Saga 1 Episode 6: Lucian's push for power

While Lucian slept in preparation for the next day of work at the Tainted Rose, his dreams were filled with memories of his past. Far too many hours of training to count his body riddled with scars that he conceals with illusions and clothes. The first thing he trained in was the absolute basics which would be hand to hand. Although his mother died giving birth there were a couple recordings of her doing her own training and Lucian went against his father's bloodline of Cuza tradition by learning Tae Kwon Do from the videos of his mother.  At first it was difficult to understand based on the video footage but when he spent at least a couple hundred hours studying this footage it was ingrained into his mind, the stances were the first things he'd learned to do and when they'd be appropriate in battle. From a T-stance to a Front-stance was to go from a still position of holding to advancing forward on an enemy from there a practicioner could go into chamber readying for many kicks to be possibly unleashed or even into a horse stance for increased stability on blocks. There were many kicks he learned from observing his mother's videos but his favorite was the two variations of crescent kicks (inside to outside and outside to inside) not because of damage they could potentially cause but rather because of how graceful it appeared when done by his mother. The way he drilled the many stances and kicks into his body was through transitioning between stances over two hundred times a day and using each individual kick thirty times from each stance. Naturally Lucian wasn't capable of such a large number at first but over the years of his youth he obtained that ability but after finishing the basics of training he moved onto weapons. To pass onto the next form of training he'd need to compete in a battle of Martial arts among anyone in the family and win. Choosing Clara because she was more so specialized in her powers than actual physical combat. Under the guile he'd have the advantage he rushed Clara at the announcement that the match was to begin but he'd made a fatal error; she was far more experienced then him due to experiencing matches to the death for sometime so it was to no surprise to the rest of the family when she simply stepped a foot to the side of the punch before stepping in grabbing Lucian's neck slamming him into the ground. The air knocked out of him Lucian was now realizing the error of his decision but even so he wanted to prove his mother's style was superior to all others and so he gathered himself taking an upright stance with his right leg raise up so that the knee was infront of his upper abdomen his leg bent to have his foot 'lax around his waist (his leg brought into chamber) his hands raised open in a near boxing positioning of the hands. Clara scoffed at the notion as she posessed the same arrogance as her mother so she darted forward to attack the "weakened" prey but in actuality what she was rushing was Lucian at a heightened form of concentration and focus; his eyes wide the way he looked at her was like he were peering into her soul. She started to lower to the ground for a slide kick at Lucian's grounded leg, her attack was quickly shot down when his body reacted by reflex from the efforts he'd put into learning his mothers style. A ferocious axe kick came down where Clara's left collarbone would have been if she hadn't sprung to the side of course he brought his leg back to the stance of chambering. The look on her face was vile, she glared at her younger half brother with disgust and hate thinking she was far above him in the style of close combat she would try again. Instead of going for the same attack she went straight for him feinting the notion of moving to  his left but then went straight forward thinking she had the time to headbutt him, the reality of the situation was that he was far less experienced but the natural speed of his reflexes and the time he'd put into learning Tae Kwon Do had him at an even playing field as he swung his leg cross to his left in a low kick that would've normally hit her in the leg but the feint was used so his leg continued on it's path but then began to rise in an arc before coming back round forming a inside to outside crescent kick. Perhaps in another timeline Clara would've been successful in her headbutt by simply taking the kick to her shin but in this one she slowed down her own movement by trying to fake him out; as made apparent by the course of events his reflex's were fast enough to perform a crescent kick from the angle of his low kick which brought his foot back out to his right where the side of his foot crashed into Clara's temple. Lucian who was caught up in the battle to realize she had fallen unconcious so he was following through on the kick motioning to shift the positioning of his foot to stomp on her face. Daiki who specializes in close combat witnessing the follow through sprung to action knocking Lucian to the ground his voice like thunder "ENOUGH!" it was clear who the victor was as such he passed the first trial.

The first weapon he'd trained with was a traditional katana; most people typically train with a wooden blade before getting accustomed to the weight of a metal one but not Lucian he chose the difficult hard-headed path of starting with a metal one. The sword technique he decided to specialize in is called the Hirazuki a very fast and powerful thrusting technique developed by the ancient swordsman Hijikata Toshizo as well as the more developed form known as the Gatotsu. The reason Lucian chose to use these techniques is because it is usually used from a stance almost identical to the T-stance so his body was accustomed to it in a sense. The difficult part of using these techniques was to aquire the leg strength necessary to launch himself at god-like speeds to strike an opponent before they could so much as block, even with his training in Tae Kwon Do his legs still struggled to accomplish these techniques. So he needed to continue his growth by repeating the technique many times over using it as a means to work out due to the stress it causes on the body. Even still the struggle to accomplish this feat was still very obvious so he began doing so with added on weights. A training vest weighing sixty pounds and twenty pound weights on each ankle which added on practically his own body weight at the time. A few years of training for his swordsman ship would pass; reaching the age of sixteen (two years before he joined the Furea house) he'd finally been able to utilize the Gatotsu and Hirazuki. The Gatotsu is a variation of the Hirazuki where the blade is typically held at a downward angle from a point higher than the shoulders of the user but it still a thrusting technique none the less resembling the origin Hirazuki. The Gatotsu has four total variations the first of which is a straight thrust from user to victim on the ground, the second is more so applying full force into a skyward lunging thrust and the third is a ferocious downward thrust typically done by shifting one's weight forward mid air or by kicking off a surface example being a ceiling or whatever may be above the user. This leaves only the fourth and final variation of the Gatotsu which is mostly used in absolute close quarters and is a violent surprise attack considering the Gatotsu typically builds a near unsurpassed speed of thrust through the users lunge, run, or spring of step; but in the variation known as Zero stance the user uses the entirety of their upper body to produce perhaps an even stronger thrust than the other three variants. This is done by drawing the blade back to maximum distance by bringing back the arm and rotating the upper body and the user whips their torso in the opposite direction at such a swift pace the impact of the blade hitting the target causes a mighty thunderous "BOOM" that impales the target, sometimes the user even can release the blade and the force the Zero stance creates is enough to hurl both the target and the blade up to thirty feet as well as pin them to walls. Now the Hirazuki is typically formed from a traditional T-stance which means you sink into a low baring stance with your back foot out to the side the knee bent deep enough to lower into what might be a horse stance while the front leg is outstretched ahead of the user with the knee only bent "slightly"  with the heel of the front foot raised off the ground to give a quick transition into a sprint, second spring, or whatever so have you form of motion. The positioning of the arms during the Hirazuki are low due to the hunched over torso; the right or left arm is drawn back to the point the hand is at shoulder height only an inch or two from the actual shoulder at which point the elbow of said arm is bent fully and the blade is held to have the tip centered with the solar-plexus of the user (obviously far out in front due to blade length) the other arm is usually outstretched fingers splayed the so that the thumb comes above the sharp edge of the katana the other fingers at this point are resting against the flat of the blade appearing as if to guide the blade to it's victim. Keep in mind that the typical force of a Gatotsu or Hirazuki is strong enough as portrayed to hit someone several feet away from a building and run them through let alone still crash them through a solid wall before knocking them a few feet further to the ground in a room. This is to say that the leg strength of the user is quite phenominal in it's own right and raises the question as to how strong their upper body is to perform it's secret variation the Zero stance, the damage it could cause to an average man when done by a usual practioner (peak human standard based on the requirements of the technique) is first of all obvious impalement of the area followed by severe bruising of the immediate surrounding area of the body and broken bones in close proximity of the wound. (example the reference photo, the victim would suffer perhaps a broken collarbone or displacement of the shoulder) Needless to say such an injury would cause profuse bleeding that could result in death if not dealt with accordingly based on the placement of the wound keep in mind that this also may lead into a warrior of lower standard to perhaps faint based on the extreme agony of all of the above happening simultaneously.

(Reference Picture) http://media.tumblr.com/672d96b7b2d21f1f54372f5f2c9439bb/tumblr\_inline\_mtncexbL631rxo5g3.gif

Able to utilize his swordsmanship Lucian felt like he'd accomplished nothing, although it was similar to his mother's style of fighting it wasn't a weapon he'd wanted to use. Just as there is a crescent moon the crescent kick was just one step to his fighting style. Lucian wanted something nobody in his family used something that he could call his own and he found it while just playing around. Walking around outside playing with a pocket knife he kept throwing it at the ground infront of himself watching as it stuck into the ground he did this all afternoon before he realized what he wanted "Throwing knives" he said. It was then that the foundation of the Black Moon came to be; at first it was just a set of four throwing knives black in color he'd set up a range of different objects and sizes throwing one knife at a time at first. Gathering his breath before each toss making sure to keep his focus hitting soda cans, bottle caps, batteries and lighters these were things commonly found in garbage/recycling so they were easy to gather for target practice. Months down the line the amount of knives he used bumped up to eight as well as learning to throw two at a time using different release timing to hit multiple objects in one movement of the arm/wrist. A full year after founding the basis of the Black Moon he'd attained ten throwing knives and they'd be worn on his back in a full circle till he joined the Furea house, this is why they'd be called the Black Moon.

One year was left at that point before joining under Nova's command during this final year with his family tension built. The constant need to kill in the idea that the Cuza leader Mitsu wanted to attain all of New Nexus the blood of politicians among other important figures stained his hands. A kind hearted soul at first was corrupted over the years through the many assignments he'd completed but even so he stuck around with the hopes he'd be able to stop before his eighteenth birthday. Three months before his birthday he received word from his half sister Clara that once again he'd kill another human being and the date to do so would be on his birthday no less. That was the final straw, from the moment he'd heard that he was planning to run away from his family. To accomplish a successful escape he'd need to bring out his natural talents (hidden powers). Training every other day under the nights sky with Daiki (Clara's brother) under the deception that Lucian wanted to complete the future job effortlessly; Daiki took the request to heart teaching Lucian to draw out the talent little by little. To learn the origin of his power Daiki observed the flow of Ki/Energy emitting from Lucian for a few days but he saw no visible change. To make matters worse the actual ability to see the energy was getting more difficult, two weeks into the training Daiki still hadn't figured out what the nature of Lucian's talents were but while thinking about what it could possibly be the hint finally became clear when he saw the scenery around them change. The world became black there was nothing, no ground, no trees, the estate of the Cuza's itself was gone. From then on Lucian was instructed to alter what he wanted the energy to take form of or even imbue it into the environment itself such as the ground and air around them. Of course it was extraordinarily difficult at first to manipulate the illusions let alone change small aspects of the world, but two months after the discovery that he could use illusions (two weeks before the assasination date) he'd uncovered a second trait which was to manipulate water/ice. Comparatively to the "illusions" it was ridiculously simple so it only took him a matter of a few days to master it since he'd already learned to control something far more complex beforehand.

http://i42.tinypic.com/29cngr7.gif

http://24.media.tumblr.com/2b86dff4f4bed624dfe6e84b077cefcd/tumblr\_met0xcVUGS1r4xneto4\_250.gif

The next week was his deadline and he'd completed the training needed to be the perfect killer. Going out the night of the assignment would be the last time his family would hear from him till present time. While teaching Nova through example of his "illusions" did he see something interesting, Nova was able to do a feat similar to his "illusions" manifesting weapons into the real world with not a single material but the mental image this was the final piece to perfecting the Black Moon style Lucian started years before. He took what he'd witnessed as well as what he knew and formed his energy into the shape of threads, altering their properties they existed on the physical plane instead of just the spiritual one. Practicing in secret even from Nova Lucian was able to control the flight path almost perfectly even so much as changing trajectory in mid flight the knives were now like a living weapon.

http://38.media.tumblr.com/d11991912943984a97ee49cd8014f31d/tumblr\_mk8ff7ypO81s7cc6ro1\_500.gif

His back and arms paid the price for practicing the Black Moon style with these new threads; constantly suffering cuts on the arms from the threads lashing his flesh during difficult maneuvering of the ten blades. If he'd revealed these wounds to others it would appear he was tortured due to the scar tissue on his back one could presume he'd been stabbed over and over. The actual reason for the scars on his back was from learning to place each knife in their cases on the back of his clothing and bringing them out so clearly he'd failed many times. The threads could essentially move without the somatic components (his fingers movement or arm movement) since they're comprised of his energy it's suspected they could move based on his will; on the other hand this has yet to be proven since he'd never used the skills he'd learned in combat since running away from the Cuza's. As such this suspicion that Lucian had regarding his weapon style was unconfirmed; as time passed the loyal servant Lucian had grown rather discontent. Feeling unappreciated by the lord he served he tried to fill the need to occupy his day with another kind of work that he'd discovered while running errands (the Tainted Rose) which he found most enjoyable. Taking to the job nicely he'd asked for Syl to allow him a place to stay and nothing more in exchange for his services, he did not feel the need to explain his circumstances which was fortunate being she did not ask. Although Lucian belonged to the Cuza a fierce lineage of fighters/assassins for hire he himself was a more passive individual that preferred a state of neutrality. He never wished for violence but rather peace so accordingly he does what he can to stray away from killing or even hurting others, doing so he typically leans toward using his "Illusions" to subdue his victims/opponnets as well as using other non-lethal force. Though he prefers to avoid violence as much as he can he trains diligently in the Black Moon and TKD (Tae Kwon Do) so that he may defend those he serves faithfully; Lucian's sense of duty is only rivaled by his resentment toward the Cuza family. With the transitioning of his home and or workplace  it stands to reason that he'd not reveal the secrets of his past for some time to come to Syl which if he could help would never learn of it at all though it may come a time he'll need to further his training to protect the Tainted Rose and his employer based on the type of crowd that seems to stop by.