Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2018 16:16:18 GMT -4
There was something that he was too inexperienced to remember sometimes, especially when he was pushed to his limit like this and he was too tired to focus on everything like at the beginning of a fight. Sometimes that caused his instincts, which had not been honed to the degree that they were reliable in all situations, to betray him. It caused him to do stupid things like engage in melee instead of relying on his quirk until the last against an opponent that was vastly more skilled than he was. Against someone he had admitted to himself earlier was the best weapon wielder that he had ever fought, his instinctual plan was to engage in desperate melee combat instead of relying on the thing that got him this far in the first place – his quirk.
Luckily, he had a slight stamina advantage and that seemed to negate the skill advantage that the Shindo girl possessed. His double kick forward connected with the girl’s side, but she positioned herself in a way that she was not kicked backwards and recovered enough to take a swing at his face as his forearm and her thankfully blunt knife impacted each other’s jaws simultaneously with all the force they had left in their bodies. His weak jab, done out of instinct more than anything in an attempt to fall down fighting, hit thin air as the swordswoman and the delinquent hit the ground at nearly the same time as well due to the respective impacts to their jaws. Both of them had enhanced the power of their blows with their quirks, but neither of their quirks was operating at full power. The fact of the matter was, though, that neither of them were very durable to begin with and in this extremely fatigued stated both of them fell down to one decisive blow.
Though the knife strike was blunted, it carried the entire body weight of the girl as she essentially fell into the blow and shooting pains were now arcing from both the boy’s ribs and his face. Unlike the girl, however, his immediate response was to struggle and do his absolute best to get up. His opponent had fallen backwards, and he had rolled to his back instinctively when the pain on his ribs occurred when the fall first happened. From that position he raised his head up by digging his elbows into the ground to get a visual on the girl – seeing that she was still on the ground. Noticing this, the impetuous to get up only heightened because if he could get up… if he could get up and do anything he would win. Literally anything. If she was too exhausted to even attempt to stand, he could win if he proved he could do it. If he proved he could keep fighting.
If this had been a real fight, that last knife attack would have hit him in the throat and killed him with the full sharpness of steel. Because it was only a training session, he wasn’t dead but had thus been humiliated into what would have not only been a loss but a death if the session was an actual fight against a villain. He needed to win the actual training session at this point, so even if the Shindo girl could have won… he would be able to claim at least the technical victory because it was outside of the ruleset to actually pierce his throat with her knife. He had gotten tougher over the past few months at U.A., now far from the boy who used to fly into a rage when hit only a few times. His training sessions with Darren with the American acting largely as a human punching bag had served their purpose into making him unphased by being hit and allowing him to fight through pain much more than he could previously. He had been beat up so many times by this point that the sting of pain didn’t hold him back as it once did. Alex knew this wouldn’t kill him, and the pain was temporary compared to the sense of pride he would get from beating someone as good as Tetsuko Shindo.
So even though his muscles screamed in protest, even though injured ribs made even breathing difficult, and even though he had no real means to make any sort of effective attack at this point he still fought to get up. His elbows that were already dug into the ground were used as leverage to generate enough momentum to get into a sitting position through some swinging of his torso… and from there it was a relatively simple matter to bring his knees to his chest and then use his hands to force himself up to a kneeling position first and then a standing position several seconds later. This entire process took roughly thirty seconds from start to finish, but the delinquent was standing at the end of it. He was rocking back and forth, but he was standing nevertheless and had refused to quit.
”Good fight.” were the only words that came out of his mouth as he finally surveyed managed the feat of standing. There was no boasting and no taunting in his tone, mostly he was just tired. ”You’re really good. We need to do this again sometime.” were the next words that came out of his mouth, the exhaustion completely clear in both tone and body language still. The way his shoulders were slumped, and he was dangerously teetering from side to side. True to earlier form, he didn’t even bother to introduce himself even now. Names were immaterial and didn’t matter, because he had said everything that he had to say about himself during their fight. He was clever, thought extremely quickly on his feet, and adapted to the situation without regards for ideas like tradition or honor. If he could lie, cheat, and steal in order to get a victory, he would do it in a heartbeat.
He didn’t feel like he won this match, but he was the last one standing at the end regardless. That counted for his pride, at least. Whatever the case, it was clear that he needed to get better against actually good melee fighters even if they did not have the speed to close the gap instantaneously like Darren did. People without enhanced speed were still enormous threats to him, contrary to his earlier belief that he could take them on due to the fact that he had smashed soldiers throughout his time at the military exhibition much more often than he himself was demolished. The fact of the matter was that the soldiers just weren’t an elite level physical fighter like the Shindo girl, and he still had a ways to go in order to reliably beat even melee fighters on that level with any sort of reliability.
Luckily, he had a slight stamina advantage and that seemed to negate the skill advantage that the Shindo girl possessed. His double kick forward connected with the girl’s side, but she positioned herself in a way that she was not kicked backwards and recovered enough to take a swing at his face as his forearm and her thankfully blunt knife impacted each other’s jaws simultaneously with all the force they had left in their bodies. His weak jab, done out of instinct more than anything in an attempt to fall down fighting, hit thin air as the swordswoman and the delinquent hit the ground at nearly the same time as well due to the respective impacts to their jaws. Both of them had enhanced the power of their blows with their quirks, but neither of their quirks was operating at full power. The fact of the matter was, though, that neither of them were very durable to begin with and in this extremely fatigued stated both of them fell down to one decisive blow.
Though the knife strike was blunted, it carried the entire body weight of the girl as she essentially fell into the blow and shooting pains were now arcing from both the boy’s ribs and his face. Unlike the girl, however, his immediate response was to struggle and do his absolute best to get up. His opponent had fallen backwards, and he had rolled to his back instinctively when the pain on his ribs occurred when the fall first happened. From that position he raised his head up by digging his elbows into the ground to get a visual on the girl – seeing that she was still on the ground. Noticing this, the impetuous to get up only heightened because if he could get up… if he could get up and do anything he would win. Literally anything. If she was too exhausted to even attempt to stand, he could win if he proved he could do it. If he proved he could keep fighting.
If this had been a real fight, that last knife attack would have hit him in the throat and killed him with the full sharpness of steel. Because it was only a training session, he wasn’t dead but had thus been humiliated into what would have not only been a loss but a death if the session was an actual fight against a villain. He needed to win the actual training session at this point, so even if the Shindo girl could have won… he would be able to claim at least the technical victory because it was outside of the ruleset to actually pierce his throat with her knife. He had gotten tougher over the past few months at U.A., now far from the boy who used to fly into a rage when hit only a few times. His training sessions with Darren with the American acting largely as a human punching bag had served their purpose into making him unphased by being hit and allowing him to fight through pain much more than he could previously. He had been beat up so many times by this point that the sting of pain didn’t hold him back as it once did. Alex knew this wouldn’t kill him, and the pain was temporary compared to the sense of pride he would get from beating someone as good as Tetsuko Shindo.
So even though his muscles screamed in protest, even though injured ribs made even breathing difficult, and even though he had no real means to make any sort of effective attack at this point he still fought to get up. His elbows that were already dug into the ground were used as leverage to generate enough momentum to get into a sitting position through some swinging of his torso… and from there it was a relatively simple matter to bring his knees to his chest and then use his hands to force himself up to a kneeling position first and then a standing position several seconds later. This entire process took roughly thirty seconds from start to finish, but the delinquent was standing at the end of it. He was rocking back and forth, but he was standing nevertheless and had refused to quit.
”Good fight.” were the only words that came out of his mouth as he finally surveyed managed the feat of standing. There was no boasting and no taunting in his tone, mostly he was just tired. ”You’re really good. We need to do this again sometime.” were the next words that came out of his mouth, the exhaustion completely clear in both tone and body language still. The way his shoulders were slumped, and he was dangerously teetering from side to side. True to earlier form, he didn’t even bother to introduce himself even now. Names were immaterial and didn’t matter, because he had said everything that he had to say about himself during their fight. He was clever, thought extremely quickly on his feet, and adapted to the situation without regards for ideas like tradition or honor. If he could lie, cheat, and steal in order to get a victory, he would do it in a heartbeat.
He didn’t feel like he won this match, but he was the last one standing at the end regardless. That counted for his pride, at least. Whatever the case, it was clear that he needed to get better against actually good melee fighters even if they did not have the speed to close the gap instantaneously like Darren did. People without enhanced speed were still enormous threats to him, contrary to his earlier belief that he could take them on due to the fact that he had smashed soldiers throughout his time at the military exhibition much more often than he himself was demolished. The fact of the matter was that the soldiers just weren’t an elite level physical fighter like the Shindo girl, and he still had a ways to go in order to reliably beat even melee fighters on that level with any sort of reliability.