There wasn't a moment where Maarschalk stood still; at every given moment, he could run at his fastest speed. The dialogue that rattled away; it amused Maarschalk.
You've heard stories of Pluto, the hunter of the Church. He was a hero, a legend echoed across the tales of every generation of Hunters.
When you meet what remains of him, he is nothing but a beast, a monster like any other to be put down. The monster is savage, ruthless, brutal, and merciless. It gnashes and claws towards you, its blood-lust driving itself to kill you.
It lies still in a pool of blood. A faint, glow in the shape of a man then emanates beside the fallen beast in the darkness. It looks upon the man. And then it speaks.
"He who knows no fear, knows no courage."
And it stands upright, looking down at you. You are not facing a man anymore. But an animal.
His etiquette had changed, from a blood lusty beast; to a man of the 79th decennium. The audience observed how the man operated; he merely resembled a man, barely a man; but an animal in disguise of a human. And thus, he operated as a machine; the steps echoed throughout the arena as the audience had found their silence, tensed from the start of this battle until its end. His fight stance was still in its true form. Even after the exchange.
Maarschalk generally didn’t have as much speed as many others who attended today; inspecting someone’s physique felt all too easy for Maarschalk. The steps that the Strategist took were full of violence, bloodshed. Brutality was in his veins. It wasn't a surprise that he fell for Maarschalks bait, at least that's how Maarschalk wanted him to think about it. The psychological side of combat is one where he excelled in. Psychoanalyzing was something he passively did. Somehow the boy had an overwhelming feel of wanting to be in control; and Maarschalk wanted to toy with that feeling. When he spoke of the insult, Maarschalk begun to move with a speed like the boys, if not faster. Before he could reach the middle of his dialogue, Maarschalk interrupted his foe by moving forwards. Although unclear whether his foe would stop talking, Maarschalk wouldn't stop moving. Since he was moving as top speed, and his opponent was moving at a decent pace as well, he'd ensure his chances of being able to reach his opponent before allowing him to back away. Since his opponent would need to stop and then gain motion again by moving backwards or into any other direction other than forwards, Maarschalk had the upper hand. Unlike what his stance suggested, punching his opponent wasn't his goal this time.
Since he observed early on by the way his foe moved towards him; with such violence and blood thirst, he figured that he wouldn't go out without desperately trying to punch Maarschalk as well - by using his legs, he would stay at a safe distance after every potential hit. And it's also how Maarschalk opened the fight. Whilst mid motion, Maarschalk found himself in a well reasonable kicking range of his opponent. His entire body had been running up to this point, where he stopped mid-motion with his left leg still in midair. His right foot was planted tightly on the stone floor. The right side of his body, his shoulder mostly begun to move backwards; as his spine was perfectly right up unto this point, it made it easy for him to motion his body in the opposite direction of where his kick was aimed at. For a moment, Maarschalk resembled a soccer player who was about to kick a ball into the goal, except for his arms – they were still raised to the point that they were before, in line with his opponent’s chest. Instead of aiming to kick a ball into the goal, he aimed to the right side of his opponent’s body. His body, for its height, still had a great deal of agility; he wouldn't allow himself to kick a pointy limb, had the boy tried to defend himself in that manner. Luck was on Maarschalks side; as the boy, didn't impose on dodging this way, rather the boy moved towards him, more specifically targeted his food pipe – which he tried to achieve with a swing of his arm. To accomplish this, the boy would have to move forwards, even more into the kick of Maarschalk. Since Maarschalks upper body was in motion, he made it move even further back to compliment the motion of his kick even more, and prevent his foe from hitting the upper part of his chest. Maarschalk, being the tall person that is; realized that his opponent was so close to him, his foot wouldn’t be able to tap him out anymore. This resulted in Maarschalk arching his knee, so that his knee met his foes ribcage at its maximum strength and speed. His leg arched itself immediately when he turned it to the front of his body, thus not losing any speed.
His shoe ensured his chances of staying stable on the floor, there was no way for his opponent to take advantage of this because of the things that followed; Maarschalks arms were still in a guard, upon noticing the stray fist being headed to his upper body, and him moving his upper body backwards and backwards he took action. He knew that the further he moved his upper torso backwards, the harder it would become for the boy to reach far enough to hit his torso. There were two things he could in this scenario, given his narrow fighting stance; he could either use his elbow to disable his opponents fist permanently, or use both his hands to catch his wrist. Catching his wrist was the riskiest maneuver he could take; what if the strike was too powerful for him to catch, or if he had slipped- it’d mean a knockout. Using his elbow to block had its risk as well, what if the boy was an actual madman, and used all his strength to punch – it could dislocate his shoulder, but it’d break all the bones in the boy’s hand. Maarschalk wasn’t interested in a draw.
The strike was only possible if his foe used his left arm, and that’s what Maarschalk reacted against; Maarschalk used his left arm, opposite of the arm that was close to striking him to push away – by doing this, any momentum his foe would have gained would be dissipated. This rendered the strength of his foe useless, and made it very easy for Maarschalk to catch his wrist with his other arm. Which is what he did, after pushing the strike away, he simultaneously moved his other arm up to catch his wrist. All this occurred simultaneously with his knee kicking his opponent. These sequences of actions were based off his opponents’ movements, Maarschalk had been moving reactionary – something that he didn’t really enjoy doing. To ensure the chances of his kick landing, Maarschalk made sure to attempt to elevate the boy off the ground by raising his wrist into the air. The only thing he would be vulnerable to were his legs at this point, but given the kick that had been delivered; his opponent was likely knocked out at this point. Had that been the case, Maarschalk dropped his wrist and moved back, falling into his stance once more. If his opponent was still breathing, Maarschalk ensured his chances of victory by throwing in a final punch. All of his actions were done as fast as they could be done. Maarschalk was destined to reign.