fandomhighdorms | The Salle, Friday afternoon

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The Salle, Friday afternoon

Karla had gone home, he knew, so she wasn't going to show up for her lesson. Leto thought he could just as well use the time for his own practise. Finding the salle empty, he walked to the middle of the room, and after some stretching he released the flying blades. Once spinning in the air, they split up into a total of six smaller ones, all of them now aiming for him.

Knives drawn, Leto parried a few, dodged the others, as they came returning back. It was like a deadly choreography, designed to train a fighter skilled in the Weirding Way. Finally all of the small blades had ended up on the floor, their course having been cut by the knives.

[open salle]

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Triela spent five or ten seconds in silent debate with herself. On the one hand some knowledge of knives would be useful, and Leto pretty clearly knew what he was doing. On the other hand... Leto.

Which was what decided her. She couldn't let him get under her skin, and the best way to prove that he didn't was to act casual (it made sense in her head). So she nodded, pushed off the wall, and walked over to Leto where she held out her hand for the knife.

[Silly LJ! But welcome back!]

"Hold it like this," Leto said, demonstrating as he spoke. "Find the balance of the blade."

He took a few steps back, almost smiling. "Now stab me." He activated the shield, and the force field went up around him, invisible but for a faint shimmer.

It was pretty obvious that Triela had only the vaguest notion of how to hold the thing. She frowned, trying to imitate the way he'd done it. The grip she finally settled on kept the weight too far forward, over-balancing her ever so slightly forward. Which was how she tended to fight anyway: all attack, very little defense.

Her lips curled upward at his order to stab him. That? That she could do. With pleasure.

There was no subtlety or grace to her attack, just raw speed and power as she lunged forward, using the full force of her enhancements to drive the blade at Leto, dead center.

He let her hit him, but the knife slipped off the shield. "Not bad for a first attempt," he grinned. "Although technique will get you a lot further.

Her lip twisted distastefully. He was right, and she knew it, but there was no way he was going to hear it from her.

So she just stepped back and managed to look like she had her hands impatiently set on her hips without actually putting her hands on her hips.

"I can show you a drill to practise," Leto offered, and then proceeded to show her, so that Triela wouldn't have to suffer the embarrassment of accepting it.

Leto was a very perceptive sort sometimes. Triela may be uncomfortable around Leto, but she recognized his competence at this sort of thing so she watched extremely closely.

She almost didn't run through it herself when he finished, not wanting him to see how bad she was. But she needed the skills, so...

"For now, forget about the opponent," Leto said. "You need to memorise the movement before you turn it into a fight."

Just because she was uncomfortable didn't mean he was going to give her too easy a time.

Like she was going to be able to forget Leto was there. This would have been so much easier if it had been Hilshire. He she knew how to ignore without losing a sense of his presence. Leto... not so much.

Still she did her best to concentrate on the movements. And fortunately she had extensive practice in precise movement. Turned out that calligraphy was for more than writing prettily.

"Better," Leto noted. He would have agreed on the observation about calligraphy. "Again."

And so she did it again. Not really improving much. It was pretty clear that hand to hand fighting of any sort wasn't something she had a lot of training in, even if she did have a lot of rough and tumble experience.

"It takes some practise," Leto replied. "I'll show you another one, and then you can stop by here next week if you want and I'll give you feedback."

"Fine. If you want." Because there was no way she was going to let him think she was eager to learn this stuff. She was totally doing him a favor not walking out.

Yep.

Leto just smiled, preferring not to reply to that. "And I know you take your weapon skills seriously."

Triela didn't feel like that really dignified a response. She just shot him a hard look.

Get on with the important stuff and stop smiling that infuriating smile.

He might not have stopped smiling, but Leto let Triela continue practising on her own, as he walked over to pick up his own blades.

Triela did her best to ignore Leto's presence and focus on working through the exercise he'd demonstrated. She even managed to do a decent job. If a constant itch between her shoulder blades counted as a good job.

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The Salle, Friday afternoon

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