“Forfeit or your knee goes,” he seethed, taking hold of her kneecap. As if an addendum, he muttered “Cloud-scattering Sacred Breath…” to himself, taking in another sharp inhalation. She knew he would be able to maim her well before she could take a proper breath, that feeling of impending danger screeched in the back of her head like a wild beast. The world briefly slowed to a crawl as her mind rushed, her eyes locked to his.

Zelsys dug as deep as she could, exhaling every last wisp of Fog she had left and hoping it would render her upward kick to his head fast enough to get him off her. His head whipped to the left, and the grin vanished from his face as his fingers slipped from the fabric of her pants.

A sharp breath, rolling to the right, then up to her feet in a wide stance. His stomping boot threw up dust where she had laid moments prior as he quickly handsprung back to his feet, flowing after her in that low stance like his body was the head of a giant snake, his hands the fangs.

Just then, she realized. If he wanted to fight like a beast, then it would only be appropriate to treat him as one. “Come on! Come at me!” she mocked much in the same way she had mocked the rot-bear, grinning ear to ear as she sidestepped his charge with a larger exhalation, moving just barely out of his reach and landing securely on her feet. Fury filled his features in a split-second and he redoubled his pursuit, turning on a dime.

Mid-turn, he was as open as he would get, and Zelsys saw the opportunity clear as day. She stepped forward as if she were going to punch him again, placing her weight on the heel of her left so it could act as a pivot point. When his raging face turned to a grin, she knew she had him. “Like an open book,” she inwardly chuckled to herself.

A twist on her heel and an exhalation, raising her right leg into a kick straight to his chest. His ribs against her heel, she felt them bending under the force as she sent him careening across the cobbles again. Halxian slid over the ground, eventually brought to a stop by the foot of a man in the audience. He laid there motionless for a few seconds, until he struggled to his feet, retching and puking blood.

The boy struggled to take a breath, and he did - but it wasn’t an explosive one, it wasn’t a breath of Fog. It was a wheezing inhalation of one who had the breath completely knocked out of them and didn’t know how to regain it. “Wghr…” he tried to speak, only to spit out a tooth.

Halxian’s left eye twitched, his face twisted into uncontrolled rage. He took an implosive breath, and without any regard for his own safety charged Zelsys in an erratic dance of punches and claw-like swipes of his immaculately manicured fingers.