The Crane Awakes (Solo)

The rain fell down upon the shingles of the temple with a gentle sound, while thunder crashed and rumbled in the dark clouds overhead, the courtyard was well and truly drenched with the droplets of water that fell from the skies above, but at least the garden of thorny red roses and the cherry blossom trees will be well watered by the time the storm left to go drench another location.

Inside one of the many buildings in this place, Cervez kneels in the middle of tatami room, legs crossed over each other and with his hands resting over his tights. The Anubian was wearing the customary white tank top, green pants with a red belt keeping it securely around his waist, and ending with the black shoes of the Crane School, having foregone wearing the wristbands simply because he already had his own kind at the time and didn't want to take them off.

It felt weird to wear different clothing than what he was used to, his own clothes laying securely inside a drawer back in his bunk-bed for safe-keeping. But these were one of the rules if you wanted to learn the techniques and the ways of the Crane School, it wasn't a huge inconvenience, all things considered, but once he was sure he had mastered everything he had to learn he'd be sure to put on his normal style of clothing.

He still couldn't believe that Baalbatos, an old friend he had met long ago, had decided to pass the school out to him back when he found him in this temple. They had made small talk, both of them, simply catching up about what they had done thus far in the eight months that they haven't seen each other. But then Baalbatos pulled the floor from under him by offering him this whole place for him if he wanted to learn the ways of the Crane Style, but that he'd owe the Demon a huge favor later on.

He had felt apprehensive at that, considering owing a favor to a Demon could be really disastrous for your health, but his interest for this place had eroded any sort of bad juju he might have nursed about the possible implications of Baalbatos's kind gesture. So going by one of Earth's strange saying of "not looking a gifted horse in the mouth" he accepted the Demon's gift gladly and now here he was, kneeling inside a tatami room in front of a small statue of a soaring crane.

At the entrance of the room, he could sense Samael's life signature, the Demon Wolf obviously enthralled about the rain that fell from the skies, this being the first time that the Demon Wolf had seen such a thing since he had been born in Makai almost two weeks ago. He had ventured out in the rain when he first had seen it, but then quickly came back to the safety of the dry building once the cold registered in his mind, his fur completely drenched and his clothes a little wet.

The Anubian had been greatly amused at the Demon's behavior, but quickly sobered up when he saw the bandages around the Demon's forearms, he knew there were dark bruises there because of Samael having blocked the blow of that strong flying knee uppercut, the Anubian hadn't done the technique properly and injured Samael more than he should have if he had done that technique properly.

He had learned the technique from one of the scrolls that Baalbatos had left behind for him to study and learn, so far he had barely managed the first technique of the Crane Fighting Style, but doing it only once wasn't enough, he needed to do it multiple times or enough so that he was content with how his progress was going, and that was without even talking about the Dodon Ray technique, so similar to his own Finger Beam technique, now that technique he won't have any problem in mastering.

"Are you ready to continue our training again, Samael?" Cervez stood up and turned to regard his companion, the Demon Wolf still content on looking at the rain from his dry perch inside the building. "Yes, Master. I'm ready."

Soon enough, Lord and Vassal stood at a respectable distance away from each other, Cervez falling into the Crane Style battle stance while Samael merely adopted a feral yet effective stance that made him looking bigger than he actually was, dangerous too. They waited patiently for some kind of signal, and once one of the leaves from the cherry blossom trees touched the ground, they were off like bats out of hell.

They met in the center, fists and kicks flying faster than normal human eyesight could perceive, and just as quickly the two separated with a shockwave of displaced air. Not willing to give his Master any sort of breathing room, Samael quickly channeled a great orb of energy over the palm of his hand, and with a growl, he lunged that energy sphere at Cervez.

The Anubian quickly shoot up to the skies, shot up to the skies, a frown pulling at his features when he saw that pesky energy orb following his tail with deadly precision. He twisted around suddenly, the ball of energy missing him by scant inches before it did a full u-turn and came back towards him. Cervez extended a hand forward, his index finger pointed straight at Samael's energy sphere, and his Ki began to build up on his fingertip, this time colored yellow instead of purple like his normal energy beam was.

With almost no time to dodge with how fast Samael's energy sphere was barreling towards him, the superheated energy, the Dodon Ray, shot from his finger, striking the center of the ball and piercing through it, coming out of the other side and kept going until it reached the atmosphere and vanished slowly.

Destabilized, the energy ball exploded safely away from him, though it did have the consequence of summoning a bothersome smoke cloud that covered a great portion of the skies.

He waved a paw, coughing as some of the smoke prickled at his eyes, and failed to notice the huge threat that loomed behind him. With a growl, Samael pounced upon his prey and grabbed his Master in a full bear hug. "I got you now, Master! Surrender, and I won't break every bone in your body." Not one to make idle threats, Samael quickly began to apply a world of pressure upon Cervez's body, the jackal man growling at the discomfort of his bones being slowly pressurized into dust.

Cervez refrained from screaming, instead, he angled his head slightly to the side so Samael could see his glare, as he did that, he twisted his hands backward so that his palms were pointed at Samael's direction, and intoned two words that instantly made Samael wish he hadn't grabbed his Master. "Repulsive Force."

Like an air canon, the pressurized force of air filled with Cervez's Ki slammed against his midsection, driving the air from his lungs and forcefully made him let go of his prey as he began to fall to the ground. But Cervez was not done, once he was free he shot at his vassal at speed, doing a small roll in the air before he came back with his knee aimed to slam against Samael's chest.

Seeing what was about to happen, the Demon Wolf cursed his existence. "Oh for fuck's sake, this is going to hurt a fucking lot—" With a sound akin to thunder, Cervez's knee slammed against his chest, the combined force of his fall plus his Master's blow speeding his descend until the two looked like a shooting star going fast to the ground.

Surprisingly, once they hit the floor it didn't cave in at all, but Cervez did spot a few spiderwebs appearing from the point of impact. So what Baalbatos said was true after all, this temple was built to last, so something as simple as bodies crashing against the ground won't do much to make a dent on it. Now that was a relief considering he wouldn't have enough money to hire someone to come and fix all this mess if it happened time and time again.

"Stars... so pretty..." Samael mumbled, completely out of it after that hit, it wouldn't be a wonder if the Demon Wolf got some sort of concussion, but it was probably just dizziness what he was feeling right now.

Cervez snorted, grabbing his companion and dragging him to his feet. "Come on, up you get, that shouldn't be enough to do you in." Otherwise, it was clear that he needed to up the level in their training regime if that was the case.

Hearing the threat laying in between his Master's words, Samael was quick to snap out of it and wave away his Master's concern. "I'm fine, Master! That blow wasn't enough to do me in at all, in fact, I barely even felt it!" A bead of sweat formed on the back of his head as Cervez stared at him with suspicion in his eyes.

"Hmmm, if you say so," Turning around, he began to walk back towards the building in the distance. "Come on, Samael. All this fighting made me hungry, I could eat a whole cow with how hungry I am." A hyperbole, for sure, but he could carry out that statement if he was truly hungry.

Samael's stomach grumbled at the thought, so he quickly followed his Master, soon falling into step behind him as they entered the building.

WC: 1610

(I'd like PL, please. Also learning [BG] Crane School with [OT-1] Super Knee Uppercut and [OT-1] Dodon Ray!)