Neo League 901 - #901: Yuri vs Aranha

Description: A surprise visit from the Neo League spurs Yuri into action against Aranha! (Winner: Aranha)



The executives of the Neo League thought it had been way too long since Aranha had made an appearance in any fighting circuit let alone the NL. As a result they constantly sent mail and email asking him about making an appearance. He continued to lay low, however.

There was only one thing that could cause the capoeirista to make his come-back. The fact that he eventually ran out of money from his previous appearances. In pursuit of a pay day he finds himself knocking of the door of the Kyokugen Dojo.

"Hello! Anybody home?" A slight pause. "I was told I was supposed to be fighting Yuri Sakazaki." His only regret however is that the invite came kind of last minute and he didn't have as much time to prepare. On the upside, he has experienced the style first hand from Robert Garcia. On the downside, he found himself staring at the ceiling due to said first hand experience.

"Is anyone home? IS ANYONE HOME?!" A female voice calls out, and then the sound of running footsteps can be heard as a girl who looks rather petite, yet looks tough all the same. "Who are you and what are you doing here?!" Yuri asks.

Aranha's ears perk up at the footsteps and then suddenly finds himself face to face with a petite looking girl asking him about why he's there. "First, I go by Aranha, and second I was told that I had a Neo League match with..." He pauses for a few moments to analyze the person standing before him. "... you."

He looks around the outside, particularly at the concrete area before turning to look at Yuri. "You know if the league crew has finished setting up yet or is it one of those ambush type set ups"

"Wait, you have a Neo League match with me??" Yuri looks genuinely surprised. "Wait a second, why didn't anyone tell me?!" A pause as Yuri starts to realize something, and then she grins. "Hey, if they're gonna show this match live, then this'll be great for our Kyokugen Dojo!" She looks to a nearby camera and waves with a big grin. "Hello everybody, this is Yuri Sakazaki, telling you to come visit our dojo and learn Kyokugen Karate sometime!" She jumps up and down a few times before turning to Aranha.

"All right, Mr. Aranha, you wanna fight with me, is that it? Well, you look like a more fair opponent than that big blubber blob known as Chang who I fought with recently!" She sighs. "I thought I was gona be crushed to death!" Then the smirk returns. "If you wanna fight with me, go right ahead, but I'm not going easy on you!"

COMBATSYS: Yuri has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Yuri             0/-------/-------|


COMBATSYS: Aranha has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Aranha           0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0             Yuri


With a tilt of his head, an audible crack can be heard. "I wouldn't have it any other way." The capoeirista then turns to the camera. "Ahh... Ambush set up." He then turns back to the Kyokugen Princess and begins to study her as he cranks one arm and then the other to loosen the shoulders.

After a few moments he begins to dance and with a sudden burst of motion he moves forward swinging the instep of his foot at the side of her face. He isn't trying to put on the hurt just yet. It's just a feeler.

COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Yuri with Light Kick.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Aranha           0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0             Yuri


Yuri's keen on spotting the incoming kick, and even if it is a light kick, Yuri doesn't entirely want to feel the pain of it. She tries to bring her arms up to deflect the foot away, but it's a bit slow, and she finds herself getting her face knocked sideways a little. But with such a kick like that, it doesn't take long to recover.

"So, it seems you're off on the right foot," Yuri says with a wink, "But don't get ahead of yourself, as I have not begun to bite yet!" With that, Yuri rushes at Aranha, and attempts to fake him out while delivering a swift punch to the stomach.

COMBATSYS: Yuri successfully hits Aranha with Medium Punch.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Aranha           0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0             Yuri


In Aranha's case his mistake was in attempting to weave out of the way. He moves too soon and realization of this fact manages to set in just before the swift punch lands on his stomach making him stumble back a bit.

He doesn't need much time to recover though and he decides to up the ante a bit. With a quick spin to turn his back to her for just an instant before leaping backwards and into close range with a back handspring that ends up getting aborted into a handstand instead of him finishing the motion. He then marches towards her on his hands snapping out a series of kicks down upon her head.

COMBATSYS: Yuri endures Aranha's Inverted Flurry!

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
Aranha           0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0             Yuri


"Whoa-oh-oh-oh!" Yuri says, looking obviously mesmerized by the incoming flurry coming from Aranha. She tries to snap out of it, but it's a bit of a too little-too late situation. All Yuri can do is brace herself for the attack, but then she spots an opportunity. If she positions herself the right way, she could utilize the attack to knock herself into an opportune position for a great counter-attack.

The plan works, and while it hurts more than an attack like that usually should, it's worth it since Yuri manages to land in a position where she's able to literally come out of her downed position and rush into her opponent and attempt to deliver a jumping uppercut. It's like Ryu and Ken's Shoryuken, only given a bit more of a Yuri-style to it!

COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Yuri Chou Upper from Yuri with Bad Beat.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Aranha           0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0             Yuri


He tends to like both mesmerizing his opponents and also putting pressure on them, which is probably why he likes using that particular move in fights. As the kick begins to land however, there's that moment where Aranha realizes he maybe in danger due to the Kyokugen fighter managing to put herself in a position where she can land her own shot.

He can try to get out of the way in spite of the fact that he knows he's not really in a position to do so because he was in a position of putting pressure on her, or he can meet that attack head-on. Aranha decides on the latter but he finds himself being forced to modify it for the situation dropping out of the handstand as she readies for take off and as she lifts off the ground he whirls around with a spinning elbow and leaning back to smother the punch before it could do much damage. He quickly follows up with another elbow before dropping down low to pull yuri's legs from under her.

Wait a minute, Yuri's been caught off-guard with her signature attack? No way! But unfortunately, it's the case as Yuri goes down to the ground, finding herself in a bit of a painful predicament, since that hurt quite a bit. At first, it looks like tears are starting to form in her eyes, but the Kyokugen fighter gets back onto her feet.

"You meanie, that was my favorite attack, and you ruined it!" Yuri shouts angrily, her breathing starting to go faster and faster. Then she abruptly stops and realizes she's doing it all wrong. "But it's not over just yet! I'm just warming up!" With that, Yuri starts taking deep breaths, although her frustration can still be seen noticeably.

COMBATSYS: Yuri gains composure.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Aranha           0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0             Yuri


Aranha does not know how to handle the pouting and shouting. "Wait, wha?" The confusion is quite evident on the capoeirista's face. "You said you weren't going to take it easy on me. Why should I take it easy on you?"

After awhile it becomes quite evident that no attack is coming and that she's trying to get herself together. It was something that he could take advantage of if he was careful.

The dancing spider comes slowly with a relaxed smile on his face. And then all of sudden he reaches down to the ground with one hand and twists as he flips himself over so he can bring his heel crashing down on either Yuri's collar bone or her head.

COMBATSYS: Yuri interrupts Strong Kick from Aranha with Medium Punch.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Aranha           0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0             Yuri


That relaxed smile isn't fooling Yuri, since she knows that Aranha's got something up his sleeve for sure. Yuri sneers as she watches him come after her, and tries to keep a close eye on him, anticipating his next attack. And when that kick does come at her, Yuri's ready. Well, sort of.

You see, it does connect with her, but just as she's pivoting to deliver a punch to Aranha's side, meaning that she still gets hit, but she also makes contact with Aranha at the same time. The girl goes staggering a few steps, but somehow recovers. She has her hands on her knees and is attempting to catch her breath, but she still takes a moment to give Aranha the eyeball and raspberry before saying, "Gotcha!"

Their strikes land at the same time and as a result of Aranha's body being partially inverted at the time of collision, the capoeirista finds himself spinning out and rolling on the ground away from Yuri in pain. After a moment, he brings himself up into a crouch and that grimace on his face gradually becomes a smile. It's the type of smile that just says, 'I know something you don't know.'

Instead of enlightening Yuri on what it is, he only responds with, "Perhaps you did. Perhaps you did." He begins to sway to music that only he can hear in his head as he moves in closer and then he pushes out thrusting a front kick right into Yuri's bread basket. After all Yuri ain't the only one who can attack the body.

COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Yuri with Thrust Kick.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////                ]
Aranha           0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1             Yuri


Bad idea, taunting Aranha like that. Yuri is hit and goes down for the count once again, looking bruised and bloodied and almost like she could really be KO'ed for real this time. That is, untill she rolls onto her stomach and pushes herself up onto all fours, and then struggles to get back up. Even in her weakened state, Yuri still manages to force a glare at Aranha.

"You really make me mad sometimes! Now it's time to see what I'm really capable of!" With that, Yuri brings both hands behind her back and begins to focus her energy, and then thrusts that energy at Aranha in the form of a rather large blast of chi!

COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Yuri's Haoh Sho Ko Ken.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Aranha           0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1             Yuri


As Aranha's foot pushes off of the Kyokugen fighter he arches his back allowing for him to go into a back bridge. From the back bridge he pushes his hips up and over shoulders allowing him to land on his feet. This gives him the distance he needs to watch what his opponent does next which is throw a huge blast of chi at him. It's big enough that he decides that he wants no part of it and drops to all fours to get under it before crawling towards her in a spider-like manner and then pushes himself up into a handstand like before but unlike before he whirls around like a tornado delivering a multitude of spinning kicks from that handstand.

COMBATSYS: Yuri blocks Aranha's Inverted Tornado.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Aranha           1/-------/=======|=======\=------\1             Yuri


This time, Yuri's defenses are on par, and her arms come up to deflect the incoming attack away. It does hurt, in fact it causes Yuri to drop into a very weak looking stance as she attempts to catch her breath, rubbing at her arms while tears well up in her eyes. "No, I don't wanna lose!" Yuri says out loud to herself, only to realize what she just did.

"And I'm gonna prove it to you!" Yuri yells at Aranha as she attempts to grab Aranha by the shoulders and throw him over her shoulders. He's bigger than Yuri, but she's giving it all she can, so you gotta admire her for that!

COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Yuri's Medium Throw.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Aranha           1/-------/=======|=======\=------\1             Yuri


Bigger? Not quite. They're of the same height. Aranha just has significantly more muscle mass. But he wasn't exactly expecting to be scooped up while still in that handstand and he finds himself still bodily thrown. It's just by presence of mind that he manages to twist himself so that he lands in a three point position. It's slightly jarring but he manages to come out of it in pretty good sorts.

"No wants to lose. You don't need to prove that. I can already see it." He stands up and he bounces from side to side moving closer and closer.

He then stops right in front of her. "I have a question but I don't think I'll be getting the answer until after this fight." With that he lashes out with a roundhouse kick to the head before spinning back in the other direction to hook his heel behind Yuri's head and then dropping his weight downward to bring her face first to the ground.

COMBATSYS: Yuri fails to interrupt Face Down EX from Aranha with Saiha.
- Power fail! -

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///                           ]
Aranha           0/-------/-------|=======\======-\1             Yuri


COMBATSYS: Yuri can no longer fight.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Aranha           0/-------/-------|


Yuri attempts to deflect Aranha away using her reflective technique with her chi, but it's to no avail. Yuri is hit hard and goes down to the ground even harder. There's no effort made by Yuri to try to get up. She's obviously out for the count, meaning no taunting of Aranha or insulting him...

"I suppose, that would be answer to my question." He shrugs and turns to walk away. "If there was one thing I learned from fighting Robert, it's that sometimes that wanting it is not enough especially in face of skill and power. In this case, though, you went up against someone who not only wanted it just as badly but had a better strategy."

He nods with respect to the dojo and then is on his way.

Log created on 20:51:46 03/17/2010 by Yuri, and last modified on 22:25:55 03/18/2010.