Skill vs Technique

The weightless time in the air lasted only but a moment before he felt the pull of gravity upon him and he crashed to the ground a second later. His jaw hurt, and his entire body felt like it was made of jelly from that single strike from Andrew. He frowned slightly as he moved to try and sit up, but he found that his body wasn't really well responding to him, and the further it got away from his head, the less it seemed to want to respond. His entire lower body felt like it was falling apart from the strike.

He grunted softly under his breath as he forced himself back up to his feet, his legs shaking. "What did you do to me?" he asked simply. "What Skill was that?" he continued, seeking even more answers from Andrew who didn't seem like he was in any hurry to provide them to Wes.

"It wasn't a Skill," the call of Faremont came, and several eyes had moved over to look at the fellow, as some of them had been watching Andrew and Wesley's matchup, rather than fighting amongst themselves. "It's a technique. If you catch your opponent on the chin, like he did to you, it'll rattle your brain around in your skull. When that happens, there's no way that you can keep your balance or even manage to create an offense. It's one of the weakest points in the human body."

Wesley glanced back to Andrew, who still seemed to be watching him as if he were nothing, and the Void user's eyes narrowed. "So, you're good at what you do, after all," Wesley spoke as he shook out and arm, massaging his jaw slightly from the attack that had been taken. "I thought you were just a bunch of hot air, hiding behind your Tier Two attack dog," he spoke.

At that, Andrew smirked, shaking his head. "Not at all. While John is certainly quite the helpful sort in keeping me from having to dirty my hands, that doesn't mean that I'm incapable. I know what I'm doing when it comes to combat, unlike you. If you come at me, it doesn't matter what tricks you pull, I'll keep knocking you down again and again," the fireshaper spoke, Andrew's smirk widening slightly as he did so.

Wes could feel both annoyance at Andrew as well as disappointment in himself welling up in equal measure at having been pushed to this state. He was pretty sure if he started to rely on everything that he had, he could probably win, but he wasn't supposed to be doing that. That would be a rather petty use of his power overall, he knew... and it was very likely to get him into trouble. "Well you've got about ten more minutes to knock me down then," Wes responded, feeling coming back down into his legs.

Andrew snorted and shifted back into a fighting stance even if he didn't look all that enthused about it. As if having already beaten Wes once, he no longer had any interest in fighting him. But as Wesley began to move forward, once more Andrew snapped his foot out as he had before, and it was then that Wes realized what was happening.

He wasn't adjusting his stance- he was attacking. He dodged reflexively, and he could very well -feel- a rush of air shooting past him from that strike. "Not too bad. You picked up on that quite quickly," Andrew spoke, and Wes found himself both annoyed that he was getting this backhanded compliment, but he still had pride in himself for managing to figure it out without too much difficulty.

But of course, just because he was able to dodge the one, that didn't mean he was able to beat Andrew in a fight- at least not yet. Following his own dodge he shot forward, throwing out his fist with the Far Impact once more following suit, but this time he was trying something a little bit different to see just what he could get away with.

Andrew seemed to be quite skilled at either seeing Wes' attack as it moved, or by seeing just how he was angled, where the attack would go. It made some sense to him- Andrew seemed quite upset that he had something similar as if it was something that no one else should know how to do. Which meant there was a chance it was a Family Skill. While it could rarely manifest in others, generally it was something that would continue to be passed down within a specific family... and that's what was happening here, Wes imagined.

And that mean Andrew was going to be good at knowing exactly how to read those attacks from him. He could use that.

"You'll pay for underestimating me, you entitled piece of shit," Wesley grunted under his breath, feeling the sudden anger and annoyance both from the situation boiling up, unrestricted with the high levels of Death Framework in him at the moment. Copying what Andrew had done, he shifted, moving with his foot to attack in the same manner, but instead of doing a full snap upward, instead he thrust it down toward the ground.

Andrew's eyes narrowed slightly as he hopped back away, taking a few stumbling steps as he did so. The earth in front of him exploded upward as the pressure from the kick and the Far Impact Skill caused the entire ground to shift, like a miniature earthquake. Andrew managed to avoid the worst of it, although he couldn't help but to take up a defensive position- right now it was incredibly difficult to see where Wesley had gone.

All of the dirt and the debris from the attack had created a miniature dirt screen that was obscuring vision, and making it difficult for the two combatants to see one another. Of course, it was also making it hard for everyone else to see one another too... but that was exactly what Wesley wanted.