Tess gazed down at the core in front of her, took a deep breath, and absorbed it. She waved away the message, as she had already absorbed a core for this monster. A week or two prior, she had realized that, at the rate she was progressing, she was going to lose to Ilmir. And…she really didn’t want that; she didn’t want to let herself or Ellie down.
Fortunately, there was a whole part of her abilities she had been purposefully neglecting until now. It was uncomfortable, but…it was time for her to get over herself. So, to that end, she had been training herself by ejecting cores, slowly working her way up to her goal.
She grimaced as she ejected the core she had just absorbed and felt it slide out and disappear into nothingness. She took a moment to catch her breath, then got off the toilet and steeled her resolve; it was time.
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Ellie’s days fell into a pattern. Go to school, train, do homework, and then wait for her nightly conversation with Tess. Her disposition towards Ilmir gradually improved, going from fairly hostile to just a disliking, and she soon found herself just a couple of days away from Tess’s return.
She had realized, with some surprise, that the day Tess was coming back and having her fight with Ilmir was also Tess’s eighteenth birthday, so she had spent those days getting a suitable present for her. It had eaten up more of her savings than she’d like to admit, but she had made a fair bit from her training, so she was able to get something that she was confident would be useful to Tess.
And, finally, the day had come. Ellie was waiting nervously in one of the guild’s private rooms, pacing back and forth.
“Just chill.” Ilmir said, “You’re acting like she’ll have completely forgotten you or something.”
“It’s not that.” Ellie said dismissively. “You wouldn’t really understand.”
“You’d be surprised.” Ilmir retorted. “Try me.”
Ellie didn’t have any intention of letting Ilmir know about her and Tess just yet, but fortunately she didn’t have to. The door opened and in walked Tess, who, for some blessed reason, had those wolf ears and tail out. Ellie rushed over and gave the girl a hug, and Tess reciprocated much more readily than she had before their time apart.
“I really missed you.” Ellie said, resting her head on Tess’s shoulder.
“So you’ve told me.” Tess replied. She hesitated, then continued. “But, uh…I missed you too.”
Ellie lifted her head off of Tess’s shoulder so she could see the blush spreading across Tess’s face.
“Alright you two, get a room.” Eyfura walked in, smirking.
Tess blushed even further and extracted herself from the hug, turning away embarrassedly.
“Right.” Ilmir said, seemingly unimpressed. “How are we doing this?”
Eyfura held up a glove-looking thing. “The guild’s Gauntlet of Challenge, of course. Evan’s clearing out the exercise yard now, so you two can go at it no holds barred without worrying about leaking anything about your abilities.”
Ilmir grinned, pushing herself up from the chair she was sitting on. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She said. “Let’s do this.”
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It was stormy out, but the charge in the air that Ellie was feeling couldn’t only be from the weather. She was standing on the sidelines of an arena next to Gramps, Eyfura, and The Rumors. In front of them was Ilmir and Tess, who were staring each other down cautiously.
Ilmir was kitted out like Ellie had never seen her before; usually Ilmir would just use a single sword, but here she was holding one in each hand, and had two more sheathed at her waist. Furthermore, she looked more serious than Ellie had seen her before. Her easygoing attitude was gone, replaced with a sharp wariness as she stared down Tess.
Tess, on the other hand, looked similarly wary, but her gear was about the same as it had been before she left, save for some new footwear. Still, there was an edge to her that Ellie hadn’t seen before, a determination that said she was going to see this through no matter what.
“I’ll give you one last chance to back down.” Ilmir said, “I’m not going to go easy on you, and this is going to hurt.”
“Funny, that. I was going to give you a similar warning. You have no clue what you’ve gotten yourself into.” Tess replied.
“Don’t get cocky.” Ilmir snarled. “You haven’t had a chance to see what something really out of your league is like.”
“Alright, you two.” Gramps said, “Place your hand on the gauntlet. Once you both have done so with the intent to challenge the other, it will glow, and your duel will begin. Once one of you would hit zero HP, the duel will end and any damage to your bodies sustained during the duel will reverse. Eyfura and I will make sure that there’s no collateral damage, so go wild. Do you both understand?”
“Got it.” Tess said, placing a hand on the Gauntlet.
“Naturally.” Ilmir said, also placing her hand on the Gauntlet. As she did, the Gauntlet began to glow, rising up into the air over the heads of the two.
Suddenly, Ilmir and Tess were on opposite ends of the field. Tess looked disoriented, but Ilmir had seemingly been ready, as she was already running towards Tess.
Tess recovered quickly, a set of huge, gleaming claws sliding out from her fingertips. Ellie had recently obtained a Skill that let her see when an ability was in the process of being used, so she watched as the claws grew brighter and brighter to her, Tess stacking Skill on top of Skill on them.
Then, Tess threw her head back, letting out a roar. There was something…primal about it, and even though Ellie wasn’t the target, it still rattled her, her instincts telling her that the source of this roar was something she wanted to be as far away from as possible.
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Ilmir, on the other hand, was stopped in her tracks. She even had begun to turn to flee before her body glowed with the activation of a Skill and she regained her resolve, resuming her mad dash towards Tess.
As she approached, she raised her swords, quickly activating two Skills. One sword was suddenly wreathed in flame and the other in crackles and sparks of electricity. And, a second later, she was upon Tess, swinging down the flaming sword.
Tess calmly raised a claw, still glowing brightly from the number of Skills she had activated. Ilmir’s sword hit Tess’s claw, and, contrary to Ellie’s expectations, the sword was bounced back and Tess’s claws didn’t even have a dent.
Ilmir seemed caught off-guard as well, but recovered quickly, lunging forward with the crackling sword to stab at…empty air.
Tess had activated another Skill, and she was suddenly behind Ilmir, whole body glowing as she turned around and raked a massive set of claws down Ilmir’s back, the glow in them fading as the Skills activated, the glow in her body fading a moment later.
Oddly enough, there was no visible sign of anything happening, and Ilmir was able to quickly turn around, scoring a deep gash in Tess’s side as she whipped her sword around. Tess crumpled, clutching her side in agony as Ilmir stood triumphantly over her.
A lot of things happened very quickly. The first was Ilmir’s scream, a raw, throaty sound that spoke of sudden, intense, and unexpected pain. The next was the bright flash of light as Ilmir’s entire body burst into flame, a fountain of blood erupting from her back.
It was at this point that Ellie cast a casting-time reduced Haste on herself, expending a decent amount of Mana so she could see in more detail what exactly was happening.
Tess activated another Skill, and a flurry of ten strikes from Tess’s free hand rained down on Ilmir, and then Tess was gone, having activated yet another Skill and backing up, wounds closing rapidly as the parasites she had planted did their work.
Almost in a panic, Ilmir activated a series of Skills, causing the fire to go out and the bleeding on her back to slow immensely. She shakily stood up straight, now looking at Tess far more cautiously than she had in the past. “I’ll admit, that was good, but you’re going to have to do better than that if you want to beat me. I won’t fall for that once tw–” She cut off, giving out a yelp and slapping her neck. Focusing a bit more, Ellie was able to barely make out as a spider leapt off of Ilmir, scuttling away into the cobbles below.
Tess was back on Ilmir in a flash, but Ilmir was ready. As Tess moved Ilmir raised a booted foot and kicked out, halting the smaller girl’s momentum and sending her sprawling back.…And back…And Tess just kept going, gliding along the ground as if gravity didn’t apply to her. She hit the wall on the other side, but there was no sound of impact, nor any real sense of anything painful happening as Tess stood up, dusting herself off.
Distance created, Ilmir began to yank out the parasites Tess had planted one by one, keeping a wary eye on Tess as she did. For her part, Tess activated another Skill and the bleeding on Ilmir’s back stopped altogether, followed immediately by Tess beginning to chant a spell.
Ilmir slashed a sword into the empty air in front of her, and the coating of lightning leapt off of it, coalescing into a disc that hurtled toward Tess, forcing her to stop her incantation and jump to the side, right into the path of the fire from Ilmir’s other sword.
The blow knocked Tess into the wall, and this time she didn’t seem as prepared, slamming hard into it and falling to the ground in a heap.
Ilmir advanced on the prone girl, activating a Skill and causing an audible hiss as her wounds began to knit together, closing as she walked. When she reached Tess she placed a foot on her side, pushing down hard. There was a crack as Tess’s bone snapped, and Ilmir gave her a cruel smile.
“No more Stamina left, eh?” She mocked, pointing her sword at Tess’s head, “I told them you wouldn’t be able to do much. Honestly, I don’t get what all the fuss is about. I barely broke a sweat cutting you down to size. Really, Fortune should stop putting effort into you and give it to someone who deserves it, like Ellie.”
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“Really, Fortune should stop putting effort into you and give it to someone who deserves it, like Ellie.”
Time stopped. The intense sensation of pain Tess was feeling vanished, replaced by…nothing.
No, not nothing. There was a presence in the air, the sensation that Tess was near something far, far out of her league.
There were some muffled footsteps, and Tess opened her eyes, the world a dull grey. A figure, the only thing in full color, squatted down so she was at eye level with Tess.
“You did a good job.” Fortune said gently, stroking Tess’s head. She was a short woman with bright blond hair that reached just above her shoulders and golden, almost white glowing eyes. She was wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans and was smiling softly. “I’m proud of you.”
“But I…I lost.” Tess croaked.
Fortune tussled Tess’s hair. “Yes, but it wasn’t exactly a fair fight. Ilmir has some of War’s blessings, and they so happen to counter the tools you have. But…the fight’s not over.”
“But…even if I have Isabella break Ilmir’s pin, I don’t have any ways of dealing enough damage to her to win, not when I’m out of Stamina and Ilmir’s healed back up.”
Fortune’s smile turned somewhat shaky. “If you would like, I can guarantee your victory. I’ve finally received permission to make you my Appointed, and if you choose to accept, then I’ll be able to help you even more.”
She sighed. “It’s not a choice you should make just because you want to win this, though. Choosing to accept means you’re committed to this way of life, and you’re willing to get into more serious matters when the time comes that I need your aid. It won’t be easy, but at the least I will do my best to make you and Ellie happy. I mentioned it before, but I just about consider the two of you my own children. I really, really want to help.”
Tess mulled that over for a moment. Fortune seemed completely serious about what she said, and…well, Tess had been planning on this anyway. “Alright, I accept.”
Fortune took Tess’s hand, squeezing. “Alright then. Let’s turn this thing around, you and me.”
Tess nodded as best she could. “What do I have to do?”
Fortune smiled, squeezing Tess’s hand again. “Repeat after me: I, Tess, accept the position of Fortune’s Appointed…” She stopped, clearly waiting for Tess to speak.
“I, Tess, accept the position of Fortune’s Appointed,” Tess repeated.
“To further her cause as I see fit…”
Tess once again repeated the words.
“And to keep secret things mortals should not know.”
Tess finished, looking in Fortune’s eyes. Fortune drew herself upright and began to speak an oath of her own. “I, Fortune, accept Tess as my Appointed, to treat her fairly and respect her as if she were another god, and to be responsible with the power I hold over her. Should I fail to do so, I accept whatever punishment is seen fit.”
There was a moment of silence and then a peal of thunder, and Fortune smiled deeply. “The boss has accepted, so it’s official now. What say we knock ‘em dead, eh?”
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Ellie gritted her teeth as Ilmir mocked Tess, and she had to restrain herself from rushing out there and beating some sense into Ilmir herself. Ilmir swung her sword down…
And then something changed. While it was hard to see with the position Tess was in, her air had changed completely. There was none of the desperate struggle she had had before, it was instead replaced with a calm confidence as she raked a claw across the ground, throwing up a spray of pebbles as she shredded the stone.
Somehow, the pebbles all struck Ilmir directly in her sword hand, and Ilmir yelped in surprise, dropping her sword. Another claw had raked across the ground, and this time the spray of pebbles impacted the sword, sending it spinning upwards.
A spirit shot out of Tess, letting loose a horrid screech as it flew into Ilmir. Tess surged upward, upending a paralyzed Ilmir and throwing her backwards as the spirit moved back into Tess. Tess held out a hand, not even looking as she closed it, the falling sword landing perfectly within.
She looked down at Ilmir, who was scrambling to her feet, and spoke. There was an odd sensation of two people talking, and something about the voice dug deep into Ellie’s subconscious, letting her know exactly who that other person was.
“Oh, hun.” Fortune drawled, flicking Tess’s blood off of the sword and smiling wickedly at Ilmir as she pointed it at her. “You did not just tell me what to do.”