Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

She winked at me.

Oh, you want to play?

I was so distracted leveling my cane at Sera that I completely missed the orb coming in from my left. It smashed into my side, knocking me into Patrick. We straightened ourselves after a moment, and I noted that Marissa was the one who had launched the shot.

“One more point against Corin,” a judge announced.

“Focus,” Patrick reminded me.

I grumbled, falling back into my defensive stance as more blasts flashed around us.

It was less than another minute before we were practically the only members of our team left standing. The other team still had seven people, including Marissa, Sera, and Roland. Patrick and I had two other students with us, but they were far away and looked exhausted.

We needed to even the odds somehow. Even in a defensive position, we were far too vulnerable to concentrated fire.

In retrospect, it was shocking I hadn’t tried this earlier. “The lanes go all the way to the other side.”

I didn’t need to say anything else; Patrick had always been adept at picking up my lines of thought. Far better than my family, at least.

“On three?” Patrick asked.

“Resh that, on one. Go.”

We bolted.

A few orbs flew lazily through the air past us. I had to deflect one that actually came close to landing, but we crossed the room in a handful of seconds. We switched to back-to-back positions, facing the opposition.

Marissa and two others on my side. Roland, Sera, and two others on his.

Still bad odds, but now every projectile that didn’t hit us had a high chance of passing us and hitting members of their own team.

Our own remaining team members used that window to open fire on the people near Marissa, taking one of them out of the fight. I joined the assault, firing at Marissa’s unguarded side.

Without looking, she punched the orb out of the air, sending it across the arena to fade into nothing.

Okay, new tactic. Never fight her ever.

Patrick staggered into me, apparently having taken a hit. All four opponents on his side were looking at us. They took shots one at a time, conserving their mana while keeping us under pressure.

Sera yawned when I looked at her.

I fired a blast at the floor in front of her, much like she had with me. As she moved to deflect it, I shot another blast at the side of the same sphere , bouncing it right into Roland.

He fell to the side, colliding with Sera. Patrick took the opening to fire at the pair, but one of their teammates managed to fire a blast that knocked his projectile aside.

Teamwork, my greatest asset, my greatest weakness.

I looked at our remaining ally on the other side of the ring. I probably should have invited her to come join us, but she was far enough away that I didn’t know if she’d reach us in time.

As it happened, she only lasted a few more moments where she was. Marissa bounced a pair of orbs off the ceiling , which I hadn’t even considered, and took our last companion completely unware.

Patrick swapped hands, and then unleashed a flurry of quick blasts at our closest opponent, Sera. The torrent of attacks was too fast to effectively deflect, so she and Roland stepped aside — probably without realizing that they had been obscuring the existence of the orbs until it was too late for the people behind them to notice.

One reacted in time, only clipped by a single sphere. The other took hits from four in a row, and I saw his shield visibly crack before a judge reached in and pulled him right out of the ring.

I whistled in appreciation, but Patrick only shook his head. “Think that was probably the last I’ve got in me. Arms feel like they’re on fire.”

I wasn’t in great shape myself, but nowhere near that bad. Then again, I’d been dueling daily since I was old enough to hold a stick. Not many people had that advantage.

I tried to bounce a sphere off the ceiling to hit Marissa, but I missed her entirely. Aiming them was trickier than it seemed.

I did, however, manage to dodge the attack from the student behind her. It missed Patrick and slammed into Sera.

She glowered at her teammate as she stepped out of the ring.

Okay, Sera’s out. That’s just four against two now, we can do this.

“Eyes!” Patrick shoved me, then stumbled. For an instant, I thought he’d made a classic heroic sacrifice, but the orb had missed him as well.

“Sorry!” I spun in time to knock one of Roland’s spheres back at him, but Roland simply batted it back out of the way.

Patrick and I settled back into our defensive, back-to-back stance. “Ideas?” he asked.

If he’s out of mana, and our opponents are pretty close, we could try to run them out. But Marissa’s showing no signs of stopping, and I don’t think we’ve even scratched her.

Our opponents who were furthest away — Marissa on my side, someone I didn’t recognize on Patrick’s — were walking forward in their lanes, toward the middle of the room. That meant they were taking themselves out of the direct lines of fire of their teammates, nullifying one of our few advantages.

It did give me an idea, though.

The student that was on my side could barely hold up his cane. It was charged, but I didn’t expect him to take more than one more shot, if that.

I glanced at Patrick, pointed at the student, and said, “Melee.”

We rushed him.

With no students in the lanes between us, we were free to roam… so there was no rule preventing Patrick from using his cane to knock the other student’s weapon out of the way. Nor was there any rule against me point-blank blasting the poor guy with my own.

It only took one shot to take him out of the arena. Patrick took a hit in the back from Roland in the meantime, but he was still standing.

He grinned at me. “Nice. Now what?”

Marissa was maneuvering carefully on my side, her left hand glowing with a visible aura.

On our opposite side, Roland and the other remaining student were standing still, weapons poised and ready.

Charging Marissa would be suicide — Guardians are made for close combat. Rushing Roland would let her shoot at us from behind, and I don’t think we’d close that distance before she could hit us. We could make a fighting retreat to Roland’s side, but as soon as it’s obvious we’re angling for them they’d probably attack…

How can we overwhelm them from here?

“Patrick, do you think you’re recovered enough for another shot?”

His expression was pained, but he nodded. “I think so. If I have to.”

I whispered something in his ear.

He extended his cane toward Marissa and raised his thumb above the rune. If this went badly, Marissa was the least likely opponent to be seriously hurt.

I grabbed onto his cane with my left hand. “Now.”

We pushed the rune at the same time.

I felt the mana surging through me and, for the first time, I felt that connection extend all the way through to someone else. Patrick.

We were each giving it enough mana to power the blast individually. I gave it more, pushing my mana through, just like I had with my dueling cane.

I felt the mana that was already charging the cane, grabbed that, and pulled it into rune.

The sphere we produced was tremendous, probably three feet in diameter. It whirred through the air, directly at Marissa.

Marissa slammed her cane into the incoming orb, but her weapon bounced right off it. The ball impacted with her shield, leaving glowing cracks as it continued to push, until she slammed a fist through the center of the orb and dispersed it into tiny fragments.

“What are you about, Corin?” She lowered her hand, shaking it out a few times, then sent us an outraged glare. “You tryin’ to kill me?”