R3 inner ear + balance

Duck. Deflect. Block. Take a nick or two. Land a hit or two. One sword was in his hand, but the other was still at his waist. He was underestimating him. Let's see how he likes this, then. The next wide slash, Hale stepped forward and let the sword shove into his abdomen. Getting in close so he could jab a thumb into the Man's ear.

The eardrum, the inner ear apparatus, all that junk kept a person on balance, kept them from falling over themselves and puking. Hale forced a thumb like a piledriver right into his ear canal and twisted, pulled it out like popping a champagne cork with all the fizz and spillout. For a moment, the Man really looked disoriented. It brought a smile to Hale's face. Come on, take the other sword out. Dual-wield, go all out!

He pulled back the sword with a splatter of blood, but he did not draw his secondary blade. Instead, the Man jumped--sideways, a leap with absolutely no run-up, across the stairwell, kicking off the railing on the other side, propelling himself upward with extraordinary force. Was he trying to get away? No, he was trying to get to higher ground! He was moving to a more advantageous position!

Hey, this tactical stuff wasn't that bad. Maybe it wasn't so awful to use his brain every now and then. Only for fighting though.

[...]

Hale followed him. He wasn't about to be the guy in the inferior strategic position, after all. He jumped after him and gracefully leapfrogged from point to point, ascending upward rapidly. The Man was ahead of him, though. It was a tortoise and Achilles thing, the Man was in first place so Hale couldn't just catch up like that. He'd started afterwards, he was slower, he'd always be one step behind. Unless-?

Saxton spun in midair and kicked his shoe straight off his foot, launching it like a cannonball. It shot past the Man in midair and tore through the stairs he was about to land on, leaving him adrift in a field of quickly plummeting rubble. He was helpless. Enough that Saxton could shoot past him, climbing on the rocks and broken rebar pieces in midair like stepping stones, climbing up and up! With his balance shot to hell, there was no way he could navigate this treacherous terrain like Saxton could. He touched solid ground again, reaching the 30th floor landing.

[...]

"I'll admit, I underestimated you," the Man said, a smile pushing up the corners of his bushy 'stache. "Destroying my sense of balance before pushing me into an impossible test of agility? Against any other opponent, that might have worked. But I don't rely on my inner ear for directions, you see. That's why I have this." His pseudo-eye rolled around, lazily, as Hale struggled to his feet. And a strange, purple glow started to form around him.