Reversed

xxviii. twenty-eight

At some point, Sophie got another cut on her leg, right below the first one. 

Ruy did too—Sophie  caught him on the arm. She'd nearly fainted with relief when she saw that it was on his bicep, not his forearm, which were both still healing.

But the wounds didn't stop either of them. Both had high endurance because they found solace from unwanted thoughts in the arena, but they fought hard enough to have both of them panting and wiping sweat.

While Sophie landed another punch, she decided to shake things up. She pulled out a sphere, one of the new additions she'd grabbed on her way in, and threw it at Ruy while he was recovering from the hit.

Spikes of electricity shot out from the orb as it flew through the air, and Ruy's eyes widened. He snapped his fingers, a force field appeared around the orb as it harmlessly bounced off the ground. Of course he was immune to the shock of force fields.

"Wow," Sophie said. "I really need to meet our Technopath. That would've been cool if you hadn't stopped it."

"Oh, Pixel?" Ruy asked, struggling to his feet. He tightened his grip around his training dagger, sinking back into a ready fighting stance, and Sophie's eyes dropped to the blood on his knuckles. "Yeah, he's cool. I can take you to him later." He grinned. 

"Sure," Sophie agreed, launching herself at him. 

"Thought you were going to do that," Ruy huffed, blocking her easily. Sophie kicked her knee up, but he countered it with his own.

"That predictable?" she asked.

He shrugged. She blocked a jab.

And so they fought. Neither one of them wanted to admit defeat or say they needed a break before the other did, and so they fought on. The only way they would stop was if one of them actually won.

"You know, I'm technically still your trainer, so I could end this whenever I wanted," Ruy said.

Sophie flashed him a wicked smile. "I'd know the real reason."

He ducked low and knocked the knife out of her hand. It flew to the wall, sparked off, and landed in the sand. "Not that I would. Beating you will be a lot more fun."

Sophie was going to respond, but the words were clipped from her mouth as the breath was punched out of her stomach.

She growled, and they dove back into the fight.

They worked their way all over the arena, from wall to wall and through the middle. Eventually, Sophie ended up pinned against the wall. She struggled, but Ruy had her arms pinned with one hand and a knife to her throat with the other.

Both their chests heaved as they tried to catch their breath.

"It's just recent memories, right? Because you seem to remember everything I taught you," Ruy said without loosening his hold at all. He knew her too well to give her the chance to slip away. 

She snorted. "I figured out a few on my own." Her eyes roved the ground, searching for something that could help her get free...

There. Her eyes caught onto the dagger Ruy had knocked out of her hand earlier lying on the ground, not too far from her foot. She looked away quickly so she wouldn't draw attention to it.

She kept her gaze locked onto his as she inched her foot under the hilt of the knife. Then, quick as an asp, she flipped it into the air. She caught it on her knee and balanced it there.

Ruy's attention dropped to the knife. Yes. She yanked one of her hands free and grabbed the knife.

She held the point of it to the hand that held the dagger to her throat steadily. "You move, I move," she said.