49 Instructor Ian

Looking at Ian he was actually a short fellow who seemed to not be that old either maybe just shy of his twenties. He was wearing some normal leather gear that seemed to have some fluff thrown hear and there, whether that be because of an actual functional reason or just something for aesthetic. Ian's hair was brown which was in a sort of bowl cut hairstyle which probably would have looked weird on others but Ian was somehow pulling it off.

Instructor Ian then went over a small introduction about the saber that Sagar guessed was for anybody who hadn't been using the weapon for a long time. Even then Sagar still found some of the things that Ian talked about insightful giving him a new perspective on the saber itself. Sagar wondered if all the instructors were similar to the teacher and Ian in this aspect but he put that at the back of his mind to put his attention on the lesson.

Eventually while he was talking he starts holding his saber out in front of him but he lowers the tip of the weapon down a bit. Turning to everyone Ian starts with a question, "Does anyone see the problem with the way I'm holding the saber?", Ian waited a bit to see if anyone would answer but seeing no response he calls over someone and requests them to hold their saber in the same way he was holding it just now.

"The problem you see is this.", while saying that he puts his saber on top of the other saber causing it to fall even further. The student tried to raise his saber up but not only was Ian not allowing him but Ian also followed up on his move. Sliding his saber across the other students saber with Ian's quickly reaching the throat of the student, of course he stopped the saber once it reached that point, he wasn't trying to hurt the kid.

Seeing the demonstration everyone realized what Ian was trying to get across to them. Ian seeing the students around him reaching the conclusion on their own he further elaborated, " This is something that applies to most weapons but it is especially true for sabers because they are curved weapons. Most likely most of everyone here doesn't hold their saber at that level to allow their opponents to give them an opportunity to deliver a blow to you. The main reason I'm going over it was for whenever you into drawn out battles where you end up using a lot of stamina. Unconsciously you may start to lower your saber in the way just demonstrated so it's best to pay attention to this detail. Here let me show you all something else."

Waving his hand he called over the same student used in the previous showing and then requested, "Go ahead and attack me.", the student complied and slashed out not with too much power as this wasn't a spar. When the attack reached Ian he quickly blocked it and then retaliated but instead of throwing off his opponents weapon he turned his saber in a certain way that allowed the backside of the weapon to slide over the other saber with the tip of Ian's saber stopping at the chest of the student.

"This is another neat thing you need to take advantage of mainly because you need to remember that the saber is curved weapon above all else which allows it to do things like this. Of course this technique has different applications especially when you are fighting against a weapon that is of a different length than your saber. You also need to take account your saber's special traits, not in that it's a saber so that it's used differently than different weapons, I mean using the properties of your specific saber and finding a comfortable fighting style around it.", showing his saber to all the students Ian continued, "See my saber doesn't have much a sharp tip so it's thrusting power it less than other sabers, but if you pay attention the backside of my saber is not completely dulled with half of it actually being sharp which allows me to attack my opponents with it."

Sagar understood what Ian was trying to say here, his saber was more of the opposite of his. Sagar's saber had a sharp tip allowing it to thrust with great force and the backside of it was completely dull so Sagar couldn't really use it for any sort of lethal attacks. After going over some other techniques he separated the students and Sagar into pairs to allow them to practice some of what they had learned.

This was how the rest of the class went until it was time to be dismissed with the teacher gathering all of the students form their instructors to give them another short lecture before letting them go on their way. Sagar enjoyed this class a bit more than he thought he would and felt like he learned a good amount from it just from the first session. Maybe the follow up classes wouldn't be as informative as this one but Sagar felt satisfied even if this was the only time they would be coming here. Looking at Umbra's and Klaus' face it seemed that they shared the same sentiment in that regard.

"Klaus I'm assuming it went well with the instructor you went to?", Sagar asked out of curiosity as after separating to go with their individual instructors he didn't really look to see how Umbra or Klaus were doing.

Nodding his head Klaus responded, "Yeah, it did. There were other students who used two-handed weapons but didn't have a specific instructor for their weapon so the instructor there catered as much as he could to just two-handed weapons."

Sagar turned to Umbra to ask her the same thing but she already knew what he was going to ask so she just told him without him asking, "My lesson went pretty smoothly as well. I thought it was surprising that there were still things I didn't know about or application of the longsword I had to yet try yet. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with this first lesson."

"Did your master teach you about the different uses of your weapons?", Sagar was wondering if their master did or not considering that he taught them all they knew about fighting from him.

"Well yes he did but that was only the basics. He mainly taught us about fighting in general and helped figure out what we preferred along with guiding us with things he couldn't specifically go over.", thinking about it for a bit Umbra continued, "He mostly sparred with us barehanded so I just assumed that he actually didn't use weapons but rather used martial arts."

The three of them continued to chat while they made their way to get some lunch. Before then they went over to get Talia who had been in her room for the entire day since she didn't have any classes today. She gladly joined and made their way over to the dining hall.

After spending most of his day with his friends Sagar mad his way back to his room to reflect on his first week in the academy. So far it's been a good time with him going about his day either in class, hanging out with his friends or simply training. It was a more entertaining routine than when he was back in Mountain Village where he spent most of his time training, not like he regretted it or anything after all he did other things besides training while there.

While here he even found out more things about his mother that he was curious about but wasn't able to find out from either his mother or anybody from the Drak residence. Next time he gets a chance to make his way back to Verreaux he would try to get more concise answers from his mother but that really just depends on whether or not she wanted to talk about it herself. Maybe he could get more information from his father who should at least be in the capital whenever he comes back. From what he's heard his father was actually in the group with mother when they went to go subdue the creature.

With several things on his mind Sagar eventually drifted off to sleep.