To say the trek from the cave was uneventful would be an understatement. The TEA agent, who remained silent until they exited, walked ahead of the group with the long vines carting the man and his Thaeon out. They were instructed not to talk to him anymore, despite his pleas of innocence. He was a simple Hunter and meant no harm to anyone. After that, vines had moved up to cover his mouth.

“Criminals will lie about anything to try and get free,” said Lyn. She walked closely behind Nil who had asked Dave how things were going since they all left. Dave didn’t say much except it was good and thanks for trying to rescue him. Lyn followed up with, “You are an interesting group of newbies.”

The only bit of excitement came in the form of a thundering crash from another Thaeon that looked like a pile of rocks formed into a bear. A shadow overtook it and it fell over in a clatter of rocks. No one asked any questions. Once they left, Dave and Nil checked their watches for any incoming missed calls from their time with no signal. Nodding in agreement that commenced a group call with Raven to report everything that happened.

“You made it through? Great! But hey, you can hang up. I’m about to land.”

Up above, diving through a cloud, Dagger was plummeting in a corkscrew. He spread out his wide wings to slow the descent and let Raven jump off. He and the TEA agent walked to the side for a moment to chat.

“That’s your professor?” Lyn was pointing for Haven to heal up the minor injuries from the others. “He’s kind of cute.”

Nil felt his face turn red.

“Thank you, Lyn.” Dave nodded.

The agent shook hands with Raven then pressed a button on his own watch. Moments later a helicopter swooped down to pick up him and the prisoner.

“What will happen to him?” Nil asked as Raven walked back over.

“He will be tossed and turned through the justice system to determine why he was attacking new Trainers and our guide.” Raven shook his head. “Everyone is all right, though, that’s what’s important. Ah, and you made a new friend.” He walked over to greet Lyn and inspect Haven with a curious expression.

“It’s not often you find [Ether] Thaeons anymore. Might I ask where you got her?”

In typical fashion her face turned red.

“Forgive me for being so presumptive and nosey.” He laughed. Then his expressions turned curious, scrunched up in what Nil thought was confusion.

“Why are you here, professor?” Dave asked.

“Well, since you are all safe I was hoping to see how you’re coming along. Maybe even catch another battle with your new Evo1 Thaeons. What luck that the first two out are the same ones that battled before leaving Fan Town. Technique data from the watch is great, but it’s no substitute for real-life observation. If you’re not shaken up from the ordeal in the cave.”

Dave and Nil locked eyes. The agreement was implicit. The problem with denying battles with other Trainers was that it made you look weak or scared. Pride, among other attributes, was common for these headstrong boys. Something Raven knew all too well and was going to poke at it to get them to fight. He looked at Phantom, curious. An Evo1 [Void] Thaeon had many great options in progression and he wanted to see if Nil was up to snuff. The girl would need to be monitored over time and watched, too. The odds of two rare aspects meeting up, both that were each others’ opposing aspect, was astronomically low. He didn’t make too big of a deal about it. He didn’t want to affect their own progression by changing the way they thought. Nothing would stunt their growth as much as making them feel like they were more important than everyone else. Such arrogance would eventually be their downfall. He began to wonder if something else was happening in Specter to push such an unlikely alliance together. Fate? Nonsense. There was no such thing as fate. For now, it’d have to be a coincidence. A freak coincidence, one that would probably never happen again, but one nonetheless.

“I agree,” Nil said with a determined voice.

“Me too. Let’s go.”

They walked over to an open field away from the mountain’s rock face. On his watch, Nil received a notification for a battle with a stake of thirty percent. He didn’t know this was possible.

“Don’t tell me you still haven’t figured out the watch’s basic operation?” Dave scoffed. “Just hit accept unless you need help with that, too.”

“That’s a lot of tough talk coming from you, Dave. Covering up for the fact that I whooped you last time?”

Raven smiled at this. Competition was the only way to push forward. If all your rivals or friends were weaker or worse than you, there was never going to be a way to improve. He walked to the edge of the field with his hand up.

“Ready?” he yelled. Their Thaeons stood–Dave’s floated–tense in front of them. They both nodded. “Fight!”

Dave’s Thaeon Sky did not immediately charge after Phantom as Nil anticipated. Instead, he skirted the field with its crescent body glowing a faint white light. Nil knew he’d have to conserve their techniques to save energy while they figured out what his move was. Phantom ran into the middle of the field. Charging in recklessly was a surefire way to lose money. Then again… Void Strike and close the distance. Let’s see what Dave here has been working on.

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Phantom swiped at the air and Sky got pushed to the side with its hands covering its face in an expression of pain. Perfect. Phantom ran in to land a flying kick. As if expecting this entire sequence, Sky suddenly became composed and spun backwards like a wheel in the air. In its hand formed a tiny ball of light. Dave was throwing out his hands in a mimicry for what his Thaeon did, the ball of light shooting off towards Phantom who was foolishly caught off guard. The ball punched his stomach with a light tap before exploding into a brilliant array of refracted rainbow light.

That was unexpected.

Phantom flipped back, staggered.

“This whole time I thought you were the strategic one, Nil.” Dave laughed. “What, don’t want to pass out again from your disappearing act?”

Lyn was off to the side watching it all unfold, her eyebrows scrunched in concentration. “These are an arrogant bunch of Trainers out of Fan Town,” she told Raven who was too busy mulling over ideas in his head to hear her. Nil had gone the purely physical route with [Void]. Interesting. But possibly foolish. Many Trainers, even Raven, liked to split between physical and ranged attacks to increase their repertoire in combat. Evo3 [Void] was monstrous in the right hands. He had never seen one personally, being so rare, but he had read the data from past battles. He’d have to wait and see if Nil could get that far.

Phantom shook off the attack, though Nil could feel the impact that tiny explosion had. They wouldn’t be able to take much more of those which, unfortunately, Sky was charging up two more and letting them fly from his distant vantage point. We should try and redirect the attack back like before. Actually, I got a better idea.

Phantom nodded and sprinted towards the flying Light Bombs, dodging the first, but running headlong into the second. Combining Void Strike with an enemy’s attack was fine, but it took too much precise timing. Nil wanted something else for quick protection. Maybe if Phantom opened up a wider door to redirect attacks that would also keep him from getting slammed when he got close. Like a…shield. The Bond resonated with the new technique forming in both of their minds. That’s it, but this would have to be quick. With the light ball about to make contact, Phantom raised his left arm and a black wall appeared. Instead of only taking the brunt of the hit, the ball disappeared. It was both protection and a way to channel his phasing technique into a redirection that didn’t take expert timing with Void Strike. The ball reappeared, not to hit Sky, but at the ground in front. It exploded and blew a cloud of dust that covered the area.

Bingo. Phantom, charge in and finish him off.

Raven felt a sense of joy rising up in his stomach, almost enough to make him momentarily forget about the issue with Marv that he would have to continue investigating once he made it back to his lab. This was indeed a promising start. If Nil could wrap his head around how [Void] really worked, then battles would become trivial at this level. Each aspect had its own perks and paths of progression. Sure, Trainers could reach a certain level of understanding to push in any direction they chose–he and Dagger had done something similar with their [Flying] aspect–but typically one could draw initial conclusions about what a Thaeon could do.

Dave was hacking up dust and reorienting himself in the wake of the dust wall obscuring everything from sight. He cursed to himself and felt out where Sky was in all this chaos. Luckily, he had another trick up his sleeve that had also helped him in the cave before getting encased in mud.

“Now, Flash!”

From inside the swirling dust, Sky glowed with a blinding light that blew away the dust and made the field visible again… Just in time to see Phantom, planted right in front, spinning with a back fist, trying to use the tiny nubs on the side of his hand to land a savage blow. Sky raised its arms in the last split second but was still sent spinning off to the side, giving Phantom another opening to pounce with a flying kick to the chest. It wasn’t, however, quite the blow he was expecting. Instead of crumpling Sky and taking home the money, Phantom kept flying through the body and landed hard on the ground. Before Nil could realize what had happened, Sky appeared in earnest behind him with another ball of light. The dazzling explosion blew Phantom back into the ground and he didn’t get up.

It was over.

“What, did you think that [Light] was all about shiny explosions and bright lights?” Dave laughed hard and checked his watch for the funds to be transferred over. “Catch you in Pol City, Nil.”

Lyn ran over with Haven who gave a pick-me-up to Phantom. His first real loss. it stung harder than he wanted to admit.

“[Light] has many paths, but illusions are key to almost all of them.” Raven clapped Nil on the back. “Congratulations, though.”

“Congrats? I lost. He played us and walked off with a third of my money.”

“But look at what you have developed so far in techniques. Keep playing to your strengths and improving. Dagger and I have lost far more than you probably ever will. Isn’t that right?”

The [Flying] Thaeon drifted over and hummed loudly in agreement.

“Losing is only bad if you don’t learn from it and give up instead.”

Kind words didn’t stop his pride from throbbing like an open sore. Regardless, Nil understood more about Dave now than ever. The next time he saw him, he wouldn’t lose.

“You better improve a lot more before Pol City,” Lyn finally said. “The leader there is no joke and her trial keeps the majority of Trainers from even facing her.”

Raven’s watch began to buzz and ding. Looking at it, he frowned then said, “Indeed. Listen to your new friend here. At any rate, you did well, Nil. If you will excuse me, I have a lot of work to catch up on back at the lab.” Raven hopped on Dagger, slid on his helmet and took off into the sky with trails of lightning buzzing off its tail.

“That was abrupt.” Lyn was standing with Haven looking off into the distance towards where the map had told Nil Pol City was. “It’s been fun, Nil, but this is where we part ways. There are some things I need to get done before attempting this trial again and I need to do it alone. We’ll meet up again soon, okay?” She started running off. “Don’t get beat again that bad before I see you!”

In the wake of her leaving, a sense of sadness overtook him. As annoying as she could be with her pointed commentary, they had both gone through a lot together in the little time they knew each other. Did he miss her? Ridiculous. She was just another Trainer that would eventually stand in his way. At least, that’s what he told himself.

“No time for sulking, Phantom. Let’s get to Pol City and shake things up.