Kel was a hunter of beasts, not people, and Raza was right in thinking that his instincts were all wrong for this sort of work. Still, he had come to learn and he was trying as best he could with the limitations they'd agreed to. She was a quicker study than him - but then, Haulani so far seemed like a stricter teacher than his own homeland had been.
He got lucky in his timing rather than having any particular advantage in speed, but it was luck he was willing to accept, feeling the thrill of success when he struck home. It bought him a few seconds (he thought) to regain his balance and feel the pain in his hip start to subside beneath the rush of adrenaline--
And then he was getting rushed by something completely different as Raza adjusted to the rules and found a loophole he hadn't anticipated. Kel managed to shift partially aside as she came for him so that she didn't hit him squarely, but the glancing impact still sent him stumbling with an ooph! of air pushed out of his diaphragm as he fought to avoid falling. His magic reacted instinctively, a stiff breeze (or at least, a zephyr with ambitions) sweeping up a handful of grit from the ring's floor and flinging it towards Raza's eyes to hopefully temporarily blind her while he caught his balance.
He got lucky in his timing rather than having any particular advantage in speed, but it was luck he was willing to accept, feeling the thrill of success when he struck home. It bought him a few seconds (he thought) to regain his balance and feel the pain in his hip start to subside beneath the rush of adrenaline--
And then he was getting rushed by something completely different as Raza adjusted to the rules and found a loophole he hadn't anticipated. Kel managed to shift partially aside as she came for him so that she didn't hit him squarely, but the glancing impact still sent him stumbling with an ooph! of air pushed out of his diaphragm as he fought to avoid falling. His magic reacted instinctively, a stiff breeze (or at least, a zephyr with ambitions) sweeping up a handful of grit from the ring's floor and flinging it towards Raza's eyes to hopefully temporarily blind her while he caught his balance.
