Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Acornpelt looked around, curious to where her apprentice was. The tabby looked around, wanting to find him. That's what he wants me to do she realized. So instead she did the opposite, she sat down waiting for Crowpaw to come to her.

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

The first kick didnt manage to completely move her even if it winded her though the second one did dislodge her moving the warrior enough for Shrewpaw to stand. "Good job." She wheezed having to dip her head for a few moments to regain her composure though she waved a reassuring tail to make sure the apprentice knew she wasnt mad or too hurt. "When you're pinned on your back and that doesn't work then there is also another move you can do as a last result. When youre stuck that way your claws and fangs are open and usually the other cat is trying to seriously hurt you so if you're forced to, go for the throat. I dont usually approve of killing blows but better you live then your foe if pushed." With one final cough the warrior finally caught her breath again.

"Next is when you're pinned on your belly." She swiped a paw at Shrewpaws legs suddenly looking to knock him down without warning. If he dodged it was a good show of how skilled he really was if he didnt he'd just end up pinned like he was going to be anyway.

@gs29513

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

(Queen of the pinnepeds-BEAUTIFUL!)
Pleased that he had gotten Adderfang off, Shrewpaw was on his feet, momentarily worried that he had actually hurt the warrior. He REALLY didn't want to hurt someone from his clan, especially not if they were helping him learn battle moves for beating Dawnstar. As she talked about KILLING, he shuddered, hoping HE never had any reason to do that. The blood, all the grossness.......it must be horrible! And to kill a cat, end their life, he didn't even want to think about it anymore. So he was more than ready for the next move, resisting the urge to try and dodge the swinging paw and plopping to the ground willingly, on his front as requested. In an attempt to be prepared, he tucked his paws under him, out of the way so they weren't stepped on. @Rani

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Adderfang stepped her front paws onto Shrewpaws shoulders pinning him in place. "Now you dont get pinned like this often as its harder for an opponent to accomplish but it means when others are pinned like this generally they have no clue how to get out but thrashing, which wastes energy. Theres actually an easier way. Plant your paws on the ground and push up rolling your shoulders as you do. Like a wave motion or the motion you use when youre working out a kink in your back just roll them one after another, your attackers paws will slip right off. This may take a bit to get the motion right but keep trying Ill just stand here." Adderfang instructed trying to not hurt the apprentice by putting all of her bulky body weight onto him. She was big and mainly thick muscle and if she tried to keep him pinned the learner wasn't likely moving and even now using all her body weight on someone just trying out the techniques would be bad. Still after this they could move on to a practice spar and she could teach him some special attack moves during that, kinda a learn while you go thing which could be fun.

@gs29513 (hehe thanks its a great play on words kinda cuz rani means queen and pinnipeds are my constant obsession/my major focus)

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Shrikepaw frowned considering his mentors words head cocking back and forth unconsciously as he thought over the ideas, a rare honest sign of his youth. It all seemed like good advice but implementing it would be the hard part, the tom had no doubt he was going to take a few hits in the process. He was more afraid than he'd like admit of that. Not so much because of the potential impact attached but because of the lingering worry that Windstrike, seeing an opportunity, would pull claws on the apprentice and make it a blow he wouldn't be able to take. All warriors he'd learnt from before had been of that kind and his mentor hadn't really done much to prove he was any different only fuelling what was becoming an unhealthy paranoia of everyone but Shrikepaws own sister. A reasonable one knowing shadowclan and his usual training but one that would hold him back in this learning stage.

Right he wasn't hesitating this time, Shrikepaw didn't waste a single second as he darted forward ducking low and sliding as if to batter his stomach before leaping at the last second. Jumping in a smooth arch his paws went wide trying to grip at the warrior firmly back paws lifting off of the ground to batter at Windstrikes side while he clung. He'd tried this attack before on Shrewpaw and it worked well while it lasted, Shrikepaw was small enough that he could easily hold himself on to someone and being stuck so firmly onto someones side made him harder to hit and near impossible to bite. It was simple, body tucked in close to his foe front paws reached around to get a firm grip and tail curled out of the war around a leg he made himself as small as possible back paws kicking at an open stomach, it was difficult without claws but defiantly not impossible. As long as he wasn't tossed off the small tom could do a lot of damage with his free back paws while his opponent was reeling, cats rarely knew what to do when finding an unwanted clinging burr that refused to let go and that confusion afforded the opportunist a lot of room to work. He had been foiled by the other apprentice flopping over and squishing him sure but the tom had made plans to avoid that this time.

Even if the move failed Shrikepaw was prepared to take Windstrikes advice and move with whatever counter attack the warrior threw at him even it was more on the fly than the young tom perhaps preferred. Adaptability in battle, he could learn that right?

@Pepperkins

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

(It's awesome! I didn't know Rani meant queen, but I adore pinnipeds too! So good at swimming!)
Listening to Adderfang's explanation of how he should push up and roll his shoulders, and about how thrashing didn't really work, Shrewpaw wiggled his shoulders experimentally. There might be one obvious flaw with this plan, when the cat pinning you was about twice as heavy as you were, but he might as well give it a shot. Maybe he'd get really lucky and only get sat on by a tiny apprentice? Bending his front legs under is chest, he pushed up in what he thought was a fairly sudden motion, except Adderfang weighted A LOT. Turning his really fast push up into more of shakey, staggery stretch. Oops. He'd have to work on getting stronger if he was actually going to pull this one off quickly. Still, he was now almost halfway up, so he tried to roll his shoulders, thinking wave. HE WAS A WAVE! HE WAS A WAVE! And repeating that to himself over and over did help, his motion becoming a bit more fluid, although he was fairly certain Adderfang was still up there, judging by how much his legs were shaking, holding up the weight. So, not wanting to have to flop back down and try again, the small apprentice dropped his left shoulder, hoping she would just.....skid off. Although that might not work. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do when his opponent weighed about a ton, but he was giving it a shot. @Rani

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Fadedpaw looked at the other two then back at Burningspark as she heard her name being called. "Yes, Burningspark." She mewed half angry because.
@Pluto
@Willowfern
@WolfGIRL

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

“My mentor took me battle training once and I practiced as a kit so I know some things,”Marigoldpaw mewed eager to start training. Oh man this is going to be fun! I can’t wait to reck someone!
( @Pluto @Willowfern @Creeped Out So sorry fir the late response this go buried in my mentions! )

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Adderfang grunted as she increasingly struggled to keep her grip on the apprentice in the face of the rolling movements, though she still didn’t let go. Shrewpaw would have to work for it but as he suddenly dropped his shoulder with how unstable she already was Adderfangs paws just skidded of the younger toms back and he was freed from her grasp. “Good job that kind of unpredictability is good in fights, it’ll be a boon in the future. I guess thats the second pin escape down, if that doesn’t work in battle you can ram the back of your head into them too the shock of the impact can sometimes buy you some wiggle room or space. Do you want to practice either of those pins and escapes again of do you want to move on to special moves or a spar straight away?” The warrior asked stepping back to give the apprentice some space.

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Lash out, lash out, lash out, he was going for the roll! If Shrikepaw hadn’t had this exact move used on him before last time he tried to cling during battle he would’ve been squashed and even as is he barley managed to push off of the warrior and clumsily twist mid air to land upright to get away. Still he did yanking his tail away so it didn’t end up caught and now caught flat footed was forced to retreat. Dashing to a short distance away Shrikepaw took the moment to catch his breath again, winded at the close call, he hadn’t wanted to bolt the tom was trying to heed the advice and stay close but his minimal stamina was starting to be his downfall and the space was necessary.

This was the flaw with relying on speed and agility in a fight against a stronger foe, you tired rapidly and if you couldn’t defeat them quickly (not like he was gonna win this spar but he was trying) you were just making their win harder. Add to the fact that the endurance of an apprentice was nothing compared to a full blown warrior want a good thing. If Shrikepaw could bait his mentor into being the one to move around a lot maybe he could even the playing field…. Well he was a risk taker.
“I hardly feel stuck but then again if I wasn’t fast enough I would be. Is your weight the reason Im the one making all the big moves? I wouldn’t have pegged you as that kind of cat but I also wouldn’t have pegged you as a coward. If you want to pin me you need to actually catch me first you know.” Come on you striped menace come and attack. The monochrome tom couldn’t do anything but wait and brace to see if his ploy worked.
@Pepperkins

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Marigoldpaw let out a soft irritated growl. She was hoping she could use her favorite moves: head butting and or ramming into a cat. Maybe even using that dirt move where she kicked it into her enemies eyes and temporarily blinded them. Instead she had to do what Sir.I’m disappointed and grumpy said. Blah. Blah. Blah. With a silent huff she spared a glance at Pumpkinpaw and Fadedpaw trying to convey that she would do the leap and hold and they should close in from the side. She waited for an answer. If they didn’t answer soon she’d just do it. Marigoldpaw wasn’t the perfect team player.
( @Pluto @Willowfern @Creeped Out Yessss! Freedom! :) )

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Getting to his feet and quickly shaking out his fur, quite pleased that he had actually managed to get rid of Adderfang, Shrewpaw put that "unpredictability is good" comment in his brain for further use. The smashing the head into someone thing sounded effective, if a bit damaging to his cranium. But he supposed if a cat was shredding you from the top down, a bruised head was NOT what you were most worried about. You were most worried about your back being literally taken into several pieces. Nodding quickly, he contemplated the question a minute. It might be good to learn one more move first, just so he could try it out during the spar. After all, she knew a LOT of special moves, so he should maybe at least learn one. His voice fairly neutral, the small tom asked Could I learn a special move or two? That way I can try them out when we're actually fighting, so I get an idea of how to use them in a real battle. Taking a step back, in case Adderfang needed space to demonstrate, he watched her attentively, not wanting to miss anything. After all, this could be the difference between becoming a warrior and......not. And being shamed in front of the whole entire clan, or exiled or something equally awful. @Rani

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

@Tigerspirit2009

Tallfern led her apprentice to the training cliffs, already trying to develop a plan of action, “Alright,” she announced, “Let’s get started. Firstly, we need to address basic combat posture. Always keep your stance wide and your body slightly lowered.” She crouched slightly, widening her stance and dropping her tail, “Give it a try. This will anchor you to the ground and make you much harder to knock over.”

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Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Giving a nod Adderfang took a quick moment to think up a few moves that may be good before she began.

"The first move is a blinding one, it can be either used to cover your moves or directly disable your foe." The warrior demonstrated quickly scooping up a pawful of dirt and tossing it forward into the air in front of her. Demonstrating the blinding move first to not completely obscure the air too fast she showed the move several times to properly show the movements. A tight paw in a quick grab and shove/toss forward releasing just at the end. This method keeps the dirt tight, fast, and compact great for shooting straight into the eyes of a foe. She even showed how this move would usually be followed up by an immediate forward charge to unleash a full frontal attack.
The second type of dirt toss was slower, a long open pawed scoop going into a wide arch, paw open and loose the whole time. This movement created a large cloud that worked to help obscure the movements of the cat inside, something Adderfang demonstrated by sneaking close to Shrewpaw and emerging suddenly.

"Now this move one works best if you're bigger than your foe but if you can grab a paw start moving. If you're dragging them around fast they cannot get up and retaliate leaving you free to strike on occasion or let clanmates thrash them while they're down, or simply drag them over rocks that generally hurts. If you're too small though you can just grab any limb and yank hard, which usually hurts, sometimes breaks a bone, and always throws one off balance especially if they're mid movement"

"This last move is both a pin move and a leap one. It will get you on top of a foe while pushing them to the ground and choking them. Approach fast and wrap your paws around their neck or shoulder like an embrace, then using your momentum jump and hang on them like a tree branch, curving your back paws up and around to land on their back. Use your tail to help flip yourself while you do so, if you've ever climbed a tree it's the same movement to climbing a branch from below, hang and flip up around. You should end up on top, paws around their neck and them pulled to the ground, from there you can pin or simply hit them easier while theyre down." It was near impossible to demonstrate this one solo but the large warrior feared she'd break Shrewpaws spine if she tried it on him so after demonstrating the movement as best she could she decided to let him try on her in a bit and correct him from there if he needed it.

"Try them Ill correct any errors I see." She instructed stepping back to watch.
@gs29513

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Her demeanor still a bit ruffled, disconcerted from the meeting, Doeflame led Foxpaw to the training cliffs, scrambling up them quickly, having done so before. From the top, she made sure her apprentice made it up safely before moving to the center of the area, tail lashing a bit in annoyance at how many cats there were here already. Still, the more who knew how good Foxpaw was the better she supposed, Dawnstar had publicly said she expected great things of her. Her voice level, she mewed Alright, just.....attack me. We'll see where you are, and move from there. This would show Doeflame her style and current skills, so they could build off of them. @Foxsnarl (So sorry this took so long :heartbounce: )

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Foxpaw followed her mentor up a cliff. Really? A cliff? Forget this, she'd rather swim. The apprentice kept her mouth shut though, still shocked about the meeting. Foxpaw stood there as Doeflame spoke. "Ok." She responded. Foxpaw slunk forward waiting for a opening. Her eyes scanned the terrain and Doeflame both. @gs29513

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Her apprentice was studying her, the terrain, figuring out a strategy. Sensible, but boring for the one being scoped out, so Doeflame decided to get the fight going, claws unsheathed. She didn't like to do it, but Foxpaw had done it with Dawnstar, so she wouldn't get hurt to badly. At least, she didn't think so. With a hiss, the large warrior leapt forward, hoping to just bowl into her apprentice and use her size to pin her or at least put her on the back paw. Then she could see what the new clanmate was made of. @Foxsnarl

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Shrewpaw understood the idea behind, why anyone would do, the sand spray. If your opponent couldn't see you, they couldn't hit you, and the sand spray did that by obscuring their view, and maybe scratching up their eyes. He practiced it a bit behind him, his small paws flinging up a gritty cloud behind his back. As he watched Adderfang flipped the sand at him, he snapped his eyes close not wanting to incur damage. After all, HE couldn't hit people if he couldn't see either. His eyes were still closed when Adderfang sprayed sand at him, so he kept them closed till it had pattered to the ground, then spinning in confusion as Adderfang wasn't where he had last seen her. Letting out a small eep as she touched his hind leg, whirling around to swing a fluffy paw at the warrior, more of a "I found you, you're not super sneaky" than in anger.

The next move was much more violent, much less useful for the small apprentice, but he supposed it could definitely do injury if you yanked hard enough. Not that he was likely to try that, since he would likely end up getting dragged about by a cat on three legs, which would be fairly humiliating, and also painful for his mouth. Unless he could find a really itsy bitsy cat to try it on. Like Shrikepaw! LIGHTBULB! He was DEFINITELY going to try that out on his little......friend? enemy? sibling of friend? He wasn't sure at this point, but his thoughts were interrupted by the complicated explanation of the next move.

The grabbing the neck bit and shoving them into the ground made a lot of sense, although you could probably kill a cat if you weren't careful. Although that might be the goal he supposed, seeing as they might end up in a actual life-or-death fight with a Windclan cat at some point. Or a Riverclan or Thunderclan cat for that matter he supposed, as he watched Adderfang attempt to show him how to do what he was going to call "the flippy thing". When instructed to try it he rushed forward, basically trying to give Adderfang's neck a hug before pushing off with his hind legs, trying hard to rotate his body around to land on her neatly, and almost certainly failing, before he began to enter the backside of the arc, falling down towards the warrior's back. @Rani (Sorry for the late reply)

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Adderfang didn't react to the batting beyond an amused huff, it was an understandable reaction and cute in the 'I'm still young' way. Though maybe that was just Adderfang.
She held still as Shrewpaw approached and leapt, it was safer for the apprentice to experiment from a nonstruggling opponent than risk injury for the tom and the warrior by giving him a realistic view of how the move would go in a real battle. Forced flat from the weight and momentum of the apprentice the warriors ears flicked a couple times as she took in a few flaws in his technique. Still the point to this move was that even against bigger and stronger foes it was hard to remain standing against the impact of another cat on your back no matter if you didnt do it perfectly. The trouble was pulling it off against a fighting foe, something Shrewpaw would soon find out.
"Thats very good Shrewpaw, please get off my spine, well done! Some minor things, try to swing your back legs harder to land with more force and duck a little more to the side with your grab and jump to avoid potential retaliatory biting. Other then that you just need to do it faster and not panic when your foe is resisting. Now try it again and don't worry if you find it more difficult."

This time when Shrewpaw charged her Adderfang would try and snap at him and jump and thrash when he latched on, of course she wasn't actually going to land a blow on him and would be going easy on the young tom but he would defiantly find it harder this time.

@gs29513

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Pleased that he had at least managed to squish the decidedly unresisting warrior, it would be a bit of a problem if he hadn't been able to after all, Shrewpaw slithered off, turning to face Adderfang in time for her feedback which was good he supposed. At least he managed to get on her, that was the most basic bit of it down anyway. After all, if he couldn't do that he was pretty well in trouble in terms of future attempts. He needed to use more force, and he hoped that he would be able to generate it by pushing off harder and using his body more, although doing it faster and not panicking at the same time would be rough. It didn't freak him out, fighting, it was more of a "I hope I do this right" thing.
Thoughts banished now though, he sped forward, momentarily alarmed to see Adderfang snapping at him but putting it out of his head, reaching his front legs for her neck and pushing off, swinging his hind legs and tail a bit wildly but forcefully, and then plummeting down with a bit more force, at least he thought so, towards the warrior, hoping he wasn't going to just slide off her side. THAT would be embarrassing. @Rani

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Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

@Russetstorm @Tigerspirit2009
It seemed as though they were getting right into it, and as much as he admired and wanted to live up to Yellowsnarl's assumption that they would be able to handle themselves in a fight, Shrewpaw greatly doubted that Frogpaw would be able to. It wasn't as though he could really throw the larger apprentice around, so as he was instructed to go first he moved to slip under the taller belly, and if he made it through the legs raking his soft, sheathed paws through the belly fur of his "opponent". Claws wouldn't be necessary to get the point across. If he made it under anyway that was.

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs
 

Re: ShadowClan Training Cliffs