"Alright," Iris huffed, "you're up."

She was crouched low, holding the surprisingly heavy egg upright as she placed her bottomless bag upside down atop it. The mouth of the bag stretched open impossibly far, but still struggled to wholly envelope the egg. When the bag got stuck at the thickest part of the egg, Iris grunted as she shifted weight to her other foot and balanced the egg against her knees. She grabbed the edge of the bag on either side of the egg and gently tugged it down.

Thunder nearly deafened her. She jolted, falling forward and incidentally pulling the bag the rest of the way down, disappearing the egg entirely into the void. She turned and scrambled back from the dark robed wizard who had appeared from the lightning a dozen yards behind her. He was much taller than her, and adorned with a silver chest plate, pauldrons, greaves and gauntlets that all gleamed despite the lack of sun. A hood was pulled over his head, trimmed in silver, and he wielded a tall polearm with a short sword's blade on the end.

Iris hastily grabbed her bag and held it to her waist, where it tied itself tightly, "I was just going," she said.

"I saw the egg," the wizard's voice was deep and foreboding.

"You can have it!" Iris blurted out, "I don't even want it that bad! I'll put it down and--"

"Sorry kid," he said, with a slight half-shake of his head, "every bit of experience counts."

He hefted up his polearm and flipped it into a throwing grip. Iris blipped as the polearm left his hand. It crackled with sparks, then morphed into a bolt of lightning that shot forwards, striking a trunk behind where she'd been with a boom, exploding away chunks of bark and leaving the polearm embedded in the wood. The wizard darted after it, briefly transforming into a bolt of lightning and closing the distance in a flash. He yanked the pole arm free, spun, and threw it at Iris again before she knew whether to run or fight.

She blipped to the right and the lightning cracked past her. This time she still stood between the wizard and his weapon. She gripped her bag and reached in with her other hand, and he bolted towards her in a flash of lightning. She blipped into the air behind him as he reformed, drawing the greatsword from her bag and spinning around to swing it at his neck. He leaned away, the tip of her blade caught the flesh just above his pauldron..

His arm went limp from the damage to his shoulder. She blipped in front of him and drove her sword deep into his abdomen, just below the chest plate. She stepped forward as she pushed the sword deeper until the hilt clanked against his chest plate, looking at him with a horrified gasp at what she'd done.

With his good hand, the wizard grabbed her by the throat and lifted her from the ground. Sparks crackled around his gauntlet, and Iris felt the mana draining from her body. When she was empty, he tossed her aside to tumble harshly across the ground. Her hat flew off and landed in a puddle between them. She looked with blurry tunnel vision, watching as he pulled the sword from his body, stopping midway to move his grip to the blade and pull it the rest of the way free. He threw it aside, staggering forward as blood poured from his stomach.

He reached behind his chest plate and pulled out a small metal flask. He flicked off the cap and downed the contents before tossing it aside as well. She couldn't see through the haze and the rain, but she could tell he had healed as he stood upright and rolled his shoulder.

"That's what I get for being careless with a trickster," he grunted as he stretched.

He held out his hand towards his polearm, sparks crackled around both his gauntlet and the weapon for a long second, then a bolt of lightning stretched out from his hand to the hilt of the polearm, yanking it back towards him and into his grip. He stalked towards Iris, stepping on her hat as he passed it.

When he stepped within striking distance, he flipped the polearm into a reverse grip and stabbed down at Iris. With all of the mana she had regained, she reached out and blipped her greatsword into her hand. She launched off the ground to meet his strike, knocking it aside and swinging the sword at his face. He stepped back and leaned to dodge the strike, choked up his grip on the polearm and whipped the blade towards her abdomen. She stepped back, but the blade still sliced her robe and skin. She spun and ducked, whirling the blade in a low arc towards his thigh. He raised his leg to block the strike with the armor on his shin, then whipped Iris in the temple with the hilt of his polearm.

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She stumbled and stars filled her vision, but still managed to swing her sword. He grabbed the blade with his gauntlet and tried to pull it away, but her grip held firm. He snarled, then yanked harder, she released her grip and let him throw himself off balance. She kicked hard at his knee, managing to overextend but not quite break it, then blipped away as far as her remaining mana could take her.

Her blip couldn't quite carry her to cover, and she appeared exposed and vulnerable a few yards away. Each beat of her heart sent a pulse of agony through her skull, and the sight of blood leaking from her stomach made her nauseous. She swayed on her feet, about to collapse. She had no mana to retrieve her sword or to blip again. The nearest cover was too far to dash towards.

"I'm fucking sick of you!" the wizard barked, hoisting his polearm for a throw.

An idea sparked in her mind. She ripped the bottomless bag from her waist with both hands and held it open in front of her as the wizard's polearm bolted through the air. The lightning bolt sunk harmlessly into the void, and no explosion came. The bag -- usually plump as if it were filled -- lost its volume and went limp in her hands. The drawstring dangled with no signs of life.

Fear and regret filled her chest, but there was no time. The wizard stormed towards her with lightning crackling in a hand extended out towards her greatsword. Her eyes went wide with horror as the hilt of her greatsword crackled, and was then yanked into his grip by a lightning bolt. He cracked a wicked smile as he closed in on her.

Enough mana had recharged for a blip. She reappeared out of sight behind a random trunk, leaning back on the trunk to stay on her feet as the pain in her skull doubled. She waited for ideas, but no more thoughts could form in her head beyond hoping the roar of the storm was enough to cover the sounds of her ragged breath.

She glanced up in shock. It was the woman in silver robes. She saw her face -- her own face. No, not quite. Was it--?

"Here!" the woman said in a voice of dissonant echoes, shoving a short staff into Iris's hands.

"What do I do with this?" Iris blurted out, but the woman was gone. "What?!" she asked no one.

She held the staff in one hand as she tried to stick the bottomless bag to her waist, but the drawstring didn't grab hold of her belt. With a pang of guilt, she dropped the bag at her feet and gripped the staff with both hands. Then her face contorted in offense and disbelief as she realized it was just a walking stick.

"Are you fucking--" she was cut off as the a lightning bolt zipped past the tree and deposited the wizard in front of her.

"Found you!" He shouted, swinging the greatsword at her neck.

She flinched and held up the staff to block. To her shock and the wizard's disbelief, the blow landed softly against the stick, merely pushing slightly against it. He pulled the sword back and brought it down in a powerful overhead strike, which Iris blocked in turn. Again, the sword landed softly against the staff.

She felt the staff request her mana, and gave it everything she had. A force erupted from the staff with a gust of wind and a soft whomph! The sword was thrown back, pulling the wizard's hands over his head. He quickly recovered and swung down again, but Iris slipped around the trunk of the tree and his strike found only bark.

Her head still swam and her lungs still burned, but Iris pushed through. She ran through the densest cluster of trunks she could find, zig-zagging to break line of sight at every opportunity. The wizard chased behind her, occasionally zapping forward in a bolt of lightning. As she ran, she slapped the staff against every trunk she passed. With each impact, she felt the staff grow hungrier for mana.

She heard the crack and saw the flash of the wizard zapping just behind her. She ran a few steps up a trunk, then kicked off and blipped. The wizard brought the sword high to block, but she appeared low to the ground and slammed the staff into his chest with almost all her mana. The erupting force threw the wizard off his feet and sent him slamming into a trunk, where he bounced and fell harshly on his hands and knees. Her sword was knocked from his grasp and sent flying out of sight.

"You," the wizard growled through blood-filled spit as he climbed to his feet, "annoying piece of shit."

Iris staggered towards him and swung the staff again. He caught it, but she gave it the remainder of her mana and threw him back against the tree again. This time his hood was thrown back, his head was slammed hard into the bark, and he collapsed to his knees.

She looked down at him, out of ideas and out of mana. His head was bald and covered in faint white tattoos. His face was scarred with burns and his eyes were a striking icey blue. He was worn down too, or he would have stood up again by now, but she knew he would recover faster than she would. Her eyes snapped to the drawstring of her bottomless bag, realizing the wizard had crudely stuffed the bag behind his chest plate. The string was waving at her. She lunged for it.

He reared back and caught her arm, but not before she pulled the bag free. With a drop of mana, she blipped the bag to her other hand and raised it high out of his reach. She dangled the bag upside down over his head, hesitating for only an instant before she dropping it.

The bag opened wide and dropped over the man's head, swallowing it whole. It cinched itself tight around his neck, quickly tying its draw strings into a knot. The man clawed and pulled desperately at the bag, then the strings around his neck, but it was to no avail. Iris stepped back, watching with a bleak, remorseful expression. Tears joined the raindrops on her cheeks.

"It's you or me," she said in a wavering voice, "that was your choice, not mine -- and I made a promise to be safe."

The man's flailing arms suddenly went limp, and he fell forward. His chest slammed hard into the ground, where he lay motionless.