Two things happen when a punch lands on a face. The fist stops, but the head keeps turning. There might be a loud sound if the punch hits the right place with the right amount of power. There might even be an uncomfortable crunch if the fist hits the nose.

But when a punch misses, the fist does not stop and the head does not turn. There is no loud sound and there is certainly no crunch. Instead, the fist glides through the air like a bat’s wings, pulling the arm along until the body is stretched out and one’s own head is made into a perfect target. When I tried to punch Noel as she peeked over the boulder, my punch missed.

She countered with one of her own, but I leaned into my punch even further, and let the momentum carry me forward. I twisted my body to avoid the edge of the boulder, and somehow managed to wiggle my way to the back, next to Noel, while avoiding her fist.

Obviously, neither of us were great brawlers. I used to go to the gym, back on my Earth, but I wasn’t getting into street fights or anything. And my physique in this world was good, but definitely not amazing. Both Noel and I had the type of bodies that were good for agile maneuvers and long distance attacks. Fighting like this was not my forte. Still, Noel had more remaining magical energy, which meant I would lose a long, drawn out magical battle. This meant my only hope was to try to overpower her with physical force!

I put pressure on my leading foot, and tackled Noel, going in shoulder-first. She couldn’t react in time and ended up being pushed back. I hadn’t been able to put enough power into my tackle, so Noel did not fall to the ground, but I was standing right next to her, ready to swing my other hand. Noel started preparing a fireball. I pressed forward, disrupting her spell with my chest as I swung my left hand around to the back of her head.

Noel ducked, letting my hand pass right over her silver hair. As she ducked, she leaned forward and tried to punch me in the gut. There wasn’t enough space for her to put enough power behind her fists, so I braced for impact and endured her attack. I brought up a knee, hoping to catch her in the chin, but she leaned to the side. I still managed to hit the side of her head, which sent her stumbling to the side.

I extended my leg into a kick, although it wasn’t very powerful, coming from such a strange stance. Noel made the mistake of trying to block my kick with her arms, since that still managed to rattler her frame. As I brought my leg back down, Noel prepared a kick of her own, and I tried to step back to avoid it. However, Noel’s kick was a strange roundhouse, which arced in from the side and caught me as I was retreating. She knocked the wind out of my lungs, since I wasn’t expecting to get hit and did not even try to block it with my hands.

Noel pressed her advantage by turning her body with her kick, and using her second leg to launch another strange roundhouse kick. This time, I ducked under her leg, and jumped forward towards her body. Using the momentum of my jump, I tackled Noel to the ground. But Noel’s kick made her fall at an angle, which meant I did not land on top of her and could not pin her down. She hit the ground with a loud cry, but scrambled away from me as I tried to hold her down.

Grappling with her on the ground would have been the easiest and least dangerous way to subdue her. Noel, sensing that I wouldn’t be able to stop her from my position on the ground, began preparing another fireball. I cursed, inwardly, and prepared water magic to douse her flames as soon as they left her hands. As the steam dissipated, I picked myself up and ran around the steam just as the white vapor was dispersed by another fireball. I came up behind Noel, who was still on the floor, and tried to grab her head from behind.

Noel leaned back, putting her entire body flat on the ground. My hands swept through empty air, and Noel prepared another fireball right below my chest. If I let her release it, it would go straight up my chest and onto my face, possibly melting the skin right off. I quickly cast some water magic to douse the flames, splashing her face with water in the process. Warm steam blasted over my face, and I was forced to take a step back, before she realized I had no way of stopping a rock or stone projectile from such close quarters.

Sure enough, as soon as I stepped back, a large rock flew through the air and parted the cloud of steam over Noel’s head. Noel also picked herself back up, breathing heavily. She winced and held her left arm. I was also breathing heavily, and apart from some light bruises where Noel had managed to hit me, I was pretty much uninjured. Fighting in close quarters like this had definitely been the right call.

I knew I couldn’t let Noel catch her breath nor her wits, so I charged ahead. I didn’t really have a plan, but was hoping she didn’t have one either. With some luck, and determination, I felt like I could tire her out far more quickly this way.

Except, for some reason, Noel met my punch with a block, and countered with a jab of her own. I reacted by also blocking her attack with my arm. I punched again, she blocked. She punched, I blocked. I tried to mix things up with a quick kick, but she blocked it with her knee and leaned forward for a large swing. I turtle-d up by shielding my face with my forearms, but was still shaken up by her powerful swing.

To be fair, any onlooker would look at us like a couple of fighting children. Our bodies were still young, at least by elfin standards, and none of our punches or kicks carried any real weight or power behind them. Instead, we were able to react quickly, block quickly, and counter quickly. A rapid succession of punches and kicks, and blocks and parries followed. My arms began to ache and even my fists began to complain. I gave up kicking, since Noel was always able to block with her knees, although I was sure that doing so was painful for her.

Still, by this time, it was a battle of endurance. Here, again, I had started off more tired than Noel, because of her little trick at the start of the fight. But since Noel had not been expecting to be fighting like this, I felt like I’d tired her out more by baiting her into the fight and getting in some good punches and tackles.

As Noel and I began to tire, my eyes darted back and forth, looking for an opening. I stopped punching as much, only venturing out whenever I felt like Noel was about to disengage entirely. By keeping her in the fight, I knew I could tire her out. Eventually, she’d make a mistake, and wouldn’t be able to make up for her mistake with her youthful reflexes and agility.

Frustrated and exhausted, Noel swung hard with her left hand. My eyes popped open. This was it! I leaned back, avoiding her swing, and brought my own fist towards her chin in an uppercut. There was no way she could avoid it! I yelled out loud and put my all into this one strike, sure that it would connect and knock her out at last!

Her eyes followed my fist as it neared her chin. I saw the panic spread on her face in slow motion, as she tried to move away despite the forward momentum of her body caused by her long swinging punch. Yet, at the last possible moment, an invisible force pushed hard against my fist, forcing it to brush past the sides of Noel’s hair.

I stood there, stunned, my eyes still staring at the place where Noel’s head should have been. I blinked. Breathed heavily. Turned to the side. Noel was breathing heavily, exhausted but conscious. Her other palm was open, and I quickly deduced what happened. She’d used a magic hand to push my punch away!

I narrowed my eyes. My surprise and confusion were gone. Magic hands were very inefficient. The amount of force they exerted was way less than the amount of energy that went into them. For Noel to have pushed away my fist, she must have used a ton of power. I smiled. I didn’t need to fight in close quarters anymore.

I prepared a ball of fire and threw it towards the tired elf.