Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 561
🕑 Added 2024-02-16 00:33:24 +0000 UTCThe next day, post training, I went ahead and cashed in some of my banked wishes so I could use my powers to pick up some actual stat gains. I was anxious to see how much rollover renown I was still getting, and not progressing for so long was really bugging me. I granted four wishes for Camden as per the contract terms, and then had him find another three of his people interested in stat reallocation.
I was up to ten points per wish now, and he had several interested parties once we got the proper contracts and geasa signed. In the end I went with Might since I was only twenty five points from another big milestone (three thousand points). As soon as I wished for the stats after such a long break, I felt the power roll into me from all that backed up renown.
Another two hundred Might on top of what I got from the wishes, three hundred Perception, four hundred Focus, and a hundred Fantasy. I could guess about most of that (the Perception and Focus for discovering the BMP’s plan, the Might probably remainders from godslaying as it continued to circulate) but in the end it didn’t matter, it was a sizable gain and I was grateful for the increase.
In total I got about another thousand points, leaving me at eleven thousand and sixty. Despite the sizable bounty, I was blown away by exactly how LITTLE that was. D-rank was going to be a hundred thousand total, and I was a long way off. Sure, this war would help spread my rep quite a bit (once we won I was going to leak my identity as a candidate to drum up renown) but I was going to need to pick up the pace if I wanted to become a master anytime soon.
Speaking of pace though, I didn’t want to fall behind in my combat training either. After training today I’d requested that Camden send me a sparring partner so I could test out both my new armor’s capabilities and my new form.
While Randall was great, he was a bear, and F-rank besides. I wanted someone at my own level, if not stronger, to compete against (who wasn’t Callie, because we knew each other FAR too well). Camden was all for it, and he sent Demia to spar with me a bit. Which is how I ended up in the training ground with my whole unit watching so I could show off a bit of what I could do for the lowbies.
Bowing to me, the tiny blue haired woman kept her eyes fixed on my mask as she swept low and then resumed her standing position, arms relaxed and at her side. “Demia Aqueous, Deep Sea Duellist. It is an honor to face you in combat.”
“Solomon.” I responded with a slow nod. “Not using the Job system. Same to you. What are the rules here?”
Her face was stoic as she began reciting a strict code of duelling ethics. When to stop, when to start, how hard to go, the usual stuff. Finally, she finished her recitation and I nodded, taking up my stance as I waited for the referee (Callie) to announce the start.
Since I didn’t know exactly what her powers were, other than the strong assumption that they were water based, I went ahead and started things off by using my Mornax stance. It was my newest, sure, but it was a solid place to begin the fight, pun intended. As Callie made the call, I shifted, and Demia blurred forward.
As she moved, a thin rapier appeared from somewhere (probably her ring), and she lunged forward off her left foot, driving the blue metal blade right at my face.
Because of my mask and my stance, I didn’t bother to dodge, just letting the blade’s tip slip to the side as I faintly turned my head, carrying her past me. I expected to be able to smash her against my braced staff as she came in close, but as I looked down, I was shocked to see gently lapping waves of blue liquid energy under her feet.
Continuing the momentum of the charge, she leaned over so close to the ground I was shocked she didn’t fall and rotated around me using her feet as an axis, swinging along the ground almost parallel to the dirt, swinging her blur blade out a few times to let slashes of compressed water slam against my back.
I expected damage, or at least a blow, but to my immense shock, the blades dissolved against the flowing silk of my cape. The energy washed over the purple silk, up through the metal tracery connecting it to my shoulders and then along the length of the armor through the platinum scrollwork, discharging into my STAFF of all things. I felt the energy boost the necromantic power stored in the staff and was almost too shocked to react. Almost.
Deciding to finally put some of my new tricks to work, I focused on Piece of Mind, creating a second parallel, then triggered Mephistopheles, offloading the strain onto the armor. My hair blazed up as black flame, my body still unyielding stone, and I slammed my staff backwards into the ground, creating a massive explosion of dark fire.
The blast chewed up the ground behind me, and I followed it up, spinning at the waist to push my staff further forward to try to follow Demia as she slipped away on those gliding waves.
When she got out of range, I really wanted to go after her, but Mornax required feet on the ground. I stayed where I was, tracking her as she circled me. She was grinning now, blue eyes wide with excitement as she slid over the dirt on her magical waves, gliding like a figure skater.
“Quite a powerful assault.” She commended me. “And your defense is impeccable. I can see Sonia’s good work wasn’t wasted. Let’s see exactly how much good it does you.”
Pushing off, she began to increase the speed of her skating, circling me at a faster and faster pace. Her body became a blur, and as it did, clouds of that same, mystical wave energy began to roll off her. One, two, three times around, and the entire training field was blocked out by a massive vortex of blue watery energy.
From among the shifting currents blasts of cutting water burst out, a flurry of liquid edges shattering against my body, breaking like real waves on the rocks at the base of a cliff. Unfortunately, much like ACTUAL cliff rocks, my defensive skill wasn’t unbreakable. It was sturdy, but the pitter patter of razor sharp water cutters was starting to breach my defense.
The water was hitting me from every angle, and I felt a tiny cut open up along the side of my neck and decided enough was enough.
I triggered Pit of Despair around us, marveling at how simple it was to let myself slide into the frictionless dust. I could feel the dust around me with Song of the Soil which I used on instinct. Dust Construction made it child’s play to manipulate it, pushing me forward even as Mornax dissolved without ground beneath my feet.
Demia had been close enough that the Skill had caught her up in its radius (probably helped I’d pushed it to double to area, sacrificing a bit of the height) and she was trying desperately to move under the dust, finding it nearly impossible to do with her wave treading skill.
I smoothly glided forward through the dust, locating her easily. Planting my feet on the ground at the bottom of the dust pool, I brought my staff up, Mephistopheles still active, and drove it forward into her flailing back, an explosion of black flame blasting her clear out of the pit and up into the air.
Using Dust Construction, I grabbed hold of the dust and flung myself up after her, the cushion of fine material tossing me up into the air after her, State of Grace allowing me to hang in the air as I soared gently after the panicking duellist.
Activating Ripple Running, I slammed my feet down, pushing off with the explosive bursts of black flame as I blurred from one spot to the next, building up momentum for an attack. My blood was singing in my veins as I brought my staff around at her shoulder, an explosion of black flame ready to shatter her arm and put her out of commission.
To my surprise, when it made contact though, the image of her shattered, dissolving into rainbow arcs of light through refracted water. My Danger Sense triggered, and I used Double Trouble on instinct, vanishing and appearing behind the blue haired woman who had just been appearing behind me. I saw her flinch and start to spin around, her feet treading the air on glowing waves.
I smashed my staff into her ribs without much momentum, but the blast of black flame sent her crashing back into the ground, and I kept my guard up as I drifted down after her.
She’d almost had me there. Letting me push her up into the air and playing along by pretending she couldn’t use her movement Skill anymore had been smart. I touched down, taking up a defensive stance again as I reactivated Mornax. The constant Skill use and the active parallel were draining, but not so much that I was anywhere close to done.
The armor was a huge help actually, offsetting a lot of the strain. “That was impressive.” I said with a nod of respect. “I thought taking away your leverage would do the job.” I watched her like a hawk, waiting for another attack.
She laughed tightly, one arm cradling her ribs. “It was a good move. How did you see through my Mirror Mirage?”
“I didn’t.” I admitted. “I sensed you popping up behind me.” I should have probably used Eye of Revelation during the fight so far, that would have definitely shown me the illusion, but the crown boosted that Skill by a lot and I was still getting used to it. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to react properly to stimuli in a fight with that much going on. Not until I had a better grasp on it.
She shifted her stance, ready to attack again, but winced as she tried to get in position. “Nope. That broke a few ribs.” She chuckled and shook her head, dismissing her rapier. “I’m going to call it. This one was my loss. You’re a tricky bastard.” She gave me a nod of respect, then turned and started limping away.
I was pretty sure she had a lot more in her, and that a few broken ribs weren’t much of an impediment, but I recognized that she wanted me to make a good impression on my recruits and probably didn’t feel like revealing any more of her abilities for just a spar. I was pretty happy with how things had gone. I had plenty more ideas, but for now I’d successfully showed off and tested some new strategies.
Callie slammed into me from behind, arms wrapping around me as she squealed. “That was AMAZING! You demolished her! I was worried when she started doing that water vortex thing, but you sucked her unground and then BOOM just slapped her up into the air like a giant feather pillow.”
I’d used Dust Construction to cushion the blast that had shot her up out of the pit, so I didn’t blow any limbs off or anything. Her armor would need repairing, but otherwise things had been pretty relaxed since it was a spar. I laughed and turned to pull Callie into my arms.
Looking over to my unit, I saw Gabe grinning at me, offering me a thumbs up. I returned the gesture as I saw Alanna sitting next to him, gushing about the fight, along with Ichabod and Betty and a few of my other recognizable recruits. Mission accomplished then, I was definitely getting the proper amount of respect from my century. That would make all the upcoming training so much easier.
Comments
Dylan Alexander
I hope one day to see an ultimate demon form from him. Maybe a combination of all his eventual forms?
Captdeth
26m
Malcolm Tent
Easily my favorite fight scene I've ever written. Shane is really starting to come into his own power wise.
