Zell and Rinoa arrived at the window to see what Selphie had been screaming about. Sure enough, there was Lina locked in a raging battle against a familiar figure. It couldn't be...was it? Nakago? It was and that made it all the worse. "Holy shit!" Zell screamed, then headed for the front gate in an unmitigated hurry. "Why is she taking him on alone?" he muttered to himself as he pushed past the growing crowd to the box, but at the same time, Chichiri came out of the woods. Zell watched as he charged into the barrier, but was helplessly tossed back. Zell slowed down, hesitant.
"Look! It's our real instructor!" Zell head his classmate Hainc call from the sidelines. "Oh damn, who is that guy?" Zell looked to see that Nakago was overpowering her. As much as Lina would have liked to make a comeback, she could not for Nakago's attacks were far too quick and she'd already been worn out by the prior battle through Seiyru's headquarters. She lunged again for an attack, but he stepped aside and pushed her away. Lina fell to the ground, and weakly looked up and caught a glimpse of the Chinese character on his forehead, glowing like a lantern.
"You...cheater..." Lina muttered, ready to collapse. She was already battered enough, but his cheating just pile the odds against her. Lina was quite aware that she was losing, badly; Nakago was stronger with access to her powers and it was blatantly impossible to keep up with his great speed in attacks. Dan and Karen now appeared by Zell and Chichiri's side; all of them staring into the barrier, trying to get a better view of what was going on. They took turns throwing themselves against the barrier, kicking, punching, hacking away with gunblades and arrows--it was no use.
Nakago booted her again in the stomach and sent her flying to the other side of their little arena, right in front of her friends. She shifted her weight to her knees as Nakago approached her. Lina winced as she wiped the blood from the side of her cheek. Her nostrils filled with the scent of newly cut grass and stray weeds. She took it in, coughed it out, and stared up at him with tears layering over her eyes. As he approached, Lina looked around for some kind of leverage, something that could help her, and she suddenly found it: a stick.
Just an ordinary stick about the length of Lina's forearm lying inanimate over a dirt clod. Lina reached with shaking fingers and grasped the stick tightly. While Nakago neared, she took the stick and began to carve into the ground with great effort. When she was done with her drawing, she smirked--this was the leverage she needed. "I have some bad news for you, Nakago," she uttered between shallow breaths. Lina slapped her hand onto her drawing and suddenly blue bolts of energy began to trace from her fingertips to the outline of the sketch. Immediately, the ground around her drawing began to transform and from the ground, a sword was created, following Lina's hand as she stood to face Nakago. She grasped the hilt of the sword and held it out, its point directed at him. "I was just humoring you."
Lina jumped in, feigning an attack head on, but Nakago jumped out of the way and Lina carved her sword right into the ground, tracing something yet again. How had she suddenly acquired so much strength? She ran all around the arena, dodging his persistent attacks, jumping from side to side of the barrier walls and ignoring the stinging through her boots. Lina ran around in a pattern for what seemed ages, until Nakago was dizzy, but she'd finally completed it: her alchemy array. Lina jumped right into the center and watched as Nakago was to follow closely behind her with another attack. She plunged the sword right into the center of her drawing, then quickly jumped back to the outskirts as Nakago landed.
With a swift hand movement, she cast stop and Nakago was frozen in his place, a position that implied his readiness to destroy. His eyes traced her drawing and he discovered what she had done. "Very clever, Instructor, but you should know that Human Alchemy is forbidden."
"Who said I'm transmuting you?" Lina shot back. She took a moment to catch her breath.
"Did some little alchemist teach you this?" Nakago asked, trying to hide that he was starting to get frightened.
"Excuse you. You can't just drop the value of a name with your stupid remarks. Ed is a brilliant person, worth more than you could ever imagine," Lina yelled and slammed her hands into the edges of the transmutation circle. Suddenly the same blue bolts reappeared and shot out of the ground. The ground began to shift right under Nakago's feet and suddenly everything piled up on top of him until he was buried up to his boots, and shaken by it all. Lina looked around, but it still wasn't enough to topple the barrier. Lina lunged again and grabbed Nakago by the throat, "I will not let you get away with what you did last time."