Lessons [Clive, Castle]

[Nothingness]

August 5^th

"It seems I was mistaken." Clive knelt down, looking at the small, silver cross in his palm. "Just an old fool's hopes." Standing up, he shoved the necklace into his pocket. The least he could do at some point was return it back to its owner. Its original owner.

Looking around, he noticed that the street was completely deserted even though it was the middle of the afternoon. Still, there was something nice about that; he felt that he needed a few moments to himself, if only a few.

As he meandered between the buildings he soon found himself on the outskirts of the city, gazing upon the Great Maw. However, he had expected it to be completely empty of people, as it normally was, but he could see one person down there. "Castle!" He called out, walking down the path. They needed to talk about something...

[Castle]

After he left Daniel and Gabriel the day before, Castle spent the rest of that evening combing Radiant Garden for any sign of Emi and Jericho. He had known, deep down, that they were probably long gone from this world, but he had to check anyway. Anything was better than waiting around. Once it got too dark to search safely anymore, he decided to go to the inn and continue the next day.

Today was the next day, and once again, his search was pointless. He ended up at the Great Maw and stopped there, staring out at the barren expanse. Though he was calm outwardly, frustration made his fingers curl into fists.

"Sh..."

At that moment, someone called his name. He turned around and saw the speaker coming toward him. His fists unclenched.

"Oh, hey," he said, "It's Clive, right?"

With his current mood, his voice was neither friendly nor particularly unfriendly. He knew Clive was one of the guys who was after Jericho, but that didn't mean he was going to like him right away. He barely knew him, after all.

[Nothingness]

Listen Closely...

"Glad you remember me." He said as he approached Castle. Looking the boy over, it was easy to tell just how much the day before was still effecting him. Time to change that--hopefully for the better.

"You fight well, though with a bit too much emotion. It blinds you to everything else around you, even though it gives you strength that you wouldn't otherwise have." As he said this, he turned around and surveyed the tops of the buildings in the distance. "Tell me, should you find your friend, what will you do?"

[Castle]

Castle suddenly remembered why he hadn't gone looking for Clive earlier. If it was one thing he didn't need, it was some stranger judging him. A scowl tugged at his lips, but he masked it with his usual, casually aloof expression. He was unaware that his eyes were still speaking otherwise.

However, he found himself without an immediate answer. There was a moment of silence before he finally gathered up some confident words,

"Guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. There's no way I'm just going to not look for her," he said simply.

[Nothingness]

...and Pay Attention

Clive nodded. "Good answer." Still keeping his back to Castle, he continued to speak. "However, just looking won't help you find her. So, I'm going to ask you to do me a small favor..."

Digging his heel into the ground, he spun around, whipping the back of his fist towards Castle's face. "Show me your determination! Show me just how much you want her back. All that anger and frustration? It won't do you any good. I told you yesterday to take it out on me. Purge yourself of it, and fight me!" He wasn't asking Castle to understand. Hell, he'd understand if Castle tried to kill him for this. But Clive felt that he had to do this. If not for the sake of Castle, then for his own, twisted sake.

[Castle]

Castle saw the move coming and stepped backward, throwing his right arm up to block the strike. He went back a few more paces and kept his gaze locked to Clive, his expression now a venomous glare.

"So, you're here to test me like you're some sort of big shot?" he scoffed. He came a half a step closer, shaking his head and smirking. "Seriously, what makes you think you can..."

He interrupted himself by lunging forward, pushing off of his heel as he shot a punch at Clive's midsection. It was his full intent to bring the other man down in one hit. He needed to be taught a lesson about messing with people, especially when Castle was in no mood to deal with that kind of crap.

[Nothingness]

Good

The kid managed to see the attack. Looks like this would be easier than he thought. He took Castle's glare, unflinchingly, and returned an emotionless stare of his own.

When Castle lunged forward, Clive quickly hopped off to the side, grabbing Castle's forearm and trying to throw him forward. Stepping backwards a few times, he shook his head at the young man. "I'm testing you because I'm not some big-shot. If you can't beat me, then how can you expect to save her?" He purposely placed one of his hands on the opposite shoulder, feeling the stitches. "These should hold long enough for this."

[Castle]

Damn, that guy was fast. The throw caught Castle by surprise, and he stumbled once before he regained control of his own momentum and used it to spin himself around. At that point, he planted both feet firmly on the ground to stop himself.

He didn't even bother to say anything in reply. Now, he was just angry. Without pausing to wonder why Clive had a hand on one shoulder, he dashed at him again with greater speed, this time throwing a kick at his midriff and following that up with fist strikes. His gloves glowed faintly.

--
Castle used [Swift Blow]
Cooldown: 4
Uses left: 1

[Nothingness]

"Nice control." Clive muttered to himself. Once again, he had caught himself underestimating the people around him. Dammit--he needed to stop doing that. "Maybe I am thinking too highly of my--"

His thoughts were interrupted by Castle's renewed assault. Quickly shoving his hands forward to push off the kick, he activated his powers over time, adding an aura around him. He quickly swung arms in a a sweeping, blocking motion, letting his after-image deflect most of the punches. Although he blocked the first blows easily, it took much more concentration to block the others, though having every motion followed up certainly helped.

After blocking Castle's barrage, he returned with his own, only giving one word of warning. "Come." He began sending a flurry of punches towards Castle, punctuating each with a quick, lunging thrust.

[Clive used Double Vision, two posts until next use]

[Castle]

At first, Castle thought he was seeing things, but then he realized that Clive had activated some sort of power. That power made it difficult for him to get any hits in. In fact, he landed zero punches by the end of it. Frustration building, he had little time to throw any other techniques before Clive returned the assault.

It was Castle's turn to block. However, the rapid flurry of moves was overwhelming regardless of how well he blocked them. The best option was to get out of the way.

He jumped upward and slightly backward, condensing the peak of the jump to only eight feet before he summoned a glassy prism over his palm and fired it down at Clive. The development from a simple orb of fire was one benefit of the days he spent training after their arrival to Radiant Garden. Once both feet hit the ground, he shot forward again, hoping to follow up with some punches if the prism had managed to at least distract Clive at all.

--
[High Jump]
Cooldown: 2

[Blue Prism]
Cooldown: 2
Uses left: 1

[Nothingness]

"Impressive." Clive said with a smile as he watched Castle block all of his attacks. Even better, the young man managed to get out of the way and counter with what appeared to be a whitish-colored fireball.

Taking a large jump backwards, he lost his balance for a moment on the uneven ground. By the time he got his footing back, Castle was back on him with more punches, and he couldn't find an opening to counter. Quickly dodging and blocking the assault, he asked, "Have you purged yourself of those emotions, yet?"

[Castle]

"Shut up!" Castle snapped.

He continued the assault with more ferocity. There was no way he would let this smug smart-aleck get away with no injuries. He threw some kicks into the mix along with the punches, aiming for Clive's chest and face. Consequences were left unconsidered.

What he didn't see were the thin wisps of darkness that drifted around him, which flickered quickly out of sight. In his current state of mind, he didn't feel anything amiss, either. He attributed it to normal rage and adrenaline.

[Nothingness]

No, he was pushing him too much. Clive didn't expect to see the wisps of darkness coming off of Castle. A part of him wanted to end the fight right now, but he knew that there was no way at the moment--they were too deep into the fight. Still, maybe just letting the kid get a few hits in would work.

Purposely letting Castle's hits land, he still continued to back off. He did have to say--the kid hit hard. Clive only let himself take one shot to the face because anymore probably would've knocked him out, or at least dazed him. The rest of the hits were to his chest or arms.

[Castle]

The repeated impacts of his fists against Clive's body were greatly satisfying, especially the one to the face. He was surprised the guy was still taking it. He had some strength on his side, Castle had to admit. However, that only made him want to hurt him more, to see how long that strength would last. He wanted to see some blood.

But... what happened to all the blocking Clive had managed before?

Something flickered, and a memory flashed behind his eyes. Suddenly uneasy, Castle cut the assault short and jumped backwards, putting a few feet of space between him and Clive.

"What the hell are you doing?" he shouted furiously, "Fight back!"

He was itching to keep the fight going, but he didn't want to fall into some sort of trap. However, if Clive didn't give a prompt answer, he would probably attack him again regardless. If the guy wanted to get the crap beaten out of him, Castle would gladly lend a hand.

[Nothingness]

A part of him was relieved that Castle had stopped, but another part of him was rather annoyed with that. The relief came from the sudden lack of being repeatedly punched. The annoyance came from the fact that Castle had stopped while his opponent wasn't fighting back. He brought a hand up to his jaw and pushed, hearing a slight crack as the jaw realigned itself. "Just as you can't show emotion, you can't give them mercy. Your opponent would sooner stab you in the back than let you walk away from them. Allow me to show you..."

In the blink of an eye, Clive appeared in front of Castle and sent a punch with enough force to shatter a stone straight into his stomach. "...what mercy gets you." This would either end the fight now, or give Castle more than enough reason to continue fighting.

[Clive used Fade in conjunction with Guillotine Fist, four posts until next time ability can be used]