Chương 7: Skill Against No Skill
Today's match is taking place in a gymnasium on the verge of falling apart. It was set to be destroyed a month from today, but before that time came, it was repurposed into a perfect battleground for the Kengan Matches.
The two businesses facing each other in this match was a large frontrunner in the IT field, Under Mount corporation and a massive conglomeration that manufactures and sells weapons, Iwami Heavy Industries.
Their tactics in their respective business fields couldn't be any more different as Ohta takes a passive approach to businesses and only mostly waits for opportunities to take hold of. Meanwhile, the CEO of Iwami Heavy Industries, Togo Tomari, is a ruthless and shrewd business woman who prefers making her own opportunities. As opposed to Ohta, this lunatic of a woman has crazy management skills, so she assumes direct control of her own company and calls the majority of the shots instead of delegating. Her shark-like appearance and her fierce face is enough to tell anyone how dangerous her mind is.
As such, would it be no surprise for her fighter to match her temperament? Even if he did seem calm and peaceful on the outside, that appearance should be nothing more than the surface.
Vincent faced down his foe. The venue wasn't completely filled yet, so the referee deigned to wait for more people to come in before starting the match.. Vincent's opponent, Hong Xiao-Hu, went topless, exposing his chest muscles while Vincent casually strolled in with a baggy jacket. His body check was more thorough than his foe as a result.
"Make sure you win, you hear me?! I have a lot riding on this because of how much you rushed me, so you better win!" Ohta's shout carried itself across the venue, making his opponent's boss's eye twitch.
"Hong! Make sure you crush that fucker!"
The two fighters, however, acted like they didn't hear the respective shouts from their employers. They were busy focused on each other, Vincent stretching his limbs, and Xiao calmly observing his opponent with a strange smile on his face. If the Chinese man was like a snake, then the American was akin to a sloth.
Hong tilted his head to the side, forcing a crack out of his neck before speaking airily. "It seems our employers really want us to win. I'm sorry, but I'll have to upset yours."
Vincent looked at the man who's claim to fame is a loss against the Fang. There's nothing to praise about losing to someone no matter how strong they are. That sort of defeatism where one finds joy in failure doesn't sit well with the man.
However, that personality trait didn't negate the strength he built up. Vincent can simply sense the fighting spirit wafting from his foe, the tension building in his body.
'He's definitely gonna strike hard and fast first.'
Vincent turned to the referee, noticing that he was coincidentally the same man as last time, which made his smile deepen.
"Take your stances!" Vincent didn't take a stance and neither did Hong.
"Begin!"
Hong shot out like a bullet and his fist directly impacted Vincent in the face. The type of fist was much different than his previous opponent. While it lacked the heavy weight, it was a harder fist. As such, the quality of the attack was higher even if the Chinese fighter didn't measure up in terms of weight and height.
This is the type of partial training that Chinese martial artists love to do so much. Their limbs will usually be harder than the rest of their bodies from toiling day after day striking wooden and steel poles until their fists and feet bleed.
He struck again. Faster and faster. The momentum of his blows rose to prevent Vincent from getting a bead on his true speed.
The speed of Hong's blows already surpassed Murobuchi's. He didn't let up and rapidly attacked Vincent's body, hard fists and fingers striking at the vitals he failed to guard.
For all intents and purposes, Vincent was completely on the back foot straight from the start.
The onlookers who were viewing this match were split into two types of categories. Those who saw the first fight that Vincent took part in and those that didn't. The former are seeing a repeat of the beginning of the last match with the American taking hit after hit, his head being knocked all over the place.
However, they know the man is much sturdier than he seems at first glance and they also know that he has the ability to turn things around in an instant.
On the other hand, there were those who didn't watch his first match and believe the match to be completely in favor of Hong. That part of the crowd mostly betted on the Chinese because of his indomitable record and the streak he kicked up. After his twelfth match, he's gone undefeated and they believe this to be his thirty-fifth win.
With the crowd's minds rapidly heating up, the match itself was heating up as Vincent started throwing counterattacks through the furious assault on his body, giving up any notion of defense.
Even through the strategy of giving up the battle to win the war, Hong parried the strikes and still kept striking onward. His greater speed allowed him to both attack and defend flawlessly.
A rising knee to Vincent's chest pushed him back, disrupting his breathing.
"Haha, what a basic strategy. You should know that I'm fast enough to block your attacks and defend myself at the same time, so what will you do now? Surrender?" Vincent sighed.
'It's gonna be a repeat of the last match.'
Vincent's strikes were just not good enough to make people think worry about blocking them and even if they were, they can just deflect or parry them because he's not even good enough to perfectly account for that. The strength of his strikes are subpar and his skill at striking in general is merely average compared to those he went against. It always turns into a stamina match or him figuring out his opponent's rhythm and shutting them down then and there.
His training is lacking.
But that's okay because his body can more than make up for that. It always has.
If Vincent had more skill, he could contend with a person head on better instead of relying on his body as the cornerstone of this strategy. Sadly, he doesn't practice a single martial art at the moment. He's nothing more than a street brawler who incorporated a bunch of styles into his way of fighting with extremely good kinetic vision and a hardy body.
Any proper martial artist can dance around him even if they're weaker and slower than him. In a fight, skill usually settles everything.
Surpassing genetics and effort to build a strong body, techniques overcome everything. That's the way it should be and the way it usually is.
Yet, there are mutants and aberrations who surpass even that law.
'Okay, time to begin blocking.'
That thought blazed to Vincent's mind the instant he saw Hong's leg twitch. Just as he predicted, he blocked a roundhouse swinging to his temple, much to his opponent surprise.
"Oh, so you can block." He continued to smile, however, and increased his speed to the maximum while throwing in kicks in an attempt to throw off Vincent's reading of his attacks.
It was too late though. He took enough hits, understood Hong's way of fighting and got a good enough grasp on his personality. It's not a perfect reading, but it's good enough to end things now.
A thought came to the foreigner's mind. He doesn't actually have to end things the same if his finisher is different, right?
But that was expunged from his mind for two reasons. Playing around wouldn't be respectful to the man who hired him to fight and it doesn't change the core of the match in the slightest. Vincent's desire is to have all of his plans and tactics thrown into disarray and truly fight for victory with all he has again.
He just wished those fights weren't so few and far between.
He blocked some of Hong's attacks and some attacks went through his guard, striking on his body and discoloring his face and the skin under his clothes with bruises. Yellow and purple adorned his pallid body.
Hong saw that the fight in his opponent's eyes didn't go out in the slightest. As he saw the light in Vincent's eyes grow, an odd premonition came across.
Hong backed away at the very instant Vincent was about to end the match. It was his intuition as a martial artist that saved him.
The fist that should've cracked Hong's jaw slightly missed and only grazed him, but it still slightly destabilized him.
Both fighters were surprised, but Vincent continued moving and began his own true offensive maneuvers.
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