Post by Styles on Dec 26, 2010 2:34:05 GMT -7
22:33:31 -=Styles=- had finished a bout more than a few hours ago, and had found himself prepared and willing to take on another contestant. The estranged feeling for the lust of bloodshed had overtaken the Anomaly the last week or two, with the assassination of two random individuals, and two more victories over supposed super beings, back to back. Yes, he was enjoying himself very much. However, it was a change of pace he needed to stay sharp. He’d opt to leave his spear, the deadly weapon reminiscent of the Spartan’s phalanx talons, out this round. He was looking for some closed quarters combat. His right hand went around to the small of his back, pulling from a concealed scabbard his favorite close ranged weapon…the Karambit. His opponent, already chosen, was present within the ring and Styles, if uninhibited, would approach the Man
22:33:34 [-=Styles=-] with intentions of a very short, yet bloody, Combat. He gripped the Karambit properly, noting that the finger ring did have a spike on its radius for puncturing, and it‘s blade held dual edges. None other than the Steel Tiger Karambit, in all its infamy. There he was, before his opponent, Sheng, who’d accompanied him on two assassination raids. His right side took the front, distributing his weight evenly between his legs which spread slightly more than shoulder width apart. His stance was called the Ichimonji no Kamae, wherein his right arm was before him angled at forty five degrees and slightly bent, perfectly able to parry or sweep incoming strikes, and his left arm was behind the right, the left fist tucked into the crook of the elbow. Styles Relaxed himself, and abiding by a personal philosophy, he would wait until
22:33:38 [-=Styles=-] Sheng made the first move, even though Styles knew this match would take more than a few seconds to complete, much like he‘d dispersed opponent‘s in the past with great ease. (-done-)
22:43:41 Sheng took quick notice of his “friend” Styles. It hadnt been long since the two of them fought side by side but obviously Styles wanted to hone in his skill with a karambit on Sheng. This was gonna be fun. Sheng simply nodded to Styles as he stood up and made his way towards Styles. Sheng moved into striking range of Styles and unsheathed his own karambit. His was more of the traditional style with a six inch blade that went through the middle of two hardwood pieces that made up the handle and ended in a steel ring just big enough to fit his right index finger through. Sheng knew that Styles was gonna force him to make the first move so he did. Sheng would simply, yet with impeccable speed, made for a cut across Styles upper chest from Styles’ left shoulder to his right. It wasnt meant to kill but more or less get his attention to start off the match.
22:56:31 -=Styles=- would exchange a quaint nod to Sheng as well, as one was given to him, in which case by means of formality, that may be considered a subtle salutation between the two. Indeed, Styles was prepared to learn a few things from the man who he’d heard was a top notch combatant, a combatant without any ridiculously strong supernatural powers that could be easily abused. A man after his own heart….figuratively and literally. As Sheng maneuvered in to the Anomaly’s striking range, the man calmed himself so as not to be distracted by the wears of adrenaline. Sheng was swift, Styles would match him, as he was many times known as the Mongoose against the Snakes. As Sheng’s slice came in and began its slant across Styles’ form, the Anomaly would perform simultaneous actions. He would let his left hand circle beneath Sheng’s
22:56:33 [-=Styles=-] attacking hand, in order to allow it to become trapped inside Styles defenses, the right arm to come down, the back of the Karambit in his grasp aiming to meet the forearm of Sheng’s attacking arm with more of a stab with the back of the blade, than an actual slice. (-done-)
23:09:29 Sheng saw good form in Styles’ movements. He was at least somewhat versed in how to use a blade, let alone the karambit, the most feral of all blades. Sheng was pleased to see this but this was soon outlived for the counter was soon followed up by an attack from Styles’ own blade. Sheng would two thing simultaneously at this point. First off his attacking hand was seemingly trapped in Styles’ block, but not for long. Before Styles could really get a good grip on Sheng’s knife hand, Sheng would pull his arm back and twist the back edge of his karambit down and to the side a bit to face Styles’ own forearm. As Sheng’s knife hand slid back it would do one of two things. Either it would cause Styles to abandon his attempted lock and retract so not to get sliced into like a holiday ham and two; if Styles didnt move his arm, it would get sliced into like a holiday ham. While this was happening Sheng’s open would deal with Styles’ knife hand. <C>
23:09:52 Sheng open hand would come across his chest quickly to intercept Styles’ knife hand at the wrist. He aimed for the wrist because in any type of knife fighting if you can stay just behind the wrist, the chances of getting sliced are slim to none. As soon as Sheng felt his open hand make contact with Styles’ knife hand he would push his hand and the blade away from his body avoiding the knife all together. This was a rather basic movement as well. The Filipino people called it “the hoopla.” With that said and done, Sheng would also take a quick step back to put some distance between himself and Styles and to assess the damage he had done if any at all.<E>
23:29:32 -=Styles=- had never intended to actually attain a grasp on Sheng’s attacking hand, it was merely a mode of ensuring that Sheng’s attacking arm would become ensnared within Styles’ element of attack, or simply put, had hopes of leading Sheng into a pre-set assault pattern. A feign, if you will, in order to execute a desired motion from his opponent. This was very pleasing to Styles, as many a men fell victim to simplicity in transit, and often bloodshed ensued too early, and Sheng had avoided it skillfully. As that hand which had circled beneath Sheng’s attacking arm would appear to fall victim to Sheng’s very simple alteration of his blade’s positioning, he may note that in the moment he turned and began retracting his arm, Styles’ hand had continued to circle over the top of Sheng’s knife hand, with an agility only someone with natural martial
23:29:36 [-=Styles=-] prowess could achieve. It required a very swift action to avoid being cut open, and in so doing was looked upon as a sacrificial maneuver, due to the potential of damage being inflicted. A decent feign, he hoped, perhaps it would work. This would effectively allow Styles to bypass getting sliced open and to bleed out like a stuck pig, and instead Styles’ hand had cupped itself and turned his palm towards Sheng while it circled, forming the shootou, and would sharply pop downward on Sheng’s knife hand as it was pulled back, also raising the crook of his elbow and taking his arm out of the path of Sheng’s counter. As for Sheng’s defending open hand, Styles would allow the man to make contact, and to even begin shoving on the knife hand, but in return, Styles would bend his wrist towards Sheng’s incoming hand, so that as it
23:29:40 [-=Styles=-] came to grips with his wrist, the curve of the blade would come over the top of Sheng’s own wrist, ironically, like half a handcuff. Styles would roll his wrist so that his hand would circle over Sheng’s hand, which would be pushing the knife hand at this point, hooking it so the tip of his Karambit would meet the center of the soft tissues of Sheng’s wrist, and if Sheng had hoped to withdraw as quickly as he was to retreat, he may find himself slicing his own wrist open. Styles’ left hand was prepared for immediate defenses, at this point, and was deliberately left out of the equation in case Sheng decided his Karambit should be used further. (-done-)
23:46:13 Sheng felt the quick pop on the back of his knife hand that would push his hand and the blade out of the way. That worked just as well as Styles had planned it. However this was not the hand he was concerned about. Styles was now trying to cut into the back of Sheng’s open hand. This was going to cause a lot of pain and he knew it. There really was no way to avoid this happening but there was a way to lessen the pain. Sheng’s open hand would move just under the hilt of Styles’ blade. This would cause the “working” part of his blade to land in an area and only have enough leverage to leave small surface wounds. It was still rather painful but Sheng could put that aside for the time being. Taking the hit to the arm like that would also afford him a better advantage as well.<C>
23:46:29 [Sheng] By taking the cut didnt have to retract his arm and then try to move in for his counter, instead in would place him perfectly within Styles’ guard automatically. Sheng would step into Styles a bit while simultaneously bring his knife hand up in an uppercut motion with the tip of the blade facing Styles all the way up. There really was nothing Styles could do at this point. If Styles blocked the knife attack his arm would be gashed open to the deep tissues and possibly tendons rendering that arm next to useless and if Styles didnt block it, he would get a karambit to the gut with the pulling force of Sheng’s arm slicing through his intestines and major organs effectively making Styles bleed to death. <E>
00:06:39 -=Styles=- had anticipated that Sheng’s defenses weren’t so infantile that he would be trapped so easily by the hooking of his Blade over his hand, and was happy to see that Sheng hadn’t withdrawn his arm, and instead opted to leave it hooked, which is precisely where the Anomaly wanted him to be. This worked well for Styles because it was not his intention to actually flay Sheng‘s arm, he was merely setting himself up for another position, the flaying would only have occurred If Sheng had withdrawn his own open hand in the process of getting hooked. As Sheng stepped into Styles’ guard, Styles let his left leg half step backward in a C-step sort of motion, allowing him to take his whole embodiment completely out of the way of Sheng’s attack by turning his torso and bringing his right side diagonal to Sheng‘s back. Why? Styles would also simultaneously turn his knife hand outward, and bend at the elbow, hopefully
00:06:41 [-=Styles=-] causing some pressure to build up against Sheng’s open hand arm so that it would be manipulated, or released, and possibly forcing Sheng to turn away from Styles by doing so. Styles’ open hand would come over the top of Sheng’s open hand parry it downward at the same time Styles C-stepped backwards smoothly, so that Styles would deliberately expose Sheng’s upper body. In either case of the manipulation or release of Styles’ knife arm, as Styles turned himself and put himself on the outside of Sheng completely, given that it was successful, he would let his blade free itself from over the top of Sheng’s arm with minimal cutting damage as predicted. However, with having turned his arm outward and letting his knife hand face palm up to free itself from Sheng‘s hold, this would manipulate the blade’s angle so that the inside edge of the blade would come to meet Sheng’s neck as Styles extended his arm towards the man‘s throat. (-done-)
00:21:00 [Sheng] Well this sucked. Sheng’s attack had missed Styles completely and now Sheng’s left arm was cut, not badly but cut none the less. Pure adrenaline kept the pain at bay for the time being but it was gonna really suck in the morning. Now Styles was aiming to take out Sheng’s jugular. Things were starting to get a bit hairy. But there was one thing that played to Sheng’s advantage. Physics. Momentum to be exact. The momentum of Sheng’s missed attack would cause his body to continue moving forward with nothing to stop it really. Sheng would use this to his advantage to avoid getting his throat ripped out. As Sheng was carried forward away from Styles a bit he would drop to his right knee to avoid Styles knife.<C>
00:21:23 [Sheng] As he dropped though would quickly twist his body around until his torso was now facing Styles’ standing left leg. As Sheng turned he held his elbow up at about chest level with the blade of his knife help horizontally to slice into Styles knee and shred the tendons as Sheng twisted. If the initial cut didnt land Sheng would simply bring the back of his karambit across Styles’ knee just in a reverse motion as the first cut. In fact Sheng would make it a point of his to do this if the initial landed or not just to ensure a good follow through. Sheng’s blade would cut into Styles’ knee just as Styles’ blade came over the area where Sheng’s jugular vein was only a second ago. <E>
00:06:23 -=Styles=- had built up a successful defense in the passing moments of the bout so far in order to protect himself from counter attacks from his comrade, and wasn’t going to ruin his pattern by becoming over confident. He hadn’t tossed all his chips into a single bet, but had invested enough that he pursued his assault without inhibition. It wasn’t the Anomaly’s intentions to inflict a lethal wound upon Sheng, but instead implicate a serious enough offense that he could sway Sheng into doing what he wanted. Manipulation, adaptation, improvisation; this was a mutual game and it was more of a mind game than it was a test of physical prowess. As the Anomaly’s blade came to the area where Sheng’s jugular vein was supposed to be, by no surprise, Sheng wasn’t there. The target was Styles’ left standing leg, the knee which seemed highly
00:06:27 [-=Styles=-] exposed, and Sheng would have been successful had it not been for the open hand of Styles previously parrying Sheng’s open hand downward in order to deceive Sheng into thinking the momentum built up from the previous counter would work to his advantage. Momentum was indeed an important factor. This parry was very important in his stance, because as Sheng maneuvered himself to avoid the throat shot, Styles’ open hand would have been low enough to block the incoming slice meant for Styles’ knee at the very moment Sheng‘s throat would have been cut. This is precisely what Styles would do, because as Sheng dropped to his right knee and had twisted for the slice Styles’ left knee, while he figured Styles was preoccupied with the throat shot, Styles too had been in the position to lower his stance thanks to the
00:06:31 [-=Styles=-] previous C-step which had built the momentum by also dropping to his own right knee, and building the necessary momentum for the block and counter. The motion was fluid, to say the least. Styles’ open hand would come to Sheng’s attacking arm while it was committed to the initial slash. A fist would form tightly at the last possible moment so that the knuckles of Styles’ knifeless hand would snap against the sensitive group of nerves on the inside of Sheng’s forearm. This would not make Sheng drop the Karambit if it was successful, that was what the knuckle ring was designed for, but by the time the pain registered from the knuckles having potentially popped against the inside of Sheng’s forearm, he would notice two things. First would be a peculiar numbness and inability to attain an effective grip on his Karambit to continue utilizing
00:06:35 [-=Styles=-] it, as that particular block was meant to temporarily deaden the nerves in the hand. The second was a simultaneous action, as were many, so that in the same instance where Styles had seemingly left himself open for attack, he had deliberately set himself up for an important counter attack. Styles merely had to turn his knife hand palm down again in order to let the tip of his Karambit rest against Sheng’s throat once more, while blocking and turning to come face to face with Sheng, before the open hand of Sheng which had been parried earlier would be allowed to recover quickly enough to intercept Styles‘ knife. By the time Sheng had hit his knee, Styles should have flayed open Sheng’s left arm and perhaps puncture his ribs with the spike on his knuckle ring, but instead had created a Stalemate and intentionally avoided plunging the
00:06:40 [-=Styles=-] Karambit into Sheng‘s throat, out of respect for his fellow combatant. (-done-)
00:22:03 Sheng seemed to have let himself become a little more consumed by the intensity of the match than wanted. He was cut and aiming to gut Styles like a fish, however Styles seemed to be doing the same. Such was the mentality of a warrior in any type of fight. Sheng however did not realize this until he was about to make a fatal blow against Styles and when Styles was about to the same to him. See, when Sheng went for the tendon cut, Styles had motioned to strike Sheng’s knife hand. Sheng was able to tell this by the ever so quick and slight movements of Styles’ legs. Minuscule yes, but still existent none the less. To the trained eye it was an easy telegraph. In the instant Sheng noticed this he would quickly maneuver his knife hand to snake around Styles’ empty striking hand and aim for Styles’ groin with the tip of his karambit.
00:22:22 [Sheng] Should this type of cut land, it would most likely make Styles’ bleed out. But just as Sheng was about to make the cut something stopped him. The feeling of Styles’ blade against his throat made Sheng snap back into reality and stop just before the knife was about to rip into Styles’ genitals. Sheng would then carefully sheath his karambit and wait for Styles to move the blade from his neck before he moved any further. It was a stalemate. Both Sheng and Styles knew this. Both has killing blows lined up and didnt take them.<E>
00:29:38 -=Styles=- hadn’t anticipated such adversity in his opponent’s maneuverability, considering the knife hand. Careful preparations could be thwarted, it seemed, yet no ill will would be harbored, and in fact Styles would take this as a lesson learned. Simply put, he put his balls on the line and almost came out missing them, and had this been a separate situation, either contestant would possibly have been mourning their own losses. Indeed, the Anomaly with withdraw his Karambit from Sheng’s throat without a second thought. A quaint nod, as they had exchanged during the beginning of the match, would be given from Styles in salutation confirming the end of the match. The Anomaly sheathed his Karambit back within it’s concealed residence and withdrew himself from the range of Sheng by simply standing. Damage had been dealt to both parties, and Styles could most certainly live with that. (-done-)
22:33:34 [-=Styles=-] with intentions of a very short, yet bloody, Combat. He gripped the Karambit properly, noting that the finger ring did have a spike on its radius for puncturing, and it‘s blade held dual edges. None other than the Steel Tiger Karambit, in all its infamy. There he was, before his opponent, Sheng, who’d accompanied him on two assassination raids. His right side took the front, distributing his weight evenly between his legs which spread slightly more than shoulder width apart. His stance was called the Ichimonji no Kamae, wherein his right arm was before him angled at forty five degrees and slightly bent, perfectly able to parry or sweep incoming strikes, and his left arm was behind the right, the left fist tucked into the crook of the elbow. Styles Relaxed himself, and abiding by a personal philosophy, he would wait until
22:33:38 [-=Styles=-] Sheng made the first move, even though Styles knew this match would take more than a few seconds to complete, much like he‘d dispersed opponent‘s in the past with great ease. (-done-)
22:43:41 Sheng took quick notice of his “friend” Styles. It hadnt been long since the two of them fought side by side but obviously Styles wanted to hone in his skill with a karambit on Sheng. This was gonna be fun. Sheng simply nodded to Styles as he stood up and made his way towards Styles. Sheng moved into striking range of Styles and unsheathed his own karambit. His was more of the traditional style with a six inch blade that went through the middle of two hardwood pieces that made up the handle and ended in a steel ring just big enough to fit his right index finger through. Sheng knew that Styles was gonna force him to make the first move so he did. Sheng would simply, yet with impeccable speed, made for a cut across Styles upper chest from Styles’ left shoulder to his right. It wasnt meant to kill but more or less get his attention to start off the match.
22:56:31 -=Styles=- would exchange a quaint nod to Sheng as well, as one was given to him, in which case by means of formality, that may be considered a subtle salutation between the two. Indeed, Styles was prepared to learn a few things from the man who he’d heard was a top notch combatant, a combatant without any ridiculously strong supernatural powers that could be easily abused. A man after his own heart….figuratively and literally. As Sheng maneuvered in to the Anomaly’s striking range, the man calmed himself so as not to be distracted by the wears of adrenaline. Sheng was swift, Styles would match him, as he was many times known as the Mongoose against the Snakes. As Sheng’s slice came in and began its slant across Styles’ form, the Anomaly would perform simultaneous actions. He would let his left hand circle beneath Sheng’s
22:56:33 [-=Styles=-] attacking hand, in order to allow it to become trapped inside Styles defenses, the right arm to come down, the back of the Karambit in his grasp aiming to meet the forearm of Sheng’s attacking arm with more of a stab with the back of the blade, than an actual slice. (-done-)
23:09:29 Sheng saw good form in Styles’ movements. He was at least somewhat versed in how to use a blade, let alone the karambit, the most feral of all blades. Sheng was pleased to see this but this was soon outlived for the counter was soon followed up by an attack from Styles’ own blade. Sheng would two thing simultaneously at this point. First off his attacking hand was seemingly trapped in Styles’ block, but not for long. Before Styles could really get a good grip on Sheng’s knife hand, Sheng would pull his arm back and twist the back edge of his karambit down and to the side a bit to face Styles’ own forearm. As Sheng’s knife hand slid back it would do one of two things. Either it would cause Styles to abandon his attempted lock and retract so not to get sliced into like a holiday ham and two; if Styles didnt move his arm, it would get sliced into like a holiday ham. While this was happening Sheng’s open would deal with Styles’ knife hand. <C>
23:09:52 Sheng open hand would come across his chest quickly to intercept Styles’ knife hand at the wrist. He aimed for the wrist because in any type of knife fighting if you can stay just behind the wrist, the chances of getting sliced are slim to none. As soon as Sheng felt his open hand make contact with Styles’ knife hand he would push his hand and the blade away from his body avoiding the knife all together. This was a rather basic movement as well. The Filipino people called it “the hoopla.” With that said and done, Sheng would also take a quick step back to put some distance between himself and Styles and to assess the damage he had done if any at all.<E>
23:29:32 -=Styles=- had never intended to actually attain a grasp on Sheng’s attacking hand, it was merely a mode of ensuring that Sheng’s attacking arm would become ensnared within Styles’ element of attack, or simply put, had hopes of leading Sheng into a pre-set assault pattern. A feign, if you will, in order to execute a desired motion from his opponent. This was very pleasing to Styles, as many a men fell victim to simplicity in transit, and often bloodshed ensued too early, and Sheng had avoided it skillfully. As that hand which had circled beneath Sheng’s attacking arm would appear to fall victim to Sheng’s very simple alteration of his blade’s positioning, he may note that in the moment he turned and began retracting his arm, Styles’ hand had continued to circle over the top of Sheng’s knife hand, with an agility only someone with natural martial
23:29:36 [-=Styles=-] prowess could achieve. It required a very swift action to avoid being cut open, and in so doing was looked upon as a sacrificial maneuver, due to the potential of damage being inflicted. A decent feign, he hoped, perhaps it would work. This would effectively allow Styles to bypass getting sliced open and to bleed out like a stuck pig, and instead Styles’ hand had cupped itself and turned his palm towards Sheng while it circled, forming the shootou, and would sharply pop downward on Sheng’s knife hand as it was pulled back, also raising the crook of his elbow and taking his arm out of the path of Sheng’s counter. As for Sheng’s defending open hand, Styles would allow the man to make contact, and to even begin shoving on the knife hand, but in return, Styles would bend his wrist towards Sheng’s incoming hand, so that as it
23:29:40 [-=Styles=-] came to grips with his wrist, the curve of the blade would come over the top of Sheng’s own wrist, ironically, like half a handcuff. Styles would roll his wrist so that his hand would circle over Sheng’s hand, which would be pushing the knife hand at this point, hooking it so the tip of his Karambit would meet the center of the soft tissues of Sheng’s wrist, and if Sheng had hoped to withdraw as quickly as he was to retreat, he may find himself slicing his own wrist open. Styles’ left hand was prepared for immediate defenses, at this point, and was deliberately left out of the equation in case Sheng decided his Karambit should be used further. (-done-)
23:46:13 Sheng felt the quick pop on the back of his knife hand that would push his hand and the blade out of the way. That worked just as well as Styles had planned it. However this was not the hand he was concerned about. Styles was now trying to cut into the back of Sheng’s open hand. This was going to cause a lot of pain and he knew it. There really was no way to avoid this happening but there was a way to lessen the pain. Sheng’s open hand would move just under the hilt of Styles’ blade. This would cause the “working” part of his blade to land in an area and only have enough leverage to leave small surface wounds. It was still rather painful but Sheng could put that aside for the time being. Taking the hit to the arm like that would also afford him a better advantage as well.<C>
23:46:29 [Sheng] By taking the cut didnt have to retract his arm and then try to move in for his counter, instead in would place him perfectly within Styles’ guard automatically. Sheng would step into Styles a bit while simultaneously bring his knife hand up in an uppercut motion with the tip of the blade facing Styles all the way up. There really was nothing Styles could do at this point. If Styles blocked the knife attack his arm would be gashed open to the deep tissues and possibly tendons rendering that arm next to useless and if Styles didnt block it, he would get a karambit to the gut with the pulling force of Sheng’s arm slicing through his intestines and major organs effectively making Styles bleed to death. <E>
00:06:39 -=Styles=- had anticipated that Sheng’s defenses weren’t so infantile that he would be trapped so easily by the hooking of his Blade over his hand, and was happy to see that Sheng hadn’t withdrawn his arm, and instead opted to leave it hooked, which is precisely where the Anomaly wanted him to be. This worked well for Styles because it was not his intention to actually flay Sheng‘s arm, he was merely setting himself up for another position, the flaying would only have occurred If Sheng had withdrawn his own open hand in the process of getting hooked. As Sheng stepped into Styles’ guard, Styles let his left leg half step backward in a C-step sort of motion, allowing him to take his whole embodiment completely out of the way of Sheng’s attack by turning his torso and bringing his right side diagonal to Sheng‘s back. Why? Styles would also simultaneously turn his knife hand outward, and bend at the elbow, hopefully
00:06:41 [-=Styles=-] causing some pressure to build up against Sheng’s open hand arm so that it would be manipulated, or released, and possibly forcing Sheng to turn away from Styles by doing so. Styles’ open hand would come over the top of Sheng’s open hand parry it downward at the same time Styles C-stepped backwards smoothly, so that Styles would deliberately expose Sheng’s upper body. In either case of the manipulation or release of Styles’ knife arm, as Styles turned himself and put himself on the outside of Sheng completely, given that it was successful, he would let his blade free itself from over the top of Sheng’s arm with minimal cutting damage as predicted. However, with having turned his arm outward and letting his knife hand face palm up to free itself from Sheng‘s hold, this would manipulate the blade’s angle so that the inside edge of the blade would come to meet Sheng’s neck as Styles extended his arm towards the man‘s throat. (-done-)
00:21:00 [Sheng] Well this sucked. Sheng’s attack had missed Styles completely and now Sheng’s left arm was cut, not badly but cut none the less. Pure adrenaline kept the pain at bay for the time being but it was gonna really suck in the morning. Now Styles was aiming to take out Sheng’s jugular. Things were starting to get a bit hairy. But there was one thing that played to Sheng’s advantage. Physics. Momentum to be exact. The momentum of Sheng’s missed attack would cause his body to continue moving forward with nothing to stop it really. Sheng would use this to his advantage to avoid getting his throat ripped out. As Sheng was carried forward away from Styles a bit he would drop to his right knee to avoid Styles knife.<C>
00:21:23 [Sheng] As he dropped though would quickly twist his body around until his torso was now facing Styles’ standing left leg. As Sheng turned he held his elbow up at about chest level with the blade of his knife help horizontally to slice into Styles knee and shred the tendons as Sheng twisted. If the initial cut didnt land Sheng would simply bring the back of his karambit across Styles’ knee just in a reverse motion as the first cut. In fact Sheng would make it a point of his to do this if the initial landed or not just to ensure a good follow through. Sheng’s blade would cut into Styles’ knee just as Styles’ blade came over the area where Sheng’s jugular vein was only a second ago. <E>
00:06:23 -=Styles=- had built up a successful defense in the passing moments of the bout so far in order to protect himself from counter attacks from his comrade, and wasn’t going to ruin his pattern by becoming over confident. He hadn’t tossed all his chips into a single bet, but had invested enough that he pursued his assault without inhibition. It wasn’t the Anomaly’s intentions to inflict a lethal wound upon Sheng, but instead implicate a serious enough offense that he could sway Sheng into doing what he wanted. Manipulation, adaptation, improvisation; this was a mutual game and it was more of a mind game than it was a test of physical prowess. As the Anomaly’s blade came to the area where Sheng’s jugular vein was supposed to be, by no surprise, Sheng wasn’t there. The target was Styles’ left standing leg, the knee which seemed highly
00:06:27 [-=Styles=-] exposed, and Sheng would have been successful had it not been for the open hand of Styles previously parrying Sheng’s open hand downward in order to deceive Sheng into thinking the momentum built up from the previous counter would work to his advantage. Momentum was indeed an important factor. This parry was very important in his stance, because as Sheng maneuvered himself to avoid the throat shot, Styles’ open hand would have been low enough to block the incoming slice meant for Styles’ knee at the very moment Sheng‘s throat would have been cut. This is precisely what Styles would do, because as Sheng dropped to his right knee and had twisted for the slice Styles’ left knee, while he figured Styles was preoccupied with the throat shot, Styles too had been in the position to lower his stance thanks to the
00:06:31 [-=Styles=-] previous C-step which had built the momentum by also dropping to his own right knee, and building the necessary momentum for the block and counter. The motion was fluid, to say the least. Styles’ open hand would come to Sheng’s attacking arm while it was committed to the initial slash. A fist would form tightly at the last possible moment so that the knuckles of Styles’ knifeless hand would snap against the sensitive group of nerves on the inside of Sheng’s forearm. This would not make Sheng drop the Karambit if it was successful, that was what the knuckle ring was designed for, but by the time the pain registered from the knuckles having potentially popped against the inside of Sheng’s forearm, he would notice two things. First would be a peculiar numbness and inability to attain an effective grip on his Karambit to continue utilizing
00:06:35 [-=Styles=-] it, as that particular block was meant to temporarily deaden the nerves in the hand. The second was a simultaneous action, as were many, so that in the same instance where Styles had seemingly left himself open for attack, he had deliberately set himself up for an important counter attack. Styles merely had to turn his knife hand palm down again in order to let the tip of his Karambit rest against Sheng’s throat once more, while blocking and turning to come face to face with Sheng, before the open hand of Sheng which had been parried earlier would be allowed to recover quickly enough to intercept Styles‘ knife. By the time Sheng had hit his knee, Styles should have flayed open Sheng’s left arm and perhaps puncture his ribs with the spike on his knuckle ring, but instead had created a Stalemate and intentionally avoided plunging the
00:06:40 [-=Styles=-] Karambit into Sheng‘s throat, out of respect for his fellow combatant. (-done-)
00:22:03 Sheng seemed to have let himself become a little more consumed by the intensity of the match than wanted. He was cut and aiming to gut Styles like a fish, however Styles seemed to be doing the same. Such was the mentality of a warrior in any type of fight. Sheng however did not realize this until he was about to make a fatal blow against Styles and when Styles was about to the same to him. See, when Sheng went for the tendon cut, Styles had motioned to strike Sheng’s knife hand. Sheng was able to tell this by the ever so quick and slight movements of Styles’ legs. Minuscule yes, but still existent none the less. To the trained eye it was an easy telegraph. In the instant Sheng noticed this he would quickly maneuver his knife hand to snake around Styles’ empty striking hand and aim for Styles’ groin with the tip of his karambit.
00:22:22 [Sheng] Should this type of cut land, it would most likely make Styles’ bleed out. But just as Sheng was about to make the cut something stopped him. The feeling of Styles’ blade against his throat made Sheng snap back into reality and stop just before the knife was about to rip into Styles’ genitals. Sheng would then carefully sheath his karambit and wait for Styles to move the blade from his neck before he moved any further. It was a stalemate. Both Sheng and Styles knew this. Both has killing blows lined up and didnt take them.<E>
00:29:38 -=Styles=- hadn’t anticipated such adversity in his opponent’s maneuverability, considering the knife hand. Careful preparations could be thwarted, it seemed, yet no ill will would be harbored, and in fact Styles would take this as a lesson learned. Simply put, he put his balls on the line and almost came out missing them, and had this been a separate situation, either contestant would possibly have been mourning their own losses. Indeed, the Anomaly with withdraw his Karambit from Sheng’s throat without a second thought. A quaint nod, as they had exchanged during the beginning of the match, would be given from Styles in salutation confirming the end of the match. The Anomaly sheathed his Karambit back within it’s concealed residence and withdrew himself from the range of Sheng by simply standing. Damage had been dealt to both parties, and Styles could most certainly live with that. (-done-)
