Summer 16, 124
Sjal stood atop a hill, looking out at Paradise that appeared to be just coming to life, medium length hair ruffling in the passing breeze. New clouds were rolling in to replace the ones from the previous night, and the sun was low on the eastern horizon. She trained for them, the people of Paradise, whom she vowed with her last breath to protect. The Dragonbound yawned and extended her, powerful arms above her head, while her lower limbs reached downward. Though she was used to rising early for training, she would need more encouragement today after a difficult night of tossing and turning. She removed her long-sleeved jacket from her shoulders and allowed it to fall to the grass.
Sjal went for her daily jog, circling some burnt foliage in the firelands. Five times. She ran a quick mile, then turned to face one of the few nearby trees in the middle of the field, her eyes fixed on it. It was time to teach herself to fight a little better.
She pictured a fighting stance and fell into it because she had seen someone use it once. She was given more strength, speed, and mobility than she could have ever dreamed possible from a childhood full of training. She felt the stance was cozy and likely offered even more stability and support.
Next, in order to become comfortable with the stance, it was time to practice it. With a punch that split the bark and sent falling leaves, Sjal drove her left arm into the tree. She delivered two quick punches after that, and she spun to kick her heel into the tree. Her foot was back where it had been when she came. With lightning speed, she launched herself, making her way around the tree and striking it so forcefully that it had to tremble. Twas a small, skinny tree that hadn't burnt down yet.
Sjal felt it was best to learn how to control her fire breath a little better before picking up another martial technique. Since she was already familiar with the essentials, it shouldn't take long. She had to release energy into the unique energy that she borrowed from Caelum. It flowed through her body in order to create a stream of fire. The young Dragonbound closed her eyes and focused energy in her mouth. Then something came out of her mouth that quickly took the form of a sputtering flame.
She inhaled deeply as she got ready to shoot the fire out of her mouth. A tiny bush that was six or seven meters away from her caught her eyes. She let out a mighty gust of fire through her mouth, albeit a slender strand, and managed to reach the plant just in time before collapsing to the ground. That was most definitely not intended to occur.
She intended to give it another go. She took a deep breath, started to build up energy in her mouth, and then let go of the fire. It was building in Sjal's mouth. She gave it a few moments to improve its shape, then let out a sharp exhale. The fire seared the plant after shooting out of her mouth. Still, it was a thin stream, easily foiled by the most inexperienced opponent. That would never work. She was going to try again, pulling the fire back into her mouth. She let go of energy, more so than. She formed it into what she believed to be a sturdy fire, then took a breath. A weak jet of fire shot out of her mouth as she let go of her breath. Although there was more fire, it was still fragile and feeble.
It seemed like her efforts were wasted. Maybe she would have a better chance if she worked on getting fire to start and the asking for a surge of saol once it was already going. Seeing that there was no harm in giving it a shot, the girl started to pour fire into her mouth. She urged the energy to help it come together more quickly before requesting more. She took a breath, then shot off a dense flaming shot that incinerated the bush in front of her. She could tell by looking that she had made some improvement.
With a swift movement of her torso and head, she let loose another shot with sufficient force to tear the plant free from the ground, showing that the flames could quite literally push things aside as they passed by. Sjal intended to use the next attempt to improve mobility and range. She requested saol from her father and channeled it into her mouth and used her will to infuse it into a robust fire. To find out how far she could shoot it, she let loose a torrent of fire from her mouth. It was meant to be able to bring down opponents who were in the air, so she would need to be able to create at least ten yards of flames.
She eyed a stone on the ground and picked it up. She gave the stone a good look and then sent it skyward. She poured energy into her mouth, quickly filling it with fire filling her cheeks which made them swell. With a bang, the fire exited her mouth and engulfed the rock in midair. So her aim wasn't that bad, good to know. After cutting the fire off, Sjal hurried to retrieve the stone. She managed to pry it from the ground and send it skyward once more, though it took some effort. Her mouth released a second torrent of fire, which enveloped the stone once more.
"Good," she said with a giggle. It was nice to know that suffering through that accursed ritual hadn't been for nothing.
She wanted to try again, but when she requested saol from her father, it was denied. She shrugged, guessing that she should get used to him not giving her a lot. He had his own things to do, what with helping with construction and fending off threats.
"What to do now?" she wondered. She thought about a move she wanted to learn. It was a palm strike technique, very basic but very effective. There was no longer any need to waste time considering it because it appeared to be simple enough to grasp. Sjal positioned her right arm behind her back and the remaining arm in front of her, the back of her hand facing away from her so that she was looking at her palm. To improve her range of motion, she bowed her knees slightly. A palm slammed into the tree in front of her, causing no real structural damage but causing leaves to rain down from the branches.
She made another attempt, jabbing out her right palm and trembling it just before colliding with the tree. She didn't see any signs of injury, even though the tree shook a little and more leaves fell on her head. That was not good for her. Probably a normal punch would have worked better. It was intended to be able to use its kinetic energy to do some damage. Ideally she could hit someone hard enough to damage their internal organs. But that's not what this was doing at all. Just like everything else in the art of martial, this technique was practice-based. She would get it right, eventually.
She quickly jabbed with her left hand first, then her right hand, and finally again with both. She could still see no significant damage despite the tree shaking even more. She gave the method another go. "One, two, three!" She tallied her hits against the tree. She repeated it since nothing seemed to have changed. "One, two, three." She struck the tree with her bandage-clad palms once more, but the same thing happened.
The quivering before each strike was getting a little faster, a little more intense, even though her hands were sore and there was no actual damage visible. This indicated that her training was successful and that she had to keep going until she understood it. Sjal persisted until she accomplished her objective. That was her way. She struck the bark with her hands, "again! Again! Again!" The thin tree began to tremble once more. After the final blow, she noticed a noticeable change. The tree shook more violently than it had ever before due to the stronger blow.
That gave her even more motivation to keep trying until she perfected the method. "Again!" She was sweating by then, and she was starting to breathe heavily and pant. Three more blows shook the tree to its core and caused the ground around its base to become more loose. It was getting more relaxed. "One, two, three!" She pressed her aching palms into the wood, and at that moment, she was certain to hear a creak of some kind. All she could hope was that it wasn't the wrist but the tree. She was beginning to learn how to tremble her hand before striking. To guarantee the best possible transfer of kinetic energy, timing was crucial.
She counted again, making the tree genuinely lean back this time. Until the thing made of wood and leaves was completely destroyed, Sjal would not give up. With a forceful palm, she struck the tree, creating a fissure that seemed to go all the way through to the core.
Although a crack was fairly good, she didn't find it satisfying. She desired the complete destruction of the tree, accomplished in a single blow. With her back to the tree, she started to hit the air. Before her last test, Sjal planned to become proficient at her palm strikes because she didn't want the tree to break from her constant strikes. She struck the air angrily as she went on. She visualized herself striking an unseen enemy, and the quiver grew more potent and destructive with each blow to one of the target's essential organs.
"Rawr!" she exclaimed, hitting nothing, but each time she raised her hand, the force of her blows increased. Although the repetitive training was tiresome, it was clearly effective. Sjal even incorporated some ducks and dodges into her attack, visualizing the opponent trying to retaliate but failing. She knew she was ready and delivered one last punch. She bowed to the tree, facing it as though it were her opponent. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
The Dragonbound let out a breath, opening her eyes slowly and assuming a more proper stance. She abruptly withdrew her right arm and struck the tree. Just before colliding with the tree, there was a sharp tremble and kinetic energy shot through it. She snapped it in half. Her smile turned into a proud "Success."
With her arms sufficiently worn out, the Dragonbound was prepared to pick up another skill. The next move was one that required her to use her legs, which Sjal's arms would appreciate. An opponent could be launched skywards with a high spinning kick. She needed excellent balance, which required strong legs, a powerful core, and accuracy. She was going to begin her training with leg squats and then move on to sit-ups so she could practice her kick and aim for perfection.
She began by lying flat on her back with her knees bent, placing her arms behind her head. She counted, bringing her elbows to her knees and then slowly lowering herself back to the ground to finish the motion, which was purposefully slower than normal to better target and strengthen the core muscles. "One, two, three, four," she said. Sjal didn't seem to feel anything during the initial few. Before she truly felt the burn, her body was capable of withstanding at least a couple hundred. She kept saying, "seventy six, seventy seven, seventy eight," until she reached a hundred, at which point she stopped and briefly closed her eyes.
At that point, she stood up. She had to use a weight when it came time to perform her squats. Her gaze moved, sweeping the lawn until she spotted another stone the size of a large ball, which she quickly seized and brought to her chest using both hands. Sjal carefully knelt down, raised herself back up, and then began to count. "One." She soon began to feel the effects of the exercise, which was always a little more challenging than the last. After doing a couple dozen, she moved to the middle of the burnt field.
Sjal kicked a few times at nothing in particular to start. She used those kicks as a warm-up - they were stationary. With amazing force, the ball of her foot stabbed through the space before her. She gained speed with every blow. She didn't take long to start kicking quickly. She kicked a hundred times, then changed to her other foot and repeated the action. She continued to accelerate with successive blows to her strong leg until that leg was aching. The warm-up was over when she finished.
The tired Dragonbound now took up her things and walked until she reached the forest's edge across the burnt field. Though she would eventually have to buy a training dummy, there were still plenty of trees here for her to practice on. She said out loud, "let's try a spinning heel kick," before stepping up to face the tree. She started to bring her foot over to slam it into the tree, one arm behind her back. Every hit was accompanied by a wooden thunk. She spun on her hill for the next kick, using the momentum to hit the intended target. The clank sounded even louder that time, reverberating through every hollow knoll in the tree. It clarified why birds were fluttering out of a tiny hole.
After hitting the tree a few more times, Sjal made the decision to attempt the kick's jumping portion, which was a little trickier. She kicked the tree with her right leg in the beginning, not spinning it. "Hyaa!" She shouted after each blow. Raindrops of leaves started to fall from the upper branches. "Hyaa!" She said it again, launching herself off the ground and slamming as hard as she could onto the tree with her extended right leg. More foliage dropped from above. "Again!" she said. "Hyaa!" Sjal leaped into the air once more and swiftly extended her leg to batter the tree.
To become proficient in this swift yet potent move, she needed only to master two more phases of the kick. It was time to put the spinning portion of the attack into action. Sjal launched herself skyward. From there, she spun her body around, using her core muscles and momentum. She kicked even harder as her leg extended in midair and collided with the tree. More leaves fell now than before as Sjal, in true acrobatic fashion, landed on the balls of her feet, knees bent, and one hand on the ground in front of her. "Turn, and strike!" she yelled, leaping to her feet and swiveling to deliver a forceful kick. She was picking up on that part pretty quickly.
At that point, the Dragonbound thought it best to proceed to the last section of the training. She was doing the normal spin, but if she was going to knock someone high into the air with a single kick, she needed to be spinning more vertically. She needed a down-to-up motion right now. Sjal kicked her foot high and around to smack the tree with upward force after bringing it back a long way at first. That was acclimating her to the movement.
She swung her foot back and then up high, doing this again. She now needed to add a jump to that. The tree gave way more violently than before as she leaped into the air and slammed her foot against it. She sprang up once more, but this time she spun. Instead of jumping as high, she used all of her momentum to propel herself up with the kick. It looked like a rotating top that was skewed to one side.
She concluded that practicing on a moving target would be the best course of action. A few stones, slightly smaller than the ones she had used previously, she picked up. She held the stones in front of her with her hands. They were thrown lightly into the air with little effort. Then Sjal jumped up and whirled to ram her leg into the stone. Before it fell, it was propelled several feet into the air. She needed to be able to throw the stone farther into the air because her opponents would be heavier than it was. She moved forward, picking up the stone. Sjal threw it up again and kicked in a spinning motion that propelled it higher into the air. That was superior.
She only needed to kick one more to get it. Sjal threw the stone around a little before springing into the air. She swung her foot around and up to slam into the rock, sending it hurtling skyward. Had that been an adversary, the assailant would have encountered a dilemma. There was a thud as it hit the ground. The girl got some ideas from that, and she took the stone back again. She kicked it to propel it higher than before and tossed it up. From there, she leaped up behind it and twice used her fist to strike it before smashing it hard to the ground.
Sjal was dead tired by now. She had abused her body which probably ought to have been resting. Still, she was liking how much mobility natare gave her. She could perform complex maneuvers with her acrobatics prowess but being able to fly allowed her to speed up her movements and gain higher altitude. She felt so mobile that she felt like she could be quite a threat even if unarmed, though she knew that her attacks would not be as effective on a real opponent as they were against the tree.
