She trails her fingers over some of the smaller ones. "I feel like I don't want something super heavy..."

She picks up a simple buckler from near the end of the row. "Let's try this, I think we'll get more of a feel for it with practice."

Sable grabs one of her own, then slips into a ready stance, the buckler leading.

"Shall I try, then?" She makes a testing swipe with the saber.

She grins. "Go right ahead."

And she strikes! Leading with the sword, but with both her footwork and her shield to guard her. 

This feels pretty solid...

Hit with the shield!

She strikes with the sword and then swings the shield in, feeling Violet behind the offhand strike - 

Annnnd almost overbalances as she throws the shield's weight. 

"Whoa!"

Sable catches the first strike on her shield, and then second, then raises an eyebrow at the attempted shield bash and ducks it, following up with a sweeping slash.

She actually manages to parry the slash!

"Okay, I'm surprised I managed that," December says, backing off again.

"Nicely done," she notes with a grin. "How's this feeling?"

"Much better. I think we need a shield that's actually designed for bashing though if Violet's still going to keep trying moves like that."

She hums thoughtfully and steps back to the rack of shields. "That's an interesting bit of conflict there, honestly. Hunters generally fare better with smaller shields, because we don't fight in formation, but shield bashing is better with larger shields. That can be supplemented with a gravity inlay on the shield for a knockback blast, or even just increasing the mass once it's already in motion, though."

"I was thinking of one of those round things in the center, like a metal plate."

Sable grabs a slightly larger buckler with a bit more of a curve to it and a shield boss in the center, and passes it to December.

She passes back her first shield and settles the second on her arm.

"Alright, let's try that again."

She leads with a quick series of slashes, then hops back to see how December responds.

Violet steps in and blocks the first slash - 

Then December dances away from the second and third, bringing up her saber to block the fourth.

She doesn't pursue after Sable retreats, but she grins.

"Yeah," she says. "I think this suits."

"Excellent. Violet seemed to like the shield bashes, too. How does Lilian feel?"

"I'm happy December and Violet found something, but this doesn't really suit me."

"Hmmm... Didn't you say something about preferring to be at range earlier, anyway?"

"Yeah. I just feel like it's silly to get up in something's face and smack it when Dust cartridges exist."

"Opinions about adjourning this and going to the range with me and Ruby?"

"Sounds good to me."