Battle mansion: scholars fist

All kinds of fights could happen in the battle mansion. People gathered from all across the land, so the audience was treated to seeing exotic warriors from places like the undead kingdoms in the west to the land of Zipangu in the east, with each man, woman or monster bringing their own flare to the fights.

Today, the arena was hosting a martial arts fight. A travelling fighter from the borderlands vs a monster from the mist continent. Unarmed combat matches were rare in the mansion so more people turned up to see it than the usual affair.

Axel fastened his gloves as he walked up to the stage, barely able to contain his smile. He had spent a few years working out the kinks of his self-made style, a little bit of everything he had learnt in his travels.  He was quite proud of his skills, so when he had heard about a mansion that panders to warriors of all sorts he had to see what it held.

So far he had been having the time of his life, fighting against men and monster alike. With every fight, he learned something new: new ways to attack and dodge new styles to look for. Truly for him, the battle mansion was a warriors paradise.

He had heard rumours about his upcoming opponent, a mist region monster from a race that's not known for fighting, but had won all of her matches with one decisive blow after a few minutes and with little to no injury. He wondered how that was possible as he had seen most quite a few mist region styles and even the fighters that used the ones that dealt with pressure points and disabling your opponent quickly didn’t leave the fight unscathed.

He was brought out of his musing by his opponent stepping up to the arena floor. She was a hakutaku if memory served, a bovine monster known for book smarts. This one was wearing a dark green martial arts outfit with black gloves and had her hair done up into a bun. Almost immediately Axel eyed her legs and hooved feet; chances are if she got a good kick in he might be in trouble.

The hakutaku gave Axel a long look over and smiled. “Greetings, I am ling, may I have the name of my opponent?”

“Name’s Axel, Let’s have a great match!” He greeted.

“Likewise” she replied as she bowed. Out of respect, Axel did the same.

Lily, the succubus that judges the fights, walked in between the two. “Are you both ready?” She asked both fighters and the nodded. “Okay, start whenever you’re ready!” and back out the way as the two fighters when into fighting stances… or at least Axel did.

He frowned as he kept his eyes on his opponent. Ling’s stance was sloppy at best, filled with openings and weaknesses that almost screamed at him to exploit. This was not the form of a fighter, more like a trainee one month into practice. And then he saw the look on her face, it was so serene, so full of confidence like she knew exactly what she was doing; it was throwing him through a loop, wondering she was baiting for a counter.

Never one for patience, Axel launched forward threw a few punches, only for ling to parry and dodge them, she retaliated with a kick that he had been waiting for with a block but almost took the gut punch she followed up with.

The fighters traded blows with caution, each one trying to figure out what the other had up their sleeve. He knew she was testing the waters just as much as he was, as neither of them had done any big moves yet. She was defiantly skilled, but he wasn’t seeing anything he hadn’t seen before, Mist style Kenpo was easy to recognise and her techniques were nothing that would let her settle the fight in one move like he had heard her doing.

That was until the two backed off each other to catch their breath. “I must say…” Ling said. “You’re quite strong; many I’ve faced would be struggling by now.” She praised as she straightened up. “I’ve never fought a style like yours before, I simply must know more!” she said as she removed her gloves. Before Axel could question the significance of that, she attacked, and that’s when the fight got weird.

He blocked the first punches like he normally word, but he had to back off when a sudden uppercut threatened to take him down. The attack made him pause… that wasn’t like her style. The infighting started again but ended when he once again had to dodge a strange punch. Axel was stuck trying to figure out what was going on, those strikes were weirdly familiar to him, too familiar to be mere textbook. Ling continued to attack with weird movements that were throwing him off. Trying to regain his momentum he tried to hit with a high kick, only for her to lean back and parry the foot upward casing him to buckle to the floor and forced him to dodge the hoof she almost brought down on his stomach.

Axel got to his feet in and was about to attack in a rage before it clicked. That parry… that was his parry! He had done the exact same thing to many opponents in his travels, and the other attack patterns now made sense, she was somehow using his own style against him!

He continued to fight; the knowledge of what she was doing easing him back into his zone and he was starting to score hits. The fight raged on with the hakutaku looked like she was getting both curious and frustrated as Axel overcame her. Eventually, his curiosity won out and he had to ask her. “How…how are you doing that?” He huffed as he collected himself. “How are you copying my moves?”

Ling grinned. “So you noticed… I thought I could get away with it, but I guess that’s what happens when the fight gets too long. I’ve never had someone see through my scholar’s fist before.”

“Scholar’s fist?” Axel questioned.

“Do you know what I am right?” She asked.

“Other than hakutaku’s being cow-based and hailing from the mist, no.” He said. He never really paid much attention to that kind of thing.

“We have the power of knowledge, we can learn everything about anyone one and we need… is a touch.”

“So you can read my mind?” he asked. Ling blinked for a second before she laughed.

“Nothing like that I assure you, I simply learn about you. Age, family history, I can access anything I desire, in this case, it’s your techniques I want. And the more precise the info I want, the faster I learn.” She stated proudly.

“So that’s how” he mumbled. Trade a few blows to and then take off the gloves to learn her opponent’s, then use the abnormal attacks she’s learned to one shot them… a style that uses on the spot research for victory, this scholars fist impressed him, but…

“Have you ever beaten someone with your own style?” He asked.

The hakutaku looked confused. “What? I just told you what my style is-“

“It’s a technique to learn in the middle of a fight, but it’s not a true style. When the attacks come from other people’s techniques, you’re using their styles, not your own. you must not trust your own skills that much if this is the solution you came to."

Ling looked insulted. “How dare you! I worked long and hard to use my Kenpo!”

“Then fight me with that, and then see how far you can get with it or is your style so weak that you really on that technique of yours to win?” Axel said with a smirk.

Ling's eyes widened before she let out a snarl, any form of composure happily went out the window. “…Weak? Weak! I’ll show you who’s weak!” As she raged, her third eye turned to a worrying red and her hair bun fell undone, letting long black and white hair fall to her knees. “You... naive fool! Mist Kenpo has millennia of tradition! To call such a thing weak... I’ll show you… I’ll show you!” she snarled as she adopted a stance, stomping the floor with her hooves so hard she cracked it as a blue aura seemed to surround her, before launching forward.

Her attacks now had far more power than before and Axel was feeling the strain trying to dodge and block. She had indeed gone back to purely using her Kenpo, but the difference between then and now was almost night and day. Power flowed through every blow, the air sang with every swing, the ground rumbled with every stomp and every strike threatened to end it there.

This was leagues more dangerous than her using her copying technique and Axel welcomed it. Now she was giving it her all, using what she knew in a bit to take him down. he could help but see his opponent as a thing of wild beauty, even if she was currently trying to punch his face in.

Axel was put on the defence and was finding it hard the count the newfound strength of the monster, maybe if he hit that sweet spot on her stomach he could distract her enough to… wait what?

Pain erupted in his stomach when ling landed a stong punch. He had to take a step back before he took a hoof the face… god, those legs are powerful… it’s a wonder how they became sensitive when stroked… what was going on? Why was he thinking about these things in the middle of a fight? How was he gaining knowledge about… that was it!

Axel had fought monsters that channelled their mana to amp their strength,  if she was doing that then that means her scholar's fist might work two ways, and she’s too angry to notice the random information she was force feeding him with every strike.

So now Axel had a new dilemma of fighting off the thoughts about lings body and trying to win, as there was no way he wanted to lose while distracted by her breasts that apparently got her heat going if you grope them just the right-dammit!

The hakutaku must have sensed his urge to finish things fast and backed off only to go back into aggressive looking stance. Axel brought his fists up and tried his best to stay calm, both fighters stared each other down before yelling and throwing a punch.

~X~

The next thing Axel knew, he was waking up in what he assumed was one of the bedrooms in the mansion proper. He sat up and looked around while shaking off his headache, finding another bed next to his with ling sitting on it and looking at him.

“Evening, how are you feeling?” She asked.

“Like I drank a whole tavern’s worth of rum.” He said slowly. “What happened with the fight?”

“Oh um… It was a draw. According to the workers here, we KO’ed each other and were carried out.”  She said with an annoyed sigh. “I can’t believe I lost my temper, I am sorry.”

“Don’t be, this was one of the better fights I’ve had. so if anything it was fun trying to figure out how to counter my own style.”

“I see… thanks” she said with a blush and her tail swishing from side to side. “Well, this was nice… perhaps you would like to meet again for another fight sometime?”

Axel thought to himself for a second “Actually I got a better idea, why do we start training together, you can help me with my own moves and I can help you fine tune that scholars fist of yours.” He suggested.

“Fine Tune? But its already so precise. What could be wrong with it?” Ling questioned.

Axel got up and without saying anything and stroked Ling's head around the base of her horns. Ling froze from the initial touch but hummed pleasantly from the feeling. “What are you-mmn!... doing?”

“When you got angry you push energy into your fists, but your nature means you were giving out information about yourself instead of taking it in, and now I’m curious about actually seeing if all that info that got shoved into my brain was right.”

“I… It can do that?” she was still managing to pay attention while it was clear she more than welcomed Axel’s touch. “So I can’t control it when I’m angry?”

“You’ve never realised that?” He asked as he moved behind her as and started to rub her shoulders.

“My fights never last that long and this was the first loss I’ve had in years…” Ling said trying to keep composure. “hmmm… right there please.” She almost moaned.

Axel himself was getting hot under the collar but found he could still hold a decent conversation “I see… “ he said as he picked up her tail and started fluffing it, much to lings pleasure.

The hakutaku looked like she was on the brink of losing it. “A-a-a-axel… how much did you learn from me?” she questioned.

“Not enough, the information of how your body is nice and all, but doing is better than just knowing in my books,” Axel said before getting his hands around her breasts and giving them a light squeeze. The moan she gave was close to a cow mooing but it wasn’t unpleasant to hear

Nor was the sound of the bead creaking when he was pushed down onto by a fired up hakutaku.

~X~ (a month or so later)

Axel sat alongside his new wife ling as the two watched an arena fight.

“Axel, how would you feel about opening a dojo here?” Ling asked.

“A dojo?” he parroted as he thought, was he really that good to start teaching people?

“It would be great to teach people how to fight, to share what we know for future generations.” She suggested. “It’s always been a dream of mine to pass my knowledge on.” She said.  “Well, the fighting stuff anyway, not rest of it. Some information is meant to be kept to certain people.”

“Like who?” Axel asked.

“Husbands,” she said as she leaned over and kissed him. “And daughters.” They hand another kiss before going back to watching the fight with ling resting her head on his shoulder.

“…Master Axel… has a nice ring to it I’ll admit.”