[Flashback] Rival intent

by **Loken** on November 28th, 2017, 8:51 am

Spring 80th, 506 A.V.

Upheaval taking place all around him, the Ano Cultist's eyes seemed to have somehow stopped time itself. He ignored the chants, the cheers, the jeers, and the heavy anticipation surging through the entire Colosseum built through a need for bloodsport. Loken contemplated his surroundings in silence, as enjoying the view. However, Loken felt neither joy or wonder. He simply existed in the moment. Loken could hardly hear the words The Colosseum owner said, but knew to look down at the entrance on the opposite side of the pit when the cheers grew louder. His pupils fell onto a man of exceptional paleness.

When Loken started to pay attention to the praise Shale Tarren seemed to be spouting about the man; after he had hyped Loken up just as much. He learned a few details about the person. His name was Daradon, a Symenestra who seemed to have an average reputation around the Colosseum, but was made mute after taking a dagger wound to the throat.

Daradon :

When Daradon took a low fighting stance, Loken taking in the most inadvertent of details about how he fought. It seemed that most of his weight was supported by on ball of his rear foot. "He's readied himself to jump off of it to dodge a blow." Loken entered into a fighting stance of his own, sliding his right leg back into an orthodox right handed pugilist stance. However, Loken did not fight with closed fists, but instead held his open hands out with his palms facing the ground with a slight bend to his wrists. In a way, it looked like his hands were both emulating the heads of a snake; or from another perspective, as if he were a praying mantis.

From the way Daradon also refrained from using his knuckles, it appeared as if the Symenestra was going to mainly focus on using strikes that used the pale mans claws as weapons. The only words that Loken respected out of Shale Tarren mouth echoed out over the Colosseum. And those words were: "Let the fight begin".

The crowd roared with approval as both Loken and Daradon stood within striking distance of each other at the center of the sanded pit. With a slight bend of his knees, Loken lifted his lead left foot two inches off the ground then lashed out with the heel of his boot to kick at the base of the Symenestra's shin. Daradon did nothing to doge the kick, he only swung his forearm down in an arch as the Sym lowered his body down into a deeper crouch on his hind leg. Daradon blocked his kick by bashing his arm against the side of his leg.

Since he was in such a low crouch, Daradon used his free right hand to lash forward in a spear handed strike. The Symenestra aimed to stab his claws right into Loken's right leg that he used as a foundation to keep himself upright. Daradon's claw slammed against Loken's leg, but his claws were halted by the resilient leather greaves on the Cultist's legs. Daradon was about to grab Loken's leg, but did not have the time to as Loken used the same leg that was blocked, swinging it up in a crescent kick in attempt to slam the outer edge of his boot against Daradon's head.

In a display of contortionism, Daradon avoided the kick by falling backwards. He bent sideways at the waist until he entered into a cartwheel, placing both of his palms onto the ground. Loken's leg swung over the mans body, completely missing him. The Symenestra kicked his legs off of the ground to send himself into the motion of the cartwheel. As that happened, the talons on the his bare feet managed to barely graze against Loken's left cheek before he stand fully upright.

Once Loken lowered his leg to take his fighting stance again, he ignored the dribble of blood leaking down his cheek from the shallow wound. The small skirmish was enough to get most of the crowd interested in the fight. He narrowed his eyes a his opponent then gave the man a small head nod of respect. It was a nod that Daradon returned. And the last sign of acknowledgement the two men would give each other as the real fight was about to begin.

Nano WC: 724

by **Loken** on November 28th, 2017, 3:50 pm

Now through the yelling of the crowds cursing for the fighters to continue their battle. Loken stood primed to parry any oncoming attacks. Even though it looked like they were inactive, Loken was busy gauging all the information his opponent could offer him. In fact, he had come to realize three things of note due to their previous flurry of strikes.

The first was that Daradon was far more agile than him. The second was that Daradon sacrificed defense for speed. That became evident when he studied the mans arms and legs; they wore no vembraces or greaves. And lastly, that the Symenestra was less inclined towards prolonged close quarter combat.

Loken was dead set on continuing the flurry, but it was Daradon who backed away. "His movements are far more concise then mine." Loken thought as he took a step forward to move in closer to control the distance between them. "I need to know his timing. His movements are refined, but a club can still kill."

He entered into his usual palm-down fighting stance again, but kept his spine straight to stand in his bodies most natural position; not hunching forward or too far back. He shifted his feet to set perfectly beyond his shoulders width to form a stable foundation, and to easily distribute his weight between both feet.

He watched as Daradon took their low stance again, placing all of their weight on their back foot in preparation to leap or roll away. He expected to take a few blows, but now needed to know what Daradon was good at to deny them the advantage in the future. He moved back into striking range again, but was not surprised to see that it was the long limbed spider who struck first.

Daradon stood upright as they used their rear foot to lash out into a high roundhouse kick aimed at Loken's head. The Ano Cultist pressed the advantage to get further closer towards his opponent. He kept his left arm up while flexing his bicep to give stability to the way he blocked the kick; making sure to slam the vembrace against the kick as well to lessen the blow, which was aided by the dense bone of the gnosis mark within that arm.

Daradon wasted no time in continuing the assault as the pale man used the same foot they had just kicked with, swiftly guiding it upward into the air. The Symenestra then brought the heel of their foot straight down in attempt to slam it down against Loken's head.

Loken avoided it by taking one step diagonally forward to his right, both to side step the attack, and to effectively get within a one foot radius of his enemy.

In the moment that Daradon's leg was locked in the downward momentum of its kick, Loken raised his left arm to strike out at any part of Daradon's body that he could hit. He specifically aimed towards the general area just above their hip.

In most cases of close combat, Loken knew that a head strike was the most difficult thing to achieve. And any random person in a bar brawl knew not to get punched in the face, that example went doubly so for unarmed fighters trained to avoid such things. The attack worked as Daradon lifted their arms to protect their face. He struck out with his palm down to send his arm traveling outward from the center of his own body.

It was an outward knifehand strike that bashed against the lowest area of Daradon's rib cage. The Symenestra grunted from the force of the blow. However, Loken soon realized that the his opponent wore light armor on their torso underneath all of the free flowing silks they wore.

Daradon reached down with a hand to quickly grab Loken's arm by the wrist in attempt to trap it. He tried to pull his hand away but Daradon pushed his left arm downward to leave Loken's upper left side defenseless. The Symenestra reached out with their free arm over the one they used to push Loken's arm down, and struck out at Loken with a similar outward knifehand strike; only their attack was aimed to slash at Loken's jugular with their claws.

Loken circled his hand around the the wrist of Daradon's arm that they used to grasp his hand. He then clasped his own hand around Daradon's arm to keep the Symenestra from moving away. To the strike flying towards his neck, Loken pulled Daradon's own arm up to slam against the bottom of that striking arm.

He quickly took a step in between his opponents feet with his lead left foot as he turned his body. He planted the heel of his foot against the pale mans instep as he still held their arm. As he rotated, Loken pressed his foot against the Symenestra's to knock it off balance then lifted Daradon up into the air to rest on his hip. He found it odd that the man weighed so little, but quickly found that to be an advantage once he lifted the Symenestra off of their feet.

Loken then pulled at their arm as he twisted his head and leaned his upper body down to one side. As a result, he threw his opponent up and over his hip to send them cascading through the air and slamming with a heavy thud against the ground. The shock of the slam that jolted though their body forced them to let go of Loken's hand.

The crowd went crazy after watching one fighter finally manage to take some manner of lead in the contest.

Loken lifted his leg up in a low kick to stomp on his downed opponents head. Daradon lifted both arms up to defend their face while rolling to one side. The full force of his boot came crashing down against their arm, causing them to grin in pain. Loken tried to kick at him again, but with some amount of grace transitioned the sideways body roll into an upward tumble. At the end of the movement the Daradon landed onto both of their feet while in a low crouch. And from that low crouch, they transitioned into a full blow sprint to run away from him.

Nano WC: 1049