The clashing of steel against wood reverberated throughout the room, two figures dancing back and forth as they fought. One held two simple steel daggers in her hands, maneuvering them expertly to block and counter the staff wielded by her foe.

Her leg swept out from under her, Jamie gasped, cold steel laying against her chin, Heather holding her in place to keep her from falling. She groaned, and Heather frowned slightly as she pulled her back to her feet, Jamie needing to use her staff to keep steady.

“Come on! Look, you’ve got the longer weapon, you should be winning this! It’s not like you’re an amateur or anything!”

“Oh, come off it, will ya? I don’t see you improving with your MP either, ya know?” Jamie fired back, causing Heather to wince. She still lost most of her fights to Heather, but she was improving, however gradual. Still, it was a sour point between them, and they’d already had their fair share of arguments about it.

Heather struggled to see why this was so difficult for Jamie. Maybe it had something to do with how the game functioned outside Realistic mode. Jamie had mentioned something about using preprogrammed attacks in the other modes, which might explain things.

Jamie wasn’t a slouch with her staff, either; she was actually quite competent. The problem, though, was that Heather was a black belt in karate who loved practicing with her Sai back in the real world. Those things were similar enough to knives that the techniques transferred well, and she’d practiced with them for over two years.

Her knives were a step up from the Sai if she were being honest. Sai were tough to master in the first place, and they were kept blunt since they were meant to be defensive weapons. She was just glad that most of the techniques had transferred over, although there was a bit of an adjustment period, initially.

In summary, Jamie was outclassed when it came to experience. She’d played Leveled Plane for much longer than Heather had, but Realistic mode didn’t function the way the rest of the game did. Sighing, Heather decided that this was probably the best they would get today.

“Here, that’s enough of that for now,” Heather said, letting her knives clatter to the floor. “I’m just gonna crush you again if we continue. There’s still too big a gap in our abilities, and you’re looking exhausted.”

Jamie groaned, setting her staff against the wall. Luckily, the staff was undamaged, which was a nice perk from the developers. Heather still wasn’t sure why her knives couldn’t damage Jamie’s staff while Jamie could somehow get splinters from it, but she didn’t care enough to question it.

“Why don’t you practice your stances for a bit? You need to work on your footwork still, and I wanna try LIGHTNING again.” Jamie grumbled under her breath, but she still started working through some of the bo stances that Heather had been showing her.

Feeling a nervous quiver in her stomach, Heather moved farther away, finding the tarp laying in the corner that she used when she worked on her MP. She’d started losing track of the days, but she felt it had been maybe a year since they’d died. It was lonely, only having Jamie for company, but they made do with what they had.

LIGHTNING continued to be the bane of her existence. Nothing she ever did seemed to work, although she had a feeling about today. She was gradually gaining more control, learning how to handle the chaotic mass of energy, and she hoped that today was the day she’d finally manage it.

Heather breathed in, letting her mind relax. Expanding her senses, she searched her body for the source of energy she kept trying to draw from, still with no success. She’d been close a few times, but even those had ended in agonizing pain as she splattered across the tarp.

It was hard to describe exactly what she searched for while she was doing this. Jamie had asked once and saying “it’s like trying to flex all your muscles at once” was the best she’d come up with at the time. She still didn’t really have anything else she could use to describe it.

LIGHTNING, at its core, was meant to enhance Heather’s nervous system. Muscle contractions, speed, power, everything was affected by LIGHTNING. There was also the whole riddle thing that she still didn't completely understand, but at least the first part made sense.

Circulate the energy running through your veins. Considering the phrasing of the riddle, she immediately understood that LIGHTNING was triggered internally. With some time, she eventually came to understand how it functioned within her body. Creating a mental map of her nervous system while drawing on the well of energy within her, she could overlay the LIGHTNING against the rest of her body, greatly enhancing her speed and power.

Feeling a spark within her core, Heather drew it out, slowly spreading it throughout her limbs in a constant state of equilibrium. She made sure to keep it at a trickle, holding the rest of the chaotic energy at bay. The spark in her core flared as it suddenly became a blaze of power and light, crackling and sparking within her.

Modulating the power output, she continued to trace her nerves as the energy fought against her. It roared one instant and whispered the next, fluctuating with no real rhyme or reason. She constantly needed to adjust how much of the energy she was drawing on, and one slight mistake would cause it all to come crashing down. There was a reason that her previous attempts had all ended in gruesome explosions.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she moved on to her neck after tracing the nerves in her chest. Then came her head, then her arms and legs, and finally her fingers and toes. She was gasping and panting as the energy slowly crawled up to her fingertips, LIGHTNING flaring in her core in one final, desperate attempt to hold her back. Barely holding on, she somehow managed to complete the process, using LIGHTNING properly for the first time ever.

Gritting her teeth through the pain, Heather struggled to hold herself together, keeping the trickle of power flowing at a constant rate. One slip and it was over. Her muscles twitched, and she let out a silent scream as she felt the veins in her arms collapse.

Through it all, though, she stayed standing. Pulling herself back together, Heather forced herself to stay completely still, feeling the electricity flowing through her body. If she so much as moved an inch, she’d lose the fragile hold she had and explode again.

Her mind went blank as she stayed in that state, the underside of the tarp glowing blue from the lightning beneath her skin. It began to grow easier as she kept still, the energy finally beginning to flow properly through her body. Before she could truly control it, though, it fizzled out, and she collapsed in a heap on the ground, desperately sucking in air as she sobbed.

2341. That was how many times she’d blown herself up trying to control LIGHTNING. Finally, finally, it was paying off.

Through the haze of exhaustion and pain and elation, Heather idly mused that her crap pain tolerance was long gone, as well as her old aversion to blood. Those were beat outta her not long after Jamie had first snapped.

She heard Jamie calling for her from outside the tarp, and she smiled as she forced herself up, still unable to use her limp arms. Light assaulted her, and she covered her eyes for a moment as the tarp was removed. Blinking back spots, she found Jamie holding out her hand, grinning like a maniac, pride shining in her eyes.

“You got it,” she whispered, and Heather nodded, scarcely able to believe it for herself. It had been a struggle, but she’d finally made a modicum of progress. Now she just had to figure out the rest of the LIGHTNING riddle.

“It’s impressive, I’ll give you that,” Jamie said as she helped her up. Then her eyes narrowed, and Heather gulped. “Now come on, time for your favorite part of the day.”

“Fish sticks! I was hoping you’d forgotten about that…” Laughing, Jamie pulled Heather along by the wrist, her high STR STAT making it impossible for Heather to escape. Not for lack of trying; Heather dug her feet into the ground and fought as hard as she could, but Jamie barely budged.

Learning about the monsters of Leveled Plane was always a chore. Since they couldn’t fight monsters in the TRAINING ROOM, Jamie had the brilliant idea of trying to memorize every single monster in the game through the online forums. Naturally, Heather was roped into that plan.

It wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be, but Heather made it a tradition to be as difficult as possible whenever they set aside time for this. At this point, it was just another part of their routine, albeit one that helped them retain their slowly dwindling sanities.

One more year, she thought as Jamie dragged her along, giggling. That was all they had left of their rations before they needed to tackle the TOWER. It gave them a timeline, and Heather knew that they’d be cutting it close. She didn’t know exactly how difficult the TOWER would be, since Jamie was tight-lipped about it, but she knew it would stretch them to their limits.

They had one shot at this, and if surviving meant she had to suffer through Jamie’s lecture on how to stab a CYCLOPS in the eye for the seventh time, it was more than worth it.