Hawthorne was wearing a red sleeveless shirt and loose-fitting black pants. On either hand he had sturdy metal gauntlets. Hawthorne bent down and stretched his back. He turned his neck from left to right, popping it with a series of clicks in rapid succession. Then, he proceeded to do the same with the rest of his body as he loosened up.
"Don't hold back or I am going to break you." Aeron snarled at Hawthorne.
Hawthorne shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and slowly brought one foot behind his back. He put his weight on it and brought an open palm up. "Wait," he said and put his hand up to say "stop."
Aeron turned his head in curiosity.
There was a band of players to Hawthorne's right and they had an array of instruments. The jaunty tunes that brought the bar to life came out of their instruments. They had everything from woodwinds, to percussion, to string instruments in their possession and were quick skilled with them.
Hawthorne looked over at a band of players. He reached into his pants, pulled out a coin purse, and tossed it to them. "Play something I can tap my foot to," he said with a winning smile.
The band leader grabbed the purse out of the air, "One two..." he tapped off, then his band began playing a quick, pumping melody.
Hawthorne turned his attention back to the fight, "Now, where were we?" and with a quick flick of his hand, as if to say, "Come on," towards Aeron. The fight was on.
Aeron rushed at the Hawthorne. He dipped and weaved right as he was about to reach him and slashed downwards with the sword. Hawthorne parried with one of his gauntlets and the blade clashed against the metal strapped to Hawthorne's arms with a shriek that sent sparks flying into the air. The swordsman was quick and uppercut slashed at the hand-to-hand warrior, attempting to catch Hawthorne from stem all the way to stern.
Hawthorne sidestepped to the right just enough and the blade passed a hair's breath from his face.
Quickly, before Aeron could respond with a followup, Hawthorne swiftly punched Aeron in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of the swordsman, and stunning him for a brief moment.
The fight had taken Hawthorne and Aeron dangerously close to the edge of the arena and Hawthorne had his back almost to the wall, despite his counter offensive.
Aeron was still open for more attacks, though, and Hawthorne was not done.
The quick blow had opened Aeron up for another attack and Hawthorne obliged him, putting a simple sidekick into the swordsman's stomach, doubling him over. Hawthorne followed that up with a quick rising uppercut.
The crowd watching their fight let out a collective wince for the man.
Taking the opening and using the environment to his advantage, Hawthorne back flipped onto the wall and pushed off towards Aeron. The maneuver sent him front flipping towards Aeron and just before he reached the swordsman, Hawthorne flattened his body out, feet first. Instead of colliding with his adversary, though, Hawthorne opted to wrap his feet around Aeron's neck instead.
The maneuver caught Aeron off guard as he was recovering his wits, once again.
Hawthorne gave him an apologetic shrug, midair. As if to say, "sorry" for what was going to come next.
Hawthorne used his momentum in a creative move. Instead of piling into his opponent, he jerked to the right and swung around Aeron. Then, when he was directly behind his opponent, Hawthorne curled his legs into his body and angled his body towards the ground, changing the direction of his fall, putting the weight of his jump into a powerful throw.
Aeron was pulled off his feet violently and was thrown across the floor. He skidded and tumbled along the ground, uncontrollably. He was stopped by the other end of the dance floor, about five feet from the wall. A groan escaped his lips as the pain from the attack started setting in.
Aeron looked up, and his eyes opened with surprise.
As Hawthorne was about to let go of Aeron, during the throw, he had planted both hands on the ground. When he completed the attack, Hawthorne sprang off his hands, throwing himself into a quick back spring, followed by another, another, and another to build momentum. When Hawthorne was almost to Aeron, Hawthorne bounded off the ground and threw himself into a spin that would have made an expert gymnast jealous. Flattening out in the air like a sideways whirling tornado, so that his body was perpendicular with Aeron's as he neared the fallen swordsman, Hawthorne's spin got increasingly fast as he whipped his arms in and out, efficiently putting Hawthorne into an almost uncontrollable rotation, arced at Aeron.
Just as Hawthorne was about to reach Aeron, the warrior threw one of his legs out, shin angled down. The entire force from the spin was pushed into his leg.
The entire room was silent and it was as if time itself was holding its breath as Hawthorne descended. Every person watching the fight was so enthralled, waiting for the next move in the epic fight.
Aeron barely had time to breath, let alone dodge. But it was a testament to his experience in battle that Aeron kept the presence of mind to roll to the right in a desperate dodge, towards the wall of the dance floor. Just in time.
Hawthorne's leg smashed into the ground, with his knee and shin flat into the wood, crushing the floor into a torrent of splinters that rose up around him in the air.
Seeing Aeron dodge, most warriors would have allowed their opponent to
