✴

“Is everytime I kiss someone gonna be somehow connected to dueling them?” you say.

“I hope not, I’d get exhausted after a while.” Akiko jumps up onto a limb above.

You follow and land on the next limb over, facing her.

“Remember, this has to look convincing to an outside observer,” she says.

“I won’t hold back,” you say.

“I only ask one thing,” she says.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t hurt my tree, or any of the æthergarden plants.”

“Ah, got it, I’ll set my shell to automatically insert an ignore parameter to my commands.”

“Good!” she says. You feel a sense of relief from her.

“Also...can we keep the empathic link on during?” you say.

“You’ll regret that. But yes.”

You feel a secondhand burst of confidence.

“To surrender or incapacitation,” she says.

“As agreed.” you say.

“Ready?” she says.

“Поехали!” you say.

She extends her avatar’s arm and her green aura flares bright. Its light coils around her arm and takes the solid shape of a cable like those you’re standing on. The serpentine thoughtform extends, wrapping tight around itself into a solid rod, grasped in her hand. Her mental barrier thickens to the point that it bends the light behind her.

You focus on your shield as well, distorting the space around you with a thin, watery veil. You call to mind the image of your focus weapon and your laser manifests in your hands.

She lashes out with her staff, and it uncoils itself into several long cable whips. These æthereal tentacles slash at your feet. You rise up and mostly evade the attack. One of her cables grazes the edge of your shield, and you feel the sharp texture of its metal connector tip as it casts a ripple through the liquid membrane. You drift to the side, further out on the limb, as her weapon recollects itself.

You feel her through the empathic connection--she’s having fun. As you land, she slides to the side to match your movement. She strikes again, swinging her multi-pronged whip downward this time.