The two men slowly began to circle the small clearing. Kai watched Corbin and began to dread the panther-like fluidity of the man's motions. The Jade Falcon stayed up on the balls of his feet and kept his left hand weaving back and forth, continually hiding and revealing the blade of the dagger in his right hand. Corbin's steps ate up more ground than Kai's, ever shrinking the circle. Like a noose, it tightens ...

Kai unconsciously dropped into his own fighting stance and switched the knife to his left hand. He concentrated on watching Corbin as a whole, not any one part of him. Kai also centered himself, bringing his breathing under control. He worried less about finding an opening through which he could thrust his knife than about reading Corbin for a sign of an impending attack.

Kai worked at ridding himself of panic. What are my goals in this fight?Kai took a half-step backward. I must blood him, I must!

Corbin closed and slashed left to right at Kai's midsection. Kai leaped back, then took a tentative swipe at Corbin's arm as the Elemental recovered. The return slash missed cleanly and the Jade Falcon pulled back to laugh. "Thatwas an attack? Then I suppose she has to cut your food for you lest you starve."

Kai's face burned crimson. Blood him? The only blood on him today will be yours.

Corbin hunkered down in an unorthodox guard position. With the dagger clutched in his right hand and his right arm curled up over his shoulder like a scorpion's tail, the Elemental withdrew his most obvious threat. He held his left arm forward to guard his body and crouched low enough that he could get good distance on a lunge.

He flipped his left hand over and waggled his fingers at Kai. "Come on, you can have a free cut."

He mocks you!Kai snarled and darted forward. He feinted with his dagger at the man's hand, then stabbed out with his right foot and drove it into the Jade Falcon's thick left thigh. This did not slow Corbin, however, who pivoted on that leg, swept his left arm wide in a parry of the feint, then thrust his dagger forward in a move meant to spit Kai on the blade.

Without thinking, Kai shifted his knife from right hand to left and grabbed Corbin's right wrist in his own right hand. Planting his right foot, he twisted his body inside the Elemental's reach. Using the larger man's momentum against him, Kai drove his right hip into Corbin's midsection and tugged on his arm as he bent over. The Elemental shot up across Kai's back and landed hard on his rump.

The MechWarrior twisted the Elemental's arm, but before Kai could lock and break the elbow across his knee, Corbin pulled free. Kai slashed at him with the knife, but holding it in his left hand made the strike weak. Kai felt it hit, but it seemed not to affect the Clansman as he spun to his feet.

Corbin began to laugh defiandy, but when he pressed his left hand to the small of his back, it came away bloody. His brown eyes sparkled. "You are almost competent, Jewell, but I would have taken your kidneys and severed your spine with such a cut. There. You have blooded me and your doctor will go free. Now it is my turn."

Moving faster than any human being Kai had ever seen, Corbin came in again. Mirroring Kai's earlier move, the Elemental flipped his dagger into his left hand, then cut cruelly at the MechWarrior. Kai tried to jump back from the slash, but the tug he felt on his jumpsuit leg told him he had failed. The hot sting of Corbin's dagger slicing the flesh over his right thigh shocked him.

Kai half expected the Clansman to back off and gloat over his handiwork, but Corbin burrowed in close. Gingerly dancing back on his cut leg, Kai avoided the brunt of the charge, but not by much. He flicked out a right jab that caromed off his head, with the only effect being Corbin turning in Kai's direction.

Returning like for like, Corbin dropped a short right jab into Kai's ribs. The fist pounded like a sledgehammer into ribs barely recovered from being broken during the escape from ComStar. Agony exploded in Kai's chest and he hunched over to protect his ribs.

An open-handed cuff to the head blasted him on his feet and sent him flying. He landed in a heap, rolling to a stop in the ruins of the lean-to he and Deirdre had constructed. Tangled in the petrochem sheet, he fought himself halfway clear. Just as he realized he had lost his knife, a booted foot lifted him from the ground with a kick to his midsection. He slammed into a tree, then dropped to the foot of it and clawed breathlessly at pine needles and roots.

Unable to breathe and with his chest on fire, Kai braced for the next assault, thinking that Corbin would kill him this time. He tried to get up, but only made it halfway before collapsing again. You are finished.

Corbin's shadow fell across his face. "I was wrong. You are no Warrior, for no Warrior would just lie there." The Elemental filled his voice with contempt. "I will slay you and leave you in an unmarked grave so none of your kinsmen can be embarrassed by your failure."

Corbin's words found a willing echo in the dark voice that had always haunted Kai's thoughts. You have ever been a failure, Kai Allard-Liao. They will erase you from the roll of Liaos, and none will dare speak your cursed name.

Kai coughed and felt his ribs creak. "It doesn't matter. I beat you."

"You what?"

Kai panted for a second, then pulled himself up on his elbows. "I blooded you. You have to let her go. I won."

Corbin's malignant laughter filled the clearing. "Oh that? I agreed only because I thought it would get more fight out of you. I never intended to honor that bargain because only bargains struck between Warriors need be honored." Corbin squatted down with his hands resting on his knees. He stuck his face into Kai's. "No freebirth is ever enough of a Warrior to bargain with me."

As the Clanner started to bounce back upright, Kai struck. Stiffening the fingers of his right hand, he speared them into the Elemental's throat. The large man gurgled an outcry and toppled back, clutching his adam's apple. Kai kicked his feet free of the tarp and unsteadily rolled to his feet. Seeing his foe sprawled on his back, Kai stomped on his groin, then turned away and started limping toward the ruins of the lean-to to find his knife.

"Kai, look out!"

At Deirdre's warning, Kai threw himself forward onto his face and rolled to right. He saw Corbin pass through where he had just stood, then heard a heavy crunch as the Elemental tackled one of the birches holding up the lean-to. Corbin sank toward the ground, but he still clung to the tree and landed on his knees.

Kai grabbed half of the lean-to's crossbar and levered himself upright. As Corbin shook his head to clear it, Kai limped forward and swung the long club at the Elemental. It shattered across the man's broad back, but drove him face-first into the tree again. Rebounding, Corbin settled back on his haunches and Kai saw blood glistening on the tree's white bark.

The Mech Warrior arced punch after punch in at Corbin's head. Each blow hit solidly and snapped Corbin's head around, but the man refused to go down. Kai's knuckles became slicked with the blood from Corbin's torn scalp and mashed nose. "Go down, damn you, go down!"

Corbin grinned up through a bloody mask. "Is that the best you can do?"

His right hand caught Kai in the ribs again, but Corbin's speed had lost its edge. The blow landed heavy and hard, knocking Kai back and making him hiss with pain, but he did not fall. Gritting his teeth, Kai sprang forward through the air as Corbin regained his feet. He caught the Elemental in the face with a flying kick.

Corbin flew back in a mist of blood and a hail of tooth fragments. He hit the ground on the same shoulder that had tackled the tree, and the resulting snap told Kai something had gone. Even so, the Clanner pushed up off the ground with his left arm and got one knee under him. Coming around, right arm dangling at his side, he snarled, "Maybe there is some fight to you after all."