“Stop!” Though Dan had shouted every variation of the word, he couldn’t help but continue his pleas as he dodged and blocked his friend’s attacks. His words fell on deaf ears. The arms he blocked the incoming blows with ached from Shade’s heavy assault. Dan hadn’t even had time to look around, his only recourse up to this point had been getting smashed into the walls of bone around him and begging Shade to cease his attack.
As neither of those things were working, he would have to try something else.
Dan took Shade’s next blow with both his arms as well as a coating of mana armour. The armour shattered under the weight of his kick and Dan was sure that the bones in his arms were at least cracked, if not outright broken. This was within Dan’s predictions. He had needed distance, so when Shade kicked him, Dan had also lashed out.
Dan heard a crunch as he was flung away and knew that his own kick landed well. When a follow up punch was not thrown, Dan looked and confirmed his thoughts. Shade was on one knee, looking at Dan as though he were looking at a cloud in the sky or a particularly interesting patch of grass. Shade’s white eyes were seeing nothing, as far as Dan could tell.
Now that there was some space between them and Dan had a moment to think, he could get to work. Using mana armour was draining Dan’s personal store of mana. When using Fa Lian’s ability, Dan was using her mana, the same for Xiaomei and Po Daiyu. This meant that for his other techniques, it was his moldable and pure mana which was drained, leaving Dan little left for perception or healing.
Dan had truly never noticed the difference up to now but he had also never been so exhausted in his life. His experiences in the labyrinth and his battles in Allusia, everything up until now had been refining Dan’s control. Being able to sense the differences between the energies within himself was a facet of his trial by fire over the last few months.
He thought about these things as he used what little personal mana he had to coat Shade. He needed to keep it at a distance from Shade’s actual body, which was coated in a shell of disruptive mana. While Dan was adept at doing this, Shade had traditionally countered the ability with his own when Dan and he had duelled. This time, however, was not like fighting Shade normally.
Shade moved almost like the skeletons surrounding him. A puppeted version of the man that Dan had sparred against time and again. Looking back on that training, Dan couldn’t help but wonder if Shade had thought this might occur. If Dan’s thoughts on the subject were correct and Shade’s mother had an ability to control others, it made some sense. Or it would have, if not for the mechanical movements Shade was now exhibiting.
Regardless, Dan knew these patterns well. If Shade couldn’t use his full repertoire, all the better. Fighting him with one hand behind his back would make victory actually possible. Maybe. Dan had never actually beaten Shade once, even when he had genuinely bound his sword arm to his back.
A swing from above followed by a feint to the left cheek which becomes a gut punch. Dan slipped the incoming uppercut to the body. Finding himself within striking distance, Dan was suddenly unsure of his plan. Instead of a devastating blow fueled by Fa Lian’s energy, the power of a black dragon, Dan pushed forth with a grasping palm. What would Shade’s power feel like? Excited to find out, Dan tore as much mana from Shade as he could.
The incoming flood of mana was exotic, unlike the Guan mana that Dan was used to. Unlike Calliope’s animalistic energy. Where Dan’s mana normally felt like liquid, Shade’s had the aspect of gas. It wanted to be everywhere at once. Dan almost stumbled with the sudden, powerful emotion that filled him. How could Shade sit still, be so calm at all times, while the very sky itself lived inside of him?
Dan smiled, enjoying the feel of it dancing around the calmer pools of mana within.
As Shade brought Raze down towards Dan’s shoulder, Dan’s smile became sad. It was a shame to see the warrior whom Dan had grown to respect reduced to pattern and routine like this. It made Dan angry. He did not move a muscle as the sword sliced through the air, aiming to catch him in the collarbone. Instead, Dan let himself fall.
Dan had seen Shade’s technique enough times and spoke about it often. It was a natural counter to Dan’s own, so learning the ins and outs had been important. So Dan knew that to get in he had to let it happen. The lack of control was stomach-lurching but for a brief moment Dan felt a weightlessness that stayed in his psyche for a long while after.
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The out of Shade’s ability was a leap. Until Dan had fallen into that weightless place, he couldn’t understand Shade’s meaning. Now that he had, he saw the difficulty. One reason Dan had not used this power was the possibility of disaster. A slowly disappearing light, like the covering of a well far above, was Dan’s target. Though there was no gravity, there was still a bottom to the voidplace and Dan pushed off it hard. He approached the light far faster than he expected and the resulting return to normal physics was disorientating.
To Shade’s eye, it would have looked as though his attack fell through Dan, meeting the resistance of only smoke. Shade was experienced enough to simply step out of his void but Dan launched, colliding with Shade back. He managed to shift in the air and bring his knee up, turning the accidental collision into a powerful blow. This time it was Shade sent careening through the air.
Something pulled taut. Shade’s velocity snapped to a stop.
Dan saw it.
It was impossibly fine, like seeing a single, tiny spider’s thread in a forest of trees, but he saw the glint of it. A powerful cord of mana was corrected to Shade. He was being controlled like the skeletons. Dan almost laughed out loud. “Seriously?” He wanted to say. “Is it that simple?”
He couldn’t be as careless with the power against Shade as he would with the skeletons but if the idea behind the control was the same then Dan could sever that connection. Even with his mana shrouding the majaal prince, Dan couldn’t find the hidden cord. That surprised him but he guessed that it was working similarly to a shell and destroying his mana when it came into contact with it.
He needed to find that and hit it with corrosive mana.
Unfortunately, Shade was not going to make that easy. Dan had held back, not wanting to kill his friend, but that meant that Dan’s attack amounted to little more than a shove. No more room to be kind, Dan sent two arcs of slicing energy towards Shade’s legs. Hindering his movement was the first step.
Shade easily dodged the attacks which sailed away and hit a random collection of skeletons. They were still amassed but the force of the combat was keeping the bulk away. Each punch that Shade blocked, each kick that sent Dan flying, also scattered and destroyed dozens of bones. The room was so massive, and so full of the dead, that they would not make a dent in the volume this way, but the gaps were also slow to fill.
Undeterred, Dan continued throwing slashing arcs of energy at Shade. Po Daiyu’s mana was surprisingly efficient, and Dan could easily maintain four instances of the attack he had taken from her. Shade had approached, closing the distance between himself and a ranged attacker. Except that was exactly what Dan had been hoping for. Once more he was disappointed for Shade that he was not himself. Shade would have never fallen for this trick.
As Dan flinched, the puppet of Shade brought his sword up. Slicing from the ground up, it sparked on the labyrinth floor and was met with only an afterimage once more. Dan threw himself from the void, smashing once more into Shade’s undefended back. As before, the glimmering cord of control shone where Dan could see it. The next slashing blade of energy Dan released was coated in Fa Lian’s power. The destructive force of it was terrifying but Dan’s aim was true.
He shuddered at the idea of hitting something living with that attack.
His plan seemed to work as Shade landed heavily, not bothering to brace his fall. The slump was similar to unconsciousness, as though the strings of his marionette were cut. However, before Dan could reach him, the uncanny movements began again and Shade’s body flew to its feet. Dan got back into a fighting pose, ready to continue.
As Shade’s bright white eyes found Dan’s own, Dan saw the plea for help within them.
“Don’t worry, Shade.” Dan said his words loud, sending the message through the mana collected around his friend’s body. “I’ll get you out of there.” His word was a vow not just to Shade but to himself. Dan hated this. He felt such a repulsion on Shade’s behalf that he had all but forgotten the rest of the chaos around himself. It barely registered to Dan that there were other issues at play here.
His friend was in trouble.
The next clash was sombre in a way that Dan had never experienced on the battlefield. He dodged every blow with ease, his previous attack on the cord of mana which controlled Shade had slowed his opponents movements. As Dan slipped around the attacks with increasing ease, he was more and more easily able to see the mostly invisible rope of energy.
With a final severing chop, Dan brought a hand covered in destructive energy across the cord and Shade fell to the ground once again. This time he stayed down for a few moments before groaning and coughing. It was loud to Dan’s senses, focused on the man so closely that when he suddenly started making noise, Dan jumped. He had been eerily quiet during their fight.
“Are you back?” Dan asked. He was still tense, ready to continue the fight if Shade quickly attacked. Instead, the man rolled onto his back and Dan saw a smile on the majaal’s dark face. Considering the evil location, the danger they still faced and the brawl that had just occurred, Dan thought this was in slightly bad taste.
Then Dan burst into laughter.
“Up.” Dan said, reaching an arm already laden with healing energy down to help Shade to his feet. “I apologise but there seems to be a war on.”
“Yes,” Shade agreed, nodding and accepting Dan’s help, “rectifying this situation is exactly what I plan to do.” By the time he was vertical instead of horizontal, Shade looked much better. The healing magic reinvigorated him and the gratitude was plain on his face. Shade held out his hand and Raze, dropped to one side in their fight, appeared in his grasp.
Shade swiped the sword forward and a swathe of bones just disappeared. Dan wasn’t sure if they had been sent elsewhere or simply removed. He almost didn’t want to know. He certainly didn’t think he’d have won their fight if Shade had done that to him. Without noticing Dan’s widened eyes, Shade stepped forward.
“Come.” Shade said, tilting his head and speaking out of the side of his mouth. “Let us go and clean up this mess.”