If they die… If they die, it'd be because of me, wouldn't it? I would be the one who killed them. And, here I am, unable to make the decision I need to because I could end up getting killed if I fail… How can I be like this? Why am I this pathetic!? I need to put my own life on the line as well. I need to make this hail Mary without waiting any longer. Fuck… this is going to be the last shot I have.
Right now, his fail-safe method, the way most guaranteed to lead to victory against his opponent, is to force his body to evolve to its current maximum potential based on all the energy currently within his body.
All of it.
He has a good well of energy within him right now from all the heat that Orin has provided for him through his overflowing fires. He's also been amassing energy slowly since he came to this world as well. He has never used up all of it.
There is always a reserve of energy left even after the training he and Shaula partake in every day, except on the days he and she train their spatial powers. It is almost always too much energy to use at once.
Until today. He pushed himself farther than he ever thought possible today, out of necessity. He used that energy to bring himself out of every difficult situation he found himself in. Which is why he knows he can tap into every single last drop of energy within himself. If he uses up all of his reserves, he can muster the agility and strength necessary to defeat the burning man for good.
The only problem is that obviously this method is a glass cannon. He'll have mere seconds of movement, maybe minutes if he's lucky, at a speed faster than human comprehension. After those seconds are up however, he'll be spent.
His pace might even slow down to that of a normal human's, one with no strength or speed increases at all. His regeneration might even suffer, just like when he overuses his spatial power. If he isn't able to kill Orin within those few seconds, he leaves himself vulnerable to Orin's own speed.
Orin could pull off a devastating counter attack that Ajax wouldn't be able to react to in time. The man has surprised Ajax at every moment of this battle. He could still have trump cards to use that Ajax couldn't predict. Magic is a scary thing.
But, you have no choice now, do you… Ajax thinks to himself. It's now or never. You can save this building as well as the next one. You can make sure that Dzan and Sigvor don't die. Only you can. You need to atone with your life on the line for sending the two of them to die. You need to.
Ajax floods his body with overwhelming energy. So much energy that his eyes start glowing blue. He remembers the moment before he came to this world when his body was destroying and rebuilding itself in that English classroom. The feeling of his blood electrifying him… It is now as it was then.
His mind enters a state of extreme focus as he watches Orin prepare his next attack. His veins throb, some of them becoming defined through his skin, appearing thicker. Even Orin can perceive his opponent's drastic shift.
Ajax's heartbeat is perhaps 6000 beats per minute, but he doesn't have enough energy. He needs more of it. So he finds more. The walls of the hallway around him start to become covered in frost. For a brief moment, the fire on Orin's body is snuffed out completely before starting up again. The hallway floor within two paces around him becomes covered in thin mounds of snow made of the air itself.
Ajax's body also forms a thin coating of armor made of frozen air. His fingertips form sharp claws, long enough to extend his reach by a couple inches. Of course, these tools he's fashioned for himself, though not brittle, are still made of ice and capable of shattering if too much force were to be applied. Nevertheless, he cannot forgo using every last method at this point. Every little bit of reach will help him.
All the while, Ajax is wondering to himself if everything he can think to do and is doing is enough. The thought goes through his mind over and over, many times per second. Is he giving his life for a plan that has no chance of succeeding in the first place? What if his opponent has more moves left? He cannot know for certain.
No. No more worries. It'll all be over soon anyways. It's now… or never!
Orin can see the boy running towards him. However, it's not the same as before. The boy becomes a blur. The burning man's eyes cannot catch the sight very clearly, but his ears perceive something careening towards his body.
Wherever Ajax steps, the wood flooring shatters like the thin ice on a lake's surface; Orin's mind encourages him to leave all other concerns behind and flee immediately. He tries to back away rapidly with his front to the enemy, too afraid to take his eyes off the monster rushing towards him. Even though he cannot see him clearly anymore.
Unfortunately, his opponent is already on him. Ajax tries to reach out his clawed hand in a tackle leap and Orin can only sense its movement because of his body enhancement spell.
The feeling of rushing, cold air on the surface of his skin is palpable. The white fire engulfing his body also acts like a sensory net and wherever the net is extinguished, he knows an attack is imminent from his enemy. One of those attacks tries to come for his chest. Rather than using a conventional movement, Orin falls in panic, his back hitting the ground.
Ajax flies through the air farther than he had wanted to go, due to having missed his leaping tackle. He knows that his first shot was the most likely to have succeeded. Now all following attacks won't have the element of surprise. Ajax feels fear. What kind of luck does his enemy have to be able to dodge in that lackluster manner?
It feels like the world is not on his side right now.
