Jill P.O.V

Jill was thoroughly annoyed with her skills. She didn’t have the most creative mind when it came to her class. She fought in the most obvious way. It wasn’t bad as that mindset had made her near invincible. Plus, she didn’t go through the same learning process that Mash had to. Mash constantly got new skills and abilities and spent almost all of his free time practicing. For all that he claimed to not train enough, Mash spent a lot of time experimenting with his skills. He just didn’t seem to consider it the same thing. She couldn’t be like him. Skills were simple things to her, and she didn’t really care about this test. Passing or failing was largely unimportant. It just felt kind of amusing at the moment.

She didn’t really mess with skills. When she trained, she usually only tried to make the skill work as it intended. Even then she wasn’t the best at it. A memory flashed into her mind, and she remembered what had happened within Mash’s world. It had been a mistake when she had done it before, but it might be a good time to try again. Spatial Manipulation was supposed to do more than just break things, but she couldn’t get it to work. She didn’t think she could upgrade the skill regardless of the advice Mash had gotten from the northerner. Marking her weapon hadn’t even been her own idea. Red was the one who had suggested it, she was good at thinking through things although she did overdo it at times.

She held the weapon in one hand and tried again to make a barrier in space. A wall that she could put up to protect herself or the others. That was what she had worked on before, though she hadn’t risked it again. Luke was close enough now, and this seemed like a relatively safe space to run some tests. Everyone here should be strong enough to survive an explosion like before, although she wasn’t planning on letting that happen again. Unless she could make it more controlled, which might be doable.

The arena they were in was big and she had more than enough space to mess around. She imagined the space in front of her firming up. Hardening wasn’t the right way to describe what she was doing. It was more like she made it more resistant to change. The space just stayed as it was. She started with a wide range, but slowly focused on a small point. The last time she broke the wall the explosion had been big. The barrier then had been fairly large too. This time she made one that was a little bigger than a coin.

She practiced a little bit on just making the barrier. She made a few barriers and struck some of them with her fist. They held, but her fist wasn’t really all that strong. If only she had something stronger. Something other than her weapon. She was worried that testing the barrier with that would cause more explosions. Perhaps she could get Fifty-One to use his fire magic.

The sudden sound of thunder made her flinch a little bit. It only bothered her for a moment. She was somewhat used to Mash’s antics now. The sound was a little strange this time though, and she turned to see what he was up to. She saw him standing in front of a section of scorched dirt and spotted Fifty-One standing next to him. She considered asking them to test the limits of her barrier but decided she could do that later. In reality, she just didn’t want Fifty-One to start bothering her. For whatever reason, he was clinging to Mash, and she would prefer to keep it that way.

There was the second thing she wanted to test anyways. She held her needle in her hand. Marking it had been revolutionary for her combat style. The weapon was shaped like a javelin, but she hadn’t even considered throwing it before. It was only once Red had given her the idea for the mark and that was what made her learn how to throw it properly. Although that was pretty easy. A weapon that could shear through space just kind of traveled straight no matter how he threw it. It was still affected by gravity, but it wasn’t really hard to use.

Jill turned toward the barriers she had made and let all but one of them vanish. It was weird, but she could see the walls even if they would be invisible to anyone else. The one she left was far away and was no bigger than a coin. She walked even further away from it until she was over fifty feet from the barrier. After making sure she was far enough away, she raised her right hand and threw her weapon at the tiny barrier. Her aim was almost always perfect, and she knew that it was probably an aspect of her skill or the weapon itself.

The tip of the needle struck the barrier and penetrated it. This time she could see the explosion without experiencing it first-hand. The barrier and the space around it vibrated. Then it warped and was sucked inward for a moment. An instant later it was just gone. She thought for a moment that there would be no explosion, but then it happened. The space that had been erased quickly expanded, and then ripples shot out from the location. Everything seemed to ripple with it. She saw it pass through her body but felt almost nothing.

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She stared wide-eyed at the location of the barrier. The dirt was just gone, but around the clean crater were streaks of dirt. Dirt that had been displaced like water when someone threw a rock into a pond. A hesitant smile grew on her face. The power of that was horrifying. She imagined using it on a person. Erasing them from existence. There would be nothing left to bury. It was a frightening thought, but another image popped into her mind.

A god’s hand reaching down. The creature’s hand touching her, and the endless among of pain that it had caused. Jill stared at the explosion, and her hesitant smile turned into a true one. This was an attack like none other. This would be able to hurt even that creature. Hopefully, it would be enough to kill it. She felt some eyes on her back and turned. Mash stood in the distance. He seemed worried, but Jill still smiled. She yelled.

“I did it!”

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Mash P.O.V

Mash was back to working on his own skill. Despite what Jill had yelled, she hadn’t actually upgraded a skill. Everyone had walked over when she yelled, but she soon explained what had happened. It was incredible in a sense, but it wasn’t what they expected. Although, Mash saw the effectiveness of the new attack. She demonstrated it once more, and Mash noticed the other two step away warily. Seeing the arrogant southerner step away in fear was rather pleasing.

Although Mash himself was a little worried about the attack, it was not the kind of thing that he was excited about. She would presumably be using that skill in fights, and his role would place him closest to such an attack. He was confident in his body’s durability. It was probably the thing he was most sure of. With that said, he didn’t know if he could resist being erased. It was magical, so he figured his anti-magic would help. Plus, he had a touch of nothingness which should help too. He probably wouldn’t get erased. It would probably hurt though. His hands shook a little at the thought.

[Do not test it.]

[I wouldn’t]

His excitement was not enough to encourage him to test the limits of his defense. Especially not with something that deadly. Not yet at least. Although who knew, he might be strong enough after upgrading his body. He didn’t think that there was truly any all-powerful magic, so he should be able to resist it in theory. Priscilla’s words did get him to refocus on the task at hand. He needed to change his wood fundamentally, to the point that even his skill changed for it. His thunder wood had the lightning and wood affinity already. It didn’t even have the life affinity according to Priscilla. She suggested that affinity would be the easiest to mix. Mental should work too. He had already done that one before.

That was the first step. He slowly let wood grow from his hand, and he imagined filling it with life. He held the picture of a tree or shrub. Something that was truly alive. Instead of a simple piece of wood growing from him, he imagined a tree. He used his life affinity. He tried to mix it with the creation. To create life. True life, not like those cheap imitations that he normally made. Even those were nothing more than a product of magic. This would be different. He would make something that could live on its own.

His wood grew, but this time its appearance was different from normal. It was still black, but it wasn’t scaled anymore. The bark was thick, layered oddly as it grew but there were no more scales. It was strange but he continued, and the wood continued to grow, layer after layer. It was slower than normal, and it felt weaker than what he normally made. Only once the final layer was growing, did it start to overlap. The bark of the tree started overlapping itself awkwardly, and he saw the vague imitations of scales on it. They weren’t real scales, and it was closer to normal wood now. Although no normal tree could be this shade of black.

Then something interesting happened as he continued to pour energy into the wood. Its shape changed slightly, and branches started sprouting from its side. He had been growing it out from his arm, and he could see branches and leaves beginning to appear at the end. Mash stared it with amazement. It was working. His first attempt and the unliving wood had changed. It was alive, and Mash could feel roots growing into his arm. It didn’t feel harmful. It felt like his connection to it was stronger now than before. His other hand ran down the tree’s bark, and he felt the groves and indents. Unlike before they weren’t like perfectly shaped scales. The bark was layered similarly though there was no consistency in size or shape. Some pieces of the bark were simply bigger or misshapen. It made the tree feel more real, more alive.

Fifty-One had been watching Jill after her last experiment, but Mash felt it when he entered his domain. He wasn’t alone either. Jill and Luke had come with him, and he would bet that Red was watching too. The two foreigners probably didn’t understand the significance and hadn’t approached. Mash himself was more than a little dazed by the situation.

What he was doing now was creating life. It wasn’t a taboo, but he imagined that was because it wasn’t very common. The tree Mash made now was a living thing. Mash slowly lowered his arm to the ground and let the roots move from him to the ground. He stared at the new tree in awe as he stepped away from it. It stood on its own and lived on its own. He knew that it wouldn’t decay or warp, even after he cut his connection to it. It was, for all intents and purposes, nothing more than a tree.