Willow, the knight that was going to teach me (that wasn't her job I don't think, but all of Gabriel's people wore armor and rode horses) was a tiny redhead, nearly as short as Callie, with bright green eyes and a friendly, heart shaped face. She had a smattering of freckles and a friendly smile that made you want to like her, and generally gave off the impression of a cheerful, kind person. At first.

As soon as she drew her staff she basically turned into a drill sergeant. Which wasn't to say that she was rude or angry. No, it was worse than that. The smile never faded, the friendly chirp never left her voice, and she never stopped being upbeat, even as she beat ME to within an inch of my life.

"Nope, sorry. Elbow in." She chirped as her staff flicked out and slammed into my funny bone. My armor was supposed to PREVENT blunt damage. How was she even doing this? That stick wasn't E-ranked. I let out a low groan but adjusted my posture accordingly. "There you go!" She cheered happily. "Now you're getting it!" I wasn't. As was evidenced by her next strike to correct my footwork...by slamming her gods damned stick into my ankle.

"Why are you doing this?" I whimpered. She was a demon. She was worse than Abel. I hadn't even thought that was possible, but at least he mocked openly. Her damned perky smile WAS mocking me, I could FEEL it, but she acted like she was just a genuinely nice person so I couldn't even be properly mad about it.

She just giggled. "I'm just teaching, silly. You're doing so much better! Just keep trying." I hoped she was mocking me, to be honest, because if whoever trained her had conditioned her like this to the point she actually thought it was ok, I'd have to feel bad for her.

"You're a monster." I wheezed. And she just giggled again like I was making a joke, which I absolutely wasn't. Even a little bit.

I had to admit, despite the pain and annoyance, this was a fairly effective way to adjust my technique. Willow had demonstrated a series of katas upon our first meeting, and was now having me go through them from memory one by one. My Focus made that a completely viable approach, but seeing someone do something once isn't enough to perfectly replicate it, even if you can remember what they did. She seemed to have an uncanny ability to perceive the exact muscles I was using even through my coat and armor and was making minute adjustment to each kata until I performed it perfectly.

"You've got that one down." Said the evil creature that wouldn't stop beating me in a deceptively cheerful tone. "Now I want you to try the next one. Raven in the Trees, please." I nodded, clearing my mind so I could remember her exact movements when she'd demonstrated.

My staff lashed out at ankle height, and I flowed back around in a reversal, spinning the shaft around my body and then striking at head level. Another smack to my elbow drew another yelp from me, and Willow chuckled. "You could pretend you aren't enjoying this so much." I said bluntly, rubbing my elbow.

She shook her head. "Don't be silly. You're doing really well." Her excessive cheerfulness faded a bit, replaced with soft reassurance. I wished I could just hate her properly, but she was so NICE. "I know this is tough, but you need to learn these forms properly. People like to say practice makes perfect, but only perfect practice makes perfect. These techniques can save your life, but they need to be learned properly."

"I know." I said with a sigh. "And unnecessary abuse aside, I do appreciate the help. I can see how these would be useful. What exactly is your style called?"

"Valtek." She said with a warm smile. "It's a fairly common staff form back on my home planet, but things don't work worse because people know about them. It's been refined over generations, and is an excellent foundation for crafting your own techniques once you've mastered it. Now, try that one again, and adjust the elbow as you spin."

Ascendant martial arts, even ones without crazy built in abilities, tended to the dramatic. It was in our nature to seek attention. This particular movement was useful in more than just an offensive sense, though. The spinning was meant to be used as a deflection. I tried to incorporate that understanding into the movement, and saw her nod approvingly as she smacked the back of my knee and dropped me on my ass.

"Very good." She said with a nod. "That was much better, though not good enough. I see you're starting to understand some of the nuances of the staff though. The staff is a uniquely powerful weapon, not for its weight or damage dealing capabilities, but for its versatility. People will tell you power is the most important factor of a weapon, but they're wrong. The spear can do many things the staff can, but I consider it an inferior weapon, do you know why?"

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I paused. I didn't, I couldn't think of a reason putting a blade on my staff would be bad. I'd even considered getting a spear at one point, but I'd decided the learning curve was too steep and that I wanted to take advantage of my existing abilities and skills. "Nope, can't think of a reason."

Willow didn't seem surprised, but she gave me a minute to sit down as she talked, so I listened. "Leverage." She whirled her stick in a circle. "With properly applied leverage you can shift a planet with merely human strength. Every force has to deal with leverage, and the staff is one big lever. To alter trajectories, to shift incoming force vectors, that's the true art of the staff. Offense and defense at the same time."

I climbed to my feet, thinking that over. "I guess that's true." I mused. "If you look at everything as force to be leveraged, that does kind of change your application. But there has to be at least some solid attacks to be landed, right?" I tended to rely on single blows to win fights. This training would help that, but I still needed to be able to land hits.

Her stick blurred out and landed on my knee with a slam and I hissed in pain, hopping on one leg. "Of course." She chirped. "You just have to know how to leverage your own power. You'll get it eventually. Now, I want you to try Raven in the Trees again, and I'm going to attack while you do it."

It wasn't hard to recognize that she'd been holding her attacks until after each attempt. Now she wanted to demonstrated what I could do once I learned them properly. I attempted the kata, moving exactly as she'd coached me and including her notes. She stepped over the low blow, but then attacked herself with a sharp thrust. I was already spinning, the staff close to my body, and I was delighted to see the stick swept into the the twist as my own staff knocked into her wrist.

The attack was redirected and the weapon was seamlessly plucked from her grasp to fly a few feet away into the snow. She stepped back, withdrawing her hand without any obvious pain, and clapped excitedly. "That was fantastic! Did you feel what I meant when I corrected you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it was all leverage. Caught your staff against my body and then used myself as a fulcrum. The blow to your wrist made you let go and the staff just came free."

"Yup." She said as she walked over to the staff, kicking it up off the ground with some kind of small foot movement and catching it midair. "Try that one another few times just to make sure you've got it, then we'll switch to Stalking Tiger. Remember the most important thing here is that you get the katas perfect. Once you've got them mastered, you can repeat them on your own time. Our time here isn't endless, so I want to make sure you're properly prepared to practice on your own."

I gave a sheepish laugh. "Yeah, I do appreciate the help. I feel like you're being a bit harsher than needed, but I do appreciate the time and guidance." Speaking of which, I turned around to where Callie was standing in front of Archimedes. "How's it going over there honey?"

Archimedes was NOT just constantly attacking her, part of why I was annoyed. He'd taken the inverse tactic. He was having her attack and putting himself in a position where only a proper strike would land. Daggers weren't nearly as evenly disposed to attack or defense as the staff, they heavily favored attacking, which meant training Callie on defensive moves was pointless.

She'd been working with him as long as I'd been working with Willow, and she was soaked in sweat and panting as she stopped to take a break and call back breathlessly. "Not bad. I'm landing more hits now. Archie says I've got a knack for this kind of thing."

The other man nodded casually. "It's true. She's naturally gifted at knifework. I suspect her rock solid foundation in...what did you call it? Balam? Is helping. She's incorporating circular motions into her attacks as best as possible while following the forms I gave her."

Sadly, my own mastery of Balam wasn't anywhere near that point. Skills acquired through Wishing might need more work at Intermediate, but Benny had shown how valuable the earliest versions could be. Foundation was exactly right, and having learned mine through actual practice instead of having it dumped into my head meant mine was shakier. It also wasn't as compatible with the style Willow wanted to teach.

I'd learned a few katas for Balam too, or forms as they were called, but they didn't really translate to armed combat well. Callie's weapon of choice worked on similar mechanics and at a similar range to hand to hand. "Alright. Back to work. You'll be sparring in an hour or two." Said Willow with a smile. "Got to make sure you're up to fighting different kinds of opponents."

I sighed and got back in position, moving through the Raven in the Trees kata again. I managed to get it perfect two out of three times, and she let me move on after that. I could already see how this could all be applied to my combat style, how it could be applied to my abilities. I'd be able to make my own staff moves to complement my Path soon enough.

Paths were something I hadn't really been able to understand well. It seemed like they were based on following an ideology of sorts. How that tied into your legend I wasn't sure, but I was positive they had something to do with it. I knew people like Abel and Gabriel had paths, and getting one early was a big advantage for some reason. I'd seen that I could exert more power when I was following my Path.

Maybe my hypothetical staff art could be the way I merged my Path and combat style, once I figured out what it even was. I was jarred from my thoughts by a strike to the side of my knee and winced. Right, I was training still. Had to get my head back in the game. If I wanted to make my own martial art, I'd have to learn one to base it on. A staff art of my own, and this was the best opportunity for that. I sunk back into my stance and tried again, repeating the motions I'd seen before and including all the notes Willow had made. One step at a time.