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Vir faced off against Tara at a distance of ten paces. They were both unarmed and unarmored.

“Alright, so the rules are pretty simple,” Tara said, cracking her neck. “First to yield, be pushed out of the ring or knocked out, loses. No Chakras. No tattoos allowed. This is pure, basic, physical combat. Anything goes, so long as it’s not lethal. Any questions?”

Vir shook his head. “None.”

There was just one tattoo he needed to keep active, whether Tara minded or not. His concealment art had to be active at all times, given the number of Iksana in the area.

Luckily, Tara lacked Sight, which meant she wouldn’t notice the tattoo. Which meant she wouldn’t notice even if he activated Prana Current and used his movement arts, but Vir immediately dismissed that idea.

Not only was it cheating, but it ultimately failed to benefit him. If he couldn’t defeat Tara without the use of his pranic abilities, Vir doubted he had much hope of defeating the others in the tournament. Let alone Cirayus.

If his skills and his prana-saturated body didn’t give him enough of an advantage, he’d be better off leaving and returning for the next tournament.

“Begin!” the Bairan registrar shouted from the sidelines.

Tara crouched and exploded towards Vir, running as fast as she could. With her speed, there was little she could do other than barrel right into him.

Despite this knowledge, and despite prana arts being barred, he refused to underestimate his opponent.

Vir jumped well out of the way of the charging demon.

A good thing, too. Tara pivoted and spun into the air, sending a flying, spinning kick that came so close to Vir’s face that the wind ruffled his hair.

Fast and agile, Vir noted, stepping in.

Large, flashy attacks such as these could be devastating, but left the combatant exposed and vulnerable if they missed.

Vir struck the moment Tara’s feet touched the stage… Only to have his punch connect with nothing but air.

Instead of stopping her momentum, Tara had allowed herself to fall, seamlessly transitioning into a roll that took her safely out of Vir’s reach.

She popped up and started bouncing on the balls of her feet. A toothy grin was plastered on her face.

“Not bad,” she said. “This might actually make for a good practice bout.”

“Right back at you,” Vir replied. “It’s been a long time since I’ve fought anyone as agile as you.”

“Surprised you’ve fought anyone as fast as me. That’s kind of my thing, you know? Who is this person? I want to fight them.”

Vir grinned, thinking of Tia. “Believe me, you’re realms apart from—!?”

Tara bolted from her position while Vir had been mid-sentence.

Smart.

She’d kept him talking, all to stage her next move, interrupting him mid-speech to throw him off. This naga was crafty.

Against a lesser opponent, it might actually have worked. Against someone like Vir, though, it did her little good.

This time, she dove into a roll before lunging upwards at Vir, hoping to smash his chin.

It was Tara’s turn to hit air.

Expecting such a tactic, Vir had dropped low, driving a punch into her abdomen as she fired her uppercut—which missed.

While Vir’s full power was restricted without Prana Current and Empower, his physical muscles had been toned and built through combat in the Ash. They were also gorged with prana.

Vir did not strike lightly.

It was a testament that Tara didn’t double over coughing. Instead, Vir’s fist felt like it had connected with steel. Seeing the incoming attack, Tara wrenched her body, dissipating some of the energy as she fell into a somersault that took her a safe distance away.

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Vir’s attack hadn’t all been for naught, though. The naga clutched her sides when she stood back up.

“Nice punch,” she said, though her face betrayed none of the pain she must’ve felt. “Now, how about we get this on for real?”

Vir lunged mid-sentence. If Tara could use that tactic, so could he. Rather than charging into her with speed, Vir let loose a low kick.

Tara moved back to avoid it, but it was only a distraction. Vir slammed her with a series of punches. He rained jabs, hooks, and uppercuts upon her, forcing her to guard with her arms.

Her guard protected her upper body, but it also left her blind to his next moves. Vir slammed a brutal kick into her stomach.

This time, Tara did double over. Instead of allowing her to recover, Vir circled around to her back, wrapped his arm around her neck and fell onto his back, bringing her down with him.

His legs curled around her waist, and he hung from her like a monkey.

It was a powerful grappling move, and gave him a position from which he could attack, but couldn’t be attacked by her.

It’d been awhile since Vir had to exercise his Kalari arts, but the months of training in Riyan’s dome with Maiya came back to him in an instant, and he tightened his grip, locking Tara into place. She struggled helplessly, arms flailing, trying to grab onto Vir, who straddled her from behind.

She failed. While ground fighting had many limitations—being useless in anything other than a one-on-one duel was one—few knew how to grapple effectively.

Vir tightened the pressure around Tara’s neck, choking her. A few more seconds, and she’d either be forced to yield, or she’d fall unconscious.

Either way, it was Vir’s win.

Or so he thought.

Tara’s body writhed under Vir’s grip, and he felt his grip slacken. Not through any fault of his own, but because Tara’s body was changing.

Shifting.

“Grak it!” Vir cursed as the naga’s body grew and grew, shifting to her serpentine form. Tara’s face disappeared, turning reptilian. She swung her serpentine head around and grinned, flicking out her forked snake tongue.

“How is that allowed?” Vir cried, hurriedly distancing himself from the ever-growing snake.

He wasn’t fast enough.

Tara’s tail snapped up, circling around Vir’s legs, causing him to trip.

Unable to roll to dissipate the impact, Vir hit the ground hard. Had his body not been strengthened by prana, he’d most certainly have broken some bones. Even without broken bones, though, it still hurt.

Vir attempted to wriggle free, but it was useless. Tara’s serpentine torso wrapped around Vir’s body, tightening. Constricting. With awesome force, it crushed…

But if Tara was hoping to force Vir’s body to break quickly, she was sorely mistaken. Calmly, Vir gripped the serpent’s neck and started applying pressure of his own.

Tara began to suffocate, while Vir’s body was being subject to more and more force by the moment.

This was now a battle of attrition. Vir had no way out. Not without suffocating Tara. Tara wasn’t about to let go of her stranglehold until Vir was knocked out.

Both had wild, vicious smiles plastered on their faces as they fought.

The seconds ticked by. Vir felt his body reach its limit. He might’ve been strong, but a snake’s constricting force was simply too great to bear.

His leg snapped. Pain ripped through his body. But Vir didn’t relent.

Tara’s motions grew increasingly desperate as the air was blocked from her lungs. Her tail began to writhe desperately, and her neck convulsed.

Another bone broke in Vir’s body. This time a rib. Then another. And another.

Yet this level of pain was nothing to Vir. He’d endured far, far worse.

“How?” Tara hissed. “How are you sssoo ssssstrong?”

“The Ash will do that to you,” Vir grunted. “Makes you strong. You should try it sometime.”

His opponent, unable to endure any longer, finally relented.

“I… yield,” Tara hissed.

Vir instantly let go of her neck, and the constriction force that had pinned him in place came undone as they both flopped to the ground.

Vir landed on his broken ribs, and the pain nearly blinded him. It had been so long since he’d sustained such injuries. He almost missed it. Almost.

“Well fought!” the registrar said, clapping with both pairs of arms. He wasn’t the only one. Cirayus was hooting from the side, and even Shan was howling.

Vir wasn’t surprised in the least to see Tara back up on her feet. He hadn’t really injured her, and Yuma’s Embrace would negate any injury she’d taken nearly instantly.

It was, in all honestly, an utterly unfair power. If Ultimates hadn’t been banned in this tournament, Vir would give her excellent odds of winning. Iksana’s Clarity might allow them to see into the immediate future, but that did little good without a means to take Tara down instantly.

And with that ability, Vir doubted she could even fall unconscious.

“Wow,” Tara said, walking up to the prone Vir. “Now that was a fight! I don’t even feel like I wasted my afternoon anymore!”

“Gee, thanks,” Vir said, gingerly sitting up.

Before he could react, Tara slapped her hands on Vir’s ribs and leg and activated Yuma’s Touch. Vir felt the healing prana enter his body, mending his bones.

“You should be in top form by tomorrow, when the tournament begins,” Tara assured him. “I admit I got a little excited there. Went a bit overboard.”

“As you always do,” an elderly woman’s voice called out from the distance. “I swear, when will you ever learn?”

Tara—the ferocious warrior woman who’d fought on par with Vir—cringed upon hearing that voice.

Who is that woman? Vir thought, turning to its owner. If she could cow Tara…

She was an ordinary red demon wearing an unadorned gray robe, and she was accompanied by a great monster of a giant that made her look like a child. Even among Bairans, this red demon’s physique seemed large to Vir.

He was unarmed, and his upper body was bare, revealing the deep blue tattoos that covered his arms, chest, and back.

This was one tattoo Vir was quite familiar with.

Balancer of Scales.

“Hello, ajji. Guess you saw that?” Tara asked sheepishly.

Ajji?

“That I did, young woman.” The gray-eyed red demon turned her gaze to Vir, and for a moment, he felt Greesha’s hawk-like eyes upon him.

Except multiplied tenfold. The sheer pressure from this woman’s presence was unlike anything the old seer had ever mustered.

“Well fought, Vaak,” the woman said. “I look forward to your performance in the Tournament.”

“Oh, you won’t want to take your eyes off him,” Cirayus said, hopping up onto the stage with the grace of a cat. “That, I assure you. Lad, allow me to introduce you to some old acquaintances of mine. Thaman and Kira. They’re both young upstarts, but these days, they call themselves the Raja of Baira and the Rajni of Panav.”