Tensuro Dojo!

[Hoarfrost Imp]

8/30

Word could not describe the pain as she felt an nearly infinate amount of strikes impact her body, she slumped to her knees and her sword clattered to the floor and she look up in a complete daze. Yangs form vanished and reappeared infront of her, his face grim as he assessed her. "Stand" he ordered. Through she was not fit to be standing at the moment she picked up her katana and entered stance. With an insulting slap she knocked the blade from her hands and it sailed across the room, impaling itself in the wall on the opposite side.

She drew her short sword and re-entered heaven stance, the stupor knocked away by his clear disrespect for her blade. His next attack impacted her blade and simultaneously intertwined them, their knuckles touched as she fought to free herself. Yang flashed out his tanto in a series of strikes she was forced to block with he own that she drew from her back. Yang brought back the dagger to strike her in the stomach, and Mae seized the chance to hurt him like he had her.

She dropped the dagger and positioned both hands on her short sword, Yang closing the distance to utilize the dagger would prove to be a mistake. She slashed upward once, the attack moved seemingly in slow motion as it traveled upward toward the main artery of the neck, at first she figured she had missed as the blade completed its travel, but she saw the trickle of blood as it seemed she only grazed him. She brought the blade overhead and began to arc a slash towards the other side of his neck.

The attack landed clean on the flesh and sliced through with ease, she felt the resistance of the blade as it traveled through the skin and muscle before she pulled it back firing off another two slashes in the same fashion as she traveled backwards on the balls of her feet. She only saw faint trickles of blood when there should be fountains, she focused on the third and fourth slash as they traveled and noticed that yang's body flickered slightly, as though he were a hologram.

[Hoarfrost Imp]

8/30

The attacks grazed Yang but nothing noticeable happened to his clothes of skin. The flickering stopped and he charged at her, disappearing only to reappear above her and follow up with a powerful overhead attack. Mae had to dodge or be cleaved in two, opting to dodge to the left and roll to her feet. Through as she stood she saw the blur that was Yang fly at her as raised her blade to defend against the attack.

Their blades collided and Yang bore down on her hard, her sword shaking as if in fear as he locked their blades and pulled her up. Taking this chance as an opening Mae shoved off with her knuckles and took one step back, from the dragonfly stance she swung once from the left going top to bottom. Yang dodged and step stepped forward, she was open and forced to continue the attack to hopefully deter him off his path.

Yang shown no fear as she completed the first step back and began the neck another slash coming up from the right. He dodged it too and pressed on in his pursuit. In a panic she stared a swing as a feint to lock up their blades again, the pull of her masters sword was immense as she pushed away with her fist and slashed backwards quickly two slashes for each side of the neck. Yang saw the attacks and again lowered himself into that stance she saw all too often.

The sound of the blades impacting with a wet slash made Mae's skin crawl as she looked on with frustration she her master's body began to flicker again, the attacks slicing open the robes but no visible damage done to the body. Yang steeped back and breathed out slightly as she looked on in a mixture of confusion and anger. All this work and she couldnt even hit him. With a final attempt her attacked and used her momentum from pushing away to speed her retreat as she slashed four time. Yang deflected the attacks with one hand on his katana.

"That is enough, next technique." he said plainly as she kneelt and meditated in silence. Mar was too weary to argue and assumed the meditative stance herself.

(there is an ungraded post on the previous page just a fyi ^^)

[Mist]

+ 22 - learned

[Hoarfrost Imp]

SPOILER: Click to show

Dragonfly Leap Strike
Rank:: D
Skill: Taijutsu
Effect: The user strikes down powerfully upon the opponent after an initial jump.
Special: Katana, Wakizashi, or Tanto.
Drawback: If missed, leaves the user wide open.
Description: The user runs up to an opponent, or speed steps toward him, jumping up high into the air with the right leg. Afterwards, he/she will slice downward powerfully from the Dragonfly Stance, able to cut deeply anything that it hits.
Limit: Must learn from one of the five Tensora Masters. Must know Dragonfly Strike.

0/10

Yang sheathed his own blade and directed Mae to the training grounds, a break from the constant strain was only welcome to her as she crossed the floor and exited out to the field. Row after row of dense haystacks lined the back field, many looked worse for the wear from repeated strikes and strike training. Mae picked a spot by a nearby haystack and unsheathed her blade.

She entered dragonfly stance and raised the blade up to her right shoulder, she felt the weight of the blade when she aimed the live end of the sword outward toward the haystack with the bladed end turned up. From this position all the muscles in her body were taut, coiled and tensed, waiting to propel the blade with all the might in her upper body. This would allow her all the power she would need to slash down into the haystack.

She ran forward, keeping her upper body rigid as steel as she charged and gripped the sword with all her hand strength. As she closed the distance between her and the stack she sped up her steps and flash stepped forward, covering the last two meters as she landed and leaped off of her right foot. she jumped up using the balls of her feet and rolling up to the tips of her toes. The jump was strong and solid as she soared through the air, she would use the velocity of the down fall to rip the stack in half.

She landed hard on her left foot with the blade following soon after, curving down in an crescent sickle shape. As she swung down hard the released the pent up energy in her muscles, pushing the sword through the straw with ease. The rustle of the straw slowed as the sharp end of her blade neared the bottom of the stack. Mae pushed from the core and grunted slightly as she cut the last bit and implanted the weapon in the ground.

She was astounded by how easy she could put so much power in such a small attack. She leaped again, pushing with her core as she cut the halves into halves and so on until the stack came apart completely, strewing hay and dust everywhere. Mae panted hard and smile to herself, it felt get to have an outlet for all her pent up aggression.

[Corvus]

+8

[Hoarfrost Imp]

8/10

Mae turned to the next haystack and settled into dragonfly stance, she practiced running strait ahead instead of speed stepping to close the distance. It was slightly slower but it conserved so much more energy, she took the last two steps and vaulted off her right foot. The energy she saved from running was stored mostly in her core, giving all her attacks even more power.

As she landed she swung down hard and attempted to severe the stack in half. As the blade traveled past her shoulder blade and settled around her midsection she used her center of gravity to crank down on the blade, slicing through the hay like butter. The blade met with little to no resistance as the blade went clean through and smashed into the ground.

She whipped her blade up and into her sheath with one smooth motion and walked further out to more stacks of the helpless hay.

[Corvus]

+2

[Hoarfrost Imp]

SPOILER: Click to show

Heaven Mantis Stance
Rank:: E
Skill: Taijutsu
Effect: The user gets in Mantis Stance, a stance used exclusively for stabbing.
Special: Katana, Wakizashi, or Tanto.
Drawback: This stance, the opposite of the defensive Heaven Monkey Stance, is another pure offensive stance. This leaves the user rather open to attack.
Description: The user spreads his feet apart wide, bending his/her knees with his/her right side facing the opponent. The feet should be pointing away from the body. He/she then raises the sword eye level, with the blade pointing skyward. This stance relies solely on speed.
Limit: Must learn from one of the five Tensora Masters. Must know all Standard Kenjutsu.

0/5

As Mae walked through the field examining the stacks of hay she noticed she wasnt alone, a lone student was practicing the fabled Mantis Stance. She stared in awe for a few moments as she studied the pose, his specific foot position and body structure. She hid herself behind a stack of hay as she went over the positions in her head.

she turned and faced the stack, angling her feet so her right was leading ,and facing out away from the body, with the left behind and pointing the opposite direction almost. Slightly askew to face the left was her back foot as she rest her weight evenly on both feet. She settled her upper body into a crouching position, lowering her center of gravity to allow faster movement on her feet and power in her strikes.

Then came blade positioning, she drew her katana and inverted her grip with the blade facing toward the sky and the tip pointed at her target. The pose was to improve stabbing and impaling targets with speed and power if need be. She set the blad eeye level about seven inches from her face. This allowed her to have optimum control of the blade as it traveled and increase accuracy dramatically as the blade would be almost directly on target already.

She took a test step, her gait was slightly unnatural considering her limited knowledge of the stance, but it settled out eventually. Her steps had to be small, almost like little hops or sliding her feet to not ruin her posture. She gave a few test jabs with the end and was rather impressed with herself. Maybe she could learn a few moves in this stance as well.

[Nyu]

+5

[Hoarfrost Imp]

SPOILER: Click to show

Mantis Stab
Rank:: D
Skill: Taijutsu
Effect: The user stabs at an opponent from the Mantis Stance.
Special: Katana, Wakizashi, or Tanto.
Drawback: This attack is not extremely difficult to block, (though not easy to block either.).
Description: The user lunges forward and stabs at the opponent, drawing the sword back as soon as the stab has made contact. He/she then takes a few steps back.
Limit: Must learn from one of the five Tensora Masters. Must know Heaven Mantis Stance.

0/10

Returning from her last jab into mantis she tightened her grip and focused intently on the twine that bound the hay. She wanted to fine tune the stabbing motions she was performing to be effective in combat. With the blade settled at eye level Mae jabbed the tip into the hay, returning to the pose as she repeated the motion several time to get a feel of the muscles she would use. She felt the pull in her pectorals and biceps, as her arm extended the feeling of use extended to her triceps. This would be a very difficult stance without toning her arms.

She set her feet with her toes facing away from her body, sinking down slightly as she compressed her body as if to almost shrink out of sight. With her muscles taut she took a small sliding step forward and thrust the blade forward, releasing her coiled muscles to push the blade forward faster toward the target. It snipped cleanly through the first twine strings, an audible snap sounding.

She didnt allow her muscles to feel the ache of the unfamiliar stance, she immediately settled back into mantis and set her core, holding the handle tighter still she took a side step to the next string and fired off another jab, it passed into the hay and missed the string completely, her arms and chest burned slightly from the use of muscle. She had forgotten to push with her core to release the pent up power and speed.

Resettled she flexed her muscles slightly to try and cull the throb from the lactic acid build up and attempted another thrust, pushing hard from her stomach and biceps and keeping the blade steady with her pectorals and triceps. The blade snapped another line of twine and sunk into the soft hay, she twisted the blade slightly as she withdrew and settled back into mantis Stance.

The hay had fallen loose of its restraints and was strewn about the lawn of the field in wild tufts. Mae made a show of testing a few slashes of her blade, though slightly awkward and unwieldy she figured some could be attempted.

[Mist]

+ 10 - learned

[Hoarfrost Imp]

SPOILER: Click to show

Mantis Slash
Rank:: D
Skill: Taijutsu
Effect: The user Speed Steps forward, rotating the sword clockwise (which could be an attack in itself), and bringing it to the right side, slashing to any of the four gates.
Special: Katana, Wakizashi, or Tanto.
Drawback: Lower body attacks are less effective.
Description: The practitioner spins his/her sword with the back hand clockwise to bring the sword from the left to the right side while speed stepping forward. This spin adds momentum, allowing for a slash to any of the four gates, the head, or even a Mantis Stab.
Limit: Must learn from one of the five Tensora Masters. Must know Heaven Mantis Stance. Must know Mantis Stab.

0/10

She now centered her attention on the remains of the stack of hay she had loosed form its restraints, the stance becoming a familiar feel to her now. The few slashes she had tested had proven helpful in figuring her her equilibrium, the length of the katana with its added weight had to be tempered with each slash so she didnt over extend herself.

She brought up her weapon and circled the stack of hay, swinging freely as she circled. The first slash landed square in the middle, cleaving the hay apart, but she felt its weight drag on the return to stance. She adjusted she swung again, faster but shorter in distance, keeping the blade within her range of comfort as she brought down the swing next to her previous impact area.

The slashed hit each area of the gates, each side had four gates of weakness that the practice targeted. She had struck the head and neck, she released another quick sharp slash to the side, an arm artery slice, that sunk down to the ground. Its curved path cut deep to allow maximum bleed out if and when the attack hit. Mae brought the blade up and out of the hay, setting up her mantis stance again and sircling around to the opposite side to slash at a kidney.

She sheathed the katana and withdrew her short sword, its weight much easier on her muscles. She speed stepped forward and attempted to mimic all her previous slashes. The first cut shallow but directly on target, the weight much easier on her triceps as she pulled back and attack again with a neck slash that gouged deep into the hay. She spun and brought the blade around, using its momentum to slash again in a hard arcing pattern that scattered the hay all around her.

As the blade sank down she rotated again to pull the blade out and use her speed to slash another haystack deep, cleaving one clear in two as she pivoted the opposite direction and brought the blade overhead to slash vertically to the ground. She was pleased with her progress but the slashes werent of the calibur she had wanted. She put away the short sword and drew her katana again, its weight seemed significantly less now that she had used both her short sword and katana.

Taking up Mantis stand she charged an unharmed stack of hay and slashed out wide in an arcing circle. The blow landed clean on the side marked with red twine as an artery, she then noticed that most of the hay had alternating colors of twine that marked the artery points. As the attack finished out she let its momentum swing her around re-entered Mantis, giving a mighty yell as the sword ran through the hay like a hot knife through butter. It impacted the ground and Mae sheathed the blade.

[|Ayame Unbound|]

+10~

[Hoarfrost Imp]

Mae snuck through the field and over the fence, outward towards town to the area the boat was docked. Hopefully no one would know she was gone.

-exit-