Glitter in the Wind [Spar / Zam and Fang]

Fang looked around and nodded at the surrounding area as they arrived, having cheated a little bit by using the wind to fly rather than using his energy to break the laws of the world as a more powerful cultivator could. A stronger cultivator than himself could simply will himself into the air regardless of their element, but his element did allow him some small skill in flight. He stood on the ground now though.

It was as good a location as any. Empty, lifeless, and expansive. It was perfect for their activity given that he had been warned that Zam had trouble holding back, and given her penchant for explosions he didn't doubt it. The question would end up being whether his speed could even handle her ki control because that was the only aspect of himself he was truly confident in when it came to sparring with Zam. She was considerably stronger than he was after all, and while ki might be her specialty as far as he could tell, he didn't imagine she was lacking in other areas much. She looked strong after all, even if she did have a gummy body, he knew she could move pretty quickly, and the hug she had given him made it clear she could, in fact, crush him.

So his speed was perhaps his only advantage, or so he hoped anyway. If he could not use his speed to overcome her likely greater ki and strength, he was likely to feel like a ping pong ball getting smacked around from every direction he attempted to move.

He took his stance, Leaf in the Wind, and faced Zam. His hands were relaxed facing towards her, his body loose and ready to move at a moment's notice. Wind gathered and swirled around him, helping to improve his already slim swift form to even greater heights. "Yes, I am ready. We can begin." He said calmly. He had no illusions that he could handle Zam in a real fight. But it all depended on how much she held back if she did at all. Otherwise, he was fish in a barrel, whether he knew it or not.

WC: 364

It wasn't as though Fang minded stretching or anything. But to him doing so before a fight was of little consequence. And more often than not you didn't have time to do it before a real fight anyway. The benefits of stretching were often to help one loosen up and relax, but he found the idea dubious at best. Even more so for someone like Zam whose body didn't seem to even have the sort of physiology a human body did.

But even if he thought that stretching might benefit him in a normal battle, he doubted it would make that much difference when facing an opponent who was significantly stronger than him, like Zam.

While he maintained his flowing stance, her attack still came as an unpredictable assault against him. The way she stretched to strike out at him, the way her limbs could bend. It was wild, a technique that could not be copied by anyone who did not have the ability to stretch their limbs like gum.

He likely could have dodged to create some space between them, he had a technique for such a scenario. But his experience with Zam was that being at a range would only put him in a worse situation. Perhaps being close would not exactly help much, but if he moved away he would only be further putting himself at a disadvantage.

He slipped forward instead, wind swirling around a hand until it condenses into a blade of pressurized force. Though he did attempt to dull the force so that it would be more like slapping her with a baseball bat, rather than a sword. He doubted he could cut her in half, but he wasn't going to risk doing that either. Though moving in close still meant he took hits while moving into place. And for him even that much was significant, leaving every punch she gave his body a sore spot, but he pushed past the pain to get closer for his attack.

WC: 334

▪ ACTIONS ▪
▪ Style Name: Leaf in the Wind



Technique Name: Blade of Wind
Type: Offensive
Tier: Standard
Stat: Ki


▪ STATS ▪
HP: 30 HP -> 24
▪
STRENGTH: 4 (5)
STAMINA: 5 -> 5
▪
KI: 3 (4)
KI POT: 5 -> 4
▪
AGILITY: 7 (15)

Fang was amused by her reaction to his attack. He'd purposefully dulled his attack, and the fact he had not cut her confused her. Which was pretty funny in his opinion.

"No, no. It's not broken, I just didn't WANT to cut you. I deliberately reduced the cutting effect of my attack to make the effect less harmful. It's just an aspect of control to ensure I do not cause you extreme harm." He explained. "You are confident in your body, and for good reason! It is a fine body. Strong and flexible. But I do not know your limits, so I intend to avoid causing what would ordinarily be considered vital harm. This is a spar, after all, not a death battle." He noted simply before preparing for her next attack.

He didn't intend to take her next attack, the energy she was giving off from this close was making the hair on his neck stand on end. Wind gathered around his body, his hand slid forward to push against her wrist just before she unleashed her energy, while he shifted to the side, then around behind her with his Swift Step technique. Just doing everything he could to throw the accuracy of her technique off at the last moment while he moved away and around. Though he did pause to consider the damage her technique did to the ground around them.

He didn't think he would have been in any condition to continue the fight if the blast had hit him. He probably could have survived it, if only barely. And it didn't seem like a technique that she had put much effort into either. He could not match such a technique with his best technique, even though the one she had just used had not been used with much effort on her part. At least that was his assumption. "That was pretty impressive. It would have done me quite a lot of harm." He noted.

"Hah, your second best, huh? Your best must be really scary then. I feel like that last blast would have torn me to pieces if I let it hit me directly." He mused. "But if you hurt me really badly, you have to nurse me back to health!" He noted with some enthusiasm. He didn't foresee a scenario in which he didn't end up exhausted and bruised by the end of this spar. Put frankly, Zam was simply too intense for him, and he was not strong enough to keep up for long. He had been warned of course, but this was to be expected, and he didn't really mind that much anyway.

However, he did intend to show his potential at least. If he was going to go down regardless then he may as well go out with the best bang he could.

However, first, he wanted Zam to lower her guard. And falling into her next attack seemed like the best way to do this. It was going to hurt a lot, but he was confident it would have at least some effect.

Being wrapped up grabbed, and slammed around certainly left him feeling sore. But he managed to take each slam with some grace, though it might have been difficult to see from an outside observer.

However, just before her last slam hit was when he moved. Leaving Zam grasping suddenly empty air where Fang had once been held. And in a display of unparalleled stealth and speed his hand wrapped in a blade of wind moved to punch through her back and out her chest.

As much as he didn't really want to hurt his new friend, he was going to take her word for it that she would be fine. This technique certainly would have killed any human he used it against since he was using it at full strength without holding back in the slightest. Even enhancing the delivery with a blade of wind. However, assuming his arm managed to punch through her back and out her chest, the devastation would only continue as energy seemed to detonate from his arm in a shadowy blast of lethal energy that would likely leave her torso a ragged mess at the very least (at least in his mind), assuming it didn't completely blow her body apart like it would for most people. He hoped her durability was well founded, he was trusted in her ability, because otherwise this was an insanely stupid technique for him to perform during a spar, and he was likely going to end up being killed by Zam's grandpa later. Which he frankly might not even resist, because killing Zam would absolutely devastate him.

WC: 452

▪ ACTIONS ▪

Technique Name: Blade of Wind = 2 Damage
Type: Offensive
Tier: Standard
Stat: Ki
Description: A condensed swirling blade of wind surrounds the hand like a sword, or coats the blade of a weapon to enhance its sharpness further before making an attack against an opponent.

Technique Name: Shadow Viper Strikes = 13 Damage
Type: Offensive
Tier: Delux
Stat: Strength
Description: The user puts their speed to maximum effect, placing themselves in a position to deal a devastating blow to their enemy. The primary purpose of this technique could be considered assassination, or granting a swift death. The body is wrapped in a dark wind that hides them until they are ready to strike. By spending 2 E-SP from Stamina, the user can add half of his Speed stat to the damage this attack deals (The added number has no impact on the relative strength of the technique for the purposes of clashing).


▪ STATS ▪
HP: 30 HP -> 12
▪
STRENGTH: 4 (5)
STAMINA: 4 -> 0
▪
KI: 3 (4)
KI POT: 4 -> 3
▪
AGILITY: 7 (15)

Fang stood over the wreck of what was once Zam and gradually broke into a sweat. He waited and waited, and eventually, Zam pulled herself back together, and he let out a sigh of relief.

He'd thought it extremely unlikely that he could kill someone as strong as Zam that easily. But she really had worried him for just a moment. While he was confident in how clever and skilled he was, those things could still only get him so far against an opponent whose power was overwhelming. He'd half expected her to be able to resist his attack entirely. He'd half expected her body to stretch rather than be pierced by her attack, but she was surprisingly soft. Or perhaps not so surprisingly, but it wasn't like he'd spent a whole lot of time feeling up the pink woman to know just how soft and squishy she could be. He'd only shared one hug with her so far, and been half crushed by it.

He was glad that she seemed happy with his attack. He'd put everything he had into it! And that was a very literal statement. He was frankly exhausted from performing the attack. So much so that there was no way he could perform such an attack a second time. He simply lacked the stamina for it.

"Well, I am glad I was able to land at least one really good, really big attack on your that impressed you." He nodded. "Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to do it a second time. I'm not strong enough yet to perform the technique like that twice in a short amount of time." He noted.

"But yes, please do show me whatever you have in mind! I'm eager to see what else you can do." He agreed, assuming that he might regret agreeing to whatever she had planned, but no one could ever say he was a coward. They probably could say he was a foolish man though. But he was a foolish man who wanted to impress an interesting pink gummy girl. He was more than willing to take a beating to that end.

WC: 360

Fang at least had enough strength left in him to duck. He could no longer use his best techniques to dodge, but he was still in his stance and that did help him move precisely.

After ducking, and turning to watch the ball of glittering energy fly past before exploding beautifully in the distance he hummed.

Then turned back to Zam and shrugged. "We can continue if you like, however, I am already quite exhausted." He noted, and indeed if she looked he was breathing quite hard, at least for him. Sweat was dripping down his face, and his expression was a little less relaxed than it usually was. "I'd love to be able to play up being stronger, but that last move more than anything else also displayed just how much stronger you are than I am. I already knew you were stronger of course, but I took this as a learning experience regardless." He shrugged.

"But that last move could have killed me in a single shot if it hit me head-on. If you had not slipped just now I am not even sure I would have had the energy to dodge it." He noted with a chuckle.

"We can try to continue if you want, but unfortunately I think that if we do, you'll end up getting rather bored and disappointed with me. I've got some deadly moves, but I don't have the strength to even use the last one a second time, unlike you. At best, I can use my wind technique and rely on just my energy to attack, but even in that I will quickly become drained. I won't last even another minute before I am left a husk if I can even survive that long." He explained, hoping she would be fine to call their sparring session here for now. Unless she took some pleasure in beating up an opponent who was quickly becoming unable to defend himself. He'd continue if she wanted, he just didn't think it would be at all satisfying for her beyond this point.

WC: 345

▪ STATS ▪
HP: 12 HP -> 12
▪
STRENGTH: 4 (5)
STAMINA: 0 -> 0
▪
KI: 3 (4)
KI POT: 3 -> 3
▪
AGILITY: 7 (15)

The idea of sharing energy actually was not all that strange to Fang. For one thing, he was a cultivator. This meant that while he did have a personal reserve of energy that could be considered Ki, much like Zam's reserves of energy, he took energy externally, purified it through a variety of techniques, and then steadily focused and increased his internal reserve through external means. The universe was an ocean of energy that could be harnessed, and he generally acted as both the strainer that purified that energy, and the pressurized bottle working to contain all that energy.

He was familiar with the idea as well that people simply trained to increase their personal reserve without harnessing external recourses, but he had no personal experience with that method himself. It was a foreign alien method to his own form of training.

When she lept at him, he twitched like he intended to dodge her, but didn't in the end when her arms wrapped around him, hugging him. It was snug, but not nearly so crushing as the first hug she had given him at least. He returned her hug with a pleased little hum, feeling the energy she shared with him filling his body and replenishing him.

When he felt like he was back in pristine condition, he gave a low impressed whistle. "Wow, you really are amazing Zam. Being able to learn and use techniques like these. Very impressive." He praised them with a nod while rubbing against her back.

"So, did you heal me to continue this spar, or did you simply wish to heal me before we leave?" He asked unsure what her plan was now. But thinking about it, trying to go back to her village while he was exhausted would have been much harder.

WC: 300

▪ STATS ▪
HP: 12 HP -> 30
▪
STRENGTH: 4 (5)
STAMINA: 0 -> 5
▪
KI: 3 (4)
KI POT: 3 -> 5
▪
AGILITY: 7 (15)