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"Hmph."

That was all Grigoriy had spoken after Trevor paid him the compliment just moments earlier. It was definitely true that this man was hard to get through, didn't seem to want to reciprocate any banter, reactions, nothing. This was truly something different to any other battles he had up to this point. More so, while Aerora was assisting in protecting him, these aggressive were going to be the "death" of him. Even still...at the same time...

...c'mon Morgan...where are you? This resounding thought still continued to linger in this moment. Was he going to be by himself at this moment in time, or would the zombie pull through? Luckily he didn't have to linger long on this wondering. In the light of the moon, there was Morgan's silhouette...albeit quite unusual to say the least. Regardless, Trevor watched this and knew she'd be able to get the strike on the older gentleman.

"You're decent, but not nearly enough to distract me that much."

These words made the young sorcerer begin to grit his teeth. Grigoriy turned halfway towards Morgan and threw his hand out in her direction. Unfortunately, Trevor knew this motion by now...the man was calling out another lightning based spell. Make matters worse, the gentleman who was surprisingly spry for his age, was already making a move to get behind him. Dilemma time...

"Are you really going to debate this?"

Trevor glanced at the Cabanomicon, feeling this from the leather back grimoire. Now wasn't the time for that... He grit his teeth at this. With the way he was moving, it wouldn't be pretty, but right now he didn't care...he wasn't going to let his allies get injured. The sorcerer immediately threw his hand out towards Morgan. "AERORA!!!" he shouted, watching the winds swiftly whip around Morgan, effectively shielding her from Grigory's little lightning bolt strike.

Unfortunately, this meant his back was wide open...

Grigoriy slashed twice in succession across the mage's back. It didn't hurt as he might have expected, simply a sting as if to acknowledge the blows. In the corner of his eye he saw something, some sort of bar, decrease before vanishing. "Don't try and do everything on your own." He rumbled and Trevor felt the man's boot strike his back and push him forward.

"Yeowch...huh...this is so weird..." Trevor mumbled, noticing the stinging feeling as well as the strange bar. It was a strange notion to see, but perhaps this was all having to do with whatever simulation they happened to be in. Very intriguing...but he'd ruminate over that later. He had to focus. "Oh trust me, I don't plan to do things on my own...bu-WHOA!" The sorcerer was pushed forward by Grigoriy's boot, being off balance but only for a moment as he turned it into a full on dodge roll.

"As I was saying...I don't plan to do things on my own, sir." he huffed standing upright as he gingerly adjusted his tie and hat. "It's not my first time making sure allies of mine are taken care of...I'm simply making sure they remain as fighting fit as possible."

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“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.”
-Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)


Okay, when she’d thought “catch me if you can,” that hadn’t been, like, an actual request. It had been a taunt, and not even one she’d said out loud. Melissa wouldn’t have dared to say that out loud even if she could in her current state. She was glad Zadkiel had two arms free for getting grabbed, though. At least the vulnerable part of the flight -- her own body -- wasn’t the target of Rei’s ghosts or whatever they were. Rei was still operating with incomplete information just as Melissa was.

New possibilities opened up to her in her slumber. Zadkiel wasn’t able to wriggle free, and she wasn’t going to try and pull back and get into that sort of fight, but she did remember that the angels could be summoned how she wanted within a range she’d learned the boundaries of while fighting that woman who created sandstorms. And Rei already (hopefully?) thought Zadkiel was fragile anyway, so wasn’t this just an opportunity to reinforce that belief while it didn’t matter?

This is the kind of reckless behavior we would like to discourage, the angels said in her head.

Melissa wasn’t sure that was true. Which part did they disagree with? Did they not think Zadkiel could catch her again if she released the cherub and hurtled through the air, albeit unguided, for just a moment? Or was it just the act of exposing herself in the first place? Because the alternative of just letting herself be caught wasn’t exactly appealing either, and a flash step of sorts at least had the appeal of trying something out, of being something that, even if it didn’t work, could at least be something she and the angels could work on in the future. That was what training was for, right?

She felt her sensations return to her as Zadkiel disappeared, freeing herself from Rei’s ethereal grip. Before she could summon her guardian protector again, though, another force seized her. She hadn’t accounted for Rei’s ability to react. That was what the warning was about. She hadn’t been fast enough. Maybe she should have expected that? Rei had avoided Melissa’s first attack easily as well, and that had only required reactions slightly slower than this new maneuver.

Okay, Melissa thought, so what were her options now? If she was about to be thrown, she could handle that by just… going through the plan she was already thinking about, catching herself with her cherub before she “struck her foot against a stone” as it were. But Rei wasn’t doing that. Rei seemed content to just drag her in slowly, surely confident that she had seized her prey. Melissa gave Rei a few token struggles, enough to keep the girl focused on her, all the while also keeping her focus on the house, making sure she still knew where it was, even as she dipped back below the treeline.

Melissa hoped Rei was actually pulling her towards her. Imagine if she was just dragging her somewhere else! But she soon saw Rei in one of the trees, watching her, guiding her in. And it was at that moment that she developed something of a plan.

The next seconds were crucial. She knew Rei had impeccable reactions, and even with the plan, Rei still had a ghostly hand seizing her, but it was better than nothing. She focused on the space right behind Rei and closed her eyes.

The angels can be summoned at range, and her opponent is close enough now to be within it. The cherub does not need to erupt forth from her body, so it simply materializes in the spot its host designated. It emits its own light, which unfortunately draws the eye to it, but distracting the opponent here is a feature of the plan, not a flaw. And just as the girl can choose a spot for her cherub, so too can she choose its position. In this case, the cherub has already wound up for a swing of its flaming sword, and, since it’s already ready, the swing comes immediately, a diagonal cut aimed right at the shoulder.

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While Fen had managed to strike Kelsey with her sword, she was surprised by the girl's next maneuver. In a blinding light she had gone from just summoning different armaments to being clad in a full suit of armor. As she rocketed forward, Fen could only brace herself as the now fully armored girl rammed into her and pushed her off her feet. Tumbling, Fen got herself back up, only to see Kelsey already on her flank ready to shoot. Trying to face the girl she was confused yet again as an explosion appeared underneath Kelsey, causing a laugh to come from her opponent as she tried to figure out if this was one of Kelsey's other armaments. Though from her comments it sounded more a part of the area they were in then anything else. Seeing the girl then put her gun back up after recovering from the explosion, Fen put her hands up to swiftly make yet another ice wall. 

Expecting Kelsey to immediately blow it up after it had blocked her initial barrage, Fen hopped backwards only to be met with a similar explosion to what had just happened moments before. Wincing from the impact, though clearly with no actual injury on her, the girl watched as the gauge in her peripheral depleted again. "What a dangerous place," the girl muttered. Looking to the wall, the girl had to think fairly quickly as to how to keep fighting her opponent. She had already revealed that she could extend her weapons length, a trick she didn't even knew she had coming into this fight and one she didn't think would work if she just attempted it in the same each time. Then there was the problem that she also needed to deal with Kelsey's onslaught of attacks, one that had come out in much faster speeds then what Fen was able to keep up with currently and could tear through her defenses. In addition to being able to fight from a range as well. 

She was outmatched in power, speed, versatility and aggression. She was lacking in every capacity against her opponent and couldn't see a path to victory as things stood. She needed to be faster. She needed to more flexible. She needed to something. As Fen saw the explosives from Kelsey's armor streak past her wall, now on course towards her Fen had to think. A shield or wall would block them but then she'd just be on the defensive again, and poorly at that. She could conjure weapons to block them but there was no weapon in her arsenal that would be able to deal with all of them at once. "Weapon..." The girl's eyes widened as magic started flowing through her hands yet again. 

Her magic was not to create and shape weapons made of ice. It was to create and shape ice. There was no reason they had to be weapons. There was no reason they had to finely detailed. There was no reason they had to be solid through the whole way through. At a much more rapid speed then was possible earlier, Fen created objects without any real shape in mind that were hollow on the inside yet much bigger than anything she would've been able to make normally. With these objects in hand, she tossed them towards the missiles. They were ill suited to act as weapons, but they were more then up to the task to block an attack. 

Shattering as the explosions struck the ice, Fen looked towards her wall, seeing it still up and believing Kelsey to be on the other side of it. Running forward, Fen put her hand on the wall and pulsed magic through it. The ice was already there, so all she needed to do was reshape it. A spike launched from the wall on the other side, and though Fen couldn't see it, she heard a hollow sounding "oof," from Kelsey. Smiling as her attack was a success, the girl then thought about it some more. She could reshape anything she was touching with her hands, so perhaps if she was always touching the ice then her options would increase even more. The girl clapped her hands together, ice forming into armor across her arms before the wall in front of her shattered.

Her armored opponent had her weapons at the ready and charged towards the girl, firing yet barrage from her weapons. Seeing this, Fen's hand pulse with magic, and out from her armored arm a shield former. Blocking the attacks, Fen knew that if she just backed away from her opponent then there would be no way to return fire and so she matched her opponent's aggression. Running forward, the girl held up her shield, blocking most of the shots from Kelsey before angling her shield and producing a spike of ice that shot forward towards Kelsey's shoulder weapon. The girl leaped back in a zig zag formation, directly behind where Fen had started. "Close! Looks like you're getting into it, really feeling the heat!" Only to then fire another volley of missiles at Fen. 

Smiling herself Fen responded, “I won’t win just waiting for you to shatter me after all!” Quickly summoning knives, Fen tossed them to intercept a few of the missiles before tossing her shield at Kelsey. The remaining missiles struck Fen as the shield thunked against Kelsey, yet Fen didn't seem to mind the damage. Instead, feeling the adrenaline fully pump through her, the girl began to charge Kelsey, this time with the armored girl being the one to hang back. Brining her ice armored up, Fen reformed the hand of it into a blade, extending it forward and striking one of the rifles out of her opponent's hand before suddenly hearing another click underneath her feet. With an explosion striking her yet again, Fen's focus briefly broke as she realized that she had been too focused on the enemy in front of her instead of trying to spot the environmental hazards. As the smoke cleared she felt Kelsey's second rifle pressed against her head, clearly ready to fire. 

With the distance they were at and her focus being interrupted with the explosion there was no way she could move her head away from the attack in time. Similarly, there was no way she could move her hands to get it away, even if she had a weapon. Yet, with her arms armored up she was never without a weapon and had no need to move her hands anymore. With a pulse of magic surging through her armor, a blade of ice extended out from the arm towards Kelsey's rifle. 

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Melissa vs Rei

Rei was feeling proud despite herself. As soon as the angel vanished and Melissa was unprotected she had unveiled a third telekinetic arm to grab onto the girl. She intended to reel her in before slamming her against the trees but she was caught off guard quickly after.

The girl noticed something was happening but it was too fast for her to stop it as the angel suddenly appeared behind her and scored a blow across her back. She cried out more in surprise than pain as she lost her footing and fell from the tree.

Before hitting the ground she, though it couldn't be seen, stretched out her arms to several trees nearby and grabbed on. She hung there, suspended in midair, for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Okay I see its not gonna be over so fast. I guess the cat's outta the bag about the whole ghost thing isn't it? Didn't really think it'd stick but." she gave an awkward shrug, "well alright then. I don't really like prolonged fights, or any fight really, but if I gave up I'd never hear the end of it."

She noticed that the angel had appeared by Melissa once again and caught her before she could hit the ground. Meaning all that and Rei hadn't even been able to do much damage in the end. She sighed again, "One good thing about these simulations is I don't have to worry so much about headaches....besides from annoyance."

BGM

Rei let herself land on the ground as she looked up at the angel that was now in front of her. She ran a hand through her hair and let out a groan. "I never bought into the 'do better than your best' stuff the school tried to push on us. Why should I have to push myself like that, wouldn't it be better if everyone just did what they could?" She frowned. "I dunno why I'm saying this crap now, something weird about you makes me feel like blathering on. But, anyway, I guess for now I can put in a little more effort even if just to make that old man less grumpy."

Rei stretched out two of her invisible arms out past the angel to grab onto one of the trees beyond. Gritting her teeth she pulled herself across so that her body moved around the side of the angel. As she passed by she reached one more out to grab onto the angel. "Let's go for a ride ya big ol freak!" she called out as she slammed it into the ground and dragged it along with her as she pulled herself towards the tree.


Fen vs Kelsey

Kelsey didn't seem to care about the explosion that had been right in front of her. She wasn't about to let up now that Fen looked like she was taking this more seriously. So she continued on at full speed, intent on blasting with a critical hit. The problem with offensive styles was that one slip up and instead of dealing massive damage to the opponent you were the one taking the hits.

Which of course went both ways. One of the reasons Kelsey pushed Fen into this sort of fight was to see if she could keep up. And, with Fen's quick response, Kelsey started to think she might be getting the hang of it. "You know, that wasn't so bad! But I don't need my gun to fight back you know!" she called out as Fen's magic forced her second gun out of her other hand.

Without missing a beat Kelsey clenched the fist that had been holding the gun and drove it into the side of Fen's face. The metal clad limb striking her like a bullet of its own. "Always go all out! That way," she swung her other fist into Fen's stomach, "you never have any regrets!" Despite her face being covered one could almost hear the smile on her face. "That's how I chose to live my life!"

Then, from close range, she launched several more missiles at the girl.

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Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
    when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
or the LORD will see and disapprove
    and turn his wrath away from them.
-Proverbs 24:17-18 (NIV)


Melissa barely had time to process anything. She knew Zadkiel’s attack worked and that Rei had let her go because of that, even if that meant Melissa had gone tumbling to the ground. She’d maintained just enough wherewithal to call her angel back to catch her, but that had given Rei time to recuperate, and from what she could understand from Rei’s speech, it wasn’t a resource she was taking lightly. Rei talked about her abilities -- confirming Melissa’s suspicions, more like -- and the world she’d come from. She also called Zadkiel a freak, which brought to mind the Spike Brothers gang.

But that last thought was a bit too intrusive, and by the time Melissa had properly pictured Rei with seven green spikes on her head instead of hair, Rei was already moving again, whipping herself through the forest, grabbing Zadkiel and taking it along for the ride. Zadkiel was still holding Melissa, of course, so thankfully she couldn’t directly feel the angel being dragged across the forest floor, but she was aware of it in other ways. Every time it hit a root, that was a bump she was acutely aware of, and the red blur at the edges of her vision was back, slowly diminishing.

Was it a health bar? Was that something the pods had added? It seemed to be reducing slower than Melissa assumed it would for “being dragged through underbrush” but then again she was hardier than she was back on Ambrosia and was not directly experiencing the harm besides. Still, if she wanted to win the fight (or even keep fighting at all) she couldn’t let it continue.

She dismissed the angel, a move that certainly amplified her health loss but at least she could move. At least she could scramble to her feet. “Do you mean you weren’t trying before?” Melissa said. It was the sort of question she probably could have asked inwardly, but the words just slipped out. Now that they were out there, though, she felt she had to continue the thought. “Isn’t that-” No, better was, “I’m sorry, I know we already talked about the expectations behind us fighting, and that included Grigoriy and the rest of your team, I remember, and also you’ve mentioned twice what sort of world the one you’re from is like and the expectations that come from that, but, um, I’m not sure we talked about mine as much.

Also like last time, Melissa found herself approaching Rei as she spoke. “Like, did you have your ghosts on your world? Because I’ve only been able to have angels at my beck and call for two, maybe three days now. I’m trying to do my best all the time because I still don’t know what my best is. You know yours and you won’t show me? I just- I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that.

Above all else, even above getting home, I just want to help people,” Melissa said. “Please, show me how I can better do that.

Melissa shut up. She was vulnerable, of course. This was another one of those “reckless maneuvers” the AI in her head screamed at her to avoid (even if they were noticeably silent here), but she could appease that by saying it was a transitionary moment. Rei probably wasn’t about to fall for the same trick twice, but that didn’t mean Melissa was out of tricks. At the same time, she knew she had to be ready for whatever Rei had been holding back from.

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As the six-armed Morgan descended, with what seemed like a perfectly good sneak attack, she discovered that it was in fact not so perfectly good. Perhaps it was because Grigoriy was already aware of a second opponent, and so kept his guard up. Whatever the reason, Grigoriy had conjured a bolt of lightning that was about to strike Morgan from directly above. This was fine by her, though perhaps not ideal, but an assist would have been welcome all the same. And an assist she did receive! Trevor had created a barrier of wind above her, deflecting the shot and making her wonder how that actually worked on a physics level, if at all. Morgan was able to land safely thanks to the magical backup, and wasted no time closing some of the distance between herself and Grigoriy.

The added arms - being longer than her own - gave her the freedom to attack from a greater distance without putting herself in quite as much danger. So that's what she did. Reaching out with the four skeletal arms, she had each one take a swipe at the man before her all at once, from different angles to ensure defending would be as hard as possible. She didn't plant her feet into the ground by any means though. Something told her that with some sort of wizard as her teammate, it would be ideal to stay light on her feet. That way she could strive to keep Grigoriy directly between herself and Trevor, making it all the harder to defend against both of them.

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Fen barely had time to process that her maneuver had worked. In fact she barely had time to process that she had done it at all. Instead, her body was attempting to already move, to get into position for the next strike, to figure out what to shape next. Of course, Kelsey was still right next to her and Fen still could not move her body fast enough to keep up with her own thoughts. And to add all the more to that, she felt her train of thought suddenly screech to a halt as she looked up to see Kelsey's face. It wasn't as though she could see through it, but the smile and enthusiasm was clear on her face as the girl recited something of a mantra, all the while smashing her metallic fist against Fen's head. The young ice mage's head jerked down in response to this, though she continued listening even as another fist had struck her gut. 

Fen often hesitated, had trouble expressing herself to others and had never been confident in many of her skills. She had always been watching from the back. She had always been in awe of others. And even after she worked towards becoming the girl she was today, now with all of these new people in front of her she had realized just how lacking she was yet again. But she continued to try to keep up regardless. 

The girl stumbled back after the fist struck her. “I don’t know if I could live like that…" Fen was too weak and too slow to win. "But even so…” She was not Kelsey. Speed and brute force were not something she could rely on as her winning tool. Thus, in order to win she needed to reach a new ideal self. One that took from others, that meshed them together with her current self. That was how it had been in the past and that was how she would continue now. Neither Fen nor Kelsey, but something new altogether.

Speed. Instinct. Versatility. Patience. Decisiveness. "Even so, I'll do my best!" 

Fen's expression focused in again, her eyes darting around Kelsey's body before seeing the weapon attached to her shoulders began to start up. Rapidly attempting to think of an approach, her thoughts started to become more simplistic as she tried to come up with a solution. "Block? No. Weapons? Too close? Close? Cover." She brought up her arm, the hand growing as it extended at the way to the shoulder back. "And I'll win!" 

The explosive launched, exploding point blank and shattering the arm on top of them while causing both her and Kelsey to reel back from the attack. However, the other shoulder had managed to launch a series of explosives without issue, now arcing and moving towards Fen. "Retreat? No. Forward!" The girl's body followed her simple chain of thought, pushing off the ground and beginning to move full sprint towards Kelsey with the missile's flying towards the ground behind her. Creating a blade of ice in her hand, the girl then thrust it forward as Kelsey had launched off the ground and into the weapon. Her blade shattered and her body was knocked back as the girl's metallic armor slammed into her. 

"Let's see if you have enough left in you!" Kelsey brought her fist up and began to swing it towards Fen. 

"Block. Counter." Fen's magic flowed through her hand and formed into a large spiked ball of ice over it. As the fist came towards her, Fen swung her new weapon to meet it dead on, forcing both her and her opponent back yet again as the weapon shattered. 

"Alright then, how bout this!" Kelsey recovered and dashed around Fen, grabbing the by the arm. Spinning her around, she then tossed Fen away from her. The girl recognized right away that the spot she was being tossed to had a mine on it. Without even thinking an ice knife appeared in her hand and she tossed it towards the spot causing it to detonate before she was actually in the blast radius. 

Twisting her body, the girl landed on both of her feet and skidded backward, now with some distance between her and her opponent. With this distance Fen's thoughts started to become more coherent and she tried to reason through this situation. She couldn't fight from a range, because if Kelsey got her weapons back it would be over for her. In a straight fight she would almost certainly lose. And trying to use her ice weapon's ability to extend likely wouldn't work both due to the girl's mobility and the amount of times she had done it already. As she sifted through all of these, Fen figured there was only one thing to do. 

Letting the magic flow through her arm once more, the ice armor that had formed around it started to grow into a much larger fist. Letting out a loud shout, practically challenging her the girl yelled, "here I come!" And sprinted towards her opponent. Kelsey responded in kind, rocketing off the ground and towards Fen, fist ready. The both of them closed the distance between each other rapidly, winding back their fists getting ready to punch each other. And as the distance between each other reached striking distance, Kelsey brought her fist forward. Fen, however, stopped and ducked. Her magic flowing once again, a blade of ice appeared out of the side of her arm. Twisting her body as she swung her fist forward, Kelsey's fist swung wide over Fen's head as the ice mage's blade struck her opponent torso. 

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Trevor and Morgan vs Grigoriy

"It's not my first time making sure allies of mine are taken care of...I'm simply making sure they remain as fighting fit as possible."

"What good does that do you if you fall because you were focused on other things, think, boy, think!"

The older man took a step forward but paused. Morgan was coming down on him. With four attacks to contend with and only two hands Grigoriy had to act fast. Choosing to focus on one side he brought his two swords across to slash at the arms on Morgan's right, allowing the left to strike across his body. Despite this he didn't seem to let up. The man grabbed at one of the arms, wrapping his own arm around it and pulling.

Electricity coursed through him and the arm, and Morgan could feel a tingle as it sparked through her body, as Grigoriy, with a grunt, pulled at her arm to swing her towards Trevor.

Trevor for his part would see the zombie, body crackling with electricity, being swung at him as though she were a flail.


Melissa vs Rei

Rei felt the sudden absence as Melissa let the angel vanish. The girl would hit the ground and bounce as she did so but she was able to get to her feet still. Rei ended up with feet planted on a tree trunk, invisible arms in the branches above and holding her there.

Above all else, even above getting home, I just want to help people,

Rei furrowed her brow as she watched the girl. "Yeah, I could be trying harder. It felt kind of pointless to do that though. I mean, what would I get from it? But, maybe it's not for us. Even if Grigoriy wants us to 'try and learn' something from this."

Her frown intensified. "Like it or not we're both stuck here right now I guess. And since there's fighting going on all the time....ugh, why'd she decide to bring someone who didn't actually know how to handle her power anyway? Suppose if I gotta do that for her that's better than just fighting for the hell of it."

She let go of her grip except for with one of her arms which was directly above her. The other two, unseen and silent, grabbed onto a pair of smaller trees on either side of Melissa. "If it's helping people you wanna do then there's a buncha ways to do that, regardless of what that woman says, but can't really do that if you get yourself killed...So let's see what you do about this."

Without warning she uprooted the two trees, flinching as she did so, and pulled them together. Normally this would just have the two crash into each other. However at the moment Melissa was standing right in the place they'd meet.


Fen vs Kelsey

The ice struck Kelsey and shattered as it made contact with the girl's 'armor'. This didn't mean it was ineffective. Just that the blow was delivered with enough force to break the magically created ice.

Fen could for a moment see a bar like before, just a small piece that was flashing red, and she heard Kelsey say, "aw, man." before suddenly everything got blurry. It continued to grow blurrier until suddenly there was darkness.

Then she found herself in the pod from before. Writing scrolled across a display in front of her face, too fast for her to catch, and then the doors opened up with a hissing sound and she was able to get out.

With some help, as Kelsey was standing there and offering her metallic hand for Fen to grab.

She looked frustrated but still had a smile. "Really not the way I hoped to end that. Wanted to show off my cool upperclassmen vibes for once but, " she shrugged, "guess I got a bit carried away huh?"

She glanced over at the other pods which were still active. "You could take a look at what's going on there if you want. Cept for Fiona's, for some reason there's some interference with the feed. Maybe it's a ghost." Kelsey said then gave a bark-like laugh.

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“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.”
-Exodus 23:20 (NIV)


It had taken Melissa all this time to get Rei to see things from her point of view, and she wasn’t sure she liked the results. It occured to her that Rei’s “best” could easily be unfathomable to her, that she could just be so overshadowed in every area that she still couldn’t know what to work on. It was like if you were just better at Duel Monsters than someone else. It wasn’t a deck issue, or even a skill issue, it was just… it was just you. There was no overcoming that, not without starting all over again. She’d seen that happen to so, so many other people at Blue Yonder. Could that happen here?

No, if Rei was going to try, Melissa reasoned, she had to follow through on her end as well. They were already in the thick of things. Besides, Rei mentioned a “she” that made Melissa think of Mauvache. Was Mauvache watching? The nature of the pods was still a mystery to Melissa, but they were in the center of Mauvache’s domain. If anyone could watch from the outside, it would be her. She also remembered the answer to Rei’s question, since she herself had just asked the same. She’d been chosen. She’d been sent for, just as Rei had, presumably. And Grigoriy had matched them up. Someone else believed in her too.

She was already here. Rei had said that also. Her stupid brain wasn’t going to keep her from following through. Not now.

Melissa managed to catch Rei flinching and the sound of trees being pulled up from their roots, but wasn’t able to put the pieces together until she turned her head, and by that point, the trees were already well on their way, careening towards each other. She wasn’t going to be able to have Zadkiel fly her away from this one, and having it block or cut away one just left its other side exposed. There was nothing for it, then. It was time to reveal a little bit more of herself. She looked Rei -- who was still hanging from a tree -- square in the eye and jumped.

It is not the cherub who catches her this time, but the ophan, her jump giving it enough space to manifest around her so her body is contained within the interlocking rings that make up its. It, not the cherub, is what blocks the trees, taking damage according to the simulation, yes, but taking damage meant for her. The girl can see her opponent through the ophan’s many eyes, and knows she has to take quick action, lest her opponent’s quick reflexes override whatever shock she might have.

The ophan fires its beam.

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iyyzIuC.png

iU8EggM.png

"What good does that do you if you fall because you were focused on other things, think, boy, think!"

Trevor wasn't fully grasping at what the elderly gentleman was saying here. Focused on other things? "What are you t-..." he paused suddenly, seeing Grigoriy currently now using Morgan as an electrified flail. "Quite the shocking display, I'll say." Trevor gripped the grimoire's chain and watched it wrap around the book before he slammed it down onto the ground, which the force of it propelled him upward over the Morgan flail.

"Things are gonna get pretty chilly, Morgan...just hang in there!" Trevor shouted, as his blue gemmed ring began to glow. "Offensive Spell...Blizzara!" He fired off the freezing spell in the direction of Grigoriy's arms. Using the second rank spell, he figured, could still prove helpful without doing overall damage to his undead companion. ...unfortunately...he wasn't expecting the reaction he got.

Grigoriy laughed as the freeze reached him, "Reminds me of mother Russia!" He pulled Morgan closer to him as the spell continued with the intention to force her in the path of it.

"Using a human...er...zombie shield! How low can you possibly stoop?" Trevor lamented, stopping the Blizzard spell and immediately landed down with as much grace and elegance as he could. "Alright then, let's try this on for size...Offensive Spell..." The young sorcerer immediately took off his hat and pointed it towards Grigoriy and Morgan. "BALLOONS!" Out from the hat emerged a various amount of multi-colored balloons which began to surround the young sorcerer.

"If you worry about 'stooping low' you won't make it far out here." Grigoriy said with a grunt. He pulled Morgan a bit closer before letting go and kicking her, a bolt of electricity launching her towards Trevor.

"At the cost of one's ally? If that's what it takes to make it out here, then perhaps Mauvache should just send me back then." Trevor simply said, doing his best to keep from having Morgan hit the balloons he had surrounding him. With a swing of his left wrist, he took the Cabanomicon flail, forcing it to grab ahold of Morgan's large arms. And with another yank, he tried his best to force her on the ground, to where she would just skid across the ground. "Again...sorry, Morgan."

Now, however, he had a bit of time...at least he hoped...to ask him now that the balloons were between him and the old man. "What did you mean earlier, pray tell? If I fall because I'm focused on other things."

"She's not my ally." Grigoriy responded. "That should be obvious." Grigoriy pointed at Trevor. "You can't help anyone if you let yourself get destroyed in the process." Trevor would hear a crackle as a bolt of lightning dropped down from above.

Trevor took his grimoire and with the flail moved a singular balloon overhead to attempt to have the two different magic styles collide like they did prior. "You sound as if you speak from experience...but I wonder..." he said, starting to attempt to move out of the way just in case. However, luckily for him the balloon made contact with the lightning, causing it to reflect upward and then just vanish. "...if you've ever dealt with someone who has been destroyed before...or at least...in a sense."

"I'm not particularly interested in your past, it doesn't mean anything right here and now." Grigoriy responded, cloaking himself in crackling lightning, and putting a shoulder forward, as he kicked off the ground and charged forward. Bolts of lightning shot out at intervals as he moved.

"Means nothing?" Trevor asked, watching the old man, now cloaked in lightning, proceeded to charge towards him. "My past means EVERYTHING! The memories and connections I made in my world, when I died...and even when I was granted another life at the end of my journey and arrived at this point." His red gemmed ring began to flare up brightly, his hand being made to form a gun. "They've made me who I am...who you see before you...and they've made me stronger." Fire began to form at the tip of his index finger, almost like it was charging. "...Firaga..." Like a blazing bullet, the strong fire spell that Trevor had launched from his finger towards the speeding elder.

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Fen blinked in confusion as the world around her had disappeared, only to return back to the pod that she had originally stepped into before the fight. Taking a look at her body, she noticed that she wasn't injured in the slightest nor did she feel injured either. Or exhausted for that matter. She hadn't ever used her magic at such a rapid speed before, and though adrenaline had made her not think about it during the fight, she thought she would've felt much more fatigued from the endeavor. She didn't really know what kind of magic was at play here, but she did know that it was something incredible. 

Looking up, she reached out to grab Kelsey's hand as she was pulled out of the pod, getting back on her feet. "I think I might've gotten a bit carried away too...I'm not normally, uh, that...combative, I suppose? And it was really dicey for me too so..." Then giving a bow she said, "oh but um, I think I was only able to because you pushed me like that. So, uh, well, I learned a lot from this, so thank you." Getting back up, rubbing the back of her head she said, "though, uh, sorry for copying your armor thing." Fen had always heard that imitation was a form of flattery, yet she couldn't help but feel a bit awkward about spontaneously imitating her opponent in the midst of combat. 

Fen turned her attention to the screens, looking at Melissa fighting the girl named Rei. She focused, seeing the strange flaming creature form around Melissa she had realized that she had only ever fought alongside Melissa once, and didn't even really pay much attention to her during that singular fight. As a result, she hadn't the faintest idea what she - or Morgan for that matter - were even capable of. And this was a sight she could only see, once again, because of the speed her senior forced her to take part in. With a smile on her face as she looked between the monitors she said more quietly, "thank you, again, Kelsey." Then switching gears, trying to analyze the fights more she asked, "so what kind of fighters are the other two?" 

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Melissa vs Rei

"Ah hell." Rei muttered. The attack hadn't gone through as she hoped and now there was this...thing. The other one was a lot easier to handle. It still had a vaguely human shape so she knew how to deal with it. But how does one fight a bunch of wheels?

She didn't have time to think up a way though. First she had to deal with the laser coming her way. Thankfully she was already on the move. She let go of the tree above her and dropped down to the ground. Rolling under the beam as it struck the tree she had been clinging to moments before.

The hapless plant exploded with impact from the laser and Rei felt a shock-wave from the blast, as well as the much more noticeable shrapnel from the tree exploding, as she ducked down under the attack.

She got up as soon as the blast ended and was moving immediately. Rei gathered up bundles of the ravaged tree with two of her invisible hands as the other reached out to another nearby tree to give her a boost in her movement speed.

Once she was a ways away from her starting point she stretched out the arms holding the piles of splinters and chucked it at the wheel creature. If only to see what it'd do.

"Well don't you look safe in there, just like a turtle in its shell or something huh?" As she spoke Rei brought the other arm silently across. She aimed it for gaps in the wheels with the intention to grab a hold of Melissa and drag her out of its embrace.


Trevor vs Grigoriy ft. Morgan

Grigoriy didn't respond to Trevor's words at first. He merely braced for impact as he charged forward. At the last moment he swung his sword, also crackling with electricity, at the fire spell. While he didn't stop it the swing seemed to weaken the explosion that followed right before it hit and Grigoriy, despite taking damage, barreled past and charged right into the magician.

As he did he knocked him back, and Trevor would see the strange bar from before become narrower, and continued his assault. "I don't get you kids." Grigoriy said as he swung one blade at Trevor, intentionally narrowly missing to cause the magician to either flinch or duck away, "they insist on telling their life stories in the middle of a fight but honestly," he thrust his shorter sword forward, aiming for Trevor's chest, and shouted "Mne fioletovo!"


Fen and Kelsey

"though, uh, sorry for copying your armor thing."

"Pshaw, don't worry, its not even my thing really everyone where I come from, well, no, its not like that where I'm from. They're actually a looooot bigger but...anyway don't worry, and don't gotta thank me for anything."

She put an arm around Fen's shoulder and forcibly pulled her in while laughing. "And those guys? You know you don't gotta talk about that just cause we're supposed to be training or whatever right? If you wanna chat about whatever and watch what they can do you can. Buuut, well, if you're that curious." she nodded at the screen where Trevor and Morgan were fighting Grigoriy. "Gramps is a demon. Well he's a demon hunter. But seriously he's scary to fight against. Don't have much hope for your friends, I've seen him face-tank some wicked blasts and just push through. He fights like a damn bear, just tearing into whoever he's fighting." She nodded at Rei's screen. "Rei's a bit weird, she doesn't show off much and its hard to tell what she actually is doing but if she gets a hold of you its really tough to break out. She's a fast lil shit too." Kelsey laughed.

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As it turned out, being used as a flail while already operating on less-than-livable body functions was not the best situation to be in. Aside from her body being the perfect size to make her an excellent bludgeoning tool, with her skeletal extra arms only furthering her suitability for the role, there was the matter of centrifugal force and kinetic energy. Two concepts of physics Morgan understood at an incredibly surface level, but only really by name and the simplest summary of how they worked. The combination of these forces presented a problem for the girl, not to mention the being electrocuted and then additionally used as a projectile weapon.

It hurt, and that was definitely a good thing, as that meant Morgan could begin accumulating power in earnest, but at least for a short while, it left her neurons fried. Grounded and forced to focus on regeneration, Morgan observed from the floor as Trevor spouted a bunch of drivel about the past. While this was going down, she could feel movement returning to her body. To her fingers, then her hands, and her arms, and finally, to her entire body.

"My past means EVERYTHING! The memories and connections I made in my world, when I died...and even when I was granted another life at the end of my journey and arrived at this point."

"Mne fioletovo!"

"Who  cares  about  the  past!?" Morgan said, raising up the skeletal arms affixed to her body, and slamming them into the ground, launching herself off the floor. It wasn't much, but she could feel her aura increasing from her recent stint as Grigoriy's weapon. The zombie girl kicked off - or punched off, rather, but the same general principle applied - from her spot on the floor, sending herself on a course directly toward Grigoriy. Before she could get in swinging range, however, she shoved her skeleton hands into the ground, grinding herself to a halt, aiming to bait out a swing that would go right past her.

Grigoriy stopped his thrust just before impact, stepping back and turning as Morgan made her approach. He went to swing at her instead but paused mid-way as she grinded to a halt. With a grunt he backed away and instead of slashing sent out a bolt of electricity.

As Grigoriy backed up, Morgan resumed her approach. Even if it meant taking a bolt of electricity to the face, that would only benefit her as the damage was used to further bolster her aura. More importantly, continuing the approach would mean that he'd be forced to continue staying on the defensive, or try tricks that she'd now be on the lookout for. Aware of the possibility that it could be used as a handle to turn her into a flail, Morgan dashed right for Grigoriy, raising one of the skeleton arms to swipe down, but notably grabbing the arm in question with her own hand this time as well.

"And  you  back  there!  Stop  being  afraid  to  hit  me  too!  I'm  a  tough  girl  built  to  last!"

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What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?
-Romans 9:22 (NIV)


The splinters didn’t do much to provoke Melissa. She saw them coming and remembered what one of the Spike Brothers had done when they had seen Sandalphon in the wheeled winged flesh (that was the second time she associated the Spike Brothers with Rei -- how odd!) and did the same as she had then. She didn’t even register until too late that she had contradicted herself, having previously played up Zadkiel as especially fragile and now Sandalphon was taking a series of haphazard wooden strikes without any regard at all. Melissa’s health bar dinged her for it, both those hits and the few splinters that had snuck through the wheels within wheels that made up Sandalphon’s body. Wasn’t Sandalphon supposed to have a minor healing effect? Maybe that had been disabled for the simulation too.

She didn’t want to linger. She didn’t want to betray herself any more than she had to. At the same time, Rei had disappeared again, and Sandalphon was significantly less mobile than Zadkiel, so she didn’t really have a means of doing anything that might help track her target down. Sandalphon may have multitudes of eyes and give off its own ambient light, but it still couldn’t see through wood.

An idea seized Melissa. She’d already demonstrated the capability to strike down one tree. It wouldn’t be too hard to just continue the process. But something else seized her also, the tell-tale sign of one of Rei’s ghostly hands reaching through Sandalphon and seizing her shoulder.

What followed was practically an instinctual response, even if it had a vague chain of reasoning attached. She’d seen Rei get pulled around by her ghosts. They had to be attached somehow, right? If she could disrupt that enough, she wouldn’t get grabbed again. The best tools available to her were the wheels themselves, so she had them do what any wheel was supposed to do – she had them spin, hoping to cut off any link the ghosts might have. It didn’t work; she was still being dragged outside of Sandalphon’s center. Whatever was going on with Rei was intangible to Melissa.

Which meant more drastic actions needed to be taken. Melissa had already primed Sandalphon to fire, and fire it did, every which way as its wheels kept spinning, each taking out another tree in the process. She was aiming at anything in her effective range, creating a space where she could see everything and there was nothing to hide behind. Rei’s effective range might have been longer, but that was for steps where she wasn’t being physically accosted.

She was slammed into the inside of one of Sandalphon’s wheels -- Rei appeared not to agree with her wishes and added an extra bit of violence on top of that. Melissa only managed to stay unconscious by focusing on the why: One of Sandalphon’s beams had found Rei’s tree, and through her angel’s eyes she could see Rei and a barricade of the leftovers quickly building back up.

That wouldn’t do. She knew where Rei was, which meant now she had to be on the offensive. Melissa had one of Sandalphon’s rings keep spinning around her while the other stopped, locked on target, and fired once again.

She was slammed into the other wheel this time. Rei’s ghost had wrapped around her once again. It had probably been easier with one less wheel to get through. Melissa let her hold on Sandalphon slip. The beam was already on its way, crashing through Rei’s quick barricade and sending the girl scrambling. She relinquished her hold on Melissa as well, and Melissa crumpled to the ground.

It hurt to move, not to the point that, like, she couldn’t, but she didn’t particularly want to. It was fortunate then, that she didn’t have to move to keep pressing the attack. When she summoned Zadkiel again, it was already on top of her, already ready to pick her up and charge forward after Rei. When she was close enough -- or closer, at least -- she arced upwards, giving her enough time to swap Zadkiel for Sandalphon, summoning the ophan as high above her as she could manage to fire a few more beams in Rei’s direction before swapping back to her cherub in time to catch her and keep up the chase.

The maneuver asked a lot of her angels, even more than normal. It asked a lot of Melissa, really, what with the flying around like her own speeding missile that she insisted on doing. There had to be a better way to do that, but it wasn’t something she could think about right now. Both she and Rei had landed some pretty hefty blows already. One way or another, things had to be coming to a head soon.

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What was with this guy? He had fought so many others before during his time in the Ever and never once did his feelings and ever betray him like they were now. Not only that, he was seemingly outclassed by this man...his strongest Fire spell was weakened by the swing and now he was on him, continuing his assault.

"I don't get you kids. They insist on telling their life stories in the middle of a fight but honestly, Mne fioletovo!"

Trevor ducked back some noticing that strange bar getting more and more narrow by the moment, but he was already in Grigoriy's sights, unfortunately. His short sword heading for his chest.

...so that's it...? Everything I went through in the Ever...finally coming back to life...and even my first battle here. ...did it all amount to nothing? Am I still...just a fai-...

"Who  cares  about  the  past!?"

Trevor was knocked from his stupor as Morgan rushed in, apparently...baiting a swing. He was simply dumbfounded for a moment or two, now seeing Grigoriy stopping his thrust at him just before impact, and doing just as Morgan was hoping for, swung but stopped and simply sent out electricity towards her. Right now...she had him on the defensive. Wait...the defensive...

"And  you  back  there!  Stop  being  afraid  to  hit  me  too!  I'm  a  tough  girl  built  to  last!"

The young sorcerer watched in awe at the zombie girl, quite impressed with her at this point. ...right...I have to remember, I'm not in my own universe and world anymore...people like him who are foreign to the rules and laws of my world wouldn't understand...however... Trevor regained his footing, sighing with a bit of a smile. "...one thing hasn't changed, no matter the world...a person's heart...and hers is telling me she's not ready to quit yet." he muttered to himself. "Right...let's get back into the fight, Masters."

Grigoriy brought the flat of his longer sword up to connect with Morgan's swinging arm, then he stepped forward to thrust his shorter sword forward.

"Aerora!!" Trevor shouted, casting the defensive spell around the undead girl. "Fira!!" With a quick point of his finger, he fired off the Fira spell right at the extra arms that Morgan was using as a weapon. "Here, try and use that to keep him at bay, partner! I'm going to take after your lead and keep at him. Just find a moment in the dance and cut in!" He then proceeded to try and whip his chained grimoire around Grigoriy's legs, attempting to keep him in place.

Grigoriy's blade struck the wind shield and couldn't pierce it. He began to back away as Morgan's arms caught fire. As the chain got close Grigoriy reversed his grip on his shorter sword and slammed it down, staking the chain into the ground.

"Like a little thing like that'll stop me?" Trevor laughed, now getting in a position to approach Grigoriy's side. The man was crouched, with the sword in the ground, that was obvious. But...he'd have to release his grip on the sword to get up. Don't give him an inch...take Morgan's lead and just keep him defending! He proceeded to deliver a kick straight to the side of the old man's head. "FIRA!!" he shouted, watching his leg and foot catch on Fire for a moment he proceeded with the kick.

Grigoriy pushed off against the ground, leaving his blade stabbed into the ground, to just barely dodge the kick. He glanced between the two opponents and chose to move towards Trevor. After getting back to his feet he rushed forward and swung his free blade at him.

Trevor smirked as he seemed to be Grigoriy's chosen target now as the one blade was stuck in the ground still and his other was being swung freely at him. The sorcerer did his best to dodge it, surprisingly diving around the old man's side and immediately attempting to sweep kick him. And if the old man leapt over the kick, like he hoped, the quick and subtle casting of Blizzard on the ground would result in a bit of a slippery landing.

Grigoriy took the hit, letting Trevor's leg connect, but he hardly buckled as he reached to grab onto the mage's leg while he continued his swing.

Trevor grimaced at his plan not initially working like he wanted, but decided to simply try and keep going. He attempted to push himself upward, firing a point blank Blizzara right into the old man's face, attempting to disorient him.

With a grunt Grigoriy's head moved back by the sudden impact. He shoved back on the leg that he had grabbed and pushed Trevor back while taking a few unsteady steps back himself.

"THUNDAGA!!!" Trevor shouted, not even landing properly as he watched Grigoriy happen to be unsteady and uneasy. He let this be the moment where he could get enough damage and stuff done to him where Morgan could come in and start assaulting him with the fiery arm flails. Plus, he was feeling a bit heavy...exhausted even. He was doing a lot of magic and not only that, his leg was still tender due to the fire on it from earlier...he'd have to cast Curaga soon. Even still, he was wondering if any of this was helping right now...

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Melissa vs Rei

"This hardly seems fair." Rei muttered. Even just one of those beams had took a big chunk out of the "health bar" that the simulation provided. She had been forced to take one of them to be able to avoid the others and now because of that she was the one in a a precarious situation. Not that she would let Melissa know that.

Louder she said "I doubt you can keep that up forever, but guess that's some fancy tricks. If this was a real forest we'd have done some serious damage you know. But guess that's the whole point, to see what you can do without normal issues holding you up."

She stretched out two of her invisible arms to grab onto the "angels" "shoulders" and propelled herself. Instead of keeping up the chase she decided to pull herself towards Melissa this time in the hopes it might catch her off guard just enough to give her an advantage. She pushed herself upwards and spread out the third arm and, when she was level with the "angel's" "face", she slammed down on it with all her might.

Trevor and Morgan vs Grigoriy

The old warrior wasn't quite fast enough to move when Trevor called the lightning attack down on him. If he was a joking sort of person he might find the humor in him being attacked by lightning. But as he wasn't instead the only reaction Trevor got was the wince as the magic struck him.

Grigoriy responded quickly after, seemingly wanting to take advantage of Trevor's position before Morgan could attack, even though it meant not covering himself against the magic. He instead called his own lightning down. Not on Trevor but instead on the sword that was pinning the chain down. The bolt seemed to split as it struck the metal, and two powerful bolts went in different directions towards both Trevor and Morgan.

Trevor would notice that the strange bar he had seen before was much lower, and seemed to be flashing red, as if in some sort of warning.

Grigoriy, looking to be a bit less steady than before, grunted, and muttered, "just gotta keep going." Then he once again covered himself in electricity and burst towards Trevor, all the while keeping an eye on the zombie.

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This hardly seemed fair, Melissa thought. Time and time again, she found herself face-down in the mud. This wasn’t even specific to this fight with Rei, though it had happened at least twice -- the first time it happened with that one sand woman had been the inciting incident of the computers’ worry. It really only served to remind her of that. She’d tried to correct it since then. She’d slid through the air without protection a few times, sure, but those had explicitly been temporary measures. That just meant apparently it was her and Zadkiel eating dirt, and between those two, only one of them had to really experience the consequences of that.

The impact of Rei’s strike had shattered that connection, too, so it was especially just her dealing with the taste of artificial earth. It wasn’t over yet, but her health was dwindling, and one of Rei’s ghostly hands on Melissa’s back meant she wasn’t moving anytime soon. At least, she thought, she didn’t need to move to fight back, though she did need to draw up the will. One last effort, then.

She went with what worked. She still had the memory of where Rei had just been, and summoned Zadkiel right behind that spot, again, sword at the ready. The move wasn’t as quick this time, probably because this time it had to identify that Rei was still there. That split-second was all Rei needed. She launched herself upwards, dodging the attack completely. Melissa could see what was coming next. She couldn’t see the exact nature of Rei’s arms, but past experience -- all that playing of the information game -- told her there was certainly a riposte headed her way in the form of an ethereal fist. Of course, the gulf between realizing something invisible was going to hit you and actually being able to do something about it was a pretty wide one.

The best she could do was obscure Rei’s line of sight to her, and hope that that messed things up. Zadkiel disappeared and Sandalphon took its place, now between Rei and her still-prone body. Sandalphon was larger, at least, even if it had holes in itself any ghost worth its salt could fit through. It also could fire at Rei. There weren’t any trees up in the air to hide behind, after all.

Time seemed to slow. Melissa watched the beam get closer and closer to Rei, even as she, at the same time, braced herself to take whatever Rei could throw at her.


I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift
    or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
    or wealth to the brilliant
    or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.
-Ecclesiastes 9:11 (NIV)

Melissa stumbled out of her pod. Waking up was a disorienting experience, though it was helped by the fact that she was slowly getting used to suddenly being shunted back into her body. She didn’t fall over after a few wretched half-steps, so that was good. The difference, probably, was that she frequently had control over when the angels put her back in her body, while this time, she’d barely expected it to happen. At least, she hadn’t expected the pod to kick her out for the reasons it had.

She could still feel the impact point on her back from where Rei had delivered that final strike, burdened even further by her nascent awareness of the blinking red display behind her. Sandalphon’s laser had been fired too late.

She had lost.

The computers were still rather silent. She’d ask them for an assessment on the fight later, but first, there was a bit of ceremony and the rest of the denouement. Melissa made her way around to the other side, where Rei’s pod was in the process of ejecting her. Already, the pain was fading. It had been imaginary all along. “Thank you for the fight,” she told Rei as she helped the girl out of her pod. “I got something out of it, I think, so the effort I asked of you wasn’t in vain.

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A furious exchange of swords & spells was going down just over there! All the while, Morgan, equipped with the flaming arms of bone, was preparing something with the time Trevor's exchange was buying. The zombie girl twisted her torso to the side. Twisted more. More. More. Bones in her body cracked and splintered in response to turning more than their rigid structure allowed, as her body made half a rotation. Then a full one. Another. Another. Soon, it was hard to twist her body any further, and even if she wanted to, she wouldn't get the chance. As a pair of bolts shot out from Grigoriy's attack, one of them caught her square in the leg. With her full attention on further contorting her body, the bolt caused the zombie girl to stumble, which in turn meant it was time to release the built-up tension she'd been building up.

As her body tipped over, Morgan "let go" of her torso's twists & bends, letting physics do the work as her body began rapidly spinning back to normal. And by planting her flaming bone hands firmly on the ground, she was able to turn that rotation into a powerful tool, effectively turning herself into a wheel of fire darting across the battlefield, on a direct crash course with Grigoriy.

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There it was again...after that last attack, Trevor noticed that strange bar again. It was flashing red this time, almost being a warning to him. ...hmmm...what...could that even be? he thought, before returning to the here and now moment, Grigoriy now rushing him again with his electric cloak. This would hurt for sure...then again, Morgan came through in more ways than one.

Morgan, or rather, the fiery spinning wheel that was known as Morgan was barrelling down towards Grigoriy and in truth, Trevor was happy to see that she worked with the fiery limbs like he was hoping she would. However, to the sorcerer's dismay, Grigoriy wasn't going to slouch at this. The old man changed his target from Trevor...now charging towards the fiery wheel. Once both opposing forces collided, there were flames and sparks flaring up everywhere from the impact. Neither side was giving an inch, it was almost like a stalemate in the long run. Eventually, however, the force from the collision finally was brought to a head as between both of them an explosion occurred. Both parties were sent flying...and they'd be landing right into the gravestones.

...alright...catch the teammate, perhaps we won't hit one the gravestones on the way down. Trevor thought, moving quickly as he finally got up. The leg was still tender due to the fire, but he pushed through. He made a mad dash for the flying Morgan, immediately catching her annnnnnnnd his back swiftly made contact with a gravestone. He coughed up a bit, groaning in the process. "...o-okay...gravestone was hit..."

Trevor kept his eye on the bar, where it showed and how it was flashing even more now. He wasn't sure before, but now, with how he was feeling...he figured it out. Damn...looks like that's it... he thought, shifting slightly as he moved Morgan to the side, as he moved slightly to have his back rest upon the gravestone. "A-Alright...best time as any..." he groaned, as he proceeded to cast Curaga. Above him and Morgan, a set of bells and green leaves appeared and began to revitalize and heal them. Or at least...it should've. What instead happened was the spell just...didn't occur. What DID occur was a message in red appeared before him that said: No Cheating Allowed.

"N-No...cheating...?" Trevor muttered, seeing the message. He glanced over at Grigoriy and sighed, calling out to him. "H-Hey...what's it mean...no cheating...? Under...n-normal circumstances...that Spell...doesn't fail...what gives...?"

He shrugged as he got to his feet slowly. "Can't get back points lost."

"...s-sounds like a unexplained...aspect of this little training session..." Trevor huffed, using the stone as support in order to get up. "...r-really...limits a person..." However, Grigoriy didn't answer him, though that was to be expected now. The old man was fully standing now, advancing as he moved around the gravestones and towards his right side. Trevor adjusted his hat, his eyes watching Grigoriy continue to make his advancements. It was all or nothing at this point...this had to count. ...for my honor as the apprentice of Balthazar... The sorcerer exhaled before pointing his finger towards Grigoriy again, a finger gun being made. "...Firaga..." he said, as the fireball began to appear at his fingertip.

However, the next thing he saw was Grigoriy chucking something in his direction...it was a sword. And suddenly...his world went dark... ...d-damnit...

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As Kelsey had explained to her what it was that the two of her squad could do, Fen looked between the two fights. Grigory had certainly seemed to fit the profile of "bear" as he seemed to unflinchingly take whatever attack the duo had sent his way. Add to that she could tell just by looking at the way he fought it wasn't as though he was simply a reckless brute, but that there was definitely a degree of skill and intuition used in his actions. Looking at the same fight she also couldn't help but be a bit disconcerted by the macabre way in which Morgan fought. Looking to the other monitor, the girl couldn't help let out an, "eh?" Kelsey had said that the girl, Rei, didn't show off much but the absolute carnage that she and Melissa seemed to be wreaking upon the forest seemed to tell her a bit of a different story. 

The two other fights seemed to be down to the wire, quite like hers, which she found more impressive given that one of them was two against one. Yet, in the end, the fight of Rei and Melissa's ended with Rei as the victor. Fen looked over to see the pods opening that they had gone into, being a bit surprised by the sudden noise of them despite it being obvious that such a thing would happen. Looking over to the two fighters Fen gave a wave and called out to them saying, "oh uh, welcome back Melissa, and you too Rei." The girl looked back to the screen displaying the other fight saying, "hm, it uh, looks like they're just about to finish up too." Thinking about what she and the others of her squad had talked about earlier in the day, she looked back to Kelsey and asked, "when they're uh, all done, we were planning on getting ice cream. Would uh, you and Rei want to come along? Oh! And Fiona, too."  

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I got something out of it, I think, so the effort I asked of you wasn’t in vain.

"Well good for you." Rei grumbled, refusing to look at Melissa directly. "It was a pain in the ass I hope you know."

"Yeah welcome back!" Kelsey echoed Fen's sentiment.

Rei hardly even acknowledge them except a "Of course you finished first, you literally can't hold back ever can you..."

"when they're uh, all done, we were planning on getting ice cream. Would uh, you and Rei want to come along? Oh! And Fiona, too."

"Sure, sound good to me! What not gonna invite the old man?" Kelsey laughed and smacked Fen on the back. "Fiona coming probably depends if she's sulking after losing or not. And I bet Ms Grump over there..."

Rei glowered at Kelsey, "I have somewhere to be."

"Course she does. Ya know Rei, your lovely ladies can wait a few hours they ain't going anywhere." Suddenly Kelsey's head moved forward as though hit by some invisible force from behind.

Rei, now blushing, stormed past, "You shut your mouth its none of any of your business." As she reached the doorway she turned towards Melissa, "if you want to help people out I'm sure I can find something better for you than fighting monsters some other time."

Kelsey rubbed the back of her head and glared at Rei for a moment before sighing. "Oh, looks like this is gonna be done even sooner than you thought, check it out."


Trevor's world was dark. But only for a moment. It was soon flooded with light, flashing code that was there and gone too fast to even try and read it. Then he was back in the physical world, laying in the pod. The door opened up and he was able to get out.

His eyes went automatically to the screen that showed the fight but, in the time it took him to get out the screen had already gone dark.


Grigoriy let out a curse in Russian as he threw the sword. He had hoped to hit the boy before he got off his magic. And technically he had. But the magic lingered in the system just long enough to be launched right as Trevor vanished. It struck the man and, though he felt like he could keep fighting, the health bar dipped to nothing and the simulation ended automatically.

As he got out, letting out a grunt as his old bones complained about having laid in a less than ideal manner for too long, he glanced around and noticed that Fiona's match must have ended around the same time. The girl was getting out with an uncertain expression on her face.

The fish boy also got out and seemed rather...out of it. And Grigoriy worried for a moment what Fiona had done to him in there.

He turned his attention quickly to Trevor. "Well, in a way you won. But keep this in mind....don't pull something like that out here. This isn't a single battle its a war. If even one of us falls its a win for the enemy. They have a hell of a lot more in reserve than we do. You heard your partner, trust them to handle themselves now and then."

He then looked towards Morgan's pod. She should be getting out soon, too.

Sure enough she did. However she seemed unsteady as she stumbled her way out, and appeared out of sorts. Just as Grigoriy began towards her, realizing something was wrong, several floating robots with electronic name-tags denoting them as "Medical Staff" came in.

After some fussing it was determined Morgan had a negative reaction to the simulator, something Grigoriy hadn't heard of for any of the others summoned there. And she had to be taken off to get examined by both the doctors and Mauvache herself.

"Maybe something went wrong with the summoning, she DID show up later than the rest of her group..." Grigoriy sighed and made sure to reassure the group, though his tone could have been less gruff, "She'll be okay. Don't let this overshadow what you learned today." he then glared at each of them. "And you'd better had learned something."

Spoiler

Will say it in chat too but, yeah, Yui wanted to dip after this fight. So this is how I'm doing it. Essentially hand-wavy "Morgan's ill because of something going wrong with the summoning which caused the simulator to mess her up a bit"

As for Aduain will go into more detail but TBD, atm he's just sorta lost in thought.

 

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“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
-John 16:33 (NIV)


Melissa wished she could just conk herself out for a few minutes. Surely the computers in her head could stretch that time out so she perceived it as however long they needed it to be. Alas, other people were climbing out of their pods, some in a better state than others -- Melissa did hope Morgan was alright, however she ended up -- and she couldn’t entirely retreat into her own little world right now. At the same time, the fight was still so fresh. She had to talk about it a little bit, so while everyone was talking about debriefings and ice cream, Melissa mumbled to herself. “Obviously I have my own ideas but I wasn’t the only one there,” she said. “What did you think?

You are still learning the extent of the burden Mauvache has placed upon you. It is only reasonable to push at the edges to, as you told your opponent, “find out what your best is.,” the voices said in unison. Tactically, you managed to surprise both your opponent and yourself. We can tell as much. Perhaps this whole session was for the best, then. Our same concerns as before apply here as well, but they do not have to be relitigated. Your continued awareness of them is enough.

Sure, they could say that, but also, like, “I can’t just sit back and have you protect me,” Melissa said to the voices. “I’m just not that sort of person. Even directing from some safe pocket you’ve created for me, I don’t think that’s something I can do for the duration of a fight. But like I said, I have ideas. I think there's a way, with practice, for you to be around and me to still get out of the way.” While she was on the subject, Melissa also wondered if she’d be able to fit a treadmill in her room or if she’d have to drag it out into the common area, but that was a problem for the future.

In the present, Rei was brushing past her -- brushing past everyone, really -- to head for the exit ahead of everyone else. “If you want to help people out, I’m sure I can find something better for you than just fighting monsters some other time,” she said.

Melissa almost asked why not right now, but literally everyone else had gathered together, a sort of social pressure she found she couldn’t escape. It wasn’t even like the alternative was bad -- it was ice cream! -- so maybe it was more like a temptation she was failing instead. Further increasing that burden was Rei’s demeanor. Melissa couldn’t tell if that was how Rei was or just a result of the fight being, to lightly sanitize Rei’s language, a pain in the butt. If Rei needed to be alone or with some sort of comfort activity, Melissa could sympathize with that. So she let Rei be.

No! This was a “‘We should do this thing.’ ‘Oh, we should sometime.’ and then nothing after that” situation. Back home on Ambrosia, there’d been so many half-hearted invitations and offers Melissa hadn’t followed up on, and sure, some of those had received straight refusals inspired by her asocial nature, but the ones she secretly did want, she’d frequently be noncommital about in the hopes whoever was asking asked again. But this wasn’t Ambrosia, and she wasn’t about to do that again. “Rei!” Melissa ran after Rei, who’d reached the exit and was heading out.

Melissa held up her watch. “I have to be with my team right now,” she said, “but take my number. Text me next time you’re doing something you think is worth doing.

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"Well, in a way you won. But keep this in mind....don't pull something like that out here. This isn't a single battle its a war. If even one of us falls its a win for the enemy. They have a hell of a lot more in reserve than we do. You heard your partner, trust them to handle themselves now and then."
"She'll be okay. Don't let this overshadow what you learned today. And you'd better had learned something."

Trevor was still in shock over everything that happened. He stood there, with a bit of a blank look on his face. The training battle was won, but yet...it felt like a hollow victory. It was...bittersweet, in a sense. After a moment or two, the grimoire of his opened to blank pages, in the air a quill materialized itself and thusly, the words began to be written on the pages.


The time for training came and went…and while a victory over Squad Grand was achieved…I am once again reminded that I truly am not within my own set of worlds. Squad Grand was a tough set of opponents, their leader more so…Grigoriy…he’s a man unlike one I’ve seen before. His usage and practical applications of magic was such that I knew not what he was doing…a lightning cloak, brushing off the cold and heat…there is more to him, perhaps. Nevertheless, I see with him that I’m not on Arcana Cabana anymore. I’m not in the Ever anymore. I’m not in my own set of worlds. I’m here on Rama-Indri…in Prana…and because of that, the laws of my world do not translate over. From his own words, “your past doesn’t mean anything right here and now”, but how can that be so? One’s past is where we look and see how far we’ve grown, the changes we’ve made…the friends and loved ones we had along the way. How can that not matter? Regardless of situation and standing, one’s past always matters…my time in the Ever showed me that. At one point I was shackled to my own past and failures while in the Ever…wondering if Master Balthazar would be disappointed in me…I even still wonder it. But I’m no longer shackled by it…I see it as a guide to keep me on a path of this life now.

And Morgan…when she left the simulation, something was wrong. Was it inaction on my part that caused her to succumb to the situation she’s in now? Or was it simply what Grigoriy mentioned, something wrong with her summoning? Questions that will now be carried with me as I write these words. For now, it’s time to celebrate the wins with my newfound allies…but my steps in the next direction…those are what will need careful consideration. But one thing’s for certain: I may seek the aid of Grigoriy in training.


"Are you sure this is a wise move, Masters?"

Trevor closed the Cabanomicon, though noticing that he seemed to have new entries in the leather bound book: Magnet and Balloonra. A new Spell and a leveled up version...perhaps this little training combat was helpful in more ways than one. Nevertheless, he sighed and looked at the grimoire. "In situations like this, one must be willing to better themselves. I may have relied too much on the Cure spells, because my job is to support those here...but that fight showed me that I'm not doing very well on either side...whether support or not." His eyes drifted from the book towards Squad Grand. "...if I'm supposed to trust my allies like I did back in the Ever...then I need direction...I need a mentor."

"How many will this make then?"

"One can't rely on just the teachings of one solitary mentor forever..." Trevor sighed again, a small smile appearing on his face. "...you told me that yourself when you finally opened up to me. Balthazar was my initial teacher and mentor...you've been guiding me as much as giving me aid with combat...those in the Ever...they got me to this point." Finally, the sorcerer began to walk forward. "But right now...here on Rama-Indri...in Prana...I need him to be my mentor..."

Walking past those in his squad, Trevor gave them a look that said: "I'll be right back, I need to take care of something". With his head held high, he began to pick his pace and approached Grigoriy. "Grigoriy...may I ask something of you?" he said, before slowly bowing his head. "...will you train me?"

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Fen was glad to hear that Kelsey wanted to come along to get Ice Cream, and did briefly think about asking Grigory to come along with them. The image that popped into her head was an amusing one, if not also a bit unnerving, and she couldn't help but feel that if she asked she would be met with nothing more than an intense glare. Though, she also didn't know if he really did like Ice Cream or not and so it did feel rude to just invite everyone but him. Though it seemed that Rei had opted to do something else, which was a shame. Similarly a shame, more on the concerning end, was that Morgan had appeared to be injured - or somehow incapacitated - from her brawl with Grigory. The man had tried to assuage them of their concerns on this matter, as little as it helped, before going to scolding Trevor about the self sacrificing way he had ended the fight. As he glared at the group Fen instinctively stood to attention and said, "um, yes, sir." 

Letting out a sigh, the girl relaxed as she saw Melissa talk to Rei, realizing something as well before turning to Kelsey. "Oh, yeah. We should uh, also exchange numbers just in case we wanted to talk again or meet up or uh, something. I mean, I would like to talk, probably about not fighting. Oh, but I'm also really curious about how you fight too!" The girl said as she awkwardly fumbled around the conversation topic. Once the exchange was done she looked over to Aduain and Fiona, unsure of what to make of their current state, before saying, "um, we were uh planning to go get ice cream once we were done here. There was a, well a few I think, places around that we were thinking of checking out. Earlier, in the day. So uh, if either of you were up for it..." She turned to Grigory, waiting for him to finishing his conversation with Trevor, remembering her thought process from earlier, saying, "if uh, you wanted to, I wouldn't mind you joining either," feeling a bit self conscious about how much of an after thought that sounded like. 

Edited by Skaia

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but take my number. Text me next time you’re doing something you think is worth doing.

"Worth doing can mean a lotta things you know." Rei grumbled. "But fine, whatever, I guess I'll...call you, maybe." Rei, somewhat reluctantly, exchanged her number with the girl. "Okay, NOW, I'm going before someone else decides to stop me." she glowered at the others as though expecting one of them to try before leaving the room.

"Oh, yeah. We should uh, also exchange numbers just in case we wanted to talk again or meet up or uh, something."'

An odd look came over Kelsey's face, almost wistful, and she said, "Ya know you kinda remind me of someone." She then shook her head and was all smiles again. "No problem, I got every other squad's numbers in here might as well continue my collection right? You can talk to me about anything ya want! I'm usually up pretty late too."

"...will you train me?"

Over by Trevor, Grigoriy was making a look as though Trevor had just asked him to swallow a sea urchin. "How exactly do you want me to train you? If you want someone to help you work out I'm sure one of your own squad mates can do that with you."

As far as Aduain went it seemed the fish boy was feeling off as well, though not in the same way or to the extent of Morgan, so he decided he would go off to "find somewhere to swim for a bit."

Fiona seemed to be annoyed and unwilling to respond. However Kelsey surged towards her and grabbed her wrist. "Nope, you're coming with. We don't do nearly enough stuff as a group as is and the other guys probably won't be coming. That means you gotta. Shoulda left faster if you wanted to avoid it."

As Kelsey began to pull Fiona along the group would see a brief change in expression to an almost fiercely annoyed one before it settled back into her previous, somewhat timid, expression as she sighed and relented. She slipped out of Kelsey's grip and followed behind as Kelsey called out "Enough talk, let's get our treat on!"

"if uh, you wanted to, I wouldn't mind you joining either,"

Fen was met with an intense glare from Grigoriy. However it only lasted a moment as he looked over the nervous girl. His face softened slightly, though not so much one could call it kind, and he shook his head. "I'll leave that to you children, just make sure you eat something else today too. Only sweets will ruin your appetite."

Kelsey giggled and whispered to whoever was near, "And this is why its actually Squad Grandpa."

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