Hime Gozen vs. Xiang Tchang - Balance and Force

The Japanese goddess grinned at the other end of her tightened fist, still shaking with raw power. The sight of weaklings crumbling before her unfathomable might delighted Hime to no end. The shocked response from the audience was palpable. Her knuckles cracked as she drew her hand back and stood upright beneath the limelight. A wicked smile slashed fresh across her face.

This feeling. This sight. These were the reasons she could never stop fighting.

Momentum certainly had low standards for the level of competition, especially for those they sought to be their foundation. After years of searching, bleeding, and finally being able to stand at the top of Japanese martial arts, this was the kind of opponent they dared to call a challenge. Hime would have been insulted if the sight of Xiang’s feet leaving the ground as she flew backward and gripped her chest in agony wasn’t so damn entertaining.

Her mood soured only slightly seeing Xiang recompose herself. The Chinese fighter adopted a defensive stance. Hime couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of pity for the morsel. Her forehead wrinkled with disgust at the fledgling. Did she sincerely believe that she had a chance even after a simple taste?

Did she have no sense in her head?

Hime broke into a forward rush and covered the distance between them in an instant. The dark karateka leaped into the air at the end of her stride, throwing her leg high overhead and pointing it towards the ceiling. She brought that raised leg straight back down in the same instant, slicing through the hair like a blade as her heel drop kick aimed for the crown of Xiang’s petite skull. She moved with the intent to destroy her opponent decisively. To utterly annihilate.

Always.

The Chinese dwarf could only feel pressure to not prove she’s just some throwaway, afraid to lose, especially to such an overestimating opponent, which also fuels her determination to win. The feeling of her fists not being able to do anything to her opponent, and the feeling of her attacks haunted her. One error and a devastating blow could be the end.

For a first match, it was such an uneven pairing. Was this a test or some sort, were the officials curious of the outcome, or did they simply have no one left for the fight?

Xiang felt in such an awful position. Being forced to be actively defensive as the only safe option to face her opponent, made this more of a predicament, not being able to attack and having to rely on her opponent messing up.

Luckily this might have been exactly what would happen. Hime seemed the one to lose her temper now, taking a wild dash at the small martial artist before jumping. It was quite hard if not straight up impossible to change direction mid-jump, meaning she just locked her trajectory. Now watching a giant rushing and jumping at you, is surely scary, however this was what Xiang was preparing for mentally.

As the Karateka raised her leg, giving a hint at her attack, Xiang quickly stepped to the side to avoid the attack, and turned to the falling Hime, before moving her hands towards her.

“No matter how strong or heavy it is,
A Gorrila is weightless when it tries to mimic the bird.”

Saying this, she’d try to grab the closer ankle with one hand, pushing, while the one would try to go to her back and pull, attempting to flip Hime to her head right before landing, gaining any support to make this impossible.

If this were successful, Xiang would try to keep her grip on her ankle, before moving her other hand to it and try to twist it, while pulling the Japanese “goddess” ankle back and up, towards the dwarf’s own chest to attempting to put her in a lock, hopefully weakening her foot in an attempt to even the fight.

Hime’s kick was perfect. Flawless, by every definition of the word. The arc of her kick was majestic, her form picturesque as it soared through the air. Such a fluid motion would have been enough to split a cinder block in two, let alone Xiang’s empty, inferior skull. The distance to her opponent was made irrelevant thanks to the incredible reach of her lithe legs. Every second of that counted towards the end of this fight was part of her prudent calculations.

What she underestimated was the spirit of this particular whelp. Hime expected her opponent's feet to be frozen with fear. The self-doubt was practically smeared across the pinkette's petite face. Little did the Japanese fighter realize that what she was staring at was an illusion.

The image of Xiang disappeared beneath her heel, leaving her kick to find nothing but air where the Chinese fighter's skull should have been. Her amethyst eyes widened in surprise as her gaze shifted to the side. An aura caught her attention. The cretin she'd sought to bring down was suddenly returning her kindness ever so elegantly.

Her beautiful face collided with the floor with a resounding smack of flesh and cry of frustration. The crowd popped at the Chinese girl's clever reversal.

"You insolent-grah!" Hime's curse was cut short as the Chinese girl tightened the hold on her foot. Her hands pushed off the floor, using her mystical might to rise from the ground momentarily. Her free leg would swing around with a wide arc aimed for Xiang's head. If Hime's aim was right, her heel would slam into her opponent's temple.

Assuming that there was some fear within the pinkette as the gorilla woman charged wouldn’t exactly be wrong. But at this point, Xiang had already seen this beast rush at her enough times to not falter as much, especially when she had already had her opponent get away one or two times. She was moved by anger and the will to make the black karateka pay back.

Hime wasn’t only very strong, at least compared to the Chinese dwarf, but also highly skillful and technical to pull such mastered forms. Yet going for a flying attack despite being somewhat effective can be risky when not prepared for a counter attack, since there is no ground for balance or a powerful stance, especially since at their height difference a simple standing axe kick would probably be enough.

If she was going for a flashy finish is not known, but this gave Xiang the opportunity she was looking for.

And thus the giant was flipped in the mere seconds before hitting the ground. Xiang masterfully reversed the Blonde karateka on herself, using her attack against herself, by catching the very same foot she attacked with and flip her almost upside down.

Seeing the Japanese “Goddess” crash into the ground, brought some sort of satisfaction, the small martial artist couldn’t lie. Having the opportunity to lock her opponent’s ankle,could be great to weaken her stance with a wounded step. Since strikes haven’t had much of an effect up until now, the best chance would’ve been a very risky throw against someone who’s twice her size despite not being impossible, a lock or a choke.

Not wasting much of time, Xiang quickly started working on her hopefully painful lock, twisting her foot and putting as much pressure as possible on it, without breaking it of course. The idea is to weaken it or make her forfeit, not break it.

However this would’ve quickly been dealt with. One thing Xiang overlooked was her Jime’s raw strength. Despite her technique on her lock, her opponent can just quickly overpower it through it, as she was just doing it. The little pinkette was to focus on trying to make her offense work so that she didn’t not expect the quick and very effective reversal by the giant, as her foot crashed into the side of her head, hitting dead center on her temple.

Xiang’s reaction was to quickly let go of her grip and raise her hand to the side of her head, while taking a few steps back. Concussions kicked in, hitting right on that spot and with such force it was sure to happen. The panic quickly started to settle in again, perhaps more than before, now with her opponent free and ready to continuing her onslaught, all the while the chinese martial artist felt weaker herself, only being able to do half of a stance and sloppy one at that with the concussion and one of her hands covering her side of the head, waiting for the symptoms to get better. She could only help that this resulted in something as she prepared for whatever her opponent possibly had in store.

The ability to attack regardless of position was fundamental to the Raijin School. Attack from below, attack from above, attack from everywhere and anywhere that was even remotely possible. It was the simple martial artists that became fixated on form and method; those that would allow an opening to pass them by.

Xiang was no slouch when it came to technique. Quite the contrary, it had been some time since Hime had been ensnared so flawlessly. There was potential in that style and a valuable lesson for the Japanese fighter to take back to her dojo. That much was evident in the brief time they had spent together. What was equally apparent was the naiveté of an overambitious youth. She would devour Xiang and discard the rest.

Hime felt her kick land flush against the girl’s temple. The relief when she released her ankle was almost immediate, though she had no intention of spending an abundance of time in recovery. The instant Hime forsook her momentum was the moment she conceded the match. Her philosophy.

Strike, strike, strike. Destroy and overwhelm, until what stood before her was utterly crushed.

Hime didn’t simply stand up after she broke the leg lock. She chased after Xiang from the ground by pushing off her good leg and tucking into a forward roll to close the distance in one move. The karateka moved swiftly to catch the reeling Chinese fighter off guard, rising from the floor with an uppercut shotei aimed at Xiang’s chin. The advantage of fighting a shorter opponent meant that Hime’s strike did not have to reach far.

Technique was all she felt she could use the most in this situation, one where her pathetic strength meant nothing to her colossus. Learning from different styles, trying to fit her own, only to crumble in the big moment, feeling she doesn’t know anything, acting in instinct instead of clearly, fear perhaps?

Her opponent was strong and took a good while to get an opportunity and even then, she surely followed her own teaching, overpowering and striking from anywhere. As much of a basic and seemingly reckless way to fight, it was very effective if applied in the right way. Easily striking her way out, the Japanese fighter was now free but also made sure to hit a crucial point on the Chinese dwarf.

Dazed, there was not much to do but to fall back, retreat to a less disadvantageous position. Hime was strong, there was no doubt of that, bending Xiang to a pretzel and breaking her easily. However she seemed quite eager and reckless, striking at every opportunity. A well placed counter could shift in the tides of battle. The small pinkett just had to be lucky with her strikes and technical skills.

However she was in bad luck. As soon she backed away, she found her opponent rushed back in a flash, stuck to her like glue, not wasting a single moment of opportunity, as the martial artist only saw a ball of fury coming to crash at her. The Japanese Karateka quickly came to a halt in her movement, to immediately send an attack, one that gave next to no reaction time.

Xiang tried to react with her very brief time, but was too late as Hime’s palm crashed right into the pink-haired fighter’s chin, carrying the full momentum, as her arm didn’t even have to stretch all the way to catch Xiang. As her palm heel hit the chinese dwarf, she felt her head being pushed out, almost as if it was launched out of her body, causing her to take a one or two steps behind due to the transferred momentum of the hit, stunning her more for a brief second for a quick follow up.

Hime felt herself smile for the first time in this match. It had begun as a rather pitiable affair and was by all conceivable notions a complete waste of her efforts. Her impressions were still quite low of this particular adversary, but some small part of her was forced to concede that she had become marginally interested in seeing Xiang’s potential.

That being so, she had no intention of holding back against one that would proclaim themselves a warrior and stand amongst the likes of her own. No, Xiang deserved the full power of the Raijin School. Every last one of them did.

The satisfying crack of impacted bone from Xiang’s chin elicited a newfound hunger in the dark fighter. Hime stood tall and watched the Chinese fighter stagger. Then, her legs slowly drifted apart, widening her stance and clenching her fists tightly as she channeled the power in her veins. The chi flows through her center from the air, the earth. Until…

“Acala Retsudo Tenshou!” Hime’s forward foot slammed down, sending the full power of her stride into a palm strike aimed at the center of Xiang’s chest. One of her signature moves, opponents even three times Hime’s bodyweight were taken off their feet. An opponent of Xiang’s size would be sent practically flying away if her palm landed squarely. If the raw impact didn’t destroy the organs of the pathetic little rabbit, Hime could hope that the force would send the annoying Chinese flea out of the arena and cement her victory by a pitiful Ring Out.

However, with the damage Xiang had done to her foot, her follow-through was stalled. Hime pushed past the pain and moved with the intent to destroy.

Xiang quickly tried gathering her thoughts, in an attempt to recompose herself to return to battle as soon as possible, starting to realize she would have to start to bring whatever she had or that she remembered into this dire situation.

Learning and training many different things and styles, trying to become better only to come to this, felt somewhat sad and enraging. Even her own counter was countered by sheer force. More reason to put all of her chips on the table.

The impact of her jaw was bad enough to crack her chin bone, but also force her back, leaving her open for a few instants. Luckily she was fast enough to come back, or perhaps it was a miracle that her hold of the Japanese Goddess’ foot worked and slowed her down.

Hime’s voice roared right in her face alongside the image of the giant dragon charging her attack, as if a cannon had loaded and unleashed a shot at the target, all with what possibly was a smile. This was enough to make the “little rabbit” panic, as well furious, and enter a state of momentary instincts. In her favor the action was delayed allowing her to try to react.

In the moment the strike was sent flying, a small sound of inhaling could be heard, as the Chinese dwarf tried to move her torso out of the way, taking a step to the side, while both her arms raised and attempted to not only strike but also forcefully push the striking arm to the opposite direction and then even pull it towards the ground, in hopes to redirect it.

If successful, and with her arms already pulled back, the pink haired martial artist would go on the offense, taking another step in Hime’s direction. Just her foot slammed down, Xiang would send both of her arms forward, trying to crash both her palms into her opponent’s chest to push her back or knock the air out in a different variation of one of her moves. All the air in her lungs came out, as she released her own roar. “Ruǎn pí yìng zhǎng shuāngjī!” (“Twin Soft-skinned Hard Palm Strike!”)