Kapitel 37: Spar

The two shifted around the mat, maintaining distance. This was a common practice even on Earth, by constantly shifting your balance and weight across both your legs, it became more difficult to predict your opponent's movements. It was a simple but an extremely practical tactic.

('He's not coming...') Rui noted. ('...Well, his Martial Art is centered around evasive maneuvering.')

Rui thought for a moment before making up his mind.

('If he's not coming, I'll go for him!')

He dashed towards Kane, throwing light jabs at him. The strikes had very little torque and weight behind them, making it easier to launch more of them in rapid succession.

Kane grinned, swerving and bobbing his head to avoid the higher strikes. For him, avoiding strikes to the head was more practical, the neck was a flexible juncture and evasiveness was his forte.

('How about a body strike, then?')

Rui shot a mid-range straight right punch at Kane's abdomen.

BAM

Kane had blocked it with a solid guard.

The two put some distance between each other.

"Thought your Martial Art was centered around evasiveness." Rui huffed.

"It's not practical to dodge every single attack, in some cases, blocking is just irrefutably the only correct choice." Kane shrugged.

That made sense. One could not win a fight purely through evasiveness.

This time, Rui closed the distance slowly. They both shifted around, feeling each other out, testing and gauging each other's reactions.

Once Rui reached kicking range, he threw a light roundhouse kick at Kane's abdomen, only to cleanly miss as Kane effortlessly dodged the attack.

('Figured, roundhouse kicks take too much time to land, it's easy for someone with his mobility to avoid them.') Rui mused as he threw a few light jabs, most of which were dodged.

He attempted to throw a straight kick to Kane's chin, only for Kane to dodge while simultaneously closing the distance;

BAM

Kane landed a jab to Rui's abdomen.

"Tsk." Rui grimaced.

It was very difficult for Rui to land a clean strike on him, Kane was not only extremely slippery, but was very good at exploiting slim openings to squiggle his way in and land some strikes.

('He's strong.') Rui huffed. But he wasn't done yet. He closed the gap between him and Kane, but this time he didn't bother trying to land a strike at the earliest opportunity. Instead, he kept his left arm up as a guard while preparing his right arm for a strong jab.

Kane, thus far, hadn't aggressed a single attack of his own volition, his only strike was a counter.

('His plan is to let me initiate an offense and land attacks while or after evading my own.')

This was Kane's element. He dodged attacks while simultaneously setting up counters. But it was not without flaws.

('Such a strategy requires a lot of space.')

Evasive maneuvering, in general, required space. Much more so than most other fields of Martial Art. The lesser the space, the lesser the evasion.

('Thankfully, leaving the ring is not allowed.')

Rui planned to exploit this. By cornering Kane, while simultaneously reaching extremely close-range, His odds of landing a strike were much higher. The reasons were simple; Reaching the edge would mean Kane wouldn't be able to evade strikes easily due to the lack of space, and the closer Rui was to him, the harder it was to avoid a strike. Avoiding a fast super-close-range strike with very little space seemed to be difficult even for Kane, he could have no choice but to launch a strike in order to avoid this.

Kane glanced backward as he realized the boundary was at his heel. Rui had been making a few sweeping attacks launched in such a way that the ideal way to avoid them was simply to step back, but in a closed area, there was a limit to the number of times this could be performed before reaching the boundary.

Rui rushed forward swinging his fist abruptly, prompting Kane bent backwards while launching a sharp straight high kick, in the heat of the moment.

WHOOSH.

Where Rui's head should have been, there was naught but nothing.

Kane's eyes widened in surprise.

('I've seen that before, Kane.') Rui grinned cleanly avoiding that strike, a simple push was all it took to throw Kane out of the ring. In that bent position with a kick mid-air and the boundary but an inch away, not even Kane could seem to muster the power or the balance to avoid a ring-out.

"First round goes to me." Rui grinned smugly, offering Kane a hand.

Kane smiled wryly. "Sure, but that's the only round you're winning today."

"Ha!" Rui laughed. "You... weren't using a single technique, were you?"

"Heh. So, you noticed."

"Of course, you were moving like a freaking viper in the Exam, I had trouble keeping my eyes on you. In comparison, you were moving like a lazy cat just now." Rui retorted.

Kane threw a competitive smile at Rui in response. They quickly took their positions, shuffling and shifting. Rui was more than happy to rehash the same tactic again.

('If it ain't broke, don't fix it.') Rui chanted.

Just as he cornered Kane and launched a strike… Kane vanished!

('???') Just as Rui gathered his bearings;

BAM

A brutal impact landed on the back of his head, pushing him past the boundary that he had cornered Kane with prior.

"Fuck!" Rui grimaced in pain, turning around in confusion. What he saw shocked him. Kane upside-down on a handstand, and had launched a kick down on Rui's head with his leg.

Kane flipped back over to his feet with a smug grin.

"Did you really think I would fall for the same tactic again? Evasion isn't limited to two-dimensional maneuvering you know."

Rui grinned in awe. ('Did he really flip into a handstand to avoid my strike while simultaneously launching a kick to the back of my head to push me over the boundary I had cornered him into?')

Rui had underestimated him. Kane was far nimbler and more mobile than he had imagined. Such acrobatic maneuvering made his evasion that much more formidable.

"You're really something else, y'know?" Rui complimented, getting back into the ring.

"Hehehe, you haven't seen anything just yet, I was barely using half my full power." Kane cracked his knuckles, boasting a smiling with a hint of sadism in it.