The clone was losing.
Not badly, but still losing.
Kaelith had moved first. She spoke a single word — her personal trigger for Time Law — and the fractional delays began stacking. The clone's strikes landed half a beat late. His reads on her position were slightly off. Small margins and accumulating fast.
She flew low across the volcanic rock at speeds that made her form blur into a streak of white and silver, changing direction mid-flight with Space Law bending the distance between coordinates so the path she took bore no relationship to the path she appeared to take. The clone tracked her with his senses but his predictions were wrong every time, his combat experience insufficient against someone who had spent decades learning exactly how to fight with these tools.
She came in from his left at roughly 15% light speed, Ice Law already active, the temperature around her fist dropping to absolute zero before impact. She hit him square in the ribs.
