Completed [Tall Johnny's] One-Two Gonna Punch You

[Kreig Messer]

10th of Spring, 518 AV, 20th Bell. For any sane person getting into another fight a few days after their first major fight left them with intense pain would be a rather insane idea. Kreig was not a sane man, in fact he secretly believed that sanity was just a variable that was different for everyone and thus ultimately they were all ‘differently rational’ to an extent. Ultimately however he just really liked a good fight, and what fight doesn’t a little sweeter if the risks were just that a bit higher. And if he happened to win this bout with the odds against him again then that’s all the better! It gives him a reputational boost! His ears were assaulted by the cacophony of noise, shaking him from his thoughts and opening his eyes as he recalled that he was already in the pit. His opponent already a few feet before him, looking at him with all the calm intent of a person wanting to turn him into pulp. Kreig simply grinned, almost maniacally. “ BOYS AND GIRLS, MISCREANTS AND NE'ER'DO'WELLS. ARE YOU READY FOR MORE?????” The response was predictable, the louds cheer for blood echoed around them and instilling into Kreig’s heart. Oh he was right up there them in spirit in more, Yahal forgive him he can’t get this bloody little monster in him to pipe down. “ Tonight we have some high grade entertainment for you oh yes we do. On one end we have a man who looked like he just left the sick bed a little too early, a man who brought the giant Travis Grogshire to heel, and the self-proclaimed Son of Sunberth; KREEEEEIG MESSEEEEEERRRR” Voices roared with cheers mixed with boos, clearly some folk still resented that Kreig had costed them money. Kreig chuckled on the inside even as he raised his own fists in acknowledgement, it was their own damned fault for betting against him and he was proud of it. “ And on the other end is a lass who holds the beauty of rainbow rose yet the lethality of a dust flower. Her fists have brought low opponents of all sizes, from the most dimwitted of fools to the hardiest of opponents. Oh yes, its the Caged Pits very own thorn-laden beauty; ANNAAAAAAAA HELMSWOOOOORTH” Unlike Kreig, Anna had the full support of the audience…. And he honestly couldn’t blame them. She was a gods bless beauty for sure; at 5’9” she was tall for a human gal. Auburn haired, pale beautiful skin, eyes bright like diamonds? The lass looked like she’d nary a scar on her. And she wasn’t just all looks. Shirtless but with her chest wrapped tightly in bandages and dressed in short length breeches he could see the toned muscles in her legs and abdomens. Her fists also wrapped in bandages he felt like he didn’t need to imagine the bruises, cuts and faded scars from tornskin beneath it. Oh yeah, beauty or not, Kreig formulated a theory in his hand as to why she looked untouched as she did and immediately realized she was about as troublesome as Travis himself, perhaps more so. “ With Kreig looking as if someone took an already bruised tomato, chewed it up vigorously, then spitting out in disgust, he is in an even bigger disadvantage than he was before! Oh yes, Anna looks to be the clear favorite for this match. But will Kreig turn our expectations about or will he just take it like the rotten fruit he is? Only one way to find out and that is…. ” Kreig grinned, although he made a note to punch the nose of whoever is hyping the crowd. “FIGHT!”

[Kreig Messer]

To say Kreig’s suspicions were confirmed were to say that grass was green and that the sky was blue. It couldn’t have been even clearer as she closed distance with but a few steps and threw Jab that would have reached had Kreig not have the sense to take a slight step back, the fist inches away from his face. Another quick step from Anna proved that moot as another Jab followed and he found himself with bruising between his nose and left eye. Mentally he tsked as he knew what would follow the jab and he’d not the reflexes to block. It felt like stars flashed before his eyes as Anna threw her left fist into a straight cross that connected dead center on Kreig’s face, crunching cartilage and causing Kreig to stumble backas he tried to catch his balance. Yeah, you’d have to be a dimwitted dunderhead dumbshyke to not know what her style was. As Kreig’s feet found footing he brought his head down from where it was looking, feeling blood and snot going down his face and particular squeaky sound from his breathing. Looking back at her, Kreig saw she took her distance instead of taking the opportunity to make sure Kreig would be down and out. What was she, some damn show performer? Kreig brought up a hand and gripped his nose, wincing at the sharp pain at the firm grip and with another crack sound may have set his nose back rightly… although he could have just made it worse, all he knew was that he won’t have to rely on his mouth to breath for a while longer. Pressing his thumb against one side of nose, he blew out the gathered snot and blood in it onto the ground. Then he brought up his fists in a guard position similar to hers. In a way it was mocking, because Kreig had only the basics of Boxing down. To emphasize his grin grew wicked and in response Anna’s eyes narrowed. ‘ That’s right, get a little pissed. You might sting harder, but that’s alright with me’ Came the thought. Even if he was mocking, Kreig actually needed the old boxing guard. Oh he was sure he could take a fair amount of hits, but he had to work on lessening it. For Travis a guard didn’t matter because the big could have crushed through quite handily, and while Anna was fast her strength was nowhere that brute of a man. Besides, he’d been meaning to learn a few more boxing tricks and he always learned better under fire anywho. Anna darted forward, her left fist flying forward in a series of jabs. Unlike the jab from earlier these weren’t quite as tough, but Kreig realized they didn’t have to be. Each fist striking the guard that was his arms was like a series of ant bites, a single bite would hurt a while sure but it would ultimately mean little. A large volume of bites on the other where distracting, cumulative, it spread strain on different parts of the arms and thus made them heavier. Ultimately it could render them useless and force a gap for Anna to break through, or just lessen his reaction time. Kreig grinned at that, he just couldn’t help himself. It might have been unnerving to Anna, it might have not. It didn’t matter, Kreig was having the time of his life and was learning a heck of a bunch. While she kept jabbing, Kreig subtly shifted his form back a bit and willingly lowered his guard. His fists loosened light and once a jab slipped through, his right hand snapped up to grab the wrist. Simultaneously, he lowered his left hand and bent it in as he balled his fist. Rotating his hips in attempt to deliver a mighty fine body blow, but it wasn’t to be sadly as with her bit of footwork and the looseness of his grip meant that she quickly shifted to his right and broke free. To prevent him from getting a strike and hopes of getting one in, he threw his right in a back hand which she ducked. Following that up he rotated and raised his left knee to try and get the side of her head but she quickly darted a back, when he tried to turn that into a kick she was a step ahead and used her footwork to move further back out of his range. Kreig mentally tsked, but even in his thoughts it was just a halfhearted one. No doubt about, she was about as good as Kreig in fighting and she was a heck of a lot better at dodging. His grin grew wider. Then he let out a chuckle and which became a full blown laugh as he motioned for her to get closer. “COME ON LASS, GET CLOSER! I WAN’T MORE!”

[Kreig Messer]

Kreig could spot upon Anna’s brow. He liked to think he unnerved, he possibly did, but it was more likely it was simply from the effort they exerted in this fight. Fights might be quick but they’re damn tiring and even a couple of minutes could be taxing in a high-intensity fight. Kreig appreciated the distance however, as it allowed him to study her form much better. In truth, it was a basic guard that even he knew. What was different however was the she seemed to hop in place. Getting ready to dash from one spot to the next to avoid hits and get closer to throw flurry of punches. It was not only defensive in its speed Kreig realized, but its offense. Her punches could whittle him down while providing little opportunity for him to counter attack, and even if he did she could swoosh out of his range and get ready to rinse and repeat her tactic. It was troublesome indeed. He imagined to keep that up meant it would be quite tiring. It was a constant expenditure of energy to keep that up and even a person with the hardiest of stamina might find it troubling to keep up the output needed. ‘ Eeeesh, I could probably try an’ outlast her. But if she’s as good as I’m thinkin’ it might be that I get short end of it’ And while he liked his risks and would accept a loss resulting from it, just because he liked to fight didn’t mean he shouldn’t fight smart. It was funny really, despite how instinctual a fight could be there was still a large element of brain power put into. It was like a game of rock, paper, scissors except you had heck of a lot of choices and thefight didn’t just end when one had something better than the other. You make do with everything that you have, and try to find a way to come out on top. That was all there is to it really, and it simply grew with experience. So Kreig had to find a way to catch her, he did so earlier but she broke away right and quick and was sure she’d be on the lookout for that. So he’d have to catch here a different way. He could try irritating here some more, or he could try purposely dropping his guard and feinting her into his grasp. “Hey come on, ya sow. Yer jus’ gonna stand over there an’ look like a pretty flower?” Kreig began, looking at her in mock-disdain. She seemed to show no reaction “I heard ‘em call you a Rainbow Rose darlin’. And a dust flower too. Pretty an’ deadly at the same time, but from where I’m standin’ its more the first than the second. Come on! Where’s them thorns you were showin’ earlier?” Kreig voiced, it was a dumb in a way that it let him open. But trash talkin’ could be a legit tactic so long as what he had in mind went through. And if he got into her head with those juvenile words? All the better. Just meant he was catching her into his pace. As if fulfilling his desires she dashed forward with a series of footwork meant to confuse. Probably worked if his focus weren’t on her feet, no his focus was on her shoulders. Watch where the next move came from and act accordingly. Her right shoulder shifted, a cross? No, the movement was too slight. A jab! Her fist moved quick but Kreig raised his left to intercept her wrist with the back of his to shift its trajectory. Then her left shoulder shifted and she moved in closer, her left fist rotating as she threw a hook that landed center on Kreig’s right cheek. He could the skin in his mouth cutting open and letting the coppery taste of blood spill on his tongue. He could imagine his skin reddening on that side, turning pink and going swollen. Oh yeah, if here an average tosser he’d be laid out right about now. But Kreig was a tenacious fellow and adrenaline flowed through his body. His left hand darted forward and grabbed her by the back of her hair and pulled her head forward. Moving his own head into tandem to bring his forehead onto her nose, hard head met cartilage and he returned the favor of her straight cross. But he wasn’t done with her yet. His left hand went from her face to her shoulder accompanied with his right on the opposite end, holding firm as he brought his knee into her stomach. Hitting hard with knee twice in succession before bringing his hands over the sides of her head and giving one more good knee to her pretty little face. He let her go after that, letting her form crumple as he stepped back. His own daze catching up to him, Yahal and Dhira both that girl hit hard. For what felt like a long moment he thought himself done with her, but the girl got onto her knees and quickly onto her legs. She quickly resumed her stance despite her breathing heavily and blood streaming down her once pretty face with her legs shaking but keeping her up all the same. Kreig was touched, and then he grinned. So good to know they had more time to savor it all.

[Kreig Messer]

This time Kreig moved, even with his all previous injury days prior and his new ones, he reckoned he now had more strength than her to go on. He tried hisownjab on her, but to the worn out lookin’ Anna it may as well be watchin’ molasses crawl as she bobbed her head back. Then again at the next one and the one after, then simply jumping back as Kreig tried a body blow with a left hook. Kreig was impressed, and so was the crowd apparently judging by their excited noises. She then made quick step forward into Kreig’s defenses and threw a punch pin-point into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Quickly, she then shifted to his side and threw a body shot into his liver, causing him to let out another gasp which was breathless. Then she shifted again to behind Kreig and threw another punch at his back! This stunned Kreig as his spine was still sensitive from what Travis had done mere days prior. It sent a shock to his system that caused his paus and lock momentarily. In turn that allowed Anna to shift once more to his left to throw a heavy punch and knocking his left eye black and blue and closing it shut as he tumbled onto his side and hit the dirt. However briefly, Kreig had lost consciousness. If this was Syliras the match would have probably ended there but here a single moment of unconscious was nowhere near a reason for pause. Kreig opened his eyes to see a fist descending and rolled! Anna’s fists hit dirt and while Kreig rolled he picked a fistful of it as he went to his knees and made the attempt to stand on his feet only to fall on his knees again. Anna threw a straight cross but Kreig lift the back of his left to knock it away then tried to counter with a simple punch from his dirt-holding right. It didn’t hit as Anna shifted back. That’s quite alright, for then he opened his fist mid throw and the cluster of dirt flew from his palms to her face and into her eyes. It stunned her briefly and blinded her, allowing Kreig to catch her right wrist with his left hand as he used it to pull himself and to bring her closer. Then his palm connected with her face to push her off her feet and slam her had onto the hard dirt. Not done yet, the brawl then brought then raised a right elbow and covered his right fist with his left as he dropped onto her abdomen with the full force of his weight centered on his elbow as it drove onto her stomach, causing her torso and legs to lurch forward. It was a long moment, Kreig breathed heavily now as silenced reigned the pit. Gathering himself to his feet he looked down on the still form of Anna. Dead? Alive? At the moment it did not matter. He won. “ AND ITS OVER! ITS OVER! KREIG MESSER HAS TAKEN DOWN ANNA HELMSWORTH!! THE FORMER BEAUTY NOW AN UGLY MESS WITH THE SON OF SUNBERTH STANDING STRONG AND PROUD!!!” Kreig smiled halfheartedly, he won the fight. He learned much, but it was a shame he hurt such a resilient opponent so thoroughly. He’d have enjoyed a friendly spar and learned more. But that’s what happened in the pit, and as he staggered off he had only thoughts of the next fight keeping him entertained.

[Madeira Dusk]

Grades Awarded!

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Kreig Messer

Skills

• Philosophy: 1xp
• Intimidation: 3xp
• Observation: 2xp
• Unarmed Combat: 3xp
• Endurance: 3xp
• Medicine: 1xp
• Logic: 1xp
• Boxing: 2xp
• Tactics: 2xp
• Brawling: 1xp

Lores

• Philosophy: ‘differently rational’
• Anna Helmsworth: fighter at Tall Johnny's
• Anna Helmsworth: some damn show performer
• Lore of resetting a broken nose
• Intimidation: trash talk

Awards & Retribution


Notes
Nicely done! That was an exciting read. Please PM me if you have any question/concerns about your grade.