When she realized that she was preventing you from focusing on the task at hand, she stopped moving, and tightened herself around your body.

“That’s more like it.” you whispered, before swinging your sword at the first cluster of fireballs. Since there were this many, you had to be sure that each of your swings were as efficient as possible. And that meant having to take out multiple fireballs in one stroke. Like so.

You leaned your body slightly away from the flaming projectiles, Mercy quivering from the heat that they were giving off. All the while, your Atlantean blade’s edge was gliding through the fireballs and…cutting them clean in half!?

Your sword came out the other end, glowing a little brighter than it had before, but completely unscathed. And along the path that the sword’s edge had traveled, there existed a gap in which Janine’s magic simply didn’t exist. You had literally carved a path straight through the path of her spell!

You swiftly rotated the sword in your hand, and swung out with another horizontal slash going in the opposite direction, allowing you to bisect another two fireballs. You spun away from them before they could touch your clothes, and kept a careful watch over all the ones you’d slashed so far.

With their magic disrupted, each one fizzled out, and faded into embers.

“Look forward!” Mercy warned.

You swung your head back around and tucked it to the side just in time to avoid a fireball to the face. It was immediately followed by another, which you side-stepped easily enough. Another three were still headed your way.

You rotated your sword, slammed it into the first of the oncoming volley, batting it away so that it could explode harmlessly into the ground. You maintained your sword form and swatted the second one away as well. But for the third, you decided to do something a little different.

Instead of deflecting the projectile into the ground, you made use of the fireball’s momentum and allowed your body to move with it. You twirled around, spun your sword along your wrist, and launched the fireball back at Janine with another swing.

Her eyes widened, and she extended a finger in your direction. A bolt of light shot from its tip and struck the incoming fireball, causing the whole thing to burst into a tiny cloud of smoke. You expected her to be annoyed, or surprised, but the little girl looked delighted that you had even attempted such a thing.

“Haha! That. Was. AWESOME! Do it again!” the little witch girl cackled.

Her laughter must’ve been contagious, because you soon found yourself joining in. Even Harpy was watching you both with some curiosity. The only one opposed to all this was currently hiding his eyes behind a single raised paw.

“Please…just tell me when it’s over…” he sighed.

(Cont.)