Description: Aranha helps Rylee with team member recruitment by holding his own tryouts. Eventually after Aranha has beaten the brains out of the wannabe, gonnabe, scum sucking, knuckle-eating prankstas, Tessa comes along to try out. Both fighters end up mutually impressed with each other after both manage to wow the crowd.
After Aranha officially joined Rylee's team, they both decided to divide and both handle recruitment. After all, two heads are better than one and it would allow her to handle a bigger recruitment pool.
Unlike his previous recruitment ventures, he had made sure people knew that he was looking for team mates. He put ads in the newspapers and passed out fliers, letting people know that recruitment would take place in the park while Rylee was handling recruitment at the docks.
Unfortunately, Aranha had the same problem Rylee had when she recruited him. A bunch of chumps who said they could fight and couldn't. He says in an exasperated tone of voice. "C'mon... Who's next?"
Tessa happened to like that approach. She'd already been looking for a team for a while now, and she wasn't even being picky or turning anyone down. She just wasn't getting any offers. Which is kind of sad when you're carrying a big shield around. That basically says 'free tanks, just ask!' without her even having to open her mouth. Was there simply no one left that thinks it'd be a good idea to let someone else take their hits for them?
Regardless, here this flyer was that said at least someone was openly recruiting, so the shieldmaiden came out to see if she could be of use. When she arrives, she does see that she's a little bit late to the party, but it seems she's still got a chance! "Yeah, right here." the Italian woman calls back in a calmer, but very confident tone as she takes the shield down off of her back and sets it down in front of her, the Yin-Yang design on the face of it pointing outward. She's wearing what looks like a stylized Chinese dress, various bits of jewelry, and henna tattoos going up each arm. One, however, seems to be a bit bandaged.
Sometimes it's like that. Sometimes people keep missing each other and may have just come down to being a second or three too late to find the type of person he was looking for to team up with. Or Tessa just wasn't the type to wager money on fights.
Whatever the case may be, there was a shieldmaiden right before him and as he takes in the Italian woman. Not only in terms of style but in terms of physical measurement. His eyebrow jumps up at the shield it being a curiosity to him. He has fought a lacrosse player, a muscular green beast, and the closest thing to a demon he'll ever meet so he shouldn't really be surprised by anything anymore.
"Well now... I'm Aranha and I'll testing you today," his voice conveying an easy going nature. Quite different from the exasperation in his voice earlier. Is he trying to put on a brave face for this newcomer? "Your interview starts now."
With a crack of his neck he goes back into the area cleared out for his recruitment and slips on his sunglasses and clicks a button to pump the music through earbuds attached to them. He sways in a dance as he waits for Tessa to join him.
COMBATSYS: Aranha has started a fight here.
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Aranha 0/-------/-------|
Most people still find the shield a curiosity. It may not be too surprising to them, but that's more than likely because they don't think of it the same way Tessa herself does. To her it's more than just something to hide behind when people are tossing fireballs or shooting at her. It's a weapon in itself. Many of the opponents she's faced have tended to take it as some sign she's got some big glaring weakness to compensate for, but this is simply not the case, as Aranha may soon judge for himself.
"Great. My name is Tessa. Since I seem to be the last willing participant I won't waste anymore time." the Roman fighter replies, giving a little half-salute once the young man's earphones start to play a beat for him to move to.
At that point, she picks her shield back up to support it against one arm, and drops into what is otherwise a Hapkido L-stance. From there, she breaks off into a straight dash and drops low, planting one hand down and doing a slow turn on it as she brings both legs around in a heavy sweep, trying to trip him.
COMBATSYS: Tessa has joined the fight here.
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Tessa 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aranha
COMBATSYS: Tessa successfully hits Aranha with Secutor Sweep.
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Tessa 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha attempts to leap over twin leg sweep but he doesn't put as much effort into the evasion as he is capable of for two reasons. He wants to see how much he can get away with and what the shieldmaiden has to offer. As a result, he finds his legs taken from under him and his back on the ground.
Aranha doesn't stay prone for long though as he spins back to his feet while keeping his body low to the ground. He swings one leg up into the air before bringing it downwards as he attempts to connect with her torso with a roundhouse kick like motion.
COMBATSYS: Tessa just-defends Aranha's Short Kick!
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Tessa 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Aranha
Pushing back up to her feet in short order, Tessa begins to hop back a bit just out of habit. When Aranha spins to recover from his fall and takes to kicking her, the woman's shield seems to effortlessly move to the exact spot he was aiming for and deflect him.
"Pretty fast with those roundhouses." The reason she mentions this is that Hapkido, the style her own is derived from, focuses quite a bit on that sort of kick. She might seem somewhat obligated to try and show him a roundhouse of her own after that, but that isn't her intent. Instead, the next thing does is switch her shield from one hand to the other, raise it up over her head, and then swing it down in a wide arc to try and catch the capoeirista with one edge of it as it falls.
COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Tessa's Falling Arch.
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Tessa 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Aranha
Upon hitting his foot on the shield he knows that he better move fast. He pulls back his leg tucking it in to protect his jewels(Not that Tessa would use such a tactic but some moves were actually taught like that) before performing a spin to face her again.
It allows Aranha to see the shield as it falls downwards causing his own reflexes to take over. Aranha brings his forearm above him as it comes down with the impact glancing off of his arm. His other hand is planted on the ground. After the shield is dealt with he pushes himself into a handstand which he then uses to deliver several kicks in an attempt to rain them down upon her head. "I think might actually be fun." It's hard to ignore the smile he wears as he fights the shield fighter.
COMBATSYS: Tessa blocks Aranha's Inverted Flurry.
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Tessa 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Aranha
Tessa isn't allowed to follow the the arc all the way down since Aranha is skilled enough to stop the falling metal disc against his forearm. But she still puts considerable pressure on it, and it feels like well more than a fighter with her slender build ought to be capable of. This isn't to say she doesn't look to have a lot of lean muscle on her, she just doesn't look like she has the kind of weight needed to make it dig into him the way it does before it glances to the side the way he wants. It's not really that immediately damaging or anything, but the feeling of pressure on the limb just sort of lingers.
Soon enough though, Aranha is upside down and standing on his hands, rapidly kicking at her and forcing her to raise her shield again to block. And while she's doing that, she reaches out with one hand to try and grab one of the offending legs after it's finished, so that she can grab it and put it into a jointlock meant to weaken the knee. It's nothing crippling, but it could still hurt like hell if it worked. This sort of takes both hands though, so her shield may or may not fall off her head once left unsupported. "Yeah, so far!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Medium Throw from Tessa with Malicia EX.
- Power hit! -
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Tessa 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
As Tessa applies the leg lock, Aranha doesn't move that leg with any attempt to resist it. It may even look like everything is going as planned. In the attempt to go after one leg, the other leg was completely neglected.
The pressure begins to build up until Aranha thinks it's the perfect time to remind her that the other leg is still there by thrusting a blue glowing kick right under her rib cage before pushing off to land back on his feet. The dance is temporarily forgotten as he rubs his knee a bit. Good thing he stopped her before she could completely apply pressure.
The shieldmaiden grunts a bit when she's struck under the ribs in what must have been a tender spot from the way she reacts. She doesn't just let go of his leg, but goes staggering back as well, with her shield toppling free and spinning on the ground like a dropped coin as she rubs at her side. "Mighta jinxed yourself a little saying it like that, Tess..."
The woman's attitude doesn't really change after the little altercation, though. She just bends back down to grab her shield again. But what does she do when she has it again? Throw it away! Toward Aranha, like a frisbee. Though she does plan on it coming back to her if it happens to miss, like a boomerang.
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Tessa's Shield Sling.
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Tessa 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha for his part, decides that he wants no part of the potential impact of that shield. From the moment she released it, he puts on a sudden burst of speed launching himself up into the air letting the shield pass under him as he performs a backflip.
Upon landing, Aranha moves towards a tree near his landing location. The fact that the shield is returning to her hand is not escaping his notice and he decides that it's in his best interest to not let her get the shield back with ease. It makes sense. After all, Aranha does want to see how responds to adversity.
Aranha rapidly climbs up the tree before muscling himself up a branch and quickly running along the branch before launching himself from it feet first right for the hand that will be catching the shield. "Now now... Not a good idea to talk about jinxing yourself." Playfully teasing her.
COMBATSYS: Tessa blocks Aranha's Sky's the Limit.
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Tessa 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Aranha
The shield turns out to be just a little quicker than Aranha in this case, as his feet end up connecting with metal rather than flesh once again. It still pushes Tessa back slightly, but that only gives her more reason to come forward with a stepping front kick to try and hit the agile fighter in the midsection with her expensive Italian shoe. "I know, I know. It's a bad habit. But I'm superstitious, what can I say." The Yin-Yang on the front of the shield, which is repeated on the front and back of her dress as well, are there because she believes so much in Feng Shui after all.
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Tessa's Heavy Kick.
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Tessa 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha may not have hit flesh but the fact he was able to push Tessa back does give him a reason to smile. It's that little push back that gives Aranha the opportunity to slip just under the front kick. With a sweeping arm motion he attempts to bring his shoulder under her leg to the underside of her thigh and stand up to his full height.
If she's flexible not to fall while her leg is still up in the air, Aranha will attempt to kick the remaining foot from under her and drop her on her back.
COMBATSYS: Tessa blocks Aranha's Medium Throw.
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Tessa 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
The shieldmaiden skids to a halt after missing her target, the sole of her shoe scraping across the ground, and then not quite stopping altogether because Aranha is trying to get his shoulder under the back of her leg and lift her upward.
Rather than fall, though, she's able to roll with it and do a backward somersault, and then the kick that comes after is blocked as normal with that shield again. But only just before the guard itself is put away on her back again. She needs both hands free to reach out and try to grab him by the shoulders, spin him around, and deliver a good kick to his rear end to send him sprawling. "Come on Aranha! Let's pick up the pace!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha fails to interrupt Disciplina Dispatch from Tessa with Bad Beat.
- Power fail! -
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Tessa 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\1 Aranha
Aranha had something in mind when Tessa grabs his shoulders but unfortunately his timing is off and he finds instead of both of his shoulders grabbed, he finds that the elbow he was just about to throw across her chin grabbed and the elbow's own momentum used to spin him even faster before he's kicked in the butt so hard that he's sent tumbling forward.
It's probably a good thing that Aranha has a sense of humor because most people would get ticked off at something like that. He just acknowledges that it's his own damn fault and cracks up while he's on the ground. That isn't to say it didn't hurt because it did... He's gonna have trouble sitting for a few days.
At least Tessa doesn't laugh about it. This time. It'd probably be points off since she's trying to impress a guy that obviously turned down all these other wannabes who are standing, laying unconscious, or otherwise still hanging around after he turned them down.
Seriously though, how was she supposed to know that was going to work? It's failed every other time she tried it. Just to show she's a good sport though, she stays back and allows Aranha more than enough time to get to his feet, and takes the time to herself bring her shield back to bear before beckoning him with her free hand.
COMBATSYS: Tessa focuses on her next action.
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Tessa 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha takes deep breaths as he rises back to his feet. Indeed, Aranha is quite amused. He takes a few moments to brush the dirt off of his jeans. He flashes a quick smile. Nothing major, just a little something to show that there are no hard feelings and then he begins to dance again.
"You are right though..." His hand moves to click a button on his Oakley Thumps. "We should pick up the pace." And suddenly he's moving, darting forward a few inches before spinning around to whip his hand around sending a blue spider web of chi right at the shield mistress.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Tessa with Web Shot.
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Tessa 1/---====/=======|=======\-------\0 Aranha
Yeah, Tessa doesn't seem to know what to do with that. She could try to block it, like she does everything else, but since it looks like a spider web she figures it might be sticky and do something weird to her shield. So she tries to dodge here, diving to one side. It doesn't work, and instead of her shield getting hit the shot hits her in the face, at which point she finds out it's made of energy and it even hurts a little bit more than she was expecting.
The woman wipes her face down a bit after that as she's standing back up, and points at Aranha with her shield arm. She opens her mouth, and for a moment it looks like she might proceed into some sort of speech, but she's really just taking a deep breath, and trying to get a good bead on him before whirling herself around and throwing her shield at him like a discus. This might almost look like that time before when she missed and had to catch the thing, only this time, she's not planning just to catch it when it comes back. She plans to catch it and throw it six times in quick succession, from various angles that target different places on Aranha's body. And with each throw, the plate-like object seems to gain a silvery afterimage that trails behind.
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Tessa's Silver Six.
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Tessa 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Aranha
From the moment that Tessa takes a deep breath he can just tell that she's about to go for something major and so he readies himself. Focusing for that one moment when the attack begins. She whirls around whipping her body around like she's about to throw a discus.
The shield flies at him at high speed and he drops down to ground with his elbow holding up his body with his head tilting to the ground. As the shield returns to her, he twists his body out of the way of its return path before landing with one leg extended and the other leg tucked under. The shield flies back at him as he flips and cartwheels and uses various acrobatic manuevers with even headspin to both dodge it's path too him and its path back to her slowly closing back on her again.
There's no heel click when he reaches her because Aranha is not the damn Nightfox. Instead, she'll just get a swift kick to the gut if she doesn't block it.
COMBATSYS: Tessa blocks Aranha's Medium Kick.
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Tessa 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\1 Aranha
While Aranha probably always looks like he's dancing when he's fighting, Tessa usually doesn't. This is probably the only time in the whole match that she does, there when she so fluidly moves to snatch her returning shield out of the air from up high, then down low with an underhanded catch, then a behind-the-back one, turning and doing her best not to be just all over the place. It doesn't take quite the sort of flexibility that her opponent displays to avoid each attack, but the crowd still kind of makes some noise about it.
And then of course, the Strolheim elite is rather impressed with Aranha after she's grown a little bit too tired to continue chucking her riot equipment, but none of this stops her from blocking his next kick as expected. "Nice, nice. You're really good. I think it's getting kind of late for me, though. How about we go one more round and then you make your decision, yeah?" she asks, holding up her wristwatch.
"Sounds like a plan." That easy going smile becomes larger, almost becoming Cheshire Cat sized as he hops on one foot to the other beckoning Tessa to come for one more attack. The ginga has been abandoned even though he still looks like he's dancing. "C'mon! Let's see what else you have to offer." It's almost as though he's cheering her on. Could that be a good sign?
Well, be it a good sign or not, Tessa doesn't seem like she's about to back down. She just blows her bangs up out of her eyes, and takes a moment to wipe the sweat from her brow before making a mad dash to close the distance between her and Aranha. And when she feels like she's in range, she puts her shield up against one shoulder and kicks off from the ground with both feet to try and launch herself into him and carry him up into the air with him. It's basically a Shield Shoryuken, and it's got quite some force behind it given the way the silver and black stripes of chi seem to pour off of her shield like speedlines. "Hn!!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha endures Tessa's Upper Echelon.
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Tessa 0/-------/-----==|=======\===----\1 Aranha
Considering all the displays of agility from earlier one would consider it odd that he doesn't move out of the way. Then if you consider the fact that his style of capoeira tends to be more evasive than in your face, it makes even less sense.
But that's the thing that Aranha is relying on. Surprise. Aranha is lifted up in the air by the agonizing rising shield attack but he twists himself so that he doesn't go as far into the air and sets himself up so he's fairly close to where she's landing.
The Dancing Spider attempts to time the kick to point where she's just landing but hasn't gotten a chance to set her feet before he brings a hard roundhouse before spinning around to hook a back heel kick right behind her head to pull her down to the ground face first. "I like ya. I think you'll fit in nicely. I still have to talk it over with the other member though."
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Tessa with Face Down.
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Tessa 0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Aranha
The timing seems pretty dead-on. Right as she's landing from her powerful shield uppercut, the shieldmaiden finds herself roundhouse kicked out of the air and then caught with the back of Aranha's heel in the back of her head. She still tries to shield herself of course, but under the circumstances the best she can do is throw her shield down in front of herself so that her face smacks into that instead of the floor. This doesn't actually count as a block though, because it still knocks her silly.
After the dizziness wears off and the stars stop circling her crown she's still able to stand though, and that's what counts. "Th- thanks. Sounds good. I'll give you my number before I go, then." she remarks with a firm nod, holstering her shield.
COMBATSYS: Tessa has left the fight here.
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Aranha 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Aranha has ended the fight here.
Log created on 20:25:05 04/20/2008 by Aranha, and last modified on 22:25:56 04/21/2008.