Guess I'm on the right path.
I don't get long to enjoy it. Onyx straightens, the stillness breaking the same way it broke once before — not into words this time, but into motion.
He draws his sword the rest of the way out of its sheath.
The golden light along the edge doesn't flicker the way it did before. It settles into something steady, something patient, and I realize with a sinking feeling that whatever restraint he's been fighting with just ran out the moment that crack appeared.
Fine. Let's see what's actually underneath all that calm.
I reach for my mana, ready to throw something — anything — to keep the distance between us. Wind starts to gather around me as I release the black mana from Override.
No. Not that. Not yet.
I stop myself before I release it.
If his sword can drink in mana, then all I'd be doing is wasting my own — and handing the rest straight to Onyx.
So instead, I do the only thing left. Since Override releases mana in bursts, I compress most of it back into my core, keeping only a small amount free, just enough to dodge if I need to move fast.
It's also the only way I can stretch how long I stay in Override. I can't forget I'm working with a time limit here.
With that in mind, the blades of mana behind me disperse.
I lunge with the katana. Just the katana.
Onyx meets me halfway. I reinforce my body with the Qi already in the air — Metal Qi to harden myself, Earth Qi to add weight behind the strike.
Clang.
The ground cracks as our swords collide.
No mana in either strike this time. Just steel — well, Qi-bound steel on my end — against Hallowiron, and the force alone is enough to make me cough up blood. But I'm alive, so I can't really complain.
He swings again. I block, barely. My bones feel like they've been struck with an arrow.
The impact sends me rolling across the ground. As I roll, I catch sight of Onyx already in front of me, sword raised.
I use the bare minimum of mana to form threads and snap them into the ground beneath him. A light pull, and the earth tears free, rising into a boulder between us.
Normally he'd cut straight through it without slowing down. But the boulder catches him under the chin on the way up — pure luck in the timing, nothing more — and for half a second, something in his stance shifts. I don't know if it actually hurt him. I think it might have just surprised him.
I use that half-second to put distance between us.
A golden line splits the boulder in two. It crumbles to dust before it even finishes falling.
He swings a third time. This time I don't try to counter — I deflect, angling the katana just enough to let his strike slide off mine instead of meeting it head-on. A screech tears through the air where Hallowiron and Qi-bound steel scrape against each other.
For a few exchanges, it's almost even.
Almost.
Then his blade ignites again — gold bleeding down the steel, gathering at the edge — and he swings, and this time the strike doesn't just cut the air, it tears it, a line of pure force screaming toward my chest the same way it has every single time before.
I push a burst of mana into my toes and throw myself sideways. It's not enough. The strike clips my shoulder anyway, and the pain is enough to white out my vision for a second.
I roll, plant my remaining momentum into the ground, and come back up at a crouch, breathing hard.
He's using mana freely. Every swing, every strike, that gold light keeps building along the blade like it costs him nothing at all.
And I can't answer it. Not with magic.
"...Tch."
I want to scream. Three hundred and sixty-five deaths spent looking for a counter, and I finally landed on Qi — only to find out it's not enough on its own. Body reinforcement buys me speed and durability, but it isn't a weapon. It's not going to be the thing that wins this.
I block another strike. The impact rattles up through my arm and into my teeth.
I can't keep going like this. Steel against steel, with nothing else backing it up — it's impossible. I'm already struggling to keep pace with him even with Dead Time running, and that alone is a problem worth being afraid of.
Override and the Qi reinforcement are the only reasons I haven't died yet. That, and Dead Time.
I need an edge. Something he can't counter the way he's countered everything else.
I duck under another swing, putting distance between us for half a breath — just long enough to think.
Mana's off the table. My swordsmanship alone isn't enough, not yet, maybe not for a long time. Qi reinforcement buys me survival, not victory.
So what's left?
I dig back through everything I half-remember about Qi. It's elemental — always has been. Fire, water, lightning, earth, wind, metal. The same six flavors every martial artist has pulled from the air and used directly since Qi was first discovered. Most people only ever use it the way I just did — pulling it inward, letting it strengthen the body.
But there's another way. A high enough mastery, and a person stops just borrowing Qi and starts using it the way a mage uses mana — directly, as force in its own right, fire and lightning and wind released the way a spell is released.
I've never trained for that. I don't think I even could, not at the level it would actually take to matter.
But I'm not trying to channel it through my body. That's not where my skill with this actually sits.
I've always been better at handling Qi where it already is — out there, in the air, not inside me.
Maybe that's the part that matters.
Onyx's armor stops magic. It has to — that's the only reason nothing I've thrown at him all fight has worked.
But Qi was never magic to begin with.
I almost laugh, even with blood still running down my shoulder.
If his armor's built to recognize a spell and shut it down before it ever reaches him... what happens when I'm not casting a spell at all?
This whole battlefield is soaked in it. Fire Qi, Earth Qi, Metal Qi — all thick in the air around us. Wind and Lightning are here too, just thinner, scarcer. As for water — down here on the ground, there's no trace of it. But—
I look up. There's a sufficient amount above.
That might be enough.
Realization lands like a held breath finally let go — and I almost miss what's right in front of me because of it.
Onyx is already mid-swing.
I notice too late to dodge properly. No time left to think my way out of this one — just enough left in Dead Time to decide, now, all at once.
If I do this — and this — and this works, then—
Alright.
I raise my index and middle finger.
Hundreds of particles of Fire Qi glow in the air at once, hanging motionless in Dead Time. They illuminate the battlefield with a warmth that can't be described in words.
Hence the reason why Onyx's sword stops mid-swing. He's as captivated as I am. I think. Well, I know I am. Which is saying something since I'm the one causing this.
Wait, I can't let myself get distracted.
With the window of opportunity I've bought myself, I quickly throw myself backward.
The moment I do, the Fire Qi in the air begins to glow brighter than it ever did.
"Detonate."
The words leave my mouth as the Qi explodes. Every single particle in the air ignites all at once, and the whole area is covered in a wall of crimson light.
The shockwave is enough to force me to summon Fang and take flight into the sky.
I look down and all I see is a huge crater filled to the brim with smoke.
"Success," I mutter.
I feel some level of excitement burning through my chest.
It doesn't last long.
Deep within the smoke, a faint golden light flickers. It flickers once, twice.
Then the light expands, consuming everything in its path. The ground, the sky.
Nothing is left in its wake as it makes its way toward me.
That sphere skill. How annoying.
But not unexpected.
My initial plan is to summon Astra.
That flicker — Glitch, as I call it — is the only thing that's shown any capacity to slip past whatever that void-like sphere of his actually is. So it's not wrong to assume it might bypass this light as well.
The problem is Astra can't really control her Glitch. But I have a general idea of how it works.
So I'll use it instead.
Mana begins to gather around me. Astra's presence forms behind me for half a second before dissolving into pure mana and rushing inward.
I feel a cold chill run through me.
My clothes disappear, replaced with a black bodysuit. A jacket forms over it immediately after, hood rising on its own before I even register it happening.
I catch my reflection in the edge of my katana.
Override is gone — the white hair, the crimson eyes, all of it faded without me noticing when it dropped. What's looking back at me now is something different. One eye glows like gold. The other is bright blue, like the sky after rain. Both pupils remain vertical.
For a second, my reflection flickers. The gold eye bleeds red for a moment, then settles back.
It's not just the reflection either. To me, everything is flickering. The golden light, the crimson sky, even Fang directly below me seems to distort and stutter at the edges.
I look down towards the light. Without a second thought I jump down.
Fangs dissolves back into mana, and I'm left falling.
After a few seconds, I'm close enough to the light that I can feel the heat on my face.
I stop thinking all together, and allow my instincts to take over.
I just move.
The world turns blue. It's not bright or dark, just blue. Every particle around me loses its shape at once.
In front, the light (now blue) looks... translucent. It dissappear then reappears again.
I pass through. There's no sensation of passing through anything. No impact, no heat, no resistance. Nothing.
Then its gone.
The world returns to its original color and form.
Im still in mid-air.
I look up.
The golden light is above me now, expanding, consuming everything in its path, completely unbothered.
I can't help but smile a little over my victory in this. But a smile is all that I'll allow. I can't lose focus here and die.
Else, its all over.
I look below me. The smoke from the crater has cleared.
In the middle, Onyx stands there. Calm and collected.
Let's change that