The array was forming slowly but I figured I would rather be safe than sorry taking leaps backwards.
The sand around her hardend into spikes and rolled towards me quickly.
The array was completed by the time I took my second leap and as soon as it formed the sand hardened.
It couldn't have been any clearer what was the cause.
Unlike before all the energy she emitted was getting sucked in by the array in front of her, 'Looks like she is betting it all on this' I thought and I was right.
She wasn't going to take the chance of wearing me down, she was not going to make the mistake of underestimating me.
I could see the energy flow from her to the array and then to the space below her, usually it would take time for me to manipulate mass like that.
She broke all my preconceived concepts with that one array.
The sand spikes moved so fast they looked like ripples on the surface.
I jumped in the air and when they collided with each other a metalic screeching could be heard.
'How are those things so hard' I asked myself as I darted towards the woman, I had to finish this.
Unluckily for me she twisted her hand and formed a few gestures like she was using sign language and the ripples began chasing me.
I growled in frustration and accelerated but I knew I wouldn't be able to beat the sand spikes rolling through the sand.
Three quick pulses of energy propell me into the air as I jump to get close to the woman.
She performed a few more hand signs and then gripped her spear, a downward slash that would meet me in the air.
In front of me was the swinging blade ready to bisect me and behind me was the sand spikes closing in.
In that moment right before the hardened sand reached me the last bit of my mana core exploded behind me blowing the hardened sand into smitherines while propelling me forward.
I shot forward like a bullet stabbing my sword between her collorbone and shoulder.
As she falls back with me on top of her I remove the blade intending to stab her to death.
I say intending because there was one spike that didn't get blown up and was coming right at me.
Leaping forward I try to roll but she gripped my cloak making me reach back and hack at her managing to leave another large wound on her thigh.
I rolled forward and looked back to see the sand dissapating and falling harmlessly only a few inches away from my face.
She was lying on her back with blood coming out of her mouth while she stared at me, knashing her teeth.
I saw her blood glow and what was coming out was moving like she had parasites rolling along the ground.
I turned around and unceremoniously ran away.
The way her blood rolled gave me the chills, I wasn't going to stick around and see what other tricks she can pull out.
"Mutkalif! MMUUTTKKKAALLIIFF" she screamed while she clawed at the ground wanting to get up.
She lost too much blood and she used the last bit of mana she had in that sand attack.
I'm just as spent as she is but I'm not bleeding out.
I round a sand dune and am out of sight, blood dripping down my hand.
I ran for the rest of the day and at night I trudged and did the thing that always kept my mind off pain, I counted.
It wasn't until that nights sky began to brighten did I collapse losing consciousness fully, one of the handful of times since I was born.
I woke to my skin burning, the cloak I was wearing defended against the rays but did little to protect me from the heat.
Ava was also fast asleep in her bottle, My stomach growls as I move my limbs.
One foot in front of the other was the game plan, my mana core was so thin it was almost non existent.
I couldn't even feel the difference from my inner and outer cores.
Step by step I move forward, until Ava reaches out to me and I convulse.
She understands instantly what she did wrong, her energy was poisenous to me without my energy protecting me.
'Is this it'? I ask myself as I feel my mucsles convulsing hard enough to launch my organs out of my body.
'Son of a bitch, I should have left that oasis alone'.
I think back on a familiar memory that I have back on earth.
It was Christmas and I was at Leelands house with his family.
"Momma we bout to feed da gata, you wan sumfin'? Leeland said to the thin dark skinned women as she put the dishes away.
'Naw suga you jus ask Twin what she need' Twin was his other mother, a Japanese American who was a veteran of the twenty year war in the middle east.
She got the name Twin when she flew two choppers back to back for twenty four hours straight, everyone thought it was two different pilots but it was just her.
She flew into combat hundreds of times dropping off and picking up hundreds of soldiers.
"Les roll baby boy" he said basically dragging me out of the house as he stood a head taller than me.
"You make sho dat boy don work ya fo free suga"! His momma screamed behind us.
We headed towards a shed on his large property, he was once a full time gamer.
From the ages of five to fifteen he lead an online cult called The Nation on a game named ERA Online.
By the time he was tested for his IQ he was already a multimillionaire by selling online accounts and the in game currency his cult generated.
He then went to school for engineering and met me during graduate school.
"What is it your so excited about"? I asked a little worried as he sped over uneven land on his golf cart.
"You'll see baby boy"! His wide grin nearly took up the space around his head.
Once we pulled in he ran inside and got into an elevator that went directly to the basement where his secret laboratory was constructed.
The man was a southern eccentric.
Once the doors opened I found small black diamonds in what looked like gel tubes.
"Check em out"! he said rubbing his hands.
"I don't get it, what is this shit and is this why I couldn't have any peach cobbler"? I was pissed because no matter how much I ate Twins peach cobbler it was like a drug, I couldn't say no.
"If yo fat ass don't sit down and listen..." he said with a scowl.
"I'm not fat! I just gained some love meat"! I had gotten fat.
After my internship I got hired at the CDC and was putting in crazy hours.
"It's a hard drive, for quantum computers".
Before I could interrupt he continued.
"Quantum computers been a reality fo mos fo like ten years now, its limit on data to process is non existent".
"Trouble is getting all dat data to one place for 'accuracy and data safety'".
"Are you saying this is..."
"Yawp, dis lil baby is twohundred and fifty terabytes".
"Then what do you need me for"?
"Coding! I need help getting a language together for it, it's going to need a whole new platform ".
The more he talked the thicker his southern accent until I could barely understand the words coming out of his mouth.
"Alright, you got me for the next three days but after that I'm gone" he ran to the other side of the lab with his lanky legs and brought back my favorite energy drink.
A Pink Guava Munster.
Those three days where the best time of my life, we joked and coded and what we made those few days went on to win noble peace prizes in multiple categories.
Cold water hit my face waking me from memories of old.