[Accelerate Adrenaline] wasn't enough to dodge the quickly incoming halberd, not when I hadn't registered the weapon as a threat once the staggering, and now glowing, Gatekeeper had dropped it.

I should've made the connection; I'd seen an ability like this before, from the golem on the bridge me and Gwen had passed over to enter the Basins.

But I hadn't mad the connection. Not until the last possible moment.

The weapons of that other golem had been made of Antimeritium, a mysterious metal that seemed to be able to strike me even when my [Mana Flicker] had me in a less than physical state.

I could only assume that this elite variant of automaton, though appearing to be made of a more silver seeming metal, probably had the same sort of abilities--if not greater ones. Maybe it wouldn't be a straight one-to-one upgrade between the two monsters, but I couldn't discount the possibility.

The halberd was close now. It was a blur even in my mana-sped senses. I needed more speed.

I fueled more mana into my body and mind accelerating spell, churning it into the hungry furnace of the spell's formation. The halberd stilled somewhat in response. The world did too.

But the incoming weapon was still too fast.

I poured even more mana into my spell.

The cracks began to show in my arsenal of spells; [Accelerate Adrenaline] had served me well, but it too apparently had its limits.

My body struggled against me, my mind's speed now outstripping the upper limitations of my physicality. It was like being locked in a straight jacket, bound and sealed into my flesh by my own sense of time; I was suddenly able to perceive what needed to be done, but I just couldn't do it fast enough for it to matter.

The halberd inched a near-frozen second closer to me; the weapon's shape started to distort as its edges took up the majority of my vision.

My eyes shifted furiously, not as bound by the chillingly slow to react chains of sinew and bones that my muscles were, as I looked for an answer.

Gwen's mouth, wreathed in tiny sparks of vibrant electricity and world-rippling thunder, was half-open, but she was just as frozen as the rest of the world was.

I felt that our bond was still intact, but that our now mismatched perceptions of time was impeding the connection's usefulness.

How did that work? Did magic just pick and choose when it fit into realistic limitations?

Screw that. I hadn't been reincarnated into being a damn flame-wielding, elf looking sorceress just to be limited by my own magic.

With the halberd growing ever closer through the malaises of my frozen perspective, and now almost touching my nose proper, I reached into the depths of my soulcore.

I felt it then: a pulse. Or, more accurately, a wavering of power at the center of my being.

I grabbed ahold of that energy, flooding the fire of my soul's mana with my intent and pushing it into and forcing it to burn throughout the mana channels of my body.

My skin began to grow less physical, as if ready to break away, but even this familiar feeling was moving too slowly.

The halberd touched my half-formed nose. I felt the first tinges of pain a moment later, as my lagging nerves finally relayed what they were feeling to my spell-altered consciousness.

My teeth, already clenched in contemplation, ground in defiance.

Fine!

I surged even more mana into [Accelerate Adrenaline]. In response to my redoubled efforts, time proved to slow to almost nothing, even when I'd thought it already had.

I couldn't even move my eyes now. My body was left behind as my mind pushed further beyond its limits.

The pain of the halberd removing only a few particles of skin from my nose shattered and broke off from any realistic sense of perceivability, a single moment of discomfort echoed into an eternity.

My mana bar, meanwhile, drained at a rate that matched my mind's new sped-up perception of time

Just how much mana was I using? In real-time?

I didn't have the seconds to do the math, but I imagined it was a ridiculous amount.

It didn't matter. I had to live. If I'd discovered anything about myself these past few weeks... it was that I wasn't the kind of person who died.

I refused to lay down and accept this world's senseless bloodlust!

If I couldn't mana flicker my whole body in time then I'd just flicker the part that mattered.

I reached for my soulcore once again. I felt the flame of my blazing mana rage beneath what felt like my breast.

I redirected that energy, that blaze of defiance, up my collarbone. The power flowed, seemingly unimpeded by the mortal limitations of my synapses, up the nape of my neck, leaving a pleasant warmth as it went.

Then it reached my head. The fire spread, filling every pore of my face, flowing around my cheeks and even into every strand of my hair.

But it still wasn't enough.

I dug deeper. My soulcore pulsed, sending more mana into my inner flame, the flame that fueled my spellcasting--which I now realized, as I was almost cut off from all physical sensation and solely focused on it, was somewhat separate from my soulcore itself.

The fire flowed up and into my head as it, and it alone, from my neck to my head's crown mana flickered.

Reality resumed its proper flow.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

My nose stung as the infinitesimal part of it that had touched the halberd's sharpened edge was left behind as my head magically forced itself to the side, staying connected to my body even as everything from the neck down did not break away into mana as it did.

I tasted blood the moment my skull rematerialized; it was pouring from my nostrils, I realized.

That was probably bad.

Catching up to me now, my heart thundered, threatening to tear itself apart against the strain I'd put it through by slamming against the walls of my natural limits.

My mana was barely at ten percent.

I could feel that each and every one of my muscles was now strained beyond its limits, not terribly--but noticeably.

I'd finally pushed too far.

But I was alive.

I reached for the stored power of one of my mana runes, feeling it flood into the weakened fire of my inner flame, serving as ethereal fuel that relit its already relighting blaze.

My eyes shone with power as [Accelerate Healing] started to work to repair the damage I'd done.

I smiled, even as [Accelerate Adrenaline] kicked back into gear--though at a much reduced rate, as the healing magics of my other spell wrapped around my damaged, and fluttering, heart.

I could still fight--and I'd learned a neat new trick.

----------------------------------------

God they were fast.

The halberd was back in the hand of the gatekeeper that I'd momentarily disarmed and that, in turn, had almost drove its telekinetically controlled weapon through my skull.

And the creature was making good use of its reclaimed halberd at that. As was its twin partner.

I could feel the sheer, ridiculous force coming off of each of the things' weapon swings. Like a whooshing bus, going full speed ahead past me.

The bronze golems from before had been strong, strong enough to quickly overpower me when i crossed blades with them, but these things? I didn't even try to meet their attacks; I was pretty sure they'd break my arms if I attempted that.

Whatever their Strength stat was... it was far greater than mine.

I wouldn't even say I was faster than them in terms of Agility. Close to that maybe and able to eek out a lead when I slowed down my perception of time with my spells, but that was it.

Luckily, my [Spell Control] skill had grown by leaps and bounds as a result of my experimentation with placing runes on myself. I was pretty sure that was the only reason I'd been able to refine my use of [Mana Flicker] when it'd mattered.

That was really coming in handy now.

Where before I'd only been able to move my full body in small jumps, now I could move parts of it in way more precise ways, essentially hyper accelerating my twists and turns.

The first Gatekeeper came in for another powerful swing of its weapon.

Mana flooded into the right side of my body. That side's shoulder, arms, and legs became a blue blur and yanked the rest of me over and out of the way of the silver golem's downswipe.

I'd been trying to teleport with [Mana Flicker] the whole time I'd had the spell, since that was how I'd seen the mana cats use it.

But it wasn't really ever a teleport spell.

It had always been somewhat limited by gravity, meaning I'd needed to jump when I wanted to use it to go airborne, which should've been the second tip off that it had more potential.

Of course... the first should've been that I'd always been aware that I'd been moving through space when using it, just in a less corporeal form.

The spell was truly less an instant jump from one point to another as it was, well, a way to flicker myself in and out of a physical form--and a very good way to circumvent my physical limitations.

Stats be damned, my body could only currently move so fast.

But mana, as far as I could tell, moved at the speed of thought--at least until it entered the waking world, where it then moved at the speed your skill with it allowed. Regardless, any delay between thinking and spell casting just seemed a result of ones ability with manipulating it.

It just so happened, also, that I could speed my thoughts up.

Which meant... I could move almost as fast as I could think... and I could think mighty fast these days.

I ducked under another halberd swipe, my upper body flashing blue and becoming translucent as it bent backward under the weapon combining my mana skills with my Acrobatics skill.

Then, recognizing the opportunity, I committed to a slightly longer mana flicker as my body broke into a cloud of energy and flew between the Gatekeeper's legs.

I reappeared behind the monster, just as a crack of lightning slammed into the face of the golem, before bouncing off of the creature and appearing beside me.

The crackle of energy reformed into the shape of a large panther.

The other Gatekeeper stepped up from behind us.

"We're surrounded again," I sent the mental message to Gwen, sarcasm jiving in my telepathic tone.

"I'm not so sure we can be surrounded anymore," Gwen said back, satisfaction and battlelust in her tone, "not with your new moves."

The golem that had missed me and been hit by my companion's lightning shape, turned violently and swung out with another attack.

It didn't matter, Gwen and I were already gone.

The next minutes were a violent maelstrom of magic and flashing lights.

The Gatekeepers kept up, truly they did, but they couldn't hit us. Not anymore.

My runes kept me topped off.

My acrobatics skill kept my feet moving and, when that failed to be enough, my magic slowed my senses and allowed my body to simply flow around whatever attack came at it.

Sure, that might not have been enough since I couldn't litterally have eyes in the back of my head, but the thing was that I more or less could.

That was because Gwen was there for me. Our bond only grew stronger by the day and was never so clear as it was in the purity of battle, when our soulcores echoed more and more to an even closer hum of harmony.

The panther watched my back and I watched hers; and we saw through each other's eyes. Any enemy, damned elites or not, was hard-pressed to surprise us from any angle now.

Halberd strikes came in, again and again.

Almost none of them hit us, with those that did just barely nicking our skin.

Another of my runes burned away.

I was trying to toy with flaring [Accelerate Adrenaline] only when I needed it, but was always forced to keep it going in order to keep [Spelldancer] going.

Still, my mana was always going to be a limitation, especially with my now very frequent use of [Mana Flicker]; though, thankfully, my more precise and less space-covering jumps were much more mana efficient than my previous uses of the spell had been.

My blade slashed into the Gatekeepers again and again. Each of my strikes left a burning, heat flaring gash, but it was never deep enough.

The only problem was that they were tough.

Sweat beaded down my brow as the fight continued.

I could feel myself slowing.

My spells pushed me past my body's limits and Agility made me damn efficient in the use of my muscles.

Still, though. Endurance wasn't a stat I'd been able to prioritize and magic could apparently only shore up a dump stat so much.

Even with my newly refined fighting style... I was starting to make mistakes.

The golems, however, never tired. Their movements remained strong, powerful, and they didn't react to damage at all.

They felt nothing. They feared nothing.

Luckily, I still had a lot of mana on tap.

I wasn't stupid. In fact, my mind had been working better and better as my Intelligence stat grew.

My blade had barely been able to pierce the bronze golems from before. I'd guessed from the start that the silver ones would've been too strong.

So I'd been slapping my hand down against the silver Gatekeepers as often as I could. Here and there, my palm had lashed out against them mid-dodge.

"Now, Gwen; get back," I sent the mental alert to my friend.

I flickered off to the side of another attack and then broke into another cloud of energy altogether.

Gwen landed beside me in perfect tune with my own landing.

The Gatekeepers looked up at us. For the first time I thought I sensed curiosity in their glowing eyes, the only emotion I'd seen from them at all really.

I guess they hadn't been programmed to care or notice the dozens upon dozens of explosive runes that now covered their bodies, from their joints to their lithe torsos.

My eyes flared each with their own separate blazes as I activated the runes I'd laid, one flashed blue with super-heated, mana-enriched flames and one shone out with with whitened frostfire.

Then the world shook.

"Get down!" Gwen roared over our bond.

[+5 One-Handed, +5 Spell-Control, +5 Fire-Manipulation, +5 Acrobatics.]

[Congratulations! Fire Manipulation has reached the Apprentice Tier!]

[Please Choose a Fire Specialization: Concussive, Burning, Concentrated.]

[Congratulations! One-Handed has reached the Apprentice Tier!]

[Please choose a Style Foundation: Strength, Endurance, Agility.]

[Congratulations! Acrobatics has reached the Apprentice Tier!]

[Please choose an Apprentice Path for your skill: Thief, Acrobat, Contortionist.]