Chương 22: R&R Ch. 22 — A Training Finale

Nicholas flew on one of Jasmine's flying swords like it was a skateboard as they did tricks for the whole group. Well, actually he held on by magic glue from Jasmine's powers, but what the audience didn't know didn't hurt them." Firework" The burst of color filled the air, much to the awe of all their onlookers as they stared in wonder. Nicholas grinned. If they thought that trick was fun, they would lose their minds at what was coming.

Last week only Jasmine had shown off, but with their new rank up and already the effects of condensing his power showing dividends he did the same and be a part of Jasmine's show using a couple words he had no issue warping as they flew around.

"You ready?" Jasmine asked as they flipped past each other.

"Are you this is your first time playing support?" Nicholas joked.

"I've been playing support this whole time, with you setting them up like that for me the whole time. I would be pretty shit if I couldn't capitalize on it," Jasmine said, laughing. There was probably some truth to that. Their show ended, and both of them got ready for battle. Jasmine's flying swords spread behind her like wings of a particularly violent angel. Nicholas was deep in his own thoughts as he focused on channeling power through his working. It was his most complicated one.

In the future there would be more like this, but making a word that did a lot of things was difficult, and he imagined it made it even harder for him to contest against other supers. Against these monsters, it would be perfect. And it wasn't like this word wouldn't be helpful in other situations, just not so much in combat. The bell tolled, and the battle began. One of Jasmine's swords shot to Nicholas, and he hopped on, trusting her to keep him safe as he commanded reality to bend.

Nicholas met eyes with the strongest Beyonder here, now painfully obvious to his rank two senses. With a thought, he released his veil and let his power run wild as an announcer screamed. Nicholas could barely hear over the blood roaring in his ears." Playroom" Nicholas commanded the world, his fist clenched. His strongest working to date with the most amount of effects, but it had come to him pretty simply. All it did was make a set area his playroom.

His control settled over the area like a blanket, and Nicholas howled with joy as he telekinetically began lifting Beyonders to test just how much he could do here. That was working perfectly and the ones in the sky made for perfect targets for the angel of blades as Jasmine flew through the arena her blades spinning around her like a twister. Now for the part of the trick Nicholas had been the most excited about. Earth rumbled as it was pulled up, shaping into a golem of stone.

A puppet entirely controlled by Nicholas's will. His stone titan lumbered forward, crushing all that came against it before colliding with the rhino-looking Beyonder; the two wrestling for dominance. Nicholas would not lose. His golem could win, sure, but Nicholas wasn't going for just victory. The ground beneath the rhino split as hands of stone tried to drag the beast down, as his golem beat it into submission. Once that was handled, Nicholas turned his attention to the rest of the battlefield.

He could have robbed people of points just by moving them away or pulling the enemy to himself or Jasmine. That's how they did it the first time. But they were a mile stronger now. As the rhino monster bellowed its last breath, the golem shattered into a storm of stone blades modeled after Jasmine's very swords. The second set of stone blades flew racing across the battlefield to cut through as many of them that opposed him.

"Duck!" Nicholas ducked as the sword under his feet swerved away from the bird monsters that had escaped his playroom to attack him from above. Unfortunately, they were back in his room. With an invisible hand made of the air of the playroom, Nicholas struck the birds down, crushing them into the ground as Jasmine continued to pilot the sword to keep him safe. He trusted her and she him. They were working in harmony as the blades worked together to cut through the enemy. He set her up, while she cut them down.

"Can you turn it up a notch?" Jasmine asked as she blade in hand, decapitated a tiger beast. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Nicholas wasn't sure. Keeping track of everything in his playroom was a task in of itself, but his stone swords were shattering anyway.

"Of course I can, keep up," Nicholas said as his power flexed, more enemies being placed into Jasmine's path as he crushed more with stone workings.

Rend was in the stands ostensibly to make sure that if anything did happen, nothing dangerous would happen to the civilians. A superfluous measure since Astra would keep them all safe. Rend was strong, fast too, but he wasn't yet Astra's equal, and the light woman was better at this kind of task anyway. Though it was always going to be superfluous this week with his charges already at the peak of F-Rank, it was going to be simple for them to win. He just hadn't been expecting it to be this simple.

Jasmine was controlling thirteen different flying swords, flying herself, and wielding a magic sword in hand that resonated with his own existence. It was beyond what anyone would expect even a scion of Brynhild to be able to do. Rend whistled appreciatively as she tore through a monster while piloting the sword Nicholas was on to dodge the flying beasts.

"And Retribution continues to earn her name cutting through the monsters faster than Retort can bring them up to her. We can't feel too bad about the young support though because for the first time his kill count is higher!" The announcer roared as Rend switched his focus. He could have dialed up his perception and watched this whole thing in slow motion, but there was something important about watching with the senses they would have.

Rend couldn't dream of matching what these two were doing at their rank; hell, he couldn't do it now, his power wasn't built for it and he wasn't great when it came to the partial domains. The path they walked was a world apart from his, and still he saw kinship. Also Rend was pretty sure that Nicholas could help him make a giant mecha, which would be perfect to have in the base since what kind of superhero team didn't have a giant mecha?

The crowd roared as Retort commanded the world to fall under his control. While the less interesting of the duo, they felt that the young man had endeared himself to them. He had collapsed bleeding for the show just because he hadn't wanted them to get a little scared. And now their cheers for him spurred him to higher heights as a titan of stone climbed out of the ground bigger than a house, lumbering towards the rhino monster that shot out sparks of electricity as it charged.

Monster met stone, and the two titans wrestled, but it was a losing battle. The ground itself was the rhino's enemy since the entire world fell under Retort's command. They cheered as the sword he flew on dodged to the side, Retribution able to keep him safe even as she was a whirlwind of death to the monsters. As they cheered, the duo only seemed to move faster and push harder.

Horus pushed his body to move faster; he couldn't let this happen again. First, they had embarrassed him in the first week. Then his own stream had turned against him, launching them even farther into the spotlight. Next his father had called him to ask what the hell was going on since he, of course, had heard of Retort's comment. And yet when Horus had asked his dad for help, all he had gotten was laughing, and asked Horus to see if he could make sure Retort and Retribution looked pleasantly on their family.

They had gotten the most popular spot in the arena right where people walked in to find seats, while he had been in the middle of nowhere. At least that first time he had gotten a chance to show off, but because he was a speedster, they didn't show him fighting only when he had posed mid-strike. And now they were trying to do what they had done that first week. Blades of steel and stone flew around at a speed nearly as fast as him. Monsters flew away from him to the blender of death that was Retribution.

And the duo seemed to feed off the energy, cackling as they started pushing harder and faster. Horus could do that too. He sped up again; the world slowing down further as he rapidly took down his opponent, stopping to pose to the cheering crowd. Back to his full speed he ran again, stopping with each fight to slow down so that the world could see how skilled he was. He was supposed to be the hero!

Horus had worked harder than everyone else to find somewhere in the middle of nowhere known for their mid-list so that he could shine. He was the son of a B-rank hero! His dad was supposedly bordering on getting to A! Even more, he was a speedster, one of the best powers you could ask for combat, utility, and how fun it was! And a random bitch with swords, and a guy good with words beat him at every turn like the world was laughing at him.

Fine, if he couldn't win like this, he would just do what his dad had told him. Unlike the others Horus had enough karma to break through to the next tier right now, his dad had said it was better to wait till he could do it naturally but Horus had still ruined and saved enough lives to have double the requirement for rank two. Horus pushed his karma to spin as the gate formed, and energy bloomed around him.

Nicholas's eyes jerked as he swerved to the side, his attacks going wide as he felt something changed.

"That's not good, is it?" Nicholas said as he watched the moron Horus begin to spew out energy.

"Get him to the center of the arena now," Jasmine commanded, already flying to the center. Nicholas followed orders, throwing the speedster to the center of the arena as the Beyonders chased him. The moron had forgotten one of the most important rules about Beyonders. They fed on the same energy that powered supers, and with him just releasing energy as he broke through for some god forsaken reason the monsters were growing stronger.

Horus ragdolled through the air, landing on the ground seeming dazed as his mind was meeting with Hero. Like dogs hearing the jingle of a leash, every single Beyonder in the area rushed towards the center.

"This is going to be rough," Nicholas said, hopping off the sword and landing beside Jasmine as walls of stone formed, giving them a castle to defend their moron classmate in the center.

"We always said we wanted everyone to know that we were the best, and if he actually hits the next stage in time, then we'll be able to push back easily," Jasmine said as she pulled out the remaining swords from her armory. Eventually she would have the full hundred swords this build was meant to have, but right now she had twenty. The flying sword returned.

"I'll keep playroom active but I'm running low." Nicholas warned as he did his own preparations. Even with how fast the duo had moved, the monsters were already within fifty feet of them, several that had been along the path Horus had been thrown glowing with increased power.

"I'm trusting you to keep us safe. I can't move while doing this," Jasmine said, holding her hands up as the flying swords stood ready.

"I trust you to do the same," Nicholas replied, the earth shaking as he poured more power into his playroom. There wasn't time for them to talk any longer as the army was upon them.