I sneak into shadow before Roxi can grip me with her domain. My feet touch the muddled ground compacted from my earlier fight. Softly, I circle around the dryad. My breathing is relaxed and quiet. She will only know where I'm at if I foolishly give away my location by doing something silly like speaking. I'm no fool. I'm a stalking tiger- silent, swift, and steady.

"Come out here and fight me like a man," Roxi shouts in a general direction.

"What does that even mean?" Damn. So much for being a tiger. Maybe I'm more like a wolf or a hyena. I'm a fox. Roxi looks to where I stood. I'm no longer there. I'm sprinting twenty steps left of where I was. The foolish fox is a tricky fox.

"Stop hiding and prancing around in your shadow. Be bold, brave, and stupid."

"That's probably offensive to someone. Still, no. I'm tired of getting stuck in domains." I master my breathing, making sure my words come out in a controlled manner. Another quick dash, and I'm standing opposite where Roxi is looking.

"You have no honor," she says.

"A dragon just told me the same thing," I respond, sprinting away. I'm motivated by the thought that this looks much cooler on the other side. Inside of shadow, not so cool. Outside… I'm a freaking ghost.

"Must be true." Roxi can't find me, so she attacks my character. Smart play.

"Doesn't mean it's right," I quickly counter.

"That's exactly what truth is."

"Depends on whose truth you're going off of." Now I'm closer to her by a couple of feet. I'm undetectable unless trees have some echolocation ability.

"Personal truth."

"That's the biggest farce." I jump high in the air. The words should sound directly above her. "Why are we fighting anyway?"

"Fury challenged me, and you scared him away." She doesn't bother looking above; a small part of me mourns my wasted effort. So now you must champion in his stead." I land at her side carefully without making a noise.

"Fine." I circle around Roxi, hover my hand over her shoulder, exit shadow, and pull us both back into my realm before she reacts. "Then, if that is the case, we will fight like dragons."

"Naked?" Roxi is far too eager to shed her golden bark battle dress. The dryad is nearly naked before I can dissuade her from undressing.

"What? No. Stop taking your clothes off." Her hand stops pulling the strap off her shoulder. She flashes a cheeky smile, taunting me to make her stop. "I meant with brute strength. Face to face."

"Oh, like a man?"

"Why is that a man's style?"

"Well, it is not the style of dragons. First off, dragons don't fight."

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"I'm sure they fight a little bit."

"Not like that."

"Fury said…"

"I know more about dragons than Fury. The poor welp has never been a part of a roost. All his ideals and fantasies are from the legends and myths people tell themselves to create excitement in their dreary lives."

"You're a bundle of joy. Where's that laughter of yours?"

"The day is no longer fun."

"Oh?"

"I was supposed to be the ruler of a nation. I was going to be a queen before the end of the week. Then I was killed and forced into a warlock contract with a dungeon boss, which is cool, but then I find out that the boss is a minion to the very classless drifter that I held in the palms of my hand this very morning before everything went so wrong."

"Oh."

"My consolation was going to be a blood-boiling battle between a dragon and a tree, only to learn that the dragon doesn't want to fight. Instead, I'm stuck in shadow with that very same drifter who is refusing or unable to fight me at full power. I just became a sage — a monumental achievement. I am practically immortal — the dream of every cultivator. I need to be able to wreck something as a celebration."

"Cheer up you dreary tree. Though my power is not as immense, you may still have a chance to get hot and sweaty." Instant regret. Not the right words. Definitely not the right words. Abort. Retreat. Retract.

"Oh?" The smile of an assassin toying with a target crests the dryad's lips. Her hands quick as a whip return to the strap holding her gown resting on her shoulder and slowly slips it off. "So you mean as dryads fight?"

"You're not serious." I hold my ground. She's bluffing. Roxi eyes me up and down, measuring me, calculating. Her devouring smile turns to one not quite disgust but within the same realm. The dress she slipped out of disperses into leaves that flow on mana currents back to her body creating a new gown that's more revealing than her former.

"No. You are too soft. I need a man. This," — her eyes take my measure once more. — "would only be a slaughter. Which is still fun but not what I need." I'm not sure if I'm relieved or disappointed. Roxi is dead, right? I guess it's no different than when Gene tried to marry me but got cold feet. Consider me conflicted.

"Well, if we are not going to romp around in your shadow, what is the point of all of this privacy? Release me, and let us fight properly."

"We can fight here."

"You have all the power here. There is no point. You gain nothing. I gain nothing."

"If I release you, I become subject to your domain, and then I have no power."

"I thought you had skill. Just do what you did when resisting the shadow suppression the day before last."

"I tried that. It didn't work."

"Well, then, I guess you will just be a domain bitch until you can grow a set on your own." Was it really only two days ago we were fighting through shadow. It's only been two days since we lost Kelly and Tress. I bury the guilt and pain of loss and try to recall how I avoided getting trapped in shadow before.

"Does it not matter that my mana and yours are different?" I ask. "When I resisted shadow, I pushed back with my own shadow. I figured I could only fight because the energy was the same. Or maybe the sage or templar wasn't as strong.

"Just be better and push out harder with your mana."

"Like it is that easy…"

"No, but that is part of why templars and sages are so much stronger than lancers. We can control the ambient mana that we are bound to. Still, that shouldn't stop us from controlling your mana. You just need to push harder."

Out of curiosity and a desire to no longer be dominated by others' mana, I release us from my shadow realm. Roxi flashes a satisfied, foxy grin, licks her lips, and attacks with all her power. Mistakes have been made.