Chapter 83

Who Says Training has to be Serious

But my end never came. I opened my eyes, the exact same scene before me, my approaching death imminent... Except it all appeared to be paused.

Clapping came from my right. I tried to turn my head to see it but I was completely frozen except for my eyes.

"Tremendous effort everyone," Kenzo said. "Darcy, I'm afraid that's one win for the gang. Better luck next time."

He clapped his hands and time reversed, everyone moving back until we were all safe on solid ground again. The ice vanished and the cracks in the ground filled back in. Within seconds it was like our battle hadn't happened at all.

Stephen came over to me first, once we could move again, he held his fist up. "That was amazing, Darcy. You held your own so well."

"Agreed!" Dowser bellowed and also held his fist out to me. "Maybe you were right not to dump all those points into strength. Maybe."

I laughed and punched both their fists.

Netta came up behind me. "I thought there was no way we could win there for a second," she said.

"I didn't know you could use ice magic," I said. "That kind of fucked things up for me."

"It didn't seem to phase you at all until Stephen jumped in. Way to clutch it, my man," Dowser said, holding up both fists. Stephen laughed and punched them both.

Despite my loss, I was filled with a kind of pride. Not just with myself, for taking on all three of them and almost winning, but also for my attackers themselves. We all were powerhouses on our own but, together, we were a real force to be reckoned with. Too bad it would just be me facing the User Killers.

And just like that, my happy mood dissipated, as well as the last of my Stat High.

Stephen was the first to notice, and completely knew what I was thinking. He walked over to me.

"It's gonna be okay, Darce. We will train you up. You already did amazing right out of the gate."

Kenzo came closer. "He's right. In fact, I think if that had been a real battle you would have won."

We all looked at him like he was crazy.

"How do you figure that?" I asked.

"You were not attacking back. Not fully."

I reran the fight in my head and... He was kind of right. I played defense mostly the whole time.

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"Wow, I get what you mean," I said, getting excited. "So you think if I had been fighting for real I would have been more inclined to attack back?"

Kenzo nodded. "Even in a training scenario you are not the type to go all out to the death. All we must do now is make sure you have weapons to dish out the final blows."

"What do you suggest?" I asked.

He held up two fingers. "Two things. One, you get a handle on shooting your mental energy."

I nodded with gusto. I really really wanted to nail that move.

And it made sense, my mental magic had gotten the most attention from my training. Expanding the ways I could use it as a weapon could be nothing but a good thing.

"And the second thing?" I asked.

"Train your powers up even further to where you can take enemies out easier."

"What about weapons?" Stephen asked. "Shouldn't we just give her our best weapons?"

"If we had a set time and knew we could prepare, then yes. But since Darcy could be summoned at any time, it's much better to put our efforts into training up what she is already focused on."

I was nodding along with his every word, then I added, "Because it's possible I wouldn't be able to learn how to use the new weapons quick enough, right?"

"Precisely," Kenzo said.

Stephen looked unsure.

"What, no crazy weapons?" Dowser said with a sigh.

"You probably gave her PTSD of heavy weaponry from that battle with the first ghost," Netta said, giving me a wink.

Dowser didn't even respond, just glared at her and crossed his arms. I wondered how long we would give him shit for that. Everytime I started to forget, Netta would remind me. And maybe it worked the same for her. Would we just be passing Dowser's blunder back and forth for all eternity? Nah, Dowser would probably snap and kill us both before then.

"Does that sound good, Darcy?" Kenzo asked, startling me back to the present.

"Uh, yeah. It makes sense that we gotta focus where I've already been...focusing. But... Can I really take them down with my powers?"

"We need to boost your mental strength and I think just by learning how to shoot your energy outward that you will naturally gain what you need."

"Great! So how do we do it?" I asked.

Kenzo just stared at me. "I told you already. Have you been spending time around water?"

The color in my face drained. "Oh, fuck. I totally forgot about that. Literally right after we had that conversation I was teleported to fight the first ghost and things haven't let up since then."

"It's okay, that's completely understandable. Well, I think that means..."

"BEACH EPISODE!!" Dowser exclaimed, somehow already holding a giant floaty above his head.

I laughed. "You can't be serious."

"Who says training has to be serious?" Kenzo said with a grin.

Dowser cheered and pretended to lift the float like a weight. Netta tried to distance herself from him but he threw the ring around her and reeled her back in, getting her laughing.

Stephen and I shared shocked expressions at what Kenzo had just said.

"You want us to go to the beach when we have an uncertain time limit before a majorly important battle!?" Stephen asked, his voice cracking at the last word.

"Darcy needs to find her connection to water," Kenzo said, completely undaunted. "I explained how everyone has different ways their powers manifest. We have a theory that Darcy's is related to water."

"A theory?" Netta asked. She had somehow escaped Dowser's ring and instead trapped him inside of it. "This situation kind of calls for more than theories."

"I misspoke," Kenzo said. "I am almost 100% certain that water is the key to her powers."

"And if it's not?" Stephen asked.

Kenzo put his hand on Stephen's shoulder and looked him dead in the eye. "It is."

They kept staring at each other, seeming to carry on a private conversation with their eyes. I broke it up, stepping between them.

"Guys, it's okay. We have one shot and this is it. Just talking about it is wasting time." I turned to Kenzo. "Do you have a world in mind?"

Before I'd even gotten the words out a request to teleport appeared in my vision. I looked around and saw everyone else's eyes flash. I guess we were doing this. A beach episode training session—was that something that'd ever been done before? I would have to ask Boots later.

I pressed the button and was whisked away, to the very first beach experience of my life.