The Lone Wanderer

The speed of the azure serpents alone wasn't enough to corner Percy, but that wasn't the only issue. The man's domain didn't just slow him down – It also made it much harder for him to multiply his scythes, which served not only as his sole means of attack, but also as the footholds he relied on to remain airborne.

Worse still, the water mage was clearly experienced enough to see through Percy's moves after a while. It wasn't long before he started attacking the scythes directly, using his domain-infused constructs to destroy the weapons even when he failed to catch Percy. He often blocked Percy's path too, knowing his movements were limited to leaping from one pair of scythes to another.

Of course, Percy hadn't remained idle either.

His eyes had long adjusted to the man's spells, allowing him to predict their trajectories and move both himself and his constructs away. Whenever they were damaged, he kept them at a fair distance from the battlefield. This gave them a chance to repair and replicate themselves, before he brought them back in. Even his own moves had continued to grow sharper and more complex with each step he took, as he rapidly adapted the Carnival to its aerial variant.

That said, he was still at a severe disadvantage.

Trapped between the raging rivers, Percy didn't have much breathing room. He couldn't really approach nor escape from his opponent, and a lot of his attention was spent just surviving the relentless onslaught.

His eyes may have adjusted to the man's mana, but they had a much harder time predicting the sudden shifts of his domain, since that only relied on willpower. It wasn't entirely impossible to peer through the water mage's intentions, since Soul Vision still worked, but it wasn't nearly as informative without Mana Sense complementing it.

Another issue was that his counterattacks had been doomed from the start.

Percy had never stopped looking for an opening to fight back, but his scythes never managed to carve deeper than an inch into the dense rings protecting his opponent, no matter how many he used, or what formation he placed them in. Not that he could afford to stop trying. He certainly needed the occasional chance to catch his breath that his attacks bought him, but he understood he'd never win like this.

'Come on… think. There must be something we can do…'

The water mage's greatest strength was clearly his defence. Not that his speed and offense were lacking, but Percy could at least deal with those. On the other hand, he just couldn't come up with a way to breach the rings. His scythes were already made out of reinforced mana, enchanted with some of his best runes. Even if he could invent something better, he wasn't confident he could do it in the midst of combat.

From what little he'd managed to communicate with his clone, he knew Micky wasn't doing well either. The air mage was also free to use his magic without constraints, having already landed countless blows on the crow. His spells weren't as powerful as his companion's, and Micky was a lot tougher than a regular Green beast, but the damage was piling up quickly, the bird already a bloody mess. It wouldn't be long before it caused his fighting strength to dip. And it would all go downhill from there.

'This isn't sustainable. The bastards have tricked us into some bad match-ups...'

Strictly speaking, their opponents were still a little weaker while separated than they had been together. Joining them up again would be ill-advised. But the enemy mages had certainly done a great job forcing him and Micky to each pick the wrong opponent.

Micky's attacks hit harder than Percy's, so he might have managed to break through the water mage's rings with his Rending Tornado. At the same time, Percy was confident he would have done a better job evading the air mage's attacks had he been in his familiar's shoes.

'Can we try swapping?' he wondered.

It was the obvious solution, though it wouldn't be an easy one to execute. They'd gone through so much trouble to split them up in the first place, and even holding them apart had been a challenge. Micky had probably been forced to eat several blows to keep his opponent from escaping. The air user wasn't faster than Micky in a straight line, but he was definitely the most agile person on the battlefield right now.

Stolen novel; please report.

'No… Even if we managed to do it, I'm not sure I can catch that guy fast enough by myself…' he thought, dodging another serpent shooting for his head.

It was speed.

Their greatest limiting factor in this fight. Offensive power too, but he didn't think he could improve on that in the short term. Speed, on the other hand, he might be able to do something about.

Over the next few seconds, Percy focused on his boosting art, examining the flaws in his technique. The Carnival was already an extremely advanced Masterful spell, so he didn't delude himself into believing that he could upgrade it anytime soon. However, it was also an entire fighting style, and Percy was fully aware that he had barely scratched the surface of his potential during his fight against Acton.

In fact, it would be quite greedy of him to ask for a stronger spell. Foolish of him too, to neglect what he could still accomplish with this one. Percy should have all the tools he needed to solve this puzzle – he just had to try a little harder to fit them together.

'My timing can use a lot of work…' he realized.

He was currently moving by jumping from one pair of crossed shafts to another, but that seemingly simple action involved countless components. There was the force exerted by the muscles in his legs, but also that of his willpower acting on the mana inside his channels, pulling him around like a marionette on its strings.

There were the constructs – his very footholds – bending and snapping back under his weight, their strength and their enchantments keeping them from breaking. There was also the momentum of the scythes. If they flew toward a certain direction before he stepped on them, they could pass some of their energy to him during the collision.

Then, there was his armour. He could manipulate the mana inside it too, dragging his body around. Yet, that was but a single aspect in which his Regalia contributed to his movements. Another was his ability to turn parts of it intangible. He could do that selectively, while flying, to minimize both his weight, and the air resistance slowing him down.

Finally, the fused mana spilling out of his pores could also be harnessed. It wouldn't be as good at this as air or fire mana, but he could still use it to propel himself some more if he timed it right.

His best bet was to fine-tune all these elements to maximize his speed.

'It could work… But I need to get there fast, or Micky is screwed.'

Not wasting a moment, Percy immersed himself into the spell, examining how all these components came together. Lifting part of his attention off his opponent instantly put him at a disadvantage, as the water serpents came closer and closer to ripping him apart, occasionally even glancing his armour and shredding pieces of it off.

But the improvements started to make up for it.

Every jump was a little faster. The difference was miniscule at first – barely noticeable. But it was consistent, and it kept accumulating. Percy tested the strength of his constructs, trying to figure out how much they could bend without breaking.

He lost his foothold a few times, nearly getting hit by the water spells. Fortunately, Percy managed to get away each time, the suddenness of his failures catching his opponent by surprise. The grin on the man's face still widened, the fool probably thinking it was Percy's exhaustion getting to him, not realizing he was just experimenting with his spell.

It didn't take Percy long to understand how far he could push the weapons, however, his speed climbing as a result. Next, he worked on his muscles. He didn't just use the ones in his legs, but also the ones in his torso, trying to summon every drop of strength his body could muster with each step.

His mana was actually even easier to use. His feet could only exert force while they were in contact with the scythes, but the same limitation didn't apply to the mana inside his channels or armour. That, he could use even while he was in flight, to keep accelerating between jumps. The only thing he had to worry about was to shift the direction of this force at the right moment, to minimize the losses.

Soon, he found himself whizzing around his opponent no slower than the air mage had done at the start of the battle. It didn't take him long to start avoiding the man's spells well in advance, bolting through the battlefield like a grey streak, leaping from platform to platform.

Even better, the more accustomed he grew to his own movements, the easier it was for his phantoms to replicate them. At some point, there were dozens of ghostly figures looking just like him, mirroring his actions to confuse the water mage. Destroying them or at least identifying the original with his domain wasn't hard, but each of those solutions forced the man to spread his willpower thin, allowing Percy to move even faster.

Still, Percy wasn't in a rush to escape toward Micky.

If he tried to swap with him now, their opponents would follow suit. With both of them moving closer, their domains would mix again long before Percy bridged the gap. It wasn't enough to just get a little faster than the air mage – he had to outrun both of them combined.

'What did you do?' the clone asked. 'This guy suddenly got more anxious.'

Percy grinned. His opponent had clearly realized what he was up to, relaying the information to his teammate. Either way, it wouldn't matter.

'I need you to buy me a few more minutes. Can you manage?'