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Dunstan charged him head on. Cisco sacrificed his right forearm to bathe the man in acid. Dunstan reached right through it and grabbed Cisco by the neck. Dunstan’s flesh was missing, but it wasn’t boiling. The acid had just splashed right off, as if by some invisible barrier.

Knowing that he could lose his head in an instant, Cisco had to respond quickly. He yanked himself back with a somersault, up and around Dunstan’s arm in order to leverage his whole body weight against his opponent and drag them both to the ground together. They tumbled, and Cisco ended up atop Dunstan’s arm. He tore it off and rolled away, giving himself some space to reevaluate the situation.

Dunstan was just as quick to return to his feet as Cisco, and the bloody gash on his shoulder closed itself before fresh bone and tissue began to grow out again. Curiously, the match had become one arm versus two and a half--soon to be three once Cisco’s wrist and hand regenerated.

‘He’s transfiguration, too,’ Dennex observed privately. ‘He’s using one of the noble gases, I’d wager. There are few elements that wouldn’t react with hydrofluoric acid or the air at room temperature.’

Dunstan took the opportunity to attack again, but Dennex didn’t stop explaining. Cisco struggled to dodge and keep listening.

‘It seems acid won’t work on him so long as he’s paying attention. You’ll have to overpower him or catch him off guard.’

Dunstan caught Cisco’s chest with two fingers’ worth of superheated gas, twin jets of searing pressure. Cisco swung for the man’s face, but Dunstan ducked under and then thrust his hand upward, burning through Cisco’s neck and head as if he were cutting through cardboard. Cisco barely pulled away in time to avoid having his skull split in two. Instead, he’d only earned a giant gash from sternum to ear, flesh and bone hanging loosely from his face as blood gushed forth.

Cisco tried to back off, but his opponent didn’t seem interested in letting up. ‘You might want to flee now,’ he told Dennex.

‘I’m not going anywhere without my servant. Chergoa and Emiliana can warn everyone else.’ The reaper sounded much too relaxed for Cisco’s liking.