"Oh, Kintovar, you tried," The headmaster began, "You designed these bombs with magical resistance, hoping they'd be immune to my psychic abilities."

  The Headmaster's yellow energy swirled and intensified around the hovering bombs; however, there was strain was evident on her face. A deep, satisfied laugh escaped her lips.

  "It required some effort to get the first one moving," she admitted with sweat beginning to bead on her forehead. "But you know what? Since I can control one, I can control them all."

  She gestured with her staff, and one by one, the remaining bombs began to move in unison to surround Kintovar like a deadly cage of ticking time bombs.

  Kintovar’s confident look faltered just for a split second. Her heart rate quickened.

  The Headmaster’s grin widened.

  "This is how far I’m willing to go, Kintovar." She sneered. "You thought you could outsmart me? Now, let’s see how you like being taken out by your own creations."

  Kintovar’s fingers trembled. Her breath grew shallow and sweat began to bead across her brow.

  The Headmaster was watching her with gloating eyes. "Do you feel it? That sinking feeling? Your brilliant plans are turning to ruin.”

  Kintovar didn’t respond. Instead, she reached inside her coat. Her fingers brushed something hidden in the folds.

  The Headmaster rang out again. "When they go off, Kintovar, you’ll be just another failing scientist who thought they could challenge the authority.”

  Kintovar’s hand shot out and pulled something from her coat. The bombs detonated the very next second and a massive explosion engulfed her entire body that sent debris and sand flying in all directions.

  The Headmaster looked on when the smoke cleared. All that remained in the place where Kintovar had stood was her coat that blew across the sand in the aftermath of the blast.

  The Headmaster's eyes widened.

  Aimathema muttered to herself, "Where did she go?”

  The Headmaster continued to scan the battlefield. The grappling hook, a versatile tool in Kintovar's arsenal shot out from behind her. The Headmaster was stunned when she felt the grappling hook securing a hold on her. She only mustered a gasp before she felt herself being pulled back towards Kintovar.

  Kintovar's stepped forward. Her jacket was discarded and her red uniform-like shirt and black pants on full display.

  Kintovar smirked and held something up—a skyborne bomb. "Always plan ahead, right?”

  “You—” Aimathema began, but her words were cut off. Kintovar’s hand shot forward. The bomb sailied effortlessly from her grasp.

  “I had plans for this moment,” Kintovar’s said as the skyborne bomb spiraled towards the Headmaster. "Your psychic dominion almost made me forget them. It's quite annoying having to overpower your thoughts just to make my own."

  Just when the bomb was released, the Headmaster’s psychic aura surged. She tried to intercept and control the device with her mental prowess.

  For a brief, fragile moment, it looked like she would succeed.

  Then the bomb detonated and engulfed both Kintovar and the Headmaster in a cataclysmic burst.

  In the aftermath of the explosion, Kintovar was standing in the center. Her hair was singed in places, and her red uniform-like shirt was torn at the edges. Her black pants were now covered in soot and ash.

  Her breathing was ragged.

  From the other side of the battlefield, the Headmaster staggered back to her feet. She was bloodied, bruised and her psychic aura flickered.

  But the Headmaster's eyes burned with fury. She shook off the disorientation and glared at Kintovar. Her psychic energy surged again but now it was more unstable and erratic.

  Kintovar’s grin stretched into a widening smirk. Blood trickled down from a cut along her lip.

  "Damn you, Kintovar!"Aimathema seethed. "Your accursed technology...your damned inventions! You will pay for this!"

  From a distance, Roselle stood amidst the chaos with her wide blue eyes locked onto the battlefield. Her tiny frame seemed even smaller compared to the sheer scale of destruction caused by the two titans clashing before her.

  “I’ve never seen Dr. Kintovar fight before…” she murmured in disbelief.”Wow."

  Beside her, Risebelle had her arms crossed. "She really makes us look like children compared to her."

  Roselle said nothing, but thought, ‘Isn’t that ironic…We were made into these child-like bodies…’

  Risebelle narrowed her eyes .Her mind worked quickly.

  "She has to be wearing more magic-resistant gear than just her cloak," Risebelle muttered to herself.

  She thought back to the explosion, the way Kintovar had emerged from it injured but still standing, while the Headmaster’s psychic energy had begun to falter.

  With a wicked grin, the Headmaster declared, "Your coat is not on you right now, Kintovar. Your magical resistance has lessened significantly hasn’t it?!" She ended the Psychic Dominion, releasing Kintovar's mind from its grip.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Kintovar, with her mind no longer jumbled by the Headmaster's psychic powers found herself suspended in the air. "I couldn't fully lift you before thanks to that Magical resistant jacket of yours. But now, without it, I'll send you on a One-way trip to the moon, right where you belong!"

  Kintovar was propelled upward by the Headmaster's magic.

  "GBC Command: Retrieval and homing!" Kintovar shouted out even as she was sent skyward.

  Down below, the GBC, her massive black cannon suddenly whirred to life. Its dormant systems activated instantly to her voice.

  ‘Unlike the BG-356,’ Kintovar thought, ‘I can’t move around with the GBC. It’s too heavy to be trotting about, but I designed it for this exact kind of scenario.’

  The GBC's side panels slid open, revealing a mechanized attachment—a pair of articulated arms folded into its frame. They reached for her discarded grappling hook gun and BG-356.

  The Headmaster's eyes narrowed. "Trying to play another trick, Kintovar?" she scoffed while sending psychic energy towards the GBC. "It won’t—"

  "Fire the grappling hook!" Kintovar commanded.

  The GBC obeyed instantly. The grappling hook launched at blistering speed. Aimathema’s face shifted to alarm. She had been so focused on Kintovar herself—on lifting and tossing her.

  “I can’t shift focus in time!”

  The grappling hook’s claw latched onto her arm.

  Kintovar addressed the Headmaster as they began falling from the sky. "You see, Headmaster Aimathema, when it comes to technology, I always have a few tricks up my sleeve. Sending me to the moon? That's child's play compared to what I can do."

  The Headmaster's body was hurled upward as the grapple-line yanked her against her momentum. Kintovar, meanwhile, descended toward the battlefield below.

  Above her, Aimathema twisted in mid-air. “Don’t think this will work for long, Kintovar!” she snapped. "I can still end you from here—and now that you’re even closer—!"

  Her molten-silver eyes pulsed with power as an invisible force crushed down on Kintovar’s body with the weight of a collapsing star.

  Kintovar’s descent stopped abruptly. Her ribs felt like they were about to crack under the sheer force.

  Then—she was being yanked back up. The Headmaster’s psychic grip reversed her fall, pulling her back toward her enemy’s waiting grasp.

  Kintovar gritted her teeth. "I never doubted you could do this," she admitted, “But after everything you’ve pulled so far—moving my bombs, lifting me, warping gravity itself—"

  Her lips curled into a mocking smirk even while struggling to breathe. "That’s gotta be straining you, isn’t it?"

  Aimathema’s face darkened.

  Kintovar’s spoke sharper. "Well, things are about to get much worse."

  Kintovar’s tone shifted. Her words flowed like a conductor leading an orchestra. "And now…for the grand finale!"

  She lifted a single hand in the air.

  “Advanced Technology—Jamming Pods!”

  The phrase came with a mocking lilt to the way mages often boasted their so-called ‘Advanced Magic.’

  The instant she spoke, her belt ignited with a flicker of blue energy. Four storage devices clicked open in rapid succession, launching four cylindrical pods into the air.

  The pods expanded instantly, releasing a powerful pulse of energy.

  Aimathema’s entire body seized up. Her psychic aura flickered—then, in a horrifying instant, it vanished entirely. The golden energy that once swirled around her body, the speed boost, the mental control—it was all gone.

  Her eyes shot open. "What—?!" she gasped in shock. "What did you do?!"

  Kintovar laughed lightly."Oh, you’re gonna love this part! You see, Headmaster, these little beauties? They were designed specifically for you. Same principles as magic, except instead of just resisting magic, they steal the resisted energy... and absorb the rest."

  The Headmaster’s face twisted in horror. Her limbs felt heavy—sluggish. The absence of power was suffocating.

  With Aimathema’s psychic energy completely shut down, the two of them plummeted from the sky.

  Kintovar had planned for this—mostly.

  “Good thing I made a parachute…” she muttered to herself.

  She reached for her belt and sought the familiar click of the deployment switch—

  —but there was nothing.

  Her entire body stiffened.

  Her fingers patted frantically around her belt. No parachute.

  Her mind raced. ‘Wait—what? Where—?!’

  Aimathemacaught the brief flash of panic on Kintovar’s face and let out a humorless laugh.

  “Something wrong, Kintovar?” the Headmaster sneered.

  Kintovar gritted her teeth. The ground was rushing toward them fast.

  ‘Shit.’

  “You thought you had me, Kintovar?” The headmaster rasped. “Before you used those damned Jamming Pods… I used my psychic energy to remove some of your little toys.”

  Kintovar's eyes widened.

  “You—?!”

  The Headmaster let out a dark chuckle. "Couldn't lift your whole belt… but some of those annoying gadgets?" She scoffed. “I got rid of something that could save you, didn’t I?”

  Kintovar’s breath caught in her throat. That’s why her parachute was missing.

  That DAMN headmaster!

  Aimathema’s grin widened. "So while I may die…" she said with satisfaction, "you’ll be joining me in hell!"

  Meanwhile, in the Mystical Forest...

  Becky’s hammer crashed into a towering tree with a deafening thud. Wood and debris flew everywhere. “I’m telling you, Syb, she has to be close.”

  Sybil walked beside her. Her eyes shifted uncomfortably between Becky’s hammer-wielding destruction and the misty trees that loomed over them. “You don’t need to destroy everything, Becky. We should be careful, not reckless.”

  Becky shot Sybil a look of impatience and swung her hammer again, sending yet another tree flying into the underbrush. “Careful? We’re hunting down someone who thinks she can hide in here, Sybil. If you wanna leave some trees standing, you’re welcome to take the search from here. But I’m taking care of business.”

  “Fine,” Sybil muttered. “But we’re not going to find her by tearing up the whole forest.”

  Becky just grinned.“ You’d be surprised at how loud these trees scream when you hit ‘em right. Elena’s somewhere near, I can feel it. And when I do find her...”

  Sybil’s brow furrowed, but she didn’t argue further.

  Not far from Becky and Sybil, a figure remained perfectly still atop a thick branch. Elena’s red hair swayed slightly. Her eyes were half-lidded in deep concentration.

  Her lips barely moved but she whispered to herself, “They’re making this easy for me.”

  Her gaze flickered toward Becky, whose every movement radiated raw confidence—reckless, destructive, but confident. Sybil, on the other hand, hesitated.

  Elena exhaled slowly.

  “I don’t need to hear both of them. Just the hammer girl.”

  She focused toward Becky and let out a small ball of energy that hit the back of her. Becky swatted at her shoulders and said, “Damn fly!”

  Becky adjusted her grip on the hammer. Her gaze darted toward a thick oak a few feet away.

  ‘This tree? Nah, the next one.’

  She took a step forward, swinging her weapon back—

  —only to freeze mid-motion.

  Her mind suddenly blanking out for a split second before being flooded with a sensation she couldn’t quite explain.

  On her perch, Elena’s lips curled into a faint smirk.

  She could hear Becky’s thoughts before even Becky herself had committed to the action. The hammer girl didn’t even question why she hesitated just now.

  Elena's power slithered through Becky’s consciousness like a whispering fog that brushed against the edges of her mind.

  ‘This tree?’ Elena planted the thought.

  Becky’s grip twitched, her stance shifted—

  —and she swung.

  The hammer smashed into the trunk with sheer force. The crack of wood echoed through the forest, but Elena was already gone from that position.

  Up in the canopy, she tilted her head slightly.

  ‘She’s slow. Strong, but slow.’

  Her gaze shifted to Sybil.

  ‘Now, the quiet one… she’s the problem.’

  Becky huffed and shook off the strange feeling in her head. “Damn it! Where’s that red-haired coward hiding?”

  Elena closed her eyes.

  Becky’s thoughts were booming like war drums.

  Elena smiled.

  She lifted her hand and gathered a pulse of energy between her fingertips. ‘Let’s see what happens when I scramble that loud brain of yours a little more.’

  Project Mage