"Then don't mind if I do… Emelie!"
Ayako lifted her right boot and slammed it down onto the cracked stone of the arena floor.
From the floor beneath Emelie, two earthen hands emerged and clamped around her ankles with a crushing force, locking her legs in place.
Emelie cast a brief, annoyed glance down at the restraints. But the moment she looked back up, Ayako, who crossed the distance in less than heartbeat, was already in her proximity.
Her face was twisted into an ecstatic grin as she drew her katana in a wide, horizontal sweep. The edge of the steel whistled through the air and came within mere inches of slicing Emelie's stomach open.
'Close, but no cigar!' Emelie's eyes flared with a deep light.
A telekinetic barrier materialised to halt the blade's edge just before it could cut her.
But Ayako had anticipated this.
