Revian stepped forward, the evenness of his gait and calm in his limbs ensuring that he could defend from an attack from any angle.
His hand drew forward with his thumb jutting out and fingers coiled as if he were holding onto a blade, but after a moment's realization when he looked down, he quickly retracted his hand back to his side while still balling his fists.
Garron's grin reached the bottoms of his cheekbones, the violent whirs of his steps fracturing the ground below.
"Grahaha! You know, you're the one I've always wanted to fight, although I wish the circumstances were a little more... friendly." Garron said, eyeing the way that Revian's limbs stretched faster with each step, building a tension in his stride. "You've always been someone that I could watch, but never interact with. You're a great guy, you know. Perhaps in a different world, we could've stayed brothers."
Garron's muscles bulged past what looked human once he'd gotten within a few meters of him, bringing his arms to his sides while waiting for Revian's approach to halt.
"But it's as my master says. I have to expel you. Just know there's no hard feelings--"
Thwam!
Revian's left fist slammed into Garron's left, the residual force of their clash causing the ground beneath to splinter at their feet.
Losing out against the growing pressure in Garron's arm, Revian withdrew from the clash, sliding past his large bulk and pulling his arm in to aim for the side of his ribcage.
The time it took Revian to reach this point was a single instant, far too fast for any normal human to react to.
However, Garron was anything but.
Diving into a half-spin, Garron's heel rammed into Revian's chest, its bones protected only by the arms that he clumsily held up.
Revian was on the ground, heaving big gallops of air for a single moment while clenching his chest.
The counterattack was far too violent for Revian to instantly recover from, but as he heard violent thrums resounding from the floor from each step Garron took, he quickly slid to the right from where he stood.
Slam!
Garron's fist had barely missed him, the ground below shattered from his brute strength.
There's no way he didn't hurt himself with that punch, Revian thought to himself, wincing at the purple discoloring his skin.
He quickly held his arms up, testing them for their strength after the devastating blow he received from Garron.
It was scary--terrifying, even--the damage he'd accumulated from a single punch, his bones fractured all throughout his arms and even tinges of pain radiating from his chest despite having defended it.
He couldn't get hit again.
Thud, thud, thud!
Garron's raging assail didn't stop--didn't even pause from his missed punch, his momentum carrying from his sprint beforehand.
Revian didn't wish to show it, but a pit formed in his stomach, his mind racing for a way out.
Fwip!
Narrowly dodging a punch to his left, his jaw quivering from the displaced air--almost releasing his feet from the ground--Revian refocused his attention, instead aiming for Garron's midsection.
He's incredibly agile for his size, so much so that I don't think I could ever approach him from the side, but if I can trap him within his own range of attack, then I can at least graze him and get out of this.
He rolled under his extended fist, eyeing Garron's abdomen where he'd left himself open.
Garron, on the other hand, had meant for this to be Revian's method of attack, instantly closing the gap between himself and Revian with a raised knee kick from his left.
Revian, spotting his attack, turned his shoulder and chest away to the left, his right fist parrying his blow and gunning for the solar plexus.
"You fight exactly how I studied." Garron smirked, his expression more devilish than pure.
Suddenly, the leg that he'd used to kick fully extended out past Revian, his grounded knee bending slightly to the right. The speed that this occurred was even greater than the initial knee that jabbed at Revian, the intention clearly to make him drop his guard.
A roundhouse...?
Fwam!
Garron's shin impacted against Revian's side, the wind surrounding him whistling as he was sent jetting across the room.
His body's freefall stalled for just a second longer than physics would allow, softening his fall as he gently floated into the wall.
"Ah, so that's your float. Doesn't look like you can hold it for all that long, though." Garron added, clasping his pumped wrist with his right hand.
What the hell... it's like he's seeing my movements before they happen. How is it he can respond to all my attacks without a single moment of hesitation? Typically, no matter how proficient a fighter is in their craft, there is always a delay between the start of an attack and their response; it's ingrained into the human body, bounded by the laws of physics: The human reaction time.
"You..." He muttered, clenching his teeth against the vying pain irradiating his sternum. "How are you doing that..."
"What do you--ah, you mean knowing exactly how you'll move. I've already told you, think back on my words."
Garron's feet crashed against the ground as he charged towards Revian, his foot reaching out in pursuit of his head.
The air fwipped through Revian's hair as he swerved contact, grabbing Garron's heel with his free hand.
Garron hadn't finished his attack, however, and clenched his heel toward the ground. Revian's wrist lurched further back than it was supposed to, forcing him to raise his second hand to aid in fending off the foot's weight.
This granted Garron the opening he needed, instantly releasing the weight of his foot and causing Revian's arms to overshoot into the air. He jumped into the air, spinning parallel to the floor to obscure which leg he would use to attack.
Revian haphazardly traced his movements, raising his right arm to cover his face after Garron's left twitched, but his defense met only air after Garron slowed his spin, propelling his right leg into a flying side kick.
"Pweh!" Revian gasped, his body convulsing into a violent roll as he darted across the floor.
Revian grasped the side of his face, a large bulb of purple raising from his cheek.
Ah, so that's what it is, he thought, his face resolute and the shaking slowing.
"Finally decide to take this serious?" Garron asked, stopping his charge to wait for Revian to raise himself up.
Revian was no longer reacting, instead initiating.
He released a barrage of fists, clashing against Garron's but missing every so often.
For every three or four strikes, Revian's face or shoulder shot back a few inches, impacting against Garron's blows.
It was a painful endeavor, but his body slowly acclimated, the impacts numbers diminishing from every four to every eight, then twelve...
Until, eventually, Revian wasn't getting touched at all.
Garron saw himself in Revian's movements, the small beats that an individual warrior dons out of personal habit echoing in his limbs.
"You're like me," he said, jumping back to end his assail. "You possess the lion's eye."