Kael vs Asherah

"Ichi, Ni, San, Chi."

-thudd-thudd, thudd-thudd-

It was a floor covered in those straw mats that were excellent for grip, meant for bare feet, pounded on by the thick rubber of the heel of a heavy boot.

-thudd-thudd, thudd-thudd-

Heavy leather boots, armor plates attached, that looked built for the sorts of hell they had battle scarring to brag of having seen. Tough, formidable, and curtly, brutally professional. Further up his leg- jeans.

Kael's boots and gloves were of a pair, all business and fright and fight, thick leather and steel plates, but the rest of him seemed as distinctly out of place next to them as any given part of him did in the Tae Kwon Dojo with mariachi music in the background. All around, everything was pristine and clean and kept to it's strict Eastern esthetic decor. The mats, the simple decorations, the sliding wooden doors and walls that would could probably put a hand through easily. It was not a place of comforts, nor was it harsh or stark. And looking across that room there stood that one wall where, opposed to all the rest, there lay a single space in which an aura of respect hung, where one could almost envision the ancient master sitting pristinely before his honored pupils.

And in that space, one heavy boot lifted, and then knocked the floor, and repeated.

Kael was in no suitable clothing, but jeans and a loose jacket that would have trailed past his waist, in a simple browned color. His chest underneath, was bare, offering a glimpse of scars, a line running up his belly, and ragged once-rips on an exposed bit of pec. His face might have offered a few more tales of battle, but it was hidden under the brim of a western style hat that looked to have taken it's abuse a bit less well than his armor or his body. Eyes shut, he just tapped his foot to a tune run into his ears through thin white wires running into a pocket of that jacket. His weapons and a few completely out of place odds and ends lay scattered on the ground around him, but not as if placed for reach, but just dropped. It was to the point where he had propped the back of his head on interlocked hands overtop of a heavily stuffed duffelbag, used as a pillow, and leaned that lightly against one of the paper-thin walls to rest. If but for the tapping foot, he seemed to sleep.

And under the brim of his hat there was a very small, shadowed sliver of a wide, lazy grin.

The stage was set.

And the warrior was napping.

Why, hello.

-thudd-thudd, thudd-thudd-

Someone else had shown up. Kael could hear a voice, if not words, through his headphones. Still, he had music in his ears, and he could let them have a bit of time to settle in, get comfy like he clearly had. He didn't feel like getting up quite yet. Still, he'd been expecting her to stop across the room somewhere, but instead this particular gal marched right on up, across the room toward him.

-thudd-thudd, thudd-thudd-

The foot kept tapping, waiting up. She stopped right over him, and he could practically feel whoever getting closer...

The rim of his hat lifted and one crimson eye popped open to meet the sudden window into the room.

Quote: "Hehee!! Kael!! Kael!!"

HUUUUGGGG~~

"Hu-gk!?"

His hands came out as she latched around his middle, and in a second he'd gone from napping to panicked, comical flailing, blue hair all in his face and tanned woman squeeling and looking to collapse his ribs. Surprise glomp attack, a grappling technique that gave the female the natural advantage. For a quarter of a second his mind asked if Owle hadn't just found him, but there were a few give aways that it just wasn't so. She there were no wings or scales, the voice wasn't quite right, she was too big, and too.... ample. Judging by the squeezing going on, anyway.

"H-hey, you-"

An earbud popped out, mostly just by coincidence due the hugging, as he realized he did actually recognize who this was. That girl who'd kinda... come up on him with too much caffeine before the finals of the year before. Wasn't her name...

"Ashe?"

He planted a palm on top of her head and pushed back, trying to get a bit of breathing room to at least have a look at a face.

"Uh... well. H'lo, right back at'cha...?"

[1/10]

"Uh-huh? Alright-ay, well..."

He trailed off and caught his eyebrow before it drifted too far up his forehead, watching her prance and dance and declare the competition. Made sense at least. A little overwhelmed by the sheer energy and enthusiasm, he was left grounded well into her own preparations, sprawled out and staring. Eventually he got ahold of himself.

"....eh."

As he stood and stretched, he took a moment to reflect, somewhat bitterly, over this turn of events. He was fighting a woman. He'd fought a woman in the preliminaries the year prior, and again later that tournament. He'd fought one in the first round of the year before that, and in eliminations. He really seemed to end up fighting women an awful lot, especially... considering he generally just felt sorta weird about hurting them. He'd do what he had to though, like he had before.

Deep breath in. And exhale.

"Alright, I'm set whene- -!!"

His eyes snapped up and around, keeping on the whip as it snapped into the air.

Flexible weapon. How the hell do I tell where it'll-

"-nggh."

Kael winced in pain as the sharp bite of the whip surrounded his leg, stifled but hardly stopped by the thick jeans. Eyes dropped to his leg and snapped back up, his mind hitting the gas hard before he lost too much ground.

That makes it easy.

The whip tugged on his leg, hard, tightening with the tug, pressure on his hamstring making it hard to resist. His body started forward with the tug, right leg pulling out in front and his weight coming forward. Only it continued, like a long step, heel planting and rolling to the toe, pushing him forward into a dash, trying to get in faster than she could roll the whip to keep pulling. The left hit the ground, speed building, distance disappearing.

A lot of word for two fast steps. The left pushed him forward again, right planting near her perfectly normally for the dash he'd been starting into, only his hips, his shoulders, turned further than they should have been for the motion.

A blur from her left side.

Sharpened fighting instinct had picked up the slack for him, and that initial response was all he was going on. The double fulcrum, running speed, Kael was as ever clever but a touch clumsy in execution, using it all to produce a hook at blinding speed aimed for Asherah's ear. Without solid footing or giving a straight on blow carrying his momentum, it wouldn't display the level of stunning power he was capable of, but he was still a 190lb man, and he was still wearing gauntlets with plated knuckles.

Headblows were known to numb people up a little, and strikes to the ear were really best for smashing the sensitive nerves there or just throwing equilibrium, but that was okay. He didn't want to hurt her. He just wanted to put her on her back.

No, not like that.

[2/10]

He twitched, starting to follow as she moved back but when she just continued to stumble right into the shrine...

Couldn't go and start wailing on a girl while she was down. The first thing to run through Kael's mind, though he distracted himself from that with something a bit more practical. Kael took a knee raising his right arm by his head for emergency defense in case she sprung up and started throwing kicks or punches. With his left, he just pulled at the whip around his leg, undoing it and letting it drop to the ground.

Motion.

His eyes flicked up at it, the frame being hurled, and he raised his arm further in defense, turning his head down and away. As long as something like that wasn't catching him in the face or smashing square over his head-

-kreeeesh-

Pinprick bites, like a thousand needles driven into his skin, and a low sound of pain. The shattered glass had rained over him in an instant, out of nowhere. He hadn't moved an inch, and but for some shards of glass laying on them his hat and coat looked as though it might never of happened. The signs were elsewhere though. Though he'd had the coat and hat, and raised arm, to take much of the rain of needles, lower bits of Kael's right cheek and chin were cut apart, and little pinpricks or cuts decorated parts of his exposed chest. In places, one or two dark red spots could even be seen forming in his jeans where larger shards had cut in. Just as suddenly as the sharp pain had hit him though, it wore away, and left him with only a ghost of the sensation, that sharp tingle in most of the wounds, all but the few with glass stuck inside. Hurt like hell, but he could function.

A moment later, the wave of adrenaline produced by his body in response hit him.

"...ow."

Right hand took a hold of the bill of the hat and lifted it gently off his head. The left clenched tight.

Face hung slightly, blood trailing in small tails down it and his torso, Kael stood slowly a moment behind Asherah, straightening out in patient motion, even though his heart had started hammering and his instinct demanding blood, and end to the threat. With a flick of the wrist, he tossed his hat up into the air.

Practical stillness, silence as the ragged western style hat flipped about in the air, up and forward, and fell just as slowly, turning this way and that in the air. Kael's eyes rose and met Asherah's, if she was looking, sharp and steeled now that the fight had really begun, mouth hardset. A shadow would fall over her vision, and as the hat tumbled down just in front of her face she'd catch a moment's glimpse of the right, bloodied, corner of his mouth tugging upward before it was blocked out.

-whiiishk-

Sound of sharp motion, and, viewed in the mock slow motion of the heightened state of senses, the indented top of the hat seemed to bulge for a moment, just before it jumped forward and struck her in the face with stunning force.

The hat began to fall again as his right fist retracted from inside of it, right leg extended further forward to add a lunging quality and force to his front-side straight. Rotation again, shifting on the balls of his feet, entire body working like a machine as the right shoulder pulled back, throwing his left all the way around and forward, curling upward from his waist and striking up and into her solo plexus, aimed to pressure the diaphragm and force the air out of her body, the two of the one-two.

[3/10]

0__0 !

From one second working to set up for a string of punches to end the thing, to retreating the next. Kael jerked back and slid his feet away, eyes wide and caught entirely off guard. His mouth worked silently for a moment as he lifted a foot to try and shake the puke off it.

"-are- are you okay? Do you need to sit down or sum-"

And then vomit girl was kamikaze charging him.

"WOAH! HEY!"

His foot already in the air he put it back and stumbled away, finally setting his feet just in time to take the shoulder hard in the chest.

"--huunnnngh!"

Braced feet slid slightly on the flooring, but kept him upright as his hands shot out, his right grabbing into the armpit of her left arm, and his left went for a grip on her front-

-!?

The automatic reaction to the hit had him reaching for a shirt to grab a hold of, but there wasn't one. His hand had shot down skin further seeking a grip, finally catching one of the belts securing her corset. Something was amiss though. There was something soft pressing on either side of his arm.

Ohshit.

Where he'd meant to haul her up into the air and slam her he instead made a panicked flailing reaction to get his hand outa the cooking jar stat, turning at his waist and just flinging her out behind him, the direction she'd been charging before his chest had caught most of her momentum, taking her weight in that direction to just spin and throw Asherah across the floor, and possibly some of the shattered glass.

Following up on it, he turned wide eyed and absolutely dumbstruck looking, giving a glance at his arm, held numbly out in front of him as if it had suddenly become some sort of bizarre or holy object. Nevermind that with the armor grade leather and steel plates on the back of his arm he hadn't felt all that much. He snapped out of it quickly and glanced back up, red eyes still bugged out.

"H-hey, sorr- I mea- ah, ********;

He spread his legs and lifted his hands, taking up something that looked like an actual fighting stance.

[4/10]

Kael watched her adjusting herself, now with a slight touch of bounce that he was making every effort not to observe, for both reasons related to combat and ones unrelated. He looked a bit ill at ease, but settled into a position to defend himself anyway.

Quote: "PERVERT!"

...and then he just looked indignant.

This time he had a little better idea the whip was coming, and when it swung high he pulled his hands up to cover his face, and started to move forward. Only, somehow, instead of just cracking against him it wrapped again, this time around both his forearms and his head, binding up a bit looser thanks to the space between the limbs and his head, a trick he always thought only worked in Indiana Jones. Still the slap to the back of the head stung like hell- he thought he could feel blood, but wasn't certain- and was disorienting. The advanced stopped while he squirmed to get out of the binding even as she tugged, stumbling forward while he pulled his arms up to drag the whip off of his head, only to have it tighten on his wrists rather than yank his head around.

"-ah, sh-HUMMMPPH!"

He landed on his back, saved another disorienting hit to the back of the head by the padded floors, but he had Asherah all laying over him, his hands tied up above his head...

...that just looked really bad.

It looked even worse when his hips pressed up, but that was her fault for getting his hands all yanked together above his head and giving him ideas. With the lift of his hips he was able to put his abs into one big motion as he brought his arms from all the way extended up, hands wrapped together into one big leather-and-steel covered fist, and slam it onto the top of her head like he was spiking a volleyball.

While laying on his back, granted, but all the same.

[5/10]

Kael went to raise his hands for another go, only to see his opponent reeling.

Is she done...?

"Tch-"

His hands were pulled tighter together and his brow fell, attempting to jerk them, having advantage of both arms, over his face to protect himself, finding the whole situation entirely too awkward as he had to deal with her weight and the tugging and his wrists refusing to part all restricting him. There were somethings that were nice about being on the bottom, but this was not one of them.

-WHCK-

He tightened reflexively even though the blow missed him, slamming into the floor beside his head.

Huh? Really?

-WHCK-

Another punch, missed again. He set his jaw, moving his hands to the side to attempt to do something beyond sitting and defending himself. At exactly the wrong moment. His muscles tightened again, bracing as he saw the flash of fist falling, right before the dusters cracked hard against his cheekbone.

Sharp pain exploded through his face, and unfortunate side effect of having his head grounded, the hit felt like he'd been clobbered all over, slightly numbed and stunned by the blow. The sharper pain from having the metal slam into his bone wasn't too nice either, leaving a small gash in the skin, but he almost didn't notice, turtling his arms over his face again, until she had already fallen off to one side.

"-hhng?"

An opportunity. With his hands still tied, and slightly restrained, he didn't have freedom to use them to just pop himself up and over her, so he rolled onto his side, wanting to get up and over as quickly as he possibly could. Only to find, as he rolled onto the side of his leg, that not all of the glass had come out. Kael stopped dead in his tracks, grinding his teeth as he felt the glass get pushed further in.

The adrenaline hit him again, but he was on pause, and for a moment his eyes wandered up over her as his mind turned back on before his body got to motion. Starting to rise, still holding his hands, but putting herself back upright, open...

Right.

The swordsman spat blood that'd collected around his lips from the previous injuries, and set his bound forearms to the floor, putting his weight on them and his knee of the floor-side leg, supporting and lifting himself just slightly while his other knee came into the air.

And with a sharp sound of cutting the air a steel-plated shin slammed into the back of Asherah's head at the end of a wide kick. Grinding his teeth more as he moved with his thigh against the ground, grinding a bit of glass in more, Kael adjusted his weight to go for another- pulling his leg back the way it had come, to slam his plated heel into her face and bring it down to the ground and lock and hold it there between his ankles.

[6/10]

Feeling the satisfying contact of skull against his armored leg, he went for the retract sweep, but with her down on the ground there was no hop of getting any real force into that. Instead, he just retracted the way the kick had come, returning his balance-

"-!!"

She was diving after his leg with the blade he was already pulling it back, there wasn't much else for him to do- no reaction, no saving throw. The sai came down, clipping off the edge of the armor greaving on his boot and down to the leather covered back. Cutting off his leg's retreat and carving a furrow down the back of his calf.

"

His eyes shut tight and his teeth went into his lower lip against the pain, body seizing up and retracting the leg straight to his body even as she pulled the blade away, and using his other limbs Kael clumsily rolled away and in a turn, back around to face her again.

One hand moved toward the belt at his waist, and the knife hanging there, but looking at her... a woman... even if...

His returned to the floor, and he pressed himself to his feet, relying heavily on his left, uninjured leg. He watched her pulling herself up as well, out of reach, and still armed. He attempted a step and flinched, catching himself and returning weight to his left leg before he fell over on his right. It was working for balance, but wasn't going to bear his full weight. That made things difficult. She was vulnerable, but how was he going to...

'I heard the devil whisper in my ear'

'He made his message clear when he said'

'"Sweep the leg, Johnny"'

He started to get an inspiration. One copy righted to both music and film industry. Karate Kid.

'But I caught a Crane Kick to the face'

'I guess he sealed my fate-'

It was an excellent idea.

If only Kael really thought he could throw anything closer to a crane kick than a full on drop kick without falling on his a**. Sad face.

Still. He had one working leg.

Kael skipped.

That's right, he skipped. Like a little girl out picking flowers and putting them in a basket, prancing about and so on and so forth. Only as his left leg hit the ground again, the right behind it for minor support, he leaned into it, and launched himself, single legged, into a full forward tackle, using his weight- specifically upper body weight- to his advantage.

His gauntleted hand shot out at the wrist to stop her just skewering him as he went, before his weight would slam into her, shoulder into her chest. The idea was just that he could slam her into the wall and come out better for it, figuring he had to be near or over half again her weight.

Of course, Kael hadn't been counting on the fact that the dojo was an eastern style building, that it was just built differently from western style buildings. That they had those paper windows and doors, and little tiny, thin wooden walls.

Little thin wooden walls.

Not being a HUEG GAI it was probably one of the few times Kael would get to tackle someone clean through a wall.

With a loud crack and splinters everywhere, the section of the dojo wall went down, spilling them over onto the floor of the hall outside the main room, feet still sitting within the room. The unexpected crash and fall left stunned for a moment, as his senses rapidly returned.

He lay atop her, bodies splayed across the floor, legs in a tangle as the weight of his body pressed down upon hers, hand pinning her sword-holding hand to the floor, sweat slicked chest through the open jacket pressed down on the corset and exposed skin, leaving little droplets of blood from each wound along his chest and legs, bloodied face frozen. Frozen, hanging inches above hers, cuts and nicks atop his collection of scars, red eyes frozen onto the woman's as his blood covered lips hung inches from hers. His chest drew in a breath, and stopped, hanging onto that breath. Somewhere in his numbstruck mind, a single thought, and just one, formed, with clarity.

-CRACK!-

HEADBUTT.

Slow breaths, ragged, catching up the oxygen in his lungs and calming himself slowly as he sat up, forcing himself onto his knees. He stared down, hands clenched in fists as soon as he'd dragged the blade out of her hand. Waiting for her to shout "surprise!" and throw a fireball in his face so he could continue and then be done with it. She didn't move for a moment. And then a moment more. He started to come to full recovery, and his brain caught up.

"...asshat?"

He squinted at her and raised an eyebrow. Still no moving.

"Asshat? Really?"

He sounded like he wasn't sure if to be offended or taken aback or what. Slowly, he extended one finger, and poked her lightly in the cheek a couple of times.

Nothing.

"...I just beat up a girl."

He started to get up, stopped, wincing at a sharp objection from his right leg, and instead just rolled off to on side, sitting up against the wall. He stared uncertainly for a moment, and then put a hand back, scratching the back of his head, only to wince at the small gash under his hair there, pulling his glove away to look at the fingers with a bit more blood on them than before. With a sigh, he resigned himself to trying to rub the painful indent out of his forehead, making a sour face and restraining bitter chuckles while the clean up crews moved in around them.

"Huh.

"I am an asshat."

"Arriba!"