“…Resh it, Cadence. I’d think you were tryin’ to flatter me, if ye had an ounce of flattery in you.” She folded her arms.
“I just don’t want you to think I’m targeting you unfairly or something, Mara. I remember when--”
Marissa waved her hands dismissively. “Didn’t know you then, Corin. I get you now. Yer gonna to try to win however you can. It ain’t personal. I get it.” She offered me a hand. “I won’t be going easy, either.”
I clasped her hand. “…You could go a little easy?”
She laughed. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Patrick and Sera seemed to be having a similar conversation, but I couldn’t hear all of it, because Sera was whispering. Patrick’s replies were clear enough. “I won’t throw the match, I promise!”
After that, Sera went over to Teft and pulled him to the side to whisper something to him. That was unusual, but I didn’t have time to worry about it. If she needed help, she’d ask me.
Mara and I spent another minute getting back to our stretches, then we walked over to the ring.
It’s the same as yesterday. Six different active settings on the tiles this time, rather than five like before. No middle of the night alterations that I can see. At least, no obvious ones.
Good.
Our five minutes were up shortly thereafter.
We were the first pair sent into the ring.
I felt a wave of trepidation as Mara and I walked down the steps.
Teft gave us the sigil monitors to attach to our shield sigils when we reached the bottom. We fastened them on as Teft walked away.
We turned our gazes back to each other. There was a shared feeling of anxiousness and trepidation.
“Best luck,” I offered.
“Goddess be with ye,” she gave in solemn reply.
Equally meaningless platitudes. We would win or lose this on our own.
We headed to opposite sides of the arena.
This was not what I’d hoped for on a number of levels.
First, I had wanted as much time to observe the ring as possible. If there had been another match first, I could have confirmed what I’d seen during the setup of the arena.
I tried to console myself with the knowledge that going first was actually to my advantage; if we’d both observed a prior match, Mara would have probably gotten more new information out of it than I would have. I already had a pretty good idea of what we’d be dealing with today.
“Pretty good” was just never good enough for me. I disliked uncertainty, and I’d be uncertain until the match started.
Second, I probably couldn’t beat Mara in a straight fight. Flattery had nothing to do with that; it was an honest assessment. I had two attunements, but neither of them was built for straight combat, and she’d received extra power straight from Katashi. Her total mana to work with was still greater than mine, if only by a small margin.
If I had Selys-Lyann, at least I would have had a reach advantage, but we still weren’t allowed to use any weapons other than standard dueling canes. Melee combat was probably my best bet against most fighters, but against Marissa, I couldn’t count on winning that way.
Third, and worst of all…even if I won, that meant that Marissa lost a match. I didn’t know how badly that would impact our scores. Based on the last match, it seemed like performance was a factor even for the winners, so I hoped that we’d both just be able to make a good fight of it.
That meant that my “win” condition was harder than just winning the match outright. I needed to win, put up a good fight, and make sure Marissa had a chance to show off as well.
Unfortunately, that took one of my best tools right out of the equation.
No matter. I had others.
I was prepared this time.
“Bow to your opponent.”
We bowed. Marissa looked nervous, but determined.
“Begin!”
Marissa rushed forward, just as I’d expected.
I reached into the bag at my side, watching her.
As Marissa hit the red square in front of her, the ground below her erupted with a burst of light. I expected it to badly damage her barrier, as it would have last time.
That didn’t happen.
She was moving so fast that the light barely glanced her — and the portion that hit her didn’t deal any noticeable damage.
It should have.
I activated my attunement, and I took a step back when I saw what she’d done.
Normally, a shroud started at the skin and extended a few inches outward. Barriers generated by most magic, including shield sigils, were further out. They were designed to take damage first to protect the wearer from suffering any injuries.
Mara had reversed that relationship. Her shroud was massive, stretched out in all directions from her body. That meant anything that wanted to damage her barrier had to get through her shroud first.
And she had a lot of shroud to get through.
I couldn’t hope to match that degree of shroud control. Guardians were specialists, after all.
Instead, I reached into my bag and pulled out the first device I’d prepared.
Last time, I’d considered disabling my sigil monitor, but that had the risk of activating it by accident. That risk still existed, so I did something a little different. The monitor itself had inspired me.
I clipped a second device to my shield sigil.
It wouldn’t disable the monitor, but now, I had a second mana supply feeding into my shield. It would be a lot tougher to break.
Marissa hit the next square, then the next, and then a third.
Blue. A flash of shield recharging energy.
Green. A plume of smoke erupted from the ground, enveloping the square in an instant.
Yellow. A wave of frost shot upward, encompassing her legs. It was this match’s replacement for the vines, serving the function of slowing someone down.
With those tiles active, I knew the pattern. I knew how to proceed.
While Marissa ducked down to smash the ice, I pulled out another device. It was a bronze sphere etched with six runes, each one matching a color on the floor.
I put my thumb on the red one and concentrated, sending a flare of mana into it.
Then I sent another surge of mana into the runes that were carved into the bottoms of my boots.
Cautiously, I took a step back.
The square behind me, which had been green, turned to purple.
Perfect.
The dueling cane on my belt began to glow.
I stuck the now-active sphere back in my bag, drew my dueling cane, and opened fire.
Marissa noticed immediately, smashing the charged spheres out of the air without effort.
That was fine.
I took another step back.
Once again, the tile beneath me changed to purple.
Marissa must have noticed, but she didn’t comment.
Instead, she ducked, deflected one of my spheres, and swung her hand down.
It was charged with a cutting aura, and she’d been practicing. She sliced the red tile in front of her out of the floor in seconds.
Not good.
As she lifted it, I fired another blast from my cane, but she just moved the square out of the way.
The tile flickered with energy as she leveled it in my direction.
She’d used the same tactic last time, and I’d expected it, but that didn’t mean a blast of light was easy to dodge.
If I’d mastered Haste, maybe I would have chanced it. But I was far from even managing a beginner level of the spell.
Instead, I pulled a hand mirror out of my bag and held it out in front of me like a shield.