Daian nods to Taru, who steps onto the straw-stuffed training mat. Three strides carry them to its center, where Taru looms impossibly tall over the supplicating class of novices.

Daian leans close to Kamala and Grath, speaking for their ears only. “You two can decide among yourselves which of you gets the honor of following through on your words.”

With that, he walks away from them, leaving his fellow instructors huddled at the edge of the mat. Daian moves to stand beside Lexi, though he doesn’t acknowledge her, keeping his attention focused on the situation developing before them.

Grath and Kamala, both watching Taru, appear to be conferring in hushed tones among themselves. Presumably they’re deciding who will cross training blades with the retainer.

Then, in the middle of his next sentence, Grath breaks away from Kamala and rushes across the mat, headlong at Taru, slashing vertically and diagonally with his dagger. Taru simply backs away, careful never to cross ankles, keeping out of range of the strikes. Taru waits, watching the rise and fall of their opponent’s arms. When he follows through on a wide slash, Taru steps in and presses a large hand against the center of his chest, shoving him back with their full weight behind it.

Grath is caught totally off-guard, and the surprise combined with Taru’s shocking strength knocks him totally off-balance, as well. He loses his footing and falls backward onto the mat. Recovering quickly, and with an angry growl, he lunges at them from his knees, attempting to slash and thrust at Taru’s legs. The retainer avoids the strikes deftly and with a grace and speed even more surprising than their brute strength, twisting and turning and leaping until finally bringing a knee up and driving it into Grath’s jaw.

It stuns the Aegin, who drops forward onto his hands and knees. Taru quickly places a boot between his shoulder blades and drives his body flat against the mat, leaning enough weight on that foot to hold him there. Taru stares at Lexi over the heads of the stunned Aegin acolytes, not quite grinning yet not entirely concealing a grin, either.

Taru is blindsided by what feels like a falling maple tree. The retainer is knocked forward onto their hands and knees. Taru spins around just in time to register Kamala falling on top of them, training dagger clutched between her joined fists with its blade angled down. Taru raises a forearm, knife hand reinforcing it, and jams it against Kamala’s wrists, under her blade, blocking her from driving that blunted point into Taru’s chest.

The Aegin, snarling so fiercely she dribbles on Taru’s armor, uses the whole of her body to press down on her white-knuckled knife hands, trying to weaken Taru’s arms. The retainer’s face is the antithesis of their opponent’s; those watching can scarcely tell Taru is even straining with effort.