The tiger wasn’t holding back.

The Lightning Claws he sent arcing round the circumference were stronger, faster, and far brighter than ever before.

“Witness the staple of the Tiger Sect!” Ori’un shouted above the sizzling din of Fai’s strikes. “How shall our metal man deal with the natural enemy of all Cog-kind!”

He really is enjoying this far too much, XJ-V thought.

The Cog readied to Dragontail Swipes to redirect the lightning strikes away from him, feeling the strength of Fai’s searing light coursing through him even as he managed to twist his hands round their tips and send them flying back into the sands.

Then he realized Fai was nowhere to be seen.

His eyes scanned the perimeter, watching for signs of life, before he finally honed in on the Tiger’s footprints on the sands.

A single Dragon’s Tooth launched directly in front of him brought Fai immediately back into sight as he rolled to narrowly avoid his opponent’s fire.

“Oh-ho!” Ori’un cried with the cheering crowd. “The Waiting Tiger’s Predator Stalk is countered by the Dragon’s Tooth! It seems not even a calculating beast can sneak up on a wyrm that rules the skies!”

…Is he really going to do that for every move and countermove we make?

Fai’s next attack came in a flurry of blows that sent XJ-V back peddling, putting him immediately on the defensive. Normally, he would wait out the Tiger’s storm of claws until the beast had tired himself out, whereupon he would launch a counter-jab to his ribcage that would instantly wind him and bring about a swift victory. But the sands beneath his feet constantly shifted under the weight and movement of the warriors. Fai-Deng shifted with the earth, and XJ-V felt himself fall.

He means to use the surface of the arena against me. A cunning ploy from a strategist. No pure fury is carrying Brother Fai through, this time. This time, he means to work with the world.

The cheers of Fai-Deng’s students ran through the crowd in an uproar, more than a match for those who sang the Cog’s name to the four winds.

XJ-V saw in Fai-Deng’s eyes the pride hidden behind his focus. Pride – not Ego. The Tiger had learned to suppress his desire for his Master to view him as exceptional. He was not fighting for him. Instead, he was fighting for his students. He was showing them man could go toe-to-toe with machine.

And said machine was beginning to enjoy the feeling of being on the receiving end of such a capable opponent.

He shifted his weight, performing a Dragontail Swipe that swept Fai-Deng’s leg and following up with a Flaming Dervish that took both warriors into the air, the searing heat of his flame sending smoke trails into the faces of the betting Canjie. Fai saw his trick, countered with a Spinning Tail strike of his own, and both Disciples were thrown against the far walls of the arena.

“A Dragon’s Dervish nullified by a Tiger’s Tail!” Ori’un screamed. “Have you ever seen the like, my Brothers?! Mark you how the sands themselves fly in the face of such spectacle!”

“I do wish he would be silent for once,” XJ-V said as he rose, shaking excess sand off his shoulders.

Fai-Deng smiled at him. “Were it so easy, Brother.”

XJ-V’s Prancing Crane met the Tiger’s Eagle Claw stance, each warrior ready for the others’ strike, pacing like predators around the desert realm.

I cannot best him in a battle of attrition, XJ-V thought. He will mean to break my balance and throw the weight of his quick strikes against me. If I can somehow disrupt him…

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His feet sunk under the burden of the sands and he felt for a firm footing in vain. He could never sustain a battle in this setting, and the Tiger knew it.

The land favors you, Fai…but can I use that against you, somehow?

Before he could finish formulating a strategy, the fury of the Tiger was upon him again.

Fai-Deng’s Thunderous Charge was far faster than before – he did not even have to adopt the crouching stance most of his other Sect Brother’s needed to activate the technique. Instead, XJ-V saw merely a flash of light where the warrior had once stood, and then he felt the impact of his lightning-infused heel in his side.

“OW! A sound strike from Brother Fai!”

As if the pain in his rib wasn’t enough of an injury, XJ-V’s auditory sensors now rang with the Planeswalker’s dulcet tones, too when he hit the ground.

He then turned to see Fai readying another closed-fist strike aimed right at his core, and he rocketed off from the ground using Feng-Lung’s patented directional Dragon’s Tooth – the flames of his billowing Qi sprouting from his ankles and sending him flying high above the Tiger’s line of sight.

A cooing of ooooohs and aaaaaah’s! went with him, Feng-Lung bragging to those who watched that the Cog was using a technique he had been so good as to show him.

But the Cog had no time to waste on theatrics. The Tiger threw more bolts of charged light at his flying form, and he centered his Qi on his heels, hoping to outmaneuver his Brother’s strikes in the air and rain his counterattacks on him from above. Yet when the flames of his own fireballs flashed from the sky, all they managed to hit were the sand dunes where Fai-Deng once stood.

He’s too fast. Faster than he’s ever been before. I wonder, Fai, were you holding back on me during our training, too? Were you waiting for this – your moment to shine?

His thoughts were interrupted by a flash of light that blazed into brilliant life on his right-hand side.

Where once there had been nothing but shimmering air, Fai-Deng’s tattooed face appeared mere inches from his own.

“The Blazing Leopard Leap!” Ori’un announced as the crowd’s chanting swelled. “Executed with perfect timing and grace! It seems our Cog Brother is in trouble, now!”

XJ-V’s arms lashed out to intercept the swift strike of the Tiger’s claw, only managing to block one flurry of blows before feeling the crushing impact of Fai’s shin in his abdomen.

His Dragon Tooth rockets sputtered and died away as he fell, smashing into the wall of the arena pit and emerging covered in sand – a totem of pain.

“Come on XJ-V!” he heard from the crowd. It was Feng-Lung’s voice – of course it was. And he wasn’t alone.

“XJ-XJ hear my call! Show this tiger you can’t fall!”

The Cog grimaced as he recognized the voice of his Huli ‘pet’ above.

She’s started rhyming again…

As he adjusted the cracked metal of his ribs, he groaned as the audience took up the rhyme as a chant. Such bravado would do wonders for little Arha – and affect her far more than it would him.

At least someone’s happy, here…

A lightning strike speared the center of the pit as Fai-Deng appeared out of thin air once more, his body straight and muscles beading with sweat. The Tiger Sect crowd sang his name with just as much strength as XJ-V’s ‘fans’ did, and some of the grumbling Canjie began placing very different bets as the action progressed.

But through all this chanting and all this fanfare, the Cog noticed Fai-Deng had eyes only for him. He never even spared a single look at the crowd.

Because that’s not who you are anymore, XJ-V realized as he wiped sand and felt the cracks that were appearing in his side. You’re in the moment, now. No past. No future. No bravado. Just this fight.

“Well, Brother Tiger?” he suddenly shouted as he rose from his sandy crater in the pit. “Aren’t you going to finish me off?”

XJ-V watched with satisfaction as Fai smirked at him, raising his head high and speaking with clarity that cut through even the jeers of the audience:

“The word of Aun’el tells us that a worthy opponent should always be given time to recuperate. Death is not the domain of champions. Honor is.”

His students gasped in admiration and XJ-V couldn’t help but chuckle along with his Brother’s grin. To have this once brash beast quote the words of the Dragon Prophet at him just as he had done in his first days here at the monastery was irony that warrented the Tiger’s smug grin.

But you really believe them, don’t you? he thought. That’s the difference. We both came here in ignorance, Brother. And we both learned what the words of the wise men who came before us truly meant.

“I will give you the chance to make the next strike, Brother,” Fai called to him from the center of the pit. “I will not have it said that the speed of the Tiger won this day alone. A true warrior lets his opponent display all his techniques in glorious battle.”

XJ-V wiped excess sand from his mouth and assumed a Gong’bu stance, staring deep into the sands that shimmered below his Brothers’ feet.

You may regret that, Brother, he thought as he made his move. But I get the feeling you’ve already won the battle you’re really fighting here.