Mara entered the field at eight.
The three hundred Orcs retreated to the periter without anyone saying a word.
Mara stopped in the center.
"Drak. Brek. Keth."
---
Drak went first.
He threw his right fist with all his mass behind it.
Mara twisted her torso, let the fist graze her shoulder, used Drak’s montum to carry him forward. Knee to the side when Drak was half-fallen.
Drak hit the ground.
He got up. He tried the left.
Mara blocked it with her forearm, twisted Drak’s arm, elbow to his back.
Drak hit the ground again.
A combination on the third attempt — two punches in a row.
Mara took the first, grabbed hold in the mont of impact, pulled. Palm to the chest.
Drak two ters back.
He nodded. He exited.
---
Brek didn’t attack first.
He waited. He read.
Mara waited too.
Thirty seconds without movent. The field silent.
Mara launched the start of an attack — not the full attack, just the start.
Brek responded.
Mara used that response.
What followed lasted forty seconds — two veterans operating where it was no longer strength against strength but reading against reading, each adjustnt answered by another adjustnt.
On the tenth exchange Brek left an opening of half a second.
Mara’s palm to the chest.
Brek hit the ground. He got up. He nodded. He exited.
---
[DraconicLegacy: forty seconds with Brek. this man’s been in the camp for twenty years.]
[Chris_Murray: Mara used three different thods in two fights. with Drak the montum, with Brek she waited for the opening. she has no fixed style.]
[Warwolf: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ KETH NEXT ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]
[Per_Sundin: Kai on the periter watching everything with that face. he’s already breaking down every move in his head.]
[Kalgarth: the field silent for thirty seconds. no one moved. no one coughed. three hundred Orcs waiting.]
[Drakeking: Mara took Drak’s first punch deliberately. that’s not carelessness, it’s strategy.]
[TheDeadDragón: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]
---
Keth entered.
Both lunged at the sa ti — no signal, no visible initiation, both in motion the sa second.
The first contact was simultaneous. Mara absorbed Keth’s right shoulder. Keth absorbed Mara’s left side.
Both stepped back exactly one step.
The second exchange was different from the first — both had read sothing from the first and both knew the other had read sothing.
Two steps this ti.
The third was longer. The fourth ended with Keth on one knee on the ground, processing the impact, getting up slowly.
He nodded.
He exited.
---
Kai processed every exchange from the periter.
’With Drak she used montum. With Brek she waited for the opening. With Keth she absorbed the first as information and built from there.’
’Three thods. Three opponents. No fixed style.’
’Which one would she use on ?’
’I don’t have the mass of the Orcs. I don’t have Brek’s reading pattern. I don’t absorb like Keth.’
’I’m different from everything she’s faced here.’
’The question is whether that helps or puts in a worse position.’
Mara turned toward the periter.
She looked at him.
"What do you see?"
---
Kai stepped out of the periter.
He stopped three ters from Mara.
"I see soone who has never fought sothing she can’t crush with direct strength."
The three hundred Orcs on the periter made no sound.
"With Drak you used montum. With Brek the opening. With Keth the first exchange as data." Kai looked at her. "All three worked. But all three assu the opponent gives way eventually if you reach the right angle."
"And is there sothing that doesn’t give way?"
"I don’t know."
"Can you?"
"I still don’t know."
---
Mara looked at him for a mont.
And the smile changed.
It didn’t disappear — it turned into sothing else. The one she’d had since they arrived was that of soone searching. This one was different.
"Alright."
---
[DraconicLegacy: the smile changed. we all saw it change.]
[Chris_Murray: "I still don’t know" — neither boasted nor underestimated himself. Kai being exactly what he is.]
[Warwolf: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ that "alright" carries the sa weight as when the admin activated the hacks ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]
[Per_Sundin: Mara found what she’d been searching for. two years on this mount and it arrived today.]
[Kalgarth: three thods for three opponents and Kai nad them all. Mara listened to every word.]
[Drakeking: Kai identified that Mara has no fixed style. that ans Kai can’t have a fixed plan either.]
[TheDeadDragón: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ this is going sowhere very specific ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]
---
Serah had her markings in the pulse that appeared when sothing captured Kai’s attention in a specific way.
The markings didn’t rise in temperature.
They pulsed.
Lira had her glasses in the position of when she was paying more attention than she wanted to show.
Both looked at Mara.
Both looked at Kai.
Mara saw them.
She looked at Serah.
"What?"
"Nothing," Serah said.
"The markings say sothing."
"They always say sothing."
Mara looked at Lira.
Lira adjusted her glasses.
Mara smiled — the new one.
"Interesting."
Kai looked at the three of them.
He went to get water.
---
[DraconicLegacy: Kai went to get water while the three looked at each other 😂]
[Chris_Murray: "the markings say sothing" / "they always say sothing" — Serah neither denied nor confird. enough for Mara.]
[Warwolf: Mara saw the markings and the glasses and said "interesting" with that smile. she knows exactly what she’s looking at.]
[Per_Sundin: Kai oblivious to everything or pretending to be. with him you can never be completely sure.]
[Kalgarth: Lira adjusted her glasses when Mara looked at her. Mara read it the sa as everything else in this camp.]
[Drakeking: Mara as a catalyst for the group dynamic. and she finds it amusing.]
[TheDeadDragón: Serah and Lira jealous of the sa thing for different reasons. Mara detected it in seconds.]
---
That afternoon Mara found Kai on the northern periter.
She sat down beside him.
"When?"
Kai looked at her.
"When what?"
"The fight between you and ."
Kai considered it.
"When I know if I can."
"And how will you know?"
"When I have nothing left to learn from Keth."
Mara looked at the mount.
"Do you trust that I’ll wait for you?"
"You’ve been here two years waiting for soone who responded to the resonance Qi." Kai looked at her. "A little more costs you nothing."
Mara didn’t answer.
The northern sector sun at the angle of afternoon.
"Alright," she said.
She stood up.
---
[System — notification]
[Day 4 at the camp — completed]
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