Daniel discovered he was a worrier. Rana’s doomsaying stuck with him for weeks. He couldn’t turn them around, so he thought of ways to improve their chances. Finally, after days of deliberation, he concluded, “We should spar!”
They gave him strange looks.
Cassie laughed. “No one’s going to fight you, Daniel.”
“Not me, specifically—each other. We can get a better feel for our magic, how our abilities play off each other… build confidence… improve teamwork…” He stopped because they didn’t seem to be buying it.
“We have plenty of confidence,” Kenta said.
Lea nodded. “And our teamwork is sufficient; would you not agree, Rana?”
The frog girl flashed the briefest of glares at Daniel for getting her dragged into this. “He’s got a point. You’re all rusty, we haven’t worked together in years, never with Daniel, and we should test our limits.”
While not pleased with the contradiction, Lea handled it well. “If our Expert says this is a good idea, then I probably should not argue. Although… was there not a rule against using our magic in the open?”
“I’m not saying we schedule a daily routine,” Daniel said. “The chances of someone noticing us the one time we break that rule have got to be minuscule.” He turned to Rana for confirmation, and she gave a listless thumbs up.
“I suppose we should pick partners; set things up?” Lea said.
Wendi grinned. “Sounds like fun!”
Daniel cringed at the thought of tiptoeing around how life-threateningly dangerous the red devil’s abilities were without triggering a repressed memory.
“It’s not,” Paul patted her shoulder. “Let’s go pick flowers instead.”
“That’s good too!” she said, then Wendi grabbed Paul and carried him away.
:I was looking forward to seeing your staff fighting style,: Daniel sent to Paul the candlestick.
:Sorry,: the candle boy replied. :Another time.:
The others struggled to pair off.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Daniel, I promise,” Cassie said with a smile, “I just need to finish writing my Last Will and Testament.”
Kenta shook his head. “I’d fight him, but regrowing my hair afterward would be a nuisance.”
“Then who will?” Lea asked.
Cassie pretended not to have heard the question while whistling an idle tune.
Rana looked at the three of them and quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’re all afraid of him?” Kenta squawked an objection, but she stream-rolled over the Kaminoke. “He may not look it, but Daniel’s a… what do they call it? A cinnamon bun? The way he is now, any one of you could beat him in a fair fight.”
The bat girl couldn’t believe it. “But he’s one of the Thirteen!”
“That doesn’t mean much without the attitude and training,” Rana pointed out. “Daniel’s a pacifist—he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Daniel figured she’d seen him hesitate to use his magic on the Facility guards.
“You sound confident,” Lea stated, then smiled a wicked grin. “Now that is a fight I would like to see.”
He didn’t get a glare this time, but Daniel felt certain Rana was angry with him. Perhaps he should have discussed this with her. Instead, she strode away toward a flat expanse of ground that could serve as an arena. “Let’s get this over with.”
Daniel positioned himself twenty feet away from her. The others spectated nearby, far too eager to see what came next.
Rana took a relaxed fighting stance, coated her hands and feet in slime, then paused as she had a thought. “Should I explain how I’m beating him?” the frog girl asked Lea.
“Oh, please do,” Lea gleefully replied.
Rana commentated for the other’s benefit.
“Real battles never begin fairly. Depending on their abilities, one may spot the other first ninety-nine times out of a hundred. Between the two of us, Daniel should not be aware of me at the start. I’ll wave that advantage. Now, as you’ve all gathered, Daniel has me outclassed in offense, defense, range, and even speed if he had his wings.”
“I don’t know if all that’s true,” he said, raising his fists in the closest thing to a fighting stance he could muster. “But it doesn’t make me feel better, knowing what’s about to happen.”
She shot back in a bored monotone that made him smile. “Shut up, Daniel—I’m narrating.” He felt happy to see her getting into her role as the center of attention. “When you have to fight someone stronger than you with better abilities, these are three rules my brother taught me to turn the tables.”
“Wait, Rana.” He wanted this to be a bit more formalized. “What are our win conditions?”
She shrugged. “Well, when you’re ready to surrender, you can say, ‘I give up!’”
“What about if I win?”
“You’re not going to win.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “But how am I supposed to shoot at you?”
“Aim low. I’ll live.”
He winced, not wanting to picture a scenario that activated her toadstones. “I don’t feel comfortable hurting you.”
“That’s his first mistake,” Rana said to their avid watchers. “Okay, if you can point your finger at me and say, ‘Bang!’ then you win.”
Daniel blinked. “Alright… if you say so.”
“Please begin on my count,” Lea said, officiating. “Three… two…”
“One: Always fight the battle on your own terms,” Rana said as her colors faded to transparency.
As he’d been expecting this, Daniel managed to follow her in full Camouflage. Rana skated circles around him, forcing Daniel to turn in place. He raised his hand. She doubled back. He lost track of her for an instant and…
What was he doing here? Daniel looked around, baffled. It couldn’t have been important… No, he saw Lea, Kenta, and Cassie staring at him, expectant. He remembered suggesting the sparring matches, then they’d come here to fight… and then everything made sense!
Daniel did a 180, pointed his finger, and shouted at empty air, “Bang!” Nothing happened.
Then he heard the soft thud of someone landing on bare feet behind him. “Two: Play dirty.”
He spun, arm raised, but she was faster, crouching low to sweep his legs. Then, as Daniel fell, Rana popped up with her leg lifted to deliver a devastating heel drop to his gut—slamming him into the ground. Though a cloud of dust cushioned the blow, the impact ruined his concentration.
“And rule Three: Never let ‘em get a grip.”
She kicked him as hard as she could with a devilish gleam in her eye. He tumbled through a puff of dust as Rana continued to pummel him so he couldn’t raise a hand to point, “Never let them use an ability.” Thump! “Don’t let them stand.” Thump! Alright, that one hurt. “Keep pounding away until they say—”
“—I give up!” She stopped instantly.
Leaning over him, Rana said, “You got the exact wording first try. Good job. I thought I’d have to punish you for forgetting.”
He laughed; glad he’d paid attention. “You wish. I’ll admit you proved your point, though.” Daniel laid on his back and gasped. “I’m a cinnamon bun with extra icing and rainbow sprinkles!”
She offered him a slime-covered hand, which he gladly took. She turned it into a brief shake and let go as his touch ate through the green coating.
Privately, she sent, :By the way, this was another double-or-nothing.: Then said, “You’re welcome to a rematch any time you want your butt kicked.”
“Likewise, the same thing won’t happen twice.” Daniel wracked his brain for ways around her strategy. He’d have to go deep in debt researching the enemy, then try to break even. He sent to her, :How does your ability work, exactly?:
Rana delivered a rehearsed answer. :My Camouflage is decent—people’s attention slips over me or whatever my slime covers. It works best if they aren’t expecting it or lose focus. While I can move in that state, I can’t attack while Camouflaged because that goes against the nature of the magic. That’s why I dropped it after closing the distance.
:However, simply being beneath notice is nothing compared to true invisibility. A Phasmid could punch you in the face without you seeing them.:
:Regardless, Camouflage gave you the drop on me.: He interrupted the others’ discussion of the match. “Anyone else interested? There’s plenty of potential pairs… well, exactly ten non-repeating combinations—nine, now.”
Cassie shook her head. “Still no to Daniel, definitely no to Rana, no to Lea, and no to Kenta. I don’t have any way to win! I can’t run up and start kicking like Rana.”
“The Kaminoke are an honest people. Our match would be a tie,” Kenta admitted to the bat girl. “Since I couldn’t catch you.”
“Same, or worse,” Daniel said.
Rana looked at Kenta. “Wanna spar?”
He shivered. “Winning wouldn’t be worth it.”
The frog girl agreed. “You’d be combing out slime into next month.”
“Kenta, would you care to have a match with me?” Lea said, almost bouncing on her heels with excitement.
“Though I’d hate to refuse,” he said, frowning, “I must confess, I have no way around your Charm.”
“Then I shall forfeit it.”
Now he showed interest. “A contest of strength, then?”
“Indeed.”
“I accept.”
The two of them took position. ‘Twenty paces, weapons at the ready,’ as Daniel desperately wanted to say. Kenta’s hair stretched before him like the wandering tentacles of an octopus while Lea enlarged all her caramboles to wrecking ball size. She sat on one and lined the other seven in front of her in a wall.
Rana gave Daniel commentary as the match began. :Keep your eyes on Lea. If you haven’t figured it out by now, she’s no average kid. The girl was born with both halves of her magic active—more than either of us can say. She’s more talented than she realizes.:
“Three… two… one!”
They met in a titanic clash. Lea’s whole carambole set grappled with Kenta’s winding and squirming hair. As dark strands snaked through the blockade, intense gravity drew them back to the caramboles’ surfaces.
Kenta muscled his way forward by pressuring the center. Her defensive array balked at the force. He intended to overpower her and pin the girl to the ground. Instead, they arm wrestled for dominance, Lea inches above the table.
Then Lea twisted. The outer caramboles rotated in two triangles. Slowly, unstoppably, she wound the hair into a pair of buns.
He resisted, pulling away but far too entangled to escape—inadvertently letting her extract the seventh carambole. His options were limited, with the majority of his hair knotted tight. Kenta launched forward on his spare strands to trap her between the buns.
Instead of opposing him, Lea pulled as he pushed. She shot skyward on her eighth carambole seat and, off-balance, Kenta lost his grip on the ground. His free tentacles scrabbled for purchase and found none as Lea lifted him high. He tried to attack with his last tendrils while dangling from the buns, but Lea stayed out of reach.
She couldn’t hold their combined weight for more than a second, but she didn’t have to. Once they started to fall, Lea forced the two buns laterally with the aid of gravity. She parted Kenta’s hair to expose the boy inside. He cushioned his fall with his remaining hair, pinning it beneath him as he landed.
Without giving him a chance to recover, Lea shrank her seventh carambole to the size of a grape and let it fall, Plink! onto his head.
“Ow,” Kenta said, his voice soaked in sarcasm. All the caramboles retreated and shrank to black pearls on her neck while all Kenta’s hair unraveled to coil around him.
Lea’s expression was blissful, almost angelic. “I win.”
“But I am the stronger,” he said as the two came together and shook.
“And I the smarter,” she retorted. “There, glad we settled that.” Kenta harrumphed. Lea turned to Daniel, “Have a go?”
He thought about it. If they fought and she took the same handicap, she’d hide behind her caramboles. Even if his attacks—real attacks—successfully destroyed the caramboles, he’d be playing a shell game with a strategist. On top of that, she’d use her gravitational manipulation to fling Daniel around like a ragdoll to keep him from lining up a shot.
“Pass.”
:Finally, a smart decision,: Rana sent.
Daniel turned to Cassie, “Please?”
“No.”
“I don’t care about a contest,” Daniel said. “I promise I won’t shoot at you. I’ll just stand here and let you use your power on me.”
The bat girl blew a strand of hair from her eyes with an exhalation of surprise. “What?”
“What if an enemy uses something similar to your sonic attack on me? What am I supposed to do? This is my chance to learn.”
Cassie looked to the others for approval.
Lea said, “We shall count it as Daniel’s win if he can stay on his feet.”
“I don’t know if this is a good idea…” While resistant, Cassie seemed tempted.
“I won’t do anything,” he assured her. “No magic.”
“Alright, if you insist…” She inhaled, Daniel took his surest stance, and she shouted at him.
Random splashes of color obscured his vision, the sound of static drowned everything else, and an intense feeling of nausea overwhelmed him. He’d been flung off a cliff blindfolded, freefalling to his doom as his arms pinwheeled. Daniel resisted the powerful urge to lash out in raw animal fear and found himself flopping on the ground.
He sat up.
“At least he didn’t break anything,” Rana said.
“But he lost,” Lea insisted.
Daniel ignored them and turned to Cassie, “Let me try again.”
“Are you sure?”
Woozy, he stood and nodded. She let him have it. Prior to the strike, he picked a point on the horizon for reference. His body refused to comply, his arms and legs flailing, and his vision blurred. He stood on the deck of a ship in a storm, except the ground hadn’t moved, causing him to collapse. It seemed as irresistible as an electric shock.
“Again,” he said, standing.
:This is sound-based magic, not an illusion Aurvandil could dispel,: Rana sent.
:I have another plan.:
“I didn’t see a difference,” Kenta said. “We can’t waste time on useless attempts.”
“Please, one more time.” After some hesitation, Cassie surrendered to Daniel’s appeal.
This time he closed his eyes. Again, the wave of magic overcame his senses, and he focused on balancing blind. He concentrated on his Second Sight to provide the reference point, using the others’ auras to find the ground, and ignored the sensations of speeding around a twisted racetrack.
Daniel opened his eyes to find himself unsteady on one foot and toppled. He leaped and caught himself on the other leg, wobbled for balance, then put both feet down and raised his hands in victory.
“Wow!” Cassie congratulated him with genuine wing-applause.
Lea shook her head. “Both feet left the ground; it was luck he landed well.”
“I’d count it. Overcoming strange magic in three tries is a little impressive,” Rana said.
After three rounds with Cassie, his stomach twisted with seasickness, and his ears rang. Daniel gave one dry heave, and, for the first time, felt glad he had nothing to vomit.
Lea smiled. “Care to settle the dispute with a match?”
Rana pondered aloud, “We’ve never gone all-out.”
“As previous, I shall forfeit my Charm,” Lea dangled the proposition as a tempting treat.
The frog girl brimmed with confidence. “Then I’ll wave my Camouflage. To be fair.”
“Oh, you are on.”
The two of them squared off. “Pin me to win,” Rana said.
“And if you can touch me, you win,” Lea said as her caramboles came to full size. Again, the Libra girl assembled her blockade, this time with all eight caramboles.
“Three… two… one!”
Rana leaped at the defensive wall, low to the ground. A feint. At the last second, she jumped high. The bottom row of caramboles shrank, came in behind the wall, and zipped above the other two rows to enlarge and form a new top row. In this way, the structure shifted to block Rana regardless of her vector of attack.
Despite the potent gravitational power of each carambole, Rana’s jump had sufficient force to reach escape velocity. The frog girl landed on a black orb and sprang off as caramboles collided to pin her in between. When she attempted to crawl around the sphere to vault at Lea, the carambole rotated to keep her facing away.
Having crossed a reforming ‘dome’ of black orbs to the other side, Rana circled Lea on the ground while gaining speed. Skating on lubricated feet, Rana moved faster than Lea’s caramboles—forcing Lea to contract the ‘dome’ to maintain coverage. This ended with the eight caramboles tight-packed around Lea, making it impossible for Rana to reach her or for Lea to pin Rana.
“Stalemate,” Rana said, crouched atop the highest orb. “Don’t you want to win?”
Apparently, Lea did—the black orbs exploded upward in an attempt to catch Rana in a net. In response, Rana stuck her tongue to a sphere as she leaped away, using gravity and the elasticity of her tongue to slingshot herself down at Lea.
Rana narrowly slid between two crashing caramboles to land beside Lea and put a hand on her shoulder. “I win. Which means Daniel won too.”
All the black orbs returned to Lea as a pearl necklace, and she cracked up laughing. “I merely used that as an excuse to start the match, and you fell for it.”
The frog girl rolled her eyes and sighed. “Do you have to win everything?”
“Yes.”
Rana punched Lea in the arm. Lea laughed again and grabbed Rana, pulling her into a hug the frog girl let happen and proceeded to tolerate with a long-suffering expression. “That wraps the games up,” Lea announced. “The score is 5-1; girls win!”
“Wait!” Daniel said. “This was a competition?—and you’re counting a match between two girls?”
“Yes.”
Daniel discovered he was a worrier. Rana’s doomsaying stuck with him for weeks. He couldn’t turn them around, so he thought of ways to improve their chances. Finally, after days of deliberation, he concluded, “We should spar!”
They gave him strange looks.
Cassie laughed. “No one’s going to fight you, Daniel.”
“Not me, specifically—each other. We can get a better feel for our magic, how our abilities play off each other… build confidence… improve teamwork…” He stopped because they didn’t seem to be buying it.
“We have plenty of confidence,” Kenta said.
Lea nodded. “And our teamwork is sufficient; would you not agree, Rana?”
The frog girl flashed the briefest of glares at Daniel for getting her dragged into this. “He’s got a point. You’re all rusty, we haven’t worked together in years, never with Daniel, and we should test our limits.”
While not pleased with the contradiction, Lea handled it well. “If our Expert says this is a good idea, then I probably should not argue. Although… was there not a rule against using our magic in the open?”
“I’m not saying we schedule a daily routine,” Daniel said. “The chances of someone noticing us the one time we break that rule have got to be minuscule.” He turned to Rana for confirmation, and she gave a listless thumbs up.
“I suppose we should pick partners; set things up?” Lea said.
Wendi grinned. “Sounds like fun!”
Daniel cringed at the thought of tiptoeing around how life-threateningly dangerous the red devil’s abilities were without triggering a repressed memory.
“It’s not,” Paul patted her shoulder. “Let’s go pick flowers instead.”
“That’s good too!” she said, then Wendi grabbed Paul and carried him away.
:I was looking forward to seeing your staff fighting style,: Daniel sent to Paul the candlestick.
:Sorry,: the candle boy replied. :Another time.:
The others struggled to pair off.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Daniel, I promise,” Cassie said with a smile, “I just need to finish writing my Last Will and Testament.”
Kenta shook his head. “I’d fight him, but regrowing my hair afterward would be a nuisance.”
“Then who will?” Lea asked.
Cassie pretended not to have heard the question while whistling an idle tune.
Rana looked at the three of them and quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’re all afraid of him?” Kenta squawked an objection, but she stream-rolled over the Kaminoke. “He may not look it, but Daniel’s a… what do they call it? A cinnamon bun? The way he is now, any one of you could beat him in a fair fight.”
The bat girl couldn’t believe it. “But he’s one of the Thirteen!”
“That doesn’t mean much without the attitude and training,” Rana pointed out. “Daniel’s a pacifist—he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Daniel figured she’d seen him hesitate to use his magic on the Facility guards.
“You sound confident,” Lea stated, then smiled a wicked grin. “Now that is a fight I would like to see.”
He didn’t get a glare this time, but Daniel felt certain Rana was angry with him. Perhaps he should have discussed this with her. Instead, she strode away toward a flat expanse of ground that could serve as an arena. “Let’s get this over with.”
Daniel positioned himself twenty feet away from her. The others spectated nearby, far too eager to see what came next.
Rana took a relaxed fighting stance, coated her hands and feet in slime, then paused as she had a thought. “Should I explain how I’m beating him?” the frog girl asked Lea.
“Oh, please do,” Lea gleefully replied.
Rana commentated for the other’s benefit.
“Real battles never begin fairly. Depending on their abilities, one may spot the other first ninety-nine times out of a hundred. Between the two of us, Daniel should not be aware of me at the start. I’ll wave that advantage. Now, as you’ve all gathered, Daniel has me outclassed in offense, defense, range, and even speed if he had his wings.”
“I don’t know if all that’s true,” he said, raising his fists in the closest thing to a fighting stance he could muster. “But it doesn’t make me feel better, knowing what’s about to happen.”
She shot back in a bored monotone that made him smile. “Shut up, Daniel—I’m narrating.” He felt happy to see her getting into her role as the center of attention. “When you have to fight someone stronger than you with better abilities, these are three rules my brother taught me to turn the tables.”
“Wait, Rana.” He wanted this to be a bit more formalized. “What are our win conditions?”
She shrugged. “Well, when you’re ready to surrender, you can say, ‘I give up!’”
“What about if I win?”
“You’re not going to win.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “But how am I supposed to shoot at you?”
“Aim low. I’ll live.”
He winced, not wanting to picture a scenario that activated her toadstones. “I don’t feel comfortable hurting you.”
“That’s his first mistake,” Rana said to their avid watchers. “Okay, if you can point your finger at me and say, ‘Bang!’ then you win.”
Daniel blinked. “Alright… if you say so.”
“Please begin on my count,” Lea said, officiating. “Three… two…”
“One: Always fight the battle on your own terms,” Rana said as her colors faded to transparency.
As he’d been expecting this, Daniel managed to follow her in full Camouflage. Rana skated circles around him, forcing Daniel to turn in place. He raised his hand. She doubled back. He lost track of her for an instant and…
What was he doing here? Daniel looked around, baffled. It couldn’t have been important… No, he saw Lea, Kenta, and Cassie staring at him, expectant. He remembered suggesting the sparring matches, then they’d come here to fight… and then everything made sense!
Daniel did a 180, pointed his finger, and shouted at empty air, “Bang!” Nothing happened.
Then he heard the soft thud of someone landing on bare feet behind him. “Two: Play dirty.”
He spun, arm raised, but she was faster, crouching low to sweep his legs. Then, as Daniel fell, Rana popped up with her leg lifted to deliver a devastating heel drop to his gut—slamming him into the ground. Though a cloud of dust cushioned the blow, the impact ruined his concentration.
“And rule Three: Never let ‘em get a grip.”
She kicked him as hard as she could with a devilish gleam in her eye. He tumbled through a puff of dust as Rana continued to pummel him so he couldn’t raise a hand to point, “Never let them use an ability.” Thump! “Don’t let them stand.” Thump! Alright, that one hurt. “Keep pounding away until they say—”
“—I give up!” She stopped instantly.
Leaning over him, Rana said, “You got the exact wording first try. Good job. I thought I’d have to punish you for forgetting.”
He laughed; glad he’d paid attention. “You wish. I’ll admit you proved your point, though.” Daniel laid on his back and gasped. “I’m a cinnamon bun with extra icing and rainbow sprinkles!”
She offered him a slime-covered hand, which he gladly took. She turned it into a brief shake and let go as his touch ate through the green coating.
Privately, she sent, :By the way, this was another double-or-nothing.: Then said, “You’re welcome to a rematch any time you want your butt kicked.”
“Likewise, the same thing won’t happen twice.” Daniel wracked his brain for ways around her strategy. He’d have to go deep in debt researching the enemy, then try to break even. He sent to her, :How does your ability work, exactly?:
Rana delivered a rehearsed answer. :My Camouflage is decent—people’s attention slips over me or whatever my slime covers. It works best if they aren’t expecting it or lose focus. While I can move in that state, I can’t attack while Camouflaged because that goes against the nature of the magic. That’s why I dropped it after closing the distance.
:However, simply being beneath notice is nothing compared to true invisibility. A Phasmid could punch you in the face without you seeing them.:
:Regardless, Camouflage gave you the drop on me.: He interrupted the others’ discussion of the match. “Anyone else interested? There’s plenty of potential pairs… well, exactly ten non-repeating combinations—nine, now.”
Cassie shook her head. “Still no to Daniel, definitely no to Rana, no to Lea, and no to Kenta. I don’t have any way to win! I can’t run up and start kicking like Rana.”
“The Kaminoke are an honest people. Our match would be a tie,” Kenta admitted to the bat girl. “Since I couldn’t catch you.”
“Same, or worse,” Daniel said.
Rana looked at Kenta. “Wanna spar?”
He shivered. “Winning wouldn’t be worth it.”
The frog girl agreed. “You’d be combing out slime into next month.”
“Kenta, would you care to have a match with me?” Lea said, almost bouncing on her heels with excitement.
“Though I’d hate to refuse,” he said, frowning, “I must confess, I have no way around your Charm.”
“Then I shall forfeit it.”
Now he showed interest. “A contest of strength, then?”
“Indeed.”
“I accept.”
The two of them took position. ‘Twenty paces, weapons at the ready,’ as Daniel desperately wanted to say. Kenta’s hair stretched before him like the wandering tentacles of an octopus while Lea enlarged all her caramboles to wrecking ball size. She sat on one and lined the other seven in front of her in a wall.
Rana gave Daniel commentary as the match began. :Keep your eyes on Lea. If you haven’t figured it out by now, she’s no average kid. The girl was born with both halves of her magic active—more than either of us can say. She’s more talented than she realizes.:
“Three… two… one!”
They met in a titanic clash. Lea’s whole carambole set grappled with Kenta’s winding and squirming hair. As dark strands snaked through the blockade, intense gravity drew them back to the caramboles’ surfaces.
Kenta muscled his way forward by pressuring the center. Her defensive array balked at the force. He intended to overpower her and pin the girl to the ground. Instead, they arm wrestled for dominance, Lea inches above the table.
Then Lea twisted. The outer caramboles rotated in two triangles. Slowly, unstoppably, she wound the hair into a pair of buns.
He resisted, pulling away but far too entangled to escape—inadvertently letting her extract the seventh carambole. His options were limited, with the majority of his hair knotted tight. Kenta launched forward on his spare strands to trap her between the buns.
Instead of opposing him, Lea pulled as he pushed. She shot skyward on her eighth carambole seat and, off-balance, Kenta lost his grip on the ground. His free tentacles scrabbled for purchase and found none as Lea lifted him high. He tried to attack with his last tendrils while dangling from the buns, but Lea stayed out of reach.
She couldn’t hold their combined weight for more than a second, but she didn’t have to. Once they started to fall, Lea forced the two buns laterally with the aid of gravity. She parted Kenta’s hair to expose the boy inside. He cushioned his fall with his remaining hair, pinning it beneath him as he landed.
Without giving him a chance to recover, Lea shrank her seventh carambole to the size of a grape and let it fall, Plink! onto his head.
“Ow,” Kenta said, his voice soaked in sarcasm. All the caramboles retreated and shrank to black pearls on her neck while all Kenta’s hair unraveled to coil around him.
Lea’s expression was blissful, almost angelic. “I win.”
“But I am the stronger,” he said as the two came together and shook.
“And I the smarter,” she retorted. “There, glad we settled that.” Kenta harrumphed. Lea turned to Daniel, “Have a go?”
He thought about it. If they fought and she took the same handicap, she’d hide behind her caramboles. Even if his attacks—real attacks—successfully destroyed the caramboles, he’d be playing a shell game with a strategist. On top of that, she’d use her gravitational manipulation to fling Daniel around like a ragdoll to keep him from lining up a shot.
“Pass.”
:Finally, a smart decision,: Rana sent.
Daniel turned to Cassie, “Please?”
“No.”
“I don’t care about a contest,” Daniel said. “I promise I won’t shoot at you. I’ll just stand here and let you use your power on me.”
The bat girl blew a strand of hair from her eyes with an exhalation of surprise. “What?”
“What if an enemy uses something similar to your sonic attack on me? What am I supposed to do? This is my chance to learn.”
Cassie looked to the others for approval.
Lea said, “We shall count it as Daniel’s win if he can stay on his feet.”
“I don’t know if this is a good idea…” While resistant, Cassie seemed tempted.
“I won’t do anything,” he assured her. “No magic.”
“Alright, if you insist…” She inhaled, Daniel took his surest stance, and she shouted at him.
Random splashes of color obscured his vision, the sound of static drowned everything else, and an intense feeling of nausea overwhelmed him. He’d been flung off a cliff blindfolded, freefalling to his doom as his arms pinwheeled. Daniel resisted the powerful urge to lash out in raw animal fear and found himself flopping on the ground.
He sat up.
“At least he didn’t break anything,” Rana said.
“But he lost,” Lea insisted.
Daniel ignored them and turned to Cassie, “Let me try again.”
“Are you sure?”
Woozy, he stood and nodded. She let him have it. Prior to the strike, he picked a point on the horizon for reference. His body refused to comply, his arms and legs flailing, and his vision blurred. He stood on the deck of a ship in a storm, except the ground hadn’t moved, causing him to collapse. It seemed as irresistible as an electric shock.
“Again,” he said, standing.
:This is sound-based magic, not an illusion Aurvandil could dispel,: Rana sent.
:I have another plan.:
“I didn’t see a difference,” Kenta said. “We can’t waste time on useless attempts.”
“Please, one more time.” After some hesitation, Cassie surrendered to Daniel’s appeal.
This time he closed his eyes. Again, the wave of magic overcame his senses, and he focused on balancing blind. He concentrated on his Second Sight to provide the reference point, using the others’ auras to find the ground, and ignored the sensations of speeding around a twisted racetrack.
Daniel opened his eyes to find himself unsteady on one foot and toppled. He leaped and caught himself on the other leg, wobbled for balance, then put both feet down and raised his hands in victory.
“Wow!” Cassie congratulated him with genuine wing-applause.
Lea shook her head. “Both feet left the ground; it was luck he landed well.”
“I’d count it. Overcoming strange magic in three tries is a little impressive,” Rana said.
After three rounds with Cassie, his stomach twisted with seasickness, and his ears rang. Daniel gave one dry heave, and, for the first time, felt glad he had nothing to vomit.
Lea smiled. “Care to settle the dispute with a match?”
Rana pondered aloud, “We’ve never gone all-out.”
“As previous, I shall forfeit my Charm,” Lea dangled the proposition as a tempting treat.
The frog girl brimmed with confidence. “Then I’ll wave my Camouflage. To be fair.”
“Oh, you are on.”
The two of them squared off. “Pin me to win,” Rana said.
“And if you can touch me, you win,” Lea said as her caramboles came to full size. Again, the Libra girl assembled her blockade, this time with all eight caramboles.
“Three… two… one!”
Rana leaped at the defensive wall, low to the ground. A feint. At the last second, she jumped high. The bottom row of caramboles shrank, came in behind the wall, and zipped above the other two rows to enlarge and form a new top row. In this way, the structure shifted to block Rana regardless of her vector of attack.
Despite the potent gravitational power of each carambole, Rana’s jump had sufficient force to reach escape velocity. The frog girl landed on a black orb and sprang off as caramboles collided to pin her in between. When she attempted to crawl around the sphere to vault at Lea, the carambole rotated to keep her facing away.
Having crossed a reforming ‘dome’ of black orbs to the other side, Rana circled Lea on the ground while gaining speed. Skating on lubricated feet, Rana moved faster than Lea’s caramboles—forcing Lea to contract the ‘dome’ to maintain coverage. This ended with the eight caramboles tight-packed around Lea, making it impossible for Rana to reach her or for Lea to pin Rana.
“Stalemate,” Rana said, crouched atop the highest orb. “Don’t you want to win?”
Apparently, Lea did—the black orbs exploded upward in an attempt to catch Rana in a net. In response, Rana stuck her tongue to a sphere as she leaped away, using gravity and the elasticity of her tongue to slingshot herself down at Lea.
Rana narrowly slid between two crashing caramboles to land beside Lea and put a hand on her shoulder. “I win. Which means Daniel won too.”
All the black orbs returned to Lea as a pearl necklace, and she cracked up laughing. “I merely used that as an excuse to start the match, and you fell for it.”
The frog girl rolled her eyes and sighed. “Do you have to win everything?”
“Yes.”
Rana punched Lea in the arm. Lea laughed again and grabbed Rana, pulling her into a hug the frog girl let happen and proceeded to tolerate with a long-suffering expression. “That wraps the games up,” Lea announced. “The score is 5-1; girls win!”
“Wait!” Daniel said. “This was a competition?—and you’re counting a match between two girls?”
“Yes.”
