"Melee Class - done by Taiat Kileplith - teaching Knife Throwing"
Yet another day at the Facility, and yet another thing to be learnt by the young Greed spawn who was strolling jauntily on his way down the street. His Greed was, understandably, not limited to material things, even though said material things are greatly desired. After all, it was a material world, and he was a material
girl boy. The unquenchable desire for all things also applied to that of knowledge, as well, and so Llujah was one happy clam when he signed up for another class at the Facility. True, the building itself gave him the willies, but it was all a matter of keeping his chin up and his eyes forward. Panicking over something as trivial as rumors from a building would do no good.
By now, he was getting quite used to navigating the Facility, and he quickly came upon the room to which he was assigned. Inside, he presumed, would be the assigned teacher to go along with the room. Silently, Llu hoped that his teacher wouldn’t get mad at him or anything for wearing boots and a skirt. He took a deep breath, reached out his hand to turn the knob, and tentatively opened the door. His dual-colored eyes darted about, scanning the contents inside. Nothing out of the ordinary here… Feeling slightly more reassured, the spawn opened the door ajar and stepped in.
Immediately, Llujah felt as if someone – or something – was watching him, observing him. His tail flicked as his agitation slowly grew and grew. From the far corner of the room shown two eyes, brilliant green in color. Slowly, the rest of the body to which the eyes belonged to appeared before Llujah. He was humanoid, but certainly not human. He was an elf, clearly, as could be seen from his pointed ears, similar to Llu’s, and his fair and sprightly build. His hair was jet black and was about as tall as Llu. Despite the creature’s handsome features, Llu still felt a small shiver down his spine from those piercing eyes. The elf spoke.
“So. You are Llujah Malikov, I presume. My next student.”
Llujah blinked in surprise. For a moment, he was completely lost for words, but he quickly regained his voice, shaky though it was.
“Y-yeah, I’m Llujah. You’re… You’re Mr. Kileplith, then?” He had to fight with some difficultly to get the name out correctly. It definitely didn’t sound human, that was for sure. Why did elven names have to be such tongue-twisters when it came to pronunciation? Then again… It wasn’t like you were going to find any powerful and mystical elves named “Smith.”
The expression on the elf’s face was completely stoic as he regarded Llujah in silence. As Llu’s identity was confirmed and his own questioned, the elf nodded. “Indeed, I am Taiat Kileplith. You are permitted to address me as Taiat.” Formalities out of the way, Taiat silently reached into a small hilt behind his back and pulled out a small and lethally sharp knife. With the grace of a swan and the accuracy of a hawk, he flicked the weapon out of his hand and embedded it right into a small wooden target behind Llujah as if it was absolutely nothing at all. Face still unreadable, he closed his eyes. “Today, you shall learn to do exactly that.”
Llujah was not expecting the elf to pull a knife out from behind him, and he certainly was not expecting that knife to be thrown not five inches past his face. He could almost feel the knife whipping through the air as it flew past him, and the “thunk” it made when it landed in the target resonated loudly in his sensitive ears. His eyes were wide with fright, then, after a second of heart-pounding terror had passed, those eyes became bright with curiosity and disbelief.
“R-really? I get to do that?” He spun around to gaze at the knife deep in the wood.
Behind him, Taiat nodded solemnly. “Yes. Let us not waste any more time, now. Catch this.” From behind him, in an almost hammer-space-type fashion, he pulled out another knife, only this time it was wooden, polished to a sheen and carved with exquisite swirls in the handle. Quick as a blink of an eye, he flicked his wrist with the slightest movement and sent the knife barreling through the air right towards Llujah. Llu reached out his hands for the knife, but he could not get a firm grip on it and fumbled it, letting it drop to the ground. He gritted his teeth, quickly picked it up again, and stood up straight facing his instructor, feeling embarrassed. He silently hoped that his instructor wouldn’t point out his obvious mistake.
Taiat, however, said nothing on the matter. Perhaps he did not notice the fumble after all, but more likely than that was the possibility that he did not care in the slightest. It was to be a mystery which scenario was the true one, though, for Taiat immediately proceeded to explain the exercise that they were to be working with. “You will practice with this wooden replica of a knife first. As soon as you hit three bulls-eyes in a row with that, you will move on to using a real knife. Understood?”
Llujah blinked, nodded his understanding. Three bulls-eyes in a row… That shouldn’t be too terribly hard, right? It wasn’t until Taiat moved five feet to the right, though, that Llu realized how difficult the task would prove to be. The target he was to hit was only about four feet in diameter, and the bulls-eye target he was aiming for was a mere six-inches across. Llu paled a bit, then looked to his teacher.
“Uh… Um, I will be able to get closer, right?”Taiat’s face gave away no fleeting expression as he spoke. “Yes, you may move closer. But you must stop when I tell you so. Understood?” Llu nodded, and began to walk forward. “Stop.” He did as he was bidden and stopped walking, and he saw after a cursory look around him that he was now about fifteen feet away. [Compared to where he was before, which was about twenty-five feet away, it was quite an improvement.] “Now, throw. Use your entire wrist, but try not to move your elbows too much.”
Llujah took a deep, calming breath, then took firm hold of the knife, keeping it loose in his hands. He locked onto the bulls-eye of the target, and as soon as he was about to let it fly, he was stopped by Taiat. “You’re moving your elbow too much. You will completely miss your target if you continue like that. Keep your elbow in tight against your ribs and move only your forearm. You will control the path of the knife much more efficiently that way. Now, do it right this time."
Llujah glanced over to his teacher as he criticized his form and stood listening to what he
should rather than what he was doing. He huffed a bit, then let it go and gave his teacher’s advice a whirl. Through all of the motions, he kept his elbow at his side and flicked the knife with only his wrist and forearm. He let it fly and watched it spin and spin through the air in wonder. After only one try, the end of the wooden knife embedded into the bulls-eye of the target. He received several other knifes from Taiat and threw them all in the same fashion. Most of them he missed by several inches and some never hit the target at all. Eventually, though, he ended up getting three perfect shots in a row.
Taiat nodded approvingly. “Well done. Took much less time that I first expected. Now then…” He retrieved yet another knife, a real one, from the depths of his hammer-space and calmly walked over to Llujah and handed it over. “I want you to get a bulls-eye on your first shot. It is no different from the wooden ones, besides the weight distribution and the size. If you truly know what you’re doing, it will make no difference. Now go.”
Llu gulped as he gingerly took the knife. It looked terribly sharp and dangerous, but… He had come this far! This should prove to be no problem to him, no way, no how! Eyes lowered with determination and focus, Llu kept his elbow close to his side, flicked his wrist, and threw the knife. He was completely taken aback to see the knife firmly set into the bulls-eye, right on target. He grinned and look towards his teacher.
“That was awesome! Wasn’t it awesome?”Taiat said nothing for a moment, his green eyes closed. After a few seconds, though, his eyes opened and regarded Llu with a calm knowing look. “Well done. That was rather impressive.” He silently walked over to Llu, meeting him at almost eye level. He held a strange object in his hands. “Hopefully, you will never have to use these melee skills, but in case you do…” He placed the object in Llu’s hands. It was a small, plastic knife, tapered to a frighteningly sharp point. “…here is something to defend yourself with. It will not draw blood, but if you hit your aggressor with it in the right points, he will go down. Keep it safe, as well as yourself.”
Llujah cradled the small plastic object in his hands as if it were a precious, ancient artifact. He actually had a throwing knife now! How cool was that?!
“Wow! Th-thank you so much, teacher!” He bent at the waist in a grateful bow, then turned on his heel and rushed out of the classroom. Taiat watched the boy depart with an emotionless look in his eye.
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