She's slow - or not quite slow, just the sort of fast that she could read and deal with, stepping aside from the strikes, and starting to punch and strike, squaring her shoulders to have a bit more serious of a guard, the spar picking up. 

Blocking and dodging amongst the strikes was awkward - flashing possibilities not nearly as helpful as she'd like, long brushes of her arms pushing aside her arms as best she can to try to get it aside, but it's hardly the same sort of laboratory conditions as before, so she stumbles and winces as they hit her guard, as the qi doesn't propagate down her arm nearly as readily as it fills her fist, but finally getting the chance to actually counterattack - 

And hand-grab-leverage-shoulder-slam-throw.

She winced, and a pained noise escaped her throat. 

Stare-down-leg-against-her-chest-hold-down-pause. 

"How does this feel?"

She breathed out deeply, strainedly feeling the sweaty heat against the dusty floor - finally clear, she idly noticed - pressing up against the hard mass of her leg ans she tried too not stare up into her eyes too much. 

Reflect, remember, search and...

Oh. 

"Helpless. Confused. Lost. Too hot. Exhilarated, Curious. Calm. Patient, Receptive."

Her hand splays out above her face. 

"Five. Cultivation methods aren't nesscarily complete. Your flowing fists have a lot of techniques, and the fox is good at making this reasonably complete, but that doesn't mean it covers everything. There's ways to avoid this sort of throw and hold in there, ways to control the space and such so that this doesn't happen, and more. But it's not a bloody grappling style, and it's not designed to be. You need experience and to work at it to get out of this." 

She gently eased off, and helped her up. 

"Again." 

She stood, breathed deeply for a moment to drain away her flush, and fought - not bothering to limit herself to avoiding the kicking techniques in the art, manipulating and bending the techniques in response to her own changes. 

Oddly enough, she was half-winning - it was almost effortless to at least make contact with the strikes, to have a meaningful block for the things that she'd seen, though getting through her guard just wasn't happening and the effect of her constitution still stopped her cold and there were just... so many minor variants and different things that she could do that hits still happened.

She rises to it - every blow a confirmation or refutation of a theory, or a timely way to throw her out of a rut to get her to think in the moment. 

"Six. Cultivation based fighting techniques are vastly better then conventional ones. I'm using conventional martial arts for this while equaling your statistics, and it's just easy, isn't it? Relatively speaking, I'm slow, weak, stiff, and helpless against you, if I had anything like the experience that you have. Remember to use your techniques."

Nod duck around a fist, step quickly forward, hands down for a dual palm strike, slight shame faced hum.

"'ts not your fuckin' fault. You're doing well, you're limber, you're ready to take in these instincts, and to fight from the very beginning. Just..." 

Both hands grasp her wrists, snapping with a burst of speed from some complicated motion in her qi, holding them up helpless as she leaned forward, nose pressing against hers as her breath slid across her lips. 

"Seven. Cultivation techniques including fucking techniques. If someone isn't doing something complicated, something ranged, something dramatic, they're playing with you, they're not actually fighting, and playing with different instincts can and will kill you." 

Her hands clenched, and there was the phantom sensation of cracks spiralling across her bone, the faint impression of a sickening snap of bone, and a small but very real swiftly forming bruise. 

"Eight. Learn how to fight low-energy and low-mobility, but it can't be your entire game." 

She released them, and let them hang back. 

"Stop if you get out of the circle. Break, recover. You'll need it." 

She grinned widely, and a strike to her chest sent her flying 'til a surge of gold caught her at the edge and left her sprawling down against the floor. 

She did a little come on gesture, and let her eyes glint yet brighter.

She couldn't help but let out a small pleased snort as she leapt back into the fray. 

This was different - it was pretty easy for a single sub-optimal block to leave her reeling enough that she could simply combo her 'til she went flying out of the 'ring', so everything had to be done properly. 

Still, they were more committed, and even the faster attacks were still somewhat staggered, with the sort of natural pause from the release of the quantity of qi and brute strength needed, though she'd obviously trained it high enough that it was barely there. 

They were still blockable, and even getting counters that made her have to move and work, despite the fact that there just wasn't a real chance to hit her. 

She was panting, a little, despite herself, her breath picking up faster as her heart hammered in her chest. 

She smiled as she knocked her back into the barrier once more. 

"Nine, I suppose. Livin' on the edge is nice, eh? There's so much in the little freedoms in there that help with getting that edge, and there's plenty to learn, even with ostensibly everything in there. So." 

She smiled softly, and formed a flame in her hand, dancing slowly as she let her breathing slip back to the calm swagger she lived.

"You're mostly done getting the basics, and your energy is waning, already." 

Large nod, long exhale watch the flame, her flicking hands, the dancing flame, not the rush of blood, the faint fuzz in her mind of her mental strength depleting, the rigidity of the technique slipping away as errors and adaptations both. 

"I can feel it. I'm not..." 

"Someone more then two fucking days into your fucking training. Relax."

...Shoulder-slump nod. 

"Ten. If you can see it, get it, then you can punch it. Ghosts, sure, blasts of flame, cold waves, water, stone, steel whatever. Sometimes it's a stupid idea, but fuck is it cool." 

Challenging-grin-surge-the-flame.

"Care to try~?"

Fist qi surges from a final depletion of her second breath - hand pulled back, ready, waiting, heart-lungs-ear-pulsing - 

"Now." 

The flames shot out, a great wall of near-blinding fire coming out from the ball above her fist, a rush of hot air tickling across her skin even before the miniature inferno hit -

She knew this didn't prove anything, that it was safe either way, that this was a challenge for the sake of itself, that she'd seen this, already - but she just...

wanted to win. 

And so, she smiled broadly, and unleashed her strength, a wave of the intricately balanced energy strewn with the network of fist qi expanding out and out and out 'til the surge of white filled the entirety of her vision to clash against the wave - 

They clashed together, for a moment, the flames blasting back and away in a massive ejection of air, every lick of flame snuffed out against the strength of the shockwave. 

Her hair slid back, just slightly, and she clapped a hand against her shoulder a handful of times, smiling broadly. 

"Well fuckin' done." 

Little embarrased wiggle. 

"Really?" 

"Really really!" 

She idly brushed a strand of her hair back. 

"You've broken your body in, so to speak, and you've started to get your technique to something a bit more acceptable for out in the wider world, and all that after a three strand day 2. That's great. Sure, the tea, me, the circle and so on are really helping, but this is you doing this, not anyone else, The only reason you won't be able to form another strand is 'cause you'll start to have a bit of a chance of developing some minor qi deviation if you don't take the chance to settle down." 

Her hands rubbed down across her shoulders. 

"You can feel it, yeah?" 

"I can. It's like..." 

Breathe shoulders lift-up into her hands, smile slightly. 

"I'm not just exhausted there, It's like I'm the sort of tired that means that I'm loosing control, a little, frayed and thin and loose and worn. It doesn't feel like damage, just... fragility, and it's frankly a little nauseating to the sense of magic balance?" 

Shakes head hard.