Roxy Vs. Ravana

“Ah, this should be far enough, don’tcha think?”

Well, hasn’t he chosen a scenic location?

It’s an open plain, but it borders on a river. The Helgain Peaks in the distance provide a nice background to the sky.

I gotta say, he’s got some taste at least.

“Mmm. So tell me, what’s so important that you’ve pulled me all the way over here, hmm?”

It’s a nice place, but I’m not gonna let that distract me.

“Ah, I just thought we could have a little... heart to heart? After all, we’re going to be working together, eh partner?”

Pah, as if that’d ever happen.

As is evident by the knife he’s materialised from his sleeves.

“You know something?” he absently mutters, spinning the knife around. “I tried really hard to see you in a positive light. Thought, naaah. She may be a demon but that doesn’t mean she’s bad, right? But you’re really just a creep, aren’t ya?”

And there it is. The casual racism. Typical human.

“I mean, even for a demon you’ve stooped low. Messing around with a kid? Good god.”

“It’s not like that-”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s not like that. You know what? I don’t know why I even bothered. Let’s just get started.”

And with that, the boy suddenly sprints towards me, brandishing his knife.

His approach is all over the place though. He may be running quickly, but his slashes are wide and highly telegraphed. I’m easily able to summon my staff and deflect his blow, which seems to have taken him a bit off-guard.

Ahh, spatiomancy. Such a lovely school of magic.

It’s the art of spatial manipulation. I was never phenomenal at it - the pocket dimension of my dungeon was largely done by my sister. But I’m still able to store the odd item or so in subspace.

“Aha, silly me, thinking you were unarmed.”

You absolute brat. Wipe that smug grin off your face.

But while I’m stewing in indignation, he leaves me no time to think about making my next move, circling around me with more wild slashes.

Damnit. I thought he was just a scrawny thing, but he’s moving around with an agility that leaves me little time to breathe.

I need some distance!

While he’s regaining his footing from another one of his exaggerated swings, I take a massive swing with my staff that makes him jump back a bit. Finally, a chance!

The issue with spellcasting in close combat is that magic takes time to construct. It’s not as simple as just waving a wand around and saying a funny word - you need to literally construct runes that are able to manipulate pure matter, then channel a magical energy through it.

Hastily constructed runes may not be able to handle the flow of energy, and can backfire back onto the user. The same can happen even with a well constructed rune, when forcing too much energy through at once. So delicate care must be taken for both rune construction and execution.

But taking your time either of those means that your opponent can easily interrupt you.

Typically, a magic user in a party would stay at the back, protected by the other members. But I don’t have that luxury, so I need to choose a spell that isn’t too difficult to construct, but also isn’t so weak that there isn’t a point.

I personally have a natural affinity for pyromancy, so that’s my best bet.

Pointing my staff towards Ravana, I construct a rune for the spell I’m most familiar with, push a load of energy through it, and let the spell loose.

A textbook fireball.

Hissss...

Ah, it’s actually quite a flimsy fireball, isn’t it?

My damage is worse than I thought.

It doesn’t seem weak by any means, but it just sort of inelegantly plomps onto the ground, missing the mark by about half a metre. The grass sizzles where it lands.

“Oh, you’re bringing out the magic, huh? I was wondering what you’d pull out. A little closer and I’d have been toast, haha.”

And here he is, acting like this whole thing is a joke.

Not that I can particularly blame him after that display.

Damnit, I’ve really underestimated him.

Or rather, I’ve overestimated myself.

Clonk!

Ravana pulls up close and takes a swing from my right, but it bounces off my staff harmlessly.

None of his attacks seem particularly effective.

In fact, they seem downright comical.

But as ineffective as they may be, it’s taking all my might to just fend them off.

I’m purely on the defensive, and in a game of stamina I’m sure to lose.

So I need to turn the tables, and fast.

First things first, I’ve got to put some distance back between us and try another spell. Though, I don’t know if I have any that would be more effective.

Just like before, while he’s recovering from one of his swings, I take another swipe with my staff.

...

What the hell?

As I make a wide arc with my staff to get distance between us, he actually jumps on top of it and touches my forehead with his grimey little hand.

“Boop!”

And with that, he springboards off my staff, does a flip midair, and gracefully lands back on his feet.

If I weren’t so livid, I might almost be impressed!

“What the hell is this? Are we playing some childish game of tag now? Is this some sort of circus?”

“Ah, right. I suppose I should explain, but you’ve lost.”

Huh? Huuuh? The hell does he mean? He just touched my forehead!

Oh.

Ooooh.

Damnit. Not only have I gone soft and weak, but I guess I must’ve gone senile too.

He’s a human.

All species have some level of magic proficiency. For Drah’kin like Lintel, this proficiency is extremely low, practically non-existent. For demons, our proficiency is quite high, around the highest of all races.

But humans? Humans are an anomaly. They don't have any magical proficiency whatsoever. None at all.

Even in the most magic deficient of races, there are always exceptions. Going back to Drah’kin, I’ve heard that there are extremely rare crimson members of the species that are just as proficient as... a dwarf, perhaps?

This isn’t the case with humans - there is no possibility for them to use magic, ever.

But in exchange, they have something far more headache inducing.

It’s an ability known as Ju’un.

Magic is extremely potent - by carefully constructing the proper combination of runes, one can accomplish a massive variety of powerful effects. But magic is also limited, bound by the laws of the universe and one’s own body.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Magic can’t create something out of nothing. And while it recovers over time, the quantity of magic energy one can wield is finite.

But Ju’un isn’t bound by these rules. It can freely warp reality as easily as breathing.

This makes it almost impossible to predict what it actually does, without knowing the specific rules that govern the specific Ju’un.

Ah, that’s right. Though the laws of the universe may not apply, each Ju’un itself is bound by specific rules of its own design.

Fortunately, Ju’un abilities are rare, even among humans. In order to use them, the human first has to awaken their ability, which is a process that nobody knows the specifics of.

In fact, I’ve never encountered a Ju’un user myself. To the point where I had forgotten they existed.

But here’s one right in front of me.

Alright, calm down. Think.

What’s he done so far? Just wildly swing his knife around.

Thinking about it with a cool head, it seems weird that he hasn’t gotten a solid hit in. He’s definitely more agile than I am. Is he toying with me? Probably. But if he’s a Ju’un user, there might be more to it than that.

Next, he touched me on my forehead. What did he touch me with? It was his right- no, left hand. Index finger. Is that an activation condition of some kind?

The spot he touched feels a little cool, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

It’s also entirely possible that this is a bluff. He might not even have a Ju’un. But if that’s the case, why has he drawn this out? There must be some sort of logic behind this.

Honestly, if he wanted to kill me, I’m sure he wouldn’t have needed to lure me out here like this. Thinking about his movements, he must be some sort of assassin.

He looks so calm and collected that it’s clear that he truly believes that he’s already won. But how?

“Don’t strain yourself too hard. Want a hint? Equilibrium.”

With that, he twists his arms into a circle, with one hand pointing up and the other down.

What nonsense is this?

“You look like you’re still struggling, so let me show you.”

Ravana pulls out what looks like a small glass bead from his pocket.

“This is something I designed myself, check it out.”

GAH!!!

He threw the bead on the ground, and it instantly erupted into flame.

So why is it me that’s burning?

I’m not literally on fire, but an immediate sensation of heat washes over me, even after the flame goes out.

Especially my...

...forehead.

Ah. So that’s what this is.

“Oh? Looks like you’ve figured it out, so I guess I’ll explain it. My Ju’un is called Equilibrium, as I’ve said. By designating two points, I can evenly split the temperature between them, until they reach a state of equilibrium.”

...that’s it?

That seems so... basic. I was expecting something mind bending.

“Haha, right? It’s actually a pretty weak Ju’un, so I have to put in a lot of work to get any use out of it.”

It does seem pretty weak, being completely honest. I mean, it surprised me, and it did hurt, but the amount of damage it did was negligible.

It’s only half as effective as it would have been if I was set on fire directly, after all.

If that’s all I have to worry about, maybe I have a chance.

GAH! He threw down another bead.

Each individual attack doesn’t do much, since it only takes an average between the two. But the more times he does it, the hotter my forehead will get.

I need to take him out sooner than later.

He said that he designates two points, right? He has been throwing the beads in the same place. I’m assuming the point designation must be done by physically touching a surface, like he did with my forehead. So I just need to get him away from that point.

I fling out another flimsy fireball, but he deftly jumps out of the day.

But the fireball was just a feint! While he’s distracted, I run up beside him and take a swing with my staff.

Oof, too slow. He does a backflip out of the way.

A backflip!!

What are you, some kind of acrobat?

While he’s landing, I’ll just throw out another fireball.

Hiss...

Ha, they may be flimsy, and they may sizzle out immediately, but I can still churn them out!

My rune construction is on point - I seem to just not be able to push out as much energy from my gateway as I’d like.

So while the result is pathetic, it doesn’t take much out of me.

I’ve still got plenty more!

Hiss...!

The last one seems to take him off-guard, because this time his dodge is less than elegant. He skids back on his hands.

It’s nice being on the offensive, for once. I’m sure that even if one of my pathetic fireballs hits, it’ll do serious damage.

“Hmm, that was almost impressive.”

Yes, yes. Rub it in, why don’t you?

But I got him to move, so he won’t be able to use his beads now.

“Did you just think that because you made me move, I wouldn’t be able to use my beads?”

...

He’s read me like a book.

“Alright, here’s Equilibrium lesson two. I designate points with my fingers, see?”

The twerp wiggles his dirty little fingers at me.

“Each finger is a different point I can set. When I jumped over here, I touched the ground, yeah? Well, when I did that I set the ground to my left thumb. Now if I just touch my ground thumb to your forehead finger...”

Immediately, I feel relief as my forehead evens out with the cool ground. But the relief doesn’t make up for my growing sense of dread.

Of course he can reassign his points. I don’t know why I assumed he couldn’t.

“Ah, and for the record? I’ve been setting my points to the beads themselves, not the ground. So I can even do this!”

With that, he simply crushes a bead in his hand, causing it to erupt instantly.

What are you, insane?

That really hurts, you know! Wouldn’t you take some damage from that kind of attack, too?

But he just grins at me like a lunatic.

It’s really hard to think with my head burning like this, so I can’t make sense of it.

All I can do is focus on what he’s doing, as he runs back up to me.

Bonk!

Another swing from the left, easily deflected.

Clack!

From below this time. Nasty little titch.

Poof!

As he swings from the right, he throws down a bead with his spare hand. The searing sensation makes me lose focus, and his knife slips past my staff!

“Graaah!”

I twist my staff around a bit and manage to knock his arm away, but he nicks me on the arm in the process.

Not good.

I just need to do a larger attack. If I cast multiple fireballs in a spread, he won’t be able to dodge.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to carry it out in my current state - my runes might overload. But I have to try!

I have no choice but to try.

I cast three runes simultaneously, and a fourth in between them to scatter the effect.

He pauses to watch in amusement.

Whatever, it’s working!

Just need to channel the magic energy...

...HA!

I did it!

Take that, you brat!

For the first time, my spell makes contact.

...But Ravana takes no effort to dodge. Instead, he just touches his left index finger to his right pinky the moment before impact.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAHGGGGG!!”

As the fire hits, a searing sensation flows out of my forehead to the rest of my body.

It’s so much worse than any of his fire beads!

There’s nothing I can do but crumple to the ground. The pain is excruciating.

Ravana crouches down next to me, and touches his finger back to his thumb. The cool ground helps a little bit, but not much.

“Get it now? You’re actually a really bad match for me.”

“H...how...”

“Lesson three. My Ju’un protects my body from temperature fluctuations. But I can still designate it as a point, see? So if I set myself on fire...”

“...It all goes to me.”

Damnit.

“Mmhmm. So being a fire caster, there’s actually nothing you can do to me, haha.”

I’ve lost completely.

There’s nothing I can possibly do to beat him.

He’s made that extremely clear.

...

As horrifying as it is to say it, I feel a wave of relief wash over me.

That’s it, huh?

I’m done.

I’ve tried my best, but I simply wasn’t good enough.

Ves will be slain, Lintel along with her.

It has nothing to do with me anymore, since I’ll be going first.

I’ve done all I can do, and now I’m done.

“...Roxy? Ravana? W-what... what’s going on?”

“Ah Lintel, you’re out of bed!”

Lintel? What is he doing here?

“Why is... Roxy...?”

“Ah, don’t worry, we were just having a little sparring session. After all, if we’re gonna be adventuring together, it’s good to know each other’s abilities, eh Rox?”

The smarmy brat roughly smacks the back of my head and ruffles my hair.

How has he shifted gears so quickly?

“Ah, really...? Ok! That sounds fun! Hey, can I spar with you too?”

“Maybe later, Lintel. You just got out of bed, so you ought to rest a bit more. Let’s get back to the tavern, ok?”

“Alright! Race you there?”

“Haha, sure.”

Damnit.

I was so wrong.

I thought for sure he brought me out here to kill me, but that’s not true at all.

He just wanted to see how much of a threat I was.

And apparently, I’m not even worth thinking about.

Damnit.