Henry and Maurice stared at each other from across the twenty yards separating them. Henry was still, considering, planning, while Maurice slowly rubbed his pincers, his feet occasionally lifting. The voice of the announcer fell away as the two eyed each other, then one word rang in his head.

  “Fight!”

  Maurice Blinked forward, reappearing in the center of the arena, and spat out a single bubble. A small projectile that was darker than the bubbles Henry was used to. For a moment he considered tanking it to see what it was capable of, but when Henry saw the air ripple around it, he whipped his arm toward it.

  His limb glowed, then as the real arm pulled back under him, a blue-hued arm flashed forward. The projectile created by Echo Strike hit the bead. There was a sound of broken glass, then a bang that made Henry shudder.

  The implosion was so violent that a small crater had formed, sending chunks of soil flying. Henry even felt the pull for a fraction of a second.

  Holy shit.

  Henry was shocked, but he couldn’t waste time considering the dangers of such an impact as yet another special bubble was rushing toward him. With a shove of Telekinesis, Henry flew off the ground and to the left, only to see the crab pop out of thin air high above him and shoot a beam of regular bubbles in front of him, forcing Henry to abort and change directions.

  You little shit. Alright then.

  Henry flung himself up with Telekinesis toward the crab, and as a new concentrated bubble came at him, he Blinked out and reappeared right above the crab. Maurice was falling back down to the ground, and his little eyes looked up at the kraken above him. There was a ripple of magic around Maurice, but before anything could happen, a pulse of dispelling magic spread out of Henry, snuffing out whatever the crab had been preparing. Then a hue of purple shone around the crab, immobilizing him mid-air as Henry’s limbs hit the ground.

  “[Gotcha,]” Henry sent, but he didn’t let his guard down. He expected the crab to have something in store, just like those concentrated imploding bubbles. Still, he was surprised, Maurice was doing a lot better than he’d expected.

  “[No!]” came out the amused response, then something spread out of the crab. Something Henry had never experienced in this manner.

  Huh?

  Henry didn't know how to describe it, but it was as if the air had grown thicker. He felt it, in his spirit, and he especially felt it in the skill-nexus that was holding Maurice. Henry was casting the skill from right outside his stomach, so he could feel the pressure directly. Putting the skill under stress. When he tried to move the construct holding the skill instance, he felt it drag, as if he was pulling it through jelly.

  The kraken pushed himself forward with his many limbs, and one arm shot out to get a physical grip on the crab as his many minds helped him take in everything he was sensing.

  Henry had never felt the crab’s Domain from this close. Well, he had, but he didn’t have the senses to really get a feel of what was happening. Just as he realized what was happening, he felt the crab begin to fight back, and a pressure began building in Henry’s brain. Maurice’s claws and shell shone as he pushed against Telekinesis, but that wasn’t all. After all, Maurice could do quite a few things with his Domain.

  Henry aborted his charge and Blinked to the side. Where his head had been, there was a flash of light and a pop as the implosion went off, but it wasn’t over. More and more implosions appeared point-blank while the pressure in his head turned to a headache until finally, with a surge of mana, Telekinesis broke, and Maurice fell back to the ground. Instantly, a spray of bubbles came at Henry and the crab Blinked away.

  Shit.

  He had to make a decision; either he starts using his Octominds, or he’d better figure out a way of getting his hands on the crab. He wasn’t good enough just yet to maneuver himself as well as he needed to with Telekinesis. Not against Maurice. So he had to decide between grabbing the crab or controlling his own movement, because he couldn’t do both. Not with how often he needed to dodge.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Or I can eat a few hits. After all, Maurice shouldn’t be able to knock me out with those bubbles.

  With another Telekinetic shove, Henry threw himself at the crab and locked him up with Telekinesis once more, but not before the crab managed another shot.

  The dark imploding bubble came at Henry fast, and he only had enough time to put his arm forward and activate Trickster’s Fortitude before it made contact with his skin. Everything that happened next took place in a fraction of a second.

  The bubble made contact and popped, and Henry tasted a mix of ozone, brine, and metal before a terrible pain ran up his arm as his flesh was distorted, twisted, then torn. Blue blood geysered as more and more flesh got violently pulled into the center of the implosion, and then there was nothing.

  Henry’s arm—or what remained of it—fell to the ground with a squelch, and a rain of blood and torn flesh fell after it as his momentum carried him forward and, with another arm, he swung at the floating crab. His arm cracked into Maurice’s shell like a bat against a baseball, and the crab hit the magical wall with a loud pop, but before he could even touch the ground, he Blinked and reappeared above Henry. He shot another dark bubble and disappeared once more, and when Henry went to shove himself away with Telekinesis, he felt the skill destabilize as a familiar pulse spread through the Domain.

  Henry Blinked toward Maurice, dodging the bubble falling from above only to find another coming at him from the front. An Arcane Arm surged into existence and intercepted the projectile, dissolving into motes, and Henry gripped the crab with Telekinesis once more. This time, he dragged him toward him.

  “[Where’s my hug, Maurice?]”

  “[I’m not stupid!]”

  The crab’s shell shone once more, and a giant claw fell down on Henry, blocking his advance as the crab broke the skill by just struggling and shoving mana at it until it destabilized.

  Since when does he have this much mana? Those imploding balls must be insanely expensive considering the damage they can do.

  Henry was a bit busy with the fight, but he couldn’t believe the attack completely severed one of his arms. Through his defensive skills, and through his stupidly high Constitution.

  How is he still going? Henry himself was already below half, mostly from having to Blink around to move and dodge.

  Maurice reappeared to the left, panting. He was still for a second, then spat yet another concentrated bubble. Henry shoved himself away once more and readied himself to lunge at the crab only for bubble to veer left.

  Oh fu—

  The bubble hit the side of his face, and his left eye—as well as a good portion of his entrails—went flying out in a geyser of blue. Henry expected his Octominds to take action as he most likely had lost some brain matter, considering the implosion caught him right next to his left eye, but all of his mental faculties were untouched. Mostly. He felt a bit woozy, but he could think clearly enough.

  Interesting, he thought as he instantly consumed twenty charges of Hoard Vitals while the crowd roared outside. He hadn’t been focused on the commentary, but he could hear them through the clone watching over Stormsong.

  The pain receded as flesh regenerated, and Henry gave it a push with a quick pulse of Arcane Regeneration as he hovered once more above the ground. He didn’t think he needed to grab Maurice anymore. The crab was bound to run out of mana soon, so he could just approach and pelt him with hits until he surrendered. Still, he was impressed. The crab could do some real damage, but as expected, there was still a gap Maurice couldn’t yet leap over.

  The crab stood a bit hunched, eyes and limbs drooping, but from what Henry could sense, he had no intention to surrender just yet.

  “[You’re not fighting me seriously,]” Maurice said, and his tone made Henry freeze. It was accusatory. Mad.

  Had he been? No. Not really. He wasn’t taking the fight as a real life-or-death scenario, but he wasn’t really playing around. The only chosen handicap was not using his Octominds, not actively at least, and by extensions, he wasn’t using the clones.

  The rest were real limitations. “[It’s not easy for me to move on land. I’m using everything I’ve got aside from the Octominds.]”

  Maurice said nothing, but something new was happening. The scutes of the shell began dimming. It was barely visible, but unmistakable now that he noticed it. The crab was pulling something out of his shell, and Henry suspected it was mana.

  The crab clacked his pincers. “[Use everything. I want to see.]”

  Henry stared back at the crab, then gave a nod. As soon as he did, Maurice spat two bubbles at once then, with a movement of his claws, both zipped at Henry.

  “Time to work,” Henry said, and he felt eight subminds stand to attention.

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