Lucy came at him with horns on his head and the sun in his eyes, and the fight changed.
He wasn't using his fists anymore. Not just his fists. Every time he struck, light came with it. A punch left a trail of golden fire hanging in the air behind it. A kick split the snow open in a line of white heat. When Jin turned a blow aside with the old man's sword, the force of it rolled up the blade and into his arms like he'd grabbed hold of a lightning strike.
And every exchange, Lucy got stronger.
Jin could feel it happening. The sun was climbing. It wasn't noon yet, but it was getting closer, and with every minute that passed, Lucy's strikes came a little harder and a little faster. A blow that Jin had turned easily at the start of the fight now drove him back a full step. A punch he could have dodged by a hand's width now missed him by a finger's.
He gave ground across the clearing. He took it back. He gave it again.
But something else was happening too.
He was getting stronger.
