Clash of the martial artists! (For Gnihton)

Qi was testing the waters here, to figure out what sort of martial artist she was dealing with. Battles could seem simple but Qi knew there was several different styles of combat, one time she and her Brother fought a tai chi user. Who was over a 100 years old, and he kicked their asses. After that Qi started believing that maybe myths like that were true after all.

The butterfly kick came up empty, Qi sorta guessed that it would. After all it was flashy and out there, still though it told her something. That Zi was nimble, that dodge was so near yet so far. If Qi was there she might have done the exact same thing, that or just block and counter.

But still Zi further showed she was quick on the draw, no sooner had Qi's feet hit the ground was she tackled and mounted on. The fist of compassion was smart enough to know where this was going, strikes to the head. On instinct Qi began trying to adjust where her head was, to hopefully dodge a few. Zi got in a couple of punches though, but Ms Lingxian knew she wouldn't get out of that unscathed.

Nice of Zi to get back up and move, after all this wasn't a proper match. It was a spar, to do as Qi's fellow martial artist said. General combat, Qi shook her head a little to clear the cobwebs. "Well, guess I kinda deserved that." the fist of compassion muttered to herself. Qi then sprung back up, moving her legs up and then suddenly down to hop back onto her feet.

The fist of compassion then suddenly went and stuck her hands up, offering them to Zi for a lockup.
"Hah! Let's test our might!" Qi said with a slight grin, she and her Brother had gotten Mortal Kombat X recently. The fist of compassion still got her ass handed to her in any video game. She might be the better striker out the two, but Chuang was just better at Smash Bros. In all seriousness however Qi grounded her feet and got the offer ready, after all it was general combat on the menu here.

Although she didn't say anything, Zi was rather impressed that Qi was able to dodge the majority of her strikes at such a close range. From the start it was clear to Zi that Qi was confident, and in only a short period of time it was clear that she had the skills to back that confidence up, this sparring was certainly getting more intriguing by the second.

As Qi gracefully returned to her feet with enthusiastic mutterings, Zi remained silent and blank, simply listening to what Qi was saying, paying close attention to the way she spoke as well as the way she moved, alike before, Zi's paralysing gaze remained completely targeted on Qi, analysing the smallest, most insignificant details.

When the lockup was offered, Zi took a few seconds to think, quickly scanning over the best way to go about this. Upon making a decision she quietly trudged forwards, raising her hands and tightly locking them with Qi's, as soon as Qi is ready, Zi would start pushing with a significant amount of force, however if Qi was as strong as she was quick, the outcome would remain uncertain.

Qi wasn't worried about herself in the least right now, her demeanour was her usual. Upbeat and chirpy, some people were amazed that she could stay positive in some situations. Qi was always one to just think that things would always get better, simple yes but refreshing.

The fist of compassion was positive that Zi didn't know about Mortal Kombat though, even if she looked like she could have been in it. Her Brother kept beating her in MKX, when he used that blind guy called Kenshi.

But that was beside the point, right now Qi was in a spar with Zi. And even if it was still beginning, Qi was already enjoying herself. Zi had proved that she wasn't just someone in a fancy outfit, walking the walk was more important than talking the talk. The fist of compassion gave a nod to Zi in understanding of this concept, still though Qi was eager to see the outcome of this test of might.

In the lockup now, Qi hadn't really done this back home in Beijing. Usually people were just flying about in the air and either hitting other people or crashing into things, but Zi did request general combat. So why not branch out? Zi's strength was significant, Qi could tell that much. Licking her upper lip Qi got herself grounded and pushed forth, eager to please the fist of compassion wasn't lingering. She gave her all into this exchange.

Qi would be correct in thinking that Zi had no idea what Mortal Kombat was, she fully understood what video games were in general, but she had never been interested in them, deeming them to be nothing more than an idiotic waste of time.

Enjoyment was something that Zi rarely felt, this could have perhaps been down to her overall lack of doing anything besides training and reading, even in her current situation, she wasn't particularly enjoying herself, she was putting all of her effort into learning how to become a better fighter, leaving no room for distracting emotions of happiness.

Something that Zi did learn very fast was that Qi had a good amount of strength to back up her speed, despite her being slightly shorter in height.

With Qi's initial push, Zi was forced backwards a single step, not wanting to be moved any further, Zi cemented her feet in place as best she could, grinding her teeth slightly as she attempted to retort with an equally powerful push.

Qi did totally think that Zi would look in place in Mortal Kombat, perhaps as Liu Kang's long lost Sister or something like that. But Ms Lingxian always preferred Kung Lao to be honest, that awesome hat of his just looked so cool. More also Qi considered it to be something that improved her mental reaction time, reading the screen and reacting in the right way.

The fist of compassion felt that personal happiness was key to life, emotions were just part of the parcel in that trip. Sure training and battling took up a large part of her time, but there was time for other things too. In Qi's mind you learnt something new everyday.

Zi might have been surprised by Qi's strength, after all despite her smallish height compared to other opponents Qi trained quite a lot. She and her Brother both used the same martial art, just in different ways with Chuang favouring dynamic flying kicks. Qi was more grounded, and it was showing here in this lockup.

The step that Zi took back was like a shark smelling blood to Qi, it was sign that she made a bit of progress. But that was where the line got drawn in the sand, as Qi's sparring partner was giving just as good now. Seemingly following the technique that the fist of compassion had performed, something told Qi that Zi hadn't really done something like this before. But gave credit where it was due, Zi caught on quick it seemed.

But just because Qi's sparring opponent was a quick study didn't mean it would be easy, whereas Zi grinded her teeth Qi bit her lower lip slightly. Her cheeks slightly puffed as she kept going in the lockup, Qi was enjoying this exchange very much and wasn't going to buckle easily.

Perhaps Zi might have indulged herself in positive emotions such as happiness if she understood how to, although it might sound odd, Zi didn't really understand how to have fun, and by isolating herself from anyone which could show her how to, she wasn't particularly helping herself.

Determined not to be moved back any further than a single step, Zi kept up her incredibly forceful pushing, both feet seemingly welded onto the canvas, teeth continuing to grit as she watched Qi bite her lower lip, intent on pushing the smaller girl as far backwards as she could.

Yet no matter how hard she tried, Zi remained unable to move Qi, in turn causing Zi to feel something that she hadn't felt in a long time, frustrated. After all, Qi had moved her back a step, so why on Earth couldn't she move Qi?

Suddenly feeling large levels of inadequacy, Zi decided to step things up a few notches, and do something questionable at best. With a sudden upwards jolt, Zi nimbly hopped into the air, keeping a tight hold on Qi's hands whilst simultaneously sharply raising one of her knees, clearly attempting to knee Qi in the chin for a tremendous impact. Due to this only being a sparring session, it would certainly be out of the blue.

Qi was a girl mostly focused on her training sure, but she was required to go to school and learn other things. Her English was quite good as a result of that, it had been her strongest subject aside from PE naturally. Zi's lifestyle might have seen a tad alien to Qi had she known of it, but she didn't. But the fist of compassion did know was that Zi was one heck of a competitor!

Ms Lingxian knew that there were quite a few opponents would be taller than her, after all her Brother was taller than her. If only by a few inches, but the point was proven. Qi liked to believe that height didn't matter, skill did. A priest that lacked personal charisma but had a firm understanding of rhetoric was able to beat someone who was charming but didn't know how to talk in debate.

But suddenly Zi chose to end the lockup and go on the offense, in a flash she had sprung her attack. Qi only managed to let out a small grunt as Zi drove her jumping knee right into her chin, the fist of compassion staggering back a couple of steps and landing on her ass with a thud. She blinked rapidly, shaking her head after it. Qi was hit good there, but knew that she was open for attack. With some light panting Qi attempted to make it to a vertical position as best she could, and hope she could deal with whatever Zi tossed at her next.

Truly likening to Qi, if Zi knew about Qi's lifestyle in detail she would certainly have believed it to be very strange, way to much play and not enough work. Perhaps if Zi had been able to socialise more as a child things would have turned out differently, but when all you want to do from a young age is fight, there is no room for making friends.

Although she couldn't quite pinpoint it, something about Qi was causing Zi to feel a sudden surge of, jealously? An emotion she had only really felt to this extent ones before, when she first learned that she would have to be taught how to fight in secret simply because she was female, it really just wasn't fair.

Only further irritated by her inability to pick out the reason behind her feeling this ugly emotion, Zi took a few brisk steps forwards, her facial expression visibly twisted in anger as she attempted to thrust out a kick at the still semi-recovering Qi. If Zi couldn't figure out the reasons for her jealousy, she would do what seemed most logical to her at the time, eliminate the known source of it.

Qi's life had play in it to be sure, but she was fully capable of being serious if needed. It was just she had her Brother Chuang, they weren't blood related though as Qi had been adopted from an orphanage. But still they certainly had that bond, and Qi and Chuang were guided by gentle and firm hands that ran a dojo. So with that they socialised with the students, and shared camaraderie with one another.

The fist of compassion might have seemed not too focused, but Zi woke that part of her up with that jumping knee strike. Qi's jaw still stung a bit, but that made her pay attention. And she was going to make sure that Zi wasn't going to have this too easy, nothing in life really was. If there was one thing the young woman and her Brother learned in the streets of Beijing it was that, they had to work and scrape for every inch.

As Zi shot out her kick Qi was ready, and as she was getting up Qi quickly caught hold of it while standing up. In a flash the fist of compassion would get it held with both hands, and then try to trip out Zi's other leg. Qi was going to attempt a one legged boston crab, since coming to Friction Qi had developed moves outside of her usual martial arts to some extent. And since Zi had requested general combat Qi was happy to deliver, and was also curious to see how she'd deal with this as well.