In a flash, Mei Renlong switched to attack mode and pushed the princess into defence.
Within seconds, he had disarmed her, and her staff flew into the middle of the match between Second and Third Brother, who kicked it to one side and kept sparring.
She ran over to collect it, flying straight back into the match with First.
"You see Princess," he said. "That's the kind of thing I was trying to shield you from."
"Again!" she commanded him.
He attacked her again, and this time he swept his staff under her feet, and she fell to the mats on her bottom. Okay, her ego was starting to get bruised, she thought, along with her dignity, but she wasn't ready to give up.
He reached his hand down to help her up, and she clasped his hand with a flush of pleasure. He had been thoughtless to grab her hand like that instead of her wrist. He felt the arc of electricity between them as he did it, and he did not fail to register the look on her face. He must be more careful with her.
"Again," she said.
He attacked her, and this time he immediately knocked her staff from her hands, into the air, where he reached up over her head and caught it. She jumped as high as she could, but of course, she lacked the reach to beat him to it.
"Hmmph, one more time."
This time, he gripped her staff when she brought it down towards him, and then used it to push her backwards across the mats, while she held onto it like a broomstick. How humiliating!
"One more time?" she asked in a small voice, her confidence had now exited the arena, and the mansion, entirely.
"Princess," he said with gentle amusement. "Do you really want to keep getting pummelled? Wouldn't it be more fun to spar together? I can teach you some moves."
"I just need one more go, to satisfy myself," she steeled herself, trying to will her full energy and confidence into this last match.
This felt like beating up a kitten, he thought. It really wasn't fun, but he also didn't want her to have a false sense of self-confidence in her fighting skills against a man. It would only harm her in the long run.
This time she ran straight at him with everything she had. He side-stepped her at the last minute, so that she ran right off the other side of the mats, without making any contact with him whatsoever. She blushed and hung her head.
"Have you had enough hidings?" he asked. "Will you come back here and spar with me now?"
"Yes, yes, I concede. You're the Master and I'm but an untutored student."
"You are very good, for a girl."
There was that phrase again, like a hammer to her ears.
"You should spar with Meili. You'll be neck-and-neck."
"No, I'll spar with you now Mei Renlong. Teach me how to do that side-step?"
"Well, you need the right sparring partner for that one to work," he admitted.
She lowered her eyebrows at him and scrunched up her nose.
Meili, meanwhile, was completely on the back foot with the prince. 'What a menace!' she thought, as he relentlessly pursued her around their match space.
He was staring intensely into her eyes as he pounded her with blows from his staff. The blows rained down on her like he actually wanted to hurt her.
"Thwack, thwack, thwack," the clang of his staff on hers rang out like he was hammering her into the ground.
"Second Prince," she gasped.
"Call me Zhu Yicai, Miss Mei. Or preferably just Yicai." There was that half-smile again. Like a demon.
"Definitely not your highness. You seem like you might be angry at me?" she shielded herself from the rain of blows.
"Not at all, quite the opposite in fact."
"The opposite of angry. Is that happiness? You're happy with me?" she panted. "So you're trying to pound me with a stick?"
"This is what men do to girls they like," he assured her.
"They beat them with a stick?"
"Something like that," he agreed lightly.
"I think it must be a prince-thing," she muttered.
"I can assure you, it's just a man-thing. Take it as a compliment."
"Can you please compliment me in a different way, your highness?" she was really starting to stagger now. "This way is not having the usual effect of a compliment; I can assure you."
"Are you asking me to compliment you, little vixen?"
"No need, no need," she said, suddenly more concerned about where that might take him. "Just keep on beating me with your stick."
"If you insist," he gave her a flurry of blows that resulted in her falling backwards off the mats.
As she fell, he caught her around the waist and swung her back onto the safety of the mat. He trapped her there in his arms for a minute, looking deeply into her eyes. Again, she found herself the prey to his predator, her eyes wide and frozen under his intense gaze.
Then, he deliberately looked down at her chest for a few long beats, then back up into her eyes.
"I could certainly come up with some flowery compliments for this little body you've been so cleverly hiding," he whispered suggestively. "But I prefer you save this for my eyes only, so return to whatever you were doing before, or I might just have to injure some poor innocent men."
He set her back on her feet and gave her a tap on the bottom, as he pushed her back towards the centre of the mat. She grabbed her bottom with two hands, covering it from his lewd gaze, and glaring fiercely back at him.
This last little interchange was witnessed by her Uncle, who planned to report this to his brother. Perhaps he already knew that the Second Prince was in love with his niece.