WENTAL VS. HICKEDY

“Hagh!” “Ahp!” “Eep!”

“Ugh, what the hell am I supposed to do with this?” Wental dropped the tip of his padded bat to the ground and rested his hands against the handle. He stared at Hickedy who was still cowering right in front of him, her scared eyes barely poking out from behind the Pox doll that she was using as a shield.

The introduction of their fight had been the quaintest one thus far. Rallie didn’t have much to say about either of them. Wental was a senior in college with an uninteresting background. There was a lot more to say about Hickedy, but the host outright elected not to. After all, there was a good chance the girl was forced to compete against her will, and since she was still a child, those in charge of the competition wanted her to maintain any semblance of privacy that she still had.

As soon as the fight started, Wental dashed right towards her. In all honesty, Hickedy should have won the fight then and there, but she was so overwhelmed by the theatrics of it all that she hadn’t activated her Curse in time. In a tournament like this, her power should have been one of the strongest, able to prevent anyone from getting near her, which would especially be useful against a melee fighter like Wental.

However, her Curse had one major caveat. She couldn’t use it to move anyone, and could only designate her perimeter around them. Either she could include them inside the perimeter or claim any land around them, but it had no actual offensive capabilities.

By the time Wental got close to her, stopped in his tracks by her power, the girl had only made a perimeter around herself about two feet in diameter. And now Wental stood right at the edge. He couldn’t get any closer to her, but she also couldn’t get any farther away. Everywhere within her perimeter was in range of his bat. She could extend the area, so she had more room to move, but that would only work if Wental missed his swing when she tried to flee, which he certainly wouldn’t at that distance.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Since her power wouldn’t protect her from anyone with a longer range, she also had a defensive item with her. And that was her stuffed Pox. It had been reinforced by Dura to its maximum potential, but that alone wouldn’t be enough, so it had also been altered by the CP scientists.

The doll could actually stretch and grow several times in size, creating a thick padded barrier that Hickedy could fully hide behind, or even inside of if needed. However, since her perimeter was so small, if she activated the growth, it would become too big to fit inside, and Wental could easily grab and remove it.

So the only thing that was keeping Wental from quick and certain victory was his own personal sensibilities, and Hickedy’s reactions when he went to attack.

“Look, it’s a padded bat, okay?” Wental tried to comfort her. “All I’m going to do is tap you with it, and it will make you want to get up and leave the stage. That’s it, nothing else will happen. Not so scary, right?”

He paused for a minute, waiting for any sort of response, but it never came until… “Nooo!” she cried again when he raised his bat once more, hiding behind Pox again.

“Mawhg it, I surrender,” Wental turned around and walked away. “I just can’t do it.”

~Unfulfilled Wish~

Wental: I’ve already been blessed with opportunity, so I don’t need anything. Maybe free tuition worldwide so others can have the same.