In need of a lesson.

Yusuke Shikabo, standing five seven and weighing only one hundred and eighty-three pounds, had come to Nibelheim because he had heard how many strong warriors frequented the place and figured he could find someone worth sparring with if he looked hard enough. He didn't want to try his hand against the Arena because it seemed too constricting and he didn't like the idea of some technology he doesn't understand causing differences in his natural power..

So instead he was outside the Arena sitting on a bench and eyeballing the crowd. He didn't have much in the way of spiritual power so he'd have to find someone willing to fight against him without pouring energy to grab someone's attention. He may have unlocked his powers a few days ago but he had no idea how he stacked against other people with powers yet. This was his idea of how to fix that pesky problem.

So far he had spotted a couple of talented looking fighters.. but more of the time they ended up giving him the impression that they were mere hot shots with over sized egos after he listened to them talk for a bit. He needed a real fighter not some glory chaser. That was how he would figure out where on the ladder he stood. Problem was with the area so densely packed with spiritually powerful people it was very difficult to separate real strength from flaunted bluffs. So Yusuke just kept watching. Every now and again spotting someone and asking them to spar with him only for most of them to act arrogant and say the skinny man wasn't worth it.

Normally people would get angry when insulted like that, but Yusuke merely shrugged it off each time by logically deducing that if they can't tell he's stronger than he "looks" they aren't at the level he thinks he is at himself meaning they wouldn't be able to help him anyways.

Marek calmly walked down the street, headed for the arena. Like so many other would be warriors, Marek was here for a fight. Unlike so many other fighters however, Marek was not looking for the biggest, baddest looking guy around. Marek was an experienced fighter, and whilst in hell he had learned that often times, size was simply an illusion. He had once faced a sinner who had all the might of a massive green monster, packed into a small, feminine form. And that one had packed quite a punch. No, Marek avoided all these large, swaggering fools. Unless they got in his way, they were of no consequence to him.

Unfortunatly, that's just what one of those large, swaggering brutes did. he and his cronies had been eyeing the towering, muscular Marek the moment he had appeared on the street. Beating that kind of guy would sky rocket his reputation! The large man set down his beer and swaggered out into the street, purposely blocking Mareks path. Marek kept walking, seeming to ignore the man. The big guy took this as an insult and swung at the massive green being before him. The punch never got close, as Marek caught the fist with ease before dragging the man along, following his fists original flight path, only now with Marek's own considerable might added to its velocity. Marek dragged the guy through the air and easily tossed him over his shoulder and through a near by weapons stall, demolishing it, before continuing on his way.

The skinny man perked up as he heard someone crash into the nearby weapon stall put there by Heaven's Arena for people to practice and spar with while waiting outside.. Yusuke got up and walked over to the guy who had thrown the human and noticed he wasn't normal just by the way his energy felt now that Yusuke was so close to him. He still couldn't tell just how strong it was though because the area was still packed with too many moderate leveled spiritual energies but he could at least tell this guy "felt" stronger than he seemed. So Yusuke grabbed his attention.

"So how bout picking on someone your own size instead of waiting time with the small fish eh?" He said bluntly with a slightly cheery demeanor since he was in a pretty good mood most of the time, "I promise it won't bore you." He didn't know if he could actually keep that promise since he still wasn't sure where he stacked up in the world but at least saying it might encourage this man to spar with Yusuke. Which would be wonderful since everyone else had just been glory chasers so far today. it seemed anyone of any true worth besides this man was either not in Nibelheim or was already inside the Arena.

"If you don't mind it I'd like to move to a less crowded spot beforehand though. Lets go to the outskirts. The surrounding mountains and forests would be much better for our fighting if I'm anywhere near right about your strength." He said if, and only if, the man agreed to spar with Yusuke. After all Yusuke was the equivalent of a paragon of justice.. He didn't want to spar only to cause more city wide collateral damage.. besides people might get hurt and he couldn't do that either.

If the man declined Yusuke would sigh a bit and walk off. If he agreed Yusuke would start heading to the city outskirts and after just thirty minutes would arrive at a safe distance from the nearest group of buildings, "I challenged so by all means make the first move." Yusuke said once they arrived before removing the cloak that he had been wearing to cover his clothing.

Which now showed his "bizarre" outfit consisting of a crimson robe fit with markings of a holy church over a black shirt that had the symbol of the beast, as in Lucifer, in the middle. On both of his dark blue jean legs he had a symbol for Paradise and Oblivion and on his back he wore a Kanji phrase meaning, "Live free. Die Well."

"Just to be fair you should at least warn me before we begin. I don't mind cheap shots but I should at least be made aware that combat has been started."

Marek was intrigued by the small, odd man who approached him. He had indeed come looking for a fight, and one had just walked right up and offered itself to him. And even with Marek's limited sensing abilities, he could tell that this one was indeed....different from the others. Less hot air and more ability. This one held....possibilities. So Marek did indeed follow him to the outskirts. He waited patiently while the man removed his cloak. Marek narrowed his eyes dangerously when he got a good look at the robes though. He recognized many of the markings, especially the mark of the beast, and the appearance of such garments did not sit well with Marek, striking himas more than just coincidence. And he did not like coincidence.


The large, green sinner stood tall, tossing aside his own cloak to reveal his massive form. "You wear the mark of the beast, and the robes of a clergy. I sense that you are a member of some sort of church. I dislike churches. The last time I met a so called church warrior, he attempted to send me back to hell and I was forced to end his life. Tell me, are you also a holy agent, come to send this demon back to hell?" he asked, using that moment to unleash his spiritual pressure in a cascade of force that would send weaker men scurrying.

"My garment is merely tribute to those who died under my leadership.." Yusuke said with a perfect poker face due to his training instead of having a look of massive sorrow, "As long as we are in neutral territory I do not intend to slay anyone." The sinner started to flaunt his power and it didn't even bother Yusuke. Energy flaunts never actually bothered the young warrior since he had been so used to Istar's own energy reserves.. and in response he simply smiled carefree and suddenly flexed his muscles as his body tripled in density and mass until the skinny man went from wire frame body to extremely finely toned muscled wrestler body. This was his normal strength unrestrained and his attire seemed to stretch to allow the extra mass without tearing.

"Your scare tactics won't work here I'm afraid.. Now as I said before I would like you to start us off since I challenged you," Yusuke stated a second time before taking a boxing stance. If need be he could make a weapon to defend himself but his boxing and wrestling techniques were his favorite and most trained methods of combat, "This will hopefully show me where I stand in the world." He said offhandedly not really aiming the statement at Marek but not quite whispering to himself as his voice volume was still normal.

Marek couldn't help but smile. Perhaps this fight would be more entertainment and less life struggle than he thought. Marek slowly lowered himself into a balanced crouch, bringing his hands up infront of him in an open, grapplers stance. As he did so, he chain links on his back began to slowly and carefully detach from one another, sliding down his body to lay flat on the ground. It all happened very quickly, right before he charged his opponent. Just before he reached Yusuke however, he would throw his torso back and downwards, causing his legs to flip up, allowing him to snap a kick at the mans jaw, and another one at the enter of his chest, before he would land on his hands and twist his body hard, pivoting to whip his legs around to kick at Yusuke again.

Yusuke wasn't really surprised.. He liked the idea behind the attack but he didn't think it was really the brightest thing in the world to do, When the man did a flip kick at him he dipped his head back to avoid getting discombobulated from the blow and solidly took the kick to the chest on purpose, or at least since he wasn't yet sure of the speed difference between the two fighters yet it may have seemed like it, before trying to grab it with his hulked out body when it made contact and spinning to the right to toss the man to the ground a few feet away. Assuming his grab throw failed he would instead just mentally check the damage from the kick as he planned out his next dozen moves. The power behind it was much greater than Yusuke predicted but it wasn't enough to do any serious injury.. not from one kick at least.

The testing skirmish was over. Now it was time for the real fighting. Whether or not his previous grapple had worked he juggernaut rushed Marek. The man was strong but from what Yusuke could tell they were nearly equal though he begrudgingly admitted that this man seemed just strong enough to make the difference in pure combat noticeable to any real fighter. Upon getting within striking distance he started off with a Lariat to the man's lower jaw and neck, assuming he missed which was likely, he then spun around using his own momentum of his attack to make it happen seemingly instantly and did a heel kick outwards towards what would then be the man's spinal area if he hadn't turned around or moved entirely. If he had moved entirely to avoid the lariat Yusuke would still spin around to be facing him but would instead punch into the ground and hurl a large twenty foot slab of earth at the man before rushing him again using the rubble as cover from Marek's field of vision. Assuming Yusuke once again managed to get close to Marek using this tactic he would try a solid gut breaker punch to the man's stomach at full strength since he now knew his opponent was not going to be beaten easily or even if he "could" beat this man.

and the entire time he was doing all of this he was grinning. Enjoying the skirmish in all it's glory.

Marek was indeed caught and thrown, but he hit the ground and rolled back to his feet, narrowing his eyes as he surveyed his opponent. The kicks seemed to have limited, if any, damage. Yikes. Ok he was likely resistant to blunt force trauma, Marek thought to himself, but he had plenty of other options.

As Yusuke charged him, Marek braced himself for a leap, and as the lariat came in he would leap, placing his hands on the outstretched arm to flip right over. As he did so, he sent a command to some of the links he had buried earlier, making them rise from the ground and fly at Yusuke.Lets see if he could be cut. He wasn't even there for the kick and as the giant hurled the large boulder, Marek stuck his arm out and spun, hurling a discus, his Herculean throw, at the boulder. The boulder would shatter from the discus, and all the rubble would get caught up in the wake, as it went right at Yusuke who was charging behind.

Crap. Yusuke's eyes noticed it before his body could find the time to respond by stopping and changing direction. He really didn't want to use his trump card so quickly but if he didn't he was gonna get really injured. He could do nothing about the chain links that sliced him a bit all over but none of those were very serious and Yusuke could worry about that in a second. Still stuck in his run he could do little else but throw his arms up infront of him and activate his Legacy ability. It wasn't going to make it hurt less but it would keep it from tearing the living crap out of him. As the discus made contact with his arms and he immediately started sliding backwards his power started to increase drastically. It continued to rise as the Discus finally forced him back a few dozen feet by now and then it stopped and fell to the ground and all the rubble behind it buried Yusuke.

Only for him to come bashing out of it a moment later. The massive strength increase he had gained had been lost though the ability itself was still active. He was massively sore sure but at least he wasn't dead. That was a good thing. He hadn't known about the chains until now or that may not have happened.. He was still smiling too. This guy wanted to use weapons so Yusuke figured that meant he could too. He suddenly formed two curved twobladed weapons one for each hand and grinned even wider. With these protecting his hands and being very versatile defensive weapon itself this would hopefully give him what he needed in case there were more of those chain things.

"Bit sneaky of ya I'd say," Yusuke complained while still grinning, "At least I managed to see it before it hit me.. Or else I may be dead.." He was fairly certain that was true but wasn't willing to test it to make sure.. if that did happen again Yusuke would be ready for it, "Round two!" And off he sprint with a defensive guard up with his new weapons. When and if he made it into range he'd worry about attack then.. but for now he just needed to reach the guy.

Marek watched the brute charge, smiling a bit. He was strong and tough. But Marek wondered at his intelligence. He braced his feet and suddenly rushed towards Yusuke himself, activating his Guard of Sparta ability. As he neared he suddenly dropped to his knees, bringing the shield up to ward off any attack from those blades. However, he brought it up at an angle. One end, the end closest to Yusukes feet, was down near the ground, and Marek would attempt to slip that end under one foot and then heave with all his impressive strength, to lift and then flip Yusuke.