Viviana made the first move, rushing Selenne with a flurry of sword swipes. Her momentum continued as Selenne parried, meeting her charge with her own.

  As they exchanged attacks Viviana realized that Selenne was far better at using her jumpboots than she was. With only the boots active, Selenne simply had the advantage.

  Yet Viviana did not activate any skills. Using them first would feel like losing.

  She grit her teeth as she was pushed into a defensive position, Selenne exploiting her mobility advantage perfectly. Viviana was struggling, but if there was a chance, it'd be now.

  Selenne attacked with a horizontal swing aimed at her neck. Viviana ducked under, putting her in perfect position to attack Selenne from a lower angle. Selenne immediately realised the danger and moved backwards, preparing to block Viviana's attack.

  But it never came. Viviana had predicted Selenne’s defensive maneuver and instead stepped forward, forgoing the attack that was going to be blocked anyways. Viviana raised her hands above her head and brought it down.

  Selenne activated her dash. Viviana smirked. The first point goes to me.

  Immediately the two began trading dash skills, firing off sequences of rapid movements, moving with precision. Viviana currently had the upper hand, having forced out Selenne to dash defensively first.

  They were trading blow for blow, but Viviana realized Selenne would turn the tide eventually. She’s almost certainly a higher level than me. My mana won’t last as long as hers. I need to squeeze out a decisive blow.

  Viviana slid through the salt on her jump boots, enhancing them with her [lightning trap], pursuing Selenne across the sand. Viviana used everything she had– [flash step], [lightning trap], and even tried to position herself with her back to the sun to potentially blind Selenne.

  Yet Selenne had evaded or parried blow for blow. Then Selenne had predicted Viviana’s dash, ducking under a blow in a move reminiscent of Viviana’s own earlier. But she did it better. Viviana had already used her [flash step] and wasn’t positioned to use it again.

  Viviana winced as a shallow cut appeared on her midsection. There was no time to think about it, though. Selenne had pushed forward with a smile on her face, and now Viviana was on the defensive. I can tell what she's thinking. First blood goes to her.

  Viviana grinned despite her injuries, accelerating even further. The midsection cut wasn’t debilitating, but her mana was beginning to fade and her cut was going to take some time to heal, despite her decent VIT stat. The amount she was moving made the injury worse rather than promoting healing.

  Viviana kicked up sand, hoping to distract Selenne, but it did more harm than good. Selenne was already used to fighting with multiple of her senses disabled; Viviana was not. Viviana took another cut for that.

  She was growing frustrated. She hated to admit, but Selenne was just better at swordplay than her. That realization stung more than it should have.

  Viviana realized she couldn't win in the short range anymore, so it was time to use her new ranged attack. She pushed backwards with [flash step], making distance as well as she could, but Selenne was right on top of her, matching dash for dash. Selenne activated another skill– the same one that she used in her previous fight that made her attacks drain mana.

  Vivivana weaved, moving as fast as possible, trying to draw out of Selenne’s range, but Selenne’s superior gear and stats just made it impossible. Fine. I’ll use it point blank.

  Viviana wielded her sword in right hand, freeing up her left to channel a lightning spear. It wasn’t her dominant hand, but she barely parried one of Selenne's attacks as she took advantage of the brief opening.

  Viviana threw the spear. It cut through the air with a whistle. Selenne twisted, firing her grapples into the ground to accelerate her movement further, dodging the attack completely. But that move had pinned her movement down, allowing Viviana to leap backwards with [flash step], finally buying her some distance.

  Another [lightning spear] formed in her hands, and Viviana threw it again, causing Selenne to evade flawlessly. I’m running out of mana. I need to end this quickly. All in or nothing.

  Selenne was off balance from the previous dodge, and Viviana had to take advantage. She rushed in with another [lightning spear] formed in her left hand, and her sword in the right, activating [flash step] and using a [lightning trap] on her boots. A tremendous amount of mana surged through her.

  Viviana aimed and fired her [lightning spear]; Selenne dodged casually. She was getting better at that. Selenne raised her sword to parry her charge, but Viviana instead switched her right hand into a javelin grip, throwing her sword at Selenne. Selenne forced out a parry, clearly surprised. Viviana, weaponless, did not stop moving towards her, instead summoning a final [lightning spear], thrusting it forwards with her hands.

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  With no choice Selenne met it with her blade, but the [lightning spear] exploded, scattering electricity everywhere and blowing open her parry. Viviana was already right in front of her, swinging. A soulbound fist smashed into Selenne’s face. Vivana grinned, finally having landed a blow. Viviana ducked down, fully intent on boxing.

  Then the world went black. It didn’t matter. Selenne was right in front of her, and if she could get her into a grapple, the lack of sight didn’t matter.

  Yet as Viviana reached forward, Selenne simply wasn’t there. Viviana grabbed nothing. Instinctively she immediately recognized the danger and ducked, hearing as the air swooshed above her. Selenne’s sword. But from what direction?

  The shuffling of feet, another swing. Right side. Viviana had observed Selenne’s fighting style before, assuming the trajectory and parabola of her cut. An easy dodge. Followed by a stab. Shift feet backwards. A skill. Viviana felt the small surge of mana as Selenne repositioned.

  Arm sacrifice. Grab and stop her blade at all costs. Bad move. Arm severed.

  The world rushed back into cognition as her sight returned. Selenne was standing a bit away, bleeding from the cheek. Viviana grinned, observing the damage. Not bad.

  Selenne spoke up, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you survived. I literally evolved my skill so I could see a little while using it. And you live, again.”

  “Wasn’t too hard,” Viviana responded, noting that her sword was coincidentally next to her. She kicked it up, catching it with her only working right hand. Selenne could have exploded forward with a skill and killed her, but a silent agreement between them didn’t allow it to happen. “Your movements are too predictable. Too reliant on your skills.”

  Selenne snorted. “And you’re too unpredictable. Just what does Adler-Stern teach their kids? Throwing their only weapon, sacrificing their arms?”

  “They taught nothing of importance," Viviana said, raising her blade. “One last exchange?”

  “You know, I’m not dumb. If I wanna win, I can just wait for you to bleed out. You’re missing an arm, and got multiple cuts on your torso. Soulbound regeneration is good, but not that good.”

  “Scared?” Viviana taunted. One last exchange. I know you’ll take me up on the offer.

  “Nope.” Selenne rushed forward, sword raised, dash skill activating, causing her to phase completely out of existence. Viviana already saw the dash a dozen times. Selenne was right where she expected her to be. Predictable, as ever.

  Viviana activated a [lightning trap] on her right side, contracting the muscles just below and in her arm, accelerating her sword downwards at an unnatural speed.

  Selenne stomped down, planting her feet, swinging her blade in a wide arc that cut a circle into the salt.

  Bena screamed as a giant frog-snake chased her across the salt flats. Just where is Viviana?!

  She was going to curse her out as soon as she got back. She couldn’t believe that Viviana had somehow chased this giant frog to their position, and now was probably finding more monsters to send their way. While giving them zero instruction on how to use the jumpboots, which she very evidently already knew how to use.

  She hated this place. Salt flinging everywhere. The sky was too bright. She could see super far, sure, and her skill had near omni-present vision given how simple the terrarium was to process, but Bena couldn’t see more than a meter into the ground.

  For someone who could see so far, and had so much clarity, it was like swimming in the middle of a deep, dark lake. Sure, it was calm on the surface, but anything could be lurking in the water, and you wouldn’t know until it was too late.

  It was already too late. The frog-snake hybrid lumbered towards them with comically slow movements, which were actually terrifyingly fast because of how big it was. Sure, it made one step every ten seconds or so, but that one step brought it a hundred meters forward.

  Bena desperately tried activating her jumpboots, falling flat on her face. No time to panic or be embarrassed. Keep running forward.

  Okay, I’ve got this! Screw the giant frog! We’re learning it now!

  Thomas screamed, snapping her out of her focus. Lucian scooped him off his feet, hauling him forward like a sack of potatoes. Lucian hadn’t figured out the boots either, meaning he was just running normally.

  “Lucian, do you have some frostburst organs?! Like last time!”

  The centipede incident. “Nope!”

  “Just throw Thomas or something!”

  Thomas screamed in protest. He was completely useless. Apparently he had a phobia of snakes. Lucian did not use him as a projectile, so he was useless in that regard as well.

  Bena concentrated, realizing that using the boots was the only way she was going to live. Maybe I’m thinking of this wrong. I’m thinking of it like [dash].

  [Dash] applies more force into the next movement, literally creating energy out of mana and pouring it into your leg. This means you want to activate it right as your leg is pushing most force into the ground to propel yourself forward. Use it at the wrong time and you’re off balance.

  But the jump boots simply fire a thrust from the bottom of your foot. So maybe the timing is just before?

  Bena fired off her boots, rushing forward in barely controlled bursts of speed, gliding along the salt flats and flailing her arms all the while. She had nearly fallen, but hadn’t.

  “Lucian! Use the boots right before your normal [dash] timing!”

  Lucian nodded, activating the boots mid step. He was off balance due to Thomas on his shoulder and fell into a heap.

  So Bena stopped, ran backwards, and hoisted him up, onto her left shoulder. Thomas onto her right. Then she activated her boots, skating across the salt flats of terrarium three.

  TWO CHAPTERS AWAY FROM THE FINALE.