“A half step to your right, Gemini.” A thought flashed through his head, and the Constellation sidestepped an attack from his blind spot. Wind whistled in his ears as the voice spoke again, and Gemini leaned backwards as his sparring partner turned his stumble into an attack that would have hit. A foot missed his nose by barely a centimetre, and Gemini, in that small opening, punched out.

General Degurechaff skidded backwards as he took a direct punch from Gemini, kicking up a cloud of dust. “Since when were you this good at street fighting? Have you been secretly training?”

“No,” Gemini answered. “I just activated another cheat of sorts, the Unique Skill, Champion Support Entity. There’s a nice, friendly person talking in my head now, helping me if I need its help.”

“So, an intelligent artefact?” asked the general. “One specifically for combat…this is a direction worth exploring, isn’t it? Does it have a name?”

“A name?” Gemini lowered his arms somewhat. “Do you have one?”

“I’m an existence that’s just formed from parts of your unused mind,” replied the voice. “Although it’ll be easier to refer to me if I had a name, eh? How about…Dark Flame Master?”

Gemini suddenly felt an urge to beat up that particular piece of his brain that the Champion Support Entity was using right now. After spending a second to calm down, he gritted his teeth. “Think of something more normal. A one-word name.”

“Fine.”

“What did it think of, Gemini?” Lila skipped over and asked. The little spar had ended, and she had deemed it safe for her to come over. After that short visit to the Memory Sifter, Gemini decided to find a sparring partner to get some...less-than-welcome feelings out of his system, which was why he was fighting Degurechaff now.

“Something that I would never say out loud, and that no one should ever hear,” the Constellation replied. “I didn’t know I had something like that in me…I want to jump inside a hole right now.”

“R-right.” Lila looked at him, and then shook her head. “So, is the spar over?”

“No,” said Degurechaff. “It’s just the beginning. I was going easy on him just now, because I thought he was still the same old Gemini, but I suppose I can remove the kiddy gloves now. Up for another round, Gemini? Same old rules, no energy allowed for attacks.”

“Going easy?” Gemini grinned. “Come on, let’s do it again. Lila, you keep score for us. I don’t think a five-minute spar was satisfying for either of us.”

“I agree.” The general cracked his neck. “Round two, then.”

The two walked over to the arena they were using earlier. Gemini raised his fists, while Degurechaff lowered his body slightly. The general was somewhat taller than Gemini himself, but his adoption of a more stable stance now meant that he was on eye level with the Constellation.

And that he was on the defensive.

Gemini’s eyes flashed, and in the next moment, he’d arrived right in front of Degurechaff. His fists lashed out, and he heard a few grunts as his opening moves landed solidly on the general’s forearms. Without any hesitation, he continued to strike out, his fists turning into a small flurry of blurred movement.

“Not bad,” said the general, “but attacking that heavily leaves you open!”

“One step to the left, then raise your right foot by thirty centimetres. Tilt your head to the right, and with your left arm in its current position, punch out hard,” said the voice in his head. “By the way, just call me Quinn.”

Is that really the time for that? Quinn’s words were transmitted at the speed of thought, so it was just up to Gemini to replicate its words faithfully. The Constellation felt swift gusts beside his left foot and his head, as he moved his body the way Quinn had directed him to. Another grunt, one louder than usual, followed as his left cross found purchase.

Gemini leapt backwards, prompted by Quinn, dodging a leg sweep that the Constellation would have fallen prey to, and then raised his forearms to absorb a heavy blow. That final attack had been too swift for him to dodge, even with Quinn’s guidance, and it was his turn to skid backwards from the sheer force behind that blow.

The Constellation threw himself on the ground, narrowly dodging a kick aimed at his side, and then pushed himself off, just in time to avoid a sweep directed at his head’s current position. His hands flashed out, deflecting five jabs within a single second, but just as he thought he was in the clear, the general smashed his head into Gemini’s own.

Stars exploded in his vision, and in that fatal moment of vulnerability, the general landed over ten solid hits into his stomach, all aimed at the exact same position. By then, Quinn had fallen silent — clearly, this newly-awakened support was unable to find a way out for the Constellation too. Gemini staggered backwards, and then fell towards his right.

Before he could hit the floor, Degurechaff had caught him. “Not bad, Gemini.”

Gemini felt a pair of broad hands lay him down on the ground gently, and then a smaller, softer pair apply some medication to his abdomen. His vision was somewhat blurry from the general’s head smash, but he could still make out Lila taking care of his somewhat battered body.

After a minute or so, the Constellation finally got up, wincing as he sat upright. “How was it?”

“Your support has a good eye, but it seems to be tailored to avoiding damage entirely,” said Degurechaff. “It’s not a bad approach, but there are some attacks that, once dodged, would open you up for massive attacks. At least, when you dodge, you must include a counterattack, or there will be no meaning to it. It’ll be like squashing some small, helpless animal — it can dodge and run, but if it doesn’t bite back, it’s going to die really quickly. Our first exchange was a good one, but you lost your nerve after that, and allowed me to attack freely.”

“I see.” Gemini forced himself to his feet. “Another round?”

“Sure. It’s rare to see you this motivated for no-energy spars like this,” said Degurechaff.

“It’s peacetime right now, but I wouldn’t call this a good time to slack off,” said Gemini. “Lila, you should find a Knight to train with too. Better now than in the field, no?”

She made some sad noises.

“No excuses, okay?” Gemini smiled. “It’s for your own good.”

“Fine…”

It didn’t take long for Gemini to be beaten onto the ground once again, although he had lasted for a minute longer this time. Gemini and Quinn had taken the general’s advice to heart, and they managed to land five times as many blows as the previous round. After a few questions — Gemini had come to blows with Ortega before — Gemini was pleasantly surprised to learn that in unarmed combat, under the same circumstances as their spars, General Degurechaff was the best in the whole of Ark City.

For one, he was a Paragon that had quite the background in strengthening his body. Gemini had something similar too, which was why both of them were perfect as sparring partners. In matches against almost everyone else, both of them had to hold back, even against fellow Paragons, since few had a body as hardy as theirs.

But when all was equal, technique took the cake.

“Thank you,” said Gemini. “It was a good learning experience.”

“Same goes for me. Rarely do I get to spar without pulling my literal punches,” said the general.

“Are you heading for Congress now?” Gemini asked.

“Yes.” The general glanced at Gemini. “You too?”

“Yeap.” Gemini took Lila’s hand, and began to walk. “Wanna go with us?”