Carl stalked my way, in no hurry
with his sword at the ready. I had no sword, which meant a classic duel was out
of the question. Did have chain lightning at my disposal as well as any number
of other nasty lightning attacks, and I might have to resort to them, but
something was working my brain. I had noticed something about how Carl fought.
When I jet along the ground to get away from him, something had clicked. I just
didn’t know what, yet.
Carl got a dozen feet away, then
shot out a blast of flame.
With almost no wind left, I didn’t
try to shield myself, but I cloud stepped, easily vaulting out of the way. I
had stepped to the left, too, whereas Carl went straight up. He corrected his
jets, aiming towards me, so I sent out the chain lightning. It bounced from
place to place on the ground, acting as a barrier from him reaching me more
than an attack, and it worked, beautifully.
He toppled to the side as the arcs formed
nearby, close enough to make his hair stand up. His sword vanished as he used
his own hand jets to stop his fall, hovering Tom Cruise style above the ground,
then righting himself like iron man, and then it clicked.
He
doesn’t have to recharge like I do. I can only store so much wind inside me.
Same with lightning. I think the fire comes from him. It’s not something he can
run out of. But it has to come from
him, too. I can manipulate wind and lightning outside of me. He didn’t cause
the heat in the geyser to expand, he shot more down into it.
I smiled. “Final round.”