Defender Club (closed except to IG participants, or by PM)

[Gabriel Templar]

((this is intended for people that actually participated in the IG event, but if you're a defender and you want in, PM me. Yes, it is intended as parody, but it's also serious, in a way.))


Asuro was standing in the center of the group of people that had assembled on the rooftop. "The First Rule of Defender Club: you do not talk about Defender Club with any other archetype."

The group was pretty motley: tall, short, fat, skinny, stupid, man, woman; we stood there edgy as prizefighters, waiting, waiting.

"The second rule of Defender Club: you do not talk about defender club. Third rule, first night, everyone fights."

He pointed at me. "you." I froze. He pointed again, a girl dressed in startling green, "you. Fight"

I shucked off my school jacket and edged in, hands up in front of my face in my best approximation of a Boxer's stance. A real boxer never holds his hands in close, because when they block a punch he can break his own nose, and because the philitrum (the little ridge under your nose) has more nerve endings than all but one anatomical area in any human anatomy. I did not know this.

So I'm walking in, hands up and tight to my face, and *bam* she hits me, I still don't know if it was a hand, a fist or a baseball bat; one impulse, out of nowhere, then fwip, back. And my mind was still reeling, because it knew there was something in my face a moment ago.

And in this instant I realize what a good boxer already knows, where one does not hold their hands, and why one does not keep their elbows high.

The hit to my stomach took all the wind out of me, upward pressure on the solar plexus, as anyone knows, drives air from the lungs. One-two, and I stepped back, lashing out with my right hand. It caught her in the ribs.

A true warrior can't hesitate, every philosopher on combat's said that... I should have realized the same. Because as soon as I did, I caught it in the jaw, then in the stomach again, and by the time I stopped hesitating, I was throwing a weak jab at her chin, which did manage to connect, but not with any real force.

Asuro was talking, telling us to "fight! go! stop dancing and finish it."