Grab your dagger

Your dagger that was on the ground, you can now easily grab it. Cliffton is far enough away, so is Rixx. You tumble to the dagger, rolling into it, grabbing it, lifting the dagger into your hand, you return to your normal stance, short sword in your left hand, dagger in the right. You hunch down, ready to spring your attack onto whoever jumps on you.

Cliffton is still standing there, he's breathing away, Commander Rixx is standing farther away, looking at both of you.

The crowd is still going nuts, the Syndicate cheerers are quieted, but many of the other people in the audience are screaming at the top of their lungs. One down, three to go! They can't wait to see who, and which person wins the entire tournament. The crowd is especially going bonkers because Commander Rixx was the first person to draw blood. He was the first person to kill someone. You knew he was the fan favorite, you knew he was extremely strong, you knew he would be the opponent to beat.