Acion Nakamiji
VS
Dulga Tatara
No gun? That’s quite a setback for a gun-user like her. In fact, the prime reason Acion lost that fight on the rooftop that day was because she had the means to shoot him out of the sky. A brief thought zipped across his mind if he wanted to undermine himself as well, to put his hard work for the last couple of days into a combative environment, and also the fact that she was doing the same. But the thought stayed as long as it traveled through his mind, as the counter-thought materialized that it was better if he played this hybridly. He ought to consider this as more of a real battle environment, so that he could simulate real combat as accurate as possible. And also there was the fact that Dulga was also expecting the best out of him. It’d be an insult to her, or any combatant in general, if he did it without forewarnings.
While Dulga went into the empty room before him, Acion took a bit of his time packing his stuff up, or rather just put things in randomly over on top of the other, in no particular order at all. He was still in a middle of a training section, and he doubted that he would be leaving after this fight. This was after all a mock fight. He did not intend to exert himself here, and there was no reason to turn himself into a broken doll every time.
Once he entered the room, Dulga was already there. Like a monk in perfect harmony with nature, with the air, the sky and the earth, she was sitting on the cold floor of the training room, her legs curled up neatly as her mind erased everything of existence around her for room of the deepest of the inner fire. Acion had recently been cautious around such a mind, ever since that encounter on the rooftop. Her inner ideology hadn’t been agreeable to Acion, and the only thing more fearful about such a person is the silent one. The one who kept everything to themselves, and did not know what to expect from them.
He glanced across the room and picked the position a couple of steps away from Dulga, seven short strides or five long ones. Waiting for her to take her stance, Acion gently removed one of his feathers and held it lightly, holding it out clearly for her to see.
”Once this thing hits the ground, we’ll begin.” As he made it clearly. As simple as it gets.
With that said, he bent forward slightly before his back bones quickly coiled back, his hand taking advantage of the great momentum generated by the combination of skeletal structure, all moving together as one, as he tossed the feather up in the air. During the few seconds and countless revolution that the feather obtained from the force of the toss, Acion stood still, all six wings spread as wide as possible, his left hand raised in defensive stance. Or it may appear so. There were more than just that. The angle of his body obscured his right hand, which was creeping up to another feather on his middle right wings.
Once Acion arrived, Dulga stirred and tighten her gloves. They were still new, still rough, but this bout ought to break them in a little. The match will begin once Acion’s feather hit the ground. Watching him, Dulga anazlyed him to the best of her ability.
”A fast type. Hits hard, hits quickly, but doesn’t stay to slug it out. I’ll be at a disadvantage trying to keep up with him.” Dulga took on a fighting stance, a bit of a boxing and shooting stance. Even if she doesn’t have her guns, she wanted to practice keeping her stance correct. Practice makes perfect.
”His wings aren’t like any bird I’ve hunted. They’re far stronger than a normal birds. Metallic. Feathers are sharp too. Like knives. Why is his wings spread out so far? Does he intend to put space between us and pelt me with feathers?” The feather was tossed. Befitting one made of some sort of metallic material, it would drop faster than a normal feather. Dulga had only a few seconds as she tensed her body up.
”That would be the practical thing to do. Without my guns I can’t reach him. Even if he doesn’t have good aim he can shoot out a lot of those feathers at once. He’ll hit me through sheer volume.” Now the feather was beginning to drop. Both Dulga and Acion were already getting ready to attack, and merely waited for that feather to hit the ground before they’d both go off. Dulga’s options were limited but hopefully what little she can do will be enough.
”No guns, against someone who’s faster than me, with a range weapon. Terrible situation. But I will learn. I have to.” And the feather hit the ground. Dulga exploded downwards, smashing three of her fists into the ground to crack the training room floor and send solid debris into the air. Debris up to block the feather blade from Acion, just like on the rooftop. Now it was time to put her new skill to practice. Before the blocks would drop Dulga struck three chunks with three of her fists, sending them flying at Acion. They moved slower than a bullet and their arc was terrible compared to a bullet but it was still a few pounds of floor being sent at Acion with enough speed that it was going to hurt. Dulga was aiming for his wings too, hoping to do enough damage to cripple them a bit.
”Just like hunting birds. Clip the wings.”What Acion sent only one, Dulga sent it back thrice that number, and umpteenth times the size. It definitely was not as bad as a bullet flying at breaknecking speed, but it was still objects that worth a major concern. It was huge debris. A collision with one of them unprotected could easily cripple one of his limbs or even break it completely. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if his head was the point of collision.
’It’s three of them. It’s just too fast!’ Despite being horrifically slow comparing to a small elegant yet deadly piece of cold metal, it was still moving at a pace in which the winged man cannot do his usual complete dodge using his second to none athletic skills. But knowing the fundamentals of force and momentum, he could still hopefully mitigate the incoming force.
With the command sent from his motor cortex, it rushed through the tip of his fingers, and to each and every single feathers among thousands of them, as all of them shifted at the exact moment as the debrises came flying at him at a dangerous speed. In a moment, all of his six wings were pointing forward, completely wrapping his sides and rear. His front though was an interesting take, as instead of wrapping around it like a person would wrap a birthday gift, only the tip of his wings met, enclosing the boy like a closed tulip flower. His mind had subconsciously calculated the moment of impact of the debris, and now he’d put those figures to the test. The moment the first debris made its contact with his right, Acion had made a push of his lower limbs to the right. The combination of both the acute angle in which the debris made contact with his wings and the sideway push ensured the first debris ricocheting elegantly from him, as it found its way stopped by the concrete wall. The same goes for the second piece of rock, as his wings took the damage easily without a scratch.
The third one, however, he hadn’t thought it completely through. It came a little sooner following the second one, and it made sure Acion couldn’t ricochet it as beautifully as he had craved. The boulder found its way hitting the mid-part of his upper left wings. Just less than a second followed, his left eyes twitched, as the signal shot right back up his senses. But he nevertheless found himself doing a side roll to the right. Better to get out of its way rather than take the damage.
The moment his head levelled, his three left wings took a violent swing horizontally, as the feathers this time would number multiple times higher than the first feather sling.
’She’d again try to block by trying to break the ground. I need a different approach.’ He could either get close or just machine-gun her with sharp feathers. But he’d need an opening otherwise. And to get that, he’d need to get airborne.
”A flinch. I’ll have to take it.” Dulga acted quickly as Acion was able to defend himself from the rocks. She moved low and just as he shot his many feathers at her, she responded by tossing up a thick cloud of dust and rubble. The bits were too small and moving too slow to do any real harm however they served the purpose of foiling the feathers and more importantly concealing Dulga for just a few seconds. Remembering her lesson with Mako, obscuring her form was as good as moving quickly. Before the dust could settle Dulga grabbed two of the feathers that Acion had shot at her. She had no idea how he throws these things but she was about to learn. She’s thrown knives with her mother before so hopefully these feathers would work somewhat the same.
”He swung with his left, so his right side should be forward protecting him.” The usual forward approach wasn’t going to work here. As much as she’d like to just close the distance, grab him, and thrash him about, Dulga needed to figure out how to get close enough to him. He had speed and range on her. All Dulga had was strength. So strength was all she’ll need. Digging her lower hands into the ground as she was grabbing the feathers, Dulga pulled and launched herself off to the side while the dust was still obscuring her form from Acion. She needed to get behind him and try and weaken him somehow. With the speed and grace of a hunter, Dulga landed with an almost silent thud as she hurled the feathers like darts towards Acion’s lower body, ideally getting his legs. If possible she’d try to damage his wings with these feathers, however she knew that his wings sturdier than the feathers and would likely deflect more easily than the debris did. At least those had mass.
”Keep moving. You won’t have enough time to try and make more debris if he shotguns more feathers at you.” Regardless if those feathers landed or not Dulga would try to scramble back onto her feet and keep circling Acion. If she stayed still for too long she’d run out of rock to shield herself with and it’ll be all over.
’Dust clouds.’ The flying hero trainee could only yield his lids like two needles on the same two-dimensional line. This shouldn’t be a problem, as long as he could still figure out her position. It mattered more about hitting the target as many times as possible instead of hitting it at the right place. And he definitely could not achieve such goals without positioning himself in a high place and rain down constant barrages on her. He needed to get to the air, now!
”Argh!” Just as the thought crossed his mind, a piece of metal sliced his thighs, flying past him like a ghost in the desert. He didn’t, or rather couldn’t, check on whether or not it cuts, but he knew his plan had ended in a temporary, and a very unpleasant, setback.
’So much for that plan...’It seemed like he had been preyed upon. Now that the dust cloud slowly cleared, he found himself in an especially sticky situation. Every angle he turned, she turned with him, waiting slowly and patiently like a lion with its potential steak. She was waiting for the moment he attack, so that she could nullify anything and everything he threw at her. She was waiting for the moment he turned his back on her to flee, so that she could wolf him down with her incredible strength or those debrises. And she was waiting for him to do nothing so that she could close her distance to him. And once it was close quarter, it’s game over. He knew he wanted to train his close quarter skills, but he would not take his chances in this one. The jaws were slowly closing upon him. He needed to think of something quick.
’But why didn’t I use the same trick?’He just need to outwit her for one single moment. Two moments. And then he would be free from her grasp.
’She wouldn’t be immune, would she?’Turning to face Dulga directly, Acion stretched his back as much as he could, all wings spreaded wide, high and low. From an outside look, it may look like he was just preparing for another gigantic feather barrage. But the only strange thing would be that the tip of his wings appeared to be curved in. And that small detail would determine the whole outcome of a fighter’s action, and potentially the entire fight as well. Instead of launching the feathers though, he slammed his wings onto the ground, an earth-shattering noise echoed throughout the battle room.
The wings were sharp enough to dig right into the floor’s concrete. To be fair, it wasn’t that strong from the beginning. But digging in was just the first part. The next part was when his veins would pop. His teeth grinded together like two crusts of the Earth colliding with one another, as his lower limbs began to stand up. Regardless of the bite marks Tomoe gave him. Regardless of the cut Dulga sliced him. With a huge swing, he threw up the same amount of dust that Dulga had done to him just moments ago.
’One more.’Whether or not she could see this, from the dust cloud emerged dozens of sharp feathers thrown towards her direction. What followed right after the feathers...was none other than Acion himself, running into the direction of the feathers.
’I just need a good jump, then I’d fly!’That piece of debris she had just thrown would work very well.
When Dulga saw Acion’s wings curl back, she knew that he was going to throw more feathers. What she didn’t expect was for him to throw out his own dust cloud first.
”Dammit!” It was just as she feared. She was getting repetitive; by using that dust tactic twice, she’s just given Acion a chance to turn it back against her. Concealment didn’t mean cover either; she knew that she wouldn’t be safe standing out in the open and if she couldn’t see where Acion was coming from. He could easily just shotgun more feathers through the cloud, using the sheer volume of feathers to cut her down. As soon as the dust cloud hit her Dulga dove to the ground. It was just part of her instinct training, once more thanks to her mother. Crawling on the floor might look undignified for a hero but bring prone meant that projectiles would have a harder time striking you even if you don’t know where they’re coming from. And Dulga has no idea where they’re at right now.
At least until a few flew right over her head. Fortunately for her it seemed like Acion was aiming somewhere around midchest; Dulga was a big target standing up but once on the ground she would be hard to hit. But she can’t stay on the ground either; this is a bad spot to get into a fistfight in. And now Dulga needed to change her tactic; if her and Acion just keep knocking up dust she will lose. She doesn’t have the same defensive abilities as his wings nor the range attacks like his feathers. And so while the dust still covered her Dulga focused entirely on crawling away, until Acion flew through the dust and cleared it up some more. Thanks to being on the ground Dulga was still covered too but only for a few seconds.
Knowing that he won’t be able to stand on his legs for long, Acion was likely going to start flying. The room was big enough for it, at least fifty feet high. Once he was up there it’ll be tougher for Dulga to be able to fight him even if she could break up enough ground to just throw things at him. She needed a change of tactics. Something even he wouldn’t expect.
”Never thought I’d try this.” Bracing her arms to the ground, Dulga pushed hard, hard enough to crack the floor she was laying on. And with that push, she threw herself straight up into the air with enough force to touch the ceiling. And her back hit the roof.
”Tch!”That was painful. She had used too much force and her arms were burning. This really hurt; this wasn’t anything like using her guns at all. Maybe it was just because she grew up a shooter, but fighting like this was tiring. Throwing herself around, punching rocks, trying to dodge feathers, this was stuff Dulga wasn’t used to. But that’s why she was doing it now. She knew that sooner or later she’s going to run into some bad luck. She won’t be able to set up a sniping spot, she won’t have her guns, and she won’t be stronger than her enemy. Fighting against complacency is why she wanted to spar in the first place.
”I refuse to be that same girl cowering for her mother.” Dulga wasn’t out yet. Digging her fingers into the ceiling Dulga looked around for Acion. Surely he would be taking flight right about now and expecting to find her beneath him. But he’ll never suspect that Dulga, the giant girl with six arms, would be right above him. And it will be his downfall.
Each steps he took was just as painful as the last one, as the liquid that Acion was inadvertently unaware of was dripping from his legs. But it was soon set freed. The moment his legs left the earth, he felt free. Free from the constraint of his physicality and just purely relying on the strength of his six wings. It was as powerful as ever, as blissful as ever.
’Alright, now-’Wait…
She wasn’t there.
The dust cloud began to set aside as he got a clear view of the battleground below. And it was a place of no existence. Nothing but barren concretes placed all over the place unnaturally.
He turned around, up and down, looking for the sight of this grey haired lady. When he turned around, looking up at the ceiling, he already realized his fatal mistake.
’She was up there?!’His face. It was the face of someone who knew who lost. A myriad of both impression and surprise. He had just been outplayed, for someone who was known to come up with the unexpected. But for some reasons, he felt like he deserved it. Dulga was fighting without a gun, without her main strength, and yet she still managed to make moves that exceeds his expectation, that clipped all of his strength and exploited all of his weaknesses. On the while, he deliberately let him become predictable. He could still come up with powerful evasive maneuvers or counter-attacks, but the thing was that he was all planning that around his strength, which is his powerful six wings. That was more than enough for a skilled opponent to pounce on him.
’But do not grow complacent of your lofty throne in the skies, lest you forget how to walk with your own two feet.’White Hat was completely right. He tried to convince himself otherwise back then, but his words echoed wisdom bigger than anything this brat could come up. He relied too much on his strength. He was convinced that his training was just enough to break away from his weakness so that he could focused on his strength instead. And now here he was, being taken from above, where he should have been.
’But I’m not conceding that easily.’He knew this would be a sure lost. But he would be taking his first step now. His first step out of complacency.
His hand reached for his two feathers on two random wings instead. While his wings still beats in the sky, he would be taking this last stand. He could not run away from this. She was on the ceiling. She could pounce on him anytime. He had to take her head on. His hand and wings are ready.
When Acion saw Dulga, that’s when she struck. Though her arms were on fire, her back hurt, and these gloves were starting to get too tight, she knew that this would be the moment where she had to finish it. Pushing off with her legs Dulga sped towards Acion. And she had a surprise for him. Not just the fact that in a twist of irony she was high above the flier. No it was much simpler; she had torn off a chunk of the ceiling to crush him. Their bodies collided, Dulga using the chunk of ceiling as a shield against Acion and his wings, and then used the force of her fall and the combined weight of the rock and her own body to bring him to the ground. And just like that it was over.
Acion would be on his back, his head just a few inches above the ground. Dulga was holding him up by the scruff of his shirt so he wouldn’t have smacked his head against the ground. But while one hand held him up, the other two hands were holding Acion’s wrists tightly; if he wanted to fight he’d have to defeat Dulga’s superhuman strength. Another hand was near Acion’s neck too, ready to choke or punch him. And just to make sure he didn’t have any funny ideas, Dulga still had that giant rock hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles. It was Dulga’s decisive victory. They both knew it, so Dulga lowered Acion onto the ground and let go of him. She placed the rock on the ground nearby and would walk away from him without a word towards the locker room. But shortly after she returned carrying a small first aid kit.
”Lift your legs.”Even his attempt ended up being outplayed too.
It was his loss. Completely and decisively.
Before he knew it, he was already on the ground, his hands and wings completely restrained by the girl’s superhuman strength. When his hand was unable to move any further than tapping twice onto the rock that it was held onto, both didn’t need his yield sign to know he lost, and she won.
The six-armed girl, after learning of her victories, initially left the training room, like the usual fashioned Dulga he knew. But to his surprise, she actually came back. Her words to him was still as blunt like a sledgehammer, but it was the least expected out of all.
Acion did not disobey to it. He did not refuse to an act that did not derive from any ulterior motives, especially it was all good-intention. Besides, she had reminded him of what his mistakes was.
”I’ll admit, I’ve been dominated.” He said, finding it a little difficult to speak clearly, as he tried to lift his body up a little.
”But thank you. I know what I need to do now.””Good.” Dulga applied some disinfectant to the wounds on Acion’s legs, a clean gauze, and then bandaged them. The cuts were deep enough to draw blood which may result in worse damage later so without consulting Acion, Dulga intended to take him to the nurse’s office. After putting the first-aid kit away she would proceed to lift Acion up into her arms like a princess being whisked away. Good thing the nurses weren’t too far from the training halls. Acion may hear Dulga’s breath since he was so close to her; though he wasn’t too heavy for her to carry, their battle had tired her out more than he may have realized. Dulga herself knew that she had some pitifully weak stamina for a girl with as much strength as she has; if she struggles to breath just after a quick battle like that, what could happen to her in a real fight, or against multiple opponents?
”Still room to improve.”She was rather quite knowledgeable in this. But that was to be expected of any heroes really. After patching up his wounds, she proceeded to pick him up in a way not so typical for a guy to be in, even though he should be able to do this on his own. But this considered he already did this to others already, and double-standard appeared to be a thing it seemed. He could’ve declined, but considering this girl’s personality, and his current state right now, he better kept his mouth shut. Strangely, comparing to his fight with Reina, Roy or Kaida, which lasted a lot longer than this one, this took a much higher toll on him than he could ever have hoped.
”Everyone does.” He struggled to mutter the response. She’d probably didn’t care about it.
