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With constant practice, a few inches of wind-up space was all that was necessary to deliver a punishing blow. Unfortunately for Mooo, he had no idea of the protective effects of Omi's mail shirt, figuring it was like most other mail--great against cutting weapons, but not all that effective against blunt-force trauma.

As Omi took the bait, running in to seal off his right and taking the fight to an extremely close-in range, Mooo's left arm leaned back, his elbow bent at a right angle as he used Omi's body to help him pivot sharply off the balls of his feet, swinging as hard as he could to his right, throwing a powerful left hook for the base of the right side of Omi's rib cage. Usually, when a blow like this hit flush, the pain travelled from the liver to the abdomen. Even on its bad days, a punch like this made the opponent's day hell... but Mooo was unaware of the properties of Omi's defenses.

With Omi's incoming left hidden by his body, Mooo was unprepared for it--should it hit full, he'd be blown back. However, Mooo was banking on the impact of his close-in liver blow to either disrupt the momentum of any incoming attacks or stop them completely by the crippling body blow. Omi's punches were hard, but the size difference showed that every three or four of his could be met with one of Mooo's. It was almost a given that Mooo's attack would hit, as it was travelling less distance to reach its target--but would it be as effective as Mooo hoped?

If there were anything (effective) Mooo could have done in this situation, it would have been awesome.

As it stood, Mooo could do something--stand there and take it--if of course he knew the punch was coming. Distracted by the unusually dull impact against Omi's ribs, he was completely blindsided as Omi's fist crashed into the side of his head, causing Mooo to almost drop to one knee from the sheer surprise of it all. Yes, it hurt, but most of the damage didn't come from the actual blunt-force trauma--it came from the fact that Mooo wasn't expecting the punch at all. Some minor good may have come of this as well: Omi's punch did more damage to Mooo than normal, but Mooo was still possessed of a thick skull. Omi's gauntlet may have taken a bit of damage from hitting him solidly in the skull.

Now with legs bent, posture bowed even with Omi's right hand hanging on to his left shoulder, Mooo stood dazed for seconds that could have been hours for all he knew, completely open to another strike from Omi. All Mooo knew in those drawn-out moments was that he had been hit on the right side of his head by a blow he didn't see coming--a blow with a lot of weight behind it. By the way his head snapped back, it was either an overhand or a solid straight, but any details beyond that were lost to Mooo. He didn't want to get hit with that again--and his suspicions about Omi's lack of body damage were growing. Mooo needed one more hit to be sure.

Yeah, people could recover from a daze--but it took a little longer than normal when one was taken completely by surprise, as was the case with Mooo. Two fast jabs hit home, though, and forced Mooo out of his stupor, as they were light, stinging snaps compared to the solid wall that hit him earlier. With the second impact, that one directly over his mouth, Mooo staggered back more in surprise than in pain, throwing his arms out wildly to try and ward off whatever else might have been coming--a single jab that bounced off a poorly-positioned guard in this case--and as Mooo got his bearings back, he slowly eased himself back into tight upright stance, keeping his guard up. He didn't know how long he'd been out, but the fact that he didn't see where Omi's attack came from, and that his opponent was somehow unfazed by his body blows, weighed heavily at Mooo.

With Omi's onslaught of jabs temporarily stopped by the distance he'd created, Mooo decided to make the first move again, taking a step forward and firing off a left that was more straight than jab, putting his hip into it and twisting off the punch, aimed for Omi's nose. Mooo had longer reach than Omi, and wanted to close distance with a stronger punch more to keep Omi on his toes than to cause actual damage. Mooo wanted to open him up for another body blow, just to make absolutely sure.

With his left fully extended, Mooo just barely hit Omi's upraised guard as Omi backed off--it was a smart move, and a good way to keep him from digging under with another body blow, but Mooo was still curious. Mooo only retracted his arm a few inches, keeping his left arm stretched out somewhat to maintain range as he took a shuffling step forward, covering the six inches between them with a single hop-step, then snapping off a left jab that was again intended to keep Omi's guard up, instead of dishing out damage. Mooo was playing the range card as best as he could this early-on, keeping his footsteps close and tight due to the slick ground.

Mooo's right hand was still kept up near his chin, shoulder kept loose in case Mooo needed to throw out a one-two--or if his chance opened up on Omi's torso. At the moment, though, Mooo was focused on getting that left out, keeping Omi's attention high for the time being.

The best kind of shot to the solar plexus was with a straight--but using an upper for the same means would cause a fair amount of damage if it hit. Not quite as much, mind you, but that wouldn't make it hurt any less.

A standard strategy for handwork was to circle to your right with each jab, slowly putting yourself onto your opponent's dead angle if he stayed in place, problem being that Omi was a southpaw. Rotating to his right would line Mooo up with Omi's left--but Mooo's instincts were working now, not his mind. He'd trained it countless times--jab, then circle to your right if the opponent closes in.

As his right leg shifted out, his upper body following the movement and only leaving his left foot in the original place, Mooo was able to get his body out of the way of the uppercut as his left hand retracted, only then noticing that he was facing Omi's left hand with a mostly-open guard. Yeah, his right hand was up near his chin and could protect him, but it wouldn't do much against the dominant hand of Omi's stance, so he would have to figure something out--and do it fast.

Omi's upper tore through where Mooo's body would have been, Mooo internally breathing a sigh of relief as he threw something, anything out there just to keep Omi busy and prevent him from using that left of his--which is probably what dazed the hell out of him earlier. In this case, it was a looping left hook that came out fast--Mooo braced his shoulder, bent his arm at a right angle, and threw it with as much hip as he could--and hoped it would slide behind Omi's outstretched right hand and peg him in the jaw. A clean, simple punch designed for close-range, and give the momentum back to Mooo.

This was gonna be sloppy. However, since Mooo was going to throw his entire weight into this punch, hopefully it would come out much better than expected, and pay off. He'd taken more hits than Omi so far--and at this range, he was at a disadvantage with his longer arms. His hook very loosely connected with Omi's chest, but again didn't do as much damage as it normally would have--even though the punch wouldn't have done that much damage in the first place, the only real effect being the sting of a fist hitting his body.

With that hook thrown, Mooo looped his right arm down a tiny bit, throwing his head down and to his left so he would bring himself into point-blank range of Omi, getting right into Omi's chest and throwing a hard right directly over Omi's left straight, Mooo aiming for his opponent's jaw. Omi's left grazed over his right shoulder, missing his head as Mooo threw himself into the weave--Mooo was not very good at counters, but he was good at throwing his weight into punches--and he'd been watching Omi's left since he stepped into that dangerous position almost entirely on accident. Charging in, with all his body weight intending to meet the force of Omi's punch and throw it right back at him--hopefully Mooo could seal this deal without a hitch.

Mooo felt the satisfying impact of a solid counter hitting home, dropping Omi and throwing all the momentum of Omi's own attack back at him. As was usually the case, being counterattacked stunned someone badly enough to cause them to stumble over, as well as dealing the psychological damage of not knowing when the next one would come. Omi seemed to have better mental fortitude than that, though, and would probably be taking steps to watch for Mooo counterpunching him. Mooo decided to change to a more passive strategy to retain his own strength and let Omi come to him--Mooo still wanted to get a final feel on that chainmail that seemed to dull the impact of the body attacks he landed on Omi.

Omi sprang to his feet, an attack on the way, and Mooo did the most basic defense possible--he backpedaled. Taking a step back, he moved out of the range of the advancing Omi, taking a second step back as he saw the second attack close in only a fraction of a second after the first. It was a smart move to be sure, but Mooo had no intention of going into an infight without being able to deliver damage to Omi's torso just yet. As Omi's second attack finished, Mooo's left snapped out in another jab for his opponent's mouth, using it as bait to get him to come in close once more.

Omi was rushing forward with his guard ahead of him--this screwed with Mooo's general perception of range, since one usually gauged his opponent's distance from him by where his opponent's weapons were. With Omi's guard forward, Mooo was unable to accurately tell if he would be able to comfortably step in, even though Omi would be unable to generate a full-force punch with his arms out that far. Backpedalling again was another good option, but Mooo would eventually hit the wall and be forced to deal with Omi, and then with less options available to him.

His first jab struck against Omi's gauntlet, the guard holding steady as he threw out a second jab, which was promptly swatted away by one of the aforementioned backfists--and if Omi closed in as Mooo's jab retracted, Mooo would be on the receiving end of one of those backfists. Not a killer technique, but he wanted to try not to leave any options open for his opponent. Omi did follow in as Mooo's jab retracted, Mooo taking a half-step back and cocking his right elbow up, telegraphing a big right hand as he pulled his left hand back in--however, as he did that, he tucked his left hand close to his body, suddenly launching out a full left straight. He wasn't able to put as much spin on it as he wanted, but he intended to drive it between Omi's hands--being stretched out as they were, it wasn't a very tight guard for a heavy punch, so Omi's guard would probably be blown away if Mooo applied enough force. Putting his hip into the punch, Mooo intended to strike Omi's face directly through his guard.