“He’s copied our skills!”

Jill was the first to yell the words, but all of them had recognized it already. Seeing someone use your skills was rather obvious. Mash’s mind was racing with questions, trying to understand how Jeral was stealing their abilities. Since Mash still had his domain and could feel Jeral’s domain too then it probably would block his abilities in any way. Mash guessed that he couldn’t still have any skill either, as he would’ve picked something stronger than the domain. Even Jill’s teleportation wasn’t her strongest skill.

He needed to know how the ability worked. Mash needed to how many skills, and what it was based on. If he had Luke’s healing this fight would be near impossible to win. He could just teleport away and heal continuously. Mash made a mental count of what Jeral had displayed thus far. His domain, Jill’s teleportation, and Red’s blood control. Three good skills, but not their strongest. He probably couldn’t choose, and maybe he could only get one. Was it random? When and how did he take them? Range? It was an idea, and he told Jill to teleport.

“Teleport up, as high as you can!”

Mash yelled the words, as he leaped toward Daniel’s location. He didn’t aim for where he was, but where his next teleport was taking him. His domain let him get a small jump on the location like it did when sparring with Jill. Even if ki wasn’t mana, he found that he could see its traces just like with mana. Jill was gone already, Priscilla helping in explaining his ideas to the others. At that moment, he couldn’t be more glad for giving her the permission to share important ideas with the others without checking with him. He often forgot that she was much better at multitasking than he was.

He turned out to be wrong, and Jeral teleported again. He was getting faster and more accurate. His blade actually stabbed simultaneously with his teleport and Mash couldn’t dodge even if he saw it coming. Mash hadn’t been slacking though and he partially transformed. He altered his body making it more durable by changing his muscles. The dragon had strong muscles and he decided that would be better than the scales at the moment. The blade of blood splashed against his skin rather than cut through it. His control still wasn’t as good as Reds.

Who seemed to recognize that, as the blade magically bent away from Mash and started digging into Jeral’s own hand. His response was to scream aloud and let go of the blade. Mash caught Red smiling, and he couldn’t help but mimic the gesture. That was one ability he would not be able to use. As he was reacting to the sudden pain, Jill appeared behind him. She attempted to stab him through the heart. He dodged it with a teleport. He could probably keep up with Jill thanks to the domain. However, he wasn’t ready for Mash to swing with additional speed and reach. His arm grew longer as he used wood to reinforce it and stretch it. Adding more power to his strikes were Luke’s buffs which flared to life on all of them.

Jeral hadn’t been prepared for that one, and Mash’s fist struck him squarely in the…robe? Jeral’s robe had morphed, becoming something closer to metal. His collar grew high enough that it attempted to catch Mash’s fist. It succeeded and failed all at the same time. Jeral was fast enough to block the attack, but he was not strong enough. Even with a makeshift shield. Mash’s strike dented the metal and kept pushing. The knuckles of his wooden hand squarely landed just perfectly. Pushing the metal into Jeral’s eye and cheek, he just pushed as much as he could. Jeral was sent flying. His whole body twirled with a punch, a crunching noise that was loud enough to be heard spread from the strike.

Mash was a little worried that his strike would carry him over the ledge. It didn’t though as Luke caught him. Golden light formed into a replica of a human body and superimposed itself onto Luke. It encased Jeral trapping him completely, and it became thicker around his eyes.

“I think this will stop his teleports.”

He spoke but looked to Jill for confirmation. Mash could see that Jill was nodding, but he interjected as fast as he could.

“No, he has my domain!”

Luke’s eyes widened slightly but he wasn’t able to react in time. Jeral appeared beside him and stabbed him with a metal blade. One that seemed to have grown out of his robes. Luke was faster than him though and attempted to catch the metal blade with his hand. To everyone’s surprise, the blade cut through Luke’s fingers without even slowing down and it wasn’t stopping. It was headed for his throat, but Luke was stunned by his sudden loss of fingers. Mash couldn’t react in time, but he was never the fastest one. Jill appeared beside Luke causing Jeral to teleport and dodge. However, he moved into Red’s aimless looking swing.

Mash wondered when she had coordinated that with Jill and was a little jealous. He wished he had planned something like that. It barely nicked him, but it had managed to pierce his cheek a little. It was enough, and black specs started spreading on his face. Mash had heard about what her skill did and had been expecting his veins to turn black. It didn’t seem to work like that at all. Instead, his skin started to turn grey around the wound and black spots spread on him like a rash. It was distinctly more horrifying than his veins turning black, and Mash made a mental note to be more careful when sparring with Red.

Jeral was panicking now, and Mash could feel the fear enter his domain. Mash guessed that meant that he hadn’t stolen any healing abilities from Luke, although he might have had another. Mash was fairly confident that his attack should have crushed Jeral’s eye, but he seemed to be able to see perfectly fine. It wasn’t a certainty, but the skill was obviously not good enough to deal with Red’s infection. That much was proved by the panic on his face.

Luke was glowing like a light, and he practically teleported himself. He might’ve been as fast as Mash’s top speed, which was a scary thought. Mash’s body hadn’t been able to withstand that speed. Even if Luke wasn’t going quite as fast as Mash had been, he was still far faster than normal. He swung at Jeral’s head, and Mash wondered if he would kill him. The fist turned into a grab. Jeral tried to teleport out of the way, but Jill reacted first, teleporting Luke alongside him. His hand connected and he grabbed Jeral by the head. A large golden hand seemed to swallow his entire head. Luke didn’t crush his skull but shook it violently.

Mash realized, at that moment, that he wouldn’t have cared if Luke decided to kill him in that attack. If anything, Mash had been hoping for it. This was not the time to have an internal conflict, and he decided to take Luke’s earlier advice. That was something he would do before going to bed.

Jeral was being shaken roughly. It got to the point that Mash was pretty sure that Jeral had fallen unconscious. Actually, it might have happened from the first push. Now, it just looked like Luke was shaking a kid’s doll as Jeral’s unconscious body flapped wildly. Red tapped his shoulder a few times and Luke stopped, and let go of Jeral., who proceeded to fall to the ground unconscious. He slumped in an unflattering way with his body bent into a triangle.

The next question was what to do with him. He was still infected with Red’s skill, and Mash wasn’t sure if she could prevent it. Luke might be able to though. As if acknowledging Mash’s idea, he placed a hand on the cut and the disease did retreat slowly. Honestly, he hadn’t expected that considering how much of Jeral’s face had turned grey. Another few seconds and he would have died for sure. That did beg the question though.

“Um, why are you saving him?”

Mash couldn’t keep his mouth shut as the oddness of the situation hit him. Luke paused in his healing and looked up. Similarly, Red and Jill turned to meet his eyes.

“I thought it was what we wanted. None of us were trying to kill him in the fight.”

Mash didn’t really have a response to that. After all it was the truth. If Mash wanted to kill him, he would’ve transformed at the start of the fight. Similarly Red would’ve used some of her other skills to seriously hurt him. Even with his teleports, he would have suffered from those. Fighting to kill would’ve drastically changed the result. Either way, Mash didn’t want to be involved in the decision. He just wanted to find Daniel.

“I’ll go look for Daniel. You guys can figure this out.”

“Nope. You can’t just avoid making decisions. I mean seriously.”

Jill’s rebuttal was so automatic, that he wondered if she had been expecting him to do that. Was it foresight, or could she just read him that easily? Mash obeyed though. He recognized what he was doing and knew that he should at least try and add his input. Red spoke up first, and Mash was relieved with the idea.

“Let’s get Daniel and have him decide. If I were him, I would want to be the one to decide.”

He agreed that it was a good idea. Red and Luke were in charge of keeping Jeral here. Red infected him with her skill, and Luke was the only one who could heal him. Even if Jeral managed to run, he wound wind up dead pretty quickly. It was a little cruel, but it was the only thing they could come within the moment. Mash and Jill went searching for Daniel. Jill teleported to the lower part of the sect, while Mash started with the tower itself. She could teleport in and out of buildings, and he could search the building with his domain. He did leave imitations of Priscilla with the others so that they could send signals to one another.

Mash decided not to care about the tower anymore and decided the best path was right through the middle. He walked over to the center of the tower top. His domain didn’t cover everything, but he would have an idea of what was in the room. That was all he was going for. His footsteps were loud on the stone, and he aimed carefully. He didn’t bother being gentle about it and just stomped against the tower top until it broke. The first strike made some cracks and the second caused those cracks to branch out. The third stomp was enough to break the stone into pieces. He almost used too much force but managed to accomplish his goal. The ceiling broke and he dropped onto the floor below. The stones scattered as they struck the ground.

He realized that this might not be the best plan. The stones might hurt whomever they land on. It probably wouldn’t hurt Daniel. Probably. Just use the stairs. It will only take a few more seconds. Mash ran down the stairs and across each of the hallways. Other than the top two floors of the tower, each subsequent floor had many rooms in it. Mash noticed with little surprise that they were empty. What was more concerning was the lack of bodies. He hadn’t seen any bodies since entering the sect and couldn’t help but think of how Daniel had processed the monster corpses into pills. He gagged at the thought of eating another human being. He focused on literally anything else and started sprinting through the floors.