A Hunter of Coin and a Prince of Darkness [Alaistair]

While Kyoha had expected some resistance to his strike, he didn't expect it to come in the form of a full set of armor just magically forming to intercept him. His opponent even saw it fit to compliment his approach, as if doting on their child. Was the gap truly large enough to prompt such a nonchalant response to his offense?

As if reading this thought in his mind, his opponent would thrust out with his sword towards Kyoha. He barely could even recognize the attack before it was nearly too late. At the last moment he would duck down, the sword cleaving through his flesh easily, but luckily he had managed to avoid getting himself pierced at the end.

Gritting his teeth at the pain from the gash cut into him, he quickly pivots on his feet and swings his blade towards the inner part of Alaistair's elbow. The joints of armor are always good gaps to exploit against plated armors. Right after the blade made contact, the Human would leap back out of range, clutching at his wound. Even though it had been just a moment, he already felt his blood seeping through his clothing and against his palm.

"Well, I suppose you were forthright about not restricting yourself to just your sword. You're really not going to make this easy for me, are you?"

With a grunt, Kyoha would let a burst of ki release from the palm clutching at his wound. While just a small flicker, it was enough to instantly sear the flesh and cauterize his wound. A sickening amount of pain to a regular person, but the bounty hunter had grown uncomfortably fine with the feeling.

"Alright, any more tricks you'd like to show me?" Quickly returning his other hand to the handle of his blade, he assumes a defensive stance once more, slowly pacing to the side as he awaits the followup.

---

As Kyoha continued to pace around the man, he was given a rather blunt answer to his question, confirming that this really was a test to simply see how he could fare against someone superior to himself. A harsh remake in relation to his personal strength, but he had already reasoned that he was significantly weaker. As for what to do about that, though, was quite the question indeed.

In a blur of motion, Alaistair would approach, leaving Kyoha no time to avoid incoming slash. The gap in speed was just far too vast for that. Blocking it was also completely out of the question, unless he felt like forfeiting a limb or his weapon.

No, instead he would pivot on his feet and charge right into the stroke. Raising his blade, he has the side of his sword smack against the side of Alaistair's, a parry he put all of his might into yet barely forcing it to barely brush past the top of his head. Before he could even attempt a counterattack, though, a surge of ki was let loose point-blank against him, sending him rocketing backwards.

Smashing onto the ground some distance away right onto his back, the ground itself breaks apart from the force he was knocked away with. Prone in the crater, he takes a moment to clutch at his chest, laboriously catching his breath after having it just knocked right out of him.

"God...Okay, I should've expected something like that," he mutters to himself as he forces himself to stand upright once again and reassuming the same stance as before, not daring to approach until he can try to formulate a better approach for someone that outclasses him to this degree. If it was hard to fight while playing as defensively as he could, he couldn't even imagine how easy it would be to find gaps in his offense to be taken advantage of.

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