In the meditation room, Vince stands on one leg doing as the room would indicate. His datapad’s alarm beeps. Setting his foot down, he walks over and turns the alarm off before smiling cheerfully. Gathering his items, Vincent leaves the room to meet up with Thelion in the training room.
‘Today is the day,’ Vince thinks as he walks past others in the temple, nodding and beaming a cheerful smile. ‘Today is the day I begin to learn the fifth form.’
Vince is generally excited to learn, but this time it’s different. He’s about to learn the form that seems like it was made for those like himself. He gets to the training room a few minutes before they were scheduled in order to allow himself time to warm up without taking more of Thelion’s time. Once he’s done warming up, Vincent sits to the side crossed legged waiting for a few minutes before Thelion arrives with a holocron.
“Vincent.” Thelion nods in greeting, setting the holocron up before standing to the side to watch, while taking the opportunity to handle some paperwork as well. Vincent smiles and waves, before activating the holocron and watching intently.
A balding human master that Vincent doesn’t recognize appears and begins to instruct with a calm, but assured tone. “Greetings initiate. Today, we shall be studying The Fifth Form. Shien and Djem So. Way of the Krayt Dragon. The Preserver Form. To understand this form, one must look to the form’s origins in Soresu. Developed by practitioners of Form III who felt that the defensively minded form unnecessarily extended time spent in combat by forcing its users to wait for an opportunity to strike rather than create their own openings. Form V combat was characterized by power attacks and defense immediately followed by a counterstrike.” Vince nods, rubbing his beard as he takes in the information.
“The first portion of The Fifth Form is Shien. It is well-adapted to guard against blaster fire and enemy strikes without compromising one’s ability to launch powerful counterattacks. The second portion, Djem So, is more suited to single combat especially against other lightsaber wielders. Djem So is characterized by brute strength and pure power, with wide, powerful strikes and parries followed immediately by a counterattack,” the hologram continues while Vince stands, nodding along. “Caution is advised however. Both Shien and Djem So are exceedingly physically demanding, requiring physical domination of the opponent. Be aware of the strain on both body and mind, and keep yourself focused and at peace. We will begin with the stances and training exercises.”
The holocron concludes the historical portion of this training before continuing, showing the basic stances and movements. Moving slowly at first to mimic, Vince seems to follow along rather well, though the Master does need to correct him as he goes occasionally. This form seems more natural for Vincent than any others, his philosophy, large physique and endurance well suited for the form.
Once the basics are down, they move to the training exercises to apply the basics he just learned. Each swing of his blade against the training dummy causes a loud CRACK, his blade moving to parry one of the arms and swinging forward again, blocking and parrying repeatedly as he trains his muscle memory. Finally, the holographic master ends the movements, by which time Vincent is dripping with sweat, panting heavily. He pushed himself hard, though not so hard as to concern the Knight with a great deal of medical knowledge with him.
“This is the beginning of your path in The Fifth Form. Train in these movements for at least an hour per day in thirty minute sessions to build your endurance. You will find in time that the form becomes easier to maintain for longer durations. Also, I recommend you continue studying in the third form as well, for many of the masters of that form were the creators of this. May the Force be with you.”
The balding man winks out as the holocron shuts down, at which time Thelion walks over and nods. “Well done Vincent. Go rest and replenish. You need it,” Thelions states in a firm tone before taking the holocron back to its proper resting place.
Form V Shien & Djem So 1/8