They broke the clinch the way tired killers did it, not with a clean leap, but with elbows, hips, and the ugly need for air.
The princess shoved his chest with a palm full of royal mana.
Gray turned his ruined shoulder into the shove so the force threw him sideways instead of onto his back.
He hit a curtain of thorned vine, ripped free, and immediately changed the shape of the fight.
He stopped aiming for her body, and instead started cutting the Domain.
Creack...
Fwip!
The first slash went into the root-bed under her left foot.
The second opened a trench between two of the thicker vines that had been feeding the blood moon's glow.
The third severed a hanging coil that had been waiting to snatch his sword arm the next time he raised it.
The princess noticed at once.
"You are attacking my field."
"Your field is the only thing doing real work." Gray spat blood and circled right, forcing her spear to track across broken ground.
