Friendly Spar

"I was thinking about how to improve bloodless sparring, to make it more objective," Gaster said. "Do you want to try some rules I came up with?"

"Tell me more," Kody said.

"Three points for a strike to the head or the vitals, one point for limbs. First to five wins," said Gaster. Then his voice wavered. "...Is that okay?"

"Sounds great! You wanna start now?"

Gaster took several paces back, and Kody flashed a thumbs-up.

Summoning his seven hands, Gaster said, "Let us begin."

Kody bent his knees and - with a yell - catapulted himself forwards. Gaster jumped sideways, and Kody tumbled in midair and bounced off the far wall, ricocheting back towards Gaster.

Gaster reached out to begin to summon a Kindness shield, but Kody slapped his outstretched hand like a high-five as he zoomed by. "One!"

Kody hadn't even summoned his sword yet! Gaster needed to try harder. He filled one of his floating hands with Bravery and swung it downwards in an arc over his head. Kody danced out of the way, and the hand hit the padded floor, leaving a scorchmark.

Should've given it less power. Friendly match, Gaster thought to himself. Friendly match.

Kody flung himself towards a side wall, and Gaster had a moment to wonder what he was doing before Kody grabbed the side of a sideways Integrity platform in midair and swung himself around it like a pillar. He kicked outward, checking Gaster in the shin on the way around. "Two!"

Gaster was one hit from defeat. Kody was fast, too fast. Gaster needed to slow him down. He shot ropes of Patience between several outstretched hands, catching Kody in a net.

While Kody flailed, Gaster shot a bit of Justice at his chest. "Three," Gaster said, and dematerialized the Patience.

Kody ran at him, stabbed his sword through the hole in one of Gaster's hands, and shouted "Three!"

Gaster tried to close his hand to cast his next magic - and found he couldn't. His eyes widened, and before he knew it Gaster was windmilling his other arm at Kody.

Kody twisted out of the way, but flung himself with too much force and hit the mat back-first.

Before he could get up, Gaster put another hand on Kody's chest. "Six."

Kody laughed as he sat up. "Good fight. So, how'd I do?"

"The ceiling was available to you. Why did you spend so much of your time within easy reach of the ground? And you should have expected the physical counterattack when you put your sword through my hand, as you had closed to melee range. Overbalancing when I swung back cost you the fight."

"Oh. Um. Okay... what did I do that you thought was cool or clever?"

"...uh..."

"I mean, I can go first if you want. I didn't know you could do a Patience net! I thought you just had ropes."

"I wasn't fast enough to use them."

"And you were spending a lot of your attention on holding your power back. You were only half there and you still beat me!"

"I don't have the luxury of excuses."

"No, really! You've been working on increasing your power for your whole life and now you're suddenly being asked to turn it down? You still did great!"

Gaster looked confused.

"I'm not asking for anything. I complimented you because I want you to feel good. I want you to feel good because you're my friend. That's all."

Friend, Gaster thought, as Kody stared eagerly at him.

Gaster finally said, "You know, I've never been stabbed in the hand before. Nobody else I've met has ever been fast and precise enough to do that. You are very good at this."

Kody grinned.