Dinner was served in the office. Daniella had sent a small fruit cake up as a bonus, but that was the only thing that resembled flavor in the whole meal. The entire afternoon had been filled with nonstop financial agreements, guard reports from the storm, and repair requests from various institutions.
My redirection of lightning bolts had apparently badly damaged certain roadways, which necessitated the decision of whether I would pull raw stone from the planes for repairs, or if I’d fix the road to the nearest quarry myself. Politics demanded I be seen publicly in the efforts to fix the city, which was the choice in the end. Riko had suggested I fix the road, that way the people could handle the rest themselves.
I couldn’t come out and say I wanted people to be out there believing in their ‘Mage Heroine’ to save them and make life easier. Worship of that nature wasn’t as directly aimed at me as a deity, but it was enough to help.
After we’d eaten, I made the executive decision to be done for the day.
“Let’s head down and stretch our legs. You haven’t gotten any practice with your new abilities yet, and we can’t have the hero falling behind her peers.”
Riko gave me a flat stare for the comment.
“What?”
She waved at me, wordlessly.
“Ah. Sorry.” She had made a point about her inferiority issues compared to me. One day, I’d be able to tell her about the reason without worrying about drawing divine attention.
After that blunder, we left the office considerably less organized than we’d found it.
We ventured into the same training courtyard from earlier and found a loose gathering of Earthlings practicing spear forms.
“Every time I round a corner, I see a crowd of faces I don’t recognize. How are we even keeping them all organized?”
Riko made a face I generally identified as negative in nature. “I tried to get people together and get a census of sorts. That didn’t really work. There are too many of them to keep track of.”
“Daniella has a list of them.”
I turned towards the new voice and found the local Energizer Bunny, Fukushi.
She bowed slightly, her face a mask of neutrality. “I apologize for my earlier irritation. It seems I’d come to a misunderstanding with High Mage Archaelyn. I realize it has discolored my opinion of you wrongly, as you had no idea about our situation beforehand. The fault lies with me and her.”
“No, I—” I stopped myself, took a deep breath, then steadied my gaze on her without any of the earlier haughtiness. “Let’s try that duel again. To better understand one another.”
If I’m not mistaken, that was a ghost of a smile on her face just then.
“Are you sure, Lilin?” Riko immediately looked concerned, her eyes focused on the short warrior and her ornate blade.
I grinned at her, showing some confidence. “I’m not a warrior, I’m a mage. I get that disadvantage, but I’ll be fine. I doubt someone as capable as Fukushi would kill me. On the other hand, it’ll show everyone what they’re up against in this world. Could you gather a nice crowd for me, Riko?”
She blushed at the name, cute as ever, but nodded and headed for the castle again.
“No holding back, then?” Fukushi inquired from my side.
I nodded at her, fully serious for the first time. Fukushi could really push my false body to its limits in ways the storm hadn’t. Magic required a being to reach into a conceptual dimension beyond mortal understanding. A dimension closer to the source of the existence of gods. To reach into that higher dimension and take something out. Something molded by the mind with intense focus. The basic form was to reach beyond, into that conceptual dimension where thought became reality, and pull out a raw element, like the six that mortals used on… again, I realized I hadn’t actually learned the name of the world.
“Hey, Fukushi, what’s the name of this world?”
She grinned, amusement dancing in her eyes. “Egg.”
I frowned at her. “Something’s wrong with the translation ability heroes receive. Did you just say this world is called ‘Egg,’ or am I losing my mind?”
She cracked up laughing. “It’s a story long passed down by the hero families. I had not expected the reaction to be this amusing.” She laughed. And laughed. Until tears needed to be wiped from her eyes.
She had a cute laugh.
I let my shoulder slump, realizing with some horror that the world was, in fact, called Egg. I resolved to not call it that. Instead, I moved to the sparring circle as more and more people arrived in the courtyard and the overlooking balconies of the castle.
The entire castle staff might’ve been present, because the chatter of so many voices at once became more and more like a stadium for a sporting event, exceeding the hundreds of Earthlings rapidly as word spread.
Ten minutes passed, as well as Fukushi’s laughing fit.
We stood opposite each other, the crowd finally quieting as the standoff began. I had even sensed some bets going on somewhere.
Fukushi’s grip settled on her blade’s hilt, then pulled the scabbard from her belt to unsheathe the incredibly lengthy Japanese-style weapon. I waited as she extended the hilt, fully forming the semi-polearm weapon.
I smiled in satisfaction as I watched her microreactions speed up. Her breathing was stable, but it seemed like she was breathing faster as her unusual affinity for long blades imposed dramatic power on her small body.
I raised my left hand to my side and chanted. “[Airgetlam]!” The silver hand appeared there, hovering like a strange extension of my being. “Might as well complete the set. [Cu Chulainn]! [Claiomh Solais]!”
With the second spell of the set, red flakes began to shimmer and fall from my armor, representing the imagery of the root concept I had invoked. The third was more impressive, appearing as a regal hovering blade of light nearby.
“You wish to combat me with a sword? Are you a fool, mage?” Fukushi was frowning, and I knew my magic had somewhat stumped the entirety of the castle staff.
Argetlam was one thing. A unique chant to call upon shaped silver, which could be found in the plane of earth. The spell literally meant ‘Silver Hand’ in the old Celtic tongue. The problem was the other two. The new world I had arrived on didn’t have spells like mine. I technically reached a dimension deeper into reality for my spells than they did. Their spells were like an afterthought solution to mundane problems for me.
I grinned at my opponent and gestured for her to come at me with my left hand, which was mimicked by the armored gauntlet. “I thought warriors could learn about their opponents from clashing blades. Let’s see how we compare to one another head on.”
“Hmph. Fine.” Fukushi’s right foot shifted a hair, and I braced myself.
“[Time Dilation].” The world chugged down to a rate where Fukushi’s speed only seemed like it was on fast-forward. I found myself wincing as I realized I was operating at my own limit with that much. I just didn’t have the Aspects needed to do anything more with the concept. Time Aspects were miserable things. Being aware of the past and future made for absolutely despondent gods and goddesses. Seeing the complete boredom of eternal existence completely stripped all the entertainment from their lives.
I compressed all of that rumination into a single thought, watching Fukushi rush towards me with her blade raised for a diagonal slash. I sidestepped and ducked, putting myself below the trajectory.
At the exact instant that I moved out of the way, I saw the woman’s foot lift from the ground, breaking her posture for the swing entirely as she aimed a kick for my forward knee. Her hand released the upper position on the grip of her blade, having pushed off her own momentum and turned the entire motion into a flowing rotation that covered for a pair of throwing daggers leaving her sleeve with a short flick of her wrist.
Faced with a spread of attacks meant to corner me, I chose the daggers over bracing to receive the kick, or sliding sideways back into the path of the blade.
Airgetlam took one of the blades, flicking it aside as I angled my superior armor to deflect the second knife.
Then, I counterattacked. Claiomh Solais cut parallel to the motion of Fukushi’s sword, aiming for the same forearm that had thrown the knives.
“[Erosion]!” I barked as soon as I could force the words past my lips.
A blade of compressed, sawing air currents struck out, threatening Fukushi’s feet while she spun her blade in a brief windmill motion faster than my increased speed could track, batting my blade of light out of its path.
The moment my spell was formed, Fukushi’s entire stance shifted, planting the blade behind the wind saw, tip down in the sand, where she pivoted her body forward, somersaulting over it and my spell in one rapid acrobatic maneuver.
She was on me in a heartbeat after that, her blade vaulting over her descending body as she slashed as part of the motion.
Goddess—me—she looked so hot.
I made the only choice afforded me at that speed of engagement.
The blade descended, and I felt the feedback as it bit into Airgetlam. Fukushi was strong. Her bladework was impeccable, and she actually seemed surprised she didn’t cut right through the spell.
Then I felt the pain as Fukushi recovered from the surprise immediately, spinning her legs in sharp motions while my silver hand held her sword in place. I only barely managed to register that her high heels were also sharpened into steel blades on their spines, giving her more than a few tricks with her incredible movement speed. She’d opened up my forward thigh like it was fish being filleted.
Instantly, Cu Chulainn went to work, repairing and replacing the injured areas where she’d targeted around my armored plates.
Still, Airgetlam held the blade firm, preventing Fukushi from extracting it. I had the advantage, even if I’d made a mistake in underestimating her impressive lethality. Claiomh Solais descended like a wrathful deity.
Fukushi continued to amaze, however. She kept a single finger on her sword as she stepped towards me, swept beneath Airgetlam, gliding her left hand along the spine of her sword as she slid along the ground near my feet.
My blade of light hit the ground as I recovered from the slashes to my leg, and Fukushi pinched her sword’s tip in her right fingertips. She somehow managed to use that grip as a fulcrum to come back around, not letting one or the other of her hands leave the blade at any point. Her strength and speed remained constant, whirling around until her feet settled on the spine of her sword near where I’d gripped it.
Finally, we paused, and the world seemed to be able to take its first breath since we’d begun.
“Fuuuck!” The echoes of misery rose from above as people groaned in despair.
“YESSS!” One solitary person cried in joy as he won whatever bet had been placed.
I, for one, grinned up at where Fukushi stood like an empress of war, her silver and golden eyes dancing with interest as she regarded me from… slightly on high. Even if her perch gave her some elevation, she was still short.
“Very well, mage hero. Your ability speaks for itself. We have crossed blades. Shall we cease the warm-up now?”
I felt a bit of cold sweat bead across my forehead. That was still her warming up? The things I want to do to make this woman keep looking at me with eyes like those, though…