Ana and a namekian stood across from each other in an empty lot on the edge of town. It was a popular place for various fighters to hang out and challenge each other to street fights. It was more open than most places and that let a lot of the fighters cut loose. They were able to fly and launch ki attacks with less fear of collateral damage staying their hands. It also wasn't officiated like the pits and meant that people had no commitment to it. They could come and go and fight people as they pleased.

There were a few unspoken rules of course. You pick fights with equal opponents, not those weaker than you. If they catch some one bullying a weaker fighter the others would step in and break it up. The fights stop when some one couldn't continue or tapped out. Basic things like that. Everyone was also free to bet on the matches by throwing whatever they wanted into a combined pot that's then split evenly amongst the winners. All and all it was a harmless past time for the more amateur fighters.

Ana was stretching out slowly, making each move deliberately. Alternatively the namekian across from her was shaking out their hands and jumping in place, warming up with bouncing movements while they waited for Ana to finish her stretching routine. Ana finished off with a roll of her neck on her shoulders, and then settled in a deep fighting stance. 

There was a silent moment as the two watched each other. The crowd around them settled down, the entire lot going quiet. There was a tension in the air as the two fighters waited for some unspoken signal, one only known to the two of them. Then the namekian launched themselves at Ana with no warning, attacking like a freight train. Ana adopted the defensive style she was so familiar with. 

“Haaa!” the namekian warrior cried out as their attacks slammed at Ana. Each punch, kick, and strike was punctuated with a sharp battle cry. Alternatively Ana was quiet. She countered with silent and precise movements. 

The namekian’s fist flashed out in a backhand that Ana easily blocked with her forearm. She pushed their arm back and slammed her palm into their exposed side. The namekian gasped at the flash of pain and jumped back to put some distance between themselves and Ana. Ana didn’t pursue them. She instead hunkered down and focused strengthening her defense. She was going to let her enemy come to her instead. The namekian didn’t fall for that. Instead they summoned up ki into their fist and tossed a few light blasts at Ana to try and get her to open up her guard.

Ana ducked her head down low into her guard, so she didn’t see him charging in after the blasts to spin a roundhouse kick to the back of her head. Ana grunted as the kick caused her to stumble forward. Ana’s left hand planted on the ground to stabilize her, and her right leg flashed up at the namekian’s chin. They barely managed to block the attack with the palms of their hands crossed over each other to catch the kick. But the force of the blow still sent them skyward.

The namekian flipped upright mid-air, recovering from the kick and quickly looking back at- No. Ana wasn’t at the ground she was-

The namekian spun around as Ana seemed to materialize behind them, their arms raised in an “X” to block the axe kick Ana brought down with bruising force. The namekian uncrossed their forearms, throwing Ana back with the action. Ana also flipped backwards and recovered herself, floating in the air. The two stared each other down for a long moment. Measuring each other. Then, as if by some unspoken signal, they launched at each other. Ana and the namekian traded a flurry of blows. Strength sacrificed for speed. Dozens of strikes in moments. Kick, punch, block, uppercut, kick, kick, back fist, punch, one right after the other. The first to make a mistake would break the volley.

That happened to be the namekian.

Ana slammed a direct uppercut into their solar plexus knocking the wind straight out of their lungs. They gasped for air, and then clasped their hands together, bringing both fists down like a hammer on Ana’s back. Ana was sent rocketing towards the floor. Ana flared her ki, stopping her descent just short of crashing into the ground.The namekian hovered where they were, hand over their bruised chest, and coughing raggedly in an attempt to breathe some air into their aching lungs. It took a few great gasps before they finally were able to breath with some semblance of regularity.

Ana actually waited for the namekian to recover their breath like a good sport, slowly flying back up to their level in the sky.

“Enough?” Ana asked, her head cocking to the side. “No, let’s change tactics,” they grinned back.

“Ki attacks?” Ana said.

“Yep, my court now,” the namekian chuckled, then threw their hands forward fingers splayed, ki charging up with a dangerous crackle.

Ana prepared to dodge out of the way of the blast but instead of the coming attack she expected the ki in the namekian's hands flared bright like a flash bang grenade. Ana reflexively ducked her head back, and threw an arm up to shield her eyes. Exactly as planned the namekian blasted right up to Ana and grabbed her arm, swinging her around in a circle to disorient her, and then launch her towards the sky. Ana tried to right herself in mid air, but she found herself peppered with rapid fire ki blasts that kept her off balance.

It was obvious the namekian had the advantage in a ranged match, and there was a roar among the collection of fighters as some were quick to change their bets.

Ana flared her ki around her in a powerful burst, dissipating some of the ki blasts before they could land. This gave her enough breathing room to fly around the namekian in a curve, looping towards them while dodging the ki blasts. The namekian saw her coming towards them and switched tactics, cutting off their rapid fire blasts and instead began to charge a large ball of ki in their palms. They rapidly poured their ki into the attack to ready it before Ana could launch a counter attack against them.

Ana was quicker than that, however. Just because she preferred a defensive style didn't mean she didn't have her own ranged arsenal. She had to be adaptive through out her life or she would have died. Ana charged two balls of ki in her fists and flung them at the namekian as she circled around them, causing the attacks to come from the namekian's side and flank respectively. The namekian dodged the attacks flying to the side in a quick burst, but hadn't realized that the attacks had been a trick to herd them into the path of Ana's true attack: Gun Shot blast.

The Namekian  threw up their hands and caught Ana's attack with the ki still charged in their palms. The ki blast sent the Namekian careening back until they were able to deflect the Gun Shot skyward.

Ana tried to press her advantage while the Namekian was busy deflecting her attack. However, she didn't have the stamina to keep up the ki attacks and she needed to stop and recover. She wasn't as good at pacing herself with the energy attacks.The Namekian wasn't as spent as Anastasia was, and still had they ki they had charged for their attack.

"HAAAA!" The attack they unleashed was the largest by far, easily being large enough to engulf Ana's entire body. The attack was overwhelmingly powerful. Anastasia couldn't dodge. All she could do was poor the last of her strength in weathering the attack.

Ana was sent falling back to the earth from the technique overwhelming her completely, and crashing to the lot floor. Her body smoked faintly.She came to half an hour later, seeing the Namekian kneeling next to her.

"Good match," Anastasia croaked to the Namekian.

"You were super tough," they grinned and offered their hand to her.

"Not tough enough," she groaned as she took the Namekian's hand and sat up.

"You nearly were. Gotta work on your ranged attack skills."

"You're right," Ana let loose a small laugh."Rematch next week?"

"Give me a month. I wanna create a counter strategy for next time."

"Sounds good. I'm looking forward to it."

"Till then... know a good healer?"

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Total Word Count: 2,331