Sophia twisted in midair and narrowly avoided the Sea-Spitting Tern's watery assault. She wasn't sure what it was doing, but she didn't think "spitting" was the right word for turning into water and charging at someone.

She still had to buy more time.

Sophia climbed straight up, as fast as she could fly. If she had the bird's attention, it should follow her, and very few birds could climb as fast as Sophia could. She could rise straight up, without having to circle, which seemed to make a huge difference. She also didn't need a thermal to help if she didn't want to get tired. She couldn't quite ignore physics, but her flight was distinctly magical rather than real.

The tern's wasn't. It was past the third upgrade, but only barely, and it probably had a lower Body than Sophia; it was definitely lower than her Core. It couldn't climb as fast as she did, but it was going to try.

Sophia kept climbing until it was obvious to the bird that it wasn't going to catch her. The moment it looked down, towards where Dav was, Sophia folded her wings and let herself fall towards the bird. She didn't have to hit it; she just had to get close enough.

"Got it!" Dav's mental shout startled Sophia and made her a moment late switching to her feathered domain form, but it was still close enough. If anything, it was better than what she planned for; she was nearly touching it when she shifted, so it was enveloped by her domain.

Sophia wanted to wrap around it and restrain it, but that was one of the Abilities she was willing to drop as she stepped up to the third upgrade. It didn't want to move into either her Grand Ability or her Grand Spell, which meant it was only going to hold her back. She wasn't going to unslot it, but she still needed to avoid using it if she wanted it to change to something compatible with the direction she was taking.

She needed to restrain the bird's mana use, not its body. That ought to be compatible; it fit cleanly within the idea she was developing of what she wanted her Grand Talent to be. The fact that restraining mana use was often more useful than physical restraints and was far more difficult to manage for most Spheres only added to her desire to choose that direction.

The fact that it would keep Dav safe if she managed it this time was an even bigger plus. She'd managed it under controlled circumstances, but never in a fight and while she could completely block Jax, she couldn't quite shut Sweetfire down.

Sophia flooded her feathery Domain with her mana until each of the feathers glowed softly with the mana it contained. That was the first trick; she needed to strengthen her Domain enough to fight for control. It helped with all of her Abilities, but it was especially useful for anything where she needed to control part of her Domain or aura.

Far below her, an oversized version of Sophia's eldritch dragon echo rose into the sky. Sophia could hear Dav's excited shouting across the mindlink; he loved the feeling of flying as a dragon, and the endritch dragon was by far the most compatible for him to Call and take over from Cliff. It was compatible enough that once he'd taken the eldritch dragon's form, he could use another Call.

"There's a lot of whispering in the crowd," Xin'ri reported from their seats, where she waited with the rest of their team, Bai, and Sweetfire. "They've seen the feather Domain before, but they've only just realized that Dav disappeared when he took over the dragon. They're trying to find both of you and failing, but they know you're here. It's time."

Sophia couldn't grin, but she could move forward with the plan. It should be more than spectacular enough, even beyond the fact that two second upgrade people were about to take out a third upgrade monster without any outside help, at least none the crowd knew of. They were using things made by both Xin'ri and Sweetfire; even more importantly, both Taika and Cliff were there. Cliff was going to help them fight while Taika handled the show. "Go ahead, Taika, light me up."

Sophia used her Magic-Attuned Aura to grab the mana surrounding the Sea-Spitting Tern. As she did, the night that surrounded her began to glow with streamers of "magic" made visible with Taika's illusions. He added feathers and made everything, even the bird, glow in the sky as if they were lit by the light of day. None of the sparks or streamers was real, only the feathers, but it would confuse the bird when it felt Sophia's magic press against it.

More importantly, it caught the crowd's attention. Sophia might not be able to hear their shouts, but the cheering she heard from Ci'an and Xin'ri said it was working.

Sophia hardened her Mana-Attuned Aura into a shell around the bird, a shell that was reinforced by all the extra mana she'd shoved into her feathers. So far, she hadn't actually affected it, but that would happen as soon as the bird tried to use an Ability.

The ribbons of light twisted around themselves, then curved up to envelop the bird. "Just say when and I'll tighten them!" Taika projected into Sophia's mind.

Sophia could feel mana start to boil off the bird's feathers. It was doing something she hadn't seen before, but she'd studied up on Sea-Spitting Terns before they scheduled the exhibition match. She had a sinking feeling that they'd gotten unlucky: this one's signature Ability was going to be turning into water while maintaining its claws and beak, allowing itself to escape from nearly any set of bonds and nearly preventing it from being hurt physically, because the water it was made of would simply flow back into its shape, with "downhill" benign its form unless the water was pushed farther away than it could reach with its mana.

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She'd hoped they'd get the more common signature Ability, where it could "spit" massive amounts of water from its wings and tail as well as its mouth. Those terns were actually harder for most groups to handle, because they didn't have to get close to be dangerous. The worst groups had both, of course, but this was an exhibition. Sophia didn't have to worry about more terns showing up.

Sophia pushed her aura as close to the bird as she could. It seemed to penetrate a little ways into the water-wings, so Sophia mentally yelled "Now!" at both Taika and Dav. She could feel as the water in its outer feathers turned back to feathers as Taika tightened the visible bands of light around the bird.

The bird's magic surged against Sophia's hold, but she bore down on it with all the power of her double-slotted level ten aura. It was one of the few skills she'd managed to expand into a second slot after Sweetfire finally explained exactly what "extra" Ability slots were for on the way to the third upgrade. If she wanted to really make it the cornerstone of her new Sphere, she'd need to push it farther, maybe even into a third slot. That was Sweetfire's recommendation, even though he said it wasn't necessary; most people didn't have the spare Wisps to get enough Ability Slots to really shape their third upgrade the way Sophia, Dav, Ci'an, and Taika could.

Dav whipped past Sophia and the bird in a climb, then spun and started his dive. He looked immensely different to Sophia when he took over the echo; all of her echoes were always at least a little cute and playful, while Dav's versions seemed a bit older. Unlike Sophia's, Dav's never looked quite the same when he took over the echo; he'd even managed to become an eastern dragon instead of a western one on a few of their attempts.

Sophia was pretty sure they reflected his emotions a lot more than Sophia's echoes followed hers. This time, he was serious-looking, with golden-colored crystalline horns, a speckled purple body, and a colorful, wispy tuft at the end of his tail. His wings were even more colorful than Sophia's echoes usually were; they even left streaks in the sky.

If he'd used his Eldritch Call after taking over the echo, it was one of the ones she couldn't see. He probably wasn't using Unreal Space, since he could easily fly without it. Dread Aura was also pretty unlikely, since the bird didn't seem to be afraid of Dav. Unbreakable and Piercing Chaos were both possible. Piercing Chaos would explain the colorful mana he shed as he moved, but Unbreakable was still more likely. It ought to be more useful, since he planned to be the one to kill the bird, which meant getting close without Sophia's feathery defenses.

Sophia knew exactly when the Sea-Spitting Tern noticed Dav. It twisted as if trying to avoid a predator, then seemed to realize that even though Dav was bigger than it was, he was lower Tier. It swelled with the pressure of the water it was turning into.

Sophia couldn't allow that. If it became too watery, Dav would have to use something like Piercing Chaos if he wanted to affect it, and she wasn't certain that would work; Piercing Chaos had a terribly unhelpful description, just like most of Dav's Abilities. Her Force Bolt wouldn't work at all, so they'd probably have to depend on her True Death Bolt or Death's Embrace to turn the creature back into its native form. That would exhaust her, draining her mana and preventing Cliff from helping as well. Dav would have to face the tern on its own, without its strongest Ability but otherwise unhurt. It wasn't a good trade.

Instead, Sophia pushed her aura in farther. There were ways to affect someone else, even inside their own aura. It was rude if they didn't let you in, and most of the time it wasn't worth using in a fight. That wasn't because it didn't work; instead, it was because it was more costly than defending against it, if everything else was equal. On top of that, controlling the mana in the area could prevent the tern from using its Ability in the first place, but if it successfully turned to water, Sophia wouldn't be able to turn it back without using a different Ability.

Everything else wasn't equal in this case, and it hadn't finished the shift yet. Sophia's Anchor was her aura, and her Sphere was Plumed Domain. The tern didn't have that advantage, it didn't have her affinity with magic itself, and its Core was definitely a lot lower than hers. The only advantage it had was its Tier, and that wasn't nearly enough against Sophia's advantages. She ripped its control of its own mana away from it, even inside its own body. "I've got it! It's fighting me, but it can't transform right now. I think I can even keep it from spitting."

Dav roared. Sophia didn't feel any particular effect beyond the noise, but that wasn't the point. It was all part of the show.

A very dangerous show that Sophia wouldn't have agreed to if they hadn't gotten to pick the perfect enemy to fight. Well, almost the perfect enemy; the perfect one would have been a tern that could fling water. They had blind spots the water couldn't reach, which allowed for backup plans if the primary plan failed.

Sophia felt Dav speed through her aura and crash into the Sea-Spitting Tern. It tried to stab him with its beak at the last moment, but Dav deflected the beak with one of his horns, then seemed to twist around the overside seabird to sink his jaws into its neck.

From there, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. All Sophia had to do was maintain her hold on the bird's mana, which became even easier as it panicked and struggled physically rather than repeating its attempt to turn into a fluid.

Dav had a slightly harder task. He had to keep his jaws locked around the bird's neck until it died, shaking it occasionally. He also had to keep them all in the sky. Fortunately, that was easy enough for a dragon.

What Dav didn't have to do was make it look impressive. That was Taika's job, and Taika did it well if the shouts Sophia could actually hear from the audience were any indication.

Once the tern was dead, Sophia shifted back into her normal shape on top of Dav's back. He flew her and the dead oversized bird in his jaws around the arena to draw out the crowd's cheers while the announcer talked about how amazing it was for a duo of second tier combatants to kill a third tier enemy. It really wasn't that impressive as far as Sophia was concerned, especially with their advantages, but the crowd definitely seemed impressed.

There was another bout of shouting and some people actually threw things down to the arena's floor when Dav landed with Sophia and shifted back to his own form. Sophia was glad the Arena staff would handle that; if there was anything worth knowing about, Jax would find out in the morning. For now, it was enough to know that they'd completed the next step on their journey into the Maze.

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