Wish upon the Stars chapter 359

We didn't freak out or anything. Though we did kind of shut up for a  while. We both got ready and Jessie drove us to the arena. We didn't say  much on the ride, and I admit to being a bit nervous. My emotions were a  jumble, really. I was excited for a good fight, upset I had to fight  Callie, scared she would resent me if I won, scared I would resent her  if I lost. My head was swirling with all these different thoughts, and I  had no idea what to do.

Then she reached out and took my  hand. I looked up into her eyes and she gave me that dazzling smile I  only ever saw on her face when we were alone, and...I felt better. My  worries weren't gone, I could still feel them, twice actually because  the bond was still open. But I could also feel how much she cared about  me, and that in the end this fight wasn't going to mean anything we  didn't want it to.

I squeezed her hand back and then  turned to look out the window, to watch until we arrived at the arena.  Once we arrived we both climbed out and headed for our respective  waiting rooms below the arena. This was another new one I hadn't seen.  There would be two matches here today, ours being the first. One hundred  and sixty fighters over ten arenas. Four per day for four days for the  first round, and two per day for four days for the second.

Sadly  for Callie, I'd gotten lucky. I'd had my first match at the beginning  of the rotation, so I'd gotten the full four days off. Since she had  hers midway through she only got a day or two of downtime before her  second match with me. I wasn't going to go easy on her because of that  though.

Despite  my worries about her resenting me or me resenting her, I'd never  considered softballing it. She deserved better than that, and so did I.  We were competitive people, and we both had a lot to prove. Holding back  would be an insult to both each other and the audience, and I could  feel through the bond that neither of us had any intention of doing so.

The  wait before the match felt much shorter than normal, but that was  probably just distraction. The guy watching the waiting room ushered me  out when it was time, and I walked out onto the sand to stand across  from Callie. She looked back at me, and I got ready to shut down the  bond. Before I did though, I took in the sight of her.

Seeing  her like this, like an enemy, was strange for me. The mask, the flowing  black hair, the doll like features, the coat, the leotard, the boots. I  got so used to the sight of her like this, in her costume, as my  partner, that I lost track of what it looked like to take her in all at  once like this. As a threat. Because she was a threat. Maybe one of the  biggest I'd ever faced.

Callie  wasn't an F-ranker, or some kind of combat genius like Abel. But she  KNEW me. Knew me in ways most people never would. We had a fucking Skill  that proved that. Even without the bond active she wouldn't be easy to  beat. Not least because she was the one who trained me in close quarters  combat.

Speaking  of the bond, I decided to take one last glimpse at it. I focused hard  on the connection, and found her doing the same, and for a split second,  before it shut, I saw myself. I saw me through her eyes, and felt her  own trepidation. She was seeing me the same way as I saw her, as a  threat for the first time pretty much. And it was jarring to see myself  like that. Despite the tinge of affection, there was a sense of  wariness, but more than that, a sense of pride. At how far I'd come.  What I'd turned into.

Then  the bond snapped off, and it was just me, looking at her, seeing myself  in her eyes more literally now, as I looked at the reflection off her  irises. The whole experience had felt endless, but it took us about  thirty seconds tops. She grinned at me. "You ready? Because I'm not  holding back. I'm gonna kick your ass. Not that it'll be hard  considering the size of you."

I  bit back a little trash talk of my own, because if I got sucked into  banter, I wasn't sure I'd be able to commit to fighting at my best. So  without responding, I triggered Moonlit Night. Fog billowed around us,  filling the arena with dense mist that occluded the sight. At least, it  occluded HER sight. Mine was fine, since the fog was luminescent and  partially translucent, just like last time, making it easier to see, if  anything.

Next  I triggered State of Grace, giving myself the ability to move more  freely and quickly, then Ripple Running, so I had three dimensional  mobility. With that done I knelt down, planting my hands on the sand and  using my Stone Limb, along with Touch of Tears and Consecration of  Flames, to coat my arms in toxic magma.

Callie  was standing in the middle of the arena, not moving, eyes fixed  forward. I grinned, and without delay triggered Double Trouble.  Appearing directly behind her, my eyes widened as one of her boots  flashed up at my head, ducking back as she dashed forward, blitzing me  with attacks so fast I couldn't figure out how to counter.

I  blocked them easily enough, between the speed boost and my magma limbs,  I was more than up to defending, but she was launching attacks so  quickly that I couldn't find time to respond. Cursing, I triggered  Double Trouble again, but instead of attacking I dashed forward, Ripple  Running allowing me to avoid impacting the sand until I reached twenty  or so feet away.

Shaking  out my arms, I gnashed my teeth. Callie giggled. "You use that Double  Trouble skill too much. It's predictable. I knew you wouldn't want to  come at me head on, so I just listened for the displaced air. Don't  forget how much higher my Perception is."

Which  was probably how she'd been able to siege me down. She could hear my  movements and use them to detect me, even without seeing, especially at  close range. Moonlit Night made me harder to detect, so further out I  should be fine, but her Perception was so much higher that the Stealth  aspects of the ability couldn't keep up when I was right next to her.  Joy.

Of  course. I had other options, but before I could employ them, a massive  wall of shadow spikes erupted from underneath me. Ripple Running was  still active, so a quick step on the air and State of Grace let me blast  upwards. I planted my foot midair, kicking off to the side, and touched  down warily, waiting for another attack. This time she didn't speak to  me, and I cursed internally when I realized what she's done.

She  figured out I used Double Trouble, which made me appear right behind  her, and then attacked in a straight line. She probably used the damn  shadows to burrow under the ground, and then told me how she's beaten my  attack to distract me while she felt around for my weight.

The  stealth aspects of Moonlit Night would keep her from hearing me touch  down, but they didn't prevent me from putting weight on the sand. Ripple  Running could do that, but without a heading finding me would be near  impossible, and I wasn't wasting the soul power to create a platform  that would hold me the whole fight. I did, however, have other options.

I  triggered Sucking Mud, which would normally be too slow, and then used a  shadow attack with it, forming the Dark Swamp that used grasping  tendrils to drag my enemies down. The darkness spread across the sand,  but as it closed in and the tendrils lashed out, Callie narrowed her  eyes and darted back and up. I saw the tendrils move slightly, changing  direction in midair, and I snarled in annoyance as I figured out what  had happened.

Callie  had shadow manipulation, and the Dark Swamp use her very own shadows.  She'd detected the attack and overriden it slightly. She couldn't use it  against me or anything, but I was damn sure not going to catch her with  it. Close combat would bring me within range of her Perception, which  was strong enough to override my stealth, and the Dark Swamp was out.

I  triggered Sucking Mud again, but followed it up with a gravity attack.  Callie buckled, looking surprised as the crushing force of gravity  started mashing her into the sand. She snarled, hands lashing out as a  wave of shadow tore through the ground below her, pushing the Sucking  Mud aside as she dropped into the hole. Sand wasn't hard to move for  people our level, and I'd seen her do the underground thing before.

Without  any hesitation, I triggered Eye of Revelation, just in time to see a  dozen forms erupt from the ground and rush out in all directions. She'd  used the time out of my sight to spam those damn clones. Unfortunately  for her, my Eye of Revelation told me which ones were clones and which  was real.

I  dashed forward again, hoping that all the noise from the clones and  exploding sand would keep her from detecting me once I got close enough.  As I came in I bounced off the air with Ripple Running, spinning off  into a switchback kick aimed right at her head. Her eyes widened as she  picked up the sound and hit the ground, which was what I'd wanted. I  stepped on air again, redirection myself as I used Touch of Tears and a  tranq blow on my leg, slamming myself down on her back and triggering  another gravity attack to pin her.

My  fists slammed down on her coat, and the blunt force traveled through.  It wouldn't have done anything, except Heavy Hands allowed partial armor  piercing, which let the effect of the poison fire bypass her coat. Not  completely, but enough that a few dozen blows made within a split second  stacked enough of it up to hurt, and it combined with the similarly  small percentage of the tranq poison that bypassed her coat.

She  groaned, but kept her head, reacting with a shredding blitz of shadows  aimed over her back where I was standing. I jumped straight up to avoid  it, and stepped on air as I waited for the blades to retract. Then I  triggered another gravity attack and smashed the same leg with another  tranq attack down on her back again, missing as she rolled aside,  expecting the attack.

I  could have grabbed for her, but grappling was the worst possible  decision when she was stronger than I was, even with the poison. So I  just backed off. She staggered to her feet, looking unsteady, and I  remembered the boost from Moonlit Night, which would have improved the  amount of the poison that penetrated her defenses.

The  rest of the fight was just wearing her down. Using my steam arrow to  pick at her, mixing it with poison and tranq attacks. I used have my  tranquilizer stockpile, but finally, she couldn't hold out any more and  dropped to the sand, unconscious.

I  let Moonlit Night fade, the fog rolling away, and walked over to her  tiredly. This had been an intense fight, even with me having most of the  momentum. I knelt down, dismissing the poison, and triggered a heal  burst on her, patching up all of her wounds. As she woke up, I was  somewhat worried about how she'd react, but she gave me that same big  dazzling smile and I laughed. I picked her up in a princess carry and  walked out my own entrance. She just rolled her eyes and leaned against  me, and I felt grudging acceptance through the bond, now active again.  Only three more rounds to go.