The amount that the fight's pace had quickened astonished the onlookers. Deverz had enough power and swiftness that he managed to quickly take out Hwo and Pride, causing them both some pretty significant lost ground. But
almost immediately, both were back on their feet and charging, auras flaring
wildly. Hwo dove forward with a signature stiff martial arts jump kick;
Deverz ducked and landed a back kick of his own, sending Hwo down. Pride
dove into the fray a moment later and began unloading on Deverz, who threw
his arms up in defensive posture. Suddenly, Pride and Deverz fell to the
floor, their legs swept out from under them by Hwo. Deverz kicked back up to
his feet, but Pride found himself face to face with Hwo's signature axe
kick, the heel of his foot bearing down on the phenom's throat at breakneck
speed.
Quickly, Pride countered, using one powerful hand to clamp Hwo's heel before
it crushed his larynx; with a thrust, he sent Hwoarang's boot up and away
from him--smashing squarely into the side of Deverz' head. He stumbled back
and responded with a flashing barrage of his own, repeatedly laying into the
Tae Kwon Do prodigy with rights, lefts, and knees.
He has no steady fighting style, Hwo noted. Difficult to counter.
Pride wasn't as concerned with the point of style, and when his big hand
clamped around Deverz' head and flung him violently up and over, it was a
technique of necessity. Ending Deverz' barrage, Pride turned to him, but
almost immediately he found a kick landing in his jaw from Hwo. With the big
man caught off guard, Hwo started flash fighting, repeatedly slamming his
limbs through the air and into Pride's ribs and head; the air thwipped as
the speeding blows cut through it viciously.
Pride caught Hwo's foot and again used his power to fling the martial arts
master away, a technique intended to buy him some breathing time. Hwo landed
in a slide and kicked back off the ground in a jumping kick right at Pride's
face. Pride ducked, and Hwo ended up hitting Deverz, who again stumbled but
did not fall. Pride swung at Hwo as he turned back around, and his huge
right hand missed the quick warrior and instead leveled Deverz as well. Hwo
countered with a spinning kick, but Pride himself ducked, and the 360-degree
swinging boot landed in the side of the dazed new entrant's head instead.
In a fit, Deverz took a swing at Hwo, who vanished with astonishing
quickness--the blow hit Pride instead, sending him railing. Not one to worry
who he was fighting, Deverz followed up on the accidental hit with a
blurring flurry of punches. Pride began to flash defend, blocking only about
80% of the hits in the end. The reason for that was because, in a blistering
flurry of speed, Hwoarang was also attacking the phenom.
The dual assault was slowly taking its toll on Pride, who was beginning to
feel the bruised and battered flesh on his torso starting to buckle. If he
didn't do something that could put both of these guys down, and fast, he was
as good as done on fatigue alone.
His aura flared, and he let out a scream that was just loud enough for the
audience to scream back with excitement. One hand caught Hwo's foot by the
ankle; the other had grasped Deverz leg in mid-kick as well.
Pride yanked them both forward, and laid in a damnably high impact double
clothesline in agonizingly slow motion. They both flipped 180 degrees as the
deep, bassy sound of the impact rumbled through the arena; in the moment
they floated upside down, Pride countered with a double back elbow to the
exposed ribs. Time sped back up around them at the impact, but they had been
entirely unprotected and were both sent helplessly flying. Hwoarang
masterfully landed in another one-knee slide, facing Pride after a quick
somersault. Deverz had been entangled in the chain ropes for the moment,
buying Pride the few precious seconds of breathing time that he needed.
"Nice...move..." Hwoarang commented, gasping for the wind that had been
knocked out of him.
"Yeah!" Deverz shouted from the chains. Slowly, he was getting free; the
fact that he was upside down was making it more time consuming.
"Nice double team," Pride shot back, smirking. His own breathing was ragged
and hard as well. The crowd was screaming in the background; Pride was
enjoying the challenge.
"Hey...what can I say?" Hwoarang said, catching his breath again.
"Opportunity knocks once." He grinned.
"I'm more worried about him," Pride said, gesturing at Deverz. "Every
fighter's got a trick to 'em. He ain't showed us any of his, yet."
Pride had noticed his powerful blows were not quite as devastating to this
new competitor. Physically, he was strong enough to go blow for blow with
Pride...but mentally, he was unpredictable. Pride knew that they could not
risk underestimating Deverz--there was certain to be more lurking beneath
their first round of combat.
Pride's ribs hurt, and his breath was burning. He leaned against the far
corner to catch his breath. He was happy, though--
--cause, if nothing else, these small fry were giving him a serious workout.
[EDIT--Sorry all about the lame margins. Was written at work, can't seem to ditch them. Won't happen again]