They shot into the sky.
Rikilda came at him before the arena ceiling had fully cleared behind them, her claws driving toward his face, the red light burning along her free hand.
Clone 2 took the claw on his forearm and drove his palm into her solar plexus. She absorbed it, grabbed his wrist, and used his upward momentum to throw him higher above her, into the path of her sword already waiting.
He twisted and the blade passed through the space his spine had occupied and he came back down at her, both knees driving toward her shoulders.
She pulled back. His momentum carried him past her position and he dropped through empty air before his flight caught him and pulled him level. He came back up and they faced each other three hundred meters above the arena.
Below them everything had stopped. Every dragon in the sky had cleared the airspace.
Rikilda raised her hand and the sword appeared in it, the red light at full intensity.
