On the “1,” Liz had snapped her hands, making her book appear wide open into her hand as always.

On the “start,” she dropped the book closed on the floor and kicked it forward.

It slid across the ground to a stop in front of Mercy.

Jon heard one resounding “Shit” from Mercy as large dark blue tentacles emerged from the open pages.

The tendrils seemed reinforced with layers and segments, making them much more mechanical than the ones that Mallory often used. They were similar to the ones he had seen Hector fend off in the forest. Mercy had her energy blade drawn already and was swinging at the approaching tendrils, cutting as many of them as they could before they reached her.

Mercy managed to get around the book and tried to run toward Liz, but multiple tendrils snapped forward, catching Mercy by the ankle and dragging her back towards its pages.

Jon wondered if Mercy would react similarly to how she did with Lysenthia’s whips, using her mana to leap around with the vines still attached.

Instead, Mercy made a single dash straight to the ground and stabbed her Vindhazi sword into the ground before she was pulled away.

More and more tentacles grew from the book, wrapping around her waist and her pulling harder. Mercy was clearly straining not to be removed from the sword.

Jon forced himself to see what Liz was doing. Her left hand was raised in a claw, turning slowly as if she was unscrewing a giant bolt from the air. Jon didn’t know what would go first, between Mercy’s grip and Liz’s concentration on her mana.

Jon decided to look at the book where the tentacles came from. If he didn’t know better, it seemed as if the book was trying to eat her, rather than toss her out of the ring.

After much straining, Mercy finally closed her mouth and took a deep breath through her nose.

She’s gonna let go…

True to Jon’s prediction, Mercy released the grip of the sword.

She slid across the floor, being pulled by the tentacles, but in the few seconds she had before she was thrown out of the ring, Jon saw the flash of movements between both of her hands as she made several shapes with her fingers.

Spell… Jon didn’t know what it was called, and he had never made time to ask Mercy about it.

As soon as Mercy’s body was pulled to the side of the book, she finished her hand movements and punched the ground.

An explosion erupted at the point of impact, and the book flipped out of the smoke and out of the perimeter of the ring.

Jon took a sigh of relief. Mercy had saved herself before getting pulled out. She had made a smart albeit risky move.

Go Mercy.

Smoke emanated from the point of explosion, covering up the center of the ring from view.

Liz waved with one of her hands, blowing the smoke away while snapping with her other hand to summon the spellbook back into its grasp.

Just as the smoke began to be cleared away, Mercy rushed out from the center.

Liz had just grasped onto her spellbook, but Mercy stopped and made a large swing with her black tool.

The energy blade extended, reaching towards the end of the area where Liz was.

Jon had already expected Liz to put up a mana shield around her body to protect her from the energy.

Rather than that, Liz brought the book in front of her and opened it up, holding out the pages towards the attack.

The white blade passed through Liz, but the part of the blade that aimed for her body disappeared upon contact with the pages.

Mercy, continuing her attack, swiftly brought the sword from the large swing up above her head, grabbing it with both hands.

A massive amount of white mana energy shot into the sky until it formed into a giant blade, its point just barely reaching towards the ceiling of the castle.

Jon and Mallory breathed a collective sigh.

“Idiot,” Hector muttered.

With a strong yell, Mercy brought the giant energy blade down onto her opponent. The front end of the blade scratched against the edge of the arena, dispersing upon contact as it dragged down the side.

The blade still traveled at full force, coming down onto Liz and enveloping her in an explosion of white light.

Whoa… Jon had forgotten how large the energy attack really was. He hadn’t seen it in a while, and for good reason. It looked like it took up a lot of Mercy’s energy to use. He figured it would be a finishing attack, but he could see merit in Mercy using it incredibly early in the battle. A good hit would finish off an opponent immediately.

Jon then took a quick glance at Hector, who he remembered muttering “idiot.” Did he mean that about Mercy?

Jon made a short-lived grimace, deciding not to ask Hector what he meant before quickly turning back to the circle.

The energy had cleared, revealing that Liz was relatively unscathed, except for tatters in her small brown cape billowing from her neck. She had brought the book over her head, its pages open as a shield for the attack.

Wow. If that book had done what Jon thought it did, it had just absorbed the brunt of that entire attack.

He was ready for Mercy to make the next move, but instead, it had come from Liz, who brought the book back down in front of her, its pages open to the front once again.

Is she expecting another mana attack? Jon wondered. He doubted Mercy would have tried again after an attack after that.

“Move…” Hector muttered.

A small white light began to gather from within the bindings.

Mercy’s eyes widened and she ran towards the side.

A giant beam the same color as Mercy’s mana attack erupted from the pages and firing right where Mercy was standing and blasting into the invisible barrier, where it was stopped from exiting.

Jon realized that Liz wasn’t defending, she was attacking. With an extreme attack of her own. Jon wondered if it was reflecting all of Mercy’s mana back at her.

The beam sustained itself as Liz slowly began to turn, dragging the beam across the area and closing off more and more of Mercy’s space in the ring. Mercy ran as fast as she could in the direction that Liz was standing.

Jon didn’t think Mercy could make it. Despite Liz’s struggle to move the beam faster, one could see that it was gonna catch up to Mercy due to its sheer size.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Mallory’s circle had appeared under his feet and that he was quickly moving his hands all throughout the air, even breaking into a sweat.

He’s containing everything. Jon tried not to think about what would happen if the beam was to break out and start blowing away at the audience. He didn’t envy Mallory’s position one bit.

Jon began thinking more and more of what the beam meant for Mercy. In a flash, he saw all of her fights that he had witnessed up until that point. She might have been a ninja, but he realized how much of her strategy involved making large attacks and simply trying to take out the opponent in one move. In fact, she excelled in making huge attacks and blowing up the entire area. Even Hector, for all of his angry lashing out, fought in a very precise and controlled manner.

Not Mercy. And now, her massive energy was being used against her. Did that mean that she had to change her strategy?

Jon decided to relieve himself of thinking so hard as to simply wait for Mercy’s response to the attack. He watched her run away from the approaching wall of energy from Liz and wondered if she would make it to Liz in time to disrupt the attack.

It soon became clear that she wouldn’t have to. Mercy jumped straight up into the air, before making two more mana-assisted mid-air dashes to get herself over the top of the beam before landing back in the middle of the circle.

Phew.

She quickly dashed forward, the energy blast now directed too far to be swung back in time.

Liz simply closed the book in one hand and pushed out the palm of her other hand underneath the book.

Blue lighting fired from it, making Mercy veer to the side enough to evade the spell but not enough to throw her off course.

She can do book magic and regular magic.

Jon had wished he spent more time trying to understand Liz’s magic instead of just accepting that she was incredibly good at it.

Mercy made it into range, this time not needing to extend her blade as she leaped up and swung down at Liz with her energy blade.

Liz made a flick of the wrist, and Mercy was caught in the air by an invisible force before being pushed away and crashing into the center of the ring again.

Jon was glad Mercy didn’t get tossed out of the ring, but he wondered why Liz didn’t throw her in a direction that made it easier for her to do so.

A quick look made it clear that she was breathing heavily from exhaustion. The last attack must have been incredibly draining from her, and Jon understood that keeping Mercy out of range made sense as a priority. Liz seemed to have the most advantage there.

That was when Jon realized that Liz hadn’t moved from her spot the entire match. It had been Mercy who had been forced to make her way towards Liz.

Whoa… Jon didn’t know if he should be more impressed with Mercy’s resolve to stay within the circle or Liz’s forbearance in holding her advantageous position. Being at the end of the circle meant that Mercy had to come at Liz in a direct path of all of her spells. It also meant that if Mercy reached Liz, it would be really easy to be knocked out of the circle.

She’s giving up defense for a stronger offense. Jon wondered if he could ever be that tactical in a fight. It made him admire Liz more. He only wished that he could be learning such things in a less pressing time period.

Mercy and Liz both waited on their ends to catch their breaths as much as they could. Unlike the situation with Tallow and Jacquline, Jon could see that both women were working to recover as soon as they could so they could mount their offense again.

After a few more breaths, Liz snapped open her book and waved her other hand over its pages in several different wide movements.

Spells of all shapes and sizes began manifesting in front and above Liz before they starting flying towards the center of the circle.

Mercy.

One by one, Mercy began to deflect spell after spell with her mana blade, slowly making her way forward as she did so.

Liz managed to flip over some of the pages of the book as she moved her hand in smaller and quicker movements.

The spells became small, but also more frequent. Mercy hopped, rolled, and deflected as many of the attacks as she could. All manner of shapes of both lightning and fire whizzed past her body as she continued her forward progress.

Every time some new form of mana went past Mercy’s face, Jon felt a little shiver in his body. Liz was building up a small sweat on her forehead, which Jon attributed to her spellcasting. Her body must have been heating up a lot.

And yet, Jon also saw Mercy’s face beginning to turn red. It became especially clear whenever she was forced to deflect against another spell. Even if it was quick, Jon could see the flash of strain on Mercy’s face as she did so.

Mercy suddenly broke into a dash, not into Liz but at an angle. Passing through the oncoming spells, she beamed towards her Vindhazi sword which was still stuck on the ground from earlier.

Liz wasted no time stopping her hands over her book and twinkling her hands over its open pages.

Mercy was close to picking up her sword, her hand outstretched towards it when green vines reached up from the ground, throwing themselves around Mercy’s arm and trapping it.

Aw. It occurred to Jon that Liz might have been planning it the entire time, accounting for how quickly she was able to start moving.

He had begun to wonder how long ago she started planning it when Mercy dropped her black tool from her other hand and kicked it over to Liz’s.

Liz looked down in concern as it slowed to a stop in front of her feet.

A blast of light flashed from the tool, causing her to gasp and cover her eyes with her arm in response.

She did it… The last part of Mercy’s strategy that Jon had suspected.

Adaptation. Jon had seen it before, but he wasn’t able to put his finger on it until now.

Mercy had a way of being able to replicate any techniques she had seen others perform in battle. Jon didn’t know if it was just that she had known so much beforehand, or that she could just mimic whatever she had just seen. He suspected it was a mixture of both since there was a part of him that knew it wasn’t some sort of mana used ability. It was just her propensity for learning, something she was always happy to do.

Proving Jon’s theory, Mercy put her hands together, and the vines quickly burned away into ashes.

She made several more formations with her hand before punching forward.

A column of flame erupted from her fist. Nowhere near as big, but still sizable enough to be frightening.

Liz raised the book protecting herself from the fire, but Mercy sustained it, keeping Liz on the defensive and not allowing her to shoot mana back.

“She’s using too much…”

Jon turned to Hector, who had mumbled behind his folded hands.

“She’s using too much mana…” he repeated.

Too much? Does he mean Liz, or….

Jon turned back to the scene. Did he think that Mercy was using too much mana on purpose? Jon didn’t feel equipped to judge anyone’s else on their mana used.

Still, he understood Hector’s sentiment. The more energy Mercy used here, the less she could use in the next fight. If that was how mana worked. Jon was still trying to it all out.

Jon assumed he was talking about Liz and turned back to the fire.

Eventually, Liz pointed to the sky with two fingers and swung it down in front of her.

The column of fire split in half, parting before Liz’s body and fanning out around her.

The fire fanned out around Mercy as well, covering her from view in the arena.

The Vindhazi sword suddenly made its way spinning out of the fans of flames and heading straight towards Liz.

Liz deflected it with a wave of her hand, casting it out of the circle and protecting herself from it.

However, Mercy was already following up from the attack, leaping up into the air and stabbing down with her sword.

Stabbing?

Liz, having just deflected the former blade, could do nothing but move out of the way, abandoning her position for the first time in the match as she ran back towards the center of the circle.

Liz casted away whatever leftover flames were left as she turned to face Mercy, who had already recovered from her previous attack.

Finally, in an advantageous position, Mercy pressed forward her offense, making several swift slashes with her blade as she chased down Liz through the arena.

Despite the heavy offense and close position, Liz was still able to fend off many of Mercy’s attacks, even being able to dodge many of them with wide movements.

Jon could never imagine being able to make as many dodges as she could, even with the number of strikes Liz had blocked in between.

Her continued evasive maneuvers were brought to an end when Mercy made a large downwards swing with one hand, forcing Liz to the side and right onto the path of Mercy’s incoming right hook.

Oof...

Hector scoffed.

Liz was thrown off balance, but she recovered in time to dodge the next strike and retaliate with a technique of her own, slamming her palm into Mercy’s still outstretched hand.

There was a burst of energy through Mercy’s arm, pushing it away and forcing Mercy’s tool out from her hand.

The attack wasn’t enough to knock Mercy off of her feet. She regained her bearings and struck at Liz with her fists.

Jon was prepared for another wave of evasive maneuvers, but Liz simply caught Mercy’s fist in her grasp.

Mercy wasn’t deterred one bit, quickly raising her foot and slamming it into the back of Liz’s knee.

Ohh...

Liz croaked as her knee buckled. Mercy then struck at Liz’s shoulder right before Liz pushed away with another close-range palm blast.

Mercy managed to catch herself from the air, using her air dash to dive hard into the ground before she flew out of the arena. She was now standing where Liz had been at the start of the match, with Liz taking Mercy’s spot in the middle. The two women had essentially switched positions.

“Too long…”

Another mutter from Hector.

“Too long?” Jon repeated without taking his eyes off the arena.

“It’s going on too long…”

Too long? Jon didn’t see how the fight would be longer than it needed to be. Both girls were clearly trying their hardest to end the fight as quickly as they could.

Jon waited for Liz to start mounting more spells against Mercy, now that she had the space and the advantage again.

He then noticed the arm Mercy struck, more specifically the one holding the book, had been hanging limp at her side.

Pressure points too?

As soon as Mercy could ready herself, she pushed off the ground and ran towards Liz.

Liz jabbed at her own shoulder with her working two fingers. She screamed as she snapped her fingers in the same hand, summoning her book to her other hand.

Mercy, already in range, roundhouse kicked the book free from Liz’s grasp.

Jon thought it would be it for Liz, but the spellcaster warrior brought her head down onto Mercy’s head before she could receive another attack.

Ouch! The headbutt pushed both women from each other, and they each wobbled side to side as they tried to keep their bearings.

“This is going on for too long…” Hector repeated again.

Jon turned to Hector.

“Why?” Jon asked.

“The more they fight…” Hector said, “the more mana they lose… and the more desperate they’re gonna become…”

Desperate?

Looking back at the battle, he saw both Liz and Mercy recovering their footing.

Liz’s other arm seemed to be working again, though Jon thought he could see some minor shaking on its part.

She snapped her fingers, bringing her book back into her trembling hands before raising the palm of her other hand outward.

White energy surged from the book’s pages into her hand, channeling through her wrist and shooting out of her palm towards Mercy.

Mercy dived to the side, before standing up and stretching out her hand.

Her tool, which was laying on the outside of the circle, extended its blade, pushing itself off of the ground and spinning back towards the circle. It arched through the air until Mercy caught it and swiped away to oncoming energy.

Mercy then stabbed the ground, causing her own white energy to travel along the floor to Liz, who swatted the attack away with her hands.

Mercy’s and Liz’s shoulders were now both bowed over as they persisted in their heavy breathing.

“Are they gonna pass out?” Jon asked, not taking his eyes off of the ring.

“Worse,” Hector muttered. “Much worse.”

Jon couldn’t tell what expression his mouth made, but it was definitely a negative response to hearing what was just said.

Liz casted another energy attack at Mercy, this time sustaining it against her opponent.

Mercy blocked it with her blade, then slowly began pushing forward.

Win… someone… win already.

Jon looked in Mallory’s direction to see what he could pick up.

He saw that Mallory actually looking back in his direction.

Is he… sad? Jon didn’t know what to make of it, except that it was a strange foreboding to what was to come.

Jon returned his gaze to the ring. He saw Liz’s arm began to tremble as she tried to keep the book up. He also saw a trail of blood coming down from her forehead.

Blood? Did that come from the headbutt?

Liz’s arm finally gave way, dropping down to her side and losing the spell.

Mercy saw her opening ran forward, leading with a wide awning while extending her blade.

Liz deflected the attack with her palm, then rose her working hand, ready to snap her fingers.

She never got to, as Mercy dashed up and grabbed Liz’s hand.

There was a sudden snap, and Liz hollered in pain.

Jon gasped in his chair.

Did she just break Liz’s hand?

“Liz!” Hector yelled, pushing himself up. “Why would you-”

Liz stomped on the floor, pushing Mercy away from her body with another spell before more damage could be done.

She then traced a line on the ground and a dark blue circle appeared around her feet.

She’s doing a Mallory spell.

Jon didn’t know what to call it. He didn’t know what to think. He still didn’t know how he felt about Mercy breaking Liz’s hands for the advantage.

He understood why she did it, but…

Why?

Liz still seemed capable of fighting, despite having serious damage down to both of her arms. Now Jon could see the way Liz would use Mallory’s style of magic.

Mercy was barely able to catch her footing before a large giant block of dark blue energy rose from the ground underneath her.

The block rose with Mercy still on top, causing her to peer over while she was being lifted intot the air.

Liz traced the ground with her foot again, and the block suddenly shifted to the right, aiming to carry Mercy out of the arena.

Whoa.

Mercy finally jumped off the block right before it exited the arena. Unfortunately, another block had already started to materialize above the center of the area, and it was following the first block at a slightly lower elevation.

Mercy didn’t make it far down enough in time, the block catching her in the side of the head just before she could finish dropping past it.

There was a loud “knock,” and Mercy’s body careened into a spin towards the ground.

“Mercy!” Hector shouted.

Jon wasn’t able to yell himself, but Hector’s yell wasn’t enough for the both of them.

Mercy’s body had kept its downward momentum, so despite the hit, she landed back in the center of the ring again. Her body wasn’t moving.

Liz’s circle disappeared and she peered over at her opponent.

“...She’s still alive!” Mallory said, after getting a cold stare from Luther. “And conscious!”

Mallory was right. Mercy was still squirming on the ground.

“Get her out, Liz!” Hector yelled. “Now!”

Oh.

Even with Hector’s frantic yells, Jon understood the sentiment. Hector didn’t want Liz to win, he just wanted the fight to end.

Jon was beginning to feel the same way.