Adi vs Aya of House Dizen

[Eralam]

Both writers agree that the duel is complete, and request judgment and locking and a large bag of Doritos.

 

[Alkor Centaris]

Alright, folks, your Alkyholic is here to handle this judgment. I've read through, and I have a fairly good grasp on everything from both sides. Seeing as one of you's not an organic, but one of you's a force user, it's pretty up in the air in terms of outright match-up. No handicaps.

[member="Aya of House Dizen"] You're one hell of a droid, that's for sure. Not many writers anywhere you go are intimately familiar with the martial arts, let alone tradition stances. Folks enjoy using what they see in MMA fights or on an anime, but you have a pretty good grasp of the body and its physiology. I like that in a duelist.

[member="Adi"] I'm not going to hold back on you because you cut your hair. It's a good start, though.

When we get right down to the combat, Aya strikes first with a most interesting opener. I don't think I've ever seen anyone fire a jar of insects at their opponent, but it had the potential to be pretty... unique? Adieumus quickly answers with a bout of TK to send the attack straight back-

'...One particularly large shard of glass did however manage to leave a shallow cut along one cheek.*

Here we see a hit that I personally think is both good, and too easily conceded. It's nice to be generous with what you give for the sake of realism, but in some duels things this small could cost you. It's important to weigh the significance of what your enemy is throwing at you and see what's realistically going to be avoidable and what isn't. There are points that come later where, yes, Adi doofs you into a situation where you can't do much. You've got tons of cybernetics going for you, and your speed is easily a match for a Jedi who's not seeped in the throes of Force Speed. Don't be afraid to dodge a small hit. No judge is going to call you a PGer for that.

(It's far from dodging every hit, which I definitely don't advise or condone.)

*For a moment it looks as if she had collapsed, like a puppet with its strings cut. Her rear nearly touched the ground, arms to the outside of her legs, head bend forward. For a moment it almost looked like a fetal position, but toppling forward with her feet still flat on the ground. Then she snapped straight again, literally blurring with the speed of the motion. Her feet dug into the ground, cutting a pair of small pits as she launched herself in a flat arc barely half a meter off the ground. Flying toward the jedi like an arrow. Ten feet in front of the jedi, her hands would dig into the dirt, pulling her heels over head, before once again pushing off from the ground in an upward moving drop kick. At least that was the plan. With a regular person she doubted they would even be able to blink before taking the kick in the gut. For a jedi, any number of things could go wrong in a headlong attack like that. On the plus side, he wouldn't have time to draw anything, sabre included, so she would probably make it through the attack in one piece.*

This is a very technical and laid out attack. Her thought process is apparent and her reservations are clear.

He waited until her hands hit the ground to make his move...and move he did. As the woman's feet came over her body, Adieumus tensed his own. He was already immersed completely in an accelerated state, so his movements were just as enhanced as his vision. Even still, the woman was blisteringly fast. It took every bit of precision and timing he had to step out of the trajectory of her drop kick. Once clear of the devastating feet, the airborne girl had 'target' written all over her well-toned body. He almost hated to throw his left elbow down as she was going past...he kinda liked her, and really didn't want to hurt her. A split second later, *and if the first elbow manages to land*, he would snap out a hard right elbow, aimed for the face of his flying foe.

So the response is Force Speed. For a master like Adieumus to have trouble in such a state says a great deal about Aya's enhancements. Either you're overplaying them, or she's really bloomin' fast. (To nitpick both of you, using the passive voice "would" is kind of boring and draws some of the excitement from the read, but no one came here to hear my take on stylistics.) Some of the amped up wording here makes it seem like you just wanted to dance away from a hit, but if it were really that problematic, the idea that you could land counterattacks without taking a hit becomes doubtful.

You need to be careful not to overextend on that front. If you're struggling to defend, attacking turns into more of a chore. In a real fight, if you're standing on even ground with someone you're matched evenly against, you're going to trade blows or your fear will put you on the defensive. If you're not evenly matched, the proof will be in the results.

TL;DR on the above, in contrast to Aya, don't be so shy about taking hits. Light ones are light ones. Hard ones are hard won.

*The elbow caught her in the jaw, there wasn't anything she could do without a point of contact. But the blow was very much a point of contact. Once he started to move she knew he would either let her sail by & attack her rear, or go for a more powerful passing strike. Her hands were already moving into a position as if they were gripping a pull up bar level with her eyes. He would strike her yes, unless he pulled back at the last instant, but the same strike would plant his arm directly into her right hand.*

Now this is what I mean. Very good place to take a hit. It makes sense because Adi is using speed, and you're not in any position to react. Solid writing.

*Using the sudden point of leverage, she whipped her legs forward, folding up like a washing board & aiming a kick at the back of the jedi's head.*

BECAUSE and only because she's not an organic, this is perfectly sensible. If she had to recover from blunt force trauma, there's no way in the galaxy she'd be able to launch any kind of counterattack, especially with a strike to the head.

She tried to grip and pivot, but that cut out the original idea of the right elbow dropping on her head. Instead, her motion put her in line for a devastating attack...

...and all that it would take is two fingers on his right hand.

As she began her ascent, Adi snapped the index and middle fingers of his right hand out in a pointing motion as he adjusted his right arm from across his body to a position aiming the pointed fingers into Aya's body, at a very steep angle. In one fell swoop, the rest of the concentrated energy not used up by the burst of speed earlier tore from the pointed fingers...aimed up through Aya's center mass. In this orientation, it would be like aiming a gun up into someone's gut, and trying to send a bullet up toward their brain. No, it was nowhere near the strength of a bullet, but it would still do its share of damage should it hit. It wasn't as powerful as it -could- have been, but it -was- strong enough to rattle her internal organs a bit if all went as planned. This was something Adi called 'force spear'. It was nothing more than force push concentrated into the smaller space of two fingers. If it hit, it was usually pretty effective.

One could only hope that this was the case this time as well.

Okay, Freiza. Let's assess this move here.

You know, sir, that using TK while using, or immediately after Speed is super frowned upon, and that you had better be willing to show some serious fatigue. This is something that on Chaos hasn't been put into play very much as of yet, but something we want to stress. I'm not going to dock it as PG this time around, but let's call it a verbal warning. You do know better, though. No more Endo for you.

*grabs the bag*

*The beam tore into her gut, cutting a tunnel upward & out of her back. The path was from roughly level with her navel, through her liver, up through her right lung, & out her back, clipping a rib on the way out spraying an arc of ground below her red. On a bio it would be a crippling or lethal shot, though even then not immediately. For Aya, on the other hand, it was merely distracting. Even with her pain sensors more or less completely turned off, the blow was incredible. If it had been more widely used if would have driven her into the ground. With as narrow as it was, it had little effect on her momentum. It did distract her enough that she lost her grip on his elbow.*

Another solid hit, since you're in no position to evade. Since she's not human, though, it's far from game ending.

The kick landed like a ton of bricks on Adi's shoulder. Between landing the spear, and the slightly adjusted trajectory, the kick didn't land on its intended target....it would have knocked him out at the very least....maybe even split his head open. Thankfully, it was just across the left shoulder.

It did, however, do some pretty solid damage.

It dropped him to a knee, and he felt the grinding of broken bone....dammit to kriffin hell, the left clavicle was broken, and the muscles in the shoulder were impacted so hard that the entire arm had gone numb....and not a numbness that would go away anytime soon. It would take weeks to get feeling back from a blow like that.

And here, this is where it ends. Adi has a broken bone, which is a severe injury. His arm is fairly useless, and he's in nasty pain. A good time to grab some of that medicinal, which is exactly what you guys do.

So this is all that I really have to judge on. Let's review, here...

Aya has taken more hits, but Adi has sustained more damage. Since these two points even each other out, and the duelists are otherwise even, I'm going to call this one on a technical point. Since Aya would have been able to continue after the final blows were traded,

Aya of House Dizen advances to the second round as winner of this match. Congratulations!

Great job to Adi, as well. I hope to see more from both of you.

[member="Eralam"]