The Ranch

Spitting Death In The Face (2)

At around ten feet before Kai, the claymore falls into Kane's hand without him even having to look up. Kai and Kane lock eyes. Kane makes the first move.

He swivels at Kai, his body moving almost like an inflatable tube man. It's completely different from his previous crisp and clean movements. This is because he's using his own variation of drunken sword dance, that resembles the state of being drunk.

Drunken sword is a unique sword style with a philosophy that when dancing with their swords in a state of stupor, the sword merges with one's body and man would become one with nature. Side note, martial artists that use this style get drunk to practice.

Kane's drunken sword is not the exact Chinese style as it's slower and more fluid, like everything is one large move, but it was definitely practiced while drunk, so it's a good comparison to the Chinese style of Drunken sword.

Kai has no was of parrying the snake-like sword and has to roll to dodge it. With no feasible was of countering, the audience watches as Kai morphs into a roly-poly, otherwise known as the pill bug.

"Stop running and fight like a man." Kane sees if he can hurt Kai's pride and rule him up.

"Impressive Instructor, you're as slick as an eel. Be careful you don't slip on your own mucus Instructor." Kai feigns arrogance, attempting to anger the man while hiding his own anxiousness. Any one of those swings is a K.O. for him and he's not into masochism.

Kai's arrogance isn't very convincing with a wrinkled and dusty military suit unfortunately. He just keeps on dodging as he and Instructor Kane start a round of verbal jabs.

Kane plays with Kai, letting the mouse run away from the cat for the excitement of the hunt. He purposely confuses the pacing and controls the fight's tempo. Look at it like the arena's a giant chess board. Kai is cornered, left with one or two options that only draw out the inevitable. Kai can't spot any move for a comeback.

If this were a pop quiz, Kai would flunk like the student who gets good grades without studying, finally finding himself in the pit he dug for himself. Even the dodges are slowly becoming sloppy as he's still trying to incorporate dance into them, even if they're no longer on beat.

He can attempt moves from his memory and use his minimal parkour skills, but there's no fluidity between each move, not even mentioning the rhythm.

"C'mon Kai! You have the grace of a fish out of water!" Theodore teases from across the colosseum, which the camera gladly picks up. The rest of the team has been watching the whole affair on the holographic screen. Theodore saw that Kai was getting more anxious and thought he could get some payback while he was at it. Who told Kai to be such a smartass. He wasn't like this when they first met. Tsun?

There's a period of time when you don't know someone well enough to make fun of and joke around with someone, but once that period passes...

"Look who's talking landlubber! If you were in my position-!" Kai yells from across the arena at the top of his lungs, a microscopic smirk appears on his lips. He almost got stabbed when he yelled, but managed to get away with only a small cut. At this point, he's so covered in cuts, he could pass off as a very ugly zebra.

Theodore cups his hand around his mouth and leans on the balcony,"I'd have already won!" He mocks confident, angering a team on the balcony saying it.

"Don't be arrogant, newbie." One of Kane's disciples feels insulted.

"Look in a mirror." Theodore turns to face the man. He looks down slightly and sneers. Why does he look down, you ask? Oh, well that's because this pre-teen is taller than the adult male.

"...Or, what's the equivalent? Seawater? A puddle on deck?" Theodore can't recall any mentions of mirrors on pirate ships. He contemplates other options.

Unlike Kai and Instructor Kane, the man seems easily provoked because he starts walking over," Hey-!"

"No fighting on the balcony." A staff member steps between them and looks silently at Kane's disciple.

Henri hears the conversation as it's picked up by the cameras and speakers. He sighs with a warm but awkward smile, like one would have after watching two puppies play tug of war over a bone.

The staff assigned to the teams are in charge of refraining them from helping their teammates and starting fights among the balcony, but there's no rules about trash-talking, so the salty insults continue.

"...Stop trying to sink your own ship idiots." Victor watches the two go back and forth and rubs his glabella in annoyance. The number of people with animosity towards them seems to be increasing.

"Ayyyy look who decided to join the fun." Theodore nudged him on the shoulder.

The others have already become desensitized to Kai's new hobby of trash-talking after listening to it for the past month or so. Many were annoyed at first, including Theodore, but he eventually came around. It looks like Victor is also starting to come around.

Victor rolls his eyes and turns, hiding his slight smirk. Theodore is wearing his excited puppy look, but it's more genuine right now. After getting to know him more, it's discovered that Theo's personality is of a mischievous person that likes to act naive. It shouldn't work with his large body, but his expressions are always so on point that it doesn't affect the effect.

"Should we... also trash talk our opponents?" Abel whispers to Lucien.

"The opponent is Instructor Kane's team. He's well liked on the island." Lucien hints.

"His teammates are his disciples, right? Remember that incident happened and was recorded. Tih's face was revealed because of that. We can get payback for Tih." Abel lowers his voice even further so the speakers don't pick it up.

"Uhh, I don't think Tih needs our help to get payback when he's the one that swept the floor with them. Lucien doesn't feel the need to lower his voice.

They can see some fear in the eyes of the disciples when looking at the child. Tih watches the fight, not on the screen, but the actual fight. Most people would see two ant sized blobs, but Tih seems to be quite focused on it.

"Idiot, making our district look bad." Major Jax mutters. He rests his shoes on the balcony's marble railing.

The judges make a few more minor comments and, just as sudden as it started, the electronic music stops. The abrupt end doesn't allow Instructor Kane to do anything impressive as a final move like Henri.

He sheaths his claymore and admires his work. Light cuts are strewn across Kai's face and body. He'll need to buy a new outfit as this one is now filled with holes. The only blood that can be seen comes from the cut made when Kai shouted at Theodore.

Kane smiles at the huffing and puffing boy, but unlike his usual relaxed chill smiles, this one seems to hide something behind. He looks over Kai's shoulder to meet eyes with someone,"You helped educate one of my students, I thought it'd be unfair to not do the same." Henri's expression remains the same.

Kane nudges Kai's shoulder light-heartedly," Learn something?"

Kai nods seriously. His expression hardens, thoughts whirling in his head, gathering all sorts of information from the sorting files in his head space. He need to rework some of his habits, impressions, and information.

Kai's body leaves the stage after it hears clapping. He doesn't bother with the winner's announcement, already knowing the result.

"All fire, no cap." James nods, impressed with the performance, even though it was completely one sided.

"All that needs to be said." G-dog shrugs.

"Well done Instructor." Louis claps. The audience quickly joins in. And with that, the second round is over.