THE SOUND OF THE GUNSHOT gave me a chance to expose Matten before he could shut me up forever. But of course, it also announced to him where I was.
And he responded promptly by stepping into my line of sight just as I finished holstering my gun, a flying vortex of water trailing after him like some kind of aquatic whirlwind. The water swirled with a power that made me nervous, placing itself between me and Matten (presumably to keep me from shooting him, since he didn’t know that I couldn’t.)
Just before the vortex obscured my vision of him completely, I noticed the tension in Matten’s form. His clenched jaw. The sweat dripping down his face, selectively drenching strategic parts of his garment—as in, it wasn’t from the torrent of water he’d been throwing around, which only managed to we
