The Force of Fear

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac eyed [member="Lady Kay"] as she approached him. He could tell that she wasn't used to being on the offensive, but she didn't have the reach to afford being defensive in a fight anyways. It would be something that they'd have to work on. Kay twisted her body up for a punch which Mac was preparing to dodge but she instead twisted for a kick with her off foot. It was crafty to be sure, Mac didn't have her pegged as one to be "dishonest" in fighting but he couldn't help but smile. The kick connected but Kay's fake punch left her in an awkward position so she couldn't place that much power behind her kick. Mac managed to move his leg a little bit but her foot still grazed his shin.

Mac responded by stepping into her, taking advantage of her awkward position. He shoved her with both hands.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay expected [member="Macoda Haberon"] to attack with his upper body. Afterall, that seemed to be where most of his strength was, if his muscles were any indication. And given that she kicked him, it was a logical choice for him.

At least her foot connected. As Mac's hands touched her midsection and pushed her, she hooked her arms around his forearms and then just let her body drop, tucking her legs underneath herself. If she got her momentum right, and if Mac didn't just hold her up over the ground, then her body would have struck his lehs to throw him off balance.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? She wasn't quite sure how easy it would be to get Mac to fall.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

[member="Lady Kay"]'s move was an odd one. As Mac stepped into her and his arms exploded forward like a spring, Kay clinged to his forearms and let herself drop. However Mac grabbed her with his hands and used her momentum to force her to the ground, preventing her from sweeping into his legs, although he doubted that that would knock him over anyways. Though Kay still maintained a grip on his arms, Mac had her shoulders pinned down to the floor of the catacombs. He hoped that he hadn't slammed her down on the ground too hard as the floor was rock. Mac was very conscious of Kay's leg right below his crotch, so he pinned her left leg to the floor with his right knee, and leaned forward over Kay's face, pinning her upper arms down with a good bit of weight.

Mac looked down and smiled. "Dead."

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay didn't expect that. She lifted her head to avoid it from striking the ground when he pinned her down. Her leg was caught below his knee, while her other one was off to the side and unable to make any kind of kick that would be useful.

Even though her shoulders were pinned, her hands were still free. She let go of both of his arms and reached up with her right to grip his throat. Although she didn't hold him tightly, nor was her hand big enough to do so anyways. All that she could do was smirk. "Perhaps. But if I had a knife, then you'd be the dead one." She was stubborn and didn't give up so easily. Perhaps that was a bit reckless. But it's kept her alive so far.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

"Yeah? Well you don't have one." Mac teased. He let her go and got back on his feet, and then looked at [member="Lady Kay"]. "By the way, in that position it is better to punch the throat, not strangle it." He shrugged "It takes a surprising amount of time to strangle someone effectively." Mac briefly thought back to the guard he had killed in the engine room of the Free Lady. Even he didn't strangle the guard long enough for him to die, just quickly snapped his neck when the he lost consciousness. Although Mac thought that Kay wasn't exactly one to snap anyone's neck.

"So, now that our little warm up is done, what is it that you wanted me to teach you?" Did she want to learn offensive or defensive moves? Self defense? Had she brought her lightsaber, they could have done some sparring. Mac was curious as to what she would hope to learn. Her best weapon was her speed, better suited for running away and grappling, not her power.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay smirked as [member="Macoda Haberon"] teased her. True enough, she didn't have a knife. She wanted to work with nothing, just in case she didn't have anything available in a bad situation. She's certainly been there before.

"I did think of punching, but I didn't want to hurt you." She let go of his neck and waited for him to let her up. "As I said, I want to better defend myself against bounty hunters, assassins and the like. We're expanding our reach. So that'll make Commenor and myself a bigger target." It was far easier for other governments to kill her than to try to force her to be under their control. She was well aware of that. No security was foolproof. Mac proved that already.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac scratched his beard, looking at Kay. Almost all bounty hunters and assassins would be armed with at least a knife if not a blaster pistol or stun gun. A good bounty hunter would not let the situation boil down to a hand to hand combat if at all possible, yet it would be a good start to teach [member="Lady Kay"] some basic level of self defense. "Alright, I can't protect you from a good sniper rifle but I can show you how to not be a complete damsel in distress."

"First thing is first, you don't have a lot of power behind you so you have to make each hit count. So...." Mac held out a large hand. "Hit me."

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay got to her feet, dusting herself off a bit. She smirked at the whole 'damsel in distress' comment. It was truthful though and she knew that. But so often people did things for her, protected her, fought for her. Better skills would decrease her capture in the future, without jepordizing her secret.

Kay raised a brow slightly as [member="Macoda Haberon"] held out his hand and asked her to hit him. "Are you testing my strength?" She clenched her right hand, as it was her more dominate one, twisted her body as she pulled her arm back with her elbow bent and then straightened it all out in a snap as she punched him, using the momentum of her body to increase the force of her punch. Yet with such a big man like Mac, she expected it to merely tickle him at best. Kay hadn't exactly been lifting weights other than her tea, datapads, and the occasional heavy gown.

"How was that?"

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

"No, I'm not testing your strength. I'm seeing if you know how to punch." What seemed like a simple task can actually be quite painful if done improperly for both parties. When Mac was a pit fighter for the better part of a year, he had learned this the hard way and often broke his hand off of the face of a Trandoshan or something similar. Mac could tell that [member="Lady Kay"] would not be knocking anyone down with her punches, but if she was going to defend herself, she better at least know how to.

Hmmmm

Lady Kay took a very calculating punch, consciously winding her arm up and twisting her body to give her punch all the momentum she could. Mac caught her punch in the palm of his hand with a thud. The strength wasn't that bad, but her execution was. It was too rigid, too planned out. Mac knew about fighting, and fighting was supposed to be more organic and free flowing. "Loosen up Kay, fighting is not a Dejarik game, its more natural and messy than that. You are thinking too much and your punch lacked form. Here I'll show you." Mac took Kay's hand with his own and balled up her fist. "You see how your index and middle knuckle protrude more than your other two knuckles? Try and lead with the two bigger knuckles. Putting stress on your ring and pinkie knuckles will cause you to break your hand, and you'll just be hurting yourself more than the enemy. Make sure that when you punch, your fist is completely level with the rest of your arm. If it's not, then you could sprain your wrist."

Mac stood up straight and held out his hand. "Now hit me again."

 

[Kay-Larr]

The problem that she had with fighting was the same problem that she had with dancing. She thought too much about it instead of using her instinct. Even her slave missions were calculated, and she tried to have every base covered. As much as she didn't think that she had a strategists mind, her history in politics trained her for just that.

Kay let out a small huff as [member="Macoda Haberon"] pointed out her flaws. And here she figured that she did well by using her body as opposed to just her arm. After he let go of her hand, she gave her limbs a shake, jumping up and down a little in an attempt to loosen up her body. Now it was her turn to try again.

"Index and middle fingers...arm straight...stay lose..." Kay just shook her head. She was too busy trying to mentally prepare herself for doing something so simple as punching Mac's hand. That would only make her fail. She shook herself again, and then just went ahead and punched his hand as though she was trying to stop his hand from reaching out to her even further, leaving her little time to actually think about it.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Kay's fist smacked against the palm of Mac's hand. Her form had improved noticeably. Not perfect, Mac noted, but at least [member="Lady Kay"] was a quick learner on that regard. The improvement in form had also allowed the punch to be delivered more effectively. Mac's palm stung a little. "Better. Much much better." Mac continued to keep his arm outstretched. "Again."

Like anything, practice makes perfect. Mac signaled for Lady Kay to strike his hand repeatedly and when his palm began to bruise a little from the repeated blows, he switched hands and signaled for Lady Kay to do the same, now punching with her left hand. She wasn't calculating as much, though Mac could still tell that she was conscious in about her form. She needed to rely on her instincts. After repeated strikes with both hands, her form began to improve. However Mac noticed that there was something missing from Lady Kay. He knew what it was of course, it was the same ingredient that allowed Mac to be the fighter that he was. Raw emotion.

Whether it be anger or fear or compassion or determination, every fighter had to have some sort of emotion to push them far past their limit. From Mac's experience, every fight eventually boiled down to sheer will power and it was the emotions that built such power. The fear of death creates the will to live. The anger creates the desire for revenge. Compassion breeds a want for peace through victory. It was not evident to Mac that Kay possessed any such emotions. That was understandable of course. Mac slowly realized throughout the exercise that, despite being a force user, Kay was not a fighter. But Mac could change that. Such raw emotions rarely came out in such low stakes situations. No, Mac needed to see what Kay was really worth.

As Kay threw another punch, Mac grabbed her fist with his right hand and pressed his left hand on the back of her elbow, forcing his hand against the joint and giving him manipulation of her arm. He twisted her arm so that he could easily pop it out of its socket, he had done it before. Mac had no intention of doing so, but Kay didn't know that. He figured that he hadn't completely gained Kay's trust and she still harbored some fear of him as he did of her. He executed his counter to Kay's punch with a sudden harshness that suddenly made the situation feel very real. He wanted to see Kay's reaction, to light a fire under her, so to speak.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Well at least that punch was good. And as expected, [member="Macoda Haberon"] asked her to repeat the punch him again. So she did so. Kay kept her stance wide, but always with the opposite foot in the lead while she punched him, switching from her right to her left when prompted.

But then Mac caught her off guard. Or rather he caught her hand. She couldn't pull it away either as in a split second, he grabbed her elbow. "Hey!" She winced as he twisted it, giving her that not so pleasant feeling if a near dislocation. She had experienced it before, while she was held in captivity, only she had no freedom of movement at the time.

Now was different.

Kay delivered a swift kick to his shin. It probably wouldn't force him to let her go, but she had never had a chance to react to that kind of move before. If she had had her tea cup, or something else in her hand, then she would have struck him in the head with it. But at the moment she had nothing. And she was highly unmatched.

How embarrassing.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

[member="Lady Kay"] responded to Mac's counter with a kick to the shin. This time it connected and Mac winced as his shin began to sting. He tried his best not to show his pain and kept a firm grip on Lady Kay's arm. She liked kicking his shin. Mac made a mental note of that. Mac sneered at Kay's attempt, "I am about to pop your arm out of your socket and all you have is a kick to the shin?" He was trying to get under her skin. Kay was treating this as practice and that's what will get her killed. Mac needed to make the situation as real as possible, bounty hunters will have no qualms about dislocating a shoulder if it meant that Lady Kay would be more compliant. That is, if they didn't decide to kill her first.

Mac held Kay's arm in place. He was seriously considering popping her arm, just to teach her a lesson on the gravity of the situation. She would be fighting for her life after all, why not start now? Maybe Mac's work with Miss Blonde had made him less sympathetic and more violent. He tried to push that thought out of his head and pushed away Kay as well, as if to remove the temptation.

Mac backed up, putting some space between Kay and himself. "Come on now, is that all you got?" He motioned for Kay to come at him.

 

[Kay-Larr]

"Well I..." That was all that Kay had said in response to just kicking him. She wasn't entirely confident in what she was doing and still she was holding back from hurting him. Yet he caught her by surprise too by grabbing her in such a way as she was in the process of delivering repetative punches.

Her eyes remained on [member="Macoda Haberon"] 's as he held her arm. She could see that he was thinking, calculating. Whatever it was, he changed his mind, for he soon let her go and stepped back. Kay rubbed her shoulder a little and moved the joint around to get it to feel more normal again.

Mac taunted her soon after. What was she to do? Charge him? She'd never get away with it. It wasn't as though she could tackle him down. A blow to the kidneys. That could work. She just needed to get access to them. Kay closed her hands into fists and rushed him, reaching up to punch his jaw with one hand, and punching his gut with the other.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

"That's it come on!"

[member="Lady Kay"] rushed at Mac and aimed a punch at his lower jaw. He could tell that Kay was still hesitant in hurting him and he needed that to change. Mac instinctively dodged his head to the side and so the punch merely grazed his jaw. However it proved to be a distraction more than anything else. Even though punch to the jaw left Kay in a position where she couldn't put all her strength into her other punch to Mac's kidney, she still connected as Mac was dodging her punch to the jaw. The punch that fully connected bruised his stomach through his shirt. Mac took a step back with a grunt.

Straight arm, leading with two knuckles. Now that's more like it.

Now that Kay had her fun, it was Mac's turn. He figured that he should put Kay on the defensive, as that would be the more likely scenario. As Kay's punch connected to Mac's stomach, he established a firm grip on Kay and launched a knee up into her gut. He then let go, letting Kay have a chance to put some distance between them. Kay's best strength was her speed after all, and Mac wanted her to start using it. "That was a nice punch to the kidney Kay, you don't have that much strength so aim for areas that don't require that much strength to hurt." Mac clutched his side and exhaled deeply. He wasn't teaching Kay to fight fair but it was effective.

Mac allowed Kay to breathe for a moment, before launching himself at her. He aimed a powerful punch into her stomach. Mac was used to fighting people smaller than him, and was therefore used to punching downwards. While it took some getting used to, he figured out that punching downwards allowed him to put more weight behind each strike.

 

[Kay-Larr]

It worked! Though that victory was short lived. [member="Macoda Haberon"] grabbed her and kneed her in the stomach, causing her to gasp and nearly fall to her knees. She stumbled back to put the expected space between them, her left arm clutching her belly as she stood bent over to recover.

She listened to his words of advice, already plotting out various places where she could hit him, places where he was vulnerable.

And then Mac suddenly attacked. Her instincts got her to spin her body out of the way, using Mac's momentum against him to have him move past her. She followed through her spin with a punch to the back of Mac's head, near where the skull connects to his spine. As he was moving in the same direction, the impact wouldn't be as strong as though he was standing still.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac charged at Kay, throwing his weight behind a powerful punch. However he hit nothing but air as [member="Lady Kay"] twirled out of the way and placed a punch on the back of his head. Mac couldn't help but laugh as he stumbled forward, surprised at Kay's speed. He figured that she would be quick, but still. He had a lot of experience fighting people quicker than him. Despite being agile for his size, Mac was used to being the slower fighter and he had to act accordingly. This was were Kay would gain the advantage. In fighting situations, she would always be on the defensive, trying to get away from bounty hunters and such. Yet Mac knew that though he had to be offensive, charging head first would get him no where, and only open him up to quick strikes.

Mac quickly turned around and slowly moved towards Kay, his arms outstretched by his sides. He had the reach, and should Kay come too close to land a strike, then he would have her right where he wanted her. But that would either require Kay to initiate a strike or for Mac to catch her. He knew that the former option would be more likely.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay shook her hand a bit after the impact of her punch on [member="Macoda Haberon"] 's head had hurt it somewhat. It was different punching bone as opposed to punching muscle. But at least her move had worked.

Now Mac turned to face her and began his approach. He seemed ready for whatever she could come up with. As he moved forward, she stepped back, wanting to maintain a safe distance while she tried to figure out what to do next.

And then an idea came to her. She rushed him, closing the gap between them and then dropped into a slide, trying to keep below his reach while she swept his legs with her left foot to try to get him down.

 

[Hadrian Bjormund]

Mac wasn't expecting her to slide. It was a smart move. Her left leg tried to sweep Mac's legs out from under him, but his mass provided some help in keeping him stable. [member="Lady Kay"] slammed into his right leg which caused him to stumble back, losing his balance for a brief second. The strike to his legs caused Mac to crouch down and keep a wide stance as he re-positioned himself, lowering his center of gravity. He figured that Lady Kay liked to go for his legs and so keeping a lower center of gravity would make it harder for her to topple him.

Mac quickly seized the opportunity and closed in on Kay, his hands reaching out to grab any part of her that he could. Kay's drop left her vulnerable, she committed too much to the strike and sacrificed her mobility. If Mac could grab on to her, he could pin her down like he had done before and it would be game over.

 

[Kay-Larr]

It didn't work! Somehow [member="Macoda Haberon"] didn't land on his backside! It was as though he was ready for it. She knew the reasons why, so it wasn't that hard to figure it out. And seeing him crouched there made her realize that she was in big trouble.

Mac quickly moved upon her, his position and lower center of gravity allowing him the movement of a spring. Kay was on her back and tried to scramble away, but his reach was too long. She felt his hands gripping her upper arms and she closed her eyes, pursing her lips in frustration. "I know, I know....I'm dead." She reopened her eyes and looked up at him as he held her. If this were real, then she would have tried to attack his eyes with her fingers. But given that it was only a practice, she left his face well alone. Now she merely waited to be let up again.