::Knowing next to nothing of the person she was supposed to train, Neko had wanted to see what she had to work with and how he fought. And what weapons if any he had chosen to make his own.
The blades were odd, but intriging. Something she had little experience with, but could she her self using if she needed to. He was fast. His style required it. It was little wonder seeing just that brief display as to why her uncle had sent him to her.
She circled as she watched him and when he was done she stepped forward once more and reached out her hand to take his if he allowed.
If he did, she would turn his hand over and examine the knife and how it laid in his palm.::
"Interesting.
You fight almost as if unarmed. You will find that study in both equally will help you. Speed and accuracy will be your ally. Armor your weakness."
::She dropped his hand and turned to the dummy. With one hand she pointed to the freash scars in the wood.::
"The blows here...and here. They were good. Likely to cripple or kill most any target and slip past the openings in most armors.
These. Here...and here. In anyone wearing more than simple leathers, you would have caught the edge of the armor and delt little to no damage. Opening yourself up to a counter strike.
The knives were built to fit the natural shape of the hand when closed about it. The blade curved inward and held an edge not unlike a talon, built thick enough to grant the tip the ability to pierce. On the opposing end, each had a ring that sat around Ramir's index finger, which secured them and gave him more torque when striking. They also allowed him to flash and flip the blades, a nifty trick but useless for anything but causing some confusion.
Ramir didn't mind her critique and he didn't consider armour a large issue for him. He had no delusions about what he could do against an armoured opponent and these blades were not his only weapon.
He sheathed his knives and placed them on the table once more, before nodding. He gave Neko a small smile as he tightened the band about his head and then dusted off his hands. Stepping closer, he clenched his fists tight, worn knuckles and trained sinew creaking and cracking aloud. But he allowed them to relax then and took a slow, steady breath. His expression was blank.
::She gave a nod and turned to walk to the edge of the sparring area she had just got done working on. She bowed to the space before entering and stepped several paces in before turning back to her charge. She wore her leather armor and her gloves she had received from Kiga, but carried no other weapons with her.::
Ramir simply followed her into the ring without any degree of ritual. It wasn't disrespect, it just wasn't his way. As much as he'd been to the east, he'd never trained there. His career certainly never made way for such pleasantries and training in the North under Swansong, well that was as rough and as unrefined as it got. Where now there was a ring, there had been rocks, rivers, logs and cliffs...
Which also explained why Ramir wasn't concerned. Yes, this was only training, but training had damn near killed him before. Here, he had no reason to fear for his safety. Perhaps he was underestimating Neko's intent, but she'd given him no readon for worry thus far.
He nodded as he stood across from her, not quite sure what to do with himself beyond that. It might come across as odd, but Ramir hadn't been trained through rigid stances and forms. He fought from a casual guard, he struck switfly without warning. He was an ambush predator and well, he'd move when he needed to and not a moment before.
::She watched him as he moved still. Taking note of how he carried himself. The fact that he did not bow as he entered irked her, but she sensed that it was not out of disrespect, but just his nature. Perhaps in time that would change.
So far he reminded her alot of Kiga, before responsibility tamed the wild spirit into something more focused. Stronger. Just not as talkative...::
"Your style, like mine, relies heavily on stealth. Striking from unseen places and using surprise to you advantage. While technique is important for those types of encounters, knowing how to move about unseen and unheard is even more so.
So I will leave such training for another time."
::She was still trying to guage where he was, so she knew where to take her training. She was hoping for some clues as so far he seemed to be not far behind herself in skill.
Perhaps it was those techniques in stealth that he was sent here to learn, and nothing more. But still, she wanted to be sure she had checked other areas as well.::
"Lets see how you do when surprise is not on your side."
::She bowed to him, keeping her head up so that her eyes never left him. She then slid into the aptly named cat stance and used a hand to bekon him forward.::
Huh, interesting. It was on odd stance to start with. Her center of gravity was low and her body was wound tight enough to pounce, but she'd tire quickly if he prolonged her time spent in that stance and what more, should he trip her up, she fall quickly and need to recover. Still, she'd know all of that.
He was larger and whilst she'd trained with Gray, he wasn't so sure just how much she'd learned from him. That didn't necessarily matter though, Kiga didn't appear to emulate Gray a great deal either. A good thing that Ramir was in that same boat then.
He knew what worked for Gray though. She was waiting on his move and so, he'd make more than one.
Ramir shuffled closer, his hands gently lifting and remaining open, about chest level. His chin was low, his lead leg barely setting down - until he wound his hips about and thrashed a circle in the dirt, raking it skyward in a cloud of dust. If it were enough, she might miss his ploy - his other leg had left the ground and he'd bounced, meeting the ground further outside her guard. The momentum brought him full circle and his backfist swung at her temple, though it only sought to raise her guard as a punch, then a knee drove at her side.
::He was good. Better than she had thought at first and possibly her equal. It further cemented the idea that Gray had sent him here for something other than combat training. She would have to test him in other ways to see just what it was he needed...
When the kick came, she shifted the weight on her legs to allow her to move her head back out of the path of the leg. She then dipped low to try and avoid the punch instead of block it as she shifted forward with a punch aimed at his midsection. As her fist fired out, she brought her other arm back tight to her side to absorb some of the impact of the knee to her side.
As she pulled her outstretched fist back, she turned her feet and and tried to hook the leg that had hit her with the intent to twist and pull him off balance and possibly off his feet.::
Neko clasped Ramir's leg and found him unusually pliant, with little resistance as she pulled his weight about. The reason there was little resistance was due to Ramir winding closer and allowing her to control part of his momentum, which allowed him to get suddenly very close to her. Yes, his balance was compromised and yes, his feet no longer held him steady - but his arms shot around her and closed in, eager to lock about her throat and her head.
A less experienced foe would find themselves dropped to the ground with his weight, the sleeper hold quickly taking the fight out of them.
::Unfortunately for Ramir, Neko was not an unexperienced foe...
As she felt his arms begin to wrap about her throat and head she tucked her chin to her chest and spun her body to face him to make it more difficult for him to get a good hold and cut off her air and bloodflow.
She brought he hands up and clapsed them tight together at the nape of his neck. Were it not for the training equipment about them, a passerby may have mistaken them for lovers embraced...
...before she raised a knee hard towards his abdomen in an effort to drive the air from him before throwing herself backwards, using her grip to pull Ramir with her in an attempt to throw the off balance opponent to the ground and break his hold.::
The persistent struggle on both their parts ultimately led to one thing, the pair of them fumbling, falling and collapsing in a pile. Neither had released the other and whilst Ramir had taken a shot to the gut which stole what little balance he had left from him, his weight was greater than his opponent and she'd lifted a foot from the ground, which she really needed in place.
A dirty THUMP announced their meeting the ground, grass and dust, dirt and twigs scattered as they fell. There was a wince of pain from Ramir as he couldn't hope to break his fall, the pair holding one another much too tightly to do so. He spat grass from his mouth and blinked his eyes free of dust, then looked to Neko again with a stern expression.
After a moment of simply laying on the ground, his grip loosened and a smile crept onto his face.
::She smiles back at him as she released her grip as well and sat up in the dirt. Things had not gone as expected, but then again they rarely did.
She brushed herself off a bit before speaking to Ramir.::
"You did good. Real good.
To be honest, between how you faired against me and how you did against the dummy, I find myself hardpressed to think of things i could teach you about direct combat.
It makes me wonder why my uncle really sent you to me..."
Ramir was busily dusting himself off, leaves, grass and dirt had made an effort of covering him mostly all over. He looked up with a smile as he patted off his thighs and shrugged a little.
"Well, I know he wanted me to get some 'real experience'. I mean sure, there's plenty of opportunities to get into trouble up North, the Soren are a cantankerous lot and the Dwarves will fight anyone who looks at them sideways. But Gray seems to spend much of his time avoiding conflict, or at least he acts that way."
Ramir shrugged again, though this time it was more confused and less dismissive.
"So when he says real experience, I'm not sure he's talking about just scrapping. I've done enough of that, or at least enough for now."
"I agree. Perhaps then we should meet next back in town, once you're ready to go again. We'll have ourselves a look around and see what kind of 'real experience' we can find."
::She replied, miming the air quotes before realizing what she was doing and awkwardly pulling her hands down. Despite her newfound ability to talk, she still found herself using alot of hand gestures still.
Old habits die hard it seemed.
She got to her feet and offered her hand to help Ramir to his with a smile.::