Chapter 380: Chapter 380

“Art?” Vix asked, her voice tense.

“Working on it,” Art replied.

“I’m aware,” Vix said in a grim tone. “But that’s not what I’m talking about and you’re more than aware. You need to use it.”

“No.” Art’s fingers were so stiff that he could barely rifle through his deck of cards. The armor that Ursa was wearing was terrifying. There was absolutely no doubt about it — and he wasn’t even the only one in Starforge’s team that had it.

Ash wore similar armor, almost certainly made by the same smith. He was pretty sure that hers would be close to Ursa’s in strength. While Art wasn’t expecting Kien to lose, the odds were even more stacked against them than he’d originally thought.

Ursa cracked his neck and braced his hands in the air before him like he were pushing against a wall. The humming fragments of his armor flying around him begun to let out a high pitched whine. They trembled as power poured out from Ursa and into them.

I can’t stop the armor. There’s no way for me to take the magic from an inanimate object. Ursa has his magic again, but I suspect he’s not stupid enough to use it when he’s already revealed his armor’s abilities.

Art’s teeth gritted. He needed more time to think — but it didn’t look like Ursa was playing around anymore. The air before the large man buzzed and hissed as the energy infusing his armor intensified.

Furious arcs of electricity snapped to life between the armor fragments, forming into an undulating net. The pieces of flying armor flew outward, stretching the net until it was nearly fifteen feet wide. Even though there were holes in the electricity connecting them, fitting through any of them was a near-impossible task.

“What do I have to work with?” Art muttered. “Come on. There has to be something.”

First things first, I need to make sure I don’t just get instantly killed the moment time resumes. I need a way to avoid the net. Can’t do much if I’m already dead.

He walked in a circle around Ursa, then examined the net of magic once more. There were gaps in it, of course. Ones big enough that he had a fairly decent chance of throwing himself through one.

Art gave it a shot, taking several unsteady steps back before flinging himself through a hole in the electricity that made up the net. A chill passed through his body even before he hit the ground with a grunt.

Missed. I think I just cut myself in half. That isn’t going to do. The most I can afford to lose is an arm or a leg.

He walked back to where he’d been a moment before and gave it another shot. Then another — and about a dozen more.

Art was probably the farthest thing from an acrobat that existed. He wasn’t particularly limber or in control of his limbs, but he did have a very good way to practice. Within a few minutes, he’d managed to roughly lay out an angle he could pass through the net without losing anything too important.

It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to be enough. He didn’t have the time to waste on this. Surviving Ursa’s attack was only the first step of what he had to accomplish. It was far from the last.

Vix’s words rung in Art’s ears as he glanced back at the camoflouged patch of air that marked her presence. His hands tightened at his sides.

“There are better solutions than that,” Art informed Vix, more than aware she couldn’t win the argument when she couldn’t respond.

But even without the ability to argue back, the silence rung loud in Art’s ears. They were completely outclassed in every way by Ursa. He was a higher level than they were. He had more experience than they did. His armor was stronger than theirs. Arwin had given them their equipment as a backup. After all, they weren’t his main team. His focus had been protecting them as quickly as possible.

And if Kien helps here, then we prove we can’t hold our own.

His choices were limited to almost nothing… but they had no choice. They couldn’t lose this tournament. He wasn’t about to sit back and just let Kien do everything either. Art didn’t even know if the man was capable of soloing every other team.

I need to be on the stage. So does Vix. That’s the only way we can guarantee we get the information we need to save her. Anna can’t fix her heart, so winning the tournament is the only way to do this.

There was only one way forward that he could think of and Vix had already given him permission to use it.

It was the absolute last thing that Art wanted to do, but it didn’t look like they had much other choice if they were going to win this. So long as they got her fixed up shortly afterward, going a little crazy now would be fine. It would have to be.

“Shit,” Art muttered. He dug through his mind in one final attempt to think of another solution. Nothing arose. His powers were great for dealing with enemies that fought under their own strength, but an opponent whose armor basically fought for him… there was only one thing Art could do against someone like that.

He walked back to the silvered card on the ground.

Then he tapped it with his foot.

The world snapped back into motion.

Vix blurred to the side, just as he knew she would, but Art didn’t have time to worry about her. She trusted that he would avoid the attack, and so he would have to.

He threw himself forward, pulling his hands tight together in a motion he’d just practiced. It wasn’t exactly perfect, and he could only estimate where the net would go, but he and Vix had spent years training this skill.

The air buzzed all around Art as he hit the ground with a grunt. Pain shot up along his right arm, informing him that his jump hadn’t been nearly as clean as he would have hoped, but there was no time to worry about it.

Surprise flashed over Ursa’s features. He clearly hadn’t been expecting Art to be able to dodge the attack, but that would only last a few brief moments — and Art wasn’t going to be able to dodge the net a second time around.

That was fine with him. He had no plans of having to dodge a second time around.

Art rolled to the side. His ears rang and his skull pounded. He needed blood — but there was more than enough of that all around him. That probably wasn’t a good thing.

He ignored it. A card slipped from his deck and made its way between his fingers.

His hand slapped down against the bloodied ground. Blood soaked into it, turning the paper a crimson red. Power tingled against his fingertips.