Kane got back to his feet slowly, his hand still pressed against his lower back, his face twisted into something between a grimace and a grin.
"You know what, kid, I like you, you've got some real creativity in how you fight," he rolled his shoulders, and Luthra heard several joints pop, "most people try to match me strength for strength, which is stupid, but you, you went straight for the weak point."
Luthra pushed himself up from where he'd been thrown, his ribs screaming in protest, blood dripping from his nose and mouth. "Weak point, you mean your spine?"
"Yeah, turns out even with mana reinforcement, if you drain all the energy out of someone and then squeeze their lower vertebrae just right, things still go pop," Kane tested his weight on one leg, then the other, "nothing permanent, just really painful, you're smarter than you look."
'He's still standing, still talking, I hit him with everything I had and he's treating it like a minor inconvenience.'
