[CLASS] An Affinity with Enduring

[Symbiot Spider]

Bakura, 9:00am Local Time

The enclave (Link) on Bakura was empty, he had been given access to use an old target range for his class. He had come a couple days early to get a feel for the room as well as to empty it from all its contents to it was completely open aside from the small section that was the acting lobby. All the targets had been removed from the room entirely, not just pushed to the side.

Dartel had arrived early to setup and get a small workout in before class. He walked to the centre of the room and cleared his mind. He slipped into his Phantom Fist stance and began to work through some of the techniques and forms. After about five minutes of this, Dartel reached through the force and grabbed onto the things he had brought with him: four small droids meant to practice deflection, four empty buckets and a small arsenal of miniature balls about a foot in diameter and made of a rather soft plushie material.

He cleared his mind more and travelled deeper into the force while beginning to work some of the more difficult Phantom Fist forms that required a slight boost in his speed from the force. He slowly meshed all of his mental abilities together, including force sight by closing his eyes and seeing only through the force.

At the climax of his own mental and physical workout, he stretched his mind even further and snapped the plushie balls into action. As they began to zoom across the room the buckets separated and moved to the nearby water basin to begin filling with water. The only thing that would make this difficult for Dartel now would be if somebody played a ridiculously old song that was easy to bounce along the beat to.

He leapt through the air and avoided two of the balls at separate occasions; the first while he was still on the ground and the second when he was in the mid-air. Sensing the presence around the vicinity of where he would land he knew to roll instead of land firmly; another ball hurling by as he did just this. He could finally sense that each bucket was full of water and resting near the one of the far walls. Dartel spun and danced his way through four or five more of the balls before spinning to face the entrance and to the finally formed class and pluck a ball out of the air as if it were in his hand the entire time; the sudden sound of the notso hollow ball seemed to trigger everything else that was moving in the room to stop in place as if time itself stopped. The class would easily see around fifty of the balls floating throughout the enclave, no doubt they had to dodge maybe one or two on the way in.

“Good morning class, it is nice to see that you were all able to make it. Please take a seat.”

It was ironic because his eyes were closed when mentioning seeing the class, it was also the point in which he opened them so some might not have seen the irony. Dartel inhaled slowly through his nose to cleanse his lungs from their previous exertion; he didn't appear to be terribly bothered or exhausted from the intense but brief workout.

“You were all gathered here to partake in a lesson. It isn't a difficult thing to learn, but mastering it is a completely different task, as you just saw. Force Affinity is a fierce tool in the middle of a duel. When you don't need to focus on the force as much as your opponent it is easier to control a fight as well as end one with ease.”

Dartel approached the edge of the matted area to where the students were gathered. He reached out and manipulated everything that was floating to rest on the mats below them; he also offered a warm and encouraging smile to the young participants of his next class. Amongst them was his newly acquired apprentice, Jade Evoyn, as well as her friend Kai Sera. They were getting to become familiar faces to Dartel and knew that he was gaining some form of connection with at least Jade if not both of them.

“I wish to know why you want to learn this technique and what you hope to gain from this lesson, if not the basics of this technique?”

He craned his neck as he looked to each of the participants in turn, unsure who would answer him first.

 

[Ral]

Being the apprentice of Lutomi Renelo, a woman Kai could have sworn almost never slept, the Padawan had awoken early an hour before the sun had risen. Eating a light meal, Kai then meditated for awhile before moving on to some light blade work so the motions would be fresh in his mind. So, by the time he needed to head down to where they were having class, Kai was awake, alert, and ready. He was fully dressed, and ready to go. Grabbing Jade and Khelsea, Kai walked to where Jedi Knight Dartel Vega was holding their class.

Dartel was a Zabrak Kai had met earlier while searching for crystals. He seemed like a good, reasonable fellow. He was kind enough to take Kai's friend Jade under his wing and tutor and teach her. Kai hoped it would do the young bull-headed pantoran girl some good. While he loved her like a sister, she could use some lecturing on the Code and some one-on-one tutoring. At least in his opinion. Jade was an excellent friend, there just were times he felt she was... misguided would be the word he would choose. Still, she had a good heart under it all, and he couldn't wait to see what kind of Knight, or Force willing, a Master she would be.

They were on Bakura, a planet Kai had never been to before, with Kai's other acquaintance, a girl he had spent more time with recently, Khelsea Vong. She reminded Kai a lot of himself. Similar backgrounds, they came from the same planet, even the same social class! She was the oldest of the three, perhaps the least experienced in terms of training, but eager and willing. Kai was happy to have her here with him.

Walking into the training room, with Jade on one side, and Khelsea on the other, Kai watched as Dartel finished his... exercise? Kai wasn't sure, but it seemed interesting. Speaking to the group Dartel made a brief statement about Force Affinity, the technique they were all there to learn that day. Then he went on to ask the students why they wished to learn this form. Opening his mouth, Kai knew exactly why: "Recently, I fought a Sith acolyte on Tatooine, and while that duel was not particularly overwhelming, there were a few moments I could have used training in Affinity to help me. In the future I may need to use Affinity so I have enough strength in the Force to keep me from or someone else from being hurt or killed during a battle or duel."

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Khelsea woke up an hour before her scheduled lesson time with Jedi Knight Dartel Vega. Never having interacted with the Knight, she didn't know what to expect. However, Kai had encouraged her to attend the class with him and Jade, a padawan Khelsea had met more than a few weeks ago. Her relationship with Kai had steadily grown, and she enjoyed his company. Their ever improving relationship may have been due to social background or similar upbringings, but conversely her only interaction with Jade had led to several awkward hiccups in their conversation. This didn't mean that she didn't admire Jade or respect her, but having to be more careful with what she said made having a friendship develop naturally harder than usual.

As she walked into the meeting area, Khelsea noticed the Knight's peculiar training drill. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before, but it looked very difficult to perform. Introductions and greetings were exchanged, and Dartel asked his first question.

Answering after Kai, Khelsea didn't have a reason anywhere as legitimate as his, so she spoke honestly. "Ah... to be honest I didn't join with any particular motivating moment like Kai did. I'm still fairly new to the Order, and my skills aren't up to par with most of the other Jedi my age. So I just wanted to learn a new skill, and Kai encouraged me to take this class with him so here I am. It also sounds like a really useful skill, and it doesn't hurt to attend as many classes as possible. That's pretty much it!" Embarrassed for not having a better answer, she hoped Dartel wouldn't judge her unfit for his class or dislike her because of what she felt was a poor response.

 

[Symbiot Spider]

Dartel listened to each response before smiling. It wasn’t a big deal that they didn’t seem to know about the technique itself; it was the clear determination that Dartel enjoyed seeing. Khelsea was even as bold to say that she wasn’t sure what she was doing basically, and that cause a small chuckle to escape Dartel. He raised an eyebrow before turning to the hangar he had transformed into a training center.

“Alright then, first I will need you to stand at a different corner of the training section marked out before reaching through the force to pick up a bucket over there. You will need to move that bucket to the tap over there and fill it with water to the top. Next, I want you to bring the full bucket of water to your side and wait further instructions. Take your time, breathe, and relax. This is the easy part.”

There was a playful tone to his voice as he pointed out the corners of the training square, then the buckets not even three feet away and the faucet that was near the corner of the lobby area just before the hangar opened up. He turned back to his padawans with a playful smirk that was clearly where the tone was coming from. He reached toward the hangar with an open fist and seemed to touch an invisible button that was connected to each of the plushie-balls scattered across the ground; once pressed, the balls seemed to clear from the training center and pool around its edge.

“For this lesson you will only be able to use your hands when I tell you that you can. Aside from that, consider yourself failed if you need to use your hands in any way shape or form that I will later mention. You shouldn’t need them for this part; it is only gravity working against you for now…”

 

[Ral]

The boy listened to what the knight had to say. It seemed like his would be an interesting test or exercise or whatever one decided to call it. Not using one's hands was interesting, it made sense though. They were there to use the Force, not to workout with their bodies. Kai could tell that the knight seemed to be rather amused with what he was saying as he pointed at the empty buckets and the tap. When he was finished Kai nodded and proceeded to his corner. From there Kai reached out with the Force. The first thing he felt was Khelsea standing nearby; her presence was almost as identifiable as Jade's or Lutomi's and Kai was glad that her presence had become distinct enough for him to spot so easily. That meant they were becoming closer friends. Something Kai could be thankful for. Next, Kai felt Dartel's presence; the knight's aura was very discernible at the moment, making it fairly easy to spot. Focusing himself, Kai reached out and found the bucket with the Force.

Clearing his mind, Kai picked the bucket up. It wasn't very heavy, no heavier than the pieces of droid and metal and stone that Kai had tossed around in his duel with the over-sized Sith acolyte. Of course, Dartel had only wanted them to fill the bucket up, so Kai wouldn't do anything crazy with it today (and he was pretty sure he would get in trouble if he did). Not wanting Dartel to say that using his hands to help direct the bucket's direction was disallowed, Kai made sure to grab both of his wrists behind his back so he couldn't use them, instead relying only on his mental prowess. It was harder, but still manageable. Directing the bucket over to where the faucet was, Kai placed it on the ground, before turning on the tap. Taking the few moments required to fill the bucket up, Kai remembered to breathe and allowed himself to relax a little. Once the bucket was nearly full, Kai focused his mind once more and turned the water off. Picking it back up, Kai instantly found that the heavier bucket was a little bit harder to move. Not too much, it was still only a bucket with a few kilos of water in it, nothing extreme or ridiculous to move, but still more difficult than an empty bucket nonetheless. Bringing it back over to where he was standing, Kai made sure to slowly and carefully place the bucket on the ground so he would not spill any of the water. Waiting on the others to do the same as well, Kai wondered what Dartel had in mind for them to do next...

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Filling a bucket and wait for instructions? That sounded too easy. Even less trained padawans would have been capable of performing the basic telekinesis which was required for this task. Despite knowing it would get harder and her concentration was required, Khelsea couldn't help but wonder what was coming up next. Holding her hands behind her back to consciously remind herself not to accidentally use her hands and fail, Khelsea started the task.

Lifting the bucket and approaching the filling station, Khelsea sat the bucket down and turned the tap on through Telekinesis. As the water filled up, Khelsea kept her focus and turned off the tap before it got too full or overflowed. Trying to return to her corner, Khelsea took her time and made sure she didn't lose a single drop of water. Visualizing the bucket slowly moving through the air, Khelsea used the Force and successfully completed the first task. She stood attentively, waiting for further instructions.

 

[Symbiot Spider]

Dartel watched searched through the force and felt as each student took their bucket and filled it with water before getting into one of the four corners. As usual, Kai appeared a little tense and to be focusing too much on the rules. Dartel could sense that Khelsea was looking to the others for cues before completing the task herself. All of the students managed the task fairly easy, but it was the easy part. Dartel in turn, walked towards the center of the training area. While doing so, he reached through the force and filled a bucket for himself and had it meet him in the center of the hangar.

“Now that we are ready, I need you to hold the bucket over your head. Again, we will not be using hands.”

Dartel crossed his arms over his chest almost to illustrate the idea that they weren’t needed. The bucket rose slowly through the air and stopped almost a foot above his head.

“This is where you will be required to hold the bucket until the end of class. If at any point you need to take a break, you simply need to dump the water over your head and refill the bucket.”

As if on cue to again illustrate the point, the bucket flipped upside down and poured the water quickly down over Dartel and splashing slightly around him. He wiped the water from his face with a chilled smirk. He tried to gauge the reactions of his students while the bucket hovered back over to the tap and refilled itself before returning and settling beside him.

“Hope everybody is thirsty.”

The joke was a little dry on the delivery, but Dartel knew that he would need to make an example with himself in order to get the students to relax enough to understand the teaching.

“Do not thinking about the bucket, the water inside, the distance it is over your head or even the space between. Get to a point where you are able to not think about it, but are still very clearly aware of its existence.”

Again the bucket rose and stopped a foot above his head before he continued.

“Now for the fun part. We will be trying to use Force Push to push our classmates’ buckets over. All in All, you will need to remember how to maintain the bucket above your head while others attempt to flip it on you. You will also need to sense when the proper time is for yourself to attack and attempt to flip somebody else’s bucket.”

He knew that there was more to the class then just that, but that will come later. He knew that at first it would be difficult to compensate for somebody Force Pushing their bucket and to counterbalance the sloshing of the water within the bucket. This was going to be their starting point, and he knew that it was going to push them.

“When you’re ready, pick the bucket up, and remember that if you want to put the bucket down, you will need to pour it on yourself. Also, if you do this or another student tips your over, you need to refill it and get back into the game.”

 

[Ral]

Kai watched and listened with piqued interest at the scene that was unfolding before him. The Padawan wasn't sure exactly what Dartel was getting at, but it quickly became clear to him over the next few seconds; they were going to play a game of sorts. In this game he had to use the Force to balance a bucket of water over his head without it spilling while also trying to tip over Khelsea's bucket. It sounded rather difficult since it would be something they would be doing for the entire class. Once Dartel was finished he instructed them to pick up their buckets when they were ready.

Looking at his friend, Kai smiled at her before folding his arms across his chest and reaching out with the Force to pick up his own bucket. Bringing the pale over his head Kai tried to meditatively balance it with the Force. It was fairly hard at first since he wasn't used to the exercise, but it became easier after a few minutes. He could sense Khelsea doing the same with hers; trying to get used to her bucket and prevent it from spilling over onto the ground or over herself. Closing his eyes, Kai simply focused on the Force, feeling it around him as well as his bucket. For now, he wouldn't focus on trying to tip Khelsea's bucket since he wanted to get the hang of it first, but he didn't ignore her completely either. A few minutes passed and Kai felt better about how he was using the Force to maintain his bucket's position. Then, he felt it, a slight ripple in the Force, stemming from Khelsea. She was reaching out trying to tip his bucket over. That clever girl... she's making the first move and it's barely even been a few minutes yet. She must have known I was taking my time! Kai thought to himself. He knew that he probably wouldn't be able to stop his friend from knocking his bucket down on top of him, so he tried the next best thing. Reaching out with the Force Kai thought he saw an opening as Khelsea focused her attention on Kai's bucket. Then with a quick burst of Force energy, Kai attempted to overturn both of their buckets onto their heads. His hope was that Khelsea would be surprised by his move and lose enough focus to prevent her from managing to keep her own bucket in control.

With the water splashing down all over him and soaking him, Kai looked at his friend and smiled at her, mentally sticking his tongue out at her before he picked up his bucket with the Force, moved it over to the faucet and began to refill it. Once the bucket was filled again, Kai brought it back over to above his head. Only now this time he was soaked and a little cold causing it harder for him to focus on using the Force to hold his bucket still.

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Khelsea listened to the rules, and watched as Dartel demonstrated. This would be difficult without hands, but she was sure she could multitask enough to keep the bucket aloft while attempting to tip Kai's bucket. Seeing Kai look at her with a smile, Khelsea observed as he picked up his bucket of water. Being competitive by nature, Khelsea thought that it would be a great chance to knock her friend's bucket over before he had a good grasp on it.

Focusing on the Force and levitating the bucket over her head, Khelsea reached out with the Force and tried to knock Kai's bucket down. She made no effort to conceal her attack, since it was already supposed to catch her younger friend off guard. Khelsea successfully managed to topple Kai's bucket since he pretty much did it himself, but what caught her off guard was the bucket above her head being pushed over by Kai. She had expected him to struggle to keep his upright, but instead he had counterattacked and toppled hers. Just as she thought she had won, her bucket emptied its contents over her head and she was drenched. Hair wet and covering her eyes, she flicked her head and moved her damp hair from her face. Instinctively, Khelsea reached to brush the hair from her face since it was second nature, but just as she was about to touch her face she remembered the rules nd sheepishly put her hands back behind her back.

Seeing Kai's cheeky look, Khelsea grinned back and filled her bucket again. The water was cold and the early morning temperature was a bit chilly, so Khelsea found herself shivering a bit, and wondering how long this drill would continue for before Dartel stepped in. The pair of padawans continued to battle each other for a period of time, and Khelsea soon forgot about feeling cold.

 

[Symbiot Spider]

It was funny to Dartel that he was actually allowed to do this with padawans; his training wasn’t this entertaining. Dartel reflected as the first buckets were refilled. He didn’t bother holding back the laughter as the students seemed to get right into it. It was a simple enough game and even simpler to become completely competitive in.

“Good Kai! Khelsea, did you notice that he hadn’t even begun to resist and instead knew that you would be too focused on your attack to defend yourself. Be more mindful of the force around you.”

He watched as the buckets were tipped over and refilled several more times before clapping his hands to disrupt their fun. It was an obvious gesture to manipulate the class and not applaud them. At the same time he reached out into the force and tapped each of the plushie-like balls surrounding the training room. They began to float and spin slowly in place.

“Now, we will be adding these to the game. They are dodgeballs with electrode-studded contact points. They are the same as a regular blaster training droid, but on contact instead. You are still not able to use your hands, but you will be able to attack with other things aside from just the force. Push them at your opponents, attack the bucket directly, attack the bucket using a ball. The more you change things up the more difficult it will be for your partner to be able to stay dry.”

He allowed some time for the lesson to sink into their damp skulls before continuing with a rather large smirk. Another bucket idly floated to the faucet and filled itself up before making its way above Dartel’s head.

“I will also join from this point.”

He wasn’t going to make the first attack on his students, but did send a rather large wave of force power throughout the room so that the plushie-balls would race around the room bouncing at odd angles and making it difficult to watch them all. Dartel himself found some difficulty in keeping track of the balls, but kept his hands in front of him and merely glanced at a particular ball he was wanting to force push away in order to keep the bucket safely above his head.

 

[Ral]

With his bucket filled again, Kai focused on levitating it. This new part of the lesson sounded different and exciting, that was definitely certain. Having to avoid the balls as well as watch out for Dartel would make the exercise much harder without managing to get his bucket knocked over. By this point Kai was soaked from head to toe and had just stopped caring if his bucket got tipped. He could only get so wet before the water ended up on a puddle on the floor around him. As the lesson began, Kai worked on balancing his own bucket. But then he got an odd tingling in the back of his mind, looking at Khelsea he could see in her eyes she was trying to give him an idea. She wanted both of them to combine their focus and power and try and tip Dartel's bucket first.

It was a gamble, Khelsea could use the momentary distraction to knock Kai's bucket over, and if the knight managed to predict or counter their attempt he could force one of their buckets over. Still, it was worth a shot, even if only to talk about later about how it worked spectacularly or it failed miserably. The one nice thing about working together was that the Padawans could still use part of their focus to hold their own buckets in place against a possible counter-attack, but only if the other person was distracted on keep their own bucket aloft and not putting all of their energy and focus into tipping it. Reaching out into the Force, Kai made a quick jab at the bucket over Dartel's head when he felt Khelsea doing the same thing.

Unsure how this would turn out, Kai immediately returned focus to his own bucket after sending his telekinetic thrust out. The Padawan had just realized one of those dodgeballs was about to collide with his own bucket.

 

[Veloster Turbo]

A competition with the instructor. That was an interesting and novel concept. Khelsea couldn't wait to begin the next part of the class. She knew Dartel was many times stronger than her in the Force, but perhaps the combined power of Kai and Khelsea could knock Dartel's bucket over.

Khelsea tried to get Kai's attention through the Force, and managed to succeed. Maybe Dartel knew, but would he know what she was planning on doing? Either way, it'll be a fun attempt and hopefully Dartel wouldn't mind his students ganging up on him.

As they began, Khelsea once again moved the bucket above her head, but this time she needed to concentrate on the flying balls as well. Right off the bat, a ball hit her in the back, which didn't hurt but momentarily cost her a second of concentration. Her bucket dripped a few drops of liquid on her, but she recovered in time. Khelsea also payed attention to Kai, and when he attacked the Zabrak she sent out a telekinetic push as well.

 

[Symbiot Spider]

((O.O.C – So you guys know, the balls are electric and if hit, will shock a little bit. For future reference, and just remember as well… water conducts electricity :P, Enjoy! ))

At the base of his skull, Dartel could tell they were communicating via the force, about what, he couldn’t say though. He told them his intent, but what he purposely left out was the fact that he wasn’t going to guard his bucket at all. The point for him entering was to control the objects outside their reach and manipulate some of the game, not to ruin their confidence in believing that they were unable to topple his bucket. This of course didn’t mean that he wouldn’t keep up the appearance of trying, so when he felt the first twinge of a push against his bucket he feigned a look of concentration while the bucket jostled. The act lasted for nearly a minute before the bucket tipped over on the second sensation of it being prodded. A smirk crossed his lips after he feigned a face of shock, the water spilt from the bucket but seemed to be caught in another invisible barrier. Slowly the water swayed loosely in the air and instead of pouring all over Dartel, poured back inside the up righted bucket.

“Good, you’re now adding strategies into the game. This is something else that requires your ability to think and focus. Great practice, but it can leave you open if you are not careful.”

It was at this point that Dartel sensed Kai’s awareness of one of the plushie-balls coming at him. It looked as if it were to strike him in the chest, or potentially the head depending on Kai, but Dartel reached a long tendril of the force to flick the ball down at a suddenly harsh decline; the ball would now bounce off the ground a foot away from Kai before heading back up and at his lower torso.

At the same time, Dartel flared a hand out towards Khelsea and aimed a Force Push at her bucket before further extending himself and flicking three of the plushie-balls at her. Once everything was in motion, Dartel pulled back his attention and readied himself to defend, but first he had to take in the surrounding threats. He failed to see a series of other plushie-balls soaring towards him. There was a sudden change in his stance and elegance in his movement; without leaving his corner, but taking a few steps, Dartel swayed between two close threats before spinning away from another and allowing one to pass between his head and the bucket. While spinning, and hopefully undetected by the two students, Dartel wrapped each of them with a bit of his force and connected it to himself, when he finished his spin he again flared out one of his hands and the balls then rocketed towards them with more aimed at Kai than Khelsea; only to make up for sending some her way before.

 

[Ral]

Watching with mild surprise and enthusiasm as the knight managed to keep his water from falling out of his bucket with the Force, even going so far as to fill the bucket back up again with the semi-spilled contents, Kai listened to what Dartel had to say as he bother praised them and advised them to be careful. Noticing that the ball in front of him changed course suddenly, he would need to call on the Force to help him avoid it. Gathering the Force up, Kai maintained a careful balance on his bucket as he tried to dodge to the side using only a small application of it to push the incoming ball away. With the plushy ball flying past him right where he was standing, Kai went back to trying to keep his bucket stable over his head while also trying to knock ovet Khelsea and Dartel's buckets.

Noticing that several more plushy balls were headed towards him, Kai did his best to deflect them with the Force and telekinesis but there were just too many. Even as he attempted to weave his way between them he knew he wouldn't be able to dodge them all. Two balls hit his bucket causing it to rock and spill a little bit of its contents, Kai did his best to keep it from spilling completely, but as he tried to keep his bucket steady a trio of balls all impacted into him. They sent little shocks which caused the muscles of his abdomen and chest to tighten and convulse in pain for a few seconds. It was enough to cause him to lose focus and allow his bucket to fall. It splashed down onto him, but considering that he was already wet, it didn't bother him too much.

Frowning, Kai filled up his bucket again and brought it over his head, of course still using only the Force the entire time. With it over his head, Kai went back to maintaining his own bucket over his head while trying to tip or spill the buckets of the other two. This time Kai used the balls to attack first, and when they were distracted struck out with the Force to tip the bucket. Even going so far as to feint an attack on one before switching targets to the other. It was an interesting exercise to say the least and Kai felt he was getting ahold of it.

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Khelsea froze for a split second as balls appeared in her direction, and despite using the Force to redirect two of the balls while moving sideways to dodge them, the last ball hit her on the side and shocked her. The pain caused her to lose concentration momentarily, and half the bucket spilled on her. Unlike Dartel, she was unable to return the water to the bucket, which meant that she was drenched once again. She hadn't dried off from the previous time water was poured on her, so it didn't make much of a difference.

At this point, it was all Khelsea could do to avoid flying balls without spilling her bucket of water. This time balls came at her quickly again, but she had less to deal with and successfully redirected one. She even changed its flight path so it would bounce towards the Jedi knight. She sent the other ball off the wall after it passed her harmlessly, this one would be sent in Kai's direction after a couple of bounces. Khelsea then dodged another few stray balls and immediately afterwards she sent a shove at Dartel's bucket, and then Kai's bucket.

 

[Symbiot Spider]

Dartel watched as the students reacted as perfectly as they could. The lesson was going well. For his own training, Dartel lowered any guard he may have had up and focused entirely on the bucket above his head. He felt each electrical sting pulse through his body, the physical punch of each ball drill into their targets – through all of this, Dartel never flinched and focused on the bucket with only the slightest grimace of acknowledgement on his features. He sensed the pushed against his bucket, but for this purpose, kept his bucket upright like a stone pillar.

“You will need to do more than that, padawans. Now we will add the last part to this, you can consider this your test for the lesson.”

He reached through the force and pulled from the lobby six blaster practice droids and three helmets equipped with blastshields. The six droids were placed in the center of the madness as the plushie-balls continued bouncing uncontrollably around the room. Each of the helmets was passed out to the students and then Dartel took the last.

“Now, ignite your sabers. You will not be able to see through the blastshielding on these helmets so you will need to sense through the force when these are going to fire at you. If you are adept at math you can see there are three of us and six of these droids. This means that is will most likely be two against one, but don’t think that it will not change. It could be six on one or four on one at any given point.”

Dartel slipped the helmet on between the distance of his head and the bucket. He reached one hand out and felt his lightsaber float through the force and into his possession. He took a basic stance briefly before weaving through some balls headed his direction. Pushing a couple that was aimed at his bucket in order to send them in a sporadic bounce away.

“Now, you will need to sense the balls and evade them, sense these droids and deflect the blaster bolts, sense your bucket and keep it upright, protect yourself against droids and plushie-electroballs as well as the others trying to knock your buckets over.”

The droids quickly hummed to life as Dartel slipped the blastshielding over his eyes. They all surged for him, but made no noise through the air. He used the force like pseudo-sonar. Isolating his buckets presence, as well as his own, and while reaching out a degree using force sight. The cascading of blue over everything made it easier but he could only see for about six feet in front of him when strained this much.

The droids began to fire with quick bursts making the briefest hiss of noise to signal it. Dartel rolled around one bolt, dodging a plushie-ball at the same time before deflecting three more bolts. One bolt sent towards Kai, the second for Khelsea’s Bucket and finally the third for one of the droids, which missed.

“Do not worry about passing or failing, there are no grades here. Use the force and immerse yourself completely into this feeling so you can recall it in the future if need be.”