[Round 3] Esouna vs. Damon

Just off the coast...

The unmistakable chop-chop-chop of a helicopter approaching the battle area.

Sitting in the back, one leg dangling out of the open side of the chopper was Damon, looking as ready as ever. His silver hair was covered by the scarf wrapped around his head and, just like in his previous match, he was wearing his black armored vest and gauntlets. Because of lots of mud and dirt and no time to clean it, he'd decided to wear a pair of dark blue cargo pants and had neglected the shin-guards for this round.

All geared one as many would say.

"Uhh, I hate helicopters."

Damon began to slide out of the side of the helicopter, to the shock and horror of one of the pilots. Without so much as a wave Damon fell right from the chopper. He was gone from view for but a second, off in the distance both pilots could clearly see him flying to the island under his own psychic power. It was a nifty little trick that wasted little energy.

A quick flyby of the area showed that he would be fighting on a flat-top, rocky surface. Damon kept a calm expression despite the fact that he was very excited about being given so many potential weapons. It was so nice to have the world at your disposal. Once his survey was done he set neatly down on the ground, arms folded. Seemed that his opponent had yet to arrive. Good. He could relax a little.

Sitting down leaned up against a rock, Damon waited.

"Hm?"

Damon was roused by the helicopter as it landed, the wind from the whirling blades kicking up a lot of dust in his direction. He used his forearms to shield his face from the debris for a moment while getting to his feet. The psion knew that somewhere behind that cloud of grime was his opponent, that small little fairy.

Needless to say, he wasn't very worried about it. Having breezed through the last couple of rounds without so much as breaking a sweat, fighting an opponent possibly weaker than first two couldn't be much of a challenge. Lowering his arms from his face, Damon scanned the area.

Something in the dust caught his attention, it wasn't a rock, it was a little too big for that. Wait a second, there was something strange about this rock. Then Esouna, that little fairy thing, pierced through the debris heading straight at Damon's face like a human, well, demi-human cannon ball.

"SHIT!"

He'd dropped his guard for only a second, and that's all his eager opponent needed to have her opening.

At this point, Damon's instincts took over - his consciousness flexed it's muscle out of sheer combat memory. An unfocused, un-concentrated mass of psychic energy released directly at the incoming human-thing. The dust cloud in front of him exploded away and acted like an instant wall between him and Esouna's flying headbutt.

The problem was, Damon's unfocused psionic reaction was just that - totally unfocused - it wasn't going to be stopping anything. At best it slowed her down but for a second. Too late. TOO LATE!

WHAM!

Esouna's head impacted right into Damon's forehead, sending his head reeling back and stumbling him for a good few feet. His heel actually hit a rock and he fell to his ass. Already a bright red spot was leaking a thin trail of blood towards his nose. Score one for the fairy thing, but Damon would not be caught off guard a second time!

Gritting his teeth and shaking his head, Damon stood straight up, focusing his attention on wherever the little fairy was at the moment. If she happened to be right in front of him and still floating about, he was going to spring into action with a couple of quick jabs and a left horizontal kick. However, if Esouna had landed on her feet after he surprise attack, Damon would simply aim a rapid, horizontal right roundhouse kick for her left side.

LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!

Damon was only human, he as susceptible to being surprised every now and then. It was physically impossible to always be on guard without being utterly paranoid. Even great martial artists can leave themselves open for a second or so, just so happened that's all Esouna needed.

However.

Though it appeared that Esouna had managed to gain an edge with her surprise attack, somehow sending Damon into a furious assault of revenge, it was all cleverly planned out. Right on the spot, too. Had Esouna been flying, the jabs would have been to take her off guard while the kick made her react the way he wanted to. But because she had been on the ground, just a kick would do. And there was only one direction she could go.

Up. Just like Damon wanted. Unlike most fighters, Damon did not waste a precious second to smirk or smile or whatever, he simply played his trap card.

Kazyan Wrote:

> Damon's right kick provoked a simple instinctual reaction--fly up. So, she did, to about eye level. Her wings buzzing monotonously in the air, it occurred to the fairy, that, hey, this guy wasn't too skilled!

Esouna had not only just moved in the direction that Damon wanted, but she had also dropped her guard. The moment couldn't have been set more perfectly. A blur from the left came rocketing down towards the little Fey's head as Damon's right foot touched the ground.

SPIKE!

Just one would drive a volleyball into the ground, Damon intended to drive Esouna full force into the Earth with a hard overhead swing with his metal encased left fist. If the little fairy thought her head hurt now, she had no idea what kind of pain was in store for.

So much for the theory of Damon being weak.

The hit had been successful, but Damon wasn't celebrating it. Instead he immediately switched his attention to collecting his focus together. With a headache coming on and the blood still trickling down his face, it was going to be harder to produce his stronger level psychic attacks, so he was going to have to improvise.

That was fine, one of the methods of psychokinetic training was learning how to turn your environment into a tool of defense or offense. Keep a clear head - observe everything, for all is your weapon. Looking at Esouna's surroundings, he began to develop a plan. This was what made Damon so dangerous in a fight, his intense forethought into every single move that he made. It only helped his ability to plan that he had spent many days honing his mind against the earth itself.

Being given the time to gather his focus and psychokinetic energy together was a godsend. Now it was time to use it. Damon never broke his poker face as he wrapped a "band" of psychic energy around the ground in front and behind Esouna. A scattering of small, lose, sharp rocks. With a single thought, he put them into action!

Three rocks in front of Esouna shot upwards at her torso and thighs. They weren't moving very fast and therefore wouldn't do much damage beyond bruising and minor cuts. But for what Damon had planned, they didn't need to. He had much bigger things in mind. (epic foreshadowing)

"C'mon, small fry."

This time Damon's attempt to make Esouna fly up didn't work, the little fey just stood there and took the damage. Of course, in this particular scenario, not moving was just as bad as moving in the direction he had wanted. Without missing a beat, the moment the rocks hit the ground, Damon yanked with all the focus and energy he had built up the biggest rock he could wrap his consciousness around.

In an explosion of dirt this big green, moss covered rock, about as big as Esouna's torso, shot out of the earth behind the fey, heading straight for her lower back. She probably could have managed a dodge had she not decided to suddenly and dark forwards. In that single instant she was actually left wide open to a violent blow from behind.

If knocked down by the rocks force, inertia would cause it to fall directly on her back when she hit the ground. After all, Damon had only mustered enough mental strength to pull it forwards - he wasn't actively controlling it beyond that.

Yeah, it was a pretty underhanded move to attack his opponent from behind - but it appeased the pragmatist side of him. Not to mention he had been wanting to further experiment with using the environment to his advantage. Against an opponent like this, where he didn't have to worry about screw-ups that much, it was the perfect opportunity.

Whether or not the rock hit or missed, Damon would start making his way towards his target at a medium pace; not too fast, but not slow either. All the while he would still be shaking and pushing back the pain from the headache in order to concentrate on manipulating his psychokinetic energy. Damn! How could he have been so careless as to let that little creature get the jump on him like that?

At least the mental note had been made, he wouldn't be dropping his guard again.

Damon wasn't entirely sure what to make what had just happened. Any normal opponent would have not seen the rock shooting up from behind them, but somehow Esouna had sensed it. Had she dodged it and continued moving towards him, Damon might have had to consider a making a quick offensive blow - as it stood, that wouldn't be necessary.

She was coming to him.

Slowing his pace, he watched the fairy race towards him with the large previously thrown rock resting on her shoulders. Obviously she was using inertia to help support it's weight and maintain her speed, but due to its mass, and how Damon had released it, by the time she actually made it to him her body would either be slowed dramatically or arcing down at the ground. Either would leave her in a bad spot!

When she reached Damon, the psion did the most sensible thing he could think of; he dropped into a kneel while pushing his right hand down on the rock as Esouna tried to slam into him with it. The great loss of either speed or momentum meant that she would end up trapped under the rock and be smashed to the ground. With the way she was flying there wasn't enough time to zip out from under it, either.

Even if Esouna tried to throw it, at this close distance, it wasn't going to do very much good.

Once Damon had the little fey pinned to the ground underneath the rock, he'd punch her multiple times in the back of her head with his left fist. This wasn't very nice at all, certainly not pretty to watch and would likely end with a really pulverized fairy, but you gotta do what you gotta do. And it's not like there weren't white magics that couldn't fix her up in a jiffy. (The reason Damon didn't hold back on making really damaging attacks.)

Looking on from above at the battle were several helicopters. Their cameras zoomed in on the brutality, causing mixed reactions from the spectators watching on. Some where horrified, others cheered at getting to see some action and not powering up and/or meaningless taunting like most warriors seemed to do to show off.

Ah, good times~

It seemed that Esouna still had a lot of fighting spirit left in her, despite being smashed under a rock and having her face punched. The BATTLE CRY she let out tipped Damon off that she was about to do something - he'd seen it happen a lot before, somebody gets pissed and their power level suddenly shoots up.

He wasn't disappointed.

Like a small missile, Esouna burst up from under the rock, knocking the rock and Damon's hand away. She was definately holding back. As she darted up headfirst for his face once more, Damon turned his head to the left and tucked it down so that the crown of her skull connected just above his right eyebrow. Due to her soft skull and the small gap between them, the limited amount of gathered momentum crashing into him wasn't so damaging - not to say that it was very pleasant, either.

"Damn thing, should have--"

Right as Esouna started raining her punches down at him, Damon grabbed her left leg by the ankle with his right hand and gripped tightly. Another second and another few fairy jabs to the face and he was ready to push his way through the punches and attack!

"--brought a--"

The psion let loose with a huge left uppercut aimed at the fairies mid section. He'd been drawing that arm back since after the fairy had gotten up in his face. The force of this attack would hopefully be enough to knock the wind out of her and send her reeling back a bit. Enough for Damon to gain a little ground to act.

"FLYSWATTER!"

Keeping ahold of her leg with his hand, Damon stood up and would begin to violently spin her around in a circle like a demented game of ring-around-the-rosie. The g-force would hold her in place, hell, she probably wouldn't even be able to tilt her head up to look at him! Damon remembered what it felt like to be spun around violently.

Then, when he figured that she would be nice and disoriented, Damon would direct all the momentum of that swing down at an angle and release her leg. Essentially slinging her directly into the hard earth and pointy rocks.

Unfortunately, spinning around in a circle would leave Damon dizzy for a few seconds. He'd need a little time to recompose himself - not that Esouna would be going anywhere fast anytime soon if things all worked out like Damon wanted them too.

High above, the camera crews had captured it all. And it was a good thing two, you didn't often see moves like this used in a fighting competition. Most fights these days consisted of dodging-taunting with the occasional punch or power thrown in here an there. Good stuff.

"Hrmm."

Damon shook his head in order to get the rest of the cob-webs out and to make the world stop spinning. Yeah, he was definately not going to do something like that again. Once Damon was able to see things clearly he looked down in the direction of Esouna, and to surprisingly, there she was, laying on the ground and bleeding a lot.

This looked to be the end.

"Guess I should go ahead and end this."

With that said, the psion started walking towards the downed fairy. His right brow arched when he caught sight of her willing herself up and throwing a rock. It struck Damon softly in the shin with a light thud, nothing more, nothing less. He really didn't want to keep dealing with this, his head hurt from the first headbutt and those punches hadn't helped.

As soon as Damon got close he focused together as much psychokinetic energy as possible an "bond" it around his leg. In a single aggressive motion he soccer kicked at Esouna's side, aiming to deal a "finishing" blow by releasing the psychokinetic energy in a blast that would send her right off the edge of the plateau.

Damon wasn't much for dramatic endings and one-liners, nor brutal endings. Simple, clean and effective was the essance of his style - and it had yet to fail him.

What Esouna lacked in physical strength she more than made up for with sheer trickery and surprises. Unknown to Damon, the fairy had actually prepped a magical defense against his incoming 'end-game' attack. The psychokinetic energy still counted as a supernatural force on par with magic and could be sensed by somebody aware of supernatural powers. This meant that Esouna was fully clued in to the "magic" kick heading her direction.

Depending on what she chose or how she went about choosing which barrier to erect was up to her, but a very likely outcome was that she would erect the magic barrier instead of a physical one. Why? The psychokinetic energy bonded about his kicking leg. What this would mean was simple, Damon's soccer kick would connect, likely doing all the damages a soccer kick could do, while the blast he planned to release afterwards was thwarted entirely.

However, that was just a single possible outcome - anything could happen depending upon a single split second decision. If Esouna erected her physical barrier, the effect would be sorta like kicking a beachball. Esouna wouldn't have to worry about straining herself to fly off the ground, she'd already be shooting up into the air. But that didn't concern Damon in the least, it was still pretty close to what he wanted to happen anyways.

So many different paths fate could choose, both good and bad for him. Good thing Damon didn't believe in fate.

The cameras in the helicopters followed Esouna's every move, zooming in on the important details - like those nasty injuries of hers. At home the viewers were treated to a clock that was counting down from ten, the ring-out time. On the ground below, Damon stood, arms crossed and a stoic expression on his face.

"It's time for you to give up, before you are seriously injured."

Damon was starting to feel guilty putting the hurt on her like this, in order to at least make himself feel better he opted to give Esouna the chance to surrender. It was dishonorable in it's own way, but the fairy didn't seem to be one to follow such a thing as that. "I'd rather not hurt you any further."

People at home sat glued to their screens awaiting the fairies response.

Would this be the end of the fight? Or was the little fey dead-set on going till there was nothing left to run on?

"Fighting on will alone is no way to fight."

A stone whizzed by his right leg.

"Surrendering to a stronger warrior in a contest is no shame - it's a learning experience. Live to fight another day, when it's to your advantage and not your enemies."

During his ventures, Damon had learned that attempting to push himself on his will alone had only made the road to recovery and learning all the harder. The more one attempted to fight on their will the more damage would be done to the body in the end.

True, there were times when fighting on will was a good thing, but in a sporting competition like this one, it was rather pointless.

Another stone came flying at Damon, this one heading straight for his face. The psion immediately reached his consciousness out for it, as though he were catching it in his hand. Just inches from his face the rock stopped and floated out in front of him.

"So I'll say this one last time. Give up."

Whether or not Esouna complied, Damon did not intend to lower his focus - he instead increased it. If more stones continued to come his way, he would simply catch them in his psionic grasp. The more energy he built up around these stones, the more power he could put into them as weapons should Esouna try to launch an attack. Even barriers had their limits.

"Wise choice, little one."

The rocks dropped to the ground as Damon broke the hold he was maintaining over them, turning his back and walking away.

"That determination will take you a very long way. Stay strong, and good luck in your next fight."

Without saying goodbye or waiting for the helicopter to land, Damon took off into the afternoon sun.