Chương 11: R&R Ch. 11 — A Point to Prove

Jasmine watched her partner as they sat in the waiting room, the two of them in matching outfits though entirely different colors. Nicholas had gone with the blue pants and the white shirt, while she had gone with the red pants and black shirt. For his part, Nicholas was reading a book in an effort to seem completely nonplussed. She guessed he wasn't so calm; he had been her biggest opposition for this plan. Though it had only been two people, so he was also her biggest supporter of the plan.

"Help me get into my armor?" Jasmine asked as her suit of armor along with Beeg Hammar fell out of the portal to her soul space she had summoned. Nicholas nodded, putting the book away as she helped her get into the armor.

"Are you sure about this?" Nicholas asked as he pulled the straps tight. Eventually she would have a domain and just fly them on, but till then she had to use mundane methods. It wasn't worth the extra soul to make the armor smart.

"What, you scared?"

"Not particularly, if you're confident that you can handle three-fourths of them, then I have nothing to be scared of." Jasmine shot him a smile as he finished tightening the final bit of her armor. That smile, hopefully, said she had this, but she wasn't sure.

"You're the one who wanted to get the top score."

"Yeah, I know, but it's still going to be a headache," Nicholas said, moving over to the portable speaker and microphone they had prepared for this occasion. They had hatched this plan after their first day of training, and getting everything ready hadn't been hard, but if they succeeded, they would have broken a record. Something not even Jasmine's grandma could claim. The fact her grandma hadn't been at their level by the time the schools came about was details.

"Next week we need to make sure we have names decided," Jasmine said as she gave a wave to the camera that was watching them. Tonight they would release the first videos of their time at the academy for the publicity stunt in four weeks, and Jasmine had no interest in shouting her name out to the world.

"Yeah, hopefully next week they'll have the rough versions of our costumes ready," Nicholas said with a shrug, now wearing a domino mask as they waited for the final call. Twenty seconds after that, they would be transported to the hunting grounds with the job of clearing out all the Beyonders in the area. Jasmine and Nicholas would take them all out. When the countdown began, Nicholas made sure that everything he needed was ready, while Jasmine let her power flow into her armor and weapon.

Gravity and force connected to her senses, and she choked back the wave of nausea that came with temporarily expanding your authority.

"Let's go put on a show." Nicholas said before they vanished. An instant later they were in the middle of the hunting grounds, a small clearing Jasmine vaguely recognized as one of the starting locations. At their level there wouldn't be many, and they would be exceptionally weak because of the restrictions. Hell, Jasmine didn't even need her weapons and armor, but it wasn't about passing; it was about them proving the point.

Without breaking through to level two and the second half of F-rank, Jasmine couldn't sense Nicholas as he continued to build power, but when reality trembled, she felt it with her new authority senses. Even though he wasn't focusing on it, the world was reacting to the power he was channeling into his domain. Enough that Jasmine wondered if he was pushing it.

She was certain she had more power than he did, but if just the buildup was causing this, she doubted she could use more than half of that level in a single go. Nicholas raised the microphone to his lips while Jasmine prepared for the next part. They didn't have a clue how close some of them were, and he would be out of commission for who knew how long." Call" The world obeyed. Jasmine obeyed.

Without her permission, she wrenched herself around to stare at her friend as he sagged to one knee, his microphone slipping out of his hand as he steadied himself. Her entire world had fallen away, leaving only her friend. Her spirit shook free first. Her authority over her soul was absolute, though because it had only been a partial spirit effect, it took her longer than normal to shake free from such an attack.

With her body back under her control, she strode forward, planting herself between the sounds of the oncoming hoard and her currently invalid partner.

"Ready for step two?" Nicholas asked, his voice awful but still strong. If he said he had more left in the tank, she would trust him. More power flowed into Beeg Hammar as the runes lit up with emerald light.

"I was waiting on you." The first Beyonder stepped into view. It was like a monkey but twisted and with trails of energy trailing from its movements like a demented signature it was trying to leave on the world. Her first instinct was to fly forward and crush it. Her second was to pull it towards her with her hammer. But her desire to follow the plan won. There would be several she couldn't see, and she didn't want to get out of position.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it." Down" Wind blew in Jasmine's face as gravity in front of her changed. Down was now pointing towards her. If they hadn't practiced this trick, she would have been thrown for a loop as the senses her armaments gave her shifted.

Jasmine focused on her regular senses as she watched Beyonders fall towards her, several crushing themselves on trees, but regardless, they were all coming towards her like presents on Christmas day. Power continued to flood her items as gravity spiked within the area of her control. Nicholas had stepped back so he wouldn't be in range for this part. When the monsters entered her field, they flew to her even faster.

The moment one was near enough to strike, Jasmine swung her hammer, gravity and force trembling around it as Nicholas cut off his own ability, leaving them briefly suspended as gravity reasserted its natural direction. As if shot from a cannon, her enemy flew away, crashing into several others as she flew after them. The fight would still head towards Nicholas, but she would take out as many as she could before that happened. One working to bring everyone here.

And the second to give her the perfect battlefield to start with. He had given her everything she could have asked for, and now she was going to show what she offered to their team. Her hammer spun through the air light as a feather as she lightly tapped her enemies, leaving a glowing rune on their skin as she wove deeper into the battlefield. Just a little bit more. She wasn't at her limit yet. She could handle a higher throughput. There. Jasmine slammed her weapon into the ground as power flowed out.

The green runes exploded with energy, and several of them were yanked into the sky, some skewered on trees during their ascent, but most hung there waiting for her next option. Jasmine drove her hammer down, bringing those floating slamming back into the ground with the full force of her power. The spray of exploded Beyonder energy was glorious. She couldn't help laughing as she flew to the next group.

She couldn't do that attack again if she wanted to last the whole time, but it had given their team what they needed." Up" Around Jasmine, several Beyonders that had got back to their feet floated in the air, unable to push off anything to get to her. It was like taking candy from babies. Not that Jasmine actually had any experience taking candy from babies, she thought it would be mean to take their candy.

Point was that it was easy to hit the floating people, who could do nothing but scream in rage about their circumstances." Down" All the ones floating fell as she felt gravity twist its direction behind her. Jasmine spared a glance to see a Beyonder that had been sneaking up on her falling away as Nicholas gave her a wave.

"Got it, just leave it to me," Jasmine said as she poured more power into her armaments and began flying and smashing faster. Jasmine was a whirlwind of destruction, pulling enemies to her so she could crush them with the full force of her might. Nicholas stood on the outskirts of her battle, moving the enemies into position for her while taking out others by sending them flying away. It was everything. Jasmine could hear her blood roaring in her ears as the world faded around her. All that existed was her power.

She had more to give. The sound of branches breaking behind her was all the warning she had that someone had snuck up on her. Even as she spun around to react to the threat, she knew she was too late. Luckily, Jasmine wasn't alone." Call" The voice was strained, panicked even, but reality responded all the same. Jasmine spun to face the opponent that had been trying to attack her. A Beyonder, vaguely bear shaped with a crimson energy that spun off of it.

Despite being less than a foot away from her, it couldn't care less, charging towards Nicholas, who was leaning against a tree, arm outstretched. Jasmine tried to kill the bear before it could get to her teammate, but it was just fast enough to escape the pull of her hammer. The monster barreled into Nicholas, the two of them tumbling onto the ground as Nicholas let out a panicked gasp as the air rushed out of his lungs. If this had been the real world, he could have died.

If he had been alone, their instructors would have pulled him out. Luckily, he wasn't in either scenario. Jasmine's hammer came down like a meteor, exploding the bear off of her friend.

"You good?" Nicholas shook his head to the negative before standing up." Up" He gestured towards more of the beasts, sending them into the sky. Jasmine nodded. He had a point. As his commands ripped the battlefield apart Jasmine focused on crushing all of their opponents. After another three minutes of fighting as hard as they could, their clearing was silent. Jasmine hoped they were done at least. She was completely out of power. Even standing was taking energy she didn't have to give.

"Do you think we did it?" Jasmine asked as she fell to the ground.

"I'm not sure," Nicholas said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Well, we didn't see any of the others, so I doubt they got anything, and you definitely called basically everything here."

"Yeah, I did," Nicholas said quietly, well obviously quietly, but there was something about the words that bothered Jasmine. Jasmine nodded.

"I am going to take a nap."

"Do you want help out of your armor first?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, I am a helpless damsel. Save me from my magical armor." Nicholas helped Jasmine out of her armor, and she threw everything into her pocket dimension. She could clean it up later. It wasn't like anyone went into her soul dimension, so nobody would know if it was dirty or not. Then, free from her armor, Jasmine happily stretched, enjoying all the pops of her body before she flopped back down into the grass to fall asleep.

Before she can get anywhere with her quest for a nap, space warped and she was standing back in the gym where they had been told about the test. Jasmine grumbled, crossing her arms in a huff. She wanted to nap, not be told that she was awesome. Though the joy she got at the expressions of despair from everyone where they are all sulking made her feel great. Who needed sleep when you got to rub it in that you are awesome and definitely worth all the effort your family poured into you.

She may not have the best score in any individual class, but who cared? She just proved that she and Nicholas were the best. Nicholas yawned as Astra spoke about how, to truly become heroes, they would all need to do much better. When they're all dismissed, Jasmine was less enthused when Astra spoke into her mind, telling them to stay. With just them and the strongest person in the city in the room, Jasmine should probably be worried. But it wasn't like Astra was as strong as her Gigi.

"What were you two thinking when you pulled that stunt?" Astra said, staring them down.

"That we would break records." Jasmine said with a shrug.

"To prove that I was right." Astra exhaled slowly.

"You decided to embarrass all of your peers to say I told you so?" Nicholas nodded.

"We didn't embarrass anyone; they embarrassed themselves because they couldn't do anything about it. Would you be upset if we teleported around killing them all? No, so you should be happy we are that awesome," Jasmine said, trying to smooth things over. The fact that they were embarrassing everyone wasn't the point. They had to prove that they were strong. Astra sighed.

"Yes, you two have done great. And the rewards you'll reap for being the only ones in the episodes this week will be great." Nicholas raised an eyebrow at that while Jasmine bounced on the balls of her feet.

"So I guess we should think about what rewards we want for how well we did." Astra's eyebrow twitched.