Nebula flew into the ground like a falling meteoroid, creating a wide crater around her. Her body was glowing with multiple colours like a rainbow, but it flickered, signifying the nearness to the time limit of her special skill, [Cloud Iridescence.]
She sat up, rubbing her hurting head when a purple dot in the sky suddenly shot down at her.
"Oh, come on!" Nebula kicked against the ground and flew away from the 'dot's' landing spot.
BOOM!!!
The ground rumbled as the crater Nebula had formed widened by a great amount with Alya's landing.
Nebula was hit off balance by the shock waves that blasted out of Alya's landing spot. And before she knew it, Alya's weapon was already making its way through her neck from the side.
'Dog Crap!' Nebula rose her arms up as a white substance formed like gauntlets around them. Grabbing the sharp length of the weapon, she pushed off it and flew farther into the direction the blade was swinging at, escaping death.
Nebula created a white cloth with her powers and tied it around her neck, to prevent too much loss of blood.
"Your body isn't doing that puffy thing anymore, and you seem tired." Alya started to walk slowly towards Nebula. Despite the injuries on Nebula's body and her special ability about to go into cooldown, Alya had not received even a scratch in return.
"Well I did just ascend before you came rushing at me like a madman." Nebula panted heavily as she stood up straight.
"..." Alya stopped walking as she stared at the woman with wide eyes. Soon she slapped her head with the palm of her hand. "Of course. That's why." She chuckled to herself.
"That's why what?" Nebula asked, not letting down her guard.
"That's why your attacks felt amiss. The way you threw your punches like an idiot and used your abilities were just based on common sense. You're not in sync with your powers, because you just got them." Nebula stared at Alya, going on about how she was like a newbie with her own body and ability and thought, 'Damn, she's right.'
Nebula didn't have a human form before getting to level 70 because she hadn't killed a human being before. She didn't even know she had one till the time when she got brutally injured in her and Nova's domain, so using human limbs was new to her.
However, she thought she could still use the form fairly well because of the knowledge she had gotten from watching Huntsmen in the farming grounds, but it seemed it wasn't enough, as it was still noticeable that she was just swinging her limbs around.
"But your battle sense isn't half bad, along with your cheat ability." Alya laughed. It was true though. When Alya had used that giant purple blade at the start of their fight, knowing that she might not make it out of the range of effect of the skill, she ran straight at the point the attack would have the least effect, and that was at the source. Plus, from her stats down to her ability itself, any professional who fought her would notice that she was a little overpowered and had a very unique, top tier ability.
Nebula looked at her rainbow coloured hands, with dirt and a little blood over them. She smiled, seeing that her blood was red. She was alive, alive and her own being. She could do whatever she wanted without relying on anything or anyone. And those thoughts filled her body with excitement.
"Let's end this..."
"Alya. Call me Alya. And since I know your level, then I'll tell you mine.
I'm an upper level 73 student of the White Ranks division of Ansel Academy.
Since that's out of the way, let's finish this fight in an all out attack, with out weapons of course."
Nebula took in a deep breath as she took a battle stance, while Alya stuck her board into the ground.
As they got ready to trade blows, Nebula started to think of ways that would make her win this battle. Her strength was weaker than Alya's, making it vain to attack her head on head or just taking a defensive approach.
'I know, if I use my shape shifting skill to transform into an agility type beast, my speed stats should be higher than hers since she's also built on strength. All I need to do is dodge her attack with my speed and then immediately follow it up with one of mine."
As she figured out how she should go about their last hit attack, her body burst into a cloud of white before coagulating to form the shape of a cat like beast. Soon, her new form was revealed.
Standing on all fours, Nebula stood at a height of seven feet, looking like a fierce white jaguar with shiny silver spots and rainbow coloured eyes. Her silhouette was also encased in the same vibrant colours, albeit faintly.
[Rank 5 Ghost Cat imitation.]
Although the beast she shifted into was a rank 5, Nebula was way stronger than that. In fact, even if she turned into a tiny beetle built on defense, she'd still have a stat average of 65, 000, meaning she could lift a building with equal ease as she could in her human form.
This was why her shape shifting skill took a lot of energy points. Because it literally rearranged her stats. So the fact that her agility was low meant nothing if she could find a speedy animal to turn to.
"Phew." Alya whistled in awe before tensing her muscles. "Ready?"
Nebula crouched down, signifying that she was. And soon purple tribal markings started to appear and light up around Alya body.
Seeing this, Nebula's eyes opened wide in shock. "So you... haven't even used...?"
Alya grinned as she rose her fist, about to spring into action. Nebula then prepared for her counterattack plan. Now was not the time to be awestruck.
'As soon as she leaps I'll —!!!' Nebula's eyes suddenly widened as the fist of the woman fifty feet away was now suddenly right in front of her face.
'Are you kidding me?' Nebula kicked out of the way, dodging the punch by a hair's breadth. However, due to the surprise advantage Alya had gotten, and the wide range of the force of her punches, Nebula was thrown out of balance as she was hit by wind blades flying out from the point of Alya's impact on the ground.
Before she could refocus herself, Alya had already thrown a second punch to her stomach, knocking her unconscious.
"Oops."
———
"Is he asleep?"
"Nah. He's downstairs in the forge."
"Forge? You mean that place you never use? Wait... did you?"
Yenn laughed as an open space opened up for Nova and her to walk through. The both of them sat in the same couch in Yenn's sitting room as the room lit up from the sunlight coming in from the window wall beside them.
"Yeah." Yenn answered Nova's question. "I had it built especially for our Ashie." Yenn winked at the woman beside her, tapping on the cylindrical center table in front of them, making two cups of warm coffee and other things come out of the holes that had opened up.
Nova rolled her eyes at Yenn's statement and took one of the coffee cups after Yenn had finished preparing it.
"That aside." Yenn took a sip of the coffee and soon decided to add more sugar and milk to it. "I don't even recognize you anymore."
"You might as well take a yoghurt." Nova looked at Yenn's cup weirdly. The content was probably only five percent coffee, sixty percent milk and chocolate and thirty-five percent sugar.
Her eyes drifted from the coffee to the shiny black surface of the table.
As she looked at herself, Nova acknowledged that she did look different. Her face looked more mature, and her body features were definitely more womanlike than before. Half of her silver hair was now gold instead, and tied in a ponytail style. It was a good thing she was going to be hanging around the exclusive Black ranks now, because she had already gotten enough attention with her previous looks in her former class.
If she went in her current form, it'd be like she was a hot teacher instead of a student. Especially being 180 centimeters tall, standing at the same height as the tall guys in her class.
But this type of stuff happened to people who reached the Lord's Sanctum. Their bodies would evolve into 'Sacred bodies', where it would take another five centuries before it started to age again. At least, that was what research said.
"But now we get to spend more time together. And plus..." Yenn pointed at the purple hair strands that covered her left eye. "We're two colour sisters!" As her sparkly white teeth were on display, along with her eyes forming crescents as they were closed happily, Nova stared at the woman beside her.
"You heeded to my warning, didn't you?" Nova suddenly asked.
Yenn tilted her head in question. "What warning?"
"To not smile like that in front of other people. It's probably the reason why that Enzo guy is so into you." Nova sipped from her cup.
"Oh." Yenn's purple eyes glinted with understanding. "Mhm mhm." She nodded obediently.
"Yeah but, I kind of forgot about that it one time."
Nova covered her mouth as she had almost spat out the liquid in her mouth. "W– who?"
"The vice president's son."
Nova sighed. "That's a relief."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, I don't know for sure but, I heard a couple of girls saying he might be 'ace'. I mean, it's likely possible, knowing that he had no sort of reaction from seeing a girl in her underwear." Nova chuckled. "He walked into the girls' locker room by mistake and just waltzed back out like nothing happened."
[A/ N: Ace – Asexual.]
"Woah, really?" Yenn laughed. "Apocalyph's also like that... and Asher. Hmm." Yenn suddenly started making mischievous looks as weird pictures started to race around her head about the two boys. Before she could include Neven in her fantasies too, Nova flicked her finger at her head, bringing her out of her R–rated thoughts.
"Oww~" Yenn covered her head with her hands.
Nova scoffed. "When is Ash going to finish with whatever he's doing?" She looked at the time on her wristband.
"Whenever you're ready." A voice suddenly sounded from behind them.
Yenn and Nova turned their heads to see a pair of obsidian black eyes peeking at them from behind the couch.
"I've been here the whole time, waiting for the perfect moment to make my entrance." Asher said dramatically as he stood up from the ground.
"Mhm mhm." Yenn looked at him with a sarcastic smirk, knowing that he had just arrived.
"What have you been doing? Whatever, let's just go already." Nova stood up, ready to leave.
"Coffee?" Yenn offered him her cup.
"I thought you had an immunity to these types of things." Asher took the cup from her hand. But as soon as he took a sip, he almost spat out the concoction she had created.
"I see you're... Mgh! still as creative as ever with your cooking, huh?" Asher smiled, his mouth twitching as he returned her cup.
"Hehe." Yenn gulped down the remaining drink in the cup at a go.
"Now, let's go get our half sister." Asher suddenly said.
"Half?" Nova walked towards a purple coloured, door shaped wall.
"Well yeah. You said she was half of you, didn't you? And sister divided by two is half–sister."
Nova's eyebrows fell as she listened to Asher's joke while Yenn just laughed.
"But where to look?" Yenn asked.
"Who cares? We'll burn this island to cinders to find her if we must." He placed his palm on the wall, making it open up. "After you."
Nova snapped of her daze from his words and walked into the open space. "But you really shouldn't do that."
Asher followed along. "Why? She's one of us now, isn't she?"