Another Battlefield

The man of Gana stood without a word. The rain had been coming down for hours now, but he barely sensed it. The enemy was all around, men with knives, staves, clubs and swords. Yet too his Queen was near, she stood upon her steed firing arrow after arrow into the enemy before her. The man grinned as his sword sliced yet another of the enemy; he grinned as he thought of his Queen, she was a Lady in a man’s world, and to be so meant that she was a warrior as well. He sensed her as he cleaved into the thigh of the nearest enemy, he felt his Queen watch over her soldiers, her iron men. She was his guardian, his light in this dark battle.

In large-scale military science, the arraying of troops is a matter of positioning. Every instance thereof is an opportunity to win in war. Fixation is bad.

Three came at the soldier of Gana. The first he kicked in the gut and, pirouetting, another received the sharp edge of the sword in the neck. The third was to his left ready to stab with a short blade. The Ganaman with iron armor saw in his periphery vision that the blade-wielder was a woman. He paused only for a second, he should have known better. A fourth came at him, knocking him down into the mud. As he sank into the quagmire he lost his sword.

When you take up your sword the idea is to kill an opponent. Even though you may catch, hit, or block an opponent, all moves are opportunities for cutting him down. This must be understood. It is crucial to think of everything as an opportunity to kill. The sword is not meant to be kept in a fixed position. Where you hold your sword depends on your relationship to the opponent, depends on the place, and must conform to the situation; wherever you hold it, the idea is to hold it so that it will be easy to kill the opponent.

Flipping himself over, he pounced back upon his feet while grabbing an ownerless staff stuck in the muck. Standing, he twirled the staff with his right arm, confidence etched onto his grime-covered face. More of the enemy came at him screaming and yelling – yet in the hands of the wordless man –thrusting, parrying, sliding, kicking- the staff became a twirling instrument of doom.

There are five kinds of guard, though five, all of them are for the purpose of killing people. Whatever guard you adopt, do not think of it as being ‘on guard’, think of it as part of the act of killing.

The man of Gana was soaked to the bone, but all was as nothing to him, only the will of his Mistress – the Lady Flair. Before him were the mounting dead, bodies whose life essence had left and gone to wherever such things are wont to go. He continued in his arte – the stomach, the knee, the trachea, the solid and soft parts of the human form became liabilities to all who faced this quiet man.

All guards are techniques for using one sword in the act of killing an opponent. When standing against many opponents draw upon your knowledge and your trained instinct, and adapt your guard. Deal with the opponents that press forward first, keep an eye on the whole picture, determine the stands from which opponents launch their attacks, it is wrong to wait. Do not overthink, win by sensing the opponents’ rhythms and knowing where they break down. In this way it is possible to take on one opponent, or ten, or even twenty with peace of mind.

The man marched on ready to meet the waiting enemy before him, he was a man alone in his own mind even if surrounded by brothers-in-arms. The troops of the Queen took step after step forward, a seemingly unconquerable force of nature. The man did not know if they were winning the war, he had no reports on ravens’ wings. But he knew that he was standing, that he had breath, that his heart pumped with life. That was enough.

Determine today that you will overcome your self of the day before, that you will win over those of lesser skill, and hone your technique with those of greater skill. When the principles of the sword come to mind, you should be able to overcome even dozens of opponents all by yourself.

Queen Anna Flair stood upon her steed firing arrow after arrow into the newest group of enemy Galanians. She was a Queen in a man’s world and to be so meant that she be a warrior as well. Anna Flair watched her soldiers, her iron men with pike and axe, knife and sword and she fired arrow after arrow into the enemy… and as the ground turned to mud by the flood of blood the Queen of Gana smiled.

1. still other battles rage, other wars within the War...
2. A digression into the geography and history of Gana and Gala

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