Nightmare unleashed (Ruminal/Shard Mission)

Ruminal stared down his opponent and it became more and more clear to who he was actually fighting. He wasn't fighting a clone of himself, his clone let the demon inside take over completely. In short he was fighting his inner demon. Finally the ringing in Ruminal's head started to subside and he could focus again. He wiped the blood away from his eyes and stared intensely at his opponent. It was time to see how well he can fight in a one on one combat situation. Magna would be to busy with his own clone to give any backup for a while so he was  truly on his own. Its not that Ruminal hasn't been preparing himself for such a situation but he had yet to developed any combat magic so he was forced to use hand to hand combat.

He thought back to some combat training books he has read over the past months, the first thing he had to do was discover his opponents weakness as fast as possible while doing whatever it takes to minimize as much damage as possible. Best way to minimize damage would be to watch his opponents movements to try and predict what they are going to do. "What are you waiting for an invitation? Let's get started already." He said getting into a common defensive combat stance. The first thing to move was his opponents right foot which shifted back then kicked off the ground to start a charge. It was clearly faster than him so Ruminal had to make up for it with reaction time. It seemed to be going for a punch cause once his clone was upon him, he raised up his fist high up by his shoulder. A punch to the face was Ruminal's instinct and waiting to the last possible moment and raised his own arm to deflect the punch and leaving his clone wide open to a counter attack. However it seemed Ruminal was off on his timing and still got hit anyway. The impact was so strong it knocked him down to the ground face first.

"Not bad, you tried to predict what I was going to do and did so on the money. But with your poor physical capabilities you won't be able to react fast enough. Let alone hurt me." Shadow spoke. Even though Ruminal was clearly at a disadvantage he was still determined to continue. Ruminal rolled over to look up at his opponent. "It isn't over till the fat lady sings." He replied. "That's the spirit." Shadow said before kicking Ruminal in the ribs sending him skidding across the ground. This time however Ruminal wasn't taking his eyes off him not even for a second. If defending himself wont work then he is going to have to try and endure the pain or at least give attempts to dodge. "Stand up to your killer and show you won't go down without a fight! Otherwise this is going to be to boring."