Hunting for Duels (For AgentHunter)

Now this was it, Charlotte was getting to duke it out with a guy that knew his stuff. The French girl didn't care about winning or losing here, there was only the need to fight and test herself in battle. The mental image in Charlotte's mind was of herself dressing in the finest and shiniest armour and slapping her helmet down to engage in some combat, swinging a blade against another person in respectful battle! Cadence spoke of the intention to test if Charlotte was indeed up to stuff, she'd swear inwardly that the Hunter was going to be impressed by her handiwork. The duel seeker had been keeping up her MMA regiment and since her first match had been looking up wrestling techniques to adapt to the different arena she'd be finding herself in now.

Hunter was getting himself into the stretching routine, knew what he was doing by the looks of it. Charlotte gave him a smile and nod as she got to work, the duel seeker would perform a rather impressive one as she moved her left leg behind her back and gripped the heel of her boot with her arms placed upwards. It was a stretch that Eliza had become known for and it was proof of how flexible the Harenwoods could be, after doing this a few times for both leg the French girl would jump up onto the apron a fair bit away from Cadence as he looked at her.

He asked Charlotte a question, to which made the French girl lean forward on the top rope herself as she listened intently. Cadence had earned that much at least, but what he asked made Charlotte blush. The duel seeker would duck her head down and lean into the top rope to hide this fact as best she could and then saying "Oh merde. Let's put it this way, it mixes both sex and wrestling together. And for the record Mr Cadence don't even think of trying that with me, otherwise our meeting will conclude there. I'll only have a partner under very certain circumstances, like one that has proven they can defeat me among other things." feeling more flustered than anything else Charlotte knew full well her parents would want her to take a partner. But that day was far away in her mind, the duel seeker would walk towards the furthest corner of Hunter and slapped her cheeks several times to get herself out of that worry of hers. For a battle was upon her shortly.......

Watching the woman jump onto the rings mat and lean upon the top rope, being a good distance from him, Hunter listened to Charlotte answer his question. She explained how the 'Hentai' match type was in layman's terms, Sex mixed with wrestling. This description got an odd confused grunt out of Hunter who was now standing in front the ropes from inside the ring, instead of leaning against them, though his hands remained attached from his prior position. Charlotte had as well gone to exclaim that he shouldn't even try to do anything close to what happens in those hentai matches, that their sparring session would be over. In all honesty, while Hunter believed her to be a rather beautiful woman, he hadn't even thought of doing anything close to that to Charlotte, they were just sparring, nothing else, nothing more. While he knew he was going to have to question himself on whether or not he wanted to partake in those hentai matches, he decided to shove that thought process down for now and focus on the task at hand. Seeing that the woman had hid her face due to the man's question, most likely from her possibly blushing, Hunter did his best to reassure Charlotte that he wasn't going to do anything like in those hentai matches to her. "I assure you  Ms. Charlotte..." he started, using his usual straightforward and stoic tone of voice, "I wouldn't think of doing that to you."

Turning from the ropes of the ring, Hunter watched Charlotte go the farthest ring post from him and prepare, prompting him to do the same. Closing his eyes and taking a rather large breath in and then out to try and steady whatever anxiety the had, he readied himself for the fight to be. Opening his eyes, he did his best to look like he was boiling for a fight; he slowly took a readied position, his feet placed apart from each other just enough to give a sturdy stance and his arms raised up for a possible strength test the woman might try. "Ready, when you are.".

Though he would rarely show much emotion other than actual intrigue, or the occasional crack or slip of something other than stoicism when something caught him off guard, right now, Hunter could without a doubt, say he was actually excited. The first person he had met in this company was a rather nice yet skilled looking woman who had been nothing other than the kindest person to the Hunter, and ended up building a rapport with him; an honest far cry from what the man put inside his head was going to be the first meeting of someone from the company. Now that he was in the ring with her, ready to test his skills against hers, he wanted nothing more than to see what Charlotte could dish out, to see what she was really made of, and to show her what an old war dog could really do.

Well Charlotte was at least somewhat assured now of Cadence's persona and mind, the lady had no intention of being lewd at all. It wouldn't be flattering for the French girl to lower herself to such a degrading standard, if her parents bothered to check what sort of things Charlotte was getting into that alone would have earned her a straight ticket back to France and probably just a complete disown. No way would Charlotte dishonour the Harenwood name like that by becoming some harlot courtesan, rather she would instead seek glory and combat and carve her tale out.

Charlotte would bow slightly towards Cadence after she got in when the Hunter gave his word that he'd be clean here with her. Good. He seemed like the sort that backed up his talk as well, Charlotte would say "Merci, I have a name to upload you see. Old money in France. Now then Monsieur." as she got to her corner.

The duel seeker thumbed her nose as she entered into her stance, hands balled into fists with her left near her chest and her right near her navel bouncing about from side to side in anticipation. Already Charlotte could feel her heart beat in anticipation, now this was going to be a fight and a half Charlotte could already tell. She was grinning from ear to ear as she faced Cadence down. "Oui I'm set, en garde Monsieur! Ding ding!" Charlotte said making a bell ringing motion with her hand, ever the eager battler was she.

Now battle was underway, Charlotte didn't mess around with her openings of a fight. She was wanting to get in there right there! The instant she finished that Charlotte was already bolting right at the Hunter like she was on a stallion, Charlotte would leap into a spinning jump and try and blast out her right leg with a hard kick aimed at Cadence's midsection!

The more he learned about this Charlotte Harenwood the more Hunter came to respect her as not only a person, but as a fighter as well. He had yet to see her skill at that moment, but at every turn when the idea of a fight or a challenge had been brought up, she had shown herself to be giddy for it, ecstatic even, and while his expression hadn't shown it, he found her love for the challenge endearing. Now learning that this woman was possibly part of an aristocracy, taking into account that the name she needed to uphold was old money in France,  Hunter could only respect her more. It was rare to ever hear of an aristocrat joining up with anything close to a combat sport, let alone a wrestling federation, in fact you didn't hear that sort of thing at all, or at least he didn't.

Hunter continued to watch the woman as she bounced around with anticipation for the fight, her giddiness was indeed something to behold; having beheld it himself, her excitement was starting to somewhat rub off on him, as he found himself wanting to give this woman a battle she wouldn't soon forget, or at least that's what he was going to attempt to do.

With Charlotte now charging him after she imitated a bell being rung with her voice, Hunter was impressed to find how fast the woman was. She had almost reached him before he could react giving him only a small window to react and move in. With his body still in a stance that was much more suited for a strength test, he could only anticipate what she was going to do based upon the charge she was committed to, his brain tried to decipher what she might be trying to do and plan accordingly; so when Charlotte jumped into that spinning kick of hers, it both surprised Hunter and concluded his thought process. Realizing he couldn't effectively counter this kind of kick from where he stood, that being right in front of the turnbuckle, he settled on evasive maneuvers.

Before Hunter could even think of the words, "Evasive Maneuvers", his body went into action and his years of training took over. Recognizing that her right kick was headed for his left side, Hunter realized what he had to do to get out of this situation. Shifting his weight to the right, and tucking his head to his chest, Hunter lifted up his right leg and pushed off the mat with his left into a combat roll of sorts; momentum carried the man onto his shoulders and upper back as his body met the mat again, eventually rolling back upright from his shoulders onto one hand and one knee, stopping whatever momentum he had left. The whole maneuver had brought Hunter about five feet to the left of Charlotte, which presented the man with the perfect opportunity to really put his own brand of pressure on the woman, a well placed strike would indeed suffice.

Still in the kneeling position, Hunter shifted his right leg up and placed its boot on the mat, getting ready to launch into a sprint once his attack planned out and ready. Looking the woman over, he theorized that best strike he could commit was a well placed bare knuckle punch to her mid section, specifically her stomach. Having been in many sparring matches with other navy seals in the past, Hunter knew how much a strike there would hurt.

With his attack now planned out, Hunters right leg pushed against the mat, launching the man into a full on sprint, each step echoing a loud thud off the rings flooring as he ran for the woman. Now being close enough to the well dressed French woman, he launched his momentum assisted upper cut, attempting to strike the woman in the stomach and start his own offensive against her.

Charlotte much like Eliza had a penchant for explosive, dynamic offence. Usually you could count on one thing from them which was that they'd come running at you with everything they had at you in the opening exchange, the duel seeker likened herself to being on a steed rushing headfirst into the flow of battle. It was go time, Charlotte was eager to get herself stuck in and make progress in Tension now!

So here she was running straight at the Hunter and shooting out her spinning kick attack. It wasn't just her trying to set the momentum, no it was also an opening gambit. An attempt to try and size up Cadence, see what his reaction was going to be against this blitzing opening from the French girl. Perhaps Charlotte could learn a thing or two from what Cadence was like in his response, lo and behold she wasn't going to have wait for very long.

As it turned out Cadence went on reaction there it seemed, he likely reasoned that if Charlotte managed to connect there not only would he take a hard kick to the gut but he'd be boxed in there in the corner against the duel seeker. Cadence moved fluidly, practised and poised and Charlotte caught nothing but thin air. The French girl gritted her teeth, knowing that her attack had left herself vulnerable in the process. But that was the risk that came with an attack like that, Cadence lived up to his moniker of Hunter and bolted right into Charlotte and drove his fist right into her gut as she recovered from his spin kick!

"Pawf!" Charlotte spat out as the strike connected, the French girl doubled over somewhat from the shock of it. However that wasn't gonna floor the duel seeker, despite her attire and appearance didn't have a gut or jaw of glass. She was tougher than that, so Cadence was gonna have to do a lot more than that even if he managed to get the opening advantage in their sparring session. The duel seeker had been staggered, but she wasn't floored. Used as she was to the back and forth of strikes so it was gonna take more than that to down her!

It seemed that Hunter's bid to apply his own offensive in the match had worked, with his fist burying itself into Charlotte's stomach, doubling her over in reaction, and giving the man the opening advantage. The French woman hadn't been completely floored by the strike, allowing the man to recognize she had some resilience to her; "Good", he thought, she was going to need that durability, because he really did want to see what the woman could do and he wasn't going to pull many punches in the process.

Quickly removing his fist from her abdomen, Hunter stood and prepped himself for another attack, though taking a moment to measure his options to further his offense on his opponent first. His mind fell upon the idea that what he needed was a quick and precise attack from the close distance they already were from each other, to really keep up the pressureon her. What he needed was something that was real teeth rattling, an attack that would allow him to follow up with more, what Hunter had decided upon was a knee strike aimed directly at her nasal region of the face.

Now being in front of the folded over Charlotte Harenwood, Cadence 'Hunter' Cahill used both his hands to grasp around the woman's head, his fingers ruffling and combing through her rather nice and silky smooth, lightly colored hair as he forced her head up as high as he could in preparation of the knee strike. Shifting his right foot a good distance back, he cocked and readied his body to launch; and launch he did, his whole body acted together as a unit, his hands and arms bringing Charlotte's head down, and his right leg shooting out knee first in his attempted to continue his assault.

Charlotte was no stranger to tacking shots to the stomach, under her corset enhanced dress one would actually find a decently good set of abs there. They were often on display when Charlotte was in some MMA attire, however for her time in Tension she had chosen a custom made "Battle Dress" she called it. So for all intents and purposes she simply appeared to be a nondescript person in terms of her body, not that it mattered to Charlotte for she knew that she'd be able to take a beating regardless. The French girl was certainly going to need it though as Cadence just delivered a harsh shot to her chest area, she took the shot well enough though.

But Cadence wasn't done yet, as the Hunter would grab hold of Charlotte by the head and shuffle in front of her. The duel seeker was aware of what was likely to occur here, she'd been grabbed like this before in her octagon matches and it could only mean that either she'd be smacked in the face really hard or be slammed to the mat really hard. Lo and behold Cadence blasted out and shot her hard in the head with a knee!

Even with her head being held Charlotte could still do things, she made to get ready. The French girl took the hit like a champ, in spite of her dainty look she had a gut and jaw of iron. Not of bronze like one might think, Charlotte gave a loud grunt and reeled back. But already the duel seeker was going to plan to retaliate, because she had her arms free. Cadence had given a good strike for sure, but Charlotte could roll with the punches and got her arms wrapped around the used leg of the Hunter. She'd reel backwards while still holding onto Cadence's leg and slammed her elbow right into his kneecap in retort! If it was a slugfest Charlotte would prove she could handle herself in the back and forth swordplay!

The knee strike had hit its mark, its impact had sent the woman reeling back with an audible grunt, her head slipping out of the grasp Hunter had on it. Though this was just a sparring match, or at least the beginning stages of one, Hunter could already tell that it was going to be rather intense; though that wasn't something he was going to complain about, quite the opposite in fact. Hunter needed this, a good fight, something that was going to help him not focus on the struggles that had plagued him for so long, even if it were just for a small while. To soldiers who had seen as much war as he had, conflict, or the fog of war as it was sometimes called, was a blessing, it distracted them from various variables that could otherwise make any man or woman, no matter how tall or strong, crack under the weight of those variables if kept in thought long enough. That was what he was here for, to try and not focus on those "variables" that kept him up at night, that made him more anxious and nervous than any other time in his life, par from a few OPs going basement dwelling levels of south during his military career.

He didn't expect to get a sparring partner today, but he was glad it was Charlotte. She had shown herself to be a rather nice woman, who got easily excited about challenges like the one they were enacting now, which endeared her to Hunter. During the bout so far, she had shown great speed, determination, durability, and as of recently, as Hunter was thinking of this mornings events so far, she had shown some creativity; as she had reached down and pulled the still lifted knee of his up and towards her, putting Hunter in a rather interesting pose and situation.

"Agh!", Hunter grunted out as Charlotte applied a fairly strong elbow to his right knee she now had captured in her grasp. Now that his offensive had been halted by her creative maneuver, and being left in precarious position that was rather hard to get out of without leaving himself open for further punishment, Hunter was left looking at the woman, his pained expression from her elbow strike slowly fading back to that frosted over expression he always wore. "You're full of surprises today, aren't you.", He spoke, his gravelly accented voice slightly echoing off the gym walls as he complimented the woman.

Charlotte was the sort that was at home under these circumstances, when her opponent was right in front of her and standing up. Sure it meant that she was going to take hits, but they were there. It was like clashing blades, such a notion made the duel seeker fully focused. She was always able to relish this kind of exchange, your fists spoke for you. The French girl was no stranger to taking an opponent's attacks, tanking through it.

It was a risky strategy, impaling yourself on the sword of your opponent. But it came with a positive, if you were quick and tough enough you'd get your opponent up close and could apply an effective attack back. Charlotte unlike other females in Tension was more than capable of actually being willing to go in. Take the hits and give back just as good, she was no Paris wallflower. The duel seeker was like a knight of old, swinging to and fro in battle.

Cadence felt that shock through his knee, what Charlotte had discerned so far about the man was his skill. He screamed military, what his exact background was Ms Harenwood wasn't sure. But he was a guy that knew exactly what he was good at and not some thug swinging for the fences, his artful dodge earlier served as ample proof for her. Charlotte smirked at his remarks and quickly said "Merci, your quick on the draw Monsieur." however she'd quickly try and retaliate as she'd try and drop the leg hard and then spin towards the good Hunter with a spinning backfist aimed at his jaw!

"THWAK"

The walls of the of the gym echoed with the sound of French knights backfist colliding with Hunters jaw after she threw his right leg down from precarious position in her grasp. A fine mist of spittle flew from the man's mouth as his head snapped away from the direction of impact. Stumbling back just a little from the strike, Hunter applied his right wrist to his mouth, wiping the residual fleks of mist from his lips whilst keeping his eyes on the woman. He didn't glare at Charlotte, infact this was more of an intrigued and analytical stare. She had just used a spinning backfist, something not only in his arsenal, but a move that was derived from Muay Thai, and he hadn't expected that at all, though that didn't mean he didn't welcome it. He was starting to peice together the woman in front of him every time they either collided or spoke, and from the move she just pulled and her beginning strike at the start of the match, he hypothesized that she was either proficient in Muay Thai, or she studied Mixed Martial Arts; though the current attacks she had used pointed to the former, concluding with that answer so hastily would most likely lead to a wrong conclusion, "Besides...", he thought to himself, "...the real fun comes from testing and deciphering what she can do, making educated guesses and be right about them is just a plus side to the process.".

Hunter was more than used to taking a beating, in fact, that was one of the requirements to be a Navy Seal, you had to be able to withstand more pain than the average man, and overcome ordeals that would leave even the bravest or strongest men and women crying to God for help. It was what made the Navy Seals different from other branches, the mere nature of what they did, like going in behind enemy lines with only a small group in the single digits with no back up if the OP went FUBAR, or taking on entire terrorist sects with only a small team to do it with. He had to be able to take the worst and keep going, and as much as Charlotte, or the French knight as he had come to nickname her, had some seriously good strikes so far, she was going to do far more than that to take him down.

Being free from her grasp, the man had a good opportunity to strike back harder and faster, just to test her limits, to see what she can take and how she'd react. Going back into his Muay Thai stance, he took a few paces forward to move closer to Charlotte, he had a plan to trip her up, to feint her out with a false attack and then strike a larger, faster, and more devastating one, though he didn't show any inkling of such a plan, his face returning from that intrigued gaze he wore moments before to that iced over "poker face" that was his normal expression. Stopping just in front of her, Hunter waited for the best moment to strike, staring the smaller woman down for a few moments before... "wait for it... Now!", Hunter mentally prepped himself before enacting his plan.

Launching a swift but fake right kick aimed at her left side, Hunter stopped his leg and foot from making contact just a few inches from her side. As quickly as his kick came, it also reversed, gaining momentum as he drew his right leg back, Hunter twisted his hips and pivoted on his left boot where the balls of his feet were. Making a near 360 degree turn on his left foot, he brought his right leg and booted foot up as far as he could up, in preparation for an ax kick aimed for the top of the French woman's head. He waited a small minute moment before attempting to bring his booted heel down on the top her head full force.