ja_koniga

Hsu Chao was tired. Even after years of practice the ways of the student were still hard for him. When he was much younger he always wondered how the masters can hit people without seeing them, it looked like a wonder. Yet with every season passed, he learned more from the truth. There is no mystery and no wonder here, it is just acting without thinking. Yet there are real wonders in healing, levitation and in other mysteries learned. But what many young kids see and want to learn isn't a huge mystery, it is something almost everyone can see. Many people want to learn the secrets of blind fighting, and they forget about the real secrets. And ones who try to learn it often think: They would need it when they fight in darkness. They wonder about half elven students, and when they see an elf using similar ways of fighting they try to find similar reasons. Yet most of them forget, that knowing where your opponent and how to fight him is only half of the story. Knowing what is under your feet, and how can you move is just as important, and blind fighting doesn't help there. The reality is far simpler: We learn how to fight without thinking or seeing. It helps when you have to react quickly, it helps if others would distract you, it helps when you can't think about the fight since you have to think about something else.

They all watched, when the mistress spoke, except for Dramderon the dwarf. He had other thought in his mind, he knew too well about the height advantage in combat, and knew it all to well. He knew how he can fight taller oponents, and how they can fight him, and knew, how he can won the fight. Attacking at two or three different heigths, instead of one, and attacking at the lower parts of the legs, where most oponents have no defense, all these tactics were trivial for him, and besides this, no self respecting dwarf would learn fighting from an elf. So he just examined his axe, and examined it again. Didn't even heard, when the mistress called for him.