Isopia was entirely (and perhaps blissfully) ignorant of the type of emotion that plagued her leader. Winning with humility, or losing with dignity - and indeed, offering such comforts to her opponents - had never even crossed her mind. When her body had been beaten into the sands by Abraham and his dragon-warriors, she had felt no embarrassment, no remorse or regret. The outcome had merely been what it was, and the earthen-girl had learned from it. There was no room in her logical framework for the lapses in judgement that accompanied emotion.

Perhaps that explained the lack of apprehension in her placid golden gaze, or the way her muscles failed to tense and her body did not ready itself, as Kaj's creamy bulk rocketed her way. In her previous spar, her body had disobeyed, listening instead to instinct in an effort to save itself, when Isopia had wanted it to simply accept the pain which was coming to it. She had worked to dull that primal response, and was determined not to let the ingrained reflexes that lived in her bones show themselves in this fight. Her mind did not know fear, and she needed her body to forget that it did.

A shield of rock appeared before her, drawn up seemingly from the soil. It had helped to protect her against dragon fire, and she thought it would help now too. However what the earthen-girl failed to realize, was that the dragon fire had not been moving. Although it had taken energy then to steady her rocky-defense, she didn't have to hold it in place against an oncoming force of this magnitude. And so it should have been no surprise that Isopia was entirely unprepared as Kaj roughly shoved into her nonetheless - forcing her own stony creation against her shoulder and flank. Her large hooves skittered backwards, and the demi-god felt painful and dull radiating points of pressure against her right side. Confusion and her failed defenses had broken her concentration, and her shield crumbled, leaving only jagged pieces of rock in its wake. Isopia's teeth clenched together as she stifled a grunt of pain, still determined not to allow her body to dictate her actions. Her mind tried to self-scan her body, to focus upon the pain and understand it, rather than run away from it. But she found it difficult to focus as her hooves danced to try and regain balance and the crimson world spun around her. The pain just seemed to be there, hot and cold, dull and wide and flat and burning and -- her mind scrolled through adjectives but none seemed to capture what it was she was feeling.

Move on. Her mind instructed itself. It is your turn to attack.

That was one thing she found she did like about sparring - there was an obvious mechanics to it. An almost civilized back and forth. She did find it odd, however. In her recent encounters with the Rift-Gods, there had been no game play. It had been a frenzy - why then were spars set up like this? Why did they not replicate real battles?

She would ask Kaj later. For now, she would follow custom and take her turn.

Isopia rarely used her body to fight, instead preferring to hone her magic, and today would be no different. This was partially due to the fact that she couldn't take a deep breath without her shoulder and rib cage screaming in defiance, but also due to the fact that even without this early-injury, the demi-god didn't think she could best Kaj physically. He was likely just as strong as she, and was certainly more agile. And unlike her, he had done this more than just a handful of times. 

Forcing her mind to ignore the pain in her right side, Isopia allowed her hooves to settle on the silty sands that hugged the crimson pool. Her magic grabbed the rocks which had once composed her failed-shield, and heated them instantly as she hurtled them towards Kaj. Unlike her Czar, she didn't not consider 'going easy', or trying to avoid hurting him too badly. No one had ever told her that such courtesies applied, and regardless of how academic her mind was, it did not easily surmise un-articulated social rules.

So she threw her rocks at his face, chest, and knees - entirely unconcerned for long term problems this could potentially pose for her Czar.