The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

Chapter Seventy - Half Truce

RILEY 

THE PINE TRUNK jabbed through my jacket, robbing a whine out of me. I slouched to the ground. The impact shook the needles beyond me, and a disgruntled bird spread its black wings and flew off its perch. My breath stalled short as footfalls in the snow neared. Overhead, a mass of grey clouds rolled across to reveal the moon.

"You'd do better if you could use abilities properly," she nagged.

"I'd do better if you didn't use yours," came my reply.

The breeze tossed her wild curls aside. Devin's outline cast an outstretched shadow across the yard, shielding my face from Ben's flashlight palm. I wasn't sure if I should be pissed at him for not interfering.

Devin grinned. "But then it wouldn't be realistic, wouldn't it? I'm not going hard on you, anyways."

I folded myself up and began to rise. The disagreeable pricks in my back were still present, but my legs remained stable. Since Luc was gone, he'd asked his friends to fill in for him and kick my ass. Joy. 

After judging the distance between us, I thought of launching a surprise attack, but I was starting to wonder what a "realistic" fight would look like if I confronted a real assailant. One who wouldn't hold back. What were my odds?

I walked toward Devin and stopped mid-way. "Fine. Again."

All she did was sigh faintly. "If you're caught in a situation where you might not win, you use your environment to slow them down. Or, you can distract them long enough for you to run and lose them."

With a vague, quick roll of her wrist, branches and stones from the ground elevated in the air, forming a curtain of pellets. They halted.

"These can be thrown at your opponent. If you aim well, you can injure their eyes and blind them for at least a few minutes. If you are strong enough, the force of the throw can dislocate a shoulder or a knee. When being chased, you can move a boulder last minute in their path and hope it'll trip them. Any heavy object will do." She brought her arm down, and the debris returned to the forest floor. "A fire with enough smoke can hide the direction you disappear in. Think about those things. And I suggest you practice them, too."

I figured it made sense, given that I wasn't a prodigious ninja like the rest of them. Stalling was my best bet. So, I glanced over my shoulder at the inky woods. 

There wasn't much visibility this late, but a vague will in me sent a trickle dancing up my spine. More and more, I was relying on a sense of intuition of which I couldn't fully pinpoint its origins, but that seemed to be right the more I trusted it. The mental picture of the debris nearby became clearer and clearer. 

My eyes were pointed at a patch of snow even though I wasn't seeing. I pictured a net of sorts dilate—a circle. Within it would be all the influence I could muster to move objects. As opposed to imagining one or all of them in my head, this worked better. I started envisioning that my influence was not a spear or a feeble, breakable stick, but an expanding dome. 

With one mental push, I released it. I heard trees rustle.

"Hey!" Ben walked closer. "They're all up to the summits!"

A burst of pride popped in my chest. I smiled widely and finally turned around to gauge my result. Through the murky space, a dense wall of rocks, twigs and pinecones encompassed the further half of the yard. The projectiles had frozen, some pebbles glinting off the light of the moon. I almost couldn't believe it.