He pointed the pickaxe at the Magus.
"I didn't choose this. I didn't train for it. It's like waking up and being told I'm now the CEO of a collapsing company, with no idea how anything works.
Yeah, the power's nice, but just what the hell I need to face!?" His voice dropped, teeth grinding. "A freaking God Eater?"
The air hung heavy with silence, then Both moved at once.
Ben come first, pickaxe whistling through the air. The Magus sidestepped, barely, his knees buckling under the strain. He countered with a jagged burst of lightning from his fingertips, but it sputtered, weak, unstable.
Ben ducked under it, drove forward, shoulder slamming into the Magus's chest and sending both of them tumbling across the cracked floor.
They rolled, fists flying. The pickaxe clanged against the Magus's forearm, drawing sparks but not blood. The Magus kneed Ben in the gut, and both of them stumbled apart, panting, glaring.
