Division 2: Fight 2, Kayar Vs Artemis

[Odin Reeves]

Fight.

[artemis]

Artemis walked around outside the arena observing the people in the crowd milling around. No one paid him any attention as he walked around lost in thought, and that was the problem.

It wasn’t that Artemis craved attention and recognition, it was far from it. Participating in this tournament was purely a strategic move.

He knew it was only a matter of time before the school revolted against the watchers and their system, it was inevitable. The watchers were that minority power that abused and oppressed the masses, and anytime this happened in the course of history, an uprising was soon to follow. Artemis decided that it was best to be prepared when that day comes.

That was one of the main reasons that he joined Genaht, he believed that they were going to be an essential part of keeping order in the rebellion that was sure to come. Genaht’s members were intelligent and driven, they seemed to do things logically, which was the way Artemis liked it. When the day came Artemis was sure that this would be the group that would help restore order in chaos.

In order to prepare for the rebellion it was essential that Artemis had as many connections as possible. He was already becoming well known to the teachers and faculty for his intelligence and obedience. None of the staff would ever suspect him to be a trouble maker, as far as they knew he was totally on their side. As a result of their favoritism he was able to roam around with little interference, and with a little manipulation he could gain access to the student’s records(student bios), which was sure to come handy. Artemis made sure that none of them knew his connections with other students. He wore The Mark of the Mind on his upper right forearm so that it was assuredly hidden by his long white sleeves.

Now all that was left was to gain a reputation among the students. This would not only help Genaht, but it would benefit him as well. The more connections and relationships you made with people the better off you are when it all goes to hell.

That is why he joined this tournament. It was a little difficult to get here because the tournament was an underground affair, but with Artemis’s ability to gather information it wasn’t too difficult. Once he finally found the student in charge of registering the fighters it was fairly easy, though he did have to do a little persuading.

“You register people for the underground tournaments.” Artemis said to a junior standing a couple hundred feet off the school grounds a few days earlier.

“yeah, what of it?” The student replied in a overly snotty and condescending tone.

“Sign me up.” Artemis replied in a quiet low even tone.

“ You? You have to be shitting me! What the hell are you going to do? Beat their ass with a pocket protector? There is no way in hell that I’m gona-”

Artemis grabbed his throat in midsentence and picked him up off the ground.
“I said sign me up.” Artemis replied in the same even tone tightening his grip and constricting his airway as has he spoke. The Junior nodded in feeble agreement and soon Artemis found himself here.

Artemis looked around at the rings that the competitors would be fighting in. Some fighters had already arrived and were doing their pre-match warm-ups.

Artemis didn’t take a lot of stock in warming up. His body wasn’t conditioned for fighting and no amount of warming it up would make any difference. The power that he had came from his mind. It was far more important to make sure he was mentally prepared and alert then anything else because that’s where all the stress was going to go.

Artemis walked over and looked at the match ups. From what he could tell they did a fairly good job of picking fighters with equal skill level to make the matches interesting. Artemis had spent the few days coming up to the tournament scanning over school records to get a feel for all of the students that could possibly be here. He wasn’t able to look into any detail about them because there were far too many students to go through, but he got the gist of what he would be facing with each fighter.

He noticed that his opponent seemed to be the least revered of the bunch, which was to be expected. Even if he managed to get into this tournament he still did not look like a fighter and no one in the school knew him. He doubted that many even knew he was a member of Genaht. The odds were stacked against him, he would bet his right arm that he had the worst odds at the gambling windows. Hopefully that would change soon…

Artemis looked up at the ring and noticed that his opponent had yet to arrive. He decided it was best to wait for his opponent before getting in the ring. It would be a good opportunity to size him up as well as the rest of the fighters that were starting to appear if he stayed hidden within the crowd.

[Kayar]

Kayar watched the student he identified as Artemis, his opponent, and watched him from a corner of the room. Watched "him." Unfortunately, his opponent was no goddess of war, like the Artemis Kayar knew. Artemis looked, for all it might mean, like he'd just come out of a study group, but Kayar wasn't stupid enough to believe that that made him weak. Kayar saw the outline of an armband on the other student's arm. He'd seen enough of those the other day to know what it meant, his opponent was in Genaht.
Great, a geek pretending to be goth...

Kayar doubted Artemis' geekiness meant anything, except for the fact that it could mean the other student was clever. Or at least he seemed to consider himself so, strutting about, without warming up even, as if he owned the place. If Kayar beat him, would that mean anything for the battle between Revelation and Genaht? If he lost would it mean anything? Kayar had no idea.

Whatever the situation between the two gangs was, he decided it was high time he headed over. He stood up from his sitting stretches, did a few standing quads, and strode to meet his opponent.

"Artemis? I'm Kayar. Are we going to get this over with or what?"

[artemis]

Artemis walked around for a few more minutes loosing himself in the moment. It was still really strange to be around large groups of people, especially these people. The environment was full of a mixture of hardcore students from Hircine and the local lowlifes. The environment reminded Artemis of a circus with the boxing rings in the center while people milled about waiting for the attraction . He didn’t like the idea of being that attraction to these sorts of people. If it was a circus it was the most deranged circus Artemis had ever seen. Cotton candy was replaced by alcohol, and popcorn replaced by what Artemis hoped to be cigarettes, but somehow he was doubtful. Instead of happy little kids running around there were angry lowlifes and junkies looking for quick cash.

Artemis found the whole scene distasteful, but he supposed it was all for the greater good. This is where you gain your reputation, this is where you gained your respect. He found this slightly ironic as he looked at the crowd around him, they haven’t had any respect in a long time.

As Artemis looked around absorbing all the information he could about the environment he heard a voice call out some twenty feet behind him.

“Artemis?”
Artemis turned around at the mention of his name to face its origin.

“I'm Kayar. Are we going to get this over with or what?"

His tone was a little annoying and blunt, but Artemis was growing use to this. Most of the people at Hircine and certainly all the people here seemed to take that tone of disrespect all the time.

Artemis started walking toward Kayar sizing him up as he went. He didn’t want to miss even the minutest detail about his opponent.

“I guess we should get going.”
Artemis said as he started toward the ring letting his opponent go in front of him as he continued to analyze.

They now squared off in the center of the ring facing each other. Artemis starred directly into his opponent’s eyes with his intensely cold and piercing stare that he normally wore when looking at someone.

He then took the sleeves of his white dress shirt he was wearing and ripped them off in a fluid motion. The left first and then the right, both coming off with a short tearing sound. He now stood with his arms exposed revealing The Mark Of The Mind the known symbol for Genaht. He made sure to be facing so that the majority of the audience could see this.

The crowd reacted with a very slight stir, which was all Artemis needed. The match would speak for itself.

[Kayar]

Kayar, following suit, unzipped his sweatshirt, pulled it off, and cast it aside. The Genaht armband, now visible, had proved his suspicions correct. As the situation was, there was no need for him to hide the necklace he had worn beneath his sweatshirt, the symbol of Revelation. Anyone in the crowd who hadn't gasped already did so now. Yes, it was gang member against gang member. He was now fighting for the honor of his gang as well as to win.

He watched Artemis', waiting to see if he'd move. The look his opponent was giving him showed Kayar all he needed to see to know tha the boy belonged in Genaht. It was a cold look. It was also a studious look. Kayar thus far had been letting his adversary lead him, and this was the same. He also sized Artemis up, looking for weakness. Artemis didn't seem like he'd make the first move, which put Kayar at a disadvantage. He who attacks first is more likely to have that first move stopped. However, his only option, if he wanted the fight to get going, was to make that first move. He'd have to make it as unreadable as possible.

He decided for a quick and sure kick with his left foot. Or, that's what he hoped it would look like. He would go in forward, staying a bit low to move quickly with as less chance as possible that Artemis might anticipate what he'd do. Once at a good range, he would come up a bit and spin his body around to the right to prepare his left leg for a kick, and raise it. But by raising it all he would do is let its momentum bring him further a bit more, while looking like a kick. He'd use the leftover momentum to spin left, putting his left foot back down even as he brought up his right to kick out at Artemis' gut. Assuming the kick connected, he'd pull his leg back and step back, then turning back to the right as he did to once more bring his left leg back up to kick again.

With any luck the irregularity of these moves might set Artemis off-balance. Kayar wondered if, when studying him, Artemis had figured out that he mostly used his legs. But Kayar would only worry about that when it really mattered. At the moment all that mattered was getting at least one good kick in.

[artemis]

To Artemis, this entire tournament was simply like playing chess. Each fight was a different game, and it was important to be able to predict and adapt to your opponent’s moves. That was all fighting was to Artemis predicting and adapting. His mind allowed him ultimate versatility and pinpoint accuracy, it was only a mater of picking the right approaches that would finish the fight most efficiently before his mind gave out on him.

Physical damage never really bothered Artemis, a mastered mind had power over pain, the body was simply a tool to get things done. What Artemis had to worry about was overexerting himself because once he did the fight would be over, he’d most likely faint on the spot.

As a result fights were all a matter of prioritizing and picking the best approaches while exerting minimal effort. This was especially true for this fight. This was the first match of the tournament against a relatively inexperienced fighter. Finishing this fight quickly and efficiently was imperative here. Not only was it incredibly important to save his energy for the upcoming rounds, but it was also very important to make a good debut , so that his little stunt wouldn’t go to waste, and everything could continue as planned.

If Artemis could help it he wasn’t going to fight over his body’s normal limits. His opponent didn’t seem like an incredibly tough fighter, and his weight and strength almost matched Artemis’s own. If he could manage to finish this fight without relying on his mind to enhance him, he could stay in top shape for the next match.

All this was just a chess match, and this was the opening move. Artemis had went through the match many times over in his head on the way to the ring. He tried to calculate the quickest way to finish his opponent given the limited data he had on him.

Kayar’s first move had been one he was expecting. It was fairly straight forward and linear the first kick meant to disguise the second, but it was clear that the first kick was out of the range of Artemis’s body. Artemis simply moved his torso back less then a sixteenth of an inch and prepared himself for the inevitable follow up. The next kick came aimed for Artemis’s stomach, but he was already in position for it. Artemis caught it in his hands at his midsection keeping his hands close to his body to strengthen his center of balance as the impact hit him. The momentum from the kick sent his right foot back a couple of centimeters as his body swayed absorbing the majority of it.

Artemis grabbed Kayer’s foot with his right hand on the leg right above his ankle and his left gripping on to the bottom of his foot. Artemis used the remaining momentum in his favor , he twisted his body around and threw Kayer behind him with this motion, which hopefully should land him roughly six feet away from him.

As Artemis did this he also twisted the ankle of Kayar’s foot attempting to rotate it some 180 degrees, this should make the ankle a bit sore and difficult to rely on if pulled off correctly. If all went well he would be turned to face his opponent much like there original position before Kayar attacked.

This was a chess game, and this was the opening move. They were simply moving pawns.

[Kayar]

When his second kick was stopped, Kayar didn't get a chance to make it right. It was surprising that anyone would be able to catch one of his kicks, but then again, he hadn't been in enough fights yet to know how easy or hard a feat it was. His akle made an ominous cracking sound as it was twisted, and then he was standing again facing his opponent, as if nothing had happened yet.
But... damn... hell, of course something happened or your ankle wouldn't be aching right now!

His opponent was waiting again. Waiting just as he had at the start. This time Kayar wouldn't make the same mistake again of going in right away. He gave his ankle a quick shake, to keep the blood circulating, though even that movement hurt. But he'd live. Track would be a pain the next day, but that was the least of his problems right now. He began circling around Artemis. Obviously making the first move, as Kayar had expected, cost him. He usually never made the first move, unless it was in his favor. And at the time it certainly seemed as though it was.

He restricted his movement. That catch could be barely called movement, he just put his hands down. If he doesn't want to move, what happens when I make him move?

So that's what Kayar did. He waited. He'd see what would happen when Artemis was forced to make the move. After all, he had all the time in the world to wait and watch.

[artemis]

Artemis watched his opponent as he circled around him noting the slight limp he now had. This was good Artemis had created a weakness that could turn into a opening it just had to be exploited the right way.

Now his opponent couldn’t depend on his right foot any longer, that meant if it was isolated it would most likely cause him to be unbalanced and unfocused due to pain. If Kayar was smart he was now leading with his left foot opposed to his right as he circled to cover up the glaring weakness. This may lead to another advantage because his opponent was right handed, that meant that he now had to lead with the left side of the body. Whether he was ambidextrous, or not Artemis couldn’t tell, but this situation didn’t hurt matters.

As Artemis had expected his opponent had backed off. Only a fool would continue to attack head on, especially now that he had a injury to contend with. As the saying goes fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

Artemis was ready for the next move he was going to remove another one of Kayar’s white chess pieces from the board in his mind.

Artemis surged forward toward his opponent who was circling around him. He moved with a surprising amount of speed for his size, but he made sure not too push himself to far out of the bodies natural limits. He would need all his stamina for later.

He went for a kick to Kayer’s right kneecap. The bottom half of Artemis’s foot should hit the right side of Kayar’s right kneecap. Again Artemis pushed himself slightly beyond his bodies normal limits to ensure that the attack was strong enough. Once the kick connected it should knock his knee cap out of place causing it to break off and move to the right before returning severely sore to its original position. There was a chance that it could break entirely and leave the leg useless, but ethier way it would be difficult to use.

At the same time that Artemis kicked Kayer’s kneecap he would use his right hand to attack ethier of the two pressure points on his left arm. He would strike with two fingers and go for whichever one was more open depending on how Kayar moved his arm. Once hit the arm would most likely be numb and there was a possibility of a pain reflex that would not be pleasant.

This would eliminate Kayar’s left arm from being able to counter him and leave only his right, which would have to travel across the body to block or counter. Artemis kept his left hand free in order to block anything that could possibly attack his left side. If Kayar did attack his right side of Artemis’s body with his right arm , he should have enough time to prepare.

Artemis attacked using his right arm and leg respectively using his left arm and leg in case he were to be attacked.

OOC: k a few notes here I knew that he was right handed because I Imed and asked him. I used this picture www.armystudyguide.com/content/moxiepix/b1_611.gif for the pressure points I am going after the two ones involving the arm. If I have the affect of this wrong feel free to correct me I have little experience with pressure points and so it wouldn’t surprise me if those specific points don’t solicit the desired reaction. Also I am bad with left and right so if I got them switched one time on accident let me know.

Also at any time feel free to complain about whatever move you don’t think was realistic or fair. PM me and I will be sure to change it. The way Artemis is designed he can be easily abused, and I don’t intend to do this if I do let me know. For anything where he goes beyond his bodies natural limit he losses points. I use a number system to keep myself honest. So far he has used 2 one for speed and one for strength on the kneecap. Since its only slightly over it only takes 1 point. Typically Artemis has a stamina of about 12-16 per match, in special circumstances like special motivation or championships I might let it rise to 18 I explained this in my bio if you want to look at it. Once he is out of stamina he is done in one way or another.

[Kayar]

The battle wasn't going so well, and Kayar needed a better strategy. He considered his opponent's weaknesses, the ones he'd picked out. There was only one thing he could think of that would shake the other boy enough to utilize these weaknesses in a useful way.

As Artemis moved forward, Kayar moved back. He would now be in a corner of the ring, right in front of the ring's boundary. That suited Kayar fine. The kick came, but that didn't worry Kayar. All that mattered was he'd gotten Artemis to move. He dived backwards into the flexible boxing ring ropes behind him, and used them to push himself forward, straight at Artemis. Yes, soon Artemis would have to move a lot more than he wanted to. The kick nicked his shin and glanced off, and Kayar met Artemis' full body, blocking the punch that came as best as he could, and using his full body weight to break through as well as to tackle Artemis to the ground. This was a risky attack, Kayar was not normally a grappler, but he had no choice under the circumstances, and it was the best idea that had come to him yet. His ankle would give him a jolt of pain as it hit the floor, but he'd ignore that and concentrate on subduing his adversary by pinning his arms and legs. If he got the chance he would give Artemis a nice head-butt, but it was doubtful that he'd get that far.

We'll see...

Ooc: Yes, we shall see. Give this one your best shot, Arty, I gave it mine.

[artemis]

Artemis followed Kayar to the edge of the ring, it didn’t matter much where he was in the ring when he attacked him. His attack was marginally successful, which meant that Kayar was now left with only one undamaged limb, the rest of them would be easy to exploit now. Checkmate was inevitable now, he was sure Kayar could see it, the fight was over.

Artemis knew when Kayar put his back against the ropes and started pushing back for leverage, that a tackle was inevitable. Right has the ropes were pulled back for to their maximum taunt Artemis steeled himself preparing for impact.

The attack hit him and he went down with Kayar on top of him. The weight difference wasn’t significant enough to even attempt to stay standing, so Artemis opted to fall as safely and gracefully as possible.

The second his torso was pushed back he lifted his legs out from under him, letting them come out a little sooner then they should have. Has they fell Artemis shifted his legs so that they would be bent below him facing outward. When they finally hit the ground Artemis had the majority of Kayar’s weight and body positioned on top of his feet. It was simple from there, Artemis simply used his legs to push Kayar off his he again pushed his body beyond its limits this time to compensate for the nearly identical weight, and the distance he wanted him to travel. If all went well Kayar would be some three feet above Artemis’s head when he landed.

This had done perdiction and now was on adaptation. He adapted to the unforeseen move flawlessly without missing a beat.

After that Artemis would get up brush the dust off the back of his head and push his glasses up the bridge of his nose facing his fallen opponent.

Regardless of the outcome , the end result was inevitable. Now that Kayar had three damaged limbs Checkmate wasn't far behind.

If it went right Artemis would be facing his opponent pondering this fact. Regardless of what happened in the next few moves Artemis had already won.

OOC: the leg strength cost two putting him at 4 points

[Kayar]

Ooc: Apparently Artemis has become superhuman. I ask anyone reading this, have you ever thrown 150 pounds off your legs, using your legs alone, basing your success off of adrenaline and a strange ignorance of pain? No? Then you obviously aren't Super Arty. He's smart enough to stop a speeding kick, he can break your kneecap with a single kick to the shin, he can throw buildings with his feet! He's Super Arty! *cue corny superhero theme*
...All crappy superhero shenanigans aside, I'm not posting until I get confirmation. Does any of this work within the boundaries of 1. Human logic? and/or 2. Physics? Should I pull a "Super Kayar"?

[Kyukaku]

I've reviewed this and there's a few things to point out.

1. Kayar, your legs can easily move 150 pounds, unless you're a stick. I don't know what you're thinking.

2. Again to Kayar, when you want to point something out, you can merely post an OOC or PM me asking me to review it. Being a smartass just makes you look like that, an ass.

3. Artemis, your pushing past the limits thing is kind of confusing me. You seem well in the range of doing what the body normally can, so I find it unneccessary. You might want to drop it so you don't make it sound like you're doing something super, when you aren't.

My decision is that Artemis move went through. Kayar, you can pick up from there and try something else if you plan to continue.

[Kayar]

Ooc: Eh... alright... I suppose this just seems like a really crappy way to go down, far too fast and with a bit of pride killed in the process. Whatever. I knew I was going to lose. Just didn't know it would be like that. Good fight Artemis, I guess...

Kayar landed on his back. Another burst of pain shot through his twisted ankle. He couldn't keep going at this point, and looking up at Artemis, he knew that they both knew it. He got up slowly, and raised his hands.

"I forfeit. An opponent I can't get a single hit on is an opponent I shouldn't bother trying to beat. Good fight."

That being said, he gave Artemis a nod, turned, and stepped off the platform out of the ring, picking up his sweatshirt as he went. He didn't look back to see what the crowd's reaction was, or even his opponent's reaction. He needed his body intact for the coming days. Leaving this fight was just a way to prevent the same thing happening in future fights.

[kai]

OOC: Well, I guess I should make it official. Artemis advances to the next roun by TKO.

[artemis]

Artemis stood there watching his opponent limp out of the ring. He had done exactly what he intended to do, by winning the match easily he had caused the entire audience to pay attention to him. His stunt had worked and both he and Genaht would be far more revered then they had before. Regardless of how well he did in the coming rounds he had already achieved his purpose. Winning a fight without having been hit a single time was a massive accomplishment in Hircine, and Artemis assumed it was something that no one would soon forget.

Artemis watched the Back of Kayar’s head as he walked through the crowd, who were still roaring there approval over the win, but Artemis wasn’t listening to them. After, Kayar’s head disappeared into the crowd Artemis slowly walked out of the ring.

People moved out of his way as he worked his way into the corner of the arena. He sat down on a bench against the wall and took a sip of water from the bottle sitting next to him. He then opened a small bag he had brought with him and pulled out a scratched and dented ipod. He put the ear buds in and flipped it on immediately becoming immersed in the symphony of sound that was Beethoven.

He had proven his worth as a legitimate fighter and as he sat there listening to his ipod and drowning out the environment around him, he arrogantly wondered what the odds at the betting windows were now.

OOC: It was a good fight sorry if I upset you, you just need practice, you’ll get there someday.