Kahli watched as Omar chared up his flaming arm. She noticed that it wasn't glowing blue.

"Omar, what's going on? Your arm isn't glowing blue like it was when you were fighting Lloyd."

"I don't need to power up my [skill] that much to beat you, Kahli," Omar said with a smirk. "When did you get your system? Yesterday? You're no match for me! Now put your dukes up so I can slice them off!"

Kahli decidedly did not put up her dukes, not that Omar could've rightly expected her to... Or did he? He didn't know what all skills she had, but he also seemed like he was blinded by rage. Kahli wondered if that, too, was a skill as she kicked her big rock far away from both herself and Omar, which sent her predictably soaring downward.

"Oh no you fucking don't!" said Omar as he zoomed down with her in step. In fact, as he was propelled by his posterior flame, he was actually descending faster than Kahli, at least at first, until they both reached a terminal velocity. "No way am I letting you power up your rock attack like you did with that stupid alien!"

At first, Kahli had a couple of thoughts in her mind. Her first thought, was that Omar was a real asshole. After all, she'd taken this timeline to save his life, not that he realized that, but it still made it frustrating that he was now trying to kill her, especially when Kahli had thought they'd already moved past that whole thing. Regardless, here she was plummeting, unable to save herself, with her mentor trying to murder her. Not exactly how she'd pictured this timeline shaking out.

But then, Kahli noticed something, and she remembered the strength of her [skill] - her rock would always come back to her big left foot. And, with that, she could presently see the rock zooming through the distance, flames trailing its wake as it got closer and closer to them. With this realization, and the further realization that Omar seemed to have forgotten completely about her big rock, Kahli simply pointed her big, left foot at him.

"Ugh! Why are you waving that at me? What's the meaning of this?" Omar spat angrily. He waved his flaming arm around angrily trowards her as Kahli's rock grew closer and closer. "You might be elusive, Kahli, but I am going to catch you and I am going to fuck you-"

Before Omar could finish his thought, Kahli's big boulder smashed into the back of his head.

[Critical hit]

[Omar is stunned]

"Argh! Shit!" cried Omar as he lost focus and twirled around in the air not unlike a headless chicken. "Still! I'm going to fuck you up, Kahli!"

Kahli sighed inwardly to herself in relief to hear Omar finish the thought. Then, she slowly kicked off her rock over and over again until she started rising through the air, a techinque that at point felt second nature to her. She could see Omar still struggling to compose himself, so she kicked the rock away from him and tumbled down, down, down all over again. He was still stunned, but it did look like he'd be zooming over to attack again, so Kahli quickly contorted her body around and prepared her fist. As her rock zoomed back and slammed into her big left foot, she rocketed up as expected in a lovely arc that Kahli was able to easily direct towards Omar, punching him right in the jaw.

[Critical hit]

"Ow! Fuck!" Omar reeled, flipping back in the air. The flames keeping him suspended in the air were, at this point, sputtering with weakness. "Gods damnit, Kahli! How'd you get so good at this so fast? That's ridiculous!"

Kahli shrugged as she boosted herself up in the air with her rock. Inwardly, she wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that she was [paired] with Froufrou. There had to be a possibility that it had something to do with that, didn't there?

"Fuck!" said Omar, as his butt-flame weakened, his arm-flame did as well. "I'm running low on elemental energy, you've taken too much out of me to sustain my normal power levels! Damn it, Kahli, I hate to say this, but I've got to give up."

Kahli smiled. "Oh, really? I thought you were going to destroy me, and fuck me up?"

"Fuck off, Kahli, I'll still do that the second I get my energy back."

Kahli considered this. She started to regret picking this timeline. First, she'd gotten her hand lopped off, and now Omar was going to try to kill her over and over again. Maybe she would have to kill him. Wouldn't that be ridiculous? And to think she had chosen this timeline to keep him from dying. What a stupid decision, Kahli was kicking herself.

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"Hey, Kahli, before I kill you in cold blood, can I ask you a question?" asked Omar.

"What?"

Omar nodded to Unit 5a23, who had once again started meditating in midair and humming like a monk. "What's the deal with the robot?"

"I wish I knew. I don't even think he knows what his deal is, though. He literally told me that he barely remembers anything."

"Hmmm." Omar looked at the meditating robot quizzically. "And you believe that, Kahli?"

Kahli considered this. Had the robot been lying to her earlier? How was she rightly able to know? There wasn't an easy way to say for certain, now was there? Kahli herself had spouted plenty of lies to Omar in order to fool both him and Lloyd into, well, into severing her hand. Which didn't seem ideal, but at the same time, at least now she wasn't necessarily on a timeline that the evil alien had set. Now she was just out one arm, had her old master looking to murder her for what he thought she'd done, and-

Kahli's train of thought stopped immediately, as it had been forcibly derailed by a surprising revelation that she'd suddenly had on glancing down at the stump where her right hand had been.

There seemed to be something growing there. It wasn't tauman skin, though. It was just... it was a light layer of plaster. Almost like living wood was starting to manifest there. And then, she noticed the familiar tightness in her lower back. It was time to level up. She smiled, she focused, and time froze.

[Level up]

[Congratulations, you've reached level 21]

Nice, level 21. Kahli was happy to see that she was progressing. There was still a nagging thought in the back of her head that Taubitha must've gotten to an even higher level by now, which wasn't fun to think about - although, at the same time, Kahli did realize she'd still beaten Taubitha last fight despite being a much lower level. So, maybe Taubitha just wasn't a great fighter, despite her [skills]. Especially considering that, as Kahli had told herself time and time again whenever he confidence dipped, she leveld up by getting in real fights, whereas Taubitha seemed to level up by... repeatedly bashing herself against things like walls. That wasn't necessarily something to be proud of or jealous of, now was it?

Kahli hoped she might get a chance to pick a [skill], but it didn't look like that was in the cards for this level up. Oh well.

[Would you like to spend your 4 attribute points?]

Finally, her system was prompting her to spend her attribute points. Kahli was relieved. It was also nice to get the opportunity to spend these points when she didn't get the chance to add or level up one of ther [skills].

[Clarification: Your system processed an update in the interim while you were fighting, this update includes additional prompts for attributes as requested by yourself during your previous leveling session.]

Wow. That was cool. So her system could update itself based on her notes and requests? Kahli knew every system was slightly different, tailored to an individual, but she hadn't realized she could play an active role in that. She'd have to keep that in mind.

[Attributes]

[INT: 9]

[STM: 12]

[CHAR: 12]

[DEX: 12]

[STR: 9]

Kahli figured she should divide her points to spend between [INT] and [STR], since they were the lowest. She liked the idea of being well-rounded. Then again, she also remembered that she could gain [attributes] at some point with her system, so who was to say whether she would stay so balanced for long. Regardless, she was happy to see her new list of [attributes].

[Attributes]

[INT: 11]

[STM: 12]

[CHAR: 12]

[DEX: 12]

[STR: 11]

Time zoomed back to its normal pace.

"You sure are leveling up a lot, Kahli," said Omar, with more than a little bit of irritation in his voice. "Hell, I could use a level up right about now." Then, he smirked as some of his flame power seemed to restore itself. He was recovering, and it looked like he was still just as interested in fighting.

"I'm sure you could," said Unit 5a23.

Unit 5a23? The cold, meditative robot had apparently ended his silent musings in order to zoom over to Kahli and hover beside her, the jets on his feet ever strong and stable.

"Omar, I need to ask you a question," said Unit 5a23. "It has to do with something that has been reeling around in my mind since... well, since I can remember. And while that is not a very long time, considering my memory is almost - as you already know - for naught, I do think it is vastly important for us to consider. May we?"

"Yea, whatever, as long as you drop the we nonsense," said Omar with a grimace. "I'm not associating myself with you, you weird automaton. I don't trust you or your weird chest gears. You seem way too comfortable around Kahli." He squinted at her in disgust. "Someone I used to think that I could trust. Notice the past tense, there, Kahli."

Kahli groaned. Omar really had trouble letting go of things. Of course, maybe he was still convinced by her [Tale Teller] [skill] that she really had brought the Curr back, and hell, maybe she had, unintentionally... though she really doubted it.

"I still have my question to ask, Omar," said Unit 5a23. "It has to do with something Kahli keeps alluding to. She has, a number of times, alluded to something being activated by you. Now, I've noticed you seem to think of yourself as a bit of a martyr, and a bit of an innocent party. But, well, what is Kahli talking about when she mentions this... activation? What is she referring to?"

Omar was suddenly fuming, and worse, the anger seemed to be fueling the literal fires he controlled.

"That's fucking it. I'm going to lop your fucking robo-head off, you fucking... you... you robo-asshole!"

Kahli watched as Omar lunged at Unit 5a23, and as the robot hovered there cooly as if a gnat were about to swarm its face. This did not make Kahli feel great. Were Omar and Unit 5a23 about to get locked in combat? And if so, who would survive? Was this all her fault?