Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #15 on Oct 16, 2009, 9:39am »
Takahashi's strike was blocked, but that was to be expected of an opening attack, especially one that was so obvious. His opponent had pushed the block back towards Takahashi to attempt to throw him off balance, but luckily the stance he had assumed was well centered and prevented this. This was going to crucial for the next few moments. Instantly after his opponent had pushed back, Takahashi was still in a solid stance, ready to act, and pushing back with equal force against his opponent's shinai.
The golden-haired student's next move was to slide his shinai along Takahashi's until they were no longer touching and he could swing his weapon down towards Takahashi's left shoulder. When the two shinai stopped applying pressure to each other, Takahashi stopped his shinai from continuing forward and possibly throwing him off balance. His opponent's attack appeared to be a feint to mask the punch that he was throwing behinds the scenes that was aimed at Takahashi's kidneys.
Fortunately for his opponent, Takahashi was caught completely off guard by this combinations of attacks. However, Takahashi's quick thinking and reflexes had hopefully found him a way out. The golden-haired student was positioned on Takahashi's left side, swinging down towards Takahashi's left shoulder and throwing a punch towards his left kidney. Takahashi dove off to his right, away from both the incoming attacks. Using one hand to hold onto his shinai, and one free hand to brace himself on the floor, he was in the correct position to begin a roll that would allow him to put one foot down to stop himself, leaving him in a kneeling position down on one knee. Within the same motion, Takahashi would turn back towards his opponent before another attack could come, in case his opponent had predicted a rolling dodge and was now "en route" with another strike.
Takahashi grabbed his shinai with the free hand that he had used to brace himself, readying himself to continue the fight. If his opponent was planning on attacking directly after his roll was completed, Takahashi would be ready with a parry. If not, then Takahashi would slowly rise to his feet from his kneeling position and reassume the solid stance that he had been using for the fight so far.
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #16 on Oct 16, 2009, 3:12pm »
Hmph. Nobara sniffed, as his wiry foe rolled out of the way and started to regain his stance. He was rather quick. That would prove to be an obstacle. Well, an obstacle of any sort can always be removed. Nobara scowled and made an angry sound. He wanted his opponent to think he was getting frustrated. He allowed the silver haired spirit to start getting up, waiting for him to get close to his solid stance, but then acted before he completely regained composure. Keeping the pressure on would be important.
Nobara made his move. He grabbed his shinai in both hands, then took a step back, so his right side was facing Takahashi. He held his sword low, pointing at his opponent, ready for a thrust. He slid his leading foot forward a bit, then took several quick steps to close the distance. Once within striking range, Nobara switched his stance quickly to holding the weapon above his head, ready to make an overhead slash, making sure to telegraph this motion clearly. He would bring his shinai down, towards Takahashi's head, and then, if the blow was parried, would take a quick sidestep, then stomp down on Takahashi's foot. If he could pin his foe in one place, his reflexes would no longer be an issue. Otherwise, Nobara thought, the opponent would take a powerful strike to the head, or be forced to dodge quickly again, which Nobara was willing to allow.
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #17 on Oct 16, 2009, 6:32pm »
Takahashi's golden-haired opponent made a frustrated grunt as Takahashi evaded his previous assault. Frustrating one's opponent was a good thing. It usually meant that they would start making mistakes, and Takahashi would definitely catch them if his opponent did. His opponent was now charging Takahashi, with his sword high and ready to attempt a downward swing on Takahashi's head. It seemed that he was not going to allow Takahashi to regain himself completely before attacking.
Takahashi had been watching his opponent closely since the moment he had completed his acrobatic maneuver and was looking for anything to exploit. As the overhead strike came raining down towards Takahashi, he brought his own shinai up to meet it in an overhead block. Within the few moments between his opponent's charge, his attack, and Takahashi's block, Takahashi was able to fully straighten his body and resume his previous stance.
During the split second that occurred as the two shinai were approaching each other and then connecting, Takahashi noticed something. Nobara made a slight glance downward, even down past the shinai or Takahashi's face. There was no other reason to be looking in that direction, unless he was attempting another attack. Takahashi should have predicted another combination of shinai and physical attacks, but he never thought someone would do the same trick twice in a row. This slight glance downward by Takahashi's opponent was exactly the mistake that he knew his opponent would make in his frustrated state.
Immediately following his opponent's glance, Takahashi glanced down as well. This resulted in him seeing his opponent's leg being lifted up and moved over Takahashi's foot. Takahashi's quick reflexes were going to kick in yet again to save himself from another strike. Takahashi slid his foot off to the side with just enough time in order to avoid the downward stomp and to put himself into perfect position for a counterattack. His opponent's leg would be almost about to make contact with the ground at that point, and would leave him completely off balance and vulnerable to Takahashi's next move.
Takahashi pushed off the ground with the foot he had just slid out of the way, and launched his knee towards the muscle on the outside of his opponent's leg directly above the knee. Takahashi then twisted his opposite foot in order to give his body some torque and therefore, increase the potency of his strike. If this attack was successful, Takahashi would push his block against his opponent's shinai just as had been done to him several moments ago.
Whether this threw his opponent off balance or not was unimportant. All that mattered was that Takahashi had an opportunity to take a few steps back from his opponent to regain his full composure. From then, he could continue the fight. If the opponent had been hit by his last attack, it didn't matter if Takahashi attacked the second after that strike or a few moments later. His opponent would still be feeling the effects.
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #18 on Oct 17, 2009, 10:34am »
Nobara's gambit had failed, he had overextended himself too much, throwing himself a bit off balance. The blow parried, the stomp dodged. Nobara was still exuding an air of frustration, but inside he was a cool customer. He wanted to win, of course, but this was no life or death situation. Nobara began to reflect as soon as his foot hit the ground. His opponent wasn't doing much to harm him, the opponent waited for him to leave an opening, then exploit it. An annoying, yet effective tactic, to be sure. But what was important was the solution to this problem. The foe was an adroit dodger, so it'd be tough to work with that. But he'd have to. As Nobara continued to bear down on the wiry silver-haired menace, he noticed Takahashi's weight beginning to shift. An attack, perhaps? Nobara could hardly block, with his shinai already engaged in combat. Dodging was an option, but unless the attack was staggering, he could probably sustain it.
Then the enemy's leg shot out. Nobara took the knee blow directly to his leg. Nobara grimaced in pain, exhaling sharply. As his opponent began to push against his shinai, Nobara felt something give. Then he noticed an opportunity. The assaulted limb began to buckle, and Nobara went down with it. As he dropped to the ground, he slid his shinai out of the parry, escaping the bullrush attempt. Nobara quickly dropped into a crouch, then sweeped out his uninjured leg, keeping his weight on his right hand and injured leg. The pain was noticeable, but not crippling, and the adrenaline running through his veins was enough to staunch the sensation.
The sweeping kick would come as Takahashi was pushing forward, so hopefully he'd be off-balance enough to have a tough time dodging. Nobara would follow up the sweep attempt by finishing it in a kneeling position to support his weight. Then he'd quickly grasp his shinai with both hands, then launch off his uninjured leg, using this force as well as a wrenching motion of his arms to bring to bear a powerful upward strike, hopefully more effective against a tripping opponent.
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #19 on Oct 17, 2009, 2:10pm »
Takahashi's opponent was a crafty fighter. Even though he had made a mistake, and Takahashi had exploited it, he still found a way to recover and mount a counter attack. This time it would be in the form a sweeping kick. The strike Takahashi had delivered to his opponent's muscle had dropped him to the floor and put him into the perfect position for the attack. This could be thought of as a mistake on Takahashi's part for landing his knee attack, but even if Takahashi received a blow from this counter attack, he would still have the advantage in the upcoming moments of the fight. A dead leg would weigh a fighter down more than the effects of this current attack would. Either way, Takahashi was going to do everything he could to avoid taking damage.
Takahashi's quick backwards steps after pushing against his opponent's block would almost be enough to avoid the incoming attack. However, the opponent had begun his sweep just after Takahashi had pushed, meaning right before he begun to take his steps. So even though Takahashi's steps were quick, one of his feet was barely caught in the sweep as he back pedaled away from his opponent. This was enough to trip Takahashi, and with his current momentum, send him falling backwards away from his opponent. This fall would put enough distance from his opponent that a strike would be out of reach in a normal situation. However, his opponent knew this and pushed off of his good leg in order to lunge at Takahashi and close the distance between them to allow his attack to be within reach.
The incoming strike was important, but to a person caught off guard by a trip, who was now falling backwards, safely landing was more important. It was instinct to catch yourself after a fall, and not to defend against attacks while falling. While falling, Takahashi turned to his side, as would be natural for a person falling straight backward. No one allows themselves to land directly on their back. It turned out that Takahashi had rotated towards the incoming shinai, so that the front of his body was now facing the attack, and therefore, the attack would hit him somewhere in the abdomen.
Takahashi curled his arm back that was closest to the floor at this point, in order to brace himself for impact with the floor. In his current situation, there wasn't much that Takahashi could do about the shinai headed for his mid-section. However, the attack and his landing would happen one after the other, and Takahashi would be ready to launch a counter attack of his own the instant he made contact with the floor and was back on solid ground. The shinai collided with his abs, which had been tense from the surprise of the fall, but the strike still did it's damage. In the next instant, Takahashi collided with the floor, making a loud thud, but not hurting him all that much, because a braced fall wasn't too big of a deal. He would notice the pain in his chest when the adrenaline stopped rushing through him.
Now was the time to strike back. In the current situation, Takahashi's opponent was mid-lunge, finished with his attack, and not in any condition to dodge. Granted, Takahashi was not in much condition to deliver any blows, but he was going to take what he could. Since Takahashi was facing the direction that the blow was coming from, it meant that his opponent was also in that direction from Takahashi. The moment his body hit the ground and was able to give himself some leverage, Takahashi used it in order to lash out with a kick aimed at the portion of his opponent that was closest to him, which was the upper half of his body due to the position left by the lunge. This kick might not have had much force to it, but any attack was going to help out, and the damage done by the kick was not what was important.
If the kick did not land, Takahashi was going to use the momentum he had started for this kick to continue into a roll in the same direction. This roll would take him a fair distance from his opponent and allow him to slowly stand up and try to recover from the recent activities. Takahashi did not expect his opponent to keep up with him and continue on with his assault because of the injury he had sustained to his leg and possibly from his kick. This would put his opponent in a position that would also require some recuperation. However, if the kick did land, he would use that force to push off of his opponent and roll in the opposite direction, essentially creating the same situation whether the kick landed or not.
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #20 on Oct 18, 2009, 8:27pm »
Nobara had overextended himself. His risky gambit succeeded in scoring a blow, but at what cost? His side would be hurting, no doubt about that, but then again, so was Nobara's leg, so who knew who was better off? Nobara calculated these factors, trying to decide what was best, even as he sought to try and catch himself. The upward slash left him off-kilter, and Nobara decided not to push it too far with his injured leg. He whipped the shinai back as his opponent began falling, planting the tip down into the ground, using it to brace himself. What Nobara didn't happen to notice was his opponent throwing his body, still on the floor, at Nobara wildly, in a crazed kick.
Takahashi's kick smacked into Nobara's makeshift cane, and as he rolled forward, past Nobara, Nobara went crashing into the floor. The sudden shift of weight sent Nobara to one side, landing hard on his right shoulder, before rolling onto his stomach. As he went down, the blue-eyed prodigy noticed Takahashi's roll, and figured he had enough time to bring himself up. Nobara shot out his arms, and brought himself up, making sure to keep his weight off of his injured leg. He spun around, and saw Takahashi facing him. Nobara gently shifted his weight more onto his injured right side, so he was a bit more stable. He brought his shinai to bear, facing up and to the right, guarding his chest and shoulder. He also brought his fist into a low stomach guard, and waited for the coming assault.
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #21 on Oct 19, 2009, 11:03am »
The Lieutenant couldn't help but let a tiny smirk stretch across his face. He had little hope of finding even one kid in the lot that was going to be worth his time, and yet he had the prowess to pair off two of them right off the bat.
"Enough!" He roared at the top of his lungs to bring an abrupt end to the ensuing battle. "Nicely done, both of you, now take your seats." Through his dark sunglasses, Iba peered around the classroom once more. He wanted to do as good of a job with his second pairing as he did with the first, but none of these kids looked like they had the chops. "Now that you've seen what it takes to make it in this class... are you all sure you were meant to be here?"
His question was answered by the silent crowd. None of them had been scared off huh? Well i guess I'll have to do everything myself. I'll make an example of one of them to show them exactly what they are dealing with.
"Fine. Next to fight will be... you!" He pointed right to Haruk Nozaki. Haruk looked like he belonged in the room; one of the few Iba had any hope in. It was some time before Iba said anything else, as he was carefully searching for someone to be crushed and scare the cowards off. It was then that he spotted Buzamanou and his teeth shone with anticipation through the grin on his face. "And you."
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #22 on Oct 19, 2009, 2:45pm »
Takahashi was disoriented, to say the least, after the previous mess of assaults and his own roll to safety. If his opponent had decided to continue his attacks without relent, then Takahashi would not have lasted much longer. Fortunately, the yell of the Lieutenant was loud enough that even Takahashi in his tunnel-visioned state could make out was he was exclaiming.
"Enough!" This was all Takahashi needed to hear to be at ease. The teacher had called a stop to their contest. Obviously he had observed what he wanted from the two fighters and no longer needed them to battle. There were plenty more fights to come, and the teacher definitely did not plan on staying in the classroom all day.
Takahashi placed his shinai underneath his left arm, so that his two hands could be free of holding it. He placed his palms together and bowed down in the direction of his golden-haired opponent, then bowed down in the direction of the teacher. This was a customary method for the end of a kendo sparring match. Once again grabbing his shinai in one hand, Takahashi made his way back to the pillow that he had chosen as he seat in the beginning of the class.
As Takahashi was walking back to his seat, Iba was delivering his speech choosing the next two combatants. Takahashi did not see who were the two students he chose, but it didn't matter too much to him. He was interested in watching anyone fight, in order to gain information on their fighting ability. Furthermore, Takahashi needed a rest after the vicious encounter with the golden-haired student.
Takahashi arrived at his seat and positioned himself on top of it, with his shinai laying horizontally in front of him. At this point in time, he might possibly see Haruk and Buzamanou both heading for the battlefield in the middle of the room, and realize they were chosen to fight against each other. This would be interesting.
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #23 on Nov 1, 2009, 8:39pm »
And there it was. Kokushi feared being chosen for an opening spar knowing it would mean he'd be eliminated before he had the chance to learn anything, and yet he knew it would happen: it was only a matter of time. He was left to assume if he were one of the last chosen, the shame would be much less as people before him may have been eliminated and the attention to the battles would have waned by then. Unfortunately for him, this was not the case. As though Iba knew his hopes and sought to bring them crashing down, he seized him from the crowd of students and pitted him against one of those that looked most adept at crushing him. One that Kokushi suspected would hold no blows.
Haruk Nozaki.
Kokushi swallowed hard, knowing that the shame of failure was not so bitter as the shame of cowardice; so rather than contesting the decision, he took his shinai and stood, meekly approaching his place in the battle circle and holding his weapon in a shoddy kendo stance, one from a scroll that he had studied but could not duplicate with the sensation of horror restraining his muscles. In his mind he hoped and wished that something would happen. A fire, a drill, an attack, anything to save him from where he was now. When no such thing seemed eager to happen, as though the chaos and war that plagued the Soul Society on a regular basis held their breath in rapt attention so they, too, could witness this one-sided battle, Kokushi resigned to his pathetic defense, hoping that when the battle begun, there'd be anything left of him and his pride to at least continue living.
Re: Kendo Class (Open) « Reply #24 on Nov 6, 2009, 1:14pm »
When Iba's finger landed on Haruk he could feel his young, strong heart jump with anticipation. He had wanted to fight from the first moment he had stepped foot into the dojo and his already small patience was growing thin. He flexed his sinewy muscles as he stood and surveyed the room, awaiting the selection of his opponent. He felt supremely confident that he would be more than a match for any in the room, but some were more intriguing than others. However, when Iba finally made his decision, Haruk was distraught with disappointment. He had been awaiting a true battle for so long and had joined this class at the promise of such a match. What could Buzamanou really offer him in a duel? With great distaste, Haruk stepped into the center of the class and grasped the high quality shinai laying at his feet.
Haruk tossed the shinai about, from one hand to another familiarizing himself with the build, weight, and balance of the weapon. He elected to fight this battle with his left hand; for a multitude of reasons. Most important of which was the relationship his right hand had with his own Zanpakuto. He would not risk losing even a fraction of a second in his swing because he had adjusted to the lighter wooden blade. Also, he was proficient in combat with both of his hands and felt as though he did not suffer from the switch.
Buzamanou had resigned into a weak stance that reflected the fear his eyes were already shamelessly displaying. Haruk felt there was no need to put on a display of his mastery for Iba as his flawless victory would be enough to secure his place in the class. Instead he stood erect, slightly staggered with his left shoulder protruding out towards Buzamanou. There was nothing left to do but await the beginning of the battle, the start of Haruk's success and Buzamanou's demise.
![[Search This Thread]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Author
![[aim]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/aim.gif)
Logged
![[yim]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/yim.gif)
![[msn]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/msn.gif)
![[avatar]](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/bobjonesjeffken/bakki.jpg)