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A GROUNDED BOUT

The Abs-olute Strength club quickly gained fame of both being a tough place to endure because of how powerful many of the members are, and also a good place for pairs of friends to join in, if they find boxing and/or gutpunching to be a form of exercise they enjoy together. They always say "don't go alone, for once you lose, everyone is so busy you may find a hard time getting someone to help you back into your locker afterwards, or haul you back to your home". Not that it stops some Pokémon from joining the club without a partner - after all, new faces are welcome every week.

One example of a pair of such members would be Gliscor and Marowak. Recently joined and with virtually no experience, the two friends nevertheless find themselves inside the club for a second day - the first one, they simply spent it knowing the members and the facilities, and watching some bouts between more experienced ones.

Marowak, despite his remarkably average build for his species, is quite the fight-seeker and is proud of his ability to take very little damage when punched on the head. This is due to his species having an external skull that is fused with their head. It's like a helmet, except it can't be removed. Due to that, Marowak engages in fights with the confidence that getting hit in the head won't harm him much. That being said, he has not considered that the opponent may instead target his (not very soft but noticeably more vulnerable) abdomen, where there is no fused external bone to block blows. This is made more 'problematic' by the fact that Marowak employs little to no defensive strategy whatsoever; he usually charges forward, throwing punches until his foe falls unconscious or drops to the mat, with no regard for potential counterattacks or defences, or being surpassed in terms of speed - this one being more likely as he's quite slow.

Gliscor, on the other hand, is a more mellow kind of guy. He does not refuse the chance of a good, well-meant sparring match, but he won't seek out a fight like Marowak. He's also the smarter of the two and is the one that had been insisting that Marowak should work in his weak spot, the belly and that he should go to the Abs-olute Strength Club as working on that area is one of that place's best-known specialities. This, however, was met with dismissal - Marowak kept replying that, as long as he were nearly invulnerable in his head, then why bother? They finally found a compromise, though - Marowak would go if Gliscor too came along. He is not someone with the aggressivity or desire to win that Marowak possesses, but Gliscor still finds boxing enjoyable enough that he wants to give it a try.

So here they are, wearing their boxing trunks and gloves, staring at an empty ring, one of the many available around the club, and the one they will use this time.

"Well, heh... here it starts..." Gliscor tells Marowak while wrapping his thin arms tightly across his chest. "We can simultaneously learn and toughen ourselves up!"

Marowak grins with the mischievousness of someone that knows his actions won't be taken seriously. "Lesson number one: keep your guard," and he elbows Gliscor in the gut, before proudly breaking from the embrace and stepping into the ring.

"Ugh!" Gliscor lets out a short grunt of pain just as Marowak gets in position. Despite the sneak attack, in just a few seconds, Gliscor is letting out a short laugh. "Yeah, fair point!" Then again, Gliscor's species is known to have more physical resilience than their thin, aerodynamic frame might suggest. The sneak attack might have hurt, but not badly.

Gliscor steps into the ring and the two friends tap their fists against each other twice. The rules are simple: they are only going to throw punches at each other's bellies, and nothing else. They won't be allowed to guard or block (as, with only one punchable location, guarding would be too easy to keep indefinitely), but can step out of hits to dodge. There won't be rounds, and this sparring match will only be over when either party decides they cannot continue or get knocked unconscious.

So the fight begins. As expected from their behaviours, this starts with Marowak charging right away, trying to land a blow straightaway. With his lack of experience, Gliscor finds himself unable to dodge, taking a few jabs to his midsection - he feels, however, that Marowak is testing the waters for those hits could have been harder. Before testing whether his theory holds true, Gliscor side-steps and throws a (what he thinks is) hard hook towards the left side of Marowak's stomach, followed up with a straight hit to the centre.

Marowak is taken by surprise, letting out a loud yelp. He shakes it off quickly and resumes his attempts to slug Gliscor in the belly.

Gliscor is using his superior speed (despite his really short legs) to avoid most attacks, but his lack of positional awareness puts him right in a corner, where cannot step away and puts him in a position where, if he does not think fast, will leave him as a free target for several consecutive strikes. "Ah!" He reacts in surprise after realizing he put himself in such a situation.

Marowak does not give him time to get out before repeatedly socking Gliscor in the gut. Gliscor lets out a succession of pained whimpers as he tries to find a way to stop the barrage. He ends up deciding on firing some shots of his own, aiming at Marowak's sides.

Emitting some low grunting noises, Marowak finds himself forced to step back, giving Gliscor respite and giving Marowak himself the chance to think how Gliscor seems to have punches that are more effective than his own.

Granted that he is not given the chance to think because Gliscor, apparently finding himself riled up, decides to not stop with the counterattack to give breathing room, and instead launches another flurry of punches.

The punches are not exactly what one would all accurate or hard, but Marowak can't but find dodging difficult - the speed with which Gliscor delivers them means that even when he manages to sidestep a punch, he doesn't have much time to prepare for the next one. For that reason, his round, not-hard belly gets hammered without much resistance. Marowak takes punch after punch on his stomach... although not particularly hurtful. He reaches the conclusion that maybe Gliscor feels the same way, that the two are physically more of taking hits rather than delivering them.

Marowak stops Gliscor's offensive with a succession of uppercuts into his slim red-skinned stomach, causing Gliscor to let out a groan and stumble backward. With Gliscor stunned, Marowak can now focus solely on landing a few more quick, precise blows. Gliscor vocalizes pained cries as he continues to be pounded relentlessly. Since both measure nearly the same from head to feet, they can easily look down at each other, and Marowak sees the pain etched onto Gliscor's face.

And then it's Gliscor who sees Marowak's pain, with a sneak uppercut on his own to that cream-coloured midsection that causes him to cry out loudly, forcing him to step back. Gliscor, albeit clearly shaken, looks ready to resume fighting immediately despite the damage he took. He piles the pressure, throwing slower, yet more powerful punches aimed at the stomach. Marowak can dodge them this time... and when he finds his back on a corner, he knows he has to do something drastic. As much as letting Gliscor batter his belly hurts, Marowak realizes he must endure it and hammer Gliscor's stomach while doing so.

The entire exchange, with Gliscor trying to take advantage of Marowak's cornered position to get plenty of free hits in, and Marowak trying to gut punch Gliscor out of his arm's reach, lasts about... ten seconds or so. Sure, the two have the attitude to keep going even while they're getting their midsection battered senseless, but, being worn down from the earlier attacks, neither can withstand a prolonged bout.

In a way, both get what they wanted. Gliscor's punches put a good dent in Marowak's abdominal region, whereas Marowak's own punches force Gliscor to step back while displaying a very obvious expression of pain. Marowak pants while Gliscor rubs his abdomen gingerly, letting out brief moans of discomfort.

Marowak seems to get back on his feet first and mistakes Gliscor's rubbing of his stomach as an attempt to guard the area, which both agreed that would not be done. "Hey! No guarding!"

"But I'm not guarding," Gliscor says, nevertheless pulling his gloved pincer hand away from his stomach. "I was just--AGH!" Gliscor is surprised when Marowak takes advantage of him talking to, once again, slam his fist on Gliscor's gut, eliciting an audible gasp from Gliscor. Too shocked from the hit to retaliate, Gliscor simply stares at how Marowak continues to pound his stomach. Were it not for his kin's deceptively high endurance, Gliscor would have long ago tapped out. As he slowly gets to react, he can only emit sounds of pain as he is struck repeatedly by Marowak's fists.

Gliscor needs to react, and soon, so he goes for a risky move - simultaneously punching both sides of his opponent's stomach. He does, with the (both figuratively and literally) pincer attack sending a jolt through Marowak's body, making him pause briefly, allowing Gliscor to strike again, this time hitting the front of Marowak's torso. It does... less damage than expected, as the sudden pain tensed up his muscles enough to mitigate the impact of the blow. It does not stop, however, Gliscor from continuing to pummel Marowak's midsection.

Just like he did to Gliscor before, Marowak can't but take punch after punch to his stomach until, finally, reacting with a new uppercut to the upper abdomen, forcing Gliscor to retreat while he feels like a lot of air has escaped from his lungs. Catching his breath, he is not safe from Marowak not being satisfied with one blow to the gut alone. That uppercut is succeeded by a series of blows, all landing on the upper abdomen, each one bringing forth a weaker groan from Gliscor as his stamina begins to wane.

With each one of these wicked blows, Gliscor retaliates with jabs, hooks and even uppercuts, but it's clear his fighting spirit and his physical abilities are failing him. Not that Marowak is much better, as it's clear that, as weakened as Gliscor is, his punches still cause him considerable pain. It's clear how much their endurance at the stomach has decreased during their match from the sounds of the fists connecting. It's also clear to the few spectators that the two are not aware are watching; the initial fists that landed visibly met resistance in their respective bellies. Now, though, they dig like there weren't any muscle mass attempting to block them.

At this point, their punches are slow and weak, but they have punched each other so many times already that these weak gutpunches feel much stronger than usual.

Especially for Gliscor. "NGAH!" He doubles over, pincer hands clutching at his stomach as he gasps for air. "I... I'll concede. I can't take anymore."

"Hah! I win!" Marowak puts on a proud grin, showing off his clenched teeth and posing to show what he thinks is the superior body of the two.

"But..." Gliscor lets out a pained chuckle. "You can still take more punishment."

Marowak, so overjoyed that he has his eyes closed, is taken by surprise when he feels Gliscor's 1-metre-long scorpion-like tail wrapping around his arms, effectively tying them behind his back. "Ah! W-W-What?"

"Didn't you tell me...?" Gliscor says as he slowly, but clearly painfully, stands up. "To always keep my guard up, lest I could be subject to surprise attacks? Well, here we go, friend."

"Ah! Betrayal!" Marowak cries out, albeit not in a too-serious tone. He just finds himself embarrassed that Gliscor used that lesson against him. He ponders whether to ask, but he thinks the answer is obvious. "... ngh... bring it, then. I beat the daylights out of your belly, so I guess it's fair that you return the favour."

"I knew you'd say that," Gliscor replies, grinning broadly.

And so, with Marowak unable to move his arms, or his feet much, to avoid having his gut hammered into submission, Gliscor starts throwing hook after hook on that cream-coloured stomach that had already withstood plenty of abuse.

"Ah! Mph! Ack!" Marowak lets out every sound imaginable as he tries to endure. Yes, it may be humiliating for some to have their stomach socked constantly with no chance of retaliation, but Marowak understands that building pain tolerance in the midsection is one of the multiple things he has to do to 'patch up' his weak point, that conditioning that will allow him to take harder hits without tapping out. And besides, it's his friend who's doing the pounding now--he knows Gliscor wouldn't have surprised him with this otherwise, for he would have asked first. So, as much as it hurts, Marowak doesn't mind. Or doesn't mind much, as the sensation is still uncomfortable.

Gliscor continues using Marowak's abdominal region as if it were his personal punching bag. He finds it to be a way to practice punching, too, as he has even less experience than Marowak when it comes to fighting, for not even in street fights does he ever engage. He has fun, though - obviously not because he's beating down his friend in his most vulnerable spot, not because of how Marowak shows his discomfort and pain when the accumulated strikes slowly become too much for him to bear, but because it's like training, and he finds training enjoyable.

Marowak's sounds of suffering grow softer and weaker like he's saving breath for when he cannot take anymore, but does not tell Gliscor to stop striking him. His stomach feels like it's been beaten into mush, yet Marowak refuses to give up, resisting and letting the blows land anyway. That is, until, with gritting teeth and in-between a pained grunt, he yells out, "Stop!"

At that moment, Gliscor not only stops punching but immediately releases Marowak's arms. Marowak drops sideways into the mat, clutching his very beaten-up midsection.

"Are you okay?" Gliscor asks, approaching Marowak with worry that he may have gone overboard.

"Of... of course not... it hurts like hell... but... I guess it's fine," Marowak answers between deep breaths. "That I have to get my body used to take heavy hits... was worth it."

"Oh, thank goodness..." Gliscor sighs happily, relieved. He helps his friend stand up.

"Also... good thing you don't have my thirst for blood," Marowak adds with a smile. "Clearly, if you had my aggressiveness in the fight, I'd be the one that gave up first."

Gliscor scratches the back of his head, blushing. "Oh, come on, I'm not that strong..."

Their conversation is interrupted when a Serperior with very heavily developed upper body muscles, raises his voice. The two quickly recognize him as Draco, one of the 'founding members' of this club.

"You," Draco points at Gliscor. "That part where you immobilized your opponent's arms for free shots."

"Ah!" Gliscor yelps. "I-Is that illegal? I mean, we had already called out the fight, I had already given up and called him the victor and stuff, so--"

Draco cuts him off before he can finish speaking. "No, what I'd like to say is... cool move." He grins.

"... cool... move?" Gliscor seemingly did not expect such praise from someone else; certainly not from one of the more experienced fighters in the club.

"Using a long, prehensile body part to tie up the limbs so you can freely strike the abdomen while preventing them from escaping or retaliating... it never occurred to me. It's like putting him on an arm-lock but with your hands kept free. Thanks for the idea!" He grins again. "I've got to think of doing that with my Vine Whips one day!"

Draco pats the two on the head. Gliscor and Marowak are even more confused.

"In case I didn't tell you two on the first day... have a good time here," Draco says with another big grin. Then, he slithers out of sight.

Marowak and Gliscor look at each other. "He's weird," Marowak mutters.

"But he approved our ways to dish out gutpunches! Isn't that great?!" Gliscor replies enthusiastically.

"Indeed!" Marowak, once again, like before the fight, elbows Gliscor's side.

"Agh..." Since Gliscor is a lot more worn down than before, the strike sends him straight onto the mat, face-first. "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuungh..." He lets out a prolonged moan of agony.

"Next time, though, I'll do it to you. I'll just need a rope..." Marowak thinks aloud.

"Mhm," Gliscor emits a muffled reply.