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As Aurorion dug in tooth and nail, X ground his teeth. The actual grasping was left little more then superficial scratches, but a particularly painful kind when caused by short-nailed fingers through cloth. As he was thrown down through the air, he pushed up on his opponents neck, not an attempt to stop his descent, but to shift his trajectory to crater the ground with his backside (as well as his upper hams). The maneuver would be inevitably painful for him as well, but nothing good could come to fingers crushed in such a manner.

Crashing into the ground like an earth-fell comet, the lack of air from the shot he’d taken to his solar-plexus was finally becoming serious. He needed to get the holy grappler away, if only for a moment, so he could force air back into his lungs. As he hit the ground, he winced with pain but used the momentum he’d been given while he still had the chance. His backside hit first, soon followed by the whiplash of his back then head onto the granite platform, but as his back fell down both of his knees shot up. If Trition had managed to get his hands out from behind X before they hit the ground, then the forward force he was still feeling mixed with the stiff knees to his underside would undoubtedly toss him into the air over X’s head and hopefully put some distance between them.

((Post 13))

As Trition flew through the air, X’s chest almost seemed to collapse as he let out what little air was still left in his lungs. It re-expanded slowly as he forced them full again and held the breath, trying to recover from the blow to his solar-plexus. When he let his breath out again, he seemed to draw a new one with little trouble, and as the process repeated, it was rather obvious that he’d recovered.

He heard Aurorion land and shuffle a fair distance away; his eyes were locked onto a dangling vine above him and with the consistently distant movement he didn’t feel any quick need to react. With clean air back in his lungs, he slowly started to stir. One arm fining an anchor, then a leg and with a heave and a twist he was up on one knee looking to his opponent, his right hand rubbing the small of his back.

When his holy opponent spoke out to him, his eyes became joyous and his shoulders tossed up and down as if with laughter. By now it was rather obvious that he was mute either by choice or design, but a fighter had no necessity for words, though they were often nice to have. He responded with only a silent nod, and the jutting out of his left arm with a saluting thumb to counter.

Almost as an unconscious motion, his right hand crept out in front of him. Flattening out and pointing down it became perpendicular with the granite beneath him. Touching it lightly with his middle finger, such positioning was not a reflexed neutral position; it was obvious that he was up to something. With his hand in contact with the ground, the thumbs up he presented his opponent opened up and transformed into an extenuated ‘come hither’ motion.

It was time this bout truly began...

((Post 15))

X was neither excited nor jostled by his opponents approach; he sat quietly, tilting his head in response to the slow advance. Very defensive, very cautious, and very wise at that, but X had no intention of mounting an all out attack. Waiting patiently until Trition was only about seven feet away, until he was close enough to be effected, but not close enough to mount an attack of his own without drawing that massive maul again.

As Aurorion crept forward, eventually he would notice the position X’s hand had taken. It would appear the poised attack position for the fabled ‘1-inch punch’, and unless his eyesight was exceptionally beyond super-human, it would likely appear to be just that upon execution. In reality, it was only an example; an example of what should have become of that shoulder, had X wished to permanently withdraw his opponent from a career in combat.

The first motion seen was from his legs, they began to spring up to start a jump in Aurorions direction; not a large jump, more of a hop really, but a gaining of air none-the less. No sooner did his feet leave the ground then his fist thrust down upon it. The instant-replay from the countless viewing cameras would record the true landing of the blow: With his fingers curling in and his fore-knuckles meeting with the granite first then collapsing as well for the flat of his fist to land in the same spot. To the fighters on the other hand, X’s ocular account included, it would appear that his fist went from flat to fist with no stage in between.

And then it began.


From the point on the floor when his fist impacted out to a radius of ten feet, the floor became little more then a memory. Granite dust flew up to cloud the arena and a crater formed beneath X and Aurorion. Small chunks of deeper granite flew up like shrapnel and what was left at the bottom of the crater was sharp and jagged. This reaction was one X had seen before, his breath was held and his eyes averted; this kind of dust and shrapnel was a danger even to an experienced fighter.

But this kind of cloud was only a cover. He had assumed that it would catch Aurorion by surprise, and with his view blocked by the dust tried to take advantage of the opening. His light hop had gotten him off from the floor before it collapse and given him just enough velocity to get to his opponent. Taking into account the two or three foot drop that the holy man would take before X got to him, he pulled back his knee and outstretched his left arm. With his eyes closed to avoid the dust and shrapnel, he would measure his distance to his opponent with his arm and deliver a stern kick upon finding him.


And to think, such destruction had been brought forth without even a full-strength punch like the one that had landed on Trition only a short time before.


((Post 17))

The wall of energy repelled X’s assault, throwing him back through the air and out of the field of debris. Flipping as he arced to the steady floor just outside the crater zone, he landed on three limbs with his feet spread out behind him and his left arm outstretched like the peak of a pushup. With a gentle push he returned to his feet and slowly made his way around the outer edge of the crater.

“ What was that…? ” The question floated through his mind. With averted eyes he couldn’t see the wall that had thrown him away. There was no way a physical maneuver could have effected his entire body at once, and with Aurorion still concealed within the dust X had little idea what had occurred. He could hear his motion, his footfalls on the jagged rocks cracking and sliding, and would attempt to be at about the area where he would immerge from the now settling cloud. Perhaps he would be able to understand what happened upon seeing his opponent once more.

((Post 19))

X proceeded around the cloud in a less-then defensive pose. His head was stretched and titled to the side, trying to peer further around the curve in search of his opponent. Finally laying eyes on Aurorion, his approach slowed, but he continued forward.

His head tilted from right to left, then back again quickly like a schizophrenic probing camera. He was observing the luminescent effect that had surrounded his opponent, though he was unsure what it was. The simple fact that the holy fighter was glowing gold, along with his lack of any discernable fighting stance, prompted X to move closer, and closer, far past a distance that would be considered reasonably safe.

His head continued moving and twitching, his neck stretching and retracting as he looked on this strange effect. Moving right up to Trition, he crouched and started circling him, still trying to figure out what was really going on. He appeared more a curious monkey then a trained opponent, but he’d never seen any of these super-natural skills before; one thing was for sure though, he wanted some.

Circling back to his front, with X’s face less then a foot from Tritions mid section, he pulled his hand up next to his face. His middle finger was cocked firmly against his thumb and without a moments thought was let go in a rather sub-extraordinary flicking motion. He wanted to see what the shiny did. He was going to find out the fun way.

((Post 21))

X’s face was stuck to the spot where the ripples had emanated from. He was staring blankly at the aura around his opponent as it seemed to absorb the inertia of his strike and redistribute it around him. He was so entranced by it that he almost didn’t see the knee as it came to greet him. Far too late to try and dodge, he was pleasurably surprised when the energy dampened the blow and he barely felt a thing.

His face was blank, amazed at this comfy energy, as he looked up at Trition. Only after a moment did he stand back up and start to think. Standing face to face with his un-injurable opponent, he looked at him curiously. Tilting his head to the side, he looked past him, then straightening back to look him in the eyes, then tilting it to the other side to look past him again and back once more to face him. His eyes were filled with joy once more, the white orbs of energy that were embedded in his mask literally forming the symbols “^ ^” as the emotion overwhelmed him.

He clapped his hands in front of him, palms flat together and thumbs paired sticking up in the air, then clapped both of his hands flat against Tritions Chest, then back together again. He paused for a moment, and then repeated the process. It seemed X was enjoying his 1-man game of patty-cake, then on the third go, a different series of events occurred.

After peering of his opponents shoulders, X had discovered that they were only twenty feet or so from the edge of the arena. Though he was unsure if this inertial dampening aura was intentionally summoned and dismissed, this seemed like a good chance to test it. On the third repetition of his clapping hand motion, when he reached out to his opponent, he instead shoved his hands beneath Tritions arm pits. The objective was to keep his thumb in front and cup his hands around to the back. He assumed the Aura would compensate the lifting motion he then applied to make Aurorion unable to feel it, and to do that it would need to not only let, but help lift him from the ground.

Assuming this worked, X planned to charge toward the edge of the arena with surprising initiative and quite simply drop the holy fighter from its edge. A simple move, but one that would win him the match.

((Post 23))

The gleeful expression on X’s face was wiped clean by the sudden painful strike. His foreword momentum carried on for a moment, but he soon stumbled to his right and dropped down to one knee. Still a good seven to ten feet from the edge of the arena, his hopes of a simple win were shattered.

Leaving his left hand in place, he pulled his right away and began to throw stiff blows to his opponents’ kidney. Waiting for any loosening of the legs wrapped around him, he planned to shove him away, and hopefully move back in for a dis-mounting blow before Trition could flee from the hazardous edge.

((Post 25))

The second blow from his reversed elbow knocked X’s head to the left, pain erupted but the blow barely hindered his attack. As his assault went through, he took note of the preparations his opponent was making for a counter attack. As Tritions body swung forward to strike at X, the masked fighter pushed sternly away with his still-planted left arm, though not enough to stop the entire swing of his upper body, the action would severely dampen the effects of the attack.

As the blow came down to strike, X looked away, turning his nose away from his opponent and causing Aurorions forehead to connect instead with his cheekbone. His head jerked back as the blow landed, but braced himself on his planted knee instead of folding over backwards and connecting his skull with the ground.

X was stunned for a moment, his thoughts focused on getting his opponent away so he could regain his footing rather then on another counter-offensive. Both of his hands tried to get a good plant somewhere on the front of Tritions body and tried to shove him backward. His hands weren’t aimed for any part or point, X couldn’t focus that well, and although the push was not an attack, the edge of the arena was far too close to ignore.

((Post 27))