OOC: If it is ok with Cucumba, I'd say that - if you want - you should rewrite your post. Its not that there is anything wrong with it, it's damn good, but I want you to fight me at your best.
So if you're feeling better and Cucumba agree's, rewrite it and we'll conclude this fight with honour.
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In the west the sun was beginning to set, its burning light turning the wasteland surrounding the school blood red. The school itself glowed in the light, every shard of glass a tiny star that glowed amongst the lengthening shadows. From Engarâs detached point of view â perched on the peak of the jungle gym â it looked almost beautiful and that was a damn-sight better than how it had looked in the time before the world had âmoved onâ.
A faint grunting caught Engarâs attention and he looked down, berating himself for his absent mindedness, at the cheering crowds and the face of Ice Man â halfway up the gym. Engarâs only advantage was time, Ice Manâs strength and agility were greater though the blow to the head had obviously slowed him down a bit. With quick wits that had been trained by previous fights, Engar looked down at the short, stout bars that joined together beneath his feet to form the gym.
His eyes closed and Engar forced his breathing to calm, forcing thoughts of the approaching warrior away. He called upon a force that he had first encountered in his fight against Cucumba, a power that forced him to get up against all odds. A power that Cucumba could wield with ease.
Ki.
Ice Man reached the apex of his climb and, ignoring Engarâs peculiar stance â on his knees, staring downwards â brought his right hand down in a chopping motion. Engar heard it and focussed.
One hand, palm open, blurred downwards and caught the left hand side of one bar which buckled and snapped, rust coming away. Then his right hand came down and grabbed the other side, pulling the bar away from the metal that held it with an eerie calm and blocking the blow with the bar held between his hands. It had all taken less than two seconds.
Ice Manâs hand hooked under the bar and flicked it up out with Engarâs grasp, his other hand hooking around only to be deflected with Engarâs right. His left, which had been drawing back as he deflected, came out over the right arm in an attempt to unbalance his opponent but Ice Man had caught the bar as it dropped and knocked Engarâs left away easily enough.
Standing, Engar nodded his head like a duellist showing admiration for his opponent, then turned and ran down the gym. His feet dropped from bar to bar then, nearly halfway down, he leapt and bent his legs in preparation for the shock of the fall. Prepared or no, it still hurt like hell to land and he succeeded in going over his ankle as a price for it. Surrounded by mocking children, Engar picked himself up off the ground and rubbed his scrapped hands together before limping off in the direction of the swings.
All too soon Ice Man was upon him, the crowds of jeering faces turning even more malevolent and for a second reflecting the shape behind Engar, he ducked just under the swing of the bar and caught it with bright red hands as it passed by, wrenching it from his grip and hurling it to the side. Then he took another step back, trying to keep his weight off his right leg.
Before his quick wits could react, Ice Man was moving. Engar leaned out of the path of one fist and nudged the other upwards out his path only to duck as Ice Man twirled on his nimble feet and swung his right arm out at head height. At this point, Ice Man temporarily off balance, Engar forced his pained knees into action and rose up with an uppercut that could have ended it if Ice Man hadn't allowed himself to fall back.
Landing on his hands and the heels of his feet, Ice Man kicked out savagely and connected with Engarâs bad ankle with sickening accuracy, sending pain coursing up through his leg and into his body. Stumbling backwards, Engar caught his right boot in a crack and went over backwards onto the hard tarmac.
He wasnât aware that Ice Man was up on his feet until he felt the warriorâs foot connect with his stomach â a wise precaution, to make sure Engar wasnât faking hurt. Then Engar saw one foot rise up above his head, dust and dirt flaking onto his cheek.
âI end this now Engar, you shall perish and I shall grow stronger through your blood!â
Once again there was that odd feeling of blurring as some subconscious part of him focussed in on his Ki, bringing it to bear for another flash of power. The foot came down with a crack â on the ground. Engar was already pushing himself onto his one good foot with cold anger in his eyes.
Ice Man's right arm swept around at a chop at Engarâs neck which was blocked almost too easily, as if he barely needed to move to stop the blow, his right hand catching his knee as Ice Man hopped forwards and brought it up, then Engarâs left hand coming down to catch the leg as it swung at Engarâs midsection. Hopping back, still on his good foot, Engar knocked Ice Manâs left hook away with his right hand, deflected Ice Manâs open palmed blow with his left and then truly concentrated once again. There was another moment of blur, like a collection of freeze-frame images of Engarâs right hand level with his face, then drawn back palm open..
"Not today," whispered Engar..
..then smacking into the centre of Ice Manâs chest that a gust of wind rippled outwards and Ice Man soared backwards through the air and landed in a skidding roll by the swings.
For a moment the crowd that surrounded him was silent.
Then the roar of approval swept outwards.
Engar seemed to glow for a second, then the energy faded and he collapsed to his knees. For those few seconds that the encounter had taken he had been burning pure, untrained Ki. As the children danced and chanted around him, Engar reflected that it had almost killed him..
âWhatâs all the celebration about?!â
It couldnât be..
But it was.
Ice Man was standing, however shakily, and slowly but surely approaching. His left arm was a mess of blood where he had landed and hanging loosely but, not stopping, he gripped it hard in his right and with a savage jerk popped it back into place. Engar forced himself back onto his feet, swaying and seeing double from the lack of energy and, as Ice Man began to run with both hands raised and fingers poised like claws, glanced to his side at the little leader of the pack.
He turned back and grinned into the face of death embodied in the leaping Ice Man.
Just one more time..
His hands blurred and for an instant the seemed to be, at one and the same time, both flat beside his hips and holding the metre stick of the pack leader. It slammed into the stunned Ice Man and Engar, too tired to do anything else, fell backwards and heaved the bending stick as hard as he could. Somehow it held and as Engar dropped to the ground, staring up into the first stars of the night, Ice Man flipped once and landed face down on the ground.
The metre stick landed by the chiefâs feet. He picked it up and twirled it once, then turned back over his shoulder at the suddenly silent crowd. He pointed at both warriors with his staff, now slightly bent.
âTheyâre gonna sleep with us tonight. Maybe not tomorrow. But tonight.â
Soon the two warriors and the children were gone, nothing left but for the broken bars and the glass twinkling up at the stars which twinkled down.