Crow had been struck in an open palm before, he’d learned the strange, jarring sensation from personal experience. Old Bert had always told him to break his falls with a forearm rather than his hand, and after Astra had sprained his wrist when he tried to catch her fist, he’d realised why.

Faroah, with the extreme physical disparity between the two of them, should have had his carpal bones snapped on impact, lost the use of his hand and been thrown into an insurmountable disadvantage for the remainder of the fight. Instead, the gold surface of the sphere collided with the equally gold light of his magic and reversed.

All the momentum behind the block of metal was not only neutralised, it was completely overcome- sending the mass shooting backwards even as the glow of Faroah’s palm dispersed through the air as a barely-visible pulse. The weight of the sphere, combined with its force, was such that Crow’s arm was pushed back at the unexpected motion.

Agonisingly slowly, he saw his fingers open up as the orb rolled into his hand, breaking his grip and leaving the object to fly haphazardly upwards. Crow raised a hand and leapt, the sphere was only eight- maybe nine- feet above him, with his leg strength he could surely snatch it back.

It was only when Faroah’s remaining hand met his stomach that Crow realised how stupid his instinctive decision had been.

The air was driven from his body in an instant as he folded over, a searing agony racking through his stomach and deep into the viscera. Crow’s face, already wet from rain, became salty with tears, yet through his blurred vision he caught a glimpse of something bright vanishing from his field of view. A moment later he hit the ground, groaning in pain.

Crow tried to climb to his feet, yet simply bringing himself to his knees brought a new wave of pain to his insides. His body tried to curl up as his throat tightened, the only thing warning him of the hot, acidic vomit before it came streaming from his throat and sprayed out between his lips.

***

Unity rushed at the boy, keeping his centre of gravity low, his arms tucked in and streamlining his form as much as he could. It made no difference, the moment he came within five paces, his enemy simply waved that staff of his.

A gale had just whipped past them, grabbing Unity’s clothing and sending it flapping to one side like a bird trying to swim in tar. At a swing of that damned stick, its direction changed, and its force intensified a dozen-fold, lifting him from his feet and flinging him away.

Unity found himself soaring some dozen feet above the ground, heels raised over his head. He had just enough time to find the position amusing before his flight stopped. The air left his lungs as his back slammed into something hard, and through a dazed head and blurred senses he realized it was one of the many boulders littering the area. He almost bounced off it, landing a full two metres in front and slumping down.

He lay there for a few moments, unable to move for the pain and breathlessness. When he’d recovered enough, and he’d known with an opponent as arrogant as his he’d be allowed to, he stared back up at the bastard who’d thrown him, noticing with no small amount of annoyance that he didn’t look any more tired from the fourth time than he had after the first.

And he was smirking. Cunt.

***

Astra stumbled back, her forearm throbbing from where she’d blocked the punch. She righted herself quickly, regained her footing just as she’d been taught, and yet it was still barely fast enough for her to meet Amelia’s next strike.

The girl twisted, throwing a left kick aimed directly for Astra’s side- the kind which would surely leave her with broken ribs and a bloody cough if it landed unguarded. She barely brought her own leg up in time to stop it with her thigh, and even as the force sent her hopping back to avoid falling she felt the impact rush through her body. It was like her bones were being grabbed and shaken by some great child.

Amelia closed in once more, and Astra realised she wouldn’t be able to re-balance herself in time. Ignoring her body, she concentrated on that which dwelt within it. The reservoir of magic, only tapped to strengthen her at the moment. Drawing power from it, she channelled it to a spot directly behind her, then once more to a place a metre or two from Amelia and directly over the girl’s head.

Black eyes narrowed as the girl’s fist shot out, moving with such speed that the water droplets seemed almost stationary as they fell next to it. Astra raised her right forearm, the left still too sore to rely on, and grit her teeth in anticipation.

The strike was like a battering ram, hitting so hard that the knuckles through which it was delivered felt more like the jagged tip of an anvil than part of a person’s body. Once more Astra shot backwards as she jumped slightly to disperse the impact, however now her back slammed into the Itamis gate she’d made.

A blue tint came over the world for the briefest instant, and then Astra found herself facing an oval of light as she fell downwards, away from it. The gate disappeared, showing a dark, pouring sky above her.

She flipped before she landed on the ground, grunting even with bent knees. She had retained her momentum from being thrown by Amelia, and with the second gate facing the ground her several-metre fall had only added to it.

Her enemy acted as Astra would have expected, staring around in all directions in a daze at her target suddenly disappearing. By the time she shifted to look behind her, however, Astra had crossed the two paces separating them. Amelia turned just in time to receive an elbow to the nose.

***

Crow stumbled to his feet and wiped tears and matted hair from his eyes with a soggy sleeve. The taste of vomit still tinged his mouth, and the pain in his stomach had yet to subside entirely, but he could move. After several agonising seconds of immobility, he could move.

All that was left was to find where he needed to move to.

Realising that in such a fast-paced task his magic reserve would likely outlast the contest no matter what, he brought on his precognition, though he hardly noticed the increased drain of his power as he turned his attention fully to his surroundings.

Despair began to clutch at him. The area seemed a square mile at least, with the rain so thick and the sky so black, he saw little hope of spotting Faroah, no matter what.

The sinking feeling of hopelessness did not last long, however, as it was banished by an extremely overt glinting to Crow’s left. He turned to the source, and, straining his eyes, saw the sphere held firmly in Faroah’s grasp. The metal seemed to glean preternaturally in the dim light, though even if it hadn’t he’d have found his enemy quickly. The boy had a pair of great wings protruding from his back, at least twice the span of his outstretched arms and practically glowing with a brilliant white sheen.

With no more time to waste, Crow activated his time dilation and took off into a sprint.

***

Astra’s elbow connected with such a satisfying jolt that it brought a smile to her face even in the midst of battle. She felt a pop as Amelia’s head snapped back, and a moment later blood began to stream down the girl’s face. She blinked, moving to right herself even as she went stumbling. Stepping in to follow up, Astra had no intention of letting her.

Her first barrage of strikes were a series of short punches aimed at the chest and head. The first two connected in Amelia’s disorientation, and as the girl folded up to block her face Astra threw the rest.

She felt the familiar sting reaching back into her wrists at the impacts, light though they were, yet even still the unblocked blows to the girl’s ribs sent her folding over in an instinctive attempt to protect the rest of herself.

Astra projected a gate in-between them, then paired it to a second facing Amelia’s back. Leaping slightly, she landed on her left foot and sent the right shooting out in a front-kick. Her leg disappeared through the shimmering magical construct up to the thigh, yet she felt her blow connect all the same. Stepping back to avoid losing her balance as the shock travelled back into her leg, Astra dismissed both gates.

Amelia was stumbling towards her, arms outstretched and eyes wide in shock at the sudden attack. Perfect.

Bringing her right foot forward, Astra took her left from the ground and swung it around in a high kick. She felt her shin collide with the side of her enemy’s head, toppling the girl over and sending her reeling. Amazingly, Amelia remained standing, though she still stumbled to one side- each step shaky and uncertain.

Without hesitation, Astra rushed after her. As Old Bert used to say, one should never waste a chance to follow-up on a successful attack.

***

Crow caught up to Faroah almost immediately, and yet it felt like an age. He sprinted with all his might, almost stationary raindrops bursting as he tore through them faster even than he normally could, the effects of his collisions left behind him as he continued on without glancing back. The only thing he kept in his sights was the shining beacon that was his target, and the comparably radiant prize clutched in the boy’s hands.

As he neared the flying mystic, Crow realised that the environment may well have been to his own advantage. Those great wings, while keeping him suspended a dozen metres from the ground, seemed to catch the wind just as easily as the air deliberately scooped under them.

Even with the surely superhuman strength placed behind them, Faroah was buffeted left and right in the ever-changing flurry of the skies. He was so caught on the twisting air currents that he paid no heed to his surroundings, and with the ever-present roar of a million raindrops smacking against stone in all directions around him, any sound Crow’s approach made would have been completely smothered.

He wondered how much of a surprise it came as when he hurled the fist-sized stone he’d snatched from the ground and succeeded in landing it directly between the flying boy’s shoulder blades.

There was something extraordinarily satisfying about watching the rock shatter on impact, and that satisfaction deepened by half at the sight of Faroah’s wings stiffening along with his limbs, the shock seizing his muscles, as he dropped ten paces closer to the ground.

Crow continued running, clearing the dozens of feet between him and his target in only a few breaths. As he came to the last stretch, he leapt with all his strength and crossed the rest of the space in the air. He’d never have been able to jump as high as Faroah had been when he first spotted him, but that drop did wonders.

Making contact feet-first, Crow felt his legs dig deeply into Faroah’s ribs. A great wing flapped in his face, sluggish in its dilated time, and ethereal light seemed to scratch his face just as regular feathers would even as it lacked their visible texture. Gritting his teeth with the effort, he closed his fists around what felt like the boy’s right shoulder and left bicep.

He attempted to close his legs around Faroah’s waist, yet the boy twisted in a way Crow hadn’t expected, causing his grip to slip before it could fully lock and leaving his lower body dangling precipitously below them.

The tenuous position was not lost on Crow, and he hesitated only a moment before realising he needed to take a gambit. Letting go with his hold on the boy’s shoulder, he swung himself slightly by pulling down on the bicep. Then, as Faroah’s left side leaned down, Crow swung his free arm up and around. Finally he placed it over the boy’s throat and constricted in an attempt to pinch down the boy’s artery with his elbow.

The world tilted, and they both began racing towards the ground. Crow felt himself gasp involuntarily, eyes widening in shock even as rain spattered against them and the rocky terrain below grew ever closer. The shock cost him a precious moment, and by the time he refocused to complete his hold, Faroah had lowered his chin to keep his neck safe.

Crow cursed as they continued spiralling downwards, the wind snatching his words away and casting them over his shoulder. Just before they struck the rock, Faroah reared up and altered their course- spinning as he did so.

Whipping around the boy’s body, Crow’s legs pulled him off course with the added weight so far to one side. The world became a blur of grey stone and black skies, and Crow found himself overcome by the urge to tighten his eyes shut and close off the sickening view.

Something smacked into his right ankle and brought tears to his eyes, almost making him relax his grip in surprise.

A moment later he felt his legs swing around in the opposite direction, the momentum twisting Faroah’s body with them and making Crow’s stomach sink with the sudden change.

Gasping, he stared up in an attempt to make out their surroundings. He saw the rain in all directions, Faroah’s short hair before his face and the wings erratically flapping besides him. Then they flipped once more, bringing Crow around to look directly at the sky as his lower body swung down beneath them both.

He felt his heels strike the floor the moment before they fully impacted it.

***

Astra leapt back from Amelia’s kick, blind though it was the speed almost caught her out, and the air dragged in its wake sent her hair whipping as though the wind had changed once more. As the foot sailed past her, she rushed in to exploit the opening, throwing a feint with her right arm, then snapping her fist back and turning the blow into a left low-kick.

The girl grunted as Astra’s shin crunched into the side of her knee, though it seemed to do no more than force her to readjust her footing. Every instinct in Astra’s body screamed at her to press her advantage, keep Amelia on the backfoot to avoid repeating her own flailing defence.

Something about the girl’s stance warned her of danger, however, and she instead took two steps back. Forearms held vertical, fists curled before her face, she waited and watched.

It wasn’t a long wait.

Amelia straightened up deftly, placing the foot still extended from her kick back on the ground and standing without any indication that she was still winded. As her head raised and her face turned back to Astra, she realised that the girl was smiling. A playful, childish smile reminiscent of a little girl enjoying a harmless game. On a face with a misshapen, broken nose streaming blood even as it was watered down by the rain, the sight was unspeakably unsettling.

The girl’s teeth were stained red by the crimson stream exiting her nostrils, her grey clothing didn’t appear to have caught any of the blood dripping from her chin, however darkened by water as they were it was likely that Astra simply couldn’t see it on them. Amelia paid her injury no heed, simply stepping forward with such a stability and nonchalance that Astra almost doubted she’d landed any hits to her ribs at all.

“Wow,” the girl exclaimed, “you’re really weak, aren’t you?”

Astra felt her temper flare at the words, already clenched fists aching as they tightened further in her rage. She remained where she was, though. Amelia didn’t seem the sort to try and gain the upper hand by goading her enemy, but Astra wasn’t about to risk losing on the assumption that her enemy was as air-headed as she seemed.

Amelia took another step towards her, and this time Astra responded with an almost reflexive step back. Her gaze never left the girl, though she couldn’t quite bring herself to look her in the eye. Something about them, the black where there should have been white, shook all confidence in her chances of victory.

The backstep seemed to amuse her enemy, and a heartbeat later Amelia was charging once more.

This time, however, Astra was prepared for the girl’s speed, and had ample time to adjust.

Straining her mind slightly, she concentrated on both the spot in front of her and a spot a metre in front on her right, keeping both places etched into her thoughts simultaneously. Just as Amelia came to within three paces, she unleashed her magic and conjured a gate in each place at the same exact moment.

Such use of her magic was more difficult and strenuous than conjuring the gates one at a time, however it was not without its benefits. With the sudden appearance of the light directly before her, Amelia would surely have been distracted for a moment, Astra was banking on that distraction covering the gate that, had she continued for a few feet further, would be lined up perfectly with the left side of her body.

Astra felt her right straight connect only an instant after seeing her arm disappear through the patch of energy just before her. She withdrew her arm, allowing both gates to snap closed just in time for Amelia to be visible spinning in the direction of the second. The girl must have glimpsed Astra from the corner of her eyes, as she began to abort her motion and turn to face her.

She was too slow.

There was no visible damage from Astra’s punch, and yet it achieved its purpose. Her heel thudded into the girl’s chin, breaching her defences thanks to its target’s distraction as much as its own speed. For the second time, Amelia’s head rocked backwards, her upper body leaning along with it and forcing her to take one, then two, steps away.

Astra frowned at that. Such a blow, using all her leg strength and delivered directly to an unguarded chin, should have sent her to the ground. Was the strength difference so great?

She was left with no more time to ponder as Amelia righted herself, then rushed forward once more with the same juvenile grin she’d worn earlier.

***

Unity leapt from the path of the attack as Bim flicked his stick outwards, and for a moment he thought he’d managed to avoid it. That hope was dashed as he felt his feet clipped by the force. A moment later his body whipped around, sent spinning as one end shot back and the other remained where it was.

The world around him became a mess of greys and blacks, settled only when it all shifted to a mass of stars as a sharp, deep pain lurched into his back. He rolled from where he’d landed and came to a stop, twenty feet further from his target than he’d been before the charge.

While the boy approached, grinning that smug grin, Unity took the moment to examine himself. He studied the pain in his back, particularly the area around his spine. If it had been cracked, moving might exacerbate the injury and leave him paralysed. Fortunately, the damage was limited to scrapes and bruises.

He scowled at that. Against any of his teammates, an ability like this would be too weak to damage them. It was just his luck to fight the bastard with the nigh-unavoidable wind-based attack in the middle of a gale.

Bim came to within a half-dozen paces, and Unity rolled onto his hands and knees. He went to scramble to a stand, then paused as he felt the rough, uneven stone under his open hands, an idea striking him.

He pulled magic from that source in his core, noticing irritably that it was practically full thanks to the lack of opportunity he’d received to use it, and pushed it deep into the earth. He felt himself become aware of each gram of rock within several metres of himself, every scrap of stone’s position, the pressure it was undergoing and those areas most structurally vulnerable.

From the corner of his eye, Bim raised his stupid wind stick once more, now only four paces away. At that range even his attack, made for delaying and distracting though it was, could deal severe damage to someone as fragile as Unity. But then, his was hardly the only magic which benefited from short range.

Unity jerked his mind to one side, pulling it from the stone as quickly as he could. Like tearing free an arrow head, the sudden removal caused irreparable damage. Rock cracked, minerals were pulverised and all of that pent up pressure caused by tonnes of stone layered upon tonnes more was released.

With the last thought before contact was fully broken, Unity gave it direction.

The wind and rain’s sounds were smothered by a great grinding, and a hemispherical section of the ground between himself and Bim broke off, lifting out from the rest and heaving upwards. A moment later, the process was repeated thousands of times more.

Boulders turned to cobbles, cobbles turned to pebbles and pebbles turned to diminutive shards of jagged chunks flying like shrapnel from a blunderbuss as they were ripped free of the larger mass.

Had Astra or Crow been in their sights, the projectiles would have posed little threat. Fast though they were, stone was weaker by far than their skin. Bim, with his petty potency and concentration on ranged combat, seemed to be made of less sturdy stuff.

The boy immediately covered his face with an arm, raising his stick as if to deflect the spray of rock, but failing to conjure any meaningful magic.

His clothing tore as it was battered by the dozens of rocks, though Unity could make out no blood on the soaked-through fabric. It didn’t matter, he had his opening. Before Bim could recover from the pelting, he rushed forwards, the familiar crimson lightning of his magic coiling around his hands once more like a nest of vipers thirsty for blood.

***

Crow’s hips struck the ground, followed by his shoulders and head. His vision dimmed for a moment, desaturating the already monochromatic sight of his surroundings even as the raucous stage was muted down to a muffled pounding, as though submerged in water.

Groaning, he rolled onto his stomach and managed to stand- saying no small amount as he did so- before looking around him for any sight of his enemy. He quickly found him. Faroah lay some thirty feet across, brilliant wings splayed out around him as he remained still. Crow stared at him for several moments, shaken brain picking through the input of his senses agonisingly slowly as he tried to remember his next move.

With a start, he realised that the sphere wasn’t with the fallen mystic. Turning and casting his sights in all directions, he began his search.

The rain wetted his hair, leaving it clinging to his forehead and hanging over his eyes. Crow found himself pushing it from his face time and time again as he scanned the area, all the while blinking to dismiss the frigid streams making their way down his face from above. Empowered by magic, he barely felt the chill, but his vision was no more functional while drowning than an inept’s.

He felt a hot and frantic panic begin to build in his chest, the kind which came from frustration and helplessness. Crow stood where he was, writhing with energy, and yet he had nowhere to use it.

The strength of a hundred men and Eye of Chronos didn’t make him any better at finding shiny balls.

Now walking around, Crow continued his search. Peering through the curtains of raindrops and fine mist which came from them shattering against the ground, trying to glean even a single hint of his prize. Seconds past, though with his accelerated perception of time and terror they felt like minutes, and still he saw nothing.

And then he spotted… something. A pinprick of light, visible for barely half a second in the corner of his eye, and disappearing as he turned to it and the lightning flash responsible for its illumination died out.

In an instant, the despair flowed from his body like water from a sponge. Replaced by a surge of hope, and a redoubled haste. He took off into a sprint, heading for the spot, holding it clear in his mind as he had a thousand other sights.

By the time he’d come another ten feet neared, his line of sight cleared a rock jutting from a half metre from the ground, revealing the orb resting beneath it. All of its lustre intact, and practically waiting for him to grab hold of it.

A vision flashed before his eyes, a wave of light enveloping him and turning the rain around them into sizzling clouds of steam as it seared the flesh from his body. Crow’s premonition ended, and he realised it for what it was just in time to flatten himself against the ground- gritting his teeth in pain as he felt the still-uncomfortable convection from the attack passing through the air above him.

***

Astra leapt backwards, disappearing through her gate and emerging from another. She saw Amelia spin from afar, clearly having expected the second to be behind her. As if such a predictable attack would be used by one who had any placement within dozens of metres to choose as her destination.

Ducking down behind an elevated chunk of stone, Astra closed her eyes and began to focus. Holding two locations in her head at once, as she had before. As she was forced to in order to overcome Amelia’s small, but annoyingly significant, advantage in reaction time.

She cursed under her breath. Hard though she’d worked to master even an Itamis ability as simple as her gates, Astra saw now that it was ill-suited for battle against close combat specialists. Biting back her annoyance, she shifted her feet to prop them against the stone at her back and prepared to leap forwards.

The moment she conjured the gates, one in front of her and one directly next to Amelia’s last position, she kicked off and sent herself flying through the one nearest her own body. She emerged from the other in a roll, getting to her feet in half a breath and scanning the area for her enemy.

Amelia had moved, though Astra hadn’t expected the girl to have remained stationary. She was no more than four paces from her original position, and as she saw the black-eyed girl charging at her, Astra had ample time to begin working on a new set of gates.

And then something happened. One of Amelia’s steps was wrong, the ground seemed to rush towards her footfall before it landed, yet solid though the surface was it could do nothing more than compress itself inwards, seeming to shorten the very distance through which the girl was moving. A bizarre and unsettling effect, like the world was distorted on a non-euclidean mirror while the girl walking across it remained unchanged.

Instantly, the girl was two paces closer after taking only one. Astra stepped back in surprise, her magic disappearing from her grip and leaving her with only her enhanced strength as she saw Amelia take yet another stride, only for the ground to be distorted once more. A tenth of a heartbeat later she was before Astra, swinging a punch with her left arm as though her dismissal of distance were of no consequence.

Astra side-stepped, barely getting out of the way of the strike. As she stumbled back, she felt her eyes widen in shock at the sight of its aftermath.

Her enemy’s fist tore through the air with such force and speed as to drag the atmosphere behind it, bringing it coiling around the knuckles like vines about a wall. As the punch ended, the artificially-produced gust continued onwards, spiralling out several metres ahead of Amelia and dragging hundreds, maybe thousands, of raindrops in their wake. Then the pressure subsided, and the beads of water were scattered in all directions.

Looking over her shoulder, Amelia smiled toothily at Astra.

“You’re not as slow as I thought,” the girl mused. Then without leaving any time for a response, she spun and hurried after her once more. Despite her surprise, her utter awe at the sheer physical power of her enemy, Astra had no intention of allowing herself to be forced back onto an impossible defence.

As she’d expected, the space between them seemed to contract as Amelia moved, warping inwards as a point far out of reach hurried to meet Amelia’s strides halfway. The girl closed in on her target in only a few steps, despite moving near to a dozen metres to do so.

Her attacks came nearly as swiftly.

A jab darted for Astra’s face, she barely retreated from it in time- the rush of air following in its wake making her blink as it flicked yet more airborne rain into her face. Almost too quickly to follow, Amelia whipped back around for a left hook, Astra ducked and leaned aside to evade it but found her balance broken by the sudden, unexpected movement. Before she could right herself, Amelia struck again with a right knee.

With no time for anything else, Astra raised both her arms before herself to act as a barrier. The blow came like a balling boulder, its force permeating her flesh and sending a stab of pain down to the very bone even as her body was shunted back.

She felt a rough scraping under her feet as she slid along the ground, not needing to look down to know that even her thick-soled boots were being torn to pieces by the coarse stone. Amelia didn’t let up for a second, however, continuing her assault by pursuing Astra even as her momentum carried her onwards.

When Astra finally came to a stop, she’d moved at least half a dozen paces. Amelia closed the gap in moments.

The girl’s strides turned to almost shuffling steps as she came within two arm-spans of Astra, her feet appearing to blur as she approached, giving a strange, jittery effect. Footwork, designed to confuse the enemy. Well executed, too.

With her eyes keenly fixed on Amelia’s upper body, she watched for any sign of an oncoming attack. She soon saw it, as the girl began to rotate about her hips and generate the starting motions for a kick. Astra had no intention of letting her finish it.

Just as the bottom of Amelia’s foot left the ground, Astra stepped forwards, bringing herself inside kicking range by half a pace and rendering the attack impossible.

She’d expected Amelia to try and plant her leg once more upon realising her strike would fail, providing plenty of opportunity to land a blow of her own while the black-eyed girl was off-balance. As Astra brought her elbow up to slam into her chin, however, the unthinkable happened.

Amelia continued her kick.

It was insane, stupid even. With Astra’s proximity the strike should have landed only with Amelia’s knee or lower thigh, its force blunted like a hammer swing striking with the handle instead of the head. Astra twisted into it, preparing to take the opportunity to seize Amelia’s leg and topple her over.

By the time she noticed the air around it warping like the ground did for her footsteps, it was too late for her to do anything.

Astra’s elbow landed first, or it should have. Just as her blow came to within a few inches of its mark, Amelia’s chin seemed to slide back somehow, though with a leg off the ground and mid-kick she had clearly taken no backstep. The world had simply stretched around her, leaving the elbow to harmlessly shift through the space just in front of her enemy.

Before she could so much as begin to think about what she’d seen, Astra felt a great lurch around her as something struck her side. She had kept her left arm pinned around her body to guard it, and yet the agony pushing deep into the limb seemed undeterred by her defence.

The wind in her ears intensified, yet its direction was changed, and Astra realised she was hearing the air whip by her head as she flew head over heels across the field. Her back hit the ground first, and a great cracking noise filled the air as she bounced and landed further along.

Placing her arms on the rock beneath her and pushing herself up, Astra winced as forks of agony climbed up the left. Bone pain, she hoped the damage was superficial and temporary. Straightening up, she dismissed all concern for her injuries and concentrated on the truly urgent issue, turning to look right at it.

Amelia stalked towards her, still smiling, face washed clean of her blood by the constant downpour and the air around her humming with the pressure of her magic. Astra felt her stomach sink as she realised the distance between them. It had to be a hundred feet, at least. What kind of monster could fling a mystic of her level so far with a single kick?

“I didn’t think I’d need to use the techniques uncle Bob taught me,” she grinned. Her words were almost entirely crushed by the sounds of the storm raging around them.“You’re not actually weak at all. In fact you’re almost average!”

***