Tru Grit’s Fight Pit (Pt. 3)- The Mad Dog Vs The Mad Beast

--- Tru Grit ---

The air shifted as something changed in the kid in front of him, and he couldn’t help but smile. (Was wondering when he’d snap.)

He’d had a suspicion the Huntsman -as he called himself- was Touched By Madness after thinking over the young man’s fight with that Scarecrow Demon. A suspicion he felt was confirmed by the way the kid’s posture shifted from something trained and stable to something almost feral. The Huntsman’s hands curled into claws as his forest green eyes seemed to flicker an almost wolfish gold.

Both were tricks of the mind. Nothing too severe, and the kind of thing that could be shrugged off if you knew the trick, but he very much doubted the kid even realized what he was happening.

The Huntsman rushed him, seeming to move faster than he had previously at any point in their fight, despite the fact that if he checked the guy’s speed on his camera’s he knew it wouldn’t have changed from before.

Knowing this and acting on it while he still could, he avoided the Huntsman’s rabid and near formless swipes with ease as he pulled out his phone. “Oh, getting serious now? I think this deserves a different song.”

Easily dancing around the young man’s blows, and catching a roundhouse kick with his hand, he used his thumb to switch from the ‘Motivational’ playlist he’d accidentally clicked when blindly starting the music to his actual ‘Fight’ playlist. (Maybe I should listen to Perry about setting an actual music station up rather than just syncing my phone.)

The Huntsman used Tru’s grip on his leg to lift the other one and deliver a stomping kick to Tru’s face before using his slight flinch to handspring out of his grip.

(Right, almost forgot about that…) He frowned, rubbing his jaw. (“No matter how experienced you are, Madness will make you flinch.”)

The fact the kid was Touched By Madness had him thinking he was going to be flinching a lot this fight. (Though whether that’s because of the kid or because the idea is lodged in my head I don’t know… Still…)

He couldn’t help but smile as the kid rushed him once more.

(After all, this just means I’m being dragged down to his level.) He had no problem giving a handicap if it meant he’d get a proper fight out of someone.

He punched a fist into his hand. “Alright, kid, last chance to impress me.”

He threw a straight at the Huntsman’s head and watched the kid dodge out of the way with but a tilt of his head. Likely more reflex than actual intent as he kept moving.

The kid grabbed him by his wrist with both hands before using him as leverage to deliver a dropkick point blank to Tru’s side.

He wrapped his hand around the kid’s forcing him to maintain his grip before dropping forward and crushing the kid between his elbow and the ground.

Or that was the plan until the kid pulled some acrobatic bullshit that ended with his legs wrapped around Tru’s throat even as he slammed his arm into the ground with nothing underneath it.

Twisting around he forced the kid to let go of him or be crushed underneath him as Tru flipped onto his back at an angle that would’ve broken one of the kid’s legs if he didn’t move.

Not that that stopped the Huntsman from taking advantage of his downed state to rush right back in and stomp down on Tru’s chest before attempting to drop his knee onto the downed fighter’s throat.

Which made him really thankful he was hard headed enough to headbut the guy’s knee, a blow that hurt, but much less than a guillotine to the throat would’ve. With the Huntsman on a single leg Tru swept his arm out and forced the young man to jump back to avoid being thrown to the ground.

Having bought himself some distance he worked his core and leapt back onto his feet before raising his hands back up as he stared down the growling Huntsman, observing the kid’s state as much as he was readying himself for the young man’s next attack.

While he knew he wasn’t the most academic magic user -Most of his own being limited to instinct born from ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will, five percent pleasure, and fifty percent pain.- he had been around the block a time or two in his nearly fifteen years in the game, and knew a thing or two about a thing or two.

And one of those things was that the Huntsman’s twitching and spasming as he circled Tru was a clear sign of the Madness touching the kid being pure Insanity.

Those Touched By Madness were something of a rarity, with Tru having only run into two -now three- in his time in the game. And as the name suggested each and every last one of them was bat shit insane in one way or another, if somehow fully functional at the same time. Making them relatively harmless in the long term, if a little odd by most people’s standards. (Then again, who am I to talk?)

Regardless, it was when they gave into Insanity that they became dangerous.

The Huntsman struck his own head once before letting loose a vicious snarl and rushing forward.

Once more he managed to maneuver around the young man’s primal swipes, even as the Huntsman weaved around his retaliatory punches fired fast enough to tear through most defenses (if they could just hit.)

Eventually, instead of letting him simply pull back for another punch the Huntsman bit into Tru’s arm, his teeth somehow breaking through the older fighter’s Grit defenses, before putting Tru into an arm lock.

One that would’ve been more of a threat if he couldn’t bench press the kid with one arm, or grab his legs to make sure the kid couldn’t escape his elbow drop this time even if it meant actually breaking the young man’s leg this time.

The Huntsman flexed his wrist as he continued to bite down and knowing what that meant after the last few times the kid pulled that trick he spun around so that the downed axe and knife would have to pass through the Huntsman to actually reach him.

Of course this just made it easier for the Huntsman to catch the knife by its hilt and drive the blade into the crook of Tru’s arm.

At least if hadn’t caught the kid’s wrist just as the blade broke his skin, the Madness twisting around the kid and disrupting Tru’s defense. (Right, need to buy some space…)

Crouching slightly, he pushed his magic into his legs before kicking off the ground and launching them both several meters into the air -admittedly not his max height but (I don’t want to kill the kid)- before maneuvering to slam the kid into the ground in a powerful showstopper.

If the Huntsman hadn’t realized what he was doing and released both his arm lock and his teeth to kick off Tru's body and somehow slip his hand out of Tru’s by abandoning his knife. All of which culminated in the Huntsman hitting the ground in a tumbling roll that ended with him on all four as Tru struck the ground in a superhero landing. (Even when you mess up, got to do it with style.)

Rolling his shoulders as he stood back up, he went back to watching the Mad Beast in front of him, because given how the kid was still on all four and didn’t seem inclined to stand back up meant he was probably closer to one than a man right now.

He found that irked the fighter in him a bit, given how even the original Mad Dog had always stood his ground no matter how far into the depths of his own Madness he fell.

Part of him was hoping the kid would be similar.

(At the very least he isn’t like the motherfucker.)

He’d take what he could get on this one.

(After all, those Touched By Madness always march to the beat of their own drums.) It was the whole reason they became Madness magnets despite not actually being Madness users like Wonderlanders and their Corrupted.

Madness wanted them, but couldn’t actually take them.

(Of course all that Madness has to go somewhere…) He remembered, glancing down at the cut on his arm that he should have easily been able to just Grit His Teeth through.

The Huntsman had no problem exploiting this and rushing him the moment Tru made the (amateur) mistake of looking away as the growing Madness licked at his thoughts.

Despite leaning out of the way of the swipes they proved just how dangerous they were as the Madness in the air twisted his own Magic to cut into him, granting the Huntsman the claws humans were not born with to leave behind several small slashes in Tru’s clothes.

Slashes that continued to multiply as he was forced onto the defensive. (Something no real fighter wants…)

“Grr, enough!” He shouted, Gritting His Teeth through the onslaught as he shot his hand forward and grabbed the kid by his face before slamming him into the ground hard enough to crack the kid’s skull. “Fuck!”

He shook his head and stepped away from the kid as he forced the Madness from his mind, having let a little too much slip inside of him.

Running a hand through his hair he looked down on the kid, wondering if he’d have to call the medics, before finding himself relieved as the glow of the kid’s fairy began to wrap around the Huntsman, hopefully undoing what was sure to be a heavy concussion.

(Forgot that’s the other reason Madness is so dangerous.) He’d gotten so used to the extremely controlled system that the Gamer’s Guild used that he’d forgotten wild Madness tended to drive people Mad. Forcing them to give into their impulses far easier than someone who’d spent their life fighting should’ve.

A state he’d happily embraced the last time he’d had to fight someone Touched By Madness. (But I shouldn’t do that when this kid is clearly just a kid.)

He couldn’t help but grimace as he watched the kid pick himself up from the small crater that had surrounded the kid’s head.

Not wanting the kid to know how thrown he was he forced a grin back onto his face as the kid turned to him, eyes seeming to glow beneath the shadow of his hair as he glared at Tru. (Damn it, the Madness is still messing with me.)

“Ha! Still want to go another round kid?” He forced out a laugh before punching his hand. “I can respect that.” He really could, if the kid was actually aware of what he was doing.

(A few more rounds would probably do us both some good.) He figured, using his Fighter’s Grit to push through his anxiety about hurting the kid. (Need to know how in control he is, and I need to build my resistance back up if the GM’s Madness has made me soft.)

Just as he raised his hands into a fighting stance and the Huntsman entered his own feral stance, a ringing began cutting through the ring, his phone still hooked up to the arena speakers, causing them both to freeze at the unexpected sound.

(Damn it, what now?) He groaned, holding up a finger as he pulled out his phone and told the kid, “Just, uh, give me one second.”

The kid didn’t leave his fighting stance, which was fair given how they were in the middle of a fight. (Honestly, I wouldn’t even blame the kid if he took a cheapshot at me. Totally deserve it, I’m usually so much more professional than this…)

Upon seeing who was calling him, he couldn’t help but grimace. “Shit, I’ve, uh, I’ve got to take this. We’ll get back to it in a second.” He promised regretfully before putting the phone next to his ear and answering. “Hey, Ma, what’s up?”