Vic stepped in, raising the rod in his right hand high. With a vertical swing, he slashed towards Hualing's left shoulder. An elegant sidestep by the singer made the attack miss, putting her in position for a counterattack. One of her opened fans rose upwards, going for rising strike towards Vic's flank. A quick flick of his sanjiegun negated the impact, only making the pair of weapons clank against each other.

Quang cringed from the loud noise and shifted his eyes from the fight to the kitchen door. It remained still while the battle in the dining area raged on. Hualing continued with her offense, trying for another horizontal pincer maneuver. Vic's reflexes allowed him to block both parts of the attack with ease, making more noise. Hualing continued with a barrage of horizontal slices from a wide variety of angles, forcing Vic to step back as he alternated between dodging and deflecting each swing.

"Not bad!" Vic said after jumping back a short distance to create space between Hualing and himself. Despite his panting, he wore a confident smile. Hualing looked back at him, maintaining her fervor as she took the moment to rest as well.

"Still can't hit me, can you?" Hualing blurted out. "It's not like it's hard to play keep away!"

"I was trying to warn you. Shondell here is made of solid aluminum!" Vic clanged the ends of his weapon's rods together. A metallic echo rang throughout the dining area. "Getting hit by one of these is going to hurt and leave you hurting for a while. You still sure you want me go all out?"

The singer rolled her eyes. "All I hear are excuses."

"Hualing," Quang interrupted. "Please. I know you absolutely have no reason to, but you should listen to us. You definitely don't want to go up against an unhinged Vic. That's just asking for some bruising."

"Timer's still going down!" Vic stole a glance at the clock mounted on the wall. "I'm already halfway to winning!"

Hualing dashed forward, her fans at her side as kept her body low. She executed a flawless double swing towards Vic's lower half, forcing him to retreat even further. His foot bumped against the wall, breaking his confident concertation. Seeing the abrupt shift in his demeanor, Hualing followed up with a roundhouse kick.

Vic landed on his shoulder and rolled onto his side, missing Hualing's foot. The kick followed through and hit the bar's wall, shaking it and knocking one of the framed pictures off and crashing into the ground.

"Watch what you're doing! You're going to ruin this place!" Quang darted up from his seat and picked up the framed movie poster. He clamored to attach it back to the vacant spot on the wall while watching Vic and Hualing continue to duke it out. Vic was on his knees, guarding with the crossed rods of his sanjiegun. Hualing attacked with a wide sideways kick. Her shin hit one of the rods as Vic blocked.

"Ack!" Hualing retreated her leg, closing one eye as she leaned down on the leg she attacked with. She put the weight of her side on her knee as she put one hand on where her leg collided with Shondell.

"You all right?" Quang called out, pausing realigning the fallen poster to look at the hurt the singer.

"Shut it!" She became more angered, visibly gritting through the sore knees of her shin to return to her offensive stance.

Vic darted back up to his feet in response and took another offensive stance in response, pointing one rod towards Hualing the rest of his body turned to the side. "Does hurting yourself count as win?" He looked past Hualing and towards Quang. "You're the judge in this fight. What do you say, Quang?"

"I say we put our differences aside and talk things over a few glasses of soda!"

"That's a 'no' then."

"You talk so much," Hualing said with disgust. "I can't believe you have any friends."

"Half of fighting is mind games! Just a bit of trash talk already got you making mistakes. That's one of the lessons you don't learn in dojos. It's something that you gotta find out about the hard way!"

"Maybe you should be a martial arts instructor. You might earn enough money for you stop bumming meals off your friends."

"Nah. Don't think I got the personality or the patience for something like that."

"Hmm. For once you're right."

"Minute and a half you two!" Quang called out once he finished straightening up the movie poster. "Try to keep it quiet for the rest of your little spat!"

"Got it, buddy." Vic resumed the spar, starting with a backhanded, downwards strike. Hualing closed her fans and crossed them, stopping the rod short at the cost of her posture. She grunted as her guard nearly broke from the attack. She staggered backwards but kept her eyes on the movement of the other side of Shondell.

The other rod rose, going for Hualing's right side. With a swift flex, Hualing intercepted the incoming maneuver with a single fan. The impact knocked the weapon closed weapon out of Hualing's hand, sending it soaring into the air. It fell onto the table behind Quang, knocking down the glass placed on the table and onto the ground, shattering it to bits.

"Dude!" Quang cried.

"My bad." Vic didn't take his eyes off Hualing. There was a bit of trembling in her movement as she altered her stance to angle her body to the side. She shifted her remaining fan to her right hand and placed it in front of her body. She shook off the pain in her other hand while it was behind her.

"Forty-five seconds!" Quang said from underneath the table as he began picking up the broken bits of the glass.

Hualing's face contorted to one of fury. She raised her fan over her shoulder and flung it downwards in a fluid motion, sending the fan spinning like a saw blade towards Vic. Taken by surprise, he clamored to protect his upper body. The opened fan clashed against the sanjiegun, ricocheting off the metal rods and hitting the wall.

"Desperation, huh?" Vic said once the fan was on the ground. He kicked it behind him before stepping towards the singer. He took the right side of Shondell, pointing it at Hualing's face. Her eyes squinted and her lips pursed as she stared down the man in front of her. The singer’s fists clenched at her side as her arms shook from frustration. "Time yet, Quang?"

He darted from underneath the table to glance at the clock. "Yeah. Looks like it to me."

Vic smirked. He returned to a relaxed stance. "Gotta admit. I'm impressed. Didn't think you'd get so close so many times!"

Hualing remained quiet, staring into the placid blue eyes of the rugged vagabond in front of her. Her eyes reddened. She took in deep breaths from nose.

"Hey, Hualing. You okay?" Vic's smirk vanished, shifting into a look of concern. "I said you did well! Not like you were a pushover or anything."

The singer raised one hand. Her open palm smacked against Vic's exposed cheek, making a painful splat. Vic pressed his hand against the afflicted area while Hualing stormed off towards the fan Vic kicked away.

"What was that for?" Vic yawped. "Don't know how to take a loss?" He watched Hualing walk to the opened fan and pick it up. "You know hits don't count after the agreed timeframe, right?"

She remained silent, walking past him as he moved towards Quang. He handed her the fan, to which she yanked out of his hand. With a face still red, she closed her weapons and stashed them inside her purse.

"You going to keep up your end of the deal of the bet or not?" Vic leaned on the table with one hand. "You can't just walk away after our bet because you didn't like the outcome!"

Hualing reached into her purse. She wadded up a dollar bill and threw it into Vic's face. The crumpled bill bounced off his cheek and landed on the ground. "I'm going to tell Lorenzo." Vic bent over and picked up the wadded money while Quang walked past him and moved next to Hualing.

"Wait a second now. Let's talk about this for a minute," Quang said nervously.

"Sure. Let's just invite Lorenzo."

"Come on. Do you really thing Selene should lose a much-needed job because of what her friend did?"

"I don't want him coming in here ever again!" Hualing stomped one foot and pointed towards Vic. "He's rude. He's destructive. And... and... he's so arrogant!"

Vic remained too focus on unraveling his money to look back. "It was your foot that knocked down the poster and your fan that broke the glass!"

Hualing didn't turn to look at Vic. "We're done here." She stomped forward and entered the kitchen doors, letting them swing behind her. Quang turned around and looked at Vic who was straightening out the money he received by rubbing it against the edge of the table. He stopped what he was doing to look at an irked Quang.

"What?" he said with genuine confusion.

"What?" Quang replied mockingly. "Do you know what you and your big mouth have done?"