No Need For A Core? - 176: Growth

176: Growth

No Need For A Core? by Zagaroth

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Moriko finished packing their stuff into her pack as she kept an eye on her wife. Kazue had been looking somewhere between wistful and melancholic all morning, but Moriko had let it pass until they had finished getting ready. But with no sign that the little fox was going to shake off the mood, Moriko decided it was time to address the issue. “So, what's got your cute head floating off into the clouds today?

Kazue blushed at the phrasing, then sighed, “Sorry love, I'm just,” she shook her head, “the trip's been nice, and I am really glad we spent time here, it really helped me out. But, well, I am feeling a little homesick and I really miss Mordecai and we're about to travel even further away and it's kind of making me sad.” That final burst of words left her a little breathless as her feelings poured out.

Huh. She shouldn't be surprised, Moriko at least had the advantage of talking to Mordecai in her head, and she got Kazue on both sides. Kazue just had her. A little thread of emotion wanted to take prideful offense that she wasn't enough for Kazue, but she snipped that thought off. She'd feel the same in Kazue's place, they had each married two people, and Kazue's avatar was the only one getting cut off from a leg of that relationship. “I guess verbal 'letters' don't quite cut it, do they?” she asked softly as she wrapped her arms tightly around Kazue.

The shorter woman shook her head silently as she hugged Moriko back.

“Well, we could head back, get a little breather if you want, and give you some time to synchronize with your core again. We aren't exactly on a schedule.”

The kitsune sighed before pulling back a little, “I want to, truly, but I am not sure I am going to be able to make myself leave again anytime soon if we do that, I'll keep finding excuses. And I think that's part of what Mordecai wants for me, to get used to being able to forge on even when I'm homesick or if we get separated and I am alone for a bit. We rely on each other, and that also means being reliable. I have to be able to stand on my own as well.”

Moriko kissed her softly, “Look at that, my little spirit shaman is growing into a wise old woman right before my eyes.”

That earned her an eye roll, “That's rich coming from the wandering preacher-lady.” They continued to banter while they double-checked their gear and clothes, and then Kazue locked up her mother's house behind them. “I have no idea if we'll get a chance to cross paths with my parents during this trip, but I am going to keep an eye out.”

There were a few more goodbyes to say along the way, but venting seemed to have lifted Kazue's mood. Moriko couldn't blame her in the least; even with her link back to the cores, she missed Mordecai too. “You know, it's going to be days and days before you can have any more fried tofu,” she teased as they walked along the road.

Kazue stuck her tongue out, “Hey, it's only a third of my diet. I still have meats and sweets.”

Travel was going to be somewhat faster for this leg of the trip at least. Farmland had dropped off as they got further from the river, and there were fewer settlements for Moriko to focus her attention on. While this did mean there were more spirits for Kazue to potentially interact with, there was a limited number of types of spirits, and there was little for Kazue to learn from spirit types she already knew well.

Mordecai waited patiently on the sands of the arena for his opponent to begin. Fuyuko had been the one to insist on 'getting this over with', but now she was looking rather nervous. “You've sparred against Gil, I can't be scarier than that man,” he said with a trace of amusement as he flipped one of his own daggers, armed to match his opponent as he had been with Bellona.

Fuyuko scrunched her face, “That was before I saw the two of you go all out. You guys were kind of terrifying.”

He snorted at that, “I may have gone all out, but trust me, Gil was still holding back, even if I did get him to draw two of his weapons.”

“That doesn't actually make me feel better. Wait, 'two of'? How could he have drawn more?”

“You'll just have to get strong enough to find out by making him do it. Now come, show me what you've got, maybe we can team up and make him show you in a couple of years.”

“Fine,” the luponi girl said with a growl, and then she charged. Before Fuyuko got within range, she suddenly dropped low with a spin that sent her cloak whirling, making it more difficult to see which hand was throwing and where they were aimed until the daggers were in flight.

Mordecai deflected one dagger and sidestepped the other before meeting her continued assault. Her foot flashed out at his knee, and he twisted as he raised his leg to kick her heel off to the side. Fuyuko refused to relent as she turned the momentum into another spin and came back with both daggers back in her hand, slicing high and low at the same time.

But her high dagger was slightly before her low dagger, and that allowed him to use only one blade to parry by forcing hers to clash into each other. With her momentum stopped and her blades briefly locked, Mordecai took the opening to slam the pommel of his other dagger into her side before stepping back.

He could see she'd learned some tricks from Gil; he'd well earned the title of weapons master and had taught her how to use her clothing as part of her armaments. For all that he had a straightforward and blunt personality, Gil did not believe such maneuvers to be 'dirty' any more than Mordecai did. It would be interesting to see her spar against Bellona, their fighting styles weren't terribly compatible, which might push them both.

Though Fuyuko would still need more training before she could put pressure on Bellona. Two daggers thrust at him, but Mordecai knocked her attack wide and stepped forward with a half spin as his elbow slammed into her jaw.

The girl stumbled back a step before recovering her balance and growling at him. He grinned back, deliberately showing the same amount of fang she had bared at him. She hadn't shown more than this early sign of shape-shifting and he wanted to encourage her instincts. For now, matching any signs of her change seemed like a good start to help her subconscious feel that this was okay.

“Not a bad start, though if you are going to use double attacks you need to work on your timing and spacing more,” Mordecai said as Fuyuko stepped back into range to attack him with a rapid series of slashes. Between his daggers and bracers, he was able to catch all of her attacks while he continued to give advice, “Double attacks can be very useful against opponents not used to that sort of twinned threat, but only until they adjust. It's also very hard to bring your full power into both attacks, so you need to be better at disguising which one is your strong attack and which one is the distraction.”

His calm discussion of her style seemed to provoke Fuyuko more, and Mordecai saw the metaphorical fire that lit her eyes as her speed and power increased. Her long limbs were constantly moving and she managed to keep her cloak flowing around her as she mixed in kicks with her dagger strikes. She hadn't grown stronger, but she had breached an internal barrier and was committing to each attack more.

That was great for the power of her offense, but without more control, it left her more vulnerable too. Mordecai stepped forward past one of her kicks, sliding in toward her back as he dropped a dagger, close enough to grab her shoulder before his weight slammed into her, forcing her face first into the dirt with his knee dug into the small of her back.

The air was forced out of her lungs, and Mordecai hopped back off to let her recover her wind. He had no intention of stopping before she did, he wanted to see how far she could go. Which turned out to be decently far. She recovered her breath pretty quickly and suddenly rolled toward him, coming up on one knee as her first dagger flew at him and continued to spin to put just as much power in her second toss when she reached her feet, just in time for the first dagger to return to her hand. Not a bad way to recover and force your opponent to keep a bit of distance.

She was good at being aggressive once she got past her own nerves. Fuyuko hadn't stopped when she'd gotten to her feet, she'd continued to move forward with only the one dagger before the second one returned to her. That was good, and she trusted her gear to do exactly what it was meant to do.

Now that she'd shown him her ability to maintain pressure and recover from setbacks, Mordecai stepped up his counterattacks. The first cut he left on her skin was on the back of a hand. A few moments later, the tip of a dagger entered her shoulder briefly, her armor serving only enough to reduce how deep the point sunk. A kick earned her a counter which taught her that his shins were harder than hers, a lesson that would have been even more painful if he'd been wearing metal armor.

The next time he slipped inside of her guard earned a slice across her cheek instead of an elbow to her jaw. Both attacks were replacements for potentially fatal counters, aiming high instead of at her neck. Honestly, he felt a little bad about the way he was slowly disassembling her, but at the same time, he could see her responding to the challenge. Mordecai could afford to push her more than Gil could; he had healing spells at the ready and he didn't have to be as careful with holding back, it was easier for Mordecai to hurt her just a little bit.

Then she threw a knife at him from melee range, and when he dodged it she retaliated with a backhanded slash, her fingers now clawed. The claws tore open his shirt, but in a backslash, they were not nearly enough to penetrate the scales that reflexively rippled across his skin.

Perfect, he'd been hoping to see this, but he didn't say anything yet. The girl looked to have gone past thinking about what she was doing and was now running on instincts. Thankfully, she wasn't as dangerous to him as she might have been to someone else, so Mordecai continued to draw the fight out. It wasn't much longer before her teeth had grown enough to make her bite a dangerous weapon, and more muscles slowly rippled into existence along her body, but the transformation never progressed so far as to keep her from wielding her blades.

He could see how she'd been able to take on the peryton, the girl had a solid combat instinct, but she was also lacking in self-restraint once she'd been pushed this hard. The match ended only when Fuyuko staggered weakly and began slowly toppling over with a surprised look as her limbs went limp. Muscle fatigue had caught up with her and surpassed her ability to fight it. Mordecai dropped his weapons and dashed in to catch her and lower her more gently to the ground.

“Easy now,” he said softly as Fuyuko's body relaxed back into her normal form, “you did well. Now, I'm going to heal you, okay?” She looked a little dazed still, and he didn't want her trying to fight off the flow of vitality out of stubborn resistance. Her eyes focused slightly on him and she gave a small nod, so he took that as her having enough awareness to not try to fight off the magic.

While he was at it, he took the time to channel healing prayers into her armor as well. The self-repairing material was not truly alive, but it was close enough that it could inefficiently make use of healing spells directed at it, or potions directly poured onto it. Repair magic could be more efficient, but those spells generally were not as quick to cast as a healing spell.

With her wounds repaired, Fuyuko sat up slowly, wincing slightly. “Ow. What happened? And I don't think the magic worked completely, I still hurt.”

“General strain is harder to directly heal than specific wounds. But as for what happened, we managed to draw out a little more of your heritage. It was a beautiful balance, just enough changed to help you fight, but despite going into a battle fugue there was no hint of you going feral.” Mordecai grinned as her eyes widened, “I'll show you the battle later, but we are going to have to work on controlling that battle frenzy. It's fine here, but you need to be able to know when to stop. Come on, let's go get you some food. I bet you could go for a triple portion right now.” A rumble from her stomach as she blushed proved him right, and he pulled her to her feet.

“So, um, I guess I passed?”

“Honestly, I never had any doubts about that, but I needed to know exactly where you were at, and I think I got lucky with pulling the battle fugue out of you. When you were sparring with Gil he had to be more careful about hurting you, and when you were sparring with Moriko's little brother, you had to be in precise control to make sure neither of you hurt the other. I could safely provoke you with small punishments for your mistakes, and you didn't have to worry about holding back.”