[@King Cosmos]

So there [i]was[/i] something more to that bat. 

The Nak Muay's eyes flashed as the crimson orb sailed through the air at remarkable speed straight towards him. As he suspected, the short man could generate brutal force at a full swing. He knew his body to be conditioned well. Even fantastically so. Compared to most of these students he could comfortably say he was made of iron, but there was no sense in betting on it in the face of anything moving with such velocity.

He stepped his lead foot outward, off to his left, the moment his opponent's bat made impact. That glowing orb didn't do anything weird that he could see besides responding as a solid—weird enough in and of itself.

So it was an AED after all, and one that seemed to produce its own projectiles. That changed the plan entirely— he wasn't nearly so safe as he thought out at long range. Not when his opponent could put projectiles downrange this fast. As a pugilist, projectile capability was one of the biggest advantages an opponent was supposed to have against him.

[color=82ca9d]"Well, you misunderstand."[/color]

Supposed to.

The Thai's guard naturally raised as the fight had begun in earnest, and as he followed that step off the center line and out of the path of the orb, that outward-pointed right foot became a pivoting point once it returned to the earth, as he almost skipped through the motion like a pendulum— replacing the position of his lead as it rose into the air. With a twist of the hips to follow that prechambered rotation (the outward facing right foot), that lead leg lashed out into an inside low kick. A smooth, practiced motion borne of thousands of repetitions, just as his opponent's grand slam.

And for those paying attention in the audience, this was supposed to be utterly daft— the athlete was wholly out of range. Kasemchai was, by all appearances, kicking air.

And yet.

His IES flared, and for a moment, the transfer student was as Vajrapani.

The baseball player had powerful and [i]accurate[/i] swings, by all means. From the smoothness of the motion, he could make a safe bet that this was indeed proper [i]baseball[/i] form as well— but horrid for fighting. So long. So committed to raw power. So spread out. His hips had fully turned into the swing, and he had a proper kinetic chain, but he stood to swing a bat. Never in that stance's life did it encounter something that would attack it. Even karetaka, who liked to fight this long, were so much more mobile with their base— the sportsman had planted himself. Yes, it generated as much force as possible—

But it was also easy pickings. [i]Far[/i] too easy.

Impossibly, the force of that inside leg kick reached far beyond the shin Kasemchai appeared to be striking air with— It was projected, with that full strength of impact, far enough to reach the sensitive inside of his opponent's left thigh. The baseball team member's front leg carried all of his weight, and he had twisted deep into it to cork out that fastball. The Thai doubted he would retract it in time, especially considering he had no reason to think the range of his kicks was any more than what they appeared. He doubted that this small man had ever conditioned his legs for impact that wasn't running. He doubted that he had taken any sort of kick to the thighs in his life— let alone from a Nak Muay. Even a reactive one with his lead leg was still a kick from [i]him[/i], who had been slamming rock-hard shins into bodies from the age of eight. His idea of "a hard kick" and that of the untrained were very different. Back at Sinbi this would be a bit much for their usually playful sparring, but at the stadiums in Bangkok he would need to throw this kick scores of times to change the expression on another fighter's face.

To the untrained? To those who had never tasted a kick in their lives? It may as well have been a lead pipe. 

Kasemchai doubted this man was Lumpinee ready.

[color=82ca9d]"I come from a fighting sport. And we are [i]very[/i] dedicated to it."[/color]

As quickly as it had come, whether his projected strike had hit true to buckle the athlete's stance or by some miracle [i]not[/i], the Thai's lead leg returned to its stance as he coolly judged the outcome of their exchange. He could content himself with reading this man for a while, if this was all he would contend with out this far. He would move in closer when he was ready unless the situation demanded it sooner.

[color=82ca9d][i]For now, I'll see if he measures up.[/i][/color]