The blast lashed out, crashing right into me. Part of it hit the mirror, of course, but not much.
My barrier cracked, but only a little.
Marissa glanced at the mirror, looking worried.
I grinned.
“Won’t beat me with a tactic you’ve used before.” I waved the mirror at her. “I prepared.”
While I was talking, I shaped my mana, pouring it into recharging the shield sigil as quickly as I could. The backup sigil I’d attached to it was already helping, too.
Marissa tossed the square aside. “Guess I’ll need to use a few new tricks, then.”
She stepped into the empty space where the square had been and took out her own dueling cane. That was unusual, since she rarely used it, and frankly, it wasn’t her strength.
I put away the mirror, trying not to show my relief.
By now, my sphere was almost charged.
I fired a few more blasts from my cane, hoping to buy more time. Marissa parried them, as I’d expected, and returned fire.
I ignited the blade on my cane and smashed it into her attack, intending to deflect the sphere out of the way like I’d done a hundred times before.
The blast ripped the dueling cane right out of my hands.
I blinked.
She fired again, grinning.
What was that?
I threw myself to the side, avoiding the shot, but I was still stunned. She wasn’t on a purple square like I was — her cane shots should have been weaker than mine.
But the amount of force that she’d managed in a single shot had been colossal. If it had hit me directly, it would have cracked my shields badly, and probably thrown me back for good measure.
Her cane was an ordinary one, the same as mine, no special attachments.
But then I remembered —
I’d done something similar, once before.
Against her.
She’d stolen my technique.
She was overcharging her cane.
And she was better at it than I was.
I broke into a run, barely avoiding her shots. I rushed to grab my fallen dueling cane, but she blasted it before I got there, knocking it back further.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about the floor. Every single tile I touched was turning to purple as long as I stood on it, thanks to the runes on my boots. They would revert to the normal color a few seconds after I stepped away, preventing me from leaving a trail of safe tiles.
Marissa’s shots slowed down. That wasn’t a good thing; she was aiming ahead of me now, anticipating my movements.
I couldn’t keep this up. Eventually, she’d hit me, and I wasn’t doing anything to fight back.
As I ran, I charged transference mana in my right hand.
One second.
Another sphere burst right in front of me. I turned toward Marissa.
Two seconds.
I began to rush toward her, rather than away.
Three seconds.
Marissa took a step back out of reflex, but leveled her cane for another shot.
Four seconds.
I closed a bit of distance, but not enough.
Five seconds.
My hand was beginning to tremble. I had enough mana to strike, but I was still out of range.
Six seconds.
Marissa fired another blast at me.
Seven seconds.
I raised my hand, aimed, and fired.
The blast of mana ripped out of my hand and hit the sphere dead on.
Like deflects like, opposites nullify.
Teft had taught us that rule.
She’d charged her sphere with enhancement mana, the direct opposite of transference.
If they were equally strong, they’d cancel each other out.
But she’d only been charging her cane for a second at a time.
My blast ripped right through the center of Marissa’s sphere and smashed into her, knocking her back a dozen feet.
It was weaker after passing through the sphere — the enhancement mana inside had, in fact, nullified some of my attack — but not much.
I saw Marissa momentarily clutching her chest as she steadied herself. Her shield had been cracked, but I couldn’t tell how much.
My hand was throbbing. I’d charged it more than five seconds, which I knew was my safe limit.
But safety wasn’t a priority right now. Winning was.
Again.
One second.
Energy began to build in my fingers.
Marissa rushed toward me as a blur, faster than I’d thought possible. She was triggering squares with nearly every step, but she moved so fast that they didn’t have time to take effect.
Two seconds.
She’d almost closed the distance between us, and my attack was far from ready.
Three seconds.
She readied a swing.
I tilted my feet and activated the ring of jumping, blasting myself backward across the floor.
Four seconds.
Her swing met open air, but she kept moving, chasing me.
Five seconds.
She was nearly atop me again.
I swung my hand at her chest and released the blast.
She smashed my arm out of the way with her own, sending the attack harmlessly off to the side.
That’s bad.
Her fist slammed into my face. A flare of agony surged through me, and I felt a swell of blood pour down my nose.
I coughed, and she hit me again, this time in the ribs. The barriers and shroud were both slowing her strikes, but not stopping them. Neither was very effective against pure kinetic force.
I’d been warned about that, but I hadn’t solved it.
I managed to get my arm up in time to stop the next hit, but the pain from her two hits was stopping me from doing much else.
Fortunately, I was wearing the ring of regeneration, and that was already working to get my body functional again.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t working as fast as she could punch me.
In a moment of instinct, I managed to activate my ring of jumping again, pushing myself backward to buy some distance. She pursued, but that moment was enough for me to spit out some of the blood that had trickled into my mouth and raise my hands into a guard stance.
When she swung, I side-stepped and punched her back with an instantaneous flare of transference mana. I connected with her shoulder, cracking her shield and making her flinch for just a moment.
I took another step back, moving to a sideways dueling stance.
I wasn’t a Guardian, but I certainly wasn’t untrained at hand-to-hand.
Just that moment of slowing her down meant that she was now standing still long enough for the square below her to kick in.
Unfortunately for me, it was blue. A mana recharging square.
I couldn’t let her stay there.
She seemed to realize the same, and she took a step back, to the edge of the square. She adjusted her footing, looking for openings to hit me again.
While it was tempting to back off and let my injuries heal, I had arrested her momentum, and any sign of weakness would encourage her to pursue. I couldn’t afford that.
Her next attack was a probing jab, which I dodged easily, followed by a sweep toward my feet.
I hopped over it, landed, and flooded my limbs with transference mana.
I’d used a rudimentary Haste spell, one I could barely control. I couldn’t use it to dodge attacks more effectively like I’d originally planned on.