Prism Academy 5- Chapter 31 (Patreon)

Chapter 31- Sparring

“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got. You’re all bonded to me, but now, I need to see how well you can work together. First up, just the full bonds. Eve, CB, Titana, and Valkyrie wait on the sidelines, but you’re gonna be involved soon.”

Precision called out, “What are the rules?”

I grinned. I’d been hoping they’d get competitive with me. “Obviously, pull anything that would be lethal, I mean that goes without saying even if I just said it. Beyond that, I win if I pin all six of you. You win if you pin me before I can do that.”

Demis grinned. “And what do we get when we win?”

“Oh, you wanna make this into a bet?”

She shrugged.

“Do the rest of you agree with that?”

They put their heads together, but must have been talking telepathically because I couldn’t hear a sound coming from them. When they separated, a couple of them looked nervous, but Inferna said, “Yes, we all agree.”

“Okay, and what do you want if you win?”

Demis said, “When we win, you have to make time to take each of us out on a solo date.”

Priska blushed then. Apparently, those dates had made more of an impression on my bonds than I’d realized. “Okay, and what about if I win?”

Demis stared at me for just about three seconds before she said, “We’ll all do anything you want for a night?”

I arched an eyebrow. “Are you telling me or asking me?”

She put her hands on her hips. “Telling you.”

“Fine by me, but what about Molly? She’s on my side of the battle, too.”

“Thanks, Aden.” Molly said in my mind.

“Of course.”

The girls talked again for a minute, then Kenna said, “If by some chance you two win, then we will each give up one of our nights with you and Molly can have seven nights in a row.”

I felt a surge of excitement from Molly as she said, “Oh, it’s not now. We’re gonna wreck them and then you’re gonna wreck me, for seven nights in a row.”

I didn’t reply to her but simply nodded our agreement as I started running through my evolutions in this fused form.

ANOP said, “Not to ruin the fun, but you can only hold this form for two minutes and fifty-two seconds longer.”

“Ugh, why didn’t you tell me sooner? No, never mind that.”

I opened my eyes and said, “Okay, it’s on.”

Then they were all moving around me. The battle was happening at high speed as my six super-charged bonds all moved around me. Inferna started out with a blast of flame. She knew I was immune to the heat, so it had to be to blind me.

An instant later, I felt a surge of power behind me. Pre-cognition warned of an incoming attack. I started to spin out of the way when it felt like an anvil was dropped on my mind. My reaction was slowed just enough that I was struck head on by a purple blast of energy from Demis.

Then before I could recover, Wraith phased up out of the ground. She pulled me down till I was stuck up to my knees. I could phase out, but the flurry of blows and psychic attacks were throwing me off. I was faster than any of them and pre-cognition warned me a fraction of a second before any attacks happened, but it wasn’t enough. I took fists and feet from multiple angles while Sybilla fired alternating lasers or psychic attacks.

Her new evolution from Wraith allowed her an unprecedented ability to slip past my attacks. I knew she was a more skilled psychic than I was, but I’d hoped that my raw power would enable me to make up the difference. Then I remembered that there wasn’t just one mind inside of me, but two.

It was going to take them a long time to beat me down like this even if I was having trouble blocking or avoiding blows, but I suddenly stopped trying to do either and focused inward. I couldn’t evade Sybilla, so I simply opened myself up fully. I could feel Sybilla’s satisfaction with how potent her new ability was, but I also felt Aqueous with me.

She wasn’t upset with me for losing. She was my partner. We were one, and she was ready to do whatever she could. “I’ll try to deal with Sybilla’s mind. You take control of the body and stop the rest of them.”

With that, I felt a surreal moment as I took a back seat in my own body. It was potent to trust someone so much that you let them take control like this. When I’d done Tandem with Demis, it had been more about me empowering her abilities. Now we had all the power we needed from our union, but we needed two minds to make this work.

I felt excitement from Aqueous as she caught a blow from Demis. “Oh, I think I’m gonna like this.” Then with an almost casual effort she launched Demis through the air. I lost the ability to track her about half a mile out, as I had to focus on Sybilla.

The psychic made her move to attack Molly’s mind, but I wasn’t having it. I threw myself between them and said, “Nope, you shall not pass.”It was lame. Sybilla didn’t even get the reference, but I did get her attention. “Your fight’s with me.”

Charismatic Mental Mastery

I couldn’t beat her in skill, but I poured capacity into exuding my aura of charisma right at Sybilla. First her attacks slowed then a part of her felt responsive. She already loved me, so this might be cheating. She wavered. I could tell that she wanted nothing so much as to come hug me.

I knew if I pushed it any further that she’d recognize it as an attack. I didn’t try to push her to stop attacking or to harm her in any way. I simply focused on trying to make her feel positive towards me. It was all that I could do to hold her in this state of fascination without trying to push her.

I grimaced as I realized this was very much like trying to maintain a long-term relationship. She would launch attacks at me sometimes. I try to ignore them or defend myself even if I’d left an opening. It was a dance back and forth. She really did care about me, but that didn’t make it always perfect.

Then something hit me. This was a danger in the bond. It promoted the idea of perfect relationships where both sides were so overwhelmed with love that they couldn’t think critically. That was silliness. People didn’t work like that. People had ups and downs. We needed to have both joy and sorrow. No one was perfect.

A very small part of me tried to track the battle between the Aqueous using my body and the others. Every time she trapped one or two of the girls, Twinkle of Wraith would rescue them. Demis and Inferna were doing the heavy lifting of direct conflict, but they couldn’t really hurt my body, not as powerful as I was with this merger.

Then ANOP said, “Three seconds till split.”

I pushed forward and threw as much power as I could at Sybilla. I just needed a second. Then, while Aqueous was using my physical form, I launched telekinetic attacks at all the others. It was too little. I grabbed some of them, but they all had their ways of dealing with it. Inferna turned to flame and couldn’t be held. Demis muscled her way past it. Wraith phased. Twinkle teleported, and even Precision had gained a more limited Line of Sight Teleportation from Twinkle.

Then Aqueous and I were forced apart. No matter that we still had capacity to fuel the merger or that we both felt connected. Two people simply can’t be one. We could be in unity, but we each needed to be our own person, and such a merger can’t last for more than moments of bliss.

As we popped apart, I grabbed a last second punch from Demis in one of my hands before holding up my other hand and saying, “Call it a draw.”

Aqueous grumbled beside me. Her body was still fully reforming. “Only cause we couldn’t go all out.”

I just laughed. “That’s why they call it sparring, not killing.”

ANOP gave us run downs how we had all performed. Psychic attacks hadn’t worked against Krig before, so I did get a little worried as I realized that even boosted as much as they were now, my bonds had no hope of physically keeping up with Krig. I started to feel a weight settle on me. It was going to be up to me to protect us from him. If I couldn’t, then ridding the Earth of the shadow might not matter.

I could feel the weight of responsibility bearing down on me, the pressure to protect my bonds and defeat Krig. It was then that Sybilla, sensing my turmoil, reached out and put her hand on my arm. "Aden, we're all in this together. We're a team, and we'll face Krig as a united front. It's not all on you."

The others around me, my bonded, nodded in agreement. Inferna, her eyes burning with intensity, stepped forward. "Aden, you've brought us together, made us stronger. We'll stand by your side, no matter what."

Aqueous, her green hair cascading down her back, looked at me with fierce determination. I saw her lip trembling, but in that instant I thought it was only the depth of emotion she was feeling. "I'll be strong enough to protect you, Aden. I promise."

Before I could try to reassure Aqueous, Precision, always focused on the task at hand, chimed in. "We'll work together to come up with the best strategies, and we'll support you every step of the way."

Demis playfully ruffled my hair, her powerful wings fluttering behind her. "We're a family, Aden. We're going to kick Krig's butt together." Just when I thought she was feeling especially sentimental, she patted my ass. I could only grin. That was the Demis I knew and loved.

Wraith, her brown eyes filled with warmth, added, "You're not alone in this fight, Aden. We're your friends and your lovers. We'll always have your back. Remember what you told me that first day of testing? You said you’d need friends who don’t come with strings attached. Well, now, we're bonded and there are plenty of strings between us. I’m never going to lose you. If you did die, I’d kill you.”

I was surprised by the depth of emotion in her voice. I could feel it echo through our bond.

Twinkle always struggled to find her place, but now she seemed more certain than ever. "Aden, I didn’t know exactly where I belonged before you chose me. Our bond has made a family and now it isn’t just you and me but all of us. I’m not going to let the shadow or some armored freak with a god complex take that away from me, not after I finally got what I’ve always wanted.”

It was then that Aqueous suddenly collapsed, her body trembling from the strain of our fusion. Precognition warned me just in time that I was able to catch her before she hit the ground. As I cradled her in my arms, I reached out with my mind and felt her flutter underneath my touch, both physically and psychically.

Tess was at my side just a second later. “I was worried about this. Her vitals have been all over the place since she split from you. Is this what happened with Demis when you did Tandem mode with her?”

As I started to answer the question, we moved Aqueous to the field lab that Tess had set up. I could feel ANOP analyzing the situation inside my head. “It’s similar, but different. Demis seemed fine at first too, but then got delirious. We had to… uh…”

Valkyrie offered, “Bump uglies in my brand new jet?”

My face flushed as I remembered. It had been a passionate moment. Something had passed between Demis and me then, and we couldn’t even wait to get back to the city. So, sure enough, I’d taken her right there in Valkyrie’s jet. “Uh, yeah, but this feels different.”

Tess had already started hooking up wire leading to an assortment of machines. Many of the scans could be done wirelessly, but as I understood it this enhanced the accuracy. The space around us came alive with the hum of the various devices.

While Tess and Sophia took a scientific approach, I reached out with Light’s Judgment and infused healing into her. Sybilla joined in by scanning her psychically. Everything we did seemed to slowly help, but it took a full hour for Molly to recover.

After a tense period of analysis, Tess finally spoke. "It seems that the fusion with you placed a great deal of strain on Aqueous' body. She'll recover, but it will take time."

ANOP added, "I recommend that Aqueous should not attempt another fusion with you for several months, Master Aden. The strain on her body could have serious consequences."

My heart sank. I had hoped that fusing with one or more of my bonds would give me the strength needed to defeat Krig. Now that option seemed to be off the table, at least for the foreseeable future. I glanced at Aqueous, her eyes fluttering open as she regained consciousness. The concern in the eyes of my bonds, the love they had shown me just moments before, was now directed at her. In some ways, that was so damn sexy. I loved the idea that we were truly becoming a family.