Chapter 58.3- Doom Days

A cutter to the left, a stunner to the right, a full body bind right back to sender as I took a step back to give myself even more distance. He matched it with a step closer as I knew he would. Serrano was the type to watch out for weakness like a hawk and he never failed to take advantage of it. He upped the ante, sending even more spells my way. Variety wasn’t the goal here. He sent six bludgeoneers in a row, sending them off in a good approximation of the gatling gun approach Alvarez had favored. Yet, I managed to keep up the deflections.

The ritual that had seen my body enhanced by the creatures I had killed meant that I had speed aplenty, and for the first time in this tournament, I leant on that speed. This time, instead of taking a step back, I took a step forward. I watched the way he is eyes narrowed. I sharpened a probe and lanced at his shield. He winced, showing some emotion for the first time as he doubled back to defend himself mentally. A mistake. The probe hadn’t been strong enough to do anything.

I sent my own barrage of spells this time. Four blasting curses forced him hunkering behind a powerful mage shield. I swept my wand along the ground once more, turning loose stones into a nest of hornets. A silent Opuugno had them approaching aggressively from all directions. Two loose stones at my side turned into a pair of lions. I named them Simba and Mufasa before sending them off to their deaths.

Serrano slashed his wand at eye level, spinning in a circle and creating an amateur approximation of a firestorm. I admitted some disappointment with the approach as I flicked my wand and grabbed the fire he had created. I brought it to my side with superior elemental manipulation. His gambit only destroyed about a third of my hornets.

I watched his face twitch as he realised the position he was in. To his credit, he did not panic. He sent a blasting curse to either side of him, blowing apart some of the hornets, but not quite killing them all. Instead, he decided that was enough and focused his attention on the lions hunting him. Simba ran straight at him while Mufasa took a more circuitous route. The goal? Ambush. Lions were natural ambush predators so it was perhaps not too surprising, even if I hadn’t given them any directions more complex than hunt.

Serrano tracked both, and then when he raised his hand to dispatch them he was forced to abandon that attempt to block a piercing curse from my end. I hammered him with my own barrage of spells. His lips quirked. This was a strategy I had used before, I knew so I wondered how he would deal with it.