Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

He brought Delair along, the chance to see two third-tiers fight not something she’d want to miss while also taking a couple of his clones too to give him some different viewing angles as they made their way to the town’s training grounds, finding a few adventurers and regular citizens alike using the space to hone what skills they had without worry about damaging anything vital within the walls of Stonewall.

“You seem popular,” Abel said as she stretched, taking note of all of the eyes that had fallen on Ben, both on the way out and even among the others making use of the space despite the distance they’d tried to give themselves to keep anyone else from ending up at risk from what attacks were going to come, even if Ben waved the comment off.

“There was a bit of a thing in town not too long ago that’s definitely left everyone with some mixed opinions of me, just ignore it.”

“Ooh, sounds exciting, what happened?”

“Destroyed and rebuilt the town after a small accident. It’s a long story.”

“But Ben-” Delair started, knowing he had played no part in the destruction Bloom had brought in his madness but stopping as he shook his head. He’d decided to take responsibility for it, nothing good would come if word of what had actually happened came out and people started pointing fingers at Mora.

“Anyway,” He went on. “Your fight. It’s just a spar, please don’t go crazy destroying anything or anyone and try not to get injured beyond whatever our local healers can deal with. Abel, since your outer ancestry changes how you look make sure you use it but call out when you do as a warning-”

“But then this pervert will know too,” She said with a pout. “What if I lose ‘cause I gave it away?”

“It won’t count as a loss because this is just practice for me to observe you both. If I tell you to stop then you stop and if either of you are concerned about wins or losses I’ll tell you right now, however many matches you have are all ending in ties, end of story, no matter how it might look to any onlookers, got it?”

“Sounds acceptable.”

“Ugh, fine.”

“Good,” He nodded. “Any skills you have are going to be permitted since it’ll help give me an idea of how you guys are going to defend yourselves but remember, this is for me to get a feel for how you both shapeshift. Make sure you’re each doing it plenty to the extent you can so I can see what I’m working with and we’ll go from there.”

“Ha, all out then?” Abel asked with a worrying level of excitement. “Maybe giving you a heads up isn’t gonna be so bad, prepare to get your butt kicked, perv!”

“Alright, maybe putting the little weirdo in her place will be good for the planet,” Foast said, the short claws on his hands lengthening with his words. “Someone’s gotta beat some manners into you eventually!”

“...Guys, what did I literally just say about ending with a tie?”

It didn’t matter, both had stopped listening as they jumped away, creating just a bit of space from him before zeroing in on each other as their fight began.

With both of them at least remembering the main point, Ben got to watch their flesh warp and change before his eyes as Foast dropped to all fours but grew in size, taking a shape formed from the countless creatures he’d slain with powerful jaws ready to bite and tear their way through their target, with Abel reacting in kind.

Her own flesh looked like it melted down into a puddle, avoiding the lunge but not entirely evading as Foast’s form shifted to match, shrinking down to something more birdlike, his face now on the other side of his body as he spat out sharp pins while his momentum continued to carry him forward, with Abel opening holes in herself to let the attack through, throwing herself forward to try and engulf him.

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Every new shape Foast took was matched by Abel’s fluidity and every strike she tried was avoided and retaliated against, the older of the two having options beyond just rearranging the parts and cells that made him up, taking from every beast he’d ever made a part of himself while Abel may have been the one with more experience. She was younger, sure, but unlike the relative peace Foast had grown under, she’d lived in a reality where every day was nothing but a struggle for survival that she’d spent years successfully overcoming, leaving things to only grow more savage as magic and different skills were thrown into the mix from each side, destroying the landscape and leaving Ben’s student enthralled, even as a question escaped her.

“Is this gonna be okay?” Delair asked him, leaving Ben to pat her head.

“Maybe not but I’ll try to do something if anything starts looking too dangerous. For now, maybe just try to remember if it ever comes up in the future for you, don’t encourage two third-tiers to fight.”

“Do you think I’ll get the chance to make that happen?” She asked, her eyes gleaming as she imagined the exact scenario he’d just told her to avoid and leaving him to shrug.

“Soft maybe but if you keep up with your lessons and make sure to grow into one of the best craftsmen in the world, your odds are sure to go up. But seriously, try to avoid this the best you can. This may be exactly what the training ground is for but I’m already expecting some complaints.”

He extended his soul as they spoke, touching the two fighters with connect and felt Abel noticing but that was yet another way for him to gauge the fight, with the girl not seeming to mind in that particular instance because of what it meant she could get away with. Letting globs of her flesh spray out into the surrounding earth and grow from there, creating her own monstrous extensions to outnumber the shifter as her malformed creations joined the row. Slime-like constructs with senselessly added sensory organs placed throughout them along with teeth and bone, she killed one in her hand to strengthen herself further as she whispered in her mind for Ben alone to hear.

Outer ancestry time!

…Well, I guess I really am the only one who needed to be warned. He thought with a sigh, having been given the leeway to cover Delair’s eyes to save her the trauma of witnessing the shape of Abel and her extensions being warped by the alien nature of her outsider heritage, lightly straining against reality itself, even as his student complained about missing the best parts as the battle only grew more intense.

Foast was outnumbered and cornered, left with no option but to start focusing on what projectile attacks he had access to as his form shifted around each monstrosity, killing the ones that got close enough with his hands while spitting and shooting out poisons and acids at Abel’s true self, landing some hits but undeniably being cornered more and more by the minute until Ben finally yelled out.

“Time’s up! Good game but you’re done!”

Neither listened, much to his fears, both too focused on each other to give in. Abel felt like her victory was clear in hand and Foast held no desire to escape a loss just because it was called and with his swifter, more evasive forms failing him he changed his strategy, growing in size until he was more comparable to a leviathan, stories tall and towering above all of them to really fight back, sweeping out a clawed arm to destroy Abel’s monsters in an instant and closing in on her too, only to get no farther. The connection up, Ben screamed in Abel’s mind to stop and tried to give the shifter no choice, aiming to overwrite Foast’s will with his own to forcefully shrink him back down but finding that the shifter’s nature as a being that took in and absorbed others was shockingly resistant to being controlled, even if the attempt itself had proven enough to get his attention in the end as he stopped his attacks, leaving Ben to stomp between them.

“Okay, this is partially on me,” He said as he got there before either of them could respond. “I asked you guys to fight and show off your skills, I’m the idiot for thinking I didn’t need to explicitly spell out when you should limit yourselves, I’m the huge dummy. Why would third-tier’s need any consideration for anyone else?”

“What exactly is the problem?” The shifter asked through narrowed eyes, plenty aware that Ben had just tried to do something in his head, even if he wasn’t sure what while Ben got directly in his face, spinning him around to face the town at their back.

“The problem,” Ben spelt out in all of the clarity he could. “Is that even if I wanted to see what you could do, turning into a giant monster right outside of town with no warning is obviously the sort of thing that was going to cause issues!”

“...Ah.”

“Yes, ah,” Ben groaned. He could already hear the sounds of both panic and plenty of feet rushing their way to take on the obvious threat, leaving him to briefly wonder if he could pretend he had no clue what had just happened before taking stock of the others training in the area, a few of them vomiting on their knees from witnessing Abel using her skills and the rest undeniably having seen who there had just turned into a towering monster. “God, here’s hoping there’s someone I can actually talk to in the crowd.”