Zoe didn’t have time to process what Andric meant as he was already dashing towards her, dual blades aimed at her throat.

Readying her spear, Zoe stood her ground. She didn’t have any time to form truly coherent thoughts, but her amounted to the idea that he couldn’t just impale himself on her weapon. She hoped.

It turned out she was right, as the assassin was forced to take a running leap and vault over her. She tried to thrust her spear upwards, but she was too slow, and one of the knives was about to strike her. Almost on instinct, Zoe activated {Kinetic Dash}.

It only took her two meters to the side, but that was more than enough to carry her clear of the threat — at least for now. Her movement kicked up both wind and sand. As Zoe watched, Andric pivoted to face her, and then tucked himself into a flawless roll.

At the same time, Zoe marveled at the fact that she had dashed to the side without moving that way initially. She hadn’t realized that the ability could work like that — she had assumed she had to give it some initial momentum.

As if responding to her thoughts, the system gave her a new notification.

{Kinetic Dash has leveled up! Kinetic Dash is now level 3.}

While Zoe was pleased, she didn’t even read past the first word. After all, she had already learned not to get distracted. Fortunately, however, Andric hadn’t made another move on her yet.

“That’s new,” he said after a few moments.

Zoe shrugged. “Yeah.”

And then he lunged forward again. This time, instead of holding her ground, Zoe sprinted towards him. Spear lowered, she waited until he was just a few paces away from when he would have to jump — and then she dashed.

Zoe expected to collide with him — she was already preparing to redirect her momentum to avoid him tossing her onto her back or something like that. But a fraction of a second after she activated her own {Kinetic Dash}, Andric dashed as well.

He dashed through her.

Zoe didn’t allow it to surprise her. Or at least, she didn’t allow it to catch her off guard. Rooting herself to the spot and pivoting on one foot, she whirled around, trying to catch him with her spear tip.

He wasn’t there. He had kept running, putting a good amount of distance between them. Zoe wondered if he had done that just in case she reacted the way she had.

“Did you keep going because you knew I would do that?”

He licked his lips. “No, I didn’t know for sure. But I thought it was both likely and dangerous enough that staying close wasn’t worth the risk.” He twirled his knives in both hands, and Zoe scoffed. Showoff.

Rushing forward again, he attacked her relentlessly. Zoe found herself standing in one spot, circling around and around as he ran circles around her. Andric kept spiraling closer and closer, using repeated dashes to keep staying ahead of her even as she twirled around.

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It was infuriating, and Zoe was also starting to get a bit dizzy.

And he just kept going. How much mana does it take him to do that? As Zoe spun faster and faster, she finally slipped. Tumbling to the ground, she tried desperately to right herself — but the world was spinning, and then a boot pressed down on her back.

Zoe groaned. “That was a dirty trick.”

Andric laughed. “You should learn to fight dirty.”

As he helped her up, Zoe realized that she already did. After all, she had developed a habit of biting people.

The two of them quickly agreed to take a short break. Zoe was still feeling a little queasy, though it was rapidly going away. Andric said he wanted to replenish some of his mana. Looking over to Lily, Zoe saw that the mage was still sitting motionlessly in the same position.

Zoe wondered what exactly what she was doing. Did she have a special kind of meditation that had extra benefits or something like that? Zoe resolved to ask her later — if she remembered, at least.

After a few more minutes, Andric stood up, and Zoe picked up her spear. Andric crouched down and stuck his leg back, obviously preparing to sprint. “Ready?”

Zoe didn’t answer, as she was already sprinting forward. Lowering her spear, she dashed — and she did it a bit earlier this time so that he couldn’t pull the trick of dashing straight through her.

It worked.

Zoe impacted the assassin hard. But instead of pushing him to the ground, she found herself careening up and over him, even losing her spear in the process. Realizing the danger, Zoe quickly activated a second {Kinetic Dash} and aimed straight for the ground.

As she landed, sand blasted out from under her. Looking down, she saw that she had formed a veritable crater. In fact, she had blasted sand away all the way down to the bottom and cracked the stone floor beneath.

Holy shit. She hadn’t realized that her new {Kinetic Dash} ability could do that kind of damage — but now, it was clearly evident.

She wasn’t able to spend long marveling at it though, as Andric was rushing forward yet again. Hunkering down in her miniature crater, Zoe fended him off with short jabs of her spear. He began circling again, once again making her spin.

This time, however, Zoe knew better than to just keep spinning faster and faster. Instead, she made small adjustments to her position by dashing side to side. Each miniature dash only consumed one or two points of mana, confirming her theory that she could use less mana by controlling the length of the dash.

And then Andric threw a knife.

But this time, Zoe caught it.

Not with her hand, of course. She wasn’t that skilled. Instead, she grabbed it out of the air with a simple flex of {Kinetic Manipulation}. The knife responded to her command with ease. At the same time, Zoe did something she should have thought of a long time ago.

She kicked up a shitload of sand.

Her practice with it earlier had paid off very well now, as the dust exploded around her. Lily yelped in protest, and Andric tried to dash away, but there was simply too much of it everywhere.

As he tried to get his bearings, Zoe returned the knife right back at him.

Her aim was true, and even though he tried to doge, the wooden blade grazed his shoulder. Zoe smirked.

And then a knife hit her in the back.

Whirling around, Zoe tried to catch him — but he wasn’t there. And how could he be? That would be too fast, even for him.

Turning back around, Zoe saw that he was still standing there, hands clasped behind his back and smiling innocently. Zoe crossed her arms. “Okay, you’re going to have to explain that one.”

Sighing, Andric sat down on the ground and beckoned her to join him. Lily was still covered in sand, but she didn’t seem to be bothered by it. As she sat down, Andric steepled his fingers. “Long story short, it’s teleportation.”

Zoe arched an eyebrow. “That sounds… really strong.”

The alchemist rolled his eyes. “I am an Astral Assassin, you know. But yes, it’s a trick I don’t use too often, because it’s difficult and expensive — even for something as small as that knife.”

“I see.”

Andric shrugged. “I just hope I don’t have to use tricks like that in the trial.” He paused. “Speaking of which, we should probably stop now. I think we should take our remaining time to recover.”

Zoe nodded. “That does sound like a good idea.” She frowned. “Do you know how much more time we have?”

It was at that moment that the-woman-who-wouldn’t-give-her-name-to-Zoe stepped back into the chamber. “Alright you lot.”

“Time’s up.”