139 Chapter 139:
Another day, another fight, this time, both Igor and Ace fought at a much earlier time, and again, they won both times. Ace this time, played a more countering game, his opponent had obviously studied his past fight, and had prepared, adopting a solid defence. However, Ace's new way of fighting took him by clear surprise, and when he finally got tired of waiting, he struck out with a quick lunge and punch, Ace countered, as he had prepared to do, with a sidestep, and an elbow to the ribs, leaving his opponent out of breath. That was his eventual demise, as for the split second he was out of it, Ace kicked the back of his leg, and then stopped less than a centimetre short of the boy's neck with a chop to the neck. The referee declared his win, and Ace left the mat, after wishing his opponent the best of luck.
For Igor, it was much of the same as last time, except this time he did get hit, his opponent was another giant, except that unlike Igor's passive style, he followed a much more offensive discipline. It became a showcase of strength and power, each of the two giants clashing repeatedly. They went for a while, and then for a few rounds more, before Igor spotted an opening, and executed a perfect kick. It was scary, the kick seemed to have as much power as a mule's, and when it hit the torso of his opponent, a guy the stands cheered for as "Bull!", he was knocked to the floor, barely breathing. At this point, Igor could have stomped any part of his opponent's body, but unlike his brash personality would lead someone to believe, Igor was not a psychopath, and did not enjoy spreading pain. He asked his opponent to "Please surrender", a chance he hastily took with a few quick nods.
The crowds cheered at the chivalry and respect shown, but there were certainly a few people that had hoped to see Igor stomp the guy. Ignoring the crowds around him, Igor walked back to where his fellow teammates and coach were. They all smiled at him, congratulating him for the clear win.
Next, it was Win's turn to fight, but this only happened a few hours later, once all of the freshman fights were done for the day. He was matched against a girl, she was stocky, almost reaching Win's height, and had an aggressive look to her, cracking her knuckles, and smiling scarily at her opponent before the fight began, Win gulped.
'Well, this should be a nice fight to watch.', Ace thought. Much unlike his dishevelled, over the top personality, Win fought with a peace of mind, that not even Ace could achieve, it was maybe because of his personality that he could achieve such a state of mind, such trust in his skills. It did not matter how many times he was beaten down, his state of inner peace would still remain.
He used an adapted method of Wing Chun, passed down by his own family, descendants of the creator of the art, Ng Mui. The style he had learnt focused a lot more on grabs than anything else, and was all about redirecting strikes, mostly in a deadly fashion. Because of this, he was usually on the brink of being hit, which was the reason as to why he mostly ended up with bruises as scrapes, especially on his arms and hands.
As the fight began, the girl circled a calm Win, who simply stood there with his arms loosely at his sides, ready to snake into a grab when he saw an opening. The girl, as expected, when for a hit first, a powerful haymaker that not even Ace would want to tank, Win dodged it by stepping into her guard and weaving his head around the hit. He attempted to go for a grab, but a low kick, threatening his balance, made him back away.
"That's not good.", Nai let out quietly, with Noelle nodded, 'She now has a pretty good idea of how he fights, whilst he knows the same thing he did, he is now in a pretty disadvantageous position.'
The girl grinned, expecting to see a despaired face, but the blank face of Win put her off, he was now a mask of nothing, as blank as snow, no emotions exposed out for the world to see.
She went for another punch, but Win successfully read it as a feint, and simply stepped back lightly, not taking the bait. The girl looked frustrated at this, thinking he would have jumped at any chance of ending the fight quickly.
Win looked at her lightly, and just waited, fighting as passive as one could. The girl was now visibly frustrated, and went for a powerful kick to the side, combining it with a punch as soon as it was deflected, 'Dodge this, dumbass.', however, to her surprise, he did dodge, and not only that, he twirled around her to her side, and grabbed her shoulder, flipping her mercilessly onto the ground, making her land on her elbow.
'And...She's dead, she fell into his rhythm, welp, it's game over, was fun while it lasted.', Ace thought, spectating the girl's eventual demise as she stood up lightning-fast, and went for another powerful attack. To everyone's surprise, this seemingly powerful attack was a feint, and the kick that came behind it was the actual power move. Win had noticed too late, however, and not even his freakish reactions could save him now.
This was when his true colours came out however, he stepped into the kick, to the girl's surprise, and took it in stride. It was a powerful kick, and would leave a nasty bruise in his thigh, but he had reduced some power by not letting it complete its trajectory. He grabbed the leg, and spun, twisting his hips to throw her onto the ground, making her land on her back. A resounding crack was let out, and most winced, Ace stared, as soon as she was on the floor, Win slithered inside her guard, and placed her under a chokehold. It was over some seconds later, the girls unable to properly fight back from the pain on her elbow and back.
Ace grinned, her blank face gone, and he was now back to his usual, annoying self. He limped lightly to the stage, as his adrenaline began to fade, feeling the pangs of pain from the kick.
As soon as he got to the stands where they were all sat, Coach took an ice band, a sort of bandage that was extremely cold, and wrapped it tightly on his thigh, after moving his shorts up.
Win groaned from the cold, but this quick application of compression and cold therapy, would reduce the pain and bruising by a lot. He sat down with his leg stretched, and soon began to argue with Nai, to everyone's dismay, "Hahaha, dumb*ss, you got pounded so hard, you are actually stupid.", Nai laughed mockingly, and Win frowned, thinking of a snarky reply.
It was like this for about fifteen minutes, before Noelle's name was called out. She went to fight with a nervous smile on her face, excited about finally getting a go at it.
Her opponent was a guy, slightly taller than average, with a slim muscled build. He bowed to her, and she bowed back, before getting into a balanced stance. The boy went for a hit instantly, which Noelle deflected calmly, he went for another, and a deflect, and another, and a deflect, and another, and a deflect. It carried on for about fifteen seconds. Noelle had calmly deflected everything, pivoting softly on her leg, and slapping away all of his hits.
The relentless attacker, was now slightly winded, and began to stare at his opponent, thinking on how to deal with her soft defence. Before he could figure anything out, Noelle dashed, going for a palm strike to the side of the neck, which the boy moved away from, he countered with a high-kick, which was deflected, and again, they got into the same rhythm.
"Damm, lucky girl.", Coach said, and he was indeed right, Noelle's whole shtick was to drag someone into her rhythm, much like a wave, this meant, that a relentless attacker than focused on speed and overwhelming his opponents was the perfect opponent for her, as long as she could deflect his hits that was.
He was now dragged into her own rhythm, and while she was calmly deflecting all the hits, he was quickly getting tired, and not even noticing it. It was a long fight, lasting over 5 minutes, but it ended once the boy got tired and faltered, and Noelle hit him in the chest, a firm hit that along with his exhaustion, took him down.
