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Ah, good, he recognized it! At least he didn't need to give any further details. He knew not everyone enjoyed the idea of it, but Encke loved free running. He loved the energy it gave him, the sheer agility and strength it required to get accomplished. And admittedly, he loved the rush when he was flying through the air.

He shifted from one foot to the other.

While it was probably a good idea to practice using his ability, he had youma for that. "No abilities." Encke offered a sheepish smile. "I don't think you're in the mood for getting burned today."

And, admittedly, Encke wasn't in the mood for burning knights, either.

"So just hand-to-hand I think. Unless you want to whip out your weapon, whatever it is." He quirked a brow. "You can move first, if you want."

He had been hoping that Venice would go first for a fairly similar reason -- he wanted to be polite and he wanted an idea of how the other would attack (and perhaps how strong the other was, so he could scale himself accordingly). When Venice told him to go first, though, Encke shifted his stance, deciding not to argue about it and take the more offensive positioning.

It suited the way he tended to end up fighting, anyway.

Dashing at agents and attempting to deck them and snatch any starseeds they stole away.

Sounded about right.

"Alright, if you insist," replied Encke, with a laugh, before moving to break the distance with a dash. While he wasn't inclined to put the full force of his run behind his punch, Encke didn't exactly stop before swinging his arm back and aiming it at Venice's arm. Hand-to-hand, after all.

Encke saw the wince and thought to apologize, but quickly reminded himself that hand-to-hand sparring wasn't necessarily painless. Not unless they had that foam armor on he sometimes saw at the--

He cut his mind off when he saw another returned swing coming at his side, attempting to jump out of the way to minimize the blow. At the very least, he managed to stop it from impacting right against his side, the blow hitting at his back instead. It hurt a bit, especially with that armor, but he'd deal with that later.

Encke returned the blow, bouncing back and forth almost like a boxer for a moment before swinging out with his right arm at Venice's side.

Considering that he assumed most of the hits would stay above the belt, he missed the fact that Venice was going for his feet entirely, and was functionally a sitting duck when Venice went for them. He made a small yelp in response, jumping back for a moment.

He then resumed bouncing, attempting to keep his energy up. He tried to ignore the small pains that shot up his leg when he landed on his foot particularly hard. Part of getting better at fighting the Negaverse was ignoring things like that, right?

Or at least, factoring for them.

He swung his non-injured foot out, attempting to knock Venice a bit further away from him with a kick to the side. He went for the other side, this time, the one he hadn't hit first.

Encke watched Venice carefully, noticing that he was changing where he was looking, at his side -- had Encke hit a bit too hard? Maybe he would need to reconsider the way he was --

He saw Venice shift a bit once again, bracing himself for an upcoming impact. When it came for his knee, Encke attempted to jump out of the way, only partially succeeding. Venice's leg still scraped at his knee, not quite knocking him over, but managing to knock him back just a bit. Alright, alright...

Encke re-evaluated, again, looking at how Venice was holding himself. If this was an actual fight, he'd probably be inclined to hit at Venice's side again, but he didn't want to accidentally cause him any longer term problems than just some bruising. Of course, his foot was throbbing anyway, and part of sparring was injury--

He was taking too long to decide what to do--

He moved to throw a punch to Venice's right.

Encke caught the way that Venice followed the punch, nodding in approval. If you can't avoid a hit, it was often better to try and absorb it, and following the force often made it hurt a bit less.

He also caught that Venice grunted, which meant he was hurting a bit. Encke took note of that, and then also quickly took note of the punch coming towards his stomach. Using the feet Venice observed, Encke quickly attempted to get out of the way, swirling to the right. He didn't exactly avoid the hit, but it did help him not get smacked right in the gut with it.

He bit his lip, attempting to suck up a bit of the pain that shot through his side.

"Thanks! What you did there," he said, on the exhale, "where you absorbed the force? Good idea if you can't dodge." Encke didn't go for a punch, this time, but he pushed his hands out in an attempt to knock Venice back a bit.

"Makes sense." Encke tended to go for the avoidance tactics, himself, but he knew that moving with the blow was a nice way to help minimize it. At the very least, like Venice had said, it would minimize the tension.

And if he could keep himself loose, that was better for his ability to keep fighting.

Encke had put enough distance between the two of them with the intention of being able to keep a better eye on what Venice was doing. When Venice's leg moved to swing at his shoulder, therefore, he caught it coming, and he chose to duck underneath it. Needing to kick up could cause someone to go off-balance, right? He saw that a lot in movies.

He pushed his hands out towards Venice's lifted leg, attempting to throw him off balance. (Though, hopefully, not into the ground. He wasn't trying to injure the other.)