Fandom High School

Cara's class had been told to meet her in the salle, where various training dummies, a few heavy bags, protective gear, practice weapons and the like had been set up.

"As those of you I've taught before hopefully suspected, you're actually having your final this week," she deadpanned. "Surprise.

"Now I've been told that I can't actually make you fight each other for final marks." It wasn't even like it had going to have been to the death, or anything. "So instead I'm going to have you prove you've been listening by demonstrating the kind of hitting that makes you feel better. So you can punch the bags, you can go up against the training dummies, if you can find a partner you can spar. Simple enough."

Cara's class was once more in the Danger Shop, though it resembled the stables near the dorms rather than a movie theatre. Stables that unlike the current real thing were filled with horses.

"So, sometimes the things you need to hit are not very close to you, and while you could try walking, that often takes too long." And it got boring quickly. Trust her on this. "Which is where horses come in, as they require less time and effort than walking. Provided you're not an idiot about it."

Today Cara's class were in a simulation of a tavern, one closer to the one from spring break than to Caritas.

"In addition to what I'm already teaching you, it's also valuable for you to learn how to avoid a fight." Allegedly. According to people who weren't even on the island. "So try not to hit anyone today."

Yeah, it was obnoxious bar patrons week, so good luck with that.

Cara's class were in the gym this week, because there's were the heavy bags were.

"We haven't talked about reasons why you might want to hit things yet." Because the name of the class said everything about the value of talking when you could just hit stuff. "It might be because you come from a dangerous place, or you might just want to be prepared, or you feel some stupid urge to protect people, or you just like getting into fight, or because you just really want to hit something." And yes, those last two were completely different.

"Now I don't particularly care about your reasons for hitting things, but you will be a better fighter if you have it clear in your mind why you're fighting, and don't lie to yourself about it." Unless you were her and were hitting things specifically to avoid thinking about why you were hitting things, but it was different when she did it. "So what you're going to do is pick a heavy bag, think about why you want to hit it, or whatever it is you actually want to hit, and then hit it as hard as you can. For the rest of class. It'll be good for you."

Cara's class were once more in the Danger Shop, which looked an awful lot like the salle today.

"Teamwork. Even if you don't normally expect to be fighting with allies, knowing how to, and how to adapt your fighting style accordingly is important as being effectively able to combine strengths and cover for weaknesses will enable you to take on opponents you might otherwise lose against. If you can't, you might as well be fighting your supposed allies and doing your enemies work for them."

"So today we're going to be working on working together. Find a partner, stand other there with them, then we'll get started."

Cara had her students meet her in the Danger Shop today, and had an air of being entirely too pleased with herself.

"Since you all seemed to have some idea what you're doing last week, we'll be skipping the part where you learn to throw a simple punch." And if anyone broke a finger because they didn't know how to make a fist that would be a valuable lesson for them about not overstating their abilities in the future. "Instead we'll skip to the next most important part, taking a hit, because sometimes the things you hit, hit back."

"The best strategy is to avoid getting hit at all, and if if you're quick enough I'd advise you to go with that, but since that doesn't always work there are various methods you can use to limit the damage. If you're using weapons you can attempt to parry the blow. You can wear armour, though that comes with trade offs in speed, flexibility, endurance, and vision or hearing depending on the kind. You can attempt to direct the blow away from your vitals, as something hitting your head, gut, or groin will tend to have more dramatic results than elsewhere. You can also attempt to move with a blow as it connects, so it hits with less force. So you have more options then just standing there and walking it off." Teaching them how to do that effectively would take far too much time.

"Now, I could just have you hit each other to try all this out, but that would be less interesting than putting you through your paces on this." She fiddled with a control, and a giant monstrosity of raised platforms, moving walkways, and various padded arms all swinging, rotating, and generally moving in vaguely ominous ways. A giant pit filled with a squishy looking substance surrounded it. Barring a lack of neon colours, it wouldn't have looked entirely out of place on some kind of game show. "Doesn't that look fun? Also, because people generally like measuring the length of their swords, I'm going to time you."

In a move surprising absolutely no one who'd been paying attention to her previous finals, Cara had told her students to meet her at the onsen and to bring appropriate clothing.

"If you need me to explain what we're doing today, then there's no hope for you," she told them. "As to the why, there's any number of reasons. Physically, soaking will help soothe overworked muscles and keep you in condition to fight. It's also good for stress relief, meaning you'll be in a better state of mind to pick your fights, and if you're fighting in a group socialising like this benefits that whole trust thing I talked about earlier in the session."

Today, Cara was holding her class in the Dangershop. Given that the main reason for that would be because she couldn't do the class she wanted to outside, it was possibly time to start worrying.

"Teamwork," she said shortly. "Adding more people to a fight changes how you fight, if it's with someone you can rely on, who knows how you fight and knows how to work with you, then your ability to fight effectively increases, if you have to spend as much time watching them as your enemy, you better hope your enemy has the same problem, which is a good way to lose. SO it's time for a little trust exercise."

Cara held up a blindfold. "Pair off, one of you is going to wear one of these and the other is going to guide them through a test. Once that's done, you swap roles."

Cara was back in the salle this week.

"So you're not all completely hopeless." That was dangerously close to praise, there. "Still, before we move onto anything interesting we're going focus on two things today, the first of which is throwing a punch."

She stripped off a glove and held her hand up so they could see. "There are twenty-seven bones in the hand and wrist. Breaking them hurts, break them badly enough and you risk crippling yourself." Luckily for their peace of mind, she wasn't going to elaborate further on how and where she'd learnt this. "Making a fist incorrectly and then flailing around like an idiot is a very good way to break something, so it's in your best interest to learn how to do it properly."

Moving slowly enough that they could follow what she was doing, Cara explained how to make a fist, then how to strike with it with less chance of injury. "Now until I call you back for the next exercise, you're going to practice this," she said. "Those of you with less confidence stay here and strike at the air, those of you who think they know what they're doing can use the bags. Focus on form and technique over power or speed.

"I also expect you to practice outside of class if you want to be any good. In a real fight you're not going to have time to think about this, you'll have to rely on muscle memory."