Suiz dashed along the ground in a zigzag line with Light Blink. I could hear him throwing more anchor daggers, but it was difficult to pinpoint them in the dimly lit underground room. I had to avoid standing between them and Suiz, but I couldn’t tell where they were and Suiz was constantly moving. He was right—just knowing about his weapon’s ability wasn’t going to save me from it. I had to think.
“For now, I’d better keep moving...”
Suiz could only nail me with his lightning magic if he caught me between him and an anchor point...meaning I was safe as long as he couldn’t tell where I was. I used Shadow Runner to stay in motion while tracking down all the daggers he’d thrown so far.
“There’re four—no—five of them?”
There was one by the entrance, and one to the right of that. Then one to either side of us, plus one at the back.
“Whoa, you’ve already found them? Jeez, this isn’t much of a fight.” Suiz approached the anchor in the wall to our side while shooting more purple lightning. He then retrieved the dagger and threw it to reposition it. “Now I have to memorize their locations again.”
Since the anchors were daggers, moving them was easy enough. The catch would be keeping track of all of them. Still, the fact that Suiz hadn’t thrown a sixth one meant he only had five in total... No, it was too early to jump to conclusions. I was up against a top-tier thief. He could be faking me out by hiding one on his person.
I had a general idea of where he threw the dagger he’d just retrieved. I needed to defeat him before he moved the others. I tried to use Shadow Runner to close the distance between us, but Suiz retreated across the room. When I gave chase, he did an about-face.
“I can use it like this too, you know?”
Lightning flashed toward me once again—this time from the anchor near the entrance. I evaded it at first, but it continued to streak forward on Suiz’s trail, obliterating a pillar between us.
“That’s cheating.” I swiftly activated Sinking Walk to slip under the bolt coming at me at the speed of light. “I would’ve died if that hit me.”
“You evaded it, though.”
“I was lucky to react in time.”
“But this move’s no good,” Suiz laughed, looking at the crumbling pillar. “I’ll destroy this place if I use it too much.”
“You’ll bury us both alive if you do.”
“Right? I’ll have to save it for a critical moment.”
“I’d rather you never use it again.”
“Unfortunately, I have to pull out all the stops against my current opponent.”
With that, Suiz kicked off the wall and closed in on me with Light Blink. Close combat was easier for me than a midrange face-off with moving lightning, but I wasn’t exactly itching to get into a head-to-head clash. Shadow Runner and Light Blink were both contenders for the title of fastest art. It was difficult enough for me to keep my bearings when I used mine. Against an opponent moving at similar speeds, there was the possibility our arts could result in a fierce collision. I had to think of this as a game of chicken.
I was going to approach Suiz before using Shadow Runner again, then change directions with my specialty curves to pass beside or behind him. Suiz would be expecting this and change his trajectory midway, so I positioned myself to take advantage of it when he did. As I thought—the moment I moved to the side with Shadow Runner, he burst the other way with Light Blink. We’d luckily moved in opposite directions on our first pass. We could no longer visibly perceive each other. This was a battle of prediction based on instincts.
The second pass, however, wasn’t so lucky. We moved toward each other instead of away, bringing me within range of Suiz’s blade.
“Knock.”
As his dagger swung upward toward my chin, I thought about drawing my own to intercept it—then paused. His dagger was a magic artifact. If it could shoot lightning, it could probably wreath itself in lightning too. And as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I forcefully twisted my body to avoid the path of the blade. It was a reckless move that stopped me cold mid-Shadow Runner—and Suiz wasn’t about to overlook that opening.
“Blink.”
Instead of activating an art to retreat, I did the opposite and pressed forward. It was a messy collision that could barely be called a tackle, but Suiz hadn’t seen it coming. He was unable to defend himself with his dagger in time, and we slammed into the ground together. Neither of us were moving now. This would be my best chance. I immediately sat up, only to find Suiz had done the same. We’d apparently had similar ideas.
“Ghost Touch.”
“Palm Shot!”
Suiz’s dagger split into two swinging arcs, but I blew both of them away. We were within point-blank range of one another, so the length of our weapons no longer mattered. I could fight barehanded like this. I knocked Suiz’s blade swings with Palm Shot and Stream in turn. He didn’t hit me once, but I wasn’t able to land a blow on him either.
“Take this!”
Suiz seemed to find our current melee unfavorable, so he switched back to shooting lightning from his dagger. I lost my balance dodging the bolt, allowing him to land a swift kick in my gut. Even with the wind knocked out of me, though, I managed to take some distance. Suiz and I both collected ourselves.
He spun the dagger in his hand as he said, “C’mon, Note Athlon. Give me a break.”
“I’m the one who’d like the break. Please lose already.”
“You’re asking me to lose? When you have no intention of genuinely defeating me?” he asked. I could sense some anger behind his words. “When will you start getting serious, huh?”
“I’m always fighting seriously. If it doesn’t feel that way to you, then sorry—but I warned you that you were in for a disappointment.”
“That’s not it. You still haven’t given this your all.” Suiz pointed his dagger my way with a glare. “Sure, you’re evading my attacks seriously. But you aren’t fighting seriously.”
“That’s because I lack offensive power.”
“That’s not true. You’re an adventurer who fights dungeon monsters. There’s no way you don’t have a means of attack. You’re just saving it, right?”
He had a point. If I used Spell Shot, I might be able to turn the tables. But it was my ace in the hole for retrieving Neme. I couldn’t waste it on an intermediary fight like this.
As though he’d read my mind, Suiz then said, “On top of that, you’re underestimating me. Even when I’m using everything in my power, artifacts and all.”
“I’m not underestimating you—”
“Then why won’t you use it? Because you want to save your friend? If so, use it here to defeat me, then move forward.”
“Even if I defeat you, it’d be meaningless if I can’t save Neme afterward.”
“Ooh, so you’re thinking ahead to after you defeat me. I shouldn’t expect anything less from the strongest thief around. Must be my lucky day,” Suiz laughed loudly. He then yelled, his eyes wide and his voice booming, “Don’t be so arrogant! I’m not such a pushover that you can defeat me while holding back!”
Arrogant? I hadn’t realized it myself, but maybe I was a little overconfident deep down. Suiz was facing me with all his might, yet I was only thinking of Neme. I was up against the strongest thief I knew, but there was a part of me that believed things would work out one way or another. Like he’d said, Suiz wasn’t the kind of guy I could hold back with. He was a formidable opponent. One who’d take me down if I gave him half a chance. I was the challenger here—I couldn’t forget that. Even if Suiz felt like he was the underdog, it didn’t change the reality of the situation.
“You’re right. I’ve gotta pull myself together...”
That was my mistake. I needed to use everything Erin had entrusted to me in order to defeat Suiz. That was my immediate goal, and there was no point in thinking beyond it.
“Thanks. I’ve seen the light now.”
I took one step, then another as I spoke. I didn’t use Shadow Runner—I was simply walking at a slow, leisurely pace. The magic at my disposal would end this match in an instant. If it all worked as I hoped, victory was about to be mine. And if not, I’d be out of cards to play and Suiz would get the better of me. The deciding factor was extremely simple. Everything was riding on this one blow. What mattered the most was distance—I had to gauge it accurately on sight alone. Fortunately, with Mapping, that was my forte.
I feigned as much composure as I could as I sauntered toward Suiz. He would activate his Light Blink the moment I used Shadow Runner, but he seemed unsure how to respond to my relaxed gait. Perhaps he was confident he could get away from me if he needed to. Little did he know my next Spell Shot exceeded the speed of Shadow Runner. And I was now exactly five meters from him.
As soon as I reached that threshold, I activated Trap Dismantling. I was instantly behind Suiz. I hadn’t triggered the offensive spell circle in my palm, but a different one on the back of my hand. It was a type of magic that had previously been the bane of my existence—teleportation. I’d activated it to warp behind Suiz. Then I activated the other spell in my palm.
“Bind!”
As its name indicated, this was a binding spell. Bands of light reached out like rapidly growing branches. Even Suiz was taken aback by the ambush, and in his astonishment, the bands coiled tightly around him to restrain him.