The passage of knowledge (Crunchy's Tràkata training)

[Will]

The treatise sat open on a lectern, and Huang Karasu, Jedi Council member and creator of the treatise sat, meditating, in the centre of the training arena.

His new student, Knight Kalza Duras, was to learn the form Tràkata, the form he had created. It took advantage of the fact a lightsabre can be turned off. Knight Duras would be his first student in the complete form. Soon, When Duras had mastered it, he would pass his knowledge onto others, and Tràkata would take root.

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Jedi Knight Kalza Duras was to learn the new form of Trakata under Jedi Master Karasu, and was therefore excited. As much as she preferred to use the force to fight against foes, she understood appropriate lightsaber techniques were necessary. With her orange lightsaber strapped to her side, she had opted for light clothing reminiscent of that of the Twi'leks of Ryloth, instead of her traditional robes. As the young Rutian woman walked to where the Councillor was, she bowed deeply and spoke softly. "Master Karasu. I am here to learn the ways of the Trákata,"

 

[Will]

Huang opened his eyes, the yellow irises glowing slightly in the half-light. He rose, removing his black robe, so that he wore only his black vest and baggy grey trousers, tucked into cavalry boots. The soft light made his skin appear white, the numermous piercings and tattoos standing out from the flawless flesh.

''Excellent, Knight Duras. Now, attack me with your lightsabre.''

As the knight ignited her sabre, Huang stopped her.

''Note what you just did. You turned the lightsabre on. It's a unique ability of the jedi weapon. One moment, the blade is there, and the next, it is gone. This allows us a great tactical advantage. One moment, a foe is straining against our block, the next, their momentum sends them tumbling forward as our blade disengages.''

He raised his hand, and, from the ceiling, horizontal bars decended, along with hoops, an aerial assault course that only extreme acrobatic and gymnastic skill could overcome.

''I want you to move through that course. We will first need to improve your acrobatic ability for this form. Go through the hoops, propelling yourself using the bars.''

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza gave a tiny little smile, disengaging her flashing orange lightsaber as she flexed, preparing for the assault course. Of course; it had been not long since she was swinging through the urban sprawl of Coruscant like some kind of monkey, and the dancing abilities her mother had possessed made her both lithe and flexible.

Jumping up, she grabbed onto the first hoop, and used the momentum of her legs to swing herself forward to the first bar, rapping her legs around it. Just as she slid off of it, her hands grasped the next hoop and she continued with the same momentum, landing gracefully on each hoop and bar each time before swinging off elegantly and continuing with the pattern, quickly so as to not lose her amassed momentum.

 

[Will]

''Excellent start. But, you need to improve.'' A pair of repeater blasters rose from the floor, pointing at the knight. ''They're set to stun. Dodge them on the course.''

the barrels began to cycle, and Huang thumbed the remote.

''Go.''

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza's eyes widened; this man was mad! As she leapt between the bars, the guns began to fire. She swung underneath a hoop, hanging onto it with her legs like a trapeze artist as the guns fired above her. Swinging round, she narrowly dodged a blaster bullet that singed her clothes. Now, with one foot on the bar, she balanced for a moment, and created a force push ahead of her, which slowed a further free bullets. As they clattered to the floor, the Jedi Knight used her instincts - such as she did whilst practising Niman. She dodged every bullet, albeit occasionally barely.

 

[Will]

''Excellent work. Though you can do better. Again.''

Huang thumbed the remote, and the blasters began to whirr.

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza gritted her teeth, and flipped sideways, dodging the bullets in much the same manner as she had previously done. Soon enough, however, she began to tire. Not letting it get to her again, she swung round and dodged the last of the bullets.

 

[Will]

''You have improved greatly, Knight Duras.'' Huang brought in a series of pillars with horizontally rotating arms set on them. As each arm was hit, it would swing around, meaning it had to be blocked. Huang set them in a row, two wide and ten deep, moving them with the force. Different pillars had arms of differing heights. This would not only improve Duras' flexibility, but also her defending skills.

''Move through this course. This will improve fighting flexibility and your blocking skills. Use no weapons.''

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza took a moment to catch her breath, and nodded. Quickly, she began to weave and dodge, blocking an arm with her wrist proved painful but that was merely because she did not use the force to reinforce the defensive blow. Her reactions were quick, thanks to her Niman training, and she ducked underneath an arm as it came swinging after her, and then blocked yet another with a powerful blow from her arm - this time force reinforced. Soon enough, she reached the end. Panting, and with a bruised looking arm, she laid her free hand on the weak forearm and began to channel and heal it as she had been taught.

 

[Will]

''You are progressing excellently, Knight Kalza. Now, you learn force control skills. In Tràkata, the blade is rarely ignited, only for the killing blow, or out of necessity. As such, the ability to flip a switch, such as a blaster's safety, with the force, from a distance, is a useful tool.''

Huang took a series of porcelain orbs of varying size gingerly from a velvet sack. ''Float these with the force.'' He threw the first, about the size of a melon, at the knight, the delicate structure flying through the air.

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza nodded, telekinesis was one of her strongest powers. As the delicate structure flew through the air, Kalza pressed lightly with both hand upwards and forwards simultaneously. Exerting too much power would smash the orb, so she used her force powers lightly. The orb began to slow, and slowly floated until it was suspended a few feet above the space in between Master Huang and Kalza.

 

[Will]

Huang threw another, smaller orb. ''The same.''

As the orbs got smaller, they would become more delicate, and this a finer control of the force would be needed. If she worked at this, she would be able to even pick advanced mechanical locks with the force.

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza did the same again, making sure not to exert too much pressure lest she should crack or even smash the delicate (and perhaps expensive) orb.

 

[Will]

''Good. More.''

Huang threw three orbs, of varying size, therefore structural strength at Kalza. She would need to exert differing pressure on each orb, a difficult process, but one essential for Tràkata.

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza managed to balance all three orbs straight away, albeit briefly as one slowly began to sink to the floor. Exerting a bit more upwards pressure on that one, she started to finally make it so that varying amounts of such power on each ball through her earlier near-catastrophe.

 

[Will]

''Ok. You have force control and acrobatic ability down. You need to be shown how the form works.'' Huang threw open a side door with the force, and training droids, carrying an array of blasters and blades trudged into the arena.

''Observe. Tràkata has no set 'moves', it is more of a philosophy on the use of the blade.'' The droids became active, moving for Huang, or targeting him with blaster fire. He span inhumanely in the air, twisting his body in odd ways to dodge blaster fire. He landed on the first droid, sabre ignited thorough the head, registering as kill. Immediatley, the sabre turned off. He moved again, leaping over another droid, his blade igniting into its chest. He then used it as a shield to charge the heavy blaster wielding droid, where he ignited the blade for the duration of the cut, an orange flash. The final droid was armed with a cortosis weave blade. As it swung for him, Huang ignited the blade, entering bladelock. He felt the strain of the droid against him. He turned off the blade, spinning insanely fast, and igniting the blade to decapitate the stumbling foe.

All the droids sat on the floor, in various states of destruction. Huang threw them out with the force, beckoning more in.

''Your turn, Knight Kalza. Don't worry, the blasters are set to stun, and I have heard you are an accomplished healer.''

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza nodded, noting to herself that perfect the mastery of Ataru would have made Trákata a lot more easy to use. It seemed one of the basic principles was being unexpected and agile - two qualities Kalza already had. Running forwards, she chose not to ignite her lightsaber. Force jumping over the droids, who were facing her, she ignited her blade right in the chest of the first droid. Her blade shot out of the other end, and she slashed upward, literally cutting the droid in half. As it fell to the ground, two droids began to fire, and a blaster bullet hit her with a feeling of scolding pain. Ignoring it for the present, she deflected the next bullet which hit the droid square in the chest, killing it. However, before the bullets of the remaining droid could reach Kalza she was gone, running (aided by the force of course) to the side and then towards the next droid. As she approached it she seemingly ran past another droid - moments later it's top half slid off and it too was out of action. The next droid was equipped with a more heavy blaster. Using the force, Kalza threw the top half of the previous droid at it, knocking it off balance for a moment. However, the suddenness of the force attack also caused her to stumble and lose her balance, and she narrowly dodged another bullet. As the droid regained its' balance, Kalza was suddenly there, regretting her earlier mistake, accidentally forgetting about the shock tactics of Trakata and using a Niman move to slice it from shoulder to hip to finish it quickly.

As before, the final droid was equipped with a cortosis weave blade. Kalza charged it, igniting her lightsaber at the final moment as she jumped, the droid lifted up the blade to cut her in mid-air. She swung downwards before it got the chance slicing off it's arm and using the force to swing it's other arm round, effectively slicing its' own front. This caused it to stumble, and as it began to falter, she landed behind it and ignited her lightsaber through its' head - killing the last of the droids.

Turning to Master Karasu, she felt she had done indeed a good job and looked at him expectantly. Of course, she realised something had gone wrong with every single manoeuvre except the last one and even then remembered she had been incorporating some of her Niman tactics.

 

[Will]

''Very good, Knight Kalza. Niman has no place in partnership with Tràkata, it is too slow and defensive. Your use of Ataru was exemplary, however. You were too hasty in movement though. Keep the blade ignited only for the minimal time. Ignite it only when it is truly required. Do it again, you need to be more comfortable moving at speed and off balance.''

With the push of a button, more droids entered the arena, with the same loadout.

 

[Mr. Crunchy]

Kalza did much of the time, but this time hopped more lithely between the droids. As they opened fire, she ducked a blaster bolt and sped past a droid, cutting it's head off as another opened fire. However, she skidded right into the past of the four remaining droid. Facing three at a time, they began to close in on her at all sides. All three fired, and Kalza ducked, igniting her lightsaber and swirling around. Each of the droids was cut in the knee, and shot eachother at the same time. As they toppled and squirmed, she saw a heavy blaster droid. Before it had a chance to fire, she had leapt over it and ignited her saber in it's chest, killing it too.