Reynard cracked his knuckles in anticipation. Around him, the cheer of the audience was defeaning. This was the final battle of the Ellywenian Fighter's Tournament and Reynard was to fight Tanis Saidur, a wolfman and newcomer to this city, at the least. Funnily enough, this was Reynard's first time at the Tournament, also.

The anticipation was killing him. Reynard couldn't wait to meet this Tanis Saidur.

Ears twitching slightly, Tanis watched the crowd go wild from his position just inside the competitor's prep room.

Such noise... He thought with a sigh. The things I do for that old man.

Viciously whipping his neck in a full rotation, the wolf undid the piece of twine tying his robe together. With a quick movemet, he tossed the garment onto a nearby bench, leaving himself in nothing but a pair of tattered jeans. Closing his eyes and breathing deeply, he mentally prepared himself for the coming fight. He had been watching this Reynard closely as he fought his way up the ranks. Surely this man would prove good enough to recieve an invite. This final test was all Tanis needed before he could make the final decision.

With determination, he set out from the room, striding briskly into the open arena and up to the platform, taking his position across from his fellow competitor.

"And this is the match of the year! Reynard Wolf, the martial artist versus Tanis Saidur the wolf! In this battle of rookies, who will come on top? We'll find out! Let the battles...BEGIN!"

---

Instead of making the first move, Reynard opted for a defensive stance. His opponent was fast, so charging blindly into battle would be a colossal mistake.

Tanis had already been reaching out with his senses before the announcer had even began to speak. As with most demi-human's, Tanis had been gifted with natural heightened senses. Through training and meditation, he'd learned to extend the reach of these to better prepare himself for battle. However, as the announcer gave the command, he felt no apparent change from his foe.

Offensive.

With speed rarely seen by mortals, Tanis had left his starting point. Though, not without a decoy left in place. To the naked eye, it would seem the wolf had not moved, for an exact illusion of himself had been left in his place.

Using his speed to his advantage, Tanis seemed to appear directly behind Reynard, silently, his leg extended to deliver a sharp kick to his enemy's back.

It's a lie!

While anyone else would have been fooled, Reynard saw it happen in real-time. Tanis moved from his neutral position by speed and left his own sort of illusion there to fool him.

Dropping like a rock to dodge the kick, Reynard countered Tanis with a sweep kick. With no possible way to dodge, Reynard's next move would most certainly hit; a kick backed with a considerable amount of chi would launch the wolf into the air, where Reynard would floor him with a vicious double fisted hammer strike.

Tanis saw it happen, Reynard dropping forward. He didn't need look down to see what was gonna happen next. If one looked closely at Tanis' leg still on the ground, they would see the slightest twitch as his muscles tensed. Showing no signs of being affected, Tanis certainly felt Reynard's kick.

Damn. He tought briefly, steeling against the pain. However, his leg didn't budge, instead, it absorbed the shock of the blow and spread it throughout the rest of the leg, effectively dead-stopping Reynard's leg against his own. Quickly, he curved his foot in the air, leaning forward and bringing it down in front of him, directly above the prone Reynard.

As Reynard's leg impacted against Tanis' leg, Reynard transferred part of the chi he had in his leg into this opponent's body and the rest of it into his arms. One was used to keep himself from falling on the floor, and the other was used to grab Tanis' leg.

Gripping it tightly, Reynard shoved it to the side and used the arm on the ground to push himself into a standing position.

Tanis felt the extra pressure on his leg, and decided to use it to his advantage. As his leg in the air came crashing down where Raynard's body had just been, he let his leg give way, allowing it to be shoved aside. However, centralizing his balance on the foot now on the ground, he quickly spun himself around in a forceful 360 degree kick, aimed right at Reynard's back.

Reynard turned around and blocked the leg with his left hand. Holding onto the leg, Reynard formed the chi that was in Tanis' body into a ball and left it in there. At the same time, he attempted to throw Tanis using what was left of his momentum.

Hmmm...

He hadn't anticipated this, that was for sure. The energy exerted by the man was troublesome enough, but now he was was trying to force it onto him.

Defensive.

Before Reynard could fully get a grasp on his leg, Tanis once again used his speed to launch himself backward, leaving an illusionary image in front of Reynard. As the image of himself dissipated, Tanis landed a good distance away, immediately sitting down crosslegged and closing eyes. Reaching out with his senses, a true image of his surroundings was opened before his lided eyes, a sort of all-seeing radar. While his surroundings seemed to be shrouded in a gray mist, Reynard stood out quite clear, a shimmering, light blue aura surrounding him.

Troubling. Very troubling.

Reynard didn't know what the wolf was up to, but the fighter chased Tanis, focusing a large amount of chi in the tip of his index and middle finger. Drawing back and jabbing forward, Reynard shot an invisible spear of chi at his opponent. Reynard stopped a fair distance from Tanis, waiting to see what Tanis would do.

Through closed eyes, Tanis saw the streak of light blue come toward him. Quickly, he raised a hand actually caught the blast, containing the energy within his fist like a ball. Snarling, already fed up with this lousy performance, he clenched his fist and crushed the focused chi.

"You have much more potential. Don't hold back. Time for change of scenery."

With no transition whatsoever, the two fighters seemed to leave the stadium, instead ending up in a small, graveyard, heavily shrouded in dense fog. Of course, they had no actually left the stadium, as most onlookers would realize. No, the set had been changed for Reynard's eyes alone.

"What...the hell?"

"Explain yourself, wolf! What have you done to the both of us?"

Reynard's mix of confusion and anger increased, and for a slight moment his control over his chi faltered and exploded around him, creating an extremely bright blue in Tanis' gray world.

Reynard charged at Tanis, focusing chi in his legs to increase his speed as well as his arms to strengthen them.

Tanis was up in a flash, instantly disappearing into the surrouding fog, watching Reynard shatter the gravestone he had just been sitting in front of. Using the fog as a means of cloaking himself, the wolf silently kept his distance from Reynard, keeping just out of vision. He was waiting for something.

Hurry. You know what to do.

The dense fog was troublesome; it limited his sight far too much. Reynard closed his eyes and felt the world around him. His mind fumbled around for a chi signature that he could lock onto.

He found Tanis without much difficulty. He was, as predicted, hiding in the fog, waiting for his turn. But looking for it was difficult. For some reason, even though they were in an alternate world, Reynard and Tanis were surrounded in huge amounts of chi. Almost as if it were people.

Reynard didn't move. He simply waited patiently. His father told him that sometimes inaction was better than action; plunging into the thick of things was a dangerous thing to do.

Hmm...

Tanis watched Reynard, wondering if he was doing what he though he was doing. Just to be on the safe side, the wolf decided to take this fight a little further into the unreal.

Sitting down again, he closed his eyes. There was whooshing sound next to him as they passed by. The silent spectres glided gently past as they made their way toward Reyard. Several hundred of the transparent entities were slowly gathering, closing in aroud the hapless human.

Reynard remembered what his opponent had said. Don't hold back...

All around him, hundreds of blobs of chi were bearing down on him. Opening his eyes, he found himself the enemy of hundreds of phantoms. Reynard had fought stranger things before. Releasing his restraint on his chi, Reynard allowed it to explode outward. Normally, this would only send living things flying, but for things as weak as these phantoms, their only choice was annihilation. In an instant, the phantoms were annihilated, but he left their chi as it was, just in case he needed it...

Closing his eyes again, Reynard found Tanis' chi and waited again. In this foggy world, it was difficult to see, or confirm anything.

Tanis watched with mild amusement at the antics of Reynard.

Come on. Break it. Show me you can do it.

The wolf closed his eyes again, once more extending the reach of his senses. In a flash, the ground had opened up around Reynard, the diameter of the hole several yards wide. Far, far below, about a 10 second drop, lay a nasty looking pit of spikes.

Reynard grew tired of these games. Focusing his chi, he created a foothold in the air. A second passed and it dissapated, by which time Reynard had already jumped off of it, and created another foothold to clear the hole.

By now, Reynard didn't need to concentrate to know where the wolf was. Pooling some chi at his feet, Reynard struck a tombstone and dislodged it from the earth. With an open palmed strike, Reynard launched the tombstone at Tanis like a missile.

Reynard could land on the ground safely, for the hole beneath him has suddenly vanished. Tanis was forced to move, due to the slight detrimental fact a 200 lb slab of rock was hurtling at him. Keeping his eyes closed, he leaned back quickly, pressing his back against the ground. However, his confidence caused him to misjudge the gravity he had set in this world and snarled in pain as the tip of the gravestone ripped across the end of his muzzle, tearing into the flesh around his nose. Leaping up, muzzle dripping blood, the wolf growled and snatched some moss off a tree to press against the wound.

The moment Reynard threw the tombstone, he gave chase, as if he wanted it back. He wans't too far behind the rock when it struck Tanis' muzzle. The moment it lept up to do whatever it wanted to do, Reynard had already closed in with a punch to it's stomach. If the beast didn't somehow dodge it, Reynard would continue to beat the living shit out of it.

"Oof!" Doubling over, Tanis wheezed as his stomach seemed to flatten. Falling to the ground, the wolf was stunned for a minute as the human kept up the constant beating. Soon, though, he had had enough. Snarling, he waited for his chance. Between Reynard's punches, he quickly rolled away, closing his eyes and focusing deeply. He had increased the gravity around Reynard 500 fold, making sure he would smack into the ground and stay there while he recovered.

One moment he felt fine, the next he was eating dirt. He tried to move, but none of his muscles worked right. No matter how hard he moved, he just couldn't get up. Pressure pushed down on him from every direction and he was beginning to feel sick.

No. He couldn't die this way. Releasing the restraint on his chi again, he quickly reabsorbed it through his muscles. Slowly be began to get up. It hurt all over and he felt he was going to be crushed, but there was no way he was going down like this. His father would find his corpse and mangle it.

Inch by inch, he managed somehow to move himself into a crouching position. With a scream, the air around Reynard exploded with chi and he stood up. Step. Step. By pure force of will, he advanced towards Tanis ever so slowly.

Tanis stood up, chuckling as he watched Reynard overcome this next obstacle. Extending his left hand, he gave it a deft flick, the tombstone that had been nearing the end of it's second journey shattering to pieces. Slowly, he walked to the edge of the gravitational field, watching Reynard creep forward inch by inch. In one, smooth movement he dropped the field and thrust his hand at Reynard, grabbing him around the throat and squeezing.

"Listen, I know you can do better than this. You're letting me do too much."

Once again, Tanis used his speed to leave behind a false image of himself, planting himself as far from Reynard as possible, closing his eyes.

Reynard fell on the ground, panting. All the exertion was for nothing. However...Reynard reached out and absorbed the chi that was left behind by the phantoms. Feeling power coming back to him, Reynard began to think about all this. It made no sense at all. None of it did. Holes opening up in the earth, pantoms, sudden gravity.

There was no time to think about this. It was obviously Tanis' doing. Reynard walked forward and noticed something from the corner of his eye. It was a sword stuck upright in front of a tombstone. The tombstone was bare except for a few words. "Here lie Tyrfing. Those who can feed it's lust will know power."

If he was surprised, he didn't show it. Tyrfing...this was the name of the sword that his father gave to him. Without a moment's hesitation, Reynard pulled it out of it's resting place and gave it a swipe to rid it of the dirt. At once, a familiar feeling came back to him.

His exhaustion was quickly replaced by a feeling of power.

"I'm leaving this place." Reynard said, a coolness in his voice.

With a speed too quick to be seen or reacted to, Reynard appeared in front of Tanis, Tyrfing, the misfortunate katana of miracles in hand. Reynard slashed at Tanis with blinding speed.

Tanis had expected something like this to happen. Ever since those first few kicks and punches, the wolf knew he was dealing with someone thick headed. He opened his eyes, sighing as he heard Reynard's words from across the graves. Indifference plastered the wolf's features as he watched Reynard appear before him, arm swinging. He watched as the sword seemed to slow down, and the finally stop, mere millimeters away from his muzzle. With an exasperated breath, he stood up and grabbed the hilt of the sword, wrenching it from the frozen Reynard's hands. He then planted a gentle kick into the man's chest and resumed the natural flow of time in this world.

He watched as Reynard fell back, the force of the kick having tripled due to his speed of execution. Deftly, he lunged forward, jamming the blade directly into the chest of the man, spearing him to the ground.

"When a body expires, the soul flies free, eager to seek a new vessel. Or, in some cases, and existing one."

The wolf sat down and crossed his legs, closing his eyes. Almost instantly the scene shifted back to the stadium, Reynard left in perfect condition. Tanis, however, sneezed as more blood poured from the wound on his nose.

"Damn it." He sighed, standing up. He slowly walked off the stage, leaving the surely dazzled Reynard on the stage. "I forfeit the match." He called to the announcer as the audience booed and jeered. It didn't matter, he had compeleted his task. He only hoped that Reynard had actually learned something.

Reynard had been left onstage, a small, seamless envelope laying at his feet. Completely white, except for a small, black rose inked into one of the corners...

Reynard caught Tanis passing him by after everything disappeared.

"I know how to escape your little trick, wolf."

As Tanis passed by, Reynard picked up the envelope and left without a word, ignoring the crowd.