Stress Test (Chomei)

The boulder really was nothing more than a test. Morrigan wouldn’t be caught dead throwing a rock and calling it one of her attacks. Her expectation was that Chomei would dodge, deflect, or simply shatter it when it reached him, any one of which could have told her if he could fly or not. Instead of acting defensively as she expected, he sent himself flying through the damn thing. Well, less flying and more propelling himself with sharp, powerful movements. She observed as much in the very little time she had before he came rocketing down, primed to strike with a red aura.

Morrigan threw up an arm to protect her head and leaned back as Chomei closed in, but the strike was practically dead on regardless. The weight of the blow knocked the martial artist onto her back with a gasp and sunk her partly into the ground, her arm aching where she’d taken the hit. Chomei was definitely strong. She wouldn’t give him the courtesy to even find his footing though.

Planting her hand into the ground, she pushed against it to launch a kick up into Chomei’s middle, though it was only intended to stun him. Squeezing her other fist shut, she flowed her energy to dampen the pain before swiping upward at Chomei, her fingers snapping open forcefully. Even if he weren’t hit directly, the shockwave that came with the movement was still an imminent threat.

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Having successfully struck her blow gave Morrigan the time and distance to get back on her feet. Shaking off the dirt from being punched into the ground, she rubbed her arm where she’d taken the brunt of the blow, finding nothing broken but not loving the persistent pain. Chomei, for his part, didn’t seem as bothered. He was obviously more outspoken than her, but she didn’t know if that meant he would be so transparent about his injuries going forward. Though ‘kinda stung’ was not a thrilling thing to hear.

She was no more excited for the foreboding light glowing in Chomei’s throat, but she was at least able to see through it quickly. Lifting her arms, she gathered her hair back over her shoulders, just moments before the wave of fire was released! Clapping her hands together and thrusting them forward, she held her ground and cut into the flames like water. And in less than a second, she flipped her palms out and pulled them apart, diverting the flames past herself on either side as if having ripped them in half. She let out a breath, shaking the heat off of her hands. A small part of herself always felt wary around fire, but it was energy like any other, with a flow that she could direct.

Of course, it didn’t occur to her at all that she was haphazardly throwing an inferno right into the treeline. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she expected Chomei to have control over it, though evidently she wasn’t thinking too hard about the consequences as she moved across the clearing to pressure him. Where there had moments before been a golden blaze, Morrigan had appeared in a flash with her fist cocked back. And just when the windup for the blow began to seem too long, she twirled on a dime and brought her leg up to kick him right in the head!

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She’d tried to prompt him into a mistake, but Chomei had accurately read her bluff. Rather than catch a resonant blow to the temple, he’s just thrown back by the weight behind her kick, the woman breathing out as she returns to a neutral stance. One could probably tell as much just by looking at him, but Morrigan can now tell from lived experience that hitting Chomei’s guard was rather like hitting solid concrete, testified by the dull throb running up her heel. She stood perched on one foot like a crane, bobbing in anticipation of the dragon’s next offense once he’d righted himself.

Rather than abide gravity like the common man and wait for his feet to touch the ground, he propelled himself toward her with explosive force, her focus sharpening with a thump of her heartbeat as he soared to her. Falling back on her other foot to buy herself a precious few centimetres, she raised her hands to catch the ignited fist coming her way. Blunting the force with the heel of one palm, she ducked down to let his arm coast over her head, catching the hand with her other. To his searing white flame, a subtle, pale glow pulsed through her. Pushing on her back foot, she shot forward through what little distance sat between them and sent a sharp elbow into his ribs. To make matters worse, that ethereal light condensed itself in an instant toward the point of contact, ready to sink through Chomei’s skin and intensify his pains like an intolerable heat from within.

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