Azumi Kael, road to victory. Little garden ark (to the Jurassic period)

Within twenty minutes of passing the ship in the ocean nearing the island Azumi managed to lap the island and come full circle, dashing along the beach with a trail of sand kicked up behind her every step the young martial artists hair blew back side to side with every dashing movement, as the scene in the distance came in to focus she had almost forgotten the ship just for a moment, it came as some surprise then to see marines unloading supplies from a ship run in to the shallows and tethered to a stake in the earth, this was after all a pirate controlled island, those men Fei had fought had been pirates, or so Azumi had thought, Fei had mentioned something about the island being an outpost for a very famous pirate, some kind of pirate lord? If the navy was here that must have meant that they had some sort of plans for that pirate. This was bad, if they saw her on the island they might assume she was in fact a pirate herself, though she would never by any means mind fighting these men were all armed with weapons, and Azumi detested fighting against guns and devilfruits, things marines were known to carry. She had so much momentum from her dashing speed slowing in time in the sand would skid her to a stop clear infront of the larger looking commander, who had evidently defeated a larger dinosaur than any Azumi had so far challenged, even if it was a herbavor. With the docking scene fast aproaching Azumi made a split second decision to speed up! Running her fastest she charged right past marine after marine trying to manage a dash to the other side of their encampment and regroup elsewhere on the island, though this would mean everyone of them would see her, even if she was running at blistering speeds

"O-Oi.." one of the marines said as some kind of woman dashed past him.

Marton was till panting for breath, the woman also dashed past him. As soon as this happened Marton looked back towards the woman. He couldn't afford to let her go, for all he knows she could be one of the Anubis Pirates. He ran after her, he pushed his body forward, he couldn't match her speed, it looked like this woman has been training for weeks. Marton stopped. He realized that this island was in a circle shape so if he ran the other way he was bound to meet her. He changed his direction and began to dash the other direction, and so the great chase began.

The marines stared blankly at each other. They had just been out smarted by a woman.

Azumi ran as fast as she could but as dense as she was she wasn't totally with out some basic level of logic, she knew that remaining close to the shore would force an inevitable confrontation, instead she stopped when she was a safe distance away "hmmm... well that was unexpected... what do I do now?..." she huffed to herself under heavy breath. She knew theyd be looking for her now and to run back to her camp right away would only lead them to her living place. However if she stayed out in the open that only made her easier to find, if she could find their leader with out his men around perhaps something could be worked out instead of running she decided to stroll along the beach, she didnt want to be ambushed out of breath. Fei was always the cunning one who got them out of ambushes and danger, what could she do now that Fei had gone? In the short time shed known her Azumi already missed her only friend. Walking along looking at her feet Azumi heard heavy, aggravated footsteps. Looking up she had to surpress a jump as the commander in question was headed strait for her. Within a few seconds the two were, she stood looking up at the taller, uniformed man arms just slightly raised at her sides, given that he had run up to her Azumi was somewhat braced. well... here goes something...

After a few minutes of running the woman was finally in sight, Marton charged towards her. He clenched his fist, he wasn't gonna go all out, after all she was a girl. However judging from her appearance it looked like he had no-choice but to fight at his top strength. He stopped in his tracks.

"You there, are you part of the Anubis Pirates?" Marton asked as he chucked his cigar onto the floor.

He stepped onto it. The sun was starting to come down, the sky turned a orange color. Marton continued to stare at the woman.

Meanwhile on the other side of the island....

"Geez where is Marton-Sama..?" one of the marines said as he sighed.

The others shrugged. Suddenly right behind them a dinosaur appeared it's eyes fixed on the marines.

Azumi blinked, all that lunging forward just to ask a question? "well, no actually Im not a pirate at all, Im a career martial artist, I guess youd call it, but this is an island those pirates happen to own" in her head, with out even trying, Azumi began to consider him as she might an opponent, because that was what she was trained to do every day of her life as a child. She definitely had youth on her side, but an advantage in muscle coupled with years of experience fighting, not to mention brass knuckles, put him at an advantage, she recognized the tape on his hands and the golden bands and identified them as boxing tools, having boxed a raptor not that long ago her knowledge of the martial art was still pretty fresh, still having gone up against it on karate island several times she understood it well enugh. "but what ever you came for I doubt you should be running around at night, and so far away from your crew, most of the hunter dinos come out at night" this wasnt really a threat, it was a factually accurate statement, Azumi was just, honest like that, such honesty coming from a girl who was, quite frankly almost many looking for a teenage girl with her highly developed muscles, sand on her face from the wind wearing raptor skin must have felt rather unnerving. "Ive been on this island awhle, a couple of raptors arrent much trouble but ships draw attention to the bigger ones, a friend that was on the island learned that when her ship crashed, so... you might want to head back to your men, aaaaand since your busy Ill just head off" she said turning to leave, an entire evenings training time had been waisted

"Mates? Holy..." Marton said as he suddenly remembered his comrades. He turned back and ran towards his previous location. He dashed as fast as he could, he couldn't afford to lose them. He clutched his fist. He could see a group of people in-front of him, behind them was a very large dinosaur. Marton began to run faster.

"Behind you Damn it!" he yelled towards them.

They turned around and to their surprise was a Allusaurus. It's blood shot eyes fixed towards them, it drooled. It let out a roar. The marines began to run.
A boulder could be found in front of the marines. Marton jumped of this and into the air, he landed on the dinosaur's little hands. He jumped of this and into the air. He was just above it's head, he jabbed his fist into the reptile's head. It roared in pain. Marton began to fall, as he fell the dinosaur turned it's body and directed his tail towards him. The tail acted like a whip and hit Marton towards the ground. Marton coughed out a fair amount of blood. He was un-conscious. The dinosaur turned back around and bent down towards him, it opened it's mouth it's tongue licked his face.

"I-I can't stand this!" one of the marines yelled. He got out his rifle and pointed it towards the dinosaur he shot a numerous amounts of bullets towards the dinosaur. The dinosaur looked towards his direction.

"Yeah! That's right! Im your enemy now!" the marines yelled as his knees began to shake with fear.

The dinosaur made it's way towards him. At this moment, Marton awoke, he noticed the dinosaur go towards his comrade. He got out a cigar and lit it. He scanned the area. He had found a big rock. He approached it.

"Damn Reptile"

Azumi got in some late night training anyway, catching up to her normal regiment, this was problematic, with marines and pirates poking around on the same island it would be more difficult than ever to train uninterrupted, which was all she really cared about further she had little progress on agility training, and was beginning to question the commander shed met, he believed her almost to easily, if he was a naval commander then surely he would expect a pirate to lie about being one if asked, he didnt even bother proving it or to ask what she was doing there, in fact he didnt seem to be very competent as an officer at all, still more angry armed men on the island was never a good thing, this deeply unsettled her and she began to consider her options, the pirates stayed in their base near the center of the island, and she hadnt had much interaction with them since Fei left, but the marenes were patrolling all around the island, so it seemed.
Azumi was standing at the base of her watterfall by her overturned wrecked ship shed since converted in to a living space and sighed "well, I guess there isnt anything I can do about it now..." all that running had at least given Azumi some time to think, she knew some fensers trained their hand-eye co-ordination to become faster by shifting their hands between drops of water with out getting wet, but she could already do that pretty easily, the waterfall however afforded a different opportunity. Striking the surface of the running water from a rocky ledge Azumi was able to create a momentary opening in the stream of water, it barely lasted any time at all but if she moved her fist her fastest she could make that little opening, for now she would focus on that, she followed up with a one-two against the current but, predictably the water ran over her arm, so she would try again, and again, and again, long in to the humid jungle night.

Marton began to pant, if he didn't do something soon his comrades could die. There wasn't really much to do, he was facing a reptile which was probably 5-10 times bigger than him. The best thing to do was to distract the dinosaur. Marton picked up some fair sized rocks from the ground and began to throw them towards the reptile's direction. The rocks hit the reptile straight on the head making it direct it's attention back to Marton.

"You guys! Get the heck out of here!" he told his fellow marines as he began to step backwards.

"B-But Wh-"

"That's an order!"

The marines nodded and began to run, Marton looked up at the reptile. He turned and began to run. It was chasing after him, it seemed to get closer to him due to it's big long legs. Marton decided to switch direction meaning he quickly started running to the left. The dinosaur skid a little on it's feat and continued to chase Marton. If he didn't have a plan he could become dead meat.

Unbeknownst to the marines struggles against the dinosaur on the other side of the island Azumi had given up on parting the waterfall and had taken to going onward to the next part of her regimin. Misogi was a training method shed been toying with trying for some time, meditation under a waterfall was intended to strengthen the body and provide focus. Besides that there was something deeply fantastic about the idea of withstanding a waterfall, even if it wasn't considered anything particularly spacial, shed had the running water since she camped in the clearing but had so far only used it for bathing drinking and cleaning injuries. There was however the risk that this waterfall in the wild would have debris flowing down it and would cause small stones or logs to crash down on her and this had kept her from attempting but more than ever it seemed like shed have to disregard her well being even further to train to greater limits. Standing infront of the torrent of water the mist of the now frigid waterfall rushed against her face a second time, though after hours of running with hours of sustained effort the chill was welcome, taking a deep breath she pushed herself forward in to the raging curtain and immediately felt as if gravity itself had multiplied, her every bone buckled against the water while sound and sensory overload filled her mind, how did anyone focus under this?! It felt as if her very body might break apart but against fatigue and strain her body struggled to stand.
This was a cooldown for her, it had to be. Though her body cried out for her to jump away from the pre-historic primal rivers force in her mind Azumi tried to distract herself, little by little since the day of her birth the tender flesh of a little girl had been worn away, made thick and course and gradually she had already come so far, from breaking boards on karate island to fighting against fifty pirates at a time in redbeard's compound, but not the thugs on the streets or the beasts in the wilderness had sated her desire to become stronger, not every day of training, not striking away at rocks like a madwoman in the jurassic heat until she bled, until she vomited, untill her arms could no longer move, untill her legs gave way under the puddle of sweat on the floor could convince her that she had done anything worthy of a moments rest, of a seconds feeling of accomplishment, happiness, companionship, titles, greatness, revenge, these reasons were meaningless distractions.
A dense wooden log came down from the water, at speeds far exceeding normal splintering it against Azumis head, but she merely gave a slight wince as the thick waterlogged driftwood crashed down on her, this was a pose shed have to hold.

Marton ran through the forest, sweat coming down his forehead. He took many twists and turns and tried to lose the big reptile but it only seemed to get closer. He had to think of a plan quickly or he's dead meat. He looked back, he suddenly thought of something. He began to slow down and change directions so that he was facing the reptile, he ran towards it and when close enough he ran around it. The reptile skid once more and looked back. The moment it's eyes looked back Marton was hiding. He seemed to be hiding behind some kind of tree. He tried his best to hold his breath. He began to look around for an exit.

"Come on.." he muttered to himself as he wiped some sweat of his forehead

He had to re-untie with his comrades somehow. He also needed to keep a look out on that young woman, she still isn't trustworthy. He slowly began to make his way out of the dinosaur's area.

"Easy does it.."

Time passed so slowly for Azumi, but no less intensely than that of the marines on the island, hundreds of gallons of water crashing down all over her fatigued and beaten body was to much for even her, eventually she fell out of the dense pressure of the water and in to the pool, the logs and stones that had pelted her from the water felt much less damaging than the rock that day on the clifside but still after all that running endorphines overtook her and caused a state of intoxication in her mind, this was after all the only state Azumi would consider as an indication that shed trained enough. The endorphines and the pressure suddenly lifted from her body felt good, unexpectedly good. She felt light weight, she felt as if she might float away on the air itself. dragging herself out of the water she looked up at the orange Jurassic moon and sighed. She couldent even withstand a waterfall, or jump off a cliff, she couldn't defeat an entire pack of wild raptors with her fists, much less with out a scratch, what was she doing? Her regular obsessive state took a particularly weary turn toward disparagement. These feats she was failing at were nothing, amateurs on the high seas could accomplish them, there were many who could take down gigantic dinosaurs, ones the size of houses with a single blow, she was so unsatisfactory, so weak. Laying on the ground she seethed in the endorphine hase, training had broken her, every day, she had endured so much suffering, sacrificed so much happiness, and she was just a girl and despite all of this her body was never, could perhaps never be strong enough to satiate her limitless desire for physical prowess. In her trainings afterglow she gave a sigh. Soon however her chemically heightened senses perked up and her eyes flung open. What happaned next might have seemed rather strange, Azumi pushed against the ground with her hands and sprung up to her feet as if the ground itself had pushed her up. Landing on her feet "someones here..." she said to herself, perhaps it was another dinosaur, come to prey on her, after all only the apex predator was aloud to sleep in the open. Thankfully despite being rather banged up from a day of brutal training her endorphines had trigged, enabling her to continue regardless of exhaustion and strain. damn, this is what I get for not starting a fire... looking to her right Azumi quickly pulled a vine she has prepared earlier tipping a found lantern from the shipwreck in to her fire-pit, ignighting a light to ward away what ever it was "tch... its not polite to spy on people" the musclar chesnut haired girl stood her ground

(Im guessing the one who is near Azumi is Marton)

Marton has been walking for a quite a few minutes now, he had to walk slowly and cautiously for there were still many reptiles lurking around. He could hear a water fall. He turned his head towards the direction on which the sound came from.

"Where there is water... there is people.." he said to himself as he slowly approached the noise.

The more closer he got the more the sound got louder. Sweat began to pour down from his face. Suddenly a figure of a person could be seen. A light seemed to be coming from that person. Marton began to approach the person. Still cautious. His eyes fixed on the person. However once he approached the person it seemed to be the girl from earlier.

"Oh..it's you." Marton said as he dug his hands in his pocket.

He lowered his defense, he doubt that she would hit him. After all it had been a long day for the 2.

"I got a few more question I wanna ask." he said as he got out a cigar.

He lit it and slipped it into his mouth. He took a seat on a log.

"Your name? What is it?" he asked.

He blew a ring of smoke.

oh, sure just kinda sit down here... it was fairly obvious Azumi was mildly irritated but complied, to tired to fight anyway.
"oh, its that captain from earlier" she began, sitting on the ground close to the fire
"Its Azumi, my name" she answered simply, though perhaps shed been thinking about this all wrong, after all this guy was a martial artist too, maybe hed understand
"Im a martial artist from Karate island, Ive been training here for..." wow, how long had it been? how many tiresome weeks and sprit crushing days of endless agonizing training?
"four months now" It must have seemed strange, a girl her age training and living alone in such a dangerous area, but even moreso that she seemed oddly at home there
She thought about the pirates from earlier,she hadn't seen any of them since Fei left, maybe they werent there anymore? she had no idea
"If your looking for the anubis pirates they live in a fortress near the center of the island,between the two seaking mountains, I think, but they mostly keep to themselves, if there even still here at all"
maybe that would keep him from getting suspicious, though if he was having trouble after one day on the island, fighting against pirates who lived there would certainly be difficult.

(OCC: I think i'll just casually mosey on out of this thread now, i'm way too slow to keep up)
After hours of toiling away at the hacke doff remains of the tree, with his faithful companion Widdles the chimera snoring away on his shoulder; Victour Yurvel had finally made a sutible raft to carry the remains of the prehistoric corpse he had attained early as by request of his employer. He effortlessly hoisted the dinosaur meat onto his newly constructed water craft and tied it to his own boat with a vine, quickly beginning to set off back to Water-7. He gazed back for a few moments wondering what had happened to the young woman who had arrived with him, but merely shrugged it off and began his journey back for his payment; mumbling to his sleeping pet; "I wonder if welll ever see that friend of yours again, hoepfully on the same payroll as us." (Exits threads)

"Azumi...I see" Marton blew some smoke from his cigar.

He carefully listened to the woman's words, it seemed that there was a slight chance that the Anubis Pirates were still here..however it was getting dark, he will search when the sun comes up but first he needed to find where his comrades were. He got up from his sitting position.

"Thank you for the info, let us meet again one day, Azumi." he said as he began to search for his comrades in the island.

(Meanwhile back to the comrades..)

"O-Oi, where is Marton?" one of the marines said as he began to look around.

"No Idea. But we can count on him, he is a commander after all." the other one replied.

"Yeah...I guess I was thinking too much."

Azumi was the slightest bit confused, he came all this way to sit down, then leave? its as if he had no idea what he was doing at all, but it didnt matter because he had at least left her alone. Shifting inside to her camp she made her way to her bed, a collection of softer leaves wraped in part of the shipwrecks former sale. The fire outside would be enough to ward off most dinosaurs, especially with marines combing the island. Laying down on her bed Azumi had a newfound appreciation for rest on the island, each night felt earned, warranted compared to how hard shed been training, another day of life and death struggles against herself on the island, she imagined she probably wouldn't be able to go back to weights and machines after exorcize on the level shed become acostumed to here in the jurrasic, sleep her quickly and she drifted to an unnatural calm in to the remaining night hours

Marton wondered around the forest, it wasn't safe at night but his comrades lives were at stake. He spat out his cigar, the smoke would've attracted the reptiles. He had heard a sound behind him, he quickly turned. Nothing there.

"Stupid Wind.." he muttered to himself as he continued his search.

It was really hard to see in this dark environment, he should've brought a torch along side him. He continued to walk. He suddenly bumped into something.

"Ouch..." the figure said as it fell to the ground.

Marton recognized that voice.

"Get up, we gotta find some place to camp." he said towards the figure.

"M-Marton-Sama!" the marine said with joy.

"Yes sir~"

"So any spots where we can camp?" Marton asked the marines as he began to wonder around the forest.

"There is this one space.." one of the marines aid as he looked around.

"Lead the way."

The marines took the others to a empty space. It was perfect for camping. Marton then ordered the others to go fetch some fire wood. After hours of hard work they had finally finished there camp. They are now asleep.

Azumi rose mid mourning the next day to find her body, as usual, just recovered enough for a day of training. Her body had become like a high performance machine, it couldn't stay in first gear to long with out failing. After eating a hearty breakfast of prehistoric greens and dried raptor meat and drinking an enugh clean river water Azumi washed herself, she had become to muscular to apear as a girl to most people by now, but it didnt concern her in the least. Re-doing her body wrapings she did some extensive streaches and decided to take off on her mourning run, cutting across the jungle she was, once again put to an annoying halt, oh... more marenes they had established some kind of veuage encampment on the island, tents of all sorts with makeshift fenses and towers for look outs, even Azumi couldent help but be impressed by how fast the navy worked, but what was more annoying was that this route through the jungle was a fairly strait shot to the beach, there must be some way to cut around it...

Marton snored loudly. He was asleep with his head rested on a log and his hands rested on his chest however while snoring a small fly had wondered into his mouth. Marton suddenly awoke, he began to spit on the ground, after spitting a few times he rubbed his mouth.

"Stupid Flies..." he muttered to himself as he slowly got up.

He began to stretch and let out a slight yawn. It seemed that the sun was up.

"Come on! On your feet!" he yelled towards his comrades.

He then sat on top of his log and looked at the men as they yawned, rubbed their eyes and got up. While they were strapping their guns to their back Marton began to think where he should carry on the search...the fortress that he had discussed with Azumi was his only lead to finding these pirates.

Eventually taking to the trees Azumi was able to Avoid the unwelcome visitors by leaping overhead, she felt that they would bother her no longer after shed given their leader enough information. With the distracting marines keeping to themselves Azumi was able to fall back in to her habitual, extremely excessive training methods. Sprinting around the island, jumping over vines like jumpropes, striking rocks and trees, lifting boulders, swimming against the current of the waterfall, meditation under the current, none of thease were enough anymore, none of them would provide her the ability necessary to take on a full pack of raptors and win, the raw power that overcame the nanotyranus alone would not, could not be enough.
Over the next few days she trained her footwork and reactions, but the solution to her dilemma wouldn't come untill she happened opon the elongated cave near the shore, which had once been a giant sea-king's eye socket, on an uphill run one mourning Azumi noticed a great number of pre-historic bats, marveling at their size and speed she at last began to recognize that in order to fight a large number of very, very fast opponents like raptors she could not rely on vision, she would have to learn to use her other senses, and that meant a battle against these bats. After enugh healing and preparation Azumi waited for nightfall to make her way to the cave

Standing at the entrance to the cave, the setting sun behind her Azumi stepped forward, encroaching deeper in to the pitch blackness, she wasn't sure if any dinosaurs lived in caves but brining a torch would defy the point of the exorcize. As time wore on she began to adjust, her senses perked up and she began to feel the air of the cave gradually grow still, though she was hardly at ease Azumi felt no real fear in this situation, she already faught the predators that lived out in the open, any life-form that survived by hiding away in caves wasn't likely a threat to her. Walking forward she began to feel the cold smooth cave floor against her feet, her ears listened on for the screeches of the prehistoric bats

In the pitch empty darkness Azumi felt the heat of the Jurassic night on the back of her neck, the gradual downward slope of the cave became apparent just from the feel of the ground she walked on. Finally she reached a deep enough darkness within the cave to begin to hear them, screeching scurrying shrill and evidently great in numbers the batts overhead were just waking from their daily slumber, Azumi braced herself, she knew what was coming from when she had watched them earlier, she would have to pick a fight with them. Striking a study pose she faced the immense emptiness, and all at once felt herself enveloped in a rush of sensations, the wind, the sound, the dizzying awe inspiring sonic assault of hundreds of batts screaming in to the darkness striking against her ears, her head shook with such force she could almost feel her pupils dilating, her instincts told her to duck down and let the rush of wings and invisible bodies pass overhead but this would defy her whole reason for entering the cave at all, as quickly as she could she tried to focus in on individual sounds, those loudest and therefore closest. Her endless training prevaled against the dizzying terror of her situation and she managed a strait punch directly infront of her toward an oncoming screech, at once she felt the air shift around her fist and down her arm and over her shoulder as the batt she had targeted flew cleanly past her.
It was obvious now, though her movements were very quick by human standards to the batts, who navigated by sound and hunted some of the fastest insects of the jurrasic her movements were sluggish and dull. Moreover she felt the batts passing her on all sides and strike as she might she found herself unable to land a hit on one of her many invisible targets. If shed been fighting a pack of raptors shed be dead by now.
Once the last of the batts had flown out of the cave, its scream a distant echo Azumi collapsed to her knees and caught her breath, the psychological stress of the swarm of batts flying all around her was a shock at first, and shed physically moved so strenuously to try and hit them that shed lost her normal breathing rhythm along with her focus, this was clearly going to take more training.
Standing up she turned and began to stumble along the cave till she found the dim light of the stars again, finding that her eyes had more than adjusted to the night inside the cave. Letting out a sigh Azumi made her way back to her camp.

In the days to follow Azumi's training became more and more mundane, grinding through the same challenge in the cave and missing every bat day in and day out for weeks at a time, by the second week shed become nocturnal altogether, taking multipul passes at the batts twice a night, to similar results. Eventually little by little Azumi carefully trained her ears, her sense of spacial relations gradually improving over countless humid Jurassic nights. Eventually however the darkness would yield, soon she evolved from eyelessly swinging her limbs in the cave to a more calculated, she could feel the air from their wings passing her hands and feet, till one night she finally connected, the batt careened backwards in to the cave, struck dead on. The warm gush of fluid on her fists was mildly disturbing but was nothing before the rush of accomplishment she felt. Within the following week she took her new skill and mastered it, able to strike batts from all sides in total darkness, at last she was ready to cope with opponents as quick and numerous as the raptors, but keeping as agile was another matter. Azumi knew of a few means to boost agility from her training on various islands, but knew that jurassic predators struck with agility entirely inhuman. She began to ponder a test for herself as she spent the days hunting and gathering, pushing her sleep cycle back to dural.

Days Later Azumi's training had fully rebounded to its ordinal cycle, the unwavering endless regimen that had been almost a mantra to her on the island persisted, looking for methods to hone her agility. Running agility drills against the thick rooted forrest canopy trained her to shift her every muscle at less than a seconds notice, but as time wore on it became obvious to Azumi that the only real way to know if this training was making any difference at all was to risk it all and test herself against the raptors, realizing this she set off in search of a pack of the creatures. They were never hard to find, Fei had fought against several of them in her brief time on the island, they typically stalked the open areas near the shores, clearings between the brush where the grazing herbivores gathered around mid-day. Azumis body was brimming with energy the day shed chosen to go after the challenge, and shed chosen a prime vantage point to look in to the tall grass for any signs of movement, after so many weeks of any twitting of tails in the reeds being something to run from it felt strange seeking the tell tale signs of an ambush out, but liberating all the same.

Not shortly after she started looking the tall grass yielded a sighting, sure enough their tails, shifting in the grass like a sharks fin, were a clear sign. Jumping down from her vantage point on the tree she stood in the open, the electricity in the air before a big fight, that feeling never failed to entice her.
Within moments the raptors had caught sight of the clawless, fangless creature, wearing the hide of their kind, but this time there was no great king tyrannosaurus to interrupt them, and this time the pack was keen to finnish their business with her. Shifting in the reeds was the only sound they made as they scattered, hidden in a semi-circle around Azumi, who simply stood there, giving off the impression of ignorance.
Azumis eyes widened, her every sense suddenly felt itself pushed open, the world seemed to shrink in that moment to just there clearing, this was a match, a test of her skills that had her life on the line, no mater how many matches like this she had, she never fully got use to it.
With a sudden patter of clawed tallons against the ground and a rush of reeds the first raptor pounced from the cover, aiming itself for the blind spot behind Azumis right shoulder, and less than a second later the others shifted in to their positions. The sound was minimal, and so minimal that her training in the caves with the bats had just saved her life. Waisting no time her muscles sprung in to action, rotating her arms over her shoulders colliding with the hide of the raptor, wasting no time she grabbed the creature and flung it down over her shoulder, clean in to a second, sending both creatures clawing and reeling over each other, but their shrill cries masked the dive of another from her unprotected left side, pushing off the ground azumi dove over the creature landing behind it, focusing her eyes to find the raptors, hissing and surrounding her, shifting their movements, weaving in and out of each other's path it was a hunting pattern shed studied before, one she recognized.
No sooner had she rebounded from her leap then a fourth raptor moved to attack where shed landed, theyd planed this and she still handt fully regained her footing, the creatures razor sharp fangs extended inches from the vital artery in her thigh, having no alternative Azumi simply extended the leg, her shin connecting with the side of its torso and flinging the fourth creature in to the air, but before it had landed with a thud on the ground injured its sacrifice was already put to use. Exploiting every advantage the veracious raptors began a strange dancing movement, jumping over each other and waving around, timing their jumps so at any second a set of razor sharp claws would be sweeping down toward her.
Recoiling in to a boxing stance Azumi rolled her shoulders away from the first set of claws, only to have a second slash across her upper arm from the other side, ducking and weaving the various sets of claws and teeth, pinned down. even if I can hear where theyre going to attack next it dosent matter if I cant counter attack... shit, I didnt think this through she had hoped that agility and perception would help her win, but in reality those things only helped her avoid the raptors, they didnt help her actually fight them. forget it then, Ill just keep at it till I hit them
Shifting down under a particularly high raptor's leap she extended her arm upwards, connecting with its hollow, bird like jawbone, the creature was knocked up instantly. In all her training on the island Azumi's basic punches were able to shatter rocks, much less the bones of a smaller dinosaur like a raptor. Following through with a second blow Azumi's jab connected with its troso, sending it flying away. In this time several scratches had appeared on her abdomen, but she hardly had time to react to the pain, pure endorphines surging through her saw to that.
A raptor connected with her hip, biting down, but Azumi simply shifted her arm downwards, chopping at the creatures neck and with a brutal snap ending it. With two raptors down there were about eight left, and they were becoming craftier, learning from their comrades mistakes. This time Azumi took the initiative, bending down she swept her leg with the full force of her body, sending it careening in to the side of the nearest raptor, sending it to the ground and others scattering, stepping down over its head Azumi readied herself to take on the others Azumi felt a sudden lapse in balance. How long had the fight been going? was she tired? no it couldn't be, then she saw it, the wounds had been piling up, and her body had begun to take notice, adrenaline had slowed the bloodloss but even that had its limits.