Understand your enemy and attack powerfully... this was the principle of behaviour that Shu and Yo had prescribed for me, thinking that I was imitating the behaviour of King Bumi. This was actually the true power of earth mages, because unlike other elements, you weren't that fast and couldn't switch from defence to attack with perfect smoothness, which was the basis of water mages. All the earth mages focused on was defending against enemy attacks, waiting, and then delivering a crushing blow. To truly understand this principle and begin to meet the standards of the Earth mages, I had to play Pai Shao with Afka. It was in this game that I was distracted from the image of a "trickster," because on a small board with a limited number of cells, you can't really dodge much. I began to learn to wait and analyse my opponent.
"Once you know your opponent, you can knock them down like a landslide," I began to understand how old men could understand someone's character by their simple playing style — all the magicians I fought also had different characters: some focused on destroying your foundation, eager for you to panic; others hid and attacked from behind to weaken your defence; and in direct confrontation, they demonstrated stubbornness and boyishness. All the mages were like Pai Shao players; they too could be read.
Standing firmly in the arena, I looked at my little opponent with a more serious gaze than I had given any of my previous opponents. If I needed to maintain a balance between defence and attack in order to read someone, my opponent could do everything in a matter of moments. She read my movements and was able to come up with a counterattack immediately. An opponent like that... had to be tricked.
"I saw how cleverly you copied the attacks," she said, completely relaxed, messing with my head. There was irony in her words, she was surprisingly light-hearted in such a situation. "You seem like a skilled Earth mage, but at the same time you're no different from a beginner. Sorry, you won't get my champion's belt with such a low level of magic.
"I don't need a trinket that proves nothing to me. I just want to get to know such a powerful mage better," I calmly responded to her attempt to intimidate me. Beifong narrowed her eyes, unable to detect a hint of lies in my words, and my feet took a step forward.
Shuh*
The corners of Beifong's lips stretched into a smile. Like a gust of wind, she lazily moved her foot and, plunging her fingers into the arena, directed an earth wave at me. It was the highest skill of waiting; she always knew when was the best moment to attack. And knowing that my opponent was so skilled, I had to immediately launch myself into the sky along with a piece of rock.
"Pff?" the girl replied discontentedly, furrowing her brows. I had broken her expectations, and with my next strike, which sent a large stone core flying right next to my opponent, I was supposed to destroy the arena as well. But a wall that suddenly appeared in front of Tof shattered my expectations. Her defence proved to be very strong," said the frog. "Let me show you the real magic of the earth.
Jumping in place, she summoned a giant pillar. If I hadn't flipped in the air and braced myself against the pillar with my feet, my ribs would have felt the impact of the ram. Now only my heels felt as if they had been struck with the butt of a club.
Sink* Sink* Sink*
Having already assumed a comfortable position on the pillar, I began to cut it into miniature discs that rained down on the little girl. Since it was difficult for her to see the attacks from the air, and I had no intention of climbing down from the pillar, the little girl had no choice but to pull out a large stone and throw it at me, using it as a shield. I read it!
"Phew!" I tensed my muscles and took a stable position. My veins bulged and began to writhe like worms on my bruised body. Overcome the enemy's qi and seize control. Crushing the enemy's attack is the supreme style of earth mages.
I struck the air and split the huge stone into a pile of smaller projectiles that flew towards Tof like a burst of machine-gun fire. They dug into the ground, forming large dents, and fragments flew in all directions. But nothing hit the girl... I literally lost sight of her because she raised a curtain of dust.
Shukh*
I had to jump off the pole because the powerful shock wave tore it apart. As I fell, realising that if I touched the ground, I would most likely lose instantly, I began to scan the area, trying to spot my opponent in the dust cloud. But it was useless. She had the same movement skills as me, maybe even more developed, so there was no chance of hitting her before I landed. Only one ability could give me even the slightest chance: my sense of sand.
Under my control, any tiny particles allowed me to sense the enemy's exact location. It was a variation of my seismosensitivity that was more useful to me, but with only a few moments before I landed, I had to calmly close my eyes, concentrate, and slowly sense every area covered by the dust cloud. The absence of fear gave me amazing opportunities when I had to make quick and thoughtful decisions. My head was not cluttered with unnecessary thoughts. I saw someone move my grains of sand and form a small pebble out of the dust, which I accelerated and threw at the enemy's body. There was contact, and...
"Ouch!" I finally landed on the ground, just as Tof was thrown back. She had no chance to strike me instantly, knock me down or throw me out of the ring. But I picked up the stone cylinders from the arena, raised my arms, and...
"No way! - I was shocked when a couple of large stones broke through the distance between us and almost knocked my head off. She clearly had tricks that allowed her to quickly get back into the fight, so I had to block the stones with my projectiles and immediately create a large wall, because she...
BANG
She threw a large boulder at me. The stone wall easily withstood the attack, but it seemed that I was starting to retreat into a defensive position.
"Hey, can you really see what attack is coming at you right now?" a doubtful voice came from the side of me, where the sand was moving most actively. The walls appeared exactly where the blow was about to come from, which made her suspicious. Tof decided to check something and sent several waves across the ground from different directions. The sand didn't sense the attacks coming through the ground very well, but my basic seismic sensitivity managed to cope somehow.
"Right? Two of them, and one in a straight line," I made a sharp move to the side, dodging one of the waves. Realising that I had made a slight mistake and that my leg was being pulled away by another attack that I had misjudged, I hastily strengthened the ground beneath me. I had to jump a couple more times to keep my lower limbs from spreading out to the sides — I had to rely entirely on my seismic sensitivity. The enemy seemed to be mocking me, covering the arena with loose debris that was difficult to avoid. Apparently, it was precisely because I was having the most trouble with them that Tof was creating them, mocking me cruelly and uncompromisingly — that's why she was nicknamed "the bandit."
Now was the best moment to jump again and pelt Toff with dust projectiles. I even pressed down on the ground, preparing to take off... but perhaps all the information flooding into my head had filled it with rubbish. I didn't even manage to jump three metres before high-speed shells flew into my face, following a predetermined trajectory. I only had time to put my arms out, which took a couple of painful blows, and my body was thrown to the edge of the arena. I almost fell...
"A dust curtain... if I removed it, it would be easier, wouldn't it? - The dust itself was pinned to the ground, revealing an excellent mage moving in my direction. One blow was enough to knock down the weakened, helpless me, but her face was lit up with interest. She listened to my already weakened legs trembling and drops of blood falling from my body, and asked herself, "Can you feel the earth too?"
In that quiet voice, which no one had been able to understand before, there was a barely perceptible interest. Only I knew... my experience in battle against the insolent fox told me that a slight interest was followed by a strong blow. And my opponent was not one to let victory slip away so easily.
"Ha-ha..." I laughed rudely, making the girl tense up. "If I lose now, I'll have fewer bruises to heal, which means I'll spend less on bruise ointment. That will be a victory. I give up." Taking a step back, Beifong jumped off the arena as she raised her eyebrows. Even the contact of his heels with the ground caused a noticeable pain in his knees, but he managed to hold out for so long with consistently high attack and defence stats.
I think my magic showed itself in all its glory today.
"It can't be, Kamnere simply ran away from the ring! Fear got the better of him, and now he's trembling with terror. It's another victory for the Blind Bandit," the referee was still babbling about something, but he was drowned out by the enthusiastic crowd. I quietly moved towards the exit, holding my back. All that was left was to take a bath with steaming ointment and wrap myself in banana leaves to speed up the healing of the bruises. In a week, the bones would be back in place, and the muscles would feel even better.
"Hey, why did you jump off?" At that moment, a dissatisfied voice rang out behind me. Beifong had followed close behind and was now poking me in the back of the head. "You weren't afraid, and you could have clearly continued fighting. Why stop at the most exciting moment?"
Frowning, I turned back. I looked into her white eyes.
"And you didn't answer my last question.
"You... - Tof pricked up her ears at my harsh tone," "Do you have any idea how long it will take me to gather the ingredients for the oils? I already have to dilute them with water to save money — three grams for one small area, can you imagine how much that is? Believe me, losing isn't as bad as spending a week replenishing all my supplies. Oh, my head is splitting, I need to drink some ginseng tea and wrap my head in gauze.
Reaching the passage hidden in the rock, I struck the ground and opened the exit behind the scenes.
"He's gone crazy," Tof shook her head, confused by my response. At that moment, my legs froze for a second.
"Your seismic sensitivity is really affecting your mind. You're lucky you're blind," I smirked cheekily, hearing her take a deep breath. "I'm in such sensory shock right now that it'll take me a couple of days to recover. Okay... see you later."
***
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