Chapter: 22 Fisticuffs

Right then, unarmed combat. Kokashi wasn’t allowed to use his claws or bite, but he had decent armor, including a helmet, chest plate, greaves, gauntlets, and leather almost everywhere else. Punching was gonna hurt like hell Tom thought, so grappling was most likely the way to go, especially when the dragonette couldn’t use his fearsome maw.

Tom had undergone some basic hand to hand combat training, and even done a bit of martial arts when he was a kid. Not to mention the odd brawl of course. But he wasn’t exactly skilled in any of it. He was also used to using his knife when it came to close quarters. As the two combatants circled each other, Tom lunged at Kokashi, barreling at his opponent’s shoulder forward and bent low. He needed to get in close, punching would do jack shit against steel and padding.

Kokashi responded trying to dodge to the side, apparently not quite expecting that response. He was quick though, managing to clear Tom’s charge. Kokashi made quick use of Tom's little miss calculation, grabbing him from behind, trying to get his arms around Tom's throat. Kokashi was a bit lighter than Tom despite his tail and wings, the 10 cm lacking in height didn’t help the poor guy either as Tom grabbed Kokashi’s arm and bent forward lifting him off the ground. Then he put all he had into a leap up and backward hoping to squash the dragonette beneath him.

One thing Tom had forgotten was that his target had wings, as he pushed them both airborne, Kokashi seemed to realize what he was trying to do and flared out his wings, stopping the rotation and preventing him from being squashed. Instead, Tom simply landed on his feet again slightly confused as to what just happened. Tom elected to try and wrest the bugger off instead, Tom grabbed the dragonettes arm bent over forwards twisting to the side, trying to lift the dragonette over his shoulder and throw him to the ground. This time Kokashi’s wings didn’t save him and his lower stature and weight really bit him as he went flying to the ground landing face-first on the ground.

Tom was quick to take advantage, grabbing a hold of a wing and putting his knee on Kokashi’s back, twisting until the dragonette slammed the ground with his free arm indicating surrender. Tom had honestly not been expecting to win that, maybe it was because Kokashi had been expecting a fistfight rather than a grappling brawl. As he helped the dragonette to his feet, he gave him a pat on the back “Sorry” it had sounded quite painful when Tom twisted the wing.

“Aowww” Kokashi had gone looking at Tom accusingly. Tom had just patted him on the back a bit more not quite sure what else to do. He was fairly certain the petting approach wouldn’t be effective here.

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She had been curious how Tom would go about it having no claws in the first place. It seemed he simply got around the problem by not bothering to try, instead going for grappling his target to the ground. She glanced at Rachuck who was clearly taking mental notes, he didn’t look too pleased but not surprised either. She had not been sure what to expect, they usually fought with claw and talon, you couldn’t do that in a training fight but you still usually emulated the style, punching and kicking at your opponent.

“So how many rounds before you say you're sorry?” Sapphire had shouted at them following the quick scuffle.

“Ohh I’m not done with him yet, that fucking hurt!”

The two combatants continued their brawl, it couldn't really be called a fight, it only took seconds and they were back on the ground, where Tom's higher weight and the fact he didn’t have fragile handholds on his back gave him a considerable advantage. Kokashi did manage a win or two, mostly when he managed to outmaneuver Tom quickly and get him in a locked position from where he couldn’t escape. His attempts to fight regularly most often ended with Tom grabbing hold of an arm and using it to force Kokashi to the ground. Kokashi then tried some kicks which ended when Tom managed to grab Kokashi’s leg and hurled him at the fence surrounding the arena. To much discomfort of those watching, except Kiran, because of course, it was clear that in his eyes Tom could do no wrong

“Wooow.” The little dragonet exclaimed.

“No aowww! Are you kidding me!” Kokashi trying his best to get up onto all fours, coughing up a little blood.

“Kick hurt, Sharp” Tom just went as he walked over to help the dragonette up, pointing at his clawed feet. As Sapphire looked closer she could indeed see some of Tom’s clothes had been ripped and there were bits of crimson in the sand.

“No claws, Kokashi” Sapphire had shouted out. “Now say you’re sorry and I, might! Tell Tom to let you go.”

“Oh you are just being the worst today.”

“Say it!”

“Hell no, it was funny!” Kokashi clearly needed additional convincing, luckily she had just the ting.

“Tom! Hammer next” She could see Kokashis face turn dour at the prospect.

“Okay,” Tom smirked a little as he made his way over to the weapons rack. Sapphire was fairly sure he had caught on to what was going on by now.

“Yay, hammer time!” Little Kiran chirped up, clearly excited.

Rachuck just smiled a bit shouting out. “I say soldier, you are surprisingly committed to that joke. Sure this is wise?”

“Oh gods no, sorry Saph oh I’m so very sorry! Please I want to walk tomorrow too” Kokashi sounded quite genuine, Sapphire thought, even fairly scared.

“Okay then, Tom no hammer” Tom just stopped and nodded at Sapphire, then he went about inspecting his clothes.

“Broken” he concluded, “Need fix.” Well she couldn't argue with that, besides this would have to do for the day, he was already beaten bloody and Kokashi was even limping a bit. Perhaps a bit much for calling her fat she concluded, but they had learned a lot too.

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The day following the impromptu hand-to-hand combat training Tom was even sorer, his entire body ached, Nunuk had seen to his cuts, they weren't more than skin deep. Kokashi clearly hadn’t intended to cut him, it was simply not really avoidable when kicking with a large taloned foot. Some of those things were the size of knives, Tom shuddered.

He really needed an armor upgrade. his uniform was not meant to deal with that. He had gotten his hands on some pieces that seemed to fit earlier but he really needed something more covering. That night when the children went to sleep he got out the pen and paper, he had some tailoring to do

He laid out his specifications, resistance to light cuts but he didn’t want something too bulky, ideally, that would be cloth armor something like a gambeson, but the only cloth he had seen so far was a few robes, like the one Apuma and Nunuke used… oh right, likely imported, they didn’t have any sheep after all. Well fuck, and he was fairly sure he hadn’t brought cotton. Why hadn’t he, that would have been so useful? Too late now. They did have plenty of game leather though, and judging by the armor he had seen they had something thicker than deer too, or maybe that was laminate? He would have to find out.

He would be cooping his greaves and look into getting his hands on something for his upper arms. we would need to incorporate his vest too. The ballistic plates were too good to leave out. He also needed his bandoliers of ammo, both his thigh holsters. The sword he had been given was in a belt scabbard, he needed to join that to his revolver ammo belt somehow. The helmet was a point too. His own was good but it needed face protection. The guards all had helmets that came down over their snout to defend from the front side and top, even if their chin was exposed.

Some sort of metal face mask then, preferably something that he could flip down when he needed it. That would interfere with his helmet mount though, he had his regular goggles too, they were plexiglass and meant to take a beating. So maybe he could make do with just a lower face mask which he could strap on. Taking a hit to it would hurt like hell but it might save his ass.

He spent the evening and most of the next morning working on his design, he had always liked drawing even if he wasn't that good at it. The result looked weird though, almost like you had slapped some knight armor onto a marine. That wasn’t entirely inaccurate but still. The next day he convinced Sapphire to take a look at his designs. She seemed very interested in asking questions and giving criticism. Then had come seemingly the big question. “What color?”

Tom had shrugged “Green, Black?”

His answer had not pleased her even if she had tried to hide the fact. Tom had heard them refer to the colors he wore before and it hadn’t been positive. He really needed to know what the deal was with them and colors he thought.

“Why you white blue?” Sapphire pondered the question for a bit, most likely trying to find a way to articulate the answer for him.

“White is pure, Blue is me” Well that sort of made sense, they did bleed bright cobalt blue, where he was crimson red.

“What green mean?” He could guess, but hey might as well be sure.

“Deceit, poison” She had gone in response. Oh, he had guessed nature, right. Shit...

“What black mean?” He didn’t have a brilliant feeling about this one, but hey you might get lucky

“Black is opposite white, Corruption, evil, impurity,” Oh dear, Tom thought. That explained a few things. He needed to be creative here, even if it was bullshit he really didn’t want to be painted white and well, red he guessed? He would never be hiding anywhere again. Not to mention looking like a damnd British redcoat or something, fucking ridiculous.

“To me, green nature. To me black night, shadow” She seemed to ponder that for a minute

“You are of nature and shadow?” She didn’t seem to quite get his answer, but hey she hadn’t called him on his bullshit.

“No nature, shadow hide from enemy, else I die” She gave him a sideways glance, clearly not convinced.

“Not here you don’t.” Well shit, she was sort of right but it would suck a lot to not be able to hide and sneak up on someone.

“I no fly, I no sword!” he protested he really didn’t like the idea of being covered in white just to prove he was pure.

“You of keep, you will be pure.” well then he better revise his designs then...

“some white good? or all white?” he really hoped they wouldn’t be making him throw all of his clothes in a tub of bleach or something. She seemed to ponder this for quite a while. Far too long for Tom’s liking at least.

“Some will do, besides white difficult. Shiny good too” Ohh excellent he just needed to shine, fucking marvelous. Part soldier part disco ball. As he pondered what she had said. White was difficult but wasn’t blue like one of the most expensive colors in old times, he could swear he had heard that somewhere.

“Sapphire, how make blue?”

“We are blue,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

“Don’t understand, make blue leather?”

“Blood is blue, it’s easy” She seemed far too okay with what she had just said, they were talking about being white good, and pure. Yet they were dyeing leather with their own blood!

“Wait. Blood!”

“Yes, we are blue” She clearly found this completely normal. Holy fuck they were wearing clothes stained in their own blood.

“Wait, this your blood?” Tom went pointing at some of her leather armor.

“White is pure, blue is me.'' She had apparently seemed to grasp that Tom was more than a little disturbed and sounded a tad quizzical. That was so fucking metal! Wait, would they make him do that too? Could his blood even dye like that? He hadn’t thought about the fact the color was so vibrant, it looked like it was made with a very strong dye. Bloodstains must be a pain here if it dyes like that.

“Don’t think my blood color good and when dry go brown”

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What did he mean his blood didn’t color it was bright red?! But she did remember when he had bled in the arena, the blood had started going dark rather quickly. If true that would be a problem though, he couldn’t wear anything of someone else. The whole point was that the armor was you. But having him turn up in dark brown wouldn’t do either. People would think he was a slave or something worse. She would need to ask Nunuk or Apuma about this. If they had visitors, Tom would either need to be presentable or hidden, else he would likely have to keep his current colors and then explain it away.

“Will go ask later. Tom what blue and white mean” Tom seemed quite hesitant to answer that one looking away and mumbling something under his breath

“Tom. What mean?”

“Blue, ocean, sky. White, purity, and… surrender.” Sapphire wasn’t quite sure what to do with that, Surrender. really! Why did white have to be the color of the coward to Tom? Well, at least it seemed Tom didn’t wear black to show he is evil, though she really hadn’t been expecting as such. Still, this was gonna be a problem.