The training hall had ceased to be a room of instruction; it had become a colosseum. The air was thick with the metallic tang of blood and the suffocating heat of two bodies pushed beyond human limits.
Rex and Aurelia collided again in the center of the ring, their bodies slamming together with the wet, heavy sound of meat hitting meat.
THUD.
Rex drove a punishing left hook into Aurelia's ribs, but she didn't recoil; she leaned into the pain, using the momentum to wrap her legs around his waist in a lightning-fast grappling maneuver.
SHHH WHIP.
Aurelia twisted her hips with terrifying torque, using her entire body weight to slam Rex backward against one of the reinforced training pillars.
CRACK BOOM.
The impact reverberated through the floorboards. Rex's spine hit the stone with a sound like breaking timber, but even as the breath fled his lungs, he snarled.
