Holy crap, am I going to explode again?!

  Almost immediately Chimera started looking around for safe places to explode, images of her time on Monica’s satellite cannon playing back in her head as she remembered the circle exploding and sending her into the depths of space.

  The circle flared with her awareness, and a build up of power rushed through her body as she watched the light bending circle within her start to spin.

  She braced herself for an explosion, a detonation, anything…

  But all that happened was a thrum of energy transferring into her body, a familiar and potent power that she knew was instinctually aura.

  It felt good, and not at all explodey like she was worried about.

  Kass gave her a once over as she watched shaking her head slightly as she pulled up a chair and sat next to her.

  “Now that you got your aura figured out, it’s time to bring it together.” Kass sat on her chair that she brough over, watching Chimera with interest.

  “Bring it together? It’s just energy, yeah?”

  In a rare sort of expression, Kass lightly bonked Chimera with the flat side of her anvil hammer, staring down at her with exasperation.

  “Little fool, aura is the energy of the soul, it comes not from your body, but your spirit. If you want to maintain it, you need to keep it grounded in your body. The body feeds into the spirit, and vice versa.”

  Chimera stared at the giantess, “what the hell does all that even mean? I’m a scientist (by osmosis) I don’t understand all this spirit nonsense!”

  The eyeroll that Kass gave could have turned a water wheel. It was that heavy, but Mera couldn’t really follow the instructions that she gave shortly after.

  It was clear that unlike her Pegs, aura would only work if she grounded it somewhere in her body, simply having it power her up would only lead to short bursts of energy.

  She could feel it even now as it slowly started to dissipate.

  “Chiefess, just give it to me like a village idiot.” Chimera finally gave up trying to understand.

  Kass however found it hilarious, using slow words to convey, “Simple then, make swirly feels center in here.”

  She pointed directly where Chimera’s transdimensional stomach lay, the space even more voluminous then before her transformation.

  Well, she’s the expert.

  Chimera grew some legs, sat crossed legged on the dirty floor, oh, some silver shavings lovely, and began to draw upon her aura.

  It was slow going at first, as the energy seeped into every other part of her form, clinging to her and giving her a power boost, but unwilling to move.

  She started to think of what could bring it all together when her mind immediately remembered a joke about a blackhole generator that Meghan toyed around with. It never reached production or even passed the ideal state, but the image she had was of a doodle that she saw Meghan make.

  All it depicted was a black hole and the words ‘succ’ at the end of it.

  Heh, succ.

  Whether through comic hilarity or simply just finding the right image, Chimera felt the aura in her gather in the location nearest her stomach, pulling from the outer layers, and somewhere else to meet at that location.

  Rather than disappear into the vacuous storage of her stomach, the aura started to build something else instead, a hardened stone that felt like it was alive. It grew and grew with the accumulated aura, until it compressed itself and started to grow again. Over and over this occurred, and by the time Chimera was done with all the aura she had originally released, it was dark outside, and Kass had brought a slew of plates and food to feast with her blacksmiths.

  Of course some of it was set aside for Mera as well, and with a small tendril, she quickly absorbed her portion.

  The food brought with it new DNA of the local wildlife, a spice she had never tasted before and an abundance of energy.

  Smokey flavored, just the kind of stuff after a hard day making a rock into a smaller rock.

  Sadly she had not received any new upgrades from the wildlife as most of it was similar to what she already possessed, but the hollowed out feeling she got from moving aura all day was quickly healed by the blessing of food.

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  Her new stone shifted in place, syphoning the food and storing it alongside the rest of her aura stone.

  Aura stone, she thought to herself, fits in a way, though I wonder if it’s what it is truly called.

  She was about to ask Kass when she watched the smith partake of the bounty, and stopped to watch people.

  It was so uncanny, the way that the men and women of the forge conversed, jabbing each other about their projects while sharing their own tips about what they would do to fix a certain problem. Each one had their own sense of pride in themselves, but when it came to their work, no one shot down the other’s attempts at something different.

  Mera often thought her way was the best, and she couldn’t deny that being a leader of a group like hers, that she needed to be seen as right in her judgement, if for no other reason than maintaining morale. It made her feel powerful at times.

  Seeing the smiths talk though, made her feel uncomfortable.

  Am I really doing the best I can? Shouldn’t I… well who would I even ask to help me? No one I really trust is here…

  She shook herself.

  That’s not true anymore though is it, right Meras, Bayleaf?

  The mind palace echoed, sending a signal to the other two presences there. It worked similarly to a knock on the door of their respective places, letting them knoe she wanted to converse.

  Meras was the first to answer, “Of course dummy, we got your back. And if by some miracle you make a dumb decision worthy of song, I’m sure Bay will pull you out of the fire.”

  “H-Hey! Don’t drop that responsibility on me!” Bayleaf answered shortly after.

  Mera snickered with the two of them, having her own conversation with the two people she trusted, trading jabs and talking about nothing as she ate with the smiths in peace.

  …

  With the aura farmed and her belly full, Chimera reverted back to her child-like Elfari form, her body slowly rebuilding the lost Pegs she used in her mock battle with Kass.

  If she was being honest, she wasn’t sure that she needed the Pegs at all, now that she had access to so potent a resource of strength like aura, but her body would crave biomass on the regular, and aura could not support such needs.

  Though she wondered if a bit of experimentation could change that, still, it was better to err to the side of caution on these things. With her Pegs, she could maintain her body’s needs in her smaller form, and if she absolutely needed it, aura was there to help her in fights.

  Am I strong enough for him though?

  Her mind drifted towards the fight she had, the battle between her and the Hoodian super serpent man.

  The aura within her reacted, pulsing and almost undoing her Elfari form.

  Woah… that was a bit much.

  Mera concentrated, focusing her aura back inside her aura rock and breathing in the extra energy that spilled out from her.

  “Your focus will be more important than ever little Mera, as your core is responding to your emotional state. Unless you want to drain yourself quickly, you’ll need to bring yourself under control.”

  “Of course…” Chimera said at first, until she remembered.

  Practically every fight she had, ended with her losing control and going full insanity onto her enemy.

  Killer Whale, Terralord, Crysta, even Mr. Flesh and Mona.

  Only Gideon, or Technowolf, was the only one she could safely say she fought while she was in control of herself.

  I need to find control, or at least let myself go in spurts or something.

  A tap to her noggin woke her from her thoughts as she turned to see Kass sporting her anvil hammer.

  “The best practice is true combat, so prepare yourself little one.”

  “...Since when did you decide I needed this? I might have just figured it out you know?” Chimera tried to say, but the wild look of hunger in Kass’ eyes made it clear this was more for Kass than Chimera’s benefit.

  “Learn by doing, fine, screw it!” Chimera readied herself, shifting to her aura form as Kass cleared out the area for them to train in.

  Chimera’s shift flooded her body with aura, and the shift bringing her to the ‘ideal’ form Kass talked about.

  This time though, she matched Kass’ height, length and spread, even going as far as to conjure a similar hammer, only this had a tendril on the end and was more of an axe then a hammer.

  The shift only made the chieftain of Anvilage smile wider, “good! Its been too long since I fought someone similar to my build! Come!”

  Fine, you asked for this, you flaming red harpy!

  Round two began, and ended rather similarly to her first bout with Kass.

  Chimera never used a weapon like the tendril axe she made, and it gave her valuable experience when she matched it with the anvil hammer Kass used. The battle became bloody as well, neither side worried when they received damage as Mera was able to heal any of their injuries they sustained.

  Aura, Chimera quickly found out, was a force multiplier, making each of her blows hit harder, faster and stronger than she ever imagined. She strike she made cleaved through stone without her terramancy powers, and the sheer strength she wielded matched any super strength she received from the heroes of Asta.

  It wasn’t borrowed power though, not like before. This was hers, the very essence of her true self empowered her abilities and brought her strength she never experienced before. She found herself smiling and grinning just as much as her opponent, even as she took blow after blow.

  The blood that landed on her was also a boon, giving her access to the unique DNA that flowed through Kass’ lineage and invigorating her body with a new template. Even if aura gave her a feeling of overwhelming power, she knew that her biology might tip the scale on a similar opponent to herself.

  Any advantage, so that she could stop the Hoodians from hurting innocents.

  And make it back home.

  Chimera took a breath as she readied herself for another round, pushing her body to the limit to understand her newest power.

  …