Chapter 20: 19 Zawis´s regret
Before me stood a suddenly enraged Zawis looking at my perplexed and clueless face. I felt my legs and hands trembling a bit.
Ahh Yes, still a coward I see.
Just what the hell did I say that would enrage him that much?
Elder Irvin gave the sign, but Zawis didn´t move an inch and I would not go on the offensive first. Gotta enjoy the peace, right? He continued glaring at me and started mumbling something under his breath.
"This time I will win!"
Suddenly Zawis yelled at me with his loud and booming voice and I felt as if a storm went against my face. He took a few steps and came closer and closer to me.
"Do you even know what kind of disgrace happened to me last time?"
He growled as he closed the distance, but did not raise his fists. His face twisted as he looked at my still clueless face. He must have noticed his answer there because his anger seemed to increase even more.
"I lost to you!"
Yeah, I know that, so?
He gritted his teeth so loud that I could hear his teeth gnawing at each other.
"I lost consciousness!"
Yeah, that´s how you lost, right?
He now stood before me and looked down at me with a furious stare. I really felt my legs and arms shiver and the urge to run away grew more and more.
"That was the only fight I was able to fight, then!"
So? How is that my problem?
... Oh! So that was it!
He lost to the weakest member of the village even though he should have been the strongest! How unfortunate, since he regularly beats up his training partners in Erwin´s training. Everybody knows how strong he is and how weak I am and yet he lost in the ranking tournament where everybody is watching.
"That´s rough, buddy..."
I tried to sound sympathetic, but his face only turned even angrier. He raised his fist and so did I.
"Today... today I will win!"
He threw his punch and I dodged outwards, creating space between Zawis and me. Sparring is one thing, but having suddenly someone this enrage confronting you, I believe even more trained fighters would shake and quake in their boots. And I am still just a small little girl in a village of giants.
I need to concentrate! My shaking legs and arms are irrelevant! They do not hinder my movement! I told to myself after all fear is a survival instinct and not something that would hinder me in a fight. Well, at least I think so after having watched Doctor Who a lot. Even though Clara put that thought in him, she learned it from him so... oh well it is one of the unrealistic things in that series. If no one has invented a concept, perhaps the concept may be a revelation from the universe itself? Something so important, that it invents itself... Yeah, that´s bullshit...
My tactic for this fight was simple. Deflect and dodge his swings and punches and hit his leg with my kicks. It is a long-drawn-out battle tactic and I was having my doubts if it would work, but there is something I am allowed to do here I wasn´t in my previous world: Aim at the kneecaps. You know the link between thighs and lower leg is more breakable than the bones wrapped up in layers and layers of dense muscle. There is magical healing here, so I am sure it is going to be fine...
So while I was ducking and deflecting his punches waterbending style I tried to kick when his fists withdrew. I tried imitating that flowing style: Let your defense become your offense and your offense become your defense. Well, in a way rather than how it was originally meant I believe. It was more like: Deflect to the left and my right foot kicks, when I deflect to the right my left foot kicks. Or my knee depending on how close we managed to get to each other. If I deflected his punch above I tried and punch him, but as I guessed it did no damage at all even if I managed to hit in a good spot.
It worked well, and I could see the frustration replacing the anger the longer our fight went on. Sometimes I had to withdraw because I believed I could not deflect the punch and also lost my chance to counterattack. Zawis never withdrew nor did he stop his barrage of punches while getting closing any gaps I might have opened by withdrawing. We both used up a lot of energy just to keep that slugfest going and both of our attacks slowed over time. My legs felt like fire burning after hitting the thick and robust legs of his and his punches weren´t as fast and powerful as before.
Even after training with mother and trying to get used to hitting even harder legs than his it still felt like hellfire burning. I am sure my legs will be blue and violet all over tomorrow morning.
We both noticed the other side getting slower and weaker and this gave the motivation we both needed to get a surge of strength. He threw a punch with all of his might, and I ducked.
Well not exactly ducked. I tried to get as close to the ground as I could while keeping my body straight and my hand in front of my face and I simultaneously stepped in as close to him as I could. Since he threw a telephone punch this wasn´t that difficult to handle as it sounds and the whole slugfest did leave my body and mind numb to any feelings. That is the state you either lose or go on after pushing through. I did experience that sometimes in my previous life, not in a fight but in competitive ball sports. It is a feeling of no longer being able to take a single step and after you push through it your whole body becomes light and easy to move. sadly that feeling goes as fast as it emerges...
His fist went above me and I straightened my legs while throwing an upper palm strike to his chin. My legs screamed in horror as I ordered them to lift my body as fast as they could, but in the end, they listened to me and my palm connected.
"Shoryuken!"
I cried out as my palm connected to his chin making him stumble back and he fell into a sitting position.
Yeah! Shouting that one is almost as good as shouting Getsuga Tenshou... even though I never played that game...
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