The Training of Novus

[Ares]

"Novus" walked onto a large balcony, once a great veranda the Jedi Knights used. The crumbling white stone supported the domed, hole-pecked roof, but several pillars were altogether missing, and some green moss grew on the floor and entrance. He walked to the reflecting pool in the middle of the room, and waded in.

The young, brown-haired man walked through the knee-high water to a small marble block in the middle of the pond. He sat down, cross-legged, on the tiny island, waiting for his teacher...

 

[Niner]

Rushi Hoku strode through the halls towards his new apprentice. His lightsaber hung at his wait, the old hilt of his Katana he had retrofitted with the components of a lightsaber, it's new blood red blade pleased him.

Rushi walked to the small pond and waved his hand, parting the waters as he walked across.
"You are the one they call Novus?"

 

[Ares]

Novus opened his eyelids, revealing him deep brown irises.

"I am."

((OOC/ g2g to bed now. I'll be on tomorrow late afternoon, early evening.))

 

[Niner]

Rushi looked him up and down, assesing his potential,
"Then come with me. I am your master."

Rushi started walking down the hall, not caring if his padawann followed or not. This was a road to power for Rushi, a road to promotin within the Ospions.

 

[Ares]

"Of course, Master Hoku."

Novus stood up, and gracefully jumped across the reflection pool, landing on the far side, and following his master down the hall.

"What will I be trained in first?"

 

[Niner]

Rushi glanced over and murmered to himself to low for Novus to hear, "How to keep quiet..."

He tossed the hilt of his saber in his hands a few times. The saber was actually the hilt of his old katana that he had removed the blade from and added the components of a lightsaber. The curved grip was excellent for fighting and it offered a secure hold because of the length.

"First lesson is to expect the unexpected."

Halfway through the sentence Rushi ignited the saber and swung it at his padawann's head. Knowing he could stop it if the Padawann did nothing...

 

[Ares]

Novus gave his typical response; he melted away like a fluid, curving below the saber, and dodging it. However, he did look more than a little frazzled.

"Knee-jerk reaction, Master. Should we do it again?"

 

[Niner]

Rushi snorted, "Good, you will need to be fast my apprentice. Whatever you may think this your life will be in the balance during this training of yours. I have alot riding on you so you better pass all the tests. So to start. We will do melee combat. Forget what you have learned about melee combat before. Handling a lightsaber is far different. It's a more elegent weapon and far more deadly."

Rushi drew a cylinder from behind his belt. It was about a 9 inches long with just an activation stud. The funny thing about it though was that it was designed to only ignite after three button presses on the activation stud. Rushi put his own lightsaber back on his belt and pulled another cylinder from behind his belt.

"These are training sabers. They will hurt you like you never though could be possible but they will not kill."

Rushi turned and looked up and down the length of the long, empty, stone hall. Then quickly ignited the blade and brought it towards Novus in a downward slash from his right shoulder to his left hip.

 

[Ares]

Novus attempted to ignite his saber, but nothing happened- another strategy had to be used. He again melted away from his master's saber. However, now he re-tried, pressing the button many more times than necessary in frustration. The lightsaber chose to ignite after three panicked button presses.

"Why didn't it work?" he demanded.

 

[Niner]

Rushi gave a cold smirk, "Why would I know? Or more correctly why would someone you are fighting let you know? But for this one time I will tell you. I rigged it so it wouldn't ignite until the third press of the button. To teach you this fact. Expect the unexpected. Don't expect your weapon to work everytime. Learn to use your head. Now, again"

Rushi launched into another attack, from the right shoulder to the left hip, following it up with a slash straight up.

 

[Ares]

Novus slashed from his left side to his right, parrying the blow, but his lightsaber was flicked out of his hand by the upward slash. He caught it as it came down, however, reigniting it with three presses to the button.

 

[Niner]

((I'm going to skip ahead three months after you next post so just go to your room and make a small post about that.))

A simple force yank from Rushi brought the lightsaber flying out of Novus' hands into Rushi's.

"Good, we will do more training with this later on, now come. I will show you your room."

 

[Ares]

Novus blinked at the sudden, if blunt, dismissal. "Of course, Master." He tried to appear as unruffled as possible.

After about five minutes, he reached his spartan, if not bare, bedroom. He sat on the thin throw rug, attempting to meditate.

----------

 

[Niner]

------------------3 months later-----------------

Rushi woke up and immediatley dressed in his solid black robes and grabbed his lightsaber. He exited his room and started walking down the halls to where his apprentice was waiting.

They had spent three grueling months training in sword play and using training lightsabers, but today was the day Novus would build his own.

Rushi reached the door. Novus had better be awake. He had made it a strict rule that no matter when he went to bed he had to be awake at 5 A.M. or face serious consequences.....

 

[Ares]

Novus sat on his cot, looking out the tiny window at the rocks below. His starship was sitting behind some large boulders, and he saw his pet, Araga, plodding around on top of the starship. The demonic-looking, bear-like creature looked up at the window three stories above it and gave a bark-like sound. It sounded evil and blood-curdling, but it was the closest thing Araga could make to a friendly bark. Novus stood up, and stretched his legs. His master would bite his head off it he wasn't ready for training.

He pulled on his tight-fitting, dark brown unigarment, and his sandy tan overtunic, followed by his dark leather boots. He was dressedand stretched just in time for his master to practically shove the door off its hinges.

 

[Niner]

Rushi's yellow eyes sweeped the room and settles on Novus,
"Come, today is an important day"

He walked down halls that they had battled up and down over the past months. Rushi always taking every oppurtunity to try and surprise Novus. Novus had become quite an adept swordsman, not having beat Rushi yet, but taxing him to an extreme.

Coming to a door set apart from the others Rushi typed in a code on the keypad and the door slid open. Inside was a small room with a workbench against the back wall. On the workbench were the tools and parts nessasary to build a lightsaber and there was a box of scrap metals and various other components next to it that could be used for the non essential parts such as adornments. There was two of everything on the work bench.....

Rushi stepped to the corner of the room and sat crosslegged on the floor and closed his eyes.
"Begin."

Novus had studied how to build a lightsaber for two of the three months he had been here so Rushi didn't doubt Novus could build it.

 

[Ares]

Novus grinned. He had been waiting for this moment for several months. The dashing young human slid onto the workbench, shifting through the pieces of metal and adornments. He utilized the fact that there was two of everything to his advantage- he began making two identical lightsabers. The metal pieces he was picking up and placing together all had a definite curve to them, because over the months, Novus had picked up Makashi. Novus planned on making his own distinct style.

------------
Several hours later...

Novus sat up, and looked at the wall chronometer. Four standard hours had passed- it was now 9:00 A.M. He looked down at his work. He had made two curved hilts, made of a polished silver metal with obsidian black handgrips, and distinct markings- three gold bands with a vertical blue line near the igniter.

Novus smiled. He had used matching golden crystals to create topaz blades. The focusing crystals even had golden tints to them. He looked at his Master. It had been two hours since he had last fidgeted.

Novus cleared his throat.

"I finished, Master."

 

[Ares]

((Niner could you post once in a while?!?))

 

[Niner]

Rushi slowly opened his yellow eyes and sighed, "I am well aware that you are finished."

Let me see how you did. Rushi shrugged off the top part of his robe, baring his muscular chest and arms, and the tattoos covering them. the robe now hung from his waist like a long thick skirt, allowing him better mobility with his arms. He pulled his blood red lightsaber and activated it.

"No surprises this time, but a duel that an honerable and foolish Jedi would be proud of."

 

[Ares]

Novus popped his neck, tossing his robes to the side, wearing his tight brown bodysuit, and thin, pauldrons attatched via stitching to the body glove. The young man pulled the two curved hilts from his waist, and activated them, using the cross-bladed salute unique to the Jar'kai variant of Makashi.

"Your move."