You notice the tails twitching when the demonstration ends.

He comments
"Good job"

You return and Lita starts.
It is ferocious and devastates the scenery. But Kyotsu simply parries her strikes and redirects them elsewhere. Yyou swear that he is using a highly advanced soft style.

Leona and Selene know how to throw a punch. But they dob't seem to have the skill you or Lita possess.

Kyotsu comments.
"Michael, you could learn most of the style now. We just need to work on your martial arts to perfect them. Lita you could learn all the style now. Work with Micheal on his Martial arts. Leona and Selene, come with me. We need to work on your martial arts."

With that he takes Leona and Selene away.

Lita says
"Well, that was interesting.  Let's get to work. Any preferences with how you learn?"

I bow respectfully to him when he says good job, pleased with my performance and looking forward to learning.

------

"Interesting is a very good word for it. I'm amazed anyone could deflect the onslaught you put forward... The surroundings took quite a beating. As to where we begin, I am at your command. Sifu clearly established you as the teacher and me the pupil. Just tell me what to do and I will"
I then bow respectfully to Lita. I plan to follow Lita's commands to the tee, I trust her and she is more accomplished in martial arts than myself.

Lita says
"Ok. I'll show you."
She then shows you her style and runs you through the moves.
She teaches you for a few hours. Then Decides to do some light sparring with you.

Lita is in front of You in her fighting stance.
"Come at me Michael."

Since we're working on the technique as opposed to testing limits, I won't use motes for sparring. I am giving it my all to showcase my understanding of Lita's style however, taking the aggressors role at first but alternating as the match ebbs and flows. I'm trying to demonstrate my understanding of as many different aspects as she showed me.

You spar with her and she corrects a few flaws with your techniques.

She says
"It'll Take some daily practice to perfect. But You got it so far."

At this point Kyotsu returns with Leona and Selene. They look tired.
Kyotsu looks at them.

"We'll call it a day for now. Get a pair of ten pound weights for everyone with a method to tie them to your legs."

"Thank you Lita. You make a good teacher."

--------

I'll scrap an old shirt and tie the scraps into ankle bands. From there I'll start reinforcing its weight using earth motes, until I think each weighs 10 pounds. I'm patterning them after Gokus training bands, which is what immediately came to mind when Sifu mentioned this. When I'm done I'll put mine on and offer to help the others with theirs, if they want ones like mine.

You tear off strips of the shirt and then reinforced them with earth motes. They end up weighing about ten pounds each. The weight lasts for a few hours.

Kyotsu appears.
"Interesting. How heavy can you make clothes with that technique?"

"I'm not sure Sifu, this is the first time I've tried it. I can experiment if you would like, but I suspect the upper limit will go up over time as I grow used to doing this, and also depending on how many earth motes I infuse."

Kyotsu says
"Hmmm, I would like you to hit my cloths with as many earth motes as you can later. But for now do that to everyone's shoes. We are going to run for a while.  Put more weight into yours and Lita's shoes."

I assume you do so and then he runs all of you to exhaustion. You all walk back to town. What do you plan on doing now?

"Yes Sifu." and I give a small bow and go about infusing everyone's shoes. I hit Lita and mine with double, since he didn't specify how much more and I want to make sure not to undercut what he wants. Plus I want to push myself.

I'm assuming it's starting to get on towards dusk? I'll ask the others, "What do you all want to eat? I'm happy to cook, as long as it's fairly quick. I'm a combination of pure exhaustion and hunger."

Leona says
"That would be appreciated Michael. I have food at my house that would be quick to make. Follow me."

She leads everyone to her house where cook something involving rice, vegetables and a bit of meat. Do you want to talk about anything as you eat?

Not particularly, other than that I'm glad we're going through the training together, and how exhausting it is. Oh, and just generally wondering what we will be covering the next day.

The dinner is peaceful and you have a restful nights sleep. You return to the edge of the forest and find Kyotsu
"Follow me."

He leads you into the forest and stops.
"Now I'll teach the first essence technique of the style Stand-Without-Strength Intensity."
He switches to a front stance.

"Try to push me over and note how I am moving my essence."

You try to push him and it is like pushing a rock. You feel essence go into his joints and lock them with minimum effort from his muscles. After your attemt the essence flows back into him.

"Of all the things that make up the body, the bones are the hardest and the heaviest. Just as the massive beast need not strain against the wind, You can lock Your joints and use the strength of your bones to remain upright despite attack, saving the energy of your muscles for other tasks."

"I see the benefit, especially if one is able to rapidly switch. Between this and other essence forms. If one is expecting you to move, and your essence has locked your bones, it not only gives you the advantage of surprise but also allocate your muscles to a disarming technique or offensive line. Is it ok for me to try it myself Sifu?"

I assume it is, but I will continue asking for permission whenever I want to do something, unless told otherwise. He is doing a great kindness  y teaching me, I owe him the utmost respect.

If he says I can try, I will, following his example and anything he tells me.

He says
"Go ahead Michael. Lita, try to push him over."

You enter a stance and Lita pushes against you. You mimic the flow of essence he showed you locking your joints. Her strength is great but you don't fall over and you feel the essence return to you. You sense that there is a limit to how much essence will return.

He teachea the technique to the others.  Leona and Selene pick it up right away because they can see how to make the essence flow.

Lita takes more instruction because she can't see the essence flow. But with Kyotsu's guidance she picks it up. And she can push it further that everyone.  You are close behind her. Eona and Selene are a distant third.

He then has you do pushing drills to practice the technique. You with Lita. And Selene and Leona together. He instructs you to practice until you exhaust all of your essence. It takes a while for all of you to go though all of your essence.

Oce you are done. He has you practice grappling with an emphasis on holds that can be used to crush your opponent with your strength. He says for now just apply enought strenth that your opponent knows what you could have done.

He has you grapple for the rest of the day. Lita ia very scary in a grapple. you are just as good as her though. Because of your training with the missing links.

You are dismissed and heading back to Leona's house.

I have a question with regards to the training. When we're talking about essence, is that motes? Or is it internal spiritual energy?

On the walk back I'll chat about wondering what tomorrow will bring, as well as discussing whether the others thing the grappling we practiced at the end is a lead in to our next lesson.It's all just idle chatter among friends, to pass the time of the walk back.

Otherwise just plan to eat dinner and get some rest, so that I'm ready for the next day.

It's motes. Something about the technique allows you to spend motes on an effect and get back most of them.

You talk on the way back,eat dinner and sleep. You retun to the general area the next day. Kyotsu shows up with a cut log in hand.

"The next technique is Muscle Without Bone Relaxation.

Enormous constrictor snakes, all too common in the humid Jungle, have such flexible skeletons that they can crush their prey with every ounce of their strength. The giant creature of the jungle can use a different method: It simply falls on its victims."

He puts the log into a hold he showed you yesterday. And you see the essence flow into his muscles. He crushes the log with the technique leaving an impression of his arm into the log. Again some essence flows back into him but not as much as hr but in.

"... crushing logs might be a bit too much. But what could you practice on?..."

He seems to be thinking.

"If I may make a suggestion Sifu. I could soften a set of logs, given a bit of time. It's woodcrafting, which I don't have a fury for so the transition takes longer and takes a bit for me to recharge from. But there is that.

The other thing is, even if we can not succeed at crushing the log in it's current state, we may still be able to use it. This gives us a goal to work towards, and proof of our improvement."

His ears perk up at that. You have an idle thought that his emotions are very easy to read.

"That would be good. Better than my idea. Vould you treat the logs I bring with ylur woodcrafting?"

He lets you respond and flickers for a second and then he is carrying four logs. Two in his arms and two in his tails.

You perform the woodcrafting on the logs. And then he instructs all of you to practice on them. The results are similar to yesterday. Lita is really good once she figures out how to do it. You are gust as good but you learn it quicker. Leona and Senene do decently.

You note that the mote return is related to how much you damage it.

Afterward he has you weigh down everyones shirt sleeves. Then he has you climb trees without shoes. He says you need to understand the feeling of great mass in tune with unbound feet.

You are exhausted by the end of the day. Ready for the next day?

OOC: how are you feeling about how I am handling this? Too fast? Too slow? What do you think?

OOC) I think it's great pacing for training. Interesting and gives a good feel of what we're learning without taking forever.

I smile when I notice the easy to read emotions. I suppose that is what happens when you have entities that are singular concepts of a versers soul. Deception is just not in him.

Is the mote return propertional to damage done or inversely proportional? Wasn't clear whether doing more damage got me more motes back or less.

I am good to continue to the next day. One thing I want to start using more often though is my elemental mote pump. These are good conditions to practice it in, and having motes more quickly let's me practice these moves more. Plus it let's me do stuff like aid in woodcrafting without slowing us all down.

The mote return is proportional to the damege done.

The next day you return to the forest with Kyotsu. He says.
"The next technique is the central stance that embodies the style. Emulating the mass and delicacy of Kings of Beasts in the Jungle."

He enters a fighting stance and then his entire attitude changes. He stands tall, like there is nothing larger than himself.  But he moves with an easy grace of one that walk on the tightropes.

His essence is flowing though him maintaining the effect.

He guilds you through adopting the stance. And you feel the power and attitude flow through you. You feel tougher and more graceful. More skilled at grappling and able to hit things harder it takes a total of four motes to maintain this stance.

"This is quite the feeling. Power and confidence brimming. I assume based on what you said that we could slide into the other forms from this as a central form? Or did you mean in conjunction?"

He replies
"It is the central stance of this style. This style is basic enough not to have other stances. This stance compliments the other techniques of this style.
You could switch to the stances of other styles."

"That makes sense. Thank you for the explanation Sifu."

He shows the others how to do the stance and then has you work on the same pushing drill while maintaining the stance.

At this point you decided to activate your mote pump. It brings in a mixture of solar and wood essence.
This causes Kyotsu to raise an Eyebrow.
"Interesting. That isn't like how Magnus does it by drawing in the essence of the land and world below him. Your method is safer and more stable than his method... Although you wouldn't be able to replicate his surges of power. Then again you are not crazy enough to try."