His mind raced, analyzing, adapting. Tier 3 was the highest Vitae level he'd unlocked barely a week of integration, barely enough time to understand what he could do. Against Leia's practiced Tier 2 mastery, he was outclassed in raw power and infinitely outmatched in technique.

This wasn't a fair fight. He'd known that going in. But fair and winnable weren't the same thing.

He had advantages she didn't. A combination of abilities that shouldn't exist in one person. Super strength. Enhanced speed. And the crown jewel, the most powerful abilities of all: Vitae Weaving, the ability to construct anything he could imagine from pure energy.

He couldn't win by overpowering her. But maybe just maybe he could exhaust her. Frustrate her. Force her to make a mistake.

Zaeryn focused, drawing on his Vitae Weaving. Golden light coalesced in his hand, swirling and solidifying into his preferred construct: a short sword, glowing with contained power, its edges sharp enough to cut reality itself.

Leia actually laughed. "A light show? How adorable."

"Let's see how adorable it is up close," Zaeryn shot back.

He activated Kinetic Acceleration again, this time combining it with his construct, lunging forward in a burst of speed with the golden blade leading. A proper attack. An overwhelming strike.

Leia didn't even bother creating a construct of her own.

She simply met his lunge, her hand still wreathed in those dark, siphoning flames batting his golden sword aside as if it were a toy. The moment her power touched his construct, the blade flickered violently, destabilizing, the energy draining from it like water through a sieve.

And she was fast. Impossibly fast. Every move he made, she was already there, countering, reading him with contemptuous ease. He found himself on the defensive, desperately trying to keep those dark flames from making solid contact, his vaunted new powers feeling useless against her superior technique.

It was humiliating.

"Is that all?" Leia taunted, stalking forward as he backpedaled. Her crimson aura flared brighter, making her look like an avatar of destruction. "All that talk, and you can't even land a hit? You're just a cheap parlor trick, anomaly. A carnival sideshow."

The crowd had gone quiet, watching the one-sided beatdown with a mixture of fascination and discomfort.

She's right, Zaeryn thought, gritting his teeth as he deflected another strike. I'm fighting her fight. I'm trying to fight like a Warlady. He was done with that.

Zaeryn let his construct fade completely and dropped into a lower, more grounded stance. He wasn't a Warlady. He wasn't a trained soldier with years of martial discipline.

He was the anomaly. And anomalies didn't follow the rules.

Leia, seeing him weaponless, scoffed and charged again. Her fist wreathed in those same dark, siphoning flames, she came at him expecting an easy finish, ready to end this embarrassing display.

This time, Zaeryn didn't lunge. Didn't form a sword. Didn't try to match her.

He improvised.

He activated Kinetic Acceleration not forward, but laterally exploding to his left in a short, sharp burst. And at the exact same instant, he threw up a golden Vitae shield using his weaving ability, the stable, reliable defensive construct he'd practiced a hundred times.

Leia's fiery punch, aimed at where he should have been, slammed into the shimmering shield.

CRACK!

The construct shattered instantly under the force of her Tier 2 power. But it did its job: it neutralized the necrotic flame, and absorbed the impact just long enough.

And in that split second, Zaeryn was already inside her guard.

Leia's eyes widened in genuine shock. He hadn't run. He hadn't attacked. He'd countered.

Before she could bring her other hand up, before she could reset her stance, Zaeryn let his raw strength flood through his body with no special techniques, just the brute physical power that was always there, humming beneath his skin.

He drove a hook straight into her exposed ribs with every ounce of force he could muster. He knew she was stronger than him so she could take whatever he could throw at her, so there was no hesitation.

THUD.

The sound was visceral. Meat and bone connecting with devastating force.

"GAH!"

Leia's breath exploded from her lungs in a choked gasp. She stumbled sideways, one hand clutching her ribs, her aura flickering.

The entire chamber went dead silent.

Even Instructor Zelda leaned forward, her professional mask cracking to show something that might have been surprise.

Zaeryn stood panting, his own side aching where she'd hit him earlier, his muscles screaming. But a wild, triumphant grin spread across his face despite the pain.

"You're right, Leia," he called out, his voice ragged but clear. "I am pathetic..." He straightened, meeting her shocked gaze directly. "... But I'm still going to win this…." Soon as he finished that he launched at her at full speed.

He made it look like he was coming straight at her, just as she braced for him to try to punch or kick her, so that she could block and counter. He changed course in no time, a shot burst of speed and he was to her side.

But even with that opening, he didn't attack. His new combat instincts screamed that she had already repositioned. Instead, he used her anticipation as a weapon, planting his foot and bursting behind her.

He didn't go for a grab. He drove his foot, empowered with his raw strength, straight into the back of her knee.

Leia's leg buckled with a sharp cry of pain. She spun on her good leg, lashing out with a low, desperate sweep kick, her crimson aura flaring as she tried to take him down.

But Zaeryn was already moving, his body reacting before his mind. He used another short burst of Kinetic Acceleration to leap backward, the kick whistling harmlessly through the air where he'd just been.

He landed, panting, his grin back in full force.

The crowd was stunned. He wasn't just fast; he was unpredictable.

"Stop dancing!" Leia snarled, pushing herself back to her feet, her face a mask of pure fury. Her ribs throbbed, and this anomaly's refusal to fight fair was infuriating. Plus, he was embarrassing her. She was supposed to stomp him easily, but that plan had failed.

"I am fighting!" Zaeryn shot back, the adrenaline singing in his veins. He was learning. He was adapting. "I'm just not fighting how you want me to!"

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