Latent Potential: The Origin Of The Surging Gale

Chapter 6: Controlled Chaos

    Her words, while simple, struck as true as a sledgehammer against a glowingly hot rivet; thunderous as the blast of a firearm. A simple word could bring the world to a momentary standstill as two warriors stand adjacent to one another, poised to strike; the intensity of that one moment could raise the dead. How a simple, friendly sparring match could feel so brutally tense, simply by a chilling stare down lasting but a fraction of a second. Two friends turned bitter rivals at the drop of a single word.

    “BEGIN!!” 

    That very instant, it all boiled over. We exploded out from the sides of the ring, charging each other, colliding with our shoulders, both of us maintaining force to assert dominance over the fight. After around ten seconds, we backed off and began the fight proper. My strategy was to play the defensive game, keeping my guard up and dodging every strike he threw at me. Judging by how I’ve seen him fight and train in the past, I gambled a guess at Allen relying more on striking than grabbing, though I would be prepared for that as well. Since my focus was on the fight, my EDS wasn’t as fine tuned as normal, so I couldn’t zero in on the smallest tell. This was a test of my instincts.

    Allen began properly with a flurry of quick jabs to the face, which I was easily able to avoid with some high speed head movement, and when he added a swift right hook toward the temple, my arm instinctively went up to catch it, exposing a hole in his defenses for a split second; an inconsequential time for some, but the perfect opportunity for my hyperactive reflexes. I swung a quick left straight punch into his exposed body, surprising him and sending him reeling, allowing me to unleash a quick combo of hooks to his face, swift heel kicks to his sides, ending with a new technique I devised: a double kick out of a side front flip, slamming down on his head. He wasn’t sent down yet, but we backed off from each other for some fight banter.

    “Nice move! You’ve been working your acrobatics into your fighting, I see.” Allen commented. “Is that what you’ve been up to?

    “Partly. Just keep your eyes open.” I replied, signalling him to come at me, which he took to heart, lunging with a powerful hook, which prompted me to jump back with a few handspring backflips into a full backflip. I dashed forward, having stuck the landing on the balls of my feet. Allen attempted to capitalize on my forward momentum with a swift shot to my gut, but I telegraphed it and with a front flip right over his head, I avoided his attack. However, I noticed too late that it was a feint strike. He landed a downward angled elbow across the back of my head, which had me reeling, but I was able to jump away from him before he could capitalize.

    “Didn’t see that coming, huh? Guess your EDS thing was all talk!” My opponent threw some verbal mud. I responded with a high side kick to his jaw that almost appeared out of nowhere, and with a jumping front kick to his stomach, I was back in control of the fight. He came back with another combination of jabs and hooks, and while I was busy defending against that, he slipped in a sweeping kick across my legs, sending me to the ground but not flat. Allen went for a low kick to my face, but I rolled backwards and leapt back to my feet with a classic kung-fu style handspring technique, or kip up.

    “That knockdown was invalid! Continue!” Destiny kept up her role as the referee. We took a quick moment to rest, walking slowly around the ring and keeping our guards up.

    “Not bad. You actually managed to hit me a few times.” I began the banter for this metaphorical round.

    “Seems like it’s harder to focus your senses while in the fray, eh?” Allen rebutted. “Guess you’ll need some more practice with it.” I nodded. “But come on, you’re out here showing me stuff we’ve already seen. Your gymnastics training is coming in handy for some quick martial arts moves, and that was a textbook kip up, but I was expecting something really surprising here, ya know? You’ve been holding your speed back quite a bit.”