Gem wanted to cover up. She wanted to bring her arms in and hold them around her face, to raise her knees and use them as a shield for her torso. She wanted to curl into a ball and simply weather the blows as they fell on her. The instinctive, animalistic part of her brain urged her to do so with every ounce of its being. It wanted her to stop every strike as it fell. It couldn’t see the big picture, fortunately the rest of her could.

If she put up her defences, she’d be able to reduce how much damage each hit did. But that would only delay the inevitable, eventually she would break down. So instead Gem had pressed her palms flat against her opponent’s abdomen and started pouring as much anti-magic as she could into his body.

He was stronger than her. He was tougher than her. He was more powerful than her. Gem had spent the last few minutes having that pounded, both figuratively and painfully literally, into her head. Karma had warned her of this, she’d said there would be people who outclassed her in spite of her talents purely because of their age. This boy was one of them. And so despite her body being rocked down to the teeth with each and every impact of his fists, she continued pouring her anti-magic into him. The ground slowly broke apart and caved in beneath her as she was forced down into it over and over, her entire torso was throbbing with pain and would undoubtedly sprout into a mass of ugly bruises later on, yet she fought through the pain nonetheless.

And then he began to weaken. Or rather, the weakening which had been gradually unfolding since Gem first began using her anti magic finally became enough to make a difference. The piston-like punches slowed, the waves they sent reverberating through Gem’s body lessened, and she finally had her opening.

She bucked her hips, then took her palms from his sides and gripped his shoulders- her arms barely long enough to reach that far. She saw the sudden surprise on his face at her sudden movement after simply taking his attacks, and then he was off her. Pong hit the ground hard and rolled, Gem hoisted herself onto her stomach and got to her feet while he did so. She moved to a crouch and turned to see him bringing himself up onto his knees, much slower than before. Slow enough that he wasn’t able to avoid her foot when it crunched into his jaw.

The boy was knocked over, his back hitting the ground and his mouth opening in the same breathless gasp Gem had let out many times during her hand to hand training sessions with Karma. Those gasps rarely kept her down for more than a few seconds, so Gem took advantage of the time and stumbled over to the boy before bringing her foot down on his face. She lifted it up once more, a trail of blood connecting her sole to his flattened nose, and then she stomped once more. Then again, and then again.

Gem wasn’t sure how many times exactly she repeated the motion, only that Hack Pong disappeared in a flash of light before she was able to land another. She almost smashed her heel into the marble floor in his absence, not quite believing he was truly gone until she’d spent several seconds staring at the empty space he’d just been occupying. Finally Gem let her magic deactivate, suddenly feeling a great exhaustion as her depleted magic reserves were made very apparent to her. She slumped down onto her knees, panting and spluttering in the aftermath.

She’d won. Her cheeks suddenly felt warm and wet, and Gem realised she was crying. She felt her chest tighten into laughter, the familiar after-effects of adrenaline coursing through it. She’d won. And then a sinking feeling overcame her. She curled her hands into fists and fought the urge to scream. She’d won, yes, but barely. Even with every trick she had up her sleeve, her victory had been a narrow thing, in fact it could just as easily be described as a defeat.

That gave her a lot to think about. Gem, who had spent her whole life knowing she was untouchable. Knowing she could crush anyone if she wanted to. Except that wasn’t exactly true, was it? There had always been people stronger than her. Gem realised now that this boy was not one of them, but neither was he beneath her. Age and experience really had made all the difference Karma said it would. But so what?

Getting to her feet with a grunt, Gem closed her eyes and concentrated. She could feel the magic all around her from her own battle, even though much of it had been dissipated by the use of anti-magic. And she could feel it much further than that, too. The magic of others, being discharged left right and centre. In her mind’s eye it was extremely clear, like the flashes of musket fire temporarily illuminating parts of a smoke-filled battlefield. And then she found what she was looking for. The largest concentration of magical power in the entire stage.

It was not simply a scaled up version of the other sources she could sense. If the magic being used in battle all around her could be compared to muzzle flashes, this was perhaps best described as a great stockpile of gunpowder. It was power untapped, simply lying in wait for someone foolish enough to detonate it. Someone foolish, or someone powerful.

Gem began making her way to the direction of the magic, feeling her grimace make way for a smile. She was young, but she was Gemini fucking Menza. And she’d managed to win against a far older opponent even after spending half the fight playing around. If she fought seriously from the start…

Whatever it was which gave off this magic didn’t stand a chance.