Predatory

Bloodlust

I threw a right-pedded kick at Tarn's upper chassis. He immediately blocked it with his right arm, pushing my pedde roughly back. I lept backwards, putting as much distance between us as I could. 

Then I dropped to a low crouch. This way, even if I let him get close, he couldn't knock my legs out from beneath me. I planned my next attempted "hit".

 I circled around him, he followed me, keeping his back and only blind spot away from me. 

I then jumped onto the see-through railing, and slammed my fist down on it, swinging my legs through the air, aiming a kick at his upper arm, right underneath his treads. He blocked again, still showing an obvious preference for his right arm. I pulled my legs back quickly before he could grab them and put me on the floor. 

I dropped off the barrier and tried a swipe with my right servo at his right pedde. He quickly took a step back, and hit my hand away quickly. Right servo again...

 I had an idea. I lept back, and prepared for one more attack before I got serious. I stared him in the eye, then lunged at him. I tried an uppercut with my right arm from the right, then as he grabbed my wrist with his right servo, I slammed my fist at his chassis. He finally used his left arm to grab my other wrist.

Dang, I thought. He's really good, but I might have a shot at this yet. He shouldn't expect this. And if he does, then he's still going to have to beat me then anyway.

My peddes slammed into his chassis, I used him as a platform to propel myself out of his grasp. This threw me to the floor, but I positioned myself so that I hit the ground with my shoulder and rolled onto my peddes. Then I jumped into my combat stance. My real one. My right pedde firmly planted slightly behind me, and my left leg taking the lead, my pedde resting completely on point in front of me and slightly to the side. My left arm in front of my right, and my right servo curled toward me. Tarn noticed my change of stance, because he regained his stance. Now we were getting serious. 

I stepped tentatively toward him, left leg still leading. I kept my distance, but we were close enough to start making moves at each other. Tarn started fighting back, I think he was just giving me pity hits earlier. 

He made a well-aimed kick at my right leg, my "weak" spot. I shifted my weight onto my left leg, and swung my right leg up, so my pedde now rested on my left knee-joint. A pirouette. If Tarn was surprised, he didn't show it. He was already stepping toward me. 

I moved my right foot to step back. He went to go for a solid punch to my shoulder. My fist made contact with the inside of his arm, slamming it away from me. 

I took another step back, he took another step forward. Then I realized why. He was slowly cornering me. I pretended not to have noticed this. He was clearly trying to keep me busy with his attacks so I wouldn't notice that I was being cornered. If I hadn't been looking for it, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. I gritted my denta behind my emotionless mask of a face. I kept it blank so it didn't give him any hints as to my plan. I needed to act quickly, before it was too late and I couldn't escape. I feigned an ambitious kick at his left, then at the last minute, I leaped on top of the barrier and quickly ran down it, before leaping into the ring behind him. He had already whirled around to meet me. 

We continued fighting. He always on the offensive, I always danced just out of reach. That mask was definitely doing the job of keeping me from reading him like a book. He showed no emotion. No surprise, or confidence. This made things slightly more difficult. Not that I minded it being hard. I lived for the adrenaline rush. I had always felt free in combat, much more alive than I ever did in the "real world".