It's a simple rebuke, but it cuts deep as Xenon's routine halts and she starts cursing under her breath. Because he was right, he was absolutely right and she didn't even realize the routine she had fallen into and it pissed her the hell off. "I need to maintain a base standard at least-" The girl halts in the middle of her sentence, she wanted to justify herself by saying she needed to maintain her current strength, but that was an excuse, a bad one that justified stagnation.
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"Yeah no, you're right. What I'm doing now ain't gonna cut it if I wanna make my future a reality, so lets push the boundaries some." She turns away from the punching bag and starts walking towards Temp, the Toxel by his side snatching up the handful of trail-mix without hesitation and shoveling it into her mouth like it was the last piece of food she was ever gonna eat. Happy grunts accompany the crunch of peanuts and almonds as she waddles away to go look at something else, always curious about something new in her limited world.
[break][break]
"I know how to beat a man's face in if that's what you're asking. Haven't had to since I installed the prosthetic, but there's a first time for everything." She unconsciously rolls her shoulder as she says this, still getting used to the feeling of the artificial limb and the subtle differences in weight that it carried compared to her old arm. It was heavier in a way that required conscious adjustment of how she carried herself, otherwise she was going to be walking lopsided.
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+ Tempest Quinn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

His stance briefly annoys her, the way he moves reminds her of a primitive, but she pushes down the emotion and focuses the anger on what she came here for. Come at him with the intent to kill huh? That's no problem for her, either he would live and teach her a valuable lesson, or he would die and he wasn't even worth the time she had spent to come here.
[break][break]
There's only one rule set in stone, but there's surely some set of unspoken rules that goes along with the atmosphere that he's set, the expectations he has, this was meant to be a brawl between two beasts and their claws and teeth. But Xenon is an ultramodern woman born of an ultramodern society. Beasts and primitives fight with fangs and claws to tear each other's throats out, she fought in a civilized manner.
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She didn't bring her sword with her today, but she always had a knife on her person stored at the side of her boot. Xenon held no qualms bending down and pulling the blade from its holding place with one sharp movement, madness meets madness as she ups the ante before the game has even begun. "No pokemon."
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And then she's off like a bullet. The knife in her hand is 11 inches in length, only 7 of which are actual steel cutting power, but that's more than enough to extend her range of attack by quite a bit as she moves in low and sweeps for his face, his eyes specifically. She stops just out of reach of his longer arms and dances around him, striking with shallow cuts to test his range of motion before she fully commits to a plan of attack. It's only the opening move after all, to blow your load so soon would just be disappointing.
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+ Tempest Quinn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

It didn't take much to impress Xenon, it really didn't. It's just that most people didn't have the kind of mentality needed for that kind of thing, everyone was just so damn normal and boring. But as that crazy little laugh slips from Tempest's lips, she finds herself impressed as she rushes the man to cut him open from gut to gullet.
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It's a beautiful dance really, it truly is. The light bouncing off the edge of her blade, the light footwork on display from the both of them as they judge each other's reaches to within an nanoangstrom, the sound of their carefully measured breathing, conserving as much energy as possible.
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It could continue on for so much longer if they let it, but she could feel the rhythm change ever so subtly as she tries to chase him into a corner and he takes two quick steps to the left. "Alright then, looks like we're done with the foreplay." She chuckles under her breath as she shifts her footing, she'd had her measure of the man at this point.
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She takes one, two, three steps in as she moves to slice at his chest, she's within his range now, but he's within hers too as she fully commits to properly trading blows now. She's still the more dangerous opponent right now, regardless of the size or weight differential between the two of them. She had a weapon and he didn't, now the trick was just making sure she didn't get disarmed.
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+ Tempest Quinn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

It's almost a surprise that her knife actually manages to dig its way into his side, the feeling of steel scraping against his rib bones combined with his arm trapping her arm almost makes her let go of the blade, almost being the key word. It's always the key word with her, no matter how unexpected something might be she always adjusts fast enough that it seems like she planned for this the whole time.
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Even with her arm trapped under his, she finds the presence of mind to twist the blade through his flesh and invoke as much pain as she can from her position, it's just a shame that he has the same idea as his free hand slams into her nose, a disgusting crack resounding through the training room as her nose is broken thoroughly. So why is she still smiling even as blood pours from her nostrils, past her lips, down her chin, and onto her training clothes? Well that seems rather obvious to anyone who's been around the girl for even five minutes doesn't it?
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Her arm that's pinned, the one holding the knife, that's a weak thing made of flesh, muscle sinews, and bone. It would break, it would bruise, it would bleed, she's already written it off as a lost cause even as she tries to dig her knife as deep into his body as possible for he decides to snap the stupid thing like a twig and finish her off. But her free arm is different, it's so much stronger than flesh and bone. It's a machine made of steel, tipped with iron claws sharpened to a point that could rake through stone without much issue, she hadn't tested how strong her punch was with the new arm yet but now was as good a time as any as she pushes down with her palm and strikes the oncoming knee. It's a sloppy ass palm strike without any grace or fluidity to it, but she just needed to stop that follow up so she could focus on her own, hopping up and smashing her forehead into Tempest's jaw to try and get him to let go, or at least stagger him enough that she could start beating the shit out of him with the metal crowbar that was her fist.
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+ Tempest Quinn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

She's out of her league in this fight, but that's never changed anything for her, she always made it out alive one way or another. They're two birds of a feather in that regard, the only difference was that one of them was about to break the other's arm and that other one was gonna make him work for it. She can hear the joint bending out of place as he squeezes, she can sure as fuck feel the burning hot ice in her elbow as it gets well on its way to snapping, but all of that is pointless, a rogue point of data that doesn't contribute to the formula of her survival.
[break][break]
For a brief moment as his hands wrap around her throat and begin to crush her airway, she considers snapping the fingers of her free hand and just calling over Rhodium to bite the mans head off, it would be breaking the rules of the fight sure, but what rules were there in the game of life outside of "If you die you lose." But that's just the adrenaline talking, she knows she can force this into a stalemate at least as her elbow finally snaps and her free hand reaches up to grasp at Tempest's face. The nails of her metal claw are easily as sharp as the knife digging into the man's guts, cutting through the silky smooth flesh of his face and leaving behind a nasty trail of bloody gashes, but it still isn't enough to get him to let go, she already knows that even as those hands continue crushing her throat with their iron vice grip.
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That's why she grabs his throat and digs her claws right in. Not deep enough to gouge out the flesh entirely, but deep enough to make the point clear that she could. She could give him an amateur tracheotomy right now if she wanted to, if he didn't let go. And he could probably choke her to death in the time it took him to bleed out, crushing her spinal column and leaving her a paralyzed husk who couldn't breathe without the assistance of an iron lung. It's a stalemate at its finest, but its survival nonetheless.
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+ Tempest Quinn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]