Chapter 25: Chapter 24: I Am Thou, Thou Art I

Ilmir scrambled backwards, cursing her own poor luck. Ever since the first time she had seen one, she had known she had never wanted to fight someone who is in the middle of a Descent. She had known Tess and Fortune were at least somewhat more involved than, say, her and War, but she hadn’t known they were this close.

But now wasn’t the time to think about that. Right now, she had to remember what Grandma and Uncle Even had told her about Descents. Checking her Stamina reserves, she had enough leeway to briefly use Godspeed so long as she only sped up her perception. So, she activated it and let the world slow down around her while she thought.

Right. The first piece of advice she had been given about Descents was to run –  fighting a god’s avatar was not a battle most were capable of winning. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really an option at this juncture, so she had to move on to the other methods of dealing with it.

What was most important was that Descents had a time limit, one that couldn’t be worked around without gravely injuring the avatar. How long varied depending on how long the avatar had been an Appointed, how accustomed they are to Descents, and their level, so Tess wouldn’t have very long, a minute at most.

And what made this winnable was that, to a certain extent, the god Descending was at least somewhat limited by their avatar’s capabilities. They couldn’t use most of their god powers unless their avatar had something similar, and they couldn’t use more Mana or Stamina than the avatar had available, nor would their stats be buffed unless that was part of that god’s Descent abilities.

Which led her to the biggest unknown. She had no clue what Fortune’s Descent did. She hadn’t had an Appointed before, so this was new territory for everyone. So, she concluded her best bet right now was to use her superior mobility to keep away from Tess/Fortune during the minute the Descent lasted.

She let Godspeed drop, backing up as it suddenly began to pour down rain.

And then she was thrown to the side, her body moving without her consent as a moment later a bolt of lightning struck where she had just been standing, causing her ears to ring.

---