016573 vs. Xos: Re-Match

[Breaker]

The butt end of Xos' nihon quarterstaff arced towards my temple.

The polished wood gleamed red like an ambulance light in the night. Directly overhead now, the sun beat down like an auger through the sky lit ceiling. On the stave's polished face, the light had a mirror-like effect, and in the reflection my eyes saw a memory of a favor I had done for a friend some years earlier.

I grinned. Xos had played right into my hands.

Three years prior, to be exact, Professor James McFaul had taken ill after an office luncheon. The cause: food poisoning. As his secretary found her keys to drive him home, he asked me if I could cover his last lecture for him.

I was attending the luncheon because the girl whose birthday it was celebrating was a... friend of mine. While attending the University, I had taken Professor McFaul's course and seen that particular lecture no less than three times. Since then, we had run into each other at a gym we both used, and started practicing kung fu and staff work together. I figured I knew the material well enough, and agreed.

The lecture was part of a kung fu history course popular among young martial arts enthusiasts. The lesson I was teaching detailed the function and use of every Chinese pole arm from the full stave to the bo staff. I got through the lecture easily enough, covering all the major points which James had taught me years before. Unfortunately, I did not possess his talent for descriptive language, nor his intimate knowledge of the history of kung fu. The result: I finished the lecture in half the time it would have ordinarily taken, and realized I needed to come up with something to occupy the time, and fast.

McFaul had a large assortment of real quarterstaffs, as well as padded ones for practice in a storeroom nearby. I was tempted to hand out practice staves and led the students beat the crap out of each other for awhile, but didn't want to be held accountable for the injuries which they would undoubtedly endure. Instead, I took one real quarterstaff, and one padded one, and offered the students a challenge. I picked a volunteer to go first, handed him the wooden stave, and kept its padded opposite for myself.

"You get one strike to try and hit me." I had instructed the class, then continued; "I'm going to try to defend against your attack, and will retaliate, likewise with only one strike. So be ready to defend yourself."

Many eager students lined up, and the learning began. One by one the martial arts hopefuls picked up the wooden quarterstaff, and each and every single one of them swung for my head. For some reason, when beginners pick up blunt weapons like staves, they always think the best method of attack is to go for a knockout. They don't even think of a thrust for the solar plexus, or a knock on the elbow. One by one, I blocked those headshots easily, and retaliated by gently tripping or clouting my frustrated young opponents.

So I was expecting Xos to swing for my head. In fact, I would have been very surprised if he had done anything else. With smooth, practiced ease I raised my own staff, holding it in both hands parallel to my body. Through calm eyes I watched the nihon stave sweep in, its end on a collision course with the very centre of my staff. It was a textbook defensive maneuver; my hands were on either side of the point of impact, ensuring that his staff would not slide by, and mine would not be knocked away. Already, I was thinking about retaliation. A quick thrust to the wizard's gut seemed in order.

Craaa-ack!

With a sound like an axe splitting kindling, Xos' weapon broke my hollow practice stave clean in two. I felt a moment of fleeting surprise, and then only pain as colors exploded before my eyes.

If the attack had not been slowed by my now broken weapon, I would have been knocked unconscious for sure. Although I managed to stay awake, I staggered away, my temple throbbing, my eyes crossed. It took me three shambling steps to gain control of my wobbly legs, but at last I stood, regaining my defensive crouch, holding both pieces of my busted staff up like escrimas. My head felt like it was being used for a pygmy dulcimer, and my legs barely managed to support my weight. I needed time to recover; a few minutes would do, but I needed to keep Xos from attacking until I could think straight.

Luckily for me, the mage liked the sound of his own voice. I tried to focus on what he was saying, figuring that if I responded, I might buy myself a few moments more.

"I've heard of Gauss technology... if you ever succeed in making any magnetic weaponry, be sure to look me up. I could use a firearm." I blinked several times rapidly. My head felt better, the throbbing pain now only echoing dimly of the insides of my skull. My legs no longer felt as if I had just run ten miles flat out. As the cotton cleared out of my brain, I began to formulate a new plan of attack.

"I guess we could both learn a lesson from what just happened; you're only as good as your weapons." I looked down at my muscular, calloused hands, then shifted my attention back to the wizard.
"That's why I normally like fighting with my hands." With that, I hurled both hollow shards of staff at Xos, one after the other.

The attack was a distraction; nothing more. I wanted to occupy the mage's attention so that with a primary move so as to avoid his defensive magic on my follow up. I danced in the wake of the two wooden stick I had thrown, my hands up, ready to defend my tender skull. As I neared the wizard, I drew my right leg back, then kicked out forcefully, aiming a low roundhouse at the outside of his left knee. I wondered how Xos would deal with the crippling leg kick, and also whether I would have used such an unorthodox tactic if my head didn't hurt so badly.

"Whether this is for revenge or to teach him a lesson... he'll learn that magic can't always save him. He'll learn the hard way."

[Xos]

Xos smiled, he seemed to be making progress. Confidence began to surge through him like a burst dam.

He had spied the kick coming at him. Sparks surged around his fingers, a tell tale sign he was going to use Arcane Blast, but instead of the five mini explosions he was used to, and indeed was counting on, one massive non-lethal Blast occured in front of Xos, sending him flying backwards. As he blacked out, two things ran through his mind.

the first was, What in the hell just went wrong?, and the second being, Please don't let there be anything sharp and pointy behind me.

As he hit the wall he slid down and lay on the floor unconcous.

Xos had suffered a miscast and thus his spell blew up on him, literally.

Josh's kick had hit him, but wasn't the largest factor in the failure, Xos was to distracted with his newfound confidence to continue concentrating on his spell, and thus became over confident.

Xos came to several moments later, rolled over and slowly struggled to his feet, his entire body sore.

"I think I just miscast. Are you ok over there?" Xos called over. Due to his close proximity, at least some of the miscast would've hit Josh. Thankfully it was of the non-lethal variety.

Xos shook his head, and resumed his earlier fighting stance, determined to go on. His staff was closer to Josh than it was him.

OOC: Just as a clarifying explanation, the explosion was more likt a balloon popping than a grenade exploding. Only in this case think of a really really big balloon popping. It was just a rush of air strong enough to send Xos flying. Its not just a miscast, but also a sign of his developing magic.

Also, Xos is pronounced sauce, only with a z sound, instead of an s.

[Breaker]

I felt a rush of satisfaction as my kick landed, feeling solid bone to bone contact between my instep and Xos' knee. I smiled in grim determination. My plan was well underway, I would--

--Suddenly, I was sliding across the mats on my back, my ears ringing like a struck gong. I tried to turn the backwards momentum into a roll, to regain my feet, but found myself too disoriented. The friction of my bare flesh on the mats slowed me down before long, and I got to my feet, wincing at the feeling of raw flesh stretching. I could sense that my entire back was red, covered by a large friction burn. "Oh well, I've had worse." I looked over and saw Xos climbing to his feet near the east wall. He ignored the weapons there, and joined me on the mats, taking up a fighting stance, and explaining his miscast. "Well I'll be God damned," I thought, "This wizard's got more fight in him than I thought."

Seeing that Xos was ready to resume the bout, I took three slow, calming breaths-- I was a little bit shaky-- and jumped right back into my battle plan where I had left off. I figured I might be a little slower now, weakened by the strange eruption of Xos' spell. "But if I’m weakened, he will be to." From the wizard's physique, there was no way his stamina or cardio could rival mine. I stepped towards him, and kicked his discarded staff out of the way. He had made no move to pick it up, and I didn't want to get it tangled in my feet. The nihon pole rolled off the mats and slid along the hardwood floor, coming to rest next to the large double doors. Then I increased my pace, covering the distance between myself and the wizard in three quick steps. Within striking range, I drew back my right leg, and quickly lashed out, once again aiming the solid instep of my foot at the outside of Xos' left knee.

It was the exact same attack I had used before; repeating the move served several purposes. First of all, I wanted to see whether or not Xos would be able to defend himself against a leg kick unarmed-- the powerful, low attack is a tricky thing to avoid, because of how little distance the kicker's foot needs to move. Secondly, it was good experience for the wizard. Repeatedly attacking a single weak portion of an opponent's body is something which occurs quite frequently in street combat. Third... I still had a plan shaping up as a fail safe. I did not want to lose my first battle in the Dajas Pagoda.

Immediately after delivering the kick, I danced backwards, a little gun-shy after Xos' first miscast. Raising my voice in a humorous laugh, I taunted the wizard.

"You seem like a very knowledgeable fellow... ever heard of Tai boxing?"

[Xos]

"I've heard of Chi Boxing. Back home there was an Ancient order of monks, that used their powers in conjuction with the Martial arts." xos said as he hopped over the kick. He seemed a million miles away as his eyes seemed to glow. He lashed out with his hand at lightning speeds, using his abnormally long finger nails to slash at Josh. Of course, they were just ordinary finger nails, and not actual claws like he supposed them to be.

He snapped back to attention.
"Anyways, when they punch you, they don't just use their strength, they also use the power of magic to enhance it. Some use Lightning, some use fire, like what I was doing ealier, theres all sorts of methods, but the fighting style is Kung Fuish. The Grand master, Lord Abo, is the only one capable of using The energy Punch. Its an unavoidable attack, unless you teleport. Its hard to escape a small scale Thermo-Nuclear Blast. And, yeah, it would be about the size of this room." Xos said.

He looked at his hands, curled int claws pointed outwards, crossed infront of his body, like he was using some hidden form of fighting. A look of confusion crossed his face and his arms dropped to his sides.

"What the hell was i doing? what was I talking about? I remember a kick and jumping, but after that, nothing. my head hurts." Xos said.

Secretly, He made a small throwing star in his hand, and whipped his arm up, throwing it as he did so.

If Xos ever actually developed a fighting style, the world would be in serious trouble.

[Breaker]

Xos' agility surprised me, but I knew in the end his evasion of my kick would work for me.

As I retreated the wizard lashed out. My hands were already up, ready to defend, and it was a simple matter to raise my right hand and shadow box the blow. I had not accounted for his abnormally long fingernails though, which raked my forehead as his hand slid past. Pain lanced across my skin, showing up in the form of angry red scratch marks. I swiped my palm across the abrasions, and it came away with a faint tint of blood.

"Son of a bitch... it's like fighting a cat. A goddamn magical cat."

Continuing to spout what had begun to sound like garbled nonsense, Xos kept babbling, now talking about some sort of unbeatable martial artist. I realized that he was, again, trying to lull me into a false sense of security. I focused my peripheral vision as well as all my other senses on my surroundings. Keeping myself aware of all eight walls of the arena, as well as the possibility of a magical attack from above, spread my focus quite wide. The shuriken took me completely by surprise.

Normally, I would have evaded a throwing star easily. They are inaccurate weapons at the best of times, and fly fairly slowly by comparison to other projectiles. I hadn't even realized that Xos had any shurikens, though, and as the multi-pointed weapon left his hand, all I could do was throw both my arms up to cover my head. An instant later I grunted in pain, feeling the projectile pierce my left tricep. I decided to leave it there, not wanting to risk the unnecessary blood loss. The weapon's small size and lack of weight had stopped it from going in deep, but it caused enough pain that even keeping my left arm up to defend was difficult. "It's time to end this." I told myself, and once more flowed towards Xos, my battle plan coming to a close.

As soon as I was within striking distance, I once more drew back my right leg, a perfect mimic of my previous two attacks. For the third time I prepared to kick out, and for the third time my leg snapped forward at top speed. This time, however, it stopped short.

Rather than kicking at Xos' leg, I kicked the ground, stomping down and transferring all of my weight onto my right leg. As I did so I twisted my right hip forward, and rotated to the right at both my waist and ribcage. All this added power to the punch which exploded forward. My undamaged right arm shot forwards, fist clenched and knuckles aimed for the wizard's jaw. It was a quick punch, thrown with nearly my entire body weight behind it. My father used to tell me that if I wanted to knock someone out, bang them on the chin. I was following his advice, but rather than knocking Xos out, I was going to take his head clean off.



((Note: That last is a hyperbole. Josh doesn't have enough power to knock someone's head off.))

[Xos]

BAM! the punch hit cleanly and pain rocked through Xos's head as he blacked out while falling down.

Josh could see Xos's skin physicly altering itself to look like Dragonscale.
It wasn't real Dragonscale of course, not yet, it just looked like it.

It faded back to normal skin, and Xos was still out like a light. He wasn't dead, but he would not be awake for quite some time. Clearly, this fight was over.

[Breaker]

Adrenaline pulsed throughout my sweating, exhausted body like a separate living creature trying desperately to break free from an undersized cage. Every primal and trained instinct in my being urged me to dive forwards, to kill the felled wizard. "Once your opponent goes down, you make sure he stays down." That rule had been stamped into the very pattern of my DNA since a young age. Whether it was my father teaching me how to defeat playground bullies or my teachers at University, or the trainers who had taught me to be a Special Agent. The rule remained the same: Unless you've got a referee, the fights not over 'till you say it is. I suppressed all the teaching then, staying frozen on the spot until the murderous passion had left my mind. "He's your student, not your enemy," I reminded myself. I walked the few steps to where Xos lay and bent to pick him up.

"Aaaargh!"

A deep chested cry ripped from my throat as pain shot through my upper arm and left side. I stood for several seconds with my hands on my knees, breathing hard, before examining the damage. I had forgotten about the shuriken embedded in my left tricep. When I bent to help Xos, it had sliced across my ribcage. Wincing and holding the arm far out from my body, I walked to the book shelf and retrieved my first aid kit. Kneeling beside the coffee table, I applied a quick dressing to my side, then, wincing slightly, yanked the throwing star out. Blood began to flow instantly, and I hastily wrapped a thick layer of gauze around the wound. "That ought to hold for now." It would probably need sewing, or Healing, at some point, but that could wait. Leaving the bloody shuriken, I went to the door and spun the dial until I heard a soft 'click' and the double doors swung open. Hot air poured in, giving hail to the powerful sun which was still almost directly overhead.

I took a few steps outside, making my way to a large wooden rain barrel. A small ladle floated within, and I picked it up, taking a quick drink before filling the ladle and heading back to Xos. A couple months ago I might have balked at the idea of drinking from a rain barrel; now it seemed like a common practice. I was adjusting to the ways of Althanas.

Back inside the arena, I knelt on the padded floor next to Xos' prone form, and sprinkled water on his face. The hot afternoon sun beat down on my neck and shoulders, reminding me how exhausted I was. "Nothing against Xos, but I hope he leaves right away... I need to get some rest."

[Xos]

Instead of waking up he bagen to pulsate and glow. Muscles were rippling underneath his skin, contracting and expanding. His mouth was slightly open, and Joshua could see Xos's Teeth becoming sharper and more jagged. But then they went back to normal, retaining only trace amounts of their sharp jaggedness. His nails seemed as sharp claws for a moment, and his shoulder blades were hyperactive. His skin became scaled, like a snakes, it looked and felt like snake skin for a small amount of time, but went back to normal. He groaned and rolled over, getting slowly to his feet.

While he was on his hands and feet he looked a Josh, and looked almost exactly like a creature about to strike, but as he got to his feet, that image went away. He looked around the Gym style Pagoda for his staff, and hobbled over to retrieve it.

He looked at Josh leaning upon his staff and asked him one simple question.
"Any ideas on how to improve?" he asked.

[Breaker]

For an instant, it seemed like the battle would resume. The look Xos was giving me was violent, animalistic. Combined with the odd changes which had come over his body just before he awakened, I began to wonder just what the wizard was up to. He did not seem to have noticed the temporary growth of scales, teeth and claws however, and limped over to the now open doors where his staff still lay. I watched him cautiously, a dangerous respect dancing in my eyes.

"Keep working your magic Xos, you seem to have a real talent for it. The one thing I can suggest is improving your attacking style. That shuriken you threw at me, for example. It was a neat trick, but I think a fireball would have been more practical. Stick to what you can do well, and you will start winning more often."

I felt exhausted from the mini speech, and gave a nod to the wizard before trudging to one of the recliners and sitting down, gingerly rubbing my bandaged arm. I hoped Xos would take the nod as a dismissal, for at the moment all I wanted to do was rest. I unwound the gauze on my arm part way, and saw that blood had soaked through most of it, but seemed to have stopped flowing. "Well, that's good. I'll have to see about getting it Healed later." It was a long walk to the Pagoda headquarters, where several monks well versed in the magical healing arts resided. Perhaps I would make the trip that night or the next morning.

Placing my large feet firmly on the floor, I leaned back, feeling the reclining mechanism shift beneath me. I let out a sigh of comfort, paused to remove my nunchaku from the back of my belt and place it on the table, then closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I wanted a quick cat nap, before anything else. I listened to the sounds of my arena, and the wilderness outside. Soon, they would lull me to sleep.

[Xos]

Xos Nodded, his body aching and sore, he could see his friend simply wanted to rest in peace, and that, Xos could oblige.

"After a time, we will meet again. I may not be skilled in Prophesy, but this I can forsee. How we will meet, I cannot be sure, but meet we will. Goodbye, for now." Xos said. He hobbled out of the Arena, his staff clacking on the floor.

After a trip to the Pagoda healers, Xos left the Pagoda, going where, he knew not.