“Incredible,” Jujud whispered. “It took me years to get threads this dense with mana. You seem to have a knack for performance under pressure.”

  When I didn’t answer, Jujud started pacing. I followed. We circled each other, tracing deep ruts in the dirt, neither saying a word.

  “What, no response?”

  I waited.

  “Fine.”

  Jujud darted forward.

  I ducked beneath a length of swinging chain, grazing the top of my head. Even as I moved, Jujud twisted, snarling a second chain around my arms, her momentum carrying the first chain back in an arc.

  These were mana. Pure mana, with such a strong control as to be literally solid.

  I did a backflip over the swinging length, bringing the chain around my arm up to meet it. But rather than smash together, the chains passed through one another, re-solidifying on the other side.

  Since the chains had been formed from pure mana, they could pass through each other if necessary, and they wouldn’t weigh anything, but they shouldn’t be forced to move in regular, predictable arcs. Since it was all magic, Jujud should’ve been able to move them however she wanted at any moment’s notice.

  But she didn’t. Or, in all likelihood, couldn’t.

  Which meant I was missing something important.

  I grabbed the chain around my wrist and twisted, attempting and hopelessly failing to pry the links off my skin. Where the links of the chain crossed over my wrist, they had fused, forming a single unbroken band of solid metal.

  “That’s not good.”

  Jujud pulled on the end of her first chain, slamming the remaining length into the ground with an explosion of force, phasing the mana down through a hundred yards of earth and stone. The chain solidified, instantly locking in place.

  All the while, Jujud was careful to keep the second swinging chain in motion.

  “Sorry, Grind.”

  {Jujud}

  [329.9k Str]

  Jujud sighed. “I hope that, when you finally get better, you don’t remember a thing that happened here.”

  She grasped the swinging chain in both hands, cracking it like a whip.

  I ducked, using my weight to sink a foot into the earth, barely avoiding the blast of air that tore the leaves from the trees, uprooting small bushes.

  But as they moved, I felt a familiar hum echoing within the mana-forged steel..

  Jujud was using mental energy.

  In order to get her mana chains to be as strong as actual chains, if not stronger, she had to use mental energy to organize the mana ‘like a chain,’ which required that her chains acted ‘like chains.’ They shouldn’t be able to just transform into another shape or explode. Not without the mana dissolving.

  That meant turning the chains intangible was just when she stopped using mental energy. They phased through solid objects because mana already does that, unless specifically and constantly instructed otherwise.

  But that also meant this was a battle of mental energy, not mana.

  Jujud snapped the chain around.

  Mental energy clustered around my hand, pushing against the chain’s form.

  Nothing happened.

  I disabled my tattoo, slowing the world to a crawl as my mental energy exploded.

  I tried harder.

  The chain barely rustled.

  Whatever effect kept it a physical chain also made the mana unbelievably resistant to the effects of my mental energy.

  Just like real chains would be.

  I allowed myself a smirk. “Touché.”

  Between the two bands on my ankles, my mental energy was probably only a single percent of what it should be, which meant no teleporting. Even then, I could only use it for brief moments, before the overstimulation became a serious issue.

  Think.

  Was I supposed to get out of this?

  I twisted my arm, using the metal around my wrist like a shield. The swinging chain moved closer, hissing the air. The moment before it deflected off, the makeshift cuff turned intangible.

  I channeled mental energy through my body, launching backwards.

  Jujud frowned. She dissolved her chains.

  I stumbled, immediately cutting the mental energy in my body. Pain shot through my arms and my legs, but I hadn’t busted anything important.

  Had it always hurt this bad?

  Master Jujud watched me.

  I watched her.

  In total, the exchange of swinging chains took three seconds.

  Needles appeared at the base of my knee. I could block most of them with mental energy, but the rest got through, locking the muscle in place.

  That was her strategy.

  Jujud was a mana-based control. She won by limiting someone’s options, until they couldn’t fight.

  I raised my fists.

  A link of chain summoned around my entire body, splitting off into additional strands, which Jujud planted in the ground like tent pegs.

  Before I even thought about moving, needles pierced the muscles in my back and shoulders.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Jujud walked up and raised her fist, aiming for a space between the chains.

  She swung.

  I twisted on one heel, moving the chains into the path of her fist, forcing her to stop.

  Jujud swung again, and I moved, deflecting another punch.

  Jujud blew her hair out of her eyes, summoning a spear.

  She lunged.

  The spear shattered against Crapshoveler, sprinkling the forest with bits of metal.

  We watched each other.

  Jujud sighed. “I forgot how annoying you can be.”

  Additional needles pinned my arms and legs in place while the chains tightened. Jujud stepped forward.

  And I disappeared.

  “NO!” Jujud shouted, tearing the chains apart to find a hole in the floor, extending endlessly downward. “COME ON!”

  I shifted my momentum, taking several sharp turns up to the surface. As the needles were all made of mana, I just had to direct mana to the points of all the needles, forcing them out at once.

  My little tunnel through the earth started glowing a hot neon blue in the presence of overwhelming mana.

  I swallowed. “Crap.”

  The entire acre blew apart in a roar of energy, tossing thousands of tons of dirt and rock into the sky, not to mention whatever trees and brush had survived, plus at least one goat, who was terrified.

  Chains snarled out in a web, snatching the larger pieces of earth. Though they were solid at the ends, the majority of each chain was partially intangible, rising into the air and dragging all the wreckage along for the ride.

  Intangible links wouldn’t interact with solid objects, but they still held to the physical chain due to the mana it was made from, meaning that the chain would be just as strong no matter what portion was tangible or intangible

  My eyes widened.

  And because of that, it was possible to make floating chains by creating chains with ridiculously low densities.

  The floating net of dirt and metal started slowing down now that the rubble had run out of its momentum.

  Jujud took a deep breath, bracing herself against a piece of rock.

  I gave my platform a good whack, snapping the intangible links in a few chains. Because there was so little physical chain, these dense chains would be far easier to break.

  Good to know.

  I jumped to a nearby boulder, the force of landing snapping half the chains that supported it, forcing me to keep moving as Jujud pushed herself up, reinforcing the chains around her with hundreds of additional links, drawing the cloud of swirling rubble further upward.

  It was suddenly cold.

  We rose, higher and higher, passing layer after layer of dense clouds. The chains tightened the rubble into a central island about the size of a football field.

  Something caught my eyes, glittering gold in the far distance.

  “What is that?” I whispered.

  Jujud hesitated. She glanced where I was looking, and a smile crossed her face. “That’s the stadium where our yearly Tournament is held.”

  “Is it—”

  “Flying?” Jujud nodded. “You should see it sometime. There’s supposed to be several big games happening.”

  From this distance, I couldn’t make out the structure itself. All I could see was rolling waves of energy, cascading across the cloud layer. But even that was more than enough to get some idea what kind of power was on display.

  Jujud took a step toward me, lifting her hands. “I can take you there if you’d like.”

  I blinked. “Now?”

  She nodded. “Once this is over.”

  My fists tightened. “Don’t say it like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “This isn’t a tangent of mine,” I stated. “I’m serious about this. If I don’t save people I care about, I can't live with myself.”

  “I know you think that.”

  I bit back a response. “There’s no point trying to explain. You clearly don’t get it.”

  “You don’t want to be fighting,” Jujud stated. “Neither do I, for the record. It hurts me to see a prodigy like you wasting talent. Don’t think I haven’t been paying attention. You’re actually keeping pace with a Silver! Don’t you know how incredible that is?”

  “You’re not trying to hurt me,” I sighed. “You’re drastically pulling your punches.”

  “Grind.” Jujud looked me in the eyes. “Don’t make me take this fight seriously. You’re a good kid. But you’re wrong.”

  “No, you are,” I grunted.

  She grit her teeth. “About what I expect from arguing with children.” She raised her fist again, compressing the island, drawing the two of us closer. “Now—”

  I spread my arms out, falling backward off the rim, vanishing in an instant. Three hundred thousand health won’t weigh as much as a million, but it’s still unbelievably heavy. Too heavy. I dropped my weight to single digits, pulling Crapshoveler up to me.

  Jujud rocketed downward, tearing through the air, blasting a crater into the ground as she landed. She looked up to see me, riding Crapshoveler back above the cloud layer.

  I gave her a friendly wave.

  Jujud started shouting.

  Her whole strategy revolved around limiting a person’s mobility. First off, I was flying, which vastly improved my options. Second, Crapshoveler was accelerating, making it far more difficult to land hits. And third and most importantly, without anywhere to chain me to, the chains—which she was clearly skilled at using—were useless.

  A streak of bluish grey flung up several miles almost instantly, cutting the side of my face.

  {Grind : Whiff : (-0) 330k Hp}

  Jujud adjusted her stance, tossing another link into the air. She struck it with the flat of her heel and no less than several million strength, shooting the piece dangerously close to my forehead, punching a cloud inside out with a great gust of wind.

  Well…

  I stood corrected.

  Maybe I just had to go higher.

  I tilted Crapshoveler back, punching through clouds, feeling the air chill and each breath get heavier than the last.

  Volleys of metal pierced the clouds, snapping out of nowhere and disappearing just as fast, into and beyond the highest layers of cloud.

  And now that clouds below obscured the ground, I had no idea what direction the attacks were coming from.

  This was a bad idea.

  A piece nailed me in ribs, breaking several, tossing me into open air.

  {Grind : (-0) 330k Hp}

  Just like any other attack, solid or not her links wouldn't do system damage unless Jujud wanted them to, which would definitely kill me, given the speed they were moving at.

  Even so, the physical force of the link had shattered bone. Adrenaline kicked in immediately, negating the pain. I grit my teeth and forced myself to heal, pushing through the series of hot, sharp pops.

  But that action stopped me from summoning Crapshoveler, causing him to lose all his built up momentum, tumbling back down to the earth.

  I was falling.

  Farther.

  Further.

  Faster.

  I broke through the cloud layer to find Jujud with a fist raised, hurtling up to me with a whirlwind rising beneath her.

  Think.

  Think.

  What kind of options did I have left?

  I slammed my feet on the cloud, blowing it out like a balloon, knocking Jujud off course, more out of shock than impact. The cloud had solidified into rubber, stretching further and further down, before snapping back.

  My entire body went numb as I found myself far above the clouds.

  I hung in the air for an instant, over an endless white space. Now that the clouds were below, I saw the full extent of the sunrise, shining pink and orange.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  Literally.

  I literally couldn’t breathe that high up. And I was freezing.

  Crapshoveler rose out of the clouds, aiming toward my hand, wrapped in chains.

  And Jujud was holding on.

  // {Notice} //

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