Some people fight with their fists; to them, there's nothing more gratifying than pummeling foes left and right. Other people prefer burning their target with fire; perhaps they just just love that smell of napalm in the morning. But why not combine them?: After all, a punch hurts. Fire hurts. A punch on fire is bound to hurt twice as much as either of the two individually. And thus, the art of combining Elemental Powers with close-quarter combat was born.
The Elemental punch is a melee attack that has an elemental or energy-based upgrade. These come in quite a few flavors, including but not limited to:
Fire is a very common attribute to add to a physical attack. Perhaps this is because of fire's sheer destructive power, or the hot headed nature of most fire users, or maybe just because an aura of flame enveloping a character's fist is just plain cool.
Ice-based attacks are also fairly common, due to their tendency to freeze their targets on contact. Attacks of this type are generally encased in some sort of coldness energy rather than actual ice. Although boxing gloves made of ice are rather common.
Wind adds an extra bit of force to the punch, allows you to send a hit from far away, or increases the speed of your attacks for Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, or used in conjunction with other common wind style speed enhancement tropes. In some cases, a wind punch can tear the target to shreds.
Earth adds mass and defense to the punch. In some cases, the shell can be molded into a more effective weapon such as adding spikes to the fist. Destructive vibrations and streams of sand or crystal shards aren't uncommon.
Electricity has the benefit of turning the person's fist into a stun gun.
Light-elemental punches have the added benefit of easily indicating the power of the attack.
Dark or shadow-elemental punches, naturally, are a common counterpart. These sorts of attacks tend to involve lines being sucked into the glowy part/weapon.
A final variation involves channeling Pure Energy or Ki into the attack, which generally has an empowering effect rather than adding an elemental attribute. This is typically indicated, once again, by having the fist glow.
Of course, punches are not the only attacks that can be elementally empowered. Elemental kicks are almost as, if not just as, common. Channeling elements into weapons happens quite a bit, if the Flaming Sword and Laser Blade are any indication. And, of course, there's nothing quite like pummeling the enemy with a flying, full-body tackle whilst encased in one's element of choice.
This is a tactic that comes naturally to the Magic Knight and the Supernatural Martial Artist, and, understandably, usually requires Full-Contact Magic. In Video Games, this trope is often employed to prevent non-magical fighters from being excluded from Elemental Rock–Paper–Scissors. This may be seen as a Yin-Yang Bomb, combining matter with energy. Compare the Trick Arrow, the archer's answer to the elemental punch, and the Elemental Weapon for other similarly enhanced weapons. Super-Trope of Explosive Punch. See also Swiss-Army Appendage, Item Amplifier, and Power Fist.
