Tiny trees and patches of land moved and turned in the sky. Some were zapped out of existence while others appeared out of thin air. However, this change brought about by Miss Bella was only a minor inconvenience for the two.
Annie’s projectiles easily went around these obstacles while Michael merely used the tiny islands as stepping stools to his target. He dodged several fireballs and used a tree as a shield to escape from three more.
Unfortunately, the flames went around the apple tree, so the boy had to stop and punch them out of the air. Suddenly, the island beneath him was destroyed by tornadoes, and several projectiles hit him while he fell.
As soon as he regained his footing, the boy started running towards Annie, punching whatever projectiles he could and tanking the rest of them with his body.
Annie bit her lower lip. ‘He should’ve fallen by now, or at least slowed down…’
She pushed her crystal forward, and a laser beam shot out of it, piercing all the islands in its path as well as Michael’s left shoulder.
“Are you shitting me!? You were aiming for my heart!”
“Sorry,” Annie gave a small bow. “Your wounds will heal after you leave this place… even if I kill you.” She whispered that last part and shot another laser at his stomach.
The brawler dodged with just a large scratch near his liver, jumped the final two islands and pounced on top of her.
As he was right about to punch her, Annie showed him the crystal. “How will you dodge now?” Half a dozen miniature tornadoes came out of it, and the crystal lit up, signaling a laser strike. With no other choice, Michael canceled his attempt and jumped to the right, getting hit by three tornadoes at the same time.
“Your chainmail has already broken. You’ll bleed to death.”
The boy passed through several more islands until he found a way back towards her. However, Annie saw the tree he was planning to jump off of and smashed it with her earth balls out of the sky.
“Give up. I’ll treat you to some fish as an apology.”
The stones which obliterated the tree continued their path towards Michael and cornered him from the right. The remaining three tornadoes also flew at him from the left. There were no more islands or trees to jump on, and there were more than 30 feet between him and Annie, an impossible distance for a single leap.
Yet, as he looked at the girl he considered his friend, Michael noticed something he had never seen before. Annie was struggling to keep down a smile as if she was enjoying her superiority. Her eyes had a sparkle in them as if she was looking forward to the impact.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
‘So that’s how it is.’
Michael gritted his teeth and punched his two gauntlets together. The orange crystals shined briefly, and the boy bent his knees.
“You can’t jump that far.”
“Really!?” Michael jumped... No, he flew like a bullet, and an instant later, he hit Annie straight in the jaw. The hit was several times more powerful than normal, so her jaw cracked and several teeth went flying. The girl fell off her island, lost consciousness and dropped towards the bottom like a log.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll treat you to some fish as an apology.” Michael’s smirk was in sharp contrast to Miss Bella’s bulging eyes. Clearly, she did not expect this outcome. Annie fell on an island near the bottom of the bubble, and after some hesitation, the teacher had no choice but to raise her hand.
“Winner…”
However, the sentence was never completed. White light burst out of Annie’s body, covering her from head to toes. Then, as soon as she opened her eyes, more balls of white light came out of her crystal and entered her jaw, fixing the damage.
“Oh?” Miss Bella tilted her head. 'Did she eat one of the apples or did the crystal have a fail safe? Weird...'
“She lost,” said Michael. “I could’ve killed her five times by now.”
“But you didn’t. You did not expect she would heal, did you?”
After feeling her face and assessing the damage, Annie got up and jumped from platform to platform until she reached the same level as Michael. She then removed the dust from her clothes and stretched her mouth to make sure it was healed properly.
“That hurt.”
“Ha, that's what you deserve for underestimating me.”
Annie’s brows furrowed and she extended her hand. The orange crystal floated up before suddenly flying straight into the nearest thunder cloud.
Lightning hit it, the crystal started glowing, and several elemental balls were released. The crystal then moved on to the next cloud, charged up, released projectiles, rinse and repeat until the entire area around the two fighters was full of flying, magical projectiles.
Michael panicked for a moment, then he jumped a couple of platforms to reach her, but Annie raised a hand.
“Don’t. Make one move and I’ll shoot you with everything I have.”
More than 200 projectiles surrounded Michael, trapping him inside a storm of fire, wind, water, and earth.
“This is clearly cheating.”
“Actually no,” Miss Bella crossed her arms. “I put the clouds in here specifically for this purpose. Of course, I didn’t expect anyone to actually figure it out.”
“Hmph, of course she did.” Michael gritted his teeth. It was too late to attack her, not that it would have worked anyway.
“Give up. I don’t want to hit you.”
“Bullshit! Don’t confuse me for Finn, you psycho. I see right through you.”
Annie’s frown returned, deeper than ever.
“I mean it when I say I don’t want to hurt you, Michael. And I’m not a psycho.”
“Really?” Michael chuckled, glad to see he struck a nerve. “Don’t you want to test this perfect little storm you’ve created on me? Don’t you want to see how many bones you can break, how much damage your almighty powers can dish out?”
“Shut up!”
The energy balls flew near Michael, stopping only an inch from his skin. The teen could no longer move, see or even breathe properly without his lungs catching fire or his skin getting cut by razor sharp wind.
“See?” He spoke slowly so as to not injure himself. “You’re just as much of a nutjob as I am, except I don’t hide behind fake smiles and pretenses.”