Both fighters came in very aggressively, swinging haymakers at each other. They caught one another's punches mid-air and immediately tied up, spamming brutal headbutts in a violent stalemate.
Foreheads cracked together again and again, the impacts ringing out like hammer strikes on steel. Both strained to push the other back, boots grinding trenches into the cobblestone, but neither gained an inch.
Realizing it was futile, they disengaged at the same instant.
Ragnar seized the first shot on the break, whipping a headkick—blocked cleanly.
Noel tried to counter with a sneaky elbow, but Ragnar slipped it on the outside. The movement left him momentarily off-balance, his footing shifting as Noel loaded a nasty right hand, ready to unload.
Ragnar countered the only way he could in the awkward position—he planted his foot, based up, and fired a powerful mule kick. Noel barely dodged in time, already dialed in, and answered with a vicious knee buried deep into Ragnar's gut. The blow forced the massive warrior to crunch forward with a grunt.
"Gah—damn, brat! That one had some real bite! Gahahaha!" Ragnar snarled through a cocky laugh, orange eyes blazing behind his spiked visor. "Keep bringing it!"
Ragnar didn't like that pressure one bit. Ragnar swept Noel's leg, spun around, and threw a power shot at the off-balance fighter. Noel slipped it with a stylish backflip into the sky, making it look like a retreat—but he chained the momentum, camouflaging his true intent.
Instead of the expected kick, he switched mid-air and came crashing down with a double hammer-fist aimed straight at Ragnar's cranium.
The blow detonated against Ragnar's skull, his vision flashing white for a moment.
Noel then followed up with a head-kick attempt, but Ragnar grabbed the leg and smashed him onto the ground, creating a giant spiderweb of cracks in the cobblestone beneath them. Stone shards and dust sprayed outward.
Ragnar didn't hesitate. The instant Noel hit the ground he lifted one massive, spike-studded boot and drove it straight down at the younger fighter's skull like a warhammer.
Noel whipped his head aside at the last heartbeat. The armored sole cratered the cobblestone where his face had been, sending fresh stone shards and dust blasting outward.
Ragnar was already flowing with the miss—timing Noel's scramble perfectly. A monstrous roundhouse kick blurred in from the blind side, the spiked greave moving so fast Noel didn't even register it until the metal was kissing distance from his temple.
Noel ducked under it by a razor's edge, the wind of the kick slicing past his ear, and instantly swept low. His heel hooked Ragnar's planted leg and ripped it out from under the giant, killing any follow-up before it could land.
Ragnar slammed down hard—but rolled through the fall and kicked back to his feet.
Both men smirked at each other. Then they sprang into action.
Both fighters exploded upward at the same instant, leaping straight at each other like dueling meteors. They met mid-air, knees colliding with a thunderous CRACK that rang off the surrounding stone. The impact shuddered through both bodies.
Noel rode the clash, sliding his leg upward in one fluid motion and snapping a vicious head kick toward Ragnar's helmeted face. The blow slammed into a raised forearm instead—metal meeting bone with a harsh CLANG. Ragnar tried to sneak a short elbow counter inside the exchange, but Noel was already spinning clear.
Ragnar reset and fired another head kick, this one whistling straight at Noel's skull. Noel rolled under it, surged up, and drilled a heavy left hand toward the body. Ragnar's gauntleted left hand dropped over the top, blocking the punch with a ringing clang of steel on flesh.
They reset for half a breath, then repeated the deadly rhythm. Ragnar launched the same head kick again. Noel rolled beneath it once more, this time loading a full-power left straight meant to cave in the armored ribs.
But Ragnar disengaged at the perfect moment, stepping just outside the punch line. Noel's fist sliced empty air and he stumbled forward, balance stolen.
Ragnar pivoted instantly and whipped a murderous head kick at the back of Noel's now-exposed skull.
Noel twisted at the last possible second, forearm snapping up to meet the strike. The kick smashed into his guard with insane force, but the block held.
Both men broke apart at the exact same heartbeat, circling each other three paces away. Ragnar's spiked full-plate armor—once gleaming—was now dented and gouged across the chest and pauldrons, fresh cracks spiderwebbing from the earlier hammerfist, orange eyes blazing like twin furnaces behind the helmet slits.
Noel's own body carried the story too: purple bruises blooming across his ribs and shoulders, a thin line of blood trailing from the corner of his mouth, yet his grin was just as feral.
They smirked at each other through the dust, chests heaving, the air between them crackling with mutual respect and hunger for the next round.
Both fighters pounced at each other again, fists cocked for another thunderous haymaker clash. At the last heartbeat Noel switched it up—his left fist dropped low and slammed home into Ragnar's gut with a meaty THUD that folded the giant forward, orange eyes bulging behind the cracked visor.
Noel didn't let him breathe. A monstrous right hand cracked against the jaw, snapping Ragnar's head sideways, then the left came right behind it—two, three, four brutal body shots in a row.
He was teeing off, each punch heavier than the last, the impacts ringing off dented plate like blacksmith hammers.
One shot spun Ragnar's torso just enough to let Noel slid inside and drive a vicious elbow straight into the base of the spine.
The giant arched with a grunt. Noel finished the combo with a boot planted square in the face, launching Ragnar backward through the air.
The massive warrior crashed straight through the wall of a nearby house. Timber and stone exploded outward; the entire structure groaned, folded, and collapsed in a roaring avalanche of dust and debris that swallowed him whole.
Through the choking cloud Noel strained to track him—too late. A blurred shape exploded from the smoke. Ragnar's armored shoulder slammed into his chest like a battering ram, driving Noel stumbling back several steps before they finally broke apart.
Blood now streamed freely from a split in Ragnar's lip, dripping down the jagged cracks in his broken visor and spattering across the gouged, spike-studded plates.
The once-impenetrable armor was a wreck—deep dents spiderwebbing across the chest, pauldrons hanging loose, fresh gouges glowing orange from the impacts.
Noel snarled and rushed in, loading a haymaker.
Ragnar weaved under it clean and answered with a short, savage body shot that folded Noel in half. Noel clubbed a heavy overhand right down in reply. Ragnar ate it, staggered, then cracked a clean right hand across Noel's cheek.
Noel rolled with the punch, bleeding the power off, and fired a left straight back.
Ragnar rolled with that one too. They traded again—left, right, left, right—each man eating shots and giving them back, neither giving an inch, the exchange a brutal metronome of meat and metal.
Then Ragnar pulled back half a step, shoulders coiling like a siege engine. Noel tried to get his guard up—
BOOM.
The overhand right detonated against the side of Noel's head and launched him sideways.
Ragnar was already on him, driving forward with a savage headbutt that rang off Noel's skull like a church bell.
They broke apart again, chests heaving, circling in the swirling dust. Ragnar's broken visor tilted as a bloody grin split his face.
"Ay, shit-face… looks like you're gettin' all tuckered out," he rumbled, voice dripping mockery. "Should I call your mommy?"
Noel spat a wad of blood and snarled, "I'm gonna wipe that smirk off your ugly fucking face."
He exploded forward and whipped a hook kick that smashed dead-center into the already-shattered visor. Metal buckled with a screech. Ragnar tried to roll with the kick and counter with a left hook, but Noel was faster—right hand cracked across the helmet, then the left, a vicious one-two that sent the giant flying backward again.
Noel moved with him, refusing to let the distance grow. Mid-flight he unloaded a brutal body shot that folded Ragnar in half. The giant hit the ground on one knee, perfectly lined up. Noel chambered and drove a monstrous knee straight up into the chin.
Ragnar's head snapped back with a sickening crack. The impact hurled him through the air and straight into the side of another building. Stone and mortar exploded around him as the wall caved inward.
Noel finally slowed, planting his boots, shoulders rising and falling hard. He wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, ribs screaming, vision still swimming from that last overhand—but he was still standing.
And smiling.