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Rae scowled at the octagon, not the being in it, but the ring itself.... way too much like a cage, the bird in humanoid guise had a serious dislike of cages.

At just over five feet tall, in her simple flat soled black boots, with her ragged cut red hair falling across her eyes she looked like your typical, slightly sullen, teenage girl. She was taller than her opponent, that was new for her.

In her red stockings, black knit skirt, and sleeveless black top, she was quite color coordinated... even the unruly streak of white in her bangs matched her pale skin. Just think, your bright red blood will perfectly match your hair when it is splattered all over the place! HEEHEHeheheheheheheheeheeee She rolled her eyes at that one, ghosts of the past always liked to try and goad one right before a fight.

With a sigh she stepped up to the ring, checking that her black, finger-less, gloves were sitting snug on her hands, and flexing her fingers into fists just light enough that her black talons didn't touch the leather. "Time to dance I guess."

The intimidation tactics got a head tilt from the shapeshifter, she shifted her stance quickly as the demon approached, right foot slightly forward, left foot slightly behind her, weight balanced on the balls of her feet, rocking every so slightly from front to back, making it impossible to tell if she was going to try for a left kick or a right kick.

A roundhouse kick was a little flashy for an opening move, but Raven was willing to admit that you could put a lot of power into it... hell, most people could put double the power into a kick than they could a punch, it was why she practiced mostly kicking moves herself.

But it was still too flashy... and once you committed to it, it was damn near impossible to change your trajectory.

That was likely why he had tried for the handspring leading off of the roundhouse kick, it would have been surprising and a mule kick like that had a lot of power to it.... it was just too bad that his opponent pivoted to her left foot avoid the roundhouse, and kept right on pivoting as he bounced into the handspring, spinning herself into a back kick with her own right foot that would land right about the center of his upper body.

Depending on if he had been facing towards her, or away from her, in his handspring would determine if he had left himself open to her counter.

It was starting to look like she was fighting a cricket, a cricket on crack. She'd sent the crazy little dude flying with a spinning heel strike right to his back, and instead of making him think that perhaps he should try a different approach than kicking against an opponent who also knew how to kick, and who also had a longer reach... the dude threw himself right back at her... feet first even!

Did he think he was made of rubber or something? He had certainly felt solid enough, and his clawed stop into another handspring made his arms look properly rigid, and un-rubbery like.

Her scowl deepened as she ducked the heels flying for her face, dropping to the mat on her left knee and punching straight out with a closed fist for Beelzebub's side with her right hand, keeping her left properly close to her own head to guard against the imp's own, obviously strong fists.

"Really?" This was why she didn't do this kind of fighting anymore... even with inhuman strength, she could do more damage hitting a brick wall than fighting most opponents on Gaia.

Tracking his movements was easy enough, he wasn't moving even close to fast enough to lose her, so it was really strange that he thought he could just stalk towards her, even if he was behind her now.

"Sorry, outside of the sheets, I don't wrestle." Oh bother, that was not the sort of thing she was not supposed to say anymore, but old habits really do die hard. If he was paying enough attention, he might actually notice that she was blushing as she leaned forwards, putting her weight on her hands and right foot and giving him a mule kick of her own with her left, aimed right at those nice reaching fingers of his.

The boots may have been flat, but they were made of nice sturdy leather with good hard soles, and this time she was kicking hard enough to break bones.

A solid connect... duck the head, push-off into a shoulder roll, back to her feet, twist a bit to the right to be facing the opponent again, settle back into original fighting stance with a shake of her head to flip her bangs away from her eyes. All easy and smooth, as expected of a practiced gymnast.... and all done before the demon had finished rolling in pain on the mat. "Time is irrelevant, pain is the natural way of your body telling you not to do that again."

AKA: Stop underestimating the pretty little girl... Raven had fought with, and against, some of Gaia's greatest heroes and villains of the past century. She had seen them loose limbs and nearly die on more than one occasion, and done her best to keep the later from happening...only the really crazy ones acted like they didn't feel pain.

Beelzebub was fast, inhumanly fast, his right fist was a blur headed for her face... a face that was calm, all except for the eyes... he was close enough now that he could get a good look at the eyes that she normally hid behind dark glasses or under the veil of her hair.

Twin sun's stared, unblinking and obviously angry, at the demon prince. Perfect tiny balls of molten fire, orange, yellow, red, and even traces of blue bubbling, shifting and writhing in an otherwise empty grey void, no trace of a pupil to be found.

Sunstrike's legacy tracked the black clawed hand, but about a hands-width before those claws could make contact with the young woman's pale flesh Beelzebub would find that he wasn't the only inhumanly fast being in the ring... as Raven's own left hand swept across her face and downwards in a classic block and deflect move, her right fist countering with a jab at his nose.

Connect, and re-set. ..... Her left hand swept back up, her right hand pulled back in, both up, fists lightly closed just a little below her eyes, and for good measure she even took a step back. Basic boxing stance and strategy. Hit and run always was her best style.

But of course his nose didn't hurt, that would have been too damn easy.

This really wasn't getting any funner, actually, the fun level was rapidly declining in Rae's eyes. Was there a way to end this quickly... yes. Was it something she wanted to do? Nope, not even a little bit.

Another swipe with the black claws. She leaned back ever so slightly and her right hand intercepted his swipe this time, but not with a simple block and deflect like before.

This time, Raven put her own inhuman speed and strength behind an uppercut aimed at Beelzebub's left elbow, looking to pop his joint out. Precision strike, not a careful move like her previous ones, but she didn't like those claws of his, and the risk could be worth it... especially if he had something nasty on those claws of his.

Demon hide was known to be tough, but his was acting all rubbery again. Her head tilted to the side, eyes still unblinking... birds blinked a lot less than humans. It was obvious he thought he was faster, better, older.... than she was. Raven didn't advertise what she really was, especially not after the last regeneration. Now-a-days Raven acted as old as she looked, and as humanoid as she looked, hence; fighting like an ordinary meta-human so far in this fight.

He wasn't too fast to track, a little annoyingly fast, but not too fast, and he seemed to have forgotten that she had been fast enough to keep up with him thus far. So it should not be too surprising that as he sped up.... so did she.

She missed, but didn't stop swinging like some puppet who's strings had been cut. She let the momentum of her swing push her arm all the way through so that her arm started her into another spin.

She put as much momentum into her spin as she could, whipping herself around into a faster version of her first spinning back kick.... after all, she was a kick-boxer.