Corrie slammed her foot down. It passed straight through the floor and came out to Steven’s left, crashing into his side.

He grunted, then flung a shield at her head.

She dropped low, then shoved her hand into the wall.

Steven jumped back, expecting a punch from the walls.

Instead, he felt her grip tighten around his ankle.

He tried to pull his foot free, but it didn’t budge.

He didn’t know if it was a Skill enhancing her strength or just the enhancement from having passed the Second Threshold. Being in a coma for two weeks hadn’t given him the chance to really test their new limits.

But either way, her hand didn’t budge.

Steven fell back, and his focus sharpened.

This woman had fought like a snake, splitting them and coming at them when they weren’t ready.

Something’s flying at my back right now.

With an effort of Will, Steven called a Hand Shield under his right shoulder and pushed it straight up. The Shield slammed home and he tried to move with it.

His shield flung him towards the wall.

He felt something brush along his back, right where the center of his spine would’ve been a moment before.

He hit the wall and bounced off, rolling to his feet the moment he touched the ground.

The whole hallway glowed with a faint lavender light. He didn’t know if that meant the entire hallway was a portal or if she had a Skill or Augment that made them glow more, making it harder to tell what was safe and what wasn’t.

When he got to his feet, Corrie had vanished.

“Good Dodge. A lot of people aren’t equipped to block rebar to the back, but you didn’t even hesitate.”

With Micheal’s buff in effect, his side only ached faintly from her kick. It hadn’t been a weak blow, so that was comforting, at least.

If she could hit like Markus while coming in from anywhere, Steven wouldn’t have a prayer.

He turned in a slow circle, but there was no sign of the woman.

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A fist raced towards his eyes from the nearby wall, and he stumbled back. Immediately something crashed into his calves. He stumbled, a jolt of pain throbbing through his legs.

Steven jumped forward when another punch raced for his temple. He ducked it and tried to strike at her, but her fist retracted almost immediately.

Something crashed into the sole of his foot with shocking force. It lifted his leg uncomfortably high, and he began to overbalance.

From behind again!

He shoved a shield into his side, shoving him against the opposite wall, but he didn’t feel anything whiz past him this time.

“Good instincts! But you gotta mix it up.“ Something slammed into his side from the wall he was pressed against.

He gasped and jumped away from the wall. He looked down and felt queasy.

A small knife was driven half an inch into his side. It was no bigger than a Swiss Army knife, but it was in his side!

“Christ! What are you made of? You know knives aren’t supposed to stop halfway through stabbing someone.“ Corrie chuckled.

Steven sucked in a few deep breaths as panic started to rise up.

No! She wanted him to panic. She wanted him to flail about or try to run.

If he did that, she either had more portals to further disorient him, or he would be running away from his friends. He had no idea where he was in the mall. Hell, he might not even be in the mall!

Right now, he was keeping her attention. If she was fighting him, she wasn’t fighting his friends.

He couldn’t protect anyone if he ran.

His Class pulsed, and Steven sucked in a breath. His side burned with pain, but he didn’t pull the knife out. That would just make the bleeding worse.

He needed to be proactive. He couldn’t just keep responding to her moves.

How the hell were you supposed to fight someone who wasn’t even in the same room as you?

Steven paused. He had a tool he wasn’t using.

His Tower Shield wouldn’t do him any good. The ceiling was too low to call it, and if he summoned it on its side, it would hinder his own movements as much as hers.

His Anchor Shield was an option, but he wanted to save that for when he really needed it. Chances were he wouldn’t get to summon it more than once before this was over.

So, Steven reached out to the Hand Shields floating in the room.

He kept his eyes open as he connected to a shield behind his head.

He was trying to connect… Softly was the best word for it. Trying to spread his hearing out instead of switching it entirely to the shield.

Trying something this different in the middle of a fight was risky, but he didn’t have many options.

As he reached out to his shields, he could feel them all floating there, like limbs separated from his body, but still there, still just as much a part of him.

And he realized that some of them were to his left, in what should’ve been a wall.

What was – oh. OH.

Steven smiled. It wasn’t a way to hit Corrie, but it would certainly distract her.

Before Corrie could hit him again, Steven felt towards the distant shields, which his senses told him were a little over 15 feet away.

Then he called.