18 Sun's Dusk 3E432, The Temple of Satakal
"In order to effectively destroy the balance of your opponent, you must be in balance. Do not compromise your center of mass to land a killing strike. Katanas are made long and sharp for a reason."
The students all laughed as Master Ansei Surro made this remark.
"Use the entire length of the blade. This is neither a claymore nor an axe. You don't need to bury it into your opponent." Master Surro demonstrated a few pretend swipes and cuts on his practice partner.
"Likely any enemy you will face will be wearing some type of armour. If it is cloth, fur or leather, these types of cuts will suffice for body strikes. If the armour is metal, the katana blade won't cut or pierce through no matter how hard you push. Instead, cut the exposed areas and make your opponent bleed a little...or a lot." Master Surro pointed to his practice partner's body parts.
"Neck, biceps, forearms, and face. If you cut your enemy enough, they're likely to get mad and make more mistakes. Maintain your calm and keep an inner balance. This almost always causes your opponent to lose theirs. In a few weeks when you begin your advanced training, you will also see how all of this applies to summoning your spirit sword during times of stress. Now please pick a partner and begin practicing your techniques."
Roe partnered up with Zid. The two students bowed and began to slowly attack one another, focusing on learning the movements rather than realism of a fight. Imitating Master Surro's technique, he parried Zid's strike and countered with his own. Zid returned the favor. These attack and counterattack drills continued on for sometimes hours. The Master Ansei wanted to ensure that the muscles were conditioned to a point that when the time came, the young Ansei trainees would not think but react. This was a recurring theme of Initiate training. Master Surro's advanced weaponry class was a comprehensive review for the Initiates as they approached the end of almost three and a half years of training in the various forms of armed and unarmed combat.
The first phase of Initiate training taught them unarmed combat, pulling knowledge and expertise from every corner of Nirn. Agility and acrobatics from Elsweyr, swiftness and cunning from Valenwood and Argonia, daring and deception from Morrowind, strength and brutality from Skyrim and Hammerfell, illusion and mysticism from High Rock.
The second phase included armed combat training, familiarization with short and longswords, axes, daggers, throwing knives, bows and arrows of all kinds, staffs, pikes, spears, chains, rope, how to use a shield as a weapon, and so on. The Master Ansei tested the Initiates' skills in mock battles where the students and instructors would take turns playing attacker and defender. When the students became comfortable in one style of fighting, the Masters would throw in a new twist - combat in the dark, in the water, or in the cold or heat. Roe had once watched Jiles protect Master Zair from seven, Second Level Ansei aggressors. Master Zair was extremely impressed.
At the completion of their basic training, the Initiates started their advanced curriculum in espionage, thievery, social camouflage, investigations, persuasion and psychology. Ansei preferred to use subterfuge or cunning rather than brute force to upset the tide of a battle. The advanced training was also when the Initiates began to learn the art of forming a Shehai – a spirit sword. Learning this skill would take several more years, maybe even decades to master. It required intense study, months of meditation and years of acquired experience. In just a few weeks, their basic and advanced training would be complete and the Initiates would have proven themselves worthy to don the white robes and title of Ansei - the Saints of the Sword, the invisible warriors of Tamriel.
The training session with Master Surro ended and the Initiates adjourned to the Library. Roe found himself a comfortable spot nestled between two bookshelves and returned to his reading.
The greatest of all warriors will not be the strongest or the fastest but rather he who is most attuned to effectively using all possible means to defeat the enemy. A certain piece of clothing, when worn in the right circumstances, could disarm an entire company of soldiers allowing an agent to poison their water supply, the agent never even needing to draw blood to win the battle. Everything is a weapon, anyone is a weapon, and nothing is also a weapon. Shehai Shen She Ru is the art of making something from of nothing and also from everything.
In the Void that occupies all things, the meeting place of the body and mind, is where the most powerful weapons are found. The Way lies in this Void, endlessness, nothingness, completeness. The world we occupy can be overwhelming, deafening to the mind and soul easily leading one away from the path of righteousness - the Way. It will not be he who cries the loudest that stands victorious, for his cries will fall on the ears of the deaf. The day has and shall always belong to those individuals who sing their songs the sweetest.
- Excerpt from The Book of Circles by Frandar Hunding -