Rising Shards

I wasn’t in a consoling mood, but I still started brainstorming immediately what I’d say to Zates, figuring she’d lose in like thirteen seconds to Myles, one of the devil girls with blue hair. I bet to myself that Zeta would do better than Ovie, at least.

Zates didn’t make the same mistake Ovie did by charging ahead and trying to win right away, though I don’t think she did it on purpose. Myles didn’t give away what her Cani powers were, either.

Oka was practically screaming in my ear cheering for her girlfriend. I didn’t have the energy to be as loud about it as she was, but I couldn’t let her be the only one cheering. We got Marms and a few others to join in as well, with only Lillia from our friend group not outwardly cheering, as she was analyzing the fight, looking like she was crunching numbers and putting together formulas in her head.

After some initial steps circling each other, Zeta struck first, throwing a lightning bolt Myles’ way.

Myles caught the bolt in midair like she was grabbing a javelin. The electricity rattled in her hands before solidifying. She chucked it back to Zeta, who was too surprised by that to even dodge.

”I, uh, hey!” Zeta said when she realized her shields had gone from green health to red. ”Hey, wait!”

”Guess I won this round,” Myles said.

Zeta didn’t quite sulk out of the ring but I could tell she was fighting back bigger emotions. There wasn’t anything to really roast her for, but I still held back from throwing something her way when she rejoined us.

”Held onto your sunglasses for you,” Oka said.

”Thanks!” She put them back on right away. ”I may not have won that, but...I sure was, uh...crap, I was gonna shake her hand. That was my chance.”

”I think we have a better shot for introductions once this is over,” Oka said.

The next few challengers for the devils went about as well as I expected. The love trio went together, with Amara specifically asking to get a rematch against Caeda, who was joined by Chickadee and P.D. Amara was able to get some good shots in on Caeda, getting her shields down to yellow, but Rain and KJ got tricked by Chickadee’s illusion power and were taken out. Amara kept it together, but P.D. hit her with a blast of shadowy energy that I hated to admit looked awesome.

Iris and Maia tried about as hard as they did on the mile run, which meant they pretty much just stood there, hoping Iris’ energy ribbon shield power thing could do all the work for them against Ash and Esther. Ash had the power to cancel out another’s, so one touch took out Iris’ power, giving Esther the opportunity to defeat them with a barrage of air bullets. Iris and Maia looked relieved to be done.

I wasn’t sure when I wanted to go. I kept feeling that weird sensation in my lower back. It had me thinking about going against that crab-turtle thing in LE. If I tapped into that, would I be able to actually beat these devil dorks? I’d never turned into some kind of shadow monster thing before, though.

With all the weird sensations, and me getting in another fight, could I avoid tapping into that state? What would happen then? They’d find out I took something. That’d probably be really bad.

09 was locked in a stalemate with Caeda, who I was really sick of seeing fight. 09 was one of the strongest among us, but the devils seemed a touch stronger, resulting in a boring fight with 09 firing off Cani energy and Caeda blocking it.

I noticed I wasn’t the only one waiting to go. Aira was standing behind one of the corners of the ring, looking like I did when I didn’t want a teacher to call on me.

”Be right back,” I said, excusing myself from the others.

Aira nearly jumped Zeta style when I tapped her shoulder, but she didn’t teleport away.

”It’s just me, relax,” I said.

”Sorry,” Aira said. ”What is it?”

”You trying to avoid going, too?” I asked.

”Something like that,” Aira said. ”Guessing you don’t want to go all...monster mode.”

We talked quietly enough that we weren’t heard talking about our private hero matters.

”Yeah,” I said. ”I’ve been feeling kinda barfy, I’m wondering...well, it’s probably not from that, right?”

”I dunno...” Aira said.

Her expression made my stomach lurch. I was able to hide it all week, but someone who was there when I took that dose, who saw me in that other state...if she thought I was feeling the effects of it, it was harder to deny.

“Are you feeling anything after eating that?” I asked. At least I wasn’t alone in eating something stupid at the Taramin Labs. Aira and Syval each found these crystals that the research notes said someone was trapped in or something.

“No…” Aira said, clearly lying.

”Enough to make you not want to fight?” I asked.

”Well, it’s making my powers kind of weird,” Aira said. ”I think teleporting lends itself better to support than not, but since I...you know, my teleports haven’t been as precise. So I probably couldn’t even dodge.”

I sighed. If I fought, I’d go all monster-y, and Aira couldn’t either. And if one of us got figured out, both of us probably would.

”What do we do?” I asked.

Aira shrugged. ”I’ll probably just get sent to Wildfire Hearts again.”

”Well, let’s not do that,” I said. ”Maybe we can skip this?”

”Too late for that, I think,” Aira said.

”Try your throwing up trick?” I suggested.

”I didn’t eat enough to,” Aira said.

”Hm,” I said. ”Maybe we can just...ugh, lose right away? Like just throw it?” It would be a blow to my ego, but it’d protect us.

We couldn’t brainstorm much better than that, though I did like my idea of making an ice block big enough to tilt the ring over, stopping this whole thing and running away in the aftermath.

I wiped my brow, feeling sweatier than I should have with the cool climate on the lake. I told myself it was just stress, but another weird feeling at my back, another feeling like I had claws for a second.