Gray Heroics: Book 2

Gang Wars #3 / Setting Sun #1

A stare down between Galivinth and Seth locks the two teens into an inevitable exchange that's possibly a third breath away. And there to lay witness to the tension thicken into the air between them is Mitchel, who's watching with keen eyes and silent as a mouse. Galivinth, trying to calculate what he's up against by recalling his previous physical confrontation with Seth, finds himself torn between taking the initiative or being the reactionary combat seeking openings for counter blows. He grows anxious, unsure what's wiser. It gets to a point where his left brow twitches nervously within its scowl, and he takes a hesitant step forward. One that's meant to be him committing to rushing the other down, but a decision his body stutters and withdraws its intent. It is within that very moment of indecisiveness that Seth steals the honor of making the first move by closing in at an alarming swiftness. The soles of the apparent practicing boxer's formal boots screeches from the friction against the marble floor as he strides forward with a sway to the left and then strides again while lunging with a javelin-like punch toward Galivinth's face. The latter, eyes widening at the surprising speed, just barely raises his forearms in an X-formation to block the attack. 

“Nnnngh!?” Galivinth grunts as the power behind that impact sends him sliding back six feet. Even with that new distance between them, the moment he lowers his arms, Seth is already within attacking range again and sending a flurry of flicking left jabs that his eyes barely manage to keep track of. Weaving to the right, swaying his entire body to the left, derailing a punch by pushing his right forearm against Seth's left, and leaning back with a fairly deep arch in his spine to evade a punch that goes flying above his face. The pressure of Seth's offense definitely seems as oppressive as before to Galivinth, who feels like there's no gap large enough between those punches to take advantage of.

“Back to this old song and dance, huh? You've got some good movement, but it seems all you can really do is just stand there and HOPE I don't pop you one good time!” Seth taunts without letting up much at all. It's all it really takes to make Galivinth far more daring in this moment. Ready to display that this isn't going to be a repeat of before, he prepares to make a retaliation. Swaying out of the way of the next incoming punch, Galivinth thrusts out a tiger-palm strike for Seth's face with a great deal of momentum. T H O K! 

“Aaugh!” However, it not only misses its target, who's hunching over to a side, but it's an exchange that instead leads to a fist meeting his cheek and propelling him back hard enough for his back to slam against a wall behind him. It seems Seth has been backing him up down the hall this whole time. Even so, there's no time to think about the moment. The half cryonean teen just barely manages to look up in time and quickly hop out of the way of a lunging straight punch. One that easily punctures through the sturdy wall with a hole inducing 'krrrnch’. It startles the entire classroom of students on the other side, but it's nothing that Seth pays any mind to. He retracts his fist and closes in again to resume his onslaught. During, Galivinth has his confidence shaken, resulting in the output of his Soul Essence to falter by twenty percent. He's put back into the defensive position of blocking and dodging again. He manages to avoid the next three punches, but a faint left jab into a snappy right hook to the jaw lands on its mark, dwindling his output by another ten percent as he stumbles back a few steps. That difference changes the tone of the fight drastically. What were once attacks he could easily see coming,  are now like bullets he has no hope of reacting to. 

“I can't… I can't keep up anymore!” An intrusive thought pushes into Galivinth's mind as he resorts to just shielding his face as best as he can from the flurry of blows. Unfortunately, there's more than enough cracks in his dwindling reflexes for Seth to exploit and slip in solid hits. Liver-shot, an uppercut jab to the pectoral, and a straight that connects with Galivinth's mouth and sends him flopping into sitting on the floor with a cut on his lip.