When Elias’s hand grips her wrist, she goes along with the force of his lock and slides in closer. With her leg under his, she slams her knee upwards in an attempt to knock him off his feet, using the momentum from her body moving in the direction the joint lock is pulling her. Meanwhile, her free hand aborts the attempted clinch and tries for a short-range little punch to the side of Elias’s head. There’s a smile on her face- she seems to be delighted by Elias’s display of technique.
The punch connects with the side of his eye, right on the orbit, but it won’t start swelling for a while and it isn’t enough to rock him now that he is within her rhythm.
As he feels the muscles in her legs begin to tense he sinks his weight even further down. He released the lock he has on her wrist as the fight graduates from close-quarters to closer-quarters. In an attempt to unbalance her, he forms his right hand into a finger-gun type of gesture and attempts a jab directly at Lamia’s trachea in an attempt to force her to back up.
Lamia keeps her chin tucked down throughout this fight, so unless he’s really digging under there, the finger jab is probably a no go. She doesn’t back up, in either case. She’s short, and she’s not giving Elias the full extent of his reach back without a fight. As he drops his weight against her leg again, she drops down, trying to drive her shoulder under his arm. Her hand snaps down and grabs for the back of his knee, yanking upwards. Where a leg sweep fails, a different approach is called for.
Elias contorts his body, almost as if he is trying to step over her, raising both of his arms above his head and trying to smash down on her with his elbows.
She is nimble, but they are evenly matched in stamina (he estimates) and he can win if it comes down to a war of attrition.
Lamia is driving against Elias with all of the force she can muster. The elbows smash into her shoulder, which buckles under the force of the blow. That’s sure to leave a bruise, but only equal or greater force shoving her in the opposite direction can stop her forward momentum now.
Instead of attempting to stop her from pushing his, he slides his arms under her torso and completely relents. Stepping back and allowing himself to be pushed, he suddenly twists, in an attempt to use her own momentum against her to launch her away. Assuming that works out for him, he checks his wounded eye and assumes a fighting stance.
edited by The Absurd Rogue on 7/9/2016
Lamia falls forward past Eli, releasing his leg. She catches herself, pivots, and shuffles, her fists snapping back into position. She dives back in with a high kick aimed at his midsection, and, like with Eglantine, she uses it as an opening to follow up with her fists, throwing two jabs at his chin. Unlike with Eglantine, the kick isn’t a feint this time.
Eli’s eyes leave Lamia’s only for a moment to observe her stance. Pivoting to miss the high kick by barely anything at all, Elias rears back his entire body and makes to push forward with both palms on Lamia center mass.
With a normal kick, that would jettison onto the ground or at least back into a neutral stance, but that’s only if he connects before she does.