The way you played Ryan was to wait and see what specific punch your opponent was going to use, then pick out whichever counterpunch best fit the job and send the other dude to the shadow realm. It was predictable, yeah, but it didn’t really matter much to Verity when her opponent was even more bad than she was. You wanted to stay on the other end of the field and just throw bullets at her the whole match? Cool. Verity would just pick up each individual bullet and throw them right back at the opponent. You wanted to stick Verity in a corner and try and go for Ryan’s legs every single time? Sweet. Ryan could just grab the opponent, backflip over them, then send a shotgun blast right into their back. Wanna play Stephanie? Wanna focus near-entirely on single, telegraphed, mega-damage moves? Nice. Hope you don’t mind never being able to land any of them. Verity, admittedly, wasn’t all that great at this game — keyboard controls meant that pulling off big controls was… not feasible, to say the least — but Ryan did a lot to compensate. Playing as this guy was singlehandedly enough to turn Verity from DSP tier to ‘[insert player who was okay but would never be able to make it to the top tiers]’ tier.
So, like, not gonna lie, she kinda got a little bit peeved when the 23rd Raging Demon sent out Verity’s personal antichrist.
The match began and within a second Verity was put on the defensive. The stage was the inside of a bloodstained house — season 31 or 61, Verity hadn’t looked at the stage description yet — and usually Verity kinda liked having a second to look at the stage because it barely ever showed up on random but no, the person who wouldn’t have been nearly as popular as she was if she’d been on any season other than the first was here so nobody in this room was going to have fun today. Somehow in the midst of the fucking flurry that’d opened this match Verity had yet to be wombo combo’d (maybe because every other Bones started every match they were in with the exact same tactic) so she was going to make as much lemonade as she could. There was a brief second where Bones had to cool down after a move and that was when Verity chose to strike. A single low kick came out and hit Bones’ feet and even if it didn’t do much damage, even if it’d barely stun the other fighter, it was good enough. Verity made Ryan leap backwards and as the game displayed a ‘first hit!’ marker below his health bar, the two had space between them again.
Wasn’t much, but it was a start. The journey of a win in this game could start with just a single, small attack. That was what Verity was going to hold on to.
Evo Moment #96
Private Lobby
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Wham Yubeesling
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The space between them didn’t exist for long, Bones pushing forward again under Akeno’s command. There was no reason not to keep pressing the attack at this point; her first string had been a little too basic and it was blocked by Temari as a result, but the only punishment had been a low kick that barely did any damage. Sure Ryan was most dangerous when you were throwing attacks at him, but at the same time Bones was built for these kinds of interactions. Ryan’s combo game was weak, so the only real threat was in Temari-Chan predicting or guessing which attack she was going to use and throwing out the right response; as long as she wasn’t predictable in her attacks then she should be fine.
Bones stepped and crouched at the same time, moving in at a low angle that would hopefully give the impression that she was going to use a low attack. Sure enough, Ryan ducked as well as Temari attempted to block an attack that wasn’t coming, so when Akeno threw an overhead instead it broke past her opponents guard and opened her up for a combo. Mid, high, mid, low, low; it didn’t matter what attack she used at this point as Ryan was stuck in hit stun for the duration, the only priority was maximising damage as much as possible.
The combo ended as Ryan hit the floor, Bones backing away as Akeno waited for Temari-Chan to stand her character up. As soon as she did Bones ran in again, using the same step-in and crouch as before as a subtle mind-game against her opponent; would she re-use the same trick as before, meaning a standing guard was best, or was this actually a low this time, meaning a crouching block was needed. Neither, it was a throw. Ryan stood up straight, expecting another overhead, and was caught off guard as Bones instead grabbed him by the shoulder and shanked his twice in the ribs. Unlike most throws this left him on his feet, staggered and unable to move as Bones swept his feet out from under him with a low kick and juggled him with a mid and high attack.
As Ryan hit the floor again Bones backed away again. Two successful interactions left Ryan with a little over half health remaining, but that same beating meant he now had a couple bars of meter to work with. Akeno had the initiative and would likely keep it due to the kind of character Temari was playing, unless they did something to surprise her.
Bones stepped and crouched at the same time, moving in at a low angle that would hopefully give the impression that she was going to use a low attack. Sure enough, Ryan ducked as well as Temari attempted to block an attack that wasn’t coming, so when Akeno threw an overhead instead it broke past her opponents guard and opened her up for a combo. Mid, high, mid, low, low; it didn’t matter what attack she used at this point as Ryan was stuck in hit stun for the duration, the only priority was maximising damage as much as possible.
The combo ended as Ryan hit the floor, Bones backing away as Akeno waited for Temari-Chan to stand her character up. As soon as she did Bones ran in again, using the same step-in and crouch as before as a subtle mind-game against her opponent; would she re-use the same trick as before, meaning a standing guard was best, or was this actually a low this time, meaning a crouching block was needed. Neither, it was a throw. Ryan stood up straight, expecting another overhead, and was caught off guard as Bones instead grabbed him by the shoulder and shanked his twice in the ribs. Unlike most throws this left him on his feet, staggered and unable to move as Bones swept his feet out from under him with a low kick and juggled him with a mid and high attack.
As Ryan hit the floor again Bones backed away again. Two successful interactions left Ryan with a little over half health remaining, but that same beating meant he now had a couple bars of meter to work with. Akeno had the initiative and would likely keep it due to the kind of character Temari was playing, unless they did something to surprise her.
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Wham Yubeesling
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Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr alternatively Verity could just get absolutely fucked. That worked too.
It was kind of a running gag whenever Verity got confidence in a fighting game. She’d start feeling as if she could maybe get on a roll, look at the opponent and figure that she at least had a little bit of a chance, then get absolutely yeeted within two seconds of the announcer beginning the fight. It was a pretty effective way of signifying what was to come. The only offence she could muster was a couple counterhits that never added up to more than a third of the opponent’s lifebar. The only way she could defend herself was to keep backing off and hope the other guy liked the idea of playing with his food a couple seconds longer before they inevitably went for the deathblow. It was fun. Really really. Getting reminded on how bad she actually was at this game was always great for her self esteem.
So when the Very Angry Demon XXIII started plowing Verity’s health bar, she figured out the script very quick. Every push forward from Bones was a dash back from Ryan. Any move that became common enough to predict was met by the absolute safest counter Verity could manage.
Didn’t really help that half the inputs weren’t coming through on keyboard but whatever. Not as if she was going to win this round anyway.
It was kind of a running gag whenever Verity got confidence in a fighting game. She’d start feeling as if she could maybe get on a roll, look at the opponent and figure that she at least had a little bit of a chance, then get absolutely yeeted within two seconds of the announcer beginning the fight. It was a pretty effective way of signifying what was to come. The only offence she could muster was a couple counterhits that never added up to more than a third of the opponent’s lifebar. The only way she could defend herself was to keep backing off and hope the other guy liked the idea of playing with his food a couple seconds longer before they inevitably went for the deathblow. It was fun. Really really. Getting reminded on how bad she actually was at this game was always great for her self esteem.
So when the Very Angry Demon XXIII started plowing Verity’s health bar, she figured out the script very quick. Every push forward from Bones was a dash back from Ryan. Any move that became common enough to predict was met by the absolute safest counter Verity could manage.
Didn’t really help that half the inputs weren’t coming through on keyboard but whatever. Not as if she was going to win this round anyway.
There were no surprises, as it turned out. Rather than try and turn things around it seemed like Temari was floundering instead; retreating whenever Akeno pushed forward, taking advantage of Bones’ short range to stay out of harm’s way, and only using the safest and most basic punishes available to her. It made for a very uneven exchange, as Bones slowly hacked and cut away at Ryan while taking only a fraction of the damage in return.
It was only a matter of time at this point.
Once the momentum was established it was hard to overturn and situations like this tended to steamroll once they got going. One mistake turned into many and compounded on each other, reinforced each other, and led to more mistakes. As this continued it only got harder and harder to make a comeback or even to fight back at all as the player grew more frantic.
Not that Akeno had any idea what Temari-Chan was thinking at the moment of course. She’d just experienced it enough times herself that she knew what it was like to get frustrated and make more missteps because of it. Sometimes you just had to accept that the current round was lost and give up rather than waste energy on it, take the time to compose yourself and try to turn it around next time.
Akeno closed out the round, ending her combo with a throw as Bones jammed her shiv into Ryan’s neck before yanking him forward. He fell forward with a spurt of blood as the characters changed positions before they were both reset to their original locations for the start of the next round.
It was only a matter of time at this point.
Once the momentum was established it was hard to overturn and situations like this tended to steamroll once they got going. One mistake turned into many and compounded on each other, reinforced each other, and led to more mistakes. As this continued it only got harder and harder to make a comeback or even to fight back at all as the player grew more frantic.
Not that Akeno had any idea what Temari-Chan was thinking at the moment of course. She’d just experienced it enough times herself that she knew what it was like to get frustrated and make more missteps because of it. Sometimes you just had to accept that the current round was lost and give up rather than waste energy on it, take the time to compose yourself and try to turn it around next time.
Akeno closed out the round, ending her combo with a throw as Bones jammed her shiv into Ryan’s neck before yanking him forward. He fell forward with a spurt of blood as the characters changed positions before they were both reset to their original locations for the start of the next round.
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Wham Yubeesling
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And then Verity lost the round. Absolute shocker.
…
…
She sat there, for a moment. Watched the transitions. Really tried her best to not swear at her laptop because that would bring her dad in to probably swear at her. Like, okay, kinda bullshit that this person she trashed was now trashing her but whatever, Verity wasn’t allowed to get angry at things so she might as well work on making this current match not the most frustrating experience she’d had in her life.
So when the announcer spoke again, when round two began, she made her move. Did a footsie, watched Ryan leap right the frick away from Bones, and stayed there. Watched the super bar. Watched Bones. Waited for her to make her move.
…
…
She sat there, for a moment. Watched the transitions. Really tried her best to not swear at her laptop because that would bring her dad in to probably swear at her. Like, okay, kinda bullshit that this person she trashed was now trashing her but whatever, Verity wasn’t allowed to get angry at things so she might as well work on making this current match not the most frustrating experience she’d had in her life.
So when the announcer spoke again, when round two began, she made her move. Did a footsie, watched Ryan leap right the frick away from Bones, and stayed there. Watched the super bar. Watched Bones. Waited for her to make her move.
Akeno’s rushdown tactic proved markedly less effective the second time around as she pushed Bones forward again, leaping headlong towards her opponent with a flying knee at the start of the second round. Before Bones could reach her Temari moved her character backwards, Ryan jumping away and opening up more distance between them as she avoided the attack entirely. The end result being that nothing much have changed; the timer was a couple seconds lower than before, they had each moved closer to the wall on Ryan’s side of the stage, but nothing else.
It wasn’t a reaction, not a response to Akeno’s attack, but her adaptation to the events of the previous round; Temari had moved to dodge her rush at the same time she had started to move. She was looking to avoid being caught unawares like she had last time, if Akeno had to guess. But what came after that?
There was no further action from Ryan. No attempt to capitalise on Akeno’s whiffed opening or to position the character better, which was strange. No action at all as the two avatars on screen stared at each other as the seconds ticked by. It wasn’t to Ryan’s advantage to try and initiate an exchange, he was subpar as a character at pretty much everything but punishes, but the lack of activity was still unusual. Akeno could only assume he was waiting for her to make the first move and, sure enough, if she looked in the corner she could see that Temari was sitting on enough meter to be able to use Ryan’s counter if she wanted.
If that was what Temari was aiming for then Akeno wasn’t going to play into her hand. Even if she had a reasonable guess of what was being planned, she didn’t want to try and play the mind game of trying to predict and outplay a counter if she could avoid it. Luckily, she didn’t have to. A quick input for Akeno saw Bones pulling out a bow and arrow from somewhere, nocking the arrow before drawing back the bowstring and letting loose with Bones’ signature weapon.
It wasn’t a reaction, not a response to Akeno’s attack, but her adaptation to the events of the previous round; Temari had moved to dodge her rush at the same time she had started to move. She was looking to avoid being caught unawares like she had last time, if Akeno had to guess. But what came after that?
There was no further action from Ryan. No attempt to capitalise on Akeno’s whiffed opening or to position the character better, which was strange. No action at all as the two avatars on screen stared at each other as the seconds ticked by. It wasn’t to Ryan’s advantage to try and initiate an exchange, he was subpar as a character at pretty much everything but punishes, but the lack of activity was still unusual. Akeno could only assume he was waiting for her to make the first move and, sure enough, if she looked in the corner she could see that Temari was sitting on enough meter to be able to use Ryan’s counter if she wanted.
If that was what Temari was aiming for then Akeno wasn’t going to play into her hand. Even if she had a reasonable guess of what was being planned, she didn’t want to try and play the mind game of trying to predict and outplay a counter if she could avoid it. Luckily, she didn’t have to. A quick input for Akeno saw Bones pulling out a bow and arrow from somewhere, nocking the arrow before drawing back the bowstring and letting loose with Bones’ signature weapon.
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Wham Yubeesling
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And Bones made her move.
…
…
It wasn’t a very impressive move.
Verity waited — down nearly a third of the timer, geez — for Bones to do the obvious thing. To hit Verity with something that Verity couldn’t hit back. To abuse the fact that Ryan had no projectiles of his own and keep hitting for chip with arrows. Sure, Ryan could just grab the arrow and throw it back, but that move needed some funky timing and both people in this match knew that that would not sustain Verity for long. If Verity was, in fact, Raging Demon XXIII, the path to victory was clear. Go for the arrows, spam them until you run out, take the free time Temarichan was giving you and walk it to the bank. EZ win. No problem.
So yeah. Bones did the obvious thing. Verity, however, did not do the obvious thing. She did the thing she’d planned on doing when she baited the arrows. She’d do the thing that’d work.
So she waited for the arrow to come out. Watched it happen. Waited the split second for it to get halfway across the stream and then used that super meter she’d saved. Ryan unsheathed his knife just as the arrow got right in front of him, and then he raised it up and blocked it in mid air. He then swung and hit the empty air, the knife stopping while Bones’ throat just seemed to spurt open on the other side of the map. She dropped, hit the ground, and Ryan responded by pulling out his gun roughly twenty metres away, aiming straight down at the floorboards, and firing at nothing. It somehow hit. Bones got lit up, phantom bulletholes opening up her back and taking down roughly a third of her health.
…
…
Verity, uh… she did not know that that glitch was still actually in the game. She knew that the devs actually didn’t mind the counter super working on projectiles, but didn’t the latest patch give the super a new animation so that it wasn’t a glitch anymore?
…
Whatever. Maybe it just didn’t work with this matchup yet. Not like Verity was going to complain. She just moved forward. Did the same trick with the footsies so that Ryan went from the other side of the stage to right in front of Bones in the space of a second. Maybe doing this in conjunction with the super would mindflood Fuming_Devil32. It was anything goes, at this point.
…
…
It wasn’t a very impressive move.
Verity waited — down nearly a third of the timer, geez — for Bones to do the obvious thing. To hit Verity with something that Verity couldn’t hit back. To abuse the fact that Ryan had no projectiles of his own and keep hitting for chip with arrows. Sure, Ryan could just grab the arrow and throw it back, but that move needed some funky timing and both people in this match knew that that would not sustain Verity for long. If Verity was, in fact, Raging Demon XXIII, the path to victory was clear. Go for the arrows, spam them until you run out, take the free time Temarichan was giving you and walk it to the bank. EZ win. No problem.
So yeah. Bones did the obvious thing. Verity, however, did not do the obvious thing. She did the thing she’d planned on doing when she baited the arrows. She’d do the thing that’d work.
So she waited for the arrow to come out. Watched it happen. Waited the split second for it to get halfway across the stream and then used that super meter she’d saved. Ryan unsheathed his knife just as the arrow got right in front of him, and then he raised it up and blocked it in mid air. He then swung and hit the empty air, the knife stopping while Bones’ throat just seemed to spurt open on the other side of the map. She dropped, hit the ground, and Ryan responded by pulling out his gun roughly twenty metres away, aiming straight down at the floorboards, and firing at nothing. It somehow hit. Bones got lit up, phantom bulletholes opening up her back and taking down roughly a third of her health.
…
…
Verity, uh… she did not know that that glitch was still actually in the game. She knew that the devs actually didn’t mind the counter super working on projectiles, but didn’t the latest patch give the super a new animation so that it wasn’t a glitch anymore?
…
Whatever. Maybe it just didn’t work with this matchup yet. Not like Verity was going to complain. She just moved forward. Did the same trick with the footsies so that Ryan went from the other side of the stage to right in front of Bones in the space of a second. Maybe doing this in conjunction with the super would mindflood Fuming_Devil32. It was anything goes, at this point.
Okay.
That was new.
Well, it wasn’t like she hadn’t known Ryan could counter projectiles, but usually he just grabbed them and threw them back; a little unrealistic and certainly surprising, but easy enough to dodge if you knew it was coming. What she hadn’t expected was a knife in the neck from a full screen away; that had caught her off guard and was as good a reason as any to never try that again.
Not that she would need to. Now that she was down on the ground it seemed like Temari was willing to finally approach, quickly closing the distance to stand in front of Bones before she could react. Akeno threw out a get up attack out of habit and only realised her mistake when Ryan blocked it and punished her appropriately, her health ticking down even more as a result.
She rolled away, getting back to her feet and immediately blocked in case Temari pushed forward again. The initiative had been stolen away by that counter and if Akeno was in that position, she knew she’d be pushing her advantage as hard as she could.
That was new.
Well, it wasn’t like she hadn’t known Ryan could counter projectiles, but usually he just grabbed them and threw them back; a little unrealistic and certainly surprising, but easy enough to dodge if you knew it was coming. What she hadn’t expected was a knife in the neck from a full screen away; that had caught her off guard and was as good a reason as any to never try that again.
Not that she would need to. Now that she was down on the ground it seemed like Temari was willing to finally approach, quickly closing the distance to stand in front of Bones before she could react. Akeno threw out a get up attack out of habit and only realised her mistake when Ryan blocked it and punished her appropriately, her health ticking down even more as a result.
She rolled away, getting back to her feet and immediately blocked in case Temari pushed forward again. The initiative had been stolen away by that counter and if Akeno was in that position, she knew she’d be pushing her advantage as hard as she could.
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Wham Yubeesling
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The tide had turned.
Somehow. Not by much, either. The Bones could still win this match and all they really needed was to receive the opportunity to get back on their bullshit. If the momentum ever fell out of Verity’s corner, then this match would be over before she really knew it. No. Had to keep pushing. Had to keep Bones on the defensive.
So she did her punishers. She backed Bones into a corner. They stood opposite Ryan, prepared to block, and Verity responded by going for a low kick, forcing Incensed_Inferni46 to either take a combo or (hopefully — circle inputs were really awkward on keyboard controls, it was why Verity only really played charge characters) take a command grab.
Yeah, motherfucker. Verity had fancy mixups too. Better yet, they were fancy mixups she could use. That’s what made them fair.
Somehow. Not by much, either. The Bones could still win this match and all they really needed was to receive the opportunity to get back on their bullshit. If the momentum ever fell out of Verity’s corner, then this match would be over before she really knew it. No. Had to keep pushing. Had to keep Bones on the defensive.
So she did her punishers. She backed Bones into a corner. They stood opposite Ryan, prepared to block, and Verity responded by going for a low kick, forcing Incensed_Inferni46 to either take a combo or (hopefully — circle inputs were really awkward on keyboard controls, it was why Verity only really played charge characters) take a command grab.
Yeah, motherfucker. Verity had fancy mixups too. Better yet, they were fancy mixups she could use. That’s what made them fair.
As expected, Temari-Chan took her advantage and ran with it in a very Akeno-like manner, hounding Bones across the stage and backing her all the way into the corner. It was strange to see a usually passive character applying pressure like that, Ryan throwing his mediocre combos and limited mix-ups her way, but it was at least effective at forcing her to react a certain way.
Just being put on the defensive meant she had more limited options than normal, making it easier for Temari to make the kind of guesses she needed to apply damage. It was a failing on Akeno’s part that she became more predictable when pressured, thinking less and relying more on the moves she trusted to work instead of something smarter; that bad habit was dangerous at the best of times but right here it played directly into her opponent’s strengths.
With her back to the wall there were essentially three options that Temari might use; low kick, overhead or throw. If she blocked high then she would avoid the overhead but be caught by either the low or the throw, so Akeno opted to block low as it would cover two of the three options. Unfortunately she had neglected to remember that Ryan had a command grab that would only work if you were crouching for this exact situation and Bones was wrapped up in a submission that dropped her health precariously low.
Another correct guess as they both stood was all it took to end the round in Temari’s favour. Akeno leaned back in her chair, knee bouncing up and down as she considered what to do now; the trick with the arrow had been surprising, but it wasn’t as big of an issue as everything that happened after it. She could avoid gimmicks, but if she couldn’t handle being pressured again then she would never be able to close out the final round.
She settled in as the countdown for the next round started, a rough game plan in mind.
Just being put on the defensive meant she had more limited options than normal, making it easier for Temari to make the kind of guesses she needed to apply damage. It was a failing on Akeno’s part that she became more predictable when pressured, thinking less and relying more on the moves she trusted to work instead of something smarter; that bad habit was dangerous at the best of times but right here it played directly into her opponent’s strengths.
With her back to the wall there were essentially three options that Temari might use; low kick, overhead or throw. If she blocked high then she would avoid the overhead but be caught by either the low or the throw, so Akeno opted to block low as it would cover two of the three options. Unfortunately she had neglected to remember that Ryan had a command grab that would only work if you were crouching for this exact situation and Bones was wrapped up in a submission that dropped her health precariously low.
Another correct guess as they both stood was all it took to end the round in Temari’s favour. Akeno leaned back in her chair, knee bouncing up and down as she considered what to do now; the trick with the arrow had been surprising, but it wasn’t as big of an issue as everything that happened after it. She could avoid gimmicks, but if she couldn’t handle being pressured again then she would never be able to close out the final round.
She settled in as the countdown for the next round started, a rough game plan in mind.
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Wham Yubeesling
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And it happened.
Bones had somehow gone down. Verity hadn’t really been paying attention to the health bar all that much in her focus just to keep herself in the fight but holy shit. It’d happened. She had somehow won a round against a sweaty Bones. There was a genuine chance that she could actually win this match. So long as she tried. So long as she didn’t get it in her head that she’d already won or already lost this match. Had to just take it as it came. Keep doing what she kept doing. Going on the defensive hadn’t worked on this player, while putting pressure on had so…
...So when the round started she did the thing she’d always had to try and stop herself from doing every match. She jumped forward, closed the distance between Ryan and Bones, and sent in an overhead punch.
It was fine if this didn’t work. It was the start of the round. She could take some damage and disengage if she got blocked or countered. Simple as that.
Bones had somehow gone down. Verity hadn’t really been paying attention to the health bar all that much in her focus just to keep herself in the fight but holy shit. It’d happened. She had somehow won a round against a sweaty Bones. There was a genuine chance that she could actually win this match. So long as she tried. So long as she didn’t get it in her head that she’d already won or already lost this match. Had to just take it as it came. Keep doing what she kept doing. Going on the defensive hadn’t worked on this player, while putting pressure on had so…
...So when the round started she did the thing she’d always had to try and stop herself from doing every match. She jumped forward, closed the distance between Ryan and Bones, and sent in an overhead punch.
It was fine if this didn’t work. It was the start of the round. She could take some damage and disengage if she got blocked or countered. Simple as that.
When the round started Akeno broke from tradition by not making the first move. Something told her Temari-Chan was going to try and continue the momentum from the last round into the next, an assumption that was proven correct when Ryan jumped towards her with an overhead punch. It was a risky opening move and she could only assume Temari was hoping to catch her off guard in the opening seconds of the round.
Bones guarded against the attempt, stopping the punch with a standing block, before returning fire with an attack of her own. A big flashy move like a jumping overhead was bound to be unsafe on block, so Akeno was able to recover first and land a hit before Ryan could do anything to defend himself; once that happened then he was in hit stun until the end of her combo or until she dropped it, whichever came first.
New round, new opportunity. So long as she didn’t let Temari dictate the pace then she was good. If Temari did start dictate the pace then she just had to take it back.
Simple as that.
Bones guarded against the attempt, stopping the punch with a standing block, before returning fire with an attack of her own. A big flashy move like a jumping overhead was bound to be unsafe on block, so Akeno was able to recover first and land a hit before Ryan could do anything to defend himself; once that happened then he was in hit stun until the end of her combo or until she dropped it, whichever came first.
New round, new opportunity. So long as she didn’t let Temari dictate the pace then she was good. If Temari did start dictate the pace then she just had to take it back.
Simple as that.
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Wham Yubeesling
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Okay. Didn’t quite work the way Verity wanted it to. Cool. The resulting combo that Bones attempted was wayyyyyyyyyy too tryhard for Verity to take seriously but it was fine. Things hadn’t gone out of control yet. There was a little gap in the combo where the player wasn’t quite able to make the transition from move to move in time and Verity used that to make a footsie — having Ryan jump backwards from right in the firing line to right out of it. Maybe could’ve used that gap to make a move, but whatever; there was a saying about letting the past be the past and making sure you focused on what you could change and that seemed like a pretty good saying to use.
So she did another footsie back. Hung out a little at roughly mid-range. She was at slightly lower health than Bones and if there was a non-zero chance the Bones would also just hang back and stall forever but nobody other than DSP ever actually played like that, right?
No. The Bones would approach soon. Probably with something other than the arrows, given how Ryan’s super meter was filled again. And when they did, Verity was fine to acquiesce control of the pace over to them. Having the upper hand was cool, but Ryan was a punish character. He didn’t need to be the dom with all the big flashy combos to win the match.
So she did another footsie back. Hung out a little at roughly mid-range. She was at slightly lower health than Bones and if there was a non-zero chance the Bones would also just hang back and stall forever but nobody other than DSP ever actually played like that, right?
No. The Bones would approach soon. Probably with something other than the arrows, given how Ryan’s super meter was filled again. And when they did, Verity was fine to acquiesce control of the pace over to them. Having the upper hand was cool, but Ryan was a punish character. He didn’t need to be the dom with all the big flashy combos to win the match.
The combo wasn’t as clean as it could have been, as evidenced by the fact that Ryan was able to escape it before she was done, but it served its purpose she supposed. That was what she got for spending more time practising stuff with Stephanie instead of her main, but she’d still managed to come out ahead in that exchange, if only barely.
Temari backed away and it didn’t look like she was planning on rushing in again. Having Ryan be the aggressor was a novelty but it seemed like she’d gotten it out of her system now and was back to playing the character as he was meant to be played. Akeno instinctively glanced down at the corner of the screen and saw that her opponents meter was full again; that meant she couldn’t use her arrows again and Temari knew it. Which meant that Akeno would have to rush in and Temari knew that as well.
Not a great situation to be in, but not one she couldn’t deal with. The best option was to try and bait out the counter like she’d done against Karen earlier, so Akeno charged forward with that in mind. She dashed forward before cancelling out of it and jumping forward instead, hoping to trick Temari into thinking she was trying a jumping overhead, onto to land in front of Ryan without attacking at all.
After the empty hop Akeno used a grab, planning on throwing Ryan out of his counter animation if she had managed to trick her opponent or even just grabbing him out of his block if she didn’t.
Temari backed away and it didn’t look like she was planning on rushing in again. Having Ryan be the aggressor was a novelty but it seemed like she’d gotten it out of her system now and was back to playing the character as he was meant to be played. Akeno instinctively glanced down at the corner of the screen and saw that her opponents meter was full again; that meant she couldn’t use her arrows again and Temari knew it. Which meant that Akeno would have to rush in and Temari knew that as well.
Not a great situation to be in, but not one she couldn’t deal with. The best option was to try and bait out the counter like she’d done against Karen earlier, so Akeno charged forward with that in mind. She dashed forward before cancelling out of it and jumping forward instead, hoping to trick Temari into thinking she was trying a jumping overhead, onto to land in front of Ryan without attacking at all.
After the empty hop Akeno used a grab, planning on throwing Ryan out of his counter animation if she had managed to trick her opponent or even just grabbing him out of his block if she didn’t.
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Wham Yubeesling
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There was one problem with that plan: Verity hadn’t quite been planning on doing a counter.
It happened right as the Bones closed in for the grab. One moment Ryan was standing defenseless, the next he wasn’t there at all. In the gap between frames he had teleported from the left of the Bones to the right of the Bones. There was a brief pause — time for the Bones to turn around, mid-grab animation, and for her opponent to give out a quippy voice line that Verity had heard roughly a million times playing this game — and then Ryan brought out his FAMAS and started firing, Verity’s super meter draining for each bullet that left the chamber.
Nothin’ personnel, Raging_Demon23.
It happened right as the Bones closed in for the grab. One moment Ryan was standing defenseless, the next he wasn’t there at all. In the gap between frames he had teleported from the left of the Bones to the right of the Bones. There was a brief pause — time for the Bones to turn around, mid-grab animation, and for her opponent to give out a quippy voice line that Verity had heard roughly a million times playing this game — and then Ryan brought out his FAMAS and started firing, Verity’s super meter draining for each bullet that left the chamber.
Nothin’ personnel, Raging_Demon23.