The Impasse Rigor

In the aftermath of his last job, it seemed that even Martian Moonie realized that he lacked the necessary strength to take on this group calling themselves the Knights of Shaded Heavens. It was more than likely that the rogue mages this criminal enterprise consisted of were a cut above the four upstarts he beat down weeks before. No doubt, the red-clad manlet was certain those tricksy types would try as many cheap and dirty schemes to make introducing his fists to their faces as difficult as possible. To the apprentice baker, the answer was as simple as his approach: get stronger. To remedy his lack of ability and simultaneously further heighten his chances of cementing his claims to ultimate freedom, Mars sought out any opportunity to test his strength and grow further by refining his methods and compensate for whatever shortcomings he may have.

Luckily, just such a provision was quite conveniently in stock, as a chain store in Magnolia owned by a company that specialized in mattresses was attempting to create a new branching product line. The company announced that it would eventually mass-produce personal protective wear that was both affordable and concealable. Under-vests that were boasted to be light, unnoticeable when worn beneath normal clothing, and has very little to no hindrance to normal movements. At the same time, these vests and other pieces that protected parts of the body were advertised to hold the same defensive and durable properties as modern armaments that were the standard wear for soldiers who protected the governing forces of the land. Naturally, as with any sensible business, their products were to be tested by those who would be paid and were willing to risk injury assessing the amount of protection the vests and additional coverings provided to the wearers. For Mars, in particular, this gave him the perfect chance to gauge the current level of his strength without consequence by bashing the proudly named "Impasse" equipment into pieces.

Pleasantries were made, parameters to what Mars was supposed to do were laid out-- with a great deal of care on the store owner's part-- and the setup was put in place in a matter of minutes. The main target was a life-sized torso model dummy that had the prototype vest on, the very minor and almost unnoticeable scuff marks present indicated that it already went through other tests prior to the domesticated barbarian taking up the task himself. While it went through trial runs to see how effective it was against bladed and projectile weapons, they somehow forgot to test how well the materials that made up the vest could distribute and disperse the kinetic force brought on by blunt-force attacks.

The stage was set and the curtain call sounded as Mars stood in front of the mannequin and started emanating his heat haze. The Discriminant Punisher in him seeking to pace himself before showing the full extent of his abilities by simply augmenting the three straight punches he made dead-center into the doll's chest. The vest appeared to be doing its job well in dispersing the force of his punches, but the young brawler was only just beginning as he brought a stronger Pulverizing strike [0/1] to bear and caused the dummy to concave inward to a very slight extent before it returned to its original shape. Still, Mars had a great deal of fury to throw at the punching bag of a doll, and it would be a moment longer before his onslaught would be concluded.

Word Count: 586
Total Word Count: 586

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While Mars was continuing to clobber on the surprisingly well-defended dummy, the store owner and the evaluators were taking turns writing down notes and wringing their hands at the potential profits they could gain as a result of this success. With a new avenue of wealth now opening up to a broader horizon, the Impasse Personal Defense wear line would immediately see fabrication en masse and then distributed to both the affiliated stores spread throughout Fiore and other markets willing to pay a decent fee for permissions to sell their products.

The proprietor and the development team were about to conclude their test and extend both payment and words of gratitude towards the participants when something caught their eye. Mars stared at the dummy in a fashion similar to a trance-like stupor for a moment before he arched his right arm back. His characteristic heat haze and a dim reddish luminescence surrounded the robed hobo as he clenched his fist so tightly it became white. Once more, Mars started with a second three-straights combo before following up with one fourth and more powerful strike. From the corners of his mouth, blood began trickling down, his body straining to hold itself together while it brought forward the considerable amount of strength that the baker's apprentice sought to wield against his inanimate opponent. Inhaling a deep breath, Mars exalted in the full physical might he would bear, the inexplicable power and capability that was inherent of his very being as a creature born without magic. In a single instance, the reins of his attack were discarded, and his fist collided into its target with such force that his hand not only pierced through the fabric of the vest but managed to get his hand stuck in the dummy.

Trying to pull out his hand, Martian had a panicked looked on his face as his inability to get himself free from a stomach made out of plastic and foam simply added further insult to injury after his mutually destructive strike [0/3] was greatly mitigated by the now destroyed vest. A good 30 minutes were spent wrenching the sobbing manchild's hand out of the mannequin, with the store owner sending the boy home with both his payment and a piece of candy for his trouble. While Mars was somewhat bummed that his strongest punch didn't do much, he bounced back in his own silly and peculiar way determined more than ever to hone himself into a more proficient fighter. To that end, the idiot in red would work doggedly until he succeeded in capturing the ultimate expression of his strength in one punch.  

Word Count: 439
Total Word Count: 1025

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