No sooner did he speak than the ground erupted in dangerous ripples.
I throw myself sideways as a jagged spike of black stone explodes upward where I had stood a heartbeat earlier. It misses my ribs by mere inches.
Another stone bursts beneath my feet before I fully land.
I twist midair and hit the ground hard, rolling as obsidian lances spear up in rapid succession behind me.
He controls the battlefield. In this case, he needs no weapon when everything around him can beturnedinto one.
I should be able to do too with my shadows, except I have no idea how. Yet…
He thrusts his hand forward. The floor instantly fractures.
A wave of obsidian races toward me beneath the surface, stone bulging upward before rupturing into spikes.
I sprint. Until I can figure something out, I need to evade all attacks.
The cavern explodes behind me with every step.
He is stronger than anyone I have fought before. Faster too. His domain control is immediate, practiced, brutal.
Yet the definition of a level three echoes in my mind: this type of control over his domain requires a lot of energy that will, at some point, run out.
I duck behind a thick obsidian pillar just as another spear of stone punches through it, showering me with shards.
By the Seven.
Twelve points suddenly feels cheap for this. They should have added another twelve for giving him such a home advantage.
He laughs from across the arena. “Run all you like. You’re in my hands anyway.”
Another spike punches through the pillar.And another.
He wants to cage me so I have nowhere else to run.
My eyes dart to the shadows cast by the obsidian formations around me. The molten fissures glowing beneath the stone castfractured light throughout the cavern, throwing long, uneven shadows across the floor and along the jagged obsidian spires.
So many shadows. If only I knew how to use them…
Lef continues to attack and I’m forced to rely on my instinct.
I reach for the nearest shadow and to my shock, it responds.
The darkness at the base of the pillar ripples. It’s weak, but it moves. Yet instead of pulling me inside as it had before, this shadow behaves differently. Or, maybe, I wield it differently?
When the next stone lance shoots toward me, I yank the shadow upward. It rises like liquid darkness, thin and imperfect, forming a wavering black sheet between me and the incoming strike.
The obsidian pierces through it, slowing down as it seems to penetrate the moving darkness.
But it’s only for a second. The moment I lose my concentration, the shadow fails to respond anymore. Yet this is enough for me to avoid a deadly attack.
I leap aside as the spear tears past.
My pulse spikes as I breathe hard.
Interesting.
So I can use the shadows in this way, too. I wonder what else I can do… I don’t have time to think about it too much because Lef is once more on the move. He advances toward me, his expression deadpan.
