In a fraction of a second she shifted her weight forward, bending her knee and extending her fist with the intent to meet his charge with an even greater counter-force the moment just before he would strike. She didn’t need a weapon to riposte.

A sharp exhalation, half her lung capacity all at once. A surge of Fog pouring from her mouth and nose, equalling an equivalent surge of strength translated into that brief forward movement.

The impact came, her fist against his collarbone. Pain shot up her arm from the force and she was quite certain her knuckles were bruised, and at least one finger was close to dislocating due to the angle of impact. He flew backward, skidding across the cobbles.

Zelsys exhaled yet more Fog, emptying her lungs before she took another deep breath, this time filling them to the fullest capacity all at once in the span of perhaps three seconds. Somehow, the Fog she had exhaled continued just drifting away and fading, and instead clear air cut through it to enter her airways. She could hear speech and hollering from people in the crowd, but they were just background noise, out of focus.

The exhilaration of combat was already filling her body, a grin spreading across her face as she kept her eyes focused on her opponent’s nearly motionless form. Coughing and spitting blood, Halxian struggled to his feet, staring at her half amazed and half furious.

“Y-you bitch!” he laughed disbelievingly. “You’re… A Fog-breather too!”

He dropped into that self-same stance as before, once more exclaiming, “Cloud-scattering Sacred Breath!”

Another implosive inhalation, a gust of wind whipping past her. Unlike the time before, he didn’t charge at her. Instead, he began circling her in that low stance, slowly, methodically, drawing a near-perfect circle with the silvery threads of his exhalation. The circle of bystanders quickly widened as he neared the edge, despite the fact he wouldn’t have hit it anyway.

All the while, she did no more than returning to a relaxed stance, poised to riposte his strike in the exact same way as before, but aware that he likely wouldn’t try the same failed approach twice. A half-circle became a full revolution, and a full revolution became two. At some point, he briefly stopped exhaling and took in another violent inhalation. She was beginning to feel the burning sensation of needing to breathe, and a realization flashed through her mind.

“Observant little brat,” she thought. “Playing chicken until I gotta take another breath.”

A small exhalation, just enough to make a visible thread of Fog. Halxian lunged, zigzagging left and right, both arms held out. An exhalation to sidestep, another to deliver a sideways kick to where she thought he was. Only, it didn’t connect. A hand wrapped around her leg, and before she knew it, the cobbles met her back, expelling nearly all the Fog from her lungs in a long wheeze.

When she regained her bearings, he had her left leg in some sort of hold, staring at her with a demented grin on his face.