Benjamin’s grin disappeared for just a moment—not because he was intimidated, but because he was thinking. The instant Clementine’s fist struck the floor and the compressed wind exploded outward, the pressure slammed into his body and ripped his feet off the ground.
“Whoa—!”
The force hurled him backward. Instead of fighting it, Benjamin twisted in midair and let the blast carry him. He rotated once, then twice, tucked his knees, and snapped his legs out at the last second. His feet hit the reinforced wall hard.
THUD!
He stayed there for half a second, hands pressed flat against the metal, breathing slowed, eyes narrowed. Minjae’s earlier words replayed in his head: Moving around like that for no reason is a sure way to make you run out of stamina.
Benjamin smirked. “Okay… fair point.” His fingers flexed against the wall. “But you forgot one thing.”
Air began moving around him—first a current along his legs, then his arms, then a controlled flow wrapping his entire body in the direction he wanted to go. He wasn’t just making wind; he was cutting resistance in front of himself and driving force from behind. A small flame sparked around his right fist, then his left. His eyes sharpened.
“I’m not wasting movement anymore.”
BOOM!
He pushed off the wall. The air exploded behind him and launched his whole body across the chamber like a shot. Clementine was the first target. Benjamin closed the distance fast, right fist already burning. He drove the flaming punch toward her ribs, and at the last moment a compressed burst of air erupted behind his shoulder, accelerating the strike even harder. He followed immediately with a left to her stomach, stepped in, and spun a flaming roundhouse into her thigh. Air wrapped the kick and pushed it faster. He kept the spin going, planted, then used another burst of air to launch himself upward. Fire coated both legs as he flipped forward and drove a bicycle-style kick straight at her chest.
BOOM!
He followed all the way through the rotation, landed clean, and immediately used a short blast of air to shove himself backward—not retreating, just resetting. His eyes locked on Minjae.
“Now you.”
Benjamin crouched. Air compressed under his feet. WHOOSH—he exploded forward, each step faster than the last until the third one became pure acceleration. He reached Minjae with a flaming right aimed at his face, rotated into a left to the ribs, continued the turn into an elbow, dropped low for a sweep, then sprang up with a fiery knee toward the stomach. He pushed off, air erupting under his foot, and flipped backward. Both feet ignited as he brought a heel down toward Minjae’s shoulder. The second his feet touched the floor he twisted, let the wind redirect his momentum, and shot sideways straight at Clementine again.
He came in hard—straight right to the chest, left to the ribs, low sweep, then a spinning kick accelerated by air. He jumped, rotated sideways, and hit her with another bicycle kick, the spiral of wind making the whole sequence faster. He landed and didn’t pause. Wind built under his feet again. One step, two—
BOOM!
He launched at Minjae, but not in a straight line. He used the air to curve left, then right, then forward, changing direction without bleeding speed. He came in from Minjae’s right side with a flaming left to the ribs, spun into a right at the face, continued into a leg strike, then rose with another air-boosted kick to the stomach. He flipped back, used wind to control the descent, planted on the wall, and pushed off hard.
BOOM!
He came straight back at Minjae with both fists burning—right to the chest, left to the shoulder, then a compressed-air back kick to the stomach. He landed, spun toward Clementine, and the air around him detonated.
“Alright!”
WHOOSH—he closed on her in a blur. Flaming punch to the chest, second to the stomach, spinning elbow, low sweep, then an upward flip into a downward kick followed by another rotating strike. The second his feet hit he used air to accelerate sideways and was already looking at Minjae again. He shot across the chamber, threw a flaming combination—ribs, chest, sweep, then an air-boosted flip into another bicycle kick—landed, and immediately redirected back toward Clementine. The wind around him intensified. The flames burned brighter. He hit her with another tight sequence of punches, a spinning leg, and a back kick that exploded with compressed air, using the recoil to launch himself into one more rotating bicycle kick.
He landed. Breathing still controlled. That was the difference now. No more running just to run. Short, powerful bursts of air—accelerate, attack, redirect, accelerate again. Fire only where it counted: fists, feet, knees, elbows.
Benjamin suddenly stopped in the center of the chamber. He dropped into a lower stance, weight settled, hands open for a second before the flames returned. The air around his legs coiled tight and controlled. He looked from Minjae to Clementine and back again, the earlier cocky edge still there but sharper.
“You said stop wasting stamina.” His voice was steady, almost conversational. “I heard you.”
He rolled one shoulder, then the other, never letting the pressure drop. The current around his feet tightened.
“So I’m not running circles for fun anymore. I’m just going to keep hitting you until one of us can’t.”
Benjamin’s grin came back, smaller and meaner.
“Hope you both brought more than the first round.”
The air behind him compressed hard. Instead of charging, he snapped both arms forward at once. A dense fireball formed in each palm—compact, bright, spinning with the same short-burst control he’d been using the whole fight. He sent one streaking straight at Minjae and the second at Clementine in the same motion. The twin projectiles cut across the chamber with a sharp FWOOM as the air currents behind them gave each one an extra push.
