Struggle#09

Objective: Consume the Forbidden Fruit

Sub-objective: Ride the Great Eagle – Drink a Blue Star – Not Safe For Disclosure

Struggle#10

Objective: Reunite with all your friends

Sub-objective: none

I feel so tired… and I have to say a bit ashamed. Maybe I should have wait for her to wake up before leaving.

Well, I was way too excited to arrive at the 10th struggle and meet again with everyone. It’s absolutely not because I was scared to face Lilith, I’m not a coward.

Sigh… I guess maybe I am. Anyway! I have other things to do now!

For a change, I arrived in a forest. Sort of, because the trees are quite spaced from each other, and there is not much grass. Also, I can’t hear any wildlife, but I sensed some noise… A fight?

Shit! Are they under attack? It’s getting closer! Something’s approaching.

A huge projectile landed a few meter close to me, blowing a huge cloud of dust. No, it wasn’t a projectile, but a person. He got back on his feet… Hey! I know him!

He sensed my presence, and jumped at me. Oh yeah, he must be blinded by the dust, I tend to forget that people use their eyes to see.

Thanks to master Kunan’s training, my body can react on his own when someone is attacking me.

With the back of my hand, I slightly deflected the punch. It’s heavy! He tried to follow up with a rotating elbow strike, but I easily dodge it by lowering my stance.

His stomach is completely open now, “Double Palm Impulse Strike”!

I know I have no naming sense, but as long as it works, he was projected back to his landing point.

He’s not going back, seems like he understood who I am. After a swift arm movement, the surrounding dust was dispersed by a surge of vertical wind.

“Sam! It’s really you man!”

“Hey, Prom! Long time no see bro!”

Prometheus Peco, the funny guy of the group. Average height, average built, black skin, short dark hair, and a big wide smile. Yep, he didn’t change at all.

He was about to say something, but we heard another explosion. Someone else just landed, and the dust cloud is back again.

Yet again, it's someone I know. Despite her perfect looks, she still acts like a tomboy. Something is weird though… Blond hair, blue eyes, dirty but still beautiful face, wait… her arm. Her arm is weird.

Seemingly annoyed, Prometheus dispersed the mist once again.

“What is taking you so long. I didn’t hit you that...”

“Hey Marie, you haven’t changed at all.”

“Sam!”

Marie Murry, one of the genius in the group, self-called invention goddess, she crafts countless gadget and machines that challenge common sense, and talking about that…

“What happened to your arm?”

Her right arm was now entirely mechanical, it was pretty cool, with a kind of steampunk style and apparent cogs rotating.

“Oh, this? I lost my old ones so I build myself a replacement. Cool, isn’t it?”

“As you can see, she is not (h)armful anymore.”

“Come on Prom! He just arrived!”

Hahaha, even in a mysterious unknown world with magic, nothing change.

“It’s pretty cool, but how did you lose your old one?”

“You know, the 6th struggle. It was hard times. But just know that the record shows I decided to let my arm go. It was too good an opportunity to become a coll ass cyborg.”

“I can’t wait to catch up with all your story guys. By the way, what is happening here, I can still hear fights in the distance...”

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“You can? They should be pretty far though...”

I could see Prom trying to comically extend his hearing by literally extending his ear. It’s not how it works bro.

“We’re sparring. It was getting a bit boring to wait for you doing nothing, so we’re trying to prepare for what’s coming next.”

“Oh yeah! Did you wait for long?”

“Almost 2 month.”

“What?! You guys are fast!”

“Not really, according to our guide, our speed is regular.”

“You’re just slow man.”

“But it can’t be helped, hard mode is tough.”

I should have expected that. I suspected Valentine to be incompetent as a guide, but I forgot the other could have a decent one. I realise I don’t understand what they are talking about, “hard mode”? What is that? And she mentioned the 6th struggle, do we all have the same struggle pattern?

I have so many questions, and fortunately, we have all the time we need to answer. Well, not really, one of the first things they told me is that after completing a struggle, you have more or less a week to leave, otherwise the difficulty increases dynastically until you leave.

Struggle#10

Objective: Reunite with all your friends

Sub-objective: none

Well, not yet. I still have to meet with everyone it seems.

After this little reunion with Marie and Prometheus, they guided me to the camp. It wasn’t too far from here, apparently, they were supposed to spar further away, but as Prom got projected multiple time, they ended up close.

It was a circle of 7 tents, around an extinct campfire. I’m so excited, finally, I arrived, it’s been so long!

Now that I think about it, I don’t really know how long I’ve been here. I lost my sense of time during my training on the 6th struggle, maybe I should ask Valentine about that.

The others were still out, and were meant to come back in a few hours. In the meanwhile, I discussed with Prom and Marie about their journey.

I quickly understood that our experiences were completely different. They discovered how to use the flux only a few days after the start, it took me at least twice the time. Also, they didn’t have that ridiculous 1st struggle in the jungle, but something more suitable. Prom had to cure an entire town, and Marie had fix an old huge machine.

Of course, they also have their own title.

Prometheus, Mender of Charity. I am not surprised, back on Earth he was the best when it came to tending to superficial wounds. The fact is that he was often the one hurting himself, and as no one wanted to keep looking after him, he had to do it by himself, and eventually became really good. I think his i-talent helped him a lot for that too, but he’s never explicit about it.

Marie was a bit shy about her title, so Prom told me. She is the Mason of Chastity. Again, not really surprised, despite her popularity, she never dates anyone.

Seems like all titles have a common pattern. According to their guide, it’s the same in every session, there are a number of recurrent classes and seven Virtue.

Chastity, Charity, Diligence, Kindness, Humility, Patience and Temperance.

And according to my guide, those virtue do not reflect the older personality at all. Hey, for once she taught me something.

“MYYYYYSAAAA!”

Here she is, she jumped on me, making me fall down on the ground. I knew she would react like that.

“Harue!”

“I missed you so muuuuuch!”

I managed to get up and to make her sit down. She was looking me like a puppy, so I patted her a bit, and her face illuminated. Did she grow up? Nah, she’s still the little Asian shorty I know. Her hairs are longer than before though.

“You took your sweat time Sammy.”

“Sorry about that. Good to see you too Xav.”

This feels good, to see everyone again. Two left… oh shit, I forgot. I’m about to meet again with Nami. Shit! We didn’t talk at all after our fight, what should I say?

I should probably play it cool, lots of things happened, maybe she doesn’t remember. What am I saying? Of course, she remembers. Shit! Why do I think so much about it!

Okay… calm down. There is still a chance she won’t care about it, and everything will get back to the way we were. We’re still friends in the end, so there is nothing to worry about.

“Oh by the way! Naomi told me she wanted to talk with you in private when you’re here.”

What the fuck Harue! I just managed to calm down!

“Di-did she said about what?”

“Nah, something from Earth I think.”

“Did you two got into a fight?”

“Not really. Well, in a way you could say that, but it was more like a… disagreement?”

“Come on. If it’s about disagreement, you two have that all the time. Something must have happened.”

Xav has a point, we fight a lot, but this time it was really intense. But it’s not like I can tell them we’ve been secretly dating for more than a year. Guess I’ll feign ignorance until she arrives.

“I don’t really understand myself. You know... girls are girls.”

“Hey! I’m still here.” “What is that supposed to mean?”

Shit! Now Marie and Harue are mad at me too. How am I so gauche?

“I think we deserve apologies Mysa.” “Come on Sam! What did you want to say?”

And here they are lecturing me. Girls! I didn’t mean it! And Prom is laughing his ass off! Please! Someone help me!

“What is this commotion?”

I looked behind me. She was here, and times froze for an instant. Once again, I got lost in her eyes. Her deep, intense, magnificent emerald eyes.

“Sam?”

“Hey, Nami... It’s been a while.”