The mental conversation was put aside as the surroundings began to clear up. Slowly, almost reluctantly, the world took shape around me. What had once been a pool of ink-like liquid smoothed itself into blades of grass, damp and glistening as though fresh from morning dew.
I blinked hard, rubbing at my eyes, then glanced at my hand. Not a speck of the black residue remained, as if the material that had carried me here had dissolved into nothing.
And here was… what, exactly?
The place was strange. Stranger than words could pin down. A battlefield by all appearances, yet not the broken ruin of one. It felt built. Crafted and designed with intent to host anything.
Mei was nowhere in sight, but that made sense. With obstacles like these scattered everywhere, she could vanish without effort. And considering the current scale in view, I felt that it was likely we weren't even near each other.
To my left, geometric pyramids jutted out of the ground, waist-high and unnaturally smooth. When I brushed my hand across one, the black stone was cool, polished like obsidian, an alien precision cutting through the otherwise natural landscape. Pillars of varying width and height loomed above, each standing at least a head taller than me.
I slid behind one wide enough to conceal me fully, pressing my back to the cold surface. From there, I scanned the terrain.
A pool of water glimmered nearby, its surface rippling faintly under the restless breath of the breeze. The air carried faint sounds with it. Flickers of flames from lamps that hung from some of the pillars, while others dangled from branches of trees, both barren and leafy, scattered between the obstacles.
Beyond, a tall expanse of rolling hills rose against the horizon, their outlines sharpened by rays of pale gold. Somewhere impossibly far above, an artificial sun burned. The beams did not fall evenly. Some areas shone, while others were broken into half-light by the angled stone and clustered trees.
Not far from the pool, half-hidden by overgrown roots and jagged stone, a cavern mouth. It was dark. So much so that it seemed to even swallow the light that touched its maw. Even the lamps nearby seemed hesitant to shine toward it, their glow bending away as if repelled.
Beneath my feet, the ground shifted from soft grass to the crunch of gravel and coarse dirt as I moved from my cover. Each step ground out a sound sharp. My fingers brushed the textures instinctively as I passed more objects. Smooth stone, rough bark, and damp earth.
Rather than a battlefield. It was a constructed biome. Patches of nature, unmarred and lush, interrupted by deliberate intrusions of black geometry, lamps, a sun, and a cave.
A place of deliberate imbalance.
Slowly, I began to activate my abilities, stretching my sense outward. Even my Spiritual Sense extended far, breaching away from me, weaving past the trees to just the foot of the hills. But still, it was quiet.
No sign of my opponent or anything for that matter.
I continued advancing cautiously towards the hills, the other sides surrounding me with tall cliffsides that stretched high enough I imagined there was little purpose in climbing them. Though, I suppose it would give me a better vantage.
Or… Should I just call her?
Mei was probably trying to win. At least with the first words I had heard from her, it was evident that she had wanted to beat me up…
Don’t, Wyrem warned as I opened my mouth.
I shut it quickly. Why not? I’m not in the mood for searching for hours.
There was still my theory that the Precursor Sense may assist in sensing Animora, giving away her position anyway, so I felt little problem with alerting the little girl as to my position.
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Don’t get over confident. Just because she’s young or nervous doesn’t mean—
His words drifted away when I finally breached past the treeline to a much more open greasy clearing at the foot of the hills. My sense had risen to one of their peaks and spotted something. It was faint—only a shimmer, but undoubtedly there. After a second or so, another shimmer slowly descended the hill.
It occurred to me at that moment that other things may be in this arena with us. Or, it could just be Mei too. Too little was known about this place.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to make a slight confirmation of what it was. I bolted back into the forest of pillars and trees, constricting my arm and forming a small needle, crackling with veins of power. The process was still awkward, but more natural than before.
The next step would be to control both arms with different elements somehow.
I carved a path for my needle, sending it off at a speed that I could react to. It whistled through the air, approaching the shimmer quickly.
Shatter!
“AH!”
The needle exploded against a blue barrier that revealed itself from the impact. Inside was a startled, but totally uninjured Mei. Her wrist brace glowed vibrantly, the veins of power that etched through it forcing more neon-blue liquid through it.
A small dent in the barrier solidified just after a moment. But it was certain. Even if Mei was practiced in battles—which I wasn’t even sure she was—the current situation gave her enough pressure where she would yelp out, giving away her position with the slightest provocation.
Seriously… I get if she was strong. If there were capabilities that she uniquely held, but how could her Guardian possibly pick her?
Another mistake followed just after. Mei began to disappear into the air again, becoming invisible save for the almost too faint shimmer in the light. And just before… there was something else.
Her ears seemed to be changing. Eyes shifting in an odd way too, but it was too late before I caught it all. She was gone again.
I sighed, forming another needle and sending it out, aiming straight for her once again, but before it landed, a thin beam of plasma-light shot out from where Mei once stood, shattering the object before it reached her.
I couldn’t see her, but I imagined she was frantically looking around, wondering where I was. Though, to her credit, the shimmer did head towards my direction, into the trees. And due to the shade, it was actually harder to keep an eye on her.
Even with my heightened senses, I eventually lost track of her, the shadows cloaking the only visual clue that had been giving her away. The stillness was unnervingly perfect. It could only be the result of some deliberate skill she was using.
Wrrr.
A low mechanical hum, like an engine sputtering to life, echoed from a nearby pillar. I didn’t hesitate. I threw myself to the side on pure instinct just as a concentrated beam of energy erupted where I had just been.
I caught only the briefest glimpse of the aftermath. The solid black marble pillar now bore a precise, circular hole with its edges molten. Now, a glossy liquid stone bleeding slowly from its perimeter like magma from a wound.
The pressure around me shifted sharply. I didn’t know how she’d managed it, but Mei had moved fast.
Even faster than Thea could.
The only clue to her presence was the flicker of red pulsing from my Spiritual Sense. A single heartbeat’s worth of warning.
The air thrummed violently beside me, charged with invisible energy. Something was coming. Something more dangerous than the energy beam. It all happened in a blur. A flare of neon light burst through the dark, and then claws. Arcs of bladed energy, surging and pulsing with such raw power that the tips dripped with energy, hissing violently as they scorched into the grass below.
My Inner Realm snapped to life. My Internal Force surged forward, not by choice, but by sheer instinct.
There was no time to shape it. No space to center myself. No thought to create balance. Just raw, untempered Fire Force, roaring at the forefront.
The explosion didn’t sound.
Instead, a detonation of light consumed the world, flames blooming outward with catastrophic fury. My body buckled beneath the sheer magnitude of the unleashed power. Barriers formed and collapsed in rapid succession, each one only partially shielding me before crumbling under the next wave of force.
Stillness. Pain lingered for a while, but began to slowly fade.
The Water Force’s purification effects had taken hold, threading through me, soothing the torn edges of my body. I hadn’t thought much about it until now—aside from when Elric had mentioned its effects, but in this moment, I could feel it clearly.
As the static whining in my ears faded, I glanced down at myself. My clothing was scorched, but mercifully, it still covered the essentials. Around me, the ground lay blackened and broken. Trees stood burned and skeletal, branches stripped by the blast.
And Mei…
She was leaning against the trunk of a half-scorched tree, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She looked exhausted, but not seriously hurt.
An impressive feat. Still…
“Mei? Why do you have…” I began, blinking hard to be sure I wasn’t imagining things.
…Cat ears?”