The art of winning is ...

[Kai]

((Fight closed too ... 10 ... the guy with numbers as his user name XP ... but the thread is open to anyone else as a bar ... meh its up to you if ya wanna watch))

The next opponent wasn’t something anyone could call conventional; sure he was a human, a tall, brick wall of a human. The owner of the Zirden must have been displeased with the silvets previous wins; it had been against the odds. The giant of a man wielded a regular sized sword, for himself, that thing was huge in kais eyes; his large black beard was split just to show his teeth in a cocky grin. Kai who stood at the other side of this caged arena wiped away his own smirk and settled himself into a fighting stance, his legs were apart and his fists were half closed and half open, ready to punch or grapple anything.

What passed for the bell to start was nothing more than an announcer yelling for them to start, this was about the time that kai had launched himself forwards into a charge, before the announcer could even finish what he had said. The giant of a man, zentri kai thought his name was, cut his own grin as well as he readied his sword with his powerful arms and swing it to cut the silvet in his own charge.

Knowing the outcome if trying to block that thing with his arm guards was not something that he would be looking forward too, Kai purposely let himself fall to the floor, landing into a slide that took him under the powerful swords swing and allowed him to get to a little place he liked to call “no mans land”.

As Zentri halted his own swing, using the momentum to raise the sword behind him to crush the silvet, his eye’s glanced down in time to see a sly grin on the boys face, then the monkey boy’s leg shot upwards like a rocket, and zentri was over come in a world of pain. Kai on the other hand seemed a little more bewildered than the brute, especially as he retracted his own leg and positioned himself for his next attack.

“ Try not to miss again ”

As Zentri dropped his sword and keeled over to hold his groin in pain, kai’s foot once again launched upwards impacting the mans chin along with a sickening sound as the mans head recoiled backwards and his body returned to an up right position. The fight wasn’t over kai from his position on the floor kicked his whole body into the air with his other hoot along with the power from his arms. The feat seemed a little too unreal as kai ascended higher than the giant of a man; his body slow arcing backwards as he took flight.

There eyes met for a brief moment, one filled with pain and confusion, while the other seemed totally indifferent, then they separated as the silvets body continued to arc around, the man did not even feel the kick in the back of his head, that sent the behemoth to the floor, Kai fell to the floor second, landing on his hand and knees with a sly grin on his face, he rose slowly and chuckled.

“K.O’d … Oww … man just thinking about what happened is making me wince ”

The lights outside of the cage switched back on once again revealing the audience, there were cheers and there were boo’s, kai had been one of the first serious fighters to enter this arena for a while, that brute, zentri, all he had been was a lumberjack who had a sword. The announcer’s voice however soon roared out over the cheers and boo’s of the audience, kai looked around for the man but once again failed to see anything of the announcer.

“And the Winner is …LANCE … after his 3rd win; does he still have the will to carry on for that extra 100 gold?”

Kai’s grin widened as he brushed his long braid of hair behind his back, the thing was often a pain he had often thought about hacking off, but he never could exactly part with it, his tail enjoyed toying with it far too much.

“You bet! At this rate I should be able to last until 1000 gold, easily”

“There you have it folks, but we will be taking a quick intermission as we dig around our chest for his next opponent!”

Then within the centre of the cage, kai could feel the pressure of the attention being turned away, it felt like a weight had been took off his shoulders, except for the pity of low blowing that guy so hard, which was now being taken from the cage by some of the monks on loan from the citadel. Kai returned to his side of the arena and sat down with his back against the door, he sighed openly.

He had his reasons for doing this, and fame was definitely not one of them, it was actually, for the most part about getting that gold. Now don’t go confusing kai with one of those goys who fight only for money, it does not even have any meaning to the silvet, but it does to other people, and it makes things a hell of a lot more convenient. If he walked away now he would take 300 gold with him, then again if he lost in the next fight he would walk away with nothing and would have to start this all over again. It was a safe bet however, his first three opponents had all met a similar fate, he had attacked hard and fast, leaving no room for any retaliation, but his opponents had not been of the fighting variety, he just hoped that no real challenger would enter the arena.

His eyes started to wonder to what was happening outside of the cage he was in, the seating arrangements seemed more like the balcony view of a bar, or restaurant, that would make sense, considering that this place also doubled up as a bar, and what he would not give just to get his hands on a drink right about now.

[Breaker]

"That sounds stupid. Matter of fact, YOU sound stupid. Come to that, you look stupid too."

Josh sighed heavily and spun away from the insulting drunk. The Special Agent had been moving around Scara Brae all day, trying to find people of power and influence who might support him in his mission to start a Martial Arts school in Scara Brae. The problem was, no one cared who Josh was or what he was doing, and people of power and influence often seemed to find it insulting that he would try to speak to them in the first place. "You're a long way from home." He thought, miserably. After a morning of wandering, Josh had finally decided that it would be best to just start recruiting people for the school, then try to advertise for it. A semi-friendly shoe salesman had directed the Martial Artist to the Zirnden. If you want fighters, go to the Zirnden, the old man had said. So, after getting lost a few times, Joshua Cronen had found his way to Scara Brae's number one Fight Club.

The atmosphere was wild and erratic. Looking around, Josh could actually see the divisions in groups of people. Directly across the cage from the entrance, Josh spotted a large group of tough looking men in some sort of strange leather and red headbands. "A gang looking to recruit some fresh meat." He thought. To his left, he saw a mixture of men and women sitting on rows of chairs, watching the fight intensely. Fans and wannabes. To his right was the bar area, and the crowd there varied between crazy yelling drunks and quiet sullen ones. "Looks like the only people who stay next to the bar are the ones who need constant refills." As he walked toward the bar, the Agent began to look for exits, scanning the building's interior walls. Men in studded leather armor with cudgels and halberds stood spaced at twenty foot intervals, ensuring the safety of the patrons. There was a "Staff Only" exit behind the bar, and a back door which was almost completely masked by the red headband gang. Josh wondered idly if they had placed themselves there to ensure a swift exit should Sir Pallotan's knights arrive. "They don't look like the law abiding type." Last of all, Agent's eyes settled on the cage. Most people would have looked to the cage first, but Josh's training commanded him to seek out the dangerous unknown first. "There's no way of telling what you'll find in the dark corners of a place like the Zirnden. But in the cage, there will always be a fight."

Choosing to ignore the two men battling in the centre of the room, Josh addressed the bartender first, but found the man was too busy to talk. A curious drunk on the next stool asked Josh what he was talking about, and, glad that someone was finally listening to him, the earthling had gone on at some length about the Martial Arts school he wished to start. The curious drunk had listened until he became bored, then became an insulting drunk, letting Josh know just how stupid he looked, sounded, and probably smelled. So, with a heavy sigh, Josh had turned his attention to the cage, hoping to be entertained.

As his eyes fell on the ring, a fight was just commencing. "Wow... that's not exactly fair." He watched a mountain of a man with a massive sword charge towards a tough looking fellow armed only with iron bracers. It seemed the smaller of the two combatants was much more skilled though, as he dodged quickly behind his opponent and dealt him a quick kick to the groin. Predictably, the fight ended a short while after that, with the unarmed fighter bludgeoning the swordsman to the ground with a series of violent well placed kicks. Without thinking, Josh voiced his opinion aloud.

"That guy is pretty good... might make a worthy opponent."
"Oh yeah?" Startled, Josh glanced behind him. He saw that the grizzled barman had spoken to him. The barman was examining the hard, sinewy muscles of Josh's bare arms and sizing him up. A moment later, Josh realized what was going on. Deciding to let the barkeep continue, he kept silent.
"I err... get paid a little commission each time I can convince a patron to get into the cage. Err... it might be good publicity for that school you mentioned, too." For a second Josh considered the number of drunks who must have been crippled or killed in the ring after being convinced to try to fight by the bartender. However, he saw the sleazy old man's point. A little fame seemed like the only thing that would help him to begin a school. Standing up, Josh examined the bracer-wearing fighter in the cage. "So he would be my opponent..." Josh figured there wasn't much chance of him losing the fight. The good part was that since his opponent was unarmed, there would be little chance of him dying even if he lost. Having sized up the current champion, Josh glanced down at himself. He was wearing a white t-shirt and black cotton pants. The pants had an amount of spandex woven into them, giving him complete freedom of movement while the pants still looked like normal trousers. He had kept in good shape since he came to Althanas, and found himself anticipating the fight. It had been awhile since he had been in any kind of ring, and he liked fighting. Rolling his neck and flexing his large hands, Josh nodded to the bartender.

"Alright then. Go tell the announcer I'll be the next fight."
"What's your name?"
"Joshua Cronen."

There was some kind of official or bodyguard at the ringside, and Josh stopped there to drop his possessions. He dropped his backpack and trench coat, as well as the nunchaku concealed in his waistband. Next he took off his shoes and socks, deciding that the added weight of his hiking boots would slow him down more than they would add power to his kicks. As an afterthought, he stripped off the white t-shirt and left it folded on top of the stack. He grinned as he ducked into the cage, and a line from a book he had once read flashed through his mind. "The sixth rule of Fight Club is no shirts, no shoes in the Fight."*. In truth, he didn't have many clothes, and simply didn't want the shirt to get torn or stained with blood. Settling in to his corner, he began to stretch and prepare, waiting for the announcer to start the fight.


((*"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, Random House Inc.))

[Kai]

“Ladies and gentlemen!!! …”

The announcers voice had snapped kai back into reality, he had been somewhat daydreaming, although for some reason he could not remember what it was about. Kai looked towards the opposite end of the arena and saw the new challenger, a little different from the ones before, although what exactly was different he could not place a finger on it.

“A new Challenger “Joshua” has challenged Lance, will he bring him down or will lance be able to defeat yet another foe”

The announcer continued as Kai reluctantly got off the ground and stretched out his arms, his green eyes glanced over to his opponent this time getting a good look at him. The first thing kai looked for was a weapon, however he found none present on him, that meant he was possibly up against a magic user of some kind. But with the way he was showing off his well toned body, kai somehow doubted that, and now presumed he was as much of a fighter as he was.

“this one is different … damn there goes my easy run ”

“Should lance lose this fight, our new challenger Josh, will have a shot at raking a fortune home tonight”

Kai thought idly once more, on how the announcer was calling him lance, it was funny to think that was the name he signed up under, a name he had not used in nearly a good 100 years or more. Alternate names aside, the announcer continued to blather on about various thinks, the method on how this place was run. Kai began to stretch out more seriously, stretching his legs with effort and pulling his fingerless gloves tighter onto his fist. This fight was going to be no different, no matter who the opponent was, strike hard strike fast, conserve your energy for the next fight, that’s all there was to it, to get the big gold at the end of the day.

“Contestants … will you please prepare yourselves”

Kai didn’t need telling twice, he ceased his warm-ups and settled into his usual fighting stance, the same one he had fell into when up against his last opponent. Quick and hard, that’s all there was too it, no matter who the opponent was, there was now way they could concentrate after the first punch to the head had landed. His tail now started to swiftly whip around waiting for the announcer to shout the go ahead.

“… and Fight!”

“Ready! SET! GO!”

Kai said to himself before kicking himself off into a charge, the small arena was not long enough to add in a war cry and he had reached his opponent in no time. Kai leapt into the air, falling to the side whilst spinning around, the momentum would no doubt double the strength for when he would take control of the spin and kick his opponent with all his might.

First the control, his spinning stopped so suddenly, yet he could feel the momentum building up behind his leg, like a river against a dam, it was building. His eyes confirmed where his opponent was, the spin had not disorientated him, and all that was left now was the attack. His right foot, with all the momentum behind it shot outwards, yet the awkward angle it launched from would make it appear like the kick was coming in from overhead.

[Breaker]

Josh had nearly finished his regular stretching warm-up when the announcer's voice suddenly pounded the air. Turning his back to his opponent, the Martial Artist gripped the bars of the cage and squeezed. It was an odd glassy black metal which he did not recognize, but it held as fast as the strongest steel. Staring beyond the bars, he gazed at his audience. He was unused to fighting in front of large groups of people, especially those who were obviously hungry for blood. He watched the far wall of the room for a moment, ignoring the screams seeking violence and combat, focusing on his breathing. With each exhalation of breath, he strengthened his grip on the bars of the cage, imagining that he was bending them inwards like some circus strongman. As the power of his grip increased, his heavy sinewy muscles bulged outwards, causing the veins in his arms to pop up against his skin. As the announcer spoke his name, he released the bars and mashed against them with his fists, screaming an enormous bloodcurdling war cry to the audience. They responded instantly, screaming back, screaming for blood. Turning back to face his opponent, Josh grinned. "Good... they're on their way to loving me."

Taking a single large step away from the cage, Josh took up a sideways stance and began to bounce lightly on the balls of his feet. As he did so, he brought up his arms to shield his face, fists clenched. It was a classic boxer's defensive stance, with a twofold advantage in this case. Josh wanted his opponent to attack with a kick, so he made it seem like he planned on using only his hands, hence the boxer's stance. He also turned his body so his left hip was pointing straight at his opponent. Ideally, this would tempt the monkeylike man opposing him to attack his exposed left side or back, which would give Josh plenty of room to surprise him with a spin back roundhouse kick. Envisioning the move, Josh continued his light bouncing, breathing easy, ready.

As soon as the announcer gave the go ahead, Josh saw his opponent explode forward like a sprinter from the starting blocks. The lighter man was halfway across the ring when Josh realized the move he had anticipated was not going to come. He had been expecting, even encouraging the Silvet to cut right, but instead he had leapt to the left, spinning gracefully and lancing out with a swift flying axe kick. Although he was caught slightly off guard, Josh felt no worry. He had been trained to predict his opponent’s moves, but when that failed, the most valuable skill in an unarmed fight was the ability to adapt. The Silvet’s kick was well aimed, and if Josh had merely stood still, it probably would have cracked his skull. “Best way to reduce centrifugal force is to move closer to the source.” At that moment, Josh knew his opponent’s heel was moving faster than any part of his body. Instead of trying to dodge backwards or block the kick (an attempt which may have resulted in a shattered forearm), Josh took a quick half-step forwards and leaned slightly to his left. The result was that his attacker’s ankle struck him on the shoulder, a considerably better situation than heel-to-head contact. In the heat of the moment, Josh did not register the pain. He wasted a fraction of a second deciding how to retaliate. If the Silvet had been a larger, clumsier foe, Josh probably would have snapped his neck, or made an attempt at tearing out his windpipe. However, he was not dealing with a wrestler, but a lithe, wiry martial artist who was already slippery with sweat. The Agent’s first instinct was to lash out with his left hand, which was at the ready, and crush his opponent’s voice box with an open handed blow. However, the angle was bad, and if the blow glanced off it would do relatively nothing. “The throat is a small target area… and attacking there is generally a killing stroke. Thing like that, you gotta do it right.”

In the next instant, Josh had made his decision. Theoretically, his opponent would still be off balance, possibly even on one foot. Exhaling swiftly, Josh lunged forward and shot out his dominant right arm. His hand formed the form known was Buddha Palm, with the hard bone in the heel of his hand leading the way, aiming for the centre of the Silvet’s chest. It was not an attack designed to win a fight. It was, however, an extremely powerful blow, capable of knocking an enemy (especially one as light as Kai) back several yards. Using all the strength he could muster, Josh followed through on the attack, stepping with his left foot and throwing the weight of his nearly two hundred pound frame behind the attack. As he finished the follow through, Josh launched off his left foot and headed for the centre of the ring, then squared up to his opponent again. It was fairly common knowledge that controlling the centre of the ring in a cage match had many advantages. It gave him space to dodge backwards and to both sides, and took away the dangerous possibility of striking his head against the hard metal bars. As he dropped into a defensive stance, Josh wondered what would happen next in the match. “Maybe I’ll get lucky… maybe he has a weak bone structure, and I crushed his chest cavity. Or maybe he’ll go into cardiac arrest from the trauma.” As gruesome as they were, the ideas made Josh smile. It was a fighter’s dream to somehow put an opponent down with a single blow. From the way the monkey man had been dancing around in his earlier bout, though, Josh doubted he was short on calcium or suffered from clogged arteries.

The defensive fighting stance which Josh settled into was a frustrating one for any attacker. He stood as always, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet, with his legs shoulder width apart and one foot slightly in front of the other. It was his left foot which was ahead, with his weight bouncing in between the two, making his momentum unpredictable. His arms were up in a boxer’s defense again. “Maybe I can’t predict his moves, but I’d still like him to think I only fight with my hands… for as long as possible.” The especially frustrating thing about the stance was that Josh’s long forearms guarded practically his entire torso, with his fists rising to only about chin level. This left no easy areas to attack except his head. A smile flickered across the Agent’s stoic features. “And if he goes for my head… boy will he ever regret it.”


((I made a few assumptions, like that your character was sweating. If these or anything else isn't ok, let me know and I will edit.))

[Kai]

Kai felt a certain satisfaction as his first blow connected so violently, it wasn’t enough to actually stop his opponent from fighting, but instead in the back of his mind proved that it was superior to fighting with a weapon. There seemed a moment of clarity, as though everything seemed to pause waiting for the next move, up until now the effects of fighting a few easy opponents before had really not come to his mind, he had hardly wasted any effort on them. Through the single contact kai could tell one thing, this opponent would be his last in this ring no matter who won or lost, if kai should win he doubted he could handle another opponent.

Kai’s senses snapped back to reality to see his opponent go in for an attack, and although kai could see the actions took he felt like his body just could not keep up, failing to make an attempt at blocking especially when he felt his other heel just finish landing on the floor of the arena. The attack was on open palm attack, hitting perfectly in his chest, to some it may appear like his opponent was merely pushing him back with one arm, yet the blow itself was stronger than a mere punch, his opponent put his strength behind it and it was enough to send kai soaring backwards away from his opponent.

Kai found the air in his lungs quickly escaping during his renewed air born time, yet his mind still focused on the action at mind, rationalising that should he do nothing, the impact off hitting the floor would be a lot worse than simply breathing back his missing air. Quickly regaining control of himself he leaned back and reached out with his arms for the ground that would soon be there, his agility allowed him too seemingly back flip from the blow, although he landed awkwardly on his knee’s, and struggled for his breath as he looked for his opponent who had taken up the centre of the arena.

“ this is exactly what I didn’t want … ”

Kai regained his breath and stood up while holding his fists tightly clenched, he could see problems in his near future, and all of them involved tackling this guy in front of him, what was his name … Josh. Kai wiped his forehead with his arm, in a strange feeling he didn’t know if his was rubbing the sweat from his arm onto his head or trying to rub it off, guess now was the time to get rid of his shirt and jacket, but if he did he may be attacked while his concentration was elsewhere.

“ that stance … he is just daring me to attack isn’t he ”

“ … then I guess I should not disappoint him ”

Kai exhaled a deep breath returning his breathing to a normal automatic rhythm, he still was sure about his opponent though, if he was truly a worthy opponent, he seemed like it, and he actually managed to return a blow. Who knows what kai was thinking as he hunched down obviously ready to charge, if he wanted kai could have gathered up energy to create a Psion blade, its not like it wasn’t allowed but kai felt like that would be unfair and in a way cheating.

Kai quickly leapt towards josh, still in the middle of processing how he was going to attack, if he himself did not know yet then there was no way his opponent would, when he did decide on what he was doing his dash seemed to change his whole momentum, as if breaking on a dime, he ended up sliding low on the ground to his opponent right side, if his opponent was sure to attack now he would be forced to turn so that his opponent would be on the inside of his attack radius, especially if he was going to use his fists against a low opponent.

Now on the floor beside his opponent was a moment of quick reactions, if he did nothing he would be at the complete mercy of josh, but as it would seem kai was already moving, infact he had used his strong arms to hoist his body off the ground, spinning his legs so that they would crash into the back of his opponents legs. It was a simple sweeping move at best, he was sure he could get the strength need to knock his opponent off his feet, and just incase he decided to leap over the first leg, kai also kicked out with his left leg, although aimed higher, one that would connect with his lower back if he did not decide to leap over the attack.

((np: your reminding me of what kai should be feeling, hope i explained kai's actions a little better))

[Breaker]

A roar of appreciation greeted Josh's palm strike, and the Silvet sailed backwards through the air as though borne upon the wave of bloodthirsty screams from the audience. Josh felt as though the energy raging from those watching had lent wings to his feet, and he was barely conscious of the dull pain in his right shoulder as he danced into position. He watched Lance rise to his feet slightly sluggishly, but with his fists clenched powerfully, clearly ready to continue the fight. For a moment, Josh wondered whether he should have pursued his first attack and attempted to keep the Silvet on the ground for good. "First rule of a street fight is that once your man is down, he stays down. Still... this isn't exactly a street fight. He can't pull out a gun or pick up a garbage can and throw it at me." Josh was content with merely waiting comfortably in his defensive stance, again allowing the Silvet to attack first.

"Come on Lance... get a move on." As the slimmer of the two combatants launched into his second attack, Josh tensed his body, preparing. He had a particularly nasty ankle-snapping trick planned if the Silvet again tried a head kick, and several close-quarters combinations running through his mind in the case of a punching attack. Again, however, the Silvet failed to do as Josh had expected. In fact, a sweep kick was very close to being the last thing the Martial Artist expected. As he lifted his right leg to block, Josh questioned the move in his mind. His opponent had already proved himself to be an incredibly adept fighter. It seemed, however, that he was not a very practical fighter. Although he scorned the attack itself, Josh could not help but be impressed by the Silvet's agility. The lithe man had lifted himself on his thin powerful arms and swung his legs in a neat arc, swiftly and surely attacking Josh from behind. The Agent pivoted on his left foot and raised his right, easily blocking the initial attack with the bottom of his foot. He allowed the impact of the kick to pop his leg up, preparing an axe kick of his own which would crash down upon his opponent's unsuspecting cranium. It was at that moment, however, that the Silvet's secondary attack struck the back of his leg.

As he fell, Josh's sharp mind registered what had just happened. "Lance" had propped himself fully up on both arms, and kicked out with not one, but both legs, in a scissoring motion. It was a feat which most humans would not be capable of, but this man did not precisely look or act human. "Maybe he's one of those human elf hybrids... he doesn’t look particularly elven, though." Josh’s quick pivot on his left foot had moved him backwards slightly, with the result that the second sweep kick met with the back of his knee. With all of his weight on his left foot, the leg buckled instantly and Josh found the ground rushing up to meet him. He was in momentary shock, surprised at what had happened, but his instincts took over as soon as he hit the floor. He landed on his upper back, converting his momentum into a backwards shoulder roll. He rolled directly onto his feet, and was up and ready again in just over a second. All of a sudden, he became very consciously aware of the pain in his shoulder. Groaning, Josh realized that he had instinctively rolled on his dominant right shoulder, and had thus put stress on the injured joint. He had to mentally restrain himself from rubbing the damaged area, and knew that there would be a large, ugly bruise there in the morning. “I’ll be sporting an unsightly shade of purple tomorrow… but it’s some consolation knowing Lance will have one to match on his chest.” Instinctively, Josh crouched into a low square stance, ready to spring forward. He estimated that the Silvet’s ungainly attack would, once again, leave the man slightly off balance. “It’s hard to jump around and dodge without both feet firmly on the ground” Instantly, Josh asked himself the question which could win or lose the fight for him; “How do you go about attacking a skilled, impractical opponent?"

The answer came as quickly as the question had. Josh had been trained to always think, and attack, logically. While fighting a weightlifter with an enormous fully toned six pack, one does not logically attack the abdominal area. In a similar way, most fighters wouldn’t use a sweep kick on someone as quick and spry as Josh obviously was. Such an attack would be much more useful against a clumsy, top heavy opponent, who might injure themselves falling down. A long time ago, Josh had learned that there was no such thing as a truly unpredictable fighter. It was necessary to know before the attack what one was doing, even if it was just a split second before the attack landed. Otherwise, the blow would be weak and misplaced. Lance, on the other hand, was difficult to predict simply because of the impracticality of his attacks. “So how do I anticipate an attack when it will always be the last thing I’m expecting?” The answer to Josh’s problem was simple. “If I can’t anticipate his attacks, the best plan is to not let them happen anymore. I’ll try to put him out, instantly. And if I can’t, I’ll stay in close, since he obviously likes kicking from a distance.” Having wasted nearly an entire second figuring this out, Josh moved quickly on to his own attack plan. “How do you surprise a talented, impractical, unpredictable opponent? There were two options. One, was to make the most logical attack possible. From his present range and position, Josh decided that would be a quick snap kick to the side of Lance’s knee. Leg kicks were difficult to avoid, and Josh could easily put enough force into one to break the knee. “He wouldn’t be able to hop around or kick me so well with a broken leg.” Option two was to do something totally unorthodox. In the light of option two, Josh toyed with the idea of attempting a full-power football tackle, but rejected that possibility quickly. No matter how fast they looked on television, football tackles were slow and inaccurate, and if Josh missed he would probably end up mashing his face against the cage, then being attacked from behind. The only option left was to mix option one and match it with option two.

The easiest unexpected but totally practical attack would have been a kick. Perhaps a powerful sidekick, aimed at the tender spot on the Silvet's chest where Josh had already struck him. The idea was appealing, but Josh decided it was not yet time to unleash his lethal legs. Instantly another plan formed in his mind, and he suppressed a smile. It was perfect. The attack would capitalize on all of Josh's strengths, and exploit the Silvet's weaknesses. Coming out of his crouch, the Martial Artist sprang forward, going on the offensive for the first time that day.

Crossing the small space between them in a few quick, short steps, Josh arrived in front of the opponent he knew as Lance. Rather than stopping his rush, he added the momentum of his run to a quick jab, aimed downwards at the Silvet’s solar plexus. “If he was winded from my last attack, that will put him down for sure.” Although it was a decent punch, it was merely a diversion. As quickly as he could after the initial strike, Josh reared back and whipped his upper body forward in a massive head butt. Most people underestimate the power of attacking with one’s head. Josh was striking with the front of his forehead, which was a very hard, dome shaped bone, with nothing but a thin layer of skin between it and the target area. A heavy line of muscles run up the human back and neck, and Josh had used all the power in these and in the big quadriceps in his legs to power the devastating blow. The front of his skull was aimed squarely at Kai’s nose, bearing down like a sledgehammer. Josh had initially gained confidence in head strikes against padded punch bags, and later tried them while sparring in combat training. The first time he had head butted a human being, he had struck the man in the neck, and floored him instantly. “I wonder if that will happen this time.” Josh thought, as the centre of Kai’s face grew nearer and nearer. The Agent exhaled harshly through his nose, keeping his mouth shut tight in attempt to make his head as solid as a rock.

[Kai]

Kai eventually had to lift put his weight onto his left arm so that he could swing his body behind him, his feet eventually landed on there toes and the momentum had shifted so suddenly, it felt odd to be stationary once again. From his new position kai swiftly looked up to confirm the condition of his enemy, and after feeling both legs hit he was satisfied to see that his sweep had done its desired job, yet he wished his opponent had been down for a little longer than he had.

“ Dance based moves are the best! ”

His shirt was now basically soaked with his own sweat, that and now doubt his hair was also drenched completely down to the roots and his movement tried in vain to try and flick it off. It wasn’t so much that he had worn himself out to this point in the previous bouts, but the heat of the lights baring down on him wasn’t helping, and his jacket was certainly not welcome at the moment. Kai shifted his body again, getting out of that clumsy position that made him look like he was about to start doing push ups, now he was effectively crouched in a very animal like pose, his feet on there toes tucked under him while his front arms offered minimal support considering his tail already held that job.

“I love being a monkey”

Kai found that there was a grin on his face, it had probably been there when his sweep had landed a direct hit, for some reason he was feeling pretty confident about defeating his opponent, and he had no idea why. In a fight a second can seem like an eternity, when the mind starts working overtime to find a way of surviving, that’s why everything seemed to move so slow when in reality time is just moving by normally, the silvet felt a ting of the so called survival instinct, he gained the impression that his opponent will be giving him a date with those monks from the citadel.

The grin faded faster than it appeared when his opponent charged, surprisingly faster than what kai thought the human was capable of, in response to this charge kai was straightening his knee’s prompting to rise from his crouch. Kai could not even form any self conscious thought, he couldn’t even recognise his own feelings, it was all happening too fast for his mind, yet the silvets body was still acting ahead of him.

The first attack that came was a jab, aimed for the middle of his torso, while it was a simple attack kai reacted to it anyway, swinging his right arm to intercept it while at the same time his direction changed to his right, desperately trying to get out of the line of fire. His hand intercepted the jab with an open palm, he had disrupted the strike enough to send it off course, josh still however hit kai, but the blow had been weakened severally, enough for kai to ignore the glancing blow.

Josh’s second attack came, but kai by now had managed to get him self out of harms way, finding that the situation had created a somewhat surprising opening. To the silvet, it seemed like his opponent was looking down, frozen in time waiting for something very painful to happen. There was actually very little to think about, as soon as his left foot touched the ground kai knew what he was doing, his mind returning to him.

This was what he needed, his left leg rocketed forwards, yet it never attempted to straighten out, instead it bent, kai was going to use his left knee to strike, all that remained left was the target area. Did he really need to question the now weakened area, kai doubted that his opponent would be expecting to see a rising knee fly into his face, yet he soon would be.

[Breaker]

One moment, Josh felt certain the battle was over, and he had won.
He could feel the power in his body as he exerted himself in the full force head bash. He felt his primary jab make light contact but glance off, half-blocked. It felt perfect. The punch had drawn Lance’s attention, and perhaps done a little damage.
Then… everything went wrong.
Suddenly, Lance’s face was no longer in the path of destruction. Josh watched in surprise as the Silvet slithered sideways like a viper. Josh had been fully expecting his head to make contact with something to stop his momentum, but that something had vanished. The result was that he overextended, feeling his neck strain painfully, and realizing he was entering and extremely vulnerable position. His hopes that Lance would not capitalize on this ended before they could start when he saw the Silvet’s knee rising from below to meet his skull.

When he was in high school, one of Josh’s best friends had played on the school’s senior rugby team. While watching one game, Josh had witnessed an extremely painful event. In a misguided attempt to tackle an opposing player, his friend had smashed head-on into the other boy’s knee. The game had been stopped, and both of them had been carried off to an ambulance which arrived promptly. The main difference was that Josh’s friend had been unconscious and spent the next two days in the hospital with a concussion. The opposing player had been weeping in pain as he was helped off the field, and was later diagnosed with a split kneecap. He had spent two weeks at the hospital, and another month in a cast. Josh had no doubt that if his head met Lance’s knee, the result would be much the same; Kai would suffer more in the long term, but Josh would be knocked unconscious, and lose the fight. “And that… is unacceptable.”

Although he had been taken by surprise, the Martial Artist found several ways out of the predicament. He envisioned himself throwing up both arms two knock the attacking knee away. It would work, but he would still be vulnerable at that point, and might even over balance and fall down. “Go down right in front of your opponent, and you won’t be getting up again.” By simple deduction Josh decided that the past move would be to do as little as possible. “Let Lance have it his way.” The Silvet had attacked, and Josh decided to meet the attack head-on, as it were. Unfortunately, he knew that his opponent’s hard kneecap would knock him out cold at the very least. Immediately he imposed the same strategy he had used to avoid the very first attack of the fight. “Minimize the damage.” With a very slight shift of momentum, Josh changed the path his head was following, aiming for the large fleshy thigh of his opponent’s upper leg. Compared to the knee, it would be like a cushion. Gritting his teeth, Josh gave in to the impact.

Instantly after the two bodies met, Josh reeled away, his head spinning. Despite the fact that he had struck a reasonably soft surface, the sheer blunt force trauma had caused tiny flecks to appear, blotting his vision temporarily. Staggering naturally into a drunken boxing stance, Josh rolled his head from one side to the other, clearing his eyes and relaxing the strain in his neck. His vision sharpened quickly, and on instinct, he leapt towards Lance, not wanting to give the Silvet any time to react. It was as he arrived in front of his target that the question surfaced in his mind; “What am I doing?”

The monkey boy’s fighting style reminded Josh quite strongly of Tae Kwon Do. He had sparred several times with practitioners of the Korean martial art, and had found a common weakness in all of them; close range combat. Josh had seen masters of Tae Kwon Do win fights using only their feet, and had often joked with his fellow Agents about those same masters forgetting what their hands were for. When sparring against less experienced practitioners, Josh had found the weakness to close range combat particularly pronounced. In one particular instance, a man several years his senior had stopped the fight and complained that Josh was “cheating” simply because he had thrown a quick combination of open hand strikes at the man’s face. Apparently, there were rules in Tae Kwon Do against attacking the head with one’s hands. Although he knew that the Silvet was not trained in Tae Kwon Do, given that it was an Earthly technique, Josh still found the resemblance remarkable. “Maybe this Lance guy has the same weaknesses as that whiny Tae Kwon Do guy.” Unfortunately, there were complications. Josh knew already that Lance was incredibly light on his feet, and capable of dodging attacks very well. “I’ve got to find a way of stopping him from dancing around.” Finding that he had arrived in front of his opponent, Josh was relieved, for his next attack plan had arrived in his head at the exact same moment.

Lance focused primarily on long-range kicks. That suggested, but not guaranteed, that he would be weak defending against close range attacks. Josh decided that this theory was supported by the boy’s slight frame and slim arms. “He probably isn’t much of a grappler, either.” Grappling was a style of fighting which Josh was particularly good at. It involved wrestling techniques, as well as close range strikes and joint locks from martial arts such as Aikido and Wing-Chun. Grappling was a highly effective way of disabling weaker, swifter opponents. The Agent crouched low as he ran towards Lance, and executed what he hoped was a particularly surprising move.

Both of Josh’s arms moved at the same time. His left looped out around Lance, as if Josh were trying to wrap the boy in a giant one-armed bear hug. In truth, that was exactly what he was trying to do; get a solid grip on the boy so he would not be able to escape. His right was rising, bent to a ninety degree angle at the elbow. As his elbow arced upwards, Josh straightened his legs, adding more kinetic energy to the elbow strike. It was aimed for his opponent’s jaw, arriving from below like a slimmer, deadlier uppercut. It was a brutal move, which, if it arrived on target, could knock the boy into next week. If it missed slightly and caught the lad’s throat, it could kill him. Again Josh gritted his teeth, preparing for an impact which would be, this time, to his favor.

It was with moderate surprise that Josh realized he was attacking with malicious intention. Up until that point, the entire fight had been merely a means of gaining fame and gold, his opponent a pawn in the process. The boy’s quick feet, and even more so his clever knee attack which Josh had barely avoided, had ruffled the Agent’s usual calm. He found himself reliving his secondary school days, when every fight had been against someone he hated, a bully or a rival. He yearned to feel his elbow smash into Lance’s chin, and watch the boy’s head snap back like an onager.
“You should have gotten out of the ring while you had a chance, Lance.”

[Kai]

Again his opponent took the attack yet he made it so that the damage would be minimized, Kai thought it was an interesting instinct, as his own would have preferred to do everything in his own power to avoid any damage completely. That didn’t change the fact that once again his opponent had been hit, and there was a certain sense of accomplishment that came with it, regardless of the blood thirsty audience screaming with glee at what could have been a finishing move to end the fight.

Kai lowered his knee, trying to return to his stance before his opponent, yet from the way josh stumbled back kai wondered if he fought himself in his sleep, the way he raised his guard even when he looked ready to topple over. He recovered surprisingly quickly, and was even charging for kai yet again, the silvet this time had little chance of evading, his momentum was too still and his balance was still in the process of reasserting itself after a powerful strike.

Kai’s expression must have been half way between surprise and a frown, there was no way his opponent should have even had the right mind to even think about charging, never mind launch into the next attack. But reality was had a cruel sense about it, josh’s left arm seemed to want to hug him, trapping him as it also effectively trapped kai’s right arm between his own body and the man’s chest, rendering it almost useless in the grapple.

But the most dangerous part about this human’s action was with his own right arm, set to try and return the blow kai had just delivered with interest. What could he do, the silvet could try and stop the attack with his still free left arm, but he doubted he could effectively grapple it in time let alone stop it. At first his instincts screamed at him to look up to try and avoid the angle of the blow, he knew such an action would prove far more fatal than simply keeping where his head was. Kai was suddenly overcome with a sense of irony, he could have almost laughed out if not for the present situation of almost getting knocked into next week, kai shifted the angle of his head making it so that the man’s attack would not hit with the elbow itself, but rather the softer portion of the humans own arm.

It had been the same trick the man had used twice before, to stop the silvets opening attack, and then to reduce damage on the knee to the face, when the impact came he had made the only mistake of not gritting his teeth, as the blow caused the inner wall of his cheek to rip against his sharp teeth, but the trick had worked none the less. His head was sent upwards, and to someone who had not quite spotted what had just happened, kai would have looked like he was knocked out, especially with the blood and spit spraying out of his mouth into the air like a fountain.

When his senses seemingly rebooted he got to work with his pay back, the first thing he had to do was to break out of this grapple, and the way he could accomplish that was by first shifting his right leg so that it was now like a hook behind his opponents now straight legs. And his right arm struggle so that it was now directly pressing against his chest, while his tail also went to make a move, swiftly wrapping itself around the mans left wrist and struggled against the mans strength to pull it away from kai.

“… Don’t …”

Kai spoke simply signalling the start of Three actions that would take place, which all started when kai straightened his face baring his animalistic fangs, partly stained with his own blood, he felt like an animal who had been pushed to far into a corner. The first action, he pushed the man away with all the strength he could muster with his right arm, while the action alone may not prevail too well considering his opponent still had a grapple and a little footing. The second act was an assault against the footing, swiftly taking advantage of josh’s footwork he swept his right leg as quickly as possible, but still there lied the problem of josh’s arm threatening to pull kai down with him. The solution was simple, kai had an extra limb that josh had all but ignored, he was sure that he could overpower his arm; his tail was after all, the strongest limb in his body.

“… Fuck...”

Kai continued to say, and now came the attack, initially he had planned to attack with his fist, but so long as he was on the irony theme, he changed it to an open palm, even if josh was not about to fall over like he had intended there was no way he would not make some kind of retaliation. Kai struck out, his left hand building up what momentum it could from his side before rocketing to strike … what was it called? … the solar plexus of josh’s body. Kai was aware that most of what he had done now was seemingly copied from what the man had been using, while some of it was, kai felt like he should adopt a different fighting style none the less, just to mess with his opponents head because there was no way his attack would put down the human.

“With ME!”

He continued as he pushed forward with his arm to increase the damage he could possibly inflict with the attack.

…Although he was curious as to why he wanted to prolong the fight.

[Breaker]

A ferocious sense of carnal accomplishment gripped Joshua as his opponent's head snapped backwards, blood and saliva erupting from his mouth in a grisly geyser. But even as it seemed that he had knocked Lance out, Josh knew something was wrong. A heartbeat later his fears were confirmed. The elbow strike had been incredibly powerful, but it had been a glancing blow, obviously delivering only a fraction of its potential power. Knowing his attack had failed, the Agent immediately began to retreat, bending his knees and melting away from the Silvet. The result was that he walked straight into Kai’s sweep kick. The Silvet’s leg struck Josh’s left calf, the miniscule impact arriving at a very inconvenient time. Even as he started to fall, the Martial Artist’s quick feet and nimble body recovered for him. He had practically regained his balance when the palm strike arrived.

As Josh felt his flesh yield to the vicious strike, he was once again confused by his opponent’s choice of attack. “Under the circumstances, a straight punch would have been better for him. This is better for me, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.” Josh’s father, who had been his first ever Martial Arts instructor, had explained the functional difference between a punch and a palm strike to him at a very young age. Being no more than a child at the time, Josh had not seen the purpose in using anything other than a fist to attack an enemy. His knuckles were harder than his palm, and his fists were he heavier than an open hand. His father had described how although punches are generally faster and cause more pain, palm strikes have more overall force. “If you want to hurt someone,” Josh recalled his father’s words, “Punch them. If you want to move them away from you, use the heel of your palm.” A proper straight punch connected with target area using only the attacker’s first two knuckles. A palm strike, on the other hand, connected with the entire heel of the hand, an overall much larger surface area. “Attacking someone’s solar plexus, you want as small a contact point as possible. Otherwise it’s like hitting someone with the handle of a knife instead of stabbing them.” It was as that thought crossed his mind that the pain registered in Josh’s brain, and he found himself staggering backwards, breathless.

Although Josh had formidable abdominal muscles, he still felt a lot of pain from the sheer blunt force trauma of the attack. Although his abs protected his solar plexus from being struck directly, the impact caused him to momentarily lose his breath. He had still been off balance when the palm strike had landed, with the result that he was knocked backward, staggering, trying to stay on his feet. “In a fight like this, going down is extremely dangerous. That, and Lance has already proved he’s a dangerous opponent.” The Agent continued his backwards stumbling until it was halted by the delyn bars of the cage. He leaned against them for an instant, breathing hard. He wanted the fight to end. His various exchanges with Kai had left him with a mild headache, a stiff shoulder and now a lancing pain in his solar plexus. His entire upper body was shining with sweat, and his hair was plastered to his head. The bars felt cool to touch, and he took momentary sanctuary in the tiny points of low temperature on his back, thinking hard. “Normally I manage to floor my opponents by now. This Lance guy has got some pretty decent endurance. If it was a bar fight, I’d crack him over the head with a pool cue. Damn, it’s hard to be resourceful when you’re in a damn cage.” Pressing himself up against the bars, Josh glanced past Kai to the fans, calling for more blood to be spilt. “I didn’t come here to lose a godamn fight, I came here to start a school. If I don’t beat this monkey boy, I’ll have to drag my reputation out of the hole.” It was as he gripped the cage in frustration that Josh realized that he did in fact have a weapon at his disposal. “The bars! He won’t recover so fast if I slam him into something that hard.”

Josh exploded forwards from the side of the ring, like a greyhound after the rabbit. He angled himself slightly, aiming to drive Kai backwards into one of the four corners of the cage. In a split second he decided it was time to release the two weapons he had been hiding since the fight started. Bounding on a collision course with the Silvet, Josh released his left leg forward in a straight front kick, aiming for his opponent’s midriff. It was a quick, powerful move, and a difficult one to evade. Josh hoped that either the kick would land and drive the Silvet backwards, perhaps knocking the wind out of him, or else that the Silvet would dodge backwards. In either scenario, it would move Kai closer to the corner, and would put him in perfect position for Josh’s second attack. Stepping on his left foot as he finished the first kick, Josh spun over his right shoulder, drawing his right leg in, and then lancing it out in a well formed spin back sidekick. It was a misleading attack. Most people would see the spin and assume the next move would be a spin back roundhouse, by far an easier and more popular kick. The difference between the two was that a spin back roundhouse would arrive in a horizontal arc, leading with the back of the attacker’s heel and generally aimed in one of three places; the side of the knee, the ribcage, or the chin, depending on how high the attacker could kick. Josh’s spin back sidekick, on the other hand, was very quick and very powerful, leading with the bottom of his heel and aimed straight for the centre of Kai’s chest, the exact spot where Josh’s first attack had landed.

As he executed his final attack, Josh hoped that his opponent would be driven backwards into the cage. Once he had him there, the Agent had no intention of letting the Silvet escape. Josh was optimistic that he would be successful. Both of his kicks were powerful and driving, and the second in particular definitely carried enough force to knock Kai back into the corner. “That, and I’m attacking an already bruised area. I don’t envy the pain he’ll feel if my heel hits its target.”

[Kai]

The grin that appeared on kai’s face could lead almost anyone to believe that he had won, the situation in this squared ring, was almost unmistakable with the roars and cheers of the crowd. His opponent was almost holding up his own weight against the cages bars, and kai could even see the man looking somewhat exhausted. The silvets grin wasn’t because of the thought he had won, but rather, the realisation with that swinging a sword around could never compare to just get down and personal with a well placed kick or fist.

‘ I gotta admit, for a human he has some skills, still I wonder wha … oh here he comes ’

His mind announced the obvious, with his opponent seemingly charging for him, kai quickly put up his usual stance, the next part was the wait, which wasn’t long until the attack actually came. At first kai was surprised, it was a kick, and in all honesty kai was expecting some kind of punch, the silvet almost kicked him self at the stupid mistake but josh did it for him anyway. The first kick couldn’t have scored a cleaner hit, quick yet powerful it slammed into his already raw chest sending him stumbling back a few steps desperately trying to raise his guard.

His opponents plot to get him to slam into the back of the cage had more or less worked, the silvets tail had managed to use the cage to stop his stumbling and forewarned him of the danger behind him. Then the next attack came, the second kick was far more devious than the first in some ways. Kai wasn’t sure which way it was coming from, but that didn’t stop his arms and hands from reaching out to catch the kick as best he could. His hands were the first thing to feel the power behind the second kick, and immediately they pushed against it negating most of the force, but what did slam into his chest was enough to make the silvets back crash against the steel cage.

There was a roar from the crowd, coupled by a whistle and what kai thought was a girl proclaiming her love for josh. It was about now that kai realised he was exactly where the human wanted him to be, between a rock and a hard place. Somewhere within his mind he could recall the last battle he had in a “cage” eventually the fight had spilled outside of it and kai had managed to get the drop on his opponent at the time.

“Humph!! Gotta get the momentum back ”

Kai wasn’t sure what to do, but he at least knew that if he tried to attack now, it would be pointless and prone to a more powerful counter attack, however if he didn’t do anything he would still be caught in this stupid position he had somehow allowed himself to get caught in. For a silvet though, there was one extra exit for him to take, and kai sure as hell was betting on the fact that josh had not thought of that little scenario. Kai leapt up and turned around gripping the bars with his hands, and quickly climbed up the cage all the way to the ceiling, Kai was surprisingly fast at climbing up the 15 foot cage, and quickly putting him out of what he thought would be his opponent’s natural reach.

Kai spat out a bit of blood that had been gathering in his mouth, and then turned that moment of pain into a grin as he looked down at his opponent from his new found safe area. Although kai felt a little regret from doing such an act instead of actually doing something that he deemed would be more worth while, the most he could really do now was taunt his opponent and test there tolerance to his insults.

“Oh man now come on, don’t give me that look, you should have expected something like that. The tail isn’t just for show ya know”

“Well I gotta say I feel like a Muppet, taunting him from up here” But it was after all a test to see how well he could control himself, while at the same time, get him so worked up to win that he would start making mistakes. Kai looked around from his position, he knew he had to move quick, it seemed that the audiance wasn't too pleased with him being where he was.

“Oh yeah, this guy also knows how to kick…”

[Breaker]

Josh cursed inwardly as he watched the Silvet scramble up the bars of the cage. The Martial Artist did not doubt that he would be able to follow, hauling himself up hand over hand, but he would be incredibly slow and awkward, in sharp contrast to Kai’s speedy and graceful climb. “And he’d have about a thousand chances to attack me before I got to the top. Besides, it’s obvious that’s what he wants me to do.” Josh had long ago learned that nine times out of ten, doing exactly what your opponent wanted was a very bad idea. “This is definitely one of those times,” He thought. The Silvet was clearly in his element when climbing, whereas Josh felt much more at home on solid ground. “So the next logical step,” He reasoned, “Is to bring him down to me.”

Keeping one wary eye on the Silvet to ensure he made no surprise moves, Josh took a quick glance around the cage, then around the entire building. The cage was as unhelpful as ever, its bare glassy black bars glittering teasingly. More people seemed to have entered the club since their fight started, and Josh saw a wide variety of mixed emotions. There were some cheering Lance on, and laughing at his clever evasion of Josh’s attack. Others were roaring for Josh to follow the Silvet up the cage, or screaming obscenities at Kai for “cheating”. Josh shook his head. He was angry that his opponent had temporarily escaped from him, but knew that in a fight such as this, there was no such thing as cheating, because there were no rules. On the other hand, the Agent was glad for a slight break in the seemingly endless struggle, and took the time to get his breath back. He began breathing slowly through his nose and rolling his shoulders backwards to ease the stiffness which threatened to disable his right arm. As he stared up at Kai, waiting for inspiration to strike him, he began to jog lightly on the spot, trying to keep the adrenaline flowing. Suddenly, a piercing scream split the silence.

A girl of perhaps twenty years had suddenly leapt up onto her table; a string of obscenities streaming from her mouth could have made any sports fan feel uncomfortable. It was the same girl who had previously called out her love for Josh. It seemed she was one of the few who thought Lance was “cheating”. As she stood there, her hand shot out, and suddenly a heavy glass beer mug was spinning through the air, aimed at Kai. It was a poor throw, and the mug missed Kai by several yards, shattering against the ceiling directly above Josh. Shards of glass rained down like hail, and the Martial Artist crouched momentarily, shielding his yes from the tiny pieces which threatened to blind him. As he straightened up, he scooped a handful of the tiny pieces of glass into his pocket, thinking he might find a use for them later. A quick glance showed him that security had moved in, and two burly men were forcing the struggling, screaming girl towards an exit. Muttering in bewilderment, Josh went back to examining the bars of the cage.

Tentatively, he pushed on the bars, and then threw his shoulder against them. The bars moved slightly. Studying the base, he saw that each bar was fitted individually into a hole in the platform, allowing them more give than if they had been cemented in place. “It makes sense,” he thought, “If these bars didn’t have a bit of cushion, all you’d have to do to win a fight is bash your opponent against them, and he’d be out like a light.” Taking one final look at the bottom of the bars, Josh ran his gaze all the way up until he was staring at Kai once more. A wide grin spread across his face as he figured out how to get the Silvet to come down.

The Agent reached out and grasped the bars with both hands, as he did so, burrowing down inside of himself mentally. He felt almost as though he was delving into his blind subconscious, accessing knowledge and power which was normally not available to him, or any other humans. It was a tricked he had performed many times before. On Earth, it had been something along the lines of a freakish mutation, but here on Althanas, the trick had saved his life many times. “And today, it will save my reputation.” As he looked up at his opponent, a large smile splayed on his face, the Martial Artist’s skin began to glow golden.

“Mind over matter Lance… Mind over Matter!”
Although he doubted that the Silvet would understand what it meant, the jibe seemed incredibly appropriate, and Josh enjoyed finally breaking the silence which he had, until now, held fast. His opponent had been taunting him since the battle started, but Josh had opted to keep his mouth shut and focus on the fight. It felt like a guilty pleasure, taunting an opponent, and as he said it, Josh’s grin spread into a toothy smile. And as his teeth shone in the erratic lighting, he began to shake the bars.

Josh’s strength had doubled. It was a very strange ability he had learned while training at the UCA on Earth, and no one, including him, had been able to explain it. The resident Psychologist had been of the opinion that Josh had somehow tapped into a larger percentage of the power innate within the human brain. Even that man, however, could not explain why Joshua’s skin glowed golden when he used the power, or, for that matter, why he was able to turn it on and off at will. The incredible strength was highly useful, of course. Even with his power doubled, the bars only moved a little at first, vibrating back and forth mere millimeters. He leaned into the task, the ropelike muscles in his arms and shoulders standing out, sinews and veins in his chest and back popping out against his skin like tiny snakes, with all of it framed in the golden glow of his skin. The air was suddenly rent with gasps and calls of encouragement from the bloodthirsty watchers from the battle. They were getting their show. Before long, the bars began to move for, moving a solid two inches outwards before rebounding back in. Josh waited patiently, watching Kai to see what would happen. “Come on monkey boy, get down here.” He knew that if the bars were moving two inches at the bottom, they would be rocking at least a foot, maybe more, near the top. And they would be rocking quite violently. Suddenly, another shout welled up within him and burst from his gold-tinged lips.

“Come on Lance… it’s FUN down here!”

[Kai]

Kai wasn’t totally sure what was happening, such a golden glow, a display that angered kai, and at the same time impressed him. Josh didn’t even need to tell Kai what was going on, he knew his strength had increased, and no doubt his speed and reaction time. It was an evil trick, kai thought, an insult to him as he figured that his opponent was deliberately holding his strength back, pulling his punches as it were.

“Flashy … I bet the moths just love you”

He didn’t really say it out loud, nor in a volume for his opponent to actually hear him, his voice, he noted had taken on a rather icy outlook, reflecting the situation. His opponent taunted him and began forcing the bars of the cage to rock rather violently, Kai could have simply moved into the calling, suffering less vibrations than that side of the wall, but instead chose to humour the glowing human. Kai leapt of the bars over his opponent and rapidly descended into the centre of the arena, his landing was naturally awkward, the humanoid shape unfit to handle such a fall, but a silvet took it only a little better, he was soon back onto his feet quickly forgetting the sudden jolt through his own legs.

Kai looked at his opponent from the new perspective of standing once again level with the man. There was a certain degree of tension in the air, or maybe that was the adrenalin or a certain thrill kicking in on having such a primal fight, hidden only by a certain amount of grace. Honour and pride seemed out of the window now, Kai was at best an animal, and currently he was being cornered, his survival instincts dictated on just running up there and tearing the human a new windpipe, but he knew better.

“Golden … Have I … seen this before? “

Kai spread his legs out and threw his arms downwards, crossing them at the wrists with his hands posed as if ready to grapple, his eyes firmly locked on to the human, unblinking, and wild with those instincts jumping off the scales. First things first, focus on the surroundings, what was going on.

Kai recalled someone throwing in some kind of glass object, at first he has dismissed it when its contents had fallen over Josh, before he had actually became a sudden gold colour infact, his actions of crouching made kai suspicious that he was no hoarding a glass shard.

Secondly, kai had to eliminate all distractions; his mind began to feel like it was slowly being shut down. The silvet eliminating the layer between action and instincts, his Morality would only make his reactions slower, which granted, he still wondered if his body could even keep up, or handle a possible assault should he trade blows.

“ There are no rules in this fight … And while it’s been interesting so far, I can’t ignore the fact that he broke our rule first ”

Kai then rapidly clutched his right hand, and following the action his whole body shuddered for an instant, a power quickly surging to his hand, causing the air around him to become disturbed. The whole action wasn’t for nothing, were he had a fist now, he also had a translucent foot long blade seemingly hovering before his knuckles. The Psion blade was at best a psychic skill, one he really wasn’t sure how he developed, and while it could not go against a normal sword, it still had all the cutting power Kai needed to up his own offence.

“Your not the only one with these kind’s of tricks”

Kai said with a somewhat believable cocky tone, like he was impressed with his own ability. While it might not appear as flashy as what josh was doing, he sure as hell bet he doubted his skin had become impervious. Kai in truth was not cocky at all, he knew just how serious it was … infact possibly more than what josh would think.

Kai did little to adjust his new stance, his turned sidelong with his now bladed arm closest towards Josh, while his right arm became hidden by the rest of his body. The stance was instantly suspicious, but there stood little reason that kai had anything else on him that classified as a weapon. The statement would be smart, but secretly kai still fished into his pocket and pulled out the top of something metal, and attached to a rope.

“I counter, that way, this will end with the Psion blade or the hook … Hopefully he will underestimate me now that he got a little boost”

[Breaker]

“Well, at least I got him down.”
Joshua had been hoping that the sudden vibration in the bars would send Kai off balance, and result in him falling off. The Silvet’s natural grace stayed with him, however, and Josh watch as he leapt for the centre of the ring. The Martial Artist turned, tracking his opponent’s path as he sailed through the air and landed awkwardly, then quickly squared up. The Agent was about to make a move, but faltered when he saw that the Silvet had gone into some sort of strange Zen-like concentration. Josh had been largely ignoring the other’s taunts, but he recalled hearing something about him not being the only one with “tricks”. “Well, if he can double his strength too then we’ll be right back to square one.” Not wanting to attack before he knew exactly what his opponent was up to, Josh contented himself with bouncing slightly on the spot, keeping his legs moving and flexing the muscles in his chest and shoulders. With his skin glowing golden and covered in sweat, his already impressive muscular structure looked even more formidable. A few high-pitched screeches burst over the general crowd noise, reminding Josh that he seemed to have won the attention of the female part of the crowd, at least. A ghost of a sly smile wafted across his face, then was gone. “I’m too busy for that kind of thing.” He thought. In truth, the idea of the women in the crowd excited him, but the possibility of contracting a sexual infection was too strong for him to really be interested. “I can at least still give them a show.” The Agent felt almost like a Gladiator in Ancient Rome, not only trying to win the match, but to gain the favor of the crowd. “Social politics here,” he mused, “Are one thing I will never be able to understand.”

Bouncing comfortably in a forward fighting stance with his blood pumping adrenaline and the crowd noise roaring in his ears, Josh felt ready for anything. What happened next took him entirely by surprise. After a few seconds of concentration, Kai had suddenly produced some sort of magical sword blade, which now seemed to be attached to the end of his hand. “Oh, damn it…” Due to Kai’s physical prowess, the Agent had assumed his opponent was not a practitioner of magic. “Seems like that was a pretty stupid assumption.” The stance that Kai then went into was incredibly bizarre, and instantly Josh moved forward, hoping to attack before the Silvet had a chance to get comfortable.

Kai’s hope that Josh would underestimate his enemy was completely fruitless. Immediately, the Martial Artist was re-assessing the situation. Most typical knife-fighting stances involved holding the weapon so that it was the closest part of the body to the enemy. Kai’s stance held true to this, but after that, it became incredibly unorthodox. “He may have an unconventional fighting style, but he’s not stupid.” The Silvet’s right hand should have been up in front of him, ready for a non-lethal attack or to fend off any blows Josh might send his way. “He’s definitely hiding something in his right hand.” The Agent guessed that the hidden item would be either a small dagger or a punch bar. Josh had enough experience fighting armed opponents to know that now needed to disable his opponent as quickly as possible, and preferably from a distance. Still studying Kai’s form, he thought back to his years of combat training. In his first ever knife fighting class, the instructor had showed them how to defend against inward and outward slashes, as well as overhead stabs. After that, Josh had tried to avoid entering any of that instructor’s classes. “The easiest, fastest and most deadly attack in a knife fight is a straight underhand stab… even if Lance is an experienced knife fighter, he’ll still probably try that. I think I can assume he’s afraid of losing, otherwise he wouldn’t have made that magic dagger thing.” Josh decided to guess that both the visible magic dagger, and whatever Kai was hiding, could both potentially deliver lethal attacks, just to be safe. “I’ll have to kick him again, then.” The decision was made as Josh took the second of three steps which would carry him into striking distance.

As he began his third step, Josh’s left hand dropped into his pocket and grabbed a handful of the glass shards which he had stowed earlier. He felt several of them prick his palm minutely, but didn’t care. His left hand shot out, hurling the tiny pieces of glass towards Kai’s face and vulnerable eyes. “Whether he deflects them somehow, or they blind him, doesn’t make much difference to me.” The glass shards were, as Josh’s primary attacks so commonly were, a diversion. As he finished his third step, Josh planted his left foot and shot out his right in a powerful roundhouse kick. A kick from a Martial Artist as experienced as Josh could easily crack a man’s ribs; with his strength doubled, Josh figured the blow could easily put his opponent in a coma.

A roundhouse was certainly not the most powerful kick he could have chosen, but Josh had decided on it for several reasons. It was fast, for one, cutting down the chance of evasion, or the chance of his leg getting stabbed. Also, unlike a sidekick or a front kick, it did not force Josh to put his weight into the attack. This meant that he could be perfectly on balance when the kick was delivered. Certainly the roundhouse was less powerful than most other kicks, but with his strength doubled, Josh knew power would not be a problem. He had chosen Kai’s ribcage as his target area because it allowed him to deliver a crippling blow without having to exhaust himself by aiming high, or risking a quick evasion, which was often the result of leg kicks. As he delivered the kick, Josh’s fighting form was near perfect; His support foot was planted firmly, knee bent slightly, and his golden fists were up, ready to attack or defend. Only an experienced Martial Artist would notice the only problem with his stance; his hands were lower than they should be leaving his face open.

“I want to see the expression on his face when his ribcage collapses.”

[Kai]

Josh waited momentarily before started to sink into his charge, kai steadied himself for what was about to take place. What was the roaring bloodthirsty crowd, yelling for them to rip each other was now just a fading distraction that kai almost failed to notice. The sweat surrounding the glowing body of the human seemed to gain more detail, as if his attention to it started to focus more directly to him. Kai didn’t have to question if his mind was ready, he knew without even asking, instead that question was for his body.

Either a loss or a win would take place, or maybe there would be some kind of twist, and action kai could decide on taking that would somehow end in a draw between them that would result in the prize not even being given to either of them. Kai remembered what this fight was about, for him it was simply for the money, at the start at least. Somewhere within the middle of the fight he had forgotten, and thought of it as another citadel battle, finding something within the fight to prove. Now that it was floating around his mind he began to wonder, what was Josh fighting for, for him to put so much effort for just useless material wealth, or was he indeed fighting for that measly amount?

What did it matter, right now Kai had to continue his focus, dispelling his thoughts and letting his mind go blank was all he felt he could do as he watched. Before cooking up the plan to use his Psion blade for this fight, he considered on the choice of not holding back his attacks, but he realised that he had already started to punch as hard as he could already, he was already at his physical limit. But his Psion blade would be enough to win this fight, it had to be, it wasn’t just a blade, rather an extension of his fist, a whole foot of it infact. Josh now reached into his pockets, and kai guessed at what this was about, the cheap move of throwing something into your opponent’s face, an action that could possibly blind them.

Kai knew that should he react to it, he would be distracted enough so that he would be unable to handle the powerful attack that would follow. While the ploy was flawless Kai noted that Josh had liked doing that trick, he had used it a few times before in the fight, usually in the form of a simple job, or a misleading kick followed by a second.

Block or roll?

That would be the decision that would welcome many possible results, the defence, would decide if he would be attacked, his choice after that, would determine victory or defeat. Kai chose to roll.

*

The first thing kai did was start to squat down, resisting the urge to raise an arm up in defence against the glass shards. Then he started to lean forwards, and by now any plan he had made with a blade had gone out of the window. Josh’s kick then came, hard, powerful and roared with enough power that could easily win the fight. Kai however had ducked low enough and had rolled to his right, and directly under the kick, ironically, kai thought, it was the glass shards that pushed him in advance to how many would delicately put, getting the hell away from where he stood.

Kai rolled onto his knee’s facing directly at Josh witnessing what would have been the crunch part of the kick. In his right hand the Psion blade pulsed with the sudden adrenalin, and in his left he held his Grapple Hook, the Conventional Item was not designed for battle, but still when thrown into someone’s face it did generally hurt.

*

Kai’s Mind Was suddenly snapped back to attention with the sudden jolt of pain, followed by a flash, at first he could not understand what just happened, or rather he could not explain why his arm was raised holding a defence as Josh’s leg crashed into the Iron Bracer that had been designed to glance Sword Blows.

Kai, for Joshes part, had indeed ducked the initial distraction of the glass shards. But after that it had been a whole different experience. Kai had charged forwards keeping low, abandoning the hook as he reached his left arm over to his left, and when Josh’s kick launch so did kai’s arm. It wasn’t so much of a defence as it was an attack of his own against the ankle of his opponent.

After the massive shock Kai could no longer feel his arm, although he doubted it was broken because it still held a defence, even if the kick had initially won the test of strength. Josh’s leg had wondered close to hitting the side of his face, he didn’t know if he was low enough to duck it, or really care within his own confusion.

The unexplained event wasn’t over yet, as Kai came to realise, that his duck and roll never even existed except within his own mind, he was already moving in to attack with the Psion blade, the target however was not Josh’s Body, but rather the leg he had just kicked out with. Due to Kai’s Unorthodox Stance, the initial arm that held the blade was already poised for an upwards strike. Yet with his own body’s self defence, he felt like he had created an opening, yet rather move in to attack the body, and get a punch to the face, he decided on going for the leg instead. His arm Flew upwards without much thought on his part, it was more on the impulse of a whim, and the blade flew for his leg blade first in what would by an upwards slash.

[Breaker]

Josh felt like he was moving in slow motion.
One second, his body was extended in a blaze of glory, a heartbeat away from a crippling attack which would end the fight and lend him the fame he needed to start a Martial Arts school.
In an instant, the scenario changed.
It was unclear to Josh just how the Silvet did it, but he had somehow maneuvered one of his arms into a blocking position, and evaded the glass shards completely. Josh’s foot exploded off the iron armband, and a dull clanging sound erupted from the impact. As the bell like sound waned, a hush had finally fallen over the crowd. Josh wondered why for an instant, but then he stood on his right foot and forgot all about the audience.

The Agent nearly fainted in pain. He felt as though all the bones in his right foot had shattered, and considering the enormity of the impact with Kai’s arm, he probably wasn’t too far off. Instinctively, Josh shifted all of his weight onto his left foot, and glanced down to survey the damage. It was at that time he saw the reason why the crowd had fallen silent.

Instead of glowing gold, his left foot was a deep, dark crimson. The next thing Josh noticed was that the entire right leg of his pants was soaked black in the same red liquid.

“Blood.”

It was then that he felt it. A fiery pain in his upper leg, right on the inside of his thigh. A combination of the extreme pain in his foot and a massive adrenaline rush stopped Josh from feeling the cut, but Kai’s Psion Blade had found its mark. His femoral artery had been severed, and he was rapidly bleeding out. The Agent’s thoughts were coming in broken flashes now. “I must be in shock.” His entire leg had gone numb, which was a good thing, because otherwise his foot would have felt like it was on fire. Blood was slowly pooling on the floor beneath the leg which was raised just an inch off the ground.

“Son of a bitch.”

Throughout the battle fight Josh had been calling upon teachings and lessons from the course of his life. He continued to do so, but this time, it felt not like he was using the wisdom of years, but as though his life was flashing before his eyes.

“Don’t stand still like some toy soldier. You stand still in a fight, and you’re dead.” His father’s voice, lecturing in the years of his youth.

“You’re very fast, and very strong for your age. You need to learn to use the two together.” He couldn’t place the voice, someone who had been teaching him jiu jitsu.

“You only stop fighting when your heart stops beating. As long as you can draw breath, you’re in the fight.” One of Edmund Jones’ favorite sayings. Jones had taught Josh for years, having been the head of unarmed combat at the UCA.

For a moment it seemed as if Josh would collapse, the memories of advice given by many teachers swirling around in his head. Then, as though his body had absorbed the quotations and been possessed by them, Josh sprang into action.

With his skin still glowing golden and doubled strength running through his veins, Josh found it quite easy to leap forwards off of only one foot. It was all or nothing at this point; no room or time for diversions or testing attacks. Josh’s left arm reached out, trying to encircle Kai’s neck like a snake. It was for support, leverage, and to ensure the target did not escape. At that point, Kai was no longer Kai, or even “Lance”, the alias which Josh knew him by. Not enough blood was being pumped into Josh’s brain at this point, and too much of it was leaking out the gash in his leg. The Silvet was just another target, just another man that needed killing. And Josh’s body, even a few minutes from death, was a killing machine. In his mind he watched a memory four years old; it had taken place in his first year at the UCA. After seven months of incredibly intensive combat training, Edmund Jones had begun to show five of his most promising students how to kill an opponent with their bare hands. Josh had been among those five. It had been difficult learning, for the obvious reason that it was nearly impossible to demonstrate. The easiest lethal techniques to practice (at half speed and with zero power, of course) was neck snapping. The easiest way to break someone’s neck, Josh had learned, was to sneak up behind them, grip their jaw and hair with one hand each, then literally turn their head around. The next most effective method was used in frontal assault, and it was this technique which Josh was now attempting to use on Kai.

As the memory melted from his mind, Josh focused on where his right hand was going. It shot out, palm first, the large palm and long fingers aiming to close around Kai’s chin and jaw. With one hand on the back of an enemy’s neck and the other on their chin, a man could snap his opponent’s neck. Providing, of course that the man in question had a significant amount of brute force at his disposal. “Force isn’t in short supply today.” Hoping that he had gotten Kai into the right position, Josh jerked his right hand forward. The massive effort brought a primal, animalistic roar from his throat, and carried him a full staggering step past Kai, where he collapsed on the floor.

Joshua lay just a pace away from the centre of the cage, entire body heaving with massive, wrenching gasps. He was completely unaware whether his final assault on Kai had been successful, his memory falling away as quickly as the blood was draining from his body. With the blood flowed the blessed adrenaline which had kept him going, and he began to feel tired and weak. Darkness crept in from the corner of his peripheral vision, and sweat stung his eyes. A pool of crimson began to build under the gash caused by Kai’s Psion Blade, and he could feel for the first time that his leg was drenched. His last flickering thought was; “I wonder how the audience is taking this?...”

And then everything was black.

[Kai]

With his arm coming to a stop upon finishing its ark, the initial cut seemed to spray, covering him so many tiny droplets of blood. Josh didn’t seem to notice, his expression led kai to believe that he was invulnerable and that his leg would magically heal within seconds. Not that kai was really paying any mind to it, he was still wondering what the hell happened as he felt his control over his body return to what he considered normal. Yet it wasn’t quite over yet, his initial distraction of his mind not exactly keeping up with his own body was one thing, he had to remember that he was fighting, what could be considered a wounded animal, when the opponent was at there deadliest.

Josh leaped for him reaching out for his head, the concept scared kai, there were so many things Josh could do, and with his strength, Kai didn’t doubt that he could simply crush his head between his hands should he choose to do. First came the initial grab, or rather the part that would confirm his death moments before it happened. His right hand, lost its grip, thus letting go of the power that was creating his temporary blade, it faded just as quickly as Kai moved into action once again for this crucial defence. His right arm had about as much time to react as Josh had to get that grip he needed. It flew to his left and in a similar motion that allowed him to repel the kick; he slammed his arm into josh’s with no desire other than to keep that death giving arm away from him.

Unlike last time, kai didn’t hit Josh with his Iron armlet, although he wish it had, kai had his arm to high for it to hit, but it did it job and left and opening for kai to move back far enough to evade the grab. Then came the other arm, the one that would actually deal the killing blow, so long as kai had been caught with the first one, he was lucky he guessed. Kai could not really do anything about this, while his actions had made sure he would not suffer a gruesome death, he could not do anything to evade the open palm racing for his head. The open calm struck with as much strength as there was for desperation, Kai felt it hit his forehead of all places sending him instantly off balance along with his head snapping back, almost killing him as Josh had intended.

Kai Felt the Floor first, the impact knocking the air from his lungs; he guessed that he also could not contain the pain as his voice box betrayed him. The he also felt his opponent fall to the floor; he felt the vibrations through the material the floor was made from. Kai only now noticed it, while his senses were dulled and looking for something to grab on to, he noticed through his hand that it felt like leather, or rather skin that had been spread out to create a hard looking floor. Kai slowly opened his eyes, the crowds roars was little more than a hazy feeling, he knew they were there, but it was like nothing really cared, he felt like he just wanted to stay where he was and have someone carry him off.

Hang on, the crowd wasn’t cheering at all, his eyes looked beyond the cage and saw each one of them eagerly waiting for something to happen, kai wondered what could possibly happen, wasn’t he down for the count. Where is kai looked around for as much as his neck would allow him to turn it without protesting with pain, and he saw his opponent, also fallen, with a pool of blood spreading from his leg at an alarming rate. The audience was waiting for one of them to move, to stand up and declare victory. Find if that’s what they want then kai was going to give them just that.

“Dear god, why do you hate me so, making my body ignore me” he grumbled trying with as much of his will power to wake his body up and to start moving again. It’s not that he couldn’t move his body, infact he was slowly rising as his body pushed with what he thought was all the strength his body had. The hardest part was rolling over into his front so that he could prop himself into his knee’s followed by lifting himself with his weakened arms.

“Just a little more!... Just a little MORE!”

He chanted to wilfully give more strength than his body felt it could give as he slowly rose from the ground, his jaw trembling and the sweat tickling his nose before falling to the mat under him. And finally with his last once of strength spent he thought that his body had just gave up, and fell back to the floor, but once again his mind had tricked him and he was actually on his knee’s with his right arm raised into the air, commanding the deafening roars and cheers, even the boo’s of his victory.

“ … Aww hell, you don’t get that in the citadel!!!”

Kai commented with a sense of pride, recalling his last victory, as his opponent was transported away from the arena it only gave Kai a silent meaningless victory, but here the cheer’s of the crowd felt like a boom, restoring his energy, until it faded completely and he fell onto his back laughing out. There was no reason for the laughter, other than the fact that he escaped death, won a somewhat meaningless fight, and that countless people were roaring for him.

“”And the Winner is ONCE again Lance, who came close to defeat, This win earns him 400 gold, will he take it, or will he carry on for that 500 gold!”

The announcer spoke with his loud voice, silencing the audience who waited for kai’s response; there were chants for him to just take the money, understanding that he would no longer be able to continue. But some still expected more out of the silvet, demanding he stayed in for another fight.

“I’m … at my limit … I’ll walk …”

Kai said half-heartedly, part of him wanted to get right back up and tackle the next opponent to take up the challenge, but with the appearance of this guy … Josh … there was nothing in him to actually compete with the first three he had.

[Breaker]

Joshua emerged from his dreamless sleep slowly. The world of darkness which had owned his consciousness for he didn’t know how long receded slowly, leaving in its place a land of shadows. All he could perceive were depths of shade; where there was light, the shadows seemed shallow, but in darkness his vision was swallowed into a black hole. All he could hear were faint buzzing noises, which varied in speed and pitch but meant nothing to him. Then, the shadows sharpened into images, and he could feel a hard surface beneath his prone form. Slowly, his other senses crept into relief, and his vision and hearing began to sharpen. Lying on his back in some small square room, all he could see was the whitewashed ceiling and a lantern hanging from a wall spike nearby. Suddenly, his eyes were filled with the vision of a shaved head and large, amber eyes.

“Ah… you’re awake! Good thing, too! For a moment, I thought we were going to lose you.” Josh’s mind hurried across the day’s events, from his searching through Scara Brae to the final moment of truth in the cage fight he had just lost. He recalled it all vividly, but the clear image cut off abruptly partway through; the last thing he remembered was trying to tear his opponent, Lance’s head off. Josh realized he was staring at the hanging lantern, the only source of light in the room, and turned his attention back to medic, blinking quickly as his vision blurred. Suddenly, his mind made an obvious connection.
“You’re a monk!” The monk grinned in a slightly patronizing manner and gave a slightly goofy nod. Josh realized he must have sounded fairly stupid; with his shaved head and long brown robe, this monk could have been the poster boy for the Citadel. Josh grinned back, feeling surprisingly energetic now that his drowsiness was wearing off. His recovering brain made another connection, and he cringed slightly as he asked his next question.
“Did I… err… did you bring me back to life?” He chuckled nervously, feeling like he was asking a very stupid question. The monk, however, took it all in his stride. Shaking his large round head, the robed man responded.
“Nope, didn’t need to. I got into the ring just in time to get a tourniquet on your leg. You lost an awful lot of blood, though. I healed your injuries, and gave you an injection of a few special herbs to speed up the blood cell reproduction. Just the same, you should try not to over-exert yourself for a day or two. I’m sure you feel fine, but that’s part of the healing process; my magic wipes out any exhaustion you might be feeling. My advice is to lay low for a few days.” Josh nodded sagely, deciding that the excitement of the past battle should last him a few days. Moving carefully, he swung his legs to the ground and sat up on what turned out to be a low metal table. Aside from the table and the lantern, the room was completely bare, with wooden walls and floor and a whitewashed ceiling. At a rough estimate, Josh wouldn’t have made the room out to be any more than eight feet by eight feet. It was clearly a recovery chamber, and the Zirnden probably had several. Seeing Josh lost in thought, the monk turned and made a silent exit, perhaps to attend to another patient.

As he got up off the table, Josh noticed for the first time that his pants had been removed, and he was left wearing nothing but underwear. Feeling slightly embarrassed at not having noticed, he reached a finger down and traced a long, thin white scar which now ran down the length of his right thigh. The coloration reminded him of the small Y-shaped scar on his left cheek. “I wonder how many more will be added to my body before one of them kills me?” He guessed a lot. The general populace of Althanas seemed much more apt to stick a knife in you than the people back on Earth had been. I’m off the edge of the map, here. Hell, I’m off the edge of the globe. Finding his belongings stashed beneath the metal table, the Agent began to dress himself, deciding that he was quite thirsty, and would make a trip to the Zirnden’s bar as soon as he was properly clothed.

The Martial Artist’s fear that he would be attacked by a wave of fans was completely empty; by the time he exited the small recovery room, another fight was underway. He paused in the door frame long enough to watch a tough looking half elf barely avoid having his head chopped off by a barbaric, axe wielding human, then continued along his original path. The bartender saw him coming, and slid a mug full of ale in his direction.
“There you go, first one’s on me. The way you fought, I’ll be getting a very, very big pay bonus. And to be honest, I thought you were going to win!” Josh accepted the free beer, nodding in a friendly way at the barkeep’s compliments. He knew the man was probably a little nervous. “If I convinced someone twice my size to enter a fight which they nearly died in, I’d be pretty nervous too.” The sleazy grizzled man had nothing to fear, however. Rather than being angry at his loss, Josh was pensive.

“Fighting that Lance monkey boy taught me a lot about this place. I assumed that most people would stick to either fighting or using magic, but it seems at least a few dabble in both.” There was no doubt his opponent had been a talented fighter, but Josh couldn’t help but feel he would have won the battle, had it not been for the magical sword. “It doesn’t matter,” He told himself, “He had that ability, and it is as much a part of him as your training is of you. If you want to survive on this planet, you’re going to have to learn to expect the impossible.” This thought jarred the Earthling’s sense of reality slightly, and a feeling of homesickness washed over him. Sighing, he rotated on the creaky barstool, leaned his back against the hardwood oak bar, and quaffed half of the ale in his mug. His keen eyes circulated the club for a moment, then fixed on the cage, just as the barbarian’s axe haft smashed over the half elf’s head.
“It’s your turn boys… entertain me.”

[Kai]

“and how are you doing?”

The monk asked as he came into the room with a small smile, typical of one of the citadel monks who could so very easily piss you off. Kai grumbled his protests at having to once again go through this check-up, but it was “the rules” as the people around kept on saying, seemed like they didn’t actually want a death in there business. Kai eventually caved in with his resolve and shifted the way he sat on the table.

“Thank you … hmm have you done this before?”

The monk asked curiously and the silvets knowledge of how the monks preferred to have there patients sit when being tended to. The silvet just looked away paying more attention to the white walls, and the dancing flame of the lantern. The silvet was just sour because of the strange herbal mixture that was plastered again the inner wall of his cheek healing the wound, and also his reluctance to talk. The taste had dulled over time but he had tasted better raw meat sprayed with skunk better than this … of cause that was simply an assumption.

“Your opponent was lucky; all he got away with was a scar. I also don’t think he is all too happy about you using a magic blade” The monk said with the simple desire only to make conversation, an oddity for a citadel monk and an unwelcome one, still he continued his job checking once again each place kai had sustained a hit, curious the most about his chest.

“You know your chest should have caved in after the first hit, its amazing how you agile people can ignore pain”

“ Just because I am agile automatically makes people assume that I am fragile … i was just as well built as that other guy, just skinnier. And I only used my Psychic, not magic, but psychic blade only because he picked up a few glass shards and decided to boost his own strength by becoming a walking night light. And why the hell am I talking to my self in my own head ”

“Ok now let’s check that wound in your mouth”

The monk asked while demonstrating with his hand for kai to open his mouth, kai didn’t really care as he was also instructed to peel a bit of it back so the monk could take a look, when the monk was satisfied with his own healing methods working “ok you can remove it now” Kai almost ripped it from his mouth spitting out the foul taste with it.

“What do call this stuff?” kai overreacted, mostly in good humour

“Citadel herbs, its not great tasting but it fast, infact there wasn’t really anything of a wound in your mouth just then”

“… oh wonder of wonders, can I go now?” Kai asked fearing that the monk would start retelling some old story, he didn’t and simply nodded that kai could leave, the silvet was already out of the door however.


As Kai made his way back to where the audience watched the fight up on the balconies he could only think of the lingering taste swirling in his mouth, very unpleasant and he intended to wash it all away with a strong tasting drink. He absently ascended a flight of stairs before spotting a bar, and the sounds of metal clashing against metal within the arena itself. A Quick glance showed him what was happening, but he lost interest too quickly as his sense of taste reminded him.

Kai sat down on one of the stool and ordered a good tasting ale to a slightly concerned if not now totally scared and nervous bartender. Curious, Kai traced his vision to the person, who he had sat next to, and look and behold, at was the challenger who had almost ripped his head off. The bartender probably thought they would both leap at each other like wild cats, starting another fight.

“Josh right … Hi the names Kai, kinda awkward to talk to ya after we both just nearly tried to kill each other eh?”

Kai grinned before looking at the bartender with a look that simply asked him to stop staring and just get him drink already. When it came Kai quickly drank a little bit of it and swirled it around his mouth hoping to eliminate the taste, it was working if a bit slowly.

“What made you fight like that anyway? No one makes a struggle like that just for 400 gold, not to mention you had one hell of a crazy fighting style, it was like trying to get around a brick wall”

Kai then took another swig of his ale, this time appreciating the taste more than last time.

[Breaker]

Sipping his ale slowly, Josh watched the Zirnden’s current fight, but failed to take in most of what was going on. The crowd caught his interest, instead. As the two combatants in the cage came closer and closer to killing each other, their audience became more and more raucous. “It must be exhausting to stand around cheering like that all day.” Josh thought. He had nearly finished his ale, and was considering ordering a refill when a voice surprised him.

“Josh right… Hi the name’s Kai, kinda awkward to talk to ya after we both just nearly tried to kill each other eh?”

The voice surprised Josh. Normally aware of everything that was going on around him, his own exhaustion coupled with the Silvet’s natural agility had caused Kai’s approach to go unnoticed. Swiveling around on his stool, Josh took another pull on his mug then began to swish the dregs around. He returned his former opponents grin, and spoke in a casual tone.

“Well, it would only be awkward if we had been mad at each other, I guess.” The Agent thought about commenting on “Lance’s” change in names, but decided against it. It was clear enough the Silvet had been using an alias, for whatever reason. Josh glanced over his shoulder briefly as the crowd roared; saw a half-elven head sail across the ring followed by a spray of blood, then turned back. The sight was quite vile, but he had seen worse in his time at the UCA, and expected he would see worse again.

“You’re certainly one of the most agile people I’ve ever met,” he said, leaning sideways on the bar, “As for my fighting style, I’m glad you liked it. I’ve been working on it for years.” As he spoke, Kai’s other question invaded his mind. “Why DID I fight like that? The school… the reward money wouldn’t have hurt, of course, but it was really about publicity… I practically forgot.” The Agent had been so tied up in watching the crowd and drinking his ale that he had hardly spared a thought for the school he wanted to start. “It looks like this wasn’t the greatest idea after all. The crowd has moved on to the next battle like mine didn’t even happen, in addition to which, I lost.” Immediately, Josh’s trained mind began looking for the silver lining in what seemed to have become a proverbial thundercloud. He had hoped to gain some fame, and maybe a little gold, and had succeeded in neither. “So what did I gain today? What did I learn? Anything?” His eyes returned to Kai, sizing the monkey boy up. He thought of Kai’s odd fighting techniques, with his energetic but often illogical attacks. “He would make a very good student in my school…” Josh set his drink down, having lost interest in the last few drops, and leaned back on his stool. It creaked slightly, and as the sound ceased, two more keen young fighters entered the Zirnden’s ring. Making a decision, Josh said;

“Say Kai… would you be interested in joining a martial arts school?”

[AdventWings]

Battle Judgment!

--Kai--

Story

Continuity - 3/10

I had no idea, even after reading through the entire story, how you initially ended up in the Zirnden. I did garner that you were here for the gold, but it could help to mention it a bit earlier in the thread.

Setting - 4/10

There was barely any detail regarding the arena, except that it was a cage and there were people outside. You did play on the audience and their actions/reactions, even if it was sporadic at best.

Pacing - 5/10

Good overall flow, though at times you back-tracked your posts which made reading a bit of a chore.

Character

Dialogue - 4/10

Not a lot of dimension for Kai, but you made the internal and external dialogues fit his disposition.

Action - 6/10

Short and to the point. Not much planning on his part, which was what I expected from a straight-forward fighter. His unorthodox fighting decisions remained believeable throughout the battle. Still, you could play more on the injuries sustained during combat because you appeared quite capable even after getting jarred by Josh’s attacks. I do not know if Kai would recover from an attack that quickly, but I gave you the benefit of doubt on that.

Persona - 5/10

At the current level, Kai appeared to me a bit flat – I did not feel a lot of depth was given in the writing. At certain points you did elaborate the points of his actions and disposition, which was a nice bit of info that helped to make your character believable.

Writing Style

Technique - 5/10

There were not a lot of literary machines, but I can still spot a few in your posts.

Mechanics - 3/10

There are so many run-on sentences and missed punctuations I had a hard time reading the earlier posts. The ones later on were better in terms of punctuation and sentence structure.

Clarity - 3/10

Compounded by the “Mechanics” category, the jumbled sentences and occasional back-tracking had me left wondering what happened between you two. Here’s an advice: Read over your post when it’s done and see if you can understand it. It often helps to have a friend read it as well and see if they understood what you wrote.

Misc

Wild Card - 6/10

I have a tendency to be over-critical. =P I hope this helps you with future writing.

FINAL SCORE – 44!


--016573--

Story

Continuity - 6/10

I had to look at your profile to understand why an Earthling was on Althanas. Asides from that, you made clear why you were there at the Zirnden and what you wanted. It’s good for readers to know the purpose of being there even if it was a spontaneous event.

Setting - 5/10

Extensive use of descriptions and interaction with your surrounding. Still, there was not a whole lot of information for me to clearly visualize what the Zirnden felt like. Asides from sight alone, what else could you use to “feel” the surrounding? What are other ways of interacting with the arena? That is something both you and Kai could work on.

Pacing - 5/10

Good overall pacing, saved for the few back-tracking and occasional scene jumps that left me wondering.

Character

Dialogue - 5/10

Surprisingly calm for a fighter, but I guess that was because Josh was a Special Agent trained in Martial Arts.

Action - 5/10

At times, Josh appeared too systematic than “over-relaxed” as you described him in the Profile. Plus, his actions appeared choppy from time to time, as if just hanging in there to see what would happen next. You also played on the injuries sustained during combat which added realism to your actions and decisions.

Persona - 5/10

Being a bit too calm during battle, perhaps, gave me the image that Josh is far more capable than he displayed in combat. Everything was so analytical, so formulaic that contrasted the “over-relaxed” fighting style you claimed Josh to use. And, frankly speaking, Josh appeared as if he’s always locked in a passive viewpoint.

Writing Style

Technique - 5/10

Not too many devices, but it was nice where you did have them.

Mechanics - 5/10

Good mechanics, though not much to impress me. Your style is easy to read with a few exceptions later on in the battle.

Clarity - 6/10

Easy to read, easy to understand. You kept your sentences clean and precise, though I must admit sometimes you have a tendency to over-elaborate on a few occasions. When you finish typing, try this: Read over your post and see how it feels to you. If some areas felt unnecessary and did nothing to add to the story, you could leave it out. If a certain sentence felt too long, re-structure it or separate some details for another sentence.

Misc

Wild Card - 6/10

I’m expecting improvements from you. You have a lot of potential. Just remember to cut back on some technical terms that readers might no understand at first glance, such as solar plexus. For someone in the martial arts scenes, it is not hard to imagine where it is. For others, they might have to Google or Wikipedia it to find out. Also, I find it funny that the Ai’Brone monks understood the concept of “blood cell production.” Remember that the tech level on Althanas is largely unaccustomed to modern-day medicine and knowledge. I find it more probable that the monk would mention the medicine would “boost vitality” than “increase blood cell production.” Plus, I don’t think the Monks have a need for syringes – it’s a rather modern invention in terms if medicine. Most medicine would be taken orally or smothered over the wound.

FINAL SCORE – 53!

016573 receives 500 exp and 100 gold from a generous fan.

Kai receives 150 exp and the 400 gold prize from fighting in the cage.

[Cyrus the virus]

EXP added!