Riku's eyes widened as he quickly used his left hand to put out the fire spreading across the right side. His knife still raised at the ready, he did his best to keep focus even as the fires trying to engulf him refused to go out for some reason. It was an otherworldly flame, one that refused to go out even as he used every bit of his knowledge on basic physics to kill it.
"O-Oh fvck!"
Just as immediately as his threat assessment for Shizu rose, the woman herself was quick to look worried as she visibly let her guard down to try and show her remorse. It was the first time he heard her curse, and her tongue was clearly not used to saying such a word if the way she said it poorly was any indication. It would've been cute if not for the fact that she just showed another power that he currently had no answer again.
Her threat level was rising by the second with how long this fire was lasting, and he didn't like it.
"Well well, Tyche! Looks like your Champion has some bite to her after all!"
Riku heard Brahma yell out his cheers from wherever he was now. He would've spared a glance at the jury's stand, but he had no time to have a look at them now as he focused more on avoiding being badly burned by his partner's sudden use of a new power. Thankfully, it didn't feel like he was burning too badly as he expected, but the searing pain of it was more than enough to tell him that wouldn't be the case if he let it fester.
"I'm quite curious why she stopped attacking though," Astra casually stated. "She should be pressing the advantage, yes?"
The former assassin clicked his tongue at that. True enough, Shizu had frozen where she stood, her eyes still horrified at what she accidentally just did. They couldn't afford that. Surely, Shizu knew that they were currently putting on a show. Themis was watching them, and freezing up now was the worst thing she could ever do if she wanted to pass this trial.
"U-Uh, Riku-"
"Keep attacking," he harshly whispered at his opponent, his mind quickly coming up with a justice-themed excuse to let his partner justify her actions. "Your justice might be telling you to wait for my turn, but that will be the biggest mistake of your life."
The fortune teller flinched as Riku glared at her. He sincerely hoped that she got was he was telling her. He could handle himself just fine. She should just focus on what she had to do.
And speaking of, with the fire still refusing to go out, he pointed his knife at the burning patch on his side and quickly cut out the offending piece of clothing. With a sharp hiss, he threw away the burning patch of cloth, his chef's uniform now sporting a hole where the flames once threatened to spread.
/Are you alright, my Champion?!/
'Not now.'
He inwardly hissed at Nyx as he turned his attention back at Shizu. Thankfully, he was quick enough that his opponent was still gathering herself by the time he was ready to fight again. Then again, Shizu was just not a combatant at heart. He knew in himself he took far too much time taking everything around him back then. He could've thought about cutting away the burning cloth a few seconds earlier, but he thought he'd manage to extinguish it using what he knew of basic physics. He should've known that a flame powered by gods wouldn't behave the same, which meant that any other power would probably interact in the same way as this no matter what aspect of physics they controlled.
That was good to know for the future. But for now, he had to up his game. His showing had been shaken, which meant he had a bit of catching up to do.
"Here I come then, Shizu," he warned her, his eyes glinting with an increased focus. "Prepare yourself."
"W-Wha-"
Not even giving Shizu the time to respond, Riku lunged in with a slightly increased intent to kill. Letting his knife sing through the air, he almost allowed his weapon to knick her knee before subtly changing his attack's trajectory to only hit her skirt. The cut was rather large, and his fellow Champion's skirt almost got sheared in half with how sharp his knife had gone through the cloth.
"H-Hey!" Shizu protested, a blush forming on her face at the result of his attack. "Why are you-"
"Focus."
With but a one-word reply, Riku shut her up as he kept attacking, taking advantage of her bewildered state by further cutting up her clothes. In a sense, it was payback for having her ruin his favorite chef's uniform, and that was on top of it being the only clothing he had on his person with no foreseeable way of getting it repaired. Well, Nyx would probably be able to fix it for him, but he didn't know that yet. Besides, the fortune teller clearly deserved to be taken more seriously. She had hit him, after all, which meant that she had improved that quickly during the brief battle that they just did.
"I-I'm sorry, okay?!" Shizu whined as she kept jumping away from him, her cards now going haphazardly to the side as her aim suffered from his pressure. "I didn't mean-"
"Less talk, more focus," he chided her. "You saw your justice through earlier, now I see through mine."
Clicking his tongue, Riku continued with his pressure, making sure to put Shizu through the ringer both to show his skill and to train her with actually fighting while under enemy fire. On top of this, he was planning on doing something to really dazzle the gods watching.
After all, if Shizu just showed what she could do, then he should reciprocate just as much. Using his Trump now wasn't ideal, but it wasn't like he could predict what it would give him. Showing it now wouldn't matter if the gods wouldn't be able to pinpoint what his power was to their Champions.