The crowd surged forward, dozens of them at once, and Jin planted his feet as the first wave broke toward him.
Nobody swung a weapon. That much was immediately clear once bodies actually started moving. A man in the front sprinted at him with his bare hands glowing faint orange at the knuckles, heat shimmering off his skin before he'd even closed half the distance. Behind him, a woman pressed her palm flat against the tile floor, green light pulsing from her fingers.
Jin let the staff extend with a soft click, the shaft stretching just enough to catch the fire user's leading foot and send him stumbling sideways before the punch ever landed. The man caught himself against a table, breathing hard, staring at his own hands like he'd forgotten how close he'd actually gotten.
"Not bad," Jin said. "Try it again, but don't telegraph the wind-up."
The man blinked, clearly not expecting instruction in the middle of getting knocked off balance, then nodded and reset his stance.
