Chapter 768: Use It... Use Your Magic
Gabby came at Liam harder than before, and this time, she stopped trying to test him in simple straight lines.
Her flames changed first. Instead of only wrapping around her fists and legs, they began to pulse in shorter, sharper bursts along her limbs, flaring and tightening in controlled intervals that made each movement look like it had two beats instead of one.
Fire flashed around her right hand as she threw a high feint toward Liam’s face, but before the flame even reached its full shape, air compressed beneath her left foot and snapped her body sideways, turning the feint into a fast, low entry toward his ribs.
Liam shifted back, but Gabby did not follow in the same line. She kicked off the floor with a burst of wind, spun with her right leg cutting upward in a flame-coated arc, and used the rotation to send a short crescent of fire across the space between them.
Liam leaned beneath the kick, turned his shoulder away from the crescent, and let the heat pass close enough to warm the side of his neck. His foot slid across the platform as he gave ground, not retreating wildly, but stepping with controlled precision, each movement just enough to avoid the next impact.
Gabby did not let the distance remain open. She landed, pressed both palms toward the floor, and released a sudden blast of air behind herself that launched her forward again, flames streaking from her arms as she crossed the gap like an arrow released from a bow.
’Use your affinity,’ Gabby thought, her teeth pressing together as she drove a punch toward Liam’s chest. ’Use it.’
Liam redirected the punch with the back of his wrist and turned his torso to avoid the second strike that came immediately after. Gabby used the momentum of his redirection instead of fighting it. She let her arm swing past, pivoted on the ball of her foot, and sent her other elbow toward his jaw, the flame around it tightening into a sharp orange-blue edge.
Liam dipped his head and stepped closer rather than farther away, forcing her elbow to pass over his shoulder. For an instant, he was inside her range again, but Gabby had learned from the first two losses. She snapped air outward from her back and slid herself diagonally away before he could fully capitalize, then used that distance to kick a burst of flame toward his feet.
Liam lifted one foot, stepped over the flame line, and shifted his body around the second burst that followed. The attack was not meant to hit him directly. He realized that the moment he felt the air change. Gabby had used the flame to make him choose a foot placement, and now the compressed air around the platform floor surged upward in a sudden pressure snap meant to disrupt his balance. Liam twisted his ankle just enough to avoid being caught flat-footed, but the edge of the air burst still clipped his stance and forced him to slide back half a step.
From the side, Sasha gasped and immediately cheered. "Yes! That almost got him!"
Anna’s eyes were wide, but more focused than excited. "She forced him to move differently."