CHAPTER 22: The Five Basic Stances

Instructor Vann ran her gaze over the students.

"The first is the Segrio Healing Stance, second is Dalic Stance, then Suppression Stance, Hani Shift Stance and lastly Conduction Stance. Those five make up what is known as the Five basic stances. They're called that because those are the basics of the basics, those five stances are what every Ranked is required to know to survive out in the real world."

"The first of them is the Segrio Healing Stance and it's the stance that all of you should know very well since Freestone gives it to every student that moves up from the Primary Section. But for the sake of the lesson I'll give a brief low down of it."

Instructor Vann then proceeded to tell us about the five stances over the next few hours.

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'That class felt longer than usual.' I said with a sigh. I was sitting on a bench outside the main building and taking a break until the next class started.

"ALEX!" 

I looked up and saw Alistair running toward me with an excited look on his face. 

"What's up?" I said when he reached me.

Without saying anything Alistair reached down and grabbed my hand before pulling me to my feet.

"Hey!" I exclaimed then snatched my hand back. "What's up with you?"

"There's no time for that," replied Alistair impatiently. "Right now you need to come with me."

I folded my arms then stared at Alistair with indignation. "First of all I'm your boss so you have no right to order me around, and anyway I don't feel like following you when I don't know where we're going."

Alistair closed his eyes and when he reopened them he looked to have calmed down. "I'm sorry about that, I was just so excited that I lost my cool."

"What could make you freak out like this, it's rare to see you acting like this."

Alistair then leaned forward and whispered a few words in Alex's ear. As he talked the look on Alex's face changed from one of confusion to one of surprise then finally excitement.

"Is this true?" I said when Alistair pulled back.

Alistair nodded his head. "Yes it is, his lieutenant came and told me himself."

"And they're not just messing with us?" 

Alistair shrugged his shoulders. "We won't know until we go, but I don't think they are."

I then turned and walked toward the entrance of the building. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

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"This is it." Said Alistair quietly. "The famous hallway."

Alistair and I were standing in front of the hall that led to the west wing of the main academy building. There are almost no students that are allowed to walk down this hall, and if a person does do it and gets caught there is a high chance that the person will be expelled, at least, that's what the rumors say.

The hall is known by all students as The Iconic Hall. The hall is named after the student council leaders of Freestone Academy, the future leaders of the world, the ones that stand above everyone else, and most of all First Tiers, these people are called the Twelve Icons. The hall got the name from the fact that only the Twelve Icons and people they invite are allowed to walk down it. The whole west wing belongs to the student council and it contains the private offices of the Twelve Icons.

As I stood before the hall I suddenly remembered that we still had classes today.

"Alistair, you know that classes are starting in a few minutes right?"

"Those classes can go to hell," immediately replied Alistair. "This is more important. And anyway when one of the Twelve Icons calls for you you don't wait, you immediately go no matter what."

I looked back and took a deep breath before taking my first step into the hall. "Let's go."

I half expected something to happen the moment I stepped inside, but I looked around and saw that nothing had changed.

I sighed in relief and continued down the hall.

As I walked down the hall I realized that it wasn't much different from the other hall in Freestone. Sure there were pieces of artwork everywhere and everything looked exquisite, but in the end it was just a normal hall. From the stories I had heard I almost expected the hall to be alive and have a mind of its own. 

Alistair and I walked straight down for a few minutes before we reached the end of the hall and finally saw any sign of human life.

Behind a long elegant desk sat one male and one female student. When we reached the desk they both looked up and smiled politely.

"Hello, how can we help you?" Asked the male student.

"We are here to meet the Ninth Icon." Replied Alistair.

The female student smile dropped for a moment before it quickly reappeared. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Yes," I replied. "He's expecting us."

"And your names are....?"

"Alex Shampa and Alistair Brown." I then watched as the female students began tapping away on her XOC.

After a few minutes she looked up and smiled warmly. "He's not ready for you yet." She then nodded her head at some sofas in what looked to be a small waiting area. "Wait there and I'll let you know when he's ready to see you."

Alistair and I walked up to the couches and sat down.

Time slowly passed by and before I knew it thirty minutes had passed.

'What's taking him so long?' I thought in irritation. 'He's the one that called us and he's making us wait?'

'My time is more precious than this." 

I then sighed and closed my eyes. 'I guess I'll run through Instructor Vann's lesson on the Five basic stances. I know three of them but sometimes it's better to relearn stuff.'

'This first thing she mentioned was Segrio Healing Stance.' I smiled as I thought back on how I've used it over the years. 'This is probably the stance that I'm most comfortable using since I've had it the longest. The next one I'm most comfortable with is Dalic Stance, which is a technique that creates an armor of Hani around my body.' I sighed and tried remembering all the details. 'If I remember correctly, and I'm pretty sure I am, the armor that it creates is not impenetrable, the most it can do is reduce the impact of a blow and maybe if a blow would be fatal, it would reduce the impact and make it just a serious injury.'

'Whenever I'm in a fight I use it so that my defense will increase and last longer in hard fights. Eh, uh, I think that's all there is to remember about that one. Next is the Hani Shift Stance.'

I opened my eyes and looking up at the desk saw that the male student was no longer there.

'Hmm, guess he went somewhere.' I thought in passing. 'Anyway Hani Shift Stance is both an offensive and defensive technique that's based on the Dalic Stance.'

'The Dalic Stance creates an armor that covers the whole body, but Hani Shift Stance takes it a step further. It moves the armor that the Dalic Stance creates and focuses it in one area. This can have two effects, the first is that if you know where a strike from a weapon will land, you can use the Hani Shift Stance and increase the armor in that area drastically. And the second one is you can gather it in your hands or feet so that any attack from that area will be much more powerful.'

I then thought back to my fight against Zac and his group.

'I should know, I used it two times in that fight.'

The first time was when Alex had stomped on the ground and the second was when he had killed Zac with that final punch. But Alex had also used Hani Shift Stance once before and it was during the fight he had with the hooded person in the woods. 

The reason he hadn't died when that person had stabbed him was because at the final moment, just when the sword was inches away from him he had used the Hani Shift Stance to increase the armor on his stomach so although the sword still entered his body, the speed and power of the strike was largely reduced.