Description: The Native People are probably throwing a fit as Kurow and Guile face down on the sacred Ayer's Rock. It's a race to see who can make their opponent reach the base first and Kurow shows Guile what he's learned in school by proving to him that there are no Hurricanes in Australia. (Winner: Kurow)
While tourists are free to climb and use Ayer's Rock for all manner of things, the native people of Australia often claim that they would prefer if such things were not done; this never stops outsiders from doing it, of course. The 'island mountain' has been used for just about every purpose under the sun (that a mountain can be used for, anyway), and now it is about to hold the dubious distinction of being a location for a Neo League fight.
Kurow Kirishima tends to think of using major landmarks for fight locations as being a little beneath him -- a fight, after all, should be a draw not for location but participants. But then, it /does/ pull in crowds, which is something he can't really argue with. Most of the fans stay at the base of the mountain, ready to watch the two men fight on its side from a distance rather than get up close and personal -- both out of respect for those who would rather see Uluru go unclimbed, and out of basic self-preservation.
These gimmicky fights in weird locations have never really been Guile's favorite either. Most of the time they just add the appearance of danger rather than actually changing the skill required and it tends to add unneccessary distractions in what should be a simple, straight forward test of strength and skill. Of course the League is trying to draw in a good audience so that they can make money, even if Ken Masters already has more than enough, and it's one of the better ways to fight interesting opponents.
Today's opponent definately counts as a draw for Guile. All through Thailand it felt a bit like Kirishima was dogging him. The man took his men prisoner and he still feels he owes him a bit for that. But perhaps most of all, the score between the two is pretty much tied. He doesn't bother to say anything to Kurow as he finishes stretching out his muscles, simply turning toward his opponent and pulling into his fighting stance, waiting for Kirishima to do the same.
COMBATSYS: Guile has started a fight here.
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Guile 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kurow has joined the fight here.
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Guile 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurow
Kirishima slips his gloves on as he regards his opponent du jour yet again. He's heard about the man's sheer bloody-mindedness and his immense luck from Rugal, and seen it firsthand -- but on the other hand... he's a little used to fighting him by this point. There's only so much one can see of Guile's style and still have new things to account for, after all. Really, the only variables Kurow's worried about are the ones he can't control: Guile's blind luck and willingness to try crazy things.
Fortunately, he thinks he can throw one of those off entirely with another method. "So," he says, cracking a smile as he drops into stance; it's subtle, but it's changed since Thailand. It's become a little broader, a little more adaptive -- and while it keeps the same 'closed' posture it always has, its bearing might remind Guile of a certain other fighter...
The youth wastes no time in getting started, coming toward Guile with a quick grab, looking to toss him down the side of the mountain. It's straightforward, but has an additional purpose Guile might not realize -- sending him tumbling on a slope like this might give Kurow a little more distance to work with.
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Guile with Medium Throw.
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Guile 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Kurow
This isn't really the sort of terrain Guile's used to, and it starts to show the moment Kurow starts in on him. The Vigilante starts to shift his stance a bit, but as he does some loose rubble slips up his boot, throwing off any hope of keeping his timing and leaving him wide open. Kirishima grabs hold of him with a disturbing ease before sending him flying down the side of the massive sandstone rock, bouncing along the side before he can grab hold of a chain set in the rock for climbers and halt his downward progress.
This isn't a good way to get thing started, his shirt's already torn in a few places and there's small cuts and scrapes across his arms and face. He takes a moment to eye the path back toward the top, and then locks his eyes on Kirishima, rapidly starting to scale back toward the peak without letting the his opponent out of his sight.
COMBATSYS: Guile focuses on his next action.
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Guile 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Kurow
Kurow doesn't want to give Guile a chance to /get/ back up -- after all, the high ground is a valuable commodity, and one he can use to his full advantage. Even though Guile's got a good, solid handhold, Kurow's definitely got the ability to see what Guile's planning coming -- and he decides that he wants to put a stop to it before it even gets off the ground. Guile is a high-risk fighter... and while that often has a lot of benefits, it /is/ something that can be worked around.
Leaping up, Kurow goes for perhaps one of the most simple, brutal tactics he can think of: he shifts in midair a little and puts his feet straight down. Where are they headed, you'd ask? The answer is probably obvious if you're Guile -- right for that big, American cut of blond hair. Kirishima's tactic is nothing more complex than leaping onto Guile's head and then springing back up and off.
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Guile with Light Kick.
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Guile 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Kurow
It's not easy to do much of anything when you have to keep at least one hand on a chain to avoid being knocked off of a massive rock. While Guile does his best to get a free hand up to ward off the strike, his unusual position once more keeps him off balance enough that he doesn't seem to have any hope, the kick taking him full on the head and knocking him down. Thankfully his grip holds strong.
Of course even getting his face smacked down into the rock isn't quite enough to put a man like Guile completely off his game, and he's back up to his feet in a flash, releasing his hold on the chain and then blasting up into the air after Kurow, attempting to grab him around the waist.
COMBATSYS: Kurow dodges Guile's Backbreaker.
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Guile 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Kurow
The high risk maneuver comes just a few seconds too late; as Guile comes up, Kurow snags one of the climbing chains and pulls his body closer in toward the mountain, avoiding the leaping grab entirely. "Is that it?" he asks, cracking a smile as Guile starts to come back down. "Because if it is, I suppose it might be better for you to simply leave now." That cocky, self-assured commentary only lasts a second, though, as Kurow takes to the air once again in the name of taking the military man down.
This time, he starts to switch up his tactics a little and put his clawed gloves to their full use; as he nears Guile, he starts with a hard upward slash, then a somewhat faster thrust with his other hand, then a two-handed rake downward across the man's chest, trying to use a variety of different tactics to keep Guile off balance -- insofar as one can be on-balance in midair.
COMBATSYS: Guile interrupts Yami Kagura from Kurow with Sonic Boom.
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Guile 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Kurow
With one attempt to send Kirishima into a world of pain meeting nothing but air, Guile makes a fairly careful landing on a fairly open area, setting his feet into a wide stance to keep his balance more centered. "It's not going to be over until you're face down in the dirt."
While keeping moving and up in the air might be a good tactic against other fighters, Guile's style is practically built around the idea of punishing anybody trying to take the high ground to throw him off. As Kurow comes flying in at him, his hands are already cocked back to either side, bursting with yellow chi tinged blue and curled into tight fists. At seemingly the last moment, they go flying forward at incredible speed, swaping across each other's path in front of him and letting the chi form into a whirling disc in front of him before flying out to slam right into Kurow's chest just as the first clawstrike comes in, blasting him back and keeping the followups from getting anywhere near him.
When Guile's sonic chi slams into Kurow's stomach, his eyes widen as he starts flying back; he tumbles a little ways down the mountain, only managing to stop himself from falling even farther by hooking his leg around one of the chains and pulling himself up. "Mm-hm..." he affirms, giving Guile a little grin in spite of the fact that Guile's starting to take the fight back. "How are your men doing? Have they recovered yet?"
Hoping that his jab at Guile's spirit will keep the soldier from moving as effectively as he usually does, Kurow decides to go for a quick, simple attack. Yanking one of the climbing chains out of the rock with immense force, Kurow gives part of it a good, hard swing for Guile. "I admit I wasn't expecting you to put out so much effort so fast in recovering them, back then..."
COMBATSYS: Guile blocks Kurow's Random Weapon.
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Guile 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Kurow
There's a sudden flare in Guile's eyes at Kirishima's mention of his men, but it's been made fairly clear to the soldier that if he can't keep a level head on this treacherous footing, he's going to be finding himself in a far worse situation than he's already facing. As the chain comes whipping in, his arm flashes into its path, leaving it to swing harmlessly around his forearm before dropping limp on it and being tossed aside.
"My men are none of your business, but I'll tell you that they're doing a whole lot better than you will be later." His arms lunge forward as he speaks, trying to grab Kirishima by any available limb.
COMBATSYS: Kurow fails to interrupt Strong Throw from Guile with Yasha Guruma.
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Guile 1/------=/=======|=====--\-------\0 Kurow
As Guile's finger's grab hold of Kirishima by the arm, he starts to twist around on one heel, hauling his opponent up over his shoulder and then sending him flying out into empty air with a long fall behind it.
Kurow starts to gear up to plow through Guile's attack, exactly the way he plowed through Rugal's -- but it's not enough, and he's sent up into the air, only saved from /complete/ annihilation at the bottom of the mountain by a quick grab with his less-injured arm. Good going, Kurow, he tells himself -- but he only spends a moment irritated at the recent uselessness of the Yasha Guruma.
After all, he still has his opponent to worry about. He begins to climb up the rock yet /again/, this time keeping a tighter grip -- if Guile wants to toss him down, he'll have to try a lot harder than that.
There's a faint hint of satisfaction on Guile's face as Kurow finds himself taking his place on the lower ground, but it only lasts a moment before it turns back toward its usual stoney facade. Considering it a victory before your've actually got your opponent surrendering or unconscious is always a bad idea, especially against an opponent like Kurow.
Moving back toward action, Guile starts to show that he's got what it takes to learn from his enemies by taking a play from Kirishima's earlier play book and starting to rush down the mountain like a freight train toward the climbing man, launching up at the last moment with a leg extended and aimed to slam right into the top of Kurow's head.
COMBATSYS: Kurow parries Guile's Heavy Kick!
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Guile 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0 Kurow
Like Guile wouldn't expect Kirishima to recognize his own trick so soon. When Guile's massive frame comes down toward him, Kurow only has a second to react -- but it's a second that he uses perfectly, using the tightly-gripped climbing chain's slack to swing around behind Guile, extracting him from the massive kick's path. ... But not only that -- it puts him in a perfect situation. Guile's going to be tumbling, whereas Kurow is still perfectly balanced.
Putting his feet on the side of the mountain, Kurow lets go of the chain. He won't need it -- after all, when he starts running blindingly fast down the mountain, trying to ram into Guile, he only needs his own feet to keep himself where he needs to be. He turns his body sideways a little and drops into a crouch, aiming right for the falling man's head...
COMBATSYS: Guile Toughs Out Kurow's Kirishima Kyoujuu Reppa EX!
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Guile 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0 Kurow
...and shoulders clean /through/ Guile, once again on the man's opposite side. This time, though, he begins to drag Guile along with him, using vicious claws of chi left in the air behind his rapidly descending form to lacerate the man's body from every angle. Eventually, they stop, and Guile is launched down and forward -- a moment which Kurow capitalizes on perfectly, leaping up and aiming an axe kick for Guile's head to send him the rest of the way down the mountain.
There's barely anything you can do to ready yourself for an attack when you're already skidding down the side of the mountain desperate to stop, and it shows as Kurow plows right through him and starts to drag him further and further down the side, small cuts opening all across his body from the rocks, larger ones from the viscious chi. But then as Kirishima sends the axe kick in, he suddenly manages to halt his downward progress, rocking back until his upper body's nearly horizontal, but then slowly pulling himself back up, a grin on his face. "You thought you had me there, didn't you?"
This leaves the two men right next to each other, and the Vigilante seems to have surprise on his side. His arms cock back, fists bursting with brilliant chi before once more being swung forward, drawing out long slashes through the air before they're pulled together into an swirling disc as his arms cross in front of him. The disc quickly begins to fly around the soldier, whipping up the wind as a small tornado starts to form around Guile, pulling in at Kurow as it tries to trap him in the death spiral to be pummeled by the disc.
COMBATSYS: Kurow parries Guile's Sonic Hurricane!
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Guile 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Kurow
"I may have /thought/ I had you there," Kurow says, as he comes in toward Guile, in spite of the man's obvious readiness to bring something forceful to bear...
... and simply grabs both of those arms as their slashes nearly complete, right at the moment they're closest to one another. The attack fizzles completely, perhaps due to Kirishima's disruption of the motion or perhaps due to some conscious effort of Kurow's to keep Guile's chi from finally resolving and tearing through him. Whatever the case may be, the soldier is left having expended all of his power, all of his will... for nothing.
"... but I /know/ I have you now!" comes Kurow's proud declaration, suddenly going in for the attack he didn't have the /time/ to snap off when Guile came at him with that arm-grab. Rolling forward, Kurow summons a black ball of energy, wreathed in white chi slash-marks, around his body; he then just hovers toward Guile, trying to slowly but surely drive him to the base of the rock and dig him deeply in it.
COMBATSYS: Guile blocks Kurow's Yasha Guruma EX.
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Guile 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Kurow
All that energy being pulled out of him for that massive attack... suddenly gone, vanishing like a ghost into the air and leaving the soldier all but completely open. But even left open, Guile's not entirely at a loss. As the strikes come in, the soldier's arms come up, intercepting each of the strikes, pushing off most of the backward force to keep from being sent flying. But it's not without some pain, and as the assault finishes, the soldier's arms are covered in fiersome cuts.
With the blood flowing like it is, and so much energy in his body being pulled out and snuffed, a certain heaviness starts to fall over the soldier. His boots scrape across small pebbles lining the platform as he tries to get some more distance between himself and Kirishima and pull himself together.
COMBATSYS: Guile gains composure.
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Guile 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Kurow
When Guile hangs back and tries to get himself back together, Kurow decides that now would be an excellent time to start wrapping things up -- Guile seems to do better the longer a match drags on, after all. "Well, well," his voice comes, loud and clear through the roar of the crowd (which is so much closer now than it was not long ago), "It looks like I underestimated you -- you're still going."
He wastes no time in punctuating this offer with a little incentive for Guile to give up, suddenly dashing in and locking Guile's head in a technique taught to him somewhere in the basics of Imawano-ryu clawfighting. Once he's got one arm putting Guile's face in a vicious facelock, Kurow jumps forward, seeking to slam Guile's head into a jagged piece of rock -- and to bring new meaning to the term wrestlers often use to describe this move they share with ninja: the cutter.
COMBATSYS: Guile interrupts Strong Throw from Kurow with Flash Kick.
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Guile 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Kurow
That moment of rest certainly seems to have been enough to pull Guile back into the swing of things. Most of the cuts across his body stop bleeding and the heaviness of mere moments ago is gone. Or at least it seemed that way at first until he dropped down to a knee, letting a grimmace cross his face.
As Kirishima starts charging in, it would look to most like he's found himself on the losing end. At least until some guy all the way at the base of the Rock suddenly bursts out yelling, "He's gonna do the Flash Kick!" The man's prediction quickly proves true as Guile suddenly lunges forward, his leg fully extending, his boot sheathed in chi as he sends it slamming right into Kirishima's gut before the somersault takes him back around to land on his feet. "If you think I'm going to go that easily, you really do underestimate me."
The boot carries Kurow with it, and when he hits the ground, he groans. Such power -- but still, he thinks, Guile's running out of time. It won't be long now, anyway. "You know, you could spend less time posturing..." he hisses, taking a deep breath as he starts to get back to his feet. He tries, for just a second, to reach deep -- what wouldn't Guile expect? What has, time and time again, taken down the strategy of the American special forces?
Well, besides Vietnam, the answer seems to be Ansatsuken, to Kurow -- after all, wasn't that what toppled the style's progenitor from the top of the American martial arts world? It's certainly worth a shot, in Kirishima's mind -- and he knows just what to use, too. Dashing in toward Guile, keeping his body low, he yells out, "SHOU'OU KEN!" Sure, he could use the Shoryuken, the 'true' form... but he knows this version far more intimately -- indeed, the spinning uppercut is almost a perfect mirror of Kasugano's, albeit with those fierce, painful claws added to it.
COMBATSYS: Guile fails to interrupt Fierce Strike from Kurow with Somersault Strike.
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Guile 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\1 Kurow
It's certainly not a perfect replica of the real deal, which Guile's had a chance to get to know from the man who knocked the man behind his style out of the title spot. In fact he's been familiar enough with Ken's take on the move that he's got that timing down in his head. With a faint smirk he drops down just as it starts up, bursting forward to once more bring his leg up... only to have jumped the gun early. His leg catches on Kirishima's claw, dragging him up with the spiral before letting him loose all the way at the top and sending him rather painfully to a face first meeting with the rock.
When Guile hits the rock, Kurow propels himself back down to the ground at double speed rather than just letting gravity carry him back down; he has a plan, and to put it into action he needs to be down there well before Guile gets there. After all, sure footing helps with this particular version of this move.
What comes is a strike that Guile knows all too well -- he was once on the receiving end of it twice in a row, after all. As the man starts to fall, Kurow places both of his feet firmly on the ground and turns /away/ from Guile, looking to the crowd. "An opponent like this isn't even worthy of the attention of someone who's got a number one contender match this weekend," he says, giving the fans a knowing wink, trying to work up a little more popularity for himself -- after all, it makes everyone a little easier to manipulate. He gestures dismissively behind him, as if to call an end to the match...
... and in that, sets off the storm, quite literally. Even though Kurow's hardly paying attention, a whirlwind of golden blades starts to spring up from the ground directly beneath Guile, trying both to keep him from landing and tear him apart with wave after wave of energy.
COMBATSYS: Guile endures Kurow's Kirishima Shinkuu Yamiarashi.
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Guile 1/---====/=======|-------\-------\0 Kurow
Falling right into the frenzy of chi, Guile finds himself in a world of pain. The blades tear through his clothes, rip open both old wounds and fresh. Blood goes flying in almost every direction from the whirlwind. It certainly looks painful.
As last strike lands, Guile drops back to the rock, landing right on his feet, still standing, his hands cocked toward either side and bursting with his own chi, "Don't turn your back on your opponent until he's actually down!" Those hands once more go flying forward, that disc of chi being pulled back into existance before starting to fly around Guile at breakneck speed, moving so fast that to the eye it would practically look like a solid band. Winds pick up at a ferocious pace, trying to suck Kurow into the maelstrom.
COMBATSYS: Guile can no longer fight.
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Kurow 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kurow blocks Guile's Sonic Hurricane.
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Kurow 0/-------/------=|
Slowly but surely, Kurow turns -- just as Guile's maelstrom starts to form, Kirishima gathers a small ball of black chi, much like the one he uses for his Yasha Guruma but drastically smaller, in his hand. As the vicious whirling energies start to smash into Kirishima, the ball splits into a crackle of dark lightning, dissipating the Hurricane... and leaving Kirishima only slightly wounded for his trouble. "Why bother?" he asks of Guile, stepping forward.
Before the man can finally drop from his wounds, Kurow decides to take one last measure to be sure that Guile's finally down. After all, with a man as tenacious as the soldier, it's just the smart thing to do. "You should've backed off before I turned around," he finishes, as he snaps off a full-force kick right at Guile's chin.
COMBATSYS: Kurow has ended the fight here.
Log created on 22:14:14 09/08/2007 by Guile, and last modified on 06:02:31 09/10/2007.