Master Jujud vanished, reappearing in the center of the enchanted stone platform. The other students scattered, some dropping their supplies.

  “Uh, guys?” Sip asked. “Why’re we fighting a Silver?”

  “Because Master Jujud is insane,” Soise muttered. “She’s still nice though.”

  “We’re actually going to fight a Master?!” He hissed, grabbing fistfuls of his inky black hair. “Her power is so many orders of magnitude beyond our own, it’s just ridiculous! We’re Irons, Tins, and Coppers! People!”

  “Children!” Master Jujud called. “What’s taking you so long?”

  “What’s the big deal?” Catania grunted. “She’s not going to kill us and we only need one hit.”

  She glanced at me, or where I’d been. “Grind?”

  “There you go!” Master Jujud laughed, side stepping a swipe from Crapshoveler. She skidded around, snapping her heel against the blade to wrench him from my hands. I kept moving, using Reach to tether the handle to the back of my wrist, twisting to catch it in the other hand, adjusting my momentum for a downward cleave.

  She caught the blade between two fingers. “Very good! It’s always important to find a weapon you’re familiar with.”

  And then I was half-conscious, flung a yard deep into a concrete wall.

  {Grind}

  [(-99) 100 Hp]

  “Heal,” I uttered, popping a shoulder back into place. Without mental energy, I had to be much more careful about the damage I took. Her attacks were both fast and precise.

  But she was holding back. No lethal force. That was something, wasn’t it?

  We could work with that.

  Master Jujud moved forward, then stopped.

  She laughed. “Too much Mana, Toya! It’s awfully striking.” Master Jujud flicked the air, causing a reaction in invisible strings of mana, before they simmered down again. “I don’t remember teaching you this, Toya.” She raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t been keeping a secret technique from me, have you?”

  “I made it this morning,” Toya grumbled. “That should’ve worked.”

  Master Jujud stepped forward, not breaking the string, but causing it to bow up and out of the way.

  “Mana shield,” Sip grunted. “Has she been keeping that up for all this time?”

  “Master Jujud can hold a mana shield indefinitely,” Toya stated. “So if you want to land an attack, you can’t be half-hearted about it.”

  Sip swallowed. “Well, we tried this year, didn’t we?”

  I raised my arms.

  “Grind,” Sip frowned. “We’re not getting through that! Don’t you know what kind of power a Master can put into their shields?”

  A ball of energy formed in the air, feeding off the heightened nervousness of the room. It was yellow.

  “The moment I fire, we all need to attack, at once,” I said, glancing at each person beside me. “All of us.”

  Soise scuffed her feet. “I don’t have any attacks. I have a chess board, but that isn’t useful if the opponent’s already here, alone, and fast.”

  “Support Toya.” I nodded to Catania. “Move behind her but don’t get close enough for her to actually hit you. Then, when I give a signal, raise your gauntlets, tilting them to the east. They can take a blow, can’t they?”

  “Care to explain your plan?” She grunted. “I don’t appreciate getting left in the dark.”

  “Mage things,” I said. “It makes more sense if I just show them. Oh, and brace yourself! It might hurt.”

  Ominous mana signatures crackled underneath our feet, stirring in the wake of Master Jujud’s increasing power.

  “Children!” She shouted. “Hurry up!”

  I tossed Crapshoveler in the air.

  It tumbled over itself, once, then twice, spinning around in circles. As it fell, a moment came where the point aimed toward Jujud. In the same instance my right hand connected the handle, detonating an emotionally charged orb of ten thousand mana.

  There was a screech of air as he bolted forward, nearly clipping Master Jujud in the shoulder. But she swayed out of the way, adjusting his course with her shield. Crapshoveler's momentum flung himself far into the distance.

  Of all our team, Toya reached Jujud first, jumping into the area with curls of silk thread around his fingers. They unleashed outward, tethering to the ground and nearby buildings, allowing him near unlimited freedom of movement. More strings branched from his supports, snapping at Master Jujud, deflecting harmlessly off her shield.

  But that was the intention. They formed a cocoon around her body, growing thicker and thicker, blocking her vision.

  Catania stood behind, raising her fists.

  “Now?!” She shouted in my directions.

  “No!” I shook my head. “Not yet!”

  Master Jujud flexed, blasting the strings apart with nothing more than the air around her.

  “Ha!” Sip cackled, pointing a finger at Toya. “Idiot! Master Jujud is a Mana specialist! Of course she can break some strings.”

  “If you’ve got any better ideas, I’d love to hear them!” Toya growled.

  Sip smirked. “Of course. Let me go grab something from my room. I’ll be right back.”

  He sprinted away.

  Soise puffed up her cheeks. “He’s not coming back, is he?”

  I thought for a moment. “Eh. Probably not.”

  “I’ll kill him,” Catania muttered.

  Master Jujud bent down.

  Five seconds.

  I started running away.

  Catania threw her hands in the air.

  Master Jujud vanished.

  Toya reached out, gritting his teeth. He understood.

  I dove, grabbing Sip by the ankle, knocking him to the floor. Tethers of silk latched onto my back, flinging us away.

  Not a moment later, Master Jujud flickered into existence, cleaving downward. Even though she attacked with just her bare hand, it had enough air pressure to gouge into the solid earth, parting enchanted rock with a shockwave of energy and rubble.

  Master Jujud wasn’t smiling. “Don’t leave your team.”

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  Sip swallowed. “Oh man…”

  “NOW!” I shouted.

  Catania squinted, spotting a flickering speck of gold in the far distance. “What—”

  Her eyes widened. “Ah.”

  I snapped my head backward.

  “Can’t say I see the point,” Catania shrugged.

  Her arms tensed. Crapshoveler cracked against her gauntlet like a bolt of lightning, deflecting into the distance, the force of impact throwing Catania off her feet.

  After all my time working with Crapshoveler, I’d managed to break his returning movement into two parts.

  A spin and a thrust.

  The spin was the important bit. He naturally tried to turn toward me, but if he was knocked to the side with enough force, the spin could be overwhelmed, in the same sense Crapshoveler’s thrust could be blocked or deflected.

  If I could change his direction, he could accelerate indefinitely.

  After hitting Catania at that speed, with that kind of an impact, he was thrown into a loop. Always falling toward me, pushed into orbit by his own centripetal force

  He circled the school, skimming over the tops of buildings. With every passing minute, his speed increased and his orbit tightened.

  Master Jujud beamed. “That’s new.”

  I dropped Sip, jumping off his head onto the side of the wall, where I used Reach again, this time in the soles of my feet. I clung to the wall, forming a massive anomaly pool in my hand, already releasing it as a surprisingly fast burst of yellow energy.

  Master Jujud bent her spine over backward, suddenly impossibly flexible as Crapshoveler passed over her head, heading toward me at breakneck speed.

  The abnormality detonated, and he was an orbiting speck in the distance

  After all the work I’d done, he still wasn’t moving fast enough.

  We needed more time.

  Master Jujud punched me in the arm, flipping around and digging her heel into my ribs with a sickening crack, followed by a series of kicks that ground me into the side of a building, faster than anything I could see, much less react to.

  Before I even hit the ground, there was a field of healing energy, popping my rib into place. Soise panted, giving me a weary thumbs-up. “You okay?”

  I kicked off a tree, flicking into the air, over another attack from Master Jujud. She smiled wider and wider, increasing her power every time I avoided another of her attacks.

  Now that she’d realized I was stronger than any average Tin, she’d begun to take our fight seriously.

  I caught a fist from her, using the momentum to spin around her side and avoid another series of blows. Master Jujud suddenly halted in the air, defying all physics as I plummeted to the ground.

  Webs of silk braced against my feet, slingshotting me back up, onto another woven platform.

  Toya jumped beside me with thousands of strings appearing from his knuckles. “Well?”

  “Keep stalling,” I huffed, clutching my knees. “It’s only a matter of time.”

  He frowned. “She’ll get stronger. Her stats are hidden so you don’t realize she’s only acting at the power of a copper.”

  “We can’t win in a fight like this,” I said. “She knows that. This is a test of what we’d do when up against an impossibly stronger opponent.”

  Toya clenched his fists. “You are planning to win, aren’t you?”

  I offered a smile. “We just need to keep stalling. She’s only Silver, right?”

  He blinked.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Master Jujud was fighting Catania now, effortlessly ducking and spinning around her every blow.

  Catania was really only using the same two moves. Punch with the right hand. Punch with the left hand.

  “A little help would be nice!” Catania screamed, echoing off the inside of her helmet.

  Toya started to move. He glanced at me. “Should I?”

  I held up a hand, watching the sky. “Don’t waste energy. Catania can handle her. Three seconds. Then try to obstruct her vision.”

  Master Jujud glanced up at me. “What’re you two planning?”

  I dropped off the web, grabbing Sip by the shoulder. “I need you not to do anything stupid for the next minute or two. Just move around her blind spots.”

  “But I really can’t attack!” He hissed. “I’ve got nothing!”

  “Don’t attack,” I said. “Force her to keep looking at you. Try to seem like you’re waiting for a chance to run.”

  “But I want to run away!” He shouted.

  “Perfect.” I grinned. “When I give you the signal, walk to the center of the stone field.”

  “Wait! Are you actually going to let me leave? Grind? Grind!” Sip hollered, reaching toward me, but I’d already sprinted off. He sniffled. “Grind?”

  I jumped back into the fight, ducking under a steady stream of kicking and punching and explosive bursts of mana. Toya had already formed something like a cage, layering massive strands of string over one another, burning through his energy.

  This…this might actually work.

  Master Jujud laughed, appearing at Toya’s side, clasping his head in one hand. “I didn’t realize you’d gotten so strong! My most sincere apologies.”

  “Two more minutes.”

  I clenched my hand.

  She glanced at Sip, flicking a piece of rubble toward him. Some of the strings dulled the impact, but it still flung him backward, cracking a rib.

  Soise sprinted toward him, summoning fields of green light.

  Actually, using the two of them might work even better.

  “Now!” I shouted.

  Sip laughed, crawling away on his hands and knees. “Finally!”

  Toya dropped beside Catania, heaving for breath. He’d burned through all his reserves.

  “You’re not getting tired, are you?” She huffed back, punching him in the shoulder.

  He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just…I just need to sit down.”

  The shield was spotty, with several of Master Jujud’s attacks worsening the effect. Even so, the west side was almost entirely covered. That was the important part.

  I grabbed the web and began to climb, channeling a field of mana into my hand. It was a deep blue, crackling with manifested exhaustion.

  “Here goes nothing,” I grunted.

  In a fight like this, some risks had to be taken. I couldn’t afford to underestimate a Master’s true power. I was certain that this would work.

  If it didn’t…well…I’d fail the exam and probably get executed for the sheer scope of my debt.

  Or if it worked too well, then I’d probably get imprisoned for the immediate future.

  Either way, a reset would be necessary.

  Master Jujud glanced over at Sip, with Soise kneeling beside him. She frowned. Master Jujud took a step forward, stuffing both hands into her scarlet robes. “Is this all you five can do?”

  Catania raised two shaking fists, wiping the blood from the side of her mouth. Then, she hesitated. “You guys hear that?”

  Master Jujud looked up. “That’s more like it.”

  Crapshoveler descended like a falling star, blowing holes through the clouds. I took a step forward, counting my heartbeat as the shovel approached.

  Timing was key.

  A cone of air approached around my shovel, signaling that he’d passed the speed of sound.

  First, I aimed a manifestation at my feet, blasting myself into the air.

  Within the shell of web, Master Jujud glanced back at Sip. Seeing nothing, she focused back on Toya and Catania, then at the approaching force.

  Soise pulled on Sip’s arm. “Please, Sip. We need you to fight!”

  “I am fighting!” He hissed. “Grind told me to stay right here, away from the battle!”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  Crapshoveler arced around.

  “Geez, lady, how am I supposed to know?” He grumbled. “Who really cares, right? If his plan works, it works.”

  I twisted, summoning Crapshoveler toward me with every fiber of will in my body.

  The shockwave shook what little remained of the shield, revealing Crapshoveler for a single instant. He was a glowing bolt that passed beneath me, curving around my back, changing trajectory away from Master Jujud.

  Sip looked up into the sky, spotting a dot of crackling gold.

  “What’s—”

  Blood splattered on the field.

  Soise screamed.

  Master Jujud gritted her teeth, gouging Crapshoveler from between her ribs. She dropped the bloodied shovel from between her ribs, spilling the cherry red blood. “What. Was that?”

  She took a deep breath.

  “Never did…never in my years had a student actually used another as bait…and to do it like this…” Her hands clenched. “Sip, you alive?”

  He was pale as a ghost, directly behind the Master. “W-wha-t?”

  Master Jujud looked at me, then down to the shovel. “You passed.”

  She wasn’t smiling.

  A moment later, she vanished, leaving me and my party behind.

  // {Notice} //

  Hi! Hope you enjoyed a fantasy story. But as much fun as a fantasy is, there’s things in the real world beyond what writing can fix. That’s where you come in.

  Want to fight human trafficking? Whether you’ve got money or time there are two organizations I wholly recommend.

  Race Day — Thirty

  Donate - Venture