Eyes of Fire | Bucky Barnes

13

Watching the ex-Winter Soldier fight was a thrill, given he fought as if he were still the Winter Soldier.

His combat skills and tactics were heavily influenced by a wide variety of martial arts, hand-to-hand combat, and battlefield fighting strategies. He seemed to have integrated his American military training and his KGB Russian Training into his own fighting system.

His main style was derived from Systema, a Russian martial art created more than a thousand years ago - which made sense, given he was trained in the Soviet Union. His weapon of choice in close combat was a deadly Gerber Mark II knife from the Second World War; knife-fighting is a major part of Systema, so it fit his general profile.

It was focused on disarming an opponent and swiftly defeating them, and James displayed it quite prominently. His first instinct whenever he was fighting was to make his opponent easier to beat. 

His defense style seemed to resemble Muay Thai and Defendu, both types focused on ending fights as quickly as possible by attacking vital areas. Always striking. 

He was ferocious, brutal, and efficient, combining speed, agility, and strength but with great control and tempo.

Ironically, his dependence on more aggressive martial arts proved to be something of a handicap. This is because he, James, was tasked with redefining himself. He no longer wanted to be the brutal, violent Asset, and his Systema-based fighting seemed to have lost its edge as a result. There was a sense of his mind being in conflict with his instincts, and he knew he needed to adapt his style going forward.

That's where Uxolo stepped in at.

She'd been watching the man fight for a few minutes now, taking the moments in which he didn't notice her to analyze his style and pick up on a few things that she couldn't catch through video.

She hadn't wanted to intrude the first time she'd walked in on him practicing, throwing jab after jab at the punching bag that never fought back, but she figured they were close enough now to have that kind of interaction.

"Would you mind if I joined you?" She called out to him, leaning against one side of the door frame.

Whereas most of the tribe and Dora Milaje training sessions were held outside, so they could adjust to the actual temperatures and unpredictable wilderness they'd typically be fighting in, this training room had been built especially for reasons like this.

James, then, was the only person for a long time to make adequate and consistent use of it. Which made it a relatively safe and distant place to go to when he wasn't feeling... like himself, for lack of better wording.

"I'd rather you not." He panted without even looking at her, focused on keeping his ever-moving, automated opponent within his line of sight.

For some, the technological advancement necessary for mechanized fight training was far out of reach. But in Wakanda? Some robots were built for the sole existence of getting the shit kicked out of them. Thankfully, due to the extreme intelligence of Shuri, the computers that managed the entire larger system at hand were smart enough to regularly adjust at the call of the user, whether that be for different weapon usage or levels of expertise.

So, if one wanted, one could set a robot at the highest possible difficulty and set them loose. Which seemed to be exactly what James had done.

Uxolo watched for just a moment longer, but once it became blatantly obvious that James was nowhere near close to winning, seemingly backing off without formally calling for it to end, she did it for him.

She watched carefully as he collapsed to the ground, beads of sweat falling from his skin as he was finally able to take a break. This type of training, especially at the level he'd selected, was stamina heavy, so she didn't doubt that even his super-soldier endurance was currently struggling.

"Please stay out, I don't want to hurt you." James panted, as if that would somehow keep her from approaching. It didn't.

She reached her hand out for his, "You couldn't. You wouldn't."