I took her hand and got to my feet. Lilah was rubbing her chin that was a little red from my punch, it likely wasn’t enough to bruise. It was a very small space punch and from a ten year old, I’d be lucky to leave a bruise. It was enough to knock her back in the moment though.
“I just tried to get into your space and wanted to stay there like I’ve heard people say in the past. When you knocked away my hit I knew you had a free arm and didn’t want to try and test my strength against yours, I’d just lose. So I ducked and came back in. You moved so fast though, that response punch was something else. There was nowhere for me to go.” I said, tapping the side of my head where she hit it.
“That’s nova thinking Mal, especially for an untrained fighter and even more so for a kid. Even trained kids tend to like striking from far out where they can’t be broken with a single hit. That or they rush in to grapple and keep their opponents momentum down so they can’t use their full strength. You just came in and moved like you’ve done this for ages, keeping yourself safe and coming in a range that forced me to sacrifice my face and the power of my counter just to avoid taking a hit with no response. A single hit can decide a fight, a hit with no counter is extremely valuable.” Lilah said as she patted my shoulder, she had very callused hands.
“So I need to try and force the opponent to trade badly against me? I guess it doesn’t work perfectly seeing as even a light counter can knock me around at my size.” I said, a little dejected. I wished I was an adult.
“I’m not sure what would be the best thing to do with your size, you’re definitely quick and you’ve got some power behind you even if it’s not enough to knock someone out. I could see maybe drawing them in and then pressuring right into their space before grappling to keep their strike zone behind or above you? What do you think Ed?” Lilah said with a hand to her chin.
“I think Mal needs to focus on staying mobile in very close combat, keep your opponent fighting too close to be effective. You did really well there against Lilah there Mal but you saw the downside, pulling in a punch makes it’s circle smaller and faster while only sacrificing a little power. Still enough power to tumble a ten year old. You should try to really up your footwork to make them chase your movement while trying to defend against your up close attacks, it should be enough to put your opponent off their focus enough to pull a good hit or two from it and that’s all you need in a fight.” Ed said as he crossed his arms and stoked his huge black beard sagely, kind of ruined by the overall hair everywhere.
“So what should I practice? Footwork?” I asked.
“How about you try and stay right in my space while I move around the ring, try and circle around as best as you can while not stumbling. The closer you can stay, the more you can move around my zone the better.” Lilah said, gesturing around herself.
“That sounds like good practice, can you do me a favor and throw some punches for me to fend off while I move around? I don’t want to lose the reaction to the opponent thing my brain is learning as part of this fighting movement.” I said though I actually just wanted to keep myself in slow time as much as I could during this practice to see if it would start to hurt from overuse or if Sanctum said something about too much use. Plus it would let me focus on smaller movements and just get used to being in slow motion.
“Sure, just make sure you focus on the movement part. People think it’s easy to just bounce around someone but keeping it up for more than a few seconds can be hellish once the pace starts increasing. Never mind when it’s an actual fight and there’s attacks and blocks to factor in too, lots of different momentums to account for while staying close.” Lilah said, getting into a ready stance.
I stepped up and readied myself. Hopefully the new skills and the slower time would let me get through this without totally falling apart. Moving properly was always a big part of the combat situations I’d been in before but I’d never really thought about it on a small scale like this training.
We started moving around with Lilah leading backwards or sidewards with her guard up while I chased after her with my own guard up, trying to keep under her chin or as close to as I could get.
Mostly I was flagging behind each movement with her moving more naturally than I was even with the skill integration. Then she launched a soft left straight punch at my cheek, it was telegraphed and slow but even so time shifted immediately into slow speed.
The punch she’d thrown was drifting towards me glacially while her legs were carrying her to the side so that the punch would land right on me in its travel. With the flood of newly detailed information
I could adjust my movement just enough through the slowness to avoid the punch by pulling to the right and push my guard right up to her chin.
She immediately shifted her weight and forced herself back and away from me, taking another step to maneuver on retreat as part of the exercise. I had to chase, so I stepped right into her tracks and then forced my right leg to follow her left leg directly into her step and nearly crashed into her but managed to control my shifting weight just enough to stop and raise my guard right up to her chin again.
A slow and sweeping left hook came at me as she moved away to the left, using her torso as part of the pivot to keep it’s speed high enough with her movement going counter to it. I swept my guard into and under her hook and lifted it wide as I stepped into her track again and then brought my guard back around to her own guard.
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We kept this simple right punch, step in, left punch, step in dancing movement as I chased after her darting movements as she launched slow punches towards my head with each direction change as our legs moved around quickly to keep balance and maintain movement. I tried to keep the pressure on her as I kept stepping into her backwards strides but my smaller size left me falling behind a little with every few steps even with my slower time.
Eventually I tired out and had couldn’t defend against an incoming punch quick enough, my arms just wouldn’t shift from their position to get to where they needed to be. I took a soft right straight to the chin that knocked my head down and I just stumbled and stood still as Lilah stopped after her next step.
“That was fantastic Mal, you kept right after me. There were a couple of wrong steps and your size slowed you down, smaller strides, but overall that was amazing. Huge pressure.” Lilah said as she gave me a thumbs up.
“Great work there Mal. I’m gonna get in there, I want to see what your punches are like.” Ed said as he climbed into the ring.
“What? What are my punches going to do to you Ed? I can’t even rattle Lilah and she’s like half your size.” I said, breathing heavily.
“He’s only a little bigger. I can still take him out any time he gets in the ring. The big gonk can swing heavy but he’s got a glass chin and moves like he’s carrying a wardrobe.” Lilah said with crossed arms.
“Woah, hey, why am I under attack here? Anyway Mal, ignoring Lilah’s sniping I’d like to see what a kid like you who’s used to fighting can punch like. I haven’t fought a young kid before, it’ll be interesting.” He said standing up and walking into the ring.
“Alright let’s spar then Ed, just don’t break my head. I’ve got a appointment with a doctor later. Make sure you throw a few blows though, don’t just be a punch bag.” I said as I got into a ready stance and brought up my guard.
“I’ll be careful, we’re just seeing how hard you can hit here. Not how hard I can hit.” Ed said while smiling.
Lilah backed off to the ropes as I stepped forwards and launched what I thought was a clean right straight at Ed’s head, he had his arms up so I’d just hit his forearms. As I unfolded my punch time slowed down which I thought was odd, I thought it would only slow down when I was about to take a hit, not give a hit.
My right fist slammed into his left arm and a ripple of force passed through his flesh from the blow but I didn’t move his guard more than an inch or so. I shifted and stepped to the left and pulled back my right, using the momentum of my torso moving and turning to launch a left hook from below.
Ed was slower to react compared to Lilah as far as I could tell and even when he moved his arms around to meet the hook he noticeably moved slower than she did too. He still had more than enough time to get his guard into position in time to meet my left fist.
I stepped forwards into his guard and tried a quick right straight while his jaw while he had his arms off to his right. The sudden motion that defied my previous momentum caused my flesh to both feel like and visually look like it was being dragged by my bones and a few of the actually involved muscles throwing me towards Ed as much of my skin went taut away from the movement, being left behind.
Suddenly my punch arrived at Ed’s chin and landed without his arms managing to drag themselves back around to defend the front that I’d attacked. I then pulled my right fist back until it was about half way and then pumped as hard as I could forward again for a what I thought might be called a rabbit punch to land another blow on his jaw. Ed managed by then though to get his arms around and knocked my punch wide.
With my right arm knocked away I ducked low and practically launched myself to the left and nearly fell, but the slow speed let me adjust my left foot in time to reposition under my falling weight. With my position secure again I raised myself up and swung the left in another hook, aiming for Ed’s ear.
Ed began to turn and launched his own left hook but it had a good distance to travel with my new position, my own hook was closing in and I curled my right up to deflect Ed’s left hook as it came in.
The only issue was the left hook being a feint and Ed quickly shifted his upper torso and his left hook just slowed and stopped in the slowed time as his right arm snapped out from its guard, fast to move even in slow motion and landed at my shoulder in only a fraction of a second.
I was knocked backwards but kept my feet, I abandoned my own hook and tried to pull up my guard but I saw when I refocused that Ed was holding up his hands, ending the spar.
“More than enough Mal. More than enough, damn. That punch came from nowhere, I can’t shift weight like that, too much to shift. I think that’s going to be your saving grace against big targets, a kid like you is basically just tendons and bone and can jerk right into your opponents jaw. Apparently. Damn.” Ed said, rubbing his chin.
“Told you he had a glass jaw.” Lilah said with a smile from across the ring. “Big guy once knocked me out after a minute in a fight and thought he was a titan, next fight I put him down in twelve seconds. We’ve fought a few more times since then but we both know each other too well to fight properly now. I can’t get another quick win, and he can’t land a big hit. Both know our signs as well.”
“Not my fault you’re a damn zombie, you tank hits better than most guys in this ring. Just quick enough to stay out of hay makers as well. I think you could learn some tricks from Lilah Mal. My style is more about holding ground and landing big hits that leave deep, tiring injuries. Her style is more taking hits inside the opponents space until they tire and she can rattle joints with her hits leaving her enough time and room to land a big hit and end the fight.” Ed said, sitting down on the floor of the ring.
“So I should push myself into tight angled movement? Like a lot of sudden darts and zips? It hurt a bit to change momentum like that, but I guess it is something I can do better than a big adult.” I said, sitting near Ed.
“It caught me off guard, and that’s really all you need in a fight to end it. Maybe you can’t land a big hit with your strength but a hit to the temple, the back of the jaw or the eyebrow can really rattle someone even with a light impact. Blood from a popped eyebrow can shut down an eye, even a cybereye.” Ed said as his breathing returned to normal.
“Or a knife, even a light punch swapped out for a light knife jab can end a fight in an instant even with my size.” I said, thinking about the borg fight down in the pipe ways.
“Well, you can keep those knives out of the gym at least. But yeah, a knife in close combat even brushing past you can open up a huge advantage. It could be slicing a vein or a tendon or it could be a slice to a hand or joint that causes major pain, I’ve seen seasoned fighters pull out of a fight because of a broken toe. If something stops you fighting your best, then what you have left might not be enough. Better to just get out if you have that option.” Ed said, looking a bit solemn by the end.