Fighting Style

Though Tyson can appreciate the discipline of martial arts and has dabbled in a few different fighting techniques, he generally favours guerrilla street fighting.

Generally speaking, Tyson focuses on strikes against nerve/vital points, but even then, he doesn’t stick to a singular style of fighting. Even when he’s trying to improve on a particular area, Tyson is more instinctive in a fight and will end up jumping between styles regardless.

Something his drill Sargent in the army never stopped scolding him for. That adaptability and flexible is useful, but it also hamstrings Tyson’s ability to improve as a fighter. He has a niche that works for him; until it doesn’t, and that can be an Achilles heel.

That said, there are areas that can be pointed to as Tyson’s fighting style, without being a specific technique as they apply to the ways he will use multiple techniques to better suit his preferred flow of battle.

He favours fighting with his arms and blocking with his legs, and is more willing to risk damage to his legs. 

He likes to turn the odds in his favour and to use his environment to his advantage, such as his use of staircases.

He wants to wait for or create a golden opportunity, but failing that, Tyson is willing to wear down his opponent however he needs to.

He is more comfortable planting his feet in one place between bursts of movement. Stop and start fighting, rather than flowing from one movement to the next. 

Tyson wants to be darting in-and-out of the mid-to-close range. Defending until an opportunity opens, then doing as much damage as possible before waiting again. He’s an opportunity fighter. 

Attack/Defense

Though strictly speaking Tyson favours strategic offence, it should surprise no one that Tyson favours defence over attack.

The best defence is a good offence, after all.

Reality doesn’t always allow Tyson to do as he wishes, but he puts a priority on ensuring defensive capabilities rather than attack. If he can survive an attack, it doesn’t matter if he hits first, wears the person down, or waits for an opening to return the attack.

The same applies when Tyson is planning out missions for the web. He would naturally favour strategic offence, but if given the choice between prioritising how the employees would attack or how to keep them defended, Tyson will favour defence. Taking down an enemy of the web doesn’t matter if they stretch themselves too thin. 

He would argue that it’s a more versatile area of battle and strategy, and has many times in his work with the army and the web.

Fighting Style

When it comes to his Pokémon AU, Tyson’s physical and verbal fighting style is the same as in any other universe, and - frankly - his Pokémon battling style is exactly what you would expect to come from Tyson.

No matter which universe he’s in, whether it’s magic duels in his Mythical!Verse/Hogwarts AU or fighting alongside his dæmon in HDM AU, Tyson has a style that he tends to lean towards. He has a lot of experience under his belt and Tyson tends to lean towards fighting in the middle to close range.

He favours knives over guns: to make it personal rather than something he can brush off, because there is more versatility in battle and outside of it, and because it’s quieter and more subtle with a surprising amount of speed behind it. Those choices carry over into the decisions he makes across all arenas of battle.

There are Pokémon that Tyson will have battle from long range, but for the most part, Tyson will focus on having his Pokémon in the middle ground, charging in for a point-blank attack, then darting away to relative safety; close enough to retreat or follow up with another attack.

Tyson likes to turn the odds in his favour and to use his environment to his advantage, such as Tyson’s use of staircases in his main!universe. To this end, Tyson has a lot of his Pokémon using weather moves and largely accurate moves. He makes sure the battlefield is on their side, or can easily be turned to disadvantage their opponent.

Though Status conditions may seem to play to Tyson’s general style, he doesn’t like to rely on something that may not take. He’s taken advantage of moves that have a chance to inflict conditions, but for the most part his team’s status moves are focused on weather or healing.

Tyson always like to have numbers on his side. He has a large pool of Pokémon to draw from and he’s trained them all to fight together. He’ll single battle if he must, but Tyson definitely favours having his team compliment each other in double or even triple battles.

Even in single battles, Tyson isn’t the type of trainer to have one Pokémon battle until they are spent. He likes to swap out his Pokémon constantly, to keep his opponent on their toes, and to take advantage of things set up by the last Pokémon. No matter the universe, Tyson likes to be flexible and adapt to the situation rather than try and force a solution to work.

He tends to favour two types of Pokémon overall: bulky, slower powerhouse Pokémon that can hold the line forever and take down an opponent with two or three powerful moves, & the other type is lightning-fast Pokémon who can finish the fight before its begun or simply keeping moving and never get hit.

Both styles play to a war of attrition, waiting for an opening to strike and making sure that when a move lands, maximum damage is achieved. That is exactly how Tyson likes to fight in person as well. He wants to wait for or create a golden opportunity, but failing that, Tyson is willing to wear down his opponent however he needs to.

Arms vs Legs

When Tyson fights, he favours using his arms to attack, but he’s more willing to risk his legs getting hurt in defence. Tyson can pull off a roundhouse if he needs to, but he is much more of a puncher than he is a kicker.

When investigating a potentially conscious fallen enemy or anything of similar risk, Tyson is more willing to risk his legs - prodding or kicking at the object - rather than reaching out with his hands, as that allows him to remain standing in a less vulnerable position.

Tyson is a damn good runner, but when searching for that urban escape, it’s more important for Tyson to have his arms in good condition to parkour up onto the fire escapes and away over the rooftops to safety. Even if his legs can’t propel him as high, Tyson can heave himself up with his arms whereas an injured arm usually forces Tyson to make a ground escape.

Given his army training and his pressure point focused fighting style, it’s unsurprising that Tyson is very conscious of how delicate his wrists and ankles can be. Growing up a calcium deficiency led to him having weak ankles, with his right ankle being Tyson’s first broken bone, and the bite scar on his right wrist from Razor will always be a sign of failure to Tyson.

Is Tyson a badass?

[[I had to make a post about this.

#[[JO is literally speechless THIS GUY IS BAD ASS]]

So above is what was written, for context read the thread but basically Tyson is the king of nerve points. None of the nerve points he had mentioned are made up, they all work because I have done them on myself and on others. None cause damage but they can be a little sore for a few minutes.

So yes, Tyson is a bad ass. When he is confident, but most of the time? He is terrified. Think of it like an army dog, trained to be unstoppable, who has been beaten everyday.]]

[[I think your character development is just…whhwhhe rekh. That tag was relevant for that time, I mean I keep thinking back to when Jo felt so sorry for him and now she’s like…OH CRAP!]] 

[[Is “whhwhhe rekh” character development good or bad?

To be honest I feel sorry for Tyson most of the time. #Pats endearingly.#]]

[[GOOD GOOD! DEFO GOOD! I felt so sorry for Tyson at the beginning of our welcome rp but now I’m like…wow the dude can handle himself.]] 

[[Thank you. I’m loving Jo, you write her so well. It’s incredible.]]

[[It really puts the amount of power Sebastian has over him into perspective.]]

Original post. I felt it was best to post here to show what Sebastian has done to Tyson.
The parts pushed inwards are Jo's mun talking.

He is better at hand to hand combat than with a gun, he knows all the nerve points to hit.

That said, Tyson would prefer to have the option of working with a knife over having no weapon at all.