Companions in Arms (Frogerio)

As Lui was making his way to the club room to train up his students of the fencing blades, he couldn't help but feel his thoughts being disrupted by the fact that Sumi was actually going to be operating as a Cadet. To think the sister he wanted to keep out of the dangerous wars happening in the town was now about to throw herself into the line of fire, possibly in the way of the Platinum Playhouse or, even worse, her own brother's attacks. He didn't want her to die, but if she didn't know who was on the other side of the mask, she likely wouldn't hesitate to end his life...

While Lui was strategizing, he narrowly managed to stop his blind walking just short of the opened door of the clubroom. He took a seat with Erin and Gus on the floor as he saw they already set the mats out for the club. Arthur and Bosco made their way into the room with Ms. Kamizura taking up the rear of the entering party. While everyone started to get changed into their vestments, Lui looked through the doorway to see a familiar face. The smile on his face was a genuine one, shared with a new member who actually came for a second round of instruction...

"Frogerio! You made it! Ready for another lesson?"

Lui put on his most comforting yet simple grin as he beckoned Frogerio in to quell the nerves that kept him from entering the room. With the other members on the other side of the room, Lui motioned over to the set out vestments and three-piece fencing sword kit in the sizes he used last time. The members glanced up at Frog and greeted him with waves and short calls of "Hey". With the instructor taking her place at the head of the mats, Lui invited Frogerio over to him and his equipment.

"No, that's perfectly fine. I'm simply happy you decided to come back. Most of the new members I've seen thus far don't really come around for more than one session before they move on, so seeing you coming back to practice is... well, pretty encouraging. Here's your vestments and weapons. So, I believe I ran you through the basics last time, so it's up to you on what you wish to learn more about next. If there's a weapon you want to train with or certain techniques on identifying the proper action to take in a match, just let me know."

"Yo, Froggo! Looks like you actually got a repeat customer this time, Lui. About time, too. I could use a sparring partner for today besides Bosco over there, so you feel like taking me on?" Gus inquired from the other side of the room, running his fingers up his foil until they rested on the tip, bending the blade back and forth with a cocky yet eager smile.

While Lui would have requested Gus to wait until Lui could make sure Frogerio still had the basics at the forefront of his mind, Frog's swift action of taking the foil off the counter and pointing it to his opponent explained just how determined Frogerio was to prove his skill to the cocky foe. While Frogerio got into costume, Lui moved over to the mat and stood as the judge between the now masked Gus and Frogerio.

"You sure you remember the basics? Parry, riposte, counter riposte, and strike?" Lui whispered to Frogerio as he would approach the mat.

Gus nodded to his opponent and motioned to Frogerio to come at him. Seems he was being given right of way for the first round. With the order established, Gus moved his body to the proper defensive fencing position, ready for Frogerio's first strike.

"What better way to learn how to handle a foe than a little sparring, am I right? Come at me. I wanna see what you got."

Seeing that Frogerio was moving with a certain stiffness in his movements, Lui would give a slightly concerned glance at Frog's form, realizing that he would have benefitted from warm-ups earlier had it not been for Gus wanting to challenge him. Gus himself didn't seem fully limbered up himself; he was one of the types to warm up with a few practice matches to get his body used to the motions. Seeing the thrust coming from the moment Frogerio pushed himself forward, Gus prepared to parry the blade before twirling it back to the inside of Frogerio's guard and pushing the blade forward with a simple touch to try touching his torso.

"Not feeling it yet? Don't worry, it'll come back to ya. Think of it as a practice match. I'm getting warmed up too. Ready?"

Defend Roll:

Counter Roll if defended:

This match, however slow it was going, was certainly promising. Gus certainly wasn't going full speed as he normally would to pressure an opponent, giving Frogerio a bit of time in his motions for him to pick up on his actions while he struck, but Lui knew all too well that such a pace wouldn't be kept for long. Seeing how Frogerio was pushing forward a bit further than comfortable, Lui decided to throw him a bit of advice.

"Frog, if you need to disengage, it's just like how you shuffle your feet when you parry. Instead of the back foot, put more weight on the front foot and use it to push off the mat. That'll give you a bit of distance."

"Gotta say, Cap, this guy's starting to get good. I'll have to really push him if this is the kind of skill he's working with." Gus replied as he kept up his assault, going to swat the blade aside and duck downwards, thrusting up towards Frog's stomach with a deft bend of the back to keep himself low.

Gus Parries

Random number (1,10) :

1

Counter incoming

Random number (1,10) :

4

Lui watched with excited energy coursing through him as Frogerio recognized how to perform the disengaging step immediately, blocking and retaliating against Gus's blade. While Gus' blade was swooping back in to target Frogerio, a quick duck into a well-placed touch on Gus' chest has Lui shouting "Halt" to call the end of the round. Gus stood silently for a second before tossing his mask off his head and into his hand, turning to make sure Frogerio was alright. Lui motioned for Gus to head over to the rest of the guys for the actual start of class.

"Excellent reaction, Frogerio. Here, we should actually get to warmups before you sprain anything else. As for the points, foils have a strike zone from below the neck to above the groin, though the torso is the biggest strike zone. You get a point for having right-of-way and being able to hit the strike zone with the tip. Same if you managed to have Gus move far enough back to have him leave the lane. Alright, everyone, let's start. Laps."

The rest of the members started their laps around the mats with Lui running with them. Lui did his best to keep an eye on Frogerio as the laps gave way to stretching and jumping jacks for 10 minutes. When those were done, assuming Frogerio was starting to loosen up and could work without the pain getting in his way, Lui moved rope ladders out for the guys, demonstrating which footwork patterns to perform within the ladders.

While the students moved through the ladders, Lui rolled the padded dummies out for each fencer to practice their touches on. The others moved over to each dummy after their rounds on the rope ladder, getting into ready position as they leaned forward with their foils, having the blade bend a bit to confirm their strikes.

"Feeling better, Frogerio? Once we're done with this, you can get back to your match with Gus. Honestly, he should've waited for warmup first..."

That little smile growing on Frog's face as he heard he got a point against Gus encouraged Lui to smile as well. Gus didn't seem all that upset about losing once to Frog; he simply gave a huff of relief and an approving thumbs-up as he scrambled over to join the lapping group of students. With Frog's reassurance his leg wouldn't hinder his exercise, Lui gave Frog a reassuring nod and a light, playful push in the direction of the group.

Frogerio did fairly well with the exercises up until the ladder rope. He could recognize the footwork Lui was performing, but he wasn't as light on his feet as the rest, causing him to drag bits of the rope ladder closer to the inner squares as his feet dragged on them. With that in mind, Lui watched as Frogerio began his thrusts into the dummy.

"Good to see you're nice and warmed up. If we're talking about points, it would depend on the point in the competition you reach. Traditionally, we have 5 point rounds. In a competition, 5 point rounds last about 3 minutes if performed in succession. There's also a 15 point bout run in three periods of five points each.

Are you having trouble with the footing in some way? I can run you through a few footwork techniques to help with your advancing strikes and disengagement. Being quick on your feet is just as important as being quick with the blade. Tripping over yourself in a critical moment can cost you."

Sure, Frog was having trouble getting the footwork down to be a properly agile fencer, but his mastery of the technique was coming along steadily. Frogerio himself could even admit that he needed some help keeping on his toes. It was a common hurdle for new members; their hands could wave as fast as they wanted, but their feet often stayed rooted in the ground, grinding against the mat like stones on stones. Lui didn't suffer from this hurdle for too long, but he definitely knew how it felt. All he could do was teach Frogerio as best he could.

"Technically, they're called bouts. You need to score five points to win against your opponent in a bout, yes. This happens in the first round of a tournament where the fencers are grouped in small pools of competitors. The top 80% of fencers move on to the actual bracket tournament. That's the point where it takes 15 points to beat your foe. That technically creates three rounds of 5 point bouts where breaks can occur between bouts. Does that make sense?"

"Don't worry about the footwork; from what I've seen, the more you practice, the lighter you'll feel on your feet. If you want an idea on what your feet should be doing, think of the flow of battle. When you have right of way, you're mounting an attack on your foe. If you want to push yourself forward, you have to use your back foot more than the front one, like pushing off the ground while on a skateboard. Opposite applies for when you need to disengage. If you want, I can show you a way I practice staying on my feet..."

With that, Lui set his blade aside and stood perpendicular to Frogerio. His feet began shuffling as he started moving sideways, one foot pushing off to either side as his body galloped with it. Side to side, shuffling his feet, one foot hanging in the air for a moment as the other took the weight and pushed. After some time, Lui's body moved to face the direction he was going, his sideways feet now pointed forward as his feet continued to gallop in the same pattern, one raised off the ground enough to show Frogerio while he pushed forwards and backwards.

"You know how to run sideways, yeah? Just lift one leg off the floor so the other can move your whole body. Lift up, push off, lift up, push off... eventually your feet start moving without you realizing what you're doing. Want to give it a try? Start with shuffling side to side for right now. Then point your body in that direction once you got a rhythm going."