Your opponent is presenting you with lots of targets - too many, and too obvious. He clearly wants you to attack him, probably so he can evade, get an idea of your abilities, and then work up a counter. You'll be having none of that, thank you. Keeping your arms in a loose but ready guard position, you begin to advance on Ranma slowly. Thanks to a conveniently-placed light fixture, your shadow advances with you, until your smaller opponent is almost entirely engulfed within the darkness created by your mere presence.

It feels remarkably right.

Gained Aura of Power C
Gained Intimidating C
Gained Past Life Experience C++

As you move, you silently incant a spell of Divination, performing a general-purpose scan of the boy standing in your path. The readings come back as follows: male human; no inherent magical ability; no external magical traces of note; and a strong but diffuse ki signature. Once you've confirmed these details, you let the spell lapse, but even that brief working of magic is enough to let your aura into play. Ranma seems to sense it, his eyes widening as he takes a sudden step back and slips from his "unguarded" stance into a more traditional defensive pose. Evidently, he's decided to take you more seriously.

Your longer arms and legs give you a greater striking range than Ranma, but you don't use it, preferring to keep your guard up even as you draw another slow, steady step forward. Ranma backs up again, but then casts a quick glance behind himself, at the edge of the mats - he's still got plenty of room to work with, but it's clear at a glance that the other boy isn't used to the idea of being on the defensive like this, and doesn't much care for it.

"Nuts to this," he mutters, before launching himself at you.

Ranma's speed surprises you; one punch turns into three, right-left-right-sudden kick, and while you're able to block two of the strikes, bob your head to avoid the third, and then shift to one side to evade the kick, it's only because you were on guard to start with. You have serious doubts that you'd have been able to escape being hit if you'd been committed to an attack when Ranma launched that little combo at you - more likely you'd have been caught twice, maybe even three times.

Still, some valuable information has been acquired. Ranma is quicker than you, but not as strong. The unsteady nature of his aura implies that while he has a considerable amount of ki, he's yet to be trained in its control and use, and likely can't manage anything fancier with it than the unconscious augmentation tricks every well-trained martial artist can pull off - although given the size of Ranma's reserves, those boosts will be impressive.

"Come on!" the boy with the braid taunts you. "Quit stompin' around like ol' Godzilla and take a swing at me already! Or are you too slow to hit me, big guy?"

You respond to Ranma's prodding taunt with a smirk.

"This is Japan, right? I thought it would be the perfect place to stomp around like Godzilla - and correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the King of Monsters always win in the end?"

Ranma pauses, and then winces. "Okay, bad example. Can I get a do-over on that?"

You shrug. "Go ahead."

Thinking for a moment, your opponent clears his throat and, in a rather dry tone, says, "'Quit stompin' around like ol' King Kong and take a swing at me already. Or are you too slow to hit me, big guy.'" He looks up, grinning. "How was that?"

"Better," you admit, right before you lunge at the smaller boy, leading with one fist.

"Urk!" Ranma wordlessly exclaims as something like a hundred pounds of prime, beef-fed American explodes in his direction. He tries to get out of the way, but the mass that normally hinders your speed is working to your advantage now that you've got some acceleration behind it - you're simply too close, too quickly for most full-scale dodges to work, and your blow takes him across the chin with all the force of a thousand take-out dinners. Off-balance and undoubtedly more than a bit dazed from the hit, Ranma isn't able to pull back fast enough to avoid your grasping hands.

What follows is a nasty little tangle where you do your level best to get your smaller opponent into a crippling hold, while he in turn does all in his power to escape being held. Knees, elbows, one-inch-punches, claw rakes, and fingerpokes are used freely, and Ranma shows a worrying tendency to aim for your soft bits - if you weren't as tall as you are, that first nut-shot would have connected. As it is, you take a hit to the inner thigh, warning enough that you're able to compensate and ward off successive blows to the nether regions.

It would seem that the name "Anything Goes" is not just for show.

In the end, though, you manage to establish a hold. How long you're going to be able to maintain it, on an opponent who isn't THAT much smaller than you and thrashes like a wild bronco in the bargain, is another question.

Not wanting to give an opponent with this demonstrated level of skill more time to use said prowess than you absolutely must, and likewise unwilling to let go of him, you opt for snaking one arm around Ranma's throat and pulling back.

The boy goes wild, his ki suddenly surging in desperation as he realizes that he is about to lose, and for one brief moment, you almost lose your hold.

Then you muster your own ki, and clamp down.

Three...

Ranma kicks you in both shins.

Two...

He smashes the back of his head against your face, bruising your nose.

One...

He elbows you in the gut, hard.

Zero...

He scrabbles wildly, clawing at your arm.

...um, Minus One?

Finally, he shudders, and goes still.

The referee barks, "VICTORY!" and then follows up with a quieter command for you to release your foe. You heed it promptly, setting Ranma down on the mat and stepping back to let the official have a look. After a brief inspection, the man nods and gestures to two of his compatriots, who step forward with a stretcher.

"Winner by knockout," the first man announces. "Number Three-Oh-Three."

You bow to the referee, and then in the direction of your unconscious opponent as he's carried off. A large man wearing a slightly worn formal gi - and for some reason, a handkerchief folded over his head - regards you in silence for a moment, his expression indecipherable through the light gleaming off his glasses. He nods once, then turns and disappears in the direction Ranma was taken.

Stepping out of the ring, you are abruptly aware of Pain. You may have won that fight, but Ranma did a hell of a number on you

OOC: As everybody guessed, throwing Ranma would have gone badly - not an instant loss, but it would have cost Alex a hit and control of the fight. Ranma had even odds of getting out of the pin, and trying to drag him out of the ring would have put Alex in real danger of being ringed-out himself.

On the current list of options: if you choose to rest, Alex will recover a bit more than he would while walking around, and use up slightly less of his energy-of-choice (if any) in the process; and if you choose to meditate, Alex will recover gradually over the duration rather than in a single burst up-front, getting the best recovery for the least cost (having more energy in the tank means you recover it faster), at the price of being unable to do much else in the meantime.