Caina Amalas vs. Nadia Moran – who would win?

A reader asks who would win in a fight – Caina Amalas from THE GHOSTS or Nadia Moran from CLOAK GAMES?

Probably Caina, for two reasons. First, Nadia knows that in an emergency she can always rely on a gun to get out of trouble. Caina doesn’t, as firearms have not been invented in the world of THE GHOSTS, so she’s better with knives and unarmed fighting.

Second, Nadia relies heavily upon her magic, which is exactly the wrong tactic to employ with someone like Caina. Nadia’s preferred strategy for dealing with Caina would be to Cloak herself, wait until Caina walked past, and then shoot her in the back of the head.  As you might expect, this would ordinarily work quite well. That, however, would be exactly the wrong strategy for dealing with Caina. Caina would sense the Cloak spell and realize that someone invisible was in the room. Alternatively, if Nadia disguised herself with a Mask spell, Caina would sense it, and then would play along with Nadia’s ruse until the moment of maximum advantage arrived.

After the events of GHOST IN THE SEAL, Nadia would be at an even greater disadvantage. If Nadia Cloaked herself, since Caina would be able to see exactly where she is. All of the spells Nadia uses to hide herself would only serve to draw Caina’s attention, putting Nadia at a likely fatal disadvantage.

So, Caina would probably win any fight…at least at Nadia’s current level of skill and ability.

-JM