"Leaping Grasshopper!"
Launching himself at Cassandra, Lucas held noting back with his first attack. Immediately striking out with strongest attack, mixing the momentum of the Leaping Grasshopper with the 10x boost of Titanic Impact.
"The faster I finish this the better." Said Lucas to himself.
Seeing Lucas flying towards her with the force of a speeding truck, instantly placed Cassandra on the back foot. However, she was quick to react, implementing a defensive technique called; The Dance of Flowing Currents. This technique was used to redirect force away from its initial course. Using the dance Cassandra was able to alter Lucas' course midflight and avoid his strike. Unfortunately for Cassandra, her usage of The Dance of Flowing Currents wasn't perfect. As a result, she still received an impact from Lucas' strike which knocked her off balance.
So now both parties found themselves in a position where they were about to fall off the pillar. Due to Cassandra's redirection Lucas was about to overshoot the pillar, on the other hand his attack left Cassandra falling backwards over the edge of the pillar.
Thinking fast both of them where able to barely save themselves. Lucas was able to hold on by unleashing a second Leaping Grasshopper through his right foot's big toe that barely brushed the pillar's edge. Unfortunately for Lucas, the moves power was too much for a single toe to bear so he ended up fracturing his big toe.
"Arrrgh!" Lucas stumbled and cried out in pain as he landed on an adjacent pillar. His right foot was in too much pain, he couldn't put any weight on that foot without aggravating the fracture.
Cassandra was currently in an equally difficult position. As she stumbled backwards, she was able to right herself, though not before falling over the edge. Pushing her reflexes to the limit, Cassandra was able to grab on to the pillars edge with her hand. At this moment she was holding on for dear life as she dangled over the edge. To make the situation even worse was the pillars surface which was purposely made to be as smooth as possible. With no surface to grip on to, Cassandra could feel herself slipping.
"Damnit! why is this arena so difficult?" Yelled Cassandra in frustration as she finally lost her grip.
To prevent herself from falling the thousand meters to the ground, Cassandra gathered aura into her fingers and used them like claws digging into the pillar to stop her descent. The friction between her fingers and the pillar tore up the skin on her fingers leaving them as a bloody mess.
After sliding for about 20 meters Casandra was finally able to stop herself, here began her struggle to climb back up to the top. After spending a couple minutes to climb back up to the top, Cassandra could only celebrate her good luck.
"Luckily the pillar didn't collapse while I was climbing." Said Cassandra. She then turned towards Lucas.
"I want to say thank you for allowing me to climb back up. As a thank you, I'll let you have the first move" Said Cassandra.
Lucas only nodded in acknowledgement of her comments. However, in his head he was lamenting his situation.
"I don't think that I can jump that far with one leg." Sighed Lucas to himself. Looking over at Cassandra, Lucas made his mind up.
"Rather than me, I think it's only fair for you to strike first this time." Said Lucas.
"I don't mind you can go first." Replied Cassandra.
"You know the rules, ladies first." Said Lucas, only this time his tone had some annoyance.
Seeing the back and forth that was going on, caused the audience to get stir crazy.
"Come on attack each other already!" Yelled an audience member.
"Stop wasting time and finish this!" Shouted another.
There were many audience members who got riled up by the inaction, however neither of the two who were privy to that and even if they were, they would care.
At this moment Cassandra was confused.
"Lucas isn't the type to take the defensive." She muttered to herself as she started to scrutinize Lucas from top to bottom.
After watching him closely for a couple seconds, she noticed that his stance was strange. Even though he was doing his best to hide it, his right leg was clearly injured as he wasn't placing any significant weight on it.
"Hmm, he probably injured his leg during the initial exchange." Muttered Cassandra as she looked at her mangled fingers.
"I guess even damaged to this degree, I still ended up with the better outcome!" Laughed Cassandra.
"I don't even need to do anything; I can just sit back and watch you fall!" She continued.
Hearing her comments Lucas could only lament his misfortune. Seeing Cassandra's decision to simply wait things out caused Lucas to sigh.
"I guess the only thing I can do is try my best." Lamented Lucas as he prepped his next move.
Crouching down in a pose reminiscent of a sprinter in running blocks, Lucas began gathering aura within his left leg. Using his arms to balance himself so that he could the maximum gain from his one leg, Lucas once again launched himself using the Leaping Grasshopper. Unlike the last time however Lucas didn't use this to attack, but simply as a means to move between pillars. After clumsily leaping across the gap, Lucas used a parkour roll instead of his legs to ease his landing.
As Cassandra watched Lucas struggle to his feet, she began to feel a glimmer of admiration for his perseverance which she couldn't help but comment on.
"I'm impressed that you managed to cross that gap with a messed-up leg." Remarked Cassandra.
Lucas only smiled in response to this as he positioned himself into a proper fighting stance. Seeing this Cassandra also got into her stance.
As the two teenagers faced off on the pillar, they began slowly circling each other as they inched closer and closer to the pillars center. The moment that he got within striking range; Lucas unleashed a powerful roundhouse kick with his right leg aiming for Cassandra's midriff. Countering this, Cassandra caught his leg mid kick and stepped forward, a move that pushed Lucas off balance. However, Lucas used this as a chance to launch a second kick with his left leg that connected with Cassandra's chin.
This sequence brought both combatants to the ground. Moving fast, Lucas managed to maneuver Cassandra into a triangle lock. Not one to submit without a fight, Cassandra used all her strength to lift Lucas off the ground and slam him down using the strongest Titanic Impact that she could muster in that moment (a 2x boost). This slam winded Lucas causing him to loosen his grip on Cassandra, which gave her a chance to escape.
After freeing herself from Lucas' submission hold, Cassandra proceeded to go on the offensive. However, before she could strike the pillar that the two were on began to crumble.