My instinct was to fight against it. I used my flight, going up when she wanted to take me down. I used my aura, which was more effective when people were close, and she was wrapped around my head. I used my forcefield, only for one moment, while reaching up, putting my forearm against her ribs, and pried her off of me.

She used her power in the same instant she was pried off—fast enough that I was left with the feeling she had expected to use it while still holding onto me. Her landing looked like a rough one, sprawling, one shin, one foot, one hand bracing against the ground as she skidded.

I saw her slowly clench and unclench her hands, rolling one shoulder. She didn’t stand.

“Hoo,” I said. My heart was pounding, and I fanned myself a bit with my hand. “You do remember this is a training exercise, right?”

“You do realize my team is going to win this?” she retorted. Her hands shifted position slightly.

Her face gave away nothing, I realized. It didn’t help that with the dust, her hair across her face, and the last remaining spots of light in my vision, I couldn’t make out her pupils. Her hands and where they were pointing were one of her tells. Her shoulders another. She was thin, but especially as she crouched there, hands slightly behind her and at her sides, shoulders pointing forward, I could see the muscles underneath the skin around her shoulder and shoulder blade.

Was there power or Manton protection there, keeping her from dislocating her shoulders when she used the recoil to move around like that? Was it just strength and practice?

I’d relied on instinct to respond to her, and I didn’t love that I’d relied on that instinct. I wanted to be careful and thoughtful about the moves I made and Ashley’s approach allowed absolutely none of that. I was left to digest that I’d reacted to her by fighting, going the opposite direction instead of the judo-like approach of using the enemy’s strength against them.

Was I okay with that? If I had to rationalize my choice, I’d fought her because I could only use the enemy’s momentum against them if I knew which way they were going, and Ashley was hard to predict.

Well, just a bit less difficult now, as I stopped looking for more obvious tells. She had stopped rolling her shoulder. I saw the muscles tense.

“Victoria!”

The shout interrupted both of us, as she planned her next move and I readied my response. It was Tristan calling. Ashley and I both looked.

“Come and help!” he called out.

I flew back and away, out of Ashley’s reach, looking.