One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (Open)

[Conner]

Conner had done his first two years of highschool from behind bars. His junior year, however, had been here at Hircine High. It was a year of accomplishments for him too. It began with a staged fight, completing the Four Horseman, of which he was a part of. As the Horseman of War, he smashed through anyone in both his own, and Revelation's way. He taken out some of the biggest names in the school. Conner had even been seen as the biggest bully in the school. So many accomplishments, but... enough credits wasn't one of them.

Conner was a Senior in title, but he had only one Senior level class. The Horseman of War had failed almost every class, placing him in almost every Junior level class he had last year. Which brought us to the present. Conner laid his head on his desk, bored out of his mind. It was for this reason he had never attended the class last year, and it was killing him to try and get through it this time.

"Ugh!" Conner shouted, throwing his head up, leaning his body back in his seat and sprawling his limbs over the desk as obnoxiously as he could. "Could this be any more boring!?"

Conner grabbed his book, throwing it at the dry erase board. The teacher flinched at the sound, but he did little. Not only was he small in stature, but he knew who Conner was. He had heard the rumors of what that Seth Calloway supposedly did to MacMillan, and he was the sophisticated one of the group. He didn't want to think what would happen to him if he got into conflict with the brutish one. He didn't want his lips torn off, after all.

"Just shut up!"

[Aryck Venn]

((If this minor puppeteering isn't to your liking, I'll edit.))

No matter where Aryck went, or what he did these days, it always seemed as if he found himself inundated with the same thing, day after day. First it was the iPhone debacle and now, once again, here he sat. This time, he was in a classroom, but, for all that he cared, the offender may as well have been the same person. After all, all Aryck heard was the same thing.

Ignorance.

Unfortunately, Aryck knew the keeper of this ignorance wasn't anywhere near the pushover that Mr. iPhone was. This was Conner McGrath, one of the premiere members of Seth Calloway's gang. Not only that, but he was sitting directly in front of the lanky Junior. The unfortunate part of all of this was that, despite the rumors about his prowess, despite the obvious physical frame, and despite the clear weight and strength difference between the two, Aryck was still about to remove this ignorant fool from the classroom, or worse.

A loud, obvious sigh would part Aryck's lips, as he reached forward, tapping on Conner's shoulder with the eraser end of his mechanical pencil. Conner, as anyone would do when tapped in such a fashion, cranked around in his chair and glared at the skinny figure behind him. With nary a single effort conceal his disdain, Aryck spoke in his usual detached voice.

"Perhaps this would be less boring if you were in possession of something over three brain cells."

To punctuate his sentence, the eraser end of Aryck's pencil would stab upwards, into the soft flesh on the bottom of Conner's jaw. Aryck knew full well what the repercussions of such an action would be, but remained in his desk nonetheless, at least for the moment.

[Conner]

Most people followed the teacher's example, and kept their mouths shut. It was almost cliche now, how well the school wrapped around Conner like TV bullies always had. Those who weren't silent were laughing, as they were Revelation. All in all, Conner had complete control. That is, with one guy left out.

With a tap on his shoulder, Conner turned around. He didn't recognize the kid that sat behind him. He was just a little spikey haired smart kid. A little spikey haired smart kid who was about to get his ass kicked.

"Funny! Let's see how many brain cells you're left with when-"

Conner's sentence was never finished, for the smart kid jabbed him with his pencil. It wasn't hard, but it caught him at just the right time in his speech to cause him to clank his teeth together. Instantly pissed, Conner immediately jumped out of his desk as he completely turned around, tipping his own desk over in the process. Continuing his motion, both hands went to the underside of Aryck's desk. Curling his biceps and lifting with his shoulders, Conner planned to flip the desk straight back and over. In Conner's mind, Aryck wouldn't be tangled in his desk, falling back on his head.

"You dumbass, don't you know who I am!? I haven't lost a single fight! I was the driving force behind the revolution! I mutilated Ein Gilsin twice, just think what I'm going to do to you!"

[Aryck Venn]

If there was anything that Aryck was not, it was stupid. And when he jabbed Conner's mouth shut with the eraser end of his pencil, to simply sit and wait for retribution would be exactly that. As the big man leapt from his desk, Aryck would do the same from his, albeit in a much more graceful manner: The younger student, whose light frame coupled with his fairly well-built muscles allowed him to do such things, simply dropped his pencil and put one hand on the front of his desk and one hand on the back of it, lifting himself out of his seat as he gracefully swung his legs like a gymnast out from under the desk, allowing his body to follow suit as he hopped into a position behind his desk. The time it would take to do this would put him right behind the seating apparatus just as Conner was trying to tip it backwards.

Without Aryck's added 150+ pounds in the seat, Conner would find the wooden and metallic object flying up and back much farther and higher than he had likely originally intended. And Aryck, once again showing his gymnast-like feats, would lower himself down in a crouch and lean his upper body backwards before swinging it around his right side, missing the newly-created projectile completely, and stepped forward to meet his assailant.

Conner's arms would be raised at the height of his desk toss, leaving his lower body fully exposed. Aryck's hands would then assume the Snake position, simply flattening out, palms downward, fingers pointing straight forward. With a twist of his arm, Aryck dug the fingers of his left hand into the pressure point at the side of Conner's left knee, his trained fingers striking the unprotected nerve there directly, which would cause a sharp, sudden, jolting pain all up and down Conner's left leg. With no hesitation, Aryck would do the same with his right hand to Conner's right leg, leaving the boy with a sudden pain in both legs and, likely, a sudden, intense need to get off his feet.

Aryck planned to provide just that.

Rising up quickly to his feet, Aryck would first deliver another snake-style finger strike with his left hand to the also mostly-exposed nerve at the spot where Conner's left leg met his hip, just to send yet another shock of pain through the boy and leave him unable to retaliate, and finally, as he reached the apex to his rise, would torque his body to the left and thrust his right hand upwards in a straight punch, straight up, heading directly for the bottom of Conner's chin.

If left completely to work, the four attack would encompass the time frame of about one and a half seconds.

[Conner]

Conner grinned as the desk moved upwards, the guy seeming to be even lighter than he expected. When Conner had gotten up, he looked directly down at the desk as he lifted, concentrating more on the object than on the nerd himself. To one like Aryck, this would be a miscalculation on Conner's part. To one like Conner, this would be luck on Aryck's part.

The desk would fly over, bouncing off the desk of the kid who sat behind Aryck, clipping the side of his head before falling over in the aisle. Before Conner would be able to process this much, he felt a sharp pain in his left leg. Immediately shifting his weight to the right leg on instinct, Conner would inadvertently help cause even more pain than Aryck would have thought. It wasn't too long ago that Ein Gilsin had stabbed through his upper shin around to his calf, and any extra stress in that area caused excruciating pain.

As such, when the next two strikes would land, Conner would feel his legs giving out, even if for just a millisecond. That millisecond would cause him to lean forward before being caught in the chin with a punch. Having been hit enough in his time, Conner knew how to ride the punch, and would get no more than a clip in the chin as he stumbled backwards into a cluster of classmates desks.

Standing up straight, Conner looked down at his legs, notcing some blood seeping into his right jean pant leg. He looked back up at Aryck, clenching his teeth with a murderous gaze staring ahead of him. With an enormous growl, Conner would twist to his right, grabbing a pile of text books on a desk before twisting back to his left, throwing the three thick books directly at Aryck, assuming at least one of them would hit him. Following the momentum of the throw, Conner would burst the few steps forward, intent on grabing Aryck's waist and tackling him to the ground.

[Aryck Venn]

With his attacks having succeeded, Aryck watched as Conner reeled backwards, his practiced eye gauging that Conner had rolled with the final punch and didn't suffer as badly as Aryck had intended from it. As the bigger student tried to regain his footing, Aryck's eyes scanned the classrom for something by which he could use in what would soon degenerate into a classroom brawl. Although confident in his abilities, the lanky fighter couldn't argue the fact that Conner had at least a hundred pounds on him, if not more.

Catching something useful out of his peripheral vision, Aryck slid his left leg backwards somewhat, nearing his tried and true tool. At that moment, Conner found his footing again, and with a battle cry that nearly shook the room, found a pile of textbooks and tossed them viciously at Aryck before charging thereafter.

Reacting as soon as he could, Aryck lifted his left leg straight up, his foot catching the shoulder strap of his backpack, filled with equally heavy textbooks. The bag acted as a makeshift shield against one textbook, while another came inside the block and the third missed entirely. Furthermore, Aryck had to worry about the raging tank lunging toward him with murderous intent.

With his almost preternatural sense of balance, Aryck hopped backwards on his right leg, keeping his backpack-armed left leg still hanging high in the air, like a Taekwondo practitioner would. With the space newly created between them, Aryck would swing his left leg down, which would send the book bag caroming into the top and/or back of Conner's head. If Conner could change direction quickly, he would be able to avoid the attack, but speeding up would likely cause Aryck's heel to crash into his head, instead, with the book back following suit into his spine.

However, if this didn't work, Aryck would be in a bit of trouble. He was inches from the desk behind where his used to be, and had very little room to maneuver; even less if the big man managed to get his hands on him.

[Conner]

Even though the books hadn't exactly hit Aryck like he had hoped, Conner still assumed they would have distracted the smaller guy for at least a little bit. However, it seemed Aryck was a little more focused than anyone Conner had thrown down with before. Though not the brightest, Conner had seen the leg still up in the air, and for a speedy mother fucker like this one it would be easy enough to anticipate what was to come.

Conner didn't change his speed, or his direction. Instead, he shot his arms out much earlier than he had intended. Instead of waiting to grip the waist they shot out towards the closest thing in sight--the backpack. Gripping each side of it with both hands, Conner planted his left foot as he turned to his right, pulling the backpack in and to the right. With the strap around Aryck's foot, the kid would find it hard to not be thrown to the side thanks to him already standing on one foot.

If all went according to plan, Aryck would be thrown to Conner's upper right, into another row of desks on the other side of the aisle. Instead of letting go of the backpack, Conner would pull it back towards him again, hopefully dragging him through more desks as he would swing the opposite way, doing the same thing to him on the other side of the aisle.

[Aryck Venn]

Shit.

Aryck allowed the one colorful thought into his mind, in the split second of pause when he realized his attack was going to cost him. Before he could internally swear any more, Conner, his hands around the backpack, attempted to toss him into another row of desks.

Thankfully, Aryck's natural limberness and agility would aid him once again. He saw the stiffening of Conner's left leg, and as his body torqued to the right, Aryck crouched slightly and hopped in the same direction he was being thrown, letting Conner's momentum carry him in a controlled fashion, rather than the wild one the big man had intended. Turning neatly in mid-air, Aryck performed a tucked version of an aerial cartwheel, the spinning motion the opposite of the motion Aryck used to wrap the strap of the backpack around his leg, and thus, allowing an easy escape from the weapon-turned-hindrance.

Upon Aryck's downward motion, he put his hands down, seemingly crashing into the top of the desk to his left and rolling off. However, Aryck had prepared for the move and caught his fall with his hands, rolling off with little damage whatsoever. However, the motion may have appeared to be more of a desperation move than it really was, and to those watching from Conner's side of the line of desks, might have thought Aryck to have landed painfully. However, those on Aryck's side would see the lithe young man landed gracefully in a crouch on the other side of the desk in question, hesitating only half a second to regain his breath and push his glasses back onto his face correctly before pushing his shoulder into the desk he had landed on, pushing off with both legs to slide the desk into Conner's leg with as much force as Aryck could muster.

[Conner]

Aryck and Conner seemed to be complete opposites. While one was tall, slender, precise and graceful; the other one was somewhat stocky for his size, wild and destructive. While Conner's primary goal was overpowering, Aryck's was moving in sync with the opponent and slipping in where he fit. As such, Conner had not been able to expect Aryck to escape unharmed from his throw. With the way it looked like Aryck fell, Conner had no reason to assume otherwise.

Assuming the backpack had just slipped of Aryck's foot, Conner held the bag in his hand with a grin as he turned to face Aryck as he got up. By fully turning to face Aryck, Conner had placed both feet pointing towards the younger student. Because of this, Conner wouldn't be able to move out of the way of the object. That is not to say he would have moved out of the way even if it was an option, however.

The desk would slide into Conner's thighs, about 6 inches above his knees. At the same time, Conner would be swinging the backpack in a left to right motion as he would a baseball bat, intent on slamming it into Aryck's head as he would be moving in with the desk. Just after it would impact (whether it would connect or not) Conner would let go, moving his hands to the underside on his side of the desk to prevent it from barrelling him over. In the same motion as he had tried to flip Aryck over earlier, Conner would tip the desk over using his superior strength. This time, however, Conner wouldn't settle for merely flipping a desk and would send his right foot forward in a stomp, pushing the desk back into Aryck and hopefully sending him to the wall because of it.

[Aryck Venn]

((Sorry for the delay, Tywad.))

Aryck, crouched almost parallel to the desk he was attacking with, would be far below the attack toward him, with his own book bag, no less. The desk would hit Conner's leg with enough force to stumble him slightly, and likely remind the bigger fighter of the painful snakebites given to him just moments earlier. However, Aryck had already had experience with the large warrior and desks before. Therefore, he continued to act as the snake would, striking quickly and retreating, and leapt away from the desk.

It would take only about a second, but there was a reason for this: Conner was quite a steadfast fellow, and Aryck was aware of this. When the desk hit legs, the boy had seen it coming just long enough to steady himself so as to not be toppled by the object. Thus, when Aryck could push the desk no longer, he simply used the desk to push himself back, up onto his legs again before taking a quick hop backwards, getting away from the desk before Conner could tip it over, as Aryck had expected.

What he didn't expect, however, was the following stomp that sent the desk flying toward him. Left only to react, Aryck spied an opportunity, and spun backwards on his left foot, his right hand slapping against the top of the desk discretely as he did so. In doing this, he had grabbed a ball-point pen that had not yet fallen from the writing utensil-holding groove on the desk due the momentum of the flying desk. Aryck continued to spin, turning a full three-sixty and allowing the desk to slide past him and crash into the wall. As he spun, Aryck positioned his hands into the snake-tongue configuration, which consisted of the index and middle fingers pointing straight out, with the others curled as they would be in a fist. This way, Aryck hid the pen in his shirt sleeve, his ring finger, pinky and thumb gripping and concealing it from Conner's view.

Of course, Aryck wouldn't simply stand there, and once his spin had finished, the skinny fighter took a step forward and actually advanced towards Conner, hopping up onto another desk and crouching into what would appear to be a preparatory stance for a leap. Instead of doing so, however, Aryck would dive forward, just off to Conner's right. As he hit the ground, he would roll, twisting his body such that he would come up behind Conner, his right side towards the larger boy's back. From here, however, Aryck would remain on one knee, his head turned to face Conner's back, awaiting the larger man's response instead of making his own.

[Conner]

(OOC: You and me both Rye-Bread)

Aryck dodged the desk, allowing it to shoot past him and land against the wall with a smack. Continuing to move in ways Conner wasn't comprehending at the time, Aryck managed to get behind him. Now, They were back in the exact same positions in the aisle they were at the start of this thing. The only difference this time was that the rest of the class had now found the common sense to move to the front of the classroom, mostly out of the way of harm.

Conner turned around relatively slowly. Although keeping his head low, Conner watched Aryck carefully through his peripheal vision til he turned all the way around. He glanced back at the rest of the class before turning towards the second tipped over desk. Finally, Conner left his gaze on Aryck.

"You know, I'm getting really tired of your ballerina bullshit." Conner stated plainly, beginning to move forward. "Stay put this time."

Conner would walk til he was just over an arm's reach. If Aryck remained in place, Conner would shoot both his arms down to grab the hair at the top of Aryck's head. Thrusting his right knee forward, Conner planned to slam it into his face, a relatively close target due to him remaining on his knee. If all went according to plan, Conner assumed Aryck would be unconcious. However, just to be safe, Conner would deliver a second and a third knee, only stopping when he felt the body go limp enough, and felt the face get broken enough.

[Aryck Venn]

As Conner turned, Aryck remained silent and motionless. He had expected the brash tank to turn around quickly, from where the lanky youth would have struck first. However, like the snake he emulated, he was more wary to move against a slower, more calculated attempt to turn. Though he would never admit it, this simple turn worried Aryck somewhat. It seemed to indicate that this big oaf was starting to adapt to his fighting style, which meant that, for Aryck to have any chance to win, he was going to have to finish the fight as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, he planned to do so right now.

Aryck's eyes would narrow as the big man first threatened him verbally, and then walked forward in a rather threatening manner as well. Aryck, not being a mindreader, had no way of knowing what Conner would do; all he knew was that, no matter what he did, the snake had to strike, and strike somewhere vital. When Conner's arms shot down towards his hair, Aryck's chance came. His left arm would rise up as quickly as he could muster to meet this threat, his forearm rising up to catch both hands by their palms. Aryck would, essentially, be giving Conner his arm to do with as he pleased, but it was a gamble he felt he had to take. He didn't know how well Conner could take pain, but the lanky warrior assumed that this was a pain he wouldn't be able to deal with.

As his arm rose, his body did the opposite, lowering himself away from Conner's arms, farther away from his point of attack. Shortly thereafter, Aryck's right fingers would strike forward to the area where he saw the blood beginning to seep earlier, except that his 'surprise' from earlier would come into play: The forward momentum would shunt the pen forward slightly, and he would re-grip it quickly thereafter, this time around the back end rather than the front. What would happen was that Conner would find himself being stabbed again in the same area, this time with a ball-point pen. Excruciating pain would soon follow, as Aryck would dig the pen in as far as it would allow and twist a few times before releasing his grip and allowing it to stay inside his leg.

If Conner hadn't performed the miraculous and managed to fight through the pain, Aryck would follow up by raising up slightly on his left leg and kicking straight out with his right, aiming to knock Conner's left leg right off its standing position and putting all his weight onto his injured right. He would begin to stand as his kick would return underneath him, pulling his left arm free if Conner hadn't already released it by now and gripping the bigger student's Adam's apple with his index and middle fingers and thumb of his left hand, which would put Conner in a very precarious position, as he tried to get his left leg back underneath him while standing on an injured right leg, all the while dealing with the rapid constriction of breath from Aryck's chokehold.

"Further resistance will be met with something breaking."

[Conner]

Conner grabbed the arm Aryck gave him, continuing to throw his right leg out in an attempt to still knee the smaller student in the face. However, Conner found his leg stop moving, simply frozen at first. In a haze, Conner looked down, noticing Aryck's hand covered in blood. Aryck had been poking Conner all day, and it seemed this time he poked straight into his leg, the same injured spot Gilsin left him with.

With a twist of Aryck's hand the pain suddenly shot in, causing Conner to almost fall over from the shock of it. However, he still kept ahold of Aryck's forearm, his hands now clamping down with incredible strength in what surely would leave nasty bruises later. A beat later, Conner's left foot was struck, causing it to slide out. Instinctively catching himself with his right leg, Conner shouted again as it planted on the ground, the force causing the pen to lodge deeper within, and the blood to spurt once more.

Switching positions with Arcyk, Conner now kneeled on his left leg, the only thing steadying him being Aryck's arm he gripped. Aryck tried to pull free, but he would find that he couldn't. It wasn't some last ditch effort by Conner, nor some genius counter attack coming into play. No, it was the primal need to exert force onto something when in large amounts of pain. Conner would rip Aryck's arm with all his might without even meaning to at the time, and Aryck wouldn't be able to just pull free.

Now, as he began to process all the pain within, Conner's anger levels would meet the same height as his pain level, causing him to let go with his right hand, still holding the lower part of the wrist with his left hand. Swinging his arm forward, Conner intended on landing a solid right hook over Aryck's left arm, crashing into the side of the man's head with all the aggression and frustration he could muster with the adrenaline he had left.

[Aryck Venn]

It was a well-known tenet within the world of martial arts that fighting angry is tantamount to fighting sloppy. What with Conner's insistence on continuing the fight even with a heavily bleeding leg, Aryck had a pretty good feeling that he was fighting angry. His grip on Aryck's arm would not release, and Aryck would never admit it, but it actually hurt, quite a bit. Aryck's muscles were tight and dense, but when it came down to it, he didn't have the mass that some others fighters had, and Conner's deathgrip was wearing on the arm.

Suddenly, Conner's right arm left its hold on Aryck's arm, which gave Aryck a lot more freedom to move his arm. As Conner tried to swing, Aryck pulled his forearm up to a vertical position as he raised the arm slightly, moving with the punch to block it before it could swing fully, his forearm knocking into the pit of Conner's elbow. Moving as fluidly as he was known for, even despite the grip on his wrist, Aryck then dropped his elbow down, driving into the top of Conner's right knee. This wouldn't do too much damage initially, but it would put more strain on the injured leg, sending a shock of pain into the Senior once more.

Moving forward with his attack, Aryck's right hand would grab Conner's left wrist for a moment, digging his thumb deep into the weak spot at the base of the wrist, forcing the boy to unclench his grip despite himself. From there, Aryck would follow through with his previous plan, gripping the boy's Adam's apple with his left hand fingers and uttering the aforementioned line.

[Conner]

There were several different reactions to pain. Conner's reaction was a simple one. It wasn't in his nature to submit one way or another. No, when Conner was in pain he wouldn't call it quits. When Conner is in pain, he goes batshit. Conner's body would begin convulsing in any way it could, trying to move in ways that would make things not hurt through small spasms. Conner's punch was blocked and with Aryck's elbow would come a bigger spasm.

Wanting to get the pressure off his leg, Conner pushed off of his right leg, momentarily putting more pressure on it. Grunting in pain, Conner would shoot himself forward. As his body went forward, Conner would turn to the left. Aryck had blocked Conner's punch right in the crook of the arm, causing it to bend prematurely. Using this, Conner would get closer, turning to elbow Aryck in the chin with his right arm since Aryck's left hand would be tied up on Conner's inside.

Using the forward momentum, Conner would attempt to plow Aryck over. Once on top of him, Conner intended to use his body weight to keep him on the ground long enough for him to crawl upwards, positiong himself to sit atop Aryck and rain down on him with a constant flurry of heavy fists. In order to keep this from hurting his leg more, Conner would try and position himself in a typical mount, resting on his knees and taking any pressure off any part of the leg below the joint.

[Aryck Venn]

Conner reacted, forcing Aryck to abandon his attempt to restrain him yet again, and finally solidifying in his mind that there would be no restraint for this monster. Twice now, he had tried to get him to stop and prevent further injury, and twice it had been resisted. From here on out, there would be nothing but pain.

Conner shunted forward, using his elbow to bash Aryck in the chin. Even with his hand wrapped up in the offending arm, Aryck could still use it to redirect the elbow as he saw fit. When he felt the elbow bursting forward, Aryck simply pushed his left arm as hard as he could to the right whilst dodging his head and upper body to the left, letting the elbow go just off to his right. Conner's momentum forward didn't let up, however, and it became apparent he was trying to slam Aryck straight down into the ground.

Once again, the big man's plans would not come to fruition. As he drove forward, Aryck stepped slightly to his left, and with his right foot, drove it upwards, hard into the spot between Conner's legs. The big man would find himself getting kicked forcibly in the junk, and driving himself harder into the kick due to the angle of Aryck's leg. To follow up, Aryck would drop his leg, and deliver a hard knife-edge chop to the side of Conner's neck, adding more pain to an already riddled-with-injuries Conner.

[Conner]

(OOC: Sorry I'm slow lately. Term papers having been raping the hell out of me.)

It seemed it just wasn't Conner's day. His punch had been deflected, and now so had his elbow strike. Still, he thought he would be able to get Aryck's knees and take him to the ground. And he would have, if Aryck didn't fight as dirty as he did. When he got kicked in the balls, Conner's hands both flew to his groin, the larger men gasping in pain.

However, that didn't take away all Conner's forward momentum. He still would have crashed into Arycks legs, if it hadn't been for the little guys next move. Conner's head veered off to his left, the chop to the side of his neck redirecting his head. Where the head goes, the body follows. Instead of landing flat on his face, Conner would tip over onto his left side.

God dammit! It's like he has everything planned out step by step!

Refusing to lose, Conner gritted his teeth as he shakily pushed himself back up to his feet. His turned, grabbing yet another desk on both sides with each hand. He turned back towards Aryck and lifted it to above his head, intending to use all his strength to slam it on top of his spikey haired head, hopefully ending this in this last move.

"I'll kill you!"

[Aryck Venn]

((Garr-damn, I guess I never realized you posted to this. Sorry for the delay, and damn, I swear I've now fought every single one of your characters, and not too many other people since I restarted this character.))

"I'll kill-"

Conner wouldn't get the rest of the words out, for as he would turn around, in the moment his vision was somewhat obscured by the desk, Aryck took a hard step forward, and by the time Conner had hefted the desk over his head, he would be receiving a hard, straight Wing Chun style punch straight to the stomach, courtesy of Aryck's right hand.

This was a calculated move, however, and only the first in a two part combination. Aryck had had enough time now to calculate just about exactly where Conner's particular level of endurance was, and this was why he punched him in the stomach, and didn't kick him. The punch would stop Conner's sentence, and wind him just enough to give him pause, but would not cause him to double over in pain and breathlessness.

What Aryck would do next would do much worse.

In the split second of pause Aryck would get from driving his fist into Conner's stomach, he would cock his fist back and kick with his right leg into Conner's own right leg, crossing his body and torquing himself to the left to slam his foot into Conner's not only previously injured, but very recently reopened leg wound. If Aryck knew anything about the human body, and he did, Conner would either fall over entirely, or, most likely, fall to one knee in pain.

And when he did, he would likely let go of the desk, which would fall straight down on top of him, instead.

Aryck would back up a step or two and await the results of this fight. He had won. Even if Conner were to get up again, Aryck knew it, the teacher knew, and all the students who had stayed to watch knew it. The only thing left was for Conner to either realize it, or be sent to hospital, rather than simply having to admit himself.