Ari vs. Aryck

[Director Troutman]

Semi-finals, guys! You've gone far, let's see who gets to go farther!!

[Aryck Venn]

(('A'ryck vs. 'A'lkaiser, then 'Ary'ck vs. 'Ary'n, and NOW 'Ar'yck vs. 'Ar'i. This is awesome as hell. Also, this may be considered puppetteering, so if you don't like it, tell me, Ari-man.))

Aryck, for all he knew, was coming into the semi-finals with a considerable advantage: Rest. Unlike any other competitors, Aryck had the equivalent of a no-show for his last match; the girl who was to face him had withdrawn mere moments before the match was to begin, giving him few minutes to simply sit and catch his breath. This, coupled with the fact that he had sustained only the barest minimum of damage, if it could even be called that, during his first round, meant he would be walking into this third round nearly completely refreshed, whereas his opponent, in all likelihood, would not be. Even so, the lanky junior found himself leaning in one of the corners the eight posts around the ring provided, giving himself that final few seconds of down-time before his fight. Even if the next challenger had two full rounds of fatigue already on him, Aryck knew that to get to the semi-finals, they would be no slouch.

And when the almost seven-foot-tall Ari walked into the cage, Aryck's suspicions were confirmed.

His eyes would widen slightly as he appraised this new challenge, taking in his full frame and dense muscular stature. To the casual onlooker, it would seem that the skinny fighter appeared to be taken aback and perhaps even frightened by the human wall walking into the ring. This was, as usual, just part of Aryck's deceptive nature, as he was really analyzing the body, looking for structural weaknesses.

First of note were the man's fingers, which looked much more like a musician's hands than a fighter's. Aryck bit his lip rather subtly, a move that most would not even see, but, if they did, would be yet another feign to make those watching, including Ari himself, consider the young man to be daunted.

[Ari Karamzov]

OOC: It's fine, though I'd prefer if such things do not happen in the actual fight. Seriously though, sorry I didn't post earlier, I've been way too tired the past few days, wasn't able to stay awake long enough to post first. It's a bit late, but I hope that's not too unacceptable.

As he had left the octagon at the end of his previous fight, the pain in his gut having subsided and the crowd having been shocked into silence when Odin's body went limp and fell to the ground once Ari's arms left their position of choking him, Ari Karamzov had to admit that he was impressed. The fight had been quick, but pretty tough, with Odin having landed a hard blow on him and making him have to push himself to match Odin's speed. Even when Ari caught Odin in a choke, the man didn't give up, struggling to the last. By the time it was over, Ari found himself short of breath for the first time in what must have been years, his monstrous stamina having taken a hit from both the body shot and him having pushed his gargantuan body to move at the speed of his opponent's lighter frame. Because of the intensity at which he constantly trained, he was able to catch up, and sticking to the strategy he had developed he pulled out a win.

It's no wonder he's won so many tournaments and League matches, that was the hardest fight I've had in a long time. Odin was a true warrior, one I would be honoured to fight again some day. But for now, I have to focus on the semifinals; I have a prize to win. Father, Mother, Coach Nielsen, I'll make you all proud!


Masking his fatigue with a smirk, Ari made his way through the crowds, getting to the locker room entrance just as the silence started to make way for applause and fanfare. Paying them no mind, the giant made his way to a bench and sat down, closing his eyes with a sigh. He hadn't been damaged much at all, the punch just being a bit painful, and while he was fatigued from the fight with Odin the fact that the past two fights were so quick meant he would be able to recover easily by the time his next match started. He'd be waiting a little while for the other second round matches to end, more likely than not he would end up with more than enough time to be back in top shape. He was very good at recovering lost stamina, and the wait period between rounds would prove plenty of time, especially since his adrenaline was already flowing from the excitement of his last match, where he had defeated the previous tournament's champion.

Of course, it would eventually be time for the semifinals, and when Ari sensed this his eyes would snap open and he would rise from his seat, cutting his reflection and relaxation short. Three other people had made it to the semifinals, and no matter which one he faced he knew they would not be a pushover. On his way out he took a quick look at the bulletin board to find out the name of his opponent; "Aryck Venn"...Ari had never heard of him. No matter, he'd find out who he was when he got to the octagon.

The second he left the locker room and started to head to the arena, the crowd roared. Applause, cheering, men and women chanting his name, shouts of encouragement, he was being given the same treatment he had seen the crowd give Odin in the previous round. He grimaced, displeased at how fickle the bloodthirsty masses could be, but was amused at how they cleared out of his path like he was a conquering hero or king. He eventually walked into the octagon, hearing the door close behind him again as he looked across to see "Aryck". The man was tall, but very thin, to Ari's surprise. It was an odd contrast; the very thin, almost formally dressed "Aryck" standing against the gargantuan mountain of diamond-hard muscle known as Ari, who wore only sneakers, socks, and a pair of shorts since he had left his tank in the locker room. Ari could not help but raise his eyebrow in a somewhat perplexed manner at his opponent.

He's so stringy; there's no way he's anything other than flesh and bone. This can't be the right guy, can it?

"So you're Aryck?" he asked with a chuckle, smirking at the other man. "You look like you've never eaten a single meal your whole life."

Careful, Ari, you've got no idea what this guy can do.

After the thought passed through his head, Ari raised his guard, his left side leaning forward as he adjusted himself to be at something of an angle with Aryck. His hands were open, with the fingers facing outwards, so that they could grab more effectively but also strike just as well. His right arm came to the side of his face and forward, while his left formed a horizontal bar in front of his lower ribs and upper hip. Finally, he bent at his knees in a sharp degree as the stance usually required. A solid stance for both defense and offense, he had seen it used to devastating effect in several televised matches, and had started using it himself a few months ago. From here he could either launch sudden attacks, make powerful grapples, or defend attacks from just about everywhere. Brown eyes met green as Ari gave Aryck a slight nod.

"Since I kept you waiting, I suppose I should let you go first. Let's see what you can do, beanpole."

[Aryck Venn]

((Sorry again for the delay. When the woman calls, I must answer.))

Aryck continued to lean, watching the big man come into the ring and size up his opponent. After only a short time, he made his opinion known. As was natural for a man of his stature, his initial insult regarded Aryck's weight. It took everything the skinnier fighter had to retain his slightly worried expression and not crack a smirk. Clearly, this large fighter was used to facing people his size, most likely in wrestling or MMA-styled matches, and running rampant over anyone who wasn't in his weight class. Likely, then, that he hadn't ever fought anyone as precise as Aryck. It would be an interesting battle, for sure: Ari's raw power versus Aryck's refined technique.

Ari then gave the 'beanpole' the chance to start the battle. Aryck nodded, as feebly as he could muster, still opting not to speak anything in return. As well as he could judge from this man's demeanor, he was not without confidence, and Aryck planned to exploit that. He pushed himself off from the cage and took a few shaky steps towards the man.

Aryck, at his core, was a deceiver. Much like his chosen path of kung fu, the Snake, the lanky fighter used as much deception and misdirection as he could in a fight, believing battle to be just as much mental as it was physical. Whether or not his opponent took the bait, however, was yet to be seen. From Aryck's perspective, Ari looked like your average, dumb meathead; however, the thin boy knew from his own example that looks were often deceiving.

He raised his arms up, rolling his shoulders a few times as he assumed a basic boxing stance, albeit intentionally sloppy. He took another step forward, then a step to his right. He faltered somewhat, once again, intentionally, as if trying to decide what to do to start off the fight. All this would be done rather subtly, hopefully none too obvious. From an outsider's perspective, Aryck could either be an inexperienced fighter, or simply intimidated by Ari's massive frame.

In a split-second, however, the act would drop. Aryck's eyes would narrow and he would lower his body, kicking out with his left leg towards the side of Ari's left knee. Aryck was at the farthest point back he could reach without over-extending himself, keeping himself as far back from the big man as possible. Even so, he kept his eyes open and watching Ari, as he didn't suspect for the second that the big man's arms couldn't still reach him.

[Ari Karamzov]

The whole time Aryck put on his little show, Ari kept both eyes right on him. The way he was moving, it almost looked like Aryck was trying to make Ari think he had no experience. Ari wouldn't fall for that little trick; an inexperienced fighter would not have made it to the semifinals. It was more believable to him, however, how Aryck appeared intimidated by Ari's massive size. Who would not? Still, his confidence didn't drown out the fact that Aryck was probably planning something.

Ari Karamzov had been fighting almost literally all of his life, and with that kind of experience comes the awareness needed to spot a trickster when he saw one. While he'd only fought other heavyweights and giants in official boxing matches or MMA fights or wrestling competitions with the school teams, the streets had no weight classes, and he had fought several smaller fighters whose skills were truly astonishing. In his time he had fought people of all shapes and sizes, most with their own specific fighting method. Using trickery was just one of many strategies he had found opponents trying on him, and it was this experience that allowed him to guess that Aryck was up to something.

Not changing his expression or stance any other than a small lightening of the degree to which his knees bent, due to the fact that just from looking at him Ari knew Aryck was quick enough that he'd need some extra speed in the stance, Ari tried to uncover the true extent of Aryck's facade as the man approached in his oddly sloppy-perhaps intentionally so-boxing stance. Aryck would be mistaken if he thought Ari was just some dumb musclehead who only made it this far because of his sheer size. He was one of the rare people of his size who combined raw power with a great amount of technical skill, and the man in front of him was in for a painful surprise if he thought otherwise. As Aryck stepped to his right and faltered for a second, Ari answered by shifting to his left, lessening the degree to which Aryck stood at his side.

Just as he thought, Aryck's inexperience and intimidation was a ruse. Completely changing his demeanour, Aryck lowered himself some and fired off a straight kick between Ari's legs aimed at his right knee. An interesting attack, but nothing Ari couldn't handle, especially since he preferred to not have to deal with a broken leg. Using a sliding motion to increase the speed, Ari quickly stepped back and to his left while lowering his right arm just as Aryck's kick started to have the most weight and extension put into it. Moving his left leg up between Aryck's legs so it was behind Aryck's right, Ari would sharply duck down for a small distance as his right arm looped around the knee of Aryck's still-extending left leg before it could retract. His left arm moving upward so it could better defend if Aryck tried to break Ari's hold with a sudden attack, he surged up and forwards into Aryck, his left leg pulling back as the rest of him pushed forward.

The result was the ever-versatile move known as the backtrip, which would end with Aryck slammed to the ground, with Ari on top and easily able to take a mount as he released Aryck's leg. Betting on the hunch that his best chance of victory would be to turn the battle into a ground fight, Ari sought to take Aryck down as quickly and efficiently as possible. The backtrip just happened to be one of the most reliable moves for such a thing; it was used so much because it worked. Without balance the opponent, in this case Aryck, cannot defend adequately, and trapping the kicking leg robs them of half of their balance. Placing one leg behind the opponent's free leg ensures that when one pushes forward, the opponent will not be able to resist momentum and gravity, simply tripping and falling. This was made all the easier when one added a sweep backwards to the mix, as Ari did. Aryck had taken his bait, and now all Ari had to do was reel him in.

[Aryck Venn]

When Aryck's kick was grabbed in the fashion that it was, Aryck remained stoic, his eyes darting around to take in the situation at hand. With Ari's leg sneaking around to get behind his own, then, it didn't take a brain surgeon to realize what was going on here. However, it would take someone of Aryck's physical ability to accurately stop it from working.

As Ari would set up the attack, Aryck would bend his remaining leg down somewhat, coiling himself for what was to come. One of Aryck's biggest character features was his balance. He possessed the abilities of gymnast, and often used this to his advantage in a fight. As Ari would begin his backtrip, Aryck hopped up and backwards, his leg gliding over Ari's tripping foot. This would, in effect, cause Ari not to throw Aryck straight down, but instead help push him farther up, and at the end of his burst forward, Aryck would drop down upon the ground, landing gracefully back to the mat on the same leg.

He wouldn't stop there, however, as Ari would be doubled over somewhat from the lunge, and it was time to capitalize. First, however, he would need to get his leg free. To do so, Aryck simply raised his right hand, palm opened, and brought it down towards the side of Ari's head, in what was effectively an open-handed slap to Ari's ear. A common cheap-shot in professional wrestling matches, such a blow would often cause a painful, if only temporary, ringing sensation, which would hopefully stun Ari for the followup to come.

Immediately after the slap, Aryck would straighten out his left, kicking leg that had been grabbed, and jump and twist to his right, spinning his body around his left leg to perform a move known in most pro-wrestling circles as a reverse enziguri. Aryck would swing his right foot around his left, his heel would come around and strike Ari in the right side of his head. If fully connected to the temple where he was aiming, it would not be surprising to see Ari suffer a concussion from the attack.

[Ari Karamzov]

Clever.

Aryck had, unexpectedly, been able to dodge the backtrip by more or less hopping over it. An interesting way to get out of the move, Ari hadn't expected the man to do such a thing, but he couldn't deny it impressed him a little. This "Aryck" person, unhealthily thin or not, knew what he was doing. Unfortunately for Aryck, so did Ari. Even though he had cleanly dodged Ari's takedown attempt, Aryck's leg was still held by Ari's arm, and once the movement forward that had been done to attempt to take Aryck down had been completed, Ari had started to stand back up. For Aryck's slap to have any real effect, he would have to draw it back at least a little, and that was a motion Ari would notice, alerting him to Aryck's new attack.

His reaction was simple. As he saw Aryck's hand rise and come at him, he would lean his head back a few inches, causing the sneak attack to miss entirely. As soon as the hand was drawn back, Ari brought his left hand up to prepare a jab, but he felt Aryck's captured leg stiffen, and the man quickly jumped upwards, bringing his leg around at Ari's head. While Ari didn't know that Aryck planned a reverse enzugiri, the move still required Aryck's leg to move in front of his face, and this was all he needed. With his hand in the position it was in, it was all to easy to move it to his left towards Aryck's leg, stopping the movement entirely by striking Aryck's shin with his hand in a block. With the fact that it was his closed fist that made the block in mind, it was as good as a backhand.

An enzugiri? Who does this guy think he is, Hulk Hogan?

That wouldn't be the only thing Ari did, though; he would be stupid to waste the opportunity Aryck had given him. Opening his hand, he would twist it around so the inside of the hand was facing Aryck's shin and then close the hand again, clamping down tightly on Aryck's kicking leg. Not only would Ari's tight grip-as he was holding Aryck's leg as he would a water bottle he were trying to crush-hurt, but it would mean that Ari was now holding the smaller man in midair. It had taken balls to try the move Aryck pulled, but Aryck's own gambit had backfired on him. Now there was no way to keep his balance, and no way to react to Ari's assault.

With a grip on both legs secured, Ari would sharply twist his body in a sort of half-spin motion to the right before quickly bending back at the same time as he pulled his arms up and then reversing the same motion, a downward and slightly forward bend while his arms pushed down. After his leg had been blocked and caught, Aryck would feel himself being swung briefly into the air before being lifted up a short way and then slammed down hard into the mat. Being in the middle of the air meant that Aryck had no balance, and would be helpless as Ari did this, being unable to power any attempts to break Ari's grip or launch any punches with enough power to be effected. No matter how acrobatic he was, Aryck Venn could not resist physics; his mistake had been in picking such a flashy move to try to dispatch Ari with. Really, trying to stop his fall would just result in broken arms, so Ari figured Aryck's best chance at avoiding serious injury was to just go with it. Once Aryck had been thrown onto the ground, Ari would let go of his legs just as he started to drop knee first towards his gut; this move would not only knock the wind out of him, but put Ari in a dominant position for the ground fight.

An interesting opponent, but you're reckless!

[Aryck Venn]

There is some speculation amongst martial arts enthusiasts as to the different natures of various animal forms of Kung Fu. Snake style, that which Aryck practiced, is rarely ever referred to as being the strongest, or even the fastest; however, many would consider it, of all the animal forms, to be the most lethal. This is because a practicioner of said style is accustomed to attacking weak, soft points of the human body, which are often places like the throat that can be injured easily. As such, most peaceful fighters who utilize the Snake forms practice great amounts of restraint, so as not to injure their opponent, permanently or otherwise.

Unfortunately for Ari, Aryck was not one of those peaceful warriors.

When his ear-slap technique missed, his hand would go in front of Ari's face as the big man leaned back to dodge the blow. As this happened, Aryck would stop his swing, hovering his hand in front of Ari's face for the slightest of moments, before he turned his fingers towards Ari's face, and, with his index and middle fingers, would give Ari's eyes a quick poke. Despite the talk of Aryck not being a peaceful warrior, however, he was not aiming to disable the larger competitor. Had he been in a real fight, or if his own life was in question, Aryck would not have hesitated to dig in and blind the man for life. As it were, however, Ari would only find himself distracted by a short spasm of pain and spots in his eyes, rendering him unable to see clearly for a short amount of time.

Unless Ari was completely impervious to pain and could fight blind, there would be no shrugging off a poke to the eyes in any amount of time. As such, Aryck would resume his original plan, swinging his leg around with the reverse enzuirgiri heel kick to the side of Ari's head, hopefully hitting him square in the temple as he had planned before.

[Ari Karamzov]

OOC: Been too sick to post, sorry.
IC:

Unfortunately for Aryck, Ari wasn't stupid. When, instead of retracting the slapping hand, Aryck chose to keep it hovering in front of Ari's face, Ari knew something was up. Acting accordingly, he adjusted his left arm-which was below the line of Aryck's sight since Ari hadn't brought it up earlier, and due to the proximity of their bodies-so that the clenched fist was facing directly upward at Aryck's jaw. When Aryck sent his fingers towards Ari's eyes, Ari simply moved his head upwards at the same time as he did so with his left arm. Aryck's fingers impacted with Ari's jaw to no real effect other than maybe hurting said fingers some, but at more or less the same time Ari's huge fist would strike the bottom of Aryck's own, the short distance they were at compensating for the speed difference.

The truly devious thing about this move was how it left Aryck unable to defend, at the same time intercepting his enzugiri. They were at extremely close range, and Ari's arm was in a position where it was under Aryck's line of sight, preventing him from seeing the attack as he fired off his gouge. Aryck's intention on immediately following up the gouge with the kick would also be turned against him; while he was focused on bringing his leg up and around, his defenses would be down as he couldn't react equally quickly with both at the same time, especially since that brief amount of time in mid-air would ruin his balance. His kick would also be going up and across, and then in the other direction, making it ironically slower than Ari's uppercut, which simply went straight up as quickly as possible.

Even if he could defend against the uppercut, he would have to stop his enzugiri mid-kick to do it, not only leaving him off balance but destroying any opportunities for him to do anything useful against his giant of a foe for a few seconds. Ari was dangerous enough that those few seconds would be more than enough time to do something else. Either way, Aryck had dug his own grave, and every moment that passed without him freeing his captured leg was a moment closer to Ari smashing him to bits. Even if Aryck somehow detected the uppercut and mounted a defense about it, which was barely possible let alone likely, he would have to compromise his own balance by stopping the kick midway in order to do it, allowing Ari to try something else.

His back's against the wall now; I'll show him that his kung-fu is no good here!

[Director Troutman]

Majority (3-1) in favour of Aryck.

Well done.