Chapter 35

We looked near them same; same height, same build. Maybe one of us had a centimeter or a kilo on the other, but it was hard to tell. Then the staffs, mine was a long and uniformly thin simple piece of wood where hers was a good honest magical staff, of a height with her with a knobby head. Was it a Mana focusing staff? Unlike my own, which was just a stick and nothing else. All in all, hers was clearly better, either as a Mana focuser or a weapon; it had that extra weight.

In clothes, I had on my usual get up, dark turquoise trousers, light turquoise shirt and a dark turquoise vest. The boots were turquoise, as were my fingerless gloves. The trousers and shirt were new. She, on the hand, had on black-brown boots, maroon trousers and a light grey shirt. She had her hair braided and coiled into itself, leaving nothing hanging loose.

I checked her Status as we took our positions for the start of the fight.

‘[Human : Artina][Level: 36]

Status:

[HP: 6171/6191]

[MP: 7110/7199]

[SP: 6221/6437]

’

Well, I was properly outmatched. Health, Mana, she had plenty. Stamina, we were point for point. I couldn’t remember any technique I had thought of for someone who outmatched me so. All my prior opponents hadn’t had numbers like those, I had had an edge in somehow. I didn’t think I had one for the fight.

She was in the semifinals, having taken out a seed in her quarterfinals fight. She knew how to fight, those Levels weren’t just for show, she could use them effectively. I held my staff tighter in my left hand, the stance a little off for me but necessary. I hoped I wouldn’t forget about the need to keep my Mana to the left, and only left.

“FIGHT!!!”

[Fast Dash] with a primed [Staff Strike]. She responded just as fast, pulling back with a similar Skill of her own. The tip of my staff nearly grazed her as she pulled back, a loud boom going off as it passed its apex. It took me a second to realize that it had actually traveled faster than sound then. But I couldn’t spare the time to think about that, the fight had started and I wanted to keep her within reach of my staff. With her Mana points, it was clear that she could take me down from a far, I couldn’t afford to go on a pure Mana fight with her.

But keeping up with her was easier said than done. Every time I tried closing the distance between us, she always, without fail, used that Skill of hers to get away, throwing a Mana projectile or two as she did that. I was forced to stop my pursuit after the fourth failed attempt, and her ranged attacks increased multifold then.

I danced around them, eating away at my Stamina while she stood stock still, saving up hers. That was beyond infuriating, something that couldn’t be abided by. I tried throwing a [Fire Ball] at her, but she had one of those shields that just let the [Fire Ball] wash over her. The impact slowed her attacks down for a moment, but it wasn’t what I wanted, she didn’t dance like I was dancing.

I decided to change tactics, using [Wind Gust] to send a cloud of dust her way, I quickly created a follow up cover by sending another [Wind Gust] at an arc between us. But before I could use the cover to close in on her, the dust cloud was violently propelled back at me, forcing me to create the [Staff Shield] to protect myself, moving sideways just in case she decided to attack.

As the dust cleared, I realized that she was closer than I had thought. Had I known that, I could have used [Fast Dash] to close in the distance while the dust cloud cleared. As it was, if I made a move to close the distance, she would just pull back. What was the alternative? Going in a Mana slugging match with her? I would lose that one without question, her Health was so high I couldn’t even think of a way to whittle it down without succumbing first.

Then I remembered the talk I had had with Clare about essential Health parts, and cursed myself for not reading about those during my time at the library. But I didn’t think that would matter too much. As far as I could remember, I had come to the conclusion that I should treat a person as I would back on old earth. With that in mind, and her lackluster armor, hypothetically, I had my prime targets. Now, how to get to them?

I used [Fast Dash] to get close, with a [Hurtling Projectile] trailing me. As I came out of it, the piece of earth hurtled past me towards her, but she was as fast as usual, dodging out of its trajectory. I tried willing the projectile to change course, throwing Mana into it.

I don’t know whether it worked or not, but at the last moment, she brought a shield into being. I quickly hurled three more [Hurtling Projectile]s at it after noticing that it had at least one more ring than the last one of its kind I had encountered, it had more detail to it too.

I watched disbelievingly as all my projectiles shattered on impact, leaving the shield pristine as ever. Seeing her take a potion behind the shield brought me back, quickly going for one of my Mana potions. With how many [Fast Dash]s and [Hurtling Projectile]s I had used, I didn’t need to check my Status to know that I was running low, the others were safe for the time being.

I used a small [Earth Grab] on her foot and tried to pull at it, trying to stumble her. But I got nothing, quickly dispelling the [Earth Grab] as I approached the shield, and began hacking at it with my Staff. She was about done, having taken at least two potions that I knew of. I hadn’t landed a hit on her so I doubted there was a Health potion needed. How long again had we been fighting? Ten minutes? Thirty? Longer? It felt shorter, and longer at the same time.

She pulled back at the fifth hit, with the shield disappearing as distance was created between us. It hadn’t even developed a crack yet, I hoped the damn thing cost a lot of Mana to create and keep going, otherwise, it was very possible I might find myself unable to land any hit.

I pursued immediately, sending [Fire Ball]s and [Wind Gust]s every so often. That proved to work in my favor, just a little bit, but I was finally forcing her to engage with me staff for staff. Which proved to be a bad idea almost immediately.

Her strikes were stronger than mine, way stronger. It took way too much effort from me just to redirect them. I didn’t think the knob on its head could account for the difference in power we wielded. That only left a high [Strength] level, way higher than my own. I took steps back for a reevaluation, but she followed. Had she realized that I was weaker than her physically? That would be bad.

Her attacks came faster then, sometimes a few even grazed me. But the difference in our staff length made itself known when I managed to land a hit on one of those grazes. I wasn’t sure who came out the better of it, but I didn’t plan to let that chance go.

I attacked with renewed vigor, knowing full well that I needed to take a Stamina potion soon or I would render myself incapable of continuing the fight. I swung and swirled my staff at her as fast as I could, in an effort to keep her from pulling away from me. And the few times she did manage to, I followed just as fast, keeping the foray of strikes and thrusts going, even as my wrists began complaining from the exertion I was putting them through. I landed some, and she landed some of her own too. Then she set her own staff ablaze, and I ignored it, pressing the attack as the fire burned at my staff and hands. I kept periodically dousing the staff with water to keep it from catching fire too.

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As I got an alert for low Stamina, I used [Hurtling Projectile] to distract her. She used her staff to completely shatter it into small pieces, but that left her open, and I went in for her exposed head.

I was met with a roaring [Fire Ball] that send me flying a few meters back. I landed rolling, using the momentary respite to down the Stamina potion, and a much needed Health potion. I quickly came up with a [Wind Gust] as I [Fast Dash]ed to her. She pulled away almost immediately, sending another of those [Fire Ball]s at me. I nimbly avoided it, barely though, as I pursued her again. And again.

After the third time, she finally engaged me. But a few careless mistakes later, and I was flying from her, again. I think that was a [Wind Gust] Skill. Or something similar. I had felt more than saw what had propelled me backwards. As I got up, I noticed that she had taken another potion. I decided to take a breather from the constant engagement, and we were back to the ranged attacks. Her throwing a Mana ball, then a missile, a slash, sometimes a flimsy wavy thing that had left me stunned for a second, I had paid dearly for that.

I decided to stop paying attention to what exactly she send my way. What did it matter if it was a ball, dagger, hammer, scythe, sword, or just plain unshapely Mana; it all hurt the same when it made contact with me. I had little protection from any of it, my best course of action being making sure they didn’t connect.

Her staff was no longer on fire, seeing as she didn’t need it with me so far away. And she was using that extra Mana to keep me on my toes, while I occasionally threw a few attacks of my own for every three of hers. I avoided as many as I could as minutes stretched on. We kept the attack throwing fest for what felt like hours to me, my Health had dropped by half then, and Mana was even lower, proving why going toe to toe with her in Mana attacks was a bad idea. I couldn’t keep going on for much longer, and we both knew that. I checked her out to see how she was faring.

‘[Human : Artina][Level: 36]

Status:

[HP: 5217/6191]

[MP: 1165/7199]

[SP: 2181/6437]

’

I hadn’t done anything much to her Health, but her Mana and Stamina had taken quite a beating. That surprised me a lot. Before I could even begin thinking about why they were so low, I was dodging and rolling away from her onslaught of Mana projectiles, she must have noticed my distraction.

I returned the favor. I was about to take a potion, so I went all out in hopes of landing something or creating an opportunity for me take a potion safely. [Fire Ball]s and [Wind Gust]s were rained on her, with a few [Hurtling Projectile]s thrown into the mix. They weren’t much, but what they achieved made me nearly forget why I had used them in the first place. Some had actually landed, including the [Fire Ball]s.

As I took my Mana potion, I thought of the reasons why her basic shield had failed. The one that completely protected her from my [Fire Ball]s. It looked like they hadn’t met any resistance at all. And she might have redirected one of my [Hurtling Projectile]s. At the end of the barrage, I had seen the detailed circular shield pop up before disappearing. And she had managed to consume potions of her own.

She had too much Mana. How was it that the Mana potions didn’t decide she had too much and only fill up halfway, that would have helped me immensely. I whisked away my wishful thinking as I got my head back into the fight itself.

We were on our last pails. A few engagements, and I would have to take a Health potion. And then I would be done. I knew she at least had an extra Health potion on her, what I didn’t know was whether she had any other potions. And we were back to the hurling of projectiles.

I cursed the monotony of where I found myself. I knew the spectators were besides themselves with how we were fighting, I most definitely was. If I kept up with the hurling contest, the fight would be hers. There was no going back. I took the Health potion after taking one too many hits, and reduced my retaliation attacks to one for her five. She soon noticed that and slowed down too.

I thought we were taking a break, but the next moment, she was shooting towards me. The first time she had done that in the whole fight. It was mesmerizing, watching my Skill from another’s perspective. Truly so. But it was no time for admiration, she came for me, and I met her head on. If I took out her Stamina, I won. If she took out either my Health or my Stamina, she won. The odds were in her favor.

Our engagement was a mixture of physical and Mana attacks. Her strikes were clearly far more powerful than before, definitely enhanced. She was faster too, forcing me to work hard for every successful block I made, and even harder to parry or evade them completely. Every strike that made contact with my staff left a jarring feeling in my arms. A general sense of weakness was setting in, the staff being forced back further with each successive strike, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it for long.

I switched tactics, going for her arms in an effort to immobilize them, but that worked against me spectacularly. She picked up on what I was trying to do after the first few hits landed, and went for the same tactic, catching my right arm with a well-placed strike that left it numb. I tried keeping it on the staff but it was useless. The next strike I tried to defend against knocked the staff to an awkward angle, completely dislodging it from my right hand.

I tried maintaining grip with an [Enhanced Hand] for my left hand, but I paid too much attention to the wrong thing and I paid for that error by getting a bicep hit that nearly numbed the left arm too. The staff dropped unceremoniously to the ground and she pushed her luck. Trying to channel through my left arm got me nothing and I was pushed back.

I dodged, ducked, evaded and sidestepped her attacks as my left arm slowly gained full feeling. The right was taking longer to get there. The moment I felt that the left arm was ready, I went for a [Earth Grab]. She stumbled a little as it kissed her foot, recovering almost immediately. I went for it again, followed by [Hurtling Projectile]. She somehow avoided getting caught by the [Earth Grab], but her success taking care of the projectile was partial.

It broke up in two as she hit it with her staff, one of the pieces careened off to the side and the other flew directly for her upper arm. As her staff slackened, I grabbed it with my left hand and used [Enhanced Hand] to rip it from her grasp. It was unsuccessful.

And I paid for it by being pulled in for a straight up face punch. A lot more than just my nose broke from that punch, but I somehow maintained my grip on the staff, effectively rendering it useless for the fight. My right hand wasn’t fully back yet, so I went for a kick. My first in the whole competition.

It was so awkward and uncoordinated that only my grip on the staff kept me up. Up for another punch to go for my face. I straightened up as fast as I could while strongly pulling my right hand with all the effort I could master for a block. It responded, arriving in time to deflect the blow to my right. I went to pull the staff again, but the Mana betrayed me, running out mid pull.

Her counter pull suddenly became so strong that she literally slammed me into her, hard. We both went down rolling and I came up on top, with the staff already forgotten. I started raining down blows on her head; the last time I had been down, that was how I was taken out. I kept them going as fast as I could, and with as much strength as I could master. She tried putting up a defense but I knew that those that landed where more than those that didn’t; and it was only a matter of time before I won.

All of a sudden, I wasn’t on top anymore. I tried wriggling out, but she had me pinned down good. How? I asked myself as the blows began landing. I quickly brought my hands up for defense, but it felt like that just made it worse. Then I tried to hit her, but the only place I could reach was her torso.

Knowing what had happened the last time I went for the torso, I tried punching her head, and she pulled back, momentarily stopping her assault. I kept up the flailing until she managed to catch my right arm and pin it down. Then resumed the assault with her free hand, but I took her cue and successfully grabbed it after the second try. Then I pulled myself up with her arms as support. When I was close enough, I released her hand and latched onto her head, bringing it down as I went back down. She released my other arm in an effort to free herself, but that only gave me more hands to latch onto her head with. My feet came up to her waist to complete the hold. Then I brought her head down hard while I propelled mine up.

In my previous life, I had taken to knocking my head against the wall as a way to release my anger. It hurt like hell, but that way no one ever got hurt. Other than me. I had developed something of a resistance to blunt force trauma to the head then. Not much, but enough to make a difference where it mattered.

The first hit proved beyond doubt that that resistance hadn’t carried over. My vision became blurry as a ringing started in my ears, which intensified with each passing second. But it left me conscious enough to know what I was doing. Another, and another and I was sure I saw black then. I tried for another, but it felt more like a tap than the resounding hit I wanted. There was nothing left in me for another. I collapsed down as darkness overtook me, hoping for all that mattered in Mesily, that my opponent had passed out before I did.