The fight between Skull and Joe had been heating up to the point where Skull was no longer even able to focus on what was happening in the battles around him. He was genuinely starting to wonder if he had drawn the short straw compared to the rest of his squad.
Joe weaved cleanly under a couple of incoming attacks, twisted his lead leg, and flicked out two rapid jabs from the side, hitting Skull hard in the head. Each hit was solid, and Skull could do nothing but raise his guard to block. In a desperate attempt to break the pressure, Skull threw out a heavy kick toward Joe's midsection, but it hit nothing. Joe had already pulled back out of range and charged right back in.
When Skull went to attack this time, he did so with fake intent, carefully setting up a trap just like he had been trained to do in the Black Hand. He baited Joe's movement, lunged forward, and managed to grab tightly onto Joe's left wrist, holding on as hard as he could.
