Private Finished Tournament Arc: Ater vs J

When Ater joined the tournament, he wasn't really expecting much of anything, but there was a sizable crowd in the gym. He guessed he should have expected it, considering the crowds that would gather when a fight breaks out around the school. Walking up to the arena, he realized how embarrassing it was to get dressed up for this. He was wearing a loose shrine outfit, black fabrics with a few reds in a jagged pattern on the rims and a puffy fur collar that mirrored his own hair color, complete with the red tips. He even had the bracers and with the red rope trim. To top off his gear, he had a fox mask, fixed onto the side of his head. A couple of his friends to the side gave him a mix of heckles and encouragement, to which he'd respond with, a chuckle and some witty remarks of his own. "Well, at least I'm comfortable and breezy," he'd tell himself, sizing up his opponent. He didn't really know much about the girl, and common sense would have said to do the research, but he wasn't going to go around asking anyone about a girl. That's how rumors happen. "Alright, let's give these folks a show, shall we?"

Ater was no stranger to fights. He was the one to be picking on the bullies, and he's often been punished along with them. But he was no trained fighter, and taking a glance at his opponent's stance told him that that wasn't the case for her. At least he knew he could take a beating. He gulped and scratched his chin, but realizing that looking nervous was a bad look overall, he shook his head and took a low stance, one hand inches off the ground, and the other behind him. Putting on a smirk, he said "In that case, I'll give it all I got! Well, within the rules at least." He gave a nod to her and waited for the signal for the fight to begin. When the fight started, he began to circle, keeping his stance low. What he learned from fending off the local ruffians, it was better to give them a chance to go for him first. Unless they had a gun, but that wasn't relevant here.

And there it was, the first move. She went in for the tackle, which meant she had no qualms about getting close. Luckily, Ater was good at doing the complete opposite of that. As she came about a body's length away, Ater jumped, curling himself slightly into a ball and over J with a mid-air roll that landed him on his feet. His back towards her and still in his crouched position, he slid his leg in a crescent towards the back, aiming towards the hip area, but bent his knee back in and instead of trying to get a hit in, he used the momentum to spin him around to a standing position. He wasn't about to dedicate an attack just yet. He had to probe for weaknesses.

So much for probing for weaknesses, he thought as he allowed himself to turn intangible just to not get hit by those blows, but he had to reposition quickly. Though he was intangible at that time, he acted like he'd have dodged those blows. No, he wasn't acting, he was actually trying to dodge. The intangibility was just there to make sure he didn't get hit too early. Turning tangible again, he charged forward, igniting his spirit claws on his hands and feet and slashing at J with a one-two display. Unless J was actually a spirit possessing that body, it'd pass through her no problem, but he wanted to trick her into thinking that he had more reach than he actually did. Plus, the claws served to obstruct some of her vision.

However, that obstruction applied to him as well as he didn't notice the maneuver she was going for until it hit him. Like a truck scrunched up into a fist-sized bullet. He was caught in the wind-up to a kick that tensed up his muscles around his core, which helped to mitigate some of the damage. But damn, was that hit loud. Well, loud enough to cause some "OHH's" in the crowd as he stumbled back, shielding his stomach with an arm. With a whistle, he said, "That's some punch you got there. Guess I can loosen up a bit more, heh." Blue flames appeared all around them, but instead of warming up, the air around the two of them went ice cold. Ater went down to his low stance again, sliding the mask over his face.