Juni took a deep breath as she watched the globule of water take shape. She knew from the moment the gate closed that Harvine would increase the challenge. Because she watched the arena generate before her very eyes, she understood its composition and what she had to work with.

  A scent of fresh earth was the strongest, primarily from organic soil, which was not something she could really use for attack purposes. However, it was easy to dig through, making it easy for her to conceal her movements. However, the portal also spat out chunks of marbled granite, sedimentary, and other hardened stones that she might be able to use. She could also use the composite stone amalgam that formed the bedrock of the chamber.

  There were faint hints of mana in the stone; she could smell it. She could also hear it vibrating from the contained energy of the tiny crystalline lattices that reinforced the stone and minerals.

  Her initial plan was in doubt when she realized this was a water elementa, a Tier One, possibly Tier Two. Safety was assuredly not guaranteed; in fact, the danger here was far more real, and she heard the sound of a liquid boiling within its body with her sensitive ears, a frothing roar indicating imminent danger.

  Then, Harvine spoke up, her facial muscles tensed, and her voice agitated. "Syra, enough with the showboating. No need to look terrifying."

  The elementa let out a burble of discontentment above the roar, then their body wavered like little ripples across their body. The frothing sound stopped.

  Then the elementa let out a watery protest, surprising Juni. "Professor, you said, 'Look terrifying!'"

  "Change of plans. I think I need to be blunt and up-front about things, given our lamia's performance. Were you paying attention during all this?"

  A feminine face solidified on the elementa's head, and a pair of ocean blue eyes emerged. "Yes, Professor, I was."

  "Then I will remind you that what is discussed and demonstrated here is confidential."

  Juni gasped out loud. What was going on? "I'm sorry, what the hell? Are we not fighting a monster? Not that I didn't anticipate such a scenario, because, my goodness, farming experience through non-lethal means would be ingenious. And unethical."

  "By the Divines, no," Harvine groaned. "There are limiters to that, set by the Interface itself. You can't just farm experience off of one individual. Second off, yes, immensely unethical."

  "And throwing a murderous construct my way wasn't?" Neska's words carried a hint of annoyance, which, based on Juni's read of her, indicated she was still quite upset with Harvine.

  "Dialing in the experience. I'd rather see furious students in a more structured environment where danger can be managed, rather than students returned to us from the battlefield, in pieces." Harvine clenched her jaw. "I have been present at too many burials of our best and brightest hopes being torn apart by a brutal enemy. I don't want to have to bury any more, if I have the power to prepare them for the threat they face."

  The water elementa sighed. "So what are our instructions again? Sorry, everyone, I'm Syra, and this is my make-up credit for skipping class. Strangely, it was not my defensive training class. You guys are...uh..."

  "I'm Juni, and she's Cassia," she replied. "I would also like to know what our objective is, Professor Harvine, so we are clear on what boundaries to set in what I presume is an elaborate sparring session."

  Harvine smoothed her hair. "The rules are simple. The winner must score three direct hits. Try not to cause lasting damage, and use any abilities that won't do so. In your case, any sharpened [Stone Spikes] or sharpened [Terra Spikes] should be avoided. Syra, no full-strength [Hydro Cutter] or [Frothing Boil] either, as specific examples."

  Juni gritted her teeth. "You didn't tell Cassia to hold back."

  "Cassia also faced something that, while expensive, is replaceable." Harvine winced as she looked at the glassy remnants sitting in the trash bin. "I told you these tests were always different."

  Juni folded her arms. "Syra? This is what you signed up for?"

  The elemental nodded. "I believe the terms the dear professor used were 'you need to apply yourself, Syra, seeing as you excel at your combat studies.' Less so for academics. Hope you don't mind if this gets a little rough."

  Juni smiled. "If you were aware of what we faced on the way, you might change your tune. I'm no undermouse. Well, I mean, I dig underground but...you get the idea." Neska let out a hissing laugh in the distance, and Juni's ear twitched. "Let's just fight. My vertical assistance snake might get bored."

  The girl's body turned to a texture of frothy water, and she laughed in a bold tone. "Alright then, that's what I like to hear!"

  "On three then," Harvine called out. Juni edged her paws into the earth, working out a game plan, as the professor counted down.

  She had a difficult battle ahead of her. But it could be done.

  "Go!"

  Juni fell forward as the jets of water streamed outward, threatening to send her spinning toward the arena walls. She triggered her [Earth phasing] ability to dive into the earth with almost no resistance, moving through it as though she could swim underground.

  The move always left her uneasy. She couldn’t see anything due to a protective membrane covering her eyes, but her [Tremor Sense] gave her a spatial awareness in three dimensions, along with her memorization of the arena as it was constructed before her eyes.

  She swerved as she heard the water jets cut across the surface. One jet drilled down close by, missing her by a wide margin. Syra might have seen a shifting mound of earth as she tunneled nearby.

  This was, indeed, a new challenge against an intelligent and strategic opponent. There would be no easy victory on this one.

  Neska would know what to do. She had a possible strategy to use after remembering Jurik’s lessons on elemental creatures. At early tiers, they were essentially feral and raw forces of nature. They gained great intelligence as they approached Tier three, and gained mastery over their particular affinity–be it hydro, geomancy, pyro, or others. Syra's assumption of a humanoid form meant at least Tier two. roughly an even match...in theory.

  Elementa also had weaknesses against some affinities, while having strengths against others. Right now, it was a bad matchup; hydro was effective against pyro and geomancy, but weak against plasma affinities, as well as venoms, from what she could recall.

  They were also highly resistant to any damage she could deal, consisting primarily of blunt force or piercing damage with her terra spikes. The only way to defeat her was to make her vulnerable to other damage.

  But, how?

  Another water jet lanced down. This one was much closer, and she couldn’t keep burning mana at this rate while maintaining this ability to burrow. The easiest way to defeat Syra was to disrupt the core of the elemental, scatter it so it couldn’t reorganize itself. She likely wouldn't take kindly to that.

  Which means I need something to hit first.

  She swerved upward, shooting out of the ground in a spray of dirt. She threw a clump of the loose earth at Syra, where it exploded harmlessly after she dodged to the side. Syra responded by forming her legs into a streaming jet of water, blasting off with incredible speed. Her forearms sharpened into cutting blades of water. If this were Syra holding back, Juni might be a bit more anxious about this battle than she already was.

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  Juni summoned her [Stone shield] and felt the intense pressure of the water. She could hear the stone crunching and cracking from the force.

  Suddenly, it let out–she saw water bubbling from the ground, collecting in a stream back to the elementa.

  There was one weakness of these particular creatures: there was only so much substance to them, and they could not quickly convert more. This was an arena of plant matter and earth. If there were a body of water here to draw from, she might be in trouble.

  Her damage types might not be effective, but Syra elementa wasn't in her optimal environment, either.

  Juni dug a trench of earth, then flung the dirt at Syra. She dodged and avoided part of the strike. Dirt dissolved into the fluid and began to cloud and muddy her body.

  "Ew, mud?!" she burbled angrily.

  Juni dodged another incoming jet of water, skittering to the side, and the Syra swung her jet of water to track her motion. Juni juked left, then right, then used one of her hovering stones to [Stone shot], flinging the projectile at high speed. But not maximum speed.

  The change in tactics caught Syra off guard, unable to turn. The stone punched through her body and sent a spray of water behind it into freshly trenched dirt, mixing and turning to mud. The hole through her roughly spheroid torso filled with fluid, glowing brighter than the surrounding fluid.

  "Oh, Divines, I punched right through her!" Juni screamed. Then again, if someone had something flung at high speed through their chest, wouldn't they have collapsed by now?

  A bubbling laugh was her answer to that particular question, and Juni narrowed her eyes. No one laughed when dealt a mortal injury. "Yeah, that hurts a bit, but when I'm in my fluid form, it disperses damage," Syra sighed. "First point to the mouse."

  Then, a Cheshire cat grin creased her face. "Now it's time to get serious." Syra's hands snapped forward, and another jet of water surged forward. Juni dove into the ground using her [Earth phasing], feeling the stinging cut of the water cutter just glancing off a stone. The secondary spray still stung and left a bleeding gash on her face and arm.

  She circled underground, listening using her [Tremor Sense] for Syra's position relative to her.

  But she had gone silent. She only heard the roaring rush of water. And a voice singing a childhood lullaby...with some odd changes.

  Wait. What?

  "The itsy bitsy mousey, climbed up the water spout..."

  Juni's ears went on end, and she started running as fast as her legs would carry her. Of course, she can follow me, she's amorphous right now! She felt the rush of water pressurizing the passage she was burrowing through. Time to go topside before she was trapped.

  Juni ascended through the dirt and porpoised topside, rolling to the side and scampering on all fours, just as a geyser of water erupted from the hole in the ground, Syra still in pursuit.

  "Down came the Syra, and washed the mousey out!"

  Catchy, and either a sign of overconfidence on her part, or I'm out of my depth against her. Juni felt the rumble of water and dodged right.

  Another jet of water sprayed upward, carrying dirt, rocks, and clumps of vegetation. Geysers on demand from Syra, no geological heating required? That was an interesting power. She heard the second one coming, and another jet of water missed.

  Then the rumbling was all around her, and Juni couldn't dodge the entire ground. A massive column of water surged up beneath her and the surrounding terrain, sending her screaming skyward.

  Actual screaming, with nothing to hold onto. She felt her stomach drop as she reached the apex of her flight, and hardened her body with [Stone Shield] before coming down and impacting into the ground.

  It felt like she'd hit a wall with her whole body. It hurt a bit. She wiped mud from her face, groaning as she heard Syra singing again.

  "One and one." The elementa materialized in her humanoid form, clasping a hand to her chest. "You like that one?" She sounded confident, but Juni noted the water forming around her body looked dirtier than before, but she was no less dangerous. She cast out her hand and shot out another jet of water, carving a trench through the ground and missing Juni.

  The mouse took the opening and threw another gob of compacted dirt. Syra was still too slow, and more dirt dissolved into her watery body, leaving her groaning audibly.

  "Second hit!" Harvine shouted proudly.

  "Mud doesn't count!" Syra shouted, wiping off what would be mud from her translucent clothing. Juni found that fascinating--the uniform had a morphic, maleable enchantment on it? That couldn't have been easy to make. She'd heard of customized artifacts being made for the Awakened, but knew little of it.

  Harvine let out a small laugh. "What, Syra, you don't like people fighting dirty? Alright, one and a half, then."

  Even Neska laughed at that one from the sidelines. Juni, however, was focused on scoring one more hit. Syra managed to get some of the mud out of solution, but she looked more like a mudman--or mudwoman, as might be the case--than an elementa at the moment.

  Juni dashed forward, extending one of her [Stone spires] and sending a rippling wave of earth toward Syra. She avoided it by becoming a sloshing ball of water that rolled to the side. But it allowed her to close the distance and extend a stone spire from her hand to slice at it.

  A limb of water collapsed into the arena, and Juni quickly shifted the earth to gobble up the lost essence, trapping it. Syra shouted in surprise, then expelled a boiling, steamy mist coming off of it.

  The steam rolled forward fast, so fast that Juni barely avoided it. Even the fringes of the superheated liquid seared her limbs and tail, and she let out a cry of pain.

  She had to end this fight soon. Syra was definitely tiring, but her tactics were fluid; she'd been reading Juni's movements, learning from what she did.

  Juni took the effort to trench more dirt, clumped it around one of her [Stone shot] projectiles, and heaved the projectile at high speed.

  The shot impacted as before, and the dirt dissolved into the fluid. Syra was now nothing more than a muddy mess, and she shook its limbs, trying to dislodge the material.

  "Well, that's two hits!"

  Syra's hands shook in outrage. Then, she raised her arms high, and Juni heard a rumble.

  Oh no!

  Water gushed out of the ground, spraying into the air and drifting to collect around the elemental core. The water around her core cleared, and Syra was no longer as muddy. She lunged at her with a knowing smirk, launching a spray of foaming liquid and mud forward.

  Juni dodged between the boulders and trees on one side of the arena, staying just ahead of the torrent of liquid. The hydro blast stripped bark from trees, carved trenches through the rock, and cut through the foliage as though it were nothing more than paper.

  More water burst forth, but she was already in range. Her long-term plan was in motion as she thrust a furry paw into the stone, drawing the mana-laden minerals from within and charging her arm. Her limb ossified and spread across her body, forming a stone shell. The layer of minerals gave her extra protection as more water jets shot her way.

  The impact hurt. But the hydro blast couldn’t cut through her, keeping her vitals safe as she tumbled to cover between a cropping of trees.

  "Two hits on Juni!"

  That really shouldn't count, because I blocked it. Ow. I still need only one more hit.

  Frustrated, Syra drew back her arms, and Juni heard the rush of water as her blast sliced across the trunks of the trees, shearing through them with impunity, and they began to topple; once again, Syra showed a methodical reactivity to Juni's actions, since it was carving through her cover strategically, leaving her exposed.

  A near miss of a hydro blast splashed off her body, and she tumbled to the ground, in pain but still mobile. That had been too close.

  Juni struggled to rise and looked up to see the elementae draw more water back into her body. It appeared that her body mass was either slightly larger or had lowered her density. Interesting. She'd have to read up more on her peer and her Varadur counterparts, later.

  But this was all part of her plan. Like with the battle of the wolves, she'd been keeping Syra in position, strafing around her while she bought time for her ability to finish.

  And just in time, as she was becoming exhausted. She used her [Remote Burrowing] to collapse the ground into the tunnels she’d been digging just below it, and water splashed and mixed with the loosened soil, trapping it. “Mine, now!” she called out.

  Distantly, she heard Neska cheering. She’d never heard Neska cheer like that–usually her emotional responses were…flatter, less pronounced. But she did have a subtlety to the way she talked and wrote.

  Her train of thought was disrupted as the now muddy Syra formed a cutting foil and surged after her, cutting through grass and standing stumps like a liquid cleaver. She formed a [Stone Spine] under her feet and blunted it to launch her skyward. She avoided the cutting blow, missing entirely and leaving Syra winded. She stared upward, a faint expression of disbelief etched in her rippling, somewhat humanoid face.

  Juni flipped in mid-air, flinging a blunted [Stone Shot] with a concentrated blast, the elementa exhausted and laden with mud.

  This time, she couldn’t avoid the impact. The stone impacted and compressed on the mud within the elementae's body, transferring a massive force through her entire body. She slammed into the ground with a bubbly screech.

  Juni landed with a successful tumbling roll that protected her body. Exhausted, soaking wet, and grimacing at minor cuts, she walked with a confident gait over to the now-prone Syra, letting out a steamy groan.

  She extended a stone spine and tapped it on Syra's head, smiling politely. "I believe that's three direct hits."

  The water elementa laughed in response, despite the defeat. "That was surprisingly closer than I thought it would be. Professor, are we done here?"

  "Yes, indeed! Well done, both of you!" Harvine clapped, and Neska slithered forward, grabbing a bandage and a towel from a medical station.

  Juni shook her head and extended a paw to Syra. "Well, shall we get cleaned up?"

  Syra grinned proudly and clasped a muddied, watery hand onto Juni's. "You know something, this was supposed to be a discipline thing. This turned out fun."

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