Fighting with Adeptry, I had learned, was all about lateral thinking.

Adepts could drag things into reality at the literal speed of thought. When you were in the heat of battle, everything became about who could fight smarter. Adeptry opened up myriad possibilities - who was better used to the grooves in their own mind to give them that edge? Who could materialise better, faster, thinking about orientation, composition, strategic positioning, and stretch their mind to the limit in a dozen different ways?

It was no wonder that counter-Adeptry came down to three things - hitting fast, hard, and knowing when to flee. Disorient an Adept hard enough, and it wouldn't matter that they could practically play God within their range - the limits of their own reaction time and reflexes would be their own undoing. It was the same, I knew, when fighting with Adeptry - the unexpected always had the advantage.

Facing the two aliens in front of me, my mind ran through hundreds of strategic possibilities. The timing of when to attack, the terrain I used to my advantage. I considered the abilities of my opponents - an Adept Vorak and a Casti - both lethal opponents in their own rights, but the rak would be harder to take care of. Then my thoughts settled, and I knew with calm certainity - I could take them. They probably knew it just as well too.

Which is why I decided to take a lesson from my counter-Adept friends, and decided to flee instead. I materialised a kinetic bomb beneath my feet, into the loose lunar regolith, and jumped away.

Almost as if in slow motion, I could see them beginning to react to my materialisation. The Casti leapt to the side, clearly having expected some kind of direct attack. As they avoided the spray of gravel aimed at their faces, they snapped up their gun to their visor, ready to send a burst of bullets hurling towards my suit. I smoothly materialised a rocket knife below them - it propelled upwards, slamming into the gun and rendering it into a useless piece of metal. Probably not for long, though - their Adept friend would probably make a new one.

I did not wait for them to turn into a liability again. My rocket knives once more did the trick, this time opening a hole in their suit and exposing them to the void.

My eyes flicked to the Vorak, who after evading my initial attack had taken the time to materialise two long tendrils attatched to their suit. They were prehensile - probably biological.

As the combination of lunar gravity and the force of my explosion carried me away from them, I twisted mid-air and used my momentum to flee. I began taking large, bounding leaps, pushing off the rocky surface each time, the most efficient way to run in the reduced gravity. I twisted again, orienting myself rowards the nearby colony's dome.

As I turned, I saw that my assailant had begun to give chase, using their tentacles to propel themselves off the floor. Shit. If I wasn't quick about it, they'd probably materialise a gun of their own and shoot me in the back before I could do a thing about it. We were in open terrain, with nothing to hunker down behind, and the nearest cover was a few hundred meters away.

So I pulled the oldest trick in the book.

As I ran, I materialised a slick fluid behind me - I imagined something like oil, only less viscous and very transparent, and let it spread. My timing was perfect - the rak's feet caught the edge of the liquid and began to slip - only for his tentacles to react and fling him across the little pool I had made.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Sighing, I dematerialised the slippery liquid and propelled myself faster with jets of materialised gas. Very quickly, I had reached the physical dome, as had the Adept behind me. We ascended the metal surface rapidly - I using my jets to rapidly kick off the surface, while they used their tentacles to stay mobile and fling themselves from structural feature to feature. All the while, we hurled attacks at each other - I sent clusters of kinetic bombs and rocket knives at them, while they deflected, dodged and counterattacked variously. They variously threw javelins and exotic substances at my head, materialising what appeared to be spikes of from the ground to maneuver me into a better position.

I decided that it was time to stop moving away. Abruptly, I reversed the direction of my movement with a jet, materialising a flashbang in my hand as I did so. As I careened imprecisely towards the Vorak's position, I hurled the bright explosive towards their helmet. If we were in an atmosphere, it would have probably hit with a satisfying 'thunk'.

They bought up their tentacles to deflect, which by now had grown to a number of four. However, instead of being pushed away like I had expected, the tendrils simply swiped through the materialised mass and rended it apart.

I was now close enough to see their face through the transparent visor, their tri-slit eyes tracking my every movement. Adeptry was about the unexpected, and I had to end this fight fast - it had dragged on for enough time. The longer this fight continued, the more unpredictable it would get as we started to materialise things beyond either of our controls.

I landed a few meters away from the alien, then rolled to the side to dodge a vicious spike. I sprouted a spike of metallic material back at them in response, which they ignored by slicing it apart with their tentacles.

Good to know they could cut through metal.

I knew that this fight had dragged on for more than a few minutes now, though most of it was spent running. More than enough time for my partners to have freed the humans - Nai would have gone through the resistance like knife through butter. I had avoided using psionics to avoid tipping their hand - our time in Cammo Caddo had shown us that we might not be the only ones with a psionic advantage, and though I had sensed none from these outlaws, we stayed away from it just to be on the safe side.

It was enough time that I decided it was probably safe enough to start using them again.

I said,

he grumpily corrected, before acknowledging my request.

Adeptry is about the unexpected. Which is why I decided to bring in the most unexpected element of all.

Beneath the starless void - there was no atmosphere, but the direct sunlight drowned out all of the stars - could be seen a tiny Casti shaped speck approaching from afar. As the speck got closer, the form rippled, slowly getting bigger. One could be mistaken for assuming that it was simply the figure getting closer, but that was quickly not revealed to be the case - the Casti elongated, then started expanding in all directions to morph into a more circular type of being. One round and rocky, being of such immense size that my eyes could barely stand to take it all. In its centre there was a hole sunk into it, filled with a gravity core forged with Adeptry and exotic matter.

He loomed above us, a titanic behemoth stretching for many miles to either side. My friend, the orbital station and the first Casti Adept-Cultivator, Korbanok.

With a single movement that conveyed what I could only describe as all-consuming shock, my Adept enemy collapsed to their knees. Was it awe or fear? I could never tell with Vorak body language. I shoved a psionic tranciever into their mind, and they reeled back for a few seconds before grasping how to use it.

they uttered, trembling.

, I said, a smile growing on my face. On the surface of Korbanok, Neigh beamed and waved back at us.

Then we rescued all the humans and got out of there, because a giant orbital station appearing over a lunar colony of outlaws was bound to attract attention somehow. Ase Tenharu Serralinitus was very pleased that we had accomplished our mission, but had some choice words for us.

"Kaleb pls be more careful, u are so awesome but there was no need to show off!!!!" said Ase Tenharu Serralinitus.

"Ok Ase Tenharu Serralinitus! I will listen to your advice!.!.!"

And so we all left the colony and live happily ever after.