The Bloodforged Kin

Tess rolled across the pavement, her limbs kicking snow up as she did. She climbed painfully to her feet, wiping blood off her mouth with the back of her hand. She'd left a bloody trail when the old man had hurled her backwards, again.

The fight had started out straightforward enough, she and the old man exchanging blows. She was slightly faster, able to keep up with both of his swords using only Goliath - at first. It soon became apparent to her that the old man wasn't going full out, he was sparring. Studying. Learning. She was a whetstone that he was using to sharpen his skills.

He began to press her harder, forcing her to pull Shimmer into her left hand. At first she pressed him onto the back foot, the drastic differences in the weapon sizes confusing him enough to give her an advantage. It was an advantage that didn't last long, and he recovered quickly.

Tess swung, stabbed, leapt, pirouetted, and basically pulled out every trick in her book. Even with Fara tracking and monitoring his style and guiding her movements Tess couldn't land a single blow. He wasn't as fast as her, wasn't as strong - he was just too… perfect. His form was perfection of movement, his every step flowing perfectly into the next, his every movement setting her up for his next attack.

He was defeating her through sheer skill, the perfection of his craft overcoming every physical advantage she had.

"Mother, I think you need to use your skills."

"I don't want to do it too soon, Fara. If I use them now and they don't kill him we're dead. We won't have anything left."

"I'm working on something that I believe will help us but we need to survive long enough for me to finish it."

"What is it?"

Tess felt herself jerked to the side as Fara pushed her out of the way of a blade. Even with their enhanced conversation speed this old man could keep her moving defensively. He seemed to understand that she had advanced perception and was definitely aware of her high physical stats. Tess tried to identify him to get a read on his stats, but only got a jumble of confusing information in return. She didn't see the standard screen that displayed core stats but she did get an impression of high levels of physical stats. Not as high as hers, but high enough to defeat her with the aid of his innate swordsmanship skills.

"You'll see! For now, you need to push him to his limits. I need to see all of his techniques. If there's anything he hasn't done yet, make him do it."

"That would require actually being a threat to him, which we haven't been so far."

"Then you need to get dangerous."

"It's a risk. We'll be vulnerable if it doesn't work."

"We're vulnerable now, just more slowly."

Tess acknowledged the point. She activated Indomitable, feeling her strength boost up by 20%. She smiled at the confused look in the man's eyes as his speed dropped by 15%. Tess couldn't wait for him to discover that his accuracy would be similarly reduced. She only had 30 seconds of the Imposing Will effect slowing him down and she needed to take advantage of it.

Tess turned into a raging beast, all aggression, zero defense. She took hits, ignoring them - letting them fuel her rage. His technique may have been perfect, but even perfection could be overcome by pure, controlled chaos. She slashed when she should have stabbed, lunged when she should have dodged, and generally ignored every smart move. Smart moves were strategic and great for overcoming opponents that fought with the same intelligence. They were also predictable.

Tess refused to be predictable. A smart fighter protected themselves as much as they attempted to hurt the other person, but a predator only attacked. She began to overwhelm him, the fear and respect in his eyes only fueling her.

She tasted victory as he stumbled backwards, a slash finally appearing across his cheek, then his arm, then his chest. He blocked a lunge to his heart by catching the tip on his crossed sword, the power behind it sending him skidding back. She didn't have much time left but she knew she didn't need it.

She flashed forward with a growl, Goliath throwing snow up into miniature storms behind the sheer force of the swing.

Stolen novel; please report.

"I Move Through The Raindrops."

Tess missed, sliding past him as he pivoted easily around her attack.

"Phantom Dance."

When Tess turned there were four of him. She only had a moment to wonder which was the real one when they dashed off in different directions, each of them running away from her, only to pivot in perfect unison before running back at her from each direction.

Tess dodged frantically, snarling as she felt cuts erupt across her body. The copies were all around her, striking her from every direction, landing three slices for every one she managed to block or dodge.

She couldn't keep this up, she needed to level the playing field before the weakness from Indomitable activated. Goliath was back in her dimensional space, replaced by the Arc-Talon. In an instant two of the copies had neat holes in their heads, the unexpectedness of a firearm taking them by surprise. A third went down with Shimmer buried in its stomach. The three copies faded from existence, the feedback from their deaths shaking Takeshi for a moment - just long enough for Tess to lunge in with a punch.

The old man's eyes cleared and Tess saw death in them. She knew she wouldn't make it to him in time.

"I Cut All."

Her danger sense erupted and she pulled Goliath out, lifting it just in time to catch the deadly attack on its virtually-indestructible edge. The force behind it was enough to send her rolling across the ground, leaving a bloody wake in the snow.

And now she was here, wiping blood from her lip and feeling the exhaustive effects of Indomitable dragging her down.

"I have a few more tricks up my sleeve but I don't think they'll work. He's just too good. I'm sorry Fara."

"No need to apologize mother! I just finished it!"

"What?"

"A skill! I created a skill!"

"YOU created it?"

"Well, The System did, of course, but I guided it in the direction I wanted. Look!"

The world was frozen around them, giving Tess the time to stare in wonder at what Fara had done.

Name: Skill Mimicry
Description: With your advanced processing capabilities, you can absorb and replicate the experiences of your host, learning at an extraordinary rate.

Experience Absorption

: You can capture and replay everything your host perceives - sights, sounds, and physical interactions - allowing you to learn and understand physical skills and fighting techniques rapidly.

Adaptive Learning

: By utilizing your knowledge of the host's experiences, you can assist them in adapting to unfamiliar combat styles, skills they have witnessed, or any other physical actions. The speed of this learning is dependent on the quality of the information observed and.your processing speed

Skill Transfer

: You can impart knowledge of skills to your host, allowing them to momentarily access these abilities. Your host will be able to perform what you have learned at a level dependent on your bond and experience with them. However, skills learned in this way may not be permanently retained, as they remain within your memory.

"This is phenomenal, Fara, but what does it mean?"

Fara usually affected the tone of a wide-eyed, innocent, excited young girl, but sometimes - times like now - the true Fara came out. The one that spoke like pure death.

"It means that I've learned everything he can do, and now we can do it too." The young girl's voice came back. "Well, not the magic skills, but definitely his techniques. You are now able to perform all of his techniques perfectly - with my assistance, of course."

"That's amazing, Fara, but I'm too weak. Perfect form won't beat him."

They both took a moment to consider the old man who was, even now, approaching them faster than he should have been. In this hyper-speed state he should have been frozen, but he was coming for them. They were almost out of time.

"I can help with that too. I've been saving energy."

"What does that mea-" but then she felt it. Tess exploded with energy.

Takeshi was on her an instant later, sword swinging. Tess watched it come, then realized she didn't need to watch it. She didn't need to decide to dodge, her body knew what to do. She didn't even shuffle her feet, simply twisting her body slightly to allow the sword to brush a hair's breadth from her throat. He reversed the swing, cutting in with a backhanded slash. Goliath came up, deflecting instead of fully blocking.

As more energy coursed through her the man's movements seemed to be more sluggish, more predictable. She knew what he would do because she knew what his technique would tell him what to do. He had honed it to perfection, but that perfection was its weakness. Once you knew it - fully KNEW it to a cellular level - it was just another set of rules.

Tess saw the weakness in it and knew what to do. She dismissed Goliath, smiling wickedly as her limbs lit up with a silvery glow.