Welcome to Gaia! ::

Yuri exhaled sharply as he said softly, Damn it Rachel, ease up a bit. yet there was no need for her to speak. He had been raised with the belief that the world depended on survival of the fittest. If Rachel ever did ‘take it easy’ on him he wouldn’t grow stronger and would overestimate himself. The days of effortless wins on her part were something he cherished and used to goad himself into working harder.

Toad Skin 1/7

Smiling as he mentally reviewed the book tucked in his shirt Yuri flexed his hands and decided that he would just have to keep experimenting if he wanted to win. There was a technique he had seen in the style that would possibly let him deal with her tomahawk strike but it would be luck if it worked. Even beyond the timing he didn’t know the true strength of her move because while she did not take it easy on him she did not go far beyond what he could handle.

2/7

He had seen her once fighting Ryan once and the sheer speed and strength of her movements was different than when she fought him. He could not however stay in her shadow forever and his memory of her was of training. That meant she was slower and weaker than her true potential though as the consummate loser in their matches there was a gap none the less.

3/7

With a hiss Yuri muttered, To doubt without trying is to fail without doing. So shut up and get it done. A soft laugh from Rachel drew his eyes back to his sparring partner as she nodded to him for quoting one of her favorite sayings during training. With a sharp inhalation and slow exhalation Yuri shifted his right foot forward and took on an open hand stance. Once he was settled in his stance he allowed his hands to close as he shifted them into a snake position.

4/7

Rachel was charging again suddenly in her usual seemingly reckless manner, she had always taught him to take the weak on directly. It was his own nature that made him follow a crueler path that treated everyone as strong until proven wrong. Shifting himself he let his ki flow into his arms as he prepared to meet her attack head on.

5/7

This time as she swung her arm up and over in her tomahawk strike he let one hand dart towards her wrist to block her ki before moving the other towards her forearm as she overwhelmed the toxic ki. In this way as her arm accelerated again he was able to block with his left arm as he let ki flow over and through the arm to reinforce it. The sudden flow of ki over the arm as well worked to push her strike up and over his head leaving her side open.

6/7

With a slight smile Yuri moved forward to strike in the opening only to see an elbow snap back towards his face as her patented redirection let her arm shoot back making her recovery faster than her initial attack. It was the most vexing thing about her as an opponent that she used her body’s flexibility to make her recovery motion from moves faster and stronger than the initial movement. Yuri was barely able to block the return elbow and shift it down and to his side while retreating as Rachel turned and nodded at him.

7/7

Yuri smiled in response, it was the simple acknowledgement of his improvement that she always gave when he did something unexpected or reached a new level. However he noticed it wasn’t the smile that represented her true happiness for his development and he already knew it was because he had played it safe. In not pressing the attack to avoid risking another counter attack he had missed a chance to possibly land a blow of his own.

Centipede Fist 1/4

With a smile he decided to try out one other technique he had read of and that was the centipede fist. With her knowledge of him as his primary master she could easily pick apart most techniques he would usually try. However even if it was a version of her from his mind she would not know how to deal with all the techniques of his new style.

2/4

Smiling he dashed forward for once initiating the attack and her smile finally appeared as she set her arms to receive his attack in something akin to a muay thai stance with her open palms facing forward. As he reached a step in front of her he twisted to throw a right punch only to pull back before contact and use the motion to twist his left hand forward for the first hit. Yet it was not truly the first hit as he pulled his arm back quickly to accelerate the strike with his right arm.

3/4

As he felt his arm hit her hand seeing that she had moved her hands to block his actual hits but had ignored the feints he faked a final left punch at her left side and jumped back. The timing of his jump moved him just outside of her reach as she grabbed for his head only to make a face as the feints burst forth into strikes. As the puzzled face blurred and disappeared though Yuri shook himself and glanced around the training room. It seemed that his lack of knowledge regarding how Rachel would react to being hit had ended the illusion.

4/4

Closing his eyes once more he decided to return to the mountains but instead of simply going to his home he went to a cliff. This way he could train the final skill in an easy way to insure that he mastered it properly. Moving to the cliff face he placed a hand on it and felt the smooth rock that was so familiar.

Spider Climb 1/4

Nodding to himself he ignored the minute crevices and cracks that he would normally use to climb the cliff and instead focused on the smooth areas. Letting ki flow through his arms he ran his hands lightly over the stone and tried to use his ki to stick to it. With a smile he felt something akin to attraction from his hands but they would not yet stick.

2/4

With a pause he mentally reviewed the book and remembered it had said something about extending his ki into the surface then using ki from his hands to stick to it. Laughing he felt his hands stick and when he released the ki detach from the stone. His mouth smiled slightly as he shifted his body and tested the technique with his weight on the stone.

3/4

Yuri exhaled and began climbing pulling himself up using his ki to stick to the walls as he dragged himself upwards. It was remarkably easy and with a smile he experimented with using other parts like his feet and found so long as he channeled his ki any part could do it. He blinked as the illusion dispelled and exhaling sharply Yuri turned and headed for the door and towards the library to trade out his five deadly venoms book for the next level of capoiera.

4/4