Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in New Lessons (tag Nakuto)

Posted by Civilian Kara Nakuto (Engineer (Consultant Researcher - Yellow)) in New Lessons (tag Nakuto)

Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in New Lessons (tag Nakuto)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
(snip)
Casela began to follow the forms. She was quite capable of improvising, but right now she wanted to get a good feel for the weapon, it’s weight and it’s uses. She watched Nakuto carefully replicating her movements and attacks, correcting her own grip on the mek’leth when she noticed her use did not strike correctly. The weapon, elegant and deadly, was a bit to large for her, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t master it. She had to adjust how she moved and wielded the weapon. Soon Casela was moving past coping Kara, and turning the movements into a pattern that fit her size and skill, and flowed into a deadly dance.
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

Kara’s own speed and power increased in line with Casela’s own, the two women disparate equals, each one dancing the steps of their own ancestors, their own memories and nightmares, triumphs and failures. Until the half-Klingon’s movements began to change course, the distance between herself and Casela decreasing, pausing only when she stood face to face with the other, beginning posture formed easily from the flow of graceful movements. Then a pause, a single breath for the counselor to acknowledge that the fight had begun and, as an opening move, Nakuto swung her weapon, its blade moving within inches of Synthi-er’s head and slicing at a single lock of midnight hair.

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

Casela raised her chin in a nod of acknowledgement and shifted her weight subtly to prepare for whatever attack Kara dealt out. Now Casela usually wore her hair in a tight, fishbone, braid. Today was no different. Nakuto however, surprised her with the speed and fierceness of her attack. Casela had just enough time to lean to the side to avoid Nakuto’s mek’leth, not even time to raise her own weapon. Her hair swung out to the side and the mek’leth cut through a lock and it fell away from the weave of the braid. She probably needed a hair cut, but that was uncalled for, but she grinned. She indeed needed practice and she’d made the right choice in asking Kara. Casela, taking advantage of the lunge stepped in coming with an upward cut with the weapon in hand. The problem was her inexperience with it and the fact her hand was slightly too small for the size of the weapon, making her compensate on the fly rather than being already attuned to it.
Lt. Synthi-er

A well-delineated chasm lay between her human and Klingon genetics when caught in the passion of a fight. For humans, it was an almost unconscious action to mentally visualise an attack before calling it aloud in the curve of an arm and the swoop of a well-polished weapon. But when ones opponent was possessed of the psychic tongue, every thought, every subliminal whisper, was as a bugle call piercing the silence of the field. But for Klingons, to fight, to swing, to parry, such things required no commentary. One might as well predict, constantly, the act of walking or of drawing breath. And so it was that Nakuto briefly managed to gain an element of surprise against her opponent. Although the advantage it provided did not last for long.

It was lucky for Casela that T’Jal and F’actar had trained her to never use her telepathy when in combat. It left one open to mistakes. Thoughts could tell lies just as easily as the mouth could. And there were always those species that were naturally immune to being read telepathically. Instinct was important, and training, and practice. She had learned many years ago to study her opponent to learn their tells and telegraphs in order to anticipate, even at the last possible second, the coming attack. Years of using that training in real combat had honed that skill to happen instinctually, but it still took time. Kara was a new variable, someone with immense skill and training herself, and so it pushed those skills out of easy intuition into a need to actually consciously analyze and react. And so rather than deflecting the strike, Casela took the brunt of it, allowing her body to take the force and respond. Oh it hurt, but it wouldn’t kill her. She fell back, going with the force and then rolling back to standing, launching a quick over hand strike at Kara.

And as was expected from one as proficient as Casela, the returning strike came with equal speed and equal precision, the opposing mek’leth glancing off Kara’s shoulder as she pivoted away from its path, almost wholly in time. But not quite.

“Good,” she nodded, sinking to a crouch in an effort to disrupt her combatants presumptive vision. “Your weapon feels clumsy. As if too large for your hand? Allow its weight to work to your advantage. As if it were liquid within your palm.”
Rising again, she extended her own hand and demonstrated the knife balancing easily between her fingers, before closing her fist again and striking a blow towards the counselor’s right arm.

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

Casela nodded, accepting Kara’s criticism and tutelage. She watched Kara, her focus over Kara’s heart so she could see all of her move without focusing on any particular type of attack. She saw the sudden tightening of Kara’s grip, and her own hand flipped her own mek’leth in her hand, so the long dull side was against her fore arm taking the blow from Kara’s attack, it would leave a decent sized bruise, but at least she wasn’t cut. She flicked her wrist letting her mek’leth lock into the hook near the handle with Kara’s and then swirling the blades around and using the momentum to push them apart. Then she ducked bringing the smaller secondary blade in for a cut at her mid section.
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

The sting was brief but sufficient to drive the half-Klingon a step backwards, Nakuto emitting a grunt as her body bent almost instinctively to protect her wounded midsection. When she straightened again a second later, a few pearls of blood could be seen around the small cut. She returned her focus to her opponent and nodded her head in acknowledgement of a move well aimed and well executed.

Then with a cry, she spun on her right leg, sprung forwards once again and brought her own blade across Casela’s right forearm.

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

Casela watched carefully, the cut seemed shallow and she had a twinge of regret. She didn’t want to harm Kara, but there were always dangers in this kind of practice. Her distraction cost her though, she barely had time to move when Kara spun, she moved wrong, the blade coming down slicing across her arm, deeply. Years of long instinct made her press the cut hard against her torso, changing the blade to her left hand. She exchanged a couple of blows and then, tossing the mek’leth behind her with a flick of her wrist, she tumbled backward giving herself room. She ripped the sleeve off her right arm, ripped another strip from inside her jacket and made quick work of bandaging the arm. She spun from her kneeling position, grabbing the mek’leth that was just in reach and raised, in her left hand, just in time to stop the next swing.
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

The half-Klingon paused and then almost immediately retreated. It had not been her intention to wound her opponent so deeply. The voice of her father swelled against the silence of her subconscious. Not every battle must be to the death, my little senshi.

“Casela, forgive me,” Nakuto spoke quickly, lowering herself to a submissive crouch, her own weapon sheathed at her side. “I find it easy to forget that not every moment is a conflict.”

At her retreat, Casela flipped the mek’leth in to rest against her fore arm and stood up from her stance. “I as well. There is nothing to forgive, Kara. It happens. Learning a bladed weapon comes with risk. Think nothing of it. It was good attack. Are you alright? I’m afraid my control is not what it should be with the mek’leth.”

In truth, the counselor’s aggression during training was a thing of legend, although usually the only victim was herself. Or so the rumours told. Although more than once the name of the Leviathan’s first officer had found its way into the tale. But then so had whispers of surgery, of injuries that had almost incapacitated her. Nakuto had no desire to populate a chapter in this tale.

As if sensing her thoughts, but in truth, simply reading her body language, “I have not had such a worthy opponent in quite awhile. I have gotten slow and sloppy. I was in need of the reminder. Don’t worry I don’t usually get this hurt, the stories of my extremes are exaggerated. If I truly got hurt as much as the scuttlebutt claims, I’d be dead many time over.”

“I…are you badly hurt?” she got to her feet and took a tentative step towards the other woman, unsure in that moment whether Casela would match her own retreat, or merely take it as an opportunity to catch Kara off guard.

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

Casela grinned, “‘Tis but a flesh wound. Truly I will be fine. Though I’m sure if the Cmdr finds out I’ll be in for a much worse battle. But lucky for me I don’t have to tell him.” Her laughter rolled easily across the room. “Perhaps I need some time with a training dummy?” She was willing to continue but Kara looked warily. Casela needed to get back to Norda III. Of course if T’Jal saw her make such a sloppy mistake she’d be doing burpees for 3 hours. The thought made her smile. “Honestly, I’m fine.”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

“I am glad to hear it,” the half-Klingon moved to the Counselor’s side and examined the wound. “As both a colleague and an opponent I hold you in the highest regard. And while I was, and still am, honoured to be asked to share my training with you, at the same time I find myself…”
She sighed, turned her back to the other woman and allowed herself to bounce lightly in the reduced gravity. A lightness that was not reflected in the heaviness of her own soul.
“I find myself too…on edge these days. I believe the human expression is that my ‘back is always up’. It is a defense mechanism that I never expected to need.”

Some distance now between the two, Kara once more drew her own weapon and slipped back into her preparation, in an effort to calm her mind. But still the image of her blade slicing deep into Casela’s flesh, refused to dissipate from the unavoidable screen behind her closed eyes.
Unable to bear it any longer, she returned her focus to the room and to her companion.
“If you wish to continue then I am willing,” she nodded to Casela, “although I can offer no assurances on my own level of control. Or,” she shrugged, “we can both direct our weapons towards imaginary foes and fight with abandon.”

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)