Things went sideways very quickly. Specifically, Zoe did when an icy blast knocked her to the side just before she could connect with the archmage, sending her smashing into the opposite wall of the corridor.

Dammit Lily! There was no doubt in Zoe’s mind as to who was responsible—but Zoe didn’t pay the guilty party any attention as she immediately righted herself and dashed back towards the archmage. Zora was obviously the real threat here.

Unfortunately, said threat was now fully alerted to Zoe’s presence. To Zoe’s mild irritation, she didn’t seem at all alarmed or even surprised. She looked excited, if anything. “I’ve been looking for you,” she exclaimed while simultaneously twisting Zoe’s punch around with some kind of kinetic magic. Zoe just growled in response.

For the next several seconds, Zoe kicked and flailed at Zora while largely shrugging off the icy projectiles pelting her from behind. Andric was just standing around uselessly—not that Zoe was complaining about that, of course.

But what made Zoe’s inability to even scratch the archmage even more frustrating was that Zora wasn’t even trying to do anything to evade her. She was just standing there, shoving Zoe off with subtle twists of kineticism. Any attack that would have managed to land instead just struck a slippery barrier of what had to be pure mana.

Backing up, Zoe glared at Lily. She just received an icicle to the chest in response. While the elemental projectiles still failed to do any significant damage, this one was the first that managed to draw blood. Lily flicked her hand to the side with a smirk.

Zoe’s eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen. Oh no you don’t! While Zoe could immediately feel her own black blood streaming out of the injury under Lily’s power, she also remembered how that had worked out for the blood mage in the arena trial. With a toothy smirk of her own, Zoe activated {Corrupt Wound}.

She didn’t expect it to take control of Lily’s magic so easily. Yanking both her own blood and the other woman’s spell into her own control, Zoe launched it straight at Zora. In fact, it was a bit too easy for Zoe to control. It wasn’t something that she thought her {Corrupt Wound} ability could do like this. Unless it somehow takes control over the normal blood magic that Lily herself put into it…

In this moment, Zoe was oddly thankful for the whole corruption thing.

Her impromptu blood attack, though, just splattered against the archmage’s mana barrier, spraying Zoe and staining the surrounding floor tiles. As the corrupted blood rebounded, Zoe’s control over it faltered and then failed completely.

“Are you ready to stop now?”

Zoe just glared at the archmage, who sighed dramatically. Andric cleared his throat. “If I may offer some advice, I recommend hearing her out.”

Zoe shifted her glare to the alchemist. “The last time I listened to your advice, I ended up…” trailing off, Zoe realized that she couldn’t actually remember what the last thing either of them suggested to her was. Maybe it was him helping me train before the whole pirate initiation disaster? “Erh, whatever,” Zoe said, “you two have consistently gotten me into trouble.”

Andric muttered something. Zoe’s hearing was now good enough to pick it up, but she didn’t bother.

“It seems like you’ve been doing fine enough on your own on that front,” Lily said. “I think you just attract disaster wherever you go.”

“Yeah, well I wonder what that says about you two,” Zoe snapped back.

Someone cleared her throat behind her. Spinning around, Zoe came face to face with Zora again. “I take it you’re done, then?” The archmage asked.

“Nope!” But before Zoe could launch into another frenzy of attacks, a brilliant spear of pure mana formed in the air between them. While it didn’t radiate as much of a feeling of danger as the paladin’s former weapon, Zoe could tell that the construct contained a lot of mana. It would probably skewer her with ease.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

If she let it, that is.

Taking note of Zoe’s hesitation, the archmage raised an eyebrow. “Done? I mean really, you do surely have to realize I’ve been letting you flail around this whole time. Or do your opponents usually just stand there while you shit-talk?”

I mean yeah, she’s kind of right. But being wrong would not stop Zoe. If there was anything she had learned in her previous life, it was to never underestimate a petulant idiot. And while she still had no hope of really winning here, she had already dug most of the hole. Might as well finish the job.

Zoe dashed. For the first time, Zoe caught a glimpse of surprise on Zora’s face—but she didn’t hesitate for a moment to release her magic. As Zoe’s deliberately-short dash came to an end, she planted herself down firmly and flared her {Corrupted Spirit Shield}.

A tide of power swept through Zoe as the shining white spear burst into a roiling cloud of searing mana. Capitalizing on the temporary increase the damage to the shield provided to her overall strength, Zoe followed up by dashing forward again, striking with {Kinetic Enhancement}, and grabbing hold of the glowing cloud of mana with {Arcane Manipulation} all at the same time.

This time, her fist broke clean through the invisible arcane barrier. It connected with Zora’s shoulder, sending the archmage sprawling onto the ground. Standing over her, Zoe crossed both sets of arms. “You were saying?”

Zora said nothing. A sudden tug of force yanked Zoe off her feet. Before she could think to activate {Kinetic Dash}, it slammed her down to the ground. Groaning, Zoe blinked the blurriness out of her eyes, staring up at the archmage. Zora smiled. It wasn’t really a smirk—more like a playful grin of amusement. “You were saying?”

“Ugh.” Zoe swallowed. The act was oddly difficult. “You can stop trying to squeeze me through the floor now. I’ll behave, I promise.”

The force didn’t relent. Zoe suspected that her own kinetic abilities were actually strong enough to escape it, but by this point she had little desire to keep going. But if the archmage didn’t let her get up soon…

At the same time, Zoe realized that the sounds of battle in the nearby cavern were still going on at full force. Just what in the world is going on over there? Diverting her gaze to the vaulted ceiling, Zoe locked eyes with Millie. The girl was staring at her with wide eyes, seemingly unsure of what to do. “You might as well come down now,” she croaked out. “I don’t think they’ll actually hurt either of us.”

“It certainly is tempting, though,” Andric interjected as Millie carefully dropped down to the floor. “And what is this?”

“I believe it’s a child,” Lily said, before glancing back down the passage. “Oh, I think we’re about to have company. Looks like the rest are starting to finally finish up back there.”

As the arcane pressure on Zoe finally relented, she slowly heaved herself back up. “By the way, you’ve obviously seen the kraken thing, but there’s also a super powerful lich, an infernal cultist chieftain, and an immortal realm paladin. The paladin is a prisoner of the other two though.” She peered down the corridor. A cultist was sprinting towards them, or rather, away from the cavern. He didn’t seem to be particularly thrilled by the prospect of having company, as he kept glancing down the various side exits. “Also, the lich gave me an undead chaperone, so we might want to dip before it sees us.”

Everyone glanced at everyone else. Zora sighed. “Alright, let’s move then.” She pointed at Zoe. “You. Give me back my mana.”

Momentarily confused, Zoe quickly realized that she was still holding onto the dense cloud of raw mana with {Arcane Manipulation}, and she even had an ability level notification for it. Shrugging, she drifted it towards the archmage. While she still absolutely did no trust Zora, she also figured that there was little extra harm in cooperating and a lot of harm in continuing to be obstinate.

A foreign grip brushed against Zoe’s own, quickly snatching away all of the magic. The approaching cultist hesitantly slowed down, and Zora clapped her hands together. “Alright everyone, hold on for the trip. Don’t let go and please do not resist.”

Sensing a massive gathering of astral magic, Zoe quickly glanced at Millie. “Don’t forget the child.”

“Of course not,” Zora said with an eye roll. And then the spell collapsed, and Zoe was streaking away somewhere else. Her first instinct was to clench—spiritually, so to speak—and she had to deliberately relax.

The whole group, aside from the random cultist, appeared in a tiny, dimly lit grotto. Peering into the dark pool that took up most of the floor, Zoe realized that it was probably a small air-space in the underwater network of the same place. Zoe then returned her attention to everyone else as they all came to their senses.

Zoe had a lot of questions. You know what? I’m tired of having a lot of questions. She glanced at Millie. Time to follow up on that plan of asking people a bunch of basic shit. She cleared her throat. “I have a bunch of questions.”

Lily snorted. “So do we. Like what actually happened to you?” She scanned Zoe head to toe. “You look completely evil. And also completely shit.”