Aida woke up sore the next morning. She reveled in it. So this is what they meant. Work hard, play hard. Unfortunately, she needed to be in tip-top shape today. Regretfully, she sent a quick wave of Heal down the length of her body. Surprisingly, it wasn’t only her legs that were sore; her core and back had a light layer of yellow as well. She quickly flashed open her profile box for a cursory glance of her stats.
Character Stats
STR: 4 - 30% to next level.
FOC: 8 - 27% to next level.
INT: 6 - 5% to next level.
DEX: 3 - 13% to next level.
VIT: 5 - 50% to next level.
She frowned. Most of her attributes had seen a steady, if slow, increase the whole time she’d been here, but her INT seemed to have been stalled for quite a while. That probably has to be my next focus. She could already imagine Levi’s delighted look at her admission that she needed to increase her intelligence trait.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Aida held a nutrition bar in her hand as she practiced some more turning kicks on one of the straw dummies ringing the edge of the combat arena. One of Ezra’s talking points yesterday had been that while kicking air was a beautiful art form, one had to learn to kick through an actual target. That had made sense to her, but he had left it to her to work on her own, since he had to prepare for his match with Sue. Once he departed, she had felt her progress slow. It was hard to judge distance, and even though she could tell when a kick was weaker or stronger than the last one, she wasn’t able to pinpoint why, the way Ezra could just by watching her. I guess that’s part of the 10,000 kicks Bruce Lee says to do.
“Aida, it’s almost time.” Aida choked on her bite of Five-Spice Nutty Leaf Biscuit. Caleb lobbed himself over the wall from the spectator side to pat her on the back, handing her the glass of Fruity Milk Juice she had set on the arena wall. Gratefully accepting her drink, she downed half the glass, washing away the spices stuck in the back of her throat with the thick but sweet juice.
“You shouldn’t eat those biscuits too often. It’s better to eat real food.”
“I know,” Aida sighed. “It’s just so much more convenient. You don’t have a match today, right?”
Caleb nodded. “It’s my day off.”
“I can’t wait until the placement matches are over,” Aida confessed. “I just want to work on my known weaknesses already.”
Caleb grinned. “You’ll regret saying that once they start us in classes. All of our free time will be gone, especially with all the affiliate recruiters that are going to come.”
“Oh, right…”
“I bet you’re excited,” Caleb said, almost as a question. “You’ll get some time to meet with the affiliates.”
Aida grimaced, unsure how to answer. “I guess I just don’t like the reminder that we have to choose a career so early. I want to explore, you know?”
Caleb dipped his head in agreement. “I suppose there’s always later,” he said softly. “Get a job first, establish yourself…and then when you’re secure, you can take up your interests then.”
“Yes, but it’s such a trap,” Aida said, looking down at her hands. “You start focusing on your job, then you focus on how to climb the ladder, earn more, because you don’t feel secure in your position…and you decide that it’s worth postponing your hopes and dreams for later, because you’re still not secure.” Aida’s brow furrowed as she thought of the insecurities she overheard from her customers at the gym and optometrist’s office…they all followed a similar refrain. “I just feel trapped, you know? Everyone is getting promoted, and moving in with their significant others…it seems like just yesterday, we were so excited to graduate high school…and then college…But now there are all these expectations…and I still have loans to pay off…”
“I should get going,” Caleb said, breaking Aida out of her reverie. He hesitantly patted her shoulder. “…Good luck.”
Professor Kozu was heading towards Aida, as the other Water and Wood students trickled into the arena. “Miss Loreh.”
“Professor,” Aida greeted.
“How are you feeling today?”
“Not angry and misunderstood, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Aida replied, trying to stay lighthearted. Kozu smiled briefly, his burnt eye gazing at her kindly.
“I’m not worried about that. I wanted to commend you for how you’ve handled your other two matches so far.”
Aida blinked. “But I lost yesterday.”
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“Of course,” he agreed. “And we decided not to award you a point. However, you showed remarkable understanding of your limitations. Reaching it, but not blowing it, like in the previous matches. Very remarkable.”
“Thank you,” Aida said, flattered.
“Keep it up,” Kozu continued. “Even though you are not top five, I would be more than happy to work with you to place you with an affiliate you are interested in working with.”
“Thank you,” Aida repeated, stunned. This was more than she had ever expected. Nodding smartly at her, Kozu gestured at her to enter her ring, where Shon was already waiting.
Shon had brown hair and eyes, with bronzed skin that indicated plenty of time spent in the sun. He had a wiry build, and was only slightly taller than Pritchard. He nodded hesitantly at Aida. “Good job fighting Abedi yesterday,” he said cautiously. His demeanor suggested he had a strong preference for peace.
“Thanks,” Aida smiled. “No offense intended, but I’m glad you’re not him.”
Shon relaxed, smiling back. “Yeah, same. Nothing personal about all this, right?”
“Right. Let’s just do our best.” Aida held out her hand in truce, and Shon grasped it, clearly relieved.
They backed up to their starting points, both adopting a look of concentration. Aida could already feel Shon gathering his mana, and saw his eyes flicker around the ground, taking stock of the landscape. She began feeding mana through her body, a slow drip, as she waited for Professor Kozu’s word.
“Begin!”
Springing forward as the first syllable left his mouth, Aida aimed a kick at Shon’s head. She was pleased that she was flexible enough to get up there without losing her balance, and even more pleased to see Shon’s eyes widen in surprise. He clearly hadn’t been expecting a physical assault.
Dipping his head back, Shon narrowly avoided getting clocked in the face. Aida took advantage of Shon’s destabilization to follow her kick with a diagonal slash, unleashing a hefty Mana Blast at close quarters. Shon absorbed the blow, stumbling back several steps. He pointed his wand at her, and Aida reminded herself that she had to keep moving. She blasted away the tendril that was creeping around her ankle, and followed Shon relentlessly, avoiding the plants that were already starting to crop up around the combat ring.
The good thing about Shon focusing on growing plants was that he wasn’t able to defend himself very well against her as she rained mana-charged kicks at him; the best he could do was dodge and duck. The bad thing about Shon focusing on growing plants was…well…they were getting larger and more prevalent. Aida was quickly depleting her mana with all the free openings Shon was offering her, but unfortunately they weren’t powerful enough to actually disrupt or hurt him too badly.
Annoyed that she couldn’t even land a kick on Shon, she quickly surged mana to the foot she was standing on, jumping into the air as she rotated her hips in the opposite direction she had originally been going. Shon had been ducking neatly below her kick, her foot traveling in a beautiful arc above his back and neck - but that meant that he approached her rising knee with momentum.
She felt Shon collapse over her shin, his stomach so squishy compared to the straw dummies she’d been practicing on.
Shocked that her plan actually worked (it wasn’t a plan, it had been a vague idea), Aida dropped her kicking leg, watching him wide-eyed. Shon had landed on his hands and knees, wheezing. He lifted his head, looking at her with anger.
She raised her hands in apology. “Sorry, nothing personal, right?”
“Right,” he gritted out, thrusting his wand towards her. Aida felt herself get hoisted into the air by her ankle, the rest of her limbs getting wrapped in other tendrils that restrained her movement.
Straining, she aimed her wand at the plants. Though she was able to blast away some vines, they were quickly replaced by more. So this is how Wood wins.
“Do you yield?” Shon asked grimly. He had finally climbed to his feet, though he was still holding his stomach.
Aida tugged half-heartedly at her restraints, even trying to send some mana into the plants. Unfortunately, Shon had a thick layer of mana running through every stem and leaf, and easily repelled her attempts. She sighed and relaxed. “I yield.”
“Miss Loreh yields!” Professor Kozu announced. She had no idea when he had even arrived. Shon directed his plants to let her down, Kozu waiting for her to get clear before he casually sent a blast of fire at Shon’s constructs. After all the plants had been burnt to a crisp, Kozu stepped back, waving at Professor Gemma on a platform. She pointed her wand at the ashes, the ground rippling like water, swallowing the ashes into its depths. The combat ring was left pristine.
“Hey, do you want a spot of healing?” Aida asked, turning to Shon. He was still grimacing, and was now starting to hunch over. “I still have some mana left after our fight, so I thought I’d offer…”
He eyed her warily, before saying “Please.”
The overlay appeared over Shon’s body. He was mostly green, except deep in his torso, below his ribcage, was a blotch of red that was slowly growing. Uh oh. Swallowing her lips, Aida focused on sending her mana deep into his body. She could tell it was some kind of internal bleeding, although she didn’t know which organ. She managed to staunch the flow, but couldn’t do much more. “Professor! Where is Healer Luk?”
“She is attending to another student,” Kozu said from beside her. He crouched down, hovering his hand over Shon’s stomach. “Are you able to heal more?”
Aida shook her head. “I’m out of mana,” she said helplessly. She still kept a small trickle running. “I’m just trying to keep that one from growing.”
“Luk, Bruce! We require assistance,” Kozu roared. He looked at Aida. “I will share some of my mana with you for now. It won’t be efficient, since we are not compatible affinities, but please use it to keep Mister Yanomo stable until Healer Luk arrives.”
Aida nodded. Kozu placed two fingers against her palm, carefully feeding a thread of molten mana into her system. When he was certain she had control of his mana, and was able to incorporate it into the thread that was flowing into Shon, he slowly increased the amount of mana he gave her. Trembling from the pressure emanating from such dense mana, Aida carefully routed the energy to Shon’s injury. The bleeding stopped.
“I’m here. Please continue to hold your Heal, Miss Loreh,” Healer Luk said. She placed her fingers over Shon’s wrist, closing her eyes as she evaluated his condition. She looked at Aida with wonder. “Very good, Miss Loreh. Please release your mana. I can handle it from here.”
When Aida finally released her mana, it felt like a huge weight had lifted from her shoulders. She felt like she could finally breathe again, and her limbs felt so loose and free. She felt sweat drip down her forehead. Wiping her face with her sleeve, she took a deep breath. Kozu gently touched her shoulder.
“Excellent work.” Giving him a wan smile, she allowed him to point her towards the rest of the third years. Now that the crisis was over, she felt faintly impressed with herself. Less than a thousand kicks in, and I already caused internal bleeding?