This chapter has recently beenn reedited with the help of Mastergamer132e
Qrow stepped out the back door, carrying a pair of wooden staffs. He saw his niece in the backyard, standing in a meditative stance that was supposed to help novices figure out how to use their Aura to increase their strength. It was the application of Aura Ruby struggled the most in achieving, since they started training a couple of weeks ago.
He waited with approaching her until she finished her current cycle of motions before taking the last step towards her and addressing her.
"Hey Kiddo, enough with the meditating for now. I would like to start teaching you how to actually use a weapon."
The girl in front of him immediately took a more relaxed stance and took the staff he was holding out to her with a slightly puzzled expression.
"Why did you bring Sticks uncle Qrow? You said you would show me how to use a Scythe like you do."
"I will, don't worry squirt. But for your first question, tell me what is a Scythe?"
"It's one of the deadliest and most dangerous weapons used by Huntsmen and huntresses."
"Well, that is correct, but not what I was going for. What part makes up a Scythe?"
"A Scythe consists of a curved blade, a pole and an attachment point that allows it to rotate from a position pointing away from the pole at a 90° angle to one where it sits in-line with it like an old warscythe."
"Exactly, so with this knowledge refreshed, why do you think I gave you a simple staff?"
At this, the Grimm faced girl took a moment to think about her answer, but did not come to a solid conclusion.
"I can't come up with any reason, sorry."
"Well as Scythe is at it's most basic form is nothing more than a stick with a fancy blade, many of the same basics apply to both staffs and Scythes, as well as polearms in general. As it is way less dangerous and less complicated to learn these basic techniques with a staff than an actual Scythe, we will be using these until we move on to more Scythe specific moves and strategies."
Now the first thing I'm going to show you is a well-rounded basse stance. First you hold the staff with both hands roughly in the center third and hold it slightly diagonally in front of you, the forward end pointing at your opponent's face. Lastly you place your feet roughly shoulder width apart and slightly bend your knees."
He demonstrated each part in sequence as he explained the stance. The veteran Huntsman had to correct his niece a few times, but eventually she managed to get the stance right, so he continued with the next part of his training.
"So now that you have the way to stand down, we can move on to actual attacks and blocks. Not counting stabbing, there are only seven directions an opponent's strike may come from. Straight from above, diagonally from above or below both either left or right, and straight from the side either from left or right again."
As he mentioned each direction, he performed a quick jab with one end of his staff, to help the wolf-eared girl in front of him understand what he means.
"Now of course there are more ways to actually strike at an opponent with different weapons, but if you know how to correctly block strikes coming in these seven vectors, you can defend against most attacks against you, as they will pass through one of these giving you a chance to intercept their strike before it hits you. Now the most important part about any of the blocks I'm going to show you is that you apply an opposite force to your opponent's attack and not just get you weapon in the way of their strike. Now to block an attack from straight above the easiest is to just raise your weapon horizontally and push against the trike that is coming down.
Against a diagonal strike you can just rotate your weapon against the strike from your base stance, which normally puts enough momentum behind the block to stop an attack.
For a horizontal jab against you the quickest way to block it is to hold your staff vertically and turn against the strike at your hip. You got all of that kiddo?"
"I think so."
"Good then first I'll go ahead and throw strikes at you and you do your best to block them correctly."
Qrow then waited a moment for his niece to ready herself before he began. The Huntsman kept his strikes at a fraction of his normal speed so that the young trainee had a chance to keep up with him. He started the exercise off with a simple overhead strike, which Ruby managed to block correctly, although a bit later than would have been optimal. She also managed to block his left right combo, where he struck out with each end of his staff after the other, this time as quick as he had expected her to.
But the first diagonal strike he placed, was intercepted but not stopped by his niece, as she just hold her weapon in the way instead of pushing against the strike assisted by a rotational momentum as he had explained earlier.
But with his next strike against the wolf-eared girl it became obvious that she had realized her mistake, as she put enough force into her block to stop his strike from hitting her leg.
This continued for a while longer, until Ruby had not made a mistake for nearly a dozen blocks.
"Ok that is enough of that for now, squirt, now we move on to a simple sparing, that will end when your aura breaks, or you land three hits on me."
Both of them took their base stance and then began to circle each other. It would be the younger of the two combatants who threw the first attack, drawing back her staff above her right shoulder, took a step forward and swung her weapon at her Uncle's shoulder. He easily managed to block her strike and then, while still binding her weapon, used the lower end of his staff to strike at her exposed leg. As her uncle was holding back, the young girl barely managed to intercept that strike before it hit her.
Their sparring match went on like this for a while longer, with Ruby only barely keeping up, until the two of them stood close enough that none of them could bring their staff far enough back for an effective strike. This stalemate was resolved though, when the young half Grimm did something her teacher was not expecting. instead of trying to strike him with the little momentum she could gather, Ruby instead placed the lower end of her staff behind her uncle's rear leg, before she rammed her bone-armored face into his gut. THis caused him to try and take a step back, at which point the young girl pulled back the end of her staff, tripping him over. As he landed on his behind, the girl's wolf tail raised in anticipation, as she stepped forward to place the last two hits she needed to win their spar. Before he could reach him though, she stumbled over the weapon her Uncle had dropped, falling on top of him.
"Congratulations on managing to surprise me like that kid. But that just means I'll need to pull my punches a bit less than I did."
As her tail lowered back between her legs, Ruby only managed a short gulp, before her Uncle motioned for her to get back into her base stance.
From this point onwards, she barely managed to block half the strikes her teacher threw her way, and thus her relatively untrained Aura soon gave out.
"Well that was a productive first training session wasn't it?"
"Yes Uncle Qrow." She answered tired but clearly very happy and content with her training.
To his surprise, his niece was exhausted , but not gasping for air as he had feared she might be at the end of their little spar.
"Now then, let's get back in and see if we can help your dad with preparing dinner."
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