My Servant System

Kat PoV

"You thought you could keep playing the long game?!"

With a shout the Caliph slammed his hammer down once more, and yet again it got even closer as I was forced to roll out of the way, the ranged attacks I had been trying to maintain fizzling out completely as I made one wrong calculation.

He ended up ripping a pendant off of his neck and tossing it into the air, summoning another storm that targeted the area around himself with weaker, yet still deadly bolts of lightning that tore at the ground yet again, and it covered a wide area that forced me to focus entirely on dodging and nothing else.

That meant the Caliph was able to close the gap between us and resume the melee combat without any hesitation as he took full advantage of the enchantments he seemingly had in abundance, approaching me and engaging with me once more.

Each hammer swing was rippling with power as it arced towards my body from any possible angle, each strike fueled by his own immense power as well as the desire to live and prove himself worthy to our silent observer.

My speed was the only thing keeping me alive, my rather well rounded abilities making themselves known once again as I was just quick enough to avoid certain death while also having just enough stamina and mana reserves to not be too distraught by this change of pace. I still very much needed to find some kind of opening sometime soon, but if I couldn't I still had some time to think, and with the Caliph being so damn close to me I was confident enough to be able to stop him from tossing another pendant into the air to activate whatever insane spell was engraved onto their surfaces.

Bobbing and weaving around those swings was still stressful though, and the pressure being applied at all times by the Caliph was enough to make the idea of attacking more of an afterthought as more of my energy went into avoiding being hit rather than delivering my own hits.

Small windows of opportunity sadly passed me by since they were rather well guarded by an overbearing swing of a heavy hammer, and any windows that seemed to have a larger gap than normal were most certainly traps that I needed to avoid, so I was stuck in this dance of mine lest I risk a limb for something.

While that wasn't exactly the most outlandish idea ever, what with my tattoo on my upper left arm that negated most physical feeling I had, I still wasn't keen on it since the trade wasn't guaranteed to be worth it; it was like a fork in chess, just... I had no idea if I was forking him or if he was forking me.

Who would have the advantage over whom if I threw caution to the wind and made my own path forwards in this battle?

That was a question I was going to leave unanswered as I instead continued to dart around, finding an intriguing win condition as I rolled away from another slam before leaping into the air above a swing.

The Caliph was getting slower with each attack he made; not by a lot, but enough that after a few swings I could notice the slow, gradual lowering of speed, and that meant that if I could just outlast this man here I could claim victory.

Since each of his attacks had a weight behind it that I couldn't reliably parry or even attempt to block, gaining an edge in speed was what I needed, and that gradual drop became more evident as I found lunging away from the Caliph to be easier.

The more telling sign was the beads of sweat that had begun to gather on his skin as he continued to throw his weight around beneath the sun, his own build fighting against him as the heat entered the battle as an official opponent to face.

An opening appeared shortly after; a slip-up on his part, his hammer sliding through his fingers a little and causing him to overextend a little when he moved forwards, revealing his flanks and inviting me in to stab him in the side and deal the first blow of this battle.

And yet it was an opening that I still cautiously allowed to pass by, the determination in his eyes as well as the swiftness with which he recovered setting off alarms inside my mind as I continued to dance around this man with a refusal to commit an attack of my own. "Why won't..! You..! Attack!"

His growl of frustration was accompanied by a burst of energy that I avoided as he pulsed the enchanted hammer for the first time in a little while, lightning scattering off the black metal head and scorching the brick below as he tried to catch me off guard, only to then create another opening.

Another overextension followed by a stumble, which I only took as an excuse to leap backwards and recreate the space between us from a minute earlier, earning another growl as he reached for his neck with a twinkle in his eyes.

As his fingers inched ever closer to the pendants that clattered together around his neck I muttered incantation after incantation as I sent a barrage of arrows, lances and spheres at him, staggering some of the attacks and sending them at angles as I watched him closely.

Finding one, he smirked at me and yanked the pendant off to toss into the air, though while my eyes flicked to the piece of jade soaring up above he instead grabbed another and skipped it over the ground.

Mana coalesced around the metallic bauble that had a few gemstones set into it, each one shining brilliantly before cracking as the mana within rushed to escape, revealing its purpose as an explosive and nothing more as it bounced towards my feet.

It happened rather quickly, but I was still just a smidge faster as I looked down at it and crouched, bunching up my haunches and timing myself with the escaping mana as I muttered "[Backdraft!]" once more, using the explosion alongside my own spell to launch myself straight into the air with only a few scrapes and burns.

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