[Philip Hart:] #>While people are discussing Dragon swordfighting, perhaps someone could #>explain something from _TPG_. When we first meet Uttrik, Tazendra #>describes him (as he warms up for his duel with Khaavren) as striking #>at the air and missing with every third blow. What does that mean? [MJ; tsk, tsk, Jeff, you dropped the attribution and I had to seek upthread to find it] #I always thought it meant that Uttrik was shadowfighting against an #imaginary opponent. You know, like a practice dummy that happened to be #invisible. You _know_ he's not that good if he's missing every third strike #against an invisible practice dummy. He's only, say, three times as good as #me, then, as opposed to Tazendra, who is approximately twenty-seven times as #good as me. (Or Benedict, who is a bajillion million times better.) [Jeff Gibbons:] #Or perhaps he is stopping the attack as if he hit his opponent on the first #two strikes, and on the third he acts as if he misses and then carries the #move through to his next attack. I have done the same thing while shadow #boxing. I like that! -- Mark A. Mandel http://cracksandshards.com a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website