Continuing to listen to the stories of his allies, he began to view them all in a different light. They were all, in essence, quite interesting. He certainly didn’t expect that Alice was so long lived, despite knowing that her kind had extended lifespans.
"Your words are rather insightful, though I’d argue that you over-romanticize me." He stated in response to her reasoning. Her next suggestion, however, was one he certainly didn’t expect. Having tossed Carroll in his direction, he watched as he landed squarely at his feet. He looked at the weapon as it cackled and gave some reassurance of its safe usage to the wanderer.
Looking at his blade, he turned back to Alice. "I’ll have you know that my bandit days are long behind me, Queen." He retorted. "I can’t imagine what intent you have in making us swap weapons. Perhaps you feel you can better grasp the Shiden’Issen if you use the blade that it was built around?" Looking back to Carroll, he thought to himself for a moment. Perhaps this would be good for them in more ways than one. Handicapping himself may allow them more chances to fight as a unit. After some contemplation, he had made his decision.
"Heh, very well. I accept your offer, Queen. It seems you and I will be teaming up for this exercise, Carroll. Let’s work well together." He said, grabbing him from the ground handle-first. Taking up his own weapon, he walked over to the mushroom girl and handed it to her. "Is this your first time wielding a Zipangu blade? I’ll warn you that it’s quite different from wielding a western one, let alone an axe. It’s not so much power as it is, “flow”." He advised her.
Walking back, but away from the table. He turned to the group.
"Alright. I believe we’ve gotten to know each other well enough. Now that you know each other’s backgrounds, it’s time you learn how that affects how you battle. As stated earlier, your opponent will be me. Work as a team and coordinate your attacks to achieve perfect harmony. “ He spun Carroll around a bit with impressive speed, then brandished him at the group. "Winning or losing isn’t really the main purpose here, but act like it is. Otherwise, you won’t get the most out of it." He said.
"Alright, are you prepared Carroll? This should be good for you - you’ll get your revenge against Gringor-san."
Shocked didn’t seem a strong enough word to what she was feeling as she watched Shizuka and Alice trade weapons as the next phase of their training was about to begin. While she wasn’t all too keen on handicapping one’s self, she did see the benefit of such a decision. What better way to understand your teammates than to use their weapons firsthand. But, seeing as how one of her spears could actually harm someone….
Kerry raised her right hand, the black bracelet on her wrist vibrating. Dusk ripped itself out of the ground and zipped straight for Kerry, but she didn’t catch it. Instead, she leaned to the side and let it zoom past her, where it then impaled itself into the ground next to Gringor.
”Io, hold these. I don’t want my muscle memory to get in the way of this.”, Kerry spoke as she tossed both her silver, the one attuned to Mort, and black bracelets over the lich for safekeeping before turning her attention back to the high orc. ”Yo, Grins. Toss me your axe. If those two are gonna be fighting handicapped, then we all should fight handicapped. It’s only fair, right?”
Gringor eyed the spear that flew to the sides but the moment he was asked to trade weapons, Gringor high faded as he glared at her with an unusual focus.
Fingers adjusted themselves around the haft of his double handed axe, It wouldn’t looked out of place with cutting wood if not for the fact that it was ridiculously oversized.
A moment pass, mind going back and forth before he stepped towards Kerry, the latter stare at the hornet straight in the eye before using both hands to hold the axe and slam it to the ground straight up.
“This axe never lost before.” He respectfully looked at the axe head that reached his chest level before ripping it upwards in one motion and presented it to her like how a blacksmith presents a sword to a knight.
“Don’t lose.” He declared heavily before letting his hands open for her to hold the weapon.
When Kerry picked it, she’ll realize that the axe head alone would've given a full grown men to struggle to lift it despite it being made from the same material as her weapon. The haft itself was thick enough to be used as a wagon wheel pole and its length was nearly enough to be used as a spear itself.
All in all, a brutish weapon made for a race of brutes.
In comparison, when Gringor turned around to pick up her spear, it felt light in his hand that he worried for a moment if it’ll snap under his grip. Though that proved unwarranted as he made a few experimental thrust before swinging it to the sides.
“...Too light.” Grunting, Gringor didn’t like how it felt in his hands. He definitely much prefer an axe.
Liliana looked around from her tea bath, confused on why everyone started trading weapons all of a sudden. …Was it Krampusmas already? At this point she felt a little lost, but everyone seemed a lot more relaxed thanks to Alice’s tea and introductory panel. So, that was hunky-dorey.
Getting out of her tea bath and pulling her blade from it too, Liliana would put her dress back on and return to full size. ”I um…I’m gonna keep using the Whimsy Blade, if that’s okay with you all. I won’t be very good with anything else, and it’ll turn into a wooden sword for anyone else.”
With that, the fairy knight seemed ready to begin sparring whenever the rest were ready.
Alice eyed the exchange of arms with a quiet regard; not her honest intentions, but it did expose key weaknesses and potential strengths. In her hands, Shizuka's blade was likely as powerful as any other weapon the warrior queen could hold. However, Gringor's axe in Kerry's hand was a clear detriment - her size; her weight; they weren't accustomed to a weapon made as inelegant as the warrior king's axe, but a sword...
"Trade, Kerry luv," Alice says, as she approached and presented Shizuka's sword to the Hornet with a pleasing smile. "An exchange of arms is rather brilliant of thee, but taking a needless risk dulls thine's shine," she says, "In thine hands, a sword is most suitable among the trades. In time, and training, thou might be able to wield such an axe, but for now, we shall play to thine strengths with an reversed acknowledgement to better our weaknesses in safety."
"After all, a sword is but a spear with a shortened haft and lengthened spearhead, no? So, this is merely a matter of learning to control a short spear, I think." Alice asked, smirking, as she took Gringor's hefty axe, and shouldered it without an air of struggle.
"The weight is even. The haft is well-centered. The blade is firm. The edge is keen. Thou cares for her well, and it shows, even if others don’t see it," Alice says, admiring the simplistic, cared-for nature of Gringor’s axe, as she approached the High Orc. "Countless battles, she’s seen thee through in victory. However, what thou asked of Kerry is better burdened on mine own shoulders. I will not lose with this axe in hand," she says, "In return, thou should return the respect thy asks - such that thee should strive to go unfailing with her weapon. See that spear as your axe given new life, in need of training only thee can give."
"A High Orc Champion with thine experience should have zero issue with that, even if she is ‘too light’. And, mayhap, thou might find thine speed a step closer to his." Alice smiled at him, before clapping Gringor’s shoulder firmly, then walking off to Liliana.
"Acknowledging your weakness is fair of thee, Liliana, but accepting it is foolish," Alice says, squatting down before the childishly short Fairy in her Human Form. Normally, Alice would stand taller than her, and look down, but she put them on even level. Having an inherently eusocial system with a Queen, Liliana - even as brainlet as she was - understood that Alice was treating her as an equal, not a subject.
Well, probably. Hopefully. Divines willing...
"Accepting weakness denies thee thine right to grow beyond it. Though, thou is strongest with thine own blade, thou is not useless without. Thine own strength lies in the magic within thee," Alice says, placing a finger over Liliana’s heart, "If thou cannot trade, then sheathe thine blade, and steel thine resolve with thyself. Trade might for magic, and cast - but, cast not for whimsy, but warfare. Thou must learn to exercise control of the wilds inside thine heart, but seek not to tame it," she says, "Seek, instead, to guide it. Inside thee blooms and thrives a wild garden in need of direction. Learn to guide it, and thou might yet become the Fifth Bladeflower of the Oldest Wood."
Alice would nuzzle Liliana’s left cheek with her closed, right fist, as she said, "And, then the Fourth, the Third, the Second, and, one day, the First Bladeflower. And, if your Queen were to be so foolish as to deny you, I will gladly see you become my First Bladeflower."
Standing, Alice would looked back to Io. "I take thou shall sit this out on the sideline, Miss Io," she asks, as she walked back to stand before the trio that would face off, 4-v-1, against Shizuka. "That is fine and well in this circumstance, but bare in mind," she settled her gaze on Shizuka, "In wartimes, spellcasters are afford no such luxuries, and often the first to be slain without mercy."
Alice’s words were crystal and clear: even in this training session, she was an active target, should Shizuka be so inclined to turn this 4-v-1 into a 4-v-1 + HVT scenario.
"It’s four against one, Master Shizuka," Alice says, giving him a curtsying bow - her last sign of respect - before she grew to her natural height, and looked down on him, "Ready?"
"Fufufu..." Carroll chuckled. "My Alice is truly a crafty one. Reassigning weapons. Reinforcing characters. Pointing out strengths and weaknesses while building team morale. Being a former Human has its benefits..." he turned a glowing eye to Shizuka, "It seems, notions of revenge will have to wait, pretty boy. Since this is serious, I’ll lend you some of my strength."
Shizuka would feel his sword arm become coated in parasitization slime, but his mind was perfectly intact, and his body was still his own. Instead, what he felt was his conscious control of his Chi Control being hijacked - pushed out of his forethought to become an autonomic function, like breathing.
"Don’t worry about your Spirit Energy, now, pretty boy," Carroll says. "I’ll take care of that. Just focus on not getting killed."
A sword is but a spear, eh?, Kerry thought to herself, Alice’s words echoing in her mind as she examined Shizuka’s blade. Though she was no swordsman herself, even she could tell that the weapon was well-balanced and very well-made. Whatever metals were used in its creation must’ve been synergistic in nature because she could feel her mana flowing throughout the blade as she held it. Curious, she focused her element into the sword and, sure enough, air currents swirled and caressed the length of the weapon, just as easily as if she were holding one of her spears. Wanting to test this further, the hornet performed a single lazy vertical stroke off to her side, away from everyone else. A thin wave of slicing wind shot forward from the swing, traveling a distance before dissipating.
An eager smirk slowly appeared on her lips.
”You’re right, Alice. I was wrong to ask for the axe. This suits me way better.”, Kerry spoke as she turned to Shizuka, a challenging gleam in her eye. Her wings buzzed as she began hovering, the sword tight in her grip. ”Let’s see how much fun we can have today, yeah?”
”Uh…Um…” Liliana said, listening to Alice’s ye-old-ye-ye-speech, trying her best to parse actual, like, normal people words from the mixture of verbs, syllables, and uh…nouns? Was “thine” a noun? What was a noun anyways?
…Wait, was Alice cheering her on? Saying that she didn’t need her sword to become as strong as Rosebud? The pink-haired fairy’s eyes lit up as her mind raced with possibilities, namely about becoming the World Mamono Boxing Featherweight (Literally) Champion. If someone as strong and smart as Alice was saying she could do it…that must mean she had the potential to do it! Sheathing her sword on her back, Liliana would have a solemn look on her face before nodding. ”I get it…so I need to do that chi control thing and fight better with that! I get it now,” she said, before starting to suddenly wrap her hands in bandages, tying one around her forehead. ”Mm! I got it! I’ll become First Bladeflower with only my bare hands and chi control!”
…And so a world champion was born!
Raising a fist to the sky, the little fairy was in for the fight of her life. In more ways than she could expect.
Things were once again picking up - an exchange of weapons, even. Io wondered how effective "tea time" was, but in the end it didn't seem to cause any harm. She caught Kerry's bracelets, turning them over in her hands and watching the gleam of the light rise over them both. They were rather finely crafted. Io always had a fondness for jewelry... Though she doubted the hornet knew that.
Io cocked her head at Alice's statement. It was an interesting addition to the training scenario. She gave a glance to Shizuka. "Indeed. Spellcaster is one thing, and undead is worse." She was no stranger to the treatment both parties got. "I do not wish to complicate the training further. But if necessary, I can play the..." Io averted her eyes for a moment. "Damsel." There was a slight air of romanticism to it. Being protected by a noble swordsman. Just like stories of old.
That aside, Io was wondering if four people and a high value target would be too much for the human swordsman. Ordinarily she'd say there's no chance, but she was beginning to realize she may have had an incorrect frame of reference for what humans were capable of. All the more reason to study his abilities.
Gringor eyes glared heavily when the Alice took his weapon, though each words of its history lessened it as he only grunted at that.
“Of course, Gringor is the strongest after all.” He said and hefted the spear easily before adjusting his grip.
Simple and basic, as he took his stance against Shizuka with spear aimed at chest level.
From the latter perspective, there was little opening despite it being the spear being slightly short for Gringor.
With that, Gringor cracked his neck and rolled his shoulder before inching forward slowly towards Shizuka. For him, the fights already started.
So, it had been decided…
Alice would be using Gringor’s axe.
Gringor would be using Kerry’s spear.
Kerry would be using his shikomizue, and had already figured out that the blade was made to channel the elements seamlessly.
Liliana would be using her…fists? Along with channeling her magic from before.
It appeared as though Shizuka would be in for an interesting bout during this training session. He had been given Alice’s weapon Carroll, who had wrapped himself around his arm, assimilating him in a sense. He immediately felt that his chi flow was being regulated completely by the cursed weapon; it was a skill that by this point was second nature to him. But, having it regulated like this was quite a different feeling. He had heard that these weapons don’t usually affect men in the same way it does a woman, and it felt a little uncomfortable having those parasitic tendrils wrap around him. He started to flashback to the boat ride to the island, and began to shudder a bit.
But, he quickly dosed those thoughts from his mind and remained focused on the task in front of him. Carroll told him he would regulate his breathing techniques and chi flow, but he wondered about something else as well. He learned that like him, Alice was a spellcaster. He began to channel lightning through Carroll. As he thought, the energy seamlessly flowed through the weapon, crackling as it ran down the shaft and onto the blade portion of his new partner. He then ran ice, and wind after that, much like Kerry did with his blade. "Interesting" He commented on the reactions taking place.
He noticed Gringor slowly approaching him, signifying that for him, the fight had already started. The others seemed ready as well. "Indeed Carroll, I’m personally curious to see how they perform during this trial." He responded to his partner. "You’ll forgive me if my strikes with you seem a bit off, I’m used to a different type of weapon that was made for a specific type of combat in mind." He said, taking a stance with the axe.
Within an instant as Gringor began pacing towards him, Shizuka rushed with a sudden squall. Let’s see how good their eyes are He said to himself. He would continue to rush Gringor head on with what seemed like reckless abandon, a notion he warned them of at an earlier point in time. Could this man not see his own pretense? However, the scene changed as soon as it began.
Upon meeting the high orc face-to-face, Shizuka would keep charging him until he actually phased right though Gringor. It was an afterimage, created by his god-like speed. It kept sliding past him as it began to dissipate out of existence. But there was more; Shizuka had then appeared right beside Kerry, whether she realized it or not, and swung at her with an electrified Carroll. Since she and the others confirmed that using magic was a given, he’d follow suit.
Kerry barely had time to react, she was able to just block the strike but still got a bit bruised. She’d had to do something about the lightning strengthening the blow, however, as she’d soon find herself either being flung back or covered in electric burns. Perhaps a combination of both…
The others should perhaps step in. But, they would do well to be cautious as to how they respond to support their insectoid conrade. He already deceived them once.
”OH SHI-GAH!”, Kerry exclaimed as her fly-like reflexes managed to get her sword up to intercept Carroll, but she could feel the hot sting of electricity that was coming off the axe. Thinking quickly, she channeled her mana into her sword, wind surging outward to counteract the lightning. Still, Shizuka caught her off guard as the strength of his initial strike sent the hornet flying, flipping through the air for a distance before righting herself and landing on her feet in a skidding halt.
”Feints, huh!? Clever!” she commented, flipping the sword in her hand to where she was holding it backwards. ”You’re gonna be diggin’ deep into that bag of tricks!”
Kerry then swung her arm back, air currents emanating from the blade as she prepared her counterattack.
”Wind Art: Gale Slasher!”
Whenever she used this move with one of her spears, she would be twirling her spear as she conjured the wind before sending the attack out in the form of a circular spinning projectile of slicing air.
However, this time around, she was using a sword. So, instead….
A wide and fast wave of howling wind shot out and was heading Shizuka’s way. But Kerry wasn’t going to let that be the end of it. After sending her spell flying, she immediately followed the projectile, wings buzzing. Whatever Shizuka blocked or dodged, Kerry would be right there to put on the pressure.
"I told you: You must rely on your mind’s eye. " Shizuka said, before Kerry was flung a way’s back. "But, I suppose that was a decent block, all things considered." He continued, smirking at his insectoid ally. He watched as she made her rebuttal, then prepped her counteroffensive. Gale Slasher, huh?
The squall made its way toward the swordsman at high speed, with Kerry following right behind. Raising Carroll, he began generating a squall of his own in order to meet the attack. However, instead of sending it out in the form of a shock wave, Shizuka opted to create a column of wind around his whole body. As soon as Kerry’s strike made contact, it completely dissipated. Kerry’s follow-up had her attempt to strike at the ronin’s blind spot. However, the strike was stopped just at Shizuka’s cheek. Having been used to generating wind magic herself, it wasn’t too hard for her to break through the wind barrier. But, even so, Shizuka was able to easily parry the strike.
"You’re not the only one who can generate wind magic." He said, Carroll grating against his blade in Kerry’s hands. "You did good to immediately go into a follow-up in case your blast didn’t work, but it’ll take more than that."
Using Kerry’s momentum against her, he leaned out of their embrace, then with flexible body work knocked her back with a kick. "Also, ladies and gentleman, do remember this is a team effort." He mused. As he pushed back Kerry, he fired an icy strike toward Liliana. Let’s see how she handles that. He thought. At the same time, he phased above Alice with a Kogarashi strike, an attack that involves him lunging at an enemy with a vertical spinning slash while enveloped in icy energy.
How would the mad hatter and the little sprite respond to these attacks? Liliana could possibly try to dodge the attack, but she may need assistance from Gringor. Alice would have to make a response to the spinning swordsman heading her way.
In the blink of an axe throw, Alice was gone, as the axe sailed up to meet Shizuka; a thrown party, and feint of its own. He'd committed to his attack, and had little choice but to parry the weapon, and reevaluate what happened as he landed on Alice's dress and shoes.
At the same time, Gringor's Axe, now parried, followed an unnatural path, as if ricocheted off something... or by something... after Shizuka deflected it. As a result, the slab of shaped metal would cross paths with the Fairy, and shield her from the rime.
Buried in the ground, the weapon was unmoving.
And, would stay that way, as roots crept out of the ground, and mushrooms grew upon the wooden haft, this way, and that, with curious patterns like... eyes.
Watching.
All-round.
A sudden tremor shook the ground, under Shizuka, and the earth rose up. Five pillars erupted from the simulated soil, and curled down to crush Shizuka's form.
Unfortunately, he would likely prove to be faster - even caught off-guard, as he was - and avoid being crushed. As such, he would get a good look at the impossibly well-kept nails, polished in yellow with sickly splotches of green and white, like mold or fungus, that nearly terminated him, as they dragged back into the massive hole left.
"Clever, clever," Carroll says, "Take heed, pretty boy, of the axe over yonder buried," he says, "My dear Alice has only begun her mad tea party. See the mushrooms? They are special. Observant." Carroll chuckled, and turned an eye to Shizuka, "My Alice has made the ground unsafe for your little dashes. After all, you need a place to stop and start. Tarry a moment too long..."
Carroll cackled in anticipation, before he "grinned" and said, "There is a weakness, of course. Several, in this instance - namely, the ground is firm and requires much digging to weaken to the point of rupture, and secondly, see the mushroom on the ground?" Shizuka could, from his angle, see one of the eye-like mushroom had rotted off the axe, and fell on the ground. It was one out of seven he could reliably see. "Thirteen in total. That's all you need to survive, before my Alice must resurface as her medium size."
"And, one more piece of advice, for free, pretty boy, and then you are on your lonesome ownsome," Carroll says, "Without me, my Alice cannot cast a spell. Even through her hands. Quite the frabjous advantage you have."
"I wonder why she gave it, though..."
”Gwah!?” Liliana cried out, having not expected the wave of frost to nearly hit her, or expected to be saved by a random axe toss from Alice that saved her from becoming a fairy-sicle. Then Alice started doing…really big stuff! Like, actually big. That was a big hand.
Seeing as she now at least had a moment to catch her breath, Liliana would close her eyes and channel her chi, flowing into her sword and then back into her. She could feel the spell building up, channeling it into her hands as they were enshrouded in a transparent purple haze. ”Anti-Magic Field…” she said, before taking an even deeper breath, arching her back a bit as she struggled to maintain a second spell invocation. This time, going to her feet as a pale orange blur emanated from her legs, the fairy seeming to vibrate in place. ”Plus Haste…” she said, head hurting a bit from needing to concentrate so hard.
Dropping to a fighting stance and bouncing on her toes, Liliana would exhale, before vanishing entirely. Shizuka’s honed instincts would see the strike coming, but he’d find that Liliana’s speed was approaching his due to the spell she’d cast. A surprisingly hard punch would come and, if it were to hit Carroll, the axe would feel a sudden lapse in his spell-casting control. ”Gaia Hazard, uh…” Liliana kept on launching punches, before settling on the name of: ”Fairy Fury Fists!” Even if the punches weren’t making any significant hits, the reality was that she was managing to, for the time being, put pressure on Shizuka to keep him from freely attacking her allies.
True to his word, Carroll had left Shizuka on his “lonesome ownsome,” as far as defending himself and attacking the others was concerned. He wasn’t moving, unless Shizuka moved him and just focused on regulation of his Chi, the refined Spirit Energy of Humans, in his opinion. However, Liliana’s punches were truly domineering - impressively so, for her lack of stature - and created pockets of disrupted energy. These gaps would serve to damage his tenuous connection to Shizuka, and make reestablishing their alliance harder with the staccato peppering of puny, but powerful punches being waylaid upon him.
"Seems I cannot be as hand-off as I wanted," Carroll groused, before he looked up at Shizuka, and sighed. "Don’t panic, pretty boy. But, I need to bite - just a nibble."
As he spoke, Carroll’s haft splintered a bit in places; parasitic slime raced up Shizuka’s hand, and into his shoulder.
Soft, seductive; an adulterous woman’s voice filled Shizuka’s head - the sweetness of sin seeped onto his resolve; leaking through cracks, wherever found. <Don’t fall to my temptation, pretty boy. You aren’t my type.> snickered the Cursed Blade, as curtain of red hair billowed behind Shizuka’s Astral Soul, and fingers like blades curled around his neck, <Shockingly, the little Fairy is a quick learner. I would suggest removing her. And, remember, no standing still for long.>
There was a sudden push against his back - a jolt back to reality - but Shizuka’s mind’s eye could just glimpse the chosen form of the Cursed Blade; the entity that she would put on for her husband’s eyes... before he was back in control, and felt an almost steroidal surge of energy surge from within.
His next attack would be quite the display.
Stumbling away after her leader kicked her in the back, Kerry performed a one-handed cartwheel to regain her balance before turning to see how the others were doing. Seeing a giant pair of manicured hands trying to pin down Shizuka was one thing, but seeing Liliana go ham and actually put the pressure on the man was completely unexpected. Who knew the fairy could actually be an overwhelming, if a bit wild, close range fighter?
She also caught wind of Carroll’s words and made her take a moment to survey the fight.
Okay, if Carroll is right, then that means Alice is very limited without him, so she’s doing the next best thing that she can do within her ability, which is using her weird crazy mushroom powers. So far it looks like she is trying to get him to stop moving, but Shizuka is just too fast for that to happen. Lili’s got the ball in her court for now, but there’s no doubt that will change very soon. If Gringor can get in and help Lili out, Shizuka will have to focus on those two to not get overwhelmed. All we need now is to make sure he doesn't have room to run around, making it easier for Alice to catch him. So in that case…..
Her quick brainstorming concluded, Kerry held her sword downwards in both hands as she once more channeled her mana, this time concentrating into putting in a fair amount into the weapon. The blade began to glow a greenish hue as air currents gathered and swirled along its length. After a minute, she impaled the now glowing blade into the ground, but she wasn’t done yet.
”No way he doesn’t notice this, but here goes nothing.”, the hornet whispered to herself, wings buzzing as she began to fly around the area where the group was fighting. As she flew, a slipstream of howling wind was left in her wake, forming a barrier over where she just passed. Upon seeing this, Shizuka would take no more than a second to figure out what the insectoid mamono was doing.
Kerry is trying to trap him.
Gringor waited when Shizuka got closer before bursting into action, a moment of tension was forced back as Gringor waited first for Shizuka to moved or feint.
Yet when he continued his path, Gringor didn’t even hesitated as he readied for a forward thrust right into the latter. Confident that he can go through any of his tricks
So when Shizuka moved so fast that it phased past him, Gringor mind went blank for a while.
It was like seeing the heavenly student moving, instead of just outright flashing, this one had the after image phasing past him. His mind can only think of how like the butterfly, where it appeared slow yet moved in a way that it can evade a person. That comparison dominated Gringor mind.
In those few moment of thoughts, everyone else exploded into action that Gringor was snapped out of his stupor and readied himself for another strike.
Circling around, he finally saw a chance as Shizuka seemed impeded by the mushrooms.
So with no hesitation, Gringor went in and thrust forward. Powerful and fast enough to spear a boar in place head on as his strikes was much faster now due to the light weight nature of the spear. Appearing almost as a blur.
Drink me?
Attempting to strike at Alice with Kogarashi, all he managed to hit was the axe she threw to parry his attack.With a clank, Carroll struck the weapon, which in turn was enveloped with a bit of frost. Landing on Alice’s vacant clothes, he looked around with a surprised and perplexed expression before seeing Gringor’s axe seemingly act with a mind of its own. With an apparent new found autonomy, it flung itself in front of Liliana to block Shizuka’s Hyorangeki. The rime that showered the blade didn’t seem to affect it much at all, it landed with its edge being buried in the earth. The swordsman then watched as roots began to grow onto the weapon, along with several eyes appearing upon it. They creepily blinked, their pupils twitching this way and that.
The swordsman then felt a rumbling as the ground beneath him began to split and crack. As the earth opened, numerous mushrooms bloomed forth. Soon the whole ground around him was covered with the fungus. "Decided to apply your green thumb to this battle, Queen?" He said. It seemed that wasn’t the end to the display of plant life, as large pillars sprang forth from under him. He took note of how the pillars appeared to have well kept nails, painted with a pattern that was reminiscent of the fungus growing around him. That’s right, she can change her size. He mused to himself, watching her biological abilities at work. He had to remember that she was, essentially, a girl composed mostly of plant matter. It certainly made things interesting! Not wasting a moment, Alice would only catch air despite her efforts as Shizuka phased out of the way of her grasp. Her hand retreated back into the earth, likely preparing a next move.
It wasn’t over yet though…
Liliana, having been saved by the axe earlier, began putting her training to work. Channeling her chi, she used it to strengthen her power and speed. However, upon hearing “Anti-Magic Field”, it already set off some red flags in his mind. “Plus Haste”, true to its name, allowed the sprite to almost instantly close the distance between her and the warrior. Not missing a step, the fairy then yelled out an attack with an odd-sounding name. The next thing he knew, he and Carroll were being pummeled with countless punches. He also felt the disruption in his spell channeling. He had to admit, this was a clever strategy. Well, clever for Liliana anyway…
Fortunately, Carroll himself didn’t seem to be much bothered by the punches themselves. He turned to Shizuka for a moment and began to speak. "What?" Shizuka said, before feeling an ooze crawl its way up his arm. Carroll had morphed his form a bit and seeped a bit more onto Shizuka, embedding his slime into his shoulder. For the second time while in Shizuyama, a monster’s essence had crept into his body and soul. At that moment, a seductive and gentle feminine voice had tickled the back of his neck. He felt a presence that had situated itself behind his astral form, its dagger-like yet gentle hands caressing his neck. "Red hair…?" He managed to utter. Whispering some friendly advice, Shizuka felt a sudden surge of power coursing through him.
His connection with Carroll now stronger, the swordsman was able to easily fend off Liliana with a burst of his chi, who was sent flying back a little ways. As Gringor attempted to charge at him, Shizuka then lifted himself off into the air, holding Carroll to his side as if he was a katana. Aiming directly at Kerry, he hit her with Shozume - Soaring Claw, a powerful upward strike. Stopping her wind barrier plan in its tracks, she wasn’t quite prepared for Shizuka’s sudden burst of power and was knocked out of the sky. However, she was able to regain her stride and caught herself right before she hit the ground. She had ended up near Liliana, who also managed to regain her poise after being sent flying.
Shizuka wasn’t finished yet, as he came straight down on the high orc with his completed attack - Tsui-Shozume. Slamming Carroll to meet Gringor wielding Dusk, the ground underneath them shattered, again sending debris everywhere. Gringor would find this second warrior embrace with his captain ever more staggering than the last. Shizuka’s hope was that the impact would also disrupt Alice’s roots and mushrooms.
To them, it may look like Shizuka left himself open, allowing himself to be in a stationary position with Gringor. If they were smart, they’d already be planning their next counter move. However, that’s what Shizuka would be betting on, and he had a counter of his own waiting.
"Eat Me."
Her words ping-ponged from center, to left, to right, and back to center, as hands erupted from the ground - catching her fellow Mamono in her perfect palm, and keeping going further than Shizuka sought to send them. However, Alice distinctly, only had two arms... Shizuka was currently being backhanded by a fourth that baring down on him.
<...Uryuutsui: Shozume...>
There was no pain, where it should have been, as Shizuka's arm twisted backwards and out of place, while slicing through Alice's fingers in two vertical swings, and sending the digits flying past him, while the hand itself sprayed his back and the immediate area with green blood.
An agonized scream shook the ground like an earthquake, and her other hands were rapidly closing, as Alice processed the pain. Although Liliana was likely small enough to wriggle through the gaps in a close fist of a giant, Kerry and Grimgor did not possess size changing racial benefits, and needed to move, as their safety turned hazardous.
<I do so wish we could take this as seriously as I like...> Carroll says, <You've quite the history to unleash upon them. If only they didn't break with such permanence...>
Though Carroll's word held, and she progressed no further than his shoulder, Shizuka could feel her words trying to trigger the natural temptation that a demon weapon brought upon men.
Meanwhile, Alice's fingers were laying on the battlefield in their own pools of blood. It gave the analytical pause to think: Alice wasn't eating or drinking anything, but she kept saying it.
Or... was she imploring it?
If Carroll could have taken control of his body at any time, why did he choose to chop off her fingers, and not force Shizuka to defend or even move by thrusting away with an attack?
For every bit of help they Cursed Sword gave, Shizuka realized it was always in service to Alice in some fashion.
Explaining how her underground trick worked, only to do so loud enough for Kerry to hear, so the Hornet would put her keen mind to the task of slowing Shizuka down.
And, now, using his body to scatter pieces of her body onto the ground to potentially offer them the power to shrink and grow at-will by taking a sip to drink or having a bite to eat.
The words came back to him. Alice initiated the trade, a blind trade, which he accepted on good faith; placated by her smooth talk and silver tongue.
But, Carroll wasn't a trade.
She was a Trojan Horse.
”OH FUCK!”, exclaimed Kerry as she scrambled, managing to escape through a hole made by Alice’s pointing finger and thumb. As the hornet was catching her breath, she noticed her slipstream beginning to disappear. Not wanting to let her plan go, she reached out toward it, her hand faintly glowing green. The slipstream regained its form and responded, connecting itself to Kerry’s arm. There was now a big rope of air running between the sword and Kerry herself, only surrounding Shizuka in a half circle.
I could go for it to complete the circle, but Shizuka is definitely onto me now., thought the insectoid as she watches Shizuka and Gringor duke it out. Geez, this guy is something else. We need to get the drop on him, but I don’t see how….
Then she thought of Alice’s words.
Eat me……Drink me….
Add in Carroll’s advice on how the mad hatter’s powers worked without him and…..
Kerry chuckled.
”Oh, you two are some devious bitches for that….”, she said to herself……and Alice, who was most definitely listening.
Alice and Carroll figured this out from the moment they traded with Shizuka.
He fell for the bait.
Now it’s time for the trap.
Kerry turned to see one of Alice’s fingers laying right beside her. She gulped and her body shivered in repulsion, but if it means getting the upper hand over their leader in this fight….
”Lili, listen to Alice. Do as she says.”, Kerry said to the fairy as she grabbed the finger, used a slash of air to slice off a piece before, after a moment of hesitation….
CHOMP!
Kerry wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she bit into her piece, but it certainly wasn’t this. The texture was doughy and a tad dry, but the taste was……bitter and sweet, at the same time.
Alright Alice, I ate you. Don’t make me regret it., she thought to herself as she swallowed the fungi-flesh.
As she swallowed, Kerry would feel a frighteningly euphoric sensation of growth; her body felt almost out of whack, and out of sync with the world around her. Her balance would twist and twirl, as she shot upwards in the air... without leaving the ground as she doubled, and then tripled in size.
Among Hornets, she would have been an idolized giant, and among Humans, an unbridled threat worthy of unprecedented murder extermination.
As her sense of balance returned, and Kerry didn't feel like she was going to squish out of her exoskeleton, she would become acutely aware of her enhanced musculature, and notice her wings generated a breeze as they kept her afloat.
However, there was a lingering sense of impermanence; this wouldn't last without eating more of Alice, so she had to capitalize on her advantage while it was up.
Gringor stomped his back foot hard as he was locked in yet another warrior embrace, haft of the spear against the sheer strength of Shizuka axe.
Him? Overwhelmed?
That thought sent him into a bubbling fury, as muscle tensed and every cell within worked in concert. He outright pushed Shizuka back with renewed strength and forced the latter into a stalemate lest he found himself off-balance.
Which was why at the apex of the clash, where weapons clashed one another heavily, Gringor showed his cunning brutality.
Letting go of his weapon, Gringor grabbed Carol the axe and swung it to the sides before it can clipped his fingers. Utilizing the force applied forward in their warrior embrace, Gringor shoulder check Shizuka before attempting to grapple him to the ground.
Should that missed, Gringor had a death grip on the axe and nothing will dissuade him from it.
<Naughty, little High Orc. Such an invasive species. Always touching what isn’t theirs to touch. Perhaps, this training can serve as a cautionary tale...> Carroll purred, turning her attention away from Shizuka. Before Shizuka could think about any counteraction to Gringor’s motions, Carroll would loosen her haft - her form was that Cursed Sword, malleable in nature; her origin was Wonderland, chaotic in design. Attacking as her own being was not beneath her, so she would bite back - literally.
Her jaw dropped open, as she lashed out at Gringor’s throttling arm, and sank her teeth in - vorpal blades like teeth cut flesh, muscle, and bone in twain with equal measure; an edge meant to slay the Jabberwocky was overkill upon the arm of a High Orc.
However, there was a small bit of Shizuka that was able to retard her back, and her last tooth would shear through Gringor's ulna bone; resulting in a horrific wound, and an immediate need to staunch the wound.
Likely, in the war-tested High Orc's skillset.
"KEEHAHAHA! SUCH TASTY BLOOD, HIGH ORC!" Carroll cackled. "I think, I’ll savour some more! Like me drink you all up!"
Suddenly, Shizuka’s robe would tear, as parasite slime billowed underneath and clamped into the left side of his neck, forming the lower half of a dragon’s jaw, while more slime clamped into his left side ribs, and armored him further.
<Shall we dance?>
”HANYGABADUWA!?” Liliana exclaimed, eyes nearly popping out of her skull as Alice’s gigantic arm was cut apart, shrinking in size to flit between several large chunks of meat. That was close! Even Alice’s chunky bits were huge. Having narrowly escaped bug-like-death and then being told to eat Alice was…what was even going on!?
”Uh…” Liliana said, nervously looking at a slightly twitching finger on the ground from Alice.
”Uhhhhhhhh…” She would pick it up, a clearly hesitant expression on her face as her lips curled in a frown.
”No thanks! I’m a vegetarian!” Liliana said, hurriedly dropping the finger meat and shaking her head. This was a lot more gory than she was used to in a fight. She just hoped that Alice would be okay after getting her fingies chopped off. ”Plus, this is part of my training too…as of today, I’m a Magic Fairy,” the not-so-magic fairy exclaimed, before focusing. Two spells were giving her a headache, and she imagined a third would just knock her out…but right now, Anti-Magic Field wasn’t helping. Dropping it by simply ceasing to think about it (a very powerful skill for the Bladeflower), she would channel magic through the Whimsy Blade once more.
As the die of fate was cast, a pale green glow emanated from the Whimsy Blade, pulsing out and covering a small area around Liliana, covering grass, Alice’s severed fingers, and a nearby flower in a strange looking green glow. From chlorophyll and petal came scale and fang, as snakes seemed to “bloom” from the plant matter around Liliana. As if hatching from countless eggs that were invisible, the snakes pushed free of plant matter, “consuming” it as more and more poured free of the plants around the little fairy. Now surrounded by a cavalcade of snakes, they would group up under the fairy as she returned to humanoid size, smugly posing with her hands at her hips. ”Ooh, I got a good one this time! Gaia Hazard, Serpent Time!”
What would follow would be every ophidiophobe’s worst nightmare as a literal, not figurative, very real tide of snakes charged at Shizuka, enough for Liliana to ride atop the wave while giggling madly. …She might have just been happy to have a spell do something other than summon cows for once.
Locked in a struggle with the high orc, Gringor’s pride took him over as he didn’t want to draw a second time in a warrior’s embrace with the swordsman. He grabbed Carroll and attempted to toss her to the side, aiming to pin Shizuka to the ground. Shizuka had anticipated that Gringor would try something, and had prepared a counter. However, before he could even respond, Carroll had one of her own.
With an elongated jaw, the cursed sword had bit down on the high orc’s arm. Proclaiming that his blood tasted good, she began to further change as she took in more. Another look of shock overtook Shizuka’s face as Carroll further forced herself onto his person. This time tearing a bit of his robe as her slime served as a makeshift armor, even forming a dragon-jaw covering the side of his face. With his bond with the weapon deepening even further, Shizuka could now feel the impure thoughts that made up monsters taking him over even more.
"Now, now, Carroll-chan. I’m the only man you get to have eyes for in this fight" He uttered. His voice now held with it a deeper, supernatural tone with it. With a strength not yet seen, Shizuka grabbed Carroll and wrestled her from the high orc’s grasp. He then checked him with a shoulder tackle of his own and knocked him back a ways in one clean motion. "Goodness, this power is quite impressive. Carroll, I’ll have you know that your and the Queen’s trickery has not gone unnoticed." Shizuka said. "However, I wanted a handicap in the first place. In addition, this new found strength is quite…exhilarating!"
The swordsman immediately turned toward Liliana and Kerry, the latter having been strengthened thanks in part by a certain mushroom girl. The sprite had sent loose a swarm of serpents towards the swordsman, cackling like a madman as she rode the center one. "You challenge me to a battle of serpents, little cutie? Bold of you~ But you may find mine to be more than you bargained for!" He mused, pun intended.
Senki"" He uttered. With a sudden charge, Shizuka cloaked himself in a column of water that resembled an eastern dragon. Though only one, its mass matched the combined serpent heads that Liliana had summoned. The two techniques clashed and a deep bellow echoed throughout the training space. Locked in an intense struggle, neither of the techniques would let up. The water dragon, however, seemed to be on the winning end. Shizuka emerged, suddenly, standing on top of the water dragon’s head. He then turned to the enlarged Kerry. "The women of our region, though beautiful flowers in their own right, are usually quite slender. It’s nice to see someone with larger assets." He said, borderline leering at her. "Tell me, did Alice-chan taste good when you swallowed her?"
At the same moment he made his statement, the swordsman let loose a powerful blue slash wave toward the hornet. "Sonamisen." Taking advantage of the commotion of the clash he caused with Liliana and the perverse comment he made, he sent a surprise attack toward the giant Kerry. She just managed to guard against it, but still took a bit of damage and was pushed back despite her large size. Shizuka was finished yet, however, as some familiar with the region’s language may have realized that the technique was a two-step one. Wielding his sheath, he let loose another shockwave. This time, his target was Gringor. The high orc was good at quickly regaining his stride and planning a next course of action, even after being knocked back. Gringor may have enough time to dodge or grab Kerry’s lance to parry the blow if he moved quick enough.
"Now then, Queenie dear, you’ve proven that playing the bottom is no issue for you. But, I think it’s time you resurfaced."
Channeling more rime into his palm, he prepped another Hyorangeki strike. This time, even more powerful thanks to Carroll; black ripples of energy crackled along the icy white ball that Shizuka held in his hand. Once he was satisfied with the amount generated, he slammed the ice orb into the ground. The earth beneath them frosted instantly, even the surrounding mushrooms would be subject to frosting unless Alice augmented them in some way. By freezing the ground, his hopes would be that Alice would have no choice but to finally emerge and show herself.
There were few things that bothered Alice: men who were loud and boorish, women who were opinionated and snarky, disruptions to enjoyable tea parties, and being cold - especially being cold. Mushrooms, like most fungi, were a warm and sociable lot; it was the motivating reason why Matango were eusocial species and harem-like in nature and survival.
The frosty days were best spent cuddled and huddled in lasciviously, body-heated pits of warm, supple flesh slickened with sweat, salvia, and well, other less delicate fluids - male and female alike.
Trapped underground, being frozen into an iceberg-sized popsicle was not gonna fly.
As such, Shizuka would get his wish... for weal and for woe.
The ground would shatter, terra firma becoming a lot less firm, and more like a sea of rubble and sand, as a massive fist broke free; nails slamming into the ground, leading the eye down the bare arm that terminated into shoulder and exposed neck. Dragging herself free, like a Titan of Yore, or a Lost Giant, Alice pushed herself up.
"Hm."
Io would notice the disruption in her training field, as the nutrient-rich soil was barren, lifeless - as dead as she was, really. Every viable ounce drained from the roots that Alice shed, as she towered above, at ten-times her natural standing height of nine-feet, and slightly more of her “human” height of five-feet.
All of it was glaring down at Shizuka.
"Hrm."
Near silent disregard was the only warning the possession samurai got, before his body was moved - more of his garments shredding, as Carroll influenced him further, and armored his left leg into order to make him dodge the attack; though, the shockwave would strike him, as well as the sand displaced at weaponized speed.
Sensing her miss, Alice righted herself, and looked around for Shizuka...
"Hn."
Everyone was so small and insignificant. They all looked the same. Weak. Useless. In need of leadership and direction. They needed purpose. Suddenly, her hand lashed out, and she snatched a player off the field between her right pointers and thumb.
Lifted several dozen feet off the ground, Io would find herself staring into the crimson pool of Alice’s right eye - a bloody moon, given flesh and cast with madness.
It widened, and took in her entirety; centuries of insanity assailed Io, as the Demon Energy screamed in hunger - ravenous and unending.t
"Mulch."
Raised higher than she could ascend under her own power, Io would dangle for a moment... before plummeting into Alice’s awaiting mouth.
Her purpose was decided to be fuel for the barbarous warmachine of one.
........Is this getting out of hand?, the hornet thought to herself, smirking at her leader’s comment as she raised her hand to project a wind barrier, blocking his attack.
Between herself growing to the point of her clothes almost bursting, Gringor losing an arm, Alice going Titan mode, and Liliana cackling like a tiny maniac, all signs that this “training session” has gone completely FUBAR are pointing to a resounding…..maybe.
But hey, if Shizuka ain’t tappin’ out, then I sure as hell ain’t eitherrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOH MY GODS, ALICE IS ABOUT TO EAT IO!
In a snap decision, Kerry launched her slipstream toward Io, blowing the lich from becoming the mad hatter’s snack.
”Alice! What the actual fuck!?”, hollered Kerry as she snapped her finger. The sword, still imbued with the mana she poured into it, expelled a burst of wind, releasing itself and flipping toward Kerry, who caught it. Due to her enhanced size, the blade looked less like a sword and more like a knife in her hands. ”Where, in the history of teamwork, is it written that you eat your own teammate!?
"Remember -----. A battle is chaos. No place for one like you." An old memory resurfaced once again in Io's head. Perhaps she was having a nostalgic streak - It happened every couple of decades. Perhaps retreating into the past was Io's reaction to what was unfolding before her. Her attention was being divided between observing the combat itself and monitoring the parameters of the simulation. Parameters that were being pushed past what she had expected when she put together the spell logic that created the area. Io wished that the erratic behavior of her teammates was a symptom of the spell being pushed to its limit, but it was not.
She scarcely reacted as she was ripped from the ground and into the air. For a brief moment, she considered that the spell had failed, and the entire world was breaking in two, launching everyone into the sky. But it was something even less plausible than that. She quickly dropped, scarcely having time to brace herself for the impact.
But she only made contact with the soil - depleted and barren as it was, it was leagues better than the alternative. Another of the task force had saved her. She would have to remember that, even amidst the chaos, someone noticed her situation. It was somewhat comforting. Of course... Her unpreparedness was a special circumstance. She'd never go into an actual combat zone without spells to thwart every step of what just happened. Probably.
Io stood up, brushing dust from her robes as the enchanted scrolls that snaked around her tightened, closing her robes back around her body. No lasting damage was done from the fall. In fact, to Io, this merely raised new questions. If anything was going to be used for nutrients... She'd not pick herself with the others - living beings, that is - around. Perhaps it was solely because she was the one observer in the fray.
She didn't need to speak to activate her scrolls. Several of them gently glowed at once, offering their activated enhancements, primarily to her speed. Io would need to be able to evade attacks from everyone, not just her enemies, it seemed. So be it.
Where in history, indeed...
Alice drifted from Io, as her jaws clamped on nothing but air, and she tried to find Io. Following the slipstream, her hand shot out, and gripped Kerry bringing her before her eyes... just holding her there.
"Nn."
Alice let her go; to float; to fall; it didn't matter.
Disinterested, Alice turned her attention downwards; her eyes scanning and hunting. There was no telling, if she was on their side or just... acting, because that's all she could do.
<Shizuka, I'm going to relay some of my observations to you. What is clearest here is...>
...they were desynchronized as a team, once more:
Alice's Wonderland Magic was proving as unpredictable as Liliana's Whimsy Magic, as despite the clear advantage offered, it was taking Alice's presence of mind and alliance. The battle-hardened, war-ready queen was gone, and replaced by a carnivorous plant gone hunting.
Liliana's Whimsy Magic had offered them a shocking set of advantages with its unusually cooperative nature since the fight had started, but when the plants had been converted into snakes, the reckless nature of the spell had removed the advantage of Alice's fingers.
Gringor's unyielding resolve to best Shizuka for nothing more than his own pride and honour had resulted in his disregarding advantages in Alice's attempts to grab Shizuka and Kerry's attempts to trap him in the Slipstream, and his own grapple cost him an arm.
Kerry, herself, had deviated the least from the advantages set out, but she'd almost the same problem as Gringor: she was prone to Lone Wolfism, and didn't coordinate attacks - more butting heads with Gringor, and squandering any chance to tag-team with the High Orc.
The last member of the team, whether or not she acknowledged it, was Io; involved from the ground up, yet stubbornly adhering to a silently passive, observational role. Though she may have had no aim to train with them, or join them later, she was here now, and unwittingly: a target.
And, of course, there was the lynchpin of this all: Shizuka.
Or, moreover, Possessed Shizuka - a beast unleashed from a man who kept a tight hold.
Unrestrained, he'd come at them with more force and power than any Varjan could muster, and put them on the back foot with each advance - shattering guards, breaking attacks, and pressing forward with a demonic might that called for more and more return pressure.
...which... they couldn't deliver...
<Call a timeout.> Carroll suggested, in a politely ordering tone. <We need to reassess some things. Maybe, many things...>
Feeling teeth biting into his arm was unexpected, so when it reach deeper near the bone, Gringor grip loosen unintentionally more from shock than pain.
So when Shizuka shoulder checked him back, he was forced away from Shizuka and skidded a few feet away.
Gringor gritted his teeth as his mind went straight from angry to a deadly calm as he felt the blood leaking from his arm. Using nothing but pure muscle, he staunched the wound back and made a fist.
It was connected, and he could still move it. He also had another arm, it was more than enough.
So when Shizuka made another attack, Gringor waste time as he dodged the attack and quickly rushed forward for an assault.
Even when Shizuka struck the ground and ice sprouted upwards, it did little to deter him as he leapt upwards to the air.
Foolish and foolhardy, yet Gringor continued on as his good arm was pulled back for a might swing and damaged arm to the front.
As he turned towards Gringor, the latter swung his arm to the sides. Sending splashes of his own blood downwards into Shizuka face, perhaps it’ll catch and blind him temporarily in the eyes, perhaps not.
What Shizuka would remember was Gringor's good arm reared and ready for an attack. An obvious telegraph swing but one that held all of his strength.
Moment and inches away from connecting, Gringor swung his fist prematurely into a haymaker, making him spun to the sides.
Right into a lashing kick with all the converted momentum behind it aimed directly at Shizuka neck.
”Goodness Queenie, I didn’t think you were into Io-chan that much, you could at least take her out for a night on the town first." Said the swordsman, still fused with Carroll. While this wasn’t the first time his body has been exposed to demonic energy, and Carroll wasn’t directly trying to exert her energy over him, it seemed that his more “carnal” thoughts were being drawn to the surface still. It was true that just being around monsters exposed a person to the effects of their energy, and Shizuka has been leading an entire group of them for over a week at this point. It appeared that the repeated exposure began to affect him more than one realized.
Carroll brought Shizuka back to attention, letting him know that Alice in this new feral state is a danger to everyone around her, not to mention that the injury Carroll inflicted on Gringor needed to be treated - whether the high orc himself thought so or not. Solid teamwork couldn’t exactly be fostered in this type of training environment, a fact that the swordsman would have to agree with. In addition, Carroll could sense that Shizuka’s beastly side may also pose a danger to the broken team, his restraint lessening with each charge.
Gringor, however, wouldn’t allow much time to process these thoughts. True to his nature, when facing a worthy opponent he refuses to give up the fight. In a crude but clever manner, he flailed his injured arm to spray blood over Shizuka. Gringor then attempted to connect a powerful hook to the swordsman’s face, or so it first appeared. A feint in actuality, Gringor quickly spun his body into a powerful kick aimed right at Shizuka’s neck. A bit of the blood got on the swordsman’s chest, but he managed to avoid it getting on his face. At that instant, the training field again resounded with a roaring impact. Gringor’s kick connected with Shizuka, his arm raised in parry to be exact.
"Carroll-san, you indeed have a point. Gringor, I’m calling an end to this training session. Since you seem to be treating this as more of a duel, we’ll settle it at a later date." Said Shizuka in his regular voice. Shizuka generated a small gust of wind that was just strong enough to push Gringor a bit away from him. The water dragon that clashed with Liliana’s serpent attack had dissipated and he guessed that Kerry would soon return to normal. Hopefully if Alice didn’t, Carroll would be able to calm her down. "Carroll-san, I’m breaking our link now, take care of Alice-san for me." His final address to the cursed sword. With that, the demonic carapace that covered part of Shizuka’s body began to fade away, reverting him back to his normal form. "Catch." He said, tossing Carroll at Alice.
He then turned to the rest of the mamono gathered in front of him. "Ok team, it…would seem that this training session of ours has gotten a little out of hand. I’m making an executive decision and calling this off, for now. Io-san, could you heal everyone, especially Gringor-san. Then, dispel the training field and we’ll regroup back on the temple grounds."
He then looked over at Kerry, his shikomizue looking more like a knife in her enlarged hand. With a flick of his index and middle finger, a current of wind blew the blade out of her hand and back into his. Promptly sheathing it, he applied a bit of water magic to clean the blood off of his chest. Making a sigh, he turned to Io again.
"Uh, also, Io-san. Could you, uh, repair my clothes as well? Wasn’t expecting Carroll-san to rip them apart like that." He said, a bit of depression in his voice. "This was my favorite robe…"
There was no real catching involved in the matter, as Carroll was tossed - the sentient weapon merely took magical flight, and a sudden web of tendrils oozed out of her haft; lashing around Alice’s left arm, and pulling her towards the ground. There was a brief struggle to resist the curse, before Alice’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she crashed to her knee - falling in full on her side, as Carroll’s tendril were wrapped around her neck. Retreating, Carroll would loosen her hold, and settle on the ground.
As she stabilized in unconsciousness, Alice’s body would start to decay and wither without the conscious effort of feeding off the ground, and the fact that her spontaneous growth had starved the ground in general. As such, her massive body was unable to maintain itself, and was consuming itself - rebuilding the mycelial network and sprouting new mushrooms in a small, more compact form.
In the shell of her own self, in the cavern of her desiccated belly, Alice would slumber, reborn, if not awoken by anyone.
All the while, Carroll stood guard - relocating to the main body, once all of said and done.
"It might have gone a little crazy in the end..." Carroll’s Demonic Form slowly closed over, and returned her Mundane Form, "But, it sure was fun... what a frabjous... tea... party..." and she dozed off where she “stood”.
Gringor felt his kick connect but felt nothing as he had seen the arms being raised.
He was ready to fall onto Shizuka for another grapple but a harsh gust of wind blew him back, forcing him to land a distance away.
Hearing what Shizuka had to say, it irritated and boiled his blood to no end but didn’t complain. They’ll settle it at another point.
Looking at his injured arm, the wound had already slowly stopped bleeding but the bite marks was still deep and present.
Without a word, Gringor moved to Io and stretched his arm out for her to heal.
Though inwardly, his mind was already moving to evaluate the whole battle.
He needed something, something more. His flesh can’t handle that bite, and those basket heads already proved enough to cut a shallow wound.
Even those Varjan Shamans had fire to nearly burn him.
His thoughts swirled around before he finally came to a simple conclusion.
Armor.
He needed some armor.
He’ll be slower, but he was Gringor, he’ll just have to get stronger enough that even with armor, he can still move at full speed with no issue.
But where to get one?
That stumped him for a bit as he thought on that question endlessly.
”Oh, we’re done? Okay, that’s….probably for the best, actually.”, Kerry commented with a honestly relieved chuckle as she watched Shizuka’s sword return to his side, intrigued. So he could’ve recalled his weapon at any point of their training. The ronin really meant it when he handicapped himself. As Gringor walked over to Io to patch himself up, Kerry lifted her hand to scratch her head….only to find that she couldn’t. She turned to see…
…..her entire right arm had reverted back to normal…..while the rest of her was still giant….
”......WHAT THE FU-RCK!?”
...but not for long.
Seems the effect of eating Alice’s fungi flesh had worn off as, part by part, Kerry shrunk back down to her original size. Next was her left leg, causing her to fall on her butt…..before said butt shrank. Then her wings…..her other leg…..other arm…..her breasts….her abdomen. Until finally, her head reverted back to normal, her two antennae being the last to shrink.
”That….was…..so……WEIRD!””, complained Kerry, shivering from the unnerving experience she just went through. She then looked down….and deadpanned. Her crop top and short shorts had been stretched to their absolute limits when she was a giant and were now several sizes too large. The hornet turned to the corpse cocoon that had become Alice and glared at her before turning away, grumbling.
”Mushroom bitch owes me an outfit….”
There had not been a consideration for a way to halt fighting within the training grounds. Io realized now that there may be a need to. Another entry to add for the wave of tweaks to the spell. Luckily, the situation managed to deescalate itself. Perhaps it was moreso that Alice was pacified more than anything. Living things growing beyond their means and perishing as a result was nothing new to Io. She gave the slightest huff of amusement at such a textbook example playing out in front of her.
She turned to the other task force members. "I am sorry, Shizuka and Kerry. Your clothing will only be regenerated upon leaving the training grounds." It was not a lie. Technically there was functionality to repair clothing, and it did indeed occur upon leaving the training grounds. At other times? There was simply no way to tell if it could happen.
Io quickly diverted her attention to Gringor, both out of necessity and a way to deflect any further discussion of the clothing issue. Between Shizuka's state of undress and Gringor letting her lay hands on him... This venture began to finally turn a profit for Io. She gingerly touched the high orc's arm, whispering the same keyword as before to trigger the ground's healing. She tacked on addendums in her own language in order to direct the healing more intensely. "What a specimen..." Io muttered to herself in wonder - Technically, repairing this kind of damage would be much harder, but Io had to attribute the ease in which it occurred to Gringor's healing factor. It was certainly more vigorous than Io had considered.
The healing aura would of course also wash over the others in the training grounds as well, healing their wounds. The physical ones, at least.
At a certain point, Liliana had completely stopped moving. Right around the point where Io almost got eaten and everything just…came to a head, her magic ceased completely as her focus and will were somewhat broken. …This was just supposed to be training…right?
All of this was…
Everything going on was…
…Excessive.
This had started as a team exercise and had rapidly devolved into a power measuring contest with each of them slamming against Shizuka with all they had but…the only real teamwork they’d done was minor at best. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t tried but…now, Liliana couldn’t shake the feeling that they might have been better off if this hadn’t been a team exercise. The little fairy would sit down, cross her arms, and hum…seemingly thinking about how to feel about this situation. The healing aura didn’t affect Liliana much beyond her slightly bruised knuckles being repaired, but she did appreciate that her hands didn’t feel like ground meat after punching steel.
Continuing to hum in dissatisfaction, Liliana would flop onto her back and look up at the sky, furrowing her brow a little bit. ”...I guess…I wasn’t really that helpful,” she surmised. She wasn’t strong like Gringor or Alice, couldn’t go as fast as Kerry, her magic wasn’t useful like Io’s, and Shizuka had them all beat on technique. In the end, all her magic did was prove a mild nuisance, and she couldn’t even react fast enough to Alice trying to eat Io to help. In a surprising display of emotion beyond her goobery self, Liliana would shrink down and flit over to a nearby flower, and promptly sit inside of its petals and mope.
Maybe being sixth best wasn’t anywhere close enough to what the task force needed.
"I see, very well then." He said, responding to the lich. He took another hard look at the members of the taskforce assembled in front of him, in addition to Alice who appeared to be sleeping in the hollowed out husk that was her giant form. Liliana had shrunken her size further and began sulking in a nearby flower but her diminished size made her hard to see, but he could sense that she was there. He supposed he could understand the various emotions swirling inside of her. Gringor’s arm now seemed to be fully healed as well, so aside from Kerry’s wardrobe malfunction everything seemed to now be in order.
"Team, I won’t mince words, this training didn’t exactly go as planned. I’m afraid there still lies many days of team-building in the foreseeable future. However, I’d advise you not to take this as a sign of failure either." He said, now wearing a smile on his face. "Each of you, in your own way, have opened your eyes to a new type of enlightenment. It may not seem like it, but you’ve gotten stronger, I can tell. Instead of sulking, use this as a new foothold for you to achieve greater heights." He then stared at Kerry for a moment.
"Kerry-san, your will is strong and I can tell you’re used to doing things on your own. You’re able to adapt on the fly and can create some brilliant strategies, but sometimes they leave you open. Perhaps more team cohesion is needed before you leave yourself in such a position. In spite of everything, I’d be comfortable putting you in a leadership role if the situation called for it." He said, critiquing the hornet monster.
Next was Gringor. "Gringor-san, you’ve learned to utilize your mind’s eye in order to better guide your instincts for battle and make up for some shortcomings. However, under certain instances, you still revert back to using crude, although somewhat clever, tactics that are more risky than reliable. In addition, your arm stands as a testament as to what type of trouble you can get yourself into if you let pride get in the way. It was stated in the beginning that this is training, not a duel."
He then turned to the flower that Liliana was moping in. "Liliana-chan, you may not be as strong, fast, or magically “coherent” as the others. But, your abilities have their own utility. Instead of comparing yourself to others, continue to use the principles you’ve learned in this training to shape your magic in a way that feels natural to you. You’ll come into your own in only a matter of time."
Alice and Carroll were still sleeping, as it would appear. "While I was fused with Carroll, I could see the centuries of experience that she shared with Alice-san. There are similarities she shares with the both of you." He said, addressing Kerry and Gringor. "But, as we’ve seen, she’s a little too unstable and unpredictable."
He last turned to Io. "Io-san, uh, sorry that you…almost got eaten by Alice-san." He said in an awkward tone.
Clearing his throat, he’d continue. "But, I believe that’s enough for now." Shizuka walked over to the sleeping Alice and Carroll, picking them both up and began carrying them out of the training field. "Alright team, training’s over. We’re heading back to the training grounds, you may break and roam as you please. Within reason of course. Maybe go on some more quests together and build more experience teaming up?"
Motioning for everyone to follow him, the training was over for now, and hopefully the other taskforce members would expand upon what they did learn to advance even further. The time to reattempt the Heavenly Strike quest was not far off..
(End of Training. To be continued…)
"Your words are rather insightful, though I’d argue that you over-romanticize me." He stated in response to her reasoning. Her next suggestion, however, was one he certainly didn’t expect. Having tossed Carroll in his direction, he watched as he landed squarely at his feet. He looked at the weapon as it cackled and gave some reassurance of its safe usage to the wanderer.
Looking at his blade, he turned back to Alice. "I’ll have you know that my bandit days are long behind me, Queen." He retorted. "I can’t imagine what intent you have in making us swap weapons. Perhaps you feel you can better grasp the Shiden’Issen if you use the blade that it was built around?" Looking back to Carroll, he thought to himself for a moment. Perhaps this would be good for them in more ways than one. Handicapping himself may allow them more chances to fight as a unit. After some contemplation, he had made his decision.
"Heh, very well. I accept your offer, Queen. It seems you and I will be teaming up for this exercise, Carroll. Let’s work well together." He said, grabbing him from the ground handle-first. Taking up his own weapon, he walked over to the mushroom girl and handed it to her. "Is this your first time wielding a Zipangu blade? I’ll warn you that it’s quite different from wielding a western one, let alone an axe. It’s not so much power as it is, “flow”." He advised her.
Walking back, but away from the table. He turned to the group.
"Alright. I believe we’ve gotten to know each other well enough. Now that you know each other’s backgrounds, it’s time you learn how that affects how you battle. As stated earlier, your opponent will be me. Work as a team and coordinate your attacks to achieve perfect harmony. “ He spun Carroll around a bit with impressive speed, then brandished him at the group. "Winning or losing isn’t really the main purpose here, but act like it is. Otherwise, you won’t get the most out of it." He said.
"Alright, are you prepared Carroll? This should be good for you - you’ll get your revenge against Gringor-san."
Shocked didn’t seem a strong enough word to what she was feeling as she watched Shizuka and Alice trade weapons as the next phase of their training was about to begin. While she wasn’t all too keen on handicapping one’s self, she did see the benefit of such a decision. What better way to understand your teammates than to use their weapons firsthand. But, seeing as how one of her spears could actually harm someone….
Kerry raised her right hand, the black bracelet on her wrist vibrating. Dusk ripped itself out of the ground and zipped straight for Kerry, but she didn’t catch it. Instead, she leaned to the side and let it zoom past her, where it then impaled itself into the ground next to Gringor.
”Io, hold these. I don’t want my muscle memory to get in the way of this.”, Kerry spoke as she tossed both her silver, the one attuned to Mort, and black bracelets over the lich for safekeeping before turning her attention back to the high orc. ”Yo, Grins. Toss me your axe. If those two are gonna be fighting handicapped, then we all should fight handicapped. It’s only fair, right?”
Gringor eyed the spear that flew to the sides but the moment he was asked to trade weapons, Gringor high faded as he glared at her with an unusual focus.
Fingers adjusted themselves around the haft of his double handed axe, It wouldn’t looked out of place with cutting wood if not for the fact that it was ridiculously oversized.
A moment pass, mind going back and forth before he stepped towards Kerry, the latter stare at the hornet straight in the eye before using both hands to hold the axe and slam it to the ground straight up.
“This axe never lost before.” He respectfully looked at the axe head that reached his chest level before ripping it upwards in one motion and presented it to her like how a blacksmith presents a sword to a knight.
“Don’t lose.” He declared heavily before letting his hands open for her to hold the weapon.
When Kerry picked it, she’ll realize that the axe head alone would've given a full grown men to struggle to lift it despite it being made from the same material as her weapon. The haft itself was thick enough to be used as a wagon wheel pole and its length was nearly enough to be used as a spear itself.
All in all, a brutish weapon made for a race of brutes.
In comparison, when Gringor turned around to pick up her spear, it felt light in his hand that he worried for a moment if it’ll snap under his grip. Though that proved unwarranted as he made a few experimental thrust before swinging it to the sides.
“...Too light.” Grunting, Gringor didn’t like how it felt in his hands. He definitely much prefer an axe.
Liliana looked around from her tea bath, confused on why everyone started trading weapons all of a sudden. …Was it Krampusmas already? At this point she felt a little lost, but everyone seemed a lot more relaxed thanks to Alice’s tea and introductory panel. So, that was hunky-dorey.
Getting out of her tea bath and pulling her blade from it too, Liliana would put her dress back on and return to full size. ”I um…I’m gonna keep using the Whimsy Blade, if that’s okay with you all. I won’t be very good with anything else, and it’ll turn into a wooden sword for anyone else.”
With that, the fairy knight seemed ready to begin sparring whenever the rest were ready.
Alice eyed the exchange of arms with a quiet regard; not her honest intentions, but it did expose key weaknesses and potential strengths. In her hands, Shizuka's blade was likely as powerful as any other weapon the warrior queen could hold. However, Gringor's axe in Kerry's hand was a clear detriment - her size; her weight; they weren't accustomed to a weapon made as inelegant as the warrior king's axe, but a sword...
"Trade, Kerry luv," Alice says, as she approached and presented Shizuka's sword to the Hornet with a pleasing smile. "An exchange of arms is rather brilliant of thee, but taking a needless risk dulls thine's shine," she says, "In thine hands, a sword is most suitable among the trades. In time, and training, thou might be able to wield such an axe, but for now, we shall play to thine strengths with an reversed acknowledgement to better our weaknesses in safety."
"After all, a sword is but a spear with a shortened haft and lengthened spearhead, no? So, this is merely a matter of learning to control a short spear, I think." Alice asked, smirking, as she took Gringor's hefty axe, and shouldered it without an air of struggle.
"The weight is even. The haft is well-centered. The blade is firm. The edge is keen. Thou cares for her well, and it shows, even if others don’t see it," Alice says, admiring the simplistic, cared-for nature of Gringor’s axe, as she approached the High Orc. "Countless battles, she’s seen thee through in victory. However, what thou asked of Kerry is better burdened on mine own shoulders. I will not lose with this axe in hand," she says, "In return, thou should return the respect thy asks - such that thee should strive to go unfailing with her weapon. See that spear as your axe given new life, in need of training only thee can give."
"A High Orc Champion with thine experience should have zero issue with that, even if she is ‘too light’. And, mayhap, thou might find thine speed a step closer to his." Alice smiled at him, before clapping Gringor’s shoulder firmly, then walking off to Liliana.
"Acknowledging your weakness is fair of thee, Liliana, but accepting it is foolish," Alice says, squatting down before the childishly short Fairy in her Human Form. Normally, Alice would stand taller than her, and look down, but she put them on even level. Having an inherently eusocial system with a Queen, Liliana - even as brainlet as she was - understood that Alice was treating her as an equal, not a subject.
Well, probably. Hopefully. Divines willing...
"Accepting weakness denies thee thine right to grow beyond it. Though, thou is strongest with thine own blade, thou is not useless without. Thine own strength lies in the magic within thee," Alice says, placing a finger over Liliana’s heart, "If thou cannot trade, then sheathe thine blade, and steel thine resolve with thyself. Trade might for magic, and cast - but, cast not for whimsy, but warfare. Thou must learn to exercise control of the wilds inside thine heart, but seek not to tame it," she says, "Seek, instead, to guide it. Inside thee blooms and thrives a wild garden in need of direction. Learn to guide it, and thou might yet become the Fifth Bladeflower of the Oldest Wood."
Alice would nuzzle Liliana’s left cheek with her closed, right fist, as she said, "And, then the Fourth, the Third, the Second, and, one day, the First Bladeflower. And, if your Queen were to be so foolish as to deny you, I will gladly see you become my First Bladeflower."
Standing, Alice would looked back to Io. "I take thou shall sit this out on the sideline, Miss Io," she asks, as she walked back to stand before the trio that would face off, 4-v-1, against Shizuka. "That is fine and well in this circumstance, but bare in mind," she settled her gaze on Shizuka, "In wartimes, spellcasters are afford no such luxuries, and often the first to be slain without mercy."
Alice’s words were crystal and clear: even in this training session, she was an active target, should Shizuka be so inclined to turn this 4-v-1 into a 4-v-1 + HVT scenario.
"It’s four against one, Master Shizuka," Alice says, giving him a curtsying bow - her last sign of respect - before she grew to her natural height, and looked down on him, "Ready?"
"Fufufu..." Carroll chuckled. "My Alice is truly a crafty one. Reassigning weapons. Reinforcing characters. Pointing out strengths and weaknesses while building team morale. Being a former Human has its benefits..." he turned a glowing eye to Shizuka, "It seems, notions of revenge will have to wait, pretty boy. Since this is serious, I’ll lend you some of my strength."
Shizuka would feel his sword arm become coated in parasitization slime, but his mind was perfectly intact, and his body was still his own. Instead, what he felt was his conscious control of his Chi Control being hijacked - pushed out of his forethought to become an autonomic function, like breathing.
You are now breathing manually.
"Don’t worry about your Spirit Energy, now, pretty boy," Carroll says. "I’ll take care of that. Just focus on not getting killed."
A sword is but a spear, eh?, Kerry thought to herself, Alice’s words echoing in her mind as she examined Shizuka’s blade. Though she was no swordsman herself, even she could tell that the weapon was well-balanced and very well-made. Whatever metals were used in its creation must’ve been synergistic in nature because she could feel her mana flowing throughout the blade as she held it. Curious, she focused her element into the sword and, sure enough, air currents swirled and caressed the length of the weapon, just as easily as if she were holding one of her spears. Wanting to test this further, the hornet performed a single lazy vertical stroke off to her side, away from everyone else. A thin wave of slicing wind shot forward from the swing, traveling a distance before dissipating.
An eager smirk slowly appeared on her lips.
”You’re right, Alice. I was wrong to ask for the axe. This suits me way better.”, Kerry spoke as she turned to Shizuka, a challenging gleam in her eye. Her wings buzzed as she began hovering, the sword tight in her grip. ”Let’s see how much fun we can have today, yeah?”
”Uh…Um…” Liliana said, listening to Alice’s ye-old-ye-ye-speech, trying her best to parse actual, like, normal people words from the mixture of verbs, syllables, and uh…nouns? Was “thine” a noun? What was a noun anyways?
…Wait, was Alice cheering her on? Saying that she didn’t need her sword to become as strong as Rosebud? The pink-haired fairy’s eyes lit up as her mind raced with possibilities, namely about becoming the World Mamono Boxing Featherweight (Literally) Champion. If someone as strong and smart as Alice was saying she could do it…that must mean she had the potential to do it! Sheathing her sword on her back, Liliana would have a solemn look on her face before nodding. ”I get it…so I need to do that chi control thing and fight better with that! I get it now,” she said, before starting to suddenly wrap her hands in bandages, tying one around her forehead. ”Mm! I got it! I’ll become First Bladeflower with only my bare hands and chi control!”
…And so a world champion was born!
Raising a fist to the sky, the little fairy was in for the fight of her life. In more ways than she could expect.
Things were once again picking up - an exchange of weapons, even. Io wondered how effective "tea time" was, but in the end it didn't seem to cause any harm. She caught Kerry's bracelets, turning them over in her hands and watching the gleam of the light rise over them both. They were rather finely crafted. Io always had a fondness for jewelry... Though she doubted the hornet knew that.
Io cocked her head at Alice's statement. It was an interesting addition to the training scenario. She gave a glance to Shizuka. "Indeed. Spellcaster is one thing, and undead is worse." She was no stranger to the treatment both parties got. "I do not wish to complicate the training further. But if necessary, I can play the..." Io averted her eyes for a moment. "Damsel." There was a slight air of romanticism to it. Being protected by a noble swordsman. Just like stories of old.
That aside, Io was wondering if four people and a high value target would be too much for the human swordsman. Ordinarily she'd say there's no chance, but she was beginning to realize she may have had an incorrect frame of reference for what humans were capable of. All the more reason to study his abilities.
Gringor eyes glared heavily when the Alice took his weapon, though each words of its history lessened it as he only grunted at that.
“Of course, Gringor is the strongest after all.” He said and hefted the spear easily before adjusting his grip.
Simple and basic, as he took his stance against Shizuka with spear aimed at chest level.
From the latter perspective, there was little opening despite it being the spear being slightly short for Gringor.
With that, Gringor cracked his neck and rolled his shoulder before inching forward slowly towards Shizuka. For him, the fights already started.
So, it had been decided…
Alice would be using Gringor’s axe.
Gringor would be using Kerry’s spear.
Kerry would be using his shikomizue, and had already figured out that the blade was made to channel the elements seamlessly.
Liliana would be using her…fists? Along with channeling her magic from before.
It appeared as though Shizuka would be in for an interesting bout during this training session. He had been given Alice’s weapon Carroll, who had wrapped himself around his arm, assimilating him in a sense. He immediately felt that his chi flow was being regulated completely by the cursed weapon; it was a skill that by this point was second nature to him. But, having it regulated like this was quite a different feeling. He had heard that these weapons don’t usually affect men in the same way it does a woman, and it felt a little uncomfortable having those parasitic tendrils wrap around him. He started to flashback to the boat ride to the island, and began to shudder a bit.
But, he quickly dosed those thoughts from his mind and remained focused on the task in front of him. Carroll told him he would regulate his breathing techniques and chi flow, but he wondered about something else as well. He learned that like him, Alice was a spellcaster. He began to channel lightning through Carroll. As he thought, the energy seamlessly flowed through the weapon, crackling as it ran down the shaft and onto the blade portion of his new partner. He then ran ice, and wind after that, much like Kerry did with his blade. "Interesting" He commented on the reactions taking place.
He noticed Gringor slowly approaching him, signifying that for him, the fight had already started. The others seemed ready as well. "Indeed Carroll, I’m personally curious to see how they perform during this trial." He responded to his partner. "You’ll forgive me if my strikes with you seem a bit off, I’m used to a different type of weapon that was made for a specific type of combat in mind." He said, taking a stance with the axe.
Within an instant as Gringor began pacing towards him, Shizuka rushed with a sudden squall. Let’s see how good their eyes are He said to himself. He would continue to rush Gringor head on with what seemed like reckless abandon, a notion he warned them of at an earlier point in time. Could this man not see his own pretense? However, the scene changed as soon as it began.
Upon meeting the high orc face-to-face, Shizuka would keep charging him until he actually phased right though Gringor. It was an afterimage, created by his god-like speed. It kept sliding past him as it began to dissipate out of existence. But there was more; Shizuka had then appeared right beside Kerry, whether she realized it or not, and swung at her with an electrified Carroll. Since she and the others confirmed that using magic was a given, he’d follow suit.
Kerry barely had time to react, she was able to just block the strike but still got a bit bruised. She’d had to do something about the lightning strengthening the blow, however, as she’d soon find herself either being flung back or covered in electric burns. Perhaps a combination of both…
The others should perhaps step in. But, they would do well to be cautious as to how they respond to support their insectoid conrade. He already deceived them once.
”OH SHI-GAH!”, Kerry exclaimed as her fly-like reflexes managed to get her sword up to intercept Carroll, but she could feel the hot sting of electricity that was coming off the axe. Thinking quickly, she channeled her mana into her sword, wind surging outward to counteract the lightning. Still, Shizuka caught her off guard as the strength of his initial strike sent the hornet flying, flipping through the air for a distance before righting herself and landing on her feet in a skidding halt.
”Feints, huh!? Clever!” she commented, flipping the sword in her hand to where she was holding it backwards. ”You’re gonna be diggin’ deep into that bag of tricks!”
Kerry then swung her arm back, air currents emanating from the blade as she prepared her counterattack.
”Wind Art: Gale Slasher!”
Whenever she used this move with one of her spears, she would be twirling her spear as she conjured the wind before sending the attack out in the form of a circular spinning projectile of slicing air.
However, this time around, she was using a sword. So, instead….
A wide and fast wave of howling wind shot out and was heading Shizuka’s way. But Kerry wasn’t going to let that be the end of it. After sending her spell flying, she immediately followed the projectile, wings buzzing. Whatever Shizuka blocked or dodged, Kerry would be right there to put on the pressure.
"I told you: You must rely on your mind’s eye. " Shizuka said, before Kerry was flung a way’s back. "But, I suppose that was a decent block, all things considered." He continued, smirking at his insectoid ally. He watched as she made her rebuttal, then prepped her counteroffensive. Gale Slasher, huh?
The squall made its way toward the swordsman at high speed, with Kerry following right behind. Raising Carroll, he began generating a squall of his own in order to meet the attack. However, instead of sending it out in the form of a shock wave, Shizuka opted to create a column of wind around his whole body. As soon as Kerry’s strike made contact, it completely dissipated. Kerry’s follow-up had her attempt to strike at the ronin’s blind spot. However, the strike was stopped just at Shizuka’s cheek. Having been used to generating wind magic herself, it wasn’t too hard for her to break through the wind barrier. But, even so, Shizuka was able to easily parry the strike.
"You’re not the only one who can generate wind magic." He said, Carroll grating against his blade in Kerry’s hands. "You did good to immediately go into a follow-up in case your blast didn’t work, but it’ll take more than that."
Using Kerry’s momentum against her, he leaned out of their embrace, then with flexible body work knocked her back with a kick. "Also, ladies and gentleman, do remember this is a team effort." He mused. As he pushed back Kerry, he fired an icy strike toward Liliana. Let’s see how she handles that. He thought. At the same time, he phased above Alice with a Kogarashi strike, an attack that involves him lunging at an enemy with a vertical spinning slash while enveloped in icy energy.
How would the mad hatter and the little sprite respond to these attacks? Liliana could possibly try to dodge the attack, but she may need assistance from Gringor. Alice would have to make a response to the spinning swordsman heading her way.
"Drink Me."
In the blink of an axe throw, Alice was gone, as the axe sailed up to meet Shizuka; a thrown party, and feint of its own. He'd committed to his attack, and had little choice but to parry the weapon, and reevaluate what happened as he landed on Alice's dress and shoes.
At the same time, Gringor's Axe, now parried, followed an unnatural path, as if ricocheted off something... or by something... after Shizuka deflected it. As a result, the slab of shaped metal would cross paths with the Fairy, and shield her from the rime.
Buried in the ground, the weapon was unmoving.
And, would stay that way, as roots crept out of the ground, and mushrooms grew upon the wooden haft, this way, and that, with curious patterns like... eyes.
Watching.
All-round.
"Eat Me."
A sudden tremor shook the ground, under Shizuka, and the earth rose up. Five pillars erupted from the simulated soil, and curled down to crush Shizuka's form.
Unfortunately, he would likely prove to be faster - even caught off-guard, as he was - and avoid being crushed. As such, he would get a good look at the impossibly well-kept nails, polished in yellow with sickly splotches of green and white, like mold or fungus, that nearly terminated him, as they dragged back into the massive hole left.
"Drink Me"
"Clever, clever," Carroll says, "Take heed, pretty boy, of the axe over yonder buried," he says, "My dear Alice has only begun her mad tea party. See the mushrooms? They are special. Observant." Carroll chuckled, and turned an eye to Shizuka, "My Alice has made the ground unsafe for your little dashes. After all, you need a place to stop and start. Tarry a moment too long..."
Carroll cackled in anticipation, before he "grinned" and said, "There is a weakness, of course. Several, in this instance - namely, the ground is firm and requires much digging to weaken to the point of rupture, and secondly, see the mushroom on the ground?" Shizuka could, from his angle, see one of the eye-like mushroom had rotted off the axe, and fell on the ground. It was one out of seven he could reliably see. "Thirteen in total. That's all you need to survive, before my Alice must resurface as her medium size."
"And, one more piece of advice, for free, pretty boy, and then you are on your lonesome ownsome," Carroll says, "Without me, my Alice cannot cast a spell. Even through her hands. Quite the frabjous advantage you have."
"I wonder why she gave it, though..."
”Gwah!?” Liliana cried out, having not expected the wave of frost to nearly hit her, or expected to be saved by a random axe toss from Alice that saved her from becoming a fairy-sicle. Then Alice started doing…really big stuff! Like, actually big. That was a big hand.
Seeing as she now at least had a moment to catch her breath, Liliana would close her eyes and channel her chi, flowing into her sword and then back into her. She could feel the spell building up, channeling it into her hands as they were enshrouded in a transparent purple haze. ”Anti-Magic Field…” she said, before taking an even deeper breath, arching her back a bit as she struggled to maintain a second spell invocation. This time, going to her feet as a pale orange blur emanated from her legs, the fairy seeming to vibrate in place. ”Plus Haste…” she said, head hurting a bit from needing to concentrate so hard.
Dropping to a fighting stance and bouncing on her toes, Liliana would exhale, before vanishing entirely. Shizuka’s honed instincts would see the strike coming, but he’d find that Liliana’s speed was approaching his due to the spell she’d cast. A surprisingly hard punch would come and, if it were to hit Carroll, the axe would feel a sudden lapse in his spell-casting control. ”Gaia Hazard, uh…” Liliana kept on launching punches, before settling on the name of: ”Fairy Fury Fists!” Even if the punches weren’t making any significant hits, the reality was that she was managing to, for the time being, put pressure on Shizuka to keep him from freely attacking her allies.
True to his word, Carroll had left Shizuka on his “lonesome ownsome,” as far as defending himself and attacking the others was concerned. He wasn’t moving, unless Shizuka moved him and just focused on regulation of his Chi, the refined Spirit Energy of Humans, in his opinion. However, Liliana’s punches were truly domineering - impressively so, for her lack of stature - and created pockets of disrupted energy. These gaps would serve to damage his tenuous connection to Shizuka, and make reestablishing their alliance harder with the staccato peppering of puny, but powerful punches being waylaid upon him.
"Seems I cannot be as hand-off as I wanted," Carroll groused, before he looked up at Shizuka, and sighed. "Don’t panic, pretty boy. But, I need to bite - just a nibble."
As he spoke, Carroll’s haft splintered a bit in places; parasitic slime raced up Shizuka’s hand, and into his shoulder.
<Focus now, human. I’ve deigned to gift you a fraction of my strength.>
Soft, seductive; an adulterous woman’s voice filled Shizuka’s head - the sweetness of sin seeped onto his resolve; leaking through cracks, wherever found. <Don’t fall to my temptation, pretty boy. You aren’t my type.> snickered the Cursed Blade, as curtain of red hair billowed behind Shizuka’s Astral Soul, and fingers like blades curled around his neck, <Shockingly, the little Fairy is a quick learner. I would suggest removing her. And, remember, no standing still for long.>
There was a sudden push against his back - a jolt back to reality - but Shizuka’s mind’s eye could just glimpse the chosen form of the Cursed Blade; the entity that she would put on for her husband’s eyes... before he was back in control, and felt an almost steroidal surge of energy surge from within.
His next attack would be quite the display.
Stumbling away after her leader kicked her in the back, Kerry performed a one-handed cartwheel to regain her balance before turning to see how the others were doing. Seeing a giant pair of manicured hands trying to pin down Shizuka was one thing, but seeing Liliana go ham and actually put the pressure on the man was completely unexpected. Who knew the fairy could actually be an overwhelming, if a bit wild, close range fighter?
She also caught wind of Carroll’s words and made her take a moment to survey the fight.
Okay, if Carroll is right, then that means Alice is very limited without him, so she’s doing the next best thing that she can do within her ability, which is using her weird crazy mushroom powers. So far it looks like she is trying to get him to stop moving, but Shizuka is just too fast for that to happen. Lili’s got the ball in her court for now, but there’s no doubt that will change very soon. If Gringor can get in and help Lili out, Shizuka will have to focus on those two to not get overwhelmed. All we need now is to make sure he doesn't have room to run around, making it easier for Alice to catch him. So in that case…..
Her quick brainstorming concluded, Kerry held her sword downwards in both hands as she once more channeled her mana, this time concentrating into putting in a fair amount into the weapon. The blade began to glow a greenish hue as air currents gathered and swirled along its length. After a minute, she impaled the now glowing blade into the ground, but she wasn’t done yet.
”No way he doesn’t notice this, but here goes nothing.”, the hornet whispered to herself, wings buzzing as she began to fly around the area where the group was fighting. As she flew, a slipstream of howling wind was left in her wake, forming a barrier over where she just passed. Upon seeing this, Shizuka would take no more than a second to figure out what the insectoid mamono was doing.
Kerry is trying to trap him.
Gringor waited when Shizuka got closer before bursting into action, a moment of tension was forced back as Gringor waited first for Shizuka to moved or feint.
Yet when he continued his path, Gringor didn’t even hesitated as he readied for a forward thrust right into the latter. Confident that he can go through any of his tricks
So when Shizuka moved so fast that it phased past him, Gringor mind went blank for a while.
It was like seeing the heavenly student moving, instead of just outright flashing, this one had the after image phasing past him. His mind can only think of how like the butterfly, where it appeared slow yet moved in a way that it can evade a person. That comparison dominated Gringor mind.
In those few moment of thoughts, everyone else exploded into action that Gringor was snapped out of his stupor and readied himself for another strike.
Circling around, he finally saw a chance as Shizuka seemed impeded by the mushrooms.
So with no hesitation, Gringor went in and thrust forward. Powerful and fast enough to spear a boar in place head on as his strikes was much faster now due to the light weight nature of the spear. Appearing almost as a blur.
Drink me?
Attempting to strike at Alice with Kogarashi, all he managed to hit was the axe she threw to parry his attack.With a clank, Carroll struck the weapon, which in turn was enveloped with a bit of frost. Landing on Alice’s vacant clothes, he looked around with a surprised and perplexed expression before seeing Gringor’s axe seemingly act with a mind of its own. With an apparent new found autonomy, it flung itself in front of Liliana to block Shizuka’s Hyorangeki. The rime that showered the blade didn’t seem to affect it much at all, it landed with its edge being buried in the earth. The swordsman then watched as roots began to grow onto the weapon, along with several eyes appearing upon it. They creepily blinked, their pupils twitching this way and that.
The swordsman then felt a rumbling as the ground beneath him began to split and crack. As the earth opened, numerous mushrooms bloomed forth. Soon the whole ground around him was covered with the fungus. "Decided to apply your green thumb to this battle, Queen?" He said. It seemed that wasn’t the end to the display of plant life, as large pillars sprang forth from under him. He took note of how the pillars appeared to have well kept nails, painted with a pattern that was reminiscent of the fungus growing around him. That’s right, she can change her size. He mused to himself, watching her biological abilities at work. He had to remember that she was, essentially, a girl composed mostly of plant matter. It certainly made things interesting! Not wasting a moment, Alice would only catch air despite her efforts as Shizuka phased out of the way of her grasp. Her hand retreated back into the earth, likely preparing a next move.
It wasn’t over yet though…
Liliana, having been saved by the axe earlier, began putting her training to work. Channeling her chi, she used it to strengthen her power and speed. However, upon hearing “Anti-Magic Field”, it already set off some red flags in his mind. “Plus Haste”, true to its name, allowed the sprite to almost instantly close the distance between her and the warrior. Not missing a step, the fairy then yelled out an attack with an odd-sounding name. The next thing he knew, he and Carroll were being pummeled with countless punches. He also felt the disruption in his spell channeling. He had to admit, this was a clever strategy. Well, clever for Liliana anyway…
Fortunately, Carroll himself didn’t seem to be much bothered by the punches themselves. He turned to Shizuka for a moment and began to speak. "What?" Shizuka said, before feeling an ooze crawl its way up his arm. Carroll had morphed his form a bit and seeped a bit more onto Shizuka, embedding his slime into his shoulder. For the second time while in Shizuyama, a monster’s essence had crept into his body and soul. At that moment, a seductive and gentle feminine voice had tickled the back of his neck. He felt a presence that had situated itself behind his astral form, its dagger-like yet gentle hands caressing his neck. "Red hair…?" He managed to utter. Whispering some friendly advice, Shizuka felt a sudden surge of power coursing through him.
His connection with Carroll now stronger, the swordsman was able to easily fend off Liliana with a burst of his chi, who was sent flying back a little ways. As Gringor attempted to charge at him, Shizuka then lifted himself off into the air, holding Carroll to his side as if he was a katana. Aiming directly at Kerry, he hit her with Shozume - Soaring Claw, a powerful upward strike. Stopping her wind barrier plan in its tracks, she wasn’t quite prepared for Shizuka’s sudden burst of power and was knocked out of the sky. However, she was able to regain her stride and caught herself right before she hit the ground. She had ended up near Liliana, who also managed to regain her poise after being sent flying.
Shizuka wasn’t finished yet, as he came straight down on the high orc with his completed attack - Tsui-Shozume. Slamming Carroll to meet Gringor wielding Dusk, the ground underneath them shattered, again sending debris everywhere. Gringor would find this second warrior embrace with his captain ever more staggering than the last. Shizuka’s hope was that the impact would also disrupt Alice’s roots and mushrooms.
To them, it may look like Shizuka left himself open, allowing himself to be in a stationary position with Gringor. If they were smart, they’d already be planning their next counter move. However, that’s what Shizuka would be betting on, and he had a counter of his own waiting.
"Eat Me."
"Eat Me."
"Eat Me."
"Eat Me."
Her words ping-ponged from center, to left, to right, and back to center, as hands erupted from the ground - catching her fellow Mamono in her perfect palm, and keeping going further than Shizuka sought to send them. However, Alice distinctly, only had two arms... Shizuka was currently being backhanded by a fourth that baring down on him.
<...Uryuutsui: Shozume...>
There was no pain, where it should have been, as Shizuka's arm twisted backwards and out of place, while slicing through Alice's fingers in two vertical swings, and sending the digits flying past him, while the hand itself sprayed his back and the immediate area with green blood.
An agonized scream shook the ground like an earthquake, and her other hands were rapidly closing, as Alice processed the pain. Although Liliana was likely small enough to wriggle through the gaps in a close fist of a giant, Kerry and Grimgor did not possess size changing racial benefits, and needed to move, as their safety turned hazardous.
<I do so wish we could take this as seriously as I like...> Carroll says, <You've quite the history to unleash upon them. If only they didn't break with such permanence...>
Though Carroll's word held, and she progressed no further than his shoulder, Shizuka could feel her words trying to trigger the natural temptation that a demon weapon brought upon men.
Meanwhile, Alice's fingers were laying on the battlefield in their own pools of blood. It gave the analytical pause to think: Alice wasn't eating or drinking anything, but she kept saying it.
Or... was she imploring it?
If Carroll could have taken control of his body at any time, why did he choose to chop off her fingers, and not force Shizuka to defend or even move by thrusting away with an attack?
For every bit of help they Cursed Sword gave, Shizuka realized it was always in service to Alice in some fashion.
Explaining how her underground trick worked, only to do so loud enough for Kerry to hear, so the Hornet would put her keen mind to the task of slowing Shizuka down.
And, now, using his body to scatter pieces of her body onto the ground to potentially offer them the power to shrink and grow at-will by taking a sip to drink or having a bite to eat.
"Trade, bandit."
The words came back to him. Alice initiated the trade, a blind trade, which he accepted on good faith; placated by her smooth talk and silver tongue.
But, Carroll wasn't a trade.
She was a Trojan Horse.
”OH FUCK!”, exclaimed Kerry as she scrambled, managing to escape through a hole made by Alice’s pointing finger and thumb. As the hornet was catching her breath, she noticed her slipstream beginning to disappear. Not wanting to let her plan go, she reached out toward it, her hand faintly glowing green. The slipstream regained its form and responded, connecting itself to Kerry’s arm. There was now a big rope of air running between the sword and Kerry herself, only surrounding Shizuka in a half circle.
I could go for it to complete the circle, but Shizuka is definitely onto me now., thought the insectoid as she watches Shizuka and Gringor duke it out. Geez, this guy is something else. We need to get the drop on him, but I don’t see how….
Then she thought of Alice’s words.
Eat me……Drink me….
Add in Carroll’s advice on how the mad hatter’s powers worked without him and…..
Kerry chuckled.
”Oh, you two are some devious bitches for that….”, she said to herself……and Alice, who was most definitely listening.
Alice and Carroll figured this out from the moment they traded with Shizuka.
He fell for the bait.
Now it’s time for the trap.
Kerry turned to see one of Alice’s fingers laying right beside her. She gulped and her body shivered in repulsion, but if it means getting the upper hand over their leader in this fight….
”Lili, listen to Alice. Do as she says.”, Kerry said to the fairy as she grabbed the finger, used a slash of air to slice off a piece before, after a moment of hesitation….
CHOMP!
Kerry wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she bit into her piece, but it certainly wasn’t this. The texture was doughy and a tad dry, but the taste was……bitter and sweet, at the same time.
Alright Alice, I ate you. Don’t make me regret it., she thought to herself as she swallowed the fungi-flesh.
As she swallowed, Kerry would feel a frighteningly euphoric sensation of growth; her body felt almost out of whack, and out of sync with the world around her. Her balance would twist and twirl, as she shot upwards in the air... without leaving the ground as she doubled, and then tripled in size.
Among Hornets, she would have been an idolized giant, and among Humans, an unbridled threat worthy of unprecedented murder extermination.
As her sense of balance returned, and Kerry didn't feel like she was going to squish out of her exoskeleton, she would become acutely aware of her enhanced musculature, and notice her wings generated a breeze as they kept her afloat.
However, there was a lingering sense of impermanence; this wouldn't last without eating more of Alice, so she had to capitalize on her advantage while it was up.
Gringor stomped his back foot hard as he was locked in yet another warrior embrace, haft of the spear against the sheer strength of Shizuka axe.
Him? Overwhelmed?
That thought sent him into a bubbling fury, as muscle tensed and every cell within worked in concert. He outright pushed Shizuka back with renewed strength and forced the latter into a stalemate lest he found himself off-balance.
Which was why at the apex of the clash, where weapons clashed one another heavily, Gringor showed his cunning brutality.
Letting go of his weapon, Gringor grabbed Carol the axe and swung it to the sides before it can clipped his fingers. Utilizing the force applied forward in their warrior embrace, Gringor shoulder check Shizuka before attempting to grapple him to the ground.
Should that missed, Gringor had a death grip on the axe and nothing will dissuade him from it.
<Naughty, little High Orc. Such an invasive species. Always touching what isn’t theirs to touch. Perhaps, this training can serve as a cautionary tale...> Carroll purred, turning her attention away from Shizuka. Before Shizuka could think about any counteraction to Gringor’s motions, Carroll would loosen her haft - her form was that Cursed Sword, malleable in nature; her origin was Wonderland, chaotic in design. Attacking as her own being was not beneath her, so she would bite back - literally.
Her jaw dropped open, as she lashed out at Gringor’s throttling arm, and sank her teeth in - vorpal blades like teeth cut flesh, muscle, and bone in twain with equal measure; an edge meant to slay the Jabberwocky was overkill upon the arm of a High Orc.
However, there was a small bit of Shizuka that was able to retard her back, and her last tooth would shear through Gringor's ulna bone; resulting in a horrific wound, and an immediate need to staunch the wound.
Likely, in the war-tested High Orc's skillset.
"KEEHAHAHA! SUCH TASTY BLOOD, HIGH ORC!" Carroll cackled. "I think, I’ll savour some more! Like me drink you all up!"
Suddenly, Shizuka’s robe would tear, as parasite slime billowed underneath and clamped into the left side of his neck, forming the lower half of a dragon’s jaw, while more slime clamped into his left side ribs, and armored him further.
<Shall we dance?>
”HANYGABADUWA!?” Liliana exclaimed, eyes nearly popping out of her skull as Alice’s gigantic arm was cut apart, shrinking in size to flit between several large chunks of meat. That was close! Even Alice’s chunky bits were huge. Having narrowly escaped bug-like-death and then being told to eat Alice was…what was even going on!?
”Uh…” Liliana said, nervously looking at a slightly twitching finger on the ground from Alice.
”Uhhhhhhhh…” She would pick it up, a clearly hesitant expression on her face as her lips curled in a frown.
”No thanks! I’m a vegetarian!” Liliana said, hurriedly dropping the finger meat and shaking her head. This was a lot more gory than she was used to in a fight. She just hoped that Alice would be okay after getting her fingies chopped off. ”Plus, this is part of my training too…as of today, I’m a Magic Fairy,” the not-so-magic fairy exclaimed, before focusing. Two spells were giving her a headache, and she imagined a third would just knock her out…but right now, Anti-Magic Field wasn’t helping. Dropping it by simply ceasing to think about it (a very powerful skill for the Bladeflower), she would channel magic through the Whimsy Blade once more.
As the die of fate was cast, a pale green glow emanated from the Whimsy Blade, pulsing out and covering a small area around Liliana, covering grass, Alice’s severed fingers, and a nearby flower in a strange looking green glow. From chlorophyll and petal came scale and fang, as snakes seemed to “bloom” from the plant matter around Liliana. As if hatching from countless eggs that were invisible, the snakes pushed free of plant matter, “consuming” it as more and more poured free of the plants around the little fairy. Now surrounded by a cavalcade of snakes, they would group up under the fairy as she returned to humanoid size, smugly posing with her hands at her hips. ”Ooh, I got a good one this time! Gaia Hazard, Serpent Time!”
What would follow would be every ophidiophobe’s worst nightmare as a literal, not figurative, very real tide of snakes charged at Shizuka, enough for Liliana to ride atop the wave while giggling madly. …She might have just been happy to have a spell do something other than summon cows for once.
Locked in a struggle with the high orc, Gringor’s pride took him over as he didn’t want to draw a second time in a warrior’s embrace with the swordsman. He grabbed Carroll and attempted to toss her to the side, aiming to pin Shizuka to the ground. Shizuka had anticipated that Gringor would try something, and had prepared a counter. However, before he could even respond, Carroll had one of her own.
With an elongated jaw, the cursed sword had bit down on the high orc’s arm. Proclaiming that his blood tasted good, she began to further change as she took in more. Another look of shock overtook Shizuka’s face as Carroll further forced herself onto his person. This time tearing a bit of his robe as her slime served as a makeshift armor, even forming a dragon-jaw covering the side of his face. With his bond with the weapon deepening even further, Shizuka could now feel the impure thoughts that made up monsters taking him over even more.
"Now, now, Carroll-chan. I’m the only man you get to have eyes for in this fight" He uttered. His voice now held with it a deeper, supernatural tone with it. With a strength not yet seen, Shizuka grabbed Carroll and wrestled her from the high orc’s grasp. He then checked him with a shoulder tackle of his own and knocked him back a ways in one clean motion. "Goodness, this power is quite impressive. Carroll, I’ll have you know that your and the Queen’s trickery has not gone unnoticed." Shizuka said. "However, I wanted a handicap in the first place. In addition, this new found strength is quite…exhilarating!"
The swordsman immediately turned toward Liliana and Kerry, the latter having been strengthened thanks in part by a certain mushroom girl. The sprite had sent loose a swarm of serpents towards the swordsman, cackling like a madman as she rode the center one. "You challenge me to a battle of serpents, little cutie? Bold of you~ But you may find mine to be more than you bargained for!" He mused, pun intended.
Senki"" He uttered. With a sudden charge, Shizuka cloaked himself in a column of water that resembled an eastern dragon. Though only one, its mass matched the combined serpent heads that Liliana had summoned. The two techniques clashed and a deep bellow echoed throughout the training space. Locked in an intense struggle, neither of the techniques would let up. The water dragon, however, seemed to be on the winning end. Shizuka emerged, suddenly, standing on top of the water dragon’s head. He then turned to the enlarged Kerry. "The women of our region, though beautiful flowers in their own right, are usually quite slender. It’s nice to see someone with larger assets." He said, borderline leering at her. "Tell me, did Alice-chan taste good when you swallowed her?"
At the same moment he made his statement, the swordsman let loose a powerful blue slash wave toward the hornet. "Sonamisen." Taking advantage of the commotion of the clash he caused with Liliana and the perverse comment he made, he sent a surprise attack toward the giant Kerry. She just managed to guard against it, but still took a bit of damage and was pushed back despite her large size. Shizuka was finished yet, however, as some familiar with the region’s language may have realized that the technique was a two-step one. Wielding his sheath, he let loose another shockwave. This time, his target was Gringor. The high orc was good at quickly regaining his stride and planning a next course of action, even after being knocked back. Gringor may have enough time to dodge or grab Kerry’s lance to parry the blow if he moved quick enough.
"Now then, Queenie dear, you’ve proven that playing the bottom is no issue for you. But, I think it’s time you resurfaced."
Channeling more rime into his palm, he prepped another Hyorangeki strike. This time, even more powerful thanks to Carroll; black ripples of energy crackled along the icy white ball that Shizuka held in his hand. Once he was satisfied with the amount generated, he slammed the ice orb into the ground. The earth beneath them frosted instantly, even the surrounding mushrooms would be subject to frosting unless Alice augmented them in some way. By freezing the ground, his hopes would be that Alice would have no choice but to finally emerge and show herself.
There were few things that bothered Alice: men who were loud and boorish, women who were opinionated and snarky, disruptions to enjoyable tea parties, and being cold - especially being cold. Mushrooms, like most fungi, were a warm and sociable lot; it was the motivating reason why Matango were eusocial species and harem-like in nature and survival.
The frosty days were best spent cuddled and huddled in lasciviously, body-heated pits of warm, supple flesh slickened with sweat, salvia, and well, other less delicate fluids - male and female alike.
Trapped underground, being frozen into an iceberg-sized popsicle was not gonna fly.
As such, Shizuka would get his wish... for weal and for woe.
The ground would shatter, terra firma becoming a lot less firm, and more like a sea of rubble and sand, as a massive fist broke free; nails slamming into the ground, leading the eye down the bare arm that terminated into shoulder and exposed neck. Dragging herself free, like a Titan of Yore, or a Lost Giant, Alice pushed herself up.
"Hm."
Io would notice the disruption in her training field, as the nutrient-rich soil was barren, lifeless - as dead as she was, really. Every viable ounce drained from the roots that Alice shed, as she towered above, at ten-times her natural standing height of nine-feet, and slightly more of her “human” height of five-feet.
All of it was glaring down at Shizuka.
"Hrm."
Near silent disregard was the only warning the possession samurai got, before his body was moved - more of his garments shredding, as Carroll influenced him further, and armored his left leg into order to make him dodge the attack; though, the shockwave would strike him, as well as the sand displaced at weaponized speed.
Sensing her miss, Alice righted herself, and looked around for Shizuka...
"Hn."
Everyone was so small and insignificant. They all looked the same. Weak. Useless. In need of leadership and direction. They needed purpose. Suddenly, her hand lashed out, and she snatched a player off the field between her right pointers and thumb.
Lifted several dozen feet off the ground, Io would find herself staring into the crimson pool of Alice’s right eye - a bloody moon, given flesh and cast with madness.
It widened, and took in her entirety; centuries of insanity assailed Io, as the Demon Energy screamed in hunger - ravenous and unending.t
"Mulch."
Raised higher than she could ascend under her own power, Io would dangle for a moment... before plummeting into Alice’s awaiting mouth.
Her purpose was decided to be fuel for the barbarous warmachine of one.
........Is this getting out of hand?, the hornet thought to herself, smirking at her leader’s comment as she raised her hand to project a wind barrier, blocking his attack.
Between herself growing to the point of her clothes almost bursting, Gringor losing an arm, Alice going Titan mode, and Liliana cackling like a tiny maniac, all signs that this “training session” has gone completely FUBAR are pointing to a resounding…..maybe.
But hey, if Shizuka ain’t tappin’ out, then I sure as hell ain’t eitherrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOH MY GODS, ALICE IS ABOUT TO EAT IO!
In a snap decision, Kerry launched her slipstream toward Io, blowing the lich from becoming the mad hatter’s snack.
”Alice! What the actual fuck!?”, hollered Kerry as she snapped her finger. The sword, still imbued with the mana she poured into it, expelled a burst of wind, releasing itself and flipping toward Kerry, who caught it. Due to her enhanced size, the blade looked less like a sword and more like a knife in her hands. ”Where, in the history of teamwork, is it written that you eat your own teammate!?
"Remember -----. A battle is chaos. No place for one like you." An old memory resurfaced once again in Io's head. Perhaps she was having a nostalgic streak - It happened every couple of decades. Perhaps retreating into the past was Io's reaction to what was unfolding before her. Her attention was being divided between observing the combat itself and monitoring the parameters of the simulation. Parameters that were being pushed past what she had expected when she put together the spell logic that created the area. Io wished that the erratic behavior of her teammates was a symptom of the spell being pushed to its limit, but it was not.
She scarcely reacted as she was ripped from the ground and into the air. For a brief moment, she considered that the spell had failed, and the entire world was breaking in two, launching everyone into the sky. But it was something even less plausible than that. She quickly dropped, scarcely having time to brace herself for the impact.
But she only made contact with the soil - depleted and barren as it was, it was leagues better than the alternative. Another of the task force had saved her. She would have to remember that, even amidst the chaos, someone noticed her situation. It was somewhat comforting. Of course... Her unpreparedness was a special circumstance. She'd never go into an actual combat zone without spells to thwart every step of what just happened. Probably.
Io stood up, brushing dust from her robes as the enchanted scrolls that snaked around her tightened, closing her robes back around her body. No lasting damage was done from the fall. In fact, to Io, this merely raised new questions. If anything was going to be used for nutrients... She'd not pick herself with the others - living beings, that is - around. Perhaps it was solely because she was the one observer in the fray.
She didn't need to speak to activate her scrolls. Several of them gently glowed at once, offering their activated enhancements, primarily to her speed. Io would need to be able to evade attacks from everyone, not just her enemies, it seemed. So be it.
Where in history, indeed...
Alice drifted from Io, as her jaws clamped on nothing but air, and she tried to find Io. Following the slipstream, her hand shot out, and gripped Kerry bringing her before her eyes... just holding her there.
"Nn."
Alice let her go; to float; to fall; it didn't matter.
Disinterested, Alice turned her attention downwards; her eyes scanning and hunting. There was no telling, if she was on their side or just... acting, because that's all she could do.
<Shizuka, I'm going to relay some of my observations to you. What is clearest here is...>
...they were desynchronized as a team, once more:
Alice's Wonderland Magic was proving as unpredictable as Liliana's Whimsy Magic, as despite the clear advantage offered, it was taking Alice's presence of mind and alliance. The battle-hardened, war-ready queen was gone, and replaced by a carnivorous plant gone hunting.
Liliana's Whimsy Magic had offered them a shocking set of advantages with its unusually cooperative nature since the fight had started, but when the plants had been converted into snakes, the reckless nature of the spell had removed the advantage of Alice's fingers.
Gringor's unyielding resolve to best Shizuka for nothing more than his own pride and honour had resulted in his disregarding advantages in Alice's attempts to grab Shizuka and Kerry's attempts to trap him in the Slipstream, and his own grapple cost him an arm.
Kerry, herself, had deviated the least from the advantages set out, but she'd almost the same problem as Gringor: she was prone to Lone Wolfism, and didn't coordinate attacks - more butting heads with Gringor, and squandering any chance to tag-team with the High Orc.
The last member of the team, whether or not she acknowledged it, was Io; involved from the ground up, yet stubbornly adhering to a silently passive, observational role. Though she may have had no aim to train with them, or join them later, she was here now, and unwittingly: a target.
And, of course, there was the lynchpin of this all: Shizuka.
Or, moreover, Possessed Shizuka - a beast unleashed from a man who kept a tight hold.
Unrestrained, he'd come at them with more force and power than any Varjan could muster, and put them on the back foot with each advance - shattering guards, breaking attacks, and pressing forward with a demonic might that called for more and more return pressure.
...which... they couldn't deliver...
<Call a timeout.> Carroll suggested, in a politely ordering tone. <We need to reassess some things. Maybe, many things...>
Feeling teeth biting into his arm was unexpected, so when it reach deeper near the bone, Gringor grip loosen unintentionally more from shock than pain.
So when Shizuka shoulder checked him back, he was forced away from Shizuka and skidded a few feet away.
Gringor gritted his teeth as his mind went straight from angry to a deadly calm as he felt the blood leaking from his arm. Using nothing but pure muscle, he staunched the wound back and made a fist.
It was connected, and he could still move it. He also had another arm, it was more than enough.
So when Shizuka made another attack, Gringor waste time as he dodged the attack and quickly rushed forward for an assault.
Even when Shizuka struck the ground and ice sprouted upwards, it did little to deter him as he leapt upwards to the air.
Foolish and foolhardy, yet Gringor continued on as his good arm was pulled back for a might swing and damaged arm to the front.
As he turned towards Gringor, the latter swung his arm to the sides. Sending splashes of his own blood downwards into Shizuka face, perhaps it’ll catch and blind him temporarily in the eyes, perhaps not.
What Shizuka would remember was Gringor's good arm reared and ready for an attack. An obvious telegraph swing but one that held all of his strength.
Moment and inches away from connecting, Gringor swung his fist prematurely into a haymaker, making him spun to the sides.
Right into a lashing kick with all the converted momentum behind it aimed directly at Shizuka neck.
”Goodness Queenie, I didn’t think you were into Io-chan that much, you could at least take her out for a night on the town first." Said the swordsman, still fused with Carroll. While this wasn’t the first time his body has been exposed to demonic energy, and Carroll wasn’t directly trying to exert her energy over him, it seemed that his more “carnal” thoughts were being drawn to the surface still. It was true that just being around monsters exposed a person to the effects of their energy, and Shizuka has been leading an entire group of them for over a week at this point. It appeared that the repeated exposure began to affect him more than one realized.
Carroll brought Shizuka back to attention, letting him know that Alice in this new feral state is a danger to everyone around her, not to mention that the injury Carroll inflicted on Gringor needed to be treated - whether the high orc himself thought so or not. Solid teamwork couldn’t exactly be fostered in this type of training environment, a fact that the swordsman would have to agree with. In addition, Carroll could sense that Shizuka’s beastly side may also pose a danger to the broken team, his restraint lessening with each charge.
Gringor, however, wouldn’t allow much time to process these thoughts. True to his nature, when facing a worthy opponent he refuses to give up the fight. In a crude but clever manner, he flailed his injured arm to spray blood over Shizuka. Gringor then attempted to connect a powerful hook to the swordsman’s face, or so it first appeared. A feint in actuality, Gringor quickly spun his body into a powerful kick aimed right at Shizuka’s neck. A bit of the blood got on the swordsman’s chest, but he managed to avoid it getting on his face. At that instant, the training field again resounded with a roaring impact. Gringor’s kick connected with Shizuka, his arm raised in parry to be exact.
"Carroll-san, you indeed have a point. Gringor, I’m calling an end to this training session. Since you seem to be treating this as more of a duel, we’ll settle it at a later date." Said Shizuka in his regular voice. Shizuka generated a small gust of wind that was just strong enough to push Gringor a bit away from him. The water dragon that clashed with Liliana’s serpent attack had dissipated and he guessed that Kerry would soon return to normal. Hopefully if Alice didn’t, Carroll would be able to calm her down. "Carroll-san, I’m breaking our link now, take care of Alice-san for me." His final address to the cursed sword. With that, the demonic carapace that covered part of Shizuka’s body began to fade away, reverting him back to his normal form. "Catch." He said, tossing Carroll at Alice.
He then turned to the rest of the mamono gathered in front of him. "Ok team, it…would seem that this training session of ours has gotten a little out of hand. I’m making an executive decision and calling this off, for now. Io-san, could you heal everyone, especially Gringor-san. Then, dispel the training field and we’ll regroup back on the temple grounds."
He then looked over at Kerry, his shikomizue looking more like a knife in her enlarged hand. With a flick of his index and middle finger, a current of wind blew the blade out of her hand and back into his. Promptly sheathing it, he applied a bit of water magic to clean the blood off of his chest. Making a sigh, he turned to Io again.
"Uh, also, Io-san. Could you, uh, repair my clothes as well? Wasn’t expecting Carroll-san to rip them apart like that." He said, a bit of depression in his voice. "This was my favorite robe…"
There was no real catching involved in the matter, as Carroll was tossed - the sentient weapon merely took magical flight, and a sudden web of tendrils oozed out of her haft; lashing around Alice’s left arm, and pulling her towards the ground. There was a brief struggle to resist the curse, before Alice’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she crashed to her knee - falling in full on her side, as Carroll’s tendril were wrapped around her neck. Retreating, Carroll would loosen her hold, and settle on the ground.
As she stabilized in unconsciousness, Alice’s body would start to decay and wither without the conscious effort of feeding off the ground, and the fact that her spontaneous growth had starved the ground in general. As such, her massive body was unable to maintain itself, and was consuming itself - rebuilding the mycelial network and sprouting new mushrooms in a small, more compact form.
In the shell of her own self, in the cavern of her desiccated belly, Alice would slumber, reborn, if not awoken by anyone.
All the while, Carroll stood guard - relocating to the main body, once all of said and done.
"It might have gone a little crazy in the end..." Carroll’s Demonic Form slowly closed over, and returned her Mundane Form, "But, it sure was fun... what a frabjous... tea... party..." and she dozed off where she “stood”.
Gringor felt his kick connect but felt nothing as he had seen the arms being raised.
He was ready to fall onto Shizuka for another grapple but a harsh gust of wind blew him back, forcing him to land a distance away.
Hearing what Shizuka had to say, it irritated and boiled his blood to no end but didn’t complain. They’ll settle it at another point.
Looking at his injured arm, the wound had already slowly stopped bleeding but the bite marks was still deep and present.
Without a word, Gringor moved to Io and stretched his arm out for her to heal.
Though inwardly, his mind was already moving to evaluate the whole battle.
He needed something, something more. His flesh can’t handle that bite, and those basket heads already proved enough to cut a shallow wound.
Even those Varjan Shamans had fire to nearly burn him.
His thoughts swirled around before he finally came to a simple conclusion.
Armor.
He needed some armor.
He’ll be slower, but he was Gringor, he’ll just have to get stronger enough that even with armor, he can still move at full speed with no issue.
But where to get one?
That stumped him for a bit as he thought on that question endlessly.
”Oh, we’re done? Okay, that’s….probably for the best, actually.”, Kerry commented with a honestly relieved chuckle as she watched Shizuka’s sword return to his side, intrigued. So he could’ve recalled his weapon at any point of their training. The ronin really meant it when he handicapped himself. As Gringor walked over to Io to patch himself up, Kerry lifted her hand to scratch her head….only to find that she couldn’t. She turned to see…
…..her entire right arm had reverted back to normal…..while the rest of her was still giant….
”......WHAT THE FU-RCK!?”
...but not for long.
Seems the effect of eating Alice’s fungi flesh had worn off as, part by part, Kerry shrunk back down to her original size. Next was her left leg, causing her to fall on her butt…..before said butt shrank. Then her wings…..her other leg…..other arm…..her breasts….her abdomen. Until finally, her head reverted back to normal, her two antennae being the last to shrink.
”That….was…..so……WEIRD!””, complained Kerry, shivering from the unnerving experience she just went through. She then looked down….and deadpanned. Her crop top and short shorts had been stretched to their absolute limits when she was a giant and were now several sizes too large. The hornet turned to the corpse cocoon that had become Alice and glared at her before turning away, grumbling.
”Mushroom bitch owes me an outfit….”
There had not been a consideration for a way to halt fighting within the training grounds. Io realized now that there may be a need to. Another entry to add for the wave of tweaks to the spell. Luckily, the situation managed to deescalate itself. Perhaps it was moreso that Alice was pacified more than anything. Living things growing beyond their means and perishing as a result was nothing new to Io. She gave the slightest huff of amusement at such a textbook example playing out in front of her.
She turned to the other task force members. "I am sorry, Shizuka and Kerry. Your clothing will only be regenerated upon leaving the training grounds." It was not a lie. Technically there was functionality to repair clothing, and it did indeed occur upon leaving the training grounds. At other times? There was simply no way to tell if it could happen.
Io quickly diverted her attention to Gringor, both out of necessity and a way to deflect any further discussion of the clothing issue. Between Shizuka's state of undress and Gringor letting her lay hands on him... This venture began to finally turn a profit for Io. She gingerly touched the high orc's arm, whispering the same keyword as before to trigger the ground's healing. She tacked on addendums in her own language in order to direct the healing more intensely. "What a specimen..." Io muttered to herself in wonder - Technically, repairing this kind of damage would be much harder, but Io had to attribute the ease in which it occurred to Gringor's healing factor. It was certainly more vigorous than Io had considered.
The healing aura would of course also wash over the others in the training grounds as well, healing their wounds. The physical ones, at least.
At a certain point, Liliana had completely stopped moving. Right around the point where Io almost got eaten and everything just…came to a head, her magic ceased completely as her focus and will were somewhat broken. …This was just supposed to be training…right?
All of this was…
Everything going on was…
…Excessive.
This had started as a team exercise and had rapidly devolved into a power measuring contest with each of them slamming against Shizuka with all they had but…the only real teamwork they’d done was minor at best. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t tried but…now, Liliana couldn’t shake the feeling that they might have been better off if this hadn’t been a team exercise. The little fairy would sit down, cross her arms, and hum…seemingly thinking about how to feel about this situation. The healing aura didn’t affect Liliana much beyond her slightly bruised knuckles being repaired, but she did appreciate that her hands didn’t feel like ground meat after punching steel.
Continuing to hum in dissatisfaction, Liliana would flop onto her back and look up at the sky, furrowing her brow a little bit. ”...I guess…I wasn’t really that helpful,” she surmised. She wasn’t strong like Gringor or Alice, couldn’t go as fast as Kerry, her magic wasn’t useful like Io’s, and Shizuka had them all beat on technique. In the end, all her magic did was prove a mild nuisance, and she couldn’t even react fast enough to Alice trying to eat Io to help. In a surprising display of emotion beyond her goobery self, Liliana would shrink down and flit over to a nearby flower, and promptly sit inside of its petals and mope.
Maybe being sixth best wasn’t anywhere close enough to what the task force needed.
"I see, very well then." He said, responding to the lich. He took another hard look at the members of the taskforce assembled in front of him, in addition to Alice who appeared to be sleeping in the hollowed out husk that was her giant form. Liliana had shrunken her size further and began sulking in a nearby flower but her diminished size made her hard to see, but he could sense that she was there. He supposed he could understand the various emotions swirling inside of her. Gringor’s arm now seemed to be fully healed as well, so aside from Kerry’s wardrobe malfunction everything seemed to now be in order.
"Team, I won’t mince words, this training didn’t exactly go as planned. I’m afraid there still lies many days of team-building in the foreseeable future. However, I’d advise you not to take this as a sign of failure either." He said, now wearing a smile on his face. "Each of you, in your own way, have opened your eyes to a new type of enlightenment. It may not seem like it, but you’ve gotten stronger, I can tell. Instead of sulking, use this as a new foothold for you to achieve greater heights." He then stared at Kerry for a moment.
"Kerry-san, your will is strong and I can tell you’re used to doing things on your own. You’re able to adapt on the fly and can create some brilliant strategies, but sometimes they leave you open. Perhaps more team cohesion is needed before you leave yourself in such a position. In spite of everything, I’d be comfortable putting you in a leadership role if the situation called for it." He said, critiquing the hornet monster.
Next was Gringor. "Gringor-san, you’ve learned to utilize your mind’s eye in order to better guide your instincts for battle and make up for some shortcomings. However, under certain instances, you still revert back to using crude, although somewhat clever, tactics that are more risky than reliable. In addition, your arm stands as a testament as to what type of trouble you can get yourself into if you let pride get in the way. It was stated in the beginning that this is training, not a duel."
He then turned to the flower that Liliana was moping in. "Liliana-chan, you may not be as strong, fast, or magically “coherent” as the others. But, your abilities have their own utility. Instead of comparing yourself to others, continue to use the principles you’ve learned in this training to shape your magic in a way that feels natural to you. You’ll come into your own in only a matter of time."
Alice and Carroll were still sleeping, as it would appear. "While I was fused with Carroll, I could see the centuries of experience that she shared with Alice-san. There are similarities she shares with the both of you." He said, addressing Kerry and Gringor. "But, as we’ve seen, she’s a little too unstable and unpredictable."
He last turned to Io. "Io-san, uh, sorry that you…almost got eaten by Alice-san." He said in an awkward tone.
Clearing his throat, he’d continue. "But, I believe that’s enough for now." Shizuka walked over to the sleeping Alice and Carroll, picking them both up and began carrying them out of the training field. "Alright team, training’s over. We’re heading back to the training grounds, you may break and roam as you please. Within reason of course. Maybe go on some more quests together and build more experience teaming up?"
Motioning for everyone to follow him, the training was over for now, and hopefully the other taskforce members would expand upon what they did learn to advance even further. The time to reattempt the Heavenly Strike quest was not far off..
(End of Training. To be continued…)
