Eksi sighed to himself as yet another fireball whizzed past his head. It had been a good couple of minutes that Eksi had been sitting there, behind some ruined cover, while the Mage of the Dessaron spammed balls of various elements in his direction. Occasionally, Eksi would lean over the cover and fire back with his gun staff, but neither him nor the Mage had managed to land any direct hits.
The reason why was quite obvious in Eksi’s opinion.
“Are you done yet, Tenuk?” Eksi shouted.
“Not at all!” was the Mage’s reply. “Your cover, your telekinetic shields, they can’t last forever!”
“Thought as much…” Eksi sighed some more. While Tenuk was technically right about Eksi’s shields lasting for ever, the time scales required were a bit silly. Eksi knew that he could hold a telekinetic barrier for at least a couple of hours, but he had no real clue as to how much stamina Tenuk had.
“So why are you hesitating?”
“I’m not hesitating. Just playing it safe. I know what you telepaths are capable of!” Tenuk’s words were somewhat venomous. But Tenuk’s logic didn’t make much sense. Range wasn’t really an issue for Eksi’s telepathy, he was just struggling to find his way in past Tenuk’s own telepathic shielding. What made things even stranger was that, well, Tenuk was hesitating. Quite a lot. He was a good 20m away, with his own cover, a pile of rubble, to hide behind.
If anything, Eksi was starting to get bored. If he moved from his cover, Tenuk would shoot him. If he stayed behind his cover, Tenuk would still shoot him. Not just with fireballs, but with balls of ice, electricity, and, weirdly, plain water. All things that would have been very painful to be hit by, but also not exactly good for breaking cover.
What Eksi really needed was some sort of distraction. Even just for a moment. He just needed to slip into Tenuk’s thoughts and quickly knock him out. After all, Eksi didn’t really want to hurt Tenuk. He wasn’t thinking straight. He was under some awful mind control and wasn’t acting on his own free will.
“Eksi, are you busy?” a voice suddenly echoed through Eksi’s mind. It was Teekay, talking telepathically.
“Not really, just hiding behind cover…” Eksi replied. “Tenuk is just spamming fireballs at me.”
“Alright. Good.”
Teekay fell silent, leaving Eksi quite confused. He glanced over from behind his cover to see Tenuk still firing balls of fire in his general direction. Eksi fired his gun staff in Tenuk’s direction, but nothing hit.
“Come on, let me hit you already!” Tenuk growled. “Stop hid- OOF!”
Suddenly, Tenuk stepped back, as something skidded through his open legs. Tenuk began to tumble, but managed to reorientate himself. Confused, Tenuk span around, only to be hit directly by something much larger. This time, Tenuk tumbled to the ground properly, losing his concentration.
“Elksi?”
“Tenuk?”
The Scythe of the Dessaron collided with the Mage of the Dessaron, confusing them and knowing each other to the ground.
“I thought-”
“You’re…”
The two Dessaron stared at each other, completely lost in thought, until, suddenly, both of them fell unconscious.
“Good job, Eksi!” Teekay beamed, glad that his plan worked. “I knew a distraction would let us in! Thank heavens for our telepathy…”