Her Brother's Keeper: A Story of Alpha Centauri

Interlude 6

Suddenly she was surging with energy. ‘I feel so light!’ she noticed. Out of nowhere, it felt as if she wasn’t wearing her cumbersome armor, nor was she wielding her heavy spear. Instead, it was as if she were clothed in her normal apparel and was holding a reading tablet in her hands.

‘What is going on?’ she pondered as she effortlessly blocked an attack from her adversary with the blade of her naginata. ‘I’ve never felt this way before.’

That was when she noticed their difference in speed. While she was moving normally, her opponent was suddenly fighting at half her pace. It was almost as if her katana-wielding foe was abruptly plunged underwater.

It was only then that she recognized that her field of view had quickly narrowed. While she could see her adversary in perfect, crisp detail, the center of her eyesight had brightened, and the edges had dimmed. In a mere second, it had shrunk to where she could barely make out her surroundings. ‘Is this what they call tunnel vision?’ she wondered as she swung her spear to intercept her opponent’s extremely slow attack.

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