FISTPUNCHGIRL vs HEAPBIGWOMAN
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"Only two things come out of Refreese, you know?" Mynah said to Elze as they approached the center of the ring. A perfect circle abount twenty meters wide was burned into the grass of the little forest clearing. Ring-outs were a perfectly valid way of ending the fight but compared to a magic duel melee fighters had plenty of room to roam. "Fish… and bandits."
"What are you trying to say?" Elze asked with narrowed eyes.
That was… technically true. Fish was Refreese's primary export. But as an economically depressed country, many people would rather cross the border and find work in Belfast. Adventurers were dependent upon the Guild providing them listings and it was on a first-come-first-served basis.
Bandits, however, could pick their own targets. The walls surrounding settlements were as much to keep out monsters as they were to protect against other humans.
"I'm saying there's nothing wrong with being fish. It's good to be all young and healthy and flopping around with fresh eyes," Mynah replied. The tall well-muscled woman put a hand to her chin and nodded approvingly. "You have good eyes."
Elze just looked so confused.
Mynah raised her other hand and began cracking her knuckles. The pops seemed to echo through the clearing. "You're not even afraid, are you? Your eyes don't show the arrogance of some young fish who thinks they're the best, but you don't care at all that you're going to hurt and lose. Just living means to endure pain. I respect that. So fresh. So fresh."
"Okay, that's just offensive. I'm from Refreese, that's true. But we're from near the border. That means INLAND. Our family raised *goats* and *chickens*. I have no idea what the heck you're talking about."
("Dammit Elze, you should have told me that earlier! Mah Vertical Integration-!") (1)
Elze turned her head to the side and spat "SHUT UP ABOUT THAT, PLAYA!"
Mynah laughed. "So are you ready to see just how strong you are?" She spread her beefy arms out wide. The tips of her fingers wiggled ominously. "Ready to try and climb the mountain?"
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("This is an unfair fight. And I don't mean the difference between Green Rank and Red Rank. But before one can take advantage of strength, one must have reach. Dayum someone has reach in spades.")
("That is why you should have asked for something in the unlikely chance that your women win, fool! But now that chance is gone. You lose and lose, you loser!")
("She's almost like if Michael Jordan was born as a woma– hmm, what was that? You were saying something?")
("Nghh.")
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Zanac's shrill voice shouted out, accompanied by a small bell "BEGIN!"
"[Boost!]" Elze stamped her left foot into the ground and shot forward, leaving a small crater behind her. But at the halfway point rather than striking with her punch she shifted into a low driving kick toward her opponent's knee.
"Hah!" Just before Elze's foot could reach, Mynah pivoted on her left heel and counter-kicked with her right leg at Elze's body.
"Kuh!" Elze was just barely able to shield herself with her arms as the other adventurer's powerful kick flung her away in the instant just before her own [Boosted] kick could shatter the other person's kneecaps.
She tumbled about in the air to shift her legs down again, making contact with the ground. Her fingers scratched a furrow into the ground as she desperately tried to bleed off momentum. Still she slid off for quite some distance, almost reaching the edge for a ring-out.
A simple but powerful kick. Instead of avoiding, counter-attack immediately! She looked up, now much more wary.
Mynah grinned. "That's a good look on your face. Destroy the enemy's footing, that's just good sense. But since I'm so much bigger than everyone else, of course everybody attacks my legs first of all!"
Elze grit her teeth. Such was the problem of reach. And because she was inside a formal dueling circle, she couldn't just rip trees off the ground and then get the advantage of range for herself.
Unless…
Her hands drifted towards her pouch… and then stopped. Throwing things would be cheating. If she was going to do that, then there's no point in being a front-liner. Power to crush anything before her. The strength to protect everyone she cared about! Being a stubborn girl that yields to nothing and no one! As one of twin girls, she thought that everything gentle and smart went into Linze and so Elze resolved that rather than be compared as the stupider less attractive sibling she might as well embrace that and be the rude crude woman that defend her sister's happiness.
She didn't have the twisty mind of Playa, or Yae's refined technique. All she could do was to rush out and break everything in front of her.
Elze raised her fists up in a boxer stance and stomped forward with quick mincing steps. Mynah grinned again, because Elze didn't realize just how much like a silly little duck she looked like that.
"[Boost.]"
Mynah's right eyebrow quirked up, as her glance went down from Elze's powerfully pumping feet to her ready fists, only gently bobbing up and down in tiny circles even as the smaller girl suddenly picked up speed. Elze lunged to the side and aimed a punch towards Mynah's hips.
Mynah swung down with her left arm, a simple but potent motion. Elze's left foot drove into the ground, and her left hand punched up. There was a small shockwave and a deep ringing noise as her fist made contact with the large adventurer's own metal bracers. Though her fist looked tiny compared to that arm, it was the arm that bounced up.
Her left fist descended quickly, as if stealing the force of Mynah's own strike, circling it around her own hips, to add speed and power to her right hand punch.
"[Ramp.]" Mynah opened her left hand out and slapped down.
Elze was unprepared to receive that attack on her back. She was driven down into the ground with a small boom. Kicked-up dust obscured the view around Mynah's knees for a few moments.
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("Elze!)
("Sis!")
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Mynah stepped back, and an errant gust of wind showed that Elze was crouching down on her knees and elbows almost in a supplicating servile position. Her teeth were clenched in pain. Her shoulders shivered from the impact she couldn't fully absorb.
"That was clever," said the huge adventurer. "You were trying to cycle your [Boost] power between your feet and your fists, weren't you? Trying to [Boost] your [Boost], storing power in the tension in your fists." She imitated Elze's pose from earlier, and as she sharply dropped one fist the knee on the opposite side of her body lifted. It was like piston power. "That you could trade for speed in a pinch."
With shaking arms, Elze pushed herself up. She stood up slowly, and spread out her stance to support her weight as her arms hung loose. The pain would take a while to hit, like from torn muscles only swelling up and burning purple with pain for days only after stopping the heavy exercise. For the moment her arms felt cold and wobbly. She made a face that looked halfway between a smile and grimace.
"Wish I could… say the… same. T-that slap was just awful powerful…" Elze replied.
"Nothing clever about it. Your [Boost] and my [Ramp] are among the common [Null] abilities that increase strength, you know? Odd to think that maybe you'd do better with my [Ramp] and if only I had your [Boost] instead. I'm already so much stronger and bigger, you can't ever push that ability to the most without pushing your own body into something that's hard and not easy to love anymore."
Elze frowned. Did Mylah have a complex about her huge, unladylike body? That sounded… predictable. "S-shut up. You're just bragging about yourself!"
Mynah's expression firmed up. "No. I don't have anything like that to be proud of."
Elze glanced aside towards the table and the red-clothed young man there. "There… are some weird people who like that sort of thing, I think. No offense, but it's not like you're ugly, you know? Being powerful has its perks too, right?"
Mylah smiled gently. "That's not what I'm talking about, little fishie." She stepped back a few more paces and beckoned. "Come on, you're not going to give up from a little tap like that, are you?"
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("Do you recall how Mynah said that the only things of note to come out of Refreese are fish and bandits?")
("Yes?")
("She was born a bandit's daughter. Bandit father, bandit mother. They preyed on the weak, they took slaves, they killed whoever they wanted and had no sympathy for anyone. Even from an early age they could see that Mylah was going to grow up big and strong, and even if she was a woman even scum like that were prepared to accept her as a leader.
("But at some point she betrayed them all to the Belfast guards. She led soldiers to their secret camp, and helped killed the people who were her own family to make an opening. No one was allowed to survive except for Mylah… who then vanished away into the border.")
("Please tell me it wasn't for some cliché reason like she fell in love with a man and tried to turn over a new leaf.")
("No one knows. She became an adventurer for a while, until she grew bored with even that. She decided to become a prize fighter in the underground arenas.
("In this world of ours, there are many truths. A bandit's truth is even similar to a noble's truth. People are not born equal, and that only power can decide who is right. Mylah refused to put herself under the power of anyone. She would only follow someone who was stronger than herself. Literally someone stronger. And with that body of hers…
("Very very few were those who could compare. Oh, there were no end of stupid men who wanted to dominate such a woman but they were all swiftly crushed and demoralized. She had to fight off stupid plots of revenge for their bruised little egoes. And the few elite soldiers of the country who did have the power to do so...")
("I've met General Leon, the Bronze Fist, yes.")
("They had absolutely no idea these things were going on, being above such commoner pursuits as blood cage matches. So she remained there, unfulfilled, looking for a reason to exist, until I found her.")
("The obvious conclusion to this story is that you proved stronger enough to beat her down, and as a woman of principles was someone she could follow without any qualms.")
("Ugh. Perhaps we could use a little more qualm…")
("Also that you admitted to enjoying commoner pursuits.")
("It is a leader's joy to cultivate talent wherever she finds them, don't judge me!")
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"Stop trying to fight me and fight me!" Mynah yelled.
"I am!" Elze screeched back. She weaved down to avoid return punches and the tall adventurer now had to beware kicking because Elze was ready to receive them now with bone-shattering punches.
Mynah was big, but not bulky. She blocked hits with her metal arm bracers and shin guards. Elze just barely avoided big grappling hands that could end the fight immediately.
"You stupid, STUPID FISH!"
"You big dumb ASS!"
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("Ugh. Dammit Elze. She's right. If you're not cheating, you're not trying.")
("I find her a lot more admirable than you for that reason. She would go far under my tutelage instead.")
("Against monsters, against other humans in war, there's no such thing as fairness! This was heavily weighed in her opponent's favor anyway, she should have started using ranged weapons to destroy the advantage of reach by now! She's more agile, thrown weapons can attack at odd angles!")
("Surely you don't think someone hasn't tried that against Mynah by now? No one is undefeated by being unable to deal with simple little tricks.")
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"All right, fine! You want this? Have some of this!" Elze dipped into her pouch and brought out a handful of lead bullets. "[Boost!][Thow!]"
With a whip-crack, she threw the bullets at Mynah. Someone so big, it was not like she could miss. One. Two. Three lead bullets!
"[Ramp.]" Mynah opened her palm out, and in a smooth circular motion, caught each of the lead bullets and threw them back. One after the other, all in a straight line, like she was juggling one-handed.
Elze's eyes widened. She only had enough time to [Boost] her hand again and shield herself against lead bullets arriving at the same speed she had thrown them. Whack. Whack. Whack. The bullets slapped loudly against her open palm. Unfortunately, though she managed to intercept the bullets safely, she put rigidity on her wrist and not her elbow.
Elze ended up punching herself. She slammed back down into the ground.
"Little fish? Are you still alive?"
"Mrrrghl furgle. That's why I didn't want to try that in the first place, you jerkface…" Elze moaned.
Mynah made a humming grunt. "Your [Boost] all so suddenly increases the power and force and durability of your blows. My [Ramp] is different. It's slower."
"It takes the power of the enemy's hits and uses it against them, isn't it?" Elze breathed. "That's why it's called [RAMP]." An inclined plane. "The harder someone hits you, the harder you can return the hit. You get tougher and stronger the more you're fighting and taking hits."
"I can also [Ramp Up] by myself to store power and release it all at once. That's why I liked the thing you did with the rabbit punches earlier. It's like you were using your [Boost] to act like my [Ramp]. You're going to go far, little fish, as long as you don't let anyone break your spirit. Be proud of that."
"Proud nothing!" Elze spat. "I'm not done yet! You think I can't win! I'm gonna win!"
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("Oh, the stubbornness of youth. It is at least more respectable to seek victory until death than the cowardice of the reasonable person. But it seems Mynah will have to beat some humility into her after all.")
("No. If I didn't have confidence that Elze could beat anything in front of her, I wouldn't have allowed this. Elze might not have as much of a tragic background as your adventurer, but whoever said that only suffering can fuel power? Sometimes the only lesson that pain teaches is that you are made to suffer for no reason. Elze is young, but she is no stranger to loss. She has lost against people that are stronger, that are faster, that can cheat harder – but she has also won against them by always adapting, by not searching for that one perfect way to use her [Null] ability.")
("Power versus technique, do you mean? But there always comes a point when no amount of technique can defeat power. A little dog can't beat a bear.")
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Elze flipped back up to her feet. She took a deep breath and began to waggle her arms about, and twisted her hips from side to side, loosening her muscle. This battle looked unfair, but Mynah was respectful enough not to attack while Elze was doing that. It would have been fair to attack when your enemy is silly enough to stand there making herself vulnerable.
But this was a duel, after all. The best victory in the duel is to make it look effortless and concede every advantage to your opponent.
Elze opened her eyes. Because of the way [Ramp] works, that's why Mynah allowed herself to be hit. She blocked rather than avoided. Elze looked down at her own fist. She exhaled and opened her hand out into a palm.
Stomp. Stomp.
She spread out her footing into a modified bowlegged horse stance. She straightened out her arms but with palms facing inwards.
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("Playa-dono… isn't that…?!")
("… Earth Style Bending. Based on Hung Gar southern martial arts. This one also known as the Tiger and Crane Paired Form Fist.")
("Fools. Technique can't beat power!")
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Imagine an inclined plane, or trying to roll a ball uphill. The moment you let go, it will roll back down. You can force it to go up on its own with a strong push, but then it would reach a limit and then fall down again. A [Ramp] makes it so that the higher you push the ball uphill, the more it will hurt when it rolls back down to squash you flat, like sad Sisyphus in his eternal toil with his rolling boulders.
The [Ramp] meant that the first hit would hurt the most, but successive attacks would be like trying to hold the ball up against the force of gravity, sapping power, until the energy is returned against you.
Proportionally, Elze fighting Mynah was like a child fighting a full grown adult. No matter how vicious the little bugger may be, the difference in reach means that once grabbed or given a good kick, the fight was effectively over. With [Boost] and their own innate toughness, taking extra hits was no problem.
Grappling was still a fight-ender. Mynah lunged at Elze with splayed open hands, swiping left and right like bear paws. Elze leaned back and sway-stepped smoothly to the right. Her left wrist made contact with the back of Mynah's left wrist and softly pushed the whole arm down. It was always better to stick to the sides rather than the front, at least that means you only had to mind being attacked by only one arm; the opponent's own body blocked the other.
She stepped on the taller woman's knee and pushed herself up. "[Boost]."
Then she punched Mynah right in the face.
There was a loud brass sound.
Elze didn't try to get in another punch, she disengaged immediately as Mynah twisted around and tried to grab at her again. She skipped back and rested on the same stance as before, with her arms out and palms facing in. Then she flipped her palms over with only her index finger extended, her arms quivering with tension and power.
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("These palms are the gates to the Earth Kingdom. In Earth Country, gates open you!")
("What does that even meannn?!")
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Mynah stood back up from her crouch and touched her jaw. She worked her jawbone from side to side and made an appreciative grunt. It was her first clean hit of the fight. "Huh. Good one. Maybe if you tried that at least three more times."
She went back into a wrestler's half-crouch. "Too bad I'm going to be expecting that now."
Soon they were again matching a flurry of blows.
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("Wait, how is this an EARTH style? She is flowing around Mynah's strikes. This should be at least a water or fire style, an interception fist looks aggressively defensive.")
("All waters drain down to the plains, all wind sluices past the valleys. All other things move in restlessness, the Earth accepts everything. All fall down. All fall down.")
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Mynah's grabs now tried to seize Elze's hands. Their hands and wrists battled and it looked very strange indeed that Elze's slim wrists seemed to stick to the large adventurer's outside wrists. No matter how Mynah twisted her limbs this way and that, her fingers were always just that little bit out of reach.
However, the same could be said for Elze. She just couldn't cross the distance past an arm almost as long as she was tall. So they ended up like those hokey old martial arts movies in which fighters could spend whole minutes just blocking before any fist to body contact happens.
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("Isn't this dangerous? Wrist to wrist contact like that – why doesn't she just use her hands to grab Mynah's wrists and get into a joint lock?")
("Bridges cross from one side of the river to the river or the valley, connects two sides. The same happens with fighting – first there is an air gap, and then sooner or later contact happens as you or your opponent attacks. Bridge hand techniques (2) are about how to establish contact, how to deal with contact, and how to disengage from it. It's not the wrist, it's about taut wire-like power from the body transmitted to the forearm.
("Note how Elze doesn't just step back unless necessary, the foundation is an invulnerable stance, concentrating her power at the end of her opponent's reach where it is the weakest – and destroying her opponent's stance and ability to concentrate force because of that. Simultaneous blocking and punching like this - it requires less agility than sheer power snapping from one gate to another, and extreme concentration.")
("But she *is* giving ground. They're almost to the edge… if she steps one foot out of the line, that's an automatic… loss… AHAAAAH! I see now!")
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Elze chopped down with both hands, forcing down Mynah's extended left arm. This pushed the adventurer woman's body forward, and Elze transitioned her fists balled up at waist level into a sideways lunge, punching with both arms; overhead and under the chest to hit the solar plexus.
Unfortunately, while that could have been an overpowering blow to an enemy near her own size, it was enough to merely make contact with Mynah's body and the power in her blow sufficed to push herself back and outside of grabbing range again.
Mynah stopped, and rubbed a bruised breast. She smiled sadly. "That's very good. It's just too bad… if only your reach wasn't so short. You can't win this." Her eyes narrowed in amusement as she looked down towards Elze's feet, just a single step away from the border line. "… At least, not like that?"
Elze smiled back thinly and beckoned with both hands, still held straight out and palms in. She chanted "Booga chaka booga chaka booga chaka!" (3)
Mynah snorted "What does that even mean?!" as she lunged one last time, careful not to fall into the painfully obvious trap of overextending herself and being pushed into a ring-out.
Elze slapped away her opponent's the trailing arm and then contrary to how she behaved all this while, darted *inside* her opponent's zone of control. Her right hand shot out, the tips of her fingers gently making contact with Mynah's ribs.
And then suddenly that touch snapped into a strong punch into Mynah's floating ribs.
"Gukgh!" the adventurer grunted in surprise.
Elze's fist rebounded away from the blow, and taking that power twisting on her waist her left hand softly slid forward and her left knuckles gently touched against Mynah's waist.
And she rammed her elbow straight into the same ribs as before, driving the floating bones inwards.
"Hghkkk…!" Now Mynah had to grimace and bend down in pain. [Ramp] toughened her body, yes – but best on hard muscle and bones. It did nothing to toughen the soft tissue around her lungs because that was counter-productive to the whole point of breathing.
Once again, after delivering a hard blow, the force seemed to rebound on Elze, spinning her around again and sliding past the taller adventurer's hips to face her backside.
And then Elze [Boosted] her fists and began hammering blows with her index and middle fingers like stabbing daggers into the lower back muscles near the spine and the connecting point of those same floating ribs as before. The expanding ribs that protected the lungs now instead were like spines digging into those same soft organs.
Atatatatatatatatatatatatah.
Mynah twisted over in agony and an uncontrollable muscle spasm.
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("WHAT?!")
("Ugh wow. So vicious, Elze!")
("I approve of this.")
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And then with one final [Boost] a scream of "Haaaaaah!" Elze slapped with an open palm and all of her power into the already heavily bruised spot.
Mynah spat out a gout of blood and fell forward. She shakily dropped to one knee.
And then Elze gave her a [Boosted] kick into the back of the head.
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("What… what is this?! How is this happening?)
("Is she trying to kill Mynah? That's… uncalled for!")
-.
Like a toppling tree, the tall powerfully-built adventurer crashed face-down onto the ground. Whumpf.
Elze sagged, gasping for breath. As the dust settled, a long silence draped across the field.
Mynah's body twitched. Elze leapt back and raised her fists, alarmed.
Mynah turned her head a little and woozily tried to look at Elze. She wheezed out "… I thought… you were going to trick me into a ring out…."
Elze grimaced. "Yeah, that would have been the smart thing to do, wouldn't it? But I'm not a smart girl. Not at all." She brandished her gauntlets. "All I have is Facepuncher and Ribcracker."
"And with that… you can destroy… mountains… ahahaha…." Mynah gave out a guttural little laugh. She reached out and slowly began to push herself off the ground with only one arm. Then she stopped and stared at her hand.
She began laughing even louder. Her hand was touching outside the ring. In most tournaments, it was feet and body that were forbidden from going outside the ring, just touching the ground outside was allowable. But still, "It's my loss…" she said.
She gingerly touched the broken ribs puncturing her spine. "I should destroy you for this, I've fought harder with worse wounds…"
"Sorry," Elze said. She wanted to shrug, but still kept her guard up. "But… you know… holding back and being polite won't let me win an unfair fight in the first place."
Mynah smirked and nodded. "What was that first hit?" She held up her palm with fingers out, and then suddenly pulling in to turn into a fist. "Putting so much power into a punch without needing room to swing… I didn't know that you could develop power like that."
"That is the [One Inch Punch]," Elze whispered. Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch. (4)
That was because The Slow Fist Penetrates the [Air Shield]. It was the same the way Dune's Holtzmann Shields or Mass Effect's Kinetic Barriers worked, the magic [Air Shield] was primed to respond to things having a certain level of kinetic energy or else it would be banging into everything unable to let the user do things like sit down or pick up objects from the ground.
Only after her arm pokes through would she need to quickly deliver an explosive amount of force. "If you had managed to grab me into a bear hug... that would still put my fists at perfect distance to your ribs, right?"
"Clever girl…"
Elze made a catlike 'nyuuuu' face in protest."N-no. No I'm not!"
Mynah began to laugh and then cringed in pain again. "Technique… it's not just soft counters all the time after all… Ow, this is really starting to hurt now."
"D-don't worry! We've got pretty good [Light] magic doctors!" said Elze. "That's going to be healed right quick."
"Yeah, yeah. I concede. So you're Elze, huh? I am Mynah, the Iron Mountain. You are now Elze the Fist, Mountain Destroyer. Be proud."
"Ehehehe… thank you? I think?"
-.
("MYNAH! What…! How dare you lose?! We all know this wouldn't have stopped you at all in a real fight!")
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"Ehh, you know how it is. I'm tired now. Wanna sleep."
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("You lazy bear womannn!")
("Um what? Yes, of course. Calm down everyone. I, Zanac, hereby declare the victor of this bout – ELZE SILHOUESKA – winner by forfeit!")
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And so with Zanac's declaration, Elze and Mynah left the ring. Linze ran up excitedly and hugged her twin. "Sis, that was amazing!"
"Congratulations, Elze-dono!"
"I suppose that… was more than adequate. Unexpected, but an interesting result…" Zorah spoke up. "Silhoueska, won't you consider working for me? If you're good enough to match a Red rank so young, imagine what you could do with the proper training and facilities!"
I stepped up and raised my fist. "Fistbump?"
Elze grinned and we bumped fists.
Awesome.
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Zorah glared at me as I offered to heal her adventurer's injuries, and she said that her Sarah was already quite an accomplished healer herself.
"Yes, but isn't it her fight next? Wouldn't it be unfair to exhaust her magic power right before her own duel?" I said back.
"… No, it might be more fair to offer a handicap?"
"Mistress, underestimating them is what lead to this," Mynah pointed at her ribs. "Playing around feeling like anyone else getting serious is just something to laugh about... that's no good."
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And so next on the docket was LINZE vs SARAH.
The two normally shy girls approached the ring with uncommonly serious faces.
FIGHT!
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AN:
(1) wikipedia wiki/Vertical_integration
(2) youtube /watch?v=0AkR5KuvL90
(3) youtube /watch?v=BfM52cF8fsU
(4) youtube /watch?v=vbsaRhcnhuM