PSTH: Chapter Sixty

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Mockup advertisement of an Obsidian King’s corporation created by Aiden at age 10 for a class project

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Gawain and I sparred several more times, and to my surprise, I found myself starting to win more than I lost or drew even. His Primals were slightly higher level than mine, but not by an enormous amount, and we were both familiar with one another’s teams. I didn’t want to claim that I was just better at guiding my Primals than he was. The fact that my Primals were able to gain experience against the mental effects of Trouble’s magic meant that they were able to be better off against Gawain explicitly, which did explain some of my wins. But as I won more, I thought even if I might not be more skilled than him, I was definitely better at thinking outside of the box. 

Gawain, for all his team’s power, was a very conventional tamer. Gabis and Gryphon were a classic ranged spell blaster and strong tank combination. Trouble was slightly unusual for a support Primal, but not so unusual that he couldn’t fill the role, and fill it well. But it went beyond his team – he didn’t help push them to make unconventional decisions. If there was an opportunity for Gryphon to use his fire or lightning magic, Gawain took it, rather than waiting.

He rarely, if ever, chose to use the spell that created a flash of light to instead push me to further unbalance, unless that was clearly the most opportune thing to do. He used the fear and illusions to distract and harass, but never to just get weird and confusing. But if I’d been the one to guide his Primals, I’d have had Trouble’s illusions flailing across the entire ring in as many shapes as possible, just creating a chaotic mess, using the flash spell to unbalance my opponents and reposition, and have Gryphon hold back on using spells to make him seem weaker than he was.

“Why would I?” he asked, eyebrows knitting in genuine confusion. “That’s entirely sub-optimal: it burns anima for less effect.” 

“No, that’s exactly the point!” I said. “It keeps the people reacting to you. You get to control their reactions.” 

“You explicitly do not get to control their reactions. You are forcing them to react unpredictably.” 

“That’s not exactly what I’m trying to say,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s about reading their reaction, and then using it again and seeing how they shift. You just gotta shift and change to flow alongside the fight. Maybe controlling their reaction isn’t the full picture, true.” 

Gawain’s lavender eyes met mine as he waited for me to explain more. He was actually listening to me about this, and without just demanding that I spill it out. That was a good sign, if a bit surprising to me. 

“It’s more accurate to say that the way we fight puts you on the back foot,” I finally said. “I can’t control your reaction, you’re right about that. But since I have you off guard, it lets me take initiative in the fight moving forward. It helps me to better dictate and control the fight in a way that can’t be charted with anima or pneuma.” 

Gawain pursed his lips tightly at that, then ran his tongue over his teeth, and nodded slowly. He didn’t say anything else about the topic, but I noticed him trying some more unusual and distracting stuff with the illusions in the next few fights. Between all of the battles, and the training, by the time it was getting late and both of us were starting to get hungry, we’d managed to generate a good bit of essence. Both Hex and Scales broke through to level eighteen, while Zale finally formed a twentieth layer on his core. That sent a surge of pride through me. Every tenth level was something of a watershed, both requiring additional essence and marking the need for more essence to continue moving forward. I’d finally managed to get a Primal over that major hurdle. Unfortunately for me, the pride was marred somewhat by my concern about Scales. Two levels left. If he didn’t reach his second form… I shook that off as Gawain asked if I wanted to try a noodle shop that he’d found, and we dug into a bowl of soba noodles in a spicy sauce.

The following day, it was time for both Gawian and Laurel’s challenge against Councillor Kingfisher, and for Rane to get some experience with photographing Primals in live battle. We showed up to the Consortium as a group, and were ushered off to one of the rooms, after which Councillor Kingfisher strode in. He looked much the same as he had when he’d faced off against Riley: an average gray haired man in his mid-thirties. There was a certain warmth that he held up close, however, as he strolled over and shook Laurel’s hand. 

“Good to meet you, Laurel. I have to say, I’m looking forward to this. Alyssa, Lisa Ruth, Miguel, and Vince have all had good things to say about you and your little group. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got invited to a rising stars event sometime soon, if you keep this up!” 

Laurel flushed in embarrassment at the praise, running a hand through her hair and thanking the Councillor for his kindness. 

“Right, you’ve got four Primals, right? This can be a full battle, then, four versus four. Great. Are you ready?” 

This time, Laurel was more ready, running her hand along the storage gems. Rane leaned forward, contorting her entire body at a weird angle in order to get a good shot of the motion, which I figured probably would make something of a cool image.

“I’m ready,” she said seriously. 

I leaned forward, trying to sense as much of the fight as I could, while streams of ousia flowed from the storage gems, forming into the shape of Zaza the Serest and Pop the Canistone. Across from her, Kingfisher sent out his own team, and I had to stifle a gasp at seeing who he’d released.

The first Primal he’d sent out had been the Taurualist, which wasn’t shocking. The Councillor had limited the power that the Primal could output in the fight to be on par with Laurel’s team’s average level, naturally, but it was one of his Primals, so it was expected for him to re-use it in a fight. It was the second Primal that had me so shocked. Fearfeasters were epic Primals, and there weren’t any essence hearts in Oceanseed that I knew of that actually produced them. Further north, in Rainforge, there were some that did create the extraordinary Primals, but that was fairly far away, and Rainforge wasn’t quite as open with letting people cross through the country as Oceanseed was. Not that it was impossible – it had just been unexpected for me to see a Fearfeaster here. 

The Fearfeaster looked like a large bat, with three pairs of sleek black wings, and a large mouth that glowed faintly. It was an arcane and toxic Primal, with a gift somewhat similar to a Boogeymander. But where Trouble could use fear and panic to produce essence for advancement or food, the Fearfeaster’s gift amplified the effectiveness of the extant essence within its core in conjunction with the amount of fear others had, as well as the amount of damage an opponent’s pneuma shell had taken. 

In many ways, it made the Fearfeaster the exact opposite of a Taurualist. While the Taurualist had immense power that dropped rapidly as it both dealt and took damage, the Fearfeaster grew stronger as it consumed the fear and pneuma of opponents, making it perfect for drawn out fights. They were certainly a good pair, and I wondered why Kingfisher hadn’t used them against Finley. Different tactics, I supposed. 

“Begin!” 

As they adopted battle forms, Zaza’s serpentine form was far larger and more powerful than it had been when she’d fought me, and the sharp antlers had grown longer, too, with dappled moss hanging from them. The Serest had unlocked its second form, sometimes called Seresti. Not as powerful as the third form, but a considerable step up in strength. Alongside the Canistone, they cut an imposing figure as they launched in to attack the Fearfeaster, trying to end the threat before it could get off the ground. The Taurualist interposed itself with a bull rush and lashed out, sending cracks splintering through the Canistone’s shell, only for Zaza to barely dive under the Taurualist, antlers raking its underside, and leap onto the bat-like Fearfeaster. She wrapped her coils around the Fearfeaster, and sprayed some spores into its face, then lashed it with Willow Switches, slowly sending cracks in its pneuma. 

Her Canistone, meanwhile, was doing a mean Scales impression, building defenses and leaping around to dodge the attacks of the Taurualist, with middling success. The Taurualist was simply so strong, especially now, that it was hard to stop the blows. As with Riley, there was a slow but steady drop in power as it burnt its anima-pneuma blend, but unlike Riley, Laurel wasn’t able to take it out. A double elimination happened at almost the same time, as Zaza’s serpentine fangs sunk into the Fearfeaster and broke its pneuma shell, while the Taurualist’s hoof shattered the Canistone’s own defense. 

Zaza fell onto the ground, rolling and rushing right back to Laurel as they each sent out their next Primals: the Darkwisp and Ella the Procella. The living storm boiled out, and immediately began summoning winds to assist with Zaza’s movements, while the Darkwisp flitted from place to place, sending blasts of dark flame at Zaza. With the wind, she was able to just keep ahead of the dark flames, most of the time. She took a handful of hits, enough to send some real cracks in her shell, but it wasn’t enough With a crunch, she broke the Taurualist’s pneuma shell, which caused Kingfisher to send in another Primal that caught me off guard: a Felimalio, just like Hex. 

The instant the new Primal appeared, the battle took a new turn. Procella’s winds dropped in power as her gift was suppressed, and the Felimalio dashed forward, shadows streaming out from her tail. I recognized it as a more advanced and granular version of Shadow Cloud. It formed into thin barriers around the eyes and ears of Ella and Zaza, which queued up the perfect strike for the Darkwisp. In a roar of flames, Zaza’s battle form dissolved, and the Seresti, now just in its basic Serest shape, slunk back to Laurel. Laurel sent out Beak, but she hadn’t been able to modify the ousia weave to the same extent as Finley, nor did she have the same level of control over the winds. When the Darkwisp filled the air with burning drops of rain, they pounded into the pneuma shells of Ella and Beak, slowly burning away their defenses, while the Felimalio sprayed them with a lingering toxin that hurt them over time. It wasn’t an instant win, and Laurel actually managed to eliminate the Darkwisp before Ella vanished, only for Beak to be taken out by the leftover damage. 

I stared, blinking slowly. I somehow hadn’t even really registered the idea that Laurel could lose to a Councillor, despite knowing that she’d lost to Alyssa Ramos before we met. The silence over the ring was broken by Kingfisher.

“Hah! Well fought. You nearly had me there, and might have if your Kirow hadn’t taken so many damaging status spells. If you want some advice, I’d say the thing you need now more than anything is essence. You have plenty of talent, there’s no argument about that. But the advantages of power will help you close the gap.”

“You’d be able to increase your average level as well,” Laurel pointed out, pressing her lips together, and Kingfisher nodded. 

“Sure. But I’ve already got all of them, and am holding back. You, meanwhile, will be operating with a lot more power, much better coverage, and more effective moves.That will help you hold off gimmicks. There’s a reason gimmick teams tend to do really well at lower powered tournaments, but there’s only a few people who manage to consistently use those sorts of gimmicks at higher powered brackets, and they do so with skill and power to help compensate, rather than solely relying on the gimmick. And I’m on that short list of people.” 

Laurel made a humming sound, then a fierce, fighting grin spread across her face.  

“I suppose that makes some sense, and I will be doing some training, but I also think I can beat you as I am. I just have to adapt to your strategies. When can I do a re-match?”