“Uh...are you sure about this, Billy?” said Elena. The tall woman stretched, her expression hesitant, though her body was already tensed and ready. 

Billy stood on a platform of empty air, overlooking the altered space of the training hall.

“Nh...Yeah. Go all out, give her your best. I want to see the upper limit of what both of you can do.”

“Eek!”

Alessa, yelped, the small frightened-animal noise escaping her before she could even think to stop it. She blushed, aware of the minor loss of face, but similarly aware that now was neither the time or place to be concerned over such things.

Though Alessa was still the tallest of the house’s denizens at nearly nine feet of height, the seven foot one Elena, still struck an imposing figure.

Her broad shoulders and muscular build seeming to radiate power. Her aura pouring out of her like heat out of a blast furnace. Sweltering, oppressive and painful to touch.

All encompassing like the rays of the sun. Seeming to spread to every inch of the expansive ten mile long training hall.

Alessa tried to steady herself, shifting her gaze from the juggernaut in front of her to the master who stood above. This was a mistake, an obvious predictable mistake. She cursed herself for a fool.

Billy was wearing his teacher face. Cool and unyielding. His gaze was without mercy, offering no reassurance, and even before he spoke she felt like her blood was already running a few degrees colder.

Billy didn’t look at her, he looked at Elena instead, his gaze just as disinterested and slightly disdainful as before.

Elena didn’t much like the look. No matter what the purring in her undercarriage said, she definitely wasn’t turned on by this all business, hardboiled, Billy. Absolutely not.

Billy placed his hands behind his back, as he rose higher into the artificial sky of the altered room. Floating towards the viewing box, that held, Tamra, Edna and the rest.

“Now remember this a no-holds barred fight. I want you to go at it like your lives are depending on it, because ultimately they kind of are. Ell. Crush her, Kill her, tear apart, whatever. I want you to do your worst. Al, don’t die, but even if you do, be at ease in knowing that there’s a subtle difference between dead and ‘dead’, so long as the worst doesn’t happen I can still put you back together again.”

Billy’s words were small comfort and only served to make Alessa’s blood run even colder. As her master entered the viewing box, Alessa felt the space change. The air around her seeming to grow heavier and denser.

It was only in the instant that she saw the fist flying towards her, that she realized that the fight had already started.

Scrambling back she managed to just barely move herself out of the way, the air where her head had been, being forcibly displaced. Moving at hurricane speeds whilst emitting a sound like thunder.

Alessa spat blood, feeling like the inside of her skull was sloshing about. Though her movements stayed sharp it felt like she was drunk. The sheer pressure of Elena’s punch just now was enough to set all of Alessa’s internal systems in disarray.

Whilst deftly, desperately dodging she channelled the aether in her blood, drawing on her power, turning every red cell in her body to a metal that was many thousand times stronger and more durable than steel.

Within the first five seconds she had to escape at least a hundred blows before her transformation was complete.

Narrowly avoiding punches and kicks that could very well have sundered the planet if used outside the train hall. Each movement of Elena’s limbs carried at least ten million gigatons  of force.

Each rotation of Elena’s body, made Alessa feel like she was trapped within a nightmare tidal wave.  

Drowning. Knocked about. Unable to escape, unable to give up. Forced to desperately, futily, swim against the violent current. Struggling to keep her little boat afloat, and her head above the water.

*****

There was a limit to how long Alessa could dodge and as Elena’s speed increased Alessa quickly found that limit. Alessa received a blow to the sternum that sent her flying and would have liquified her organs were they not already metallized.

Before she even got too high, she received another devastating blow from behind, knocking her towards the ground.

Up and down, she went, juggled into stasis, bouncing about, being hit in such a way that it made it seem like Alessa was just floating in space. Her body being jostled about in the empty air, transforming into some light litter that had been trapped within a whirlwind.

Stolen story; please report.

She’d long past gone past the realm of mere disorientation, right now she was utterly and profoundly lost. Despairing wishing they’d just call the fight. Her feelings growing bitter and more dejected as she remembered that this was apparently a duel to the death.

Then suddenly the master’s voice entered her head, though whether it was real or imaginary she couldn’t tell.

“Nh….Is that all I taught you? Is that all you understood? Come on, Alessa. We both know you can do better than that.”

The words bore the same cold intonation as before yet somehow they lit a fire in her. An explosive and incredibly lucky kick  caught the green skinned warrior queen in the face. Alessa took the opportunity and used it transform a second time.

Shifting to her Talos form. Growing taller,  growing heavier. Her body smashing into the ground like a world ending meteor. Her flesh transforming into something indestructible yet fluid.

The Tyrant Queen quickly recovered slamming into her with a force that could shatter all of Monde’s moons. Her tail whipped out and  struck the girl. Slamming into  the young titan and sending her flying.

Elena pursued her airborne quarry. Laughing maniacally and uproariously, as she casually broke the sound barrier, a thousand times over, with each of her movements.

A blow to the chin that would have torn Alessa’s head off, was cleanly dodged. The blow to the abdomen that should have torn her apart and sent the remaining pieces flying, was weathered and just barely absorbed.

If Elena was the sea, then Alessa was a mountain. Unyielding and absorbing the worst that the elements had to deliver. She wasn’t completely immune to the blows.

Forced to speed up her healing each time the monster in front of her, barely grazed her, but she was able to stand on her two feet.

Able to just barely fight back, throwing punches with arms had been transformed into heavy spiked clubs.

*****

“So….What’s the point of all this, sir? Alessa’s holding her own for now, but I think it should be obvious that there’s now way that she can win.” said Tamra. Billy’s ever present shadow.

“Nh? Point?....Right, ‘that’. Consider it stress testing. For both of them. I get to see a baseline for what Ell can dish out. I get to see the bottom line for Alessa can survive. Then we move on from there.”

“But...couldn’t we have done that with the shades? No need to pit us against each other. Isn’t that a bit…?” said Tamra.

Frowning as she watched Elena grab the girl that she’d started to think as a little sister.

Spinning her about  like a toy and then tossing Alessa into the air. All before she seemingly teleported right above the girl, and slammed her back into the ground again.

“Cruel? Nah…. This is me, being nice. Cruel is what the stronger folk are being set up against in the other halls. Ell over there still has own training to do when she’s done helping Elena. You girls have actually done pretty well, you’re too strong for most the grand shades and the numbered...At least for training purposes. But you still need a little more seasoning. And no matter what I say out there, Ed and Ell have their own minds and they know not to go to far. So you and Al are actually quite safe, when I use this method. At least safer than the alternative. If I set you two up against one of the named shade’s it’d be hard to tell what would happen. Thus I need more data. I need to know where you all are in your cultivation and training, so I can guide things along with a better sense of where we’re headed. Eventually I plan to create a few custom shades to safely help you with that process.”

Tamra shivered remembering being trapped within bullet hell, shot to pieces. She recalled the despair she felt as she was lost in that dazzling field of glowing white destruction that was broken only by beams of burning darkness.

She frowned as she gazed at Billy’s back, troubled by at the thought that this was his idea of using kid gloves. Feeling a bit of trepidation and anticipation when thought of what the ‘real deal’ would be like.

“Okay… but what’s all this for, really? What’s all this about? Why the sudden push for us to get stronger, we’re pretty high up if we’re talking about standards on the continent.” asked Tamra.

Billy uncrossed his hands, letting them fall to his side. He finally turned to look at her, looking away from the training hall.

“Nh?....What’s it all for?…..That’s an odd question to ask. It’s not like my goals have changed. You’ve all done well to make it this far, but you’re far from done. We’re not aiming to be the strongest on the continent or even in all of Monde. You’ve yet to even see the beginning of what you’re all capable of. Of where you need to reach. You, me,....all of us, are far, far too weak….We need to get stronger. Much stronger.”