Taubitha stepped up to the arena stage with confidence. She loved being in the spotlight, it was a passion that she’d had since her first time in gymnastics. The energy in the crowd was booming for a newcomer and she was feeling great about it. Plus she had Princess, her freshly hatched fony, as well as yet another thing she'd always wanted since she was a little girl - a system! Truly, Taubitha was on top of the world at this moment.
She was, of course, a little nervous. Taubitha was well prepared to fight, or at least she thought she was, but it was still daunting to face a professional even though the fight’s organizers had promised to go easy on her.
She’d either be fighting some extremely powerful blobs of slime, or possibly a medium-sized flying toad. Either enemy would be an entertaining and difficult battle, but with Princess' [skill] [Acid Blast] along with Taubitha's own new [skill] [Reflexivity], she was feeling good about this fight. Taubitha took a brief moment to consider her new [skill] again to ensure she leveraged it properly in the fight.
[Reflexivity]
[Reflexivity majorly upgrades your neural and physical systems, turning your entire body into a type of hyper-durable, hyper reactive weapon. Some of the unique benefits of this skill include hardened skin, super quick muscle recovery, and minor regeneration after taking damage.]
Yes, it was described as minor regeneration, but Taubitha had accidentally sliced halfway into her pointer finger while chopping up a cucumber to make some cucumber water only that morning, and it had healed back completely before the fight. She figured that minor regeneration referred to the time it would take to heal in a fight. Regardless it was a huge asset that Taubitha was excited to get to test run in the arena.
The buzzer beeped and the crowd’s mumbling and cheering went to a hush. There was an uneasy stillness.
"Don't worry, Princess. We're going to kick some ass today!"
Princess huffed.
"Taubitha Harenena, meet your challenger!" announced an announcer.
A loud clicking sound echoed in the arena as a large gate in front of Taubitha slowly but surely rolled up, up, up. And then, her jaw dropped wide open.
"Like, oh my gods, what the fuck is this bullshit?"
There, looming before her like a kitten over a silverfish was a fierce, feisty fire dragon.
"A fucking dragon? Are you shitting me? Like, oh my gods, I can't do this!" said Taubitha. Her eyes started watering.
Princess huffed.
"What, Princess, do you, like disagree with me? Do you think we can do it?" Taubitha looked at the dragon again and swallowed air nervously as its long, forked tongue slid out from its scaly jaws and licked the air as if it were a fine pastry.
Princess huffed.
"Princess, I know you're a strong lady but I really don't know how to use a system and like, this thing is super freaky," said Taubitha.
Princess looked up, then she huffed.
Taubitha followed Princess' gaze and saw the big box that fancy rich people would sit in to watch down at arena fighters.
Princess huffed.
"What are you saying, Princess? Are you saying that whoever is in that rich person seat up there made them send a dragon out at me?"
Princess huffed affirmatively.
Taubitha closed her jaw so that she could drop it wide open again. "Oh my gods! How petty! I hope they get gout! Well, fuck them, let's kick this dragon's ass, Princess!"
And with that, the fony sprung into gear. It fluttered brilliantly into the air, leaving a small trail of glitter and sparkles wherever it went. It was all Taubitha could do to not get distracted by this spectacle and the same seemed true for the fire dragon. The operative word here is of course seemed, because before Taubitha's fony had taken much further to progress in her flight through the air she found herself attacked by a great ball of fire.
"How dare you interrupt Princess while she's fluttering you awful, scaly whore!" shouted Taubitha, glaring at the dragon and silently wondering its gender. "Like, oh my gods, I'm going to fuck you up so bad!"
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The dragon snorted smoke out of its evil little nostrils and leapt forth, talons outstretched. It slashed at Taubitha's skin, but she only laughed.
"You're, like, going to have to strike me better than that to make any lasting impact!" Taubitha shouted as the scratch wounds instantly healed up.
The dragon looked a little frustrated, and then it looked surprised, because Princess barfed acid all over its back! While the dragon was still holding its own quite well, Taubitha could see some of its back scales bubbling up with pus as the acid melted through a decent portion of them before evaporating into nothingness.
"Take that you scaly little bitch," said Taubitha. "Like, oh my gods, your scales look so dry, too. I bet you've never even considered moisturizing. Let me know if you change your mind on that, I've got, like, some really great recs."
The dragon charged her, growling with rage and spewing blast after blast of uncontrolled fire. Thankfully, Taubitha's [skill] once again came in handy, as did her gymnastics acumen. She resisted the fire blasts and then expertly somersaulted backwards again and again to evade the beast's attacks.
The dragon growled with rage, and spat out more fire - but this too was met with an equal attack of acid from Princess. Then, feeling threatened while at the same time feeling quite ready to take real action, the dragon took a strong breath and blasted an amazing torrent of flame.
"Oh my gods," said Taubitha, "This fight is really heating up."
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Kahli had to make a decision. She had to choose a timeline.
Kahli, you have to make a decision eventually. You have to choose a timeline, thought-spoke the big jellyfish floating in the endless void.
I know that! thought Kahli. Stop thinking at me so that I can think for a second without you annoying me.
Okay, sorry. I didn't think that you thought I was annoying.
I don't always think that, thought Kahli. But I sure do think so right now.
The big jellyfish did not respond, but Kahli did think that its large, globular countenance looked rather sad and more than a little embarrassed. It made her a little upset to think too much about it, so she tried to move on.
I think I've made my decision, thought Kahli.
Great, thought-spoke the big jellyfish. Mind if I ask which timeline you chose? Not that it really matters to me, and it's not like I have to know or anything, but I am a little interested and figured I might as well ask you, in case you were feeling a little chummy with this odd little 'jellyfish' that you've found mind-speaking to you in the endless void.
Yea, I've decided to take the one where we all die when the Gate malfunctions, thought Kahli.
What?! Are you being serious?
Kahli laughed in her mind. Not at all, I was completely joking. I think I'm going to go with the third one.
Really? You're going to go with the future where the Gate gets broken by Omar when he tries to murder a bee?
Yes, thought Kahli. And I'll tell you why.
Good, because I was wondering.
I really thought about this a lot. And you see, I mean, of course I'm dying to know the rest of what Hauff was talking about when he started explaining the Gate. But then I thought about something else. I thought about the fact that there is a future, a likely future, where Omar accidentally breaks the entire Gate trying to kill a bee. And there is a future where something breaks and kills us all. So, why should I take everything at face value? Why should I look at Hauff, Omar, and the mayor, and say to myself - yes, these three buffoons should definitely have the power to go into what Hauff described as the universal fabric of existence and alter it to their will? Like, why would I ever put myself in the position where them accidentally destroying the world due to ineptitude is an easy possibility? And of course I don't want to die. So the third option is, in many ways, the only way forward. It's the only future I feel decently okay about.
Ah. A fascinating choice, especially for someone so concerned with a doomsday prophecy.
How do you know about that? Kahli thought with embarrassment. And then, she had an even more embarrassing thought. She was starting to, in this isolated plane of experience, miss Froufrou of all things.
I know a lot, Kahli, I'm a telepathic jellyfish in an endless void.
Kahli figured that was a fair response. Still, she had to wonder what the source of these possible futures with the Gate truly were. Was this a missed opportunity, as she had made it, for Froufrou to bring forth the end of the world and all existence through the incompetence of Omar, the mayor, and Hauff? If it was, she had certainly made a good choice in order to delay that inevitable future. Then again, maybe the best choice would've been to kill all of them. Further still, Kahli wondered if she would continue to have to make decisions such as this. Was she always going to have to consider these kind of strange, world ending phenomena now? Was this her curse as someone who ostensibly wasn't really comfortable with the world ending? Was she stuck always wondering if she made the right choice, wondering if she even deserved to live, while she used her [skill] to make sure that Froufrou and herself wouldn't, inadvertently or otherwise, destroy all taumanity?
I can sense by your stillness that you are still very conflicted and lost in deep thought, responded the jellyfish. Get it, I played around a little there with the word still. Ah, simple pleasures for an interdimensional, timeless being.
Kahli did not respond.
Listen, Kahli, our time here in this state is almost at a closing. I know that bearing the power of a [checkpoint] is stressful, and this is what I tried to warn you about. But I also want you to know that I believe in you. I think you can make the proper choice here, I think you really are capable of choosing the ideal path not only for yourself, but for your world. Notice how I specify 'your' world, there, but I am indeed serious. Now, please, allow yourself to make a choice. Do not punish yourself for choosing, or at least do your best not to punish yourself. Be proud. This is a powerful [skill], and systems only offer [skills] to people prepared to bear their power.
Kahli tried to believe the big jellyfish, even though it was hard. She had to go forth and do her absolute best with what she had. Because that was all she could do.
[Timeline selected]
[Checkpoint updated]