BANG!
SHINGGG!
Metal screeched, the ground caved, and the persistent sounds of melee preserved through the constant change of offense and defense.
Flicking his wrist, Rue's axe shot upwards, parrying another powerful punch from the side.
Registering its failure, the being—regardless of the blunt impediment of the axe safeguarding their flesh from its fists—continued to rain hell onto Rue, and in response he rebutted with his own armament.
Rue swung his axe diagonally across, aiming for the creature's waist.
Jumping into the air, the creature forcibly jarred its nimble body to spiral out of the attack's reach.
Raising his fists, the creature sprouted several metallic extrusions from its knuckles before racing back to Rue while beeping his gait low, yet its footwork constantly whizzing left and right in random intervals, creating a cloud of unpredictability.
The beast's means of fighting was unconventional, crude, lacking—each of its movements full of openings that even a mere second-rate fighter could exploit.
Yet, even with this inefficient way of fighting—it held a certain underlying charm. Its mellow techniques were made up for with the sheer force that guided each of the creature's attacks.
Tracking the spontaneous movements of the weird creature, Rue readied his axe to a neutral stance.
Without hesitation, the creature immediately charged forward.
The metal extrusions allocated within its knuckles burst from the creature's wooden flesh, exploding forward toward Rue.
With a surprised expression, he scrutinized the creature.
Charging his body's Will, Rue released a powerful blast from his body, expelling a dense wave of energy into the surrounding vicinity.
The projectiles faltered from the wave of energy, rapidly beginning to decelerate before their total potential energy was only that for the fall onto the ground.
Just as Rue finished, the creature was already on him, performing the same attacks again.
Snapping his head to the left, Rue weaved past a quick haymaker from the left before shifting his center of mass.
Pulling his axe back, Rue unleashed an upwards strike upwards vertically.
The creature, seeing this attack, attempted to maneuver back, but its reaction time was slightly off.
Grazing several inches into the chin and escaping out where the nose should have been, was Rue's axe blade.
The creature accepted the fault in its movements while not displaying any form of pain. Learning from its opponent's movements, the creature mimicked a stance it had seen while fighting a similar opponent a very long time ago.
Grappling Rue's forearm, the creature crushed the bone within its grip as it attempted to pull Rue back in the goal of taking him down.
However, the beast wasn't the only one rapidly learning from the other.
Noticing the stance, Rue immediately connected it to martial arts that differed from the creature's earlier fighting style.
It had a tempo, and for each movement it made came a distinctive vibration that rippled from its Will.
Rue felt the aura of a powerful combatant synergize from within the creature.
Clasping his feet into the ground, Rue jerked his arm back, dislocating the joint between his shoulder blade and arm.
Stumbling forward half a step, the creature quickly regained its bearing, fixing itself—but it was too late.
A quick jab was thrown at the creature's face.
BANG!
A straight hit contacted the creature's solar plexus.
BANG!
A third one was an elbow that shattered the creature's chin.
BANG!
The axe's blade dug into the chest of the creature.
The last hit was aimed toward the beast's temple, but it narrowly escaped from its doom.
The creature immediately attempted to gain distance from Rue.
Seeing this, Rue rushed forward and continued to corner the beast in close proximity.
In boxing, there are two main types of boxing styles.
The out and the in-boxer.
The out-boxer was a boxing style that dictated the art of strategic combat, characterized by a fighter's meticulous movement as they waited and felt out gauging their opponent's every movement. With matriculated striking, and a firm grasp of control and distance, this boxing style allows one to exploit the war of attrition all while fighting from a further vantage point.
The in-boxer was quite frankly, the opposite.
Rather than a distanced strategy, in-boxers dominate in close corridors using their bodies to create space and pressure against their opponents. This style allows optimalises for counterattacks and maintaining a dominant position.
Rue excelled in both ends of the spectrum.
Meanwhile, the creature was an out-boxer with a tinge of 'in' in their style, but this was only for now.
Without allowing the creature to regain its footing, Rue continued to pummel them with a furious assault of attacks.
Left hook—jab—jab!
Using the end of his axe as a polearm, Rue thrusted the sharp protrusion on the bottom of the axe into the creature's shoulder.
TeeeAR!
SPLIT!
Abruptly the tightly bound skin covering the entirety of the creature's head split from the midsection.
The skin tore, into a jagged line, from the center face of its face to where a lower jaw would be.
The skin split, tearing into a jagged line, from the center face of its face to where a lower jaw would be.
From the fresh wound oozed thick green blood—its facial flesh forced apart—now torn and disfigured into a large maw silhouetted into a shape semblated of a gaslow smile.
SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING!
Rue's body pierced with a lance.
The polearm pierced through his stomach, shattering his lower spine and extending from his back.
Blood flew out of Rue's mouth as his organs spilled from his abdomen.
The creature had lost an arm, but it had gained another that it had fashioned into a lance.
Rue's eyes bulged open, wavering with uncertainty, but that weakness was quickly replaced with conviction.
A smile crept across Rue's face, revealing a set of blood-stained teeth.
"Checkmate, rookie!" he laughed.
The monoclinic structure within Rue's brain trembled chaotically, hardly controllable anymore.
Will spilled violently from Rue's Initial flooding his body.
Channeling his Will into his legs, Rue continued their motor function even through their severed endings.
Shooting forward, Rue outstretched his arm, grabbing the creature's shoulder, crushing it into dust.
Reflexively the creature attempted to muster any interception, but before it could Rue had already seized the bastard's neck.
Raising his axe, Rue brought it down, cutting through the creature's head vertically.