Ah, i see. Sorry, i just registered the part where Sev moved his forearm out of the blade's range as an action taken before the kick, not one performed at the same time with it.

The kick started just after your character started stepping forward, so the arm would still be moving while it happened.

But I had the same problem with your mist attack when I first read it, so I understand the feeling.

If you haven't edited it yet, go ahead and leave it. I doubt editing it will make that big a difference anyway, and it's not like last time when there were three posts behind the attack.

I've done the editing. It's actualy even deadlier now. >:3

EDIT: as it is executed not from a mid-stab position, the angle of impact is also steeper, so the blade carries a larger cross-sectional density and slashes instead of chopping.

Yeah, you seem to have a habit of doing that. >_<

[Throat Clearing Intensifies]

Just for future reference, Sev is actually a fair amount stronger than Vos (and probably faster too, though only marginally), both because he has substantially more muscle mass (and all of it just as toned as Vos'), and because he can push his muscles farther before they finally do fail.

I thought that would be worth mentioning since your post seemed to indicate that you thought they were equal in strength.

Alright, now that I've had a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts, I do have a question.

How did Vos avoid all the damage from the kick? Sev has more than eighty pounds on the man, most of it muscle, and what little momentum he could muster in a two-inch stabbing motion wouldn't slow a full-force front-kick down very much at all. especially with such a large strength (and size) discrepancy between the opponents. Not to mention that Vos wouldn't know the armor could withstand his dagger, and was clearly expecting it to punch through. He'd have to be initiating the withdrawing motion before the dagger even hit the alloy in the boot in order to get it out from in front of his stomach in time (since he'd be pushing forward then have to switch to pulling back, while Sev's kick is just one massive forward chunk of momentum).

My point being that moving the dagger to stab his foot was the only counter you had time for. There's no room for anything else before the kick lands, not even pulling the dagger out of the way (even at the speeds Vos can move, since Sev can equal if not surpass those speeds.

Just making it clear - he was in a sideways stance all the time. That kind that you see in eastern martial arts, not boxing. With such a lean guy as Vos, simply taking a squatting stance will put a few inches between the foot and his stomach, as he will have to bend his chest forawrds to balance, thus pulling the stomach inwards, so he didn't have to move that fast at all. Of course, he was turned slightly towards Sev, but his body wasn't perpendicular to the kick, giving him time and space for this manouver. As for his arm, Vos would still feel that the kick is actualy pushing it backwards, and pulling his own arm out of the way would be possible, since all he has to do is actualy pull his elbow to his side, covering less than an inch of distance to reel his hand out of harm's way.

EDIT: and leaning backwards while using his right leg as a support would move the chest, which would be lower due to the squatting stance, out of the foot's range as well.

P.S. - im not adding this to the list of Vos' powers, but some martial art practioners specificaly train to exert great amount of force over small distances.

He was sideways the entire time?

So my misunderstandings about that aside, that means that even if the foot completely missed his stomach, Vos still smashed it back into the stomach when he hit the leg with the air burst (since it would knock Sev's leg to the left, and Vos is on the left side of that leg if the kick misses)

Either way you've got a lot of force to deal with.

Sorry, but did you read my post? Specificaly, the part where Vos straightens his leg to push away from that? He can chose when to release the air burst, so this will play out in his favor either way.

In response to your P.S.: I know they do, but there would be too much mass and momentum stacked against him. If Vos and Sev were the same size and weight, slowing the blow enough to matter would be a feasible option given Vos' level of burst strength, as you call it, but with such a large discrepancy in mass and strength it wouldn't be enough to matter.

It's like that fight in Fearless between Jet Li and the american wrestler. None of his short punches did anything at all to the guy. He had to build more momentum and hit weak points in order to take him down.

Vordak said
Sorry, but did you read my post? Specificaly, the part where Vos straightens his leg to push away from that? He can chose when to release the air burst, so this will play out in his favor either way.

Nope. I most certainly did not. I've been arguing points that I made up on the spot this entire time, just hoping that out of some miracle of blind luck, they'd be relevant to what you wrote. I make a point of not reading posts I'm supposed to respond to, as I feel that they impede my ability to write with clarity and accuracy.

Sarcasm aside, seriously dude? Do you honestly think I would I be debating its relevancy if I hadn't read it? I realize that it was a redundant question, but I really hate it when people try to insult my intelligence with crap like that. Of course I read your post. I read it and things didn't make sense, so I addressed those things here. In the future, I'd really appreciate it if you'd avoid condescending rhetorical questions and just use intelligent arguments like you usually do.

*long deep breath*

Sorry, but I had a long day at work and my shit tolerance meter hit full about five hours ago. If an argument I make isn't correct, then counter it with facts and intelligence, but please don't treat me like I'm some idiot amateur.

That said, everything you've written in your posts is technically correct and possible if your character has instant reaction time (as in, zero delay between thought and motion), as well as total body control (right down to individual muscle fibers), and no capacity for error with complete awareness of everything around him. The problem is, he doesn't, but since you do you tend to write him as though he does. Sev, for instance, would technically be able to adjust his kick mid-stride to account for your squatting motion and other movement, and even avoid the dagger, but fast as he is, he doesn't have perfect reactions. Neither does Vos, and you claim he's able to complete at least four linear actions in the time it takes Sev to complete one (a character much stronger and just as fast, if not faster).

So this is where I ask if you want to write a fight where our characters are at their absolute best no matter what or if you want to write a realistic fight with superhuman elements, because right now we're writing two completely different fights.

Sorry for lashing out like that. I sometimes do let myself slip. :/

But yes, i get your point. And in my previous post, i actualy brought up a totaly valid argument: the air burst release was an action decided on spot, not before contact, hence, it wouldn't be reflexive, and instead, would trigger a respone from the mind, which in its turn, would allow Vos to decide to activate the air burst after he moves out of the foot's way.

If there is anything else that you think would be impossible to perform, please, point it out. You might as well have noticed something that escapes me.

In a realistic fight with superhuman elements, the only action Vos should have been able to make before the kick hit him was moving the dagger, and the only reason that would be possible is because it was already there. Even the crouching wouldn't have been possible before the kick hit him.

All of it would be possible in a perfect character fight, but only because in that kind of fight the characters would have the same level of awareness as the writers and be able to react and think and multitask instantly. In a realistic fight the characters don't have that level of reaction speed or thought processes or awareness, unless it's stated that those are their powers.

With regards to the air burst, if he waited that long the leg would have dropped too far for it to work.

I can cut out the air burst part. Seems dodgy to me as well.

But i can't agree about the crouching. If you see something speeding towards you, what do you do to brace yourself? Right, bring yourself lower to the ground. That's not multitasking, more like a reflex.

About the slash: he were already preparing to strike, so the thought of transitioning one attack into another would come naturaly to him, and as he fights with daggers and shortswords, weapons meant to be maneuvrable and fast, it would be suprising if he wouldn't be well-trained trained in that particular field. So that decision could come fast enough as well.

And the dagger stab is also pretty simple to explain: the dagger was initialy held there to parry or counter, and as countering an attack as a means of stopping it is normal in swordplay (swinging a sword at a sword), this also could be nigh reflexive. And not ripping the dagger out of the boot would actualy be counter-intuitive, as having your hand jammed between your stomach and someone's foot, along with the dagger's pommel would be very undesirable. The hoodie and longcoat would provide some amout of protectction, letting Vos avoid the pommel damaging him, and also decrase the amount of friction between the pommel and his body by sliding one against another.

It's not a matter of whether he'd pull the dagger back or not, it's a matter of once the foot hit it, he wouldn't have time. The pommel would be hitting his gut before he would be able to pull it away, reflex or not.

And it's all the other leg motions that would require perfect reactions and multitasking. Sliding, leaning, extending, and contracting perfectly to mitigate the damage caused. Crouching by itself wouldn't be enough to avoid the kick, and without all the other movements he made to adjust his weight (movements and calculations that he wouldn't have time to do) it would still hit with considerable force.

And one last thing before i edit my post - the pommel would still hit his stomach at a very steep angle, and thanks to the clothes, and the dagger actualy being able to move around in the rubber sole, it still wouldn't penetrate, sliding off to his side.

Still, that's a kidney shot and would hurt like hell. Then there's the foot hitting him right after.

Ok. Off to edit the post now.