First Bloody Ballroom (End)

--- Maya ---

“You still alive?” Anavi called with only mild concern.

She raised her hand and waved. “Yeah, I’m still alive. Just need to catch my breath.”

“Just so you know there’s a rule against using raw explosives in the arena.” Anavi told her. “Since there’s no Deviant energy to disrupt the ring’s safe guards have more trouble dampening them in case of emergency.”

She sat up. “Right, uh, dumb that down for me?” She wasn’t feeling like using too much of brian power right now.

(Everything’s achy!) Her inner child whined.

“While it doesn’t disqualify you in the Ballroom, you can’t bring bombs into the official tournaments.” Anavi elaborated walking up to her, before crouching on the ground. “Look this way for a second.”

She did and watched as the older woman made a light appear just above her fingertip.

“Follow this for a moment.” Anavi told her, likely checking for a concussion as Maya followed the light with her eyes. “Alright, doesn’t look too bad but you might still want to check in with a healer.”

She found herself frowning. “Is that going to cost money?”

“Yes.” Anavi nodded as she stood back up and offered Maya a hand. “Though it’s not much.”

“Not much can mean different things depending on how broke you are.” She pointed out as she accepted the help to her feet. “And I be broke.”

“True…” Anavi admitted, seemingly considering it. “Is fifty dollas a lot for you?”

“For me? Yes.” She grimaced. “For a doctor’s visit though, that’s cheap.”

“I see…” Anavi frowned, before waving her hand and causing a golden light to flash over Maya. “Well, you’ve nothing too severe at least… just some bruising that’ll last a week or two.”

“That’s… good?” She thought, not actually understanding or wanting to understand the older woman’s ‘magic’. Though that did little to keep her grimacing as she moved, feeling a soreness all over as her adrenaline started to wear off. “Still might be enough to make me finish that medical bay…”

Anavi hmm’ed rather than say anything else.

“So, uh, how’d I do?” She found herself asking, figuring that if the older woman had stepped into the ring that meant she’d called it herself.

“Mmm, well you could’ve done a lot worse.” Anavi admitted, giving her a less than good feeling about her results. “That said, you did do well enough to be allowed to come and go from the club. Though I won’t be telling you where any of the more difficult clubs are.”

“Right, okay…” She nodded, her mind underlining that ‘go’ in come and go, before she remembered something. “I think you mentioned something about a tournament?”

Anavi ran a hand through her hair. “Right that… Well if you want I can enter you in the next one a couple weeks from now, but I’ll go ahead and warn you there’s no guarantee you’ll win it. Depending on who you’re up against you’ll probably make it to the second round but not much further than that based on what I’ve seen here.”

“I see…” She frowned. “And what do you think I need to work on to go further than that?”

“Well, like I said, that's a tough one since it varies person to person.” Anavi told her. “I can tell you’re used to fighting, but at the same time I can also tell you’re self-taught and fairly new to Deviant combat.”

“Meaning?” She prodded, hoping to get a bit more than that.

“It’s largely an experience gap.” Anavi shrugged. “You’ve got a few cool tricks but you don’t really seem to know what to do when facing enemies beyond hitting them with as much power as possible.”

“Uh, isn’t that usually how you win a fight?” She pointed out.

Anavi gave her a look before sighing. “Throw a punch at me.”

“What?” She blinked.

The older woman rolled her eyes. “It’s a fight club, throw a punch at me.”

“Okay…” She reluctantly pulled her arm back and drove it forward as hard as she could.

Only to have Anavi catch her arm, put in a lock, sweep her legs out from underneath her, and pin her to the ground by straddling her, with a fist raised into the air. “Counter.”

Reacting the only way she could, she moved to aim her Hand Cannon at the woman, before finding her other arm pinned beneath one of Anavi’s legs. “Now break free.”

She struggled for a bit, quickly finding that she could not make the older woman get off of her. (Not that we’d want to…) (Not the time!)

After a moment she eventually sighed. “I can’t…”

“Wrong.” Anavi shook her head. “You could’ve blasted a wave of force at the ground, it would’ve pulled at your arms but it also could’ve given you enough leverage to break free and follow up with a blast to throw me off.”

She was about to try just that before Anavi stood, getting off of her.

(Aww…)

“Like I said, you know the basics of fighting and you’ve got a decent number of spells but you need to learn how to best use said spells to get the most out of them.” Anavi continued to explain. “A dozen blades are worthless if you don’t know how to draw the first.”

“That’s… fair.” She was forced to admit, given how she’d only really had most of her equipment for a couple of months. (Maybe I should give my gear a little more practice.)

“Don’t look too down.” Anavi told her, once more offering her hand. “You’ve potential, you just need more experience.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to work on.” She confessed as Anavi pulled her to her feet.

“And you’re making progress, otherwise you wouldn’t have beaten Andre’s memory even if weakened a bit.” Anavi assured her. “These things just take time. Even Za’um and Blade took years to become unbreakable.”

“Right…” She didn’t really have reference for that but she understood the sentiment at the very least.

“So, with your test over were you planning to stick around a little longer or were you going to go ahead and head home?” Anavi asked.

“I… think it’d be better for me to go ahead and head home.” She admitted. “I’ve got a few things to… think about…”

“Of course.” Anavi nodded, starting towards the ring exit. “Like I said, you’re free to come and go as you please.”

“Right…” She nodded back.

(Ask her…) The devil on her shoulder whispered.

(You know it won’t work out that way.) She told herself. (Especially when she’s so much older than us.)

(True but that doesn’t mean asking will hurt.) Her inner reason argued. (After all, Anavi has already been a great deal of help in what little time we’ve known her.)

She had to agree with herself on that one, before eventually deciding to just bite the bullet. “Hey, uh, Anavi?”

“Yes?” The older woman asked, turning back towards her at the same time she waved at the other guard.

“If I were to, uh, come around again…” She started. “Would you uh, mind if I uh, bugged you a bit?”

“Pardon?” Anavi frowned. “I’m not sure that translated right.”

(Don’t wuss out just because she’s hot!)

“I’m just, you wouldn’t mind if I came around and uh, asked for… some advice.” She explained. “About fighting and stuff…”

(The ‘and stuff’ is what I’m interested in.)

(Do I need to get a spray bottle in here?)

(Please do…) She really needed to get her hormones under control.

“Hmm, no, I wouldn’t.” Anavi eventually smiled. “Truthfully, back in Yggdrasil I’d help a lot of the younger guards but since getting stuck here I haven’t had much of an opportunity for that. So as long as nothing is going on I’ve no problem giving a fellow warrioress a few pointers here and there, though whatever progress you make will have to be your own. I may give you direction but you’re the one who must walk your path.”

“Y-yeah, th-thanks.” She smiled back, as she did a mental fist pump. (Yes!)

(Step one in ‘hot older waifu’ is a go!)

(I’m fairly sure she’s spoken for.) Her inner logic pointed out as they made their way to where the other guard was bring back her bike.

(We can get husbando or two, too… especially with those abs…) Her inner Madness drooled. (Uh, I can’t drool in here.)

(True but Maya’s drooling a bit.)

She wiped her mouth, and looked away from where the Inferni Traveler was once more flirting with Anavi in an overly affectionate manner. (The power of the abs compel you.)

“I’m uh, I think I’ll get going…”

“Oh, feel free to come by whenever Za’um and I are the main guards here so we’ll remember you for you next visit.” Anavi assured her.

“Right.” She nodded, before waving as she started leading her bike to the exit. “Uh, see you then.”

(Well, while we didn’t manage much in the heroic direction I feel today was still fairly productive.) Her inner reason told her. (We found new training site, gained a possible mentor-)

(Who, bonus, is extremely hot.)

(Quite.) Her inner logic was unable to refute. (And we gained access to a tournament that’s bound to prove profitable in multiple ways.)

“Yeah, today was a good day.” She agreed, before wincing as she felt one of her numerous bruises starting to form. “Just… got to uh, heal before we focus on any of that too much….”