Chapter 532: Raw Fighting Prowess
Tala, Lyn, and Ron were standing in the sanctum—with Terry sitting on Tala’s shoulder—watching the view that Alat provided. It was as if they had front row seats to a truly unusual fight, from a mundane perspective.
To Tala’s eyes it made perfect sense.
Rane matched Meallain in raw fighting prowess strike for strike… about half of the time. To counter the other half, his body simply moved out of each given strike’s path in ways that no humanoid could have gotten the leverage to move.
On his part, Rane would occasionally seemingly strike at empty air, causing Tala to tsk. “Her concept almost forces your instincts to be wrong. You know she’s about to move one way before she moves the other. She’s clever with it too. Your instincts won’t always be wrong. She capitalizes on your thinking, gets in your head. Letting your instincts be right until you actually count on them. She’s survived and thrived specifically by dancing that line with each given opponent.”
Though, if she wanted to, she could simply overwhelm someone and take them out.
Ron was clutching the simple short sword that he’d pulled free of his tower shield of iron and white steel, his enhanced strength making the weight seemingly a non issue. “Let us help him, Mistress. Please?”
Tala grimaced. “You’ve seen her fight now. How many of you would stand up against her?”
It was Ron’s turn to grunt. “Ten. Don’t bring Kedva, please. Her family still needs her.”
And just like that, Tala understood what the man intended. Ron’s plan was to be a shield for Irondale, to spend his and the Talons’ lives to let Rane or Terry finish the fight. Tala stood, instinctively drawing as much authority to herself as she could in that brief moment before pronouncing, “No. You will not go to die.”