Fandom High School

The class was set up almost identically to the way it had been the previous week. "Today," Max began without preamble, "we will be seeing how much you've learned. The exercise is simple: each of you will select a weapon and an area of terrain." His smile was slow and lazy. "And then you'll show me what you've learned."

"You're free to warm up before you make your decision, or to talk to your fellow students."

Max's grin grew slightly predatory. "Good luck."

The weapons rack was back to its relatively disorganized state. There wasn't any particular method of organization to it like there had been for the last couple of sessions. Max's gaze swept across his students as they arrived, working to pick out those who were looking for patterns. It was nice to think that at least a couple of them might have started to pay attention to that sort of thing.

As everyone had probably come to expect, Max began his lecture precisely at the appointed class time. "Today we're going to be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of choosing to use a single blade or a pair of blades. There are a huge number of styles of combat which swear by one of the other, and both have their merits. Let's start with the obvious." He grabbed a rather large blade off the rack. "Sticking to a single blade allows you to use two hands to handle your weapon. This permits the use of larger, heavier blades as well as allowing for much stronger strikes." He spun the blade around a few times to illustrate before putting it away.

"The obvious advantage of a second blade," he continued as he swapped the large blade for a pair of short swords, "is that it doubles your options. If your opponent has a single blade then there is a single primary threat." Ignoring the fact that someone could still kick you or do other unfriendly things. "But with two blades you have to treat both with equal respect, your attention must be divided. Allowing yourself to become focused on one leaves you open to an attack by the other."

"But there are some other considerations as well. If you carry a single weapon then you have a hand free. This can be incredibly important if you are on unstable terrain like a ship's deck and need to hold onto something for balance. Or if you want to grab your opponent to throw them off balance. Or if you want to throw things. Having a free hand provides you with nearly unlimited options and it increases your flexibility significantly. On the other hand, carrying a second weapon means that you have two things that you don't mind putting in the way of something sharp. You don't want to block or parry with your hand, after all. With two blades you can engage an opponent with a single blade's weapon and still have something to stab or cut them with."

"Things are, of course, far more complex than simply the number of blades you choose to wield. There are reasons to use two matching blades, or to use a primary and a secondary. There are reasons to use two-handed weapons and single one-handed weapons. But this is a course on basic sword skills, and besides, many of you will begin to get a feel for your options once you actually get out there."

Max crossed his arms and looked around critically. "For today's exercise each of you will decide what style you want to focus on, and you will select your totally moddable blades. I want each of you to do some sparring against someone carrying two blades, and someone carrying one, so that you can get a feel for how the two styles offset one another." He smiled suddenly. "And if you're having trouble finding a partner for one style or the other... feel free to find me." Max would love to beat some students up assist in their education.

"Now get to it."

[There's an OOC note that is sort of long so it's in the OCD...]

This week Max had the sword rack from the first class out again, but there was a difference if anyone was paying attention. Rather than having the blades arranged by weight, as he had the first time, they were arranged by curvature. Rapiers, arming swords, jian, and even a pair of katar on one side, sabers, dao, tulwars, and other similar blades on the other.

"Our first meeting I allowed you to select a blade pretty much at random, and there are actually worse ways to select a blade if you are a beginner. However, we'll spend the next three weeks discussing blade selection. Blade selection matters for two simple reasons. First, a strong knowledge of how to select blades ensures that you select one that plays to your strengths and conforms to your personal style. Second, and perhaps more importantly, understanding blade selection can tell you a tremendous amount about the options an opponent has open to him."

"Blade selection is a rather involved process, and today we'll be focusing on two aspects that go hand in hand. We'll look at blade curvature and single- vs double- edged weapons. A quick look should reveal," he waved at the weapons behind him, "that most curved blades are single edged while most straight blades are double edged."

"At the risk of stating the obvious: curved blades with single edges are built to favor slashing while straight blades with double edges are designed to favor thrusts." Max drew his gladius and held it out for illustration. "The gladius is a straight double edged blade. It's designed for very close fighting and when you're in close thrusts are much more versatile than slashes." He put his blade back up.

"When fighting for your life you'll discover that it is difficult to recover a straight blade that's been used to cut deeply into someone while a curved blade slides free much more easily. And by the same token you'll discover that thrusting with a curved blade tends to be less precise and less powerful than doing so with a straight blade. While very few blades force you into only one type of attack, all blades support one type better than others and that means that most fighters will prefer the supported attacks."

"Today's assignment is simple: you will select one blade of each type and get a feel for it. You will be practicing with one another and with me, and before you leave you will tell me which you feel more comfortable with and why."

Max looked at each student in turn and nodded sharply. "Get to it."

[My availability throughout the day is likely to be spotty as I shall be leaving on a jet plane. To Lansing, MI! I will be around when I can, but bouts of SP virtually guaranteed.]

Max had reviewed the class roster and was oddly relieved that he didn't have any repeat students. It saved him the time it would take to break a bunch of bad habits. Because while Slacking had been a relatively relaxed class, even though he took the subject seriously, Max had a very different approach to teaching the blade. The relatively small class size was also likely to give him more time to spend one-on-one with his students, and he was hoping that turned out to be more of an advantage than not.

As the students arrived at the Danger Shop where they had handwavily been told to meet the first thing they were likely to notice was the ridiculously extensive collection of blades. Max apparently had everything from Swiss stilettos to Japanese naganaki to Javanese kris. The second thing they might notice was that their instructor was wearing Roman-style legionary armor. A steel breastplate, a studded leather armored skirt, and steel greaves and bracers. He also had a short sword strapped to his waist. Max didn't wait for any stragglers, as soon as class was scheduled to begin he started.

"All right, listen up!" he barked. "You are here because you wanted to learn about swords, someone else wanted you to learn about swords, or the universe itself conspired to make you learn about swords. I don't care what your reasons are because regardless you're going to learn about swords." He looked around to see if anyone had any problems with that. And if they did he planned to ignore them. "All sorts of people draw distinctions between swords and other weapons in all sorts of places, but for the purposes of this course we will consider a sword to be any hand weapon which is a blade for more than half its length." He nodded at the rack to illustrate.

"We've only got seven weeks and there's a lot for you to learn, so we're going to get straight into it. Each of you will step up to the front and select a weapon, or two if you prefer. You will then explain to the class why you selected the one you did. There is no wrong reason to select a blade. If it looks pretty, that's fine. If it feels good in your hand, that's fine. If you're familiar with it already, that's fine. Once you've made your selection we'll do a quick practice match in which you'll, hopefully, learn some of the strengths and weaknesses of your selected weapon."

His eyes narrowed suddenly. "The safety systems here will not allow any injuries today, but don't even think about using that as an excuse to be sloppy. Treat every potential hit as a real one, and don't take a strike just because it won't leave you bleeding."

"You!" Max snapped as he pointed to a random student. "You're first!"