When the bell rang out, I was ready. He moved so fast that it didn’t matter that I was watching him. He still vanished. Anticipating his attack, I pushed my body backward. My back slammed into something solid with four sharp points. Both he and I cried out in shock and pain at the sudden contact.
Before I could react, his hand reached around to my front. A sharp point of a claw tapping at my jugular. “STOP!” Michael called. Lance’s claws all vanished. The points of them no longer jabbing me in the back as he shoved me away.
By the time I recovered my balance and turned to face him, Barti and Michael were standing between us. “What did you do wrong this time?” Barti asked me.
“I lost sight of him, again,” I said, exasperated.
He shook his head. “You wouldn’t be able to keep up with him even if you tried. At least not yet.”
“Then how am I supposed to fight him?”
“Anticipate his actions.” Michael cut in. “You don’t have to see his attack to know that it is coming.”
“That would work well here, but what about later?” I countered, thinking about what would happen when we fight in larger groups.
He shrugged. “Then work on some spell, skill, or sense that will warn you about dangers.” He turned to Lance. “What about you?”
“I didn’t anticipate him jumping backward.” That was all he said.
Michael nodded before saying, “Again.” I grumbled but otherwise, took the few steps needed to get back into position. My mind racing to come up with some way to detect his movements. Spells were out. I just didn’t know enough runes or how to create more than the basic, one runed, spells. I mean, look at my firewall spell. The thing was created by repeating the same rune over and over. It was literally a wall made of fire runes.
No, I needed to either rely on some sort of sense. Just out of dumb curiosity, I closed my eyes and pushed my mana out. Activating my Mana Sense skill and just watching the mana around me. Keeping an eye on how it moved.
The bell rang and I did not move from my spot. I did not open my eyes to see where he was or wasn’t. I kept my attention on the mana around me. That was probably why I noticed the mana to one side swirl a bit. Given that I wasn’t actually seeing it with my eyes but another sense, it was a bit weird, to say the least. But it looked like it was moving similarly to how a dust cloud does when a train speeds past. Going off that, I kept an eye out for other similar changes to the mana floating.
Sure enough, another section swirled. This time, it wasn’t alone nor was it from something passing close to me. Whatever was disturbing the mana floating around me was heading in my direction. Taking a chance, I stayed where I was. Watching as whatever it was finally reached me and stopped. A sharp prick of pain at my neck told me that this match was over.
“STOP!” Michael called out again. His voice sounded a bit annoyed as he continued to talk while making his way toward us. “What the fuck was that?” Opening my eyes, I shrugged and said nothing. “You kept your eyes closed throughout that whole match. That would have been fine if you had tried something but you didn’t even move from your starting position. Did you want to see just how fast you could lose?”
Barti didn’t say a word. His eyes just looking at me in consideration. Almost as if he could see something that Michael couldn’t. “Again!” Michael yelled as he turned around. “And this time you will fight or I will make you fight!” While I didn’t know what he meant, the way he said it had me shivering. To my surprise, Lance’s tail was stiff. Every hair lifted and standing on end. Making him look more like a scared cat than anything else. Something told me that whatever Michael meant when he said that was something that Lance had experienced.
Before the bell went off to signal the start of the match, I closed my eyes and focused on my Mana Sense and the mana around me. Looking for signs of someone coming at me. The bell rang off and nothing happened. “OPEN YOUR DAMN EYES!” Michael yelled from the sidelines. I ignored him but still nothing happened.
“Go ahead, Lance.” Came Barti’s calm voice. That could only mean that, even though the match had started, Lance had decided to not attack. Waiting for me to open my eyes. That was nice of him and all, but I needed to focus on my Mana Sense and I couldn’t do that without getting rid of some other sense. Sight being the easiest to get rid of at the moment.
The mana in front of me swirled as something flashed through it and toward me. I dropped my right shoulder and stepped out of the way just in time. Letting whatever it was pass me by. Halfway through the back half of my sensing range, the object stopped moving. With a rush of displaced mana, it took off to my right. Curving around to attack my side.
Seeing this, I took a step back. Over and over, I dodged his attacks. Stepping back, left, right, ducking, even staying in place as he sometimes feigned an attack. At this point, I could hear his heavy breathing. He stayed where he was, catching his breath as he asked a simple question. “How?”
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I didn’t want to answer him. At least not yet. Not until after I won the match. My silence must have irked him as he charged at me. The way the mana around his movements moved around indicated a complete change in tactics. He was no longer moving to stab me in one spot or another. This time he was going for a full-on tackle. Maybe even a bear hug of sorts.
Pushing mana into my legs, I leaned down under a raised arm. Practically dancing around him as I rotated around his charge. Raising my sword and placing it on his shoulder. He froze. Stopping fast enough to not slice his neck on my sword. “STOP!” Michael called.
As I put my sword away, opened my eyes. Standing there, breathing hard enough to work as a bellow in a factory, was Lance. His face was drenched in sweat. Neither of us spoke as we waited for Barti and Michael.
Michael was, again, the first to speak. Talking to Lance first this time. “Do you know what you did wrong?”
He shook his head. “I don’t even get what just happened?”
Michael looked like he was uncertain himself, but Barti spoke up. “If I had to guess, Kyren used another sense to detect your movements. Isn’t that right?” I nodded.
“How?” Lance asked. “I made sure to cloak everything.”
“As any good hunter should,” Barti said, nodding. “Likely you just missed something simple. How about we ask Kyren how he did it so that you can work on hiding it as well.”
They all looked at me in anticipation of my answer. Instead of giving them what they wanted, I asked a question of my own. “Cloak?”
“Wolfkin and other hunting races have a few tricks up their sleeves to remain undetected when hunting,” Barti answered. “His class likely adds a bit to that as well. Now, tell us what you did.”
“I used Mana Sense.” My answer was simple. Yet judging by the expressions it made no sense.
“What do you mean?” Lance asked.
“What is Mana Sense?” Michael asked.
Both had spoken over one another and Barti waited before asking his own question. “How would that work? Pretty sure that his racial skill doesn’t require any mana.” Lance grimaced a bit but nodded in affirmation.
“That would explain why I didn’t see him,” I said as I recalled that I couldn’t see his mana at all, only mine. “But I wasn’t watching his mana, I was watching mine.”
Neither Barti nor Lance got it but something clicked inside Michael’s eyes. “Don’t tell me. You were looking for the distortions in your mana that he left as he moved.” I nodded and he roared with laughter. Barti was the next to understand it but Lance looked completely lost. Michael waved his confusion off while saying “Don’t worry about it.”
On the other hand, Barti spoke up. “No matter how tightly you keep your mana, it will affect the mana around you. Kyren here just kept an eye out for that distortion is all.”
Lance deflated at that. “But that means I can do nothing to prevent someone from detecting me.”
“Decoys,” Michael’s answer was short as he turned and started walking away. “Again!”
Judging by how Barti was looking at Michael, I was pretty sure Michael was getting under his skin with how he was acting. “Just do something to disturb the mana in the air. If you can figure out how to do it, you can even use decoys like he suggested.” With that, he moved to join the group at the edge of the circle while we returned to our starting positions. Now that my trick was out, I needed to come up with another. Luckily, I would have a bit of time to figure it out as he tried to figure out how to use Barti’s suggestion.
The bell rang out. Like before, I kept an eye on the mana around me. This time, however, I started to form a few surprises. Under my own feet, I formed a fireball. Holding the spell at the ready as I waited for him to attack. Something shot through the mana around me. It moved faster than any of his other attacks. It was only because of the range and warning that I was able to move out of the way at all.
Still, something dragged against my cheek. Whatever it was left a stinging line. It didn’t stop. It kept up the speed and vanished out the other side of my detection range. Given that the radius of my Mana Sense was a good forty or fifty feet and that he had entered and exited it in under a second, he had to be moving faster than a train. Or at least any train I had been on. Pretty sure the ones I had ridden were slow compared to how fast a well-maintained version would go, but what did I know?
It didn’t matter either. The only thing that mattered was the fact that whatever has sliced my cheek was fast, but nothing that I couldn’t handle if I was ready for it. Seeing as I couldn’t always be ready for such an attack, I was at a severe disadvantage. I had to watch everything around me. The moment something disturbed the mana in a spot, I had to track it, plot it, plan how to avoid it, and then execute said plan. If, and when, he started to use decoys, then I would have yet another thing to keep an eye out for. Hell, at that point I was fairly sure I would be fucked.
My mind had been flying over possible ideas and counters when, suddenly, something stabbed into my leg. My eyes flew open to find that he was standing just out of range, looking at me. Looking down, I found a knife embedded in my calf. Returning my gaze to him, he tossed another knife and smirked. The damn guy had found a way around my skill without needing to come up with some convoluted spell or even use mana. Shaking my head, I called out, “I lost.” I felt stupid yet happy all at the same time. Stupid that I had missed something so simple but happy to have made the guy work to figure something out.
Linda jumped off Michael’s back as they got close. Instantly reaching for and working on my wound as he spoke to me. “What do you think you could have done better?”
“Not assume that he had no long-distance attacks,” I grumbled, not happy to have to admit to such a stupid mistake.
“Good.” Turning to Lance, he asked the same question. “What do you think you could have done better?”
“I should have thought of that attack a while ago,” Lance grumbled. He sounded pissed at himself more than anything.
“Well,” Barti said before Mindi cut in. “Lunch is ready. Go grab some.” She sounded excited about something. While I was curious, I was famished. Fighting, no matter how much you moved, was taxing and I was famished.
Victor helped me over to the edge of the ring where chairs were a number of chairs had been formed. Judging by the looks of them, they were likely formed with magic from the dirt and stone. As soon as I sat down, Linda passed me a plate full of sandwiches. Each filled with some juicy meat. Sauce dripping off the lowest corner. As I moved to eat, I realized that Barti and Michael had not joined us. In fact, they were both inside the circle. Each standing at one of the starting points facing the center. Suddenly, I had an idea of why Mindi was excited.