Complete draft 1.0 of chapter 4. Posted 01/03/2016

Chapter 4.

(Serenity)

#

School Week Five. Tuesday afternoon.

Island One. Harbor Tunnel.

Amongst the many messages I received during class, the most notable was confirmation of my transfer to Galatea Academy. I was to begin classes effectively from next Monday.

Not only was I attending a new academy, but I was changing address as well. I was to pack my belongings within the next couple days. For my convenience, the Avenirs had allocated me to new lodgings in Island Three, Habitat Two, only a habitat away from Galatea Academy.

However, the second notable message was a challenge.

After reading it on my palm-slate, I deleted the message, then checked my work schedule.

As it turned out, my afternoon after classes at Calista Academy was free, and so I was free to accept the challenge my peers had thrown down to me.

#

It might seem odd and downright perplexing, but for the last six months I’d been working as a sixteen year old, part-time model for teen magazines. What made my circumstances unusual was my classification as a Special, that is, a Familiar affiliated with a Pride and in possession of an Artifact or Fragment.

You would think that someone as dangerous as I was wouldn’t be allowed into the public eye.

True. However, so long as people didn’t know I was a dangerous Familiar – which was indeed the truth – then what did it matter if I graced the contents of various teenage rags while wearing the latest fashion trend?

The truth was I only started modelling because my adopted family ordered me to after an unexpected encounter in the downtown district of Island One, Habitat One. I was walking across the street when a complete stranger approached me, and asked if I would be interested in modelling for a new startup magazine venture, dedicated to teenage girls.

In other words, I was scouted by a talent agent.

My family promptly learnt of this, and decided it would be a good idea.

I really couldn’t imagine why.

However, they would not tolerate me working for a rival agency. I was promptly signed up with Artesan Management, and soon found myself enrolled in a weeklong crash course on how to smile, look pretty, and make the camera fall in love with me. To make matters more difficult, my teacher was none other than my mother. For this reason, and a few others, I found it easier to train with my Valkyrie Maiden Sigrún for a couple of hours each evening, than to endure my mother’s tutelage.

I really had no say in the matter.

Despite being a Familiar, and regardless of the power of my Artifact, I found it difficult to say no to them. Quite simply, I wasn’t in a position where I could defy them—yet. They would only back down when their plans for me disagreed with those of the Avenir Pride.

You might think I was living quite the strict life, but that also wasn’t entirely true.

I was living quite a privileged life.

My adopted family owned and managed a prominent talent agency responsible for managing the careers of many of Pharos’s elite showbiz stars. As the story goes, I was adopted almost on a whim, simply because my mother, Samantha Artesan Avenir, considered me cute. I believe her intention was to have me participate in a series of commercials featuring child actors.

Indeed, after being adopted, I was unceremoniously dumped into the world of showbiz. As a young precocious child of six years of age, I completed my eight contracted commercials, then went on to act in a handful of others, before abandoning the world of glitz and glamor.

I had served my purpose.

However, instead of being tossed back into the orphanage, my mother chose to keep me, like one might choose to keep a pet.

I didn’t live in a doghouse. I lived in a large apartment suite in Island One, Habitat One, serviced by robot cleaners and maids. I was chauffer driven to the best school for Regulars in Pharos. I had everything I could ask for, and all I had to do in return was be the perfect daughter for such a prominent family.

That said, I learnt to act the part at a very young age.

A turning point in my life took place shortly after my thirteenth birthday. I was tested as part of the bi-annual medical exams conducted on students to determine candidacy into one of the seven Prides. To the disappointment of my parents, I was not destined for the life of an Aventis. Rather, it was discovered I had awakened as a Familiar. What assuaged my adopted parents’ disenchantment was the discovery that I had the strongest bond with the Avenir strain of the Symbiote than any other. In addition, it was determined that my synch ratio with a number of rare and powerful Fragments owned by the Avenirs was extraordinarily high.

Thus, shortly after turning thirteen, I was bonded to the Fragment of a Sigrún-type Valkyrie Maiden.

From that point on, I was more than just the adopted daughter of a very rich showbiz family.

I was a valued Familiar.

I threw myself into my new role with gusto, and within a year I’d unlocked Sigrún.

I was praised and I was revered.

Some Avenirs went so far as to describe me as a prodigy. However, while I lapped up the adulation, what mattered to me most was the power and freedom I gained when I summoned Sigrún in all her glory.

I also had a lust for battle. I liked to fight stronger opponents; to test myself against them, and to grow as a Familiar.

Quite simply, I wanted to grow stronger.

Though I had unlocked the Artifact, my instructors warned me that I had only completed the first lap. More laps would follow, as my body adapted – evolved – to better handle the strain of summoning Sigrún’s tremendous power. In other words, I had completed Phase One which entailed unlocking the Artifact. I was now on my way to completing Phase Two, but it would require time and consistent training.

On the rare occasion I had a candid conversation with my mother, I told her of my worries regarding Sigrún. I also worried about the changes to my body. I joked that I might grow a third eye, or a third breast.

My mother surprised me by asking if I knew what a Vampire was, and how Vampires grew stronger the longer they lived. A Vampire that had survived for millennia was considerably more powerful than a Vampire that had lived for only a century. That was the commonly agreed upon lore. That said, Familiars possessed many of the traits of Vampires, such as their ability to drink the blood of the Aventis, granting them enhanced healing abilities, and superior strength for the span of several days.

The longer a Familiar was bonded to a Fragment or Artifact, they stronger they would become over the coming years.

Thus, what my mother told me was that eventually I would grow to become stronger than an Aventis. I would not need to drink the blood of an Aventis to exceed their strength and other abilities. My body, that of a Familiar, would be superior to theirs in every way.

I asked my mother if she was afraid of me.

She replied that would depend on how I chose to live my life, and use my abilities.

Would it be in service of the Prides, or against them?

She gave me much to think about, and I chose not to question my mother.

I understood that I was in many ways a Vampire. I had canines that could extend and retract into my upper jaw. And I had the ability to push my will into the consciousness of a Aventis. Oddly, I couldn’t do the same to a Regular or a Familiar, but I found that Aventis minds were rather ‘soft’. In other words, I could bend them to my will.

Of course, using Influence on Aventis individuals was strictly forbidden, but from time to time, I carefully spread my Influence upon Aventis students that bothered me a little too much.

But the real challenges to my daily existence didn’t come from the Aventis at Calista Academy.

My challenges came from the other Familiars gifted with Fragments or Artifacts who reckoned they were better than me.

And sometimes, I needed to remind them who was the Alpha Bitch of Calista Academy.

#

I rode in the backseat of the black saloon car, dressed in my expensive Calista Academy uniform, a white and navy blue ensemble with a distressing resemblance to the sailor uniforms worn by the female students of yesteryear from an island nation on a planet far, far away.

I spoke to the chauffer without facing him. “Thanks for driving me, Hiro-Hiro.”

With a sigh, he said, “At least this way, I know where you are.”

I snorted softly. “You always know where I am. My palm-slate is tracked. Even the jewelry I wear is tracked. I remember one time when they planted a transmission strip into the lining of my underwear.” I grimaced. “They ruined a perfectly good pair of panties.”

“Mistress, I’m sure you’re aware I wasn’t born yesterday.”

I looked with mock shock at his reflection in the rear-view mirror. “What? Really? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Ha ha ha,” he retorted with false indignation. “We are aware of your Valkyrie’s ability to hide the both of you from active and passive scans. We are also aware of your ability to hide your Valkyrie’s presence from others.”

I turned back to view out my window. “Are you saying I have a subconscious desire to be invisible, and that’s why Sigrún unlocked that ability of hers?”

“You tell me, Mistress.”

With a pout, I absently regarded the entrances to the countless shipping companies whose wharves occupied the walls of Island One’s Harbor Tunnel.

The tunnel was an enormous thirty-kilometer long corridor bored into Island One. At one end lay the opening out into space – a two-kilometer wide circle with dozens of pressure-fields layered over it. Those fields prevented the precious atmosphere inside the asteroid Island from venting out into the vacuum of space, that wasn’t quite a vacuum since Pharos floated within the outskirts of the Hurakan Nebula.

At the other end of the Harbor Tunnel, and roughly in the middle of Island One, was the enormous Harbor Sphere. As the name implied, it was a sphere twelve-kilometers in diameter that served as a harbor to the large super-freighters that couldn’t make use of the alcoves cut into the walls of the Harbor Tunnel that served as wharves for the numerous shipping and transportation companies operating out of Pharos.

The car I was riding in was travelling down a six-lane freeway. It was essentially a tunnel cut in parallel to the Harbor Tunnel, though much narrower. Countless exits branched out from the freeway, allowing vehicles of varying shapes and sizes to pull off the freeway and into a long parallel roadway that offered access to the alcove wharves cut out of the Harbor Tunnel’s rock wall. It wasn’t the only freeway running beside the Harbor Tunnel. Freeways existed above and below this one, affording access to the alcove wharves on the levels above and below.

We weren’t travelling to any of the shipping companies.

Instead, we headed to where the old docks still stood. They had been cut into the walls of the Harbor Tunnel when it was in its infancy, scarcely a few kilometers into the immense asteroid of Island One back when it was being constructed almost a century ago.

Officially, the old docks were no longer in use. The docks could be described as a multi-level car park constructed in an enormous scale, with one side facing out into the Harbor Tunnel. They had served the ships and construction workers busy boring into Island One. With the asteroid Island now fully operation, the docks had been abandoned a long, long time ago. A plan to redevelop them a few years ago had fallen foul of bureaucratic in-fighting, and the refurbishment was canned after a few months’ work.

Every once in a while some shady organization tried to set up shop, but the heavy handed goons from the Enforcer Division quickly moved in and hustled them out.

However, when groups of Familiars with Fragments would gather, and hold unofficial bouts, the Enforcer Division was told to turn a blind eye to them by the Prides.

I reasoned it was the way the Prides allowed Familiars to blow off some steam.

After all, the Prides were so generous—not!

It wasn’t as though Familiars bonded to Fragments didn’t have dedicated training facilities. The Sanctum had a large training academy for Familiars it had shortlisted as candidates to enter its ranks once those Familiars graduated from either secondary or tertiary education. In business terms, it was like a corporate school for business graduates intending to further their education and serve the corporation. In this case, the Sanctum was that corporation.

However, there were other facilities maintained by the Prides who did not wish for their Familiars to serve under the Sanctum. Calista Academy had one such facility constructed deep under the school. I had heard that Galatea Academy had one too.

But for now, I would be accepting the challenge thrown down to me by my peers here at the old docks.

The car exited the six lane highway, and travelled down a rarely used tunnel road that skirted close to the Harbor Tunnel.

A good twenty minutes later, we arrived at the old docks.

Takahiro Munai, my manager, chauffer, and observer assigned to me by both Artesan Management and the Avenir Primogen’s head office, drove the car onto one of several open levels that extended from the Harbor Tunnel rock wall and cut deep into the asteroid of Island One. It really did resemble a immense carpark, complete with support pillars and oversized elevator shafts long disused. During Island One’s construction, ships carrying supplies, personnel, and construction equipment would fly in from the Harbor Tunnel, and land on the multiple levels of the old docks.

Light from the open side facing the Harbor Tunnel spilled into the level, but the overhead floodlights were also working, casting their own illumination into the expanse. That meant that power was still being supplied to this area of Island One.

Takahiro drove the car to where a great many other vehicles were parked, and stopped a short distance away from them.

I stared at the cars and vans congregating in the vicinity, and snorted to myself.

It was time to put on my game face – I mean, my bitch face.

Takahiro broke the silence inside the cabin. “Am I to understand you won’t change your mind.”

“Yep. Time to kick some ass.” I reached for the door handle and found it locked. “Hiro-Hiro, would please open the door. I’m already fashionably late.”

“Mistress, bear in mind that while you are transferring out of Calista Academy, you will need to return to the school once your assignment at Galatea Academy is complete.”

“So?”

“Be nice. I am aware that you think very little of your fellow Familiars, but try to hold back a little.”

“Why? It’s going to be five-on-one. Hold back? Seriously? Not happening!” I tapped my chest. “Besides, I’m the odds on favorite and there’s money riding on my win.”

He shook his head in disappointment. “Mistress, where did your parents go wrong….”

I narrowed my eyes at his reflection in the mirror. “Don’t talk bad about my parents,” I warned.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Then consider how your mother would feel if she knew you were here kicking ass.”

“Knowing her, she’d be cheering me on. You know how much she hates a loser. In any case, if you tell my mother, the next ass I’ll be kicking will be yours. Now open the door before I use Sigrún to tear it off the car.”

“I really do wish the Prides would step-in and outlaw this barbaric behavior.”

“Then start a petition, and good luck with it.”

He twisted in the driver’s seat and looked back at me. “You do realize the Avenirs will not be pleased.”

“Then they should have said so. They monitor what goes around me with a magnifying glass. I’ve had no communication from Head Office other than confirmation of my transfer. Besides, anything that gets recorded here or uploaded will be censored and edited within seconds. My identity and that of theirs is safe.” I indicated the crowd of spectators milling around and between the parked cars.

He turned away. “This is most disappointing.”

I heard the locking mechanism disengage, and quickly pushed open the passenger door. “Thank you,” I threw at Takahiro in annoyance.

As I walked around the front of the car, I expected Takahiro to remain in the vehicle to make an endless stream of calls. He spent almost every free moment on the palm-slate. However, he surprised me by stepping out of the saloon that served as my private means of transportation. Using Sigrún’s Awareness-field, I sensed him standing beside the car and looking in my direction.

Surprised or not, I refused to glance back at him.

My focus was now on the five challengers standing in a lose cluster some twenty feet ahead of me.

Walking toward them, I nonchalantly swept my gaze over the spectators.

There had to be a couple of hundred of them, and I didn’t believe for one moment they were all Familiars. I would stake my non-existent love life on the belief that two thirds of their number were a mix of Regulars and Aventis.

So much for keeping Familiars out of the public eye.

What I said to Takehiro was the truth. The Prides monitored the various media and censored or deleted what they felt was too sensitive for the public eye. However, they did allow enough to slip through that an underground culture had taken root over the past twenty odd years. It was a gradual growth, one small step after another, but little by little Regulars and Aventis were growing more aware of us Familiars and what we could do.

The weird thing was that in this underground environment, we were starting to be treated like sports celebrities, and that troubled me a little...because I liked it.

Walking toward my challengers, I swept my gaze over their young faces, and then waved my arms about in disbelief.

“What the Hell is this?” I cried out, waving a hand at the spectators while I walked. “Did you idiots advertise this on MyBook? Why not put up a billboard while you were at it. Why not invite the whole Academy!”

I already knew the grudge match had been posted on a private MyBook page where only Familiars with Fragments could join and post messages. It also had a betting section, where spectators could lay down wagers, and that’s how I knew I was the odds on favorite, despite being outnumbered. But to say it was completely private was out of the question. Word had a habit of reaching the ears of the Regulars and Aventis who followed the frequent ‘unofficial’ clashes between Familiars.

I should mention that these clashes sometimes involved Familiars belonging to the other Academies. The only notable exception of late, was Galatea Academy, whose Familiars were few and kept out of the underground scene.

However, I wondered if their clash with Crimson Crescent would change all that.

My five challengers consisted of three girls and two guys, all of them high schoolers at Calista Academy, and all of them chained to the Avenir Pride just like me.

The girl in the middle of the group, and the individual who had organized this farewell party – I mean grudge match – stepped forward. Slender, and quite pretty with elfin features, she tossed her dark hair back over her shoulders, and stood with hands on hips.

“I thought you’d chicken out,” she called out to me. “Did your driver have to drag you here kicking and screaming?”

“Is that your tough stance?” I asked as I marched toward her. “Work on it. You’ll never get a photo gig with that posture.”

“Shut up.”

I came to a stop about ten feet in front of her, and dropped my weight on a hip as I took a pose. “This is how you do it. You need attitude, bitch. You talk the talk, but you ain’t got the walk, and you have nothing to back it up.” I swiveled my hips provocatively. “See? You have to bend like a reed. You have to push out your chest—oh, wait, I forgot—you have no chest.”

“Eff you, Serenity!”

“Grow some tits first, you preschooler.”

She was enveloped in a black mist, and when it cleared, she was clad in a rather sexy looking dark skinsuit that unfortunately did not compensate for her lack of a decent pair of breasts. However, she was now wielding a menacing twin bladed lance, and her arms and legs were sheathed in sleek black armor.

I winced at her. “Damn, even your bondage look fails to improve on your three sizes.”

Karissa sneered at me, but it looked more like a snarl. “I am so looking forward to cutting you down to size.”

One by one her companions summoned their Fragments.

One by one, they took up easy relaxed stances around her.

Each of them was now clad in their Regalia.

This is where it gets confusion, because there are two types of Regalia, but only one is well known.

The first type is the Skin-Regalia, and it’s something a Familiar wears to enhance their abilities, like an armor-skin or skin-suit, but of a design current technology cannot dream of paralleling. The Skin-Regalia is something provided by the Fragment or Artifact, and is stored within the respective Sarcophagus.

The second type of Regalia, the Seal-Regalia is a well-kept secret, and it’s not something you wear. Instead, the Seal-Regalia wears you. In other words, the Familiar is host to the Seal-Regalia that takes residence within their body.

What the five individuals before me didn’t know, was that I was in possession of both kinds of Regalia. I had a Seal-Regalia inside my body, and I had the Valkyrie Maiden Skin-Regalia that I would wear when I summoned Sigrún.

The reason why I had both was because I was one of the chosen few. In other words, I was special.

Pointing at each of my challengers with a fingertip, I named them aloud.

“Let’s see. We have Karissa, the tramp middle schooler who wandered into the adult half of the Academy—”

“I am not a middle-schooler!”

I ignored her. “Then we have Farolina, the buxom bimbette.”

“Oh my, oh my. Don’t you mean goddess?”

I ignored her too. “Sonia, the game room addict.”

“…game room champion….”

“Mikhail, who has a Lolita fetish.”

“Hey, size doesn’t matter!”

“And last but not least, Derek Pitt, the only one with a semblance of a brain.” I gave the last challenger, a tall lanky boy with a bookish yet handsome appearance, a very harsh look. “Why are you here?”

Derek smiled easily and shrugged a shoulder. “I figure if I win, you’ll agree to one date with me.”

I folded my arms under my breasts. “Derek, I take it back. You’re an idiot. I’ve told you time and again, you’re not my type. Give up. Please. I know a dozen girls in our year alone that would date you at the drop of a hat, and each one of them is pretty in their own right.”

“Yeah, but they’re not you,” he pointed out. “There’s you, and then there’s the rest.”

Farolina patted her enormous chest. “As a goddess, I feel insulted….”

Derek shrugged a shoulder. “I like a girl I can wrap my arms around.”

Farolina stiffened and smiled coldly. “Oh my, I’m definitely being insulted….”

Ignoring her, I sighed in defeat. “I was wrong again. Derek, you’re an idiot and you’re hopeless.”

Karissa growled. “Can we get on with this?”

“Be quiet, child. I’m having a conversation.”

Derek held onto his smile as he raised his hands. “Why don’t we talk after the party?”

“Fine. But I’m not agreeing to anything,” I retorted.

Karissa spun her nine-foot long spear like a cheerleader’s baton. “Come on, Orphan Annie. Get dressed or we’ll strip you down where you stand.”

I made a show of peering at her intently. “Child, I have one question for you.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Do you even need to wear a bra?”

“Die!”

With a shout, Karissa tried to launch herself at me, but was held back by Farolina who grabbed her shoulders from behind.

What surprised me was how easily the curvaceous brunette stopped Karissa in her tracks.

“Allow me,” she purred seductively, then flashed past the startled Karissa.

There are girls, and then there are girls.

I was proud of how well I’d developed over the years. Despite my height, my slender yet shapely build emphasized my slim, toned legs that looked good in anything I wore. I was a very generous Cee-cup, and my breasts were a lovely fulsome shape well suited to filling out a bikini. I had no qualms about my shape or size. I was a knockout and I knew it.

Then there was Farolina.

Compared to her, I was like the Homecoming Queen and she was Miss Galaxy.

Yep. She was a goddess, and every boy in Calista Academy would attest to the fact. It didn’t matter that she was a Familiar, because there was no boy that would say ‘no’ to her.

And of course, she knew it.

So while Karissa had the curves of a middle schooler, Farolina had the proportions that could crown her the next top gravure model of Pharos Colony.

And she bloody well knew it!

Clad in her Skin-Regalia that resembled a tight, purple mini-dress that left little to the imagination, Farolina leapt past Karissa before the latter could utter more than a startled, “Huh?”

All the average onlooker could see, was Farolina’s afterimage.

I overclocked the moment she grabbed Karissa’s shoulders. Even so, it was a close call.

In less time than it took to blink, Farolina had slammed her right fist, wrapped in thick barrier-fields, into my hastily thrown up arms.

The necklace I wore was my link to the power within my Valkyrie Maiden, Sigrún. I had less than a heartbeat to summon that power, and will into existence a barrier-field around my arms.

Simultaneously, I willed a barrier-field around my legs, which served to anchor me as I blocked Farolina’s attack with my arms.

Delivered as it was, her punch was strong enough to crumple a car door like tissue paper. It would certainly have knocked down a permacrete wall.

I felt the kinetic energy circle around me, though some of it rushed through my body, eliciting a gasp out of me.

At the same time, the ground beneath my feet fractured then cratered as the barrier-field enhancing my legs was pushed down by the energy behind Farolina’s punch.

I shifted my arms, and used the directed force of the impact to knock me aside.

In other words, I sidestepped by using the energy of my opponent’s attack, but I was also knocked aside some eight or nine meters.

Skidding to a stop, I barely had time to blink again, before Farolina delivered a spinning kick against the barrier-fields protecting my left flank.

Had she kicked an inter-Island bus the same way, she would have knocked it over onto its roof.

My barrier-fields shattered and I was sent tumbling away.

It was clear to me now that she’d ingested Avenir blood. In other words, she’d powered up.

However, it was also clear that she was using her Fragment’s tremendous speed to increase the kinetic energy she imparted through her kicks and punches. The faster an object moved, the heavier it became, thus the greater the kinetic energy behind each strike. But at her speed, regular clothes would have torn off her body.

As it was, the Skin-Regalia purple mini-dress was barely preserving her modesty, while offering her enough support to keep her breasts from flying off.

I rolled to my feet, kicked off the ground, and executed a somersaulting backflip that made my spine cry out in pain.

Idiot! I didn’t warm up!

If that wasn’t bad enough, my skirt ripped upon my awkward landing.

Aggh—this is coming out of my allowance!

Farolina chased after me.

*Sigrún, maneuver-field—now!

[Confirmed]

The maneuver-field was like wings to my heels. I skipped back, dodging Farolina’s pile driving fist by an inch, yet her barrier-field succeeded in brushing the tip of my nose.

Damn, that was close. She’s really pissed.

I understood why.

Mikhail may have a fetish for Lolita girls, but even he succumbed to Farolina far more often than not.

However, there was one boy in Calista Academy who consistently said no to Farolina, and that was Derek Pitt afil Avenir.

Why? Well, because he claimed I was his one and only love.

Unfortunately for him, I really wasn’t lying when I insisted he wasn’t my type.

So what exactly is my type?

Derek was a thorn in Farolina’s heart, one she could do nothing about. All her attempts to win him over had failed dismally. I actually felt sorry for her.

Here was a girl who could have any boy in the Academy, except the one boy she really loved.

Yes, I really did feel sorry for her.

Farolina was barely visible as she punched and kicked at me. She was moving faster than I’d ever faced before. There was no doubt she’d been training hard these past few months. I didn’t know for sure, since we hadn’t sparred or fought in quite a long while. This was because the Avenirs had been keeping me busy.

My barrier-fields shattered and reformed, but I could feel the strain Sigrún was under. There was a limit to what it could provide while she resided within the Sarcophagus. At the very least, I would need to summon her Skin-Regalia, also known as a Valkyrie-skin.

But Farolina was being annoyingly persistent, refusing to allow any distance between us.

Overclocked, I heard Karissa’s voice clearly somewhere in the distance to my right. It sounded like a recording played back at a quarter speed.

“You…didn’t…get…dressed…in…time….”

I ducked, and dodged a scything kick from Farolina that would have decapitated me had it struck true.

“Sucks…to…be…you….”

Her one-to-two punch, then roundhouse kick had me weaving madly. If not for the maneuver-field surrounding my legs giving me the wings I needed to dart away, Farolina would have kicked me squarely in the sternum and sent me flying a couple of dozen feet through the air.

She was wearing down my barrier-fields, forcing Sigrún to redirect power away from the maneuver-field in order to bolster my defense.

When I needed more power to the dodge her attacks, my barrier-fields would suffer.

It was a balancing act that required adjustments by the second. Normally I would use my will to control the various fields I was able to summon from the Valkyrie Maiden, but on this occasion Sigrún was overriding my commands.

If I was going to win this grudge match, I needed to stop running.

Blocking her furious flying fists with a faintly shimmering barrier-field, I punched back as she kicked at my exposed flank. Because I’d stepped into her attack, her kick wasn’t as earth shattering as it could have been, yet it still smashed through my weakened barrier-fields.

Her knee connected with my left flank, breaking one of my ribs.

But my right fist, wrapped in a dense barrier-field of its own, had sailed true between her upraised arms, and smashed the sole barrier protecting her face. When my fist collided with her chin, the impact knocked her head back with a satisfying crack.

My right hook catapulted Farolina backwards several feet and onto her ass.

Her sidekick sent me rolling along the floor, until I stopped on my hands and knees.

White pain burned the left side of my torso where my broken rib moved about.

Yet I had no time to wallow in agony.

*Now, Sigrún.

[Summon]

A breach between Pocket Space and this reality took place. I felt it surround me, chilling me, and then I felt the Sarcophagus reach out to me from within Pocket Space.

My clothes seemed to dissolve around my body. A thick gel-like substance poured over me. It hardened and took shape, wrapping me like an extra layer of skin, but with padding here and there.

This was my Skin-Regalia or Valkyrie-skin.

Quickly, I was pushed back out into the real world, back into the old docks, and landed on my feet. My insides screamed for an agonizing moment, as the broken rib settled within my torso. I lost my grip on my Overclocked state, and the pain forced me down to one knee where I sucked in a lungful of air, while the Seal-Regalia within me latched onto my broken rib and began mending the break.

The Seal-Regalia was the reason I no longer needed to ingest Aventis blood.

In many ways it performed the job of the Symbiote.

For a heartbeat or two, I remained on bended knee, as my Awareness-field tripled in clarity, strength, and range.

Its sharp warning saved me from the next attack.

But this attack didn’t come from Farolina who had just regained her feet, and was holding her head.

Instead, it came from a near distance.

“My turn!” Karissa screamed.

A piercer-field wrapped around a bladed spear-tip slashed down at me.

Ignoring the pain from my mending rib, I pushed myself backwards into the air, and narrowly avoided Karissa’s slashing blade.

Touching ground, and then sliding to a stop, I focused my Awareness on the flat chested girl who grinned maniacally at me.

Karissa twirled the spear once, then took an offensive stance.

“Warm up’s over, Orphan Annie.”