“Think you can make that sort of window?”
“Consistently? No. We’d be betting on a coin flip.”
“A weighted coin flip, though. Nao can still cast a barrier or two, Shin can slow him down a touch, and I can relay foresight to you.”
“A weighted coin, maybe, but a coin flip nonetheless. But I don’t see any other option. I’m in.”
Mai’s plan was dangerous, but the life in danger would be mine. That’s a risk I was willing to take if it meant getting everyone else out alive.
The Director continued hounding me with attacks, my quick reactions and Mai’s foresight just about keeping me in the fight.
Several times, he turned to engage the others, but every time I drew his attention back to myself with an attack. Everybody had a role. Mine was to keep his attention squarely on me.
Another spear shattered, and I focused in on the process of a new one appearing. It grew from the palm of his hand, the point end appearing last. The entire process from breaking one spear to fully reforming another took no more than two hundred milliseconds, though Shin wasn’t yet hampering his magic sense. I would need to predict the moment his spear shattered and counter within that incredibly short window. A tenth of a second out, and I’d have a pointy stick in my gut.
Spears had a distinct advantage against swords in direct combat, especially katana which were poor at defence. This meant that I rarely managed to get off the back foot, continually swatting away his attacks but not closing the last fraction of a metre’s distance to counter attack.
Another spear shattered, another opportunity missed.
But I felt like I was beginning to understand the timing better. The durability of the weapons was reasonably predictable, but the Director was still slightly faster than me, so all it did was even the odds.
I started to pick up on certain patterns that I could exploit, but I wasn’t nearly as good at that sort of thing as Mai. I’d have to rely heavily on instinct. Still, I felt I had learned his movement habits well enough to play our trump card.
“Shin, next time you see a weapon shatter, break his concentration with your power. Mai, keep me updated with foresight. Nao, prepare to barrier me.”
The three all answered in the affirmative, and I looked for the opportunity to execute. His spear grew weaker with each block, becoming more noticeably brittle each time. I focused, predicted, and made my move.
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“Now!”
The four of us took action all at once. The instant I felt the spear shatter, I redirected my attack and severed the Director’s left arm with a clean cut. Shin’s magic sense disruption bought me an extra few hundredths of a second, while Mai’s foresight warned me of a counterattack aimed at my left side. I deftly sidestepped the attack, though even had it struck me it would have been a failed blow as Nao’s barrier protected my body.
The Director made no yelp of pain, nor any acknowledgment that his arm had been cut off. Instead, he graciously accepted the back foot, allowing me to keep pressing him with attacks while he dodged, blood pouring from his arm seemingly to none of his concern.
Still, even if his confidence hadn’t wavered, his combat ability had certainly been sufficiently nerfed. He could now only attack or block with one hand; a situation like that was far from ideal for someone who seemed to specialise in spears.
As such, he never deflected or blocked my attacks, instead dodging each and every one with inhuman speed and reactions. He ducked a cut that would have decapitated him, he sidestepped a cut that would have dismembered his other arm, he jumped over a cut that would have split him in half at the waist. No matter what pressure I put on him, he effortlessly dodged it.
But my plan wasn’t to simply keep cutting until my opponent is eventually rendered Swiss cheese. I was slowly moving him toward the corner of the room, where I’d be able to limit his movement.
Every overly aggressive attack that I launched forced him closer and closer to the edge, his range of movement narrowing by the second. I was getting closer and closer to landing a decisive finisher.
“On my mark, we use the same technique again, but trick his sight instead of his magical sense.”
“You’re sure? We don’t know how important sight is to him, he might be like Descartes and have no use for it.”
“He’s rarely ever summoning weapons anymore, there’s no reason left to trick magic senses while sight is unimpeded.”
“…dammit, I think you’re right. Give me the signal and I’ll disrupt his vision any way I can.”
With Shin begrudgingly on board, I could move ahead with my idea. I continued to usher the Director towards the corner, every second a new escape route closing. I had him right where I wanted him.
“Playtime’s over!”
As soon as his back touched the wall, I attempted a stab into the Director’s body, a rare move with katana but one I was forced to use as I had no space to cut with it.
I saw his eyes glaze slightly as Shin disrupted his eyesight, and a moment later my sword sunk into flesh.
A dismembered limb and a sword through the gut. The Director was utterly defeated.
Or so I assumed, at least.
“Gah- fu- how are yo-gah- still alive?” I said.
There was a pure black hand wrapped around my neck, its grasp so tight that it crushed Nao’s barrier underhand. It was conjoined to an arm of the same black, a harrowing glisten to look at. The arm was protruding from the Director’s shoulder, though it certainly wasn’t an organic existence. It was magic in its purest form.
He had put himself on deaths door because he knew we wouldn’t expect such a turn of events. In other words, he played us.
“Your attempt was valiant, but pointless. Say goodbye, Saki Tachibana.”
He raised a spear in his human arm, intending to finish me off there and then. For the second time that day, my life flashed before my eyes. And for the first time that day, I did not feel ready to die.
However, I noticed something odd in his speech. He called me Saki, but I’m Amai.
No, that isn’t correct, I’m Shin.
No, I’m none of those three. I’m Sunao.
I’m… who am I?