Lira’s right hand didn’t answer immediately.

She looked at him.

At him.

At the split lip.

At the side where Kai had taken the hit from the S-rank vampire that still protested every time he took a deep breath.

"Eris," she finally said.

"Kai."

"I know." Her eyes moved to the gate behind her. "Then that simplifies things."

"Yeah, seems like it does."

Eris pulled her hands from behind her back.

She had no sword.

No visible weapons.

Just her hands — long, with the rank markings etched into the skin on the back like decorative scars that seemed part of a ritual.

"The prisoners don’t move," she said.

"We’re gonna discuss that."

"There’s nothing to discuss."

Kai set his stance.

Eris didn’t set a stance — she was already in one, just so integrated into the way she stood that it didn’t look like a stance.

---

[GarcíaFTW: ERIS. SHE HAS A NAME NOW.]

[NocheEterna99: "Yeah, seems like it does" — Lira’s vampires know who Kai is]

[StreamerHunter: Kai has a split lip and a bruised side and he’s going to fight an S++++. Priorities correct.]

[xSorinx: Eris didn’t draw weapons. Just her hands. That’s worse.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ KAI VS ERIS ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Deral_Bleattler: you can hear Serah and Lira’s blows in the background. TWO FIGHTS IN PARALLEL.]

---

Eris arrived first.

No warning — from standing to moving in zero seconds, covering the four meters between them with the speed of a superior S-rank that made space feel more like a suggestion than an actual distance.

Eris’s right hand straight for Kai’s throat.

Not a closed fist.

Open palm, rigid fingers, the specific strike vampires used to incapacitate without killing — disrupt breathing, buy time for what came next.

Kai turned his head.

Eris’s hand passed two centimeters from his neck.

Immediate counterattack — jab to Eris’s side with the right fist, using the dodge’s rotation as a power source.

Eris blocked it with her forearm without changing expression.

The impact was real on both sides.

They separated.

Half a second of distance.

---

Faster than the S-ranks, Kai thought. But different. The S-ranks used trajectory disappearance. She uses real speed. That means she has a trajectory. Predictable if I read it right.

Eris closed in again — this time with a combination, left hand to the body and right to the head in sequence, the rhythm of a professional shaped by years of war who’s made that move enough times for it to be automatic.

Kai blocked the body with his elbow, dodged the head by leaning back, and used the recoil to load the next step forward.

Knee to Eris’s thigh.

Connected.

Eris stepped back one step and repositioned quickly, readying for the next attack.

Her eyes dropped briefly to her thigh.

Then to Kai.

She registered the hit, Kai thought. It didn’t hurt her enough, but she registered it. Different from the S-ranks who ignored structural damage.

Good. She learns from damage. That means she also learns from patterns.

I have to try to attack without using a pattern.

---

[NocheEterna99: ONE STEP. ONLY ONE STEP BACK.]

[GarcíaFTW: the A-ranks staggered back three. The S-ranks staggered back four from Serah’s hits. Eris staggered back one from Kai’s knee.]

[StreamerHunter: Kai is already analyzing. "She learns from damage" — she’s going to adapt.]

[xSorinx: Kai decided not to have a pattern. Against someone who learns. This is going to be different.]

[Pedro_Sierra: (°ロ°) no pattern against someone who reads patterns. INTERESTING.]

---

At the back of the chamber, the sound changed.

An impact that made the entire ceiling vibrate — not the hallway ceiling, the main chamber ceiling, thirty meters beyond.

Dust fell from the hallway ceiling as a side effect of something that had happened somewhere else.

Kai didn’t look.

Eris did — a fraction of a second, involuntary.

Kai used that fraction.

He crossed the two meters between them in a step and a half, entered the space where Eris didn’t have time to reposition, and threw three strikes in rapid sequence — left side, right side, elbow to the shoulder.

Not to do maximum damage.

To map her defense.

Eris blocked the first with her forearm. She dodged the second by leaning her body back.

The third she took to the shoulder because she didn’t have time.

They separated again.

Eris’s shoulder had a red mark.

The first visible mark on her body since the fight began.

---

[GarcíaFTW: FIRST MARK]

[NocheEterna99: Kai used the distraction from Serah’s noise to get in. INVOLUNTARY COORDINATION.]

[StreamerHunter: he mapped her defense with three strikes. He wasn’t looking for damage, he was looking for information.]

[xSorinx: Eris has a mark on her shoulder and her eyes changed slightly.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘ Eris isn’t so sure anymore ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘]

---

Eris didn’t attack immediately.

She looked at him.

"You used the background noise," she said.

"Yes."

"Intentionally?"

"Not exactly." Kai shook out his knuckles.

"But I took advantage of it. We’re in a duel — we have to take advantage of any situation. There’s no time for doubts or distractions."

Eris processed this.

"Honest," she said. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"There’s no point in lying to someone in the middle of a fight."

The rank markings on the back of Eris’s hands glowed — not an attack, an activation.

Looks like someone’s decided to raise the stakes.

Eris’s speed changed.

Not double.

Not triple.

Just a little more.

Enough that the first exchange would have ended differently.

Kai felt it when she came — the same kind of air pressure as before but more condensed, closer to the limit between speed that has trajectory and speed that doesn’t.

He threw himself to the ground like he’d done with the S-ranks.

Eris passed over him.

But this time she anticipated Kai’s movement — upon landing she was already turning, hand extended downward to where Kai was getting up.

Kai took the hit to his left shoulder.

He went to the ground on his knees.

"Shit... That hurt."

---

[NocheEterna99: KAI ON THE GROUND]

[GarcíaFTW: ERIS ANTICIPATED THE FALL TO THE GROUND. SHE LEARNED FROM THE FIRST EXCHANGE.]

[StreamerHunter: "she learns from damage" — Kai said it and two minutes later it was applied to him.]

[xSorinx: Kai on his knees. First time in this arc.]

[Pedro_Sierra: (╥_╥) KAI (╥_╥)]

[Deral_Bleattler: ←←← Eris learned →→→ applied →→→ Kai on the ground. THIS IS A REAL FIGHT.]

[User_7741: (ง’̀-’́)ง GET UP KAI (ง’̀-’́)ง]