CH883

He brought Delair along, the chance to see two third-tiers fight not something she’d want to miss while also taking a couple of his clones too to give him some different viewing angles as they made their way to the town’s training grounds, finding a few adventurers and regular citizens alike using the space to hone what skills they had without worry about damaging anything vital within the walls of Stonewall.

“You seem popular,” Abel said as she stretched, taking note of all of the eyes that had fallen on Ben, both on the way out and even among the others making use of the space despite the distance they’d tried to give themselves to keep anyone else from ending up at risk from what attacks were going to come, even if Ben waved the comment off.

“There was a bit of a thing in town not too long ago that’s definitely left everyone with some mixed opinions of me, just ignore it.”

“Ooh, sounds exciting, what happened?”

“Destroyed and rebuilt the town after a small accident. It’s a long story.”

“But Ben-” Delair started, knowing he had played no part in the destruction Bloom had brought in his madness but stopping as he shook his head. He’d decided to take responsibility for it, nothing good would come if word of what had actually happened came out and people started pointing fingers at Mora.

“Anyway,” He went on. “Your fight. It’s just a spar, please don’t go crazy destroying anything or anyone and try not to get injured beyond whatever our local healers can deal with. Abel, since your outer ancestry changes how you look make sure you use it but call out when you do as a warning-”

“But then this pervert will know too,” She said with a pout. “What if I lose ‘cause I gave it away?”

“It won’t count as a loss because this is just practice for me to observe you both. If I tell you to stop then you stop and if either of you are concerned about wins or losses I’ll tell you right now, however many matches you have are all ending in ties, end of story, no matter how it might look to any onlookers, got it?”

“Sounds acceptable.”

“Ugh, fine.”

“Good,” He nodded. “Any skills you have are going to be permitted since it’ll help give me an idea of how you guys are going to defend yourselves but remember, this is for me to get a feel for how you both shapeshift. Make sure you’re each doing it plenty to the extent you can so I can see what I’m working with and we’ll go from there.”

“Ha, all out then?” Abel asked with a worrying level of excitement. “Maybe giving you a heads up isn’t gonna be so bad, prepare to get your butt kicked, perv!”

“Alright, maybe putting the little weirdo in her place will be good for the planet,” Foast said, the short claws on his hands lengthening with his words. “Someone’s gotta beat some manners into you eventually!”

“…Guys, what did I literally just say about ending with a tie?”

It didn’t matter, both had stopped listening as they jumped away, creating just a bit of space from him before zeroing in on each other as their fight began.

With both of them at least remembering the main point, Ben got to watch their flesh warp and change before his eyes as Foast dropped to all fours but grew in size, taking a shape formed from the countless creatures he’d slain with powerful jaws ready to bite and tear their way through their target, with Abel reacting in kind.

Her own flesh looked like it melted down into a puddle, avoiding the lunge but not entirely evading as Foast’s form shifted to match, shrinking down to something more birdlike, his face now on the other side of his body as he spat out sharp pins while his momentum continued to carry him forward, with Abel opening holes in herself to let the attack through, throwing herself forward to try and engulf him.