Lauren tilted her head quizzically at Grant, raising an eyebrow in question at his suggestion.
"Invite me? Rods? Are you talking about going fishing?" She glanced over at Gabriel and shrugged, clearly he had invited Grant and she felt bad if the tall boy was seeking some companionship with the only other of his size and now she was intruding on that.
"I'm not madly into fishing but if Gabriel's okay with me intruding on your big guy together time then I don't see why not. I could use the fish oils in a few medicines, in all honesty, and a lot of useful herbs grow near riverbanks and around lakes."She grinned at Gabriel's unintended taunt, edging past Grant into the sparring area and taking up her stance.
"It'll be good practice for me, since I guess most guys are going to be bigger and stronger than me."Once Gabriel was ready she darted forwards, utilising her smaller size and greater agility to try and find gaps in his defence. Despite being slower than her, though, Gabriel covered himself well and her jabs and feints rolled off him easily. A few times he reached for her and she danced back from his clutches, knowing that she would not have the strength to shrug him off once he caught her. After testing him a bit more she took a gamble and rushed in head on, sliding to a halt and ducking underneath his guard.
Spinning to the right she kicked the side of his knee, forcing it to reflexively buckle or else snap and upsetting his balance. Using a similar technique to the one she had used on Reese, she rolled into his chest, taking a fistful of his jacket and shirt in her left hand and the inside of his right elbow in her right before shifting her weight and centre of gravity back. Whereas on Reese she had easily knocked him completely off balance, Gabriel was much heavier and her earlier attempt to shift his leg back a step hadn't been as effective as she had hoped.
Gritting her teeth, she knew that she wouldn't be able to merely throw him over her shoulder as intended so she changed her attack plan as Gabriel recovered, his arms moments away from entrapping her in a grip she wouldn't be able to slip out of. Dropping her stance into a half crouch she swiped a leg back and under Gabriel's left, the one she had kicked earlier, and pressed her knee hard into the back of his and then pushed back with other leg and her entire weight, forcing him to fall backwards and her with him.
They collapsed onto the ground, her on top of Gabriel but firmly in his grasp and now unable to escape. Using the brief moment when his grip loosened the tiniest bit as the impact of the ground hit, she wriggled so that she was now facing him, rather than with her back pressed into his chest, and reached up with one hand so that her thumb and fingers were applying gentle pressure to either side of his neck but not throttling him.
"How about we call this one a draw?" She asked, breathing heavily from her exertions. Fighting a much bigger opponent was tough and she would need to work on finishing moves that kept her out of their grasp.
