Chapter 101: You Lose
Mela didn’t wait. She flicked her wrist.
The swarm of needles shot forward like a silver storm, all of them screaming through the air right at Lola. They were so fast it was hard to even see them. Lola’s body moved on pure instinct, a desperate dive to the side. She rolled across the dirt as the needles slammed into the massive tree she had been standing in front of.
The thick bark turned black and started to smoke where the needles hit. The poison was no joke.
Lola was on her feet in an instant. ’She’s a ranged fighter,’ she thought, her mind racing. ’She wants to keep me at a distance.’ she wasn’t going to play that game.
She threw one of her smoke pellets onto the ground. It exploded, and the clearing filled with thick, black smoke once again. She moved inside the smoke, her footsteps completely silent, a ghost in the manufactured night.
But Mela didn’t panic. She just stood in the center of the clearing and closed her eyes, spreading her hands out. The other needles that were still floating around her began to hum, sending out little pulses of invisible mana, like sonar.
Lola felt one of the pulses pass right through her.
Mela’s eyes snapped open. She pointed right into the heart of the smoke.
"Found you."
The rest of the needles, which had returned to float around her, shot into the smoke cloud. Lola cursed and threw herself backward, barely avoiding the deadly volley. The needles buried themselves in the dirt right where she had been.
Lola knew she couldn’t stay hidden. She had to close the distance. She burst out of the smoke, a low, fast shape running right at Mela.