A portal opened on a beach in Lagos and Mira walked out of it. The aim today was to bring Camille to her knees and send her packing. Mira preferred fighting to kill so she naturally would have avoided this fight that required her to not kill the opponent, but she didn’t want Camille to find Jade. She knew of the things that Jade had done from the discussions she had with other people and from the news she heard while she was a sex slave. But it didn’t change the fact that she didn’t want to see him dead, not after all he had done for her.

She saw Gbenga coming out of a portal and nodded to him as a greeting; they didn’t have time to catch up. Mira dashed towards one of the meta-humans fighting a Valkyrie without assuming her full size. The meta-human had an armor that was made of hair on his body; it was an extension of the hair on his head. Mira was extremely confused as she thought ‘Hair control? I wonder what makes it so great. Maybe he uses some really good shampoo’

He told Mira with a psychic message ‘You’re supposed to replace Lara, can you handle it?’ Mira nodded and changed direction toward the battle field that had Lara, who looked like a metal giant now, teleporting from place to place and sending beams of blue energy to destroy the black flame spears that exploded with a tenth of the power of a nuke targeted at her.

She saw Gbenga approaching the same battle field which meant only Lara was retiring from the fight. Mira used Predator’s Prey on Lara and Camille thought ‘Oh makes sense, she can replace all the meta-humans is why she is the one retiring’. Gbenga shouted “COMING IN HOT!!!!!” as he threw a spear of glass-like aura toward Camille.

Gbenga now emitted a holy and pure aura but his own wasn’t as intense as Camille or her Valkyries. It was more subtle and mellow, more human; it made him appear to be a nice guy who wouldn’t do anything bad on purpose. The aura gave him a golden tint to his appearance at just the right spots and caused gave a feeling of calm to those around him unlike the feeling of guilt and reverence that the Valkyries and Camille exuded.

Camille sent a spear of black flames from her spear toward Gbenga’s aura spear but his spear seamlessly absorbed the black flame spear and became black as it sailed toward Camille who waved her hand and moved her energy in the spear causing the spear to go a few kilometers of its predestined course and exploding.

Camille and Lara’s fight stopped at this point and Lara walked toward Gbenga and Funmi as she morphed back to a regular human being. She mumbled “It took them long enough, damn bureaucracy!” she looked at Gbenga and Funmi and said “Take her seriously, she was holding back during our fight”.

…

On Camille’s side, she stared in relief as Lara walked through a portal and the portal disappeared. Her Aesir talent that let her know the strength of her opponent had been wobbly. She had never seen a Meta-human before so she didn’t know what grade the race was but the danger she saw from Lara coming out of the portal was just that of an Ancient grade.

Hence she brought out a simple spear and mentally ordered her Valkyries to hold back on them, she didn’t want to kill them. Alas she realized her mistake when the battle began. The danger Lara represented kept increasing without end and she kept matching the levels of power Lara showed as she stacked abilities on abilities.

She brought out her most powerful spear and her Valkyries did the same for their own weapons. She started using more and more energy and using more advanced skills until she sensed that there was no way to beat Lara. She sensed that she would die if she gave it her all and she sensed the same for her friends too so she ordered them to just hold back no matter what. Her instincts still told her that the battle wasn’t lost even with all this so she continued.

Lara replicated the kindness she showed and didn’t try to kill her and her friends so they just battled at a stalemate. During their battle Lara had updated Camille on the progress of the investigations and this only made Camille more worried. She thought ‘He’s about to slip away again!’ but she maintained her cool and didn’t fight too seriously.

Now two new people arrived and Lara went away. Her battle instincts told her, this was her chance! If she could get past these two she would be able to get into the country and search for Jade herself.

…

Gbenga said to Mira “Long time, no see!” and raised his hand for a high five. Mira said “Indeed” and clasped her palm on his. Gbenga had changed much during the almost a year’s time Mira hadn’t seen him. He had a small goatie and was much taller and muscular than before. His hair, which was now in cornrows, was also way longer than before, reaching his waist.

They both turned to face Camille who was wearing the same armor as before, only a little battered, but she was holding a different spear compared to what she brought out at the beginning of her battle with Lara. Her current spear had a larger spear head that was made of a liquid metal that bubbled and swayed unnaturally without dripping. It had inscriptions and patterns on it similar to the inscriptions and patterns on the pole of the spear.

Gbenga sighed and said “Let’s get ready then!” and a small rectangular portal opened up before him facing upward. It floated straight down and as it moved, a beautiful and unusual sword with a blue metal blade and a black handle that had a hilt that was an extension of the blade, appeared as if it was always there all along and the moving portal just erased the camouflage.

The sword was quite long being 5 feet long and was as wide as half of Gbenga’s chest, which was quite broad now, it also had tiny patterns and inscriptions that were so intricately carved. It was so hard to see them that they appeared illusionary. Gbenga held the sword with one hand like it didn’t weigh a thing and another portal appeared bringing to reality a white long double axe that Gbenga threw towards Mira.

He said “Deji made it for you”. Mira caught the axe and made a replica of it with diamond and said “I don’t really need a weapon though”. Gbenga smiled and said “Deji said you would say that. He said I should tell you that it is just for focusing your power. He made it with scrap materials and within a short time so don’t expect too much from it”.

Mira nodded and Gbenga said “Put some of your psyche and energy into it”. Mira did so and the weapon sent a psychic message of all its capabilities. Mira smiled when she saw them and said “Tell him thank you”. Mir could hear the intent from the battles around them and she realized that they were all holding back, both the meta-humans and the Valkyries.

She thought ‘It would have been fun to fight a Valkyrie since it was one of the options I got’. Mira’s skin turned red as her temperature soared due to her increased heart beat. She didn’t increase her size like she normally did before a battle; she had mastered how to reduce her size without affecting her battle strength.

She spun the long axe as her skin became grey, her fur became white and white lightning crackled around her due to Lightning Countenance. Gbenga took a stance and a layer of red aura with curly silver patterns coated his body. The aura merged with his skin and became one with it, similar to what happened with the Homo Azard Jake fought, and his skin became red with curly silver patterns all over it.

The aura extended to his sword and the handle of the sword became silver while the blue blade got the curly silver patterns, in exchange Gbenga’s red skin was dyed with the same blue as the swords blade. Mira was shocked at the intricacy of the whole process as she thought ‘It’s as if the person who made the weapon wanted to show off how cool his/her weapons are’.

Camille and Mira both closed their eyes and when they opened them different effects happened. Mira’s eyes gained a cold and unfeeling edge as she entered a state that she called Sage Trance. Apart from making her fight in a more calculative way, there were some moves she could only perform in this state and her diamond gained special properties.

Camille smiled wickedly with a hint of madness in her expression as she entered a state she called Berserk Frenzy. Her logical thinking was replaced by an amplified battle instinct and the power she could show with her skills soared; it was basically sacrificing parts of her sanity for power.

Mira sent the information of Camille’s race which she got from her use of Predator’s Prey earlier to Gbenga with a psychic signal. Gbenga said ‘I’ll handle defense, you handle the attack’. Mira nodded wordlessly and they both dashed toward Camille who also dashed towards them. This fight was going to happen with no holds barred.