I may have set foot back into the ring but that doesn’t mean anything has really changed. Looking at Zhaz Morrowolf now, as he rests his hands on the pommel of his sword while waiting, the situation is just as grim. None of my spells or techniques have had any effect on him. Most elements worked as well as any other — which is to say, they all did squat — and he still has a number of skills ready to counter bigger spells. Not to mention those cost too much mana for me to spam in the first place.

As for my condition: there’s a dull ache in my rib cage from his slash, which reminds me to thank Van later for the extra protection he installed on this armor. The side of my head is still tender from getting hit there. And I really don’t want to get stabbed again.

With the level of finesse Zhaz displayed with his sword earlier, I don’t think even consecutive Wind Bursts would be able to do me much good in close combat.

Think, D0n, think! There’s got to be something I can do. Something he won’t expect.

Suddenly I remember the discovery I made at the end of my fight with Bufo. That it’s possible to blend mana in the body to get stronger results. The problem is that I only just realized it’s possible to begin with and there’s no obvious hints for what the properties are for certain blends. Plus it not only takes a good amount of mana to use but I have to be fairly deliberate about it too. Maybe if I—

“Ahem.”

I look up and see Mr. Lopez coughing into his hand. He is giving me a very pointed look and I realize I’ve been spacing out while this fight is still technically ongoing. Zhaz is holding back a chuckle and readies himself into a defensive stance again. It looks like he’s waiting to see what I come up with.

Damn it. There’s a worm of an idea in my head, but I’m lacking too much information and not enough time to prepare. I doubt they’re just gonna let me sit in the corner and experiment. Well Zhaz might, but Mr. Lopez sure won’t.

If I could find a way to buy myself that time though… then something might change. Looking around the width of the ring, there might be a way to do just that. But the method for it feels a little… scummy.

The tip of the paladin’s sword traces lazy circles at his side. His shield is held up high, so that only his eyes are peeking above it. They look completely focused. There's no room in them for hesitation.

I roll my shoulders to loosen my stiff muscles and reach into my core. I pull out mana through my metal point and lodge it into my right hand, and cut it off. I pull some more mana through my earth point and fill up my left hand; I cut that connection off as well. I do the same thing with enough light mana to fill up my left foot.

I raise both of my hands into a fighting stance.

That same sense of tension spreads between us again. I look around the whole of the ring, taking note that Zhaz is standing in the very center. One deep breath, and then I bolt to my right, running along the edge of the ring.

First things first: I need to see if I can control how much mana gets taken while blending it. I pull water mana down to my left leg and spiral it in a counter-clockwise motion. In my head I focus on the image of only scraping a little bit of the pooled light mana away. I stop running long enough to turn and throw a kick at the paladin; with that move I launch a voiceless Waterball spell before continuing to run.

It ended up absorbing a little more light mana than I wanted, but I’m definitely able to limit how much mana blends into the water; there's still a good chunk of light mana in my left foot. The mana that did get taken makes the Waterball glow softly while flying through the air.

The paladin effortlessly slices it apart. But I got the information I wanted.

Now for the next test: I pull out more water mana to my right shoulder and spin it in a counter-clockwise motion. This time I focus strongly on the image of taking away all of the metal mana in my hand.

It works! It causes a gray tinted Waterball — much larger in size than that of the normal spell — to fly out.

I don't know if Zhaz was expecting it or if his instincts are just that polished, but this time the paladin plants his feet and blocks my spell with his shield. It confirms what I saw in my fight against Bufo: that adding metal mana to water makes it more dense and gives it more attack damage.

I've now ran around to the opposite side of the ring, hovering by the exposed edge. I can see the crowd and the referee, Mr. Lopez, standing behind Zhaz, who still hasn’t moved.

I pull more water mana to my left shoulder and spin it in the familiar counter clockwise motion. I've performed all the basic spells Voicelessly so many times that I don't really have to think about it to pull them off anymore. So instead I remember what the metal infused Waterball looked like and use it as comparison. A light brown tinted Waterball flies out aimed at the paladin’s chest. It still has a good amount of force to it but it's clearly flying slower than the previous versions of the spell.

Bingo!

I knew something felt weird when I had used earth blended spells before. The addition of earth mana can make a spell sturdier, but it also has the side effect of making it slower.

I wish I could really take my time to be sure about this property. But if I’m right, then this plan might actually have a chance at working.

Despite how happy I am with the results of my test, it doesn’t change the reality that Zhaz doesn’t even flinch when he blocks it.

“You know D0n, I must say, I do respect your desire to learn. But a serious fight isn’t really the place to play around like this.

“Holy Blade.”

Zhaz swings his sword horizontally across his body with a grunt, causing a glowing green slash to fly out of his sword.

The skill Holy Blade comes flying at me. Even though I’ve already experienced it once before, damn if it doesn’t come at you quick.

With a yell I throw myself to the ground and scramble off the ring. The energy slash harmlessly flies away, over my cowering head as I’m hiding behind the stone edge of the ring.

… in other words, I ran away in fear and hid like a coward.

“Sigh… Mr. D0n this is the second time you have fled the stage to avoid combat.” Says Mr. Lopez. “If you exit the stage one more time I will count it as your loss. Either forfeit the match or keep fighting.”

“Hahaha, sorry. My body kind of moved on its own. Those things are pretty scary when they’re flying at you.”

…

Not one response.

In fact, everyone is looking at me in disappointment after seeing how I ran away just now. Even Zhaz has a frown on his face as he looks down at me.

Yikes! This is so embarrassing! It’s not like I have much choice though, I'm already grasping at straws here as it is.

I move slowly, pretending to fiddle with my potion pack. While I'm doing that, I move some dark mana and pack it so that it fills up all of the fingers on my right hand. Then I pull on a fresh Metal Cloak. I don’t want any physical movement to give my actions away, so I very carefully move the mana along my arm and splinter it in the way required to perform a voiceless Metal Needle. As the spell activates, I imagine taking all of the dark mana with it. I shoot the needles into the dirt so that they're hidden by the edge of the ring. I have no way of testing how effecting the poison attribute will be on these but they’re packed to the brim with blended dark mana. There’s even a purplish tint to the needles.

“Quit your stalling and get back on the stage!”

“Sorry, sorry.”

I pull the needles out of the dirt and hide them with the back of my hand. At the same time I grab a mana pill and eat it. My health bar turns a light red and starts to chip away slowly from mana poisoning.

No backing out now. It doesn’t matter if this way of buying time is cheap or not. As long as I can force an opportunity I know there’ll be something I can do. So don’t let me down Zhaz. Make sure your reactions are as polished as I think they are.

As I get back on the stage I tuck the poisoned metal needles into the back of my belt. At the same time I take all of the metal mana currently in my right leg because of my Elemental Cloak, and cut off the connection to it. A quarter of my mana bar disappears, completely nullifying the regen from that pill. I can only hope that the rest of my mana will be enough.

Zhaz readies his stance again. This time, his shield is held lower and his sword is held forward. He looks disappointed. Even if that irks me, I can still use it; I’ve got to do something now, while he seems to want to end the fight quickly.

Hah.

This plan better work, because if not, the fight ending in one hit is probably exactly how Zhaz will finish it.

Honestly, what a scary guy he is.

I pull some earth mana out and have it fill up my right hand, cutting it off. Next, I pull more mana through my lightning point and hold it by my shoulder blade. This one I keep a firm mental grip on, making sure it’s ready on standby.

“I call upon the spirit of the flame to guide my path, Fireball!”

I hold my right hand up at the paladin, and recite the full incantation for a Fireball spell. Without my having to do anything, the fire mana in my core automatically moves in accordance to the incantation. As it flows down my hand, it scrapes away all of the earth mana that was already sitting there.

In that second before firing, just as I can feel the heat of the flames gathering against my palm, I lower my arm to shoot the fireball towards Zhaz’s feet. The Fireball that shoots out has a brown tint from all of the earth mana, which makes it fly slower than usual.

When the spell leaves my hand I return my focus back to the lightning mana in my shoulder and perform a voiceless Lightning Arrow. The spell flies out towards the same place. But there's no earth mana in this one. So the Lightning Arrow is flying much faster, quickly catching up with the Fireball.

Zhaz’s eyes widen as he sees the lightning make contact with the Fireball spell in front of his feet. He immediately brings his shield down with freakish reaction speed; when the Lightning Arrow and the Fireball meet, they explode on contact.

That’s the response I was hoping for!

I reach back and grab the poison metal needles from my belt. I activate the Rogues basic skill, Weapon Throw, that I had learned while playing with a Thief in the Adventure Building last week. Thanks to the skill’s accuracy bonus, the needles fly forward incredibly fast, right at the paladins face.

Zhaz’s stance is screwed up from blocking the explosion I had set at his feet. Yet he somehow still manages to swing his sword up and hit two of the needles in mid-air. Thankfully the other three make it through and embed into the side of his neck.

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Phew, that’ll have to do I guess. I have no idea exactly what kind of poisoning damage was just applied but I need some way to lower his ridiculous passive defense.

I can't let this chance slip by, so for the first time since the beginning of the fight, I charge forward. Heading towards Zhaz at full speed I pack wind mana into both of my hands and cut them off. At the same time I begin the incantation.

“From embers spread to fires gluttony, rise forth and go, Field of Flame!”

I plant my feet just out of Zhaz’s range and throw out both hands. Fire mana ripples out in a wave in front of me; thanks to the addition of the pre-packed wind mana, the spell spreads out larger and even more violent then normal. My mana bar drops by half, but in exchange Zhaz is completely engulfed in fire.

Come on… I made sure to take my time with a full incantation so you would know what's coming. I made sure to expand the fire large enough that dodging wouldn’t be an option; in fact it’s so large that it’s all I can see. Come on Zhaz, you’ve already done it once… just take the bait!

From inside the spell, I hear the rumbled words, “Stone Skin.”

Zhaz bursts out of the fire to my right. His armor is tinged red from the heat, and his skin is tinted brown, imbued with earth mana.

Yes! Thank you sir, for playing your part beautifully.

I imagine grabbing ahold of the fire mana still leaving my arms and forcibly stopping it. The fire flowing out of my hands stops, but in exchange it feels like a small explosion just went off inside of my body. It’s not just my imagination. My health bar drops some because of it.

I ignore the pain, knowing it'll go away soon. Pivoting towards the paladin I throw out a straight kick with my left foot. At the same time I push out earth mana to launch a voiceless Earth Bullet.

I don't know if it's a habit that all weapon users have but it's definitely one that Zhaz and Buffo share. If it's a physical spell, they always choose to break it with their weapon. And unfortunately for him, this Earth Bullet has my leftover light mana imbedded in it.

I clench my eyes shut.

There’s the sound of a sword cutting earth and then — visible even through my eyelids — I can see the resulting flash of light. When I open my eyes, I see Zhaz with his eyes and faced scrunched up. Perfect. Looks like my blended spell actually caught him off guard. But more importantly, his skin still has the brown tint from the effects of his Stone Skin skill.

I throw on a Wind Cloak and feel wind mana surge everywhere but my right leg, which is still packed with metal mana. I’ve only got a quarter of my remaining mana left and one chance to get this right. So don’t miss, D0n.

I launch a strong Wind Burst out of my back; strong enough to throw my entire body clean through the air, right at Zhaz. He still can't see, and his shield is protecting his chest. Mid-air I pull my right leg back and shout the shortened incantation,

“Wind Blade!”

My foot flies out, point blank towards the paladins helmet-less face. And I imagine pouring all of the metal mana trapped in my leg into that spell.

I can feel the pain from that amount of mana being forcibly ejected out of my body. What hurts worse though is that as I yelled, Zhaz still had enough sense to blindly bring his sword up. It crosses the path of my leg, and the force of my kick meeting his sword embeds the blade into my shin.

But it's not enough to stop my momentum.

A dense, almost shiny gray blade of wind erupts from my whole leg. This close, the brunt of it slashes diagonally across Zhaz’s exposed face. The rest of the spell gouges a line across the ring behind the paladin.

Even I know it’s a miracle that everything lined up this well.

Normally his defense stats would protect him from magic, but he's poisoned.

Normally his Stone Skin would negate slashing damage, but Metal cuts Earth.

And so as the wind flies it carries with it a bright red spray of blood.

I collapse to the ground immediately after and scoot away as fast as I can. My own leg is hurt and bleeding. I even took extra damage since my leg was packed with metal mana when I got cut.

But it worked! It took a lot of set up, but I finally did some real damage! It doesn’t matter if it was a fluke or not. I proved I could make Zhaz bleed. Which means I just might have what it takes to beat him.

Everyone is shocked into silence upon seeing Zhaz’s face. The cut is deep and stretched diagonally across his whole face. Blood is dripping down his chin. One eye is closed shut, cut across the middle. For the first time, Zhaz is showing something other than calm focus on his face. In pain and taking deep breathes, he grimaces and glares at me with his remaining eye.

I start to reach towards my potion pouch. I'm finally putting pressure. I've got to heal up and continue the assault.

I'm distracted by the sound of low laughter.

That laughter grows into a full belly laugh. Zhaz throws his head back, his whole body shaking, with a wide smile across his face. It's the only sound heard across the whole Village. He finally starts to calm down and looks at me, still wearing that huge smile. Without breaking eye contact, he lifts the pommel of his sword to his face.

“Truly, haha, truly I'm a fool to have doubted Van’s assessment.” The gemstones on Zhaz’s sword start to glow green. “I never thought I'd find myself getting injured this much by a new player. I can't be sure of all the tricks you put together there, D0n. But I must say I'm impressed.” The light from his sword pommel spreads to his face, causing the cut I inflicted to heal. “I have fought many players, much more experienced than you. And very few of them have gotten as far as you did just now.” Zhaz lowers his sword and wipes the blood off of his face. Not even a scratch remains. “Truly, you should be very proud of yourself D0n.”

All of that.

Almost all of the mana I had.

And he shrugged it off like it was nothing.

A weight like a heavy stone settles into my stomach.

“Come, let us continue.” Says Zhaz, readying his stance again.

…

…….

………….

… No!

I shake my head violently. No. I can't afford to let myself fall into a negative spiral like that. I can’t afford to stop thinking.

I knew this was going to be a tough fight going into it. So focus on the positives D0n. It took a lot of commitment, but I've proven that I can hurt him. I just… have to keep stacking it up over and over again until something gives. Focus on what I can do right now.

I put my hand over my bloody shin. “Oh wisps of light please bring relief, Healing.”

My hand glows softly from the light spell as the cut closes, the pain from the wound leaving with it. I get back to my feet and look at Zhaz. He hasn't moved. Like he's giving me space to get ready again. I can't tell if he’s doing it out of sportsmanship, respect, or pity. All I know is that it kind of pisses me off right now.

Fine then. There's no room for half measures anymore.

I reach into my potion pouch and roughly grab a handful of the two types of pills. I swallow all of them. I’m not even sure how many I just took. As soon as I eat them, my health and mana regenerate. But my health bar turns a deep red in response. I start to take continual damage from the mana poisoning. I can feel the strain of it in my body but I can't worry about it now.

Zhaz has his sword held low, with his shield up. That's the stance he takes when he plans to be defensive; but he's already shown he can switch that up on a dime. My eyes trace the swaying tip of his blade. It's hard to say if the healing he did earlier was because of an enchantment on his sword or not, but whether it’s offense or defense, that weapon is a problem. If I want to have any chance of making it through the rest of this fight I have to find some way of getting that sword out of his hands.

I take a deep breath and pull on a Water Cloak. I let the water mana in my body start to bubble forward and tumble through my arms. There's no spell name for it that I know of, but I try to move the mana in the same way it did for the Field of Flames spell.

I hold both of my arms forward and push the water mana out with as much force as I can. A literal wave of water flies out in response. I don’t need this to do any damage on its own though. I just need it to spread as wide as possible.

Zhaz raises his shield in response to the approaching water. There’s no point in doing that though, there’s no attack attribute to block. The water simply splashes across his body, creating a large puddle with the paladin at the center.

I switch to a Wind Cloak and launch a strong Wind Burst out of both of my feet; the ejected wind creates a circle of ice where I was standing. I fly high into the air. At the top of the cloud dome I flip around to look down on the ring. Zhaz hasn’t moved. He’s still standing there. Waiting for my next attack. Perfect.

I release the Elemental Cloak and point my right hand towards the ring. I pull lightning mana up to my hand and push it out, raining electricity down.

The paladin looks down at the puddle of water he’s standing in and immediately plunges his sword into the ring. A circle of green light spreads around him as he chants the name of his Sanctuary skill. The lightning hits the ring and crackles along the water. Thanks to the quick use of his skill, Zhaz doesn’t take any damage.

But it also means he can't move for the next ten seconds.

I pull my Wind Cloak back on and launch a Wind Burst out of my back. The force throws me down, slamming me into the ring. A chunk of my health bar disappears immediately and the stone underneath cracks from the impact. It doesn't matter. I scramble to my feet, feeling some of the shocks from the electrocuted water myself, and step into the Sanctuary skill zone.

I reach out and grab tightly onto the paladin’s sword handle. One hand on the pommel, the other on the cross guard. Zhaz looks surprised as I lock eyes with him. A feral grin across my face.

Five seconds.

“Rage about to your hearts content, show the might of the wind to those who scoff. Blow all away, Storm’s Frenzy!”

Storm’s Frenzy is a spell you can place anywhere within 10 meters of you. It generates a small tornado, capable of blowing anything away.

I set Zhaz’s sword as the focal point.

Just as I finish the spell, the green glow of Sanctuary stops.

Wind rushes in around the both of us and gathers tightly on the paladin’s sword impaled in the ground. Spinning faster and faster until it forms a tornado. It’s strong enough that both Zhaz and I are literally blown off our feet. Neither of us let go of the sword handle, so we're left dangling in midair with our arms outstretched.

Ugh, you stubborn jackass, let go! There’s only a few seconds left on Storm’s Frenzy. With my arms busy holding on for dear life I imagine reaching into my core, pulling mana out through the fire point, and then pushing it towards my throat in a clockwise spiral. I open my mouth and launch a voiceless Fireball square into Zhaz’s face.

I don't care if it was from the heat or the surprise of it, but he finally loosens his grip and gets blown away, tumbling off the edge of the ring.

As the winds from Storm’s Frenzy settles down I force my feet back towards the ground. With my legs under me, I draw the paladin sword out and immediately toss it out of the ring behind me. It's easily a better piece of equipment than all of my gear combined. But despite how Zhaz uses it, the darn thing is so big I’d need both hands to swing it, and I’m not good enough with two-handed blades for it to be worth it. Last thing I need is to get disarmed two swings in and give the sword right back to him.

Okay. That's step one. Not sure what step two is yet, but at least there’s progress.

Zhaz immediately climbs back into the ring and is already charging right at me with his shield raised. I shove my hand into my potion pouch and grab whatever fits in my fist. I can't tell how many it is, and I honestly don’t care. It makes the strain from the mana poisoning worse but I don’t have any other options.

I run to meet the paladin and jump into a dropkick. It lands square on his shield, powered by a bonus Wind Burst. Zhaz doesn't lose his footing from it, but it forces him back to the edge of the ring again. I sail through the air in response, and the second I touch back on the ground I launch another wind burst out of my back. I fly through the air right back at him.

I’ll burn as much mana as I have to. Right now I’m the only thing standing between Zhaz and his weapon, which is laying on the dirt outside the ring. The only thought going through my mind is that if I Iet him get to his sword, I’m done for.

With every punch and kick I throw, I push out mana in the form of a Wind Blade. In point-blank range like this, it's like getting attacked by a martial artist and swordsman at the same time.

Anytime Zhaz dodges to the left or to the right I throw my body in his path, launching Wind Blade powered hits even in mid-air. I'm using so many consecutive voiceless spells that I can feel gaps in my Wind Cloak form faster than I can fill them back up with the mana from my core.

I'm literally throwing everything I have right now. And so the weight in my stomach only gets heavier as none of it works.

For every Wind Blade I throw out, the paladin’s shield is there to block it. He angles his shield to block my attack and parry the hit to the side, trying to force me to overextend and ruin my balance. It's only thanks to launching small Wind Bursts that I'm able to correct my stance and continue to attack. But no matter where I aim on his body, each one is met by that damn shield. And each failed attack keeps eating away at my dwindling mana.

I can’t help it; for a moment my head is filled with panic. In desperation I grab onto the paladin’s shield with both hands. There’s no concrete image in my head though. Just a vague hope that if I clench my hands with earth mana and launch wild Wind Bursts then maybe I can somehow throw him to the ground since his shield is strapped to his arm.

I’m not given a chance to see if my desperate idea would work though. As I grip his shield, Zhaz pushes forward and presses it against my chest.

“Shield Charge!”

From the edges of the paladin shield orange energy extends out, wrapping Zhaz in a dome, and accelerates him forward immediately. The skill throws my hands off as I'm slammed in the chest from the force of his rush. It doesn't stop there. He keeps going forward until his charge actually pushes me into the ground and I feel his boots stomp on my stomach and my left shoulder as he tramples over me.

I'm coughing and struggling to breathe. I'm too dazed to even look at my health bar and see how much damage I just took. I can still move, which means I’m not dead. But my whole body is radiating pain.

Rolling onto my side, I struggle to sit up. There's a throbbing ache in my stomach and my shoulder. When I look up — my eyes scrunched open as I gasp for air — I see Zhaz. He had ran past me and walked off the edge of the ring. He calmly reaches down and picks up his sword. Without a hint of exhaustion, he turns around and comes back on the ring. He just squats with his shield raised, ready to continue fighting.

My hand trembles as I reach for my potion pouch. My arm must be numb from the damage because i'm struggling to even open the flap. Nervelessly grasping at the latch.

It's okay, D0n, you were able to get some mileage with this. I just need a new plan. Yeah. Just have to think of something… there has to be, has to be something I can do… just… there's just…

Nothing.

There's nothing.

I look at the paladin, Zhaz Morrowolf. His sword is tracing lazy circles at his side, and his shield is raised in front of him, obscuring everything but his eyes. He's not even breathing deeply. Just staring at me. Focused.

I, I can't think of any way to win. No matter how much I rack my brain, there's nothing. I can't see anything that could work.

I can't beat him.