Struggle Preliminaries: Shark vs. Arlan DQ- Arlan

[Zephiris]

Match: The Shark vs. Arlan
Judges: Ellie, Shun, Doogie
Read here and here for battle information

Setzer wrapped up announcing the winner from the last round, his features cool despite the fact that he was clearly enjoying himself. As the next participants stepped forward he addressed the crowd once again.

"Next, Axel, the Shark, versus Arlan Ashteran!"

[lucaspalmeirense]

((I'll assume I can post first. If not, PM me and I'll delete it))

Axel - in the Shark's costume, of course - was in the Sandlot, watching the past rounds and waiting for his opportunity. Then, Setzer announced the match. The Shark almost fainted.

"HOW THE HELL DOES HE KNOWS MY TRUE NAME? " was the first tought of The Shark. Great, his secret was now ruined. He would have to beat up Setzer later - and discover how the hell he knew his secret identity.

Anyway, he stepped in the Sandlot Ring, catching his Struggle bat. The standard type, the "offensive" type. Not that there was any choices. If there where the three types, he would catch the defensive one, but in the Struggle Tourneament, there was only one standard-type for everyone. So, he caught the bat and walked to the Middle of the Arena. There, he gave a quick nod with the head, as a greeting, and bscked, getting into fighting stance.

- Good luck for ya. And don't even DREAM I'll take it easy.

[Jason Arilani]

[Hey, I have no problem with it. Lets make this a good one, shall we?]

Arlan followed suit, stepping into the arena. He was allowed to keep his card holster on so long as he didn't actually use the cards. Arlan knew that he wouldn't be able to fight without it on as it would feel to weird. He also grabbed the Tilanis card from his pocket and threw it off to the side. "Tilanis!"[/color] He shouted as the wolf appeared outside the ring to watch his friend battle. Arlan then looked at the man who stood before him get into a fighting stance and prepare for battle. A small laugh escaped the swordsman as he heard the words.

"Same to you. Just be lucky this isn't a real fight or you'd be facing both of us."[/color] He said as he also got into his own fighting stance. Holding the struggle bat in a reverse style in his right hand, he placed it in front of him as he held his left hand flat against the bottom of the hilt. This was going to be an interesting time as the two struggled to make it through this tournament. A soft growl came from the sidelines as Tilanis said "Good luck, Arlan."[/color] Arlan growled back, saying "No sweat, but thanks."[/color] Now it was time for the fun to really begin.

[Now that intro's are out of the way, care to take the first move?]

[lucaspalmeirense]

((Of course. Let's start. Btw, I'll change my post style a bit and add some differentiation between talk, act and think, just to make it look nicer.))

The Shark was distracted for a moment. What a cool thing, summoning a Wolf out of a card. His most childish part took control for a intant of the Shark's actions, taking his mind out of the upcoming combat.

"Hey man, could you teach me that? It would be pretty useful summon a shark out of a card... would scare the hell out of those criminals I fight and..." Ding Ding, sounded the bell. It was the fighting start. Regaining his composture, Axel reentered combat stance and analysed his adversarie. Well... standing there would not change the result of the battle. The Shark would have to strike fiercely and make the first move, like a real Shark. He's a predator, and would let no chance for the opponent.

Still, he started small. Giving a quick foward dash, he zig-zagued to his opponent direction, to dodge eventual incoming attacks. When close enough, he would execute three precise strikes, two lateral strikes and a lunge at his chest. Hitting or not, the Shark would retreat quickly, ready to dodge any strike, and, then, enter defensive stance.

[Jason Arilani]

Arlan chuckled slightly at the response from the one before him. Asking how to summon from cards? Yeah... Like he was going to show this kid his secrets. He probably didn't even know that Arlan was usually a swordsman and knew how to handle weapons like this often. As he watched The Shark zig-zag forward, Arlan slowly watched the movements, predicting where he would be when striking. And as he thought, his timing was correct. Moving his hand in a fluid motion, he would quickly block the strike from one side, move to the other side and block again. Next came the lunge, a usual combo of swipe, swipe, and lunge.

As The Shark jabbed toward him, Arlan quickly backflipped up. The lunge hit Arlan's foot... purposely as he kicked outward, trying to hit the hand that just struck toward him and cause his club to fly from his hand. After all, a disarmed opponent wasn't as powerful as they scramble to re-arm themselves. But it was also to test his Reaction time. If The Shark could figure out how he did this, then maybe this would be an interesting fight after all. Arlan purposely got hit to test this, even losing some of the orbs he was given to hold in the process. It was a weak hit, so not many came out, but it was still a hit. Now to see how Axel could react to a quick counter strike.

As soon as Arlan would hit the ground, he would take off running toward Axel. He figured that he would dodge to one side, so Arlan quickly moved to follow any possible movement. If Axel started to move left, Arlan would followed, same for right. Sure, a fake would easily fool Arlan in this mindset, but he already had it planned out on if a fake would be used. If so, he would continue the way he was moving and then run toward Axel's new location. Regardless of any movement made by Axel, Arlan would find a way to counter and continue forward.

Once in front of Axel, Arlan would quickly strike horizontally from the right followed by a jab with his right elbow. The jab was to try and knock the club out of the way before following with a vertical strike upward. This strike would be followed by yet another backflip as an evasive maneuver and Arlan landing in a defensive stance, ready for Axel's return. This hopefully would be a fun fight, one that would test both combatants. And if Arlan lost this match, he hoped it was because Axel was skilled slightly higher, not because Arlan was skilled slightly lower.

[lucaspalmeirense]

Jackpot, The Blue Hero landed a hit. On the foot, a small hit, true, but a hit nonethless. However, his opponent backflipped and tried to hit the Shark's hand, sending the hero's Struggle away. However, The Shark's senses were at maximum, and his status were maximized. And truth be told, the Shark's reaction time was excellent, and the Shark quickly retreated his hand, leaving the kick to hit the air, retaining his Struggle bat. You need to be fast if you want to fight the crime. The hero retreated with a backward dash, as said early.

Then, Arlan went toward the Hero. Maybe he was expecting The Shark to retreat. Hmhm, That's an error. A predator don't retreat - a predator attacks. When Arlan came close enough, The shark did two things: First one was to use his free left arm to block the incoming blow of the opponent's right hand. The elbow jab would do nothing more than hitting the Shark's arm, because the Struggle bat was in the other hand.

Yes, the Hero was hit too, and a few orbs fell. But it was on purpose. Now his adversarie was in a bad position. At the exact same time his free arm blocked the hit, The Shark "huged" Arlan with the right arm, putting him in a lock. Then, Shark striked him with his knee, right on Arlan's private parts. But that was just a quick stun. After doing that, Shark let him go out of the hug and jumped, landing with a hit in his back, now using the Struggle bat. IF - and just IF - everything went right, Arlan would hardly be ablçe to react, and the strike would impose some major damage here.

That's the way of a predator. Now, time to see Arlan's reaction.

[Jason Arilani]

[While I don't think that you would be able to react so quickly to pull back as an attack is released not even one second after the hit occurred, I live to mess around with every option. So lets continue. Also, I apologize if I misinterpret what you meant by "hugged" Arlan. If I did, please let me know and I'll be happy to edit. And keep in mind, attacks are to be attempted. Some might misinterpret things like "striked him with his knee" and "landing with a hit in his back" as auto-hits which aren't allowed. But I know what it means ]

As Arlan's kick was evaded by the Blue Hero, Arlan landed as planned and ran forward. As he watched Axel, Arlan noticed that the one before him did not try to move or evade his oncoming rush in anyway, which proved to Arlan this this one already had a plan of action for what Arlan had in store. His mindset flipped to a more random one, thinking to himself that if he planned out an attack, there would be an equally planned counterattack. But if he did not plan out his attacks before doing them, then it would give less room for error for him as he went with the flow of things.

As his club hit the arm used to block the strike, his elbow jab followed. He watched as Axel's arm moved up to seemingly embrace Arlan and hold him in a lock. The knee was the next thing to move, but Arlan already had his own counterattack. As soon as the knee moved, Arlan's legs quickly shifted to the side as they were not held down. Instead of hitting Arlan's sensitive area, it would hit Arlan in the leg. But before the knee could go back to the ground, Arlan quickly moved forward with Axel still attached to him, surely causing him to lose balance as he stood only on one foot.

This loss of Balance would surely cause Axel to let go as he tried to regain it allowing Arlan the chance to stop moving forward and quickly jump backward, away from his opponent. Granted, the reaction time of Axel may be different then he had anticipated, and if he did not lose balance, Arlan would continue forward anyway. If balance was not lost for a second, then the jump probably would still happen, and so Arlan would counterattack with that. Due to his evasion from an impending attack on his manhood, he would not be stunned from pain. So his club would quickly shoot up to block the attack before swinging it himself at Axel's leg. Due to him being in the air, he wouldn't be able to change direction. If he kept falling, the hit would hit elsewhere, but most likely still hitting Axel's body. After the hit, Arlan would jump backward again and prepare his next strike.

If Balance was lost and the jump of Axel's never happened because of it, Arlan would have continued his jump backward without the hit toward Axel. He prepared himself once more for an attack as he wondered a way to attack from a ranged position. The only way he could do that would be to tie something around the hilt and hold the other end, but it caused too much risk as Axel could easily grab whatever it was he was using and try to yank the club out. So close up combat would have to do. Arlan started to move in a circle around Axel, still defending, still trying to come up with something to do. Even when thinking in a random state of mind, some direction was still needed to accurately hit his opponent. So he planned as little as possible, waiting for the right time to strike.

[lucaspalmeirense]

((If you misunderstanded what I meant, then it's my fault for not being clear. So, no harm done, IF you did it. About the reaction, The Shark has high... how can we say it... "Attributes". Perception among them, the capacity to react quickly to a situation and almost "guessing" an opponents move before it's done. That would allow the reaction.

And I didn't meant for Auto-hit XD. I'm doing my best, but I'm brazillian, not english-fluent. Forgive any errors and unclearences, but don't think of them as Auto-hits. "Striking" would be the act to attack - hit it or not is up to you. The hit I discribed as an almost auto-hit, yes, but that deppends on the knee strike. If it miss, I will be simply unable to attack =P

Now... let's move to your post...))

His opponent was smart. Pretty smart, and with a quick thinking too. An opponent of the Shark's level.

A quick leg-play and Shark's knee-on-crotch is inutilized. And quickly the opponent went to make The Shark fall. And, well... Why not?? It would be almost impossible to regain balance right now, so... The blue hero simply mantained the Lock. He would fall? Yes. But Arlan would probabbly fall too - unless he had some type of "superhuman strenght".

Considering both falled, Shark would beat his head on the floor - but not big deal. That's why the Hero uses a helmet. Still mantaining the Lock, he would "hug" his opponent with the Left Arm too, just to pick up the Struggle bat that was in the right Hand.

And now, what would the Hero do? Still "locking" Arlan with the Right Arm in a strong hug - that is, IF everything went right - The Shark would reinforce the Lock, bringing his two legs into the match. Using the legs to reduce Arlan's mobility and thus increising the "lock", "hugging" him with both legs, as well with the Right Arm.

And what's that all about? The Shark would start to strike continously with the Struggle bat, aiming primarly for Arlan's head, but wathever that was visible would be targeted.

That would leave the shark open? Yes. But that's the shark's plan, the Way of The Predator. The Shark used a strong helmet, as well as some body armor, that would help for not being KO'd so soon. The Hero's plan was simple: beat him until it's all over, while mantaining him immobile for the necessary ammount of time. The Shark would not let him go until that - unless Arlan broke his way trough.

[Jason Arilani]

[Well it's not my place to say whether or not you'd be able to do that. That would be up to the judges when they judge the thread. As for your attacks, I understand. And no problem. So long as you know that we can't do auto-hits, thats all that matters. Also.... GRRRRRRR!!!! I wrote that long post out and gave several different paths to take, and you disappeared and went elsewhere. So now I have to come up with yet ANOTHER path to take. So... I'm happy in what you did, but mad that you did it because that post is mostly void xD]

Arlan's legplay worked as the shot to his privates was avoided. He even succeeded in his attempt to make The Shark fall. What he did not foresee is the Shark not trying to regain balance and instead, causing Arlan to fall with him. This was certainly turning to a very interesting fight as he knew that this would put Arlan in not as good of a position as he would like. But then again, maybe it put him in just the right position.

As Arlan started to fall with Axel, he pushed forward with his right arm. His struggle bat started to push between the two trying to separate the distance between them and pry him away. If enough Leeway was given that he could break free from the hold, then Arlan would be able to break free and get away, recomposing himself. But if not, Arlan had a back-up plan.

If he could not pry himself free, he would use his free arm, his left arm, and grab the struggle club that was now not completely pressed in between the two and move up to strike the head of the Shark while also thinking ahead and trying to use his own legs to lock down Axel's legs before he did. Sure it could cause the two to end up doing massive foot play as they tried to lock each other's legs down, but Arlan did not care as he swung the struggle bat with his left arm to Axel's head, making it more difficult for him to try and lock with his left hand. With the left arm constantly moving up and down, it would be difficult to find a way to lock him tight with it since his fast swinging arm would keep moving it away and breaking the lock from that way.

Arlan was trying anything possible to prevent Axel from fully locking him down, now moving from just striking toward Axel's head to also striking toward his right arm and hopefully breaking the lock. At the first sign of a break, Arlan would slip out and move away to recompose himself and try to start once more, maybe give Axel a chance to strike first. As he thought before, he only hoped that this fight would be won because Axel was slightly better, not because he was slightly worse.

[lucaspalmeirense]

Dammed kid, he got away. A wise move of Arlan and Shark fell on the floor alone. The kid has escaped the lock using his struggle bat to ease the lock and escape. Arlan took distance - so did Axel, getting up quickly and almost unnafected with the fall, just a bit of pain is his back.

"You fight well, guy" Said The Shark, getting up and regaining fighting stance. The Shark remained on position for as instant. His enemy did not move. So, it was his turn. With a quick dash foward, he initiated a combo os strikes with the bat against Arlan, striking with quickness and precision. It would start with two lunges, and an horizontal slash on his ribs. This was just a test. He wanted to see how the opponent would react and, then, exploit any opening Arlan ended up giving him.

That fight was interesting, or so the hero tought. The opponent was worty of his time and was pretty skilled too. Maybe, just maybe, would be a fight that The Shark would accept if he loses.

[Jason Arilani]

Now that Arlan was free from that small Lock, he had to go back on the offensive. He was held for far too long, and had no idea the length of time in which this match still had to go on for. As such, he knew that if he didn't start dealing some damage to the Shark, this match would most likely end in a tie or in his defeat. But Axel had moves of his own as he complimented Arlan. No words would be said in response toward him, wishing he could pull out a card to use and blast the shark away with his magic. But this was pure swordsmanship. Arlan had to use everything he knew to fight well. It was sad that this could not have been his last fight as it would probably be his most interesting.

As Axel started rushing forward to strike Arlan again, Arlan was already one step ahead. Again, he watched the movements, slowing them down in his mind as he formulated a strategy. Sure he couldn't actually slow it down, but in the heat of battle, actions from both parties slowed down enough to realize what was going on. Two lunges were made with the club to which Arlan could easily step back to avoid. But this was also a danger as he was nearing the edge, meaning he wouldn't have much to go back for. So that plan was shot out. He could block with his club, but then he wouldn't be able to strike back with swiftness if he did that.

Then there was one more thought that came to mind... Grab the club. Sure it would be dangerous and might not work. But risks had to be taken sometimes. As the first lunge came, Arlan stepped back. The next lunge came and he did so again as his left hand moved ever so slightly. Then came the swipe toward the ribs. Arlan moved his body back on the right side (assuming you are striking from the right, if you are striking from the left, then the left side moves back) and extending his arm in front of the path of the club, closing his hand just at the point where it would hit his hand and gripping it hard.

If this plan succeeded, then Arlan would quickly bash down on Axel's hand with his right hand and club in an effort to get him to drop the club as well as cause damage. This was a very risky move that would cause Arlan's hand some pain in the process. But if he could get the club out of Axel's hand, thats something he could, if he wanted, use as a ranged weapon. Arlan would then stand there with the two clubs in his hand and swing the one he just got out toward Axel's head. If it was taken back, no problem. He still had his. But he hoped that this would work in his favor.

If the plan failed, and he managed to only get hit by the club but not grab onto it, then Arlan would quickly run to the side that the attack came from. (So if the attack came from the left, Arlan would run left, and vice versa) And hope to get himself to advantageous position, his hand now hurting from the force of the club. It was a risky move, but if done correctly, Arlan just might have the upper hand.

[lucaspalmeirense]

This time, it was Shark who got caught by surprise by the kid's agressive manouver. Arlan dodged the first hits with a very precise moving and, then, defended Axel's strike with his bare hand. Not really different of Shark's previous movement of using the arm to stop the attack but, now, trying to disarm. Arlan's club went down to Axels hand. The Shark reacted quickly. He let his Club go - getting hit would only get things worse and he would end up letting it anyway. At least we evade damage. An, at the same time, a big punch to Arlan's head with the Left Hand - the empty one. Arlan would have both hands out-of-action in this time, since one was grabbing the club and the other was striking the place where Axel's right hand was, so it would be tough for him to absorb all this information and block or dodge on time.

If Arlan dodged by crouching, The shark would change the punch to a elbow strike to the top of his head, in a falling trajectory.

The punch's intention was to stun him. However, no matter if the punch hited or not, the blue Hero would follow up to a kick to his chest, trying to kock him down on the floor and, possibly, let one of the two clubs fall. If everything went alright, Axel would grab the easiest club that was able to be caught and, then, retreat three quick steps and get back on defensive stance.

If somehow Arlan dodges everything, for the punch to the kick, Axel would take distance and get ready for Arlan's attacks.

[Ellie who has 0%]

//DQ ARLAN a week beeeen up, I know you're moving but the SHOW MUST GO ON!//