Prana Vision showed what had happened—the warrior had flooded every inch of his body with Earth Affinity prana. Like Toughen, but which affected his entire body, making him far sturdier.
Bulwark. Riyan had mentioned it offhand once. Another Talent that consumed an enormous amount of prana.
Vir processed all of this in the split second after his attack was nullified.
He immediately followed up with an Empowered toe blade, but the man’s shield was there to meet him. Blow after blow, they fought, neither side gaining an advantage—a stalemate.
But Vir knew well who would win a battle of attrition. His opponent had an ocean of prana to draw from. Vir did not.
Slowly, Vir lost ground, being pushed closer and closer to the petrified tree that reigned at the center of the arena.
It was just a split second. The barest distraction, but his opponent took it. When Vir looked behind him to avoid hitting the tree, the warrior pummeled him with an Empowered punch.
Vir flew back at tremendous speed. Right at the tree.
His ribcage shuddered, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe.
But instead of crashing into the tree, he disappeared into its shadow. If he couldn’t breathe, he might as well flee to a realm where he didn’t have to.
Vir used up five seconds to regain his composure. Then he looked at the warrior, arm still extended.
Bet you weren’t expecting this!
Vir jumped out from the man’s shadow behind him, Leaping as he emerged. His Empowered katar struck the back of the man’s helm with immense force, disorienting the man for a split second.
Vir launched into a flurry of attacks, trying to slip his blade into a gap in the man’s armor. But in combat, such feats were easier said than done.
His opponent turned, and they were back to square one, trading blow for blow.
While Micro Leap allowed Vir to bypass the previously tricky shield, he still couldn’t do damage. His hacked together Empower might have given him the strength and speed to bypass normal armor, but against Bulwark, Vir’s attacks had no effect at all.
Let’s change the game.
To win this, he needed something more. He needed one of the tricks up his sleeve. Tricks he’d spent the past many months honing to perfection.
He’d already shown his trump card, but there was another element to Dance. One that his opponent had no inkling about. A property that, when properly leveraged, would allow Vir to win with ease.
He charged Dance, sucking prana from his feet into his legs… but this time, he deferred its activation.
The warrior swiped at Vir’s legs with a speed he hadn’t seen from the man before, forcing Vir to jump. But his jump wasn’t an ordinary one. It was a High Jump. Ordinarily a terrible move to use during combat, but this time was a little different.
He threw out a chakram, preventing his opponent from striking him. Aided by gravity, the disk hurtled silently through the air, but the man dodged.
Leap or Haste? he wondered as he sailed high into the air.
Vir lobbed chakram and chakri one after another as they fell, but each missed their mark.
Haste, then. And possibly Preternatural Grace as well. Both Talents would prove problematic if his ploy didn’t work.
Better make it work, then, Vir thought as he reached the apex of his jump, hanging for a moment before falling back to the earth.
He took a deep breath as he picked up speed, hurtling downward.
It had taken him an enormous amount of pain and grit to perfect this move, and even now, it gave him the jitters. He’d nearly broken his neck more than a few times, requiring Riyan’s immediate aid.
The ground rushed up closer and closer. Vir forced himself to keep his eyes open—timing was everything for this move. Even a slight miscalculation would end in a painful fall.
His opponent braced for Vir’s impending attack.
Vir straightened his legs and, leveraging the prana he’d sucked into his body earlier, disappeared into the ground.
Dance of the Shadow Demon activated a split second before the force wrecked his body, welcoming him again into the shadow realm. Even so, the maneuver wasn’t without great pain. Even pre-charged it took a fraction of a moment to activate, transmitting some of the impact directly into his bones.
But pain was a small price to pay for victory.
From deep within the time-frozen shadows, he regained his composure and took his full ten counts to select the perfect exit.
Vir had spent a great deal of time experimenting with Dance of the Shadow Demon over the past months. In that time, he’d learned that the ability was far more versatile than he’d initially thought. Like how the momentum he carried into the shadow came out with him when he left it.
The uses of such an ability were nearly endless, but here, it allowed him to attack with a level of force no armor could resist. When matched with the inherent thrusting strength of the katar, even the gods couldn’t have created a more ideal pairing.
Vir leaped from his opponent’s shadow, thrusting upward with the full force of his falling momentum behind him… and drove his blade right into the armor protecting the man’s crotch.
He held back, of course, deflecting the blade such that it didn’t pierce through, but even then, the man was sent hurtling upward.
While his opponent sailed, Vir charged Leap.
He met his enemy in the air, driving his katar into the man’s breastplate. Again, he held back, opting to undercharge the Talent. Instead of penetrating the man’s armor, Vir’s attack sent the man sprawling onto the ground.
Not sprawling, Vir observed. Whether intentional or instinctual, the man’s true abilities manifested for an instant as he rolled to dissipate the impact.
But Vir was on him before he could recover. He charged into the man just as he righted himself, taking them both to the ground in a repeat of their previous duel.
And in a single swift movement, Vir slid his katar through his opponent’s eye slit.
“I yield,” the man sputtered, winded.
Silence stretched between them until it was broken by the Kin’jal proctor.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
“Now that is a performance I’ve not seen in a long time,” said the Kin’jali proctor. “You do realize that one does not generally best their opponent in a Balarian Ranking exam, yes?”
“No,” Vir said, “he held back.”
“And of course he did! What candidate could hope to best a Balar 150 warrior? His task was to match your abilities, then push you slightly to test your limits. You should know that it is rare for these duels to result in a stalemate, let alone a loss for the proctor!”
“O-oh,” Vir replied as he sat back, letting the adrenaline wash over him. Yesss!
“Now,” the proctor said with a grin, his eyes dancing with the reflected light of the Magic Candles, “let us discuss your performance.”
74PRANA RAT EXTERMINATOR
“You have acquitted yourself admirably, Apramor,” the Kin’jal proctor said. “Your tactics befit your weapon choice and martial style, and you adapt to your enemy during combat. A crucial trait shared by all powerful warriors.”
Vir gulped. But? There’s always a but…
“It is clear that you have training in some very exotic arts. But it is your Talents that shine the most. Leap and High Jump are common amongst Talent wielders, but I have yet to see anyone master Shadow Blend and Shadow Movement to such an extent. Indeed, I must wonder whether this is some new undiscovered Talent?”