Bloody Constraint [Melee Training; Fringers, Eclipse]

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Kitt Solo"]

Her fists moved together, rose, intercepted the jab. Her angled left forearm caught the inside of Kitt's right hook, half-dissipated the blow; it still caught her a bit, rocked her head back. She went with it, as Kitt stepped in to plant her right foot behind Rave's left. Rave twisted left to face Kitt, and went low, her left foot rooting itself between Kitt's feet.

Her left hand slammed down in a low outside block, the kind of block that was a strike as well, aiming for the inside of Kitt's thigh. Her right shoved out in a driving punch for Kitt's gut. If that gave Kitt pause at all, the idea was to step farther in and slam her elbow into Kitt's gut as preparation to shoving her off-balance.

 

[Kitt Solo]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

A grimace crossed her face as Rave's fist connected with her inner-thigh. Still, there was a lot of muscle there and would shield her body from something broken but she had no doubt a nice bruise as an imprint of the woman's fist was already starting to form beneath the fabric of her clothes. Left forearm with her elbow as a pivot point, snapped across her body in an inside-out block to push Rave's right-handed strike away from her gut. The block jarred up her arm.

Wanna keep my bourbon coffee down, thank you very much.

Right hand snapped forward and went to grip the woman's left shoulder as she exploded off her back-leg, weight shifting to her forward foot as her back, left knee tucked in and up with intentions of knee-slamming in Rave's face.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Kitt Solo"]

The knee was the natural continuation of the sequence, but Rave's right hand was now way out of position. Her left, rebounding from the successful thigh strike, slammed palm-first into the side of Kitt's rising leg, right where the thigh met the knee. The knee on its way up crashed against her right shoulder on, a glancing but painful blow, but she'd already been prepping to send her admittedly petite mass forward.

Her right elbow hooked the underside of Kitt's knee as she rose and stepped in with her right foot, aiming to deny Kitt the balance she'd sacrificed for a back-leg strike against a close-in target. The left snapped up in a rising block that was pretty much an inverted hammerfist, designed to either keep Kitt's right arm out of the way, if it got in the way, or crash into the left side of her jaw.

 

[Kitt Solo]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

Whoopsie.

Instead of trying to yank her knee away and flail like a freshly-born clucked chicken, her right-handed grip from earlier on the woman’s right shoulder increased, fingers digging into the fabric of Rave’s shirt and collar. Weight maintained transferred on her right leg, using Rave as a crutch. Toned-arm flexed as she leaned her body-in to close the small distance between them. Head snapped back to head-butt the fellow Fringer, while her elbow hitched in catching her hammer-punch on her funny-bone.

Her entire arm went numb as her head slammed forward.

Left arm exploded forward with a swift, low jab toward Rave’s right ribcage with intentions of making the woman give her, her leg back.

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Kitt Solo"]

With her right elbow hooking Kitt's left knee, it was a simple matter to foil the gutpunch with a natural twist of the lower leg currently clutched to Rave's chest and belly. Kitt's forehead slammed down on hers, and Rave's eyes watered with the force of the impact. Her balance broke, and she fell back, pulling Kitt with her by each woman's grip. Kitt's fingers, twisted tight into Rave's collar and shoulder, anchored Kitt's arm and kept it up.

Just before Rave's back hit the ground and broke her elbow-grip on Kitt's leg, her left hand lanced up, an uppercut for the nerves in Kitt's armpit and the underside of her upper arm. Then Kitt's knee slammed her upper right arm into the ground with bruising force.

 

[Kitt Solo]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

A grunt of pain gurgled from her throat as Rave's uppercut connected with the underside of her arm. "Ommph," she fell hard, grateful that Rave's cushy body took most of the blow between herself and the ice of the frozen lake. Well, somewhat cushy body. She was all lean muscle and bone but it was still better than the ice. Right elbow dug hard into the woman's ribs as she fell, microbes of pain lancing up and down all the way to her fingertips.

Grip released from the woman's shoulder and clothes. Right elbow hunkered in close as she flexed her fingers trying to shake out the pain and numbness. But she didn't let it slow down her roll.

Pushing off her chest, she rolled off the woman, herself positioned with her feet perpendicular to her side. Cleated shoes shot forward as two double swift kicks went for Rave's side, or, the middle of the top of the 'T.'

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Kitt Solo"] had rolled off to the right, meaning those kicks came in at Rave's unhurt left arm and side. Made sense -- rolling the other way might have left her leg entangled with Rave's arm. Rave curled toward Kitt and folded her arm, taking the double kicks on the side of her upper arm and the meat of her forearm. It hurt and hurt bad, but nothing crippling. Whereas her other arm might be fractured.

She snagged Kitt's upper leg, the left one, and rolled while pulling herself up and over the boots. She came down with a right elbow strike at the side of Kitt's left thigh, holding the ankle with her other hand. She wasn't especially looking forward to feeling what it was like to elbow someone with a brutalized arm, but she pushed forward with it anyway. If the strike connected, she'd then land with her chest across Kitt's calf, knees splayed a bit for balance on the ice.

 

[Kitt Solo]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

Teeth ground down as Rave’s elbow connected. She was finally getting feeling back in her right forearm, which acted as an anchor to twist and flip on her back, even with Rave’s grip on her left leg. She went to capitalize on Rave’s hunched over-position. Thrusting her hips forward and up, she went to twist on her left side and brought her right leg up to hook the underside of her knee and thigh around the back of Rave’s neck.

Sore, left leg came up simultaneously to complete the make-shift leg headlock she was going for as her right arm shot forward to capture the right wrist of Rave’s arm with full intentions of twisting the joint.

 

[Velok the Younger]

Rave dug in her knees as best she could and shoved forward -- not much, but enough. @[member="Kitt Solo"]'s other leg came around from underneath and thudded across her shoulders. Bruised tricep screaming in protest, Rave wrenched her arm back and out of the nascent wristlock, folding her arm under her. That and her torquing shoulders separated Kitt's knees a little, got Rave up on her right side at an angle. Unwilling to risk a slip on the ice, she used Kitt as her point of contact, almost like fighting in zero-gee. The problem, of course, was that her left hand was busy holding Kitt's left ankle. Flat against the ice, her right arm shot out under her and pushed against Kitt's knee, the grounded one. That got Rave a little distance, and got her head out of reach of a potential kick. She rolled once and came to her feet, cradling her right arm.

"Think I've got enough of me as hamburger, Solo," she said, and her chuckle steamed the air. "You win this round." She began murmuring the Revitalization of the Whuffa, a Paecean chant of regeneration and healing.

 

[Kitt Solo]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

She grunted, as the extra weight was suddenly gone. She stood slowly, trying to shake out the soreness in her leg. The cold made her perspired cheeks, rosy. A lopsided grin spread across her lips.

“Good match, Merrill,” gingerly stepping forward, she reached out a hand to shake Rave’s, favoring her good one. She could feel Rave’s pain leave through her empathic connection. Chestnut-brows crinkled in part wonder and part jealousy.

“How are you doing that? Healing was never –uh- my thing.”

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Kitt Solo"]

"What, healing? There's..." She glanced over at the rest of the class, then shrugged. "Guess I've spent enough time at alchemy that I know how to fix the big stuff, force flesh and bones and things back together. But I guess that's only part of it. Healing's a lightsider's game, but there's three ways around it. That one, forcing things back together, that's real Dark Healing -- painful, temporary, leaves wounds vulnerable to infection. Then there's a Sith spell I know that does the same but more permanently, but it just wipes you out. Then there's the chant I'm using now, Dathomiri witch spell that the Allyans and Nightsisters both use, Revitalization of the Whuffa. They say if you chant it long enough, work your mind around it just right and get a good meal in, you can regrow a limb you've lost. Downside is, it's slower than the other two. Oh, and it hurts about as much.

"Give it a shot - the basic Dark Healing thing. Get your focus small-scale and try forcing things back together. Cells, muscle fibers, skin edges, capillaries."

 

[Kitt Solo]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

Now...she was embarrassed. The darkside? The problem was, she never really used the darkside. The Spire, fights against Shorn, training, and all the sieges, she used the lightside. She had a lot of fear in those situations but she never really capitalized on it. Fear was never a sustaining source of fuel.

But would Kitt Solo admit to such things?

Frells, no.

"Oh yeah, dark healing. Should be easy enough. Thanks Merrill." Closing her eyes, she faked it. Mind wandered and she thought about her leg, feeling every bruise and ache from Rave's fist. She tried to mentally grasp what Rave instructed to do about forcing. But nothing happened at first.

 

[Carré Inirial]

“Absolutely…but do bear with me a moment.”

Carré replied with a brief nod of her head. She watched the woman carefully as she shed her weapons, and then proceeded to do the same. Her thick jacket was first, leaving her in a white sweater that the Knight knew wasn't going to remain white for much longer.

It didn’t matter, though…if she could learn something and prove to herself that she hadn’t completely lost her skills in the last five hundred years, she’d happily burn her entire wardrobe. Something she had no doubt Dissero would be both amused and intrigued by.

She carefully set her lightsaber hilts on the jacket and removed the sheaths they normally resided in from either leg. Her head tilted as her smile faded, to be replaced by a more calculating, even look.

It was ridiculously cold and it cut through her thin sweater, but a moment later and it didn’t matter. Carré moved with an almost liquid grace, unaided by the Force as requested. The ground was slippery, and the grips on her boots weren’t quite doing their work as she stepped in towards Antera. Instead of reaching for the Force to stabilize herself, she threw her weight into the slide and dropped down at the last minute, seeking to sweep Antera’s feet out from under her.

@[member="Antera"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

@[member="Kitt Solo"]

Rave blushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry -- I'm forgetting. You fight like me, so..." She shrugged. "For what it's worth, I'm told the Light Side version is more like...amplifying natural healing processes, coaxing existing structures back together, persuading the body -- pouring out life energy, the living Force."

 

[Antera]

Antera watched as Carré made her approach, eyes following her movements intently. When she moved in to strike, she found herself falling back on drilled habits more than conscious thought.

Watch the hips and shoulders. Where is her balance. Where is she aiming to strike.

She saw the sudden shift in the other woman's weight, and threw herself backwards. Her timing was slower than she would have liked, avoiding the blow by mere centimeters and giving up a half-meter of ground in the process. Even with both eyes open and focused, she felt near blind without the ever present tingle of the Force in the back of her mind.

Am I really that reliant on it?

She didn't have time to ponder. It was likely she had an opening while Carré was on the ground, but she was unwilling to lock herself into a wrestling match with someone who could move that fast without a better idea of what her limits were. She slowly circled around to her left, but didn't move closer, daring the other woman to try again. She shuffled her feet sideways to keep from crossing them in front of each other, and kept her arms up a short distance away from her chest to guard.

@[member="Carré Inirial"]

 

[Kitt Solo]

@[member="Rave Merrill"]

Eyes cracked open for a moment as if worried someone else would hear them. Lightsiders weren't exactly common in the Fringe. Not to mention, she had a rep. to keep up. There were assumptions made about darksiders and lightsiders and she'd rather have the darkside assumptions.

"A street-fighter taught me how to scrap on Corellia. He was the same man who made me brush my teeth before bed and caused me to get in trouble with my mom when I repeated words he said in the shop that he wasn't supposed to say. Best mechanic in Corellia on the Southside and a tough as nails dad. Your moves reminded me of his technique."

Her eyes closed once again. Slowly, she pictured all the little cells on a very high level healing, like how Rave described. It was...beyond hard. After a few minutes she convinced herself she felt a little tingling and relief of pain. The snow down her pant-leg and the three anti-inflammatory pills also did wonders.

 

[Lucianus Adair]

When @[member="Alen Na'Varro"] split them off into pairs, the dark-haired sith was pleased to hear that he would have the opportunity to go against this man that at one time would have been his adversary, through and through, simply due to the overwhelming sentiment of the ancient Sith Empire, and the obedience to the commands of its council of masters. Ancient - what a thought that was. The fact that such an empire had crumbled, that Adair had chosen to take his place amongst these men and women who had proven themselves time and time again... it was home. A small smile curled his lips, and he approached his sparring partner. It had been quite some time since he had participated in a contest, unarmed and force-less.

"This cold, Na'Varro. It is... deeply refreshing," he said, stepping forward. "And this is your place of origin? Interesting."

Though Lucianus had spent the majority of his life in warmer climes, his father had taken it upon himself to subject the young Lucianus to the elements, to its extremes. Innocent little trips that he had not thought much of at the time, beyond what Ferian had imparted, but the lessons stuck. While on one hand, the conservation of energy was important, the expenditure was also useful to warm the body. That, in some small part, is what they were all there for. He could already hear the other participants getting into it, but his eyes did not move to confirm, staying steadily on his ally of the Eclipse and the Fringe. Adair was ready, keeping loose, well aware and used to the fact that most fights began with little indication beyond the advancement of the first blow.

 

[Aran Finn]

@[member="Kitt Solo"] @[member="Rave Merrill"]

As the two young High Councilors match came to an end, Na'Varro jogged over from his spar with Adair to give them his thoughts. They were here to hear what he had to say, after all. From what he had seen, they both had considerable amounts of toughness and skill, yet there was still some work to be done.

"Good spar, guys. I've been watching with interest." He smiled. "From what I saw, this turned into a brawl pretty quick. Brawling ... well, it's more useful for some people than others. You're both slender and have a bit of length to you ... I think you both need to work on maintaining distance. Momentum is great, granted, but you both left yourself open to getting knocked the feth out on a couple of occasions."

"Kitt, early on you followed a jab with a step in on your right follow by a right cross. If Merrill had been smarter she'd have blasted you with a right straight while you were still moving your feet. Also ... never lead with a right hook unless the guy you're trying to hit doesn't know it's coming. Without that coffee flinging, Merrill could have cracked you with a quick jab and had you seeing stars. But as the spar went on, you started looking pretty good out there. That knee counter was perfect, I don't know how the heck it didn't land. And you showed some toughness. Nice work."

"Merrill ... you missed a few golden opportunities for counter right hands, which are seriously underrated. I saw a lot of inventive stuff from you, which is nice. But shifting low and striking at the legs with the hands ... not great application in my opinion, unless you want to eat a knee to the face. And you almost did, I don't know how you managed to push that knee aside, but you did. You're as tough as woodpecker lips as well. If this is how High Councilors fight, then I think the Fringe is in good hands."

"I put you two together because I think you can both benefit from the same fighting style. Neither of you are ever going to have true knockout power, what you both having going for you is length, toughness and volume of attacks. Get out there, put your hands on your opponent, stay in the pocket while maintaining distance, use more head movement, take a few hits, let them expend their energy, then drag them into deep water and finish them off. And throw more kicks, please. Kicks are good for not letting your opponent to get on the inside. This close-quarters brawling won't work for either of you in the long run."

Alen smiled, hoping they'd both take what he had to say on board. He'd been around the block in regards to this sort of thing. His smile turned to Kitt, taking a different turn. We're going to have to work on your ground game - he sent telepathically, and then winked. With that, he turned back to Adair and their own spar.

"Good job, guys." He called over his shoulder. "We'll work on weapons soon."

OOC: In my opinion, that knee counter from Kitt should have ended that one early, I was just asleep while it happened otherwise I would have called it. Good to see you guys getting into it though!

 

[Aedan Miles]

Aedan blinks as he hears @[member="Andreas Wintergreen"] and follows the man with his eyes as he calmly takes off his weapons and moves to set them aside stretching a bit as he moves. Rolling his shoulders Aedan looks at the man and then slides calmly into a stance that seemed more inclined to defense as he looked the man in the eyes. "I will try not to embarrass myself to badly it wouldn't do to give myself a bad name." Aedan starts to move the opposite direction of the man keeping him in front of him as his movements seem smooth and flowing. It was obvious that the young man hadn't fought without weapons for some time but he wouldn't just give up he would give it his all.

 

[Bloodknight]

@[member="Aedan Miles"]

Hmph. No reaction. That was unexpected. Didn't this boy have any pride to him at all? Where's his warrior spirit, his soldier resolute? Well, it could be concluded that he was here for just that reason. They were nonexistent and he wanted to rectify that. Fair enough, Andreas thought himself a good teacher. Thinking on that thought, Andreas remembered that was partly the reason he was here in the first place: to aid in the education. His student had taken a defensive stance and did well in following his movements, but it was clear he was not going to make the first move so naturally, Andreas will have to take the initiative. Going at less than half his true speed so his student would be able to see in coming and pivoting on one foot, he swung the other high in what appeared to be roundhouse kick aimed for Aedan's head, but it was aimed a bit further from it. Based on Miles's defensive stance, one did not have to have great imagination to know he'd be ready to defend an attack of this manner. But the kick was distanced just far enough that his instep would hook Aedan's upraised hands and bring them down while he poises his leg in the air right in front of his chest, opening him up to the front kick coming from the same leg immediately after aimed right at his unprotected chest. This was known as a double crescent kick (22:55-23:23).
"Don't allow your opponent to know your intentions at first. Keep a neutral stance, one that's unassuming or that could be used for both offense and defense."