Closed Hit me with your best shot. ( Zandelia )

[Ximal]

A slow breath streamed out from within Xi as his fists collided, he had put his ful punching force behind each punch but not his full weight, after all this was only a spar, not a match to the death. Still he hadn't predicted that his full force would sent her body moving in such a way, he'd anticipated that she'd move backwards but not that the strike to her abdomen would send her curling over in such a way. Taking a slow breath he let his muscles relax again before hardening them again. Nowadays when it came to fists he began to feel like his muscular structure was becoming more like a suit of armour. Xi took a slow breath again before rolling his shoulders, this was his element. Battle, even if only for the betterment of another's skills. His eyes now almost glowed, he could feel his progress showing, before the summer season he would have been an idiot to challenge her in any capacity, but he was finally starting to see the fruits of his labours come to fruition. He wasn't satisfied but he could at least feel how much he'd grown. Rolling his shoulders he watched zand , to see if she'd braced for the techniques he's used and to see whether or not she'd attack him from the ground. Still it was a surprise to see her just lying there. Which made Xi wonder if he'd overdone it. He didn't feel any bones give way as his fist connected, nor did he hear any cracking . So either he'd caused some internal damage or really spoked her for her to be lying that still. After a whilst she started to rise from the ground, or gauging from the speed of her rise... From the grave, Xi tilted his head t the side cracking his neck before she got up to full standing, his stance now non existent. Though he watched her and her pivot as she now leered up at him, Then as she closed in on him he resisted a hard poke on his chest as he kept his eyes locked on hers. and then weathered the storm of her words. Both a hail of inquiry and berating, still it was nice to have someone wondering how he'd done something. He'd hit her with a technique he'd originally devised for his flux, however he was glad to know it worked well without flux. and at the end of it his ears had caught the last two words she spoke out if only just, and a smile still plied on hsi lips as he replied. " Sorry about that, and that was one of my special moves...I save them for really strong opponents, also i hope nothings broken...i mean i only hit you with full punching force, not using the whole weight of my body behind it. After all this is a spar not a death-match. And i caught that ox comment...Half true..." Xi smiled as she spoke about continuing. She still thought she could handle him unarmed. Though he nodded in agreement to the no killing tricks, but he wasn't exactly not going to use any of his techniques. But he did pick up on the slight inflection of anger in her words...Did he really aggravate her enough to sprout a trace of audiable if not visible anger. As she took some distance from him hsi eyes fell from ehrs to settle again on her shoulders and hips. he would watch for almost every move, he knew that her speed was above his but his impact damage made him a deadly force. Within an instant her onslaught began, the speed almost doubling from before hand. He made himself ridged again, his muscles becoming like armour and his mind now acting how he'd trained it. the kick to his legs met his kneecap, blocking and hopefully stopping the force, Her punching assault came deadly fast, he blocked the shot at his ribs butt the blast to his right he could barely make. Instead of blocking he deflected it, using his forearm to knock into her hand and diffuse the energy down ad away from him. Her kick thos came to his abs and hit him like a hammer on an anvil, the speed coupled with the angle of her rotation drilled it in and it bit like a tiger. still his abs had hardened prior and mitigated the damage somewhat though it was still there and stinging. Though through this he was starting to notice a pattern with her, attacks to his left and then to his right. His footwork grounded he didn't take a step so when he felt her ankle connect with his trying to knock him off balance she'd of had an easier time trying to push a boulder off of a cliff. The blows to his shoulders hit fast but nor as hard s he'd thought they would, after all she was sacrificing power for enhanced speed she was trying to hit him so fast he couldn't stop it, it was working but then again eh was just weathering the hurricane right now. Before her onslaught ended she came at him in true sunberthian manner, recklessly. Shifting his stance lightly he began a motion to use her oncoming momentum against her but to also hold off her attacks, though this time it wasn't a killing move merely a stunning one, Burning gold...the critical point of all. though just like last time this was a flux technique and he'd be using it without flux. he shifted his right leg back and away before putting hsi weight into it and then angled his hands at his sides. Allowing her to get closer before thrusting out both of his palms , again aimed at her abdomen, because if he ruined her face she wouldn't forgive him, and if he crushed her chest she'd probably crush his swingers. Still the blow now had his forward punching momentum plus her forwards moving momentum. wetehr it hit or not weas anothe question entirely. "If your going to change tactics mid fight, might i sugggest changeing to a less barbaric style ? " A small smile plying at his face as he spoke, his tone still light and jokeing after all he was attemting to teach, even if he was failing.

[Zandelia]

Zandelia had not expected many of her attacks to connect with the brute she was fighting, however she was pleasantly surprised when a number of them smacked into soft flesh before being rebounded away by returned force. She was not doing any damage, she knew that well enough. She was not seeking to prove her strength to herself but her speed. She had faced defeat, faced embarrassment at Ximal’s hands and she was now seeking redemption. She would never be as solid, nor as powerful as the man, however she was definitely the faster of them both. It was this that caused a smile to erupt upon her face, filling it with the glow of battle as her chest heaved heavily with labored breath. Sweat was running across her skin in rivulets as she finished her movements, Ximal finally responding with a counter of his own.

Bastard! she rage, wrath giving her speed enough to dance to the side of his hands at the last moment, her own palms forcing his hands away from her. After it all she stood, chest heaving like bellows as she sought to pull oxygen into her blood to stem the debt she had taken from it.

“Yes, well I shall keep that in mind,” she panted back, “but at least I got one thing out of this unarmed spar of ours – my own inadequacy. I need to improve…I’ve grown soft here in this place” she responded, hands upon hips as she turned to face him, hoping that her clothing wasn’t sticking too badly to her form.

She walked past him and made her way towards the pile of clothing and items she had left to one side. Squatting down she pulled her water skin from the heap and filled her mouth with crisp, cold water. It was heaven to her parched tongue and it danced across her senses for a few moments before she swallowed it. When she had taken her feel she tossed the rest towards Ximal. As she waited for him to drink she rifled through and fished out her tonfa from the pile. They were simple weapons, almost too simple some thought. She had won more battles with them due to other’s lack of respect for what they could do than through pitched battle. She stood up with weapons in hand and walked back towards Ximal again.

“How about we make things interesting then? Do you know any weapons at all? Or have any you wish to develop? I promise you it’ll be more challenging for you this time” she looked up at him, rubbing her forearm across her forehead to wipe the beaded sweat away.

She took a few minutes then to shift the tonfa into her hands, fingers gripping lightly around their apportioned places. She spun them around her forearms a few times to check their smoothness of motion, whipping them around her torso then to warm up her muscles for the future contest. She loved to feel them dance around her, creating currents of air that soothed hers kin with each passing. They were deadly weapons, even if they did not look the part.

“You game? Try and hit me” she grinned at him slightly.

[Ximal]

Even with his knowledgeable of how she fought now Xi still couldn't cleanly land a counter. A difficult thing to place and an even more difficult thing to adapt too, though zand spoke of being inadequate, or rather soft. She was still sharp enough to avoid a counter that probably would have put her on her knees for a while. Xi still had a long way to go before he got his speed up as high as her, but that was why he had flux, just in case he needed that extra boost of speed or strength. And his training couldn't provide it. Xi took a deep slow breath, unlike zand he wasn't sweating as badly or rather as heavily, but then again he'd both kept his moments limited and been using this as a chance to intercept someone faster than him. However the major factor that stood out to him was how heavily she was breathing in-comparison to him. He was breathing deeply and slowly. And he was still breathing at the same pace and the same depth. But he could feel all the attacks she's landed upon him now beginning to well in pain. His chest rose and fell in the same slow methodical manner he'd grown accustom too, and almost began to grow into a discipline. Lifting his hands up he rand them back through his hair , pushing the stray strands out of his face. A strange feeling, he'd not worn himself out but he'd not gone in for the long haul. Speed as a far harder sword to grasp than strength. His deep black blue eyes now watched her she was on her way back to the pile of clothing and weaponry. well this was new, either the lesson was done or it was going to be time to train with a weapon...Not his best area but one he'd have to develop eventually. Still as the water skin came his way he lifted his hand snapped hold of it and let it flow. Only a small mouthful but enough for him to wet his mouth. Did he know any weapons, the question he'd been dreading. He knew this would come, he may have surpassed zand in terms of unarmed prowess but with weaponry he still held no sway. As she walked back over to the clearing area, Xi walked past her towards the pile of equipment he'd removed, still shirtless but not feeling the winds of cold, he placed the water skin back on her pile before pulling from his won the weapon he'd carved himself. Crude but effective. And with any luck one zand had never seen before. Xi pulled it free before swinging it around. A large wooden weapon. Looking more like a staff with an odd protrusion than anything else. "I'm not well versed in much weaponry, infact the weapon i know best is the axe. However this weapon i'm holding now is the one i want to improve on the most. Due to it's immense versatility. I could wield this so many ways it's not even funny." Xi spoke before rolling the weapon around his neck and then rolling it into his hand, before holding it like a sword. Swirling it around him each side, almost mimicking the motions of her tonfa with a single weapon. She wanted him to try and hit her. Well that was a challenge in and of itself. Xi smiled lightly before taking a almost swordsman like but definitely staff like stance. Wielding the weapon upside down in his hand. "I do believe zand tat i've hit you enough times already. But then again what could one more time hurt? Besides, this is now your game, i'm merely the student here." Xi closed the gap between them in half a second bringing where the pommel of the weapon would be to her abdomen but keeping his other arm free. His left hand holding the weapon at the moment, but with his next motion he twisted his footing to prepare to grip the weapon and lift it into a way to block both tonfa...at least once. Still this want his area, no this was hers and this was walking right into the lions den, provoking with not only fresh meat but standing in the cage as well.

[Zandelia]

Zandelia smiled at Ximal’s words, spoken like a man whom had tried to think things through but had perhaps been overtaken with the moments, time stretching on until cluttered tasks prevented application of the initial desire. In his case it was the weaponry, the unarmed skills so vastly improved whilst admitting to no formal weapons training a telling feature of his day to day life over the past season. She wondered whether she should speak to him of such imbalances possibly leading to fatal results but decided that it would be pointless – time and physical application would prove to be just as instructive.

Who knows, perhaps he can learn something from me as I have from him. Two techniques I will have to steals from him is a good deal for some bruises after all she thought as she readied herself.

Her tonfa span round the outside of her forearms, one after the other, in the familiar rhythm, that initiates soon learned to love and appreciate. The lesser of skill tried to spin both at the same time, never fully appreciating the greater versatility of the alternate side method. With her current timing it was possible to pass both weapons across the same space around her, interchangeably and without pause, with a few positional changes. It was a potent application of dual wielding talent, as she hoped to show Ximal shortly. The calm before the bout settled in and, her muscles warmed and relaxed, she settled into her stance, feet shoulders width apart and forearms parallel to the floor on either side of her ribs.

“Student, teacher, it makes no difference,” she told him before he began his assault, voice soft and lilting, “what matters is the rhythm of the fight. Reaction, action…” she let her words fade away as she stilled her mind.

It was a technique that she had been practicing of late, the ability to shift all thought from her mind during physical activity. Meditation, she had heard it called, but she merely thought of it as a stillness, a calm island upon which to plant her feet. She had far from mastered the technique, she completed her mental actions shoddily really, but she was willing to learn – and learning for her meant doing, under as stresses a situation as possible. She breathed deeply, closing her eye and letting her ears do her hearing for her. The inflating and deflating of her chest slowed to once every beat, once every two beats of the growing thumping in her chest. She brushed her thoughts aside, seeking that bubble of tranquility she so often lacked. It came slowly, almost taking an age to form and even when it did it was far from perfect, a shaky and fragile balance. She kept her breathing steady and sought to strengthen it, catching the sound of footsteps.

Flicking her eyes open her brief inner peace seemed to reflect upon the world, slowing it if only by a small margin and allowing her body to react rather than her mind to assess. Her right arm flowed up to block the attack aimed at her abdomen, her left arm doing the same in anticipation of the follow through with the other end of the weapon. Time sped up rapidly as her meditative state quaked and came back to normal as they stood, her arms vertical in front of her, her right hand pointing towards the ground and her left to the sky. The tableaux froze as she slipped her tonfa across the surface of his wooden weapon and wrapped the butts of her own around the shaft of his. Now, his weapon locked firmly with her own she tried to spin it in his hand, seeking to flip it out of his grip.

“Very good Ximal, very good” she spoke, her voice distant as she tried valiantly to maintain her mental calm.

It was a simple move but one that often foiled staff weapons held by common thugs. Ximal was no though and she knew not if her technique would catch him off guard, but if after a few moments of reactive attempt brought no success it would be a simple matter for her to extricate her weapons and dart to the side and away from him, to await the next attack.

[Ximal]

Xi took a signature slow breath of his, something he'd taken to, zand probably had her own method of helping her focus, and this was his, but his wasn't pertained nor limited to just battle. A day today routine , he'd had to shape his every motion to deal with the monster within. And that moulding and shaping had helped craft his fighting. It didn't matter who the teacher was, all that mattered was the rhythm ? If that was all that mattered than fighting was easy, when in fact it was less of a single concerto, more like a vast amphitheatre filled concert. If one motion had it's own rhythm then every single stroke had it's own verse. And right now he was playing to the tune she'd orchestrated. Xi simply smiled and let himself follow through his reactions and actions. However, he did think to make a slight notification, her motions with her tonfa came one after the other...Would that mean her attacks followed in the same manner ? If so then that would mean her pattern would be easier to discern than his own. As with just one weapon he still had a lot of places to use to trike. However he would hold to his internal vow of not attacking an opponent's weakness. No he would not attack from her left hand side. Even if that meant he'd have to use his left hand and attack from the front. The strike he made he knew wouldn't hit but it was all in an effort to try and provoke her response. The response came but it was what he has suspected, one arm blocked whilst the other was free to reign in the attack or further block. however this time her was something that he'd noticed. She'd both spun and motioned her right arm first. Favouring her right side. Xi suspected it was because her right side held more of her field of vision. Her now shifted weapon grip across the haft of Xi's weapon was a troublesome thing however she'd gripped it intended to wrench it away from him, Xi shifted his hands and locked the bases of her tonfa into the protrusion fo the shaft and then twisted the weapon to try and lock both of the tonfa. Possibly a poor choice on his part but if he half control of her weapons he could then shift this to his pace. Her voice then snaked out towards him as she spoke in her same rather ...distant tone. Xi had noticed every time she slipped into fighting her voice slipped out of her. Xi took another slow breath before shifting his grip and turning one hand loose to grip her right arm and then attempt to sweep her feet out from under her whilst keeping in close range. This was more unarmed combat mixed with a stick than actually fighting with a weapon. But he was trying to find his own way of fluidly blending his beast style and best fighting skills into a combination with a weapon to distract whilst he employed them. "If a battle has a rhythm, and your used to it. Then why is your rhythm so easy to read? It's very easy to read when you don't employ your tricks. Simplistic motions and easy movements. That and if you keep pulling your mind out of the fight you wont learn. " Speaking form what he was seeing and hearing he could hear that her voice, and her mind both weren't completely there. She could still fight without them, that was easy to see but it wasn't as fluid as it should be, nor was it as fluid as her unarmed fighting. Almost as if it was a different person. And you'd know all about that wouldn't you? After all your used to having a "dark shadow."

[Zandelia]

Zandelia heard his words, her ears processing them as she tried to let them slip through her at the same time. Her calm was something weak, something trembling. His words were like needles that tried to prick the bubble, to cause it to shatter with no reason to return. It was not that she believed his words, he had never seen her fight and was reading into her simple moves what he saw fit to – she had done little but block and attempt a small grappled counter. It had failed easily enough, proving little of her own skill level with her weapon of choice. It only measured that Ximal was not so easily beaten. She wondered if it was over-confidence that drove his words.

I could use that to my advantage. He is already slow, his footing stable but prone to lack of movement. With a weapon of unfamiliar type he will lack even his usual grace. Goading him would be easy enough she thought to herself, her single orb roaming across Ximal’s form, noting his positions and movement, assessing for weaknesses.

“Rhythm’s change Ximal, don’t presume to know me after two moves. You might be…surprised” she told him as she began to spin her tonfa around her, her torso a blurred mass of cold iron to Ximal’s eyes now, no doubt. “You are here to learn also, remember?” she asked him sweetly, her tone honey but her thoughts steel.

Now was when the real testing began for the man, having established that his grip upon the weapon was sound. Now he would get to know how he could move with it, where its weaknesses lay. She had established one of them already, its mobility. Spinning it in his hands could be considered a strength, but as she knew well such factors could also be a weakness. She planned out her attacks mentally, making sure her muscles could remember the fluid motions – the real art of dual wielding. She was but a few paces away from Ximal and she gracefully paced forwards, towards his right side – his unarmed side. She flicked her left hand out, the tonfa aiming for his shoulder, fully expecting him to block this initial foray.

It was the motion after that she hoped would take him by surprise, for he clearly thought she had fewer tricks with weapons in her hand. If he blocked then he would have to over himself, if he stepped back he lost ground – a testing choice. Either way the follow through would be quick, her left tonfa snapping back only to be followed with her right. She would seek to push his weapon way as she pivoted to her right, twisting around to bring her left tonfa into a backhand strike at his other shoulder. This would be followed by a squatting motion with her legs, her right tonfa extended and sweeping towards his left ankle.

Lastly would come her forwards momentum, necessary to keep her flowing motions from becoming chaotic. Her knees would buckle, her speed following through and forcing her into a roll away from him, her shoulders rolling across the hard ground until she came back up and to her feet. From there she would simply settle back into her guard motions, her arms swaying in cohesive locomotion. She would not attack him from behind – this was a training session after all, not a war.

Taking a deep, meditative breath, her thoughts now empty as her course became settled, she sprang into the dance. She had disabled many opponents with the series of motions, Ximal might be the next, and if he wasn’t then there was always the next salvo.

[Ximal]

Xi watched her snake her weapons free fo the grip he'd placed upon them with his. Damn well it aleast she was taking some time to create some space between them, with any luck she was simply using it to gauge him, and think about his words. Xi took a deep slow breath helping now to both centre his mind and focus his thoughts. As well as make sure he steeled his body for her impacts, which were going to come. Perhaps now she'd actually listened to him. Oh shyke. As her tonfa began to whirl around her body now faceing behind the mass of swirling iron and wood, Xi thought himself better to calm and focus than panic and attack rashly. if i jump in now i pull myself into that whirling vortex of steel, however if i get over confidant in my skill i will probably loose. Damn, i need to think carefully. Why not just attack ehr weakness ? It's open and glareing at us, her whole left side is open, and easy to attack. Which is why she'll be guarding it with extra vigour, you forget liro, she's had more fighting experience than i have. Xi shifted his footing and placed his left foot forwards, keeping his weapon in the hand with less control, he wanted this to be a fair match, and so even if that put him at a disadvantage he would fight fairly. Her words came through though some what, poisoned with sweetness. Rhythm's change...True. then surely you've noticed, that i've used the same rhythm. You've changed yours twice now. Once unarmed, and one with your tonfa. And i remember i'm here to learn, but then again i'm also here to teach." Xi's grip twisted where he held his weapon to the protrusion, now he had it more like a flat staff like edge out in front of him, long edge away from him and the shirt one in front of him. He'd kept himself to one rhythm, one pace. Stable, still, perhaps he'd change that soon but now was not the time, not with the onslaught coming at him. Her left tonfa shot out toward his left shoulder, and instead of blocking it and putting his left forearm at risk instead he tensed his shoulder muscles and then drove his shoulder into it, both mitigating the damage and taking some in the process. Her left tonfa came around with a surprising snap but his weapon was poised to take the blow with the long edge. Blocking and halting the blow, but when the right came back around it slammed into his side with a large force which caused him to crunch his body lightly to the right hand side. Her left tonfa came again as a follow up twisting the weapon he used the short end to blcok the blow and save him self some more damage. Then came the blow to his leg, it hit hard and hit fast, but it missed it's target, catching his calf instead of his ankle. now he'd taken a stinging pain. Following that was the roll behind him. Training session? She was trying to teach him some thing, perhaps he should teach her something, the fact that he was not only stable, but faster than he appeared, whilst still maintaining a good portion of his strength. Xi took a deep breath and focused his attentions away from the pain in his leg and side. The deep breath went down but came back up on a slight cough, the side blow was still eating at him but now he could return. "I think it's time, i showed you what i can do..." This isn't life or death, this isn't life or death, hold back from full power. No flux. flipping the weapon so the protrusion now covered his hand he started up shifting his feet up an down lightly. One, two. One, two. Shifting on the ball of his feet he closed the fgap with a turn and a deep lunging step, bringing his hand holding the weapon across like a strike with the long side from the outside, fast and hard, but at the same time whilst using that he brought his left arm in from the low right and aimed towards her stomach. If neither opf those hit then he'd twist his momentum around and bring a snapping kick to her left hand side, staying clear to not exploit her weakness. lastly he would follow aroudn with the whirling motion if the kick missed and deliver a strike to the right hand size with the weapon's long edge, if the kick connected then he would aim his right hand at her sternum and go for a pushing strike to knock her backwards and down. "Rhythm's change, if you followed mine, then you'd see i hadn't changed." Xi wasn't speaking from arrogance but from the position of someone trying to instruct in fighting, after all, fighting with weapons was just like without, except now they had a longer reach to their damage zone.

[Zandelia]

Zandelia stood behind Ximal now, some small surges of satisfaction trying to invade her mind and permeate her unstable mental calm with the joy of battle. She tried to quell such rabble-like thoughts, attempting to push them from her mind as she imagined them expelled from her ears like corks. It was a visualization that worked sometimes, but this time it merely created a temporary impasse between tranquility and battle lust. Her mind trembled with the strain, sweat from mental exertion dripping down her temples and wetting her hair – her physical activities far from tiring to her body. Her fingers clenched the grips of her tonfa until her knuckles whitened.

No…no! I was doing so well! she thought as she could feel the control slipping, piece by tine piece until even the fingernail grip slipped and the meditative bubble inside her mind popped. She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath or two before opening them once more.

“Damn…” she whispered to herself in a half-broken voice.

She had kept up her mental concentration for longer than she normally did and under more strenuous conditions than usual – she should have been proud of her performance despite the failure. Still, she viewed failure as unacceptable now, she would never succeed in her desires if she fell at the first obstacles. Anger flooded her, a shackled rage that was more ice than fire. She would not be able to rekindle the stillness but she could harness the wrath in their spar, her opportunity coming almost instantly as Ximal pivoted smoothly and forayed into his own assault. A grim smile ripped across her lips as she spread her feet a few inches and dug the balls of her feet into the ground deliberately, ridges of snow and soil surrounding her boots.

Come on then you bastard! Hit me! Hit me! was all her thoughts held as steely determination created a wall so implacable inside her that she would reject failure utterly.

His weapon came in from her left and it was easy to lean backwards to let it pass, harder to bring left tonfa around after it, spinning out from her wrist to bat it away further still in an attempt at unbalancing any follow through. Metal smacked against wood still, her tonfa still spinning as it backhanded across her torso and towards her left again and its proper place – a counter that proved unnecessary but merely part of her movements. It was a standard motion that all learnt early on, a way of defending, attacking and repositioning at the same time. At the same time she was force backwards a pace to avoid Ximal’s left hand, this time her right tonfa flicking out before her left had even begun its return journey – rapping his wrist lightly, a deflective move and not a decisive impact.

She read his moves, knowing all too well there was only one thing he could do now and that was kick her, lashing out in an attempt to either injure of force her back further. She tensed her muscles and decided to do otherwise, a move she doubted he would suspect of her. So far she had danced around him, never so much as taken a blow unless forced to – he would realize too late her change of tactics. She stepped towards him, one decisive step with her left foot that brought the ribs of that side into striking range. The breath caught in her chest as his shin connected, less powerful than his foot. She locked her left arm around his leg – held it there for a few moments. A few moments was all she needed as he flipped her right tonfa out, fully extended, and pushed at his torso.
It was a stalemate, her inside his guard and holding his leg, him with his leg and arm surrounding her.

“No, you didn’t change. I did” was all she said as she twisted them both to her left so that they hit the ground hard.

She rolled over him, his body only slight cushioning, and came to her feet rather more unsteadily this time, but turned to face him with both weapons still in her hands and flushed cheeks. She rubbed her hair from her eyes with the back of her arm.

“Care to go again?” she asked him, a small smile upon her lips.

[Ximal]

The spar had taken a turn for zand and prominently in her favour mostly as she's seemingly read the flow...If Xi operated at full power possibly this might have gone differently, but no He always held something back, because when he didn't bad things happened. Like the one hit that got through when he really thought to show her what he was like at one hundred percent operating power instead of just thirty. Instead he'd chosen to go easy mostly because he didn't know how much zand was capable of now, nor did she probably know of how much he was capable. Still his assault was stopped, not powerful and not fast as he could be but lower, he held back always in spars, even when fighting people of a different race. She's better than i'd expected. Perhaps i should really hold off of the going easy nowadays. But that would be a simple thing to do just lay into her at close range, and i refuse to use flux. At least against a person of the same race. The assault fell short though as she followed his movements. Her tonfa easily batted away his weapon and then he followed through with his fist her tonfa connect with his wrist and he felt his arm batted off course, well he knew that this wasn't likely to work. Still as he followed through with his kick he felt it connect and at the point he was aiming for. He almost never kicked to aim with his foot always his shin a much harder and less damaging point of contact for him. Still she'd intercepted it and then flipped her tonfa around to point it at his chest. Well played zand, well played Though what came next was her twisting the pair of them so he fell to the found back first and she landed on him. Not exactly an undesirable thing but still it hurt a little. Though she did recognize that she had changed her rhythm and he hadn't. She followed through using him more like a cushion than a landing mat and then stood still some what shakily but that was probably from the working, and more than likely coupled with her bright red cheeks. having said that his stamina wasn't exactly in the highest of reserves but it wasn't running low either due to him holding back. "care to go again?" Was that an innuendo or just a challenge? Xi smiled lightly back and twisted his body lightly. Just easing the now dull pain in is back. "You sure you haven't had enough yet ?" Xi stretched out alittle and then walked past ehr back to his pile of weaponry and items before rolling his shoulders lightly and watching the steam rise off of him from the sweat in the cold air. Before flicking a glance at zand and saying rather off handedly but with a slight teasing tone to his voice. "Y'know if you don't change your shirt that's going to get really gold really soon." Sifting through his pilee he brought out and puton his vambraces, and gauntlets. Before turning back to her and breathing out slowly with a stream of hot air. "Well since your already soaing your shirt another round cant hurt, and how about best versus best, me without a weapon against you with your tonfa ? Sound fair? Oh and this time...I wont be holding back." A thin knowing smile played across Xi's lips as his balck blue eye's sank their gaze onto her biting deep and making sure to remember how she worked with these, he now had six points to watch. Her shoulders, hips and wrists. at least he now had some armour to keep his arms from getting broken.

[Zandelia]

Zandelia felt the breeze cool her cheeks, warmed from exertion, as it simultaneously began to chill her clothing to her skin. Ximal was more correct than he cared to admit, her clothing was disheveled beyond repair and in some places she might as well have been naked for all the looseness there was. She shook her head a little as she cursed herself for not removing her corset before the fight also, it would have given her better movement and more room to breathe. She pushed both of her tonfa into her left hand as she set about pulling it back into place, or rather making it slightly more bearable. She could not help but laugh wryly at his words though, tilting her head before spinning around slowly enough for him to see her in much of her glory.

“I would stop looking if I were you, you’ll become distracted and if you look too long you might find you reveal a more tender target for me to strike” she nodded towards his hips as she shifted her tonfa back into their accustomed grips.

“And if you got to know me dear Ximal you would soon learn that there is never enough of anything to keep me satisfied…anything,” she continued as she watched him place his vambraces across his arms and suggest the last portion of their session, “but yes, why not? Let’s see what we can really do when we don’t mess around with each other” she finished, her lips pursing with lightning quick thought.

She let her eyes rove across his physique, searching for and noting his weaknesses. He was slow, this she knew, though faster than she had expected. His centre of gravity was higher than It should be and she could use that against him. He was taller too, much easier to smash in the legs that to get past his arms and hands. He did not cover his ribs as much as he aught to either, something she had already exploited. Still, he was also strong and tough – he could easily withstand many hits whilst only needing one of his own to land to defeat her. It would be interesting to see how long the fight tailed on for, how many hits and counters, blocks and impacts it would take for the champion to be crowned.

No doubt it will be him, he has been training far more than I have these days. Still, I will not make it easy on him she thought to herself absently as she considered how to open, her eye twinkling as the idea slipped through her mind like a serpent.

“Oh look, Ana is here again” she told him as she circled her right foot in front of her, creating a small pile of dirt and snow as her toes dug in behind it casually – he would never suspect her motive.

When he merely looked at her she smiled, sweetly, before flicking her newly created weapon forwards and upwards – towards Ximal’s face. It was an obscuring move, not a debilitating one for she knew he was not foolish enough for it to actually penetrate his eyes – though if she was wrong it would be a short spar. She flowed behind her own flying detritus, her tonfa spinning across her torso and back down to her sides as she moved, protective for a counter and constantly weaving about each other. When she came into range she decided to try something new, to attack him with both weapons at once rather than one at a time, his words upon rhythm well remembered. One would flick out, rotating so that the tip o fit would crack against Ximal’s shoulder. She other came around in an overhead smash that would be followed through into a backhand across his chest if he dodged.

She would follow that with a kick to his abdomen, straight and with the balls of her feet if those attacks failed.