Never Skip Log Day {Crit}

"So that's what you were hidin'..."

The spikes emerging from Milk's torso and arms were hard to miss. They were confirmation of what kind of power she possessed, for the moment. For all Lelei knew, Milk could have had more up her sleeves but he had no evidence to that fact. All he knew for the time being was that she was unnaturally strong, possibly very durable and she could grow spines out of herself. It was not a bad set of powers considering her supposed close combat skills.

But now Lelei had a good idea of how to make the first move, and he would have to be the one to make it too. Milk had tipped her hand in the power department, yet passed the first move to him. He would make the most of it.

Lelei kept circling for a few more steps, lowering his stance a little more. His feet were apart and his knees were bent and ready. His eyes never left Milk's.

One more step was made and that was when he lunged at her, going for her legs and hoping to pull them out from underneath her and get her on the ground.

He had overestimated his speed and his ability to catch Milk off-guard. Either he was still rusty or he was never all that fast in the first place. But the result was still the same: Milk had taken the obvious counter move and circled around to his vulnerable flank while he dove at where her legs used to be. This was quickly followed by a shark pressure as she jabbed him in the back.

The miss had been made, but Lelei was still tough and he had the size advantage. He absorbed the blow and stayed on his feet enough to catch himself.

What Milk may not have fully counted on was that Lelei was also familiar with using his tail in combat as well. It was like an extra limb or natural club. As he spun around to face Milk, he let his tail swat heavily at her. At the very least it could have served as a momentary distraction before he came back around with a fist in a hook.

Milk was turning out to be more durable than Lelei had initially anticipated. He had already expected her to be able to take a blow or two. What he had not expected was that his hand would be sore after actually landing a blow on her. He did not show the discomfort, of course, and still followed-through with the hook for maximum impact.

At leas the hit on her served an analytical purpose too. Her flesh felt hard on his knuckles, but not especially so. However, something inside her flesh felt VERY hard indeed, like her bones were reinforced. Even if he had no intention of breaking any of her bones in a spar, harder bones meant harder hits from her and a change in strategy for him.

He would get his first attempt at his new tactics with Milk's counter. Flexing his abdomen, he absorbed as much as the blow as he could. He needed her to be close, and her ducking movement gave him a better angle to use his height advantage.

Ignoring the bone spikes, he bent forward and wrapped his arms around Milk's midsection before lifting her. Her legs in the air, he pulled upwards. The bone spikes poked painfully into his chest. He endured the spikes long enough to jump up and deliver a piledriver onto Milk's head.

Considering her hard bones, Lelei needed to attack in a way that put the impact on her, and not on him.

Lelei thought he had put a good hit on Milk. He thought that a solid pile driver into solid ground would put the girl down long enough for him to put her into a pin. He was all set to rearrange his hold on her, and twist his body around to be on top, when Milk pulled a reversal on him.

Already on his knees from the drop, Milk's kick had pushed his shoulders to the ground. That by itself would not have been enough to pin him, but her bone spikes sealed the deal.

As the spikes dug into the ground and into him, he grunted in pain and attempted to push her off of him. But every movement stung in every direction, and in his effort to find a good way to move he lost track of Milk's count. She had taken the first pin. Lelei tapped the ground with his hand to signal the end of the round.

"Alright! Alright! You got this one!"

He only tried to move once every spike was removed from him. Pinpricks of blood showed all over his skin where Milk's spikes had managed to get through his tough skin.

Under different circumstances, Milk rolling off of Lelei would have a more intimate undertone to it. That is, if Milk and Lelei had not just been fighting immediately beforehand. And if Milk not possessed a multitude of sharp bone spikes protruding out of her and into Lelei's flesh. And Milk herself not been a stoic fighting woman. And if Lelei had any kind of passing interest in women.

Lelei had to take a moment to relax his muscles while laying on the ground, unpinned by Milk. There was a nice surge of endorphins after Milk pulled her bone spikes out of him, and Lelei sighed in minor relief before standing back up.

"I'll be fine. Nothing a good wash and a rest won't fix."

He avoided wiping away the pricks of blood on himself. Rubbing the many tiny cuts would not help. They were already starting to clot up naturally anyway.

"I gotta say though. You got me with those spikes, Milk. I wasn't expecting those at all. Got any other tricks under your skin?"