"And how do we decide who wins and who loses?" Freya asks.
She asks it the way people do when they already expect to find a flaw in the plan. She stands with her arms crossed, a crooked smile at the corner of her mouth, while Veric watches her like half of him wants to answer with a sword and the other half remembers this is still an academy.
Mira stays a few steps behind her, quiet. Kellan, on the other hand, looks less interested in the rules and more in when he gets to start hitting something.
"Three ways to finish," I say. "Knockout, surrender, or the attacker stopping a blow that would visibly be fatal to the opponent."
Mira frowns. "That's too broad to be a rule."
"It's a combat rule, not an accounting one."
"And who decides if the blow would be fatal?"
"The fighters and the witnesses. If there's doubt, it continues. If there isn't, it ends."
