"Ok, wonder boy, you want to fill us in on what the hell happened out there?" Dee shouted.

  “Team Arcane, your next match will be in 20 minutes on the main field again.” Nate could hear the ref mutter. “Hmph, rich people.”

  "Yeah Nate, that was really cool, but you’ve never been able to warp that far before, and your shield was just ripping through those guys." Lindy added.

  Nate looked up at Lindy with focused eyes. "Guys, I think I resonated last night." Nate said.

  "Tell. Me. Everything." Jarris’ voice came from the door to the connection chamber.

  After the team, plus Jarris and Kalazan, sat down in the locker room, Nate walked them through his weird dream thing that he wasn’t even sure was actually a dream. He left no detail out, including the childhood memories he worked through, the mysterious figure on the throne, and how he fought a monster.

  "This sounds like a resonance event for sure, but the figure asking you to do something… that’s… odd. Can you describe the creature to me again?" Kalazan asked.

  "It was small and hunched over on its hands, its skin was rough, maybe even hardened and was a dark grey with no hair or fur whatsoever. It had a row of fangs that looked so misshapen and pointing in different directions yet they still interlocked perfectly when its mouth was closed. Its eyes were a terrifying black color with white beady centers. They were soulless, filled with nothing but a primal need to hunt me. It had hands, or paws, or… I don’t know. The claws were so long and curled, they were probably the scariest part other than when it ran. Since its arms were longer than its legs, it kind of galloped at me, but it was so fast I couldn’t really tell.”

  Kalazan looked at Jarris in a way that made Nate think Kalazan knew what creature Nate had seen.

  "Well, the good thing is that you made it through on your first try. Not uncommon, but still great. I wish you would have waited, though." Jarris said.

  "Why? I just wiped the floor with those guys!"

  “That’s why!” Jarris shouted, pointing his finger at him.

  "It’s not about you today, is it, Nathan?"

  Nate sank back into his seat and looked at his team. "I’m sorry, guys." he said, hanging his head.

  Lindy rushed to his side and wrapped her arm around him, her other hand holding his.

  "You really kicked ass out there so I can’t be that mad." Dee said, causing a light giggle to spread through the locker room.

  "It would have been nice to know, though." She continued, scratching her head, a little nervous not to hurt Nate’s feelings for once.

  "You need to conceal this the best you can, Nate. Only use your new level of power if you’re going to lose. The less you can win with, the better in the long run. That being said, do you know what your new ability is?" Jax chimed in.

  "When I was on the field earlier, I felt a power in my fingertips, and when I directed it, there was a ripple, like when you throw a rock in still water."

  "Show me." Jarris said.

  Nate stood up and focused on the power coursing through his body to his fingertips, then pointed at one of the locker room benches. The ripple appeared just as before, right on top of the bench. This time, though, it was like someone was pouring water into a hammock. The ripple stopped and turned more into a sphere cut in half that protruded further toward the bench. The bench began to bend, then crack, before it finally snapped through.

  "It appears you can manipulate weight, Nathan." Kalazan said. "We will need to study this more… But as Jarris said, use this as a last line of defense, only if you really need it for now. If your future opponents see this, they will be able to come up with a strategy to stop you."

  "They can’t stop what they know nothing about." Jarris added.

  "Team Arcane, you have 2 minutes until your next match." the referee interrupted.

  "Hey, we really need to go over strategy, we only have a minute!"

  "We will get back to our seats, we’re rooting for you." Kalazan said with a warm smile as he and Jarris exited.

  "Ok guys, sit down and buckle up. I’m giving you the ultra-fast version."

  Jax quickly skimmed through the material he had prepared on their next opponent, Team ShellShock. The team had a combination of abilities that allowed them to hunker down very effectively, like a shield wall formation, and attack from behind it. It was similar to Lindy and Dee’s combo but unfortunately much better.

  Team Arcane rushed to the virtual connection room and hooked into the system for their fight. A few seconds later, they were in the arena where the crowd had grown larger than the first fight, but it still wasn’t packed. The countdown had started, giving the team little time to focus before the starting horn blew.

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  Nate watched intently to see how Team ShellShock would open the fight. True to what he thought might happen, they took shelter behind two barriers they set in front of and behind their position creating a circular bunker. The barriers looked like a retention wall built into a hill but made out of a combination of many sizes of stone.

  Nate must have missed it in the briefing, but all of Team ShellShock were Racoonan. Their barriers were of similar height to Lindy’s, but because they were a small species, they were able to hide behind theirs better than Lindy and Dee could behind theirs.

  "Guys, I think we need to move the barrier closer. Dee, you’ll have to lob rocks on top of them, like shooting threes in basketball."

  "Like what?"

  "Never mind, just lob your rocks up and over totry to land them on top of them! I’ll cover you as you move up, go!"

  Lindy and Dee got on their feet and started running directly behind Nate before hunkering back down to the ground behind a new barrier Lindy produced. Nate could now see small stone arrows leaning on the inside of the barrier as two of the Racoonans picked them up and started hurling them at the team. They moved fast, but not as fast as Dee throwing a fist-sized rock with her equipment.

  Nate and Dee had practiced this very scenario where Dee would throw stone balls as fast as she could and Nate would either have to dodge or deflect incoming projectiles. Nate deflected the arrows with ease, swatting them away with his spear one by one, not even using his shield to give him some extra juice.

  "Dee, you ready?" Nate called back.

  Without a word, basketball sized rocks started flying over Nate in slow repetition. The team watched to see where the first few landed before she picked up another boulder and launched it as well. Dee slowly but surely dialed in the right angle, speed, and stance before she started hitting their rock wall every time.

  What else are they hiding? Nate thought to himself. They each have one ability left they haven’t shown, it could be a heal or some other kind of attack. Nate decided to get closer and see if he could poke the proverbial bear to get them to use their abilities so he could come up with a strategy to win without using his new oppressive powers.

  Nate walked to the left, out of Dee’s line of fire, and then toward the hunkered-down Team ShellShock. As Nate got closer, one of the combatants poked their head up over the barrier and then ducked back down just as quickly.

  "Activate!" A small voice came from inside the barricaded opponents.

  A wide mouthed tube came up over the barrier wall that started pouring a substantial amount of water, enough to begin flooding the arena floor. The flow was enough that it reached Nate fairly quickly when he was about 10 feet away.

  Nate got into a stance, ready to warp at a second’s notice, when he saw a very thin and limp wire, like a metallic thread, start inching over the top of the rock wall and close to the water.

  Nate warped back by his team’s barrier just before the wire hit the wet arena floor, causing violent sparks to erupt from the wet surface.

  A Racoonan head poked up over the top of their barrier looking to survey the field and see if they had taken Nate out. When they realized they hadn’t, the head shot back down, and the water hose shifted toward Team Arcane.

  Nate dropped back behind their barrier before the water washed against and around Lindy’s entangled wall of wood and stone.

  “Dee, where are you at with dropping bombs right on top of them?” Nate asked.

  “I’m trying. I think I’m just out of range for these big ones, and I’m starting to get tired.”

  “Try smaller.” Lindy said to Dee.

  “Let me try something. I wonder if…” Lindy rested her goo cannon on top of her barrier before shooting the electrocuted water where Nate was standing earlier. The goo hit the water and reacted like water hitting hot oil, causing a violent crackling sound and splattering everywhere before disintegrating.

  “Worth a shot.” Nate said to Lindy.

  “Well, guys, what do we do now?” Dee asked.

  “Honestly, we don’t want to reveal my new abilities. Otherwise, I would just warp over there and smash them right now.” Nate replied.

  “Dee, can you shape your rocks?” Lindy asked.

  “Kind of, but not really. Why?”

  “Make me one as flat as you can.”

  Dee formed a rock with her hands, but it was still pretty round.

  “Nate, could you use your shield to make this flatter?” Lindy asked.

  “Maybe, but I might just break it though.” Nate put the stone on the ground and tried knocking off the sides to no effect.

  “Damn. Okay, Nate, you’re going to cause a distraction while Dee and I run up there and take them out.”

  “You got it.” Nate said, nodding to Lindy. While Nate typically called the shots in the heat of battle, they each made sure to yield to each other if they had an idea to get them the win. Such was the case here as Lindy had a strategy to get them to the semi finals.

  Nate warped away to a spot in the arena that wasn’t wet yet from the hose continuously trying to flood everything. Nate then did his signature serpentine warp move, popping up in various places before reaching the bunker position of the Racoonans. He started beating on their wall with his spear empowered by his shield before warping away whenever they tried to electrocute him with the water and wire combo. They missed every time, but now the ground was getting wet, leaving fewer places for Nate to land.

  Luckily for him though, his team had quietly reached Team ShellShock and started wailing on them from behind. Dee first bashed in the skull of the Raccoonan with the wire in his hands, he being the biggest threat to their survival. They were caught completely off guard and were only able to scream before falling dead to the ground; their body disappeared shortly thereafter.

  The other opponents reacted quickly, one sprayed Lindy and Dee with water in the face, stalling them long enough for the final missing ability the team hadn’t accounted for. The Racoonan that had been producing the stone arrows touched the ground and caused one to spring up through Dee’s leg.

  Dee howled in pain, toppling over with her leg hanging on by a thread where the stone rod had burst up through the ground and displaced the bones in her lower leg. Seconds later, another one pierced her head, killing her virtual body instantly and causing her to disappear.

  Nate sprang into action after watching Dee fade away, making several warp jumps before arriving at the entrenched Team ShellShock. Nate leaned over the rock wall and stabbed the Racoonan with the hose pinning them to the ground. They were screaming as Nate repeatedly stabbed them until they fell silent and faded away.

  Lindy and the other Racoonan were sword fighting with the stone arrows when Nate grabbed the Racoonan by the neck, yanked them out of their bunker, and threw them to the ground.

  Nate looked down with fury in his eyes, but the Racoonan smirked before slapping his hand on the ground.

  Nate warped behind him just as a small stone pillar shot up from the ground. He put all of his strength and the power of his shield into the butt of his spear striking downwards on his opponent’s head. Brains and skull fragments splintered and splattered everywhere as spear and face connected. The body disappeared quickly and the fight was over, Team Arcane was advancing to the semi-finals.