I'd fought Callie before, several times, but those sparring sessions were almost universally categorized by her holding back so she didn't crush me. With exponentially more stats and a substantial Impact advantage she had been more humoring me before than actively fighting. Now that I was at G rank, she still had that stat advantage, but her Impact was the same as mine. In the spirit of mitigating some of that advantage, my first move when we started was Mistwalking, combined with Seek Hidden. Then I activated my overlay.

Seek Hidden was an interesting skill, it could be used to find almost anything, though size and distance greatly affected the success of the skill. Most people used it to find ore veins, because that absurd size of them made it viable over longer distances, but it could be used on smaller targets if they were within range, so it was also used to find things like trapped doors and secret entrances.

Since Callie was within a few yards of me, locking onto her with the skill was simple and the blazing red aura that sprung up around her was factored into my overlay as a directional icon even if I lost sight of her. Being able to view her in real time even as she lost sight of me was an advantage. Even with her higher stats, I did my best to blend into the mist and prevent myself from making a sound. The mist muffled sound as well as sight, so even her Perception was somewhat offset, though not completely.

I circled around behind her, watching her clothes and hair. They were her main methods of attack. She'd imbued both with shadows, augmenting herself physically with them as well as letting her react at a longer range. Her shadow constructs were mostly too brittle and slow to form to be used in live combat, though she could use them for disposable waves of blades if she chose. It was a waste of power so she almost never did it in sparring or low stakes matches.

I got as close as I dared to her, mindful of her senses, before leaping forward, activating Cloud Step to bridge the gap without making a sound. Cloud Step didn't make any noise, so it allowed me to close in and activate Flurry of Blows as I rained down strikes on her torso with my tonfas. As long as I avoided the head injuries should be handled with Vitality considering she was so much higher than me in all her stats. Knowing I was close enough that my blows would be visible in the mist I also trigger the Fantasy effect of my tonfas.

The dozen or so strikes I levied with my enhanced speed were multiplied by the illusion, creating a veritable wall of attacks that became visible as they got closer. I expected Callie to panic and try to choose one, hopefully getting it wrong, but I underestimated her. Her hair surged up, dividing into dozens of shadowy tendrils and intercepting every one of the images, illusion or reality. So I activated Cloud Step again to give myself more movement ability and kicked her in the face.

She staggered back, blinking the shock out of her eyes. She hadn't seen me Cloud Step to that spot because of the mist, so me stepping on midair was kind of a shock. She hadn't expected another attack. Once I had her reeling I followed up, another Flurry of Blows and more illusions to cover them. I was sticking to my first tier stuff mostly, introducing new techniques might get someone hurt, so I was sticking to my old bag of tricks. Still I had plenty of variety so it wasn't like that was a weakness for me.

She snarled, her coat coming up to cover her. She flicked her wrists and a pair of black knives dropped into her hands. Her hair lashed out and wrapped around my arms as the knives flew at my chest. I activated Double Trouble, bringing my tonfas down on her knees from either side as I blinked from where she was holding me to right behind her, my illusory double convincing enough to confuse her for a second as the blows made contact. There was a pair or cracks and I retreated, moving out of the way as the knives fucking shredded the space I'd been standing in.

Her coat streaked down and caught her, holding her up independent of her legs as she glared, cursing, out into the fog. She laughed painfully. "Ok. You are MUCH more annoying to fight as a G ranker. All of this shit seemed cute and harmless before." The knives were floating around her point down, in a sort of orbit to keep me away, and her hair had drawn a series of normal blades that were brandished threateningly around her. I saw her coat buckle, and thought she might be losing power, but it was just her checking if her knees would hold.

They did, and she stood somewhat unsteadily. I cursed at how fucking overpowered her Vitality was. I imagine living shadows and hair would boost that, I just hadn't though about it before. Hell, Vitality might be one of her main stats. I was pretty curious what the hell her stats even were, but I was positive at least one or two of them were over a hundred. Probably Vitality, Perception, and Creation if I had to guess. Her Might was low for someone with her rep, she had a reputation as a speed and precision type fighter not a bruiser, which was the only reason she hadn't already flattened me.

I decided to focus on Might during my next bout of wishes, I needed to boost my physical abilities a bit. My Perception was pretty high but my body couldn't keep up, and I leaned on Flurry of Blows and Mercy Kill far too much. Some Might would lessen that reliance. Despite my decision not to use any new attacks I did have one in mind that shouldn't do too much damage. My second tier water skill in the monk tree, Boiling Cloud. It would suck but be easily healable, and was distracting as hell.

I used cloudstep to circle around without sound, then purposefully let my foot click on the ground loudly. Callie spun to find me and I inhaled, activating the skill and expelling a cloud of white hot boiling steam right in her face. As she cried out in pain and reeled back I knelt down, stowing my tonfas and used Stone Limb on both arms, placing my palms on the floor, and once they were coated I used Consecration of Flame to coat them both in fire, mixing the two together to make a sort of magma limb attack.

We'd agreed no poison, but the flames hadn't been off limits. Still, she wasn't expecting it when I came in at her again, stacking Flurry of Blows on the limbs. She was still blinking away steam burn, and I hammered a punch into her short ribs before she recovered. She grunted at the burn in her side, and started backing up, wrapping her arms in her coat to provide protection. I got in close again and this time she was waiting. We exchanged blows, but hers felt like a fucking wrecking ball even through my costume's impact absorption.

I grimaced as the fight turned. I'd been expecting that. She was much stronger than me, surprise and creativity was my only shot at taking her down, and now that she had her feet under her and I was going to pay for all my progress. Between my suit and the magma arms I was able to divert or tank some of the damage, but her damn knives were dipping in like sewing needles opening small cuts in my armor and skin. Combined with the beating I was taking I could barely keep up, even boosting with uses of Flurry of Blows or Mercy Kill.

I only had fourteen slots left today for enchanting skill use, and I'd already burned most of them. My Impact was getting taxed and I was going to go down soon. Two more uses left in me, but one in reality because the last would knock me on my ass. I'd jumped the gun starting this fight right after making my tonfas. I'd gotten spoiled by all this Impact and forgotten my limits and I was paying for it. Not that I'd have won this either way, but I could have put on a much better show.

Instead of desperately trying to get some small victory out of my last point of usable Impact, I just held my hands up to stop. We were both wheezing, though I was the more exhausted of the two of us. I took my mask off, grinning at her. "That's all I've got in me. We keep going and one more use of my skills will put me out." She glared for a second before smiling. The mild burns from the steam already faded as she nodded and we both made our way over to the wall to plop down and lean against it.

She chuckled, shaking her head. "Damn you're annoying to fight. I could feel that I was stronger but between the obfuscation, the illusions, and all the tricks it was like trying to grab a wet fish. once you get some more stats you'll be even stronger than I am. I have to up my game so I don't get left behind." She sounded genuinely proud of me, and it warmed my heart to know she was so supportive of me.

Still, I knew she had other tricks. I pressed her on it. "You didn't show me all your moves, I know that. Some stuff isn't meant for sparring. But I'm curious, is there anything you can do to make your shadow constructs more viable in direct combat? I know they're too brittle to be used as more than utility stuff or throwaway attacks. There has to be some kind method to make them stronger so you can get more use out of them." I didn't mention her dad and his armor trick but we both knew what I was thinking of.

She shook her head ruefully. "Ironically my whole build makes that harder. Might is the stat for physical reinforcement, and one of my lower ones. My powerset isn't built for direct engagement and that's obvious when you see me fight. Perception, Creation, Vitality, but people think of Nightstrike and think shadows and blades in the dark, not a bruiser. It's frustrating since I already used up my points allotment for elixirs so that's not even an option for me until I rank up, and I'm a ways away from that."

Which was...a problem. Because I could help with that. Could help her get to where she wanted to be with wishes. I'd considered telling her and Jessie before of course, but I'd put it off. With how we worked together though, her strength was going to directly affect me. I would be in a better position if she and Jessie were stronger and had stats more in line with their goals. I mulled over the help they'd been, how much we'd been through, and a dozen other things before I finally made a decision.

I nodded and stood up, holding out my hand. "Hey, lets go get the others, I have something to tell you." I'd held off on this for a long time, but aside from trusting them I also knew that we would need every advantage going forward. I needed to stop holding back and talk to the girls about everything. Tell them about my dad, about my powers, about the family and the WCP. Once I'd done that we could really start getting stronger, and the faster that happened the sooner we could handle the Heartrippers. Time to trust my team.