When the bell rang out, I was ready. My eyes were locked onto…wait, where did he go? He just vanished. In anticipation of his attack, I shoved myself backward as fast as I could. My back slammed into something solid with four sharp points. Both he and I cried out in shock and pain at the sudden contact.

  Before I could react, his hand reached around to my front. A sharp point of a claw tapping at my jugular. “STOP!” As Michael called an end to the match, Lance’s claws vanished as he shoved me away from him.

  By the time I recovered my balance and turned to face him, Barti and Michael stood between us. “What did you do wrong this time?” Barti asked me.

  “I lost sight of him, again,” I said, exasperated.

  He shook his head. “You wouldn’t be able to keep up with him even if you tried. At least not yet.”

  “Then how am I supposed to fight him?”

  “Anticipate his actions.” Michael cut in. “You don’t have to see his attack to know that it is coming.”

  “That would work well here, but what about later?” I countered, thinking about what would happen when we fight in larger groups.

  He shrugged. “Then work on some spell, skill, or sense that will warn you about dangers.” He turned to Lance. “What about you?”

  “I didn’t anticipate him jumping backward.” That was all he said.

  Michael nodded before saying, “Again.” I grumbled but otherwise, took the few steps needed to get back into position. My mind raced to come up with some way to detect his movements. Spells were out. I just didn’t know enough runes or how to create more than the basic, one rune, spells. I mean, look at my firewall spell. The thing was created by repeating the same rune over and over. It was literally a wall made of fire runes. No, I needed to either rely on some sort of sense.

  Just out of dumb curiosity, I closed my eyes and activated my Mana Sense skill. I pushed my mana out and used it to just watch the mana that surrounded me. It was chaotic. Stopping here, flowing there, and even doubling back in other spots.

  When the bell rang, I did not move from my spot. I did not open my eyes to see where he was or wasn’t. I kept my attention on the mana around me. That was probably why I noticed the mana to one side swirl a bit. Given that I wasn’t actually seeing it with my eyes but with this other sense, it was a bit weird. To this sense, the mana looked like it moved in a way that reminded me of how dust clouds do when a train speeds past. Going off that, I kept an eye out for other similar changes to the mana in the air.

  Sure enough, another section swirled. This time, it wasn’t alone nor was it from something passing close to me. Whatever disturbed the mana that floated around me was traveling in my direction. I took a chance and stayed where I was. I watched as whatever it was finally reached me and stopped. A sharp prick of pain at my neck told me that this match was over.

  “STOP!” Michael called out again. His voice sounded a bit annoyed as he continued to talk while making his way toward us. “What the fuck was that?” Looking at him, I shrugged and said nothing. “You kept your eyes closed throughout that whole match. That would have been fine if you had tried something but you didn’t even move from your starting position. Did you want to see just how fast you could lose?”

  Barti, surprisingly enough, didn’t say a word. His eyes just looked at me as something worked its way through his mind. It was almost as if he could see something that Michael couldn’t. “Again!” Michael yelled as he turned around. “And this time you will fight or I will make you fight!” While I didn’t know what he meant, the way he said it caused the hairs on my neck to stand up.

  It wasn’t just me that was scared by his words either. Lance’s tail was visibly stiff. Every hair lifted and standing on end. Making him look more like a scared cat than anything else. Something told me that whatever Michael meant when he said that was something that Lance had experienced.

  Before the bell went off to signal the start of the match, I closed my eyes and focused on my Mana Sense and the mana around me. Looking for signs of someone coming at me. The bell rang off and nothing happened. “OPEN YOUR DAMN EYES!” Michael yelled from the sidelines. I ignored him but still nothing happened.

  “Go ahead, Lance.” Came Barti’s calm voice. That could only mean that, even though the match had started, Lance had decided to not attack. He was probably waiting for me to open my eyes. That was nice of him and all, but I needed to focus on my Mana Sense and I couldn’t do that without getting rid of some other sense, at least not yet. Thankfully, sight was the easiest to ignore. All I had to do was close my eyes after all.

  The mana in front of me swirled as something flashed through it and toward me. I dropped my right shoulder and stepped out of the way just in time. Letting whatever it was pass me by. Halfway through the back half of my skills range, the object stopped moving. With a rush of displaced mana, it took off to my right as it curved around to attack my side.

  As I sensed this, I took a step back. Over and over, I dodged his attacks. I stepped back, left, right, ducked, and even stayed in place as he sometimes feigned an attack only to strike elsewhere. By the time his breaths were coming in ragged gasps, he stopped moving. Trying to catch his breath as he asked a simple question. “How?”

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  I didn’t want to answer him. At least not yet. Not until after I won the match. My silence must have irked him as he charged at me. The way the mana around his movements moved around indicated a complete change in tactics. He was no longer moving to stab me in one spot or another. This time he was going for a full-on tackle. Maybe even a bear hug of sorts.

  I shoved mana into my legs as I leaned down under one of his raised arms. From the outside, it probably looked like I danced around him as I rotated around his charge. When I stood behind him, I raised my sword and placed it on his shoulder. He froze. Stopping fast enough to not slice his neck on my sword. “STOP!” Michael called.

  Sword stored back in my inventory, I opened my eyes. Lance stood there, breathing hard enough to work as a bellow in a factory. The wolf was drenched in sweat. Neither of us spoke as we waited for Barti and Michael.

  Michael was, again, the first to speak. He looked at Lance as he spoke. “Do you know what you did wrong?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t even get what just happened?”

  Michael looked like he was uncertain himself, but Barti spoke up. “If I had to guess, Kyren used another sense to detect your movements. Isn’t that right?” I nodded.

  “How?” Lance asked. “I made sure to cloak everything.”

  “As any good hunter should,” Barti nodded. “Likely you just missed something simple. How about we ask Kyren how he did it so that you can work on hiding it as well.”

  They all looked at me in anticipation of my answer. Instead of giving them what they wanted, I asked a question of my own. “Cloak?”

  “Wolfkin and other hunting races have a few tricks up their sleeves to remain undetected when hunting,” Barti answered. “His class likely adds a bit to that as well. Now, tell us what you did.”

  “I used Mana Sense.” While my answer was simple, their bewildered expressions told me they had no clue what I was getting at.

  “What do you mean?” Lance asked at the same time Michael asked, “What is Mana Sense?”

  While both had spoken over one another, Barti waited before asking his own question. “How would that work? Pretty sure that his racial skill doesn’t require any mana.” Lance grimaced a bit but nodded in affirmation.

  “That would explain why I didn’t see him,” I said as I recalled that I couldn’t see his mana at all, only mine. “But I wasn’t watching his mana, I was watching mine and that naturally in the air.”

  Neither Barti nor Lance seemed to understand but I could see it when something clicked inside Michael’s eyes. “Don’t tell me. You were looking for the distortions in your mana that he left as he moved.” I nodded and he roared with laughter. Barti was the next to understand it but Lance looked completely lost. Michael waved his confusion off while saying “Don’t worry about it.”

  On the other hand, Barti spoke up. “No matter how tightly you keep your mana, it will affect the mana around you. Kyren here just kept an eye out for that distortion is all.”

  Lance deflated at that. “But that means I can do nothing to prevent someone from detecting me.”

  “Decoys,” Michael’s answer was short as he turned and walked away. “Again!”

  Given how Barti was looking at Michael, I was pretty sure Michael was getting under his skin with how he was acting. “Just do something to disturb the mana in the air. If you can figure out how to do it, you can even use decoys like he suggested.” With that, he moved to join the group at the edge of the circle while we returned to our starting positions. Now that my trick was out, I needed to come up with another. Luckily, I would have a bit of time to figure it out as he tried to figure out how to use Barti’s suggestion.

  The sound of the bell reverberated through the air. Like before, I kept an eye on the mana around me. This time, however, I started to form a few surprises. Under my own feet, I formed a fireball. I held it at the ready as I waited for him to attack. Something shot through the mana around me. It moved faster than any of his other attacks. I only managed to move out of the way because of my skill’s range.

  Still, something dragged against my cheek. Whatever it was left a stinging line. After hitting me, it didn’t stop. It kept moving before it finally vanished out the other side of my detection range. Given that the radius of my Mana Sense was a good forty or fifty feet and that he had entered and exited it in under a second, he had to be moving faster than a train. Or at least any train I had been on. Pretty sure the ones I had ridden were slow compared to how fast a well-maintained version would go, but what did I know?

  It didn’t matter either. The only thing that mattered was the fact that whatever had sliced my cheek was fast. Though, it was nothing that I couldn’t handle if I was ready for it. Too bad I couldn’t always be ready for such an attack. Not while I had to watch for any other surprises he might throw in.

  So, once again, I found myself at a severe disadvantage. Not only did I have to watch everything around me but the moment something disturbed the mana in a spot, I had to track it, plot it, plan how to avoid it, and then execute said plan. If, and when, he started to use decoys, then I would have yet another thing to keep an eye out for. Hell, at that point I was fairly sure I would be fucked.

  My mind flew over possible ideas and counters when, suddenly, something stabbed into my leg. My eyes popped open to find that he was standing just out of my skill’s range. His eyes were locked onto me. Onto my wounded leg.

  As I looked down I found a knife embedded in my calf. As my gaze returned to him, I found him tossing another knife as he smirked. The damn guy had found a way around my skill without needing to come up with some convoluted spell. With a shake of my head, I called out, “I lost.” I felt stupid yet happy all at the same time. Stupid that I had missed something so simple but happy to have made the guy work to figure something out.

  Linda jumped off Michael’s back as they got close. She jumped off and began work on my wound as he spoke. “What do you think you could have done better?”

  “Not assume that he had no long-distance attacks,” I grumbled, not happy to have to admit to such a stupid mistake.

  “Good.” He turned to Lance and asked the same question. “What do you think you could have done better?”

  “I should have thought of that attack a while ago,” Lance’s grumble sounded oddly similar to mine. He sounded as pissed at himself as I was at myself.

  “Well,” Barti said before Mindi cut in. “Lunch is ready. Come grab some.” She sounded excited about something. While I was curious, I was famished. Fighting, no matter how much you moved, was taxing as hell.

  Victor helped me over to the edge of the ring where a number of chairs sat. Given their color and thickness, they were likely shaped by magic out of the dirt and stone that surrounded us. Linda practically shoved a plate of sandwiches into my lap as I sat down.

  Each sandwich looked to be filled with some juicy meat that I didn’t recognize. As I moved to eat, I realized that Barti and Michael had not joined us. In fact, they both were still inside the circle. Both looked to be facing off as they stood at their respective starting points. Suddenly, I had an idea of what had Mindi so excited.