Broken Soul Part 7 (Patreon)

"You're insane," Amy grumbled as she checked Myst's health.

"Any changes?" Myst asked as he absently watched Ron dancing around Taylor, Gwen, and Akari as they tried unsuccessfully to land a hit on him.

"It's hard to say," Amy admitted. "Some of the changes are probably mystical, but I don't think you're getting more resistant to electricity considering there haven't been any changes in the last hour."

"And my poison resistance?" Myst asked.

"The changes have slowed down to a crawl or at least the changes that I can make sense of," Amy replied, doing her best to ignore the urge to find some test subjects and see if she could replicate the changes.

Peter shivered as he watched Ron twist in a way that shouldn't be possible to avoid Taylor's haymaker. "Are people supposed to bend like that?"

"No," Amy replied as she glanced back at the sparring match as Ron jumped into the air and over Akari, making it look easy. "We also shouldn't be able to do a six foot vertical jump while on sand."

"He's probably using ki," Myst mused as he stretched his arms over his head, wondering if he could talk Amy into boosting his flexibility to help get back into shape. 'I should probably wait until she isn't pissed about me using an insane technique.'

"I'm still trying to figure out how to circulate it," Peter admitted as Ron shoved Taylor, sending her into Akari.

"It just takes practice," Selena offered, not looking up from the board she was holding against her hand with a 'simple' application of ki.

"Pay attention to your footwork," Ron suggested then promptly got hit in the face by Gwen when Akari pulled her shirt up and flashed him.

"Sorry," Gwen offered, not having expected to actually hit him.

"It's fine," Ron admitted as he rubbed his jaw.

Akari snickered as she readjusted her shirt. "We won."

"That's fair," Ron agreed with a smile, considering the light hit a fair trade for the show.

"Are you ready to give Amy the necklace so we can beat her black and blue or zap her with lightning until she's immune?" Akari asked as she walked over to where the rest of the group was standing.

Amy shook her head. "I'd rather wait until he doesn't need the tiara."

"Let me try something, fuck!" Myst cursed when his avatar lifted the tiara up just enough for the magic to cut out, sending a wave of agony through his body and causing him to drop the tiara back on his head as he convulsed because of the pain.

"Still in pain?" Selena asked, not particularly surprised.

"Unfortunately, it feels like my insides are on fire," Myst admitted as he took the regeneration necklace off and handed it to Amy. "You should probably put this on and do some sparring while we're here, the more damage you take in a controlled setting, the less you'll take in a fight."

"Don't you need the necklace?" Amy asked, fairly sure he was hiding the extent of his injuries.

"My chicken of doom spell drains health from anything it damages, as long as I keep killing the goblins or spirit beasts running around the treasure world, I should be fine," Myst told her as his avatar summoned a chicken of doom next to him, summoned a group of goblin warlocks in the courtyard and slipped through the doorway so they couldn't hit him with any spells.

"Fine," Amy replied as she put the necklace on. "How do you want to do this?"

"Full contact," Selena suggested cheerfully as she raised her fists.

Amy shook her head. "That sounds like a good way to get in trouble with your parents."

Selena quickly cast her armor spell. "They're not going to care about training and my armor should prevent me from getting a concussion."

"Fine," Amy grumbled as she raised her hands.

Myst took a couple of steps back and watched as Selena and Amy started trying to hit each other, giving him a bit more sympathy for his old martial arts instructor as he watched the girls enthusiastically flail at each other. He winced when Selena managed to punch Amy in the neck, sending her to the ground gasping for breath. "Walk it off."

Amy coughed a couple of times when the necklace repaired the damage to her throat. "Is that supposed to be encouraging?"

"Yes," Myst lied. "You have regeneration, you'll be fine."

"Doesn't change the fact that getting hit hurts," Amy complained as she got to her feet.

"I'm aware," Myst replied. "Part of training is learning to work through pain."

"Fine," Amy grumbled as she put her hands up. "Let's try that again."

Myst watched as the girls continued fighting for a couple of minutes before Amy took another hit to the throat, causing her to step back and glare at Selena.

"Are you aiming for my neck?" Amy demanded.

"It hurts less than hitting your face," Selena replied with a smile.

"I'm pretty sure getting hit in the neck hurts more," Amy grumbled as she rubbed her throat, a bit surprised that it didn't hurt as much as the first time since it had knocked her back.

Selena gave Amy a smile. "Nope, my knuckles are fine!"

"Ah," Amy grumbled when she realized that Selena was teasing her. "Fine," she said as she launched herself at the younger girl.

Myst smiled as he watched Selena continue to almost 'accidentally' block Amy's swings while occasionally getting in some vicious shots to her throat and ribs when she had a chance to make it look accidental. 'Yeah, I shouldn't be surprised that her parents made sure she got training.'

"Let's get back to work," Ron suggested as he glanced between the rest of the people in the training area.

"I'm good," Myst replied when Ron focused on him.

"How long has it been since you've done any sparring?" Ron asked, wanting a better idea of where everyone in the group stood when it came to combat.

"It's been a while," Myst admitted as he started working on stretching his arms. "I'm also dealing with trying to kill the goblins without getting my avatar killed, I don't need the distraction right now."

"When you don't want a distraction is generally when you need it," Ron argued.

"Fine," Myst replied with annoyance as he put his hands up, ready to block if Ron tossed a punch at him. He spent a couple of minutes trying to hit Ron before losing his temper because he was almost effortlessly avoiding taking a hit while fighting four people and punched him from range with his magic gloves, causing him to stagger which let Peter punch him in the side and knock the wind out of him.

"Let me-" Amy cut off when Selena kicked her knee, causing it to snap sideways and drop her on the ground in a great deal of pain. "Fuck!"

"Sorry?" Selena offered, knowing she'd appreciate the damage resistance later that her talent would give her.

Amy stared at her leg as it straightened out and the pain vanished. "Okay, I could get used to that."

"That's the spirit," Selena said cheerfully as she held her hand out for Amy so she could help her up.

Amy wiggled her leg to make sure it was working then took Selena's hand and let her help her up. "Let me check to make sure Ron didn't break anything then we can continue."

"I'm fine," Ron assured her after he checked his ribs to make sure they weren't broken. "I don't think I broke anything, but feel free to check."

"Does anyone want a technique that causes your right arm to explode but gives you the ability to create life draining ghost claws with your left hand?" Myst asked, figuring that was the most useful self destructive technique

"Me!" Ron said cheerfully.

Amy walked over and checked to make sure Ron's ribs weren't broken or fractured then took the necklace of regeneration off and handed it to Ron. "Go for it. Worst case, I'll rebuild your hand, I want to see how the necklace works."

"Wait, really?" Ron asked, surprised that she wasn't trying to talk him out of it.

"It sounds like you only need to use the technique once to get an ability to drain life, it seems worth the risk unlike the shit Myst pulled," Amy explained.

"Cool," Ron replied as he put the necklace on. "Let's do this."

Gwen shook her head then headed over to where they'd set the bottles of water they'd brought with them.

"I'm not responsible if this goes completely sideways." Myst tossed Ron the technique scroll, wishing he had the ability to debug the techniques, because some of them had some interesting ideas, they were just flawed.

Ron used the scroll then stuck his right hand in the sand and used the technique, causing his right hand to explode as the ki flowed through the flesh in a way it wasn't supposed to, unlike his left hand which seemed fine, not that he was in any state to appreciate his left hand's continued existence as the pain from his missing hand was overwhelming.

Amy touched Ron's forehead and watched his hand start to regenerate.

Myst smiled when his avatar found a dagger that could vanish and get resummoned by the owner. "Nice, I just found a dagger that I can summon and dismiss, can you add it to my wand without adding the negative quality?"

"Sure," Selena replied. "What's the negative quality?"

"Using it basically slowly turns your character into a Thing knock off by making your flesh stony and hard which increases your vitality but lowers your agility and flexibility," Myst explained.

"Can I borrow the dagger for a bit?" Taylor asked hopefully. "I have a couple of spirit beasts that could use the vitality, especially since I can merge them to drop the negatives."

"Yeah, I forgot about that," Myst admitted. "I was thinking it wasn't worth it because of the lost agility. I'll hand the dagger to one of your minions."

"I'll send one, I found a pack of spirit chickens," Taylor replied with a grin, looking forward to making some better spirit beasts.

"Shit!" Gwen cursed as a quarter sized spider with glowing red eyes jumped off the water bottle and bit her hand when she grabbed the bottle to take a drink. "It bit me! Kill it with fire!" she shouted as she flailed her hand, trying to get the spider off her hand and not thinking straight in her panic.

Peter turned and ran towards Gwen to help.

Myst wasn't particularly surprised when the spider let go at the perfect angle to end up hitting Peter in the face as he rushed over to help.

Peter grabbed the spider when it bit him and tossed it, sending it into the shadows. "Spider."

"Man," Myst added without hesitation. "It's just a spider."

"It's a spider beast," Taylor said as she ran over to get a better look.

"Grab it, I need to check if it's venomous," Amy told the group as she finished checking Ron's hand to make sure everything was fine.

"What are the chances," Akari muttered as she glanced between the bite on Peter's face and the bite on Gwen's hand, mentally pushing her time table up for seducing them so that she'd get a boost if they ended up with their powers.

"I'm not seeing it," Taylor admitted after twenty seconds of scanning the shadows.

"Did you manage to unlock anything?" Myst asked, curious what type of spider they were dealing with. 'Was the spider showing up just random chance or was someone pulling strings? Is that why they got sent here?'

Taylor pulled up her spirit beast menu and looked at her new spider option. "The Spirit Spider comes with a danger sense and has the ability to generate supernaturally strong webbing."

"Does it have poison?" Amy asked as she headed toward Peter and Gwen to check their health.

"No," Taylor replied, causing Amy to relax a touch.

"Ooh, that's a useful technique, you blow your testicles off in exchange for more ki," Myst lied, rather amused by the way Ron went a bit green.

"How the hell is that useful?!" Ron demanded as everyone turned to look at Myst.

"It distracted you from your hand," Myst pointed out with a smirk.

Ron looked down at his newly regenerated hand and wiggled his fingers. "Huh, everything works."

"How well does the regeneration work?" Akari asked Amy, interested in the technique.

"Everything seems fine, the regeneration doesn't seem to eat through his fat reserves or at least not significantly," Amy explained.

"Can you summon ghost claws?" Akari asked Ron.

Ron used his new talent and summoned flickering purple flames from his finger nails. He blinked a couple of times when he realized his right hand had the flames as well as his left. "Apparently the technique works for all of your fingers, it just blows your right hand up when you acquire the talent."

"We need to figure out a good way to teach the technique," Akari said, looking forward to picking up the ability.

"I'll write things down," Ron offered, rather happy with the trade now that the pain had disappeared. "It shouldn't be too hard to activate once you figure out how to manipulate your ki."

Amy glanced up at the sky which was getting a bit darker. "We should put some work into playing with our ki before we head back."

"Works for me," Myst agreed. "Can I have the regeneration necklace back? I need to check the mound of loot I got from the goblins and I need the regeneration so I don't have to waste potions."

"Sure," Ron replied as he took the necklace off and handed it to Myst. "Thanks for the technique."

"Thanks for testing it," Myst replied with a grin as he put the necklace on, happy that he could afford to take a break and look over the loot.

"How are you killing all of the goblins without getting hit?" Akari asked.

Myst turned to look at Akari. "I found a courtyard where I can drop the goblins and use the overhang as partial cover, it's pretty easy to move around and blast them and their spells are slow enough to dodge most of the time."

"Most of the time?" Amy asked.

"It's not a perfect system but the staff and potions have been enough to keep me alive and functional," Myst replied, not mentioning the couple of times that his avatar had gotten clipped and come uncomfortably close to dying.

"Can we use the technique safely since we don't have testicles?" Akari asked thoughtfully.

Myst shook his head. "Sorry, that was my idea of a bad joke, if it exists, I don't have it."

"I figured I'd ask," Akari replied with amusement.

0o0o0

"I'm starting to wonder if goblins have a fascination with panties," Myst mused as he tossed another pair of magical panties on the table for Selena to tag since they basically gave the person wearing them a weak force field.

"Doesn't everyone?" Akari asked as she walked out of the guest room where she'd left Peter and Gwen to sleep off the spider bite.

"That's fair," Ron agreed as he turned to look at Akari who was wearing a robe that hid very little, especially as she'd left it partially open. "How was…" he trailed off when his brain caught up with his mouth.

"My bath? Or the threesome?" Akari asked with a grin as she walked over and sat down on the couch next to Amy. "A lady never tells but the bath was excellent, it almost makes up for the fact that I'm a bit sore from the workout."

"Cool," Ron replied as he pulled his attention away from Akari's chest, reminding himself that he'd seen more skin at the beach. "How long do you think they'll crash?"

Myst pulled his attention off Akari's chest and considered the question. "I think most of the comics or movies had him out for at least a day but I could be remembering things wrong and this isn't a comic book."

"They'll probably be awake by lunch tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if they sleep until tomorrow night or the next morning," Amy said, wishing she had a better idea what was going on with their biology since she'd only been able to understand a fraction of the changes when she'd checked on them after Akari had went to take a bath.

"They made it through the worst of it, they'll be fine," Myst told them, hoping it was true.

"We might have a problem," Taylor piped up from her spot on the other couch next to Selena. "One of my spiders overheard some inner disciples talking about the Young Master's disappearance and about how his life tablet broke, they're planning on calling on a spirit seer to investigate his death."

"Did they say what a spirit seer is?" Myst asked warily.

"No but the way they were talking about it meant that they didn't think they wouldn't get answers which means we're screwed."

"Unless we figure out a way to leave," Ron suggested.

Akari shook her head. "We'd have to sneak out, they're probably watching us. I'm surprised they didn't already pin things on us."

Taylor glanced at Selena. "Unless they have and they're just waiting until they can bring someone that can deal with Selena's father."

"Best of luck but finding a way to block his ability to keep an eye on me is possible and they might do something stupid if they think he won't show up immediately," Selena admitted, not particularly confident in the sect's self preservation.

"We're going to need a distraction if we're going to sneak out, any suggestions?" Akari asked, trying to think of anything they could do that would distract the sect from their young master's death.

"I might have an idea," Taylor said thoughtfully.

Akari turned to look at Taylor. "What's that?"

"One of my spirit monkeys found a chicken that was trapped in a stasis field in a glass cylinder, it had a bunch of warnings taped to the glass about how you shouldn't break the glass and how it would bring doom to anyone that attacked it," Taylor explained.

Myst frowned as he tried to place the creature and why he was getting an uneasy feeling about the chicken. "Did the chicken have a name or anything to indicate where they found it?"

"The notes said that they'd acquired the chicken in High Law," Taylor replied, not recognizing the world or country.

"High law? Hyrule?" Akari mused, thinking about the evil chickens that swarmed and summoned more if they were attacked.

"It said High Law but that might have been a translation issue on their part," Taylor mused. "Why?"

"Because I think I just found our distraction," Myst replied with amusement.