Nil

Lux and Luna were both glaring at me. I tried, okay? How was I supposed to know the two could actually have a civil discussion? Krahinn was apparently endlessly petty and spiteful, which was not good for our current predicament. I knew Hoggdin was great at and possessed immense strength. Krahinn was great at and had encyclopedic knowledge of everything we could throw at him. Hoggdin I wasn’t sure about what he could do, but Krahinn didn’t seem to possess any weaknesses. If their weaknesses existed, they were beyond what we were capable of doing. I saw Hoggdin shrug off Lux’s attacks like they were nothing. The three of us could do nothing that could currently harm them. Our best bet was somehow getting them to harm themselves. No. We needed to use them to harm each other. I still had two sets of eyes trying to bore holes into me.

“I’m sorry. It was my mistake.” I apologized to them. The issue was, how to achieve that?

“You shouldn’t taunt people like that. You also scheme too much.” Luna lectured while grimacing at me.

“What’s the plan?” Lux sighed, looking ready to swat me.

“We stand little chance of harming the two of them. Our best strategy is to redirect their attacks to each other.” I told them. Krahinn would see that kind of move coming from a mile away.

“How?” Lux probed. That was the crux of the issue.

“No idea. Krahinn will suspect that type of trick before we even begin.” I confessed with a shrug, which earned more irritation from the two of them.

“You got us into this mess. Think better.” Luna snapped at me.

“Think better.” Lux agreed as she nodded her head.

What could we do? It’s not like I could bring the two of them into a and keep them there; Krahinn would never let me finish the . Even if I did, he was skilled at hijacking my and could forcefully end it that way. He never explained how he does that; I suspect it has to do with him being an . How did you deal with a pair of opponents that were superior to you on all measurable metrics? Even if they held back, they still completely dwarfed us on their own. Combined? Not a chance. Our only hope was to be more underhanded than them and outwit the two of them somehow. Two beings with literally over a thousand years of experience between the two of them. This is fairly daunting. I ran over the Krahinn imprinted into my mind; Krahinn did the same thing to Lux. I mulled the problem at hand, as well as what Krahinn gave me trying to think of the use. It was a spatial control focusing around creating axes of rotation to manipulate the space around you. Wait. I remembered my first match with Krahinn, where he hit me, and the world rotated around me as I fell into his kick. Did Krahinn use only my against me in that fight? Use from the compendium to beat the crap out of me? I wouldn’t put it past him.

“Lux, what did Krahinn force into your head?” I checked, trying to figure out the plan.

“Some form of centered on turning into the light.” Lux answered. That sounds awesome.

“Interesting.” I quipped as I wondered what that would look like.

Krahinn gave us these before I opened my mouth, so there had to be some way of using these against Hoggdin. From what I was able to tell Hoggdin possessed immense physical might. His were beyond mine, but I had a feeling that was more his experience and training for now. I thought of Krahinn and Hoggdin fighting. Krahinn used the entire time rather than try to fight head on. It made sense. Wait. Did it? Hold on. It was. Well. Would this be considered reckless or pure innovation? If this would work, why did Krahinn never try it? There was no way Krahinn didn’t think of it; at least the second half of what I was thinking. I needed to do a small test. If it failed, I was about to be sore all over if not getting healed back from the dead by Mom. This might be a horrible idea. A truly, terrible idea. We had three minutes and forty-one seconds before we had to take them on.

“Hold on team, I have an idea, but I need to ask a favor first.” I told them. Both gave me narrowed eyes.

“What?” Luna checked as she sounded annoyed by the situation.

“First, test.” I sighed, walking over to Hoggdin. He raised a curious eye at me.

“However could I help you, Nil?” Hoggdin probed with a toothy smile.

“Punch me. Serious enough for it to be a real test.” I requested. Krahinn was still seething but looked on in curiosity. I activated my and engaged my , getting ready for the incoming punch.

“Okay.” Hoggdin stated with a shrug.

He swung at me with the only reason I could see it coming was . I forgot despite Hoggdin being massive his speed was incredible. Please work. Please work. I put my hand up, stopping his fist cold. Hoggdin looked at me baffled, not grasping how I managed to completely stop his punch. I quickly leapt into the air before I went flying across the sky. Wow. Wow. This is a lot of speed. I reached the edge of Umbra before I slowed down sufficiently to get control of myself. That might have killed me if that didn’t work. But it did. could be used both ways. Mwahahahahahahaha. Hoggdin was no longer a problem at least if he kept this fair. He might tank through it before hitting me for real. I dusted myself off as I was suddenly in front of Krahinn who summoned me with long-distance . His expression was intense as his nine eyes glared at me, debating what he wanted to say. Hopefully, he didn’t think of the second half of my idea. In all honesty, his insight and abilities were something else. Just what was likely minor insights and knowledge from him and the results were incomprehensible. Krahinn let out a deep breath without saying anything. Two minutes and twenty seven seconds until we began. I noticed I was breathing deeper; this was definitely a dangerous idea.

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“Thanks, Krahinn.” I told him sincerely. His expression got more difficult for me to understand.

“That goes both ways.” Hoggdin deduced. I at least had a method for dealing with Hoggdin.

“I need to talk to my team before our spar.” I informed the two of them. Luna and Lux both looked at me a bit surprised, but both were smiling wide.

“What’s the plan?” Luna inquired as she gave me a hug.

“Plan.” Lux demanded, looking like this wasn’t about to utterly suck. Krahinn is still a different beast. With Hoggdin on his side, we likely had a very narrow window to construct anything resembling a win.

“I can use what I just did along with the to use Hoggdin’s attacks against him. It would only work on physical attacks, which makes it nearly useless against Krahinn. I’m at a loss for how to deal with Krahinn.” I confessed. Especially given he had the indomitable muscle that was Hoggdin.

“What if you tried using Hoggdin’s attacks against Krahinn?” Luna suggested as she mulled it over. We still had one minute twelve seconds before the spar.

“I imagine Krahinn is just going to safely move himself out of range.” I sighed. It’s what I’d do; no need to try and stop that, and it has a specific range.

“Turning into the light?” Lux asked, wondering if it would be useful.

“When you say turn into light, do you mean like a beam, or like the light from the sun?” I inquired as the gears in my head were turning.

“Sunlight.” Lux chimed with a head nod. One minute three seconds. Time is always so fleeting. Being perfectly honest, more time wouldn't be helpful.

“Can you activate that blocking halo of yours then enter it?” I checked. Krahinn might have actually given us a solution to him.

“I think so.” Lux answered, before quickly testing. I did a light trying to hit through where Lux was. Nothing. Perfect. Lux reformed herself. Unfortunately, the test did take a precious seventeen seconds.

“So, I augment Lux to withstand Krahinn while you take Hoggdin out? Stay by you to avoid their attacks?” Luna asked. It was roughly the same idea I had.

“I think that’s our best starting approach; it’s a matter of what we can use that works. We may need to pivot because the two of them are going to adapt. Our best bet is to somehow blitz them enough to force them to use their actual strength which is our win.” I explained. Any drawn out fight would go to them.

“Pivot to what?” Luna inquired. I shrugged. The two had so much experience over us I couldn’t fathom what they would do.

“Pray we can adapt before our bones break.” I sighed. It was not a great strategy overall to be perfectly honest. We were in our final thirty-one seconds.

“Great.” Luna groaned. Was there a better solution?

I racked my brain, but I just couldn’t think of how to deal with Krahinn beyond the stall and blitz. The Hoggdin strategy was essentially hoping the sucker punch was enough. We kind of grimly nodded at each other as we took the starting positions with thirteen seconds to spare. None of us could think of anything better. We each made our starting preparations as I summoned my sword which I immediately coated with . Make the edge thin like an atom; I need this to be as sharp as possible. Luna prepared her sword as Lux was reinforcing her body. Krahinn summoned a bell, tossing it into the air. The instant it chimed at all, the two of them sprung into action. I immediately rushed Hoggdin while Lux began assaulting Krahinn. He at least played it fair without turning them instantly into little balls. I had to take Hoggdin out as fast as possible; he happily obliged the violence as he swung much faster than earlier at me. One and a half seconds to impact. I quickly began setting up the axes to rotate around; I reinforced my body as much as possible, especially my ribs and wrists. There were mere milliseconds before Hoggdin connected.

Unto the unknown we ride. Please work. The first half did, and in theory the second half should as well. I used to stop the force of his attack, anchoring my center of mass on one of the axes I had created, as I made the other a bit off to the side. Please work. Two seconds exactly until I either shattered my rib cage or got to see what a surprised dragon looked like. As I expected, Hoggdin immediately had a follow up attack. It was unfortunately his tail, not his fist like I had hoped. One second before I got my answer. I used the axis I placed away from me to twist the space, so I was safely out of the way. My took a massive hit from that little bit. This is going to be a one and done type endeavor. I immediately began rotating the axis I anchored myself too as finished, launching me with the force from Hoggdin’s attack. My body rotated so fast my vision blacked out as I poured every ounce of into making sure my ribs and wrist were reinforced as I redirected the force from his attack from my hand, keeping my arms extended with , using the axis to rotate, right back at Hoggdin via my sword. Every bone in my body was weeping from the sheer force of the rotation. I slashed Hoggdin, exerting as much of my into my and reinforcement as possible, before freeing myself from the axis so I went flying into the sky. Hoggdin let out an immense roar which seemed to shake the world. My entire vision was wavy lines. I can’t give up here. This is technically a team fight, and I can’t be out of commission.

I was still gaining height as I apparently decided to begin the Speranza space program. Four seconds of going up so far. I forcefully refilled my with my . A total of eleven seconds had passed since I began flying up. Oh, was I going to hate life after this. My entire right arm was numb as I was finally beginning to slow down. The view from up here is gorgeous. Not now. Focus Nil. I had about twenty-six seconds of falling ahead of me unless I shortcut it. It was nice being able to see well outside of the city wall, seeing some of the surrounding woods. I shook my head. I needed to get back to the ground. Nothing in my body felt broken, there was no stinging sensation in my body, and I could move my with no issues. No major , and I kept my body intact. I looked at my right arm, seeing it looked fine. I did some test motions as I began falling. Nothing was injured. I’ll take pulling that off without hurting myself as a win. Wait, why did Hoggdin not follow me? He could fly; I had seen him fly. He was a dragon with wings. Crap. I made it a two on two with this maneuver. I was stupid. It might have been a great sucker punch, but the cost was too great. Before I could fall though, Krahinn appeared. I went to fight back, but he instantly brought us to the ground. Why? I then saw the aftermath of that slash. Oh, I am so dead.