to having their weapon completely taken from their control. Korra gave a brief shout in surprise before recovering as best she could. The transition of the kunai wasn't exactly smooth; she bent the air around the small knife to slow it down and snatch it out of the air.

Korra didn't use the kunai to block the sword, though. She fell back, dropping to support her weight on her hands as the sword whipped over her. She intended to spring back up with both feet for a kick. It should have been a firebending move, but... no fire here.

[thethundersaid]

Something strange had happened to the trajectory of the kunai he'd tossed at her -- he was sure it had been moving faster than that until she grabbed it. It wasn't the first time in this fight that there had been something just a shade off; he'd have to look into it, he decided, pupils reddening again and staying that way this time.

That dodge was a smooth one, but her intent read far too clearly with that stance; still, instead of flickering out of the way, he braced himself to take the kick instead, feet light to throw himself back with the impact to avoid any serious damage. This type of weaponry without chakra enhancement was entirely close-combat anyway -- this spar needed to stay short-range.

[rebonding]

Something strange indeed, but Korra was hoping that she was being sneaky enough with her little slips of bending that Sasuke wouldn't notice. It was little more than wishful thinking, but she knew that she didn't stand much of a change without it.

When she flipped back to her feet, Korra aimed a lunging stab with her remaining sword. The motion was fluid with her spring back into position.

[thethundersaid]

It was a solid follow-through, if he'd only had one weapon and was a fair fighter, but shinobi had never been trained to fight fair. He used the lingering momentum from her kick to throw himself back even further, leaping backwards onto the railing of the ship -- and then leaping directly overhead, avoiding the straight thrust of her blade in order to vault over her entirely.

He flung his second kunai at the apex of the jump, but backwards; the hilt instead of the blade aimed for the vulnerable extension of her arm as he flipped to land behind her, turning immediately in case he needed to counter.

[rebonding]

Korra normally would have met Sasuke's aerial attack with a shot of whatever element was closest at her disposal. Nonbending opponents flying through the air might as well have been sitting ducks. This wasn't about bending, though. So she (begrudgingly) waited for Sasuke to throw the kunai, and lifted her sword to knock it cleanly out of the air.

Now, she just needed her other sword back.

In time with his landing, she positioned himself close enough to engage hand to hand, and began a combo of powerful but well-flowing techniques. Firebending forms without the fire.

[thethundersaid]

The kunai embedded neatly into the wood as it was swiped away, leaving Sasuke with only one weapon at his disposal, but the awareness that even if she was holding the kunai, she didn't have a clue how to use it. It was obviously too much to expect that someone who clearly dealt in unarmed hand-to-hand combat most frequently (even with the strange quirks) would pick up an instinct for weaponry in one fight -- but this wasn't bad.

And whatever hand-to-hand she'd trained in was outright impressive, even with the unaccustomed blade incorporated. Metal rang as he parried the smooth barrage of attacks, backing up until one of the masts was directly behind him and then ducking just as she swung the blade, hoping she wouldn't pull the strike enough to avoid digging the weapon into wood.