Sparring against Izzy once more was slightly nostalgic, despite the vast differences in actual performance. I was now properly trained and over six feet tall, a serious advantage… with so notable drawbacks. I had reach and muscle, but it severely limited my patterns of attack. Punching soone at waist height was more than just a little bit difficult- and lowering my stance made my intentions obvious.
Given that she was faster without relying on powers- no class abilities that required mana usage at least- as well as having a level of physical strength greater than her body height would imply it wasn't odd for to suffer a defeat. My only real advantage was my more formal unard training.
Making use of my longer legs for sweeping attacks seed like it would be valuable, but when I tried she managed to slip around and kick in the back of my supporting knee. It wasn't really damaging, but it threw onto my back and opened up to following attacks. Those unblocked strikes were a deciding factor in weakening my Force Armor. I managed to get to my feet and duck into a good straight right impacting her ribs, but a single good hit wasn't enough and she countered with her own uppercut to my jaw. As Force Armor shattered there was barely any remaining force behind the blow, so it just shoved my head back slightly.
I sighed. "Lost again, huh. We're going to have to even the playing field for the next round."
"Oh yeah?" Izzy said with her hands on her hips. "Gonna cast Slow?"
"Oh. I still need to learn that," I nodded as I made my ntal note. I didn't have to save points anymore as I already learned Gate. "But obviously that would be too much. You'd just have to use your abilities to counteract it, which would kind of ruin the point of a vaguely even playing field. There's a better option. Midnight can use a beneficial spell on you to even the playing field."
"How would that work?" she raised an eyebrow.
"It's pretty easy," I said. "Enlarge should make us basically the sa height."
"Can do," Midnight said helpfully, refreshing the Force Armor on both sides first. It only cost about 1.5 mana for each use, so while it wasn't fully sustainable he had plenty of uses available. Enlarge was closer to 3 points, with a higher level and fewer upgrades.
Looking at Izzy being eye level again, I wondered how I ever thought she was a kid. Maybe so combination of baggy clothes and wishing for a friend. With Enlarge she was actually slightly taller than myself. That was both a combination of its upgrades and Izzy's actual height. At more or less three feet tall, she was either tall for a woman or halflings weren't actually half human height. Just close.
Our next fight was more of a brawl and reminded that our forr closeness, tenuous as it had been, had been founded on a solid core of what I cared about in friends. It wasn't the only thing now, but the ability to punch soone in the face for experience was nice.
At this size, Izzy was slower than normal but sowhat stronger. More importantly, she was the one unused to fighting opponents of her size, since her last regular experience had been more than a decade prior. She still had more total combat experience and her level was still ahead of mine. Even without spending mana for things it had intangible effects that couldn't just be ignored or turned off. Not that I would have wanted her to go easy on .
When our next round of blows ended, the two of us were sprawled out on the blacktop with various bruises developing. I honestly didn't know which of us had continued fighting after Force Armor broke, but we both had the basic level of control to not seriously hurt each other. I had missed doing this. Yet I was also reminded of the pain of loss and separation- things wouldn't just go back to how they had been, nor should they.
"Wow," Jero comnted as he leaned over . "You two really went at it, huh?"
I'd forgotten that he and Tylissa were still around. Midnight I couldn't ignore, both as my current access to magic and as a constant ntal companion. "Casual training is much less effective."
"Was that training?" he asked. "Did you learn anything?"
"It's hard to fight people half my height," I replied. "Could probably ask Great Girl about that. Either way, I got 22 experience. So yes."
"Does that count as learning though?" my apprentice said as he helped to my feet. "It's just… growing stronger."
"I can learn a new spell," I said. "So I'd say so."
"Ugh. Whatever."
"Speaking of which," I said, "You learned a Scrying spell without ? We didn't really get a chance to talk about that. I'm impressed."
Jero nodded, "I knew you could use Scrying and stuff. I just tried to make it happen. Ultimately it was more like Locate Object and Arcane Eye." He concentrated for a second, "Now that I have this window, it says it's 'Basic Scrying Magic'."
"Like what happened with light," I said. "Interesting. Also- your window is in English, I presu?"
"Well, obviously," Jero said. "I don't speak anything else."
"Mine is in common. I've just been translating."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Midnight had his own thing to add to the conversation. "Mine is in Celmothian. So is yours when I can see it."
"And the inverse for looking at your window," I agreed. "It's fairly well known that it shows up in the natural language of its users. Less well known is what it looks like for those who can't read. All I can say is… I couldn't read it."
After that, I spent so ti explaining the chanics to Jero and Tylissa. Well, aside from the basics Izzy was more helpful for Tylissa- she knew how scout abilities worked, after all. Now that they apparently had the full package of a class including points from levels, they would want to spend those points vaguely efficiently. I wasn't sure what that ant anymore, given what could be done with training. Would it be better to maximize one thing and train others? If the total level applied to the training difficulty, that would be the case. Otherwise, so combination would allow a few key abilities to grow to greater heights. I suggested they take a few days to think about what they wanted to do with the points. They couldn't just be taken back after they were spent.
And having just learned that things weren't as they seed, I ntally tried to unspend so points. Shield seed like a safe bet, in case I broke sothing. Despite various attempts, nothing happened. I even tried my best to believe it was possible, to the sa lack of results. That was comforting, in a way. Not everything was turned on its head.
-----
With the click of a pen, Doctor Martinez was finished with his inspection and writing the results. "Okay, Mage. I can now give you a clean bill of health. There doesn't seem to be any lingering effects. However," he waggled his finger, "That doesn't an you have an excuse to just start ssing around with crystals again. Having you out of commission for a week is one thing, having you be dead would be sothing much more difficult to fix."
Even though we didn't know if it was possible to kill myself with that, I understood the point. "I get it, doctor. But speaking of ssing around with crystals…" He sighed. "I would like to confirm that forming them doesn't co with any consequences. Since you just inspected , you should be able to get a clear picture." I could tell he wanted to object, "Look, I'm not going to not use what power I have if I need it. This will just let know if my preparations are dangerous."
"Fine," he agreed. "But if I confirm it cos with its own buildup, I need a promise to be careful."
"I promise," I said. "This recent thing all involved my nesis and apprentice, I've been careful otherwise."
"Alright," he said. "Go ahead."
I gathered mana, forming a crystal in my palm. It grew in all directions, eventually reaching the edges of my palm- though that was with the various offshoots. It wasn't completely covering things, as I should imagine for sothing containing sowhere around four points of crystallized mana. That was all I could comfortably make with Mana Crystal Deposition, about half of my thirty-one mana spent to produce the crystal.
I felt the cross sectional scanning power of Doctor Martinez carefully move through my body, starting with my head and down to my torso, then out to my limbs. "No signs of crystals. Can you do that again?"
"Give a few minutes," I said. I didn't want to fully run out of mana, and taking breaks between using huge chunks was good anyway.
After repeating the process, Doctor Martinez confird the sa results. "I still see no buildup. So you can do that part of things a reasonable amount. But try not to make too much or you'll be tempted to consu them."
He was right about that, so I planned to limit myself to one per day until I had a handful at most, even if that ant leaving a bunch of mana unspent and potential recovery unavailable. Wouldn't do much good if I hurt myself again, and twenty or more spare points of mana would be sufficient.
-----
Squad C-4 was finally back on patrols together. There was so expected downti after the latest portal incident, but I specifically was out of commission for actual duty. With a cleanish bill of health and the go ahead to use magic again, I was eager. I could even try out a new spell if sothing ca up, circumstances permitting. Though realistically, it would be useful against any villain. The problem was quantity, as I could only affect a few targets.
Our entire squad was patrolling together, including Rocker. He was nearly done with his community service requirent- in fact I was fairly certain he could be done if he wanted to. There was just the option to actually negate his record instead of just completing his ti, after which he could get back to whatever civilians with sonic powers did. Or join soone as a super. Sure, he'd been pretty crazy back at the mall but he'd mostly caused property damage. Insurance didn't like that regardless of repair supers existing, but it was on the lower boundary of cris. It was only a big deal because of the amount, the fact that he used powers, and the whole part where he resisted arrest.
With Handface gone I was pretty confident that we weren't going to be targeted specifically. However, I'd heard over and over that overconfidence was dangerous. Thus, in addition to ourselves Midnight and I used Force Armor on Ice Guy and Shockfire. They were the most vulnerable of the group, because even though Captain Senan was the strongest of us, he still had to be able to create a barrier or so such to resist an attack. Acid Man and Rocker had reactive powers- which put them both in a coveted tier of abilities that were resistant to most mundane dangers. Thinking of bullets in particular, Acid Man would just have a hole through him that didn't matter, and Rocker's power would deflect or limit the kinetic impact of reasonable projectiles. That included rifles.
Unreasonable was where alien or super tech ca into the picture- both more advanced, but one simply outside of the scope of Earth's general usability and the other not able to be understood by anyone except with powers. Super tech might actually function by normal rules, but nobody had figured out if there was an actual connection to the current understanding of the universe.
The call ca in at the sa ti as we were a block away from the bank. It wasn't a coincidence- we were contacted as the closest supers. The timing was just convenient for us to rush over to find a group of individuals who were only barely masked. Big bulky guys, they were dressed mostly in black. They shimred strangely as I felt so sort of power around them. Atypical for mooks in this world, they carried large axes. Guns were available enough and the thought of going into lee combat with supers was unappealing for most.
"Hey, Turlough," Midnight said. "Don't they, uh… hmm. What I'm trying to say is they share so features I can't help but notice."
I tilted my head. "Tall?" No, that wouldn't be it. Ah, I got it. "Oh, you an the green skin and tusks? Didn't know there were this many orcs in New Bay." I looked towards Captain Senan. "So you going to do the thing?"
"I was just appraising the situation," he said. "And also it's not strictly necessary where an obvious cri is in progress. Even so…" he took a breath. "Halt! You're under arrest!"
The orcs acted as expected. Which was to say they turned, hefted their large axes, and charged towards us. A simple Firebolt seed like a good start, so I aid straight for the chest of one. My spell splashed against the shimring nothing around them. "Hmm. Interesting."
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