The more Dante looked at Kristina's fired up figure, the more worried he grew. The middle of the camp was cleared of all the wooden spears, giving Kristina the idea to use it as the sparing ground. With the camp’s structure in mind, with people on all sides, a makeshift coliseum was made.

“You know, I don’t this is a good idea. We’re still hurt.” The exercises they had done didn’t help speed up the process. They were a mixture of sprints, pushups, pull-ups, balance exercises, flexibility, and reaction tests. They were limit tests to get Kristina familiar with how the numerical value of their stats worked. Not difficult, but very tiring.

“We are Graymays!” she yelled, drumming on her chests. “Injuries mean nothing to us!”

Urgh, god make it stop. Her melodrama attracted curious orcs. With nothing to do as their injuries healed, they sat up and waited for the entertainment to start. Dante began to feel the pressure piling on. Rather than excitement, it made him stiff. Competing with Kristina never felt good.

“Ready?” she said, jumping on her tip-toes.

“No.” Her pettiness passed the cute phase a long time ago. This wasn’t a spar as much as public embarrassment. Not that Dante hadn’t done something like this to her in real life, of course, but tossing her around was his thing. She was encroaching on his territory.

“Oh, my bad. Let me put it in other words—ready or not, here I come,” she said, breaking into a dash.

He’d seen her fight before, but so did she, so it wasn’t an advantage for either. Both of them were single-minded, with most of their strategies consisting of hitting people until they stop moving. She would dodge more often than she would block, and she wouldn’t stop exchanging blows until one of them was down. The largest difference was the way they hit people--Dante went for punches, occasionally grappled, and rarely used his legs, while Kristina used every limb and martial arts technique that she thought would be useful.

Sai explained it before—Kristina rarely put anything into her Endurance stats or defensive stats, opting to increase speed, offensive ability, and while that made her flexible and unpredictable one mistake was enough to end the fight for her.

That made Dante’s plan simple. He brought his guard up. Constitution was his strong point. The longer the fight went on the better it was for him.

That's what she would think, at least. Dante stepped back as she came, then charged forward with his arms wide in a bear hug when Kristina followed him. He was going for the kill. His Constitution could also be used this way—he can take a hit. She can’t. He clenched his teeth and lowered his jaw. As long as he protectedhis jaw taking one in the face wouldn’t knock him out.

He’d hope to surprise her, though all he got was a smile. She threw a punch, but instead of Dante’s face she struck him in the middle of his chest right in the sternum. The vibrations went through Dante’s skeletal system, but it wasn’t as strong as he expected. It didn’t stop him.

Before he could tackle her, he found out why. She pushed off his chest. It wasn’t strong enough to him back with his weight, but it did push her back. She bent her upper body backward, becoming nearly parallel with the ground. He barely touched her hair as his arms crashed against each other.

It doesn't matter. Dante stepped forward, punching straight down. His target was her bellybutton. One moment he was looking at it, then the other he was looking to the side as some of his teeth flew out of his mouth. Dante snapped his face back to see her foot hook around his neck. His fist brushed the side of her stomach as she had turned sideways for her kick.

During the half-second stun her kick caused, she caught the arm he punched with and pushed it against her chest. She wrapped her other leg around his arm as he fell.

By the time he touched the ground, he was in an armlock. His back was to the ground with Kristina wrapped around his arm.

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Shit. That did not go according to plan.

A mixture of cheers and laughter erupted through the crowd.

“He got beat by a girl, that’s fucking hilarious man.”

“That was a quicky.”

“Nah, it’s not him. Her movements were crazy.”

“Why isn’t she letting go? The fight’s over.”

“She’s a mean one.”

“The fight isn’t over, kids.”

The voices around Dante faded into a dull buzzing as he struggled. He couldn’t get up nor could he reach with his other arm. The best he could do with it was push back against the heels that were pressing against his neck.

“Say uncle,” Kristina said.

“Fuck no,” Dante said, groaning as she tightened her hold.

“I can snap your arm in half. It’s my win!”

“Go ahead, then,” Dante said, sucking in a breath. Her heel did not make it easy. Just how the hell was he going to get out of this one?

“What? No! Don’t say uncle, that was childish, but admit defeat!”

“F-Fine,” Dante said, taking a deep breath.

“Finall—”

“If you won’t break it, I will,” Dante said, kicking off with his left leg. He as he twisted around with his fist swinging down.

He struck the ground beside Kristina's head, denting it. She didn’t dodge, even though he knew she could. He was barely able to twist his fist away. “Why did you let go,” Dante said. His arm was still intact.

The crowd ruptured.

Kristina turned towards them. “Do you hear them, Dante? Some are saying you're crazy. Some are saying you got guts. Some are saying you’re just petty,” she said, her voice lacking her humor. “Do you know what I think?”

“That I’m a handsome lad you fe—”

She pushed him off her. Dante fell on his butt, though the seething look she gave him hurt him a lot more. She clenched her teeth, opened her mouth, then closed it when she couldn’t find the words.

“Watcha doin'," someone whispered into Dante's ear. It sent him jumping forward into Kristina's forehead. With a resounding thud both fell onto different sides. Kristina cursed Dante while Dante cursed Sai.

Dante opened his eyes to find Sai crouching in front of him. His elbows rested on his knees as his hands held up his thin smiling face.

“H-Hi Sai, we were, uh, sparring,” Dante said with a nervous smile. He nudged Kristina, though all she contributed was a weak, highly unconvincing nod.

“Really? I’m glad. Here I thought I left for barely half an hour, and that I came to see my two friends trying to murder each other."

Dante shook his head eagerly. He wrapped his hands around Kristina, nudging his cheeks against her head. “We would never. Right? Right Kristina?”

“I can only answer for myself, Dante,” she said, folding her arms and turning away from him.

After a huff Sai stood up. “At least you got some attention,” he said, looking around. The crowd was excited. They called for more, though no one stepped up.

“Right, right,” Dante said, bobbing his head. He stood up, extending a hand that Kristina ignored.

She stood up on her own, dusted off, and looked at Skan. “Would you like to go for a spar, Skan?”

The crowd drowned out Skan’s answer. Dante heard a few comments that made him want to go into the crowd and drag them out, but he held off on that.

A girl versus an old man. This wasn’t the real world. Things were balanced here.

“Well, I guess I can make use of this,” Sai said. He spun around, his public face overlooking the disproving one that he momentarily showed. “Graymays! Hear, hear! Today marks the beginning of our conquest over these lands!” he yelled, instantly taking the lead of the crowd as he pumped his fist in the air. Over 40 fists followed him, releasing an ear-deafening roar.

The excitement was buzzing in the air. Dante stepped back, letting Sai take the center of the attention.

“For our first match up we have witnessed two old friends—one crazy enough to threaten to break the arm of the other,” Sai said, pointing towards Kristina. A cheer went for her. “And another, who was crazy enough to make his friend break his arm!”

Urgh. The cheer he got for that one made Dante feel uncomfortable. From Kristina's reaction, it wasn’t something to be praised.

“Remember, brothers and sisters. In this world, in these Broken Realms that we will conquer, age is not the factor. Gender is not the factor. Race, belief, socioeconomic, and who your damn father is not the factor,” Sai said, the last bit pointed at Dante. “What is, then, the factor? What determines who wins?” He raised his fist again, this time staring at it himself. “What is it, Graymays?”

“Power!” A united roar rang out.

“What will decide who dies, and who lives?”

“Power!”

“What decides who loots?”

“Power!”

Dante went to stand by Pistil’s side. He looked back at Dante with the same mania that began floating around the camp. “The guy sure knows how to fire people up,” Pistil said.

“One of his many occasionally useful talents,” Dante replied. It was more of control and manipulation than stir, but Dante let that distinction pass. People seemed to enjoy it, and frankly, Dante was on that train too. He hadn’t seen either Kristina’s or Skan’s limits. Dante couldn’t even imagine how they would fight, much less who would win.