BOOK 8. CHAPTER 2: TESTING LIMITS

The party had arrived in the training area, all of Clan Hart joining. Jake was somewhat surprised at the number now, their fighting family larger than ever.

Jake, Fhesiah, Ophelia, Bloodberri, Tanda, Avalara, Nessa, Bree, Sati, Ruby, and even Yona joined. A total of ten, plus the non-combatant lesser avatar and the maid, made twelve people in the training area.

A table was set up off to the side, Yona and Ava both preparing it with snacks, drinks, and desserts. Seats were available for those to watch and enjoy the battles, and recover.

In this area, the Hearth of the Refuge’s energy was concentrated, to allow for recovery. The dense energies were actually removed from the battle area, leaving it much closer to any normal battlefield within their Tier. If they had the full recovery and access to the dense mana and auril in the Refuge, their fights would go on forever as they spammed one powerful ability after another.

Yona’s twin tails were lashing behind her, a wide smile on her face as she removed more items from her Storage Bracelet and arranged them on the table. “I made some apple fritters with fresh apples from the Harmony Peaks orchard. The hamadryads worked extra hard on the apples, and they are so delicious and energizing. Try some, before you get all worked up!”

It was a large tray of the glazed desert, likely made from Ava’s nectar. The family crowded around, Jake’s girls grabbing some of the pastry with wide smiles and sounds of enjoyment.

Ophelia moaned, her face full of bliss as she chewed. “Mmm, so good, nice work, Yona! And you’re right. It really energizes you. Not like a dessert at all, but tasty like one!”

Nessa looked over everything. “Wow. With food like this, it’s easy to look forward to some training. If we didn’t already enjoy fighting so much already, that is.”

Yona smiled. “I brought plenty of nutritious snacks, I know you all get famished when you work hard.”

Jake was amazed at the delicious yet energizing taste. “Thanks, Yona. It’s much appreciated. You plan to watch this time?”

“I’m not so sure… I want to watch, Master. It’s tough enough watching your little girls fighting! But I need to be there for them…”

Bree chuckled in her human form, towering over Yona. “Aren’t you descended from a cat, little one? Your mother, aunts and uncles are like walking murder machines. Surely, you have seen them fight?”

“Hunting is different! Fighting another being is not the same. I…don’t like to see those I care about hurt, or hurting others.”

Ophelia said, “When we train, we do get hurt. But getting hurt in training helps us prevent future injury in real battle. If we don’t prepare, we won’t be able to protect what matters.”

“I know it’s important, and I know why you do it. I just don’t like it! I wish the bad guys would just leave you and all your friends alone, so we can be happy all the time.”

Bree chuckled. “Oh, is that all? So what would you do if the enemy arrived, ready to kill you, or worse, the children? Most won’t leave if you just ask them to go away nicely, you know.”

Yona frowned, and she seemed to flex the claws on her dainty hands, frustrated.

Jake placed his arm on his shoulder. “It’s alright, Yona. We don’t expect or require that of you. There should never be a situation where that could happen. The Refuge will always be a safe place.” ṛΑ𐌽ọ𝖇Ès

Yona smiled up at him. “I know. And I will help you, I promise. But… I will help by becoming one with the heavens, and praying to Bastet. Faye said I could, and that she would help me!”

Jake gave Yona a once over with his Umbral Gaze. He thought that in the past few years, she had in fact gathered a fair amount of faith energy. It wasn’t quite at the level of someone like Morwen or her husband, Bedwyr, but it was actually at the level of the average priestess of Arawn. Impressive, considering she hadn’t been at it long, and wasn’t yet in the second Tier.

Fhesiah nodded. “That’s right, and you have been cultivating dutifully with your spare time, and Jake can see that you are diligently praying to Bastet. Excellent work. You are nearly ready to form your core in just a few short years. And without killing anything, I might add.” She suddenly had a thought, “Take a look at our treasure room, and see if anything calls out to you. We have a few extra Source treasures now, that Nessa had brought over. If it calls to you, do not hold back.”

Yona gave a small smile, but her tails were still lashing in irritation. “Thank you, Mistress. I’ll… have a look at it when I’m in a better mood.”

Bree said, “I’m sorry, little cat, I didn’t mean to get you all worked up. The truth is often painful, but it’s better for you to learn and prepare for it now, before something bad does happen.” She chuckled. “Even those kids of theirs know that.”

“They do. It helps to know that many of them actually enjoy fighting, but some have just accepted that in order to help others, they cannot afford to be weak. At the very least, I am proud of them for wanting to help others.”

Yona left, heading back to join Ava’s other lesser avatar in watching the kids.

As Bloodberri wanted, Ophelia and her squared off to fight with everyone watching first, wanting to see how this matchup had changed. They decided on a Technique-only melee battle, to see where the changes brought them against her.

Activating her Asura Seal, a black pattern sprawled across Ophelia’s skin starting from the shoulder. It looked like strange black scribbles in an almost web-like pattern. Words of sealing were sprawled on the lines, with various Buddhist and Hindu symbols from the dharma wheel, the conch shell, a yantra symbol, and more.

The sealing lines and text covered all of her skin, from head to toe, even her face and her wings, and a dark aura or haze emanated from them. Ophelia’s once golden owl wings became as black as night. She became an angel of death, her polearm filled to the brim with the dreaded energy. With how a palpable feeling of death emanated from her, Jake knew just facing her in combat, any enemy would be given pause.

“Let us hurry. I can only hold this for a few minutes still, even with Tanda not taking part.”

Tanda was sitting in the corner, and looked like a strangely cute mirror of Sati at the moment, sitting in the lotus position with her tail wagging behind her. Her green tattoo on her shoulder lit up brightly, her half of the seal aiding in the protection, the counterpoint to Ophelia’s death magic. She could fight at the same time, but that would limit the fight time to a much shorter timeframe.

Bloodberri didn’t wait, and surged toward Ophelia covered in her bronze energy. Her swaying dance had her giant snake body created a deadly weave of tail-bladed attacks, light and dark energies emanating from her in waves.

The nethril afflictions washed over Ophelia like they were nothing, and the holy aura barely restricted her. As usual, even if somehow mixed with Echidna’s holy energy, the Asura’s death energy was just a level above what the holy darkness or nethril could bring about at this tier.

The density of these energies was certainly higher now, but Bloodberri didn’t instantly reach the level of auril and nethril control of Tanda or Avalara. They would need to work on their manifestations and eventually sublimations to bring out the full power of what they had earned.

Giant echidna and death angel clashed, the two locked in a deadly dance of swinging polearms and rapid movements. While Bloodberri’s body was clearly larger and stronger under normal circumstances, the unholy might contained within the tattoo granted Ophelia a strength belying her much smaller frame. She deflected the larger body easily, and her counter was ready for the follow-up from Bloodberri’s giant axe.

When Ophelia used her tattoo, she could still use her Sentinel abilities, but they were altered by the opposing energy. This meant that Renewal was no longer capable of healing, unless she was trying to heal the undead.

To get around this, she would usually ensure her Hearth Guardian was topped off before she activated the tattoo, allowing it to expend much of her vajrafire resources for healing and protecting. The flames of Hestia within her mix of flames was replaced with the deathly Asura energy.

Her Vajrafire Blitz Technique became more of a deathly righteous lightning rather than a fiery one, and only strengthened her. The powerful, higher tiered death energy behaved rather similar to fire in how it would spread death and decay.

Ophelia’s swings of her poleaxe sent waves of powerful, cutting energy into Bloodberri’s scales, and the righteous lightning also seared into her flesh. The bursts of speed caused by Ophelia’s Technique were somewhat countered by Bloodberri’s tail weaving in a flurry of attacks, but Lia landed strikes of the deadly energy on their body, since she was simply too fast.

From what Jake could see, the scales full of nethril provided a decent protection against the deathly Asura energy, since it was a more spiritual energy having a greater impact than auril alone. Then, the auril energy running through the runes on her red and gold armor provided a substantial defense, weakening the attack further.

Rather than deep gouges and a powerful invasion into their flesh, only light wounds mounted as Bloodberri both attacked and defended with her tail and heavy axe. Her body even began to heal from the punishment, the auril and twilight energy flowing through their flesh providing a decent healing factor when combined.

Ophelia moved rapidly, keeping herself from getting trapped by Bloodberri’s deadly tail. The echidna did their best to cycle where they took Ophelia’s blows, no two cuts landing on the same spot until it was healed. Her armor was starting to look a bit like Swiss cheese, with how many holes there were in it.

The damage continued to mount, as Ophelia moved faster and her blows struck harder, the Asura’s power building the longer the seal remained open. Evil thoughts meant to twist her emotions and wear down on her psych and resolve echoed in her mind, the tainted power coming at a cost.

Bloodberri had a pained smile on their face, proud that they had improved so significantly as a result of forming the organs. Normally, they would have already lost long ago. If they were able to last much longer, Ophelia would be forced to cancel the power of the tattoo, the corruption too high. Then, it would likely be their win because Ophelia’s vajrafire on its own was just not that damaging to them, easy enough for them to heal up and come out on top in time.

With a parry of Bloodberri’s axe using Lia’s wing, she blurred as she used her blitz ability, swinging downward. A deadly wave of death and destruction slashed deeply into Bloodberri’s chest, and the fixture fired a beam of red light into her, restoring her heart. While it wasn’t like she almost died, it was close enough for the fixture to be triggered. She still had another heart or two still beating, after all. Of course, Ophelia merely could have targeted her Hearth Core as well.

Berri pouted. “Awww. So close. You’re just too strong, Lia.”

The tattoo drew in the death energy, the seals on her body fading away. Ophelia was a little weakened as a result, Jake picking her up and carrying her back toward the refreshments table to help her recover.

Ophelia smiled as Jake set her down on his lap. “No, I think if we didn’t do just martial abilities, you’d have been the victor. Plus, you haven’t really practiced with your new ability to find mastery. I benefit more from you being unable to cast spells.”

Blood shook her head. “You might be right about the auril and nethril skills, but your Champion ability is just too strong. But I’m just glad the playing field is much closer now. If Lia could get a nethril heart too, that would be even more challenging.”

Jake said, “It just feels too risky. We all remember how Balor tainted the nethril. Those Asuras may be able to use it to get a foot in the door.”

Avalara’s lesser avatar looked thoughtful. “Now that we purged the taint, it may actually be a decent defense for her. The many memories of songs joining the choir as nethril beastkin awaken are more heroic and more numerous.”

Fhesiah said, “Something to think about, but if we’re wrong, we can’t just get rid of the heart if it causes a problem now, can we? I won’t write it off, but not only must we test it first, but we must obtain the materials first in either case. We have a few items of an adjacent quality that we should be able to trade for, but Elixir of Boundless Life and Endless Death are not that common. We are likely going to need both for Jake.”

The other girls began their spars, Avalara against Sati and Ruby, and Bree against Nessa were both exciting matches that Jake watched with interest.

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Bree faced Nessa as a humanoid, her body becoming larger as auril pulsed through her. The large woman stomped through and fought against the invading ice of the lake, spewing flame into it as she went. Her vines had bloomed their flame flowers, her bodysuit creating tendrils containing them seemingly at will.

Nessa tried to sneak around and cut into her back or target weak points, but a shield of woven vines would always appear followed by a powerful fist, blocking or stopping any assault. Then, Nessa tried to land her icy venom on Bree from her blade, but even when she landed a cut, Bree’s flames only brightened briefly and then the vines grew rapidly in response. The deadly poison was then cut from the partial plant body, stopping their venomous invasion.

The snake girl also sent several blasts of frigid cold and dangerous blades of ice to go along with her deadly sword swings, but Bree seemed to have limitless flames and heat to counteract her spells.

Bree continued to stomp around within the lake, sending water splashing away and spreading a sort of domain of her own of fiery vines. Nessa then used her mirrors and several frostfire flame snakes to hide the charging of a more powerful attack. Using the dao that made her blade sharper, she tried to deal a more damaging blow.

Despite hiding her assault between several water and ice serpents and her mirrors, Bree roared and punched out with a leap, her fist colliding directly with Nessa’s sword first. It then crashed into her body and sent her flying from the immense force.

Vines wrapped around her even as she flew, and even if that fist hadn’t really killed her, Bree was ready to mount and pummel her.

“Not bad, daughter of Tyr. That was a good fight.”

The red beam of light struck Nessa as she surrendered the battle, and she groaned as she got up. “That was…a good fight. But I can’t help but feel a bit discouraged… I know you still lack your divine trait.”

Bree nodded. “I still have…something, and then I have thousands of years of experience, even if my body is new. Even if you layer your traps, my instincts have been honed for that same amount of time. While you have your divine trait and I do not, yours is not that useful against a straight-forward enemy such as myself.”

“Yes, I understand. And your dense, healing body is too good at resisting my poison.”

Jake noted, “Fire against ice is always a challenging matchup. How does Sati do against you, Nessa?”

Nessa sighed. “She’s also tough for me to deal with. I can fly with my lake around me in a bubble, but her relentless bombardment as she evades is a pain. She…often beats me too.”

Jake shrugged. “Just the way it goes sometimes. Most would say that a tank is a counter for an assassin, besides. The truth is, you’re at your strongest while in a group, with us creating attacks of opportunity for you. The rest of us are pretty well-rounded as solo combatants, and maybe you’ll get there eventually. But you don’t have to, it’s okay to rely on us a bit more.”

“Thanks, and I get that. I know my poison is still weak, but with your help…perhaps it will become more formidable. Then I will be much more effective against targets like Bree.”

Fhesiah against Tanda was next, and it was always an epic battle, that often went one way or another. While Tanda’s tattoo was active, the fight somewhat resembled the kitsune painting, where Jake gained his void of family. A wall of deadly plant maws against a wall of purple flames.

Only, Fhesiah would build up towards a powerful Breath of Celestial Alchemy, while Tanda would use her endless vitality and growth to absorb the attack, and counter with her Bloom Burst.

Even after the plants died down from her tattoo running out, Tanda’s Avenging Flames would be powered up and send devastating deathly attacks against Fhesiah. It was often the Curses of the Sun and the Moon that would bring Tanda down when Fhesiah won, usually kiting and limiting Tanda’s ability to keep up the attack.

In a fight with Techniques only, Tanda usually won much like Ophelia did, her avenging flames powered by the endless vitality of paradise making the attacks devastating. Fhesiah could consume the life-powered flames well as she understood them. But the physical nature of Tanda’s arrows or her polearm meant even with the sturdy scales and the might of a dragon, Fhesiah couldn’t fully defend against the damage Tanda could dish out.

And targeting Tanda in her defensible jungle or swamp was a challenge even for Fhesiah, who could see where she was with her Divine Sense. With several annoying spriggon summons casting druidic spells to aid in her retreat, Tanda really had a vast array of difficult tricks to deal with.

Meanwhile, Avalara faced off against Sati and Ruby. Ruby’s blood plate and sharp clawed gauntlets were in fact able to make Ava’s battle avatar bleed, even if it was a more sap-like substance than actual blood.

This caused the blood badgerdillo to become empowered slightly, her bloodflame brightening in her chest. Meanwhile, Sati restricted Ava’s vine and Highlands beast-powered counters with powerful blasts of flame, and Jake got to see some more mystical looking attacks coming from her. Flames shaped like dharma wheels crashed into Ava, and seemed to weigh down on her in a special way, even as they burned and dried out her vines.

Despite all this, Ava was no easy target. Her vines regrew as the flames burned her, and they whipped and manifested powerful Highlands creatures with nearly every attack, knocking Ruby back and striking her so hard that her blood plate started to show cracks. Swapping over to nethril, the swamp hampered and debuffed Ruby further, and Ava leaped at her, swinging down her massive club.

In a surprising feat of strength, Ruby roared as her spirituality increased. Her blood plate rippled, somehow hardening to stop the immense force behind Ava’s club as she met it with a cross-gauntleted block.

The fighting went back and forth for a time, the battle close despite it being two against one. The flames of conflict eventually burst forth from Ava, blasting toward Sati and Ruby. A wall of blood dampened the flames as they evaporated, and Sati’s flaming dharma wheels took on the color of gold as Ruby dashed in and landed a series of cuts across Ava’s larger body. After the beam of flames was diminished by the wheels, the flames of conflict were actually drank in by Sati.

Her body the color of gold, Sati’s Scorching Ray sheared through Ava’s arm and leg, sending her avatar tumbling to the ground with Ruby and Sati finally taking the win.

The duels continued, different matchups occurring as Jake continued to monitor and practice his runes and constructs. He had a long way to go to be able to create a true Tier 3 spell, and he wanted to make the most of his time to get as close to achieving it as he could.

Berri looked over at the shape he was testing, her eyes narrowed. “What…is that abomination?”

Jake couldn’t help but take a look at it. What was she so upset about? But it wasn’t until he looked that he noticed.

It was a spherical object made entirely of pentagons, a dodecahedron. A total of twelve of the same shape formed its surface, and Jake was trying working combinations of runic spells replaced across the face of it. He was using Pyros, his Divine weapon, to form the constructs, as they would be even more stable than his hearthflames alone, and easier to test with less focus.

The object looked vaguely like a soccer ball–a football. Clearly, it was not that.

Jake groaned. “I’m just testing things, Berri. While Odin got me interested in hexagons, it’s important for me to try different arrangements of runes, or I might miss out on unraveling all the rules in which the runes operate.”

Berri narrowed her eyes even further. “You know why I do not like it. Do not try to distract me.”

Jake started to sweat a bit, and Blood groaned. “Please listen, sister. Your hated ball is a mixture of pentagons and hexagons, with thirty-two sides. That thing is different, and our Lord has enough difficulty trying to master the nature of magic without you limiting him with your weirdness. Even if it was the shape of your hated ball, it is not one. Don’t be unreasonable.”

“Oh, so I suppose I should just sit idly by as my values are betrayed? What’s next? You loudly proclaiming that it’s not Jake’s fault that somehow the only magic delivery system is through kicking it?”

Blood huffed, folding her arms. “You’re impossible.”

Berri humphed. “And this is why it will take you longer to become the goddess of…whatever it is you are wanting to become. I will be the goddess of baseball first, and it will be because I accept no excuses or compromises.”

Focusing, Jake added two small, stitching patterns with his hearthflames to the ball. “There, see? Totally more like a baseball now, right? And if you notice, the stitches look a little bit like snakes.”

Berri narrowed her eyes once more, looking at them, before she smiled. “Good, this is the line of thinking that I can support. And for the love of Berri, never test if kicking it is somehow better. We will never find ourselves in that situation if you do not so much as think it into existence.”

With a roll of Blood’s eyes, Bloodberri went off to fight against Ava’s battle avatar next.

Ophelia was eating some snacks near them, recovering. “So…that happened. Did…she just refer to herself like she was a goddess already?”

Eventually, Jakelia and Janda–Jake mixed with Tanda, made their appearances. Facing off against combinations of the other girls, they showed their strength. Even in a three versus two, the fusions felt nearly unstoppable. Part of it was the impressive parameters and empowered flames, but the other was their knowledge of those they were fighting. It was easy for them to target weaknesses or overwhelm an individual member when using all the tools at their disposal, even with Ophelia’s Sentinel protecting against Janda’s rapid, deadly attacks.

With the increased amount of mana, the fusions could summon quite a few templates at once to busy the others as they focused on one. But most of the time, just some quick buffs on themselves and a series of rapidly cast spells would put their opponents on the defensive.

The girls all loved facing off against such a formidable opponent, but they couldn’t maintain the form for very long–just a couple of minutes. Thankfully, the form wasn’t much of a resource hog, so it wasn’t as though it were imperative for them to win while fused. As long as they did any damage, which was easy, it was worth doing.

After the girls did their duels and the battles with the fusions, Jake was the popular duel and sparring opponent. They usually saved his duels for last, as using his resonant states would cause issues as others fought. The fixture could block influencing other people’s battles, but then he became unable to use them. Jake had to get his practice in with it as well, and they’d often participate in 2v2’s with him and his resonant pair.

Plus, as the leader, or the person usually calling the shots in combat, he liked to be well aware of all of his girls’ limits, and he also did his best to spot opportunities for improvement. If he was focused too much on his own fights, he’d have difficulty doing all of those things.

Lastly, for Jake to fully fight with all of his resources, he really needed to be able to cancel all of his buffs. Divine Reinforcement still accounted for a fair amount of his maximum mana and regeneration, so any serious bout where he could give his all kind of required him to remove it from everyone he could.

Over the next few weeks, the party would spend a lot of time training, dueling, and practicing facing Jake’s mock PvP battles. They also needed to practice using their anti-PvP equipment Jake had created, and he did have the task of enchanting Nessa’s equipment.

Ruby and Sati were also ready for their Hearth enchantments, even if they were not hearth bonded. Jake had already made some initial enchantments early in the second Tier for Sati, but he could tweak them a little more now.

Bree was still trying to find her path. He wasn’t sure what she was looking for, exactly, but he felt like she was doing well with Brigid’s slivers of divinity left over in the vessel they created. Her flames had the powers of spring fertility mixed with her monstrous strength, and they were both effective, and he thought fitting, for her style of fighting.

The sturdiness, regrowth and regeneration of her plant-woven, beastly body was powerful, able to compete with his well-armored wives. Whether she fought in her compact body or her large, dinodog body, she was formidable and challenged each of them in different ways.

But maybe she wasn’t looking for her path at all. What if she was waiting for Jake to make the choice for her? As her pack leader, perhaps she wanted him to be proactive on this. He’d think his wives would already know this, but it could be they were asked not to hint at it or tell him.

In her previous life, she was a domineering, massive, powerful dino cerberus approaching divinity. As far as her flames, they were heavy and full of monstrous power, the sheer quantity becoming a quality all on its own. But thanks to Jake, she had been reborn. The winds of fate had changed her into what she was now, and he thought that what she had become was rather fitting for his family, and she seemed quite happy with it, besides.

Just as Sati and Nessa could mix their flames together with Fhesiah’s Breath of Celestial Fusion, so too could Bree and Nessa. Because of that, he knew that she could help him achieve balance for his Voidborne Soul Harmonization when she became his hearth bonded.

His girls actually had quite a bit of leeway with this now. With each of his girl’s dualities, a few of them were quite flexible on which half they worked on in a given session. Fhesiah could work one set of flames and bloodline one evening to pair up with someone else, and simply use the other on another night–something she very much enjoyed, since it meant an additional session.

Then, Bloodberri and Avalara were both of their elements at once in a way, and would be tempered as long as opposing elements were used. Thanks to that, even if he ended up with an odd-woman-out, it wouldn’t really cause significant problems. Not unless they refused to join another in the same room, like Ophelia had difficulty with at first. If they did, then it could eventually draw Jake askew in their balance, but he thought it would be rather slow with his number of wives.

Of course, Jake thought about what else his party could use, as he took every opportunity to make his team stronger and close any weaknesses. In many ways, Bree was a bit redundant compared to Avalara. Both were challenging to kill tanks, their vines and immense life or death energy making them difficult to kill.

Their large bodies made them able to control the battlefield with their bulk, and thanks to their hearths and auril, they had incredible endurance, just like the rest of his wives. Avalara’s flames of conflict took a while to build up, but they were devastating as an offensive tool. Bree’s flames empowered her strength a bit more, but her power remained consistent and strong throughout a fight, a balance of offense and defense.

And that was just fine with Jake. Perhaps some mystical flames of a phoenix or some other special flame would be interesting and useful, but he didn’t feel like that was fitting for Bree at all.

Flames and plants seemed like the most counter-intuitive thing he had ever heard of. But Jake knew the truth–plants with the proper amount of hydration were in fact quite resilient to fire. And with auril dews being pumped through her body, and an affinity for fire through Brigid, this was even more so.

Having recently finished a match, Bree was sitting on the floor in the recovery area, enjoying the equivalent of a large turkey leg–some kind of auril beast bird’s leg. She was re-weaving her vines, as if shifting their makeup as she sat. It was a freaky thing, as they would get drawn into her green bodysuit and body, getting recompressed into it. Her body was a strange amalgamation of muscular flesh and plant vines, that hurt Jake’s head a bit to look at in his Umbral Gaze.

Still, her skin and the underlying tissue were similar, and muscles were already like cords or strings of tissue. It was simply that vines were woven in between, able to expand or contract as she wished.

It was an interesting body that she had crafted, and she was always improving it, like she was right now.

Jake stood up, and walked over to her. “How about a match, Bree? Just me and you.”

She chuckled, as she quickly finished what she was doing, drawing the vines somewhere inside her bodysuit, and stowed away the leg in her Storage Bracelet then stood up. “You know I won’t ever turn you down, Chief.”

Ophelia snorted, finishing crunching a chip in her mouth. “As if anyone here would. Against anyone.”

Jake intended to get to the bottom of Bree’s feelings, and have a good fight while he was at it.