Rin remained frozen for a time. Ahead of her, Seth rolled his shoulders. If he was at all surprised or emotionally impacted by her being his opponent, he didn't show it. As Rin's own shock slowly faded, however, she shook her head and tried to focus.

Now, though, she certainly found herself wishing she'd fought him more during class. The few times she had been paired up to train with him all came too early to really assess anything from those experiences. Rin herself had progressed quite a lot since then, and she guessed that he had as well.

[Okay... Whatever,] she thought. [He's just another opponent. Show him what you know.]

Putting her fists up, she listened to the announcer say that the fight could begin.

The referee looked at her, and Rin nodded. He looked at Seth, and he nodded as well.

Then, with a word, the referee let them get started.

And, almost instantly, Seth charged toward her. Rin barely managed to react in time, moving her head out of the way of a straight punch that definitely looked like it had a ton of power put behind it.

[Does this guy have a grudge against me or something!?]

Grimacing, Rin spun and kicked him in the stomach. Her blow pushed him back, and although it didn't look like it caused too much damage, his expression briefly changed to one of surprise. Rin put her fists up and remained in a fighting stance as their eyes locked.

[Yeah,] she thought. [I've been training too hard to go down that quickly!]

Nodding to himself, Seth ran toward her again. With a bit more anger on his face, he pulled his fists back and proceeded to launch a short combination. Rin parried away the blows with her hands, deflecting the punches as they came, utilizing the lessons Maria had given to her. Her biggest hope for winning this fight was to achieve victory through skill, and so, Rin put her mind to work.

At one point, Seth put his back into one of his punches and Rin ducked under it.

[He overcommitted,] Rin thought, as she remembered the many times Maria had punished her for doing just that. So, she punished Seth in exactly the same way.

That being, with a sharp elbow to the gut.

Some spit left Seth's mouth as the blow landed, and the man staggered back. Rin felt the temptation of going in and following up with more hits, but she calmed herself. She knew that if she made one mistep Seth would probably knock her out cold.

So, calmly, she retook her fighting stance and watched as Seth got even angrier.

Then, he charged toward her again. Rin prepared herself to dodge another punch, but he didn't do that. Instead, he went in with a kick that Rin hadn't been anticipating.

[Crap.]

She raised her left arm to guard against the attack but when it hit her head, her vision shook all the same. Now, Seth followed up with the same punches he'd been throwing earlier, but this time Rin was in no position to avoid them. One landed on her abdomen and Rin felt all of the air in her body leave.

Seth wasn't done, though. One, two, three punches were delivered to her body before he finally capped the combo off with one hook at the side of her head, and when that last blow hit her, the world went white.

Rin went crashing down as the crowd went crazy, and Seth scoffed, turning around and walking away.

But, as Rin realized she'd been knocked down, she tried to get back up. Her vision was blurry for a few seconds, but everything came into focus as she looked at Seth's retreating form just a few meters ahead.

Putting her fists back up, the referee had to tell Seth to turn around, as he'd thought Rin was done.

Narrowing her eyes at him, Seth raised a brow.

"... Okay," she heard Seth say under his breath and the boy got back in his own fighting position.

Before they engaged each other again, Rin took a second to think about what had just happened.

[Well, that didn't tell me much that I couldn't guess before. He doesn't need many hits to end this fight. I didn't expect him to go for any kicks, though. Okay, now I know.]

As Seth approached her, Rin took a deep breath. This time, he initiated with a knee aimed at Rin's body. The adventurer blocked the strike and Seth followed up with a couple of hooks that, this time, Rin was able to avoid.

[How's this?] She thought before kicking Seth back the same way she had before, but this time, she followed up by leaping into the air.

She delivered a spinning crescent kick that Seth simply ducked under, but she didn't stop there. Keeping the aggression up, she tried to punch him in the body a few times and, although his core wasn't as solid as Maria's, it still hurt her hands to land her knuckles against his muscles. The blows did do damage, though. Seth was unable to block the first couple, and then Rin took her fists up.

She punched him once in the face and then Seth retaliated with an uppercut that made Rin blackout. When her eyes opened again, the crowd was cheering, and this time Seth was walking up to her.

[Get up.]

Rin jumped up to her feet and deflected a hook before answering with a punch to Seth's own chin. However, he took it like a champ.

Rin went for an uppercut, but Seth caught her fist, pulled her in, and landed a hard elbow at her temple.

And, that was it.

The battle was cut short then and there, as Rin went down and didn't come back up. She couldn't, even if she wanted to, as the blow had rendered her unconscious.

----

"Tough luck, lass," Trodon told her as she walked back to the building on shaky legs. By the time Rin had woken up, the other fighters had been about to walk on stage, and the referee had to help her up to her feet.

Now, she was keeping her eyes low and her fists clenched as she sulked.

[I lost.]

With a sigh, she looked over at Trodon.

"Uh, yeah."

"For what it's worth, from what I caught of the fight, it was more even than a lot of people backstage thought it would be. I mean," he added, "Seth's been training here for a long time. The fact that you held out for as long as you did is impressive."

"..."

[Maybe it would be,] Rin thought during her silence, [if I was some rookie. But, Maria's been training me for so long... How did I go down that easily?]

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Trodon asked. "Are you going to set up another fight?"

"... Maybe later," Rin replied quietly.

"Okay," he nodded. "But, I'll tell you this, a fighter's heart is measured by how they respond to losses. If you've got the heart of a warrior, I'll see you back here. Until then, though, rest easy. You fought well."

With that being said, Trodon walked away and Rin let her head hang.

Some of the others backstage glanced her way, but Rin ignored them. Instead, she got up, took Xhez's bag, and walked over to the bathroom.

[My eye's swollen,] she acknowledged, as it flared up with some sharp pain. Opening up the bag, she looked down into it.

"Xhez?"

"Rin? What...?" Xhez asked, as she looked up at her. "Hold on!"

Then, Rin held the bag out and Xhez jumped up, out of it. As soon as she did, as Rin locked the door behind them, she put a hand on Rin's face.

"What happened?" She asked, worried.

"I got my butt kicked," Rin chuckled. "Uh, can you heal this? It kinda hurts."

"Of course."

A short spell later, Rin was good as new, though her pride was still wounded. Xhez put on her own disguise and gave her the clothes she'd worn on the way here.

"Do you wanna walk back with me or...? Sorry, I know you don't like being here, but-"

"Sure," Xhez cut her off, and as Rin's illusion faded, the two walked out of the Arena, side by side. "So, how did you lose? You are fairly skilled, are you not?" Xhez asked.

"I don't know," Rin shrugged. "I was too slow. He did something a couple of things I didn't see coming and... yeah."

"I see," Xhez replied. As the two walked, Rin shook her head.

"I didn't think I'd lose that soon," she chuckled bitterly. "Well, at least my first loss is out of the way... I guess."

"... I do not understand combat enough to know the measure of your opponent or to have any advice to give," Xhez lamented, "but I can say that you are talented. You will win the next time!"

"Yeah? Maybe."

With that being said, the two of them walked back to the Academy after that. They went back to Rin's room, and Elisa, who was inside, perked up when Rin entered with Xhez trailing behind her.

"Oh, Rin," she smiled. "Good timing. I was just about to go out for some dinner. Wanna join in?" She asked.

"Uh... No, sorry," Rin chuckled awkwardly. "I'm a bit tired."

"Oh," Elisa replied, with some clear disappointment. "Maybe next time. Goodnight, roomie," Elisa told her as she left and Rin gave her goodbye as well.

[Ugh,] Rin shook her head. [I need a moment.]

She put Xhez's bag on the drawer and went to her bed, laying down. Xhez followed and sat down at the edge, looking at her with sympathetic eyes.

She laid down next to Rin then and put a hand on her cheek.

"Would you like me to sing to you a little?" Xhez asked. "It could help you relax."

"... Sure," Rin shrugged, as she looked back into Xhez's eyes. The sprite nodded, and soon, her voice came out, smooth and comforting.

As Rin listened, she closed her eyes and the fight played back in her thoughts.

[If it wasn't him, it would have been someone else,] she thought. [I went in with too high an ego... Or, maybe I just suck. Either way, I guess I needed that.]

The last thing she saw in her mind's eye before Xhez's voice completely put her to sleep was Seth's uncaring face as he landed that elbow on her, almost like he was just annoyed that she'd pushed him so far more than anything else.