Chương 44: Marbles and Acid

Ophila flinched at the deafening sound of the explosion, throwing her arms up instinctively as the shockwave rolled outward. The force was strong enough for her to stumble backwards, clumps of soil and hard debris raining down around her. When she lowered her arm, she found the spot where Lio and the bear-like man had been fighting now contained a huge crater, the two of them nowhere in sight. She stared at it incredulously.

Then being gripped with the realization that she had to help Lio, she took a step forward— But she immediately stopped, grimacing, as she turned around. Who was she kidding? How was she planning to save her party members if she wasn't sure if she could even save herself? The woman with the close cropped dark hair—what was her name? Oh right, Acacia—seemed to care less about the disappearance of her partner.

She closed the distance between them, quickly shedding her iron gauntlets, her bare hands darkening and turning translucent as she activated her rune. Ophila's hand closed around her marbles, preparing. Immediately upon reaching her, Acacia's first strike was a straight jab aimed at Ophila's face, specifically her eyes, the foggy fingertips smelling of a chemical that made her head woozy. Wincing, Ophila threw a marble at the ground two meters to her left and swapped.

[Ad Valorem] She reappeared exactly where the marble had landed, the momentum she had been maintaining making sure that she was already moving when she materialized. The marble meanwhile shot backward through the space she'd vacated, skipping across the soil. With that, Acacia's fist connected with empty air. She pulled it back with a cold expression, already turning toward Ophila's new position. Ophila scowled. This was going to be a problem. Acacia fought way too patiently and efficiently.

It was clear that she had been trained and was experienced. Every movement she undertook was designed to close their distance rather than overpower Ophila. And so, Ophila could already tell what the other woman was trying to do. Acacia was trying to get Ophila to make a single mistake, in which she would undoubtedly take her down within seconds with that strange rune of hers. Which meant Ophila couldn't afford to let her get close. She threw a second marble, this one just behind Acacia, and swapped with it.

The momentum carried her forward, and she quickly drove the blade of her knife toward the upper back of the woman's shoulder. And yet, Acacia managed to twist in an impossible angle, managing to avoid the major injury, though the blade did still manage to catch her across the upper arm. A thin line of dark fluid beaded along the cut. But then, as Ophila felt a tinge of triumph at the small victory, Acacia did something that made Ophila's blood turn cold. The cut sealed itself!

The skin pulled back, the dark fluid that had beaded along the wound simply absorbing back into her skin. Ophila stared at her, while Acacia looked back with her regular cold and pale eyes. Rightttt, Ophila thought humorlessly. So that's how this is going to be. She threw a marble and a small pebble at the same time, sending the marble to her left and the pebble high above Acacia's head. She swapped with the marble, reappearing six feet away, and in the same motion clapped her hands together sharply.

The pebble above Acacia's head and a rock that had been thrown loose from Lio's explosion located on top of the shed's base swapped instantly. The rock came down from height, with the full velocity of the pebble's throw. It caught Acacia across the shoulder, the impact finally forcing a surprised yelp from her lips as she stumbled. Ophila smiled. That had been a small, but important part about her rune, [Ad Valorem].

After multiple experiments, she had eventually figured out that objects seemed to keep their momentum after a swap. See, her rune really wasn't teleportation! This proved it! It was an exchange, and because it was an exchange, it preserved everything like position, velocity, and direction. To keep it simple, a thrown pebble that had been swapped with a stationary rock meant a rock arriving with the pebble's speed.

But even after the injury, Acacia managed to recover quickly, her shoulder already having been healed—or appearing to be healed—by that strange rune of hers. But she'd still sustained damage. So that counted for something. Ophila pressed forward before the window of opportunity could close, throwing a marble low along the ground toward Acacia's feet and swapping with it, reappearing in a crouch directly in front of her, driving her elbow upward toward the woman's chin.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Acacia's head snapped back as it connected, a flash of pain flickering through her features. Then her chin also turned blurry. But Ophila was already swapping, pulling herself back six meters with a marble she'd left on the path earlier, barely escaping before her forearm had been dipped in that strange chemical fog. Acacia scowled, the first true expression of frustration she'd had during their entire fight.

They regarded each other across the open ground, the space between them littered with scattered marbles and disturbed soil. Breathing hard, Ophila took stock of her remaining marbles quickly. She had seven in hand, with three scattered on the ground behind Acacia, two more near the shed wall, and one somewhere in the disturbed soil near the crater's edge that she'd lost track of during the explosion. Only seven accessible for throwing…

Her mind whirled, quickly mapping the field around them, her naturally talented spatial analysis blazing to life, all the while keeping her eyes fixed on Acacia. And when Acacia advanced again, Ophila had a skeleton of a plan ready. She threw a marble toward the shed wall and swapped, reappearing six feet to Acacia's right. Acacia turned toward her new position, her brows furrowing in concentration as both of her arms turned milky, the strong stench of toxins filling the air.

Ophila immediately threw another one of her marbles, aiming this one directly toward the shed wall on the opposite side. She waited until just before Acacia reached her to swap, in an attempt at goading at the other woman. She reappeared near the shed, and took several deep breaths, trying to catch herself. There was no denying it. Ophila was slowly reaching her physical limit. But this would soon be over. Because it was now time for Ophila's plan to start.

A grin curving her lips, she clapped her hands multiple times, in quick succession. [Ad Valorem] A cluster of four crushed Amberpulps swapped with four loose stones sitting near the crater, scattering across the soil in Acacia's path like caltrops. It wouldn't do much damage, but it would serve as a slight distraction.

And in the half second that Acacia looked down, Ophila swapped with the marble nearest to her right, pulling herself around Acacia's flank, and drove her knife handle into the back of the woman's knee. The blade slitted in easily, a spurt of blood escaping from the pale flesh. Acacia stumbled, her leg buckling. She scrambled to pull herself upright, and she did so, at such a speed and angle that made Ophila wonder about how tremendous her core strength was.

Meanwhile, Ophila had already swapped back toward the shed, retrieving two of the marbles from the ground as she passed. She had nine in hand now. She frowned, watching Acacia straighten up. The woman's arm where the knife had caught her earlier had fully sealed, while her knee was already moving normally, though it was still running rivulets of blood. Whatever her rune did, it apparently extended to accelerated recovery. Which meant she couldn't win by accumulating damage. She had to end this in a single blow.

Ophila looked at the field around her, mapping it and strategizing with everything she had. She turned one marble over in her fingers, a grin again curving her lips as the skeleton of the plan she previously had began to form flesh. Then she reached down, scooped up a clump of pebbles, and threw them simultaneously, sending them in four different directions across the field, seeding the air around Acacia in a wide circle. Acacia immediately tensed, getting into a defensive stance. Nice, Ophila thought.

She thinks I'm going to try and go over there with those. And that flawful miscalculation would be the reason for Acacia's defeat. Ophila rapidly clapped her hands three times. The first clap swapped the pebble behind Acacia with a torn and sagging section of the shed's cap, the enormous mass of fungi arriving from above, crashing down directly behind Acacia and forcing her to lurch forward.

The second clap swapped the pebble to Acacia's left with the heaviest chunk of debris from Lio's explosion, a dense lump of compacted soil and stone that hit Acacia across the ankle, with the full velocity of the thrown pebble behind it. She went down on one knee, her cold composure cracking as she let out a bellow of pain.

The third clap swapped the pebble sitting directly in front of her with the small flat grey stone Ophila had bought from the apothecary that morning, which she had just grabbed from her pocket and flung with all her strength. After all, she had bought it for one and only one reason. It had looked like it could fly accurately. And true to her thinking, it arrived spinning, catching Acacia cleanly across the temple with a loud crack sound. Immediately, Acacia's eyes went blank.

She managed to stay upright on one knee for a moment, but her milky arms were already losing their chemical fog as her consciousness faded away. Then she toppled sideways and slumped down onto the ground. Ophila's legs were shaking, her lungs felt like they were on fire, but she didn't dare let down her guard, keeping her remaining marbles still clutched in her fist. She waited. And waited. But Acacia didn't move again. Ophila finally let out a long breath slowly.

She rolled her neck, wincing as the adrenaline seeped out of her, replacing her bones and muscles with a weary exhaustion. She crouched and carefully checked that the chemical fog had fully dissipated from Acacia's hands before getting any closer. And luckily, it had. Then Ophila stumbled over to the crater, looking down at the dark expanse below. It was truly enormous, shaped like a sinkhole. From somewhere below came the faint sound of moving water and the horrible stench of human feces and urine.

She stared down into it. Her first instinct was to go after Lio. She even took a step toward the crater's edge before she stopped herself. After all, Lio had literally just punched through solid ground with his bare fist. He had navigated a corridor of death traps. He had beaten a Skinwalker, a creature from the 17th Floor. And he had gotten out of much, much worse situations before— She paused. Where had that thought come from? Hadn't she only known Lio for less than a week?

She frowned, pressing her fingers to her temple. But the thought had already dissolved and scattered like leaves in the air, like salt in water, leaving behind nothing but a vague unease. She shook her head, collecting herself. The point was that Lio was almost certainly fine. He was probably more fine than she was right now. He didn't need her. But William probably did. And so, she turned toward the shed.