In the end, the spar was won by the team of three, though Cynthia and Trader had been eliminated.

"You were amazing!" Trader complimented the ice mage. "You're learning really quickly."

"Didn't you go from freeform to master in, like, two months?" Cynthia deflected, slightly blushing.

"Sure, but I'm cheating. You went from freeform to several spells in four days. Fusion spells, at that."

"Alright, okay, I'm amazing, sheesh. Can you stop now? I don't want to grow an ego like yours."

"Hey!" Trader protested half-heartedly.

"Your stance is weak, but there is potential." Isabella added her own two copper. She was sipping on a health potion. Just because she was Shelled didn't mean she wanted to die again. "Your reflexes are good, too."

The demon turned to Karrel. "You, on the other hand, are stagnating. "

"I made all three hits against you." He protested.

"Yes, with the same technique you are using from the very beginning. You need to innovate. Improving conceptualism is all about creativity."

He played with his beard a bit, thinking. "I suppose… I have a few ideas. I'll scribble for a few minutes, then let's do target practice while Trader and Cynthia spar on their own."

Everyone agreed to the plan. After a short break, Karrel took out his gun, which he had called "The Myriad" after the amount of bullets in the full cylinder had been increased to seven. It made the weapon even bulkier, to the point he had to fashion a leather sheath. It didn't fit in his pant pockets anymore.

He pulled back the gun's hammer and nodded to Isa. She waved her hands around, weaving light illusions to serve as his targets. The rules were simple: the illusory silhouettes would run at him, and if they got too close, she would throw a bolt of light at him as punishment. The demon would gradually ramp up the number and speed of his "attackers," and he had to hold off as long as he could.

While Karrel was fending off the humanoid shapes, Trader lunged at Cynthia with her dagger. Though the elf's staff provided her the range advantage, Trader closed the gap too quickly for Cynthia to take advantage of that. The ice mage was barely managing to parry the onslaught of metal and claws, so she had no time to retaliate.

Or so it seemed.

The symbiote swung with her dagger towards Cynthia's face, but she saw through the feint and struck with her staff. Trader blocked it with her knee. Frost spread over her leg like a mold. The blue woman willed her muscles to vibrate, warming her and thawing the frozen tissues.

While she regained feeling in the leg, the ice mage completed another spell. A jet of pressurized water appeared from Cynthia's hand and pushed the symbiote away. Then the elf took full advantage of her range, and thrusted the staff at Trader's chest. The strike was dodged by Trader taking a few steps back.

[Feisty. Let's make this a bit more interesting.]

The healer opened a vein in her hand with a thought and blood poured out, gathering in a bubble floating in front of her. After a tense moment, the blood took the shape of an arrow and threw itself at Cynthia.

The elf summoned an ice wall. The blood arrow sunk deep into the ice, cracks spreading through the structure. As the wall dissolved into mana, Cynthia used freeform magic to freeze the red liquid trapped within. With the projectile free again, she tried to return it to the sender, but she felt resistance. In the moment of confusion, Trader launched another blood arrow. It stopped right before Cynthia's throat. It was only a spar, after all.

"What was that? Why couldn't I control it?" The elf asked, pointing at the shards of red ice the arrow broke into when it fell to the ground.

"I know it as the principle of authority. Tell me, instead of waiting until you generate more mana when you run out, why not just take it from your surroundings?" Trader said, returning her blood back into her body.

Cynthia closed her eyes, and reached out with her mind for the ambient magical residue. After a minute, she could feel it there, if she concentrated. When she tried to grasp it, though, she was met with the same resistance she'd felt earlier. She opened her eyes, a look of frustration on her face.

"Yeah, not easy. See, every time you draw mana, you imbue it with intent. But it is very specifically your intent. You are ordering reality to change. The caster has authority over their mana, and no one else does."

"But I'm guessing there are ways around that?"

"Yep. There is a school of meta magic called usurpation, and it's concerned with pushing one's authority on foreign mana. Turning spells around, siphoning ambient mana, even stealing mana directly from others' minds."

Cynthia was about to comment, but suddenly pain exploded in her left shoulder. She ducked, turning her eyes toward the direction of the impact. She noticed a person jump off of a tree, crossbow in hand. Only then she realized a crossbow bolt was sticking out of her body.

Trader threw herself at the elf, quickly bonding with her. She ripped out the bolt, sealing the wound with blue skin.

Cynthia sent her the mental image of her assailant, and they ran.

"Karrel! Isa! We got company!" They shouted as they ran after their quarry.

Trader used a simple blood spell, burning a full liter of life force for more strength, which was far from a naturalist approach, but the symbiote has warmed up to esoterism during her study of sympathism.

It allowed them to gain on the sniper, who turned out to be a dwarf in a camouflaged cloak. With a quick look behind the shoulder, the would-be assassin threw a small bag from their pocket. The bag burst in the air, releasing a white powder that clung to Cynthia and Trader's body. The elf stumbled and coughed.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

[It's not toxic, we'll be fine.] The symbiote assured. [Clean our eyes with water, I'll focus on chasing them.]

There was no need, however. Isabella quickly caught up by shadow-hopping, and though the dwarf used air magic to dodge faster, there was no beating the speed of light. They were quickly downed, and the four gathered around them.

"Who sent you?" Trader asked through Cynthia's mouth.

"I shan't betray!" The sniper refused in a deep voice.

Isa grabbed their already wounded leg and squeezed on the burn. They screamed.

"Lady Pendant! She's the one who wishes the fae-born's demise! I shall tell all, just please, let go!"

Isa dropped the leg.

[Why is he speaking like that?] Trader asked Cynthia.

[He? It's a chick, look at her red beard.]

[Huh. Interesting.]

[Dwarves usually keep to themselves, so they have this weird dialect. Some of them don't even speak imperial.]

"Why does she want me dead?" Cynthia asked, already knowing the answer.

"You've absconded with the Lady's tiara and fenced it off for some quick coin! My lady demands satisfaction!"

"I didn't steal anything. I wasn't even in control, it was full moon."

The, apparently female, dwarf grimaced. "It was, wasn't it? It does somewhat absolve thee… but then why did the spirit care for coin?"

"It didn't. It tried to kill the werewolf kid."

"I suppose you have no reason to lie, what with my life in thy hands. That means little, however. The lady demanded thy head, so it is my duty to deliver it!"

The assassin pulled out a dagger from her sleeve, but Trader was faster. Claws grew out of Cynthia's hand and severed the dwarf's throat.

As the sniper gagged on her own blood, Karrel caught up to them, panting and sweating.

"Who… was that…" he heaved.

"A servant of lady Pendant, trying to finish the job on Cynthia." Trader explained.

"And… you killed her?" He finally caught his breath.

"She decided that loyalty was more important than life."

Karrel nodded. Then, he and Isabella turned around, pointedly not looking at neither the corpse nor Trader/Cynthia.

"What?" The symbiote asked, confused.

"Just get on with it." Karrel hurried her.

When it clicked, she scowled.

"I'm not gonna eat her. I wasn't injured, and I already healed Cynthia. Besides, we packed lunch."

[Why the fuck did they expect you to eat the corpse?!] The elf demanded.

[The last two times there was a dead body around, I was injured and had to replenish my mass.] The alien explained casually.

[But that's so…]

Trader groaned. [I'm not having this conversation again.]

[Oh, I'm not judging you, you gotta do what you gotta do. I wanted to say it's unhealthy. Though I guess you'd have no problems with that, huh…]

"Alright, so if Trader isn't… you know… then what do we do with the body?" Karrel asked.

"First of all, I'm gonna loot it." Cynthia decided, and leaned down.

Besides the crossbow and a quiver full of bolts, she found another bag of the blinding powder, and some silver coins. There was also a beef sandwich, but it got squashed in the tumble. The dwarf's leather armor was obviously too small for her.

In the end, Karrel used his forge magic to cremate the body. The crew then returned to their training area.

"Trader, I'd like to spar with you, one on one. Lethal force." Karrel stated. "I want to test the Myriad in actual combat. Plus maybe fiddle with a few new things."

Trader nodded, and detached herself from Cynthia. It took her a minute to find the dagger she dropped when they started the chase, and the two combatants took their stances. Isabella signalled them to start.

This was a perfect scenario to field test the gun. Trader rushed at Karrel from about ten meters away, giving him time to fire three deafiningly loud shots. Two of them missed, but one caught her in the side. She didn't bother fixing it for now, so she just cut off the bleeding and flung what little blood had already escaped at him.

The smith made a gesture, and a large bellows appeared by his side. The conjured device was half again bigger than him, and as it squeezed on its own, a torrent of air flung Trader and her blood shot back several meters.

She could tell the thing was flimsy, more concept than matter. But with its strength, she couldn't launch anything with enough force that it could reach the mana construct and disrupt it.

Karrel took advantage of her stupor and fired two more bullets, both of which connected. However, instead of hitting her and leaving a thin tunnel on their way out like usual, they impacted her with greater, more spread out force. Like she had been hit with a hammer.

Isabella, who was closely observing the duel, nodded approvingly.

Trader ran, circling the smith. Once she was south of the bellows' angle, she threw a thin spray of blood straight from her arm.

Karrel stopped channeling the bellows and summoned another one positioned better, but by that time the red projectile landed right between his feet.

Unfortunately for him, that wasn't the end of it.

From the puddle of blood erupted dozens of flailing arms, grasping randomly in every direction. Some of the limbs struck him, but that was purely by coincidence. He stumbled away from the jumble of flesh, a shiver running down his spine.

Now, the two were at arm's length. The symbiote swung at him with claws, acid dripping from the points. He blocked by summoning a shield that was shaped like an anvil. After her hand impacted it, and the conjured metal started sizzling from the acid, he roared and charged at her with the shield.

They both fell on the ground, Karrel pressing the Myriad against her brain. Which translated to about where most people had their heart.

"I concede. Good fight." She stated. He rolled off her, and then she helped him get back up.

They sat next to the other two. Karrel had some scrapes and bruises, while Trader had several holes in her body. The bullets didn't catch anything essential, fortunately. She grabbed a few fish and shoved them into her mouth.

"How did you make those arms?" Cynthia asked with a tinge of fear in her voice. "You didn't make any deal with some dark god, right?"

Trader swallowed before answering. "I couldn't even if I wanted to. See, usually healing takes matter from the body and moves it to where it's needed. But that means that someone that has been, say, cut in half, would be beyond saving even if the healer got to them in time. So in such desperate cases, the healer may simply conjure the missing body parts. Obviously, this is not a permanent solution, since the parts only exist as long as the healer is channeling mana into them, but it can be enough to bring the injured somewhere safe to be properly healed. I just did the same body conjuration, except as a delayed spell cast on my blood. Without a brain, the arms were getting random signals, so they were spasming around. Honestly, if it was someone who wasn't as used to flesh shenanigans as Karrel, I would have won."

"At this point, I think you could kill most people as long as you're touching them. It's why I fought so defensively." He commented.

"You can hold your ground, alright. The problem is, we are going to be the ones on the offensive." The healer said, referring to the bloodline analyser heist they've planned so long ago. Now that they could hold their own, as judged by Isa, they were planning to do it a few days after the ball in the town hall.

"True, but we have a great infiltrator on the team, don't we?" He turned to Cynthia.

"It wasn't me who broke in there, it was the fae."

"Having your body controlled makes you develop the possessor's muscle memory." Trader stated. She was kind of an authority on the topic. "Plus, I'll be bonded with you. We'll be fine."

"I guess… I'm still nervous." The elf scratched her shoulder. It became a sort of tick for her.

They did another two rounds of "gang up on the demon" before calling it a day and returning to the city.