Nathan vs. John Smith

[Kyukaku]

at the least, 15 minutes has passed since the last round. Surprisingly, the fights so far haven't been as brutal as the rules would dictate. Do change that, and entertain me.

Ready? Beat the shit out of each other!

[Nathan Branigan]

Nathan managed to win his first round in the tourney although he took a few hits. The previous round was a close call with the judges, so he needed to be more careful this time around. The fifteen minutes gave him some time to rest, but it was over quickly. It was time for the next round to begin.

As Nathan Branigan, the sixteen year old student from Paragon, walked into the octagon, he noticed that his opponent had not yet arrived. Surprised, he walked casually to the side of the ring, waiting on his opponent. He kept his eyes on the entrances, to make sure he got a good look at him as soon as possible. He crossed his arms and gritted his teeth in anticipation. This was the first time he had ever won a fight in the tourney and he planned to make it count.

Nathan had to admit it to himself; he was hoping for more of a powerhouse this round, not just someone that threw hard hits. He did not have much practice with that type of fighter and he figured that it was the kind of struggle he needed at the moment to improve. He was a little too dependent on taking the hits lately and he needed practice with his movement.

Hopefully, Nathan wouldn’t get too much of what he wanted. He may be demolished otherwise.

After about a minute, he began to see movement near the door. As his opponent stepped through the door, Nathan's adrenaline rushed into action. The second round had begun.

[John Smith]

"Disqualified? I WON BECAUSE HE WAS DISQUALIFIED? ... ARGH! How fucking lame is that!"

A locker door was smashed in, the metal dented back. I withdrew my fist from the locker, rubbing my knuckles. The pain would not go away, not immediately at least. That did not help on my anger. I suppose I should be happy that I had managed to past the first round ... But it was still a sour sweet victory. And now I would probably be late for second round. I'd probably get disqualified now. 'You showed up too late, you are dis-' An image of my showing my fist through the face of the judge appeared, and it pleased me. I looked up in horror. What the hell was this tournament turning me into? I looked at my right hand, it was bleeding from the index’s fingers knuckle. Not a deep gash, but I should probably get it sealed somehow.

I looked through a sports bag … not mine … and found some sports tape and some plasters. First I applied the plasters, then the sports tape to keep it in place during the fight. And plus, my knuckles would need some protection after that idiotic attack on a locker. After a minute or so, I was done wrapping my hand into tape. But now I was definitely going to be late. I threw the bag back on the ground where I had found it and left the changing/refreshing room. I had been the only one in there at the time, all other fighters were surely out looking at how their could be opponents fought. I brushed my way through the crowd, who wasn’t really cheering, they did still didn’t know who I was, and the opponent was just standing in there, not much interesting about that.

But as I stepped through the door into the cave, they noticed me, and roared in approval. Second round was about to begin, and for the second time tonight. I felt a rush of joy and peace come over me, it was like returning home after walking through an ocean of unrest and turmoil within me.

Roughly my second fight, ever, and I was this much in love already? I was sort of pathetic as I stood there with one hand wrapped in sports tape, a black shirt covered my, if I have to say so myself, impressive muscular torso and for my legs, I wore a pair of karate pants, black. The shoes were a pair of simple sneakers, black and gray if you just have to know the color.

”Sorry for letting you wait, you must be eager to begin this...”

I slid my left leg back, so the right was leading, right sportstape wrapped hand hovering a couple of inches away from my jaw, the left hovering the same distance away in front of my chest. My body was turned 45 degrees to the left, my regular stance. If I learned how to stand so I could put less strain on the left leg, then I would, but for now, this would have to do.

”… so, feel free to start.”

[OOC: Trying something new]

[Nathan Branigan]

Nathan's opponent stepped into the ring, the crowd cheering as he did. The student was a full head, or slightly more, taller than Nathan. However, he did not seem to be a power house type of fighter. He seemed to be the same type of fighter as Nathan was, an all around street fighter. This fight would be interesting.

~”Sorry for letting you wait, you must be eager to begin this...”~

Nathan laughed with approval. He was glad that he didn't have to go through the formalities for this fight. He was , just as his opponent had said it, eager to begin. Nathan pushed himself off of the side of the ring, beginning to walk toward his opponent.

"Alright then. I'll start, pal." Nathan said in a serious, yet sincere tone.

Still a safe distance away, he began to pick up speed as he placed his hands in front of him. His opponent, was more facing to Nathan's left, so Nathan jumped over to his opponent's left. He would send a quick right punch to the man's face as his right root planted on the ground to slow his momentum.

A very simple attack, but all opening moves are.

[John Smith]

Yes! The opponent wasn't going to start an awkward social dance before we fought. He approached almost immediately, and if I had been any more of a feminist, I would have cried tears of joy. But I wasn't a feminist, so I looked serious rather than joyful. Both my eyes focused solely on my opponent, the crowd dissappeared into a blur, details vanished from even the cage. But as details disappeared from the background, details appeared in my immediate surroundings, and the only thing worth noting here, was my opponent. It was like watching someone in a HD television, after being used to watching on a regular tv. He threw a punch at my face, an optimistic start of a fight, especially from that angle where I could use both arms for defense. I reacted on instinct like in my last fight. I stepped forward with my left leg, and left arm raised up and my elbow hit his right forearm. I was stepping into this block, carrying my momentum into the block to force the arm to stop right away. And since I did not stop stepping in, my arm would slide over his after it had been blocked.

This brought me up close and personal and at this range, there was a few options avaliable that could cause serious damage. One of these, was an elbow to the face. And that was what I did. My right elbow swung out and the forearm would strike my opponents nose area, breaking his nose completely at worst, causing his eyes to tear at the least. As my right arm flew through the air, my right side of the body was thrown forward into the attack, and my left side went back. To prevent my opponent from just ducking below my wonderful elbow, my left arm would have bend down and go below his elbow. His right wrist would be below my armpit, and forcing the elbow up, should bring about a nasty pull in his arm. Enough to force him to stay up while I elbowed him in the face.

[Nathan Branigan]

To no one's surprise, Nathan's opening attack did not work. John send out his left elbow to stop his jab in it's tracks. This was not much of a setback as all opening attacks were meant to merely begin the match to actually hit. As John's right side swung in to hit Nathan in the face with another elbow, Nathan was already in action.

His opponent sent out a very dangerous strike, but Nathan had already begun to back off to avoid the obvious situation that would be John's counter. His weight had been placed on his right leg heavily for that reason. As John began to move his left arm to stop Nathan from ducking, Nathan jumped to his right to avoid the hit. His right arm would slip back to Nathan's side, prepared for his next move.

Nathan moved quickly back into range of John Smith. His elbow would have just missed and his right leg would be planted on the ground, his step complete. Nathan would move forward with his right arm protecting his face and side from both of John's arms, which were to the side. He would send a quick right kick to John's left leg at the back of the knee to slow his competitor down. Judging from the 5 inch gap in the height between the two fighters, it would be awkward for John to simply grab the kick, which was fast and low. Nathan's left arm would be in front of him, ready for an attack.

[John Smith]

My opponent elegantly jumped out of the way so my elbow missed his face. Interesting style of weaving in and out of my defenses, but I was not certain it would work out the way he had imagined. Because whether he had liked it or not, when he had chosen to jump to my left, he had pushed to my left arm and that was pretty hard to ignore and even harder to miss feeling. So, I immediately spun on my right leg and stepped back on my left on the same time so the left leg was not far in front of the right when it touched ground again. Almost like standing normally. If my leg wasn’t in such a bad condition, then I might have dared to stay closer to my opponent, risking that his kick might strafe my leg, but with this injury that simply refused to heal, then I had to play my cards a bit a safer than usual. But that would only have made my attack come faster. When my opponents leg passed my leg and stopped to return, I lunged forward with my right leg landing on the ground. I refused to believe that my opponent could make a reversed kick powerful enough to knock me off my feet.

With my leg standing there, his kicking leg could not return the same way without powering through my right leg. That basically meant my opponents back and right side would be exposed to attacks. With a smile, I begun my attack, that would be a natural extension of my step forward, with my right hand curving in from the outside, and strike at my opponent’s side. Left hand up around my chest. And should my first attack land, I would follow up with a left strike at my opponents back. If it would be blocked or should it miss, then I would always have my left hand to protect myself with.

[Nathan Branigan]

Refusing to be hit by such a simple attack, Nathan's opponent pulled back his left leg. This would force his kick to miss it's target. As Nathan's leg retracted back to its standing position, John began an attack of his own.

John stepped forward with his right leg, closing the distance between the two fighters. He would then send a right hook aimed at Nathan's side. This was the second volley of attacks sent by the fighters, but neither one of them had hit the other. Nathan decided to take a chance and make a move. As John's arm closed in, Nathan grabbed it with his left arm. He would pull it up and twist it over, exposing the elbow. He would then slam his right arm down on John's elbow intending to break it at the joint as he continued to pull the arm up.

To escape a potentially bad situation, Nathan would use his left leg to bounce off John's right. The pain caused by the hit would give him a slight window to escape as he released John's arm. Once he was a safe distance away, he would go back into his regular stance with two hands in front of his body.

[John Smith]

I felt his filthy hands grip my arm. He dared to touch me? Argh. He would pay for such insolence. Feelings I did not know where originated from, pulsed through me. A feeling of superiority. And it felt good. His plan was quite clear to me. I forced my arm out of his grip by twisting it out at his thumb. The thumb was the easiest way to get out of a grip when the opponent was of a similar or weaker strength. With my arm free of his grip, I abandoned all plans of punching with my left arm and instead had a new attack planned.

With his right arm down, and the left arm being outsmarted by my arm, I knew I had a good shot at Nathan if I acted right away. My right arm had just dodged an attack, and it was in the vicinity of Nathan’s clothing. My arm moved back in again and grabbed him by the collarbone/shoulder and pulled down on him. As did the left arm, just on the other shoulder. As I did this I took a quick step forward with my left leg and the second it touched the ground, my right leg was launched straight up into his chest. If Nathan had kept his plan of kicking my leg, then my knee would have risen above that leg before it could strike me. Should the attack land, Nathan would have all air forced out of his chest, and probably have a couple of broken ribs.

[OOC: Sorry for the wait. Been busy all day.

Edit: Right on time! ]

[Nathan Branigan]

John Smith was able to rip his captured arm out of Nathan's grasp. This would put a stop to the very dangerous move Nathan had planned for John. So, Nathan did not commit to the elbow strike that would have given John the much needed opportunity he needed to strike a powerful blow.

John Smith quickly sent both of his arms out, intending to grab Nathan by the shoulders. Reacting immediately to this turn of events, Nathan would begin his defense. John was reaching in to grab Nathan when he made his move. The instant John's hands would touch Nathan his arms would hit john's wrists and push outward. They would push John's arms outward with enough force to force him to let go of Nathan's shoulders, stopping him from anything he intended.

Now that he was free of John's short-lived hold, he would move back and kick at John while he could not grab his legs. It would have been a hit to his body, but John's knee got in the way. It seemed that John had intended to hit Nathan straight in the gut to get a good hit in on him. Instead he would feel the force of Nathan's leg kicking out at him. After the hit, they would be several feet away. Not so close as before.

[Kyukaku]

This one busted my balls. Although I found your posts very amusing, Emil, I'm going to have to give this one to Nathan, though by an uber slim marigin.