'Sylph, pull back one metre,' John dictated, standing with his hands in his pockets in the field. What he thought, the thunderstorm elemental immediately put into action, darting away and ending the lightning barrage. It had been ineffective anyway, entering one of Seminaris' portals and exiting again right above the earth. 'Salamander, fireball, measure the strength. I need smoke, not flame.'

'Roger that, boss,' his fire spirit answered and conjured the attack as fast as was appropriate. It flew towards Seminaris. Quickly she closed the portals that had blocked Sylph's attack and opened a new pair. The fireball disappeared at her left side, only to be spat out in the direction John was standing in.

The Gamer saw the gray and golden ball of fire approach through the replacement sphere and the eyes of Gnome. Neither the soil elemental nor he moved to dodge or intercept the attack. No, John had predicted and hoped that he would be chosen as the target. Between the two nimble flyers of the group, the sturdy Gnome and the still invisible Siena, there was no tactician that wouldn't have gone for the blind target. Particularly if that was also the summoner of all other threats.

Doing an acceptable amount of damage, the fireball exploded on the Mana Protection around John. The heat seared the surrounding wheat, the golden color turning into black smoke. John breathed it in, taking some damage from the unhealthy exposure, but he didn't really care. Out of the smoke suddenly flew a swarm of sharp mana shards. Purple in color, some of them disappeared into the portal Seminaris had just put up, more managed to fly around it.

The First of Patience quickly took to the air in an effort to dodge, where she was immediately greeted by a lighting strike from Sylph. It struck and reverberated within the now ungrounded being of comet metal. It did very little in the way of actual damage anyway, but it also didn't need to.

‘Again,’ John commanded walking out of the smoke, quickly conjuring water to quell the fire before it could spread. Not a gesture of niceness for the actual owner of the farm, John simply didn’t want any battlefield developments he didn’t have control over. Although he also was trying to keep damage to the surroundings to a minimum.

Scenes like this had repeated for the past minutes. A steady rotation of attacks kept Seminaris from gathering the Spellpower and time she needed to get herself out of this barrier. Given that she was a Metracana, they had yet to actually do any serious damage to her. Her Astrotium exterior, although more elegant than Metra’s, prevented any of Sylph’s electrical attacks from doing anything serious while she was on the ground. Even that attack just now had done way less than John had anticipated. Shardbound broke on her dress without creating more than a few scratches. Siena had actually broken a claw while trying to attack, leaving her hiding in John’s shadow to the tune of a thousand curses. Even Salamander’s fire had done very little.

Yet, Seminaris was trying to evade their damage. Either she was overestimating them, which John doubted given what he had learned about her eyesight, or the amount of punishment she could take at any given time was limited. Just some analysis John did at the side, since he wasn’t really out to win.

No, all he had to do was wait. Given what he knew about Metracana, it was unlikely Seminaris would collapse once her contractor was out, like any normal Artificial Spirit. However, she would feel it, and John had no doubt that he was going to find out by some reaction that Sigmund was dead. That this hadn’t happened so far was actually the thing he was most worried about.

He had assumed Thana would wipe the floor and murder Sigmund in downwards of thirty seconds. Whatever was happening up there, all John got was an occasional loud noise or a flash of light through the glasses. Something so distracting he eventually just dropped the connection altogether. Not like he hung on those glasses, they were cheap and replaceable.

There were numerous explanations for the delay. Cruelty being the first and foremost. John wasn’t worried, at least not actively. The idea of Thana losing to Sigmund was ridiculous. ‘Eyes on the task,’ John told himself, aware of the irony, and continued to coordinate the attacks.

“Please, just let me get away!” Seminaris shouted down to him.

“Like Sigmund let Imerella get away?” John shouted back, mockery and disdain mixing into a twisted gratification. “Or Terkal? Or the dozens of soldiers he slew that day? The many more before then? I have already sacrificed to remove your master from this world, what the hell makes you think I would waver now?”

He didn’t receive an answer as the fight in the air continued. A constant barrage of lightning, fire, mana shards and the occasional rock being thrown kept the First of Patience moving and spending whatever little bit of force she could build up.

John kept analysing her every move. This was unlikely to be his last encounter with someone who had teleportation powers, figuring out the ruleset and weaknesses could be incredibly valuable in the future. Much of Seminaris’ weaknesses seemed to overlap with what Metra’s drawbacks were.

Most importantly, and commonsensical, distance was the biggest contributor to mana cost. Seminaris had kept herself close during their deadly falling game and every defensive portal she opened, including the one dictating the exit direction, had been near to her own body. More interestingly, direct teleportation evidently was more mana intensive than portals. Otherwise, John really couldn’t explain to himself why she was favouring the latter in almost all situations.

Seminaris bee-lined for the floor. Being up in the skies against two faster opponents opened her up to an extra 180 degrees of attack, and she evidently no longer wanted to give her enemies that advantage. Not that the problem didn’t exist on the ground. ‘Now,’ John told Gnome, who he had been sending half of his mana regeneration to since they had forced Seminaris to fly.

The soil elemental raised her foot and rammed it down to the ankle into the dirt. Where Seminaris stood, the ground solidified into plates that closed around her like the jaws of a Venus flytrap. Millennia of experience allowed her to act immediately, teleporting one metre to the side and hacking at Salamander. Short as the blade of her staff was and as magically weighted her Stats were, the hit was still surprising and found its mark, the weapon ramming into the fire spirit’s shoulder.

Salamander took it with a clenched smile. “Are we getting desperate?” she asked, fire flickering from her tainted eye as the black marks over her body heated up into the colour of glowing metal. Seminaris was hit point blank by a punch in the stomach. Although Salamander did specialize in ranged combat, she was perfectly capable and sturdy enough to engage in close quarters as well.

Her fist collided with her target and exploded in a cascade of endflame. Thrown back, the First of Patience broke through the hardened earth that had been meant to squash her. John sent his replacement sphere ahead and slowly made his way over. Seminaris was laying on the floor, a dent the shape of Salamander’s gauntleted fist in her grey dress.

“I think I get it now,” John hummed as he approached her, the depression quickly disappearing. “You have less Astrotium than Metra, don’t you?” he asked and immediately earned himself a pissed glance. Metra’s armour would never have dented like that. Those two things were all John needed to confirm his suspicion. “Ah, well, look at that. They were probably experimenting with the lowest necessary amount of Astrotium when going the second time around?”

“So, what if they did?” Seminaris had none of her usual composure left, desperation and rage reflected in her eyes when she stared up to him. “Let the meathead have the metal, I embraced more of mother’s being than she did. Of all the Metracanas,” she spat that word out with complete disdain for the sister that had gotten the name, “I am one of two who stayed as one. All of mother’s patience, I unified inside me.”

“Knowing what little I do about Tiamat, I can’t imagine that was much harder than holding even a speck of her rage,” John smirked, staring blindly ahead while the sphere hovered teasingly in front of Seminaris’ face. He was ready to have any number of attacks dropped on the First of Patience, kneeling on all fours in the pressed down wheat. Of course he was aware that talking like this was to her advantage, but he had her at such a hopeless position that he didn’t feel too threatened to have her build up this little bit of power. “Goddess of chaos, right? Can’t imagine she was ever too keen on waiting.”

To his surprise, Seminaris only had laughter to that. A genuine, baffled laughter, as if John had just said something so stupid it deserved its own page in a book holding the greatest fools in the world. “Mother chaos didn’t carry herself as the patient one, that much I give you, John Newman. However, mother was always ready to wait…” the First of Patience grabbed her staff tighter, “…sit tightly behind all seals and bonds those that feared her power put around her…” all of the elementals were at the ready, “…and as convoluted, self-destructive or terrible her plans may have been, she always got what she wanted by slowly – creeping – up. From the outside. From the inside. Carving into her own flesh to create children that would defeat her. That would seal her. That would carry out her will without anyone ever knowing.” Seminaris smiled widely. “Don’t try to lecture me on the patience of mother chaos, for she always feasts on order when the time is ripe. You truly are just a new man, perhaps boy would be more accurate.”

“You talk way too much,” Salamader decided, igniting a flame in her left hand and stomping closer from behind.

“I know you’re there, I know your master calculated this to happen,” Seminaris stated and John furrowed his eyebrows, something was off with the way she looked at him and how she said that. As if he wasn’t really who she was talking to. “If my pleas aren’t enough, then I swear on Tiamat’s name that I will do whatever you want – if you only let me get away.”

“Do you need your ears cleaned?” John had to ask, “I already told y-“ he stopped when Seminaris disappeared from everyone’s vision. No arcane light of teleportation accompanied her vanishment. It was much more like that time a blank had disappeared before John. Except Seminaris couldn’t have been one of those. ‘Invisibility? Of what level?’ John wondered as the replacement sphere desperately turned around to look for something that wasn’t there anymore.

The Gamer kicked the floor where she had just been. He hit nothing. Whatever cloaking spell had just spread itself over her was terrifyingly potent if John and none of his elementals, not even Siena, had noticed any movement in a wheat field.

‘A goddamn WHEAT field,’ he told himself and threw a circle of Shardbounds so tiny that none of them would do any damage. All they were supposed to do was hit them and reveal their position. None of them did. He clenched his teeth.

The day was not yet lost; his Fateweaver skills must keep the First of Patience preparing an escape skill at least for a little while. Her mana reserves also had to be at least somewhat depleted. John closed his eyes, a symbolic gesture more than anything else, and concentrated.

There had been someone else here. Since when, he didn’t know. Neither did it matter, at least not right now. Who that other master was, who this invisible person was, he could think about all of that once he had found them. The replacement sphere hit the floor with an earthy thud. John had no use for it right now. All his consciousness was moved in service of someone else now.

Whenever John had one of his elementals equipped, their minds were merged with his. Their skills were at his disposal. As were their sensibilities. Normally, this bond was dominated by John’s active spirit as he was the body who acted. However, right now, it wasn’t him who needed to lead.

Undine’s thoughts washed over his and encapsulated him completely, as smooth as a drop of water at zero gravity. When he still had his eyes, much of the way Undine sensed the world had been a mystery to him. Even now he didn’t understand half of it. All he did know was that he could wield it now.

The miniscule vibrations in the air filled his entire being. Himself, first and foremost, the pumping of blood, the steady draw and exuding of air, it was deafening in comparison to everything else. Quiet noises, smaller vibrations, Undine tangled up with Sylph and Gnome, borrowed their senses. The water spirit’s reliance on others to see had made her a master at drawing and hiding select information from those connected to her. A talent used for great and terrible things in the past, now extended to John while he sunk into the lack of visual perception.

Earth moved under John’s feat and he was almost ready to strike before he realized those couldn’t be his enemy. Too many movements, small, all around him. Worms, not two people moving hidden deeply. The invisibility spell selectively overwrote so much of John’s perception that it almost created a new depth of paranoia inside him. Whoever this was, he, she or it could have been around John forever now and he would never have known.

Deeper, even quieter noises, slighter vibrations. There had to be something. Nothing was perfect. Even if the spell was in theory, whoever was using it had to make a mistake at some point. An infrequency in the refreshment, the buzzing of magic. Something.

‘THERE!’ John screamed mentally and whirled around. He jumped at the crouching presence, only a few steps away from him, dropping Mana Protection so it wouldn’t get in the way and grabbed something. Something thin and sharp, cutting through Undine’s glove form and into his hand. Crimson his blood ran down an invisible dagger. Within moments, his left grabbed further down, successfully catching an arm.

Who he had caught was heavy. Extremely heavy. An attempt to throw him or her away failed, but a backwards drag worked. Slowly, the First of Patience faded back into his view, whoever he was holding as invisible as before. A female voice reached his ear. “Don’t forget your promise to our father, Seminaris.”

“Stop her!” John shouted with mind and lung. Absolutely futile. Not only were his elementals already moving, but even their combined attacks failed to rip Seminaris out of her concentration. A golden arch of lighting, engulfed in grey flames hit the second Metracana, just as spikes of condensed and enchanted earth clashed against her. Both attacks broke on her exterior.

“Still enough Astrotium for you,” Seminaris’ lips returned his mockery in kind, he didn’t need to see the expression to know as much, as she vanished to a flash of purple light.

John clenched his teeth, a second later. Pain, a sensation he no longer suffered from unless the sources were magical, suddenly exploded from his abdomen like a cluster bomb had gone off in his guts. From the eyes of Gnome he saw how blood quickly seeped into his white shirt through a clean gash. A second invisible dagger, rammed down to the hilt.

The effects were immediate. John’s muscles began to involuntarily contract and release. He tried to at least keep his left hand in place until someone else could grab the almost undetectable foe. Shivers, like he was suffering from a heavy frost, forced him to release his left hand. The dagger was pulled from his stomach, then his thumb was pried open with one skilled move.

Everyone was grasping at the air in front of John, but the presence was already gone. A bit of rustling in the wheat was the best they could get, without actually seeing any of the straws moving. An illusion of normalcy completely covered the direction she had fled in.

‘Dammit,’ John thought as Undine’s healing magic pumped into him. Gamer’s Body closed both wounds, then his health was topped off and the shivers became less, only to disappear completely. “Well, got only myself to blame for that one,” he mumbled and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Hey, Stirwin, you think I will ever learn to not assume I already won in situations like this?’

‘No,’ the unintelligent voice of the crocodile echoed with a surprising amount of understanding in his spirit. To the end, even that stopgap jaw on his pride hadn’t bitten warningly. Given the information they had had, the boasting he had done was apparently still at acceptable levels.

“Well… better go up that mountain,” he groaned and got on his feet. Seminaris wouldn’t get there quickly, albeit much quicker than him. It was highly unlikely that she would find a scene she liked, even if Sigmund was somehow still alive. ‘What if he somehow wins though…?’ he thought.