[Training] [SE] but the silence was unbroken

KORBIN

And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,

There had been a reason for not holding back today. There had been, right? Korbin was sure of it. He'd been in a fairly good mood when they started, but somewhere along the way it had all gone dark in him. It would seem he had crossed that boundary in his mind that he'd always been afraid of. Slipped down into mindless intent, where all that mattered anymore was to win, to defeat the opponent, to be the one who came out alive.

His eyes had stopped reflecting her face. He was back on the Tundra, with the stinking breath of the cannibal rushing over his face, the emaciated body struggling in wild frenzy to get loose. And he couldn't let it happen, he would die if he did. He, or someone else.

So he didn't move when the arm beneath him caught fire. The heat seared his flesh, burned into the clothes and singed the skin, but though the feeling was agony, Korbin grit his teeth around it, growled wolf-wild and just settled more firmly. The knife cut into his side too, adding to the blinding pain, hot blood gushing out, seeping onto her fingers...

He shifted his legs to fit them over hers, to pin her down. And again he tried to catch her throat, attempting to pin it beneath his lower arm. Everything about his expression was wrong, the blackness in his eyes, the teeth bared in a snarl; it was all wrong.

Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.