[h2]Jennifer White[/h2]

Resisting the deflection would have been pointless; Ruriko was mostly using her own momentum against her. She wasn't about to give in yet, however, and eating a counter-attack to the face was tantamount to surrender. What, then was the blonde going to do? Maybe she could counter the deflection with a parry of her own but that would be a close-cut thing. So Jen opted for something far less reasonable: going with the downwards momentum of the continued attack and dropping almost to the floor. That, on its own, was simply a bad idea; she took things further by releasing her right hand from the grip and using it as a pivot to spin entirely, expecting that the unexpected move and drop would achieve two goals: avoid the routine counter-attack and provide a cut from an unexpected angle, securing her the win. Of course, it relied on speed and agility since it was hardly the most conservative of moves... but those were two things that the blonde had in abundance.

An objective observer would probably hope for someone to come along and break the fight up before it drew blood. Even though mock battles were far more restrained than real ones, they were still conducted with dangerous weaponry and, in fights like this, it would be far too easy for someone to get seriously hurt...

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[h2]Tachibana Kaede[/h2]

"I shouldn't have been going into battles without some sort of range anyway. My pact gives me good aim... I just got lazy and after breaking about three bows through pulling back too hard, I just went for punching and tossing any rubble that happened to be around," Kaede answered, laughing at her own flaws.

Natural battlefields, huh? They were an interesting idea but... there were so many things about them that would get in the way. "If you set up battles in forests, it would ruin the tournament aspect. It instantly gives advantages to some weapons over another and the crowd can't even watch what's happening well.

"Even if the Gate opens again, what good is a little experience with one-on-one fights in a natural environment going to do? You can get the area practice from training rooms and a better handle on the things from outside, too. The tournament is just a sport, like fencing; it doesn't need to be realistic."