They collide.
Fists thud. Guard squeals. Breath saws.
Carlos dips his hips. Eyes narrow.
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Garra del Jaguar."
He rakes short across Kai's ribs—left, right. Knuckles like claws.
Kai tucks, answers centerline—jab, cross. Straight and mean.
Carlos slides inside the second.
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Colmillo."
A buried hook to liver. Kai clenches on instinct, clamps the clinch.
Shoulder grind. Knee to thigh. Elbow pummels forearm. Ugly.
Carlos stamps the instep and melts out the tie.
He snaps a backfist over the top—glove skims temple. Kai's feet scrape stone; he refuses to step back.
Jab from Kai. Touch. Measure.
Cross spears the lane. Carlos slips by a hair and rips a tidy hook to jaw. Pop.
They circle. Blood beads. Sweat fogs.
Kai switches stance and resets the line—low kick check, step-in hook, chop elbow.
Carlos eats two, rolls one, grins thin.
He lowers, coiling.
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Paso Sombra."
Angle vanishes. He's on Kai's flank.
Two quick body shots, then a palm on Kai's wrist—yank—off-balance a fraction.
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Embestida."
Short charge through center. Forehead pressure. Right hand behind the ear like a closing jaw.
Crack.
Kai skids a meter, catches himself on a knee. Copper floods his mouth. He stands anyway. Hands high. Eyes clear.
Carlos paces a small arc, chest heaving. "¿Seguimos?"
Kai spits pink, wipes, nods once.
"Seguimos."
Carlos prowls. Chin down. Hands loose.
He darts.
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Zarpazo."
Hook-rake to temple.
Kai shells. Absorbs. Slides.
Another rush. Shoulder feints, tail-sweep threat.
Kai doesn't bite.
Finds his feet.
Centers.
Enlightened Senses—eyes soften, frame sharpens.
He reads the tell in Carlos's hip.
Pounce.
"Jaguar — Embestida."
Kai meets it—not head-on.
Hanuman Step.
Half-step inside the shoulder.
Carlos clips past.
Short answer—Agni Mudra.
A thumb-length pulse under the sternum.
Thud. Breath snags.
Carlos grins through it. Respect in the eyes. He angles out, quick paw feint—
"Jaguar — Garra."
Backfist scythes in.
Surya Spiral.
Kai turns the line through ribs and spine.
The blow scrapes off forearm instead of jaw.
Counter—hook to body, compact.
They reset. New temperature.
Carlos circles. Lower. Faster.
"Jaguar — Cola."
Low sweep flashes.
Hanuman Step again, smaller.
Heel lifts. Sweep whiffs.
Bodhi Palm—short, not full—prints heat on the floating rib.
Carlos hisses. Hands stay up.
Crowd leans in. A hiss of intake rolls the bowl.
Tunnel—Aria's knuckles tap the wall, anxious and proud.
Rin, flat: "Now it's a fight."
Carlos flickers on angle. Paw-paw. He baits guard.
He springs.
"Jaguar — Zarpazo." High.
"...Garra." Immediate low.
Kai picks the first.
Surya Spiral bleeds the second.
Enlightened Senses shows the third beat before it lands.
He steps through it.
Shoulder bump. Elbow pin.
Agni Mudra to solar plexus—short spark.
Carlos gives ground two shoes. Shakes it off. Smiles feral.
President, soft in the skybox: "Favorite's settling."
They crash again.
Carlos feints the ram.
Kai doesn't chase. He takes space.
Jab. Jab.
Cross—no, frame.
He shoves Carlos's head off center and stamps the instep.
Carlos answers mean—
Uppercut grazes.
Kai's chin snaps, but his feet don't.
Hanuman Step—micro.
He's inside the next claw.
Bodhi Palm.
Clean to the chest. Compressed. Heavy without over-commit.
Carlos staggers, catches himself with a cat-scramble and laughs once, breath hot. "Así me gusta."
He darts left. Vanishes right.
"Jaguar — Paso Sombra."
Kai turns with the shadow.
Surya Spiral waits for him there.
Glove taps, then another—touch-touches to blind—
Agni Mudra buried in the beat between.
Liver shot. Deep.
Carlos folds half a breath, then whips a knee at Kai's head on pride alone.
Kai frames. Forearms bite. They grind.
Break.
Blood at both mouths now. Shoulders slick. Stone dark with sweat.
Carlos licks red from his lip. Nose flares.
One more rush.
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Embestida." Full speed.
Kai plants.
Enlightened Senses hums.
He draws the charge a half-step long—
Hanuman Step to the outside line.
Hand on neck, hip turn, trip fake—
Not a throw. A steal.
Carlos posts to save himself—
Kai replaces the post with a Bodhi Palm to the ribs the instant it leaves.
Boom.
Carlos skids. Catches the rope line. Stays up.
The bowl detonates into noise.
They return to center.
Breaths sawed short.
Eyes bright.
Kai's stance is the same.
But now the rhythm belongs to him.
Feint touch to the face. Brief palm-blind.
"Agni Mudra." Stitch under the heart.
"Bodhi Palm." High—checks chin without over-committing.
Carlos staggers, walls himself off, then snarls and pours speed.
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Cazador."
Stalk-step into a three-claw chain: temple, rib, knee.
Kai answers chain with frame.
"Surya Spiral → Bodhi Palm (Three-Link)."
Redirect, print heat, park him center.
Tiles web. Crowd erupts.
Hillary Black paces the edge.
Kai chases once—stops. Doesn't overreach. Breath deep. Shoulders loose.
Carlos prowls sideways, sweat dripping, chest heaving. He fakes left—
"Jaguar — Zarpazo." comes right.
Kai's hand drags the wrist down the tunnel and spears the middle with a straight.
Carlos slips by atoms, whips a corkscrew hook—knuckles graze chin.
Kai eats a lick, plants, and walks him back with palms and body shots, each set on the hinge of a Surya Spiral. No waste. All pressure.
Carlos hits the rope line—not ropes, stone—pushes off, hurls himself through the pocket.
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Lomo Quebrado."
Shoulder shock meant to fold spines.
Kai takes it on the lat, gives ground one step, then makes the floor a decision.
"Hanuman Step." Blade-angle footwork. He's there first.
"Bodhi Palm—Five Count."
Short. Stacked. Organ-seeking.
Thud—thud—thud—thud—THUD.
Carlos lurches to a knee, one hand down, eyes bright with pain and fight. He spits red, grins crooked.
The bowl hangs on air.
Kai doesn't press. He squares. Palms open. Breath steady. "Stand."
Carlos pushes up slow. Neck rolls. A slick of blood tracks from his nose to lip. He wipes it with his thumb. Tastes iron. Smiles wider.
"Vale."
He settles into that low feline crouch.
The sound changes—crowd, wind, heartbeats—tightening around the center.
Carlos snaps his jaw once, like waking something. The hair on his arms rises. His stance narrows to a hunter's line.
He darts—
"Martial Muti: Jaguar — Último Zarpazo."
All speed. All murder.
Kai steps into it.
"Hanuman Step → Surya Spiral."
Angle steals the bite.
"Agni Mudra." Pops the breath.
"Bodhi Palm." Nails center.
Both men blow past each other.
Stop.
Turn.
Blood threads their mouths. Chests heave. The stone between them is cracked and wet with sweat.
A beat of silence inside the roar.
Carlos's lips peel off his teeth.
His pupils thin.
Black-and-gold blurs crash—and the chapter breaks on impact.