POV: Arthur Kojiro
What is he doing?
He's not activating his Aspect yet and he's not raising his guard either, which means he must be confident that he can defeat me in hand-to-hand combat.
Although I don't know much about him, I do know that he's proficient in hand-to-hand combat and when he began taking Wrath seriously, he became more aggressive and refused to let Wrath on the offensive, but I can't go off that alone because for some reason, he's allowing me to have the first move.
I want to believe he's arrogant because of his stance, but my instincts are warning me that if I were to rush in there now, I would lose this fight in an instant.
If Rai can avoid using his Aspect, then by all means he won't even bother to use it in order to defeat me, which will be impossible for him as I know for certain once I activate my Aspect, he'll be forced to match me as the difference in power at that point will be too drastic for him to continue fighting without using his Aspect.
Knowing this, the smart thing to do would be to activate my Aspect now in order to take control of this fight from the very beginning, but if I do that, then I'm just blatantly admitting that I'm not confident in an exchange of hand-to-hand combat, which is unacceptable.
There's no need for me to think about this anymore as thinking is only a bother.
There's only one thing for me to do here and that is to WIN!
Initiating the first move in our fight was none other than myself as I sprinted towards him with a spinning high kick towards his head, but to my surprise, Rai blocked it effortlessly as amidst his defense, he stepped forward and landed a heavy uppercut into my abdomen, knocking the wind out of me momentarily as I grasped for air while Rai followed up with a spinning back kick into my face, sending me tumbling backwards across the grass.
His attacks are stronger and faster than I expected.
Recovering myself from tumbling, I proceeded to dash towards Rai with a feint into a low sweep, but despite what I assumed to be unpredictable, Rai had already anticipated my every move as amidst jumping over my leg, he twisted his body upside down with an acrobatic motion as he smashed his foot into the side of my head with an angled reverse high kick, sending me crashing face-first into the ground as Rai looked down at me while I struggled to get a grasp on my senses.
What just happened?
Picking myself up from the ground, I spat out the weeds of grass from within my mouth as rushed towards him with a feint towards his face into lunging towards his abdomen, attempting to grapple him onto the ground as I was confident in a contest of strength, but to my dismay, I was unable to budge him as Rai planted his feet firmly into the ground and leaned forward, preventing me from grappling him onto the ground as it felt as if I was trying to tackle a boulder.
You've got to be kidding me.
As I struggled to overpower him in a contest of strength, Rai separated me away from him by grabbing my head and smashing his knee into my face, causing me to stagger backwards as he dashed towards me, although I refused to give him the offensive advantage he desired as I tried to strike his face with a sharp cross punch, but my efforts would be in vain as Rai parried my arm away with his own and countered with a palm strike into my chest, seizing my breath as I skidded backwards across the facility until I eventually buckled onto a knee from the impact.
How strong is this guy?!
Recollecting myself, I pushed myself forward and began sprinting towards Rai with the aim of landing several punches across his face, but as one of my swings went wide, Rai used that opportunity to grab my arm and throw me over his shoulder as he slammed me onto the ground below, causing me to wince in pain as he placed himself on top of me and began thrashing his fist into my face with an indifferent expression, rousing a vexing sensation within me as I weaved one of his strikes and punched his face cleanly, knocking him backwards as I then kicked him away from me while I rolled backwards, picking myself up in the midst.
As Rai wiped off the blood trickling from his nose, I felt elated as for once, I was struggling in a fight again as I dashed towards Rai with a feint into an uppercut towards his chin, although none of my feints would prove useful as Rai caught my fist with his hand before pulling me towards him and using his off-hand, he smacked my nose with the back of his fist before landing a spinning back kick into my chest, sending me sliding backwards across the ground while my vision blurred from my eyes watering.
Alright, this is a little ridiculous.
Amidst me trying to recover myself, Rai dashed towards me and landed multiple piercing strikes across my torso before ending his spree of attacks with a gut-wrenching uppercut into my liver, causing me to spew out saliva as I buckled onto my knees, gasping for air.
I may not have noble blood coursing through my veins, but I was naturally gifted with a body that surpasses your average noble, not to mention the strenuous training I placed myself through in order to maximize my physical prowess, so how is it that every strike Rai lands feels like I'm being hit by a semi-truck?!
Could it be possible that he went through the same training as I did?
With my breathing ragged, Rai tried to end the fight with an ax kick into the top of my head, but enduring the uncomfortable pain coursing through my the side of my abdomen, I managed to block his foot with my forearms, picking myself up amidst my defense as I shoved him away from me before rushing towards him, initiating an exchange of hand-to-hand combat as with every passing second, I was truly beginning to understand the difference in skill between us.
Then there's his hand-to-hand combat, which I had already known was good prior to our fight, but not to this extent.
I never learned martial arts as my raw power and instincts alone was enough to defeat anyone through hand-to-hand combat, but this is the first time that I ever felt so useless.
As of now…
I'm being utterly destroyed.
Amidst our exchange of hand-to-hand combat, I found out very earlier that Rai's prowess for close combat was far superior to my own as each of his attacks were precise, yet near-crippling as he anticipated my every move, either blocking, weaving or even just parrying my attacks away while I struggled to perceive any of his attacks due to their unpredictability as my body tensed up from him striking several vital points across my torso, allowing Rai to end our exchange with a devastating one-inch punch into my solar plexus, forcing me to temporarily lose control over my own body as I struggled to catch my breath while the impact sent me tumbling backwards through the grass until I slammed against a tree with my back.
In a daze, I looked up and stared at the gleaming moon that resided within the vast space of stars, which seamlessly stretched to infinity as I felt my heart begin to race.
Although my heart didn't race because I was scared or I had any unnecessary doubts of myself, but it from exhilaration as ever since my fight with my father, I was having the most fun I've ever had in years and I knew very well that if I were to engage in another scuffle with Rai, my pain was only bound to grow and yet, despite my unfavorable situation, there was only a single desire within my mind.
I wanted to win.