Chương 17

Alex focused on his opponents standing almost 90 feet away across the lake, at the station's far end. These are world class talents? I suppose I can see it. While his team tensed up when the barriers fell, the Templar talents still chatted with each other, oblivious.

"Let's advance," said the healer quickly.

"We'll want to take the center first, especially if they're giving it to us." The warrior nodded, as did the mage, and they begun their advance with the warrior first, Alex trailing just behind, sword drawn. The lake was a glassy expanse, with a few trees at its very edges, but it was patterned with patches of rough white—and he quickly realized these were the areas with friction. The largest patch of friction was an uneven crescent located near the heart of the lake.

It was clear at a glance you couldn't get there in a straight line, at least without crossing large stretches of slippery glassy ice. If you wanted to avoid any slipperiness you'd have to take a circular way, hopping along an arc of friction-y patches. There were clear shortcuts across glassy ice— but that has to be when you're also most vulnerable to ranged attacks. The warrior, kal, was keeping a close eye on the Templars. On their archer and mage.

He'd walk between a few lighter patches, then whisper, " on three," and they'd all dash across the glassy ice, several of them slipping and sliding as they did. He could see the Templars pretty clearly now; the talents seemed to decide now was a good time to actually begin. They started moving, but still at a leisurely pace. Still clearly not taking us seriously at all. He very much anticipated seeing what the difference was supposed to be between him and these people. He wasn't insane.

He knew this would very likely end with him in a pool of blood. He still felt, for some strange reason, excited to see how exactly they'd manage it. These weren't training bots—they were like him, in age and in level, so— Why can't I win? Show me. He felt a little delusional, but maybe in a good way, in his mind.

"I have an ice affinity," said mage-girl, abruptly.

"If we can take the center, I'll try to manipulate the lake's ice—see if I can strike them if they charge us."

"You could've opened with that," said the archer-guy, gesturing at all of the ice.

"It's not a very high affinity," said the mage, flushing.

"And maybe I would've, if I could get a word in."

"Touché," said the archer; his eyes glinted with amusement. His eyes flickered to the Templars.

"Seems like this little grace period's coming to an end. Didn't want to fire first, so we could keep it going, but seems Taylor Swift over there's not giving us a choice..." They were within twenty feet of the center, and the opposing archer, the tall platinum-haired girl, had nocked an arrow.

"Well!" said the archer.

"See if I can't win a shootout with a girl who's probably been drawing bows since she was six. Can you shoot?" He asked this to mage girl, who stared back blankly.

"Did you choose Mana Bolt, or another ranged Skill, as your elective starting Skill," he clarified, sighing slightly, and she nodded.

"Yes."

"I'm assuming you can't, since you went with Mana Shield," said the archer, this time to Alex.

"I can, ish," said Alex. It seemed archer-guy had decided to be civil now that he was a little more serious.

"Ish?" said mage-girl.

"What's that supposed to—" The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I have a bad accuracy, close-range version of Mana Spear, I guess," he said.

"At this distance—"" Shit," said their warrior. He'd feinted a lunge across a stretch of ice, and the blonde archer had drawn and fired so fast it was all a blur of motion; the arrow almost hit warrior-guy as he leaped back. It skidded across the ice, drawing a sharp white line, sparks flying, before it hit the invisible outer wall and stilled.

"You're Level two and you can freehand Mana Manipulate a mana spear?" said archer-guy, like the bow shot didn't just happen. Alex shrugged. Then, surprisingly—"You don't have to show me, I believe it." He gave Alex a weird look.

"Actually, I don't know. That's freakish. But—""I'll keep it in the back pocket until it's actually of use." Alex's idea was, with how everyone else seemed to be reacting to it— best keep it a surprise.

"Fair," said the archer, and his eyes flickered across the lake. He grimaced. The Templar mage lifted his staff, and the gemstone at its tip started to flare bright red-yellow." Incoming!" said the warrior. A burst of flame flew across the surface of the lake, and Alex and the mage had to dive to either side to avoid it.

"Almost there," called the healer, eyeing the center patch.

"I can help with anything that isn't a hit to the vitals, so try not to get hit there!" Not incredibly useful as advice goes, he reflected. But I appreciate the sentiment. The warrior had stopped taking chances with the slippery ice and their progress slowed. What followed was a kind of two-versus-two shootout. It was raingirl and lux against the two Templars.

Raingirl threw comets of bright, hardened Pure mana which left craters and cracks in the ice as they landed— mana bolt, presumably, but she'd yet to land a bolt. Archer-guy targeted the Templar archer with arrow after arrow, a few arrows bright with Pure mana, but she shifted slightly out of the way every time, exercising reflexes Alex was sure were superhuman.

She'd fired back thrice, almost casually; two, archer-guy barely managed to dodge, off-balance—Alex realized what she was doing even as she drew her bow a third time, her arm lighting up with Pure mana. Mana Shield! CRACK! Alex didn't know the trajectory of the arrow; he just placed a Shield directly over archer-guy's head and chest, and was lucky. The Pure light traveled up the Templar archer's arm, into the arrow, which fired in an almost instantaneous line of Pure light.

The next instant, his Shield was a giant spiderweb of cracks, almost shattered. It left him incredulous. Even with shatter resistance?

"Thanks," gasped archer-guy, glancing at the shield.

"No worries," said Alex, eyes flickering back to the Templar archer.

"She's playing with us," the archer continued, giving Alex a weird look.

"She aimed that thing to graze my side, not kill me."

"You can tell?" said the healer, surprised.

"She's been chatting with their mage, like, this entire time," said the archer, visibly refocusing.

"Pretty sure she's helping him refine his Fire Skill. We're target practice. If she wanted to, she probably could've gunned us down while she was still in the starting zone."

"Except maybe you," he said, glancing back at Alex.

"If there's more where that came from. You have some explaining to do, by the way, because what was that?" Alex didn't say anything since he was focused on the Templar archer thirty feet away. She was also looking at him curiously, as was the Templar mage—as was the rest of their team, actually, which he didn't fully understand—it was just a slightly more resistant Mana Shield, wasn't it? It was like they'd noticed him for the first time.

He was ready to cast a second Mana Shield the moment the Templar archer went for her bow, since— did I just make myself a target? But she didn't, yet, at least.

"We're here," the warrior told them. He took the chance to hop into the big friction patch at the station's center, and the rest of Alex's team followed suit. The two teams stared at each other across a thirty-foot expanse of glassy ice.

"This setup should favor you two, right?" said the healer, uncertainly. He was talking to the mage and the archer.

"You have a little space to maneuver and kal and tyrion can help with the shielding."

"You'd think," said archer-guy, his eyes on the Templar archer.

"But I have a feeling she could be standing on a pebble and she'd still have an advantage." He licked dry lips.

"I'm not sure if we should start firing again, or if we should hold off on poking the bear."

"We'll have to, right?" said the mage.

"At some point?"

"You want to take the first shot, be my guest," said the archer. It definitely feels like a map where if you're outgunned at range, you're already kind of screwed, since it's so hard to charge an enemy across ice. If we attack, she'll retaliate, and if we don't… nothing happens. Until they decide it's time to finish us, that is.

"So long as we're waiting—" the archer pulled out a vial of light-blue liquid, a mana potion, and drank a little, watching the Templars the entire time. The Templars saw him, but didn't seem to care.

"I'll see if I can contribute," said Alex.

"With what I said earlier." Thirty feet was stretching it a bit for his fake mana spears, but surely a big, wildly spinning chunk of Pure mana had to be useful as a distraction, if nothing else? The Templars were still discussing amongst themselves; the Templar healer had a lackadaisical smile, gestured toward Alex's team—the Templar warrior seemed not to like whatever was said. Their mage seemed excited—'please?' he seemed to say.' It'll be good practice.'

"What are they talking about?" murmured raingirl. Whatever it was, it seemed like they'd decided. The Templar archer put her bow away, unsheathing two gleaming daggers. At the same time, the Templar warrior hefted his shield, stepping out in front, and drew a steel hammer.

"You can't be serious," said kal, wide-eyed.

"Are they really about to—?"

"Seems like they are," said Alex quickly." Raingirl —ice, remember?" Mage-girl shook herself out of her bewilderment and planted her staff on the ice; the staff's tip lit up bright blue. The surface of Templar warrior's shield slicked with Pure mana, and the tip of the Templar mage's staff lit up with Fire mana. And then the Templars charged wildly across the glassy ice, in a line straight for them.