from_the_outside

From:

He drops a knife into his right hand and slices across the target's center mass, only for a blow to his arm to knock the blade free and send it clattering away. He flings the shield again, hard, and the man ducks beneath the metal disc, which embeds itself deep in the side of one of the marble colums.

The fight, deadly as it is, begins to take on a strange resonance as they struggle. Block after block, stab and punch and slash and twist away and in again -- there's something about it, something --

( -- like training, or being back in the ring with -- )

-- almost, almost familiar.

The blond man grabs his forearm, and the Winter Soldier's arm flexes and metal plates ripple violently as he tries to rip it away again. He goes tumbling as he rips himself free, then kicks the target in the gut as the man charges him and sends him flying, slamming back into the side of a stone wall. He follows with a rush that brings them both up against the wall and locks his left hand around the target's throat, but somehow, impossibly, the man manages to tear free. Another flurry of blows, another desperate wrestling struggle, and this time it's the Winter Soldier who goes flying, his mask ripped from him as he goes rolling across the ground toward the fountain and back onto his feet.

He turns to face the other man once more, ready for the next assault.