[1v1] My End of the Bargain (Yǐn Cáng & Alexander) Fin~

[ramenli]

Yǐn Cáng lashed out at the dummy, taking a bit of his frustration out on the defenseless structure. He had taken an exam for the school and missed with his Fear. It was hard for the mantodae to admit that he had failed with his own Fear when the school had been on the line. Thankfully other students had picked up the slack, and school was still in session.

He worked the dummy over, settling in to a complicated series of punches, hooks, and kicks, each move carefully chosen to strike a different point on the dummy. He may have failed, and he may have been upset, but he was not going to passively sit back and take it. He was going to improve.  

[Seussi]

Alexander peeked tentatively into the gymnasium, wondering for the umpteenth time what the jack he was doing here. He should be back in his room, comfortably reading while surrounded by his delightful pets. But no, he'd made plans to meet somebody here for training, and he was going to go through with it if it killed him (And who knew, it might)! His eyes darted around the room, taking in the equipment, then rested on the weremantis boil who appeared to be destroying a dummy.

And Alexander suddenly had a vision of the dummy being himself.

No no, don't be silly...he won't do that to you... Xander had to think to himself before very determinedly strolling shuffling into the large room. He made his way very slowly towards the other boil, each shuffle forward a bit heavier then the last, and then laughed nervously as he got near.

"Heeeeey, take it easy! I think you may have already killed it!" He grinned, though on the inside he was cringing at the thought of the workout and training to come. But it was all for the good, right? He needed this. He needed to be prepared in case those hunters ever came back.  

[ramenli]

Alexander's voice did not completely startle the weremantis, and he finished with a well-placed kick to the dummy's chin. He was breathing heavily, and was actually sweating ever so slightly, a rare occurrence for a mantodae. "You made it," it was a statement, not a question, and after he said it Yǐn Cáng felt rather...obvious.

He quickly tried to move past that, and focused the attention back on the zomboil. "While I know about the undead I know little about their physiology. Do muscles for the undead work the same as other species?" Realizing he was being possibly rude he drew his hands up in front of him to give him a feeling of security. "I am asking because I am uncertain if we would need to start with basic stretches and strength building exercises before the fighting lessons."  

[Seussi]

Alexander winced visibly as the matodae dealt his final kicking blow to the dummy, one eye shutting as he grimaced. That could potentially suck to be hit like that.

"Uhm...Yep! I'm here!" And probably late as usual! He added to himself with a false cheerfulness.

And then he blinked in surprise. Muscles? Oh right, muscles!

"Well, uhm, I do have muscles in a sense? They're kind of starting to rot though, so I'm not so sure that stretching would quite be necessary or even helpful...though my skeletal leg does tend to stiffen up quite a bit if I sit for long periods of time and I have trouble bending it afterwards, but the walk here seems to have loosened it up."

He hoped that answered the weremantis boils questions sufficiently. It was hard to explain how a zombie functioned. They were essentially just reanimated corpses (though Xander was actually "born" a zombie, unlike most others) and while their bodies and muscles were in a constant state of decomposition, they still somehow possessed an un-natural amount of strength. He didn't really understand it himself, so it was difficult to explain to somebody else.

"So, uh...where do we get started?"  

[ramenli]

((Rolling for initiative))

The anatomy sounded fairly confusing, so Yǐn Cáng focused on what he could really understand, that Alexander did not think it was wise. He was willing to trust the boil about his own body so they would just go straight to the training.

He motioned to an area a short distance from the dummy, a nice open area with mats lining the floor. "To start with I thought that we could work through some moves together, and once you know how to do them you can practice the individual moves on your own. A "crash course" if you will until we get some of the basic skills down."  

[Seussi]

Alexander nodded, and smiled, though on the inside his mind was protesting this foolish course of action with every movement he made towards the cleared, matted area.

"Ok, sounds good!" He exclaimed, but, Oh jack why am I doing thiiiiiiiis was running through his head on repeat. Couldn't they just go to the cafeteria and grab something to eat instead? That was the most workout Xander needed in his unlife.

Once in position facing Yin, he stood with arms hanging loosely at his sides and feet shoulder width apart in what he assumed would be an appropriate stance until Yin told him otherwise.  

[ramenli]

He sounds rather excited about this, the weremantis thought to himself, and smiled. Yes, fighting was exciting. If he had been musically inclined he may have been tempted to hum a few bars of something. Spars were always fun, but training a friend? Well, he assumed they were friends, so far he was the closest that he had to a friend at the school.

He faced the boil and slid into his own fighting stance, feet spread slightly farther apart, knees bent, and arms at the ready in front of his chest, though they looked innocently limp. Once settled (a matter of a few seconds) he eyed the other boil critically. "Your feet are a fairly good distance apart, but you need to bend your knees. This will help your body absorb some of the impact. You should also have one foot slightly in front of the other. His eyes swept up to his hands. "You need to bring your arms up as well. Try to keep them tucked in fairly close to your body, and keep your fists up so you can guard your face."

"You may notice that my pose is slightly different. The difference is that I am simply trying to teach you the basics, and my particular style would take much more time to teach you. For now it is for the best if we can formulate a simple method to start with. So try that out and then whenever you are ready attack me, just so that I can see where you are coming from."  

[Seussi]

Alexander nodded and bent his knee's a little, and lifted up his arms so that one was crossed in front of his stomach, and one was held up in front of him with his elbow at a 90 degree angle, what he considered to be in a good position to block blows coming towards his face and stomach.

He experiment with punching a few times, using the fist that was held closer to his stomach before taking a swing at the weremantis.

And missing completely

It was going to be a loooooong day.

Current HP: 30/30
Damage: 0  

[ramenli]

Yǐn Cáng moved back slightly to avoid the punch, though honestly he was in no danger. Without giving the boil a real chance to prepare himself he struck out, using the zomboil's obvious gaps in his defense. It was not a gentle attack, spare the rod, spoil the child.

After that he backed up a pace to get out of easy range. "You should be holding your arms up like this," he made fists and held his hands up, both elbows pointed toward the ground. "Your fists can block attacks to your head, and you can use your arm to block anything coming in from the side this way. Especially if you curl your body slightly to make a smaller target." He took a small step forward. "The way you hold your fist is good, but make sure you are hitting with the knuckles, particularly on your middle finger.

He assumed his previous position, ready for the next attack. "Now then, I believe you should try that again."

HP: 30/30
Damage: 5 (Apparently not going easy on him)  

[Seussi]

"Gaaaahhh" Alex cried out, as Yin caught him in the chest with his hit. He stumbled backwards, nearly falling on his a**. If he had usable lungs, the air might have been knocked out of them. As it was, his chest felt like it had been run over by a stampede of minipets. Yin could really pack a punch!

Ok ok, focus. Listen to what Yin is saying and try to do what he says. If you start flailing around wildly, he's probably not going to think you're taking this very seriously.

Alexander regrouped, bringing himself back into position and moving his arms to the way Yin suggested, while bending his knees again. He focused on his target, and tried again, this time feinting with one fist then swinging with the other.

Success!

Current HP: 25/30
Damage: 3  

[ramenli]

Yǐn Cáng could not avoid the hit but shifted a bit so that he took the punch on the upper part of his arm before nodded approvingly. "Very good, it seems like you already know about feints. You did very well keeping your punch straight as well."

He suddenly lunged forward and lightly slapped at the zomboil's head, nothing to cause actual damage but just to prove a point. "And make sure that you keep your guard up, you never know what your enemy is planning." He grinned, revealing his row of sharpened teeth that only made the action seem a bit more sinister. "I think you should try the punch one more time before we move on."

HP: 27/30
Damage: Nada  

[Seussi]

Ah Jack! He'd gotten so focused on hitting his target (and so excited when he had) that he'd forgotten to keep his gaurd up and watch out for a retaliation from the weremantis.

Thankfully, this time, he only received a slap on the head.

He wasted no time, however, when the other boil told him to punch one more time, driving forwards nearly the second the words were out of Yin's mouth, in an attempt to take the mantodae by surprise. It seemed that the risk was worth it as he felt his fist connect yet again.

He grinned. This was actually more fun then he had expected it to be! Well, at least, it was now that he wasn't getting physically beaten. >_>

And this time, he would attempt to block what came at him afterwards, if Yin should choose to attack him in return. Though he was very aware that the weremantis was much quicker in his strikes then Alex was, and was probably not prepared to block whatever came his way.

Current HP: 25/30
Damage: 3  

[ramenli]

Whether Yǐn Cáng was actually taken by surprise or whether he let the zomboil's attack through was debatable, but once again the punch hit him. This time however he was already in the process of moving, and as soon as the fist connected he was already reaching out, grabbing the boil's outstretched arm and quickly twisting it behind his back.

He held the wrist there, enough to be uncomfortable but nothing too stressful. Before speaking calmly into Alexander's ear. "And always expect the unexpected."

He let go and moved back a step, waiting to see what the boil would do next.

HP: 24/30
Damage: 1  

[Seussi]

Alexander grimaced as he was hastily grabbed by the arm, having it twisted behind his back in a most uncomfortable position. Too slow! He was just too slow!

He grunted as he was pushed back into his place, turning back to face Yin. He was thinking that his punches were good, so what about kicks? He'd never attempted to kick anything before, especially with how slow the reflexes were in his legs, but he thought now would be as good of time as any to give it a try.

Getting his arms into position yet again and bending his knees he shuffle/stepped forward and lashed out with a foot to try and catch Yin below the knee....

....And found himself so unbalanced that he nearly fell down, his body bending backwards and his arms flailing as he struggled to keep himself upright.

Worst. Kick. Ever.

Current HP: 24/30
Damage: Nil~  

[ramenli]

Though Alexander had been aiming for a low blow the element of surprise, seeing his pupil struggling to keep his balance was a bit too much for Yǐn Cáng. He was trying to help him learn, not destroy him after all. He moved forward quickly, grabbing the boil's arm to try to help steady him.

"Are you okay?" he questioned, concern evident. "If this is too much at once we can always take a break."

HP: 24/30
Damage: The teacher is a failure.