Gabby came at Liam harder than before, and this time, she stopped trying to test him in simple straight lines.
Her flames changed first. Instead of only wrapping around her fists and legs, they began to pulse in shorter, sharper bursts along her limbs, flaring and tightening in controlled intervals that made each movement look like it had two beats instead of one.
Fire flashed around her right hand as she threw a high feint toward Liam's face, but before the flame even reached its full shape, air compressed beneath her left foot and snapped her body sideways, turning the feint into a fast, low entry toward his ribs.
Liam shifted back, but Gabby did not follow in the same line. She kicked off the floor with a burst of wind, spun with her right leg cutting upward in a flame-coated arc, and used the rotation to send a short crescent of fire across the space between them.
