Tyranny of Steel

Berengar had awoken bright an early for his morning exercise routine, after a morning of running, and lifting weights, he immediately jumped into training with the sword. Over five years had passed since he first picked up a sword, and though he rarely found himself staring down the blade of an opponent on the battlefield these days, he still committed himself to training with the weapons. 

However, as of the last few years, he had introduced a new exercise to his daily routine, and he was in the middle of that right now. Dressed in little more than a pair of boxers, Berengar stared down his opponent with one good eye. The two half-naked men were several feet apart, which Berengar used to his advantage as he closed the distance and dropped to one knee.

In a moment's notice, Berengar had penetrated through his opponent's defenses and grabbed ahold of his legs where he lifted the man into the air and carried him a few feet before slamming him on to the thick padded surface below. However, unlike traditional wrestling rules from his past life, this conflict did not end with a point. Instead, the two men scrambled for a superior position, ultimately resulting in Berengar taking the man's back. 

With his legs wrapped around the man's torso as a body triangle, the young King of Austria locked in a rear naked choke, where he compressed around the throat of his opponent like an anaconda. After a single second, the other man tapped out, resulting in Berengar releasing his position of control and rising to his feet. 

Wrestling was a staple in medieval Europe culture and was a sport for the nobility of many Kingdoms. However, Berengar had shifted the rules in Austria to be a more efficient means of combat and self defense.

Going off the memory of his combatives training from his years in the US army, Berengar had incorporated his limited knowledge of Brazilian jiu jitsu into Austria's variant of wrestling, and in doing so, created a new breed of martial art for this world. Austrian Grappling had over the past few years become more and more advanced, as many practitioners experimented with submissions in a safe standard set forth by the crown of Austria. 

By now, it had been introduced to the youth as a school sport, and could be seen across many of the public and private institutions of learning that had sprawled up across the kingdom as competition. Of course, when Berengar was training with his opponent, he was completely unaware that his guest from the Anangpur Empire had found his way to the gym embedded within Berengar's Palace. 

Upon witnessing the fascinating combat sport, Ishwar clapped and whistled when Berengar sunk in the choke. Though he was unaware of how effective such a thing was, it was apparent that the King of Austria's opponent was at his last breath the moment he tapped. When Berengar gazed upon the foreign guest with his one good eye, he smiled before making a comment about his untimely appearance.

"Would you like to join me for a bit of sport?"

Standing beside Ishwar was the translator who conveyed Berengar's words to the man. Upon hearing this challenge, he chuckled. He instantly disrobed to a similar state of attire that Berengar was dressed in. As for Berengar's sparring partner, he took a back step as the two men circled one another. The Anangpur ambassador boasted as he got close to the Austrian King.

"Are you sure about that? I'll have you know I am a master of Kalaripayattu, my country's martial arts."

Berengar struggled to hold back his laughter as he heard this. In his mind were memories from an era where unarmed martial arts were mixed to perfection in a brutally effective combat sport. Though he had little mixed martial arts training, he had extensive experience with the US Army's variant known as combatives. He had even won a few competitions set up by the Army. 

When compared with Kalaripayattu, which was known by fighters to be one of the less efficient traditional martial arts, Berengar was unafraid, instead he was brimming with confidence as he boldly challenged the Indian Ambassador.

"He who dares, wins..."

After hearing the translation of these words, Ishwar joined Berengar in laughter before inquiring about the rule set. 

"Tell me, what are the rules of our little competition?"

Upon hearing this Berengar was excited, one of his biggest complaints about mixed martial arts from his past life was that there were too many unnecessary rules added over the years, and its predecessor known as Vale Tudo, or no hold's barred had long since been banned in the more civilized countries of the modern world. 

Dwelling upon this, Berengar had devised an interesting set of rules. In doing so, he responded with a wicked smile while raising three fingers to his Indian Guest. 

"There are three rules to our competition. Rule number one no biting. Rule number two, no eye gouging, and rule number three, no groin shots. Everything else is fair game. The winner will be determined by knockout, tapout, or if one fighter is no longer capable of defending themselves intelligently. As for the referee, my sparring partner here will act as witness. 

Ishwar smiled and nodded his head in agreement to these terms, before boasting once more.

"Very well prepare to be beaten!"

The Indian ambassador immediately jumped into a flashy kick as Berengar merely grinned before catching hold of the man's leg and dumping him on his back with a sweep. Rather than follow up for the kill. Instead, Berengar decided to have a little fun with his prey. He stepped back and took up a tall guard as he tucked his chin in his neck. 

Ishwar immediately dusted himself off. He no longer had an arrogant smile on his face. Instead, he was quite furious that his attack did not land as successfully as he hoped. He charged towards Berengar before throwing a few punches, which the Austrian King quickly parried before countering with a jab, a right hook, and a leg kick, which instantly caused the man to stumble. 

Berengar did not hold back his strikes, and a vicious leg kick was quite debilitating to the uninitiated. Luckily for Ishwar, Berengar was an amateur in kickboxing. Thus, his strikes did not contain the amount of power that a more experienced kickboxer would use. 

Still, it was more than Ishwar was expecting. The man quickly tried to get to his feet, however unfortunately for him, as he was rising to his feet, Berengar had grabbed the back of his head and pulled it into a savage knee to the forehead, knocking him to the ground in a dazed state.

Berengar was not so merciful this time, and immediately passed by the man's guard before putting a knee on his belly, where he landed powerful a series of strikes on the man's head. His bare knuckles and elbows pounded upon the Anangpur ambassador's face, each one more vicious than the last, until finally the man was no longer capable of defending himself. When this became apparent to the referee, he pulled Berengar off his opponent, signalling his victory. 

The Austrian King rose from his kneeling position and offered a hand to support the man whose face he had beaten bloody. After regaining his clarity, Ishwar accepted Berengar's kindness and was dragged to his feet. He was less outraged than Berengar had initially expected and instead had a stupid smile on his face as he asked Berengar about the skills he had used to beat him.

"What was that just now? It was as if my Empire's unarmed techniques were entirely useless." 

Berengar chuckled as he heard this before informing the man of what he had used to beat him.

"Austrian Grappling, and Kickboxing. When combined, it is possibly the most efficient form of unarmed combat in this world." 

Berengar was not lying, though he had limited knowledge of martial arts. There were plenty of martial geniuses in his country who were happy to get paid for beating up other men. Thus, after introducing Austrian Grappling, which was a mixture of traditional European wrestling, and Brazilian jiu jitsu, as well as Austrian Kickboxing, which had rule set similar to Lethwei, also known as Burmese kickboxing from his past life. The various martial artists of his Kingdom had worked tirelessly to improve the rudimentary techniques that their King had introduced them to.

With an emphasis on practicality, rather than tradition, the past few years had caused an explosive growth in martial arts. It would not be long before a truly effective mixed martial art like ancient Greek pankration resurfaced in the heart of Europe. 

Ishwar wiped the blood from his nose before asking Berengar the question on his mind.

"Can you teach me?" 

In response to this, Berengar sighed and shook his head.

"I am afraid that I do not have enough time to teach you."

This caused a look of dejection to appear on the Indian ambassador's face until he heard Berengar's next words. 

"But I know someone who can."

Berengar would later introduce Ishwar to one of Austrian Martial arts gyms that had popped up in the city of Kufstein over the past few years.. When the man returned home to the Anangpur Empire, he would bring with him a rudimentary understanding of more practical unarmed combat.