John stepped out of the forest and onto a central plaza. The fact that there were no pathways leading up to it meant that this barrier predated the building of the real-life counterpart of it. ‘Does this put the barrier at over a hundred years of age then?’ John wondered. Given that DC was the capital and population centre of the Little Maryland, it wasn’t too surprising that a barrier on a tactical spot this close to the White House had been in place for this long.

Indeed, the fact that there was a monument here at all was more surprising, since the barrier so clearly preceded the erection of the Theodore Roosevelt memorial that should have been standing around there. To be fair, the large statue of tarnished copper was presenting someone John didn’t know, as he approached the plaza, following him sighting a large gathering of people there. Aclysia was still missing from his mental connection, so that was slightly worrisome, but he didn’t have the time to investigate. Although this was a cleaner cut than he was used to, he was still paying the usual mana cost for her, so he had no reason to believe she had perished.

If she had, he would have approached the plaza in a less calm fashion. Especially once he spied the short, broad man in his suit, standing at the foot of the plaza. John recognized Abraham first, although the flowing water elemental at his side made him an easily identified target. The president walked towards him in a calm fashion.

“And the great traitor shows himself,” Abraham spewed the second John was in shouting range. “I have to compliment you, I did not expect you to be this ruthless.”

“You can drop the act,” the Gamer returned, glancing towards the remaining people. John had to assume that the president was the strongest member of his guild; the fact that he was here, guarding the Fateweavers under his employ on his lonesome, was testament to that. It would be difficult to take Abraham captive under these conditions. Much harder than killing him, even. “Or maybe not, last thing we want to happen is that your people learn the truth about your game, right?”

Abraham pushed air out of his nose in a mocking manner, with his stature that made him appear like a bull ready to charge. Every moment that passed, the guy only seemed to become more muscular. “You trying to pin Imerella’s murder on me is unbelievable. I have nobody in my ranks that could create the raw destruction that levelled the fortress. It clearly came from a mixture of elemental forces at a strength only you could create in such a narrow timeframe.”

“And who aside from your secret service measured that destruction?” John growled back. “A great claim you have there. Too bad the photos just show a destroyed landscape. Those could have been faked just as greatly as they show nothing clear pointing towards MY involvement.”

“Those sly words are exactly why I acted immediately,” the president of the Little Maryland stopped, between the two of them were now ten steps. Duelling distance, if nothing else. “You would just continue spouting your message of a peaceful election until you could hit another one of my allies-”

“YOUR allies?!” John interrupted. “Imerella declared herself neutral, you arrogant-“

“She was my teacher!” Abraham shouted back. “I served in the military under her! Don’t tarnish her name after you have violated her trust like that and put her into an undeserving grave!”

Grinding his teeth, John stopped this useless line of conversation. “Even if you aren’t guilty, you made it impossible to stop this now.” The Gamer was convinced that Abraham was putting up this act, it all fit so perfectly into the narrative of him as the invader. He could have sent more questions the president’s way, but Abraham was obviously prepared for the big ones. “Then let’s play the game you want.”

The Gamer was momentarily distracted by a robotic voice entering his mind, ‘May Undine be sent over here?’ Along with it came an image of a hurt Ted. Very hurt, but still standing. Nothing that required immediate attention.

‘Sorry, not right now,’ John answered as quickly as he could. A minute earlier and he would have hurried over, but he was sure he would need the help of Undine in this engagement. ‘You’ll have to come to me.’

‘Understood,’ Beatrice answered and dropped away again.

“This is no game, John Newman,” Abraham stated and took a fighting stance. The disadvantage here was that John still had no idea what the president was even capable of doing. Obviously, something physical, the smaller man was bulked up to the point that John thought his suit would rip at any given moment.

Having no wish to make this a lengthy fight, John sent the Mandala Sphere flying. Over this entire conversation, he had made it take a long trip around the plaza to now approach Abraham from a blind angle. Now it was burning mana like crazy to accelerate to otherwise unobtainable speeds. A Mana Blade took the rest of the energy stored inside, generating an edge of almost three metre length that rotated quickly, turning into a blue disk.

Abraham only heard the orb of his doom approaching on the last few metres. The chainsaw that had cut other people clean in half was aimed right at his arm. It would be better to take the president captive to get this entire thing resolved through talking, even if one party was forced to spill it, but John would take Abraham’s death as well. There were a few kinds of people that he had no mercy for, and one of those were traitors.

Abraham turned half a step and quickly raised his arms in defence. That was… enough. The whirling Mana Blade came to an abrupt halt against the president’s forearms. Part of the hardened energy even shattered on impact. The duration of the weapon expired a moment later; it dissolved into blue particles.

“Fancy toy you have there!” Abraham mocked, pulling his arm back and then punching the sphere as if the bladed whirl was no harm for his bare knuckles whatsoever. Surprisingly, or perhaps expectantly seeing the display just now, that turned out to be the truth. The Mandala Sphere was thrown backwards, its hovering nature now turning out to be somewhat of a detriment as it had only air resistance to slow it. Or the tree it eventually crashed against, parts of it flying off. It would pull itself back together given time, as everything was magically rubber-banded together.

John didn’t exactly have time to worry about that as Abraham turned to him. Bridging the distance with two jumps, he was upon John before Undine could react. His fist crashed into Mana Protection, once, twice, then John retaliated. Gathering the fire from Purgatory’s ignition with Salamander, he threw a massive fireball in Abraham’s face. With little care, the president punched a third time, his muscles swelling immensely from the impact. He was basically a mountain of muscles compressed by sleek black at this point. Only when a wave of water crashed into his side did he distance himself.

The cut, followed by a quick dousing in fire and water, had left Abraham slightly less muscular but overall unharmed. The same couldn’t be said about his clothes, under which John saw naked skin. Confused by this, the Gamer furrowed his eyebrows. All of the generals had worn special issue bodysuits under their normal clothes, infused with a good array of defensive properties. He would have assumed the president to wear a better version of that even. Instead there was nothing?

Whatever muscle mass Abraham had lost was quickly regained. His mystery ability only accelerated in comparison to before. John summoned a wave of Shardbound and watched the president hulk out even more after that, the damaged suit ripping more at the damage areas. ‘What the hell is his ability?’ the Gamer wondered as he threw the arcane splinters at Abraham, who dodged quickly to the side and then approached again.

“You made a big mistake coming here to face me!” Abraham avoided every retaliation through moves way too nimble to be allowed on a balding fifty-year-old. John extended his right before him and fed Salamander an immense amount of mana. There were no trees around, and even if there were, he had no more luxury to worry about a forest fire. A cone of fire appeared before him engulfing Abraham completely.

It was vital that John won here. Once the Fateweavers were knocked out, the control of the barrier would default to him and they could continue this battle on their terms. ‘Maybe bringing Magoi would have been a better idea after all,’ John thought, but defending the High Fateweaver would have meant they could have been less offensive in their strategy to save the generals. It was all difficult to evaluate.

Abraham emerged from the flames with purple glowing skin and slimmed down to his usual muscular form. The second his fist crashed again into the Mana Protection, he bulked up again. He was slimmed by the damage but gained muscle when he did some? No, that couldn’t be it; he had gained mass even when they had just stood close to each other.

“I am no blank,” Abraham continued mockingly, the gold and grey flames of Salamander sticking to his clothes, “but beating a mage such as you is still my speciality!”

John realized what he was facing then and deactivated Mana Protection. The fist hit him in the chest instead, knocked the air out of his lungs. In retaliation, he threw some quick punches himself. They barely did anything, bounced off Abraham’s muscles and only turned them a bit smaller. The shirt of the man was further torn, the purple glow once more apparent. “Shit,” the Gamer clenched his teeth. “Is there anything you won’t tax?!”

John fed some more mana to Salamander and attempted to blast it at Abraham’s stomach, but the president jumped away again. “It’s hardly a tax if I generate new value myself,” he stated, pushing back his glasses. After attempting to dust of his shoulders, Abraham noticed the state of his clothes and simply ripped the parts hiding his torso off. “I wish my ability was strong enough to rob from you, that would make me even more effective.”

“It’s still bullshit,” John growled, racking his brain for a new strategy. The muscle bound man in front of him, with biceps the sizes of entire babies, had been completely right, it was a mistake John had made to face him alone. So much, in fact, that the best idea he had was to play for time. “What even is tied to that? You gain mana whenever I spent some and in response your muscles grow, but you can also convert those muscles back into mana to use a defensive spell?”

“Nano Mana, son,” Abraham hovered a hand over his heart and slowly stretched it out. His white skin turned purple following the motion until he presented a completely covered fist. “It hardens my skin in response to physical trauma. You are immensely mistaken to think my Innate Ability extends beyond the first part you mention. All I can do naturally is generate my own mana from other people’s spending.”

John was about to entangle the president in further discussion, but Abraham didn’t want to play on time. The moment a massive explosion in the sky distracted the Gamer, he was getting charged again. Since Mana Protection would only empower his enemy with every successful strike he landed, the Gamer kept it deactivated. The alternative was what happened next though, which was him and Undine doing all they could to block.

“MUSCLE MAGIC!” Abraham shouted as his fist crashed into John’s raised forearms. “RECONVERSION TECHNIQUE!” A spinning kick splattered Undine’s slime body out of his way. “MANA SKIN!” John had no other choice and released Salamander back out of item form. With a short-lived cackle, the endflame elemental locked arms with Abraham, only to be found the weaker party, lifted up and slammed into the ground like a rolled out carpet. “AND THE PERPETUAL SURROUNDING AWARENESS TO TRIGGER IT BEFORE I GET HURT!” Siena rose from Abraham’s shadow in a sudden strike, only to be grabbed by the throat and tossed into the sky.

Abraham pulled his weight down in a martial art pose John was familiar with. Ascending Cut, the technique that both Rave and her father had used on separate occasions, each time to devastating effect. In a desperate move, John darted forwards and rammed his opponent. Although this only made Abraham straggle, not fall, it was enough to let Siena land on top of their enemy without any retaliation.

John’s reward for this was being pinched between an elbow and a knee, his ribcage getting squeezed suddenly in a way that these bones definitely weren’t supposed to. Something may have broken, but he didn’t notice. All he was aware of was the mouthful of dirt that manifested the moment he was thrown to the ground elsewhere.

He looked back just in time to see Siena’s claws scratch inconsequentially over Abraham’s face, her legs closed around the man’s neck in the least erotic application of thighs. His defenses were steadily refilling in the shape of his muscles bulging from all the mana John was passively spending at any given second. The Gamer was fuelling his enemy’s strength due to all the summons and familiars he paid in upkeep the entire time.

Abraham caught one of Siena’s legs, ripped her off himself and turned several times around his own axis, before sending the shadow spirit flying into the forest. “I needed dozens of years to learn all of these techniques,” the president turned to John again, “to make them work together and learn different things that filled the gaps in my skill set. You might be a latebloomer, but I got seventy years on you, Newman!” Abraham rolled his shoulders, flexing his overabundant form. “When faced with hard work and dedication, you talented, Gaia-gifted individuals should find yourself humbled more often!” Like a bulldozer on legs, the president came running.

John expected a swing, but instead Abraham just kept charging with an outstretched arm. It caught the Gamer at the chest and dragged him along until he was rammed back-first into the rough trunk of a pine tree. There was no recuperation period, the smaller man using the momentary confusion that John felt from the impact to grab him by shoulder and leg. Lifted in his entirety, John had his spine bent into a very unhealthy V shape by the knee that was rammed into the path of his descent.

Undine and Salamander came to the rescue. A whip of water pulled one leg away from under Abraham as a massive fireball hit him. Finally, John got an indication of damage, the smell of burning hair alongside a pained groan as Abraham’s balding head caught just a bit of fire. There was no way that he generated more mana than John was spending. Even if the president used it more effectively, the Gamer should have won eventually.

Hopefully before his own HP depleted; it was already down to less than half. What was worse: Reveal still didn’t work; for all John knew, Abraham could still have been hiding things. This fight was bound to be a headache. Abraham delivered a strike to Undine that made the slime girl explode from within. It was a shower on the surroundings, but it didn’t hurt the defensively weighted water spirit too badly. The president came back on his feet a few metres away from John. They eyed each other up, unsure of the next move to make.

“This looks like fun!” An ecstatic voice out of nowhere arrived at the scene, accompanied by the sight of a storm of grey metal and swiping strikes arriving out of a tear above the battlefield. Metra lost no time in assaulting Abraham, who kept a surprising calm and simply stormed towards John.

The Gamer was somewhat ready for the strike this time, meeting it headfirst. Rather than a successful counter hit, what John met was air. ‘Fucking Shift!’ John thought; only the martial art could be responsible for that. Now he knew how all the normal people in Dragonball felt whenever those overpowered bastards in that show started moving at untraceable speeds.

He already weathered himself for the hit in the back that had to follow, but instead he heard the sound of ringing metal. “I am sorry that I return this late, Master,” Aclysia’s voice reached him, greeting him with the sight of Marath’s flat side stopping the president’s punch. “I am furthermore sorry to have used this cooldown without asking first.”

John hadn’t even noticed her returning to his consciousness since he was getting slapped around for a bit there. The tables were clearly turning in his favour now.