"Clearly you weren't!" she countered with a roar. "You seriously gonna stop and ask questions like that? What, are you and your opponent in the field of battle going to stop and talk terms?" Tori shook her head and clenched her fists. "Uh uh! I don't think so! You'd already be dead!"
At the moment they were in a competition. That made them opponents more than friends. They weren't adversaries, but the point of training was to practice things that might one day be useful in combat. Or that was, at least, Tori's understanding of the thing. She never claimed it was accurate, but it was what she took to heart. It was important to learn if she was going to be the best Centurion the school had ever seen. Lance was probably in the running for that, too, and if they were going to be rivals, then she wanted him to be and get better. Her competitiveness could really be useful at times.
She was still a little ways off, but she wasn't stopping. This was a new approach for her, a running start sort of thing, but she figured it couldn't hurt. She was willing to try anything, especially since she'd gotten herself into this bullshit situation. She really was an idiot sometimes. It was all she could keep thinking. That didn't change the fact that she wasn't giving up or turning back or asking for mercy. She'd make it work. She had to. And belief was going to get her through it. Belief, stubbornness, and confidence. They were all she had in the face of a complete lack of skill and practice.
Instead of grabbing him, which had been her first impulse, since he was grounded, she ran right past him, heading for the building. A few feet from it she took a flying leap at the wall, feet hitting heavy. She pushed off as hard as she could and started flapping, trying to beat gravity for all she was worth. Instead of rising like she dreamed but didn't expect, however, she landed hard on both feet on the ground, growling as she adopted a crouched position, wings in a high arch. "Fucking," she grumbled, her look one of murderous rage.