Our sparring session formally began.

I took off into the sky and shouted at Elma. "I'm going to be aiming to kill, Elma. A split-second cut through your abdomen won't trigger +Nightmares ARE Fiction's+ effects quickly enough, so don't expect me to not attack!"

"Understood!" she said as she threw a dagger at me. I blocked it with the toothy sword and flew down toward her, gaining speed with every second.

She rolled out of the way and threw another dagger at me. I landed and faced Elma as she got on her feet. My wing blocked the dagger and stuck out its green tongue. The other wing's teeth gnashed against each other like it was taunting Elma.

"Erm--sorry, the taunting seems to be part of the nightmare."

Elma smirked. "Don't apologize. I'm not worthy of their respect."

"Hey, don't say that so casually--"

A cloud of withering mana obscured my vision entirely. Her output was amazing.

"Hmm... that's a good move... This nightmare form doesn't actually enhance my senses..."

A small object flew out of the cloud and stopped a few inches from my face. It just floated there and let me study it.

"Huh? Is that a finger? Is it trembling?"

I got closer to it, and then magic surged out from it and hit me in the face.

"Ouch!"

The wings flapped, and I was airborne again, my face stinging from the withering mana.

I recalled that Elma's Magic Attack rank was E Grade. "If Elma's magic was more potent, it would be fatal..."

Yeah, just the thought of an explosion going off in my face made me quiver.

More digits flew out from the massive smokescreen below. They all stopped around me, and I groaned.

"This is going to be annoying."

They all released violent bursts of magic, and struck my body with withering mana.

"Wait, isn't this a bit more forceful?!"

I flew higher again, expanding the dome's ceiling as I went. I could see that the bursts of magic had a radius of about 3ft.

"The last time I had to expand the nightmare dome's ceiling... that was when I was first learning how to use this power..."

Elma didn't give me time to think. Her whole hand flew toward me. It was faster than I could react. The dagger it was holding pierced me in the gut, and I coughed.

"Shouldn't let me touch your hand, Elma!" I yelled as I went for the hand holding onto the dagger. Then, I saw black mana flicker. "Oh shit--"

Violent magic burst from the hand and struck me more directly than before. The waves of magic seemed to get into my body through the wound--it felt like my stomach was starting to rot. It was just hurting and cramping. I felt something hot coming up from my stomach, and I coughed black bile.

"Wow! Elma! Amazing!"

The smokescreen was clearing, and I saw Elma down below, her eyes glued to me. Just seeing how she was looking at me made me really wonder.

"This is impressive, isn't it?" I asked myself.

Her hand floated back down to her, leaving the dagger in my gut. Then, I watched Elma fiddle with the terminal. The dagger disappeared from my gut.

"Oh? You're going to use the environment? That's fun!" I flew back down toward her as my wounds were negated. "But... I get it--what your ratings mean. I really get it now."

I raised the toothy sword, ready to cut her.

"You're clever, but you lack the power to exploit your cleverness... Still, this is fun!" I yelled, hoping Elma would hear me.

Her expression didn't change. She fiddled with the terminal, and suddenly, hundreds of floating targets appeared between her and me. They continued appearing until it looked like I was in the center of a ball of targets.

"Huh," I said as I stopped my descent. "This... really is clever."

I shrugged and slashed at the targets immediately in front of me and was shocked when they burst into flames.

"Fire?!" I yelped as I closed my eyes. I tried to shield myself, but then I opened my eyes. "Huh?"

The flames didn't hurt. After one inward thought, I realized what had happened. Elma had changed the settings of the targets so that they would burst into flames as the celebratory effect instead of the light sparkles.

I was honestly surprised. That was why I didn't notice in time when a target to my left suddenly burst into flame. I then looked toward it in time to see a dagger flying into my eye. It tore through my left eye, sinking all the way in until the hilt hit my skull.

The thing piercing my brain stunned me for a moment. The momentary pain and jumbled mental processes were too much. I almost lost consciousness.

C Grade proficiency, huh?

In that moment when my consciousness was flickering, my mind expanded a bit, and I became aware of where Elma was through my connection to the Hero Hub. I spun once and then slashed with the toothy sword.

"Gah!" Elma screamed as I bisected her in one clean slash.

She had come around from my other side by hopping on the targets and lunging at me at the critical moment.

"You got cocky," I said, barely conscious. "You should have kept your distance..."

Elma fell to the ground while I became unsteady and started lowering. I grabbed the dagger and pulled it out of my eye. +Nightmares ARE Fiction+ finished healing me up, and I focused again. I flew down through the targets, breaking them as I went, and landed a few feet away from Elma. She was trying to lift her upper body up with her arms while her lower body was squirming toward her. Her two halves reconnected, and she stood back up.

"How does it feel to die?" I asked.

"It was a little scary... If I had been hit by my own fear--"

"Your reaction would have been worse." I held up the toothy fang and unfurled my wings. "These echoes of Dorth's fears are way weaker than the original too. So yeah, if you had been hit by your nightmare, you'd be noticing your mental state deteriorating." I brought the sword closer. "My power is poison to the mind, but it's a very specialized poison. That said, since I cut you, the poison is becoming more potent. If I were to slash you a few more times or hold onto you, the chances of you falling unconscious would be high."

"From sheer panic and exhaustion?"

"Yup."

"Okay... So I really can't afford to let you touch me too much... How about I show off for you one more time, Fainn? And then we can call it..." She giggled timidly. "Actually, having my body separated like that--it really rattled me."

"Yeah, if the fear's knocking on your door, it's best to call it. Fine, show me what you got!"

"Yeah!" She pointed her fingers at me. "This--and all of what I did before--all those violent bursts of mana... That was what the Hero taught me! Not just pouring mana from my segments, but violently discharging mana! I'm calling it Wither Charging! I focus the mana in my arms, way into my fingers until I can't cram anymore in, and then I send the parts out with the charge! When I let go, a whole lot of withering mana flies out."

"Neat! That sounds really cool! Once your magic is potent, you'll practically be creating a minefield of Wither explosions."

Elma chuckled. "That's the hope! And now..."

Her fingers separated from her hands, and then, those fingers separated into three segments each. They all had an ominous glow to them.

"What the--isn't that too many?"

Elma smirked. "I forced my proficiency up."

The segments flew toward me and stopped all around me.

"Wait, on your daggers?" I asked, confused.

"No." Her grin grew wider. "I could apply it to my [Remote Arms] too!"

The segments discharged and hit me with many bursts of withering mana.

I grimaced. "It's not too bad--"

Two segments flew into my eyes and pierced them--damn it, Elma. She didn't even give me a chance to see them coming.

They exploded in my eyes, destroying my eyeballs and withering my optic nerve--or whatever it was that I had now.

This was a whole new kind of pain. I stumbled backward, jaw clenched and breathing heavily. Thankfully, I didn't have to endure for long. The damage was nullified, and I saw Elma staring at me, her eyes wide.

"Oh..." I touched my teeth. "Yeah... those must look a certain way now."

I flapped my wings and noticed the mouths were gone. They were just bat-like wings now.

"You kept your fingers in my eyes for too long..."

I retracted the dome and then stepped through the boundary. The whole thing shattered, and I lost my nightmare form. Elma, too, started to calm down. I could see her clutching her chest and breathing a sigh of relief out of the corner of my eye.

"You okay, Elma?"

"Y-Yes," she replied. "I didn't expect to see that face when the mana cleared. I... have a better sense for how terrifying this power can be."

"Right... Well, hey, you did great. That was amazing!"

She smiled at me as she rubbed her brow. "You think so?"

I nodded and rubbed my chin. "Yup, definitely. It seems to me like you're definitely the super-skilled-but-weak type. If your parameters catch up to your intelligence and creativity, then you'll be a real force to reckon with!"

Elma broke her usually serious demeanor and hopped in place like an excited girl. "You really think so? Yes! I want to do that!" she squealed. She pumped her fists and shook with excitement. "I'm so happy I could impress you, Fainn."

"Yup, super impressed. Glad we did this. That said--you powered up your proficiency with Remote Arms? But it was so low."

As I recalled it, Remote Arms was in the E Grades.

Elma snickered and walked over to me with her Status open. "Actually, it wasn't."

She showed me the Status, and I was sincerely puzzled. "You're at D Grade? There's no way you forced yourself all the way up to that Grade."

"And you're very right," she coyly replied. "Check out this menu. My history of improvement."

***

Elma's Proficiency Increases

Wither Magic: D-18 -> D-46

Remote Arms: E-22 -> E-98 ->D-02

Daggers: C-47

***

So, this was what happened. Elma's proficiency with her arms actually went up while she was off on her missions. The moment she started firing her fingers, her proficiency started increasing. By the time she was back here, she was sitting at E-98, which meant that 98% of those with E Grade proficiency were worse than Elma. Then, Elma got a sense that she had hit a wall at E-98 during the fight. She felt like she was missing something, so she gambled on an idea--

"If my GRADE increases--wouldn't that be significant?"

She used the terminal to force her proficiency with her arms up by 4 points, consuming 30 points of Heroic Merit in the process. The moment she crossed into D-02, she was bombarded with all kinds of epiphanies, and suddenly, it felt like her body was capable. It was a capability and confidence that would usually come with practice--and now she had it. That breakthrough let her separate her fingers into more segments and allowed her to control them a little more comfortably. All the trembling she was doing earlier was because she was essentially straining.

I took all of Elma's thoughts in, utterly mystified and slightly jealous that I couldn't use the facility myself.

We were sitting at a bench the <Training Grounds> came with, still buzzing.

"So... what do you feel now, Elma?"

"Honestly? There are so many new ideas I have. I know that if I start practicing, I'll start climbing up D Grade."

"Hmm... Yeah, I'm inclined to agree... It seems like the gaps between the Grades are where the plateaus happen. I was thinking earlier that it would be best to use the facility's forcing function when we were in C Grade, but if the Grades are what denote that fundamental 'aha' moment, then using the forcing when near the Grade's boundary is the best movement."

"And it kind of makes sense. I knew that if I kept practicing, I'd figure it out or get more confident with using my arms. This little push just cut down on how much trial and error I needed..."

"Yeah..." I grinned at Elma. "Thank you, Elma! I think... I think we just figured out an efficient strategy!"

"No, thank you." She bowed, showing me the crown of her head. "That was a fun battle."

"Oh, come on," I said, playfully annoyed. I yanked her hand and hugged her when she fell into my embrace. "Don't be so formal!"

"But you're a god, and my superior--"

"And the guy enthralled by you."

She giggled. "Right."

We separated, but I kept my hand on hers. "So, you upped your proficiency four times," I said as I stood up.

She followed me with a smile. "The next proficiency increase costs 32 points, and the one after that, 64. I recommend not going too crazy with this."

"Yeah... it sounds like the most benefit comes from waiting at the '99' point and then increasing by one." We started walking out of the grounds. "Oh, by the way, want to go to the <Infirmary>? There's some stuff I want to check out."

"Sure. I wonder how Kanae is doing."

"Actually, it seems like she woke up. She'll probably be awake for a little."

"Then we should definitely keep her company," Elma said, grabbing my hand a little tighter.

I could feel my hand stinging a little, but I wasn't going to let it ruin this awesome moment.

"Hey, Fainn, wasn't Kanae at A-95 for Walking? What do you think happens when she gets to S Grade?"

"Huh... I don't know... Too bad our Training Range only works on C Grade and lower proficiencies."

"Ahh, drats! That is too bad!"

"Maybe we could upgrade it..." I mused. "We have 336 Upgrade Points, but no lie, I'm terrified of using them."

"I'd rather use them on the <Infirmary>, in all honesty."

"Oh... That's a thought... Yeah, let's crank the <Infirmary> up a Level or two. We got so much from the <Observatory>."