Sleeping Dogs Wake Up Anyway. [T |PM2ENTR]

[Deleted]

+10

[Deleted]

[/quote]

[10 | 80]

I found myself doing a handstand, something I had likely not done in a number of years. A child’s trick used to impress peers on the playground, but for a second time this afternoon, I was to turn such harmless acts into deadly weapons of war. The position I was in would have been embarrassing or even humiliating in any form of sober state, only I was in none. I had been thoroughly intoxicated a small time ago, and had found myself performing all sorts of unorthodox combat methods. This one included.

I would need incredible balance for the feat I was about to attempt; the whole manoeuvre was pretty much being made up as I went along, but that sort of in-the-moment fighting had worked for me for years… only perhaps it hadn’t been quite as rash, until now. I would take a moment to properly establish my centre of gravity, shifting my hands a couple of times. These shuffles moved me ever closer to my enemy, still stunned for the moment.

After a second, I’d grimace briefly, and lift my left leg high up in the air. I swung backward slightly in my hand-stance, just enough to create wind-up without sending me tumbling to the ground. I’d then whip my leg forward, bending almost all the way over as I whacked my opponent in the face; he groaned in pain and staggered back as the ball of my foot cracked him squarely on the forehead, but I wouldn’t relent. In fact I hadn’t much choice, because the momentum caused me to lean over forward, and I had to compensate by moving my hands forward. Uh-oh. I wasn’t sure how I was going to stop this.

But for the moment I wouldn’t worry; I’d simply continue to lash out, using my continual forward movement as a power source from my unusual kicking method. Once, twice, three times I struck him, hitting his neck, shoulder, chest; the blows were too quick in succession for him to have a hope of blocking them. Everyone in the entire bar seemed to be gaping at me, but I’d hardly notice. I gritted my teeth with every impact, for it sent great jolts through my entire body.

I'd beat this ogre to a pulp.[/ul]

[Deleted]

[/I]’ As my head moved ever closer to the floor...

I knew I’d simply continue to move forward, curling over on my spine and then simply toppling over, doing a face-plant onto the icy concrete canvas. In the tiny moment that I was falling, I registered the fact that if I simply lay on the ground, I’d be brutally beaten up by my enemy, and would probably die. I wasn’t about to let that happen; it would be friggin’ shameful. I refused to die in a dump like this. So just as I was about to hit the ground, I instead moved with my stumble, and turned it to my - okay, well, not advantage, but something that didn't hurt nearly as much.

Rather than smacking my head into the floor, I attempted to turn my body to the right as I fell down, and as my legs fell forward in a diagonal motion I plucked them neatly from the atmosphere, pushing them close in to my chest. I would then use the last of my arms' gravitational hold on the floor to send myself a whole one-hundred-eighty degrees around, hitting the concrete with my right shoulder and wrapping my arms securely around my shins, effectively transforming myself into a human ball.

As I rolled all the way over, I came to the conclusion that I’d simply resume my previous posture… On the move. Yeah, sometimes I set my goal too high. It was the only way I could think of defending myself.

As my revolution came to an end, I planted my hands squarely upon the chilly cement and used the momentum of my turn - combined with the considerable muscle in both my arms - to boost myself back upwards to my previous handstand position. I strained myself quite a bit in the process as I exerted my muscles to their full extent, forcing myself up onto them. I had completed my cycle and had now gained my previous topsy-turvy posture once again, with relatively little injury. I looked forth toward my opponent, who looked almost ready to strike again despite taking my severe beating.

I wasn’t done yet.[/ul]

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

[/I].

But it seemed my opponent wasn’t ready to try out the effectiveness of my manoeuvre just yet; he was still moaning faintly on the floor. So, using up the free time, I got to know my hand-stance for the final time. I first tried moving a little more sinuously in it, concentrating on my hands as I walked forward – and then backward – on them. If I were to ever pull off this technique in combat, I’d need all the experience I could get. I even tried lifting myself onto one hand, and then discovered my arm wasn’t quite that strong.

After a moment I grew bored of these practices, and for the first time, attempted the flip I intended to pull off in just a sec. I’d take it one step at a time, though, so I decided to first simply right myself from my topsy-turvy stance. I bunched myself down onto my hands to start with – which was quite painful after all the strain they’d already taken – and then attempted to rotate my entire bodyweight backwards - up, and over – while using the force of my arm’s propulsion as an assistant.

The combined force was enough to get me airborne, and furthermore lift my bulk backwards, spinning head-over-heels to an upright position, where my feet would land and I’d stagger for a moment, my knowledge of which way was up a little distorted. But after a moment, I realized I’d done it. I almost laughed.

“Ta-da.” I muttered sarcastically, as my opponent began to rouse himself.[/ul]

[Deleted]

[/I] rotation for my liking. I smiled at the outcome, and as a result, I’d try a few more times.

I performed the same actions again, realising that as I spun I had to keep presence of mind or I wouldn’t be able to judge the landing properly. I did the leaping turn again, landing a little more steadily this time, but I realized I was moving from my place a little - I was supposed to keep on-the-spot with this technique – so I then attempted to balance out the different points of my spin so as not to place too much weight on each stage of the turn; this enabled me to land more or less at my starting position.

But for all my joviality I was struck by the comprehension that I was only half-done. I had to flip twice in mid-air. That sent a trickle of trepidation down my spine.

I looked up at my opponent, now climbing back over the table, and grimaced.[/ul]

[Solus]

+50

[Deleted]

[OOC: Fancy template, activate.]

[/size]

CONSIDER THIS LAST HURRAH
THE COUP DE GRÂCE!
◆◆◆◆

[/center]Smash the Bottle
Rank: B
Skill: Taijutsu
Effect: (in description)
Special: --
Drawback: --
Description: While facing the opponent, the user flips onto his hands, causing his back to be facing the opponent, a normal forward handstand. Next the user performs six backward kicks, striking the opponent in the face with his heels. Finally the user pushes off of the ground and flips in the air backward, appearing to be trying to regain their feet, but this is a feint for those who would attempt to trip the user as he lands. Instead the user keeps their body rotating in the air, their feet eventually reaching the opponent's chest while bent against the user's body. With as much force as possible, the user sends his feet flying into the opponent's chest to send them backward, the user sailing forward and rolling on the ground to regain their footing.
Limit: Must be drunk to do.

❖ 60 || 80 ❖

✘ I’m flippin’ out for this guy!

[/b] ✘[/size][/color][/center]

The next technique I was about to perform on my opponent – a big, brawny, muscly black guy who was only now recovering from his recent reverse-flight into a bar table – was one involving the use of not only one, but two flips, and a double heel-kick to the chest while remaining airborne. So far I’d got the first flip down-pat, but rotating twice in mid-air? That was going to take some serious skill. Not ‘skill-that-I-didn’t-have’ skill, but skill.

My opponent had now resurrected himself, groaning at intervals and massaging his head with his palm, which I noticed was bleeding rather profusely. Usually I would’ve taken pleasure in seeing him injured, but I was far too anxious about my upcoming technique to grin in my customary malicious way. It was time to get down to business.

I started off in the same way, crouching down slightly, bending at the knees so as to produce enough springing force to get myself up in the air. I then added the extra buffer of my upper body – namely my arm’s – momentum by swinging them up in the air at a forty-five degree angle above my head. I was pretty confident with my ability to perform a single flip, but I knew I had to do two or this manoeuvre would become ineffective.

I closed my eyes, breathed out slowly and performed my move before I had any further opportunity to debate the reasonability of what I was about to do. I leaped up into the air at the same moment I threw my arms down in a curve in order to produce the flip effect. My head flew toward the pavement before turning back up to face the ceiling and finally back up to the usual horizontal position. Instinctively, my legs left the balled-up position I’d made with my body and let them hit the floor, regaining my balance again.

For a moment there was nothing but post-flip euphoria, but then the knowledge leaked in that I had only done a single pivot. “Fuck.” I hissed quietly, and began again.

I retook my former position, lifting up my arms and crouching down, moving a little further toward the ground than usual, hoping it would improve my condition. Once again I gave myself to gravity, whipping my whole body forward and turning – turning with all the might in my body. I gritted my teeth, feeling wind on my face, and forced myself not to eject my legs from the ball I had rolled myself into when I hit the three-sixty degree mark. With that little extra effort, I managed to go about an extra two-hundred-fifty degrees until I hit the concrete. Hard. On my ass.

The blunt pain made me wince, but I wouldn’t stay sitting for long. I got to my feet, watching my opponent shuffle toward me, looking sluggish but murderous nonetheless.

“Bring it.” I said aloud. Time to show the method in my madness.

[Deleted]

Plus ten

[Deleted]

CONSIDER THIS LAST HURRAH
THE COUP DE GRÂCE!
◆◆◆◆

[/center]Smash the Bottle
Rank: B
Skill: Taijutsu
Effect: (in description)
Special: --
Drawback: --
Description: While facing the opponent, the user flips onto his hands, causing his back to be facing the opponent, a normal forward handstand. Next the user performs six backward kicks, striking the opponent in the face with his heels. Finally the user pushes off of the ground and flips in the air backward, appearing to be trying to regain their feet, but this is a feint for those who would attempt to trip the user as he lands. Instead the user keeps their body rotating in the air, their feet eventually reaching the opponent's chest while bent against the user's body. With as much force as possible, the user sends his feet flying into the opponent's chest to send them backward, the user sailing forward and rolling on the ground to regain their footing.
Limit: Must be drunk to do.

❖ 70 || 80 ❖

✘ I’m flippin’ out for this guy!

[/b] ✘[/size][/color][/center]

Egged on by my reckless uttering, my opponent blinked a few times and shook his head violently, banishing the drowsiness from his head. He looked me straight in the eye, still dizzy but focused enough that he was still a grave threat. “I’ll make you bleed.” He said darkly, the anger showing plainly on his usually calm, serene face. He was frightening enough while deceivingly docile, but to see him in this state was nothing short of scary. I took an instinctive step back from him…

But then came to my senses. What was I doing? I was the strongest goddamn fighter in these parts, no ifs ands or buts about it. I came here today to drink, but now I had a duty to perform. This guy had challenged me. Twice. And I wasn’t about to back down. I was going to give him the honour of having the snot beaten out of him by none other than Kaoru Takeuchi.

I gritted my teeth in my trademark sardonic, confident and yet malicious way, and lowered myself into my fighting stance. “I’ll knock the crap outta you.” I spat back, knowing my insult wasn’t nearly as ominous but far truer. Animated by my retort, my enemy growled an animalistic growl and charged headfirst at me, abandoning any caution.

Good. I loved to battle that way.

As he rushed at me, I shut down my mind and crowned my instincts king. I breathed out through my mouth as I lowered myself to my knees, raising my arms upward and compressing my chest downward, creating the spring that would launch me into the air. As my ears registered the lumbering footsteps heading in my direction and analysed their velocity in mere moments. I closed my eyes, and as my inner Gladiator screamed ‘NOW.’ I let him take over and propelled myself up into the air, swerving my hands downwards and then clenching them over my knees, which I had clutched to my chest.

My hair whipped like tongues of flame in the wind created by my revolution, first one the blood rushed to my head and I tried not to think about the ground perhaps half a meter below my head, and then my back, and then my legs as I rotated right around. But I wouldn’t stop there. I fought the screaming force of my body, telling me that one turn was enough, that I should drop my legs now before I hurt myself, but I gritted my teeth further and just kept on spinning.

As my head descended once more toward the ground – or what I thought was the ground, it was hard to tell at this point – I felt an extra rush of air fly past my face, and theorised that it was probably my opponent’s foot whipping by, and would’ve grinned in any other situation that didn’t involve going head over heels twice, in mid-air, in a matter of seconds.

As I approached the end of my second rotation, I released the grip on my legs a little so as to free up movement. As I came up and over, I forced myself to open my eyes, and saw the roof of the bar – in just a second I’d have to perform the kick! As I continued to turn I caught a glimpse of my enemy’s ugly, bewildered face – likely because of my double-flip – and then saw my motivation. I would knock this guy out cold for daring to challenge me.

My legs shot out like a jack-in-the-box as I completed by second turn, ejecting out from my chest as my knees eventually reached their horizontal extent and my heels planted squarely upon my opponent’s chest with what must have been extreme force, for I heard a gruesome crunching noise as my opponent was airlifted – and then I turned over backwards, landing on my ass. I groaned sharply, but through the horrible, blunt pain I heard another crash, and looked up to see my opponent once again sprawled in a heap of tables and chairs at the other side of the room. It was clear he wouldn’t be getting up again.

I breathed out hard, feeling exhausted after my ordeal, and slowly got to my feet. With a sigh, I walked over to the bartender and gave one last departing comment.

“That was some crazy-ass shit you gave me to drink. Thanks.”

As I crossed the bar’s threshold, I heard cheers erupt from within. Seems everyone at the bar had enjoyed the show.

Well… most of them, anyway.

[/justify]

[Exit]

[ladymia]

+8

[Deleted]

[Enter]

CONSIDER THIS LAST HURRAH
THE COUP DE GRÂCE!
◆◆◆◆

[/center]Roll With the Punches
Rank: "B"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: The user is able to roll with the punches, and not take as much damage that should have been delivered.
Special: ---
Drawback: Does not work on Slashing, Piercing attacks, or attacks that are not solidified, that hits in a mass amount, this technique does not work against NinJutsus.
Description: The user has become quite good at handling hits and taking them, they have now trained themselves to roll with their opponents punches as they come to them. By moving their body with the direction of their punch they are able to dodge or take less damage from the hit. When they are hit they go along with the punch or kick to take less damage. Whenever someone would attack bluntly with punching, kicking like techniques, or anything that is blunt like techniques the user sways with the direction of the attack as the attack becomes deafened, the attack becomes lighter, giving less harm towards the Brawler. When the user learns this technique the opponent's techniques become one rank less powerful then it is initially used. This technique does not work against NinJutsus as it only works on Bludgeoning, and Blunt TaiJutsu techniques.
Limit: Must be a Brawler

❖ 0 || 80 ❖

As usual, there was little in the way of tranquility at the Drowsy Dog pub. In fact, I had to dodge a couple of inebriated folk in the midst of a tussle as I crossed the door-less threshold. Inexplicably, the place was completely packed. It was a shithole, in all honesty. I'd never really seen it that way before. Sure, I'd always noted it as a hole, but not a shithole. I almost wanted to leave. What was happening to me?

But I wouldn't bother entering into anything deep or philosophical, and the fact that I was even thinking about that was disturbing, so I decided to commence without preamble. From past experience, I knew that he would be here. I simply sauntered toward the rough centrepoint of the tavern, and called out simply,

"I know you're here."

The response was, unsurprisingly, instantaneous. Emerging from a shadowy corner came the very same adversary I'd just defeat yesterday. And the day before. I suppose, quite like me, he was a regular. It didn't explain how he was always here when I was. Or his miraculous capacity to recover from injury. He was just always here. Like he knew when I'd come.

The man, whose name I didn't know, stood a little way above me in height and moved forward till he, too, was in line with the centre of the rectangular establishment, roughly five meters from my location. "You're not one of the locals." I said, eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"

"Admiring the scenery." He said flatly, and, in that inexplicable way of his, suddenly he was just in front of my face, a punch already well on the way to connection with my head. I had a split second reaction to push myself from the floor and jet backwards a few meters to land without receiving a faceful of fist. I knew his follow up would be on the way, so I flicked my eyes up to stare at his previous position, but of course he wasn’t there. In fact his face was mere inches from my own, a follow-up punch soaring towards my upper body. Lacking proper grounded contact with the floor, I couldn’t dodge, and I knew from personal experience how fucking hard his punches hit.

So at the last second I knew what I had to do: Protect my face at all costs. Time slowed dramatically as my instincts kicked in, elevating me to a higher plain of reality. Suddenly his fist didn’t seem to be travelling at impossible speeds any longer. I could feel every muscle in my body, and in my uncertain step, I tilted my right shoulder up, transferring my head from the impact point and settling my shoulder just in front. My teeth gritted as I manipulated my whole body to the proper focal point and braced for impact.

But as his attack hit, the peace that had flowed over my body paid off, because suddenly I was able to think properly even after the jarring impact hit me. I could feel the entire energy transfer for the whole time, but I had to concentrate intensely to retain presence of mind. The raw power shot through me, starting at my shoulder, running down my torso, into my chest, into my spine, along all my bones.

I could feel the intense and higher points of focus distinctly, and I wondered if this new sense had something to do with my recent chi-amplified Shunshin training. It almost felt like I was channelling the power myself, dulling it, transferring it equally. It was almost meditative till the pain subsequently hit, and the second reality was dispersed as I was shunted back, but somehow the force didn’t seem quite as potent this time. I stumbled and staggered, gritting my teeth and glaring at the man as I grabbed my shoulder in pain. Yet strangely, it didn’t even feel fractured.

I had grasped a new concept, it seemed. The giant of a man had left his punch extended where it hit, and seemed to be grinning at me from behind his fist. Then he stood up. “Good girl.” I thought I caught on the draughts, and then his eyes glinted, he was gone, and my eyes flashed in panic.

[/b][/font]

[N A T S U M I]

Hun, are you aware that you haven't fully learned Smash the Bottle?

[Deleted]

{{OOC: I did. In a different thread.}}

❖ ? || 80 ❖

This rival of mine had the incredible ability to simply vanish in his intense speed, and reappear only milliseconds before I experienced blinding pain. He’d done it once again, just moments after I’d managed to mystically experience a new sense when he’d hit me. It was incredible, like I could feel the exact charge points and almost dull them by choosing where to feel them, though it the moments I had before he reappeared I realized it had been me; I had been almost unconsciously fractionally tilting my body to minimize damage. Shit, was that even possible? Apparently. And I was eager – well, interested at least – to try it again.

My adversary appeared at my side, his hulking, black-skinned figure a little difficult to discern in the gloom, supporting himself with a vacant table as he swung a roundhouse kick at my gut. As it swung towards me, I focused intensely, making to attempts to dodge, only brace myself for the hit. There was something in that acceptance that just let me let go of my usual tension, so entering that special state was almost easy. It wasn’t like I had the superpower to see everything slow, just more like it no longer surprised me, and I could move more accurately with it. The foreleg crashed into my gut, but I equalized this movement by going through the motions besides, letting myself be blown back by it, almost stepping back till the energy was dulled. I let my arms flow forward, letting the energy flow out there, releasing even further pressure.

Holy shit, this was amazing. My steps as I moved backward were slightly more raised, which dulled the lift effect. The dull, thudding compression of a crushed gut was far less severe as I stepped backward, though I still doubled over. But the pain left me soon as I stood bent, wheezing slightly. I was seriously blunting his attacks to a noticeable degree. Holy shit!

Just then I heard a slight grating sound across the floor, and looked up – more specifically diagonally up and left, and saw the guy almost horizontal against the floor, propping himself up with one hand and sweeping his right leg in a wide, arcing motion to completely sweep my legs out from under me.

I studied his approach, trying to judge the exact motion, the speed, the velocity, the force… and I met his challenge once more.

[/b][/font]

[Water Adept]

+16

[Deleted]

[/justify]

[Exit]