Ilia beamed a smile back at her professor. She enjoyed praise in this subject, it make her feel as though she was very much her father's child. The fact that he also chose to include part of her answer in the announcement left her particularly tickled. He was not Mr. Dakest, but so far she enjoyed his presence.

Would you look at that, sparring targets.

As instructed, she left her wand in her satchel. No need for it in this fight. She neatly placed the satchel down and her mat and smiled at Henric. She was very pleased and excited. They had never spoken of their fight training together and she was looking forward to showing him what she was capable of.

She walked forward with a smile on her doll like features, as she selected her target. Yes, this one would do nicely. Are you watching Henric? I'm no damsel in distress. She thought it was cute when he wanted to be manly and protect her, but she also wanted him to see just how strong she was.

Ilia poised, ready to strike as her non-living assailant came forward. It was taller than her for certain, to the level that it would make a temple strike hard. Time to go for the knee first. Wasting no time, she charged her target, her left hand aimed to heel punch the sternum of the doll as her right foot sought to connect with the back of the dolls left knee. Time to even out their height, hmm?

Chloe was very good at being a shadow, you know. She had done it for practically a whole year. And with all of the Catwoman comics, one of the fiercest women in comic repertoire, she read she was positive that she could ward off the dummy. The trick was going to be outstepping, out moving them.

Or at least that was how it always worked in comics.

She hoped the same rules applied. She was a shadow after all. Like a wraith. Never seen or heard unless she wanted to be. Or if she tripped. Or if her hair blinded her.

The blonde brushed some hair out of her eyes for the hundredth time and sized up the dummy. It didn't move very fast at all so she had some time to think before she did anything. Not run blindly into whatever this dummy could or could not do. When it advanced she took a step back, or to the side, or away from it in any direction she pleased.

This went on for a while, always narrowly missing the dummy, while she figured out her plan. And then she knew what she wanted to do.

There were a whole lot of pressure points. A whoooole lot. Ariadne tried to remember the list of them that the professor had given, but it was a lost cause for now. Eyes...nose...and... Ehh. She'd get 'em. She still thought being camouflaged took a lot less effort than actually getting out there and fighting, but these pressure points were good to know, too. Especially if they could be used in a duel!

Ariadne hopped to her feet. A GAME! She'd gotten used to class starting with questions and ending with a super awesome game. She followed the flick of his wand to a bunch of dummies (literally) on one side of the room. Dummies. She was kind of meh about that. On one hand, she was inexperienced, and they couldn't fight back. But on the other hand, a real duel would have been cool!

WAIT. ANIMATED?! They were ANIMATED?!

Okay. So this might turn out to be a real duel after all. O_O. Ariadne sloooooowly chose a dummy and stood before it. What was she even supposed to do? Oh. Attack pressure points. Muggle style. GOT IT! She put away her wand, feeling somewhat on top of things. Until.... MERLIN, her dummy was moving forward. "PROFESSOR, it's attacking me!" she called out. Never mind the fact that it was SUPPOSED to be.

Ariadne started jabbing her elbows into thin air in anticipation of the dummy arriving. This was like karate gone wild. Then the dummy was near her, so she tried to give it some different moves. She began using what she considering karate chop motion toward the dummies neck. She tried to do this just as the professor had taught them, only, she must have done something wrong, because next thing she knew, the dummy had enveloped her in a hug.

Dummy: 1
Ariadne: 0

Alright, Juno was going to beat the crap out of this dummy...and she would enjoy it. She grinned. If she loved anything it was dueling and fighting...which was odd for a girl but hey...she was a lot like her father and it couldn't be helped.

She quickly stood in the fighting stance, waiting for her dummy to make a move. It stretched out its hand and she quickly knocked it out of the way with her left hand, thrusting her right palm into the dummies nose region. It paused and she waited for it's next move, when she heard her sister screaming for help. Her eyes bugged out of her head. "Time out," she said to her dummy and quickly ran to her sister.

When she got over to Esme, she gave a huge gigglesnort. It was the funniest thing she had ever seen. "Oh, sis. If only I had a camera." She laughed, and calmly released her sister from the dummies grip.

As the class let on Bastien mentally responded to the questions posed to them, not only listing the number of pressure points on the human body, but having memories flash through his mind of hitting said pressure points at one point or another in the past. And having been hit. It wasn't fun, but this class was proving to at least have the possibility of being so.

They were going to get to knock around some dummies? Awesome. Bast listened to the rules and then jumped up to his feet. He didn't pay any attention to the dummies going at anyone else, just the one coming for him, blue eyes focused. When the dummy was close enough to make a move for him, he sidekick to it's stomach.

HMPH!

Esme shot her sister a glare, though it was more for show than anything else. She wasn't REALLY annoyed. In fact, she was more amused than anything. "Hush," she said before giggling.

In a moment she was free!

Time to get payback on her attacker. It was on after he had grabbed a hold of her.

Taking two fingers, she POKED the dummy in the eyes, stopping it in its tracks.

"How you like them apples?"

Holding her elbow out, she spinned into the dummy and THWACKED it HARD in the solar plexis, making it fall to the ground.

"BOO YEAH!"

This... was actually kind of fun.

If this had been a real duel, Ariadne would probably be dead right about now. How long was this dummy going to hug her anyway? She fidgeted a little, and the dummy unwrapped its arms from around her and retreated a little. She literally had NO TIME to plan a second attack, though. The dummy had started coming at her a second time, but at least she knew what to expect.

Ohhh, no, dummy! No more hugs from you. She hadn't had much luck karate chopping its neck, so Ariadne decided to try a different attack. Besides, the dummy WAS animated, and she still wasn't sure if that meant it had a mind of its own. For all she knew, it could be expecting another neck attack. FREAKY.

Ariadne moved her index fingers into pointing gestures and held them out toward the dummy. It was still a good six feet away, so if it could expect certain attacks, it now knew she was going for its eyes. She really needed to work on her dueling skills. as it got closer, though, she began poking away into the thin air. Take that! And this! And this, too! *poke poke poke* It was probably COMPLETELY by accident, but all of the sudden, one of Ariadne's pointing fingers poked right into the dummy's left eye.

It stopped, obviously shocked, and then retreated again. Ariadne just stood there in shock. Had she really just successfully poke!attacked the dummy?!

Dummy: 1
Ariadne: 1

Rachel had selected her dummy but no sooner that she stood before it, it edged closer to her so that it was practically in her face. She regarded the thing cooly, calculating mentally which was the best pressure point to attack. She didn’t dwell on it for too long, however, since if the dummy came any closer, it was likely to bowl her over.

She curled both of her hands into fists but drew back the right one since this was her dominant one. With all her might, the eleven year old punched out at the dummy around the solar plexus area. It still kept moving for her. It was rather obvious her punch was merely a slight disturbance or bother to it. Backing away slightly, Rachel tossed another punch then another and another but it was useless. It didn’t seem as though she had at all hindered it with her lack of real energy. After all, she was only eleven years old and under one hundred pounds.

Breathing irregularly from her effort, Rachel paused to catch her breath for just a second but in that second the dummy had reached both of its arms towards her and succeeded in keeping her locked in its embrace. Startled, the girl froze for a few seconds before coming back to her senses. She refused to be defeated by a dummy.

Bringing her right knee up, she kneed it right in the groin. Immediately, she felt the arms loosen from around her. Though she did not seem to have delivered a very damaging blow, the dummy stumbled to a halt briefly before slowly walking once more and seemingly shakily towards her. Oh no.

This dummy didn't give up easy it seemed. Bast watched as it came back at him with more force than before, arms swinging wildly attempting to hit any part of the third year. He swiftly dodge a few swings, returning a few of his own, coming in contact with the dummy.

A kick to the chest, one more to the throat.

The dummy finally stopped.

Bast stared it down in a fighting position for a few moments to make sure it was done before standing erect. His hands flexed as if that wasn't enough, as if he wanted more than just some quick spare with a dummy, but he supposed it would have to wait for the next assignment. Or he hoped at least.

Was it obvious by the sparkle in his eyes that he was slowly beginning to enjoy himself?

Juno giggled at her sister. She could be so funny! She was the only person that could ever make her smile, other than their dad. "OK, you tough cookie. I am going back to my dummy now. Don't hurt yourself. Don't want to have to rescue you again." She grinned evilly before moving back to her own dummy.

Juno stepped back in front of her dummy, got into the proper fighting stance and waited for her dummy to make it's move. This time it lurched forward and she swiftly swiped across the dummies knees with her right leg, kicking it extremely hard, then quickly struck the side of it's neck with her right hand out, the fingers straight, held tightly together, the thumb bent inwards slightly, and the palm up like an upside down karate chop.

It was almost like she was watching in slow motion as the dummy fell to the floor. She grinned in triumph, then jumped around like Rocky in the super old movie her dad loved. "Oh, I can't wait to tell dad about this!"

The professor's praise was nice and all, but.... uh... dummies? Dima wasn't a fighter, even when the opponents in question were dead. Tai Chi had been hard enough, and while he enjoyed fencing... this wasn't the same at all. Especially when his thirteen year old cousin was on the other side of the room doing roundhouse kicks like a karate black belt. Merlin. Why wasn't Bast in Bulgaria again?

New goal: don't embarrass himself.

Noticing the first dummy coming at him, Dmitriy approached it quietly and just.... gently jabbed where its solar plexus was located, applying slightly more pressure than normal to make it seem like a punch. And.... it worked! Huzzah! Dummy outsmarted!

Pity, though. He had to do it again.

When was this class over?

Now that Chloe had a semblance of a plan, the least amount of movement possible with the easiest results, she sprung (see: walked) into action. She made her way behind the slow moving dummy, which really brought an ironic turn about to the name dummy, and stood behind it for a second. Then she jumped up in the air and smacked it in the temple.

Her big, scary competitor made a few noises and then wound down into nothing. That was really, really quite simple. Why were so many people struggling?

Maybe she had gotten the dumbest dummy. Or maybe she was the smartest.

Oh actually, that was probably it.

Haddie tried and tried again, but no matter where she struck the dummy's neck it didn't freeze. This was getting annoying, and she was spending too much time too close to the thing. The arms closed around her. She stumbled and fell backwards, slipping out the arms before they embraced her and landed, hard, on her tail bone against the cold hard stone.

A wave of annoying pain shot through her, but nothing too serious. She'll just be sore the rest of the week most likely. Getting, quickly back to her feet, Haddie stayed low, and waited as the dummy stumbled closer.

"SWEEP THE LEG!"

Haddie kicked out as she spun on the toes of her other foot in a circle. Her leg swept the dummy's legs out from behind, and out from under it. It landed on its back with a soft THUMP.

Let's see you try to hug her now, Mr. Dummy. Haddie stood and walked over to its head, and looked down at it. Then she stomped her foot on the dummy's neck, as hard as she could. The dummy stopped moving. "Got it!" she announced. Finally.

Haddie celebrated by rubbing her sore bum.

Pacifists had no place in this classroom, a conclusion Dima had come to while seeking out a particularly tame-looking dummy. It was waddling after some other students, so the sixth year took the opportunity to crouch behind its leg and poke at the back of its knee.

And that.... wasn't working, because it had NOTICED and was turning around. Turning around?!?!!? Rather than straighten out and defend himself like most people would in the face of danger, the Ravenclaw shrunk lower. The dummy came at him.........

... and tripped over his huddled form on the ground. Apparently, it must have fallen on its temple, because it was out like a light.

Was he done? He was gonna act like he was done. Totally took out two hundred dummies over here, NOT two (one of which was an accident).

Yep.

Okay what?

They had to fight off dummies by attacking their pressure points? And apparently there were thirty two of them.

Trixie was trying to think where these thirty two pressure points could be when one of the dummie's started heading toward her at quite a fast pace. Her mind went blank. She had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to be doing and where she was supposed to be attacking.

She felt the dummy's arms go around her and she let out a small squeak of fright. The dummy wasn't hurting her at all, she just didn't like this situation at all. Her first thought was to call for the Professor but then that would be giving up too easily and she didn't want to do that.

So she took a couple of deep breaths and made herself think of what she could do to get out of this situation. She realised that the only place on the dummy she could actually reach was its feet, so she raised her right foot and slammed it down hard on the dummy's foot. It immediately released her and since she wasn't expecting to be let go so suddenly she fell right onto her behind.

Trixie was grinning though because she had done it!!!

Now she just had to do it again.

Meh. Brooklyn still hadn’t quite forgiven Professor Hirsch for the snort he’d given her earlier answer, but she’d at least semi-paid attention to the discussion of pressure points and defense. She wasn’t stupid, after all, and she did have a Muggle grandfather. A Muggle grandfather who had been in the military, and hadn’t exactly wanted his grandchildren to be completely dependent on magic. Magic was just much more amusing sometimes, seeing as it could do a lot more than just incapacitate someone. That didn’t mean she wasn’t capable. She was plenty capable of defending herself, and as far as she was concerned, she’d established that by now. She wasn’t about to run and hide, not now. She had every right to want to, since she’d been attacked without even expecting it once already, but it only made her that much more defensive.

Doing some damage to the dummies sounded promising. At least it was better than just sitting around talking, or standing and witnessing certain curses. She could do something, and she only semi-took down the list of pressure points in her notes before she’d set her sights on a dummy. She’d remember it anyway, and now she could prove that she was dangerous. She wasn’t going to just stand there and cry for help like Maggie. Dummy hugs were definitely not going to happen.

Keeping her eyes trained on the advancing dummy, she positioned herself to meet its advance. As it reached for her, she knocked one arm aside with her forearm, swiveling and giving it an elbow to the nose. She only gave it a second or two to react before she ducked away. Just in case it kept coming.

Carl raised his eyebrows as a Slytherin answered that there were thirty-two pressure points in the body. That was a lot! It made him feel ashamed that all he got to mention was the side of the head. He continued to make notes as other students spoke. It was great that they were discussing non-magic ways, because if he was in the Muggle World for the summer and was attacked, he could hit these pressure points instead of using spells (that he was not so good at).

After jotting down the list from the board, Carl considered his options. The dummy in front of him looked absolutely harmless and he felt wrong to even think of attacking one. But it was supposedly animated and that was scary. He chose the eyes and torso because they were probably the easily reachable points for him. With that decision in mind, he put his wand in his bag and faced the closest dummy, which was advancing at him slowly.

Right, the eyes first. It would be better to impair the dummy's vision before causing any real injury. However, Carl met a challenge almost as soon as this thought crossed his mind. His opponent was taller than him, so reaching for the eyes would be difficult. Difficult ... but not impossible. He first dodged as a pair of long arms was stretched out to him, then turned around. The dummy also turned, its reflexes quicker than what he would have preferred. He once saw in a film how professionals jumped around lightly in order to get a better aim at their opponents. Clenching his jaw in determination, he jumped up - and gouged at the dummy's eyes with his fingers.

The dummy paused and shuffled around for a moment. Was that a success? The Hufflepuff hoped so, because he was not doing that again.

Of course the dummy couldn’t have been obliging. A part of Brooklyn had almost hoped that it wouldn’t have been, just because it would give her more of a chance of working out her irritation at the professor for that snort. See? She wasn’t someone to mess with. Except the dummy had barely reacted to her elbow to the nose, even though it had practically snapped its head back. The positive part on her behalf was that she knew it had connected, and gave her the desire to snap its neck. If only that counted as hitting a pressure point. Unfortunately, she figured it didn’t.

Instead, she swiveled again to jab her fingers into the dummy’s throat, keeping her momentum up to swing around and hit it in the temple with the same hand. She wasn’t about to let it win. No hugs for the dummy. Instead, she watched it try to remain standing, hooking her foot around to tap the back of its knee and send it to the floor. One dummy down, and she was ready for if another wanted to try her.

The dummy had backed away giving Trixie enough time to get back to her feet and contemplate on what her next move would be. But she was so busy watching the dummy in front of her that she hadn't noticed the one coming up to her from behind.

Thankfully though she just managed to see it out of the corner of her eye just as it was about to wrap his arms around her.

No more bear hugs for her thank you very much.

Trixie quickly sidestepped the dummy and then it was her turn to come at it from behind. She let out a loud war cry before jumping on the dummy's back and grabbing it by the ears.

"How do you like that Mr Dummy? Huh?" She gave his ears a squeeze before sliding off its back and doing a little victory jig.

Apparently she was the only one who mentioned that the groin area was such a good pressure point. Correction: it wasn't good, it was THE BEST because it's reachable enough for a small person like her and once punch or kick, they would groan miserably and died... Well, not really. Yes, Ava had kicked someone's groin before so she was familiar with that.

And now they moved on to the activity. The young lioness watched the Professor flicked his wand and... ANIMATED DUMMIES!!! Oh, so they're gonna practice on attacking the pressure point but no using magic? That's freakin' awesome! She missed practicing her karate technique badly and this was such a good chance to jog her memory. Lucky that she decided to wear her track pants and hoodie today so she could be more flexible.

Once the Professor started the activity, Ava put back her wand to her bag and picked a dummy nearby. Woah, it's so wild! Kinda reminded her of the big fat meanie muggle bully that used to bother her and Teddy when they were in muggle school before. The dummy started to attack her head but she managed to block it by using both of her forearm. Then she punched the dummy on the spot where the liver had located.

Was it down yet? No. It seemed like her punch wasn't hard enough to make it passed out. Okay. Now she had to do the Plan B.

She turned her body to the right until she's facing directly away from your target. Then as she looked over her right shoulder, she lifted her right knee to her chest, bent her ankle and attacked the dummy by using her heel.

....

And now the dummy had been unconscious. Good! Back kick attack had never failed her.

Professor Hirsch's reply to her first response hadn't been what she expected. Or quite possibly it just wasn't what she had wanted to hear however it did cover ever aspect of an attack on her person that she could think of which in turn the man had said was a good thing.

With so much being said from not only the professor but her fellow mates Hady took to take very detailed notes on a clean sheet of parchment. Everything from all the different ways everyone around her would take down an attacker to all the different pressure points which she had learned about from her father growing up. Being an only child and a girl as well as growing up where she had in America it was normal (to her at least) that her father had made sure she knew a far amount of defense. What she hadn't expected was one on one combat here at school. Even if it was with training dummies.

Setting her quill down and her things off to the side Hady made sure her wand was safely and securely tucked away in it's holster on her arm. It wouldn't be going anywhere. Rising to her feet she glanced around to see how everyone else was doing and couldn't help but smirk at Maggie. Seriously? Shaking her brunette locks out of her face she turned her full attention onto one of the dummies closest to her and watched as it advanced her way. Being short might cause a challenge but she would get the job done anyway she had to.

Hazel eyes fixed on her target the moment it was close enough in range Hady raised her hand upwards, palm facing the dummy and very quickly and with a good amount of force struck it right beneath the nose. As it staggered back a few paces the dummies hand grazed her shoulder causing her to duck down under it's arm and step slightly to the side giving her the perfect angle for a hard kick with the heel of her foot to the side of it's knee. Once again the only thing that happened was more wobbling and an almost knock over but not quite.

She was going to bring this thing down before it got her.

It was very telling, the way Hirsch had gone from calling an attacker just that, an attacker, to referring to them as the victim in this scenario. Telling and oh-so-accurate; Daxton knew that anyone who tried attacking him should very quickly become a victim if he so decided it, and if they did not, it was either a tactic or he was simply doing something wrong. In another setting, that particular use of language might have made Daxton slightly more accepting of the new professor, but not today.

So, they were not going to be practicing on each other. That, at least, had Daxton just a little less tense. He glanced around at the other students in the room, and then at the dummies that had been revealed, always thinking, always considering. This activity he had been considering faking illness to get out of was turning out to be almost perfect for two different reasons: 1. the wandless element, and 2. the fighting element. Daxton had learned to be particularly skilled when it came to defending himself; he had the tendency to fight like a wild animal when threatened.

For some moments after the dummies started into action, Daxton stayed exactly where he was and simply watched the others in the room; he was not quite prepared to throw himself into this activity without being aware of what might happen in retaliation. Sure, that did not always happen in a real fight, but real fights were always predictably unpredictable. This classroom was a controlled setting, and if Daxton had the opportunity to discover what he was up against first, he would take it.

The consequence of failure looked to be an unacceptable one. Daxton knew that if one of those dummies grabbed hold of him, the chances he would begin to freak out would skyrocket. But then, he wanted to fight, and knowing the consequences simply gave him more incentive to not fail, though he found it hardly likely that he would. He also had to be careful with fighting the dummy in a room full of people; just like duelling with an audience, anyone who watched could learn his technique and therefore how to predict any moves and counter them in the future. With that thought in mind, he stood and approached one of the advancing dummies that nobody had claimed yet, tiptoeing barefoot across the floor to greet it and steadily picking up speed.

Daxton wasted no time as he reached it, and immediately threw a punch right at the solar plexus, feeling the adrenaline course through him at once as he quickly sidestepped before the thing could grab him, and effectively circling round behind it. In one fluid movement he half turned and launched a side-kick at the back of the dummy's 'knee', a move that should bring the thing down.

Now she had defeated one dummy.... More to go. Would Professor Hirsch mind if she used more than two dummies? Probably not. She needed to practice a lot and two dummies maybe... not enough. She was really on fire!! Ava bent her knuckles and eyed the other dummies that should be her next target.

And by the way, her back kick was so awesome, wasn't it? HEHEHE.

She was about to move to the closest dummy on her sight, but apparently one of the dummy caught her from behind by wrapping his arms on her Cough cough... She tried not to panic and tried to let go off its grip. Think, Burton. THINK!!

Oh, the elbow punch!

The young lioness gave the stupid meanie dummy an elbow punch on its face until it let go off her. There you go! Next, she gave a hard punch on its stomach and attacked the groin area by kicking it. At least she did it to the dummy, imagine if she kicked a guy on his groin.... Wait, she'd done that to one of the bullies in her muggle school before.

Merlin, this is AWESOME! Could she practice more, Professor? PLEAAAASEEEEE???? Maybe she should rescuing Teddy first because he didn't know how to fight.

And the kick had brought it down. Quite easily too. Too easily for Daxton's liking. He did not know if the dummy would now stop moving, or if it would keep flailing in an attempt to grab him, but Daxton knew he was not prepared to stop now that the adrenaline was coursing through him.

Before the dummy had a chance to fully fall to the floor, Daxton did what it only felt natural to do, and jumped onto its back. It continued its descent with the second year latched on, throwing his fists into the sides of its now inanimate head, right where the pressure points at the temples would have been on a regular person. And he did not stop, only kept punching; it was, after all, only a dummy, and no real damage could be done. At some point, the anger that always lay just beneath the surface had risen up, and Daxton took it all out on the dummy, his own personal punching bag.

It was safe to say he had put it out of action, and had he been faced with a real and alive attacker, they would by now be unconscious. Though had it actually been a real attacker, it would have been really a rather pathetic one.

He kept pummelling the thing all over, just for the heck of it.

So much information. Janelle was busy scribbling notes, as her classmates and the professor provided details about the important pressure points. She knew about some of them, but did not know about some of the others. This was good information to have, in case........you know........you were ever in a situation.

Janelle did not like to fight, although the occasional fight was not foreign to her but she did like to be prepared. When the professor said that they would be fighting dummies, without magic, she was intrigued. Being able to defend onself was important. Being able to practice it in a non threatening way was awesome.

As instructed, Janelle put her wand away, stood up and positioned herself in front of a dummy. Looking at her choices, it was hard for her to pick just one pressure point to focus on. They all seemed so tempting. Finally she decided to focus on two pressure points. Hopefully she would get a second attempt, where she could try two more options.

As the dummy started moving toward Janelle, she waited for a moment. She had a plan to bring this thing down. When it got close enough, she quickly brought the heel of her hand up and struck beneath the dummy's nose. Janelle followed that up with a sharp elbow to the solar plexus. Intent on putting the attack to a halt, she put all of her effort into the punch.