Miles had no other choice. He had to fight back. He swept one of Alix's legs knocking her off balance. He took the opportunity to back up and enter his own fighting stance.
"I thought you were a spellcaster? What's up with all the punching and kicking?" Alix steadied herself and faced Miles.
"This is just a little something that my mother's been beating into me since I was young. I just thought that I should keep it sharp!" Alix rushed Miles launching her fist at him. Miles used the back of his own hand to deflected the blow countering with a punch to the gut in the next instant.
"I happen to know a bit about martial arts myself." Miles smiled and drove his leg into her stomach pushing her a few feet back. "Let's see who's better!" Alix grinned and charged.
She went to kick Miles in the gut but found her foot about to be diverted again. Luckily, this attack was a feint. Alix stomped her foot onto the ground and pivoted off of it hitting Miles with her other leg instead.
Miles hadn't expected the feint so he barely managed to block the kick. This time he was pushed back but Alix would not let her opponent recover. She dove toward Miles with her fist ready to slam into him.
Miles solidified his stance and intercepted the girl in her path. Alix, predicting this, spun using the momentum of her fist to change her angle of attack and hit Miles with her elbow. Miles caught the elbow and shoved his palm into the girl's side.
Alix grunted in pain from the first blow only to immediately be sent flying by a kick that followed. She rolled on the ground for a few feet before recovering. When she looked up she saw that Miles was still standing in the same spot.
"Waiting for me?"
"I prefer my fights to come to me instead of looking for them." Miles shrugged. Alix's smile dropped as she quickly put her hands together then pulled them apart. The dark mana around her hands formed a sort of thick rope attached to her hands.
"Sounds boring." Alix charged at Miles swinging both hands at him heavily. Miles avoided each attack with minimum movements. After the third swing Miles tried to sweep Alix's leg but the attack didn't land as she jumped over him.
While in the air, Alix wrapped her shadow rope around Miles'. She crossed her arms midair pulling the rope tight and choking the man.
"Woah!" the man emoted with a strained voice. She landed directly behind him and, using the rope, flung him over her shoulder. Miles gasped as the rope disappeared and he hit the ground hard.
Alix went to slam her fist into the the prone man but he quickly rolled out of the way. He wrapped his legs around Alix's legs and tripped her and leapt to his feet. Alix fell on her face only to immediately be lifted by one leg and launched into a tree.
Her back hit the tree causing her to body to scream in pain but she didn't have time to recover as she had to block the knee that was flying at her stomach. "Thought you preferred to wait?"
"Eh. It was getting boring." Alix kicked both of her feet out pushing Miles off of her. With the moment of reprieve Alix clapped her hands again this time removing the shadows from her hands entirely. In the next, instant her hands lit ablaze.
"Then we should turn up the heat!" Alix and Miles ran full speed at each other clashing at the same time. They began to strike each other with more force than anything before. The end was clearly approaching.
Alix would get punched in the gut only to retaliate with an uppercut. Miles would knock her fist away then hit her with his elbow in the same motion. The back a forth went for what the two fighters believed to be hours.
To the outside viewer however, it was more like five minutes before they both collapsed to the ground. Breathing heavily. Kimi and Unio turned to look at each other. They had seen their brother fight many times before but they hadn't seen him as happy as he had been during that fight in a while.
Miles lay with his arms spread wide. "How did...that taste?" He spat out with what little energy he had left.
"It tasted awful. Your restaurant would go out of business if you sold a meal that trashy!" Alix joked in response. She had honestly not expected to be pushed that far by the man.
The fight had been rather even from beginning to the end with her only edge being the enchanted gloves that she still didn't fully understand how to work.
"Well, with that kind of service I don't see why anyone would sit in yours long enough to even eat the food." Miles snapped back at the girl. They laid on the ground for another minute before they gathered enough energy to stand.
Both Alix and Miles were bruised but not too heavily. It seemed like even to the end of the fight they hadn't actually been trying to kill each other. Well, Miles wasn't trying to kill Alix as he was far worse for wear than she was.
"I should be able to make it to the capital alone from this point forward. You look like you need to take a rest." Miles laughed at the girl's constant insults.
"You really are troublesome, you know that." Alix shrugged and shambled over to Mo who wore a disappointed expression.
'I'm so mad right now, Lexi. How could ya be so reckless! What if the other two had joined the fight? What if they were just as strong as the Djinns were and ya got yerself killed?!" Alix sighed as she listened to Mo's nagging.
'I understood the dangers of the situation but they were obviously not going to do anything to me. They are far better people than you give them credit for. Besides, even if they did try something..." Alix lifted Mo's fish bowl and stared into his eyes.
'...you would have easily been able to save me." Mo blushed at how much the girl trusted him. He cleared his throat.
'Fine. I'll let it go for now." Alix smiled at Mo before turning back to the siblings. "By the way, did your adventuring party happen to have a name?"
Miles was sitting on the ground with Kimi and Unio tending to his wounds. "We're called the Freedom Rats." Alix's face twisted at the name.
"That's terrible." Miles shrugged. "I know but it was the only one we could agree on." Alix shook her head.
"Doesn't make it any better. Oh, and I apologize for instigating you like that. I am known to be quite insolent back home."
"You sure did scare the hell out of me! I thought we did something that scared you but you just wanted to start a fight." Miles sighed in relief.
"You sure you'll be able to make it there in your condition." Alix flexed her arm. "I did way more damage to you than you did to me. I will be fine." There she goes again with the trash talk. Miles waved and Alix took off toward Pesinwok.
"So, she really just started a fight with you?" Kimi felt terrible. She had completely abandoned her brother while trying to befriend Alix. Miles patted his regretful little sister on the head.
"I understand Kimi. You have nothing to be sorry about. Now..." Miles stood from the ground wincing as he did.
"...let's go home. We've been away for far too long. Big Dog must be waiting."
Unio and Kimi nodded somberly and walked with their brother. One could only run away for so long, they already understood that but...
...they still wished they didn't have to go back to that place.