We make it half a dozen steps out of the city before a guard charges at us. I’m annoyed. I wanted to buy more magic items, to take apart some of the things here. Now, all I can do is kill some assholes from the church and steal their gear? The enforcers who came to me didn’t even carry anything.

  Are they underestimating us this much? Compcent bastards. I feel… nothing. The same bnk spot I usually tell myself my care for other people goes. I sigh. Whatever.

  My [Suppression] smacks into the guard, but she doesn’t slow down that much, just stumbles, then catches herself. I flick my skill off, and she stumbles. Then I flick it back on. Every time I do, she has to adjust the way she walks, and it makes her look like a penguin, waddling towards us. It’s funny. I almost snicker.

  We sprint towards the exit of the city as fast as we can. Paulino pulls out a crackling arrow, shooting at some idiot wearing church colours, embellished with the icon of a spring. The target gets hit, spasms, and goes to the floor. We run some more.

  And then run some more, and some more.

  Being chased really isn’t all that interesting, I note distantly. I hop, skip and jump to avoid abilities and traps thrown at me. Bay’s mechanical arm snatches a pair of manacles out of the air. “Enchanted!” she tells me.

  My eyes light up. Being chased really is just that interesting.

  Abilities start to come in as soon as we start catching the items to steal. Paulino blocks a good few projectiles, by shooting them with his bow, and the rest needa make it through me. And with both [Suppression] and [Deconstruction] running at full tilt? Their odds are poor.

  My mana plummets as I pour it into my abilities, leaving my breathing ragged, but that’s fine. I take apart beams of light, sword sshes, energy coatings- ah. The spear itself does stick into my shoulder, since I only [Deconstructed] the coating. Rookie mistake.

  [Deconstruction 5 > 6]

  Still, being the target of so many abilities is excellent practice for my skill. I need to recognize their patterns, then use my magical toolbox to break them apart. This, currently, amounts to little more than smacking them with a big hammer from my deconstruction toolkit, and sometimes slicing at weak nodes.

  It gives me less knowledge on the abilities than usual, but with that and [Suppression], the magic of half a dozen people, all higher level, breaks against me. I grin.

  Then, a nce of light sms through my calf so fast I cannot counter it.

  Instantly, I go down. My leg won’t carry my weight anymore, and my face sms into the floor. “Opal, now would be a great time-”

  “Got it!” My friend yells, blinking to my side and snatching me up from the floor. I get tossed over their shoulder unceremoniously, becoming little more than a portable antimagic field. That’s okay though. Not needing to walk is kinda nice. Plus, Opal smells good. Then their shoulder jostles into my stomach and I frown.

  “Focus!” Inu yells at me.

  Oh, right. I use [Selection], honing in my worldview on the general idea of magic. Other things fade away, and my sight boils down to a colourful menagerie of mana and flickering power. I note a few abilities coalescing close to us, and then smash them before they even activate properly.

  [Deconstruction 6 > 7]

  [Css up! Deconstructor 8 > 9]

  The extra point in vessel gives me a little more mana to rely on. Which is good, because I can see someone charge up that nasty ser that tore through my leg again. And this one is shielded - I can’t just smash it.

  So, I do something different.

  [Selection] hones in on that one target, and [Suppression] activates. Not to decrease the power of the spell… but to increase its charging time. I see the expression on the charger change, his face going from a sneer to a surprise, then to a frown. His mana is entering the spell, but not properly taking hold. It’s dissipating, unable to take shape the right way.

  I grin, smugly. More and more mana pours through me, through a tether, and infects that construct with grey sludge. My power clings to it, muddying up threads, making connections malfunction, keeping his mana at bay and making it dissipate. It’s a war of attrition.

  When Paulino’s arrow strikes the man’s chest, sending him spasming to the ground, I know I’ve won it.

  The city gates are in sight. Just a few more steps and we’ll be out. Except, of course, it is never that easy.

  A blinding pilr of light descends on me, and Opal disappears beneath me, blinked away. A very reasonable choice, I note, as my skin starts to burn before I’ve even touched down on the stone.

  [The Fmetouched compliments Respitia the Pure’s methods. Respitia the Pure responds with disgust.]

  Not a moment of respite, really. I sm into the stone not even a heartbeat ter, my skin splitting open from the impact. The radiant pilr of light burns my skin, cooking me alive. It hurts, but I bear with the pain. All of my mana is poured into [Suppression], keeping a tiny field of it active around me, holding off the pilr. Except, the spell adjusts.

  It twists and changes to match my suppression, piercing through the skill. I grit my teeth as the pain intensifies, casting it again, adding another yer that I twist a little bit, to counter the light. It changes again. I cast another yer.

  For a moment, my world becomes the pin of a needle again. It’s me and my magic against that pilr. I counter it, and get countered in return. Over and over and over.

  My world thins.

  [Selection 8 > 9]

  I focus. I focus my entire being on it. Counter after counter after counter after counter. I use any bit of knowledge I’ve gained from tearing apart the previous spells in this one, every fw, every weakness, every exploit I can think of. I struggle, I thrash. My skin blisters and bubbles, but I refuse to die. I refuse.

  Mana pours out of me, a torrent of it into my skin, scraping the bottom of my vessel clean of every drop, and then still scrambling for more with my fingernails. My eyes bleed, but the blood evaporates. I don’t even taste the iron in my mouth.

  Over, and over, and over again, I am forced to adjust my [Suppression]. Barrier after barrier, shield after shield against the overwhelming magic.

  When the ground crumbles underneath me, I am embraced by cool shadows, and they come as a relief. The st thing I see with my good eye is a figure, hovering high above me, backed by an enormous eye. My senses brush against them.

  [Darkbreaker, lv. 52]

  I’ll see you again, motherfucker.

  [Suppression 9 > 10]

  The darkness takes me.