Henry and Maurice stared at each other from across the twenty yards separating them. Henry was still, considering, planning, while Maurice slowly rubbed his pincers, his feet occasionally lifting. The voice of the announcer fell away as the two eyed each other, then one word rang in his head.

  “Fight!”

  Maurice Blinked forward, reappearing in the center of the arena, and spat out a single bubble. A small projectile that was darker than the bubbles Henry was used to. For a moment he considered tanking it to see what it was capable of, but when Henry saw the air ripple around it, he whipped his arm in its direction. His limb glowed and a ghostly blue-hued arm flashed forward, intercepting the bead. There was a sound of broken glass, then a bang that made Henry shudder as the projectile create by his Echo Strike was completely vaporized in a blink.

  The implosion was so violent that a small crater had formed, sending chunks of soil flying. Henry even felt the pull for a fraction of a second.

  A trill of fear and sock trickled down his arms, but he couldn’t waste time considering the dangers of such an impact as yet another special bubble was rushing toward him. With a shove of Telekinesis, Henry flew off the ground and to the left, only to see the crab pop out of thin air high above him and shoot a beam of regular bubbles in front of him, forcing Henry to abort and change directions.

  You little shit. Alright then.

  Henry flung himself up with Telekinesis toward the crab, and as a new concentrated bubble came at him, he Blinked out and reappeared right above Maurice as the latter was falling back down to the ground, eyes looking up at Henry. There was a ripple of magic around Maurice, but before anything could happen, a pulse of dispelling magic spread out of Henry, snuffing out whatever the crab had been preparing. Then a hue of purple shone around the crab, immobilizing him mid-air as Henry’s limbs hit the ground.

  “[Gotcha,]” Henry sent, but he didn’t let his guard down. He expected the crab to have something in store, just like those concentrated imploding bubbles. Still, he was surprised, Maurice was doing a lot better than he’d expected.

  “[No!]” came out the amused response, then something spread out of the crab.

  Huh?

  Henry didn't know how to describe it, and it must be because he’d never been the target of the Skill, but it was as if the air had grown thicker. He felt it through his body and soul, like a hostile bubble had suddenly cut him off from the rest of the world and immediately, the Skill Nexus floating inches away from his chest strained.

  Maurice wasn’t directly targeting the Skill-Nexus itself, but just by sharing a contested space and having to resist the every-increasing pressure being applied by the crab as he fought the Telekinesis back, Henry found himself grunting as he struggled stabilize the Skill.

  I might need to bring the Octominds into this… And no more projected casting, he told himself as he launched himself forward. While his many minds helped him take in everything he was sensing, one arm shot out to get a grip on the crab.

  Henry had never felt the crab’s Domain from this close. Well, he had, but he didn’t have the senses to really get a feel of what was happening. And that wasn’t the end of it. Maurice’s claws and shell shone as he pushed against Telekinesis and a pressure began building in Henry’s brain. Then the first real Domain-cast attack showed itself.

  Henry aborted his charge and Blinked to the side. Where his head had been, there was a flash of light and a pop as the implosion went off, but it wasn’t over. More and more implosions appeared point-blank while the pressure in his head turned to a headache until finally, the pressure being exerted by Maurice and whatever he’d been doing reached a tipping point, and Henry felt his Skill falter, like a glass held too tightly. Telekinesis broke, and Maurice fell back to the ground. Instantly, a spray of bubbles came at Henry and the crab Blinked away.

  Shit.

  He had to make a decision; either he starts using his Octominds, or he’d better figure out a way of getting his hands on the crab. He wasn’t good enough just yet to maneuver himself as well as he needed to with Telekinesis. Not against Maurice. So he had to decide between grabbing the crab or controlling his own movement, because he couldn’t do both. Not with how often he needed to dodge.

  Or I can eat a few hits. The dark bubble will hurt like hell… but they shouldn’t be able to put me out of the fight, Henry thought. With another Telekinetic shove, he threw himself at the crab and locked him up with Telekinesis once more, but not before the crab managed another shot.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The dark imploding bubble came at Henry fast, and he only had enough time to put his arm forward and shove more more mana into Trickster’s Fortitude before it made contact with his skin. Everything that happened next took place in a fraction of a second.

  The bubble made contact and popped, and Henry tasted a mix of ozone, brine, and metal before a terrible pain ran up his arm as his flesh was distorted, twisted, then torn. Blue blood geysered as more and more flesh got violently pulled into the center of the implosion, and then there was nothing.

  Henry’s arm—or what remained of it—fell to the ground with a squelch as his momentum continued to carry him forward toward his target, blood and torn flesh trailing after him as he pulled back another arm and activating Evershifting Strike, he swung at the floating crab. His arm cracked into Maurice’s shell like a bat against a baseball, and the crab hit the magical wall with a loud pop, but before he could even touch the ground, he Blinked and reappeared above Henry.

  Maurice shot another dark bubble and disappeared once more, and when Henry went to shove himself away with Telekinesis, he felt the Skill destabilize as a familiar pulse spread through the Domain and and within his body, killing the Skill before it could even fully manifest.

  Henry Blinked toward Maurice, dodging the bubble falling from above only to find another coming at him from the front. An Arcane Arm surged into existence and intercepted the projectile, dissolving into motes, and Henry gripped the crab with Telekinesis once more. This time, he dragged him toward him.

  “[Where’s my hug, Maurice?]”

  “[I’m not stupid!]” the crab shouted back.

  Maurice’s shell shone once more, and a giant claw fell down on Henry, blocking his advance as the crab broke the Skill by just struggling and shoving mana at it until it destabilized.

  Since when does he have this much mana? Those imploding balls must be insanely expensive considering the damage they can do, Henry wondered. The kraken was a bit busy with the fight, but he couldn’t believe the attack completely severed one of his arms. Through his defensive skills, and through his stupidly high Constitution.

  How is he still going? Henry himself was already below half, mostly from having to Blink around to move and dodge.

  Maurice reappeared to the left, panting. He was still for a second, then spat yet another dark concentrated bubble. Henry shoved himself away once more and readied himself to lunge at the crab only for bubble to veer left.

  Oh fu—

  The bubble hit the side of his face, and his left eye—as well as a good portion of his entrails—went flying out in a geyser of blue. Henry expected his Octominds to take action as he most likely had lost some brain matter, considering the implosion caught him right next to his left eye, but all of his mental faculties were untouched. Mostly. He felt a bit woozy, but he could think clearly enough.

  Interesting, he thought as he instantly consumed twenty charges of Hoard Vitals while the crowd roared outside. He hadn’t been focused on the commentary, but he could hear them through the clone watching over Stormsong.

  The pain receded as flesh regenerated, and Henry gave it a push with a quick pulse of Arcane Regeneration as he hovered once more above the ground. He didn’t think he needed to grab Maurice anymore. The crab was bound to run out of mana soon, so he could just approach and pelt him with hits until he surrendered. Still, he was impressed. Maurice could do some real damage, but as expected, there was still a gap the crab couldn’t yet leap over.

  Maurice stood a bit hunched, eyes and limbs drooping, but from what Henry could sense, he had no intention to surrender just yet.

  “[You’re not fighting me seriously,]” Maurice said, and his tone made Henry freeze. It was accusatory. Mad.

  Had he been? No. Not really. He wasn’t taking the fight as a real life-or-death scenario, but he wasn’t really playing around. The only chosen handicap was not using his Octominds, not actively at least, and by extensions, he wasn’t using the clones.

  The rest were real limitations. “[It’s not easy for me to move on land. I’m using everything I’ve got aside from the Octominds.]”

  Maurice said nothing, but something new was happening. The scutes of the shell began dimming. It was barely visible, but unmistakable now that he noticed it. The crab was pulling something out of his shell, and Henry suspected it was mana.

  The crab clacked his pincers. “[Use everything. I want to see.]”

  Henry stared back at the crab, then gave a nod. As soon as he did, Maurice spat two bubbles at once then, with a movement of his claws, both zipped at Henry.

  “Time to work,” Henry said, and eight sub-minds leaned forward, ready to take part in the fight.

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