[2.11] Accomplice (Part 2)
Gelic found herself in a new location, filled with unfamiliar walls that were etched with glowing green cracks all around. Gawk had gotten her paranoid that she’d been transported somewhere random, but no, there he was in front of her, just a few feet ahead, flapping away as usual. But something was off about him. He had a strange green glow around him, matching the scratchings all around. At first, she confused it with just the lighting, but, no, it was definitely around him, emanating from him.
Then she glanced down, shocked to find herself shimmering as well. Whatever power had infected her friend, she’d come down with a bad case of it, too. “Uhh, should I be worried about this?” she piped up, shaking her claws to watch if the glow followed, which it did, sticking to her without even leaving a trail of light behind.
“No, that’s the whole point of coming to this place!” Gawk assured her. “Here, you can’t die! When you come in, you basically get a second set of Health, and that’s what takes damage in this room. When you leave, you’ll be back to the Health percentage you entered with. It’s the same power that they use for tournament fights, and stuff, so we don’t accidentally end up killing each other during them. And it can also tell when we’re fighting, and won’t refill our Health until we stop. Oh, if you do fully run out, though, as punishment, your body will be frozen for a few moments, but that will also keep you from taking any more damage while your faux Health recharges back to full.”
Well, that was a bit of a stunning revelation. Angelica took a moment to scry herself, wondering if it’d show anything different. Next to her usual Health, which was down to 99% after a little bit of existing, there was a second (100%) listed next to it. “Hmm, MP doesn’t seem to have a special marker,” she noticed. “So I guess that’s still used up normally.”
“Yeah, we still have to use our own here,” he confirmed. “Otherwise it would be way too crazy for training your Skills here. This is one of the best places to do so safely, especially after getting new ones or Evolving. And we’re also encouraged to experiment here to try to come up with Combo Skills, but not a lot of demons are that creative, from what I’ve heard. Ah, one important thing to remember is that anything that has to do with your Health depleting, like Resistance Skills or Suffering Attunement, won’t go up here, since your actual Health isn’t being affected.”
Made sense, and was probably for the best, or else she’d be tempted to freeze herself in an iceberg to train Cold Resistance, or Stab herself repeatedly to unlock whatever that Skill was, maybe even lace it with Toxic to build that up if there was no chance of death. It sounded like it could be practically addictive, training here until she was unkillable, and then leaving to find her whole life had moved on without her. Still, the place definitely had merit, so she didn’t get hurt if she was unsure how a Skill worked. It was also probably where the majority of Demon disputes were resolved. Ferrul, or whoever, had likely set it up so their servants didn’t kill each other off willy-nilly.
Speaking of… “So are you ready for me to attack you?!” Gawk inquired genuinely, as if it was a normal thing to ask.
“Huh, what?!” Gelic glanced around. While the room was wide open with plenty of room for many Demons, there was nothing else. No training dummies, no obstacles, nothing else to be used as cannon fodder. She could probably use Manifest Ice to make some targets for them or something, but that likely wouldn’t give the expected feedback. Using other Demons as practice must be the norm, and part of why he’d requested for her to join besides just having a friend tag along. “Err, okay, I guess. What are you going to do?”
“Sorry.” Gawk picked up on her discomfort, sort of. “Did you want to go first? I got a bit overambitious, I guess. But it’s my first attack Skill, so I was excited! It’s called Stunning Gaze, which apparently hits the enemy with a blast that leaves them paralyzed for a bit. If you want to go first, though, that’s fine. Hit me when you’re ready!”
“Err, no, it’s not that. I just… didn’t know we’d be attacking each other.” She tried not to sound too hesitant, since it seemed to go against Hellish culture, but it was still just a weird concept for her to attack or be attacked for no reason. But it should be fine, right? As long as she wasn’t actually getting hurt, there wasn’t much of an argument to disappoint his expectations. “It’s fine, you can go ahead.” She didn’t really know what to do with herself, so she just stepped back a bit and held out her arms wide, waiting for whatever was thrown her way.
What she didn’t expect was for Gawk’s eye to pulse like it was charging up, or a flashlight blinking brighter. It definitely wasn’t a discreet move, and every instinct said she should be bouncing out of the way. The attack came jutting at her in the form of a beam. By the time she saw the light move, lurch from the eye-shaped lightbulb, it was already too late. She was pierced by it instantly, run straight through by the surging power.
The good news, it passed through her and out the other side without leaving a scratch. The bad news, it hurt, like a ball of fire had flown through her body. Apparently, no damage didn’t equal no pain. Then came the effect, the stunning part of the Skill name. Angelica didn’t know if she was hallucinating, or what, but it was as if Gawk’s eye expanded, becoming a massive eye of light that looked as if it were staring into her soul, but just for a split second, enough to genuinely terrify her, leaving her figuratively and literally stunned.
She tried to move a muscle, and… it sort of worked. Her body felt like it was made of metal, its joints rusted shut, desperately trying to move again, but could only creak.
[You have been Paralyzed]
Yeah, obviously! Apparently, it wasn’t like poison, at least, where the application was discreet. Thankfully, scrying herself still worked. Highlighted beneath her pseudo Health, which she’d lost 9% of, was Status: Paralyzed. Assumedly, anyone else with high enough Scrying Eye would see that too, if her lack of movement wasn’t obvious. What was nice, though, is that it had an estimated countdown of when she’d be free from the status condition, only a few seconds more.
But, damn, she kind of wished that this was out in the real world, so that way she could maybe get the resistance for it. Cus this damn sucked! If she was hit by it legitimately in a real fight, that could very well be the end of her. And that was hit by an assumedly Lv.1 blast. How long would she be frozen if the skill was at, like, Lv.20? Would Gawk think of her as a weirdo if they repeated the exercise somewhere out in the worlds? It was probably taboo to openly attack another Demon in Hell, but they could try it out on another plane of existence, since she now knew how damaging it could be. Probably best not to push their friendship by reducing him to a Skill-source out the gate, but maybe she could convince him in the future.
“Hey, Gelic, are you alright?!” Gawk flapped over to her, genuinely concerned. “I didn’t know it’d be that strong. I was just expecting like a little blast, but that was more like kachoom!”
“Y-y-y-e-e-a-ah, I-I’m fine.” The paralysis wore off mid-response. “It wasn’t too bad. Definitely hit me harder because I wasn’t expecting it, either.” And suddenly, she felt better. Looking at her status once more, the second Health bar had topped itself back up to 100%, since they were no longer considered to be in combat. “It’s a cool Skill, Gawk, I’m envious.”
“Well, I don’t know that it’s all that,” he replied sheepishly, clearly not used to praise. “Its long charging time is definitely its downfall, so most enemies will likely see it coming.”
“Did you get anything else that you want to try?”
“Eh, not really.” The floating eye seemed a little down-trodden by that fact, but also decently content. “I got Auto-Bumble as a Passive Skill, which you see me using already. That’s already more than I could ask for, since it lets me fly endlessly and will definitely make my life so much better! Other than that, I got Hold Fast, which lets me stop suddenly in the air. Oh, maybe you can help me test that. Would you throw me?!”
“Err, sure.” Bit of an odd request, but Gelic’s wandering mind was more busy thinking about Auto-Bumble. Somehow, he’d gotten Bumble as a passive skill, assumedly through some “Auto” affix, something she was even more envious of. Well, he really needed it more than she did, and it sounded like he wouldn’t have the advantages of Flutter. Though, if he had Hold Fast, he likely wouldn’t really need that, assuming he had the wherewithal to use the Skill.
Gawk got close to Angelica’s bug hands and stopped flapping, landing a little ungracefully. It took a bit of maneuvering with her long claws trying to get a grip around his shell, but eventually he was decently locked in. Gelic hoisted him above her head, reeled back, and pelted her fellow Puck as far as he would fly. Oh wow, that’s far. Angelica really didn’t know her own strength, feeling a twinge of regret as she watched her friend be flung halfway across the large room. If he was unequipped, he’d hit the ground with a hard skid, but he activated the Skill and completely froze in the air. It disengaged a second later, and he started flapping again before he hit the ground, perfectly fine.
“Thanks, that was fun!” Apparently, the little dude enjoyed getting chucked, looking like he wanted to ask for another go but restrained himself. “We can switch over to you now, since I only got one more Skill, and I don’t think it’s very good. It’s called Eye On You, which makes it so I pick a target and follow them with my eye until they’re out of range, which seems pretty far, and works even if there’re obstacles between us. But since I can already see basically everything anyways, I don’t really see the point.
Uhh, wait, wouldn’t it…? Halfway through the thought, Angelica decided to vocalize the notion to help him out. “I think you’re supposed to use it in tandem with Stunning Gaze. Since it has a long charge time, that will keep you focused on what you’re trying to hit.”
The eye gasped somehow. “Oh, I think you’re right! I knew I shouldn’t have doubted Ferrul’s intentions. I’ll have to repent to them a hundred times before I go to sleep!”
“Do you want to try it?” she offered, not exactly enthused about getting blasted and stunned again, but was kind of interested in seeing it used as intended. “I’ll move quickly around the room, and you see if you can still hit me.”
“Err, alright.” Gawk began charging the Skill once more.
Gelic bolted and jumped. This would give her a good opportunity to practice with Multi-Bounce in her new form. Just from the first rebound, she could tell that her legs were strong, far eclipsing her Imp muscles. But unfortunately, they were basically the only part of her now suitable for bouncing. Before, she could sort of just hit the object and continue the chain with any part of her body. Legs, butt, face, it didn’t really matter. Now, if she didn’t land with her legs, the streak would most likely break.
The Training Ground wasn’t too suitable for bouncing practice, either. While it went deep and wide, the ceiling was relatively low, so she couldn’t get the height she was accustomed to. Instead, she practiced repositioning her body to bounce off the wall, back to the floor, off to another wall, then finally, completely upside down with her legs against the ceiling. She had been glancing at Gawk this whole time, checking where he was in the Skill charge. Maybe the longer he charged it up, the stronger it was, or it could be that higher levels made the process faster. And she had to admire how adamant his tracking Skill was about keeping his eye lined up with her movements.
But just before the beam shot at her, Gelic readied herself for another thing she wanted to test. She aimed what would be the final bounce to careen herself at the floor and then immediately began tucking into herself after kicking off the ceiling. A moment before the burning blast surged through her, the bits of her armor all clicked into place, locking her into her ball form.
[You have been Paralyzed]
The frozen Puck crashed to the ground, her body rolling around against her will until the momentum came to a rest. She was still stunned, still stuck in that shape for a few more seconds, but it was the ideal position to be in while she was otherwise defenseless. Maybe her new spherical capabilities weren’t so bad. Definitely not what it was, but it could help keep her safe, at least. Perhaps there was some armadillo mixed into her new form.
“Wow, you were going so fast. I thought there was no way I’d hit you!” Gawk flapped to her side once Gelic was able to untuck and get back on her feet. “Thanks for helping me with that. So in return, don’t hold back. Hit me with all you’ve got!