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Post by Shio Kyrou on Jan 26, 2017 18:23:50 GMT -6
Her kick had been parried. It was a turnaround that she was expecting to see, but nonetheless it impressed Shio that Aegle still had the conscious to react to her attack. A wide smirk spread across her lips, not one of malevolent intentions - but one that showed how excited she was to see that her opponent still had fight left in her. Shio's eyes missed nothing, as Aegle attempted to deliver a punch to her stomach in a way fitting how she had dealt the damage before. In that fraction of a second Shio came to an understanding of how that had happened earlier, like an epiphany it struck her mind like lightning. In that same regard she also realized just how fast Aegle was, swift with her punches and nimble as a fox on her feet. Neither was that speed something that she had braced herself for, so it was fortunate that her kick of perhaps just about two-thirds its regular power had managed to send the punch intended for her gut way off its course, finding its place onto Aegle's left shoulder and knocking the smaller student back. Shio did not waste any time after her kick had landed, and retracted her leg at the moment it had connected. Whilst, at the same time, Aegle stepped forward for her second series of movements. As Aegle rushed forward past the length of her boot, Shio had returned her leg to half its length, still high in the air and curved at the knee. If Shio had used all her strength in that kick then there would have not been any chance to retreat the limb before Aegle was already upon her, but she had anticipated a counter of some form, she had been prepared to make this action since before she had even pushed her leg out, therefore it flowed naturally into her movement. Her amber eyes had never left Aegle and tracked her perfectly as she went back on the offensive. Now Aegle was truly in a position to dish out some punishment, but as Shio glared down at the bright girl with her own fists lowered to her chest she knew merely by her instinct - so was she. Unfortunate was Aegle, she did not know the mistake that she had made, moving in to face Shio from the front when both her hands were unoccupied. Most fighters would scramble to defend themselves when put in such a dangerous situation, such was the natural reflex expected from a sane person, but this was not even close to the essence of how the wild faunus girl fought. Untamed and unafraid to take hits from her opponents, she battled with a ferocity willing to trade punches if that was what it took to further injure the enemy, such was the way of a true brawler. There was no hesitation from Shio at all, in the moment Aegle struck the bruising punch against her thigh she had already prepared a devastating right jab of her own. Aegle was left unguarded as she retrieved her fist from the first punch and went in for the second. As slight of a time span as it was, just barely before Aegle landed the kidney-shot to follow up, Shio slammed her fist like a thundering hammer upon the side of her raw face. Then, whilst her leg stumbled back after enduring the throbbing injury to her thigh, she gave up her footing entirely and pressed off with her grounded left foot to bombard Aegle's gut with a hook-like uppercut using all the strength of her left arm. With no restraint Shio would not stop there, the brutality of what she was doing did not even occur to her in the heat of combat. Without any remorse she grit her teeth through the pain and hard pressed her boots back onto the ground as she jumped to charge at Aegle, attempting to inflict a flurry of punches upon her. There was no technique or pace to each punch more than regular jabs, once with her right then with her left done repeatedly, each aimed to strike her face and upper body.
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Post by Aegle Vitus on Jan 27, 2017 3:47:15 GMT -6
Things had not looked good for Aegle when the whole fight started, and her prospects had done nothing if not deteriorate ever since. A split second before she should have felt the easy give of unguarded flesh, Aegle was once again denied and distracted by an explosion of light and sound which only she could see and hear. Unlike before, when she had attempted to absorb some of the impact, this punch found no resistance apart from what one might usually expect when punching a small girl in the jaw. Her head cracked downward and to the side, and fine tethers of pain drove down her spine as far as her hips, while all semblance of thought was driven brutally from her head. Fortunately, thoughts were not something she needed in order to keep fighting. Neither did her legs buckle nor her stance falter, even as her waking drifted dangerously near unconsciousness. And still, she made no sound. Unfortunately, her vision did not clear in time for her to see the uppercut Shio had chosen to follow up with. At last, she did make a sound, something like a breathy wheeze, as the faunus girl sank her fist into Aegle's guts. It was about this point that two things became very apparent about Aegle, things that might have only been suggested before, but brought into fine focus by proceeding events. One: that Aegle was almost impossibly light, perhaps no more than about seventy pounds. Light enough that, with only one arm and one leg with which to propel it, Shio's uppercut had actually taken the smaller girl off the ground and lobbed her back as much as two feet. Two: that Aegle was not using any aura, at all, to soak up the hits she received. There was no resistance to each hit, nor the suggested remnants of a shield, nor even an energy growing noticeably weaker with each successive blow. Absorbing blows was clearly not something she was incapable of, being that her first act in this fight had been to mitigate some of Shio's initial, brutally powerful, sucker punch, yet she had not exerted so much as a thimblefull of power since. Yet, neither did Aegle stagger as her feet were summarily reunited with the earth, save to slide one foot partly back to return it to its proper position. Her face had swollen on one side, the side which Shio had struck twice, and a small trickle of blood ran from her cracked lips and down her purpling chin, but her eyes were wide and focused as the faunus renewed her assault. She swayed back, narrowly avoiding the first incoming punch, then faded right to avoid the second, bringing up her forearm as a shield on which to deflect the blow. The third she ducked under, while the forth she backhanded wide as swayed right to avoid the fifth. It was a frantic, ugly affair, more like a child warding off blows from a switch than a trained fighter plying her trade, but she managed to keep Shio's flurry at bay. Then, as she raised her arm to deflect the sixth blow, the seventh soared between her guard and caught her directly in the nose, crunching cartilage and sending new stars flashing across Aegle's vision. She let out a pained grunt, the most noise she'd made since the fighting began, and turned her head to let the punch roll off of her face. And that was when she launched her counter attack. All the while that she'd been guarding, doing everything she could to keep Shio from landing a hit, she had been watching the faunus girl. Not her face nor her fists, but her, getting a feel for her movements and a sense for her rhythm. As far as the latter went, there was no rhythm; Shio was just striking as fast and viciously as she was able. As to the former, her movements were wild and unrestrained, less like a trained fighter and more like a some animal, lashing out at whatever was in reach. Good for offense, but terrible for anything else. Dropping her hands, Aegle felt Shio's eighth punch crack across side of her skull, sending even more flashes of light across her belabored vision, but she was already swinging in response. Each and every single one of Shio's punches had been up high, and she had thrown each as fast as she could reset her fists, constantly alternating between left and right. None of it was conscious for Aegle, who'd taken too many hits to the head for her conscious mind to be any use, but her body knew, and her body knew what to do. In a single, fluid motion, Aegle lowered her stance, swayed towards her foe, and swung upward with all her might. Where Shio's uppercut had been ungrounded and thrown, nearly exclusively, with the strength of her arm, Aegle answered with one that incorporated nearly every muscle in her small body. Swaying forward, she put her back and hips into the blow, thrusting upward, she brought her legs in behind it, until her arm was finally ready to complete the job. Where Shio had forsaken all pretense to technique, Aegle embraced it fully, and literally swung with all of her might. Yet she did not leave it at a single punch, but let the twisting, rising motion load back her free hand, preparing it for the haymaker that would follow. A haymaker that should, if all things went to plan, land precisely on the point of Shio's jaw when she doubled over after being struck in the solar plexus. The two had one thing in common, at least; They had both completely abandoned defense in order to make their attacks. Even assuming that her two hit combo landed as intended, there was nothing stopping Shio from landing a ninth and possibly tenth hit on her unguarded head. Had Aegle actually been thinking, she would have found those terms completely acceptable, but, as has already been discussed, Aegle was long past thinking by this point. Shio Kyrou |
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Post by Shio Kyrou on Jan 28, 2017 14:45:49 GMT -6
Aegle stepped in to thrust her fist staunch into Shio's midsection, as she was caught up in her frenzied whirlwind of mad hysteria, and what a solid punch it was. Not even her aura could fully mitigate the blow as it rocketed like a meteorite and crashed into her already diminished midriff. Shio rapidly keeled over as a result, unable to continue her billow of onslaught, like someone about to vomit out their insides her face was wide with excruciating affliction. Blood, phlegm and air shot up her gullet and spewed from her mouth in small projectile droplets, whilst the light of her stricken eyes flickered for the brief touch of a second. Then came the incoming second fist, to which Shio's hazed amber gleam darted to glimpse at. Too lurched to even attempt a counter, her mind already scrambled from the first hit, it slammed clean onto the right cheekbone of her face. It rattled her brain, sent her eyes even wider into shock, and rolled off her head with ease as it left her with a solemnly swollen mark to be remembered by. Her lifeforce trickled in a small stream from the opposite side of her lip, and she grinned maniacally. Halfway between a snarl and smirk, no longer did a single tinge of her expression indicate that she was in pain, even though it was made unmistakable by the hissing under her breath. Her resilience refused to portray it. This was not all her countenance told, as she swayed back to meet face with Aegle - without having been moved a step, there was a glint of something else in her eye entirely. An emotion that had begun to grow on her since the beginning of the fight, towards Aegle, without herself remaining at all consciously aware of it. Hidden deep beneath the insanity, there was a hint of respect. Shio forcefully swung her right arm to hook Aegle's temple, using the velocity from the way her entire body had reeled earlier - to throw a punch more like a cross between a hook and uppercut. Unlike any of her previous punches of this nature, this one was far different. Her entire experience fighting Aegle screamed out to her, and just like Aegle she was no longer receptive to thought, but her body was able to respond to the command resolutely. The arm on her left held itself close to her waistline, ready to repel an obvious counter. Whether that responding punch came her way, or if her own punch was guarded against or not, it did not matter. Shio would leap towards Aegle on her bruised right leg, withdrawing her left to lunge forward with the acutely pointed edge of her kneecap. Her arms instinctively pulled away and hovered close to her face and body, as her entire upper half recoiled back and was launched forward.
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Post by Aegle Vitus on Jan 31, 2017 16:15:17 GMT -6
Things were beginning to grow a bit fuzzy for Aegle, and not only because she'd been hit enough times in the head to put any other huntress on her knees. This was not the first time she'd been on the losing side of a fight, and she most certainly was on the losing side, but it was one of the few times that she had lost to an opponent who so fully embodied her own doctrine of combat. Sure, Shio was not a technical fighter, at least so far as Aegle's admittedly addled brain could tell, and sure, she was utterly wild and unrefined. Yet she also did something that Aegle was not used to seeing in other brawlers, which is to say she stood her ground. Often times, when Aegle fought someone who relied on fists and feet, they were exceptionally mobile and hard to pin down. Lily sprang to mind as a prime example, a fighter who, despite specializing in close range, tended to keep her distance and keep on the move when she wasn't actively trying to land a hit. A lot of it was in the name of self preservation, Aegle was sure. Brawlers had certain disadvantages, whether or not their foes were fellow hunters. The extreme closeness they required to effectively engage sprang to mind, as did the lack of anything to effectively block or parry blows with. When you couldn't intercede on an attack, the best option was always to move out of the way. Except that wasn't how Shio fought. Shio stood her ground, even when Aegle's combinations made it clear she'd be better served by making some distance between them. The faunus greatly valued offense over defense, and though she made some perfunctory allowances for the latter, she never sacrificed the former. Given that Aegle often won her fights with ferocity, by pushing her opponents so hard onto their backfoot that they finally collapsed, this development proved quite the challenge for her. Not only was she physically smaller and considerably weaker, her usual tactics weren't going to work on the ferocious faunus. At no point did this become more apparent to Aegle than when, after landing one of her strongest combinations, she was immediately struck in the side of her head, like her own punches hadn't even slightly inconvenienced Shio's aim. The blow briefly punched all semblance of consciousness out of Aegle's head and, were it not for her conditioning and her own unique capacity to soak up injury, it probably would have ended the fight. On another huntress, it would have turned them as rigid as a tombstone or else turned their legs to jello, and either development would have quickly spelled their end. Even discombobulated, however, Aegle retained all the skills and instincts that made her a capable combatant. She couldn't see, of course, but raised her arms all the same, attempting to block a similar blow on the other side of her head while sending a quick jab out in answer to Shio's hook. After all, if the faunus' arm was still recovering from a consciousness crushing swing, then it wasn't in position to block a much quicker punch. All of that turned out to be moot, of course, because Shio did not combo off of her successful hook with another punch, and before Aegle's head was clear enough to register the success or failure of her own swing, she was being pitched backwards with the whole weight of her small frame balanced on the point of the faunus' knee. An minutely surprised and acutely pained sound burst out of Aegle's mouth, somewhere between a groan and a sob, accompanied by a faintly pink mist, as she was levered right off of her feet and lobbed back. Aegle didn't manage to get her feet under herself this time and, even if she had, it was unlikely there would have been strength enough in them to keep her from flopping right over anyway. Landing hard on her back, the smaller girl's guard was blown open as her weightless frame splayed heavily across the grassy ground. She reflexively tried to bring her hands up and force a roll back to her feet, but her body answered only with a chorus of pain and exhaustion, sending a very clear message. A message she was all too familiar with. A message that said she had reached her limit, and that willpower alone would carry her no further. Her body, already exhausted by hours of conditioning and training before, and battered mercilessly since, no longer wished to work. Even her head was swimming, treading water in an increasingly tumultuous ocean, and just barely keeping afloat. It was a point where any fighter, no matter who they were, once they reached it, they were done. Wheezing quietly, Aegle's watering eyes stared blindly up at the sky while her bandaged hands clenched weak fists at her sides. Everything felt leaden, as if nothing short of the end of the world or the utter subversion of gravity could compel them to move, which was to say nothing of the truly exceptional pain she was in. Then, abruptly, she kicked off with her feet and, in a single graceless arch, somersaulted back to standing. Almost as soon as her feet reunited with the ground, she was sprinting towards Shio. A savage, joyous shriek ripped out of her mouth as motes of vibrant yellow and brilliant orange trailed behind her, sparkling and erupting in the evening's dimness. Her eyes had lost all hint of grim determination and dazed confusion, and flashed with a vitality that literally seemed to boil off of them in emerald effervescence, while ever inch of exposed skin roiled with a similar sparkling glow. In one fluid motion, which did not pay so much as a hint to the utter exhaustion of moments prior, Aegle lashed out with one hand, sweeping Shio's midsection with a cleaving backhand without even slowing from her headlong sprint. Close on the tails of that backhand followed a sudden jab from Aegle's offhand, its windup and the first two thirds of its throw obfuscated by the blow which preceded it. It was a combination Aegle had initially refined for dealing with shields, wherein the back hand would knock aside her opponents guard, before following up with a lunging jab that they hadn't even seen coming, and it was by far her most refined technique, one which transplanted every ounce of force from her sprint into the narrow point of her small bandaged fist. Shio Kyrou |
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Post by Shio Kyrou on Feb 3, 2017 2:27:24 GMT -6
To repel the right-handed jab from Aegle was impossible. Though Shio had prepared herself for a counter, she had anticipated that it would be with the left hand of her opponent, to even attempt to stave off the attack with the left forearm held at her waist would throw her entire body off-balance. So she did not even think to safeguard the punch, as it sparsely struck her collarbone to minimal effect, she had unconsciously but marginally evaded the fist with the backward curve of her upper body - as she pierced into Aegle's gut with her left knee. The look on her face depicted nothing but wildness as she uprooted the smaller girl from her feet and sent her battered body airborne, and several meters away. Shio then withdrew her leg with unease, and glared down at the girl who had been sprawled out on the grass, whilst her expression sobered and her stare waited patiently - breathlessly. From just a glance Shio could tell by the state that Aegle was in, the fight was over, she had beaten her with enough force to debilitate anyone to the point where it would be a struggle to move even a single limb. It was a great surprise to her that Aegle was even still conscious and rasping for air, one that aroused profound admiration in the shine of her amber globes. Yet the faunus could not reject a strange vibe that she was getting from observing her opponent. One that foretold to her, just before Aegle ascended to her feet, that this fight was not done. So as Aegle returned to challenge her with glowing new life and resolve, she had almost been expecting it, but it did nothing to avert the emboldened praise and vehement elation declared upon her features. Delirium, reverence, and madness met with Aegle face to face, as she charged headlong at Shio. The scarfed combatant grinned broadly and threw out both her arms to make a bulwark of herself. Every muscle and tendon in her body hardened to stone. Her aura sprung into ignition like the flicker of a sparked candle, as did Aegle's, sending a vibrant blue hue that collided with her opponent's dazzling orange. The duo lit up the lustreless dark surrounding them with energetic azure and tangerine colors, full of fiery vim and vigour. Shio was engulfed in flame, as her eyes burned sky blue and clashed with the shining reflection of fierce emerald gems. Physique tensed to the full capacity of its strength, she had not moved an inch, neither did her ardent convictions say she was going to. The first swipe that Aegle made was meaningless, as Shio was not guarding using her arms, it grazed past the length of her abdomen scorching the back of her hand as she did so - as if she had brushed it across a searing surface. Then came the second punch, the one that Shio had so wholeheartedly braced herself for. It pounded into the center of her gut to meet with iron-like resistance, and Shio did not budge to it, though she felt the effect of the impact vividly. How could she not after taking so many hits to that exact same spot? Even the recoil was enough to send a shockwave of pain surging throughout her body. Her legs trembled if only a little, and one of her berserk eyes winced, no longer able to refute the pain that she was in. Nonetheless she still did not move, despite the crippling pain she was in, and glanced down at Aegle. The look she gave bolstered a challenge straight at her - encouraged by a feeble but manic smirk. Whilst the bandaged fist that she had used to strike her with, plunged into the blistering heat of the blazing shroud, emerged not only torched but beset in blue flame.
NOTES: 2x Strength, 1x Speed |
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Post by Aegle Vitus on Feb 3, 2017 3:35:04 GMT -6
Life pulsed through Aegle once again. As if the very essence of being had been injected, white hot, right into her veins, her whole body burned with the will, the singular need, to move. At the same time, every throb of pain and ache of fatigue seemed to diminish. They did not fade, for even Aegle's spectacular ability could provide no escape from pain and weariness, but they seemed to become inconsequential. Agony and exhaustion, sufficient to render her nearly immobile only a couple of moments prior, could be disregarded as irrelevant to her ability to fight. Yet it all was so much more than raw vitality and indifference to wear or tear. Catching up with her a moment after she struck Shio, as if it had been chasing the glowing girl in her wake, came an overwhelming sense of will. Not strength, nor confidence, nor even something so nebulous as raw power, but irrefutable certainty. It rushed off of Aegle in waves, clinging thick as syrup to whatever it touched and whatever she looked upon. It made the grass softer and the ground harder, and the clothes that garbed the two fighters fit just that little bit better. It filled everything with a pervasive sense of rightness, of completeness, and seemed to promise that, in this particular place, at this particular moment, absolutely anything was possible. So, it was only natural that Aegle did not change her course when the flames engulfed Shio anew, and it was only natural that her own clothes did not burst into flames along with her as she charged into the sapphire glow. So too, it was only natural that Aegle, rather than recoil as she was burnt through the wrappings on her fists, rather than recoil, instead laughed and marveled. " WOAAAAAAH!" She boomed, her voice so much louder and stronger than it had even been in the moments before Shio had first struck her. She stood stock still, staring at her seemingly ineffective fist, as it smoldered right up against the taller girl's stomach. " It's actually hot!" A grin fit to split her whole, half shaven head, drew itself across Aegle's lips as her wide eyes rose from her hand to stare up at the burning fighter before her. " You're on fire! Like, literally~" Aegle shrieked jubilantly, sounding as though she were, quite literally, encouraging the taller girl. All while dancing back on the tips of her toes as if she weighed nothing at all. Dropping her guard, she did a small shuck and jive and marveled at the titanic figure at the center of the blue inferno. " So that's yer deal, huh? Get stronger, get tougher, get faster..." Raising her hand, as if she'd only just remembered it was burnt, " Set stuff on fire, I guess. I dunno if anyone's ever told ya, but your semblance is freakin' awesome." Shaking out her hands and rolling her shoulders, Aegle grinned her elation up at Shio, as if practicing her foot work and complimenting her opponent in the middle of the fight were only natural. Indeed, with the incredible sense of purpose and rightness that surrounded her, it was a point that was quite hard to argue. " M'Aegle!" She called, her booming voice more than able to cut through the cacophony surrounding Shio, her tendency to contract words making her meaning a bit nebulous. " Aegle Vitus. S'only polite to let someone know yer name before you punch 'em." In an instance of uncharacteristic self-awareness, Aegle glanced at Shio's stomach again, a stomach she'd punched numerous times already, and a sheepish tint crept into her grin. " Sorry 'bout that." She said, managing both to shrug, no mean feat for someone of her unfortunate build, and sound genuinely apologetic at the same time. Then, all at once, her posture changed. One moment she'd been hopping from one foot to the other, performing her own crooked rendition of some easily recognizable footwork, the next, seemingly without any thing in between, she planted her hind foot and lunged forward with an ear rending shriek. All through their fight, she had been leading with her left hand in a standard orthodox stance. Now, seemingly on a whim, she lead with her right hand to begin a flurry of punches into the exact spot she had ruthlessly targeted since Shio had first attacked her. The first punch landed less like Aegle was trying to punch Shio and more like she was trying to punch some spot half a meter behind the lupine faunus. The next, landing the very instant the first was clear of its intended target, came with just as much reckless force. Which wasn't to say Aegle had grown any stronger, only that she had somehow shed whatever small shreds of restraint she'd shown at the inception of their fight. A third blow landed directly after the second, despite Aegle resetting her fist first. It was almost too fast to be believable, and certainly as fast, if not slightly faster, than any one should be able to move, and probably faster than most hunters could be without the help of their semblance. What was more, each punch landed just as hard as the last, indistinguishable in their impact despite coming from different hands, as though Aegle were literally striking Shio as hard as she physically could, every single time she threw a punch. " COME ON! HIT ME!" Aegle whooped, her utter elation, at being literally engulfed in flames as she punched someone physically stronger and faster than she was, clear in her jubilant tone. And she threw a fourth punch, and a fifth punch, and a sixth punch, and a seventh punch, all without slowing down and all without any punch being weaker than another. Shio Kyrou |
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Post by Shio Kyrou on Feb 4, 2017 5:07:50 GMT -6
The way Aegle's voice erupted from her mouth had somehow managed to startle Shio, in fact, it managed to achieve what her punch that came before it could not - it staggered her back on her feet a step or two. The volume Aegle had abruptly yelled at, added onto Shio's incredibly keen sense of hearing, was enough to send a ring through her ears so much so that it had sent her off-balance, if only because she was not yet accustomed to it. The faunus stood bewildered, and stared down at Aegle with a face that could show nothing but the mild shock she felt, with brows slightly raised in sudden curiosity. They were in the middle of fighting each other, yet Aegle did not appear that way, neither did she sound like she had any sort of grievous injury. Even though such wounds were plain as day, visible all over her person. Meanwhile Shio appeared very compliant to stand still with her muscles still tensed up, listening to every word Aegle had to say about her semblance. The comment that she made about her being on fire especially caught her attention, as she looked down rather bemused at the part of Aegle still set aflame. 'Well. So are you. Literally...' was the thought that crossed her mind, but she did not say aloud. On the topic of semblances, she also realized that for whatever reason Aegle was still able to fight, it was probably related to her own special ability. What exactly it was, Shio could not entirely discern, but from the way Aegle's aura had flared earlier just before she got back up, seemingly imbuing her with a second wind, her vague guess was that it enhanced her stamina in some way. Shio's spirited blue eyes followed Aegle's hand as it was lifted, then turned to view Aegle's expression as she examined the flame, she didn't seem inconvenienced by the fact that her hand was burning at all. It was almost enough to turn her face to grimace in slight frustration, had it not been for the compliment Aegle struck her with right after. With the frenzy that she felt earlier gone and replaced completely with astonishment, she could very easily notice the sincere way it was spoken. Her lupine ears flickered in response as she struggled not to avert her gaze, pupils shaking in a panic very uncharacteristic of the faunus. So when Aegle introduced herself, she had not been very comprehending of what she had said, it was only on her second introduction that Shio was alert enough to hear her clearly. The remark that trailed shortly after it managed to thoroughly purge her dazed and narrowly flustered features, and in their place provoked a formidable smirk from her. The apology was vain on Aegle's part. Not because Shio was unwilling to forgive her, it was for the simple reason that she could not hold a grudge against such a genuine fighter as Aegle. This and, she did not need to ask for forgiveness over something as petty as a few punches. They were in a fight after all, even though the two of them seemed to have forgotten for that momentary lapse of time. Aegle dived at Shio, with a screech that would have perhaps been enough to rend her ears otherwise, had she not already mentally worked herself up to be more ready for it than last time. The shroud of sapphire that encompassed her had not died down even a little, whilst every fiber of her body strained for the punches that she knew were coming her way. Sure enough did they, as the first struck her gut like a bullet, almost piercing her rock-hard flesh, not a peep of utterance or fluid came from Shio's mouth even though it almost fell agape. The pain was unreal, despite that her stomach had not given way to the fist, the kickback had hurt enough to make her want to gag. Then came the second fist, almost immediately after the first, it bashed against her midriff with even more force. All the features on the faunus's face flinched with intense discomfort, and for the first time since she had taken that fortress stance Aegle had physically forced her to move. By a few inches, her right foot tracked through the dirt, before skidding to a stop to reaffirm her footing. Even before she could fully do so, the third rammed her with the exertion of a hammer. Each attack made her want to spurt out blood and the other contents of her breadbasket, and Aegle was not stopping at just three. On the fifth Shio choked loudly, audibly, a grotesque noise that made it sound like she was going to vomit. Then on the final, seventh punch in a row, a spatter of blood gushed out from the wide opening in her jaws. However, the faunus did not seem at all distressed by the situation she was in. No, in fact Shio was smiling - remarkably and wholly distinguishable on her wavering lips. Then in that moment, just after Aegle's seventh punch had landed, and just before the eighth, Shio's aura exploded. Three times, five times, even seven times stronger than it was before, her power and speed - the potency of her aura - had increased almost tenfold. In a motion faster than Aegle could blink, Shio reached out and grasped her left forearm mid-punch in an action that looked to be effortless, crushing it within her grip with all the strength of a hydraulic press. A manical chuckle broke out from beneath her exhausted and bloodied breath, and she spoke. " I'd use your aura, Aegle." Her pupils widened with feral ferocity, reflecting the insanity within them. " You might die!" As the last syllable touched her lips she viciously yanked Aegle airborne, with only the strength she had in her right arm, the entire world would spin before Aegle as she was hurled around in circles above Shio in a whirlwind vortex. Then, on the spin of her heel, she slammed her right foot into the ground erupting a enormous crater beneath them that shattered the earth in all directions, and sent multitutes of shockwaves and debree flying. Strength of a giant within the small vessel of a faunus she not only tossed, but catapulted the entire weight of Aegle's body in a pitch aimed at the row of stone pillars. The strength of her throw so powerful it detonated a booming echo in the air around them.
NOTES: 2x Strength, 1x Speed - into - 9x Strength, 3x Speed (60 seconds) |
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Post by Aegle Vitus on Feb 5, 2017 19:09:00 GMT -6
All things considered, Aegle was rather surprised when she was allowed to get eight consecutive hits in, and 'allowed' was really the only word for it. Though her capacity to combo off of her attacks was prolific, she'd made no effort to switch up or mislead Shio on where he next blow would be aimed. It wasn't so much a question of 'if' Shio would punish her, but 'when'. And such cavalier disregard should absolutely have been punished; She was merely of the opinion that it was worth the price for a few unobstructed hits. Not that Aegle could have done much about Shio when she finally did decide to interrupt. The movement was so sudden that, had it not been for the tightening grip around her forearm, Aegle might not have thought the taller girl had moved at all. But move she had, and with speed and strength sufficient to completely arrest Aegle's ninth punch. Surprise, genuine and unaffected, flashed across Aegle's pale face as, in the intervening stillness, she made note of not only her motionless hand, but the accompanying intensity of the taller faunus' aura. "Huh..." She murmured, making absolutely zero effort to disguise her surprise in her voice either. She had to admit, she was a little impressed. Shio had already done quite a lot to impress her, obviously, but that phenomenon had yet to experience any diminishing returns. Before she could better express her feelings on the subject, however, Shio was telling her to use her own aura, and intimating rather dire consequences if she didn't. A sheepish grin spread across Aegle's lips, halfway between chagrined and apologetic, but before she could give voice to her evident and inexplicable feelings, she was being hauled bodily from her feet by her captured arm. This, too, was nothing new for Aegle. When you were as small as she was, not to mention as light, stronger fighters tended to take advantage of that fact. They didn't even need to be that much stronger to take her from her feet either, but Shio plainly had strength to spare. With something between a yelp and a giggle, Aegle found herself being swung in a frantic circles over Shio's head. By all rights, she should have at least tried to punch her attacker for the indignity, but she was far too busy guffawing in excitement. Sure, she felt a few suspect cracks from her forearm, and even though she heard straining carbon-fiber over the roar of wind in her ears, but there was something so inexplicably fun about swinging around like the head of a flail. Besides, after the first revolution, the centrifugal force of the swinging effectively pinned her free arm to her side, rendering any resistance wholly untenable anyway. Then, all at once, Aegle's gut lurched and her shoulder popped and she found herself sailing like a missile, just like she had at the start of this fight. This time, at least, she had the presence of mind to enjoy it. With exhilaration, barely intruded upon by the painful flopping of her dislocated arm, Aegle shrieked with giddy delight as she soared over the ground. And right into a pillar of solid stone. She struck first with her shoulder blades, but was promptly splayed across the pillar's vertical face, as if a great hand had swatted her into it. She felt metal bend and bones break and even fancied that she felt the stone shift before gravity finally reasserted itself and let her drop the couple of meters between her and the ground. The pillar was mostly unharmed for, light and flexible as she was, Aegle made a truly terrible projectile. Aegle, conversely, was less well served by her graceless flight and subsequent landing. She lay at the pillar's base in a crumpled heap, having landed directly on her head at the end of her inevitable fall. Her arm, the one that Shio had been hanging onto, lay limply over her back, while the other lay at an indelicate angle across the pillar's footing, seemingly bent backward against the hinge of her elbow. She was atop her over-extended arm with her face in the dirt, her legs stretched out away from the pillar the way they had fallen. For a couple of seconds, neither sound nor movement came from Aegle's broken form. Then, as if it were a recording, briefly interrupted and now resuming, a shrill giggle drifted up from the pulverized pugilist. Shifting indelicately, Aegle rolled off of her broken arm and right onto the dislocated one. Her face was caked in dirt, made muddy and red by the blood that soaked it. Her bruised was was now host to a few new cuts, most prominent of which was a split above her left eyebrow where her head had met with the pillar's base. Opening her mouth, she ran her tongue testingly across her teeth, all of which were stained red, then gave a satisfied, even relieved, nod of her head. " I was tryin' to tell ya..." She said with a bit of giddy amusement, before sitting up and getting onto her knees without the help of her arms, a maneuver she clearly had some practice with, " I have been usin' my aura." Levering herself forward, Aegle stumbled upright with no apparent difficulty, glanced at Shio, and then took a more lingering look at her arms. The left was completely useless, swinging limply from her shoulder, while the left had a very nasty bend in it just below the elbow. It hadn't been hyper extended, but broken. " Hmm..." Aegle murmured, as if considering a creaky hinge rather than her own shattered forearm. She pulled a loose fist, an act which did pose her some apparent difficulty, then swung her whole arm back, smashing it against the pillar. There was a quiet crack and a very loud snap and, when Aegle once again examined her arm, it hardly seemed as though she'd done it much good. Still, she pulled another fist and seemed satisfied with the results. Then, moving as though her clearly broken arm were not actually broken, she laid her right hand in her left bicep and wrenched the whole of her left arm forward. There was another sickening pop, a much louder cracking sound, and Aegle's right arm fell down limply by her side, looking even worse for the treatment it had endured. Aegle ignored it however, and gave her newly reset shoulder a testing roll. It made a few unhappy popping sounds, accompanied by a laborious whir from its assisting motors, but Aegle seemed to think that was okay too. " Good as new." she murmured happily, before returning her attention to the burning faunus. " Ya see..." she said, as if she hadn't taken a moment to tend to her very broken arms, " I haven't really got all that aura to use right now." Offering a genuinely apologetic shrug, one which caused a few more desultory pops and cracks, Aegle smiled a sorry, hideously red smile at Shio. "I just got done trainin' before I met you. Endurance trainin', ya know? I pretty much burnt myself out." even her tone was apologetic. " That first punch knocked a whole lot of what I had left outa me." At least, she raised her fists, the right one off center thanks to the broken arm it was attached to. " I'm kinda runnin' on fumes; S'really all I can do to keep goin'." Light exploded around Aegle, her sustaining glow redoubling in radiance and intensity, as she threw herself into a headlong sprint towards Shio, trailing effervescence in her wake. She moved as though there were nothing at all wrong with her. No exhausted muscles or shattered bones or broken ribs, and certainly not a punctured lung or two. She moved at full speed, reaching a decent clip as she charged Shio. Except, as she came within four strides of her foe, she suddenly whipped her right hand forward and hurled a hunk of stone only slightly bigger than an egg, one stolen from the pillar, right at Shio's head. Without waiting to see if it hit, she faded left, sprung back into a run and brought her left hand up to guard her head as the right clove around for the faunus' kidney. Shio Kyrou |
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Post by Shio Kyrou on Feb 13, 2017 13:43:12 GMT -6
Pulsating exhilaration ran through every vein in Shio as she hurled Aegle over her head, just as if she were pitching her like a baseball. In that moment and shortly after it she could not think clearly about anything, not even to consider the debilitating damage that her throw had inflicted, she had been completely overtaken by her feral nature and this was very clear in her wide hysterical eyes - which offered no compassion to Aegle even as she was swatted against the pillar. Screaming pain resonated from her gut constantly, as her eyes winced uncontrollably, but the monstrous and almost evil smile that was broad across her face did not fade to this or even the irregular croaks between her breaths. Shio was enjoying it all, as rarely did she ever get the chance to let loose like this, and she wanted to savour every thrilling moment of it. A one-sided fight would have been nowhere near as enjoyable, even though the situation was still very much in her own favor, she took pleasure in knowing the opponent she had come to respect so deeply jumped at the opportunity to show her resolve, even though their situation looked to be so helpless. It took a special kind of gung-ho bravery to keep hitting an enemy many times stronger than yourself, and this was the quality of Aegle that Shio could earnestly appreciate and respected. For this reason she had not retaliated, not until the very last instant, when Aegle got the chance to punt every last bit of aura out of her. Little did she know that doing this triggered the true aspect of her semblance, and with it alongside all other things considered, in a way this fight was now over. It was no longer a matter of trading fists, in the face of how strong and fast Shio had become, Aegle was not only at a disadvantage but she had already lost. Endless stamina like what Aegle seemed to possess could only carry you so far when faced with overwhelming raw power, and there was simply a limit to how much your body can take. So even though Aegle managed to crudely bring herself back up on her feet, and still address her in nonchalant tone, Shio narrowed her eyes and with an apprehensive and almost disapproving glance examined the smaller girl head to toe- and saw right through her. Only with a minimal amount of attention paid towards what she was saying, the faunus came to fully understand the condition that Aegle's body was now in, and it shocked her internally. But her narrow and stern features did not change, as Aegle's aura roared into existence like the rev of an engine, she only observed and contemplated what her next move should be. As Aegle charged at her, Shio let out a sigh that became muffled underneath the brazen reverberation of air pressure and formidable aura that surrounded her, then readied her fists somewhat loosely. Right hand slightly higher than the left, held at about the height of her chest, her right leg pushed forward and was held firm. Holding back on an opponent was hardly something that Shio was very well accustomed to or practiced in combat, especially because she hated the intense level of concentration it required, but this had to be a rare exception. As the rock was hurled by Aegle, Shio had not been expecting it, it did take her by surprise. A cunning and non-straightforward attack, it couldn't have been predicted when Aegle had been using nothing but her fists the entire fight. However, Shio did not pay it attention for long, allowing her fighters instincts to take over for her - as it was a lifeless object, she did not need to hold back the strength she used. With the back of her left hand, in a singular swiping motion that appeared to be nothing more than a blur, the rock vanished from the course it had taken. As quickly as the motion had started and before it had even ended- The sound of demolished glass echoed far off in the distance. All whilst moving in her right hand. Before Aegle would have the chance to fully step in - let alone raise her guard and attempt to strike Shio - the girl would find her entire weight sent spiraling back with a tremendous amount of force. The swing of Shio's right arm had barely been visible, as it cleaved into Aegle's right shoulder as a forward jab. Explosions of aura, pressure, and air burst from the point of impact. The attack was two-thirds as powerful as the first haymaker Shio had struck Aegle in the face with, a mere fraction of the amount of strength she had at that moment, yet it was the full extent to which she was able to hold back. The punch itself had been flimsy, and if anyone had the keen eye to see the movement, they would know that Shio had not put an ounce of strained muscle behind it. No matter how far this punch would send Aegle, Shio would pursue immediately on the press of her forward heel, effortlessly able to keep up with the momentum by utilizing her astonishing speed. The scarfed brawler stared intently at Aegle, nothing but concentration plastered to her expression. When Aegle looked like she was almost about to run out of momentum, she stretched forward - opened her left palm - and viciously planted it onto her face, then closed her hand tightly, locking her head in the grip of her hand. Shio ran alongside Aegle until she ceased all movement, then yanked her entire body to stand upright, but she did not let her hand loose just then. The faunus would continue to squeeze on either side of Aegle's temples, only enough to seize her movement, but even this was certain to be painful given her colossal strength. Smouldering azure eyes glared straight into and past her, and although fierce, looked to be sullen. If Aegle even had the sense to notice, it appeared as though she was in deep thought, searching for something specific in her mind.
NOTES: 9x Strength, 3x Speed (60 seconds) |
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Post by Aegle Vitus on Feb 13, 2017 20:59:19 GMT -6
It was a pipe dream for Aegle to think she even had a chance of hitting Shio at this point. Though her body could and was continuing to operate as though nothing were wrong with it, there was simply no getting past how much faster and stronger the faunus girl was. Or at least, that is what a sensible person probably would have concluded. If her decision to continue fighting with a broken arm and punctured lung, not to mention the laundry list of other injuries she had, was of any indication, Aegle was anything but sensible. Rather, she was committed to keep fighting until Shio stopped or she did, and not a moment sooner. Having not actually waited to see if her ploy with the rock had any effect, Aegle was not disappointed to see even her best attempt at subterfuge come to naught against the faunus girl's enhanced speed. Nor was she forewarned that a counter attack would be forthcoming far more quickly than if she'd actually managed to get the headshot she'd been aiming for. With all that said, she took the punch remarkably well and without a single sound. Battered from her feet once again, Aegle was sent spiraling through the air like a child sized lawn dart, spinning almost too quickly for her to keep her dinner down, let alone actually figure out what was happening. At least, until her head was grabbed and her airborne rotations were brought to a premature halt. In all of Aegle's prior experience, flying away from a foe was one of the few times where she could let her guard down. It was mind boggling that someone, even someone moving three times the speed of a normal fighter, could catch up to her after sending her flying. It stretched any concept of credulity to expect an attack, let alone a grapple, before she had even struck the ground. And yet, with all that said, Aegle responded nearly immediately. Her hands both shot up and captured a hold of Shio's wrist, supporting her own weight rather than letting the faunus girl do so. If the speed of her reaction was any indication, this too was a situation which Aegle was familiar with. It was actually pretty surprising just how many people attempted such a hold when they perceived themselves as a stronger and more capable fighter than she was. Whether by clutching her face or taking a hold of her neck, they all seemed content to hold her at arms length and presume such treatment would render her neutralized. Grunting quietly, feeling the bones in her shattered arm shift as she supported her own weight, taking the strain from the vicelike grip on either side of her head, a disapproving expression crossed Aegle's face. " What's wrong?" She asked with no audible strain, even while her small body hung limply from Shio's grasp, managing to actually sound concerned for the faunus girl. It was plain, even to one of such singular capacity as Aegle, that, if Shio had been so fast as to catch up and catch a hold of her, the faunus girl should have been equally capable of pummeling her before she struck the ground. That the faunus had not actually done so seemed cause for concern. Opening one eye, the other too swollen to be of much use, with no apparent concern for the crushing strength on either side of her skull, Aegle regarded the faunus girl holding her up. As the silence lengthened, however, Aegle's concerned expression gradually lengthened with it, and something like actual anger flickered across her horribly bruised face. " Lost your nerve then?" She asked, with an edge to her tone that was both sudden and serrated. Her emerald eye, still glowing, narrowed on the burning faunus with something dangerously close to contempt, even while the taller brawler held her effortlessly aloft in a decidedly vulnerable position. With blood frothing out of the corners of her mouth, equal parts disappointment and annoyance flashed across her open face, as expressive now with a litany of scrapes and bruises, as it had been in the moments before Shio unceremoniously cold cocked her and kicked off this whole violent affair. " So, what?" Aegle jabbed, fingers tightening vainly around Shio's wrist, powerless to actually hurt the burning girl. " Y'think I don't know you coulda hit me harder than that, huh? You were happy to hit me hard as y'could to start, but now you're holdin' back?" Moving her head in Shio's grip, Aegle grit her teeth and tried to pull free, yet succeeded only in causing a painful creaking of bone around her temples. " So, what?" She asked again, her mouth twisting into a crimson snarl, " What's wrong? You tired of hurtin' me or what?" She twisted again, and again the strength of her arms was not enough to free her from Shio's grip. " Was okay to break my arm and my jaw, but now you gotta stop, huh?" frustration was creeping into her tone, now, supplanting her evident disappointment. " Worried y'gonna kill me?" She asked scornfully, almost as a taunt, as she continued fruitlessly trying to work her way free. Her fingers dug into Shio's wrist as hard as they could, betraying just how little strength the considerably smaller girl actually had at her disposal. Though her skin was leathery and calloused with evident, extreme wear, her grip was barely sufficient to leave a mark, let alone actually bruise. It was as weak as, or even weaker than, that of a child. " First Lily, and now you..." She seethed venomously, all joy and excitement evaporated in the face of this fundamental disappointment. There was an air of tragedy to it, a fundamental impotence that only seemed to incite further fury from the trapped girl. " Coward!" Aegle suddenly spat, a small puff of red spit escaping with the word, doubtlessly the product of her drowning lung. Then, with all the muscles in her body, even those bruised and pulverized past any usefulness, Aegle levered herself up and slammed both feet into Shio's face with every single ounce of strength at her disposal. And she did so with a savagery and brutality which was, hitherto, unseen from the peppy pugilist. Screaming, not with pain but with fury, Aegle tore her skull from Shio's grip with such vicious determination that the points on either side of her head actually flexed with the effort. Had the faunus girl grabbed her neck and surrounded it, escape would have been wholly untenable, but a hold on either side of her head was an incomplete hold at best, and Shio's strength, great though it was, did not outweigh Aegle's determination to get free. Arching back the moment she was lose, forcing Shio's hand upward and her body downward with both arms, Aegle performed a complete somersault and got her feet under herself just before striking the ground. Next, utilizing all the momentum she'd gathered in the process, the smaller girl swung hard with all her strength to put her one good arm behind her one good fist, right into the the center of Shio's stomach. Before she could, however, her aura exploded, bursting in a corona of effervescent radiance, then it flickered out entirely. One moment, the courtyard had been all light, a glow that far eclipsed the sapphire conflagration that surrounded Shio. Then, a moment after, it was the faunus' aura alone that cast shadows across the deserted training grounds. Aegle crumpled immediately and without ceremony, dropping into the earth like a puppet with its strings cut. Her clothes, previously only smoking from proximity to Shio's furious aura, immediately caught light as the sustaining presence of Aegle's own aura vanished. So too did the obvious wear and abuse she'd suffered come into high focus. Where her breathing had been easy, even effortless, a mere moment before, now her chest shuddered and heaved, as agonized gurgling gasps sawed haphazardly out of her open mouth. She gave a single involuntary spasm, one which contorted her face into an expression of exquisite agony but had not the strength to move any other part of her crumpled body, before finally falling to rest. At last, save for the painful effort of breathing, Aegle was still, with only the glassy flickering of her one good eye to suggest she had not succumbed fully to unconsciousness. That eye found Shio's before a chagrined expression twitched listlessly across Aegle's brutalized features. She managed to hold her gaze and that expression for a whole two seconds, during which time the labored tenor of her breathing turned almost mirthful to match; Like she wanted to laugh but was too weak to manage it. Then, with a shuddering cough that deposited a unsettling amount of blood down her chin and onto her neck, Aegle's eye rolled back and her face fell slack. In the end, only the difficult, half liquid sound of her breathing remained, punctuated by an occasional cough and quiet gurgle as her lung filled with blood. Shio Kyrou |
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