“Um, what conditions?”

“First, don’t tell anyone about my abilities. I will not reveal anything I may learn about yours. Secondly, we duel for 500 guild points, in a free-for-all, anything-goes duel to the death. Are these terms agreeable?”

Wondering what Aurora’s abilities were, Alan readily agreed.

They were transported into the center of what appeared to be a Roman coliseum, and the countdown began. Alan activated his hyper cognition ability, despite the steady pain that now accompanied its use. He felt like he might need it.

Despite the free for all settings, Aurora made no motion to reach for the knife at her side. Instead, she calmly faced Alan, looking at him. Alan had a bad feeling about this. The countdown reached zero, and Aurora made a sudden hand motion, clutching her fist as a wave of energy emerged from her hands.

BELOW, Eve yelled at Alan, as ice began to emerge at his feet. Desperately, Alan tried to dodge to the side, but he was simply too slow, and the ice erupted from the ground, encapsulating Alan, sealing his movements. While he could see this happening, he simply did not have the speed or ability to stop it. He vainly tried to get off a laser shot at the ice, but it had no effect. Trapped in the ice, Alan could do nothing except watch as Aurora slowly walked towards him, alert. She seemed on edge, like she couldn’t believe how easy the fight had been.

God damn it, isn’t that ability too OP? Is there anything we can do? What was that attack?

That was a psionic ability, most likely some sort of element control. In our current state, it is rather problematic, and unfortunately it does not appear there is anything we can do.

So, every time we run up against a psionic player we’re just gonna die? Also why was everyone so cautious to face off against us if such a simple ability can completely shut me down?

Psionics users are fairly rare, with about one in a thousand users demonstrating much psionic ability at all. Fewer still possess abilities that are so combat oriented or strong. This Aurora must be incredibly talented or was taught a number of secret abilities by her mother, probably a combination of both. Additionally, many of the guild members, and some of the ones we faced, probably aren’t too heavily focused on one on one combat, and have invested their points or have classes that aren’t as relevant to these duels. In the future, we will hopefully have items or allies capable of counteracting such psionic attacks.

Suddenly, the headache from using the hypercognition mode became increasingly painful, transforming from a mild ache into a splitting, mind numbing pierce. Groaning with pain, Alan quickly deactivated the ability.

Aurora stopped before Alan, tilting her head to the side, lips pursed, examining him with a thoughtful expression. Alan could only silently stare back, feeling his cheeks turn red.

“You don’t have any psionic abilities, do you?” Aurora asked, removing the ice encapsulating his face with a wave.