Heavy Is The Head ~P, NK, IO~

Altar stood in the grounds of a mostly abandoned communal and recreation area, his posture straight and his arms crossed tightly across his chest. It hadn't been long after their grim talk in the tyrant's underground torture chamber that the kage had summoned him for training. Whether this would be genuine training, or another excuse to torture him was yet to be seen.

"Is he truly the monster for torturing you, when you incite it?" Kalamity seethed in his head, the voice a coarse whisper like sandpaper on the brain that Altar was trying his damnedest to tune out. The boy would let out a sigh, shaking his head slowly, the mist causing his hair to dampen and stick to his face.

"Maybe I should've just killed the bastard and been done with the whole ordeal. How many more chances am I going to give him? How much more forgiveness can I bestow onto a demon? How much faith can I put in that which I don't  understand? Maybe Haru had the right idea..." Altar thought, his thoughts turning to his friend-turned-kage-turned-absentee. A brief smile would pull at the corners of Altar's mouth, quickly replaced by a scowl.

"The bastard left you to rot, to be tortured to death by Xyxer. He chose himself over you without so much as a second thought. He abandoned you, Altar. Just like everybody else. Worthless." Kalamity spoke again, taunting Altar, trying to push him to hate, to be angered.

Altar would simply let out another sigh and shake his head again, calmly awaiting the man who called on him.

Waiting for the arrival of his subordinate, the male rolled a clenched fist circularly in the open palm of his other hand, alternating this motion multiple times to limber himself up for the actions that were going to be performed in this humble setting. He was unsure on why he chose such a decrepit area for this session, perhaps he had been tempted by fate in case something went wrong, or perhaps it was simply because prying eyes were less likely to invade his privacy and scour his techniques. Once the male arrived, Xyxer watched him silently to allow him to catch his bearings of the area.

Once a small frame of time had passed, Xyxer would push his weight up from once of the benches to stand at his full height, continuing his range of stretches to limber up his muscles and allow for the most flexibility during the engagement. "Prepare yourself, Altar. We're training, not reading scripture. If you don't limber up you're going to pull a muscle and catch a knee to your jaw."

Altar would hear the man speak, swiveling around to face him. The boy was surprised to see the man simply stretching out, acting like they'd be taking a jog around the island rather than training. Shrugging, Altar would do the same, lightly stretching out his arms and legs.

"I feel there are worse fates when training with you, Xyxer. I'd more fear for my life than a knee to the jaw." the boy would say, the light behind his eyes growing ever so slightly. This would either be fun, or a complete stomp. He hoped for the former.

Having stretched for a good while and his body warm, Altar would halt and look to the man, a questioning look on his face opposed to actually asking anything out loud.

Xyxer's hands reached out towards his wrists individually, cracking them as he replied simply to the words of Altar, "If you die during training then I have no use for you during a time of war." He'd state simply, waiting for his current opposition to finish his limbering. Now, this could largely be a display of power on Altar to show how outclassed he was in the real world, an overbearing, repetitive cascade of duress could easily win this fight for him, and it would send the message across crystal clear, but it would not teach either of them anything except the divide that existed between their respect. As the leader, perhaps it was his duty to extend the olive branch and not simply lay into the boy, buy rather point out his weaknesses instead.

An anticipation flowed through the being of the male, and his body continued to tingle in response to the wind. He felt sensitive, primed, and most importantly engaged. Altar held back, whether it was out of respect for the kage and him not issuing a command to attack or not, he was unsure, but he wouldn't blindside the male. That wasn't the way of this shinobi. He advanced towards the male with simple pacing, standing roughly three feet in front of him. Xyxer paused momentarily to see if he would do anything in response to this action or allow it to happen, and if nothing was going to happen to warrant a response, Xyxer would throw his left hand outwards in a snapping jab towards the left pectoral of Altar. Of course this wasn't intended to actually kill the male, or even damage him greatly unless his health was trash and it like stopped his heart or some bullshit, but it was mostly to create a reaction for further development.

As the kage spoke, Altar would shrug. He, of course, had no intention of dying during training, but the man had misunderstood him. "I meant more that my life would be in danger because of YOU, not so much the training." the boy would say to the tyrant, before awaiting the kage's move.

Seeing the man walk towards him, Altar would ready himself for an assault, keeping his hands up and close, somewhat resembling a boxing guard. The tyrant could pull any number of things out of his hat, from a simple hand-to-hand barrage to use of his blade Samehada to a full scale assault of various jutsu. When fighting Xyxer, you always had to be on your toes, you always had to expect anything from the man.

As the man neared, he threw a snap jab at Altar's chest. Altar would use his right arm to knock the man's hand away, pushing it outwards towards the tyrant's right. At the same time, Altar would use his left hand to punch Xyxer in the gut. Assuming that landed, Altar would then take a step back with his left foot to widen and strengthen his stance, and use the same hand to throw a hook at the temple on the right side of the man's head.

It seemed the male had learned something since their last sparring encounter. An actual stance, although granted it eliminated any sort of eventful kick due to the nature he was attempting to emulate. To counter Xyxer's own jab, the male didn't bother to duck or weave under it, but rather he pushed it out to the side with his right hand with his other hand, still in sight of Xyxer although not for long, starting on it's path towards his gut.

So it was that his next course of action came into effect, as his arm continued to be pushed away by Altar's, Xyxer's left foot would flicker forwards to step into the guard of the male, and as that happened Xyxer's pushed arm would fold inwards to expose the elbow, fluidly using the gap closer to quite likely catch the ANBU operative off guard with the combination of movement. Of course, his cheeky little hand at his gut wasn't forgotten, and as it was still about a foot away from his stomach , Xyxer's own right hand would now act under the obscured vision of the clashing occurring between their other arms above them, in an attempt to grasp onto the back of Altar's left wrist with Xyxer's right hand with no intention further than pulling that wrist off to the right of Xyxer past his body harmlessly in order to pull the male off balance and further increase the chances of the cheeky elbow landing. Of course, if the elbow missed it's mark, Xyxer would likely continue to yank on his arm to throw him to the ground.

Altar's counter seemed to work as he intended, however instead of simply letting the arm fall flat, the tyrant stepped inwards towards Altar and folded his arm in an attempt to rock Altar with an elbow to the chin. Seeing the tyrant's arm fold inward, Altar would slide his front foot in and left, closely followed by his back foot. This would move his body with the tyrant's pull, shifting his entire body in the direction rather than just pulling his upper body. While moving, Altar would turn his body slightly to the left, and after attaining his position would swing his right leg behind the tyrant's own, and push into the man's body with his right shoulder, pulling left with his grabbed arm as well.

If his trip was successful, Altar would then raise his grabbed arm and swing his right arm under it, aiming to hammer into the back of the tyrant's elbow. Though now swinging, hard enough to break the bone, it would hopefully be enough to cause some pain and shock the arm into letting go, assuming it hadn't already.

Seeing as how Altar forgot to state anything about the elbow after shifting his feet, which was already stated to continue on the path with the pull aiming to assist in the elbow landing, well.. instead of the elbow, the forearm would land. Continuing to swing his left arm towards Altar, with the elbow jutted out, forearm of the male would strike the side of Altar's head as soon as he attempted his own counter attack, thus Altar's leg had lifted in an attempt to go behind Xyxer's own, but was not yet even behind it. As a result, this would most likely send the male reeling to the side with a shot of pain fluctuating through his dome.

Pausing after this event unless something should change, he'd allow Altar to recuperate before the next attack was launched.

(ayyyy, finally getting back to this lmao)

The boy would feel the forearm, taking the hit as well as a few steps to his left. It hadn't hurt that much, though it had knocked him well off balance. Still better than being hit by the elbow though.

"Alright. Square one." the boy would mutter under his breath, re-taking the stance, both hands up near his face and close together. Altar would take a small step in with his right foot and aim a kick at the tyrant's right leg with the opposite, just above the knee on the outside of the leg. After that, the boy would aim a right jab for the tyrant's head, followed by a hooking punch with his left, aimed just below the ribs. The second punch, of course, would take action as Altar drew his right hand back into position.

They both went back into their starting positions, Xyxer's hands drawing up towards himself mainly to protect his chin and his throat, his hands slightly open as to allow for a quick grab if one was so needed, or of course, to simply slap away an attack and follow through with a faster counter. He had now attempted a leg kick, which of course, was a favourite of his. Unfortunately for Altar, that meant Xyxer also knew the best way to counter it. He did little with his leg at that point, simply allowing for the momentum to gather for Altar, up until it was too late for him to change his path significantly. As this small time frame came, Xyxer's right foot turned in the dirt to expose his knee outwards, with his leg lifting at the same time so that instead of striking the soft flesh of his thigh, Altar's leg would strike the hard bone of Xyxer's knee in what was known as a check, with the likely effect of either breaking his leg or extremely damaging it for the rest of the encounter, as I cba vaguing how much force he used, and ofc in case he decides to find a way to get out of it. 

While Altar went for the jab, Xyxer's hands simply moved in the way of it as his forearms tensed to hold his hands in place, avoiding the blow from hitting his face or even doing much harm to his hands. However, as soon as that happened and his hand started going back.. He went in straight away with a hook punch on his ribs. It was interesting, but.. it exposed his face. Given the nature of the site, this wasn't open to much of a punish due to reaction time unfortunately. Now, due to Altar still being in the process of pulling his arm back, it was virtually impossible for him to change the momentum of his arm rapidly in reaction to what was about to occur. Xyxer stepped in towards the male even further, to the point where the hooking punch aimed for his ribs would now be going directly around him like a lover.

It was pretty gay, not gonna' lie.

With this happening, his right arm would curl around the tricep of Altar and pull on it towards the front of Xyxer, straining the arm if it was to happen as to prevent much happening from this attack. His left hand remained semi-open and ready to retaliate to anything the male should want to do, his feet light at the moment for the next part of his plan.