//------------------------------// // Chapter fifty four, Furious Fights: Core Ply. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -The Volcano, Lower Tier, Oleander- “I see, if your information is accurate then…” Tianhuo started off only for Fred to intone his displeasure. “I am a demon of great knowledge madam and I am also a book that is only to be read by those who can handle it, OLLIE AND I KNOW WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT!” Fred didn’t like being doubted where his information and intelligence is concerned. If Fred was ever wrong, then he will admit to not having all the pertinent information and as such it was not his fault for the situation since we didn’t give him the information he required to solve it. Though sometimes even when he does have the information, things don’t always work out. At least Fred learned that perfection was overrated, no one can be perfect at everything. Fred was very smart and logical, but he wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination even if I was helping him with learning emotions. If there is something he doesn’t know, then he will try to learn it to the best of his abilities. He sometimes gets tunnel vision, I’m always going to be here to snap him out of focusing too hard on a single thing for hours on end as a good friend would. As for Fred’s knowledge on friendship, that mostly came from me. Fred understood our boundaries quite well, especially when I explained to him that I would start friend zoning him to the best of my abilities if he found himself having more amorous intentions towards me. Having to teach him the concept of various forms of love, one form specifically required me to go into a very strange, but highly applicable, Abyssinian euphemism about bees and hummingbirds. The bees and the hummingbird’s things started like this, a hummingbird incidentally rams itself into a nest of bees then finds a queen among them that makes their heart aflutter, as the queen bee is apparently quite ravishing to look at despite having a fat butt or maybe it was because of it? Several crazy adventures in closeness later… well hummingbird mafias do exist in this world and bees must be quite eye catching for them as they both have a love of flowers to connect them and a queen bee is certainly one for delicate flowers. I didn’t think my favorite book would pick up the concepts of friendship and love so well, I’m proud of him as much as he is proud of me for using dark magic without accidentally corrupting myself into a power trip. One of which most beings that use dark magic tend to find themselves stuck on to an inevitable deadly fate from which there is no escape. I haven’t the heart to tell Fred that I cursed myself with the inability to enjoy power or becoming powerful, which is how most dark magic tends to corrupt a being in the first place. So the very first thing I did was destroy that nasty and quite deadly feedback loop. To think my first actual and perfected dark magic spell makes me immune to the influences of dark magic that will end in my inevitable demise. Most don’t even think to tear out their ability to enjoy power trips or the usage of dark magic and tend to not even worry about what those power trips tends to do to them. If I am ever cured of my own curse I can easily reapply it within seconds and it will immediately be at the top of my to-do list, well before using any other dark magic spell. Dark magic isn’t evil. It’s the unicorn ponies, definitely usually unicorns in high amounts, or any other people that tend to not be careful with the stuff that can do it. Also a positive attitude destroys any chance of the dark magic corrupting me in other ways than the usual power trip method, which is quite nice for me since I enjoyed being perky! “Ahem… so what’s the plan?” Both Fred and Tianhuo jerked away from arguing with each other in surprise as I looked at them with a cheerful smile on my face. -Upper Tier, Coliseum stands, Velvet- Everyone knows that Arizona can shred Pom, I’d be surprised if anyone thought otherwise. I wondered what Arizona was actually going to do. Arizona said she’d take up teaching Pom some moves as well since I’ve already taught her a few things. How Arizona would teach her had me slightly worried. -Pom vs. Arizona- “Fight!” The referee announced. Arizona blurred forward. “I forfeit!” Pom cowered with her eyes close and when she opened her left eye to find Arizona’s hoof an inch from it, she closed it again and whimpered. “Wow, so that’s the speed of cowardice… it’s pretty darn fast, but I think you can do better than cowardice Pom. Also don’t you dare call the match yet or I will put you six feet into the ground and I don’t mean that you’ll be dead when I do it or after it has already been done, I can and will make you live through it!” When Arizona glared at him, the referee had looked like he was about to say something and then held his tongue. The cow turned back to Pom. “Pom, anyone can learn how to fight, but you… you can excel at it if you put some effort into it. Also I wasn’t going to hit you, yet, I just wanted to see how fast you would cave. You need more help, fifteen minutes with Velvet and a lot of luck got you through fighting Dispel. Just imagine what some time with me would do!” The referee took the threat quite seriously and he didn’t think anyone would be able to stop Arizona in time before she did it, especially after what happened to the fighter named Jock. “Um… I don’t think…” Pom opened her eyes and looked at Arizona’s broadly grinning face. “Now how would a pony start it? Eh, I’ll get to that in a minute, I’ll give you the positives of being you. You’re lightweight so throws can’t hurt you all too much, your long legs give you quite some reach and you're apparently tough enough to survive taking care of so many canines so you can definitely take a few hits from me. You’re in over your head, but I’m going to work on that with you!” Arizona took her eyes off of Pom and put a hoof to her chin in thought, she was just that confident that the lambkin didn’t have much of an aggressive bone in her body. “Oh right, I guess I need some lyrics… and a beat… kick… punch… fight by the hoof… come on Arizona you can’t be this aloof~. It’s in there somewhere… a heart song to take out that fear and scare~.” “What are you...?” Pom started and then some strange music started to play. “My fighting style uses all my muscles it is called Core Ply, if you want to learn then don’t you dare be shy~!” Arizona shouted at Pom making her cover her head with her hooves. “I’m a tough fighting creature, why, I’d even say fighting is my very best feature~! Come on Pom, get up off the ground! Is that how you want to learn, I’ll teach you that the fear in your mind is not quite… sound~!” Arizona jumped and launched a forward flying buck and Pom rolled under it, Arizona landed and turned to the lambkin. Pom cowered away from Arizona as she turned to face her and put her hooves together while entering a begging position. “Okay this going to be a bad day, but can I at least just put up my hooves and pray~? If you’re going to hit me and if ‘I forfeit’ is something you won’t let me say, then will you at least please let me run away~?!” Pom looked a little shocked to hear herself singing back at Arizona and the cow smirked. “Wait, why am I currently singing~? Oh dear, I can feel the kind of trouble that’s bringing~.” “Hoof, strike~! Fear, your scared, that I can understand, but to me it is all in your mind~. Bravery, enough to stand, even for someone like you, it's something I’m sure you’ll soon find~!” As Arizona thrust her right hoof forward, the lambkin backed away from the mad cow even when her hoof wasn’t going to come anywhere close to hitting her. “Now copy me when I call out my moves, because you’ll otherwise be in a world of hurt and will be paying with a big nasty bruise~! Not that I’m going to let you refuse~.” “But I’m rather afraid~.” Pom tried to not sing, but she was already caught up in the song. “Don’t care, even if your nerves are completely frayed~! Now dodge right, left and duck, quickly now before you get struck~!” Arizona ran closer to Pom and turned around. She launched a left hind leg for Pom, lashed out with a one legged right buck and then she bucked upwards with both legs. Pom took some stumbling steps to the right, then moved to the left with better coordination as her face was grazed by a fast moving leg and then promptly ducked down under the high buck. She did exactly as the cow had asked and came out of the exchange mostly okay. “Can we please stop, you’re being kind of mean.” Pom whined. “When it comes to fighting, in the face I think I’m going to get quite green.” “Come on now, I’m the beseecher~!” Arizona let out a loud aggressive ‘moo’ and stomped the ground making Pom whimper. “Show me an aggressive roar, as I’m your teacher~!” “Erm… (‘bark’)~!” Pom actually made a cute dog barking noise. It had little force behind it, but it was something at least. “Well that’s good enough, for a puppy I guess, but keep on following me at my behest~!” Arizona lifted her forelegs off the ground. “Punch, block, dodge and kick~! If you don’t do this then… well, you better be quick~!” Arizona threw her left hoof straight forward, she blocked with her forelegs, side stepped to the left and then launched her right hind leg forward quickly. The she approached Pom while pulling back her right hoof. “Uh… Punch~...” As Pom threw her right hoof forward Arizona stepped into the attack and blocking it with her left leg, she immediately brought both her legs up to block Arizona’s right hook that left her a little bit sore instead of outright hurting. “Block… dodge and kick~?” Pom stepped to the right instead of to the left into an attack Arizona was aiming that way with her left hind leg. The lambkin kicked her front right hoof forward knocking Arizona back slightly when it collided with her side. “Good instincts, it’s great that you’re actually learning this stuff~. Now, things are about to get a little bit rough~!” Arizona smacked her hooves together. “Punch, block, don’t be slow~! You’re going to have to at least show some initiative and attack me you know~! Duck, jump, take several hops back and then prepared for a wild attack~!” “Punch, block, why can’t I just go~? Your hoof could go straight through me with a single blow~!” Pom swung a left hook for Arizona. The cow blocked and returned with a left straight that Pom blocked with both her forelegs and stumbled a bit before Jumping up slightly and wildly kicking her legs forward, Pom managed to make Arizona back up with each blow that landed, not that it hurt the cow all that much. “Now… oh right I duck, jump and then I hop back… wait, what was that about a crazy smack~?!” Pom, despite her confusion, ducked under an outwards swinging right backhoof and jumped over an attempt to sweep her legs out from under her when Arizona’s right hind leg swept forward and around. The force of Arizona suddenly slapping her hooves into the stone flooring of the broken arena caused sharp jagged rocks to jut out of the ground from the pure force she unleashed on it. The lambkin hurriedly hopped backwards frantically as the sharp rocks of stone erupted around her. What followed was Arizona’s wild attack. It was kicking off the stone flooring, thereby ruining it even more, and launching herself for Pom head first with her small horns. In response to Arizona coming at her at an incredible speed, Pom slung both her forelegs upwards catching Arizona in the chin and knocking her upwards into a backflip where she landed on her hooves. “Good, I’ve taught you some lessons that you should never forget~.” Arizona smiled at Pom and walked up to the shivering Lambkin. “Don’t drop your guard and just be your best, then you’ll be able to protect your beasties from anyone who hurts them without regret~! Now I’m going to come at you without stopping, I hope you learn some more and don’t mind a few of your bones popping~.” “Can we not do that, I’m not ready to go splat~!” Pom whined even as she kept her eyes on Arizona’s movements. “Deflect, reflect and defend yourself well, you’re actually quite tough which is something you don’t sell~!” Arizona charged forward and unleashed a flurry of thrusting attacks. “You’re not as much a coward as you think, just turn your mind on its head while I take you to the brink~! Pom blocked a few blows and even managed to get Arizona in the jaw with a decent left, she dodged quite a few more attacks and even effectively launched a few of her own. Arizona attacked Pom like a hurricane, slowly picking up speed and ferocity with attacks involving head smashes, hoof strikes, hooks, kicks, body blows and shoulder tackles. Throughout it all Pom looked horrified and quite scared, yet she held herself up well against Arizona’s assault until she took a blow to the chest that lifted her off the ground. Arizona pulled Pom back into her grasp with a rope, where she proceeded to pin Pom to the arena’s floor. “That’s your lesson for today, I think you did good in your own unique way~!” Arizona finished off as the music ended. “Okay, I have full review for you to think on Pom. You’d be horrible against wrestlers, heavy opponents or grapplers who don’t use throws and focus on slams instead. On the positive you’re good at hit and run attacks, have sharp evasive skills and while I don’t recommend blocking too much, you can at least take the brunt of a few hits on your legs. You will never be at your best while you’re on the offensive, your far better at countering and defensive movements. Velvet was pretty spot on with giving you some lessons with the Fleet Cunning Doe philosophy of fighting with what works for you.” “Um… okay…” Pom’s ragged breathing could be heard quite clearly by a lot of people. “That said, buck up, you got me really good in the jaw there and survived a few decent full strength hits from me. As an example of just how strong I am, I’ve flipped an elephant over myself… a fully grown one.” Arizona turned to look at the referee. “Start eating and exercising more, you should also practice bringing out that nascent inner strength of yours Pom. Call it!” “Winner, Arizona!” There was no doubt.