Learning in the Depths (Sionann/Kalia)

[Emerald Iris]

Sionann felt the change in the Force, the shift in the emotional spectrum. Kalia moved in for the attack, coming forward with her heart rather than her mind. She moved quickly for most, but for the sage knight, the world began to slow down as her reflexes reached to supernatural heights.

Kalia came down with a vicious downward slash that had more weight to it than was needed, more strength than was required. The padawan came down as Sionann sidestepped the slash, only to follow up with a secondary attack in an attempt to catch the sage knight off guard, yet her heightened reflexes saw the attack and she stepped into a spin. Even for Kalia this would almost happen in slow motion as her blade came across while her master spun around, and used the torque to push her free hand forward upon completing the spin.

Through the Force, Kalia would feel a rush of pressure shoving her backwards in a powerful Force push that was intended to knock her back several feet and prone. In case her padawan was perceptive enough to resist the push of energy, Sionann threw herself into a back-flip to increase the distance between them and evade another slash that could come her way. "Focus," She called out to Kali. "Do not lose yourself to the passions in your heart,"

 

[Prudence]

Kalia was still young, still naive and untrained when it came to combat. She put too much emphasis on strength and brute force with her attack, forgetting her lightsaber needed little power to shear through nearly anything. When she came down and there was nothing to slow the momentum of her blade she nearly stumbled forward. She was trying to bring her blade into a secondary attack but it was awkward and clumsy as she tried to stay on her feet. Midway through the second attack she felt something, like a set of hands, on her chest pushing her backward. She stumbled back and fell on her back, her lightsaber tumbling away. Her cheeks instantly reddened and she began mumbling and tripping over herself as she tried to talk.

"O..Okay.. of course.. I tripped.. but that's good advice." she said, trying to hide her embarrassment. She had thought she'd performed the attack excellently, only to be knocked over by a woman with gray hair, without her having even touched Kalia.

 

[Emerald Iris]

"You live with the Force, the Force is around you, within you," Sionann took her same fighting stance back once again. "You can push through it, pull through it, strengthen yourself though it, yet just like anger it can overtake you and ultimately destroy you should you not be careful, Kalia."

She then relaxed her guard seeing as her padawan was still recovering, the sage knight flicked a few locks of silver back and continued her lesson through words. "I am teaching you a very dangerous form of combat, one that requires you to walk a very thin line between light and darkness. One which provides great power at the risk of losing so much. To a lone opponent you will be seen as an unstoppable force, to one who is sensitive to the Force, they will feel you as if they feel a monster standing before them. They lose their will to fight, and through your own peace you show them mercy they can live to learn peace."

Sionann clipped her lightsaber back onto her belt to free both hands, and she took up another stance with both hands up, leaning on her front leg as if to advance on Kali, her voice taking a slight more grim tone. "Your enemy knows your form of combat, but they revel in succumbing to all the dark emotions that fuels its power, and they corrupt its message. Always remember, there is emotion and there is peace. You can know peace, and let your enemy feel the weight of all of your suffering, anger, sadness, joy, and pleasure. They will falter and break under such a great weight. As my own master once said, 'To strike with darkness, but feel peace within, that is Juyo, the seventh and greatest form of lightsaber combat."

With a beckoning motion with her hand Sionann gestured to Kali. "You understand the great strength given to you from that rage, now try again, this time focus, the strength will come naturally, it is there because of feeling, and I will teach your specific techniques soon, but first you need to understand the mindset, the cold ferocity. Call your blade back and attack again."

 

[Prudence]

Kalia sat and nodded her head. She slowly let go of how she felt, the embarassment, the pride, and let the force run through her. For a moment she felt empty, and then she felt clear. She could feel everything. She could feel the cells in the nearby trees dividing, she could feel every emotion in the swirl that was Sionann's personality. She heard Sionann's word about her presence to her enemy, like a veiled monster. She heard her words about the sith, and she understood.

She stood, calmly, and outstretched her hand. her blade wiggled in the earth, a little hesitant at first, and then it flew across the air into her hand, and the blade snapped on. Kalia thought about everything that had ever hurt in her life, losing her father, leaving her family, being picked on and abused, enduring physical strain, and she let it feed not her but the Force. She was every emotion she felt. Everything in her was hurt, everything in her was pain, everything in her was hate, and rage, and happiness and sadness, but none of it consumed her. She felt the Force flow through her. And everything became clear. She lunged forward in an almost animalistic way, before jumping mid stride, and twisting her body while in the air to increase the power at which she brought her lightsaber down at Sionann's head with. Unlike the clumsy strike before this one, whether it landed or not, would land her steadily on the ground, and she would already be moving in for a counter attack.

 

[Emerald Iris]

She watched her Padawan catch on quickly, begin to grasp the message, that very heretical message which the seventh form screamed so loudly at the rest of the universe. A light smirk of pride crossed her lips for just a brief moment before she had to focus again, the forced training method was beginning to pay off. "Good," the last words she would be saying for a while at this point as Kalia came forward bringing her heart to bare with her sword this time.

Instead of replying with the same techniques and form, the sage knight kept her focus on her own greatest physical aspect, agility. Through the Force the world slowed down once again while Sionann felt herself speed up. She had devised a combination of the Force Reflex and Force Speed abilities at this point, putting her study to a much greater test than before, and with no willingness to attack, merely evade, her efforts could be focused on the skill's weaknesses and strengths while continuously analyzing her Padawan's technique.

Kalia came in with a beautiful overhead strike this time, less distance, crisper movement, though the result was the same as Sionann sidestepped out of the way to evade. Her own footwork was subtle, giving ground in inches, rather than feet, exerting as little excess energy as possible while remaining safe. Sionann let Kalia stay in her inner circle at this point evading her Padawan's better articulated technique with weaves and dodges. The silver hair knight was moving in such a way that she would appear moving in sharp blurry instances with each time that Kalia attacked. She was trying to get the human Jedi to adapt in the middle of combat against an opponent that was undeniably frustrating to hit. Sionann was going to have to draw her blade soon, but she wanted to see if through this aggression that Kalia would draw up a new strategy.