—Well, how do you feel about it? —I asked, worried about her wound.

She was having a look at the bandages over her shoulder, twisting her arm around to check its robustness.

—Seems like you did a good job for me. Thank you so much!

I sighed. The Idea of using her as a target of my weapon to increase my own strength didn’t seem like a good idea at first. And my opinion of it was even worse now.

—We’re not doing this again, all right? I don’t like wounding a teammate. Much less while in a fight.

—Ehhhh?! What do you mean? It worked so well! We’ve never been so close to winning as today! —her face funnily showing her disagreement.

—Fighting requires teamwork. If a team member gets hurt, it is already a problem considering the risk of getting hit again increases. Hitting you myself is like giving ourselves a risky disadvantage. Putting all our stakes on a single person is less preferrable than having two completely functional fighters.

She looked at me, still unconvinced, as if she couldn’t bear her disappointment in me.

—We’ve been training for two years by now, and you still don’t know how fighting with vitals works? Your ability relies on landing hits on your opponent, but Jon’s guard is too good for us to be able to expect you to consistently land hits on him, which in turn basically makes you useless.

—What do you mean? I can steal the strength I need from the trees.

—You know perfectly that your ability is not nearly as efficient with plants than it is with people. Fighting with images and vitals requires risks. Even more for us that still don’t know our teacher’s vitals’ powers.

She paused, as if rethinking her following words.

—We haven’t been practicing with our weapons for long, but I think I have a good grasp of the payoffs of using them. Each has their own rules and limitations, and they change the battlefield in unconventional ways, making adaptability an important skill for us to learn. If you want to work as a team, you need to be aware of such risk and rewards. Teamwork includes me being able to sacrifice my own win condition to boost yours. It is just a risk, not a liability. Also… —her eyes meeting mine, her arms crossed— I know how to take care of myself. I don’t need you to treat me like a delicate flower.

Her words lingered on my head for a second. I was still doubting whether the strategy we pulled off was a good idea or not. But I had to acknowledge that we were a team of two. My skills were hers, and hers were my own. Confidence in each other was fundamental. I couldn’t throw away an advantage because I was afraid of hurting her.

—I’ll give it to you. I’ll trust you more on the following training sessions. But I still don’t like your idea, we’re only doing that in extreme situations.

She opened her mouth to object, but thought better of it, hesitating for a second.

—All right. I’ll trust your judgement. But you’ll have to take responsibility of your decision.

Her determination clear in every gesture of hers. How could I not meet her expectations. She had grown so much and so quickly. I was kind of jealous.

—One thing. I need you to clear up some doubts about your vital— I said — Its powers are confusing to me. How can you dash around like that. I thought your ability had nothing to do with teleporting.

Her eyes opened widely.

—Wait… You don’t know about my vital’s power?

I shook my head, slightly scratching my head in embarrassment.

She sighed at that.

—My ability is a space manipulation one, more specifically it relies on reflections. I can create exact images of myself at specific angles, but with a limited range. Every time I slash the air while activating my ability, I create a glowing line of light in space. I can then use the line to reflect things through space. This includes moving around in the air or creating a second weapon.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

She paused, letting me process the information.

—But there are some limitations of course. The range of my dashes is only double my weapon’s reach. And every time I create a reflection it will face the opposite direction it was pointing originally. This means that both me and my copies will do exactly the same movements, they cannot be controlled individually. It is a mirror ability.

That was oddly confusing. It seemed like a complex vital to manipulate. Did she learn to use it so well so quickly? I was impressed.

—But you sometimes were able to not change direction while dashing. How did you do that?

She reddened, embarrassed.

—So, you noticed… —a small chuckle coming out of her mouth— I’ve been trying to improve the use of my ability, and this was the first time I actually tried something like this in battle. It didn’t come out as well as I expected but I’m glad you noticed. Until now I was only able to dash once —She gestured with her finger, drawing a line in the air—. But if I prepare a couple of light cuts with enough anticipation, I can reflect over the two of them turning me back around —the two imaginary lines lingering vertically in the air in parallel.

—How can you keep track of everything?

—Well, the fact is that I don’t really. I just manage to react at the end of every dash. Also, there is a funny side effect of using my ability, have you noticed?

I took a look at her, not noticing anything different about her. Did she mean an external, visible side effect or a more complex, hidden one? I shook my head, still unaware of what she meant.

She held up her sword.

—It has to do with my grip. Every time I reflect in the air, I change my gripping hand.

It was true. She was holding the weapon with her left hand now, but if I remembered correctly, she normally used her right one.

She took a pen on her hand and put a paper on the table.

—Look at this! —she chuckled.

Her writing was as perfect as it always had been. With a small detail that was surprisingly interesting: the letters were backards.

—What the hell… How am I supposed to react to this…?

Her laugh filling the room at that.

—It’s just something I thought you would find funny.

I did. But my head was filled with other kind of thoughts.

A bright light blinded me as she used her vital to fix her misdirection. I hesitated for a second, but I asked her anyways.

—Do you still not trust Jon?

She was facing away from me, but she stopped in her place. It was an issue we hadn’t talked about at all. But now that he was giving us the chance to move forward with the Challenger’s Path, I thought it would be a good Idea to settle this with her.

—Well. It is true that I was doubting him at the beginning, he just appeared out of nowhere and offered you to train us. At first, I thought He was lying about most of his story. But it kind of checks out now.

She pointed out of the window.

—Since I have gotten this weapon from him, I have been able to see something that was hidden to me before. The sky is always darker than it looks.

I looked where she was pointing, but I just couldn’t see what she was referring to.

—It’s a barrier. They covered the whole country with a huge dome. My theory is that it is an image. Maybe a Guardian’s? But what are they keeping us away from. Other countries? I don’t think so, we haven’t had any fight with them for a while, so why would they. My theory is that they are not protecting us from anything. They are looking for something. I don’t know what. But Jon’s explanation is the best option I have for now.

My eyes still couldn’t catch what she was referring to, but I didn’t need to see it myself. I imagined perfectly the darker shade of blue she was describing. Partially blocking the sunlight from coming in, as it would with anything else trying to cross it.

—How come I cannot see it?

—My vital’s ability probably has something to do with it. They probably come from the same source.

I slightly touched the hilt of her weapon. But it was still hidden to my sight.

—Maybe you also need some kind of affinity with it. We still don’t know how vitals work. But it’s likely to be something like images…

So not having an image might be posing another obstacle for me. My thoughts drifting back into its usual state of overthinking.

—Let’s participate in the Challenger’s path together —she tried to convey her feelings to me.

We were both staring at the open window.

—Do you think we can make it? — I doubted.

—I think we have a good chance of success. Not many people know about vitals anyways. But I’m not saying it because of that —she paused—. Since we discovered vitals, things have changed so much. Now I have reasons to think that this world is not what I thought in the first place. Your brother’s return. The existence of weirdly powerful weapons called vitals. A huge barrier covering the whole country with a blueish shadow without anyone noticing. And they all have something in common: the Guard.

She was right. My brother joined the Guard almost immediately after he came back, climbing up the ranks until reaching the unlikely status of Guardian. He gave me my weapon, probably with the intention of me learning about them and growing curious. And the barrier. Probably set by some Guard’s higher ups with the intention of catching anyone with such weapons. Maybe the only thing Drest wanted for me was to grow curious. To send me to seek the answers he found on his own. Grow suspicious about this place and reach him at the top. The only path I could take now was to join the tournament, with the hope of being able to call the Guard’s attention and join their ranks.

—Let’s call Kai with us. He will be a powerful ally.

It was important that he came with us. I don’t think I would be willing to take such endeavour without him. I had faith in him. And he was strong.

—I’m glad you think like me — she said with a smile.

It looked like the decision was made. We would participate in the tournament. Hopefully join the Guard and find the answers we were looking for. Drest left the spark of doubt on me since he left. And with all that happened. It was turning into a wildfire.