Stars ablaze

Battlefields

There she was. Blood dripping from her lip.
"Had enough?", her adversary chimed gleeful.
She smirked. Which caused her to winch. Her lip was busted. Thera looked around. It felt like highschool all over again. The stakes were just upped a bit. Faces of different species were focussed on the scene that was transpiring in the middle of the organically created circle.
"Nah, you can't get through. That was a lucky punch", she replied. Hoping her insecurity over the fact that she was hit, didn't drip through with the blood.
"Sure..." , her adversary started. The next moment a fist came in while Thera dove to the left. It was all she had to do, blocking the knee that followed with her elbow and then lunged out to the chin of Allaras.
"Wha.." , Allaras couldn't finish the word. A bash and crack could be heard when a clenched fist hit a protruded jaw. Several bystanders winched at the sound. There seemed to an elongated silence and that ended in a thud.
A body laid sprawled on the ground and Thera raised herself to full length.

Some mumbling started through the circle. Some people started to clap...One yelled..some boo'ed.
Thera looked around carefully, aware of the possibility of someone wanting to take revenge for Allaras, who was laying on the ground, slowly breathing but furthermore totally unaware of her own situation. Her eyes were rolled back.

"Yes! This is what happens to people that come to close to the abyss. I look back and I kick you in the chin", Thera howled. Some of the individuals still present instinctively stepped back.
Some of the crowd had started to walk off, mumbling. Some kept looking in disbelief. Clearly these were the people that had either expected Allaras to win, or had betted at her to win.
It had been close, because Thera hadn't expected Allaras to come after her so soon after the declaration. Janos had said that there would be repercussions, but she hadn't expected a public challenge. Thera had been on her way to her ship when Allares and her cronies had showed up. A crowd had gathered as soon as people had understood what the scene was about. Allares had claimed that she had been the first to beat a Sk'armak. But then the report came in that Thera had been on mission on the moon that the others had been transported to, where she had declared, with proof, to have killed a squadron single handedly. Though it had to be verified by officials, it was quickly known through the spaceport what had transpired. The problem wasn't that Thera HAD beaten a whole squadron, but more so, while she hadn't been boasting about it at forehand, like Allaras had. This has caused to two, who had been clashing over points in the academy for months now, to come to a stand off. It had never gotten to an actual fistfight before. They had met in virtual rooms, fighting on the 'battlegrounds', with virtual guns and virtual landscapes, but then that would simply be a derez at the moment one would loose. No harm, no pain, just the pride that had been hurt.

When the majority of the crowd had dispersed, Thera turned to Allares and the two that were at her side now. They looked worried and were talking to each other. Allares opened her eyes weary. Trying to get her focus, but clearly had a concussion. Thera pushed one of the girls aside and held out her hand in front of Allares' face. "How many fingers?", she asked sternly. "Seven", was the unsteady reply of the girl on the ground. "Correct enough", Thera said matter-of-factly, as she had 6. She looked at the girl that was still crouching next to Allares, and told her to get an icepack for Allares' chin. "And a towel for her neck.".

"You had some nerve to do this", she spoke to the girl still lying trying to wirl her eyes in her head to gain back some awareness of where she was. "You could have gotten me, but for the one slight problem.", she smirked. "Same problem that got you into this mess" . She looked around, seeing the other girl to be wandering off talking to a guy that was still waiting for additional action. "Your pride. You like to be overconfident.", Thera explained, looking at the chin, holding back the urge to touch the bruised spot.

Thera stood up.