*The half-giant just walks in and- stands there. Looking around, not sure what to do, is that a...monkey? Why is it green? What is it talking about? She barely understood him but it was enough. She was a bit weirded out but, she just decided to turn around and bend down to mess with some rocks. Playing with them with her fingers not really giving much attention to the monkey*

Zhen Wu's jaw, metaphorically of course (he was a monkey, after all, not some slack-jawed human), dropped. He blinked once. Twice. His tail, which had been swishing with eager anticipation, went still for a moment before giving a sharp, indignant flick.   "Eh?" he squawked, tilting his head so far it looked like it might roll off. "Hellooo? Big Lady? Mountain-Friend? Did you… did you not hear the Jade Monkey, jewel of Tian Xia, grace you with his magnificent presence?"   He watched, utterly perplexed, as Vanessa turned her considerable back to him and… fiddled with rocks? ROCKS?   A slow grin, utterly dripping with mischief, spread across Zhen Wu's furry face. This was even better than a straightforward fight! This was… an insult! A delightful, baffling insult!   "Hoo hoo hoo!" His laughter, sharper this time, bounced off the smooth walls. "Playing with pebbles, are we? Is that what big strong giants do before they get thrashed by someone a quarter their size? Practicing your… rock-stacking? Very intimidating! I'm shaking in my non-existent boots!"   He bounded off the dais in a blur of motion, landing silently on the packed earth. He didn't advance far, just enough to be clearly off his starting point, a predatory gleam in his eyes. He began a series of light, quick stretches, his limbs moving with impossible fluidity – a leg kicked high, a torso twist, a series of blurring hand movements.   "Or perhaps," he continued, his voice taking on a mock-sympathetic tone, "you're a bit scared? Is the thought of facing the Jade Monkey so terrifying you can't even bear to look? I understand. My sheer, unadulterated awesomeness can be a lot to take in all at once."   He crouched low, his knuckles brushing the dirt, tail lashing like a whip now. His playful demeanor was still there, but an undercurrent of focused energy, a dangerous readiness, began to radiate from him.   "Don't worry your big, rocky head about it!" he chirped, his voice suddenly right beside one of the low cover rocks, though he hadn't seemed to move that fast. He was now about thirty feet closer, already near the first cluster of stones, having darted forward with startling speed. "The game is about to start whether you're looking or not! And this monkey… this monkey plays for keeps!"   He gave a final, piercing whistle. "Ready or not, here I come, Stonehauler! Hope those pebbles taught you something useful!"

With a theatrical sigh that could rival a collapsing soufflé, Zhen Wu watched Vanessa continue her apparent deep contemplation of the arena's geology. His "Ready or not!" seemed to have vanished into the still air, unheeded.   "Still with the rocks?" he muttered, scratching his side. "Is there gold in there? A particularly shiny beetle? Honestly, some people have no sense of dramatic timing!"   Then, a spark lit his golden eyes. An idea, as brilliant and self-serving as any he'd ever had.   "Hmph. Fine!" he declared to the arena at large, mostly for Vanessa's benefit, though she still wasn't looking. "If you're going to take your sweet, stone-like time, then the magnificent Jade Monkey will simply… prepare!"   With a sudden, almost comical shift in demeanor, Zhen Wu plopped down right where he stood, a good thirty feet from his dais and near the low rocks. He crossed his legs in a perfect lotus – or as perfect as a monkey could manage with a tail to accommodate – and straightened his spine with an exaggeratedly serene expression. He even made a little oommm sound, though it was slightly off-key and ended in a stifled giggle.   He closed his eyes, his furry brow furrowed in mock-intense concentration. For a moment, he was surprisingly still, save for the almost imperceptible twitch of his tail tip. The playful energy that usually radiated from him seemed to draw inward, focusing.   A subtle shift occurred. The dim, overcast light seemed to catch the edges of his fur differently, a faint, almost metallic sheen hardening its appearance. His already wiry frame took on an even more resilient quality, as if his skin itself was toughening, becoming more like aged, flexible leather than simple hide. It wasn't a dramatic transformation, more like the air around him shimmering with condensed focus.   One eye popped open, glinting directly at Vanessa's still-turned back.   "Just getting a little… sturdier," he announced, his voice a low, smug drawl. "Wouldn't want to break a nail when I finally decide to bounce off that big head of yours. This, my dear Stonehauler, is what true preparation looks like. Feel free to take notes… if you can tear yourself away from your pet rocks, that is!"   He grinned, a flash of white teeth in the dim light, then closed his eye again, a picture of (utterly fake) tranquil focus, the subtle resilience of his Steel Skin clinging to him like a second, tougher hide. He was ready. And now, he was also a little bit harder to squish.

*Vanessa is still going to...continue to play with rocks. She turned her head to look at the monkey to see what he was doing, some kind of weird pose apparently, sitting down, she shrugs her shoulders. If Zhen Wu doesn't want to attack, that's fine with her. Neither does she really. Vanessa turns back to her rocks, just playing around, thumbing around the dirt. She misses home a good bit*

Zhen Wu's (fake) meditative trance lasted all of three seconds after he saw Vanessa shrug and turn back to her rocks. His serene expression crumpled like a discarded banana peel.   "SERIOUSLY?!" The shout was pure, unadulterated monkey indignation, echoing much louder than his previous taunts. The subtle sheen from his Steel Skin flickered for a moment as his focus was momentarily shattered by sheer disbelief.   He sprang to his feet, the picture of calm utterly gone. "You know what? Forget it! Forget the dramatic pauses! Forget the build-up! You want to play with rocks? Fine! The Jade Monkey will bring the earthquake!"   His tail lashed like an angry whip. He’d given her a chance. He’d even buffed himself up! And for what? To be ignored for a pile of inanimate objects! The sheer audacity!   "Alright, Miss 'I Love Pebbles More Than Primates'!" he snarled, though there was still a manic grin playing on his lips. "If you won't come to the party, the party will come bounding to you!"   With that, Zhen Wu became a blur. He didn't just run; he flowed. One moment he was near the low rocks, some 70 feet from Vanessa. The next, he was a streak of fur and baggy pants, covering the ground with the effortless grace of a jungle spirit. He ate up 40 feet of the distance between them in a heartbeat, the packed earth barely registering his passage.   He skidded to a halt, a mere 30 feet from the still-distracted goliath, kicking up a small puff of dust. He was well outside her immediate reach if she just stood there, but close enough now that ignoring him would require an almost superhuman level of dedication to her geological survey.   He struck a pose, one hand on his hip, the other pointing directly at Vanessa, his head cocked.   "Getting warmer, Stonehauler!" he chirped, his voice dripping with saccharine menace. "Next round, I think I'll get close enough to see if those rocks you're so fond of are actually more interesting than the lumps I'm about to raise on your head! Don't worry, I'll be quick! In, out, leave a little monkey magic behind! You might want to actually look up for that part!"   He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, a coiled spring of barely contained energy, his eyes fixed on her, already planning his next lightning-fast assault. The game was well and truly on, whether Vanessa was ready for it or not.

*Vanessa...was indeed...not ready. She wasn't done with her rock playing. How could he not understand the value of these rocks, these gifts from Gaia. She turned her head towards Zhen Wu as she still seemingly didn't care, 70 feet...30 feet. Why doesn't he just play with his own rocks? Is he stupid? She turned her head back again, she began to think of what she would do when she gets home, I still needs to find a unicorn, my dad would be so proud. I need to keep writing in my journal...Vanessa pulled out a book from her the back of her robes and began scribbling*

The sight of Vanessa, not just ignoring him for rocks, but now pulling out a BOOK and SCRIBBLING in it, was the final, gossamer-thin straw that snapped with the force of a catapult.   Zhen Wu’s jaw, which had been metaphorically on the floor, snapped shut. His golden eyes, wide with disbelief moments before, narrowed into fiery slits. The playful energy that usually danced around him condensed into a tight, vibrating knot of pure, unadulterated fury. This wasn't just being ignored; this was a level of disdain so profound it looped back around to being almost impressive, if it weren't so infuriatingly directed at him, the Jade Monkey!   "A BOOK?!" His voice was a choked, incredulous whisper that somehow still carried the weight of an impending explosion. "She pulls out a... a treatise on sedimentary layers while the Jade Monkey offers her the dance of a lifetime?! Oh, that is IT!"   The air around him practically crackled. Gone was the taunting. Gone was the playful bouncing. This was business.   With a soundless explosion of movement, Zhen Wu launched himself forward. He didn't run; he became a verdant blur, a streak of green and brown against the packed earth. He covered the first fifteen feet in a blink, his form low and coiled. Then, in the very next instant, he was on her.   He didn't slow. He didn't pause. As he streaked past Vanessa’s oblivious, book-reading side, he uncoiled like a striking viper. There was a sharp CRACK! – not of stone, but of a perfectly aimed open-hand strike connecting with something solid, perhaps a shoulder or the side of her head, delivered with the full momentum of his charge. It was too fast for a drawn-out flurry, just one precise, impactful blow designed to rattle more than just her concentration.   "Maybe highlight THIS in your notes, rock-lover!" he snarled, the words a gust of wind as he was already moving, using the remaining impetus of his Mobile Striker feat. He didn't stop, didn't wait for a reaction. He flowed past her, another fifteen feet, putting him neatly on her other side, further into the arena, his back now momentarily to her as he completed his movement.   He spun around, a grin that was all teeth and no humor plastered on his face, now a good ten feet behind where Vanessa had been peacefully engrossed in her literature. He was breathing a little harder, but his eyes danced with a wild, manic light.   "How's that for an annotation, eh? Next chapter might be a bit more... interactive!"

Zhen Wu landed lightly on the balls of his feet, ten feet past Vanessa, spinning to face her with a predatory, expectant grin. The sharp crack of his strike still hung in the air. He waited. And waited.   Vanessa… didn't even flinch. Didn't rub the spot he'd hit. Didn't look up from her damn book. If anything, her scribbling might have paused for a nanosecond before resuming its placid rhythm.   The manic light in Zhen Wu's eyes flickered, then dimmed, replaced by a profound, almost cosmic level of bafflement, which quickly curdled into utter, unadulterated boredom. His shoulders slumped. His tail, which had been lashing with excited anticipation, drooped.   He stared. Just stared. The silence in the arena stretched, broken only by the faint scratching of Vanessa's quill.   Finally, Zhen Wu let out a long, drawn-out sigh that seemed to deflate him entirely. He ran a hand over his face, ruffling his fur.   "Nope," he said, his voice flat, all the previous fire gone. "Nope, nope, nope. I can't. I just... can't."   He took a few steps back, putting more distance between himself and the engrossed goliath. He looked around the arena, at the smooth walls, the grey sky, then back at Vanessa, who might as well have been a particularly large, uninteresting rock herself at this point.   "You know," he said, his voice regaining a sliver of its usual theatricality, but now tinged with an immense weariness, "I've fought grumpy swamp beasts with more get-up-and-go. I've had more stimulating staring contests with particularly stubborn mangoes."   He spread his hands wide in a gesture of complete surrender to the absurdity of it all. "The Jade Monkey," he announced, mostly to the empty air, "craves challenge! Excitement! A foe who, at the very least, acknowledges his impending awesomeness by, oh, I don't know, looking up from their homework!"   He shook his head, a small, sad smile playing on his lips. "This? This isn't a proving ground. This is a library with really poor lighting. And you, my dear Stonehauler, are clearly deep in the research phase."   He turned his back on her, not with a dramatic flourish, but with the air of someone leaving a particularly dull party early.   "I forfeit!" he called out, not even bothering to see if anyone official was listening. "This… specimen… is a colossal waste of my prodigious talents. I'm going to find a tree. A challenging tree. Maybe one with particularly aggressive squirrels. It'll be more fun than this."   With a final, dismissive wave of his hand over his shoulder, not even deigning to look back, Zhen Wu began to saunter towards the edge of the arena, already plotting his escape from this monument to tedium. The Proving Grounds had failed to provide. And Vanessa, the Stonehauler, had proven only one thing: she was incredibly good at ignoring hyperactive, world-class monkey monks.