Tower Troubles

”Yeah yeah, I know you can mimic it, but that’s the sum of it: a mimic. And because it came from you, it clearly must be ogre’s breath.” Unless, of course, inside the bag was a dragon that breathed fire and the bag got the fire from that. But then you’d just have more issues; how are you forcing the dragon to breathe fire precisely when the bag needs it? There seemed to be only two ways such a thing could be: either it was dragon’s breath or there was some rather morally dubious things going on in that bag.

”Not how that works!” After all, they both agreed to fight on Earth, but that didn’t mean they could destroy Earth as a consequence. That’d be rather mean indeed.

Black and white energy was brought up across Yanwang’s arms. Then, with a sudden movement, brought his hand forward behind where Nashi was. It didn’t hit initially, of course, but given the course of movement Nashi continually had to make to actually to the cool thing™, he basically ran straight into the hand, knocking him down. Right in time to get shocked by lightning, too!

”No fair!”

Nashi jumped up, a bit the lesser.

”I don’t have teleporto-fists!”

”I mainly just use the pole as a weapon, though!” As a pole, to be precise. ”Your whole fighting style revolves around conjuratoring stuffs and things!” ‘Conjuratoring’ was not a real word, nor was ‘conjurating’. ‘Conjuring’, though, was, and was far cooler than ‘summoning’.

Yanwang ran once more, conju-summon-y energy enveloping his arm. Nashi was reasonably confident in his ability to block or dodge and then subsequently punish whatever it was that Yanwang had planned, but then that wicked wind wrought wearily towards our dear hero! Nashi was not fast enough to avoid being kicked across the room, where he would slam against the wall! the shockwave knocked a bowl off a nearby table, though Nashi was quick to catch it and put it down gently where it was supposed to go: the cupboard. Damn, that was a brilliant play… he had the black bag energy over his right arm, so I assumed he’d go in for a strike with his right arm. Nashi supposed he just didn’t know Yanwang well enough yet. A drop of blood came down Nashi’s nose— he inhaled heavily through his nose and, boom, out of sight.

”My turn!”

Nashi would dash back faster than he was sent back. Nashi would jump at Yanwang with a flying kick, not at all unlike what Yanwang himself used. But, just like how Yanwang turned what seemed like it was going to be a punch into a kick, Nashi was going to turn what seemed like it was going to be a kick into a punch! Just before the blow would land, Nashi would disappear for the slightest of moments before reappearing behind Yanwang for a punch to the lower back!

”There are better things to make one cool. Like coolness, for instance!” Gaining coolness from unpredictability was rather problematic, in and of itself. If unpredictability resulted in predictable amounts of coolness, it was not truly unpredictability. If it did give off coolness unpredictably, could it be said to be cool at all? After all, if it were unpredictable, it could not be predicted to give any amount of coolness at all!
Ergo, Nashi’s cooler.

Yanwang came at Nashi with a medley of strikes! Nashi would try his best to dodge and block, but for every blow he did not take there was a blow he made against his opponent! He was trying his best to live up to the Leopard Kung Fu style, what with blocking each blow with a blow and reacting fiercely, but with what Yanwang being a near-equal in power and the aggression and skill behind his barrage, such a thing was pretty tough. ”You’re pretty strong, huh, Yanwang?” Nashi put a great deal more power into a sweeping kick, meant to disorient and, if it worked, as the opener to a wider combo of strikes. ”I’m glad we’re friends!” And then came, if it connected, a punch right to the face! 

”Well, maybe you can’t…” Nashi’s coolness didn’t simply stem from coolness, of course not. It stemmed from all sorts of things, all of which were inherently and innately cool as heck. The coolness he did have was self-perpetuating, all added onto by heaps more coolness from heaps more sources. In short, Nashi was by far the coolest anything out of anything, ever.

The hit was a success, but Yanwang was soon up for more! Yanwang pulled off his shirt, which was a cool anime indicator that things were getting Serious™. And, yet, well… Nashi wasn’t really feeling the seriousness of the situation. ”Did you just want to show off your abs or was your shirt getting too hot?”

Hmm… maybe I should do the same? After all— Yanwang came at Nashi again with unrelenting speed, dashing Nashi’s thoughts right out of his head! The blow would land, sending Nashi back though he’d correct himself quickly. ”Aha, good one!” Nashi swiped away the pain from where the kick connected with a paw-shaped hand. Nashi entered the Leopard Kung Fu stance, both hands in front of him and ready to strike. ”Let’s see if you can continue the trend?” Nashi made the two-finger ‘come at me’ taunt.

The next blow Yanwang attempted, Nashi would hit his strike with a Leopard Blow and then go in for another Leopard Blow against his solar plexus (a weak spot of the chest, now uncovered) as punishment for an attempted attack against him. The entirety of Nashi’s style, or at least what he wanted it to be, in a nutshell.

”A worthy goal, to be sure…” Training to better oneself was always a good thing to do. Nashi knew this especially so: he trained and he was good, so it was clear to see that training must have been good also. ”… But, no, I am and always will be numero one-o!”

Nashi was about to do the usual dodges one would do with a kick headed towards them. However, upon seeing the familiar black energy forming around the ogre’s leg, Nashi basically just jumped away from Yanwang as a whole, just fast enough to avoid a tornado to the hut!

”And that’s why you’ll only ever be number three:” Nashi would rush back forwards when the wind energy faded. He’d begin an attempt at a series of Leopard Blows against the weak spots of Yanwang’s body, mostly around the chest area for it was bare. ”… Instead of having skill and power and then adding your extra special something on top of it, your extra special something is your power!” It was mean, yes, but Nashi really wanted to see Yanwang grow and develop. And, yet, over the past few months all Yanwang had been learnt, it seemed, were magic bag tricks. ”If you want any chance of ever being number one, your powers must be an addition, not the set! If you ever want to truly surpass me, you must be able to beat me without gimmick, without any extra special somethings!”

Nashi, in other words, was issuing Yanwang a challenge.

”Then stop relying on it and show me!”

It seemed Yanwang was intending to do just that. The ogre kicked off the wall— thankfully, due to magic™, probably, the wall stayed intact and undamaged— but Nashi had plans of his own! He dashed back for the sole purpose of dashing forwards, head leaning, and retrospectively it seemed inevitable that this would come to pass:

Yanwang and Nashi headbutted each other. At the same time. Meeting upon the forehead!

”Ow…” Nashi fell down but was up nary a moment later. Almost certainly Yanwang felt that just as bad, or at least that was what Nashi was hoping. ”Nice! Well done. But we aren’t finished there!”

Nashi was aided by his feline agility when he jumped high. He’d try to land on Yanwang’s shoulders and pull him down in what seemed like a rather imaginative tackle.

”You headbutted first!” That was certainly the case, yes, but did that mean it was Yanwang’s fault? Yes. But Nashi only started his headbutt after Yanwang, when he could have not done so just as if not more easily. Did this truly mean it was Yanwang’s fault, then? Also yes.

Yes, yes, it was true that Yanwang technically knocked Nashi down, but… ”It doesn’t count. You got hurt there as much as I was!” While neither gained anything from it, they each lost a small tad. But, hey, at least they were equally small tads: that meant they were even.

Nashi rolled out of the way of Yanwang’s kick, Indiana Jones-style. While an agile, curving jump, Nashi was off the ground and suddenly on his feet again. But he wouldn’t stay like that for long for he was keen to take advantage of Yanwang’s prone position (or not, depending on if he was still actually prone or not) with multiple blows to the weaknesses of the body: the solar plexus, parts of the hip, the head. Since it was only really possible to fully defend any given region, Yanwang would be struggling to defend against these blows until he switched things over by going on the offensive— something he could only manage if he got himself on his feet, of course.