12-21-2009, 12:05 PM
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 He had pulled away before she could use any of her vicious close-shots with the knee and elbow, but she was still confident that he wasn't evenly matched with her. He didn't have the hot-bloodedness that she did, the willingness to hurt and be hurt. She'd get bored at this rate...she never found anyone really willing to go blow for blow with her. Even Ranya, her sister and best friend, preferred to avoid damage compared to her own method. While she was too stubborn to admit it in her heart, she suspected that Ranya was beginning to be better than her. That hadn't been true for Skoll's tournament, but her sister had focused more on technical skill than she had. Neither of them were emotionally detached from fighting, like the professionals were, but Ranya was certainly a better balance than Mala was, if one believed that balance was desirable. That was one of many mounting frustrations which drove her fervor in combat. Ty feinted, and she fell in for it. Her one arm lifted to block while the other cocked back to return fire with a full-bodied blow of her own. The yearling had guessed right. Because she rarely changed her strategy, she did not often anticipate others doing so. When others did it to her, she would usually answer my attacking with greater speed and greater power, or if she was already at her maximum, she would stay her course and push through their shifting strategies. She didn't win all of her fights, but she played the same card--her best card--every time, as her best answer to any situation. As her advice to Nikolov suggested, she knew how to fight on the ground, but her heart was rarely in it the way it was in her standing attacks. |