A fire starts with a spark

[skip-stop]

It was a little funny for Astrid to hear the shortened form of Kyoko's name. Maybe she could use this during their next meeting to tease the middleweight champion. However, she liked Sheena's enthusiasm even more. This woman was clearly motivated to become better, which Astrid considered an extremely good trait.

“Nah, don't exaggerate!” Astrid said with a smile after Sheena called her a brilliant fighter. “There are many unique fighters here and everyone has their strengths, I'm sure you'll have something to surprise me with too!”

It was actually quite an interesting topic. What exactly determines a fighter's strength? Muscles? Skills? Experience? Willpower? Astrid devoted most of her life to becoming a real fighter, but although the openweight championship technically gave her the right to be called the strongest, she knew for sure that there were fighters in the federation who were equal to her.

“May I ask you something?” She tilted her head slightly to the side. “What prompted you to study striking techniques in more detail?” The look of the lavender eyes became more piercing. “In most cases, fighters focus on developing their strengths rather than trying to get rid of their weaknesses." Astrid glanced briefly at the punching bag. “And there's nothing wrong with that, but you decided to go this way, even though it's obvious that you don't have too much experience with striking techniques yet." The blonde smiled softly. “Or am I just overthinking?”

[Bare]

Astrid was truly far more down to earth than Sheena initially thought. A bit boisterous and loud certainly, but not inherently bad things. Especially since she used such traits to try and help put her at ease which she respected even more.

"You're certainly not wrong there, and I probably could, though you being you I wouldn't be surprised if you overcame whatever I could throw." Sheena said humbly, not being one to act cockily without reason, especially to someone like Astrid. Shortly after though it would appear that Astrid had a question for her making Sheena tilt her head to the side in curiosity.

"Yes? What is it?" Sheena asked curiously before listening intently to Astrid's question, which more or less boiled down to why she was working on striking when it was a weakness for her. Humming softly in though Sheena would look down at her hands for a moment, taking the time to choose her words before looking back up at Astrid.

"Well... there isn't a particular reason I suppose. Since I started I've been a bit of an all rounder. Jack of all trades, master of none and all that... But I need to improve, and to do that I have increase my abilities across the board. Many people close to me, people I look up to are strikers.

So I guess it only felt appropriate to start there. Especially since its technically the area I have the least experience and range with as you mentioned." Sheena said, hoping that explanation made sense to the champion.

[skip-stop]

The Norwegian woman asked this question because she was well aware that some fighters have a bad habit of rushing to extremes, mainly due to recent failures. Even Astrid herself and some of her friends have been in this situation before, so what she really wanted to do was make sure that Sheena knew exactly what she was doing and why she was doing it. Fortunately, the champion heard a completely satisfactory answer.

“I see,” she said with a nod after Sheena explained everything to her. “Then I can rest easy, huh!”

Maybe they've only known each other for fifteen minutes, but since Astrid offered to help this woman, she began to feel some responsibility for her. Fortunately, the purple-haired woman's response made it clear to Astrid that Sheena just wants to develop her skills in all areas, including striking technique. After these words, she began to remind the champion even more of her best friend, because among all the people Astrid knew, she could not name a more versatile fighter than Charlotte.

“So,” wild flames began to run in the blonde's lavender eyes. “Ready for practice?” She nodded towards the mats a little to the side, after which she adjusted her seven-ounce gloves. “Three minutes sparring, full contact.”

[Bare]

Sheena wasn't exactly sure how Astrid would take her answer. It could be construed as a bit of a weak explanation for why she was doing what she was doing, but thankfully it seemed that wouldn't be the case. Astrid would nod towards with a small smile, seemingly accepting of her answer. Smiling at this Sheena would nod at the woman.

"Yes you can." Sheena said with a nod before Astrid then brought something else up. The idea of more.. hands on practice. A spar against her. "Wait what?" Sheena said in slightly stunned silence for a moment before quickly shaking her head and nodding towards Astrid. "I mean of course. Lets do it!" Sheena said following Astrid onto the mats and standing up to meet her, rolling her neck and putting her fists up in preparation for the spar!

[skip-stop]

It seems Astrid's suggestion took Sheena by surprise to some extent. But just a second later, the purple-haired woman came to her senses and enthusiastically agreed to spar with Astrid. With a smooth step, the women went to the mats. Before they started, she picked up her phone and set the timer for three minutes. A few seconds lated they were standing opposite each other, taking up their fighting stances.

“Ding-Ding-Ding!" Astrid said with undisguised enthusiasm in her voice, giving the start to their sparring.

Without hesitation, the Norwegian woman rushed forward. She was hardly as fast as Sheena, but for a woman of her size she was moving with amazing ease, which allowed her to quickly close the distance between them. Maybe it was just sparring, but Astrid was extremely serious.

To test how well the purple-haired woman had learned the few lessons Astrid had taught her, the blonde intended to throw her left hand forward, aiming for her sparring partner's chin with a left jab. However, regardless of the result, she would immediately try to take a diagonal step forward and to the right in order to be in Sheena's blind spot, because in that case there would be little to stop her from turning on her toes to the left, sending a hard right hook to Sheena's left cheek.

[Bare]

Sheena was apprehensive to be sure as she literally stepped into the ring with the top champion in LAW, but she couldn't let that stop her. Not when she was on a road to improving herself and becoming stronger. This was a challenge for herself, one that she had to take. No matter how it went she would take it on with pride and show Astrid what she could do. Taking her stance and readying herself as Astrid made an impression of a bell ringing the purple haired girl would remain stationary, allowing for her opponent to come rushing in as what seemed accurate for a woman like Astrid.

Sure enough the blonde was rushing at her at a blistering pace and was opening with what seemed like a left jab right at her face! Eyes widening at this Sheena would lean back, avoiding the move but barely. Simultaneously however Sheena thought this seemed a bit too simple for Astrid and thus kept her eyes trained on her opponent and sure enough saw another punch coming from her right side. Instinctively Sheena would drop her hips, ducking to avoid the blow while pushing her fist forward to try and deliver a straight right punch right into Astrid's stomach!

[skip-stop]

After Astrid threw her left fist forward, Sheena took a short step back, which left a few centimeters between her chin and the blonde's fist. It was commendable, the purple-haired woman was very adept at using the space without making too wide movements. However, Astrid was ready for this and therefore quickly changed her position.

Putting both strength and speed into the second punch, Astrid was confident that either this punch would be successful, or Sheena would have to try to block it, which would actually be very problematic due to the power of this punch. However, the purple-haired woman was able to surprise the champion much earlier than Astrid expected.

Paying attention to Astrid's movements, Sheena managed to bend her knees, thanks to which she evaded Astrid's second punch too. Moreover, the Japanese woman launched her own attack by throwing a punch at the blonde's stomach. This sequence of actions showed that she really possessed high skill. But Sheena wasn't the only one who knew how to closely monitor her opponent's actions.

A second before the purple-haired woman's knuckles slammed into Astrid's stomach, the Norwegian woman strained her abs, so that Sheena's punch met not with soft flesh, but with a real steel wall. Sheena's attack was excellent, but Astrid was one of those who could easily compete with the notorious cousin of her sparring partner, and therefore one punch was clearly not enough to cause damage to her stomach.

“Choosing the belly as the target of the attack...” Astrid said, grabbing Sheena by the elbow with her right hand. “Don't forget whose belly it is!”

Taking a step forward, the champion intended to move her free hand under the Japanese woman's right armpit, and then, if successful, quickly turn her back to Sheena to throw her onto the mat with a quick hip toss!

[Bare]

Sheena knew she was up against an unbelievably tough challenge right now in the form of Astrid Arvidsson the woman was the LAW world champion for a very good reason after all and Sheena knew she wasn't on that level, not yet at least. But she could at least show she could put what the woman had taught her today to use, and show her skill and potentially all in one go through this spar!

Thus far she was able to dodge the Norse woman's two piece combo, albeit narrowly and from this position responded with a swift but strong jab aimed directly for her gut! However the moment Sheena's fist made impact she had to repress the urge to wince and shake out her hand from the recoil pain that surged through as a result of the punch against the iron clad abs of Astrid.

'Damn... I don't even know if Kyoko could get her abs this strong.' Sheena thought to herself, genuinely impressed even given the caliber of the woman that she was facing at the moment. Unfortunately things were about to go from bad to worse for Sheena as Astrid managed to catch onto her arm and pull Sheena over, slamming her into the mat with a hip toss! "Ugh!" Sheena gasped out in pain, trying to roll away from Astrid and hopefully get her legs under her to try and start rising up to her feet.

[skip-stop]

Having withstood her opponent's attack, Astrid was able to throw Sheena to the mat. The landing was quite hard for the purple-haired woman, but despite this, she did not lose her concentration. Before the Norwegian woman could continue her attack, Sheena quickly rolled away, clearly wanting to get to her feet because that way she had a much better chance of defending herself from the blonde's onslaught.

“Having gained an advantage, your opponent for sure will try to build on their success,” Astrid said, rushing forward without waiting for Sheena to get to her feet and take a fighting stance. “You have to stop them from doing that.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she swung her left arm, aiming a heavy left cross at Sheena's right cheek, so even if the Japanese woman had blocked it she would surely have felt the full power of the blonde's muscles. In addition, Astrid wasn't going to stop, instead immediately throwing her right arm in an arc forward and to the left, aiming a right hook at the left side of her sparring partner's torso.

Astrid didn't hold back at that moment, using as much strength and speed as she would have used in a real match. The only difference was that she purposefully acted a little more straightforward than usual. She didn't have the goal of beating the shit out of Sheena, instead she wanted to make sure that this woman had learned today's tips well. And to test this, Astrid intended to swing her left leg bent at the knee to send a left knee strike to the right side of Sheena's torso!

[Bare]

Sheena breathed in softly as she used the ropes to get back up to her feet after Astrid's initial attack. A bit surprised at the woman's ferocity but not willing to give in just yet.

Unfortunately however as Sheena looked up she would notice that her opponent was quick to give chase to her! 'Shit!' Sheena thought to herself as she got up fully in time to raise her guard and block Astrid's initial blow!

"Ngh!" Sheena grunted out in pain, the force of the blow ringing all throughout her limb, but Astrid wasn't done yet as she sent a follow up blow right her abdomen! "Ugh!" Sheena cried out as well, at least thankful that she had her body tensed up, it still hurt but not as bad as it could have.

Opening her eyes and focusing fully on her opponent Sheena would see Astrid lifting her leg up to strike the purple haired girl with a kick right to her side! "Ngh!" Sheena cried out in pain, but despite this... she would snap her arms down to capture the blonde's leg before she could pull it free!

"Duly... noted..." Sheena would say in response to Astrid's words before diving down and twisting as she did so, aiming to slam Astrid's leg into the mat with a dragon screw!