Mash had built a small camp for the three of them, as they waited for Luke to finish his trial. It had been almost five days since they arrived. The fact that Jill was able to teleport people across worlds was impressive. However, she had needed him to open a gateway for it to work. It seemed like she couldn’t teleport out of a world if there was nothing connecting it to where she wanted to go. On the other hand, he could freely make portals to any world he had visited. Over the course of the past few days, he had been telling them of his trial and the world he had visited. He told them of how he had offered to help them deal with their invasion. Jill and Red didn’t disagree either. Mash was somewhat eager to go back and try and learn the stuff that Daniel had done. The paths sounded interesting, and he wanted to see if he could find one for himself.

Over the past five days, they had been sparring a bit, and next, it would be Mash’s turn again. They had mixed up how they were fighting. Jill mainly wanted to practice with her new weapon, and Red was trying to get her attacks to not be fatal. That usually meant that only Mash could spar seriously with Red since his meditation actually healed the damage from her attacks. He remembered when he had asked her to test it. She was pretty adamantly against it, but he got her to agree when he said that he could just cut off the limb and regrow it if he couldn’t stop the spread. It didn’t come to that, as his inhuman hibernation was more than enough to handle it.

He got up; he was fighting with Jill next. They had agreed to use weapons and nothing else, as it wouldn’t really be fair either way. If he mixed his forms, he could simply ignore the attacks from either of them. It wasn’t that he didn’t get damaged, it was rather that his natural regeneration would heal the damage soon after getting it. He had practiced a little and learned to take more specific abilities from his forms. Against Jill, he adopted the eyes and reflexes of his cat form. It was the only way he could keep up with her foresight.

Jill had her weapon out and was waiting for him patiently. There was a strange glow to her eye whenever she fought him. She wore a bandage over where her other eye would be. It shone faintly red. The sight was a little intimidating, but he knew that he probably rivaled her in intimidating appearances. Apparently, the glow was instinctive, and it was strange because she didn’t get that way when sparring with Red. They had managed a few spars although Red was restricted to defense. Red practiced moving her body freely as it was made of blood. Theoretically, she should be able to avoid any purely physical attack.

Mash held his hand out in front of him, a wooden quarterstaff growing in front of him. He added a few enchantments to it, giving it durability and weight transfer. Those were his usual choices. He didn’t need to shift to his treant form to make wooden creations that generated their own mana. It was something he could take from the transformation. Jill nodded once, signaling the start of the fight.

Neither of them moved immediately. Jill’s weapon was annoying. It somehow made them act in a certain way. It wasn’t a mental skill either, it seemed to make them do something that they would have already done. The more he tried to be conscious of it and resist it, the more he ended up falling for its pull. It was especially strange since Jill didn’t actually know how a person would react to the tug. Even worse for her, he was able to resist that pull somehow. Delay it or warp it to better fit his desires. He bet that it was his Touch of Nothingness. It was almost like his skill was still in the process of adapting. The more they sparred the more he was able to consciously resist the pull of her weapon. He wondered what the exact nature of his skill was.

Jill moved first, jumping at him with great speed. She had gained a lot of agility and had actually surpassed his own agility. Normally that would make it hard for him to keep up with her, but her stats were imbalanced, and she could fully utilize her advantage. His more balanced distribution let him make more use of all of his stats. Even without teleporting, Jill moved fast, and Mash saw the tip of her weapon approach him. Mash reacted; swinging his quarter staff up to meat the coming blow.

Jill shifted her whole body mid-strike to avoid his attempt to parry the blow. Her weapon just barely dodged his parry. An attack like that would’ve normally hit him, but he was getting used to fighting Jill and his improved reflexes let him match her movement. His staff stopped and swung sideways colliding with Jill's weapon. He had a lot more strength than she did, and he easily pushed her attack to the side. Her whole body was sent flying, and Mash didn’t let up jumping toward her. He swung his staff in a downwards strike as he got close.

However, he swung at the empty air as he was slightly off with his jump. They were moving quickly, and he often had to commit to his attacks. She had twisted his fate somehow, forced him slightly to the left of where he intended. His staff connected with the ground, easily digging into it with the additional weight of the impact. It was significant enough that it barely made a crater. It just slid into the ground like it was made of snow. Within his domain, he could see Jill lunging at him with her weapon. The attack was aimed at his shoulder, though he managed to react to it. He let go of his staff with his left hand and raised his arm to push the needle. The sudden movement had surprised her, and she couldn’t stop her momentum.

The tip of the needle warped the space around it, and it pierced through the side of his palm with little resistance. However, there was some resistance, and he managed to deflect the blow. In the same motion, he moved his head a few inches to the left, narrowly dodging the tip without getting damage. With his injured hand, he turned it to grab hold of her weapon. It sent a stinging pain through his hand, but he was able to maintain his grip. He swung his other hand around, aiming for her thigh. He would need to slow her down. His swing met air. Within his domain, he could see her jump and land on top of her weapon. Her body was incredibly light, and he could easily handle the weight. As he felt her land fully on the needle, he swung it violently to the left, letting go of it and throwing her. She turned the momentum into a roll and rose to her feet.

“Jill wins!”

Red’s voice came from behind him, and he let out a sigh as he fell back to the ground. Mash was getting better. He really thought he had her with that last attack, but it had failed as well. He looked at his hand, feeling pain spread across his entire arm. His hand looked like it had a chunk bitten out of it, though the wound was far smoother than a bite would leave. It simply seemed to erase the part from existence. It was strange because his natural defenses were able to resist the weapon. They guessed that there was a threshold that needed to be overcome for the erasing effect to happen. It was a weird weapon.

He sat down to begin using his hibernation. The wound would heal, and it barely even hurt. Apparently, his last advancement had majorly improved his pain tolerance. He had always had a high tolerance, but now he felt like he could even ignore a missing limb. As the wound healed, he considered the spar. Jill had been winning most spars easily as neither Mash nor Red had been able to land a proper attack yet. That was usually how they determined the winner, though they would allow for a counterattack like Mash had done.

Mash’s domain was large, and he could easily look around the clearing. They were outside of the dungeon, waiting for Luke to finish his trial. Mash was increasingly growing more worried as the days passed. He practically jumped whenever someone had exited the dungeon. Sadly, every person who had come out had just been a false alarm. There was a pretty steady stream of adventurers entering and exiting the dungeon, and he had been surprised to see the consistency. Many people were taking advantage of the fast leveling that was happening.

His hand was still healing, but he jumped to his feet as he felt someone leave the portal. It took a second to identify them, but he moved as soon as he realized who it was.

“Luke!”

Mash yelled the words, ignoring the group of adventurers who had been watching his earlier spar. The novices that arrived usually took the opportunity to watch their spars. It was annoying at first, but now he somewhat liked the attention. Plus, it wasn’t like they were revealing anything important. They mostly just fought with their stats.

As soon as Luke entered his vision, Mash began waving his hand wildly. He did it without thinking, and his hand sprayed blood across the ground. Seeing Luke had made him forget about the injury, and he brought his hand back quickly upon seeing the blood.

“Mash, what happened?”

Luke’s words came out in a rush, as he took notice of the injury on Mash’s hand. Luke approached quickly and grabbed Mash’s hand. Mash felt something strange, and an instant later, he felt no pain from the wound. The healing had been so quick, that he barely even noticed Luke using any mana. If not for his domain, he probably would have missed it completely.

“Luke?”

Mash turned when he heard Jill walking up from behind. Her weapon was propped on her shoulder as one might do with a great sword. It was definitely long enough to act as one, but it was probably closer to a spear. The weapon seemed to be vibrating, and Jill’s eyes were different. Normally looking into her eyes was like getting a glimpse into the stars. Now it looked like a single star, ready to erupt. They shone with a bright light that was tinged with red. Mash didn’t know what was happening, but it felt like she was going to attack Luke. Instinctively, he moved to position himself between the two of them.

Red was beside Jill and placed a hand on her shoulder. He could barely make out what she was saying. However, he understood the reasoning as soon as he did.

“Dismiss your weapon. Jill, do it now!”

Red’s yelling seemed to get through to her, and Jill's weapon dissolved into the air. Mash knew that something was up with that weapon, and it looked like Red had made the right call. Jill’s eyes stopped glowing, and they returned to their normal shade. Her whole body seemed to droop as she stared at her own hands. Mash didn’t need to turn toward Luke to notice that he felt similarly down. He probably wasn’t expecting that kind of a reunion. Mash sighed and saw Red do the same. It looked like they had a lot to talk about.