“...” After slamming the door on her foot four or five times, I have to give it to her. She’s persistent. Though I’m pretty sure she’s faking some of the pain because her protective Qi is strong enough to shield her from my level of strength, it definitely still hurts. Rolling my eyes, I keep the door tightly wedged on her foot so she can’t come in, but stop slamming it. “What do you want?”

“Can I come in?” Meera gasps, her eyes ‘watering’, though I have to wonder if those tears are fake. “Look, I came to tell you something!” Rolling my eyes, I keep my Foresight at maximum and let go of the door. As soon as she sees the opening, Meera darts inside. “Thank you! You know, as someone who wants to be a Rainstopper, you could understand my position a bit!”

“You want to go back outside?” I pretend to mumble some magical words and a wheel of nine ice shards the length of my hand appears around me. The wheel rotates and their sharp tips point at Meera in undisguised hostility. “You have a minute to convince me why I shouldn’t throw you out.”

“Okay, okay!” She glances at the Chill shards and winks at me winningly. “I just wanted to tell you that the Sect Elders, all of them, support Janus. As such, for the Third Trial, every other Candidate has decided to step out. Do you understand? You can’t win. No one wants anyone but Janus as the next Raingod.”

“You came all this way to tell me that?” Still monitoring the future, I reply. “Thanks for the heads up. You can get out now.” She gets annoyed at how casually I take her announcement.

“You don’t understand! Even if you manage to beat Janus...which you can’t, by the way, nobody wants you. You weren’t raised in the Sect! You can’t bring back the old ways!” Her words grow more insistent. She’s like a rabid dog. My eyes narrow imperceptibly. She continues to rant, “Why do you even want to be Secthead anyways? You don’t seem particularly interested in leading it! Just drop out! If you do, I can help you talk with Janus. We can compensate you. Anything you want!”

“You sure about that?” I’m realizing that this is a waste of time talking to someone like this. However, I can’t resist talking back, “How do you know I can’t bring back the old ways? What if that’s what I want?”

“No way!” She laughs. “The way you are, you’re too soft. Not to mention weak! I wouldn’t even be bothering to negotiate with you, but you’re a mage. Which makes you a wildcard. Maybe, just maybe, you have some ridiculous way to cheat Janus cooked up in that head of yours. But I doubt it. Still, even on that 1% chance, I’ll give you a chance to back out now before he destroys you. And we’re willing to compensate you. Just tell me what you want!”

“What I want? Hahaha...you don’t have the authority!” Finally, I’ve had enough. “I know your fiancé doesn’t even like your two-faced crap. Unless he was just pretending as well. Either way, you can get out.”

“You’re such a pain...” Meera’s eyes shift away imperceptibly. Most people lock eyes when they’re mad. But sometimes cowards like to strike out of nowhere. This particular one picked the wrong target though. “Then I guess we have to do it this way-!”

*Swoosh*

A dagger in her hand. But I’ve been preparing since almost two seconds ago when I saw this coming. The wheel of ice shards still spinning around in front of me begins to shift. My own dagger flies into my hand. Mephis’s gift defends me once again and sparks clash. Another dagger spins into Meera’s other hand, so fast that ghostly afterimages appear in the air. But I already calculated for this.

GO!

Ice shards whizz towards Meera from all sides! The wheel collapses inwards at point blank range. Her second dagger races against the shards but they’ll reach her before the dagger reaches me! She needs to defend or be impaled from all sides. Except...she doesn’t. I can see it in the future. My eyes widen as the possible timeline unveils before my split vision. I see Meera impaled on all sides. Blood spurts out, but she keeps sending the dagger towards my heart!

“What the hell?!” Wildly, I back away, my Chill shards rapidly shifting to defense as I realize she’s not afraid to die together! Eyes glinting like some sort of vicious demon, my assassin follows me inside the hut, giving me no room. Her dagger fractures the shards which I direct to block in front of me. One shard I send out in a sneak attack enters her shoulder and red blood spurts out. She shifts but makes no noise of pain. Her smile no longer seems child-like at all! Instead, it’s almost more demonic than Gatoa’s!

So it was you watching me while I was training!

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

More shards. I know where she’s coming from, but I can’t stop her! Backing deeper into the hut, I try to reason with this rabid dog-

“You’ll be disqualified!”

“So what?” That demonic smile is practically a leer. How does a child make a face like that!

“I’ll kill you!”

“Not before I kill you!” She charges me, her legs faster than mine. I curse the poison which stunted my physical growth. Losing in speed, I can only direct my shards to attack her legs and arms, I fully intend to rip them off or nail her to the wall! However, in the future, I see her shift. She turns unnaturally. As if to allow one of the shards to penetrate her heart...

CRAP!

Immediately, I call off the shards and send them spinning into another defensive wheel in front of me.

“You little...you want me to kill you!”

“Caught me.” Meera laughs. “Do you get it now? This is what it means to be Rainstopper! Kill or be killed! You can’t win! Kill me and be disqualified or keep running until I catch you! It doesn’t matter, I don’t care! Either way, Janus will be Secthead!” Her daggers blur, the twin tips gleaming wickedly as they shatter my defenses. Chips of ice fly everywhere, causing havoc in the hut. I can’t get away, she’s too fast. In this enclosed space, it’s a mage’s worst nightmare!

I need space!

Make space!

Make a move!

Two seconds isn’t enough. I calculate the possibilities, avoiding death by a hair each time. Her daggers get closer and I start sacrificing bits of me. My forearms take a slash. The cabinet with Romy’s letters explodes as Meera jumps up and launches herself horizontally off of it, a human missile. Envelopes fly into the air, my auntie’s love and dreams are set free. Finally, I don’t have a choice-

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

I yell out the spell and raise one hand at Meera, the other at the roof of the hut.

Sorry, Elina!

*BOOM*

A vortex of wind shoves Meera away while the top of the hut is blown clean off! Letters, bits of paper, all the dried herbs hanging everywhere, they fly into the night sky as the roof disintegrates!

“Goddamit!” I curse as I silently chant and point at the ground-

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

The Gust propels me up and over the walls, outside. Midair, Meera meets me, and I throw a second hand at her, already chanting a lethal spell. The future twists and her fading smile of victory as her burnt body falls to the floor, forces me to change my mind. You are the worst!

[Flaming Ember of My Desire, Burst-

I choke back my words and instead flip downwards, trying to escape.

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

A silent Gust helps me leave the open skies, and I make for the ground. The future screams a warning and my brain barely reacts in time-

[Muddy Stone of My Endurance, Move Forth-Meld]

I raise a wall of flowing white stone as a trio of deadly throwing knives thud into it with such force that they penetrate through the rock-

*Klang*

*Klang*

*Klang*

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

The tips of the knives emerge on my side of the rock wall, some sort of insane Rainstopper technique has allowed them to penetrate stone. Using my knowledge of the future, I block their tips with three ice shards, and finally they stop, but the resulting fragments of ice cut my cheeks, my face, my hands. It’s like being inside a tank when an armor piercing round hits. Shrapnel everywhere-

This...alright.

“ENOUGH!” I scream. Somewhere in the distance, I’m vaguely aware of a new voice. I think it’s Elina’s, whether in future or present, I’m not sure. Maybe she’s returned. But she’s much too far away. Meera has already landed on the other side of my rock wall. She runs over the top, I hear a step, and then her empty, lustful, smile appears, that little demon. Twin daggers hunt me like fangs as she lunges from above. I dive to the left, but she’s so fast. By the time I come up, she already landed where I was and turned. Coming again.

“Caught you!” She shrieks as she sees my hands empty, no ice shards or anything left. “Just die already!”

I ready myself.

Check the future.

Raise my palms in the present.

I didn’t want to use this yet.

But you’re not leaving me a choice!

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

I call out the first spell, but it’s a bluff. Meera evades instinctively jumping up from ice shards that never come. Instead, a reassuring weight and piercing coldness settles on my ears. The sounds of the world become muted as my eyes harden. She arrives, the demonic b*tch flips at the top of her jump and comes down, both daggers aimed unerringly at my head. Funny...that’s what I’m targeting too!

As she appears next to me, I step sideways, she turns, her head swiveling and daggers slicing in a crescent arc, switching targets to my neck. My hands come up and she smiles, completely unafraid of potential death so close to her naked head. She doesn’t even have her defensive Qi up, I’m pretty sure. I have a single second before the daggers reach my own neck. Just one second faster. Sometimes one second is all the difference. I clap both palms together like swatting a fly. And scream out the words though I can’t hear them through the ice in my ears so it sounds like a silent spell-

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

*Crack*

It’s a simple spell. Well, no, it’s quite complicated to do. But I figured it out with Elina. Against her Qi, it’s not very effective. However, against anyone else, I’m sure it will have devastating results. The air in between my hands is hyper-compressed as a small stream of wind from either palm connects at high speed. When they touch, a high-pitched explosion forms, like a sonic grenade. The noise is like the worst crack you’ve ever heard, and without the ice-plugs I summoned in my ears, it would absolutely hit me too. Even through the plugs, I’m in pain as the sound tears through me. Ringing fills my ears, but in front of me, by my hands where the impact formed, Meera’s head is hit by the full impact.

*Whoosh*

Her daggers fly away from the wind, all input from her brain stops instantly as the shockwave reaches the fluid inside her ear canals. The shockwave is not just sound, it’s real as well, and she’s blown backwards, her body skidding on the ground and bouncing over itself like a puppet without strings. There’s no reaction. Blood leaks from her ears, it looks like her brain liquified there’s so much. For a second, I think her breathing stops, but then she starts to jerk and convulse on the ground. Her eyes are open, but unseeing, the blood vessels exploded so that they seem filled with red. Crap I didn’t know how effective it would be...is she going to die?! Dispelling the earplugs, sound returns to the world, though the high-pitched ringing won’t go away. Immediately, I cry out-

“ELINA!”