The power set that I had designed for Tetra (with plenty of her input) was pretty amazing, but it wasn’t something that I would choose for myself. It was an incredibly active lineup of abilities, and I personally preferred to have a few passive abilities that would work even if I had to focus elsewhere – like my ice powers, for example. I could create and control ice, and even build constructs that would follow orders that I gave them (as long as I was close enough), all while being incredibly resistant to harm… unless my opponent was a fire cultivator, of course.

Wulfric’s iron body power was also quite passive, with his boosts mostly coming from increased strength and durability, and his ability to control and shape metals coming in secondary to his preferred fighting style. He had been much more of a ‘let the enemy come to me’ type of fighter even before he had become an Ally of my cultivation system, and he seemed most comfortable being able to tank hits while biding his time for a counterattack.

Tetra, on the other hand, always liked to get in the first hit (and the second, and the third… and the last), and waiting around for an enemy to plan or position themselves was something she clearly despised.

I had named the package I gave her Battle Ki because, in some ways, her abilities were similar to what cultivators who had passed the first tribulation could do with Qi – or at least, all of those I was familiar with, a grand total of three so far (myself, Wolfram, and Firebrand). There were some slight differences with how Firebrand manipulated ambient Qi, but I had no way of knowing if it was learned differences from his years of experience, or something deeper. Either way, the effect was similar enough that it didn’t matter.

The Battle Ki package hadn’t turned out exactly as planned, but I was pretty used to that by now, since almost none of the powers I had ever purchased came without at least minor changes and alterations. In essence, she had a pool of energy that I had named Ki, and her Ki could be used to fuel a wide variety of body enhancement or energy manipulation.

She was able to channel her Ki internally to make herself faster, stronger, or tougher in limited bursts as desired, and through cleverly balancing her abilities by toggling her Ki usage off and on quickly she could fight at peak strength almost continuously. In addition, she was able to channel the Ki externally in solid form, allowing it to extend the reach of her strikes; create temporary weapons; and erect solid shields of Ki that could not only block attacks, but also support her weight long enough that she could use them to step or jump off of to redirect her momentum mid-air.

As far as unplanned modifications that the world imposed on me, there were both welcome and unwelcome surprises, with the best one being that she was able to somehow absorb part of the energy from an external attack or source, and the worst was that her Ki recovery speed was tied tightly with her current fatigue level – if she allowed herself to get over-tired, or was overwhelmed somehow, she was at risk of entirely running out of Ki.

Tetra’s Battle Ki ability relying on her physicality wasn’t a big shock, though it was a weakness we had hoped to avoid, but the energy absorption was simply astonishing to me. So far, no force that directly originated from Tetra (like a punch or a kick) was able to be absorbed successfully, for reasons that I still didn’t understand, but if she pushed over a tree then ran underneath it, for example, she could absorb the kinetic energy from that.

One of the most interesting uses we had found was her ability to smother fires by simply creating a Ki shield in the middle of the blaze and absorbing its energy, and things like lighting strikes were similarly easily converted by her power. The amount she could absorb at any one time was rather limited (roughly the equivalent of one full-powered strike from Wulfric), but she could funnel that energy back into herself to heal wounds, or keep herself from getting tired – in essence, it could recover her stamina and health.

In the end, it was not a perfect substitute for rest and sleep, but she could keep herself going at almost full strength for about a week at a time without stop if she fought someone every few hours… or took the time to light (and then absorb) a fire somewhere.

The best way that Wulfric and I had found to counter Tetra was to use softer attacks, like trying to grapple instead of strike her, or (in my case) to rely on using ice to lower the temperature around us and just tire her out (she needed to use Ki to keep warm if it got really cold). There wasn’t really any energy inherent in ice that she was able to absorb – in fact, according to her Tetra, ice felt more like it had negative energy, and she ended up with a small net loss if she tried to absorb power from it.

But that didn’t mean that ice and cold was Tetra’s weakness… more like it simply wasn’t her strength.

***

Jesvae grimaced as she watched Heller turn into a cloud of swirling snowflakes and rush off to save his companion. All three of them were overconfident and brash, which often came from having too much power at too young an age (she had seen it in many young nobles), but at least Wulfric was following orders.

Then again… she looked at the iron giant again as he examined his surroundings. It was hard to get a read on his emotions when he was transformed, but she was starting to suspect that he hadn’t run off after his friends simply because he knew it was impossible.

Turning back to her task on hand, Jesvae continued to coordinate the setup of the ice fortress, putting her three charges to the back of her mind. There were no nascent beasts nearby (the ice formation would have warned them), and nothing else would be a credible threat to Heller in his ice form. As to the other two – well, if they died or got injured it would surely serve as a valuable lesson in caution. Especially that damn impulsive Tetra…

“Commander Jesvae, reporting that trainee Wulfric has left the ice platform.”

Jesvae spun around, her eyes wide as she watched the hulking iron brute trudge carefully across the snow, with wide platforms of some kind attached to his feet.

“Bloody beast… are those snowshoes? How the spirits did he get snowshoes?”

“He… he seems to have grown them from his hands and his feet. We thought they were weapons of some kind…”

Jesvae sighed and shook her head to try and clear the impulse to lash out. Punishing this warrior wouldn’t do any good – she had learned from her father that killing messengers simply led to faulty (or lacking) reports – but she had already been at the limit of her patience. Something was going to have to die…

“You take charge here. Wait for my return.”

Thankfully there were plenty of beasts around.