Focusing on defence had been the right call.

The plasma mage had barely given Percy and Kassorith a chance to get off the ground and wrap themselves in a thick roll of steel before he began firing devastating projectiles by the dozens. Each purple orb hovered beside them for the briefest of instants – for reasons that Percy had yet to figure out – before slamming violently into their barrier from all sorts of insidious angles.

The scorching flares deformed the shield on impact much like the lava user's attacks had – but the plasma projectiles were even faster and more numerous. At least, the ravaged metal blocked most of the force behind each blast, but couldn't do much against the heat, which penetrated just as easily as the sound mage's concussive blows. If it hadn't been for the two domains coating Kassorith's body, they would have likely been disqualified already.

'How the hell is he doing this while spending the same amount of mana as us?!' Kassorith demanded, frustration evident in his voice.

'Skill? A stronger domain than either of our own? A good affinity matchup? All of the above?' Percy offered, though he wasn't feeling much better about it than his host. 'Try to gain some distance. Maybe fleeing will cost us less mana than blocking.'

The situation wasn't sustainable, but Percy wanted to understand something that had been bothering him for a while, before settling on a concrete plan. They could probably win this if he spared some of his willpower to draw some runes on their shield, thus lessening the strain on their reserves, yet he had a hunch that there was a better path to victory in this particular battle – one that didn't involve revealing their final trump card in the preliminaries. Not that their opponent was weak – far from it – but something about the way he fought rubbed Percy in a peculiar way.

Following his suggestion, Kassorith shot out of the arena atop his greatsword, plasma flares continuing to rain on him almost without pause. The attacks only slowed down slightly as Kassorith gained altitude, but the plasma mage was hot on their tail, propelled by two steady jets of purple mana shooting from his palms. The man quickly regained his bearings and resumed his relentless onslaught as they all dove into the dome of mist and clouds above the pillar, normally held at bay by the stadium's enchantments.

Percy furrowed his host's brow, thinking there had been something off with the brief exchange.

'Why did his attacks slow down for a while?'

The plasma mage's accuracy was way higher than it should have been – considering how quickly and erratically both he and Kassorith were moving. But it had suffered for some reason, until they reached the clouds.

Strictly speaking, Kassorith was probably the weakest contestant in the entire tournament without Percy's help, but he was still far stronger than a regular Blue, and his skillset was quite balanced – his flying speed included. Their opponent shouldn't be having such an easy time landing over ninety percent of his shots as they both zigzagged through the fog-obscured air. Something else was going on. It was almost as if the man could tell where they would move a second before they did it.

'Does he have a bloodline similar to my Greater Foresight spell? Is that how he knew whenever he was safe from those stray projectiles during the other fights?'

The realization caused a faint smile to creep up the corners of Percy's borrowed lips.

'Why are you smirking like an idiot?!' Kassorith snapped, pressing Percy impatiently. 'Please tell me you've figured something out!'

'I'm working on it,' Percy responded, rolling their eyes. 'Just give me some time.'

'Well, hurry the fuck up! Our mana is already down by a fifth, and I can't even spare a moment to check how much he has! But I bet it's more than us!'

The urgency of the situation helped suppress Percy's bubbling enthusiasm. As confident as he was in his assessment, figuring out their opponent's bloodline was only half the battle. Finding a way to deal with it was no less important. Normally, a predictive skill like this would have been extremely difficult to beat – all of the powerful mages Percy had slain over the years would readily attest to that. However, Percy wasn't as worried as somebody else in his shoes would – or should – have been, because he was in a unique position to crack the man's ability.

Percy knew that perfectly predicting the future was impossible.

It fluctuated too much, even projections of the very next moment potentially shifting several times before they became reality – depending on all sorts of minor decisions and variables that constantly changed during a heated battle. The best that people like him and his current opponent could do, was to take their best guess, based on whatever information they had available. The deeper into the future they attempted to pry, and the less data they had access to, the blurrier that guess was bound to be.

'So, I just need to figure out what information he is basing his predictions off, and tamper with it,' Percy concluded. 'It has to be more than just his regular senses, doesn't it?'

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The thermal vision the Thess'kalans possessed was fancy but entirely useless in a high-level battle like this – especially one involving fire- and lightning-based composite affinities. Kassorith's forked tongue couldn't sense anything past the superheated barrier of molten steel protecting them, and Percy doubted their opponent was having an easier time. Even if it hadn't been for the metal, the extreme temperature of the air in their surroundings had definitely cloaked their negligible body heat.

Mana Sense wouldn't help the plasma user much either, because the thick wall of steel – dense in Blue mana as it was – should have obscured Kassorith's internal flow as well. Soul Vision was also out of the question, as their opponent didn't have the right affinity for it.

That only left the mundane senses – just sight and hearing, really, from that distance. Maybe even a way to sense the flow of willpower. Percy wouldn't count on the plasma mage being able to do that, but he included the possibility just to be thorough – since their opponent was an experienced Blue who had probably spent centuries fighting with and against domains.

Still…

'It's not enough information. If it was me, I wouldn't have been able to tell a thing in this situation.'

And yet, there was no doubt that the plasma mage was predicting their moves. This only left one explanation. The man's bloodline didn't just allow him to compile all this information into a projection of the future – it also granted him an additional sense. One that neither Percy nor anybody else possessed – an extra source of data to rely on. All Percy had to do, was to find out what this sense was, and to figure out a way to inhibit it. That ought to make their opponent a lot weaker, instantly tilting the scales to their favour.

'But what is it?'

Thinking back to the start of the battle, the only time the plasma user's attacks had slowed was during their initial climb out of the stadium. What if it wasn't just the brief adjustment period that had made the man's life harder, but something about the environment?

Percy mentally shook his head.

'That doesn't make any sense. It was just empty air – the same as here. If anything, it was even cleaner inside the dome, since it wasn't shrouded in mist. Shouldn't that have made it easier for him to collect whatever information he needs?'

Or maybe not. Perhaps, the clouds actually helped more than they hurt. Then again, the man's predictive ability had worked just as well by the floor of the arena, and there weren't any clouds there.

What did the ground have in common with the clouds?

A powerful impact – slightly stronger than the rest – shook the melting barrier, breaking Percy out of his thoughts. The shockwave rattled his host's bones, the twin domains struggling to fend off the scorching heat. For a moment, Percy almost regretted not donating the ingredients for Kassorith to undergo the ritual – the Greater Thess'kalan Physique would have made the heat easier to endure.

Then, he remembered that they hadn't had enough time to take the bath anyway.

'Stop spacing out! It's barely been a hundred breaths and we're already down to half our mana!' Kassorith yelled. 'Just use your runes! Who cares if everyone learns about them? We'll worry about the finals later – it's better than losing in the preliminaries!'

'Shut up and let me focus,' Percy replied calmly. His rude response elicited a round of cursing from his host, but he didn't care. 'I think I'm onto something here,' Percy added, putting the debate to rest.

Kassorith wasn't entirely wrong, of course. The Instantaneous Imprints held the potential of turning the battle around if they used them in a smart way, but the window to do that effectively was shrinking with every drop of mana leaving their core. The plasma mage's projectiles had already turned their own steel barrier into a self-created death trap – a metallic oven slowly cooking them alive.

Percy had to do something, and he had to do it fast. Still, he was a greedy person. He didn't just want to win this fight, or stop at the life-extending leaf that waited for him after his victory against the plasma mage. He wanted more. He wanted everything.

Why shouldn't he?

He was the only Red-born in the universe who dared to dream of becoming a god. As somebody who wished to achieve the impossible, he had to strive for it at every turn. He had to surpass everyone else – the Yellow-borns, the Green-borns, the elite disciples, the demigods, the titans, the greater springs, and even the Moirai…

Opportunities like this tournament didn't come by every day. Percy would be damned if he let one slip through his fingers. He couldn't afford to only think about this battle – he had to position himself as well as he could to win the next four rounds as well.

'Come on, Percy… think… what does the ground have in common with the clouds?!'

The flares continued to slam onto their barrier one after another. Percy couldn't tell which way their opponent was attacking them from, since the spells kept coming from every direction. By now, Kassorith had no choice but to fly randomly, since they couldn't spare a sliver of attention to locate the plasma mage.

'Wait… every direction? Why is he going overboard like that?'

Blocking an enemy's escape routes was never a bad plan, but that wasn't exactly applicable in this fight. Kassorith could still smash his way out of the encirclement whenever he wanted – the impacts on his metallic shield just cost him more mana and willpower. But the plasma mage was landing almost all of his blows anyway, so it didn't make a difference whether he fired them in a straight line or at an angle. If anything, it would have been more efficient not to waste time or energy diverting the paths of his spells.

Unless there was a reason for doing so.

'Come to think of it, I never figured out why he delayed his initial attack long enough to surround us with orbs…'

It was almost like the man wanted – no. Needed – to have dozens of constructs around Kassorith at all times. Could that be related to the mystery sense he was using to predict their movements? But how would the purple flares even help with that? All they did was release a ton of heat… pack a lot of force… and… shine brightly.

Percy gasped, everything finally clicking together.

The ground and the clouds that had aided their opponent… The empty air that had worsened the man's predictions instead of improving them… And the bright orbs that had to constantly shine on Kassorith from nearly every angle!

'It's the shadows!' Percy exclaimed, his reptilian heart skipping a beat. 'That's how he's guessing our moves!'

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