There was something between them that hadn't been there before they'd sparred; Hakon felt it. He wasn't sure what it was, exactly; articulating emotions was not his forte, but whatever it was, he liked it. He'd acceded to Ajax's offer for more music that evening, and found himself looking forward to it. Once he realized that much of what Ajax said was not meant to be serious, he found himself laughing quite a bit after the requisite beat where he puzzled out if what Ajax was saying was serious or not. Much of the time, it wasn't, but automatically laughing at everything would just mean he wasn't really parsing what Ajax was saying at all, which didn't seem fair to either of them.
He changed out of his torn trousers, glad that he had Ajax to do his mending. While he was capable of sewing up rips and tears, his manual dexterity with needlework wasn't the best. If it was smaller than his throwing stars, it wasn't the easiest to get it to where he wanted it to go. For the afternoon's training, he decided to remain shirtless. Close combat was sweaty work, and he saw no reason to make more laundry for Ajax.
He returned them to where they'd practiced that morning. There was enough grass that they wouldn't just be rolling around in the dirt, which was good, and the ground was decently soft, which was better. While Hakon could practice grappling on stone, it was not his preferred substrate for such activities.
"Right. We're going to work on a far more dangerous situation this afternoon: holds, pins, and escapes. First, some basics. Your choice of weapon puts you in danger of being grabbed because you have to get in close in order to hit someone with it. Generally, people inexperienced in combat won't want to do that. They'll see the blade and be too scared to get close. That's good," he said, looking Ajax in the eye. "Keep them close enough to slash, but too scared to get closer."
"The reason for this is if someone like me is facing off against you, someone bigger than you or stronger than you, and it's a one-on-one fight, what I'll try to do is get your weapon away from you and then get close enough to get you in a hold so that you can't get it back into your hands. At that point, a fight is fairly straightforward: stronger, more experienced person will usually win unless something unexpected happens." He took in Ajax's stature and felt compelled to add: "While that may put you at a disadvantage in close combat here in the Four Kingdoms where men tend to be on the larger side, unexpected things happen all the time in combat, and there are many other factors to consider, like other people coming to your aid, improvised weapons, advantageous terrain, and so on. One of the things you'll want to do in a real life combat situation is keep your opponent on edge and guessing. For now, though, we're going to practice the worst case scenario for you: you've been grabbed by someone bigger and stronger than you, there's nothing at hand you can use to turn the tables on them, and your only choice is to grapple, avoid a pin, break a hold, and escape."
"So let's start with falling. You never want to end up prone, but what you want even less is to fall badly and end up breaking a bone or ending up unable to carry weight on one of your legs."
So saying, Hakon showed Ajax the stance and then fell to the ground a few times, demonstrating how to use the tricep and shoulder to cushion the blow and distribute the force of impact.
"Ideally, you can recover from a fall, like this."
Hakon fell again and executed a serviceable if not overly graceful backwards roll that he used to regain his footing.
"That's harder to do, but if you're interested in learning, I can walk you through the basics and help you relax into it. The trick is to trust your body and let momentum carry you so you don't land on your neck."
