The humanoid constructs were waiting in front of the last few obstacles, spread out so we would have to face them one at a time to get to the end of the course. So when we came upon the first pair of constructs we didn't really have time to engage them slowly and figure out their moves or habits. We just attacked. The pair of them were different sizes, one short and stocky and one tall and lithe. I left the tall one to Callie and blitzed the short one as we closed in, figuring her Perception would let her counter its reach more easily.

Meanwhile, I came in at the stocky one with the intention to capitalize on my only real asset. I used my skills. I triggered Flurry of Blows as I approached, amplifying my attack speed as my cane flashed out in a whirling circular pattern easily recognizable as one of the Balam forms.

I expected the construct (who looked like a sort of blank doll of vaguely human shape) to dodge or block, but he took his cue from me and tried to counter attack with attack. For such a squat form, the thing had incredibly quick punches, and used them to devastating effect. Each punch was carefully aimed to intersect my line of attack before it could build momentum, disrupting all the power I was trying to generate with the centrifugal force of my whirling cane.

I was impressed with the tactics this thing was employing, not just in terms of actual combat sensibilities, but in using his assets. The squat construct was wide and powerfully built, and I could see from its movements that even with equalized Might it was stronger than I was by virtue of its powerful body and experience using it it. More specifically it wasn't EXACTLY equalized, more like generally equalized because the variance in gravity affected the different sized body differently.

Still, the power it did have it used exceptionally well. While most big strong entities built like the construct would throw wide, exaggerated punches to maximize their damage with big swings augmenting their power, the construct was using a series of light, quick jabs on me. Because it was stronger, it didn't need to commit to a blow as much to deal damage, only land a hit with the power it already had, so sacrificing force for speed was a much more rational decision. It was tough for me to deflect and intercept the rain of jabs with just the cane to work with.

As it attacked though, I began to rethink my strategy. The biggest issue here was that I was focusing too hard on the win. Granted we were doing this to make an impression, but since this was our first run it was unlikely we'd have managed. No one was going to hold it against us having to do this twice, which meant the smart move was to try to learn as much as possible from the experience.

So I changed my focus slightly. Rather than push for speed in victory, I decided to focus on learning more about fighting an opponent like this. In the end, while we were trying to show off enough to be able to show people what we could do, even if we didn't have an amazing time we would earn the right to challenge the other members of the Pavilion and we could work our way up that way, plus we could always try this again later for a better time.

In the spirit of that, and of learning what I could before we actually had to fight one of those challenges, I started the Balam forms. Not a carefully selected for specifically for this fight, but running through the list, one form at a time, to probe this construct and try to learn what its weaknesses and strengths were. I wanted to figure out how I could find gaps in someone else's combat style.

I worked my way through the list, getting hit a few times with glancing blows because of my commitment to learning rather than winning immediately, but I didn't mind. As I fought, I got a better grasp on what the construct could do and how and I recognized some of the fighting style as belonging to Abel. He didn't have Abel's power, but he still had the same sort of ruthless combat efficiency, and it taught me a bit about this path.

While 'combat prowess' sounded like some sort of magical secondary ability that you had to train on its own based on the way we all talked about it, in reality it was a pretty simple thing. It was about perspective. People in the Academy tended to view combat as a math problem. Your opponent has a value, your attack has a value, you subtract your attack from their total and repeat until their number is up. It was simple and relatively easy to accomplish, except when it wasn't, but win or lose was pretty obvious either way.

Combat prowess was just the ability to break down those numbers into more detailed chunks. Instead of one overall value for a person, you needed to look at the values of each part of the whole. Find the weak spots, both in yourself and in the enemy, and exploit the latter while doing your best to eliminate the former. That was what made Abel so scary, I realized, he could see it all. He'd literally spent to much time in battle that he'd developed an instinctive grasp on what an enemy could do and could use that apply maximum pressure in the weakest spot they had instantly.

The construct couldn't really do the same, but it came close enough to give me a bit of the same feeling, and I used it to sound out the weak spots in my forms and to learn more about how they functioned individually and how they fit together. I checked on Callie to make sure she was ok, but she was having the same experience from what I could see. Callie had taken advantage of her battle with the clone earlier to start to develop her own unique style, and this was an excellent time to polish that.

While Skills from Wishes did give you a huge amount of bulk knowledge, combat styles weren't just move sequences. There were lots of elements and techniques in any fighting style, and people picked specific ones to focus on, creating a person style even within their martial art. Since Callie's was so new, having these scary constructs that could partly deconstruct our fights was a blessing in disguise for her just like it was for me.

After seeing she was ok I got back to work. First form, then second, then third, broken, I'd done that one wrong, I'd done that one too fast, that one worked better before the one I'd used two forms ago. It was like a puzzle, and each movement showed me where pieces fit. Balam was a new skill, and I hadn't put in as much time with it as I should have. I'd done some training obviously, since Callie needed to do so for her geas, but I'd been too distracted to put my all into it.

Sadly, not every battle is an opportunity to climb to a higher tier of mastery. Sometimes you learn some things but come away without any marked gains. All too soon the battle finished. I decided to cut it short because I was physically exhausted from all the obstacles, and I needed to rest up a bit. Flurry of Blows let me speed up enough to land a hit, and while I couldn't have gotten through a solid blow easily, a light tap was within my capabilities. After all the blocking and deflection my cane had stored up a solid charge, and I dumped it into the side of the constructs neck.

It froze, not damaged but having registered a defeat, and I slumped down to the ground to let my Vitality overtake the muscle fatigue and exhaustion while I watched Callie continue her fighting. As I watched her almost dancelike combat style I noted that Callie was much better at maintaining her condition than I was. With her years more of training and experience even with her strength returned to mortal limits she just understood her body and how to use it better than I did.

It was beautiful to watch, her evolution as a fighter, and I reveled in the chance to see her show what she could do as I recovered. Might made combat much easier, but I could see the reasoning behind the suppression equipment here. It was an excellent way to polish technique. You had to come up with solutions to problems that would have otherwise been solved by brute force, and you learned to deal with enemies stronger than you were despite the disadvantage.

Finally, Callie too finished her battle, though whether because she was done training or just didn't want to waste any more time I wasn't sure. She landed a final blow with the rapier of shadows she'd constructed and had to repair multiple times during the battle and the construct registered the strike as lethal, officially ending the battle. I hopped to my feet, bolted over and swept her up in a hug, getting a surprised squeak as I spun her around laughing. "That was amazing! You kicked ass out there."

She giggled as I whirled her around. "Hey there, we're not done yet. Put me down you human mountain!" Despite her words she was smiling, and I would have kissed her if not for my damn mask. Sadly I WAS wearing a mask, so I just put her down unhappily. She seemed to sense my annoyance because she pulled me in for a tight hug, just holding me close for a bit.

I was riding high on adrenaline, the learning, the growing, the combat, I loved it all. Doing all of that with Callie alongside me just made it even better. She obviously loved it too and it was nice to share the happiness we were feeling, even if we were in front of an audience. Ignoring the crowd we got back to the course, finishing in far from record time. It had been over an hour, and based on the way people had talked about it I was guessing even if we hadn't had to double our time for working together we would have been far outstripped.

I was going to challenge someone, but I was exhausted from the gravity, and everyone was so happy and upbeat it just seemed wrong to kill the party mood. It felt like we'd been playing some kind of party game. Everyone was so excited and energetic. Alden came barreling over. "Not bad kid! No one gets a decent time on the first run, but most people don't even finish! Sorry we didn't warn you about the obstacles, it's something of a tradition to keep quiet about the gravity stuff. Forces the newbies to adjust. So, what did you think of our course?"

He slapped me on the back roughly and I laughed, able to stand up easily under it with my returned Might. "I had a blast. I've never tried anything like that, hell I didn't know you COULD do anything like that. No wonder you're all so gifted at fighting with that kind of resistance training to do. It's scaling right? No matter how strong you get it just increases the difficulty?"

He nodded. "Mimics the gravity on some of the higher ranked planets for those of us on the weaker side of things. But it only works on G rankers." He gave me a wide grin. "If you think that was hard, you should try running it drunk. Anyway, enough business." He turned to the crowd. "Our newbies emerged victorious! Let's PARTY!" There was an echoing roar of acceptance and I felt myself smile under my mask. This place was turning out to be pretty great.