DODGE LEFT.
Arthur dodged right on instinct and the fist clipped the side of his head instead of his nose.
THAT WAS YOUR LEFT. YOUR OTHER LEFT.
I know which left is left!
DO YOU?! BECAUSE THAT LOOKED LIKE—
A second fist came straight down the middle and connected clean. Arthur's head snapped back. He stumbled two steps, caught himself on one knee, and touched his nose. Blood on his fingers.
Again.
Great.
YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT. I AM VEXIS LESTILAUT. I topped the physical examination last year. I have drilled combat since I was eight years old and you are out here getting your nose broken by someone I don't even recognize from my own class!
You're very loud for someone with no body.
GIVE ME BACK MY BODY AND I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT LOUD—
The red-haired woman rolled her neck. She wasn't even breathing hard. She looked at him the way you look at something that's taking longer to finish than expected and not in a good way.
"I really did believe those exam results," she said. "Genuinely thought you were worth something. Rumor or not." She spat to the side. "What a joke."
Arthur got back to his feet.
Right. Okay.
He looked up at Vexis hovering above him, transparent and furious, fists balled at his sides like he could somehow punch his way back into his own skull.
Alright. Be my eyes.
Vexis stopped mid-rant.
The corner of his mouth pulled up slowly.
NOW we're talking.
The woman came forward fast, low, arms wide. A tackle. Vexis called it before her feet even left the ground.
Right. Now.
Arthur stepped right. She shot past him and hit nothing, momentum carrying her forward two steps before she dug her feet in and stopped.
She turned around.
No frustration on her face. If anything she looked slightly more interested than a second ago.
You feel that? Vexis said. Stop thinking. The body already knows. You're a second late every time because you think first and move second. Just go when I say go. The legs will handle it.
Arthur didn't answer. But he heard it.
She came again. Faster this time. Same shoulder drop, same low angle, and then at the last second her whole upper body twisted and she came around with a spinning kick instead, heel aimed straight at his ribs.
Arthur caught the feint halfway through and moved. Not quite fast enough. The heel connected with his side and the air left his body all at once.
He doubled over. Hands on his knees.
Okay. That actually hurt.
He could hear Vexis above him.
SEE? You HAVE to hit back. You can't just run for five minutes!
Five minutes. I just have to survive five minutes.
YOU'VE ALREADY USED NEARLY THREE OF THEM BLEEDING ON THE FLOOR.
Arthur spat blood and stood back up.
She was already moving. Same set-up. Shoulders rolled back, weight shifted to the back foot, eyes forward. She liked this combination. He'd seen it twice now. She was fast enough that it didn't matter most of the time so she kept throwing it.
Arthur watched her come.
Watched the shoulder drop start. Watched her plant the pivot foot.
His side throbbed where the last kick had landed.
Don't dodge this one, Vexis said. His voice was different now. Lower. Actually focused. Let the spin start. Watch where her weight goes when she commits to it.
What do you mean don't dodge—
Just watch. Trust me.
The spin came. Arthur kept his feet planted and his eyes on her hip.
There. Vexis said. See how she drops her right side when she extends? She overcooks the rotation every time. That's the gap.
Arthur saw it. For one second at full extension her whole left side was open, weight committed, nothing protecting it.
One second wasn't a lot.
But it was something.
She wound up again. Same shoulder. Same plant. Third time in a row with the same entry. She was testing whether he'd figured it out or whether she could just keep landing it.
Arthur let her come in.
She planted. She spun. The heel rose.
This time he didn't move away from it. He dropped his shoulder and stepped into it, taking the kick against his forearm instead of his body. It still hurt. His arm went half numb from the wrist up.
But he was close now.
He drove his elbow into her ribs before she could pull the leg back.
She made a short sound and broke away, putting three steps between them fast.
First time she'd moved back.
THERE. Vexis sounded like a man watching his house not burn down. That's what I'm talking about. Again. Do that again.
She looked at him differently now. Eyes a little sharper. Head tilted slightly.
She wasn't bored anymore.
She came in with something new this time. Feinted high, dropped low, went for his legs. Arthur caught the high feint and almost missed the takedown. Vexis called it half a second late.
Her shoulder hit his thigh and she drove forward.
Arthur twisted and they both went sideways. He hit the ground with her on top of him, her forearm across his throat, her weight pressing down.
Right. This is bad.
STOP THINKING AND MOVE.
He bridged his hips and rolled. She held on. They scrambled on the floor for a moment that felt much longer than it probably was, all elbows and knees and neither of them with a clean position on the other.
She was stronger than she looked.
Arthur got a hand free and pushed off the ground. She went with him and they came up together, both back on their feet, both breathing properly now.
A few students at the edge of the ring had stopped talking to each other.
She reset. He reset.
She came in again. Same spin, but this time she went for the same entry she'd used to get him twice. Muscle memory. She trusted it.
Arthur watched the shoulder drop. Watched her plant.
He'd seen this four times now.
He closed his eyes.
Not to block it out. Just to stop watching and start feeling. The air shifting when she moved. The floor under his feet. The way the body was already adjusting its weight before he asked it to.
Vexis had done this for ten years.
Arthur just had to stay out of the way.
He felt the spin happen. Felt the foot redirecting mid-swing, dropping toward his liver the same way it had the time before, and the body stepped without him.
He let it come.
And when it was close enough he grabbed it.
Both hands locked around her ankle.
"Wha—"
He yanked her toward him and drove his head forward.
His forehead met her nose. The sound made two people on the edge of the ring flinch back.
She dropped. Both hands came up to her face. Blood ran between her fingers and hit the stone floor.
Arthur let go and stepped back.
He breathed.
Nose still bleeding. Arm half numb. Ribs bruised on the left side and his jaw ached from the very first hit that he hadn't been ready for. His vision had that soft unstable quality that meant too many shots to the head in too short a time.
He looked down at her.
"Got you."
She looked up from behind her hands. Eyes watering. And then, somehow, she laughed. Short and real, through the blood.
"Yeah," she said. "You did."
The professor's voice came flat from the edge of the ring.
"Kreasial. Medical wing." A note on the card. "Lestilaut. Sit down before you fall down."
Arthur walked to the edge and sat against the wall.
Vexis drifted down beside him. Arms crossed. Expression somewhere between satisfied and deeply offended, which seemed to be his default setting.
Not bad. His voice was quieter now. The yelling had gone out of it. For a man with no training whatsoever.
High praise.
I still want my body back.
I know.
A pause.
You closed your eyes. Vexis said it like he was still working it out. At the end. Why?
Arthur pressed his sleeve to his nose and leaned his head back against the wall.
Because I was done thinking. You'd already done the work ten years ago. I just had to stop getting in the way of it.
Vexis didn't answer that.
Arthur watched the next pair step onto the center stone. Watched them circle each other. Thought about a corridor and a body and a killer with no name.
He had one thing this morning he didn't have yesterday.
Vexis could see what he couldn't. And Vexis, whether he wanted to admit it or not, needed Arthur alive to have any chance of getting back what he'd lost.
That was something.
It wasn't much. But it was the first thing that was actually his.