บท 196: Chapter 86. The new case
In general, it's a bit of a shame that only a few disciplines of the powerful ancient school have survived to this day, which can only be considered real magic with a big stretch. Eh, now I even feel a little sorry that Faust was enslaved by Rot and then killed by my comrades, because he was probably familiar with Sumerian spells. Should I try to reach him through Simon, now that the sorcerer was part of the Rot dimension? No. Exercises to properly separate or blend the energies of different Wrappings, as well as the ability to tune into a certain type of mana, speeding up the rate of reserve replenishment and increasing one's affinity with the elements, were unique enough knowledge that even Zee wasn't aware of them. And we should not forget about the Chakras (those strange spheres inside the human silhouette), because Amazons do not interact with them in any way, unlike the author of the manuscript.
After the demonstration of unusual telekinesis, the sorceress enthusiastically began to explain to the two attentive listeners how to absorb the energy of the world by meditating on various sources, such as the sun, earth, water and even trees, and at the same time told them why she decided to get so much involved with Psi, despite the fact that in the next five years it is unlikely to be able to compete with normal spells. And the explanation was simple: Psi easily bypasses most spell defences based on pure mana, and also helps to control one's own mind and structure knowledge without crutches in the form of special spells from the school of mentalism. It can be compared to the way Ivy and Abby handle plants. The former spends a lot of energy and literally forces the nearest flora to fulfil the necessary task, at the same time spending energy on suppressing someone else's "will", while Swampy simply "asks", thanks to which she has admin access, blocking other natural mages, even if their abilities work at the expense of Me.
Ah yes. In the course of the sorceress' explanations, I finally realised that the Fourth Beginning in the System's understanding is not exactly a Soul, though I started guessing about it even after the first scan. A true soul is an absolutely indestructible particle consisting of pure Light and pure Darkness, but what is reflected in the status is a certain foundation or base to which the Shells are attached, and the stronger it is, the more powerful and faster they develop. Another issue is that this base can be non-monolithic, for example, due to its too fast growth, so there is a fucking chance to die when it suddenly collapses, unable to withstand the pressure. So I can't become a second Superman or an archmage, though I could always go into artefacting, which doesn't require a large reserve, but then I'd have to remember that I'd never fully own that kind of power.
The Shells themselves, by the way, should not be taken as some completely autonomous structures. The same author of the manuscript moved to a new level of existence by combining the first two Beginnings into a single whole, which took him two hundred years of natural cultivation, as in some Chinese novel. For some people, the Shells may be initially a little more closely intertwined. For example, my assistant has the second and seventh Beginnings intertwined. It is thanks to this and unusual perception that she has advanced so much in the school of metamorphism, because most of the internal manipulations meet no resistance, and where I need to drain almost all my reserve to change the colour of my hair, the blond cutie's organism is striving to fulfil her mistress's wish. Amazons are also not so simple, because their energy, apparently, is also a mixture of mana and prana, but the proportions are clearly in favour of the latter, so they are practically not capable of colourful external effects, and internal can not boast of subtlety of effects, but the amount of available energy is very decent, which together with weapon skills makes the girls serious fighters. In addition, they clearly have access to the energy of the third shell – ba-hion, thanks to which the prayers are highly effective.
In fact, now I've added proper meditation to my basic training, which makes me feel like a Chinese cultivator. And all because in the end I decided to concentrate not on Psi, though some time is spent on controlling energies of separate shells, but on the formation of Chakras, as they increase survival rate and complement my abilities perfectly. It can be said that they are elemental spheres inside the organism, which autonomously accumulate a certain spectrum of energy and seriously facilitate interaction with the necessary element, but for this they must first be created, and in the right order, to which you can't even think up if you watched a cartoon about a bald guy with a flying buffalo.
***After ten days***
"Come on, Mr. J! You have to win!" Harley stood nearby, waving her colourful pom-poms at me.
The artefact cane deftly deflected the sword fluttering in the girl's hands. Suddenly my arm, along with my weapon and part of my body, split to attack my opponent from different angles, but it's as if she senses where the illusion is, so she manages to put up a shield.
~Boom~
The artifacts collided, sending out a small shockwave, causing me to recoil, which the dark-haired beauty took advantage of. A fist slammed into my stomach, and I flew back to the wall, leaving a stylish silhouette framed by a grid of cracks.
"Ouch, at least on points," my faithful assistant commented on my flight.
The feeling of deja vu was stronger than ever, except that this time I was facing a real goddess... A demigoddess, considering that Diana's mother is Hippolyta and her father is Zeus. And she was very strong and very fast. Seriously, I thought I had more or less swung to give the Amazon at least minimal competition, but all my tricks just weren't working. Illusions? The ones aimed at the mind don't work, and normal ones can't fool due to high perception. Regular punches? Diana's body was surrounded by a dense haze of vital energy, which together with the increased molecular density nullified any attempts to harm her, and the technicality of the execution of techniques also did not affect the final result, because her skills with weapons clearly surpassed mine. Magic was also out of the question. I'd already mentioned that other people'sviral energy could destroy spells and affect control when it got inside my body, so I could only use the most primitive spells and ice spears I could cast thanks to my tattoo. The only thing that could at least somehow pierce the beauty was an improved cane, whose weight at the moment of impact could increase several times, and a harpoon. The latter even managed to wound the Amazon's shoulder when it suddenly changed its trajectory during the shot. The blows weighing a couple of tonnes were dangerous, but they didn't cause much trouble, because Diana blocked them with her artifact shield, while I was hit by the recoil every time.
However, despite the impossibility to win and flying to the wall, I was still able to continue the fight, because the defence due to the synergy of Stone Skin, tattoos, as well as the Earth Chakra, which passively increases the strength of the body, was still on the level, as well as the energy reserves in the diamonds, which allowed me to fight for more than ten minutes. Only the bones occasionally crunched after particularly strong blows, and the diamonds-batteries cracked, unable to survive the sudden energy drain.
Leaving the cosy embrace of the wall, and a new rapprochement. This time I changed my grip, and now I wield the cane like a baseball bat. Crouch down to the ground, avoiding the horizontal swing of the blade, and keep my head away from the edge of the lowered shield. Right from the crouched position, use telekinesis to throw a handful of sand into his eyes and smack the opponent with the round paddle.
~Boom~
This blow was twice as hard as the previous one, but the Amazon princess manages to set up the metal disc in time, so she only pulls back slightly, which is actually fucking progress. In the next instant, I only manage to see a blurry blur and fly off towards the wall again. A brief respite and back into the fight.
In the end, I acknowledged defeat only after another ten minutes of intense fighting, when I once again ploughed a few metres of the arena with my body, after which the weave of the stone skin stupidly disintegrated, taking all the damage. The warrior had been holding back the whole time, otherwise I would have seen only a blurred silhouette, as my perception would not have kept up with her speed.
"Not bad. I didn't expect you to be so strong now," Diana said, holding out her hand.
"It's all thanks to the great stimulus," I winked, watching as the girl looked a little embarrassed, but kept her hand there, helping me out of the trench.
"Ahem... Yeah, I see... But you need to work on your attack speed," she said, trying to look more serious. It didn't work so well, considering the cute blush. Huh, I never thought a real Amazon would react to me like that, though her behaviour does seem a bit odd.
"I've already realised," I created a regeneration weave and applied it to my left shoulder, where the shield had struck last. "What's the use of strong blows if your opponent is many times faster than you? I'll think of a way to fix it, but I can't think of anything good..."
I've seen speed charms before, but they have wild mana consumption, and the energy itself starts to move chaotically, so mages don't keep them active all the time to avoid losing the ability to cast spells. And the acceleration factor is threefold at best, which is obviously not enough to defeat Diana. For comparison, due to the developed first Beginning my usual speed is about one hundred and ten kilometres per hour, together with the use of prana comes out about two hundred, as I am not yet very well controlled life energy, and the masters of this increase is much more. Well, and the spell should increase the final result to six hundred kilometres per hour, that is, it will be possible to dodge a gun shot at point-blank range. And the princess of Amazons is able to outrun even a machine-gun queue, which recently proved when she saved the hostages in the bank, repelling all the bullets fired from a machine gun with her wristbands. Therefore, according to the most conservative estimates, she can accelerate to two and a half thousand kilometres per hour!
The only good thing is that with the formation of the Air Chakra, my initial speed should increase significantly, but before it will still need to create the Water and Fire Chakras, not to mention the Earth, which is still very far from its completion, because, unlike the cartoon, the elemental spheres are initially absent, and will not be able to simply 'open' them by fulfilling certain conditions, such as getting rid of feelings of fear or grief.
"Maybe we should increase not our own speed, but slow down the enemy?" Diana suggested, pulling me out of my own thoughts.
"Oh, that's a really good idea! Thank you. And for the training, too."
Because of the peculiarities of my style, I didn't really think about slowing down my enemies, although I could do it without any magic, because with broken legs or inhaled neurotoxin you can't run far. My opponents were either much slower and it was easier for me to run up to them and hit them with something heavy, or they were incredibly strong and didn't care about any attempts to stop themselves. But I didn't have a stylish tattoo to weave some powerful spell like sorcerer's bands into the structure before, and I didn't have a huge supply of diamonds with which to create them at all.
"Don't mention it, I could use the practice too. It's rare to come across opponents with such a diverse arsenal. The illusions were a real pain, and if I didn't have super speed, I wouldn't have had time to realise where the fake was," she surprised me.
And I thought that they did not interfere with her at all, but it turns out that everything again rests on speed. The low pace of the battle, in fact, gave time for normal analysis of the situation. And the only immediate danger was the cane, under whose blows it was necessary to put up a shield in time. Although the harpoon was able to wound the warrior, it was only due to the loaded shot, but in the case of independent flight the speed was simply not enough.
"We should practice more often," I said, coming to a logical conclusion.
"I agree, but because of the world situation I can't visit the island often."
All I could do was sigh. More than a month had passed since Darkseid's attack, and the criminal elements and the various villains were slowly coming out of their holes again. They hadn't stopped their activities in Gotham, but they'd become less brazen, and Mouse, along with some left-wing supers and Bats, who'd returned from Africa, were keeping them out of the woods.
"Cyborg said that they will soon finish building the League headquarters, and it will be possible to move there from anywhere in the world without any problems."
Honestly, I can't wait for that to happen, because the game studio's activity has been a bit stagnant. Even the development of Tower Defence is still progressing very slowly, as only Mark is left, who, moreover, is periodically attracted to his projects by Friese, who promises to develop some really cool transistor based on Apokolips technologies by the end of March.
"Oh, then we can practice every day," I was given a dazzling smile that made me want to puddle in a happy puddle.
Hmm, only now I realised that Diana was trying to stand close to me during the conversation, reminiscent of Abby's behaviour, and Zee was also doing the same. A quick analysis, and it finally dawns on me that the stone skin has disintegrated after the decisive blow, no longer blocking the emanations of the ba-hion. Considering the girl's father is an actual god, she should probably have some near-divine chips. Though it's unlikely that divine energy affects her as much as it does Swamp Girl, who is more sensitive to energies due to her nature and Arcane's experiments.
"Jay, it's time!" suddenly called out to me by Zee, who had also been watching the fight, and who was now clearly disrupting the intimate atmosphere on purpose.
"Oh," Diana stepped back as if awake from her obsession. "Then I won't bother you. See you later."
The girl quickly left the arena, clearly embarrassed by her behaviour.
Eh, that's sad, because we don't cross paths that often. To be exact, it's the first time in this month and a half. And it's a bummer with the other Amazons as well. It's been two weeks since Psy's memorable demonstration, and it's as if the powerful sorceress is purposely keeping Harley and I alone on the island, scaring off our status as "competitors".
"It's amazing how strong you've become in such a short time. I even started to think about getting a tattoo myself," said the sorceress who came down from the stands with a hint in her voice.
"You can..."
"Only first you'd have to sleep with Abby along with me and Mr. J.," my horny companion cut in.
"Hmm... That makes sense," Zee thought. "Only you don't have to participate," added she with a sly smile, looking at the blonde.
"Wait... What about..." Harley couldn't find words, not expecting such a setup. "You can't do this to me... And I can at least look," she moved to bargaining rather quickly.
"Ha-ha-ha, I'm just kidding. I'm not going to sleep with Green's avatar just yet."
"Just yet?" I caught on to that word.
"Well... Life is long, and there's no telling how things will turn out..."
"Hooray!"
The sorceress's speech was brazenly interrupted by Harley's hug, and then I had to carry the frozen girl to the portal that the sexy illusionist had built to make it easier to travel to the island.
At Shadow Peak, I unloaded my faithful companion, as she and Zee were planning to get busy improving another magic potion, and headed out on a date with Ivy. I'd been planning it for a while now, but more often than not it had been a debauched affair, since my horny assistant was always around.
The proposal was initially received without much enthusiasm, but that is until I mentioned what exactly we would be doing. Ivy loves helping nature, so this month I've implemented Harley's idea by getting Lincoln March (the guy who almost got killed by the Court of Owls) a permit to clean up Poison Acres. So the red-haired beauty was perfectly content to spend their holiday together healing the infected fauna. I wasn't left in the lurch either, as we stumbled upon Scarecrow's lab, where he was developing another variation of the Fear Toxin. Yeah... After this kind of thing you really realise that ordinary people are no match for you, and you have to restrain yourself so you don't accidentally kill anyone. I'm not sure Dr. Crane is happy about it though, because he accidentally fell into a vat of toxin. Honestly, it really wasn't my fault. In fact, you could say I even saved him when I broke both of the supervillain's arms and legs and knocked out his teeth so he wouldn't kill himself, wanting to stop experiencing endless terror.
And so, after loading the broken bodies into ambulances and a passionate kiss with Ivy on the roof, as a thank you for an interesting evening with fascinating interactive, suddenly I got a call from Bats.
"He fell in on his own," I confessed at once.
"That's not why I'm here. I need you to follow Cat."
"Uh," I said, highly intellectual, trying to figure out how I'd been chosen. "Can't you do it yourself?"
"Right now I'm busy with another investigation. Someone broke into WayneBiotech's research lab and stole experimental sedatives and the equipment to produce them."
"And it couldn't have been…"
"No, she wouldn't," the man's voice was unshakably confident.
Where's the famous paranoia?
The superhero apparently realised that the answer sounded rather harsh and decided to explain his point of view.
"Even if it was really her, there would be characteristic traces, and she was never interested in medical equipment. Large-sized, the problem to find a buyer, as well as simply profitable to sell, and there is no sense to steal for the collection.
"Got it. Oh, do you mind if I bring in Mousey?"
Since Ivy's date was a success, it's worth it to keep pleasing your girls. And what better way for an aspiring superheroine to get her start than by tracking down a legendary thief? Especially since she's not such a novice now. The girl has become familiar enough in the intervening time that even Gordon doesn't mind asking her for help if Bats isn't available. I still get an earful when a very excited Babs shared that news over the phone.
"If it doesn't hurt the cause."
"Ha ha ha, it's going to be super. Don't worry!"
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