The morning of the battle was charged with a strange energy. The earlier confidence of the elite of Florfana had an uncertain nervous tension. Soral must have succeeded. Now she just had to make sure not to let on that she knew about it. Regardless of how underhanded the hostage situation was, she was certain they would take this opportunity against her if they found out she had interfered. This turned out to be less of a concern than she expected as Ruena heard snippets of information with more details.

  Whatever had happened, happened while she was still meeting with Marx. Her alibi was solid, as were the alibis of everyone she had brought with her. Ruena knew immediately what must have happened. Soral had gotten his cousins involved. Regardless of which one it was, the time bending nonsense would make the impossible timing possible.

  Ruena ran into Marx right before their battle. He was clearly unsettled. "What did you do?" he demanded.

  "I made things fair," Ruena replied calmly, "Regardless of the outcome of this battle you have nothing to be concerned about."

  "Even if you did do something about my situation, how can I be sure the blackmail hasn't just changed hands?" Marx demanded, "Did you intend to have me throw the match."

  "No. I need you to put your all into it," Ruena denied, "I will not accept such a hollow victory. When I win, I must win without question. That is why I intervened."

  Marx still seemed distrustful, but could say no more as the king of Florfana entered. "Even if you didn't provoke me, I had no intention of holding back," he said instead.

  "My, my. It is good that you are eager, but save your fighting for the battlefield," the king chided despite the fact that he looked absolutely delighted by Marx's words, "You should go to your respective inspections. The fight everyone has been waiting for is about to begin."

  Inspections. This was the last hurdle where Florfana could unfairly intervene. She might have to be even more careful here than during the actual fight itself. Ruena braced herself and went to face her inspection. The inspection was meant to be a simple affair to ensure that she didn't bring any hidden weapons or trump cards into the arena with her. It wouldn't be a fair showing of her skill if she had prepared her enemy's weakness in advance. The problem was that Ruena doubted that Marx would be facing the same scrutiny. Rather than removing hidden weapons, they might be adding them. Surprisingly, none of the inspectors said anything about the stashed catnip pouch.

  After the inspection, Ruena was guided to the arena. The edges of the arena were lined with weapons, and the arena itself was filled with various obstacles. The problem was that both of them were free to use them. The other problem was that she could not see Marx from where she was standing. She had to assume that the battle had already begun. It was exactly the kind of trick her enemies would pull.

  Just as she suspected, Marx lunged at her suddenly with the only warning that anything had begun being the gate slamming shut behind her. Ruena had prepared for this kind of situation, if only in mindset, so she was able to dodge at the last moment. Marx was fast, but he didn’t feel quite as fast as Storm. Maybe each Protector had different strengths. That meant she had to brace herself for Marx to be incredibly strong instead. That meant if he caught her there would be no shaking him.

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  Since surrender was unlikely, Ruena was aiming for escape. Marx was sure to be expecting that and would do everything in his power to prevent that and force her to surrender. Ruena also had to make sure to put on a good show to satisfy the king of Florfana so he would not interfere more than they already had.

  The battle was more of a game of tag and hide and seek at an extremely fast pace. There was no time for words, and barely even a moment to spare for thought. If Ruena let her guard down for even a moment everything would be over. Every time she tried to make her way towards the exit, Marx would force her away with another swooping attack.

  In order to escape, she would have to cross the arena and escape from the side Marx had entered from. This was already no easy task with all of the obstacles, but Marx wasn’t even letting her get near the weapons supplied around the arena. She needed to shake him off. The arena’s floor was smooth with no loose dirt or gravel to throw him off. The obstacles were too solid for her to break, and too heavy to lift. At best she could push one over onto him.

  Out of options, Ruena settled for her trump card that had somehow passed inspection. She managed to pull the pouch of catnip out of her pocket the next time she dodged Marx. If she could even succeed at confusing him for him a moment it might buy her enough time to get ahold of something she could fight back with.

  Now! Ruena sprayed Marx’s face with catnip powder and sprinted towards the nearest weapons without looking back. Her hands closed around the grip of a spear just in time for the confusion to wear off. In just a moment Marx was on top of her and attacked without hesitation. Was it her imagination or was he faster now? He looked somehow less tense than before.

  Ruena got the sinking feeling she had made a grave mistake. No wonder they hadn’t stopped her from bringing in the catnip. It had only made her enemy stronger. How was she meant to escape or beat him now? In a last ditch effort for distraction she tried to start a conversation.

  “I know why I need to win,” Ruena panted, “but what is in it for you?”

  “You already know the answer to that,” Marx growled, “I can’t just take your word for it.”

  “Then what will it take to convince you they are safe?” Ruena demanded.

  “You can’t,” he told her, “Surrender before you regret it.”

  “You know I can’t do that, and it would be better for you if I win as well,” Ruena countered, “Do you really want to doom the fates of all Cats and protectors in and even outside of Florfana?”

  Marx attacked even more viciously. The catnip seemed to be making his emotions unstable. The question was if that was truly an advantage for her, or just another form of danger? With a weapon in hand, Ruena was able to attempt to fight back instead of just dodging, running, and hiding. It didn’t improve her chances of winning much, but it did give her space to think. Bastion believed in her. There had to be a way to win this with what she had here.

  Another dodge. Another retaliation. The motions were becoming easier. Marx was far more predictable than Storm, and didn’t adapt quite as well either. The more Ruena got the hang of things the more she had time to think. There had to be some way to achieve an unquestionable victory. At this point she might just settle for a normal victory.

  Ruena’s gaze swept across the arena and her opponent again and an idea finally struck her. If she could pull it off, it might just work.