ORIGIN

A feint-... A "fake out."

Vargas abruptly burst into deep, bellowing laughter. It was not mocking; on the contrary, it was almost delighted. "Ahhh, so that is where the Sentinel learned that little trick! Clever, Chaos-Two."

As for the light, he listened dutifully, and nodded. "That would do. But my reach is still greater than yours, even with that weapon. It would be a simple matter for me to simply grab it, and wrench it away, and to leave you defenseless! The magical trap is a good idea; using it to augment yourself temporarily when physical combat has failed you. A tool, not a crutch, but desperate times, and all of that. The point is that if you have lost the initial advantage, it is a difficult one to gain back. It is good to have a plan--but good, too, to know that you are now gravely disadvantaged."

Vargas turned, sweeping away, then back, stopping a few yards off. "Fighting stances, defensive, offensive; adaptations to different opponents' anatomies--and the fighting stances of other anatomies, in turn; did Orthoclase-Alpha cover these, at all? Movements, counter-attacks; blocks, evasive maneuvers, that sort of thing? I am thinking not only that you must know them for yourself, but you must know the motions that different body shapes might take, so as to adapt the training for individual spawn."

"Ahh, an assessment mostly in name alone, as it was no true test. I wished to make sure that he could defend himself; that the basics were in place before allowing him a cycle's worth of travel and outside learning. Perspective is important. Variation is important. Fighting against various enemies to gain insight: important. I mean not to correct, but to clarify! It is a good stage in a spawn's life, this. To answer your question, he performed well. He has wings to utilize to get range, and seemed skilled with his weapon. I cannot say that anyone who managed this," and he tapped his throat's scarring wound, "has done poorly. But in part that was my own mistake. Had I been facing an opponent of my age, I would have expected his maneuvers; but I began easy on him, imagining him to be inexperienced, relatively untrained. I suppose that was unfair to both of you, but now I know." There was amusement in his tone, however. He'd underestimated the Sentinel twice, but better that than accidentally killing the poor little bastard.

"Now; stances. We'll cover these more at another time. But you will require a different stance, and movements, depending on if you still hold your weapon, or have been disarmed. For the spear, or staff--we'll begin with that!--I know enough of the basics to inform you. Anything detailed, you will need to find a master of such weaponry. I do not know if any yet exist; perhaps you can become the first. I know you are not wholly untrained! And so, of what I teach you, you are free to discard what you already know, or do not like. As with all teaching, simply take what you can use from it."

Vargas strode forward, unhurried but businesslike. "Stand, hold your weapon; let me show you." He moved to gently guide limbs into place, speaking as he did so. "Your lead foot--that is, the one in front!--will be on the opposite side from the hand that is farther back on the haft. Haft, ahh--the long bit. So your front foot," (adjust, adjust, if allowed;) "should be on the same side as the hand further forward. Now, the hand at the back is your solid base! It is the same hand as the rear foot. That hand should grip nearer the end of the haft, and tightly enough to always keep a grip. But the forward hand--that farther forward--should be more loose. Not loose, loose; but lighter, so that you can quickly adjust, sliding it up and down the haft as you move the rear hand for power and motion. The rear hand provides force; the front hand, direction."

Vargas paused, then. If he'd done it correctly--and if Chaos-Two had allowed--one hoof would be farther back to brace his weight, and on that side, the hand would tightly grip near the butt of the spear. The leading foot was forward, and on that side, the hand would be looser, about halfway down the haft.

"Now, from here, you have several positions to gain an advantage with. You can practice with them, and choose which you prefer, or adapt it to the situation. A good starting pose is with the forward hand at about your shoulders, and the rear hand at, or a little below, your waist. Or you can lower them both, to be at about your waist. Some put the back hand up high, so that they can thrust or block downward. I do not know what your spear is made of; but the haft should be able to take a blade-hit without shattering, or else it is nearly worthless for close-combat--good only for throwing! That is half of what you use a weapon like this for."

Vargas turned, pacing around to face V-Chaos-Two. "Now, this weapon is best to block other weapons, but it can be used against claws and fangs, and the like. For example, if I strike at you from below, like this-" (and here he brought in one sweeping arm, albeit in slow motion) "-then you can lift the tip, and bring it slamming down--haft, not the spearhead; simply slam the entire piece broadside over my arm in a brief tap. Assuming it is an enemy not quite my size, that will knock my arm into the ground, and leave your spear just above it, and you can then thrust it up and foward to strike me. Do you see-?"

He moved forward, trying to demonstrate, by moving both himself and, with gentle guiding movements, the spear. His arm would sweep in as if to claw, and the spear lift, then knock sharply down, using the arm's own momentum to push it off-course; then the tip snapped up and forward to stab at Vargas himself.

"That is one of the most basic maneuvers--do you grasp this one? Or would you like to practice it?" he asked, head tilting as he stepped back.

"Very well! I will begin slowly, so that you can practice the movement. And I won't be using my full strength. You'll find this easier--or harder--on enemies of varying sizes, but that's a given!"

He moved back into striking-range, and pulled back one arm. "Are you ready?" he asked, and waited for a cue.

Once given, he'd begin the practice of sweeping his arm forward: a mock-strike, at first in slow-motion (until V-Chaos-Two could get the hang of it) gradually speeding up until they were near-normal speed. And he wasn't using his full strength, as promised; it would be a simple enough matter to knock his arm off-course, and to the ground.

Vargas was careful, too, to keep his arm-spines pointed sideways. A downward strike into them would undoubtedly catch, there, and that would rather defeat the purpose of this lesson. "A shame I haven't got a second spear, myself, to better show this technique; this will have to do."

By the time they finished--assuming Chaos-Two picked it all up well enough--he'd likely have repeated the swing some ten or twenty times. "Repetitive, perhaps; but moving near-automatically like this comes only with long practice."

"Good!" he boomed--loud but encouraging; "then this next is an extension on that block. Slam my arm down--hard!--and then snap the spear up to stab at me. This you need only practice a few times; it is a good way to quickly turn a defensive movement into an offensive one, and an excellent first move to learn. If you knock someone's weapon--or limb!--downward, you very briefly have an opening in which to strike! This maneuver takes advantage of that. So as before, you use the length--the haft--of the spear to knock my arm down, and then step forward with that hind foot, transferring all the momentum of that step with your hand at the butt of the haft--thrusting it forward and toward me!"

Vargas took up his position again, ready to strike. "Do not actually stab me," he added, and though he could not truly smile, there was dark humor in his tone. "Begin!" and after a moment, he made his strike.

As before, it was slow enough to handle; as before, he would repeat it (with barked words such as "Good!" and "Again!" unless Chaos-Two actually misstepped, somewhere).

"Good! We will practice one more, for now, and then you can spar with whoever you find and train yourself further, for the time being. I will note that I'm no expert in this--as I said, I know only the basics! So you may find someone with more weapons knowledge than I." It was lucky he even knew this, truth be told; axes, swords, bows--all of those were entirely beyond him. But a spear or staff was one of the few weapons he could effectively wield, and so he'd learned the very foundation of it. He'd eventually found that his arms were still better on their own than most weapons he could find, and so he'd given up learning any more, but this much at least he knew.

"For this one, it is much the same but upward, and the return attack is a kick." He moved forward, trying to position Chaos-Two's hands back at the starting point. "Begin again with the default pose. Then, an attack from overhand--or the side, but higher up--may be met like this--" and here, Vargas brought in his arm slowly, from about V-Chaos-Two's head height, in a sideways swing. With his other hand, he guided the spear to display the parry. "You bring it up, using its own momentum to redirect the hit to slide down over the top of the haft, and down toward your hands. You must be careful not to let it strike your hands, but that comes with practice." The spear-haft, it seemed, was meant to ride up toward an incoming strike and smash the weapon--or arm--even higher, pulling back to redirect momentum down the haft. "This is better for blunt, and not bladed, for the weapon will wind up between you and your weapon. But it will no longer have momentum. Then, you kick out if the enemy is in range--at their hands, their chest, whatever you can reach."

He demonstrated again, more slowly: his hand sweeping in, the staff smacking upward into his forearm (agan, he moved so that his spines would not get in the way). "And then you kick. Give it a try, and then we'll end this lesson for the day."

Again he moved to repetition for practice. Ten or so of these, he thought, would be enough for Chaos-Two to commit the move to memory.