Si picked the place for today's friendly spar. Of all places, the lazy ass picked his lawn. He knows that I hate the godamn grass. Maybe he's hoping the fear of falling and getting itchy would make me complacent.

He calls us to ready with a smirk. Both of us go into our warm up transitions, ending in the guarding block. There's no cue to fight or go, we always liked to leave the start as unpredictable as possible to make things more practical.

He goes into his defensive wing chun pose. Weight on back leg. Defensive stance. But knowing that he's counting on me to read his stance, he's probably trying to throw me off with his body language. I go into neutral stance.

True enough, in less than a second his weight shifts forward and I hear a loud smack as my right hand blocks his left jab. I see his follow up in the form of a right straight and immediately shift my right arm to intercept it at his elbow.

I realize that by doing that his left arm is open to attack again and it comes out in the form of a knife hand. I lean back hard and only feel the wind after his arm passes.

The last attack left his arms open and torso open so I push kick him then immediately move into a 360. As I lift off from the ground and spin in the air I see him take forced steps back from my push kick which is what I had intended.

With him only recovering his balance and freedom of movement right before I land the kick he can only brace and block with two arms. He does so and pushes my leg down. The game is now at midrange.

"Aha. You smacked my first attack away without even seeing it. You finally have it back, don't you?" He looks suprised yet is smiling for some reason.

"Thanks to you la." I reply. But the truth is its not the same as last time. The reactions are alot more tame. If it was anything like the past I would have launched an attack after the block without even knowing it.

We go back and forth kicking, shifting and blocking, keeping the match at mid range for awhile until I step in to throw a left jab.

Seems that he was waiting for it because he blocked it with his left arm too smoothly. I duck to follow up with a right uppercut - but suddenly feel something at my neck. It was his left hand.

"Single arm parry break. I don't need to use both hands to block and counter anymore." He says with a cocky smile.

The grip around my throat hurts. He obviously wanted to make a strong point. I felt the blood in my veins speed up as my heart started to race. That familiar feeling.

I'm flying in the air to the right. My hand on his wrist which has been pulled away from my throat, my right leg moving up for the snap.

I remember this feeling, and quickly pull my kicking leg back to soften my blow.

Si blocks it with both arms but it knocks him off his feet and he rolls on the ground.

"My god, are you controlling it or not?" He looks slightly frustrated.

"Yeah lah, are you?"



My reactions used to be worse. There's a theory that the dragon's eyes allows you to attack in the fashion true to who you really are. Perhaps in the past that person had so much to prove that he wanted to give the hardest blow possible. Now that person merely blocks the attacks for some reason. Unless provoked further.

Maybe my worst enemy isn't so bad now.