A fight designed to create a more extreme training opportunity than what many might normally hope to get; while he, Thera, and Yuzu would be participating, expectations were different for them than the rest. They were the third tiers, and while the abilities they held at that level would be controlled to the extent they could, such a thing provided them with multiple noticeable advantages. Their attributes were higher, and there were some aspects of the power they couldn’t suppress no matter their desire. Ben couldn’t simply turn off how he’d think, and while he’d have to reach his soul out around him if he wanted to keep an eye on the kids, the most he could do then was just not look at the thoughts of the other contenders.
Still, their roles were clear. While this would technically be a training experience for the three of them as well, given that all three possessed skills that might be awakened, as much as anything else, they were meant to be a challenge for the others to fight against.
With Vasta calling them to start, the rest moved, letting Ben take in the scene, getting to see a clear pattern emerging immediately. Of the people there, everyone he knew was avoiding him. Thera and Yuzu both at least made sense; if they were meant to act as hurdles for the rest of the contenders then they shouldn’t waste any energy fighting each other, but besides them, Uliel, Vasta, and the two he’d saved from the demon world avoid him just the same, immediately going the other direction.
<The two you saved make sense.> Myriad told him. <You had the power to break them out of the prison that held them for centuries; do you think they’d expect you to become any less formidable now that you’ve awakened?>
They should be aiming for me precisely because I’m formidable, Ben thought back. This is a training opportunity I let you talk me into; I should at least be getting used to the full extent of my power.
<I’m sure you’ll be used more than enough by the ones with a worse idea of what you can do. Speaking of->
Yeah, yeah, I’ll handle it.
Even if the people who knew him had no interest in facing off, that didn’t mean there weren’t others who were, with three seeming to have locked on to him while others fought among Thera, Yuzu, or themselves as Ben took his would-be opponents in.
Even suppressing his soul sight, it didn’t make much of a difference. Ben had seen them all before and knew what skills they had. A member of Zandale’s race, looking like a colourful mass of tentacles who possessed a strength enhancement, with their numerous limbs likely to be used with it to devastating effect. A harpy who’d awakened her unarmed combat into a skill called enhanced claw arts, with her sharp talons and the name of the skill not leaving much to the imagination about how she’d attack, and the final was the daughter of Foast, having brought her unique beastform skill to the edge of awakening like her father before her, with it baring the name of a creature he didn’t immediately recognize, with all of them moving to clash.
Coming at him from all sides, the three choosing teamwork against an opponent they already suspected was strong, tentacles came at him like whips while claws were stretched out to tear through his flesh as well. Foast’s daughter did a partial change of her form, shooting out hardened quills at him from a distance while Ben just calmly took it all in, considering how he should react.
He could tell each of the three moved with great skill in their respective abilities, but they had chosen to go against someone with the most powerful thought structure on the planet. Even without slowing down his mind any more, he still had room to look at how he wanted to approach things.
With those three at least making it clear that they weren’t going to provide a challenge that would awaken his skills, that didn’t mean he should just knock them out immediately himself. Even if he wanted another awakening, getting someone else to claim one would have been just as meaningful. Leaving them beaten and broken before they could react wouldn’t help them grow, settling what he had to do.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Looks like I get to be a training partner now.
Restricting himself to just his material manipulation and his actualization, Ben obstructed each attack as they came, not fighting back himself yet, and made it seem closer than it was. Tentacles were deflected by actualized shields, claws dug into a wood-like board he materialized, and quills were left stuck in a wall of dirt he’d raised from the ground below. All of it reacted to and all of it quick, but not to a point that would keep them from fighting more, and not in a way that would break their spirits as they looked at the difference between them, letting them continue to try their luck.
Each whip and slash was blocked, be it by an act of materialization, actualization, or some manipulation of the world around him, and each fired quill was stopped the same, all while Ben walked the delicate balance of letting things look close enough to make them believe they had a chance. That if they only pushed a little harder, they’d break through and beat him in the end with the way he carelessly ducked and dodged even as he used his powers to defend against their attacks, helping to sell that image until, one by one, they began to catch on.
It started as a small look between them, an exchange of glances that seemed to ask if they should be trying themselves against other prey, but that moment of weakness was all that was needed for Ben to switch his role and start playing predator. Running away from a stronger opponent may have been the correct choice in a real-world situation, but what they were doing was training, and he wasn’t going to let them escape.
Instantly, Ben was on the offensive, walls actualized all around them to keep anyone from going in or out, letting out a cheerful whistle as he did.
“Awe shucks,” he grinned. “Looks like you’re stuck with me. Guess you’d better do your best then. We’ll start slow and I’ll ramp up the difficulty from there.”
“What-” Foast’s daughter tried to ask, having the words knocked out of her before she could as a metal ball flew into her gut, Ben’s prison only just beginning.
He started off simply enough, with six metal balls flying around the room, one targeting each of them while the remaining three flew in fixed patterns, but even then, his targets had swears on their lips at the idea that what he was doing could count as starting slow. Each ball following them was moving fast enough that they could only escape by sprinting, with the ones following patterns moved at triple that speed, creating dangerous obstacles as they were forced to run around in that confined space, with the number of them only growing.
After the first minute where they focused entirely on evading and trying to get their bearings, two more were made, and that trend was going to continue until he got bored of it, with a new obstacle created every thirty seconds and only one way out. Defeat him.
A conclusion he felt all of them reach, with a bit of pity in his heart when he saw their resolve. The strength holder was at a level where a casual strike from a tentacle could split a boulder, the one with her claw arts had transcended ordinary use of their body when it came to combat, and the shifter had evolved the nature of the beast she could change into, but not one of them was good enough. Their loss was assured, leaving only the question of how much he could make any of them get from the experience before they’d be defeated.
With more attacks from them each coming, when they got in close enough, Ben reacted to match them every time, avoiding strikes from the two through simple dodging, even if it strained his body, and catching the quills shot his way with his hands. Let them believe that he was using the majority of his mana on the rest, that if they could just catch him off guard, there’d be a chance. There was no shame in hope, no matter how misplaced, even as that slowly began to fade too. Their blows continued to fail to connect while the number of shots he had flying around only grew. While they were panting for breath just trying to escape, he looked largely unfazed, still just observing their efforts in a calm manner, even if some thoughts were left swirling his head.
I can handle these contenders, but the space contender still basically killed me, he groaned to himself. Ugh, god. I know not all skills are created equal and everything, and I get that different people are going to have different weak points based on where their talents lie, but my pride still aches. If that stupid thing had been right in front of me instead of who knows where, I could have killed it.
It was a memory that still annoyed him, leaving him to briefly touch his neck, but he didn’t have room to dwell on it. Foast’s daughter slipped first, getting struck by one of his balls and threw her off enough that she no longer held the leeway to avoid the others that pummelled her, with the change in rhythm it caused leading to the downfall of the other two as well, even if that meant their defeat only came a minute or two sooner than what it would have.
Seeing them down and groaning, though, it was clear enough his victory was marked and, with that, released his actualization to take on what remained on the other side.
