Yes'm!

Now's your chance! You rush towards Cameron, staff raised up and ready to take him down, calling out a battle cry as you go full-sprint towards him. Just before you can make impact, he holds his own staff with a hand at each end, and deflects your attack off and to the side -- your grip wasn't tight enough, so your staff is launched several metres from your hands.

"Woo!" You hear Lexi cheer from atop the balance beam, and she starts clapping out a little beat for the combat. This is no fair!

From there, Cameron does a small spin and rolls his body around to behind yours, where he tries to lift the staff over and in front of your head horizontally. Probably to get you in a chokehold! You may be disarmed, but you're not going down that easily, as you lift up with your own hands to try push his staff away from you. But he's way too strong, and he's making ground on you as he pushes it closer and closer towards being level with your neck. Nn.. no-!

"S-sorry." Cameron quietly apologises. Wait, why? Ack! To seal the deal, and speed things up, he lifts up his foot and kicks forward against the back of your knee, sending you down into a surprised kneeling position from which he can easily **** the staff downwards and hold it against your neck. He's not putting any more **** on it, he's just holding it up against your neck as you struggle and squirm.

Rrrr.... man, you really thought you were gonna win. Maybe you should've made a plan before rushing towards a stronger opponent.... hey, wait, what are you talking about? You haven't lost yet, you can totally still win this! You're a scrapper. Your squirms turn more forceful as you lift your own hands up to push the staff away from your neck. If you can take it out of his grip somehow, maybe if you roll on top of it with all of your weight, then only you'll have a weapon, and-

"Holy SHIT!"

You turn your head, still kneeling on the mat with the staff against your neck. Cameron turns his head towards the sound as well, quietly still holding the staff in place as you try to take this chance to **** it away.

It was Lexi who shouted, and now she's looking sideways from her spot on the balance beam. You and Cameron follow her eyeline. Across the room, the three of you see something unbelievable. Delilah, on the other side of the mat-covered space, has Jace backing up and blocking desperately as she performs a variety of flips and aerial manouvers, striking down on him at every opportunity and from a new angle each hit -- she's moving at incredible speeds, and some of the jumps have her at least a metre and a half off the ground.

Eventually, rather than land on her feet and strike with the staff, she lands with the staff on the ground vertically, and spins around it to kick at Jace with her foot -- he barely brings up his forearm to block it in time, the staff now in only one hand and down by his side. In one final landing, instead of striking and leaping back into the air again, Delilah lands with bent legs and spins out with her staff against the side of Jace's ankles which his staff isn't on. As he's backing up, the staff sweeps both feet from under him, and he falls flat backwards onto his bottom.

There's silence as Delilah slowly stands up from her crouched position, and holds the end of her staff out towards the flummoxed, seated Jace. With a smile, she lets it fall back to her side and offers him a hand up, which he takes. She's panting pretty heavily.

"Great defending, J! That was a real workout."

.....

Your jaw might be on the floor right now. It has also been seconds since you last blinked. At least twenty five of them. You're still kneeling with Cameron standing behind you, but neither you or him are putting any **** on the staff anymore. He slowly lifts it up and away from you, the both of you still staring over to where a happy Delilah and confused Jace chat too quietly for you to hear. Jace rubs at the back of his head, and Delilah still looks exhausted.

Lexi, though, instead of the confusion on everybody else's face, is looking over with a wide smile and intense eyes. "Oh, this'll be fun....." You think you hear her whisper to herself with a grin, but you're not quite sure.

After pausing just as long as you have, Professor Phoebe pats a sitting Miranda twice on the shoulder, and silently walks over to join in talking with the standing Jace and Delilah. The bell rings after a few more seconds of staring, and Professor Phoebe turns back to the rest of you briefly.

"You're all free to leave now -- great class today. Enjoy your free period!"

With that, she turns back to her conversation with Delilah and Jace. Miranda stands up awkwardly, and shakily walks over towards the door, shooting wide-eyed glances towards Delilah on her way. You tend to agree. Lexi hops down from the balance beam and walks over to where you and Cameron are. She grabs the back of your shirt to guide you back up onto your feet.

"Let's go chuck these back in the closet, hey?" She says in a cheery voice.

You and Cameron both nod slowly, not taking your eyes off Delilah for several more seconds before eventually you move to grab your staff up off of the ground. The three of you all take your staffs over to the closet near the entrance. For a second, you think that you see Delilah shoot a smug look back towards you, but you're really not sure, and then just like that you're out of there.

{if PhoebeFreebie == True}((Hey hey! You already got 2 points of Free Time before retrying the day, and all the stats from that should still be working. So just imagine you did all of that stuff now, as part of the Free Time!)){endif}