- Sam p.o.v -
When I wake up, I quickly escape from bed, in case they tempt me. I don't want us to eat ambrosia for breakfast, so I pull a full table of goodies from my pocket space. That is good enough for Ammit to wake up. She did not stay in my space since we made it here. I turn she wakes the other stirring herself awake.
(I wonder how she feel when she sleep? Does she dream like us?)
Anyway, Today is a special day. I'm setting a battle for the girls. Most unlocked new powers, this is the perfect moment to pit them against each other since they don't know each others progress.
The selection goes like this:
Tenka VS Katriel and Mily
Salaba VS Izuka
Loser VS Loser
Winner VS Winner
1st place: 7 days care package! giggle
2nd Prize: Love weekend!
3rd Prize: One day date!
Consolation Prize: One night alone!
They will flip a coin to decide the terrain. To get a a better grasp over their powers, I send Izuka and Salaba on individual warm up. Then we do a morning training and stretching session.
Mily and Kat seem better than yesterday. A little sleep is all it take to reorganize your brain. And of course and good breakfast.
Tenka is dead walking, but a good work out and battle will be good to stretch her wounded muscles. I had her do the most intensive body conditioning method I could come up with. The next best thing will be to have her train under high gravity.
Izuka had the worst nightmare in her life. She was trapped as one of her clones while they took her body and messed around with her loved ones. Once awake, her other selves said the same thing. Like they amplified each other's fear. That made her feel safer. They are exactly the same and she can literally put them in a real body when she is stronger. Nothing bad will happen. Like too many in this world, she did not need to be comforted and got herself together. Though the one clone in my Mindscape did not suffer nightmare. We told each other not to tell her, to cause her to feel bad. In a day or two, if she is still living nightmares, we will talk about it. Her training went awesomely.
Salaba will be very silent this morning. I tried to talk to her, but she said she is fine. I don't blame her. She received a good dose of information and created a Mindscape on the fly. This takes time to adjust. I just give her a tight hug and let her be for now. Her training turns into a meditation session. I can somehow guess how she fell. Too much information to sink in. Since she is a very intuitive person, her memories sink in deeper than most. Right now she is rebuilding herself with this information as a foundation. I remind me of my past life in fact.
Tenka Katriel Mily
STR - 30 - 60 - 50
END - 35 - 60 - 70
AGI - 120 - 60 - 80
DEX - 120 - 60 - 50
VIT - 500 - 150 - 250
INT - 60 - 60 - 30
WIT - 60 - 60 - 30
ME - 50 - 40 - 30
SPI - 40 - 20 - 35
WIL - 60 - 50 - 80
BEL - 500 - 50 - 100
Skills
Tenka Katriel Mily
Thought accel 20% - Thought accel 10% - Twin mind 30%
Power man. 90% - Power man. 50% - Power man. 30%
Soundless 100% - HUD 1% - Switch blink 5%
Stone heart 5% - Adv perception 1% - Claw dance 5%
Blink 10% - Keen senses 10%
Adv. Perception 10%
Adv. vision 50%
Element law 1%
Leader aura 1%
Tame 0%
--------
I pick them for the fight cause they are the ones who benefited the less in theory from the trial. Well they just did not gain new skills or evolved. They still gained growth potential.
They flip the coin and despite the odd against her Tenka won. She chose A forest as her home ground. I made a double of Crraa so Mily can use her abilities. At the same time, when she returns to the real one she will have practiced already.
The contestants are transported to the forest biome, while screens light up with multiples views of the place, comes to life for us.
- Tenka's p.o.v. -
As soon as I appear in the forest, I dart to the biggest three I spot and climb it. Mily can smell me, so I have to locate them and catch them from downwind.
Once at the two, I attempt something Sam told me how to, but I never got to it. But, he said it should be easy for me. The Air walk skill. He said it's just concentrating my power in the air. In his case, he uses space compression, but for me I have to use elements. Air.
I close my eyes and feel the breeze. I a fit of inspiration, I use my power the same way I developed soundless and create a bubble of still air around me. All sound disappears except my breathing. I release my power. Then, I make a platform like Sam explained. I step on it.
Just like Sam said I did it first try. Is this why he calls me a genius?
I climb high enough to spot the two of them. Mily is actually making a plan!?
- Katriel p.o.v. -
When we appear in the forest, which is the worst place for me, Mily has to adjust to her fake companion. It's like a puppet connected to her. I can see where Sam is going with this. He wants her to dominate her pet and control it. It would be for the best to her sanity. She starts running around, so I follow her. She synchronizes with her puppet and we stop to make a plan.
Mily-"Sam said not to hold back, He said just don't cut limbs and poke eyes. If we are about to die he will save us. Tenka is an' assassin, we need to be alert. She will find us."-
A flux of information on defensive battle tactics explodes in my brain. I feel strange. My spine and brain seems to elevate in temperature for a second. I remember she said I would burst, I can see why now. These are mature and fermented thoughts, especially the knowledge Sam had before his reincarnation. It acts like a foundation for the rest to build upon.
Back to the field, I tell Mily to form a triangle formation with her puppet as the third position. We position ourselves. I try my best to use Adv. perception, but It takes time to become proficient, and Tenka had more time than me. My range is limited compared to her.
Mily do her best to smell the air, since Tenka is soundless we don't bother. This all prove to be useless.
- Tenka's p.o.v -
I drop down from the sky and make my way downwind from Mily and Crraa, by tip toeing on the tree tops. Once I find the perfect angle, I find the perfect distance.
Like a predator, I jump and climb in the air, before doing a running dive, landing just behind Katriel, dagger in hand above her neck. She gets teleported out. I jump out of the way from a pouncing pair.
- Mily p.o.v. -
Dam it! How can... Forget it... The puppet and I cross attack her, but she still manages to evade us from her blind spot. I keep the slow dance and send the puppet around from her blind spot again. I switch positions with the puppet to mess up her counter. She is just like an eel. I barely scratch her before she retreats. We breath and smile at each other.
She used a lot of energy on her new skill I can tell. We only had one bout and her breathing is heavier than mine. Now I lost my advantage of the surprise with the shift blink. I will lose, but not before putting a fight.
"You're good! We were too focused on the tree and forgot about the sky. You fooled us with the terrain choice."
Tenka-"Wow! This is what Sam did to you! you can talk normally now and even plan ahead, this is good!"-
I'm about to click my tongue, but under all that knowledge, she is like my mother and big sister, even though we are the same age dhaaaa, so shameful. Though I can understand why she says this.
"Thanks."
I know I can't sneak on her even with the puppet, so I just position her between it and I. We attack first and dash to her. I make Crraa's puppet's jump higher than Tenka's head, I prepare a downward claw thrust. I switch positions with the puppet and stab at her with all my weight, hoping to pin her so that the puppet can bite at her.
What happen next baffled me. She bent in an' arc, extending her arms behind her and caught my wrists without looking. She has a very good arm guard that Sam made, so I did not even scratch her. Then she uses my momentum to throw myself at the puppet.
Once I get my baring back, I'm pinned on top of the puppet with a knife at my throat. AND I LOST. She did not even look at me back there, like she has eyes in the back of her head. (She just knew what Mily would do)
Sam-"WINNER TENKA!"
- Sam p.o.v. -
That was fast, but I'm proud of their progress. Even if Kat didn't have time to show anything. She's not ready anyway.
"Congrats to all of you. next fight!"
Salaba Vs Izuka
STR - 160 - 20
END - 100 - 20
AGI - 40 - 40
DEX - 50 - 50
VIT - 250 - 600
INT - 40 - 40
WIT - 30 - 60
ME - 30 - 40
SPI - 30 - 100
WIL - 50 - 40
BEL - 500 - (1/5000)
Skills
Salaba Izuka
Perfect recording 1% - Mirror Minds 5%
Power man. 50% - Power man. 50%
Gravity law 10% - Illusion law 5% (light)
Magnetic law 50 % - Reality law 0% (Dark)
Vector law 0% - Blink(s) 9 %
Atomic law 0% - Clone(s) 9%
- Air walk 5%
- Power concealment 50%
----
They flip the coin and Salaba wins, but she let Izuka choose. Izuka snickers and chose her Mindscape. A mirror spiral angle at the golden ratio, expanding to infinity. Just the sight is dizzying. The room is a square100m spiral, but you can't tell that unless you get real close and have appropriate lighting. The room is white but dark on light. This gives the reflection an' almost seamless connection to the infinity. Painted, it would look like a closed snail shell.
Salaba ignore the room. The best tactic against illusions in fact. She closes her eyes and make herself a domain. It really is just a bubble of high perception, but this allows her to use her power quickly In a certain radius. She polarizes the space around her, or "prime" it if you like. On top of that, this is a top notch perception tool.
Izuka blink at Sal, but the later seize her in her position. Salaba get up and put a hand to the neck of Izuka, but when she touches her, Izuka smiles and vanishes. Ten Izuka surround Sal. Sal pulls two rubber balls with iron cores that I gave her since I can't save someone fast enough for her. She as five of them.
She let the balls hover above each shoulder, then close her eyes. Her attack begins. The balls almost blink around her. Izuka is so startled that all the clones back step for her range losing four of them one strike. She herself was targeted as a bonus. She made it out by the skin of her teeth.
I can tell Salaba just nullified Izuka advantage. Her domain makes her free in all the terrains, that was the goal of her trial. On top of that, she has a personal weapon. Izuka does not have one yet.
But don't underestimate Izuka. She commanded illusions to hide her from sight. Sal can see millions of Izuka appearing and disappearing all around. Salaba is immune to direct brain interference thank to her power, so Izu has to use illusions around her and make her way closer.
The pressure on Salaba is too high, so she pulls her other rubber balls. She rotates them round, but there is a limit to the speed of rotation. It's not easy to imagine a vortex around yourself. Straight lines are more effective.
She bunt the clones, but the balls just pass through. She as to just graze them cause Izuka is good enough to make her perception think they are real.
They both probes each other at max power until Izuka as to give up fist. Salaba's defense is too tight. She as to cover a greater area and use more power to fool her. In the end she as no choice to surrender. Sal uses only a trickle of her power and mental energy in this fight.
Next fight, Izuka VS Mily and Katriel.
They flip the coin and Kat wins this time. She thought about it, and her slim chance of winning would be on a sky platform with no fence. She will defend and let melee attack.
They get teleported on a 30 m platform in the clouds. No places to hide for either party.
Once the fight starts Katriel ignore any illusions and take the center of the stage. Mainly use her sense to track the real Izuka. She can't fool her sense of smell yet.
Izuka double the stimulation on Milly to disturb her, but she went through that strange training Sam put up for her and she is able to close the sense she does not need. In the end, she is running after Izuka eyes closed.
Izuka can't lose her and has to waste energy to escape, so she comes up with a devious plan. She removes her shirt and just before getting caught, she throws her shirt over the side and switch blink away from Mily, and exchange places with a clone. Mily dives down....
What she could not predict, is that Katriel gave up on warning Mily who has her sense shut and focus all her power on her brain to slow her perception of time and boost her legs to dash at the first chance. Her perception to the max, which cover 30m, the size of the platform.
Just maintaining this level of awareness uses up a lot of energy. Still, once Izuka switch with her clone, Katriel make her first Blink toward her. Sam covered this easy concept, and she instinctively used it!
- Katriel p.o.v. -
Now at close range, Izuka can't do anything except running. The battle turns into a dance of fast and short moves. I have the advantage as long as I keep her on her toes close to me.
Attack after attack, she evades, back-step, roll, but my stance allows me to always be upon her before she can think about her next move. I control the flow of the battle this time. After reading all her evasive moves, I slowly corner her and push her to the side. This turns into a chess match between us. She regains a bit of a fight when she realizes what I will do. She gives up illusions and throw her own sneak attacks here and there. I give her this, She is really a genius like Sam said. Lets add some mental pressure. In between breaths, I taunt her.
"This is all you have at close range, I will win this!"
Izuka smirks. She disappears from my view completely. But I know she did not blink away, That smirk was a bluff. I kick at her and there she is. My bluff won over hers. Nothing to be proud of at my age defeating a young woman like this. She flies over the side. Her body was very light.
I won this, but there is nothing to be proud of. I don't feel great about winning, but about our growth.
Once back in the lounge, I hug Izuka and Mily and cheer them. We all learned from this. This is what Sam wanted. Cunning men.
- Sam p.o.v. -
I'm glad to see my girls being so nice to each other. I hope they transmit this to the others.
Next and Last fight. The one that I dread myself seriously. Tenka will have a hard time winning this.
Tenka-"I give up!"-
Sigh... Can't blame her really.
"Ok. We all should know our limits. Salaba is really our ultimate warrior. I gave her enough knowledge for her to improve over a lifetime and more... Truth be told unless I would try to assassinate her, I would not win against her either hehehe."
I know one day I will be able to use this power too, but seeing her using is at this level in my face make me a bit jealous, but I squash this feeling. Salaba is like a caring mommy. I would be ashamed to be like this. No I'm proud of her!
"Sal, You really Impress me. You trained hard, never gave up despite the difficulties. You earned this!"
Ammit made a golden Cup that we filled with fairies brew. This is her first drink ever. I never asked for any alcohol. I never was a drinker and I don't want to spoil this body. I'm drug free. This is important to me. But after the description of the damned thing my curiosity is peaked. A wine made of ambrosia, flowers and honey. I loved hydromel even if I never drank it.
So I give all the girls a cup of fairies brew fitting the result of the fight. I myself have a cup of the stuff. Sweet and sour, strong too. A bliss. We all chug it one gulp, and it would be hard to hold ourselves as mere mortals.
The night turns into an' orgy. Witnessed by our dear fay friends. I probably broke a sex record.