Essence fight

Upon hearing what Lina said, Balkan asked, "Will you need your weapon?"

"No, I'll take care of him with my fists.", said Lina with a smile of anticipation.

Seeing his daughter's face, Balkan felt a shiver run down his spine and thought, 'This girl is looking more and more like her mother.'

After Lina's teasing, Raja went towards her and surrounded her with his clones, making a triangle with her in the center. He spent some time walking around waiting to see what reaction she would have, but to his surprise, she stood still in the same place waiting for him to come, and realizing this, he decided to attack.

He and his clones advanced toward her, and even when they came within about a meter of her, she was still standing in the same place. Seeing this, Raja and his clones punched, each one in a different place. The one on her back hit her in the back of the head, the one on the left tried to punch her in the stomach, and the one on the right attempted to punch her in the chest.

Looking around and seeing the direction of the attacks, Lina finally decided to move. She started by lowering her head and protecting her chest, leaving only her stomach unprotected, but unfortunately, it was precisely in her stomach that the impact came.

When she received the punch, Lina took two steps back to stabilize herself and again stood still and observed the situation.

Seeing the result of his punch, Raja was surprised and said, "It seems that you are not just talk, but we have just started."

"Indeed, we have just begun. Oh, and next time, hit harder. If you can do it, of course.", answered Lina, smiling.

Raja was bothered by what she said and replied with a forced smile, "Sure! I'll stop holding myself back!"

He joined with his clones, and the space between them blurred again for a few seconds until it normalized, and there was Raja with his two clones. He did the same as before and surrounded her.

Lina again did nothing to stop him, and seeing this, after positioning himself, he attacked again from three directions.

The one on her back kicked her in the back of her left knee, the one on her right punched her in the face, and the one on her left kicked her in the ribs, the same way you would kick a door down.

Lina, analyzing the attacks, decided to defend her rib with her right arm and her face with her left hand, giving up defending her leg, but unfortunately, the real blow was to the leg. As she was kicked in the back of the knee, Lina fell backward, but before she could hit her back on the ground, something unexpected happened. In the middle of her fall, Lina threw herself back towards the clone that had hit her, with her arms stretched out towards him.

Raja's clone's eyes widened as he realized what she was trying to do, and he dodged to the left, making Lina miss, but contrary to what he imagined, after missing her target, she didn't fall with her back to the ground. Lina bent her arms and braced her hands on the floor. Using the rest of the momentum, she brought her body up so that the palms of her hands supported it, and then pushed the floor with her hands, got off the floor, and then landed on her feet.

Lina then crossed her arms and said to Raja with a smile of anticipation on her face, "Next time, you won't be so lucky."

"Haha, we'll see!" replied Raja.

Raja repeated his movements. He joined his clones, the space around him blurred, and then he surrounded Lina.

This began to repeat itself several times, and each time, Lina came closer to hitting him. Until, in one of these attempts, defending her head and chest from the impact and letting the blow to her leg hit her, in the last moments before the impact, she changed her defense. Keeping her head protected, she crouched and, using the arm that was covering her chest, tried to catch the kick coming towards her leg.

Everyone watching thought that Lina had finally succeeded, but just as Raja's leg was about to make contact with her hand, the kick went through her leg, and soon after, an impact hit her in her chest that was unprotected. This time, due to her position, Lina supported her knee on the ground and, after a few seconds, stood up.

"What just happened?" asked a blonde woman with her eyes wide open.

"How did Lina not catch him? All of the times the blows were where she wasn't defending herself!", said a man at another table who had just spilled his drink watching Lina miss.

"Maybe the real blow was to the chest, and she was unlucky.", said another man as he fiddled with his beard.

"That's very unlikely to be the case. All of the blows so far have followed a pattern. It doesn't make sense that in this round, he just changed it.", said a glasses-wearing man who was leaning with his elbow on his desk while holding his face with his hand.

"Unless .... he can switch places with his clones.", continued the man with glasses.

Upon hearing this, everyone in the bar started arguing among themselves, trying to decide if this was really the case. Hearing that, Raja said, "It seems that I have been discovered."

"Unfortunately for you, my love, it is exactly as they said. I can swap with any of my clones at any time I want. It was pretty hard not to laugh, seeing you trying so hard to pull me over, not knowing that it would never happen, hahaha."

The arguments in the bar continued, "I can't believe Lina is going to lose!", said a man who frequented the bar a lot and had seen this happen several times, and on every occasion, Lina always solved everything in a short time, without even making an effort.

"No way, she'll find a way to win. I believe in Lina.", said another woman who seemed anxious about the situation.

Upon hearing what Raja said, Gen, who was standing with his back to the counter, with his elbows propped up on it, frowned and said to Balkan, who was reclining on the counter, with one elbow propped up on it, and his hand holding his head, "He's lying."

"Why do you say that?" asked Balkan, leaning further forward, which made the counter crackle.

Gen replied, looking in Raja's direction, "The first time Lina tried to hold him back, he was surprised and turned away hastily. If what he said is true, it doesn't make sense that he dodged."

"Hmmm, but what if he was faking it to fool her?" asked Balkan, looking at Gen.

"There really is that possibility. However, that is not the only reason I think he is lying. I know you noticed that after the first time she tried to grab him, the clones started moving slower, and based on Lina's reaction to receiving the blows, you can see that they are weaker than the first time.", Gen said looking sideways at Balkan.

"Oh yeah? And what does that mean?" asked Balkan, turning his gaze toward the fight.

"It means that, for some reason, Raja is having to hold back. He seems to be afraid that what happened then will happen again, and that's the problem."

"Why would he be cautious if he can switch bodies with any of his clones? Unless he can't switch with his clones, but that brings us back to the main problem. How does he always hit her in the unprotected place?", Gen said, scratching his head with his hand.

"Aren't you going the wrong way, Gen? What if to switch clones, he needs to prepare first? That would explain why he dodged the first time.", said Balkan, leaning a little more on the counter, which made it creak and then snap a few times before stopping.

The fight had returned, and Raja began to advance toward Lina. Gen was watching and said, "Maybe you're right-", but in the middle of his sentence, Gen heard a noise that he recognized coming from the direction of the fight.

The noise was that of wood creaking and sometimes cracking. The floor of the bar was all wood, so it was not so strange to hear this noise sometimes. The problem was the noise was coming from a place near the fight where there was no one.

Gen decided to pay attention to where the noise was coming from, and after a few seconds, he saw one of the boards on the floor sink as if there was something on top of it.

It was hard to notice this if you weren't looking directly in that direction, and since everyone's focus was on the fight, no one saw this.

"So that's how it works!" said Gen, looking in the direction of the noise. He turned his head to Balkan and said, looking at him, "You can get off the counter now. I already got the message."

"Hm? How so?", said Balkan, looking away and focusing on the fight.

Gen looked at him for a while longer and, with a 'never mind' look, returned his attention to the fight. 

As he looked, he thought, 'Invisibility, huh? I wonder how Lina will handle that?'