Prima Falks lounged in a chair in front of her tent, using a small paring blade to shape a palm-sized figurine of a horse from a piece of bone. She was one of the few other Legion-owning gladiators in the camp. Her team rested to either side of her. Her Brute, a [Seerlak], was a strange hulking Body/Earth/Metal-type monster made of iridescent bismuth. Her Cute was something called an Irizado, a slim, harpy-like Mind/Blood/Air Legion with long, spindly legs, a human-like face, and wings for arms. It chittered when it saw us, cocking its head sharply from side to side.

"Prima Falks," Angel voiced aloud, saluting smartly. "May I have a word?"

The woman looked up from her work. Her mouth sloped over in a way that suggested she was unimpressed by the idea, but was obligated to at least listen. "Sure. What’dya want?"

"I have to duel Captain Targent in the arena to earn my rank in the guild morning after next," Angel replied crisply. "It'll be my first arena battle, and I was wondering if you could give me some tips."

The officer arched an eyebrow. "He challenged you? A cadet with no fighting experience?"

"Some fighting experience," Angel replied tersely. "I was solo for two months before I considered joining the Centurions. All lives intact."

“You’ve still got all nine?” That statement brought the other eyebrow up. "You're tougher than you look."

"Yes, ma'am." Angel's pale eyes turned hard and pale. "And I’m going to beat the captain."

Falks glanced at me and Lulu, riding between my shoulders like a flan. I resisted the urge to wave.

"You somehow managed to land a trash-tier and an S-tier. With that pairing, it’s hard to say if you’ll win or not," the Prima said, after a minute of consideration. " I can't tell you much, but I can give you some names. The Captain's Legions are named Lancelot and Guinevere. He's a Skyfury Brute; she's a Driado Cute."

Neither of those names meant anything to me. I looked to Angel, whose brows were furrowed.

"That's a strange combination," Angel said. "But now I think about it... Body/Air/Metal and Mind/Plant/Psionic is a strong pair."

"Mmm. High level for the Jungle, too. Most people get killed before their Legions hit Level 12." Falks slowly looked around, as if checking to see if anyone was listening in. "The captain's a pressure fighter. If Guinevere paralyzes your Brute and Lancelot gets his aerial attacks off, you're screwed. That’s your tip."

"Thank you, Prima Falks." Angel saluted again.

"Dunno what you're talking about. You didn't hear anything from me." She gave Angel the ghost of a smile and picked up her carving. "Now, scram."

"Not going to ask her about moving tents?" I followed after Angel as she fell out, turned on her heel, and marched off.

"No. She's already done us one favor: I'm not going to ask for more," Angel signed back. "Besides, like I said: we're not sleeping here. Targent’s going to try and pull sabotage if we do. We'll camp at our training site."

"Training site, huh? Got a place in mind?”

“A couple, but we need to pick the one that will give us the most bang for our buck.”

“Right. Well, you know this game better than me. How do we win, coach?"

"Targent's team is strong," Angel replied. "I've seen Skyfuries and Driados in the wild. Driados are shy; they paralyze or stun gladiators and escape. Skyfuries are aggressive predators. They hunt like falcons, balling their claws up into fists and diving to strike. And they're REALLY fast. If they hit you, they do Body-Metal attacks."

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"Which do triple damage to me. But Lulu protects me from about half of that bonus with her Dermal Armor ability."

“Ooh!” Lulu agreed weakly.

"Yes, but Lulu's weak to Air, and Furies also have special Air attacks. All Targent has to do is figure out that she’s compensating for your elemental weakness and KO her. Compared to you, she doesn’t have much HP. That won’t be hard." Angel motioned to Lulu. "She's a Spirit/Water/Acid Legion. She takes triple damage from Air and times-half damage from Plant and Mind. Between Air and Plant attacks, the Driado and Skyfury will crush her."

"She doesn’t take much bonus damage from Plant attacks now," I replied. "The Mandala gave us a bonus. Plant’s now 0.5x damage for Lulu, and I have 3x resistance to it."

Angel looked relieved. "That's good news, but still."

"What are THEY vulnerable to?" I dropped my head as we padded along. “We can get as introspective as we want, but if we don’t know our enemy, we’ve only prepared for half the battle.”

"Based on their types, they're both vulnerable to Fire. The Skyfury is just as vulnerable to Poison as you are to Metal, which is good, but the biggest gap between us isn't type matching. It's experience. Targent and his team have worked together and trained for God knows how long, they're Level 23, and we don't have any fire attacks."

I flicked my tail and considered how much I wanted to reveal about me and Lulu’s big discovery. "There's a way Lulu and I can get fire attacks. One, at least, which might make all the difference in a battle like this. Don't suppose you know where to find any Medium-sized or smaller Fire-type Legions?"

Angel looked back at me, coming to a stop. "Sure. The Malhela Lava Fields."

"Is it close enough for us to make a day trip?"

"Yes. Why?" She looked between me and Lulu in confusion. "Lulu’s Absorb ability isn't strong enough to make a difference in this fight."

I sighed - and decided to let the tentacles out of the bag. "Absorb by itself isn't, but Lulu here is basically a library of ass-kicking. She can use Absorb to drain dead Legions of their abilities and store a permanent roster of ten. Then I plug HER with Soul Drain and get to select any ability she has in a battle. She can only use those abilities at ten percent, but I can use them full-strength. As far as I can tell, it works off some kind of hidden Special Attack stat."

Angel blinked a couple of times. Then her eyes widened.

"Holy shit," she signed. "You broke the frigging game."

“Broke the game?” My nostrils flexed in a hissing snort. "C'mon, it's good, but it's not THAT good."

"No, seriously." Angel was visibly excited now, her mobile face alight with fresh energy. "You might not know this, but Legions evolve. You two are only in your first evolutionary stage.”

“Oh. We do?”

“Yes. Legions evolve every twenty-five levels. Each time you evolve, your first Prime Ability gets better, and you gain a second Prime Ability. Soul Drain II and Absorb II will do stacked bonus damage." Angel's hands moved with renewed energy now. "Think about it. Lulu does 10% of any Absorbed ability she takes from a Legion, right? That should go up to 20% at Absorb II. If you're doing 100% damage, you're basically multiplying her base damage by ten... so when you're both at Level 25, you SHOULD do double damage with those special attacks. Plus, you'll be able to Soul Drain two attacks instead of one."

I relayed this to Lulu. She began to froth and burble happily.

"Convoluted, but I think I get it. The power of the ability’s gonna double every twenty-five levels." I scratched my nose with a tentacle, looking up at the darkened sky. “How many times do Legions evolve? Is there a cap?”

“I don’t know for sure. Chorus won’t tell me, but my guess is three.”

"Right. Well, I think we could hit Level 20 in twenty-four hours, if we push ourselves. How far are these lava fields?"

"About ten miles south." Angel motioned with her head. "It’s a good place to level up. Well... a good place for you two, at least. The enemies there are too tough for me to take out, and I don’t share your EXP. Ugh. I REALLY need a gun. Shooting a couple of Legions would bring me up to Level 10. Then I could finally get a class."

I’d already resolved to finally give her the rifle still burning a hole in my inventory - but only once we were out of the camp. "Gladiators get classes?"

"Yes. Well, kind of. Like Legions, we get a sigil, but instead of three elements, each class has three special abilities we can level with schema points." Angel signed. "If I hit it today, that might not help us in the arena, but it would make me feel better. Are you ready to pack out?"

"Ready to kick grass and eat ass," I replied.

Angel gave me a peevish look.

"What? I’m a carnivore. I don’t eat grass.” I peered back at her. “Now let's go get fuckin' SWOLE.”