Some Light Sparring

[Amber Veritz]

The miko dress fit the faunus rather awkwardly, slightly large in the chest and the hips, but still well enough to wear. She could probably make the proper adjustments herself with a little time. Right now, it was her duty to see her new ally off. Amber led the group to the gates of Atlas and watched them float off a pair of clouds. It was easily said that she had never seen anything more ridiculous than that, but a way, that made it pretty cool. It suited Amaterasu’s style.


Once they were out of view, Amber heaved a sigh and walked back into the city. There was still quite a bit of work to be done before this city could truly thrive. It was her mission as a Prime to see it through to the end - to watch this humble, frozen town become a beacon of hope in a cold, unforgiving land. Her thoughts came back to the giant, red crystal she found in the mine. A power source. After all, Dust is raw energy harnessed into a physical form. It was just as much extractable Omnilium was here in the Omniverse.


Amber walked back to the underground base, into the lower levels where her vault was. Though still unfortified, it housed the familiar crystal she had obtained in the desert land. Still a withering experience for her, even if did open her eyes to bigger concepts. She fooled with the communicator on her wrist, offering access to Atlas’s communication network. Her voice echoed through the walls off the city.


”Attention all residents and visitors to Atlas: We are updating or power grid. The electricity will be out for a few minutes. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you.” She announced, and seconds later, after turning a flashlight on, she yanked the Chaos Emerald from the console. It took a few minutes to re-summon the giant crystal of Dust, but it eventually found it’s new home in the power console. The lights flickered momentarily before running as normal functioned.


”Our update is complete, thank you for you patience and have a nice day.” She announced again to confirm her success. Once she was sure everything was functioning the way it should, she left the vault room and locked it.


The faunus glanced down at the magical artifact in her hand, wondering what kind of powers it actually held. It looked like a well-cut dust crystal, but didn’t have that kind of power. It resonated some kind of aura in strength, yet not like that of anything she’s ever seen before. It was otherworldly, like much of the things people could find in the Omniverse.


A voice drew her back into reality, the deep, yet soft, voice of Murasaki.


“Hey, Amber. Good job today- What are you wearing?” He asked with a cocked eyebrow, but a hint of interest.


“Amaterasu made this for me! Isn’t it cool?” She asked him, spinning around to show off the outfit.


“Y-Yeah, pretty cool.” He replied with a redface. “So, listen. I was wondering if you wanted to train.”


“Uh, yeah sure. Let’s do it.” The faunus replied enthusiastically replied. “Hey, you should teach me to use one of those thin swords like yours!”


“You mean a katana? You told me you hate these swords.” He said pulling out his blade from the sheath. He held it so she could see it better.


“Perhaps with a few adjustments of my own, it could become useable. I’ve been thinking I need not only mature my mind, but my body as well. I understand my fighting style has weaknesses that are easily exploited and if I cannot prevent them, I would like to have an alternate means of combat to level the playing field.”


“Smart, and admirable. I think the Omniverse might be changing you for the better Amber. Then,” He spoke, throwing his blade at her. “Let’s fight.”

[Amber Veritz]

Murasaki and Amber rose from the heat of the underground trenches that sheltered most of Atlas’s current population. It was an amazing idea Amber had, considering digging through frozen soil would likely be impossible for most normal means. A prime of her level could likely do it, but with the camera surveillance they ran 24/7, it was nigh without going unnoticed.

The two teenagers conformed in the training yard. The militia-guards who were training together moved off the field.

“Don’t let us stop you.” Amber stopped them.

“Oh no worries, we’ve been going at it for almost an hour now.” The man with a maul replied, putting it back in its spot on his hip. “Besides, she’s much better than me, I wouldn’t be any help with her training.”

“I think you did well.” The girl with him replied, replacing her wooden sword in its sheath. “You won’t always be fighting someone at your level on the field, so it’s good to experience an unfair fight.”

“I agree.” Murasaki’s voice rose over the icy winds, just barely. “Our enemies out here include not only rogue trolls and dwarves, but large dragons and other malicious primes not as nice as Amber. You should be ready to handle any situation.”

“You’re right. Thanks for the advice.” He said, clearing the field for the two.

Amber took Razorback in her hand and looked at Murasaki. His eyebrow furrowed.

“I thought you wanted to learn a Katana?” He asked pulling out one of his two blades.

“Give me a few minutes. She said, wrapping Razorback in a golden-blue coalescence of prismatic light. The blade slowly thinned into a much smaller sword that seem to have been poorly taken care of on the blade where it became unevenly serrated. That wasn’t what Murasaki was most taken-aback by.

Amber felt odd for a moment, she could swear everything around her just got much quieter and her head felt heavier than normal.

“A-Amber, your ears… are gone.” Murasaki said in a surprised tone. “You look so weird like that.”

“What?” She said feeling the top of her head - nothing but hair, a lot of hair. “My ears are gone?! What the hell?!?” She screamed. “This world continues to baffle me. Maybe when I go back to the original Razorback, I’ll get them back though...Anyways, let’s fight.”

Murasaki wasn’t sure how she could just move on from losing her own ears, but he wasn’t about to question how Omnilium works. That would be like trying to explain why space exists.

The two trained for the rest of the day, Amber was much more talented with a blade that size, but she felt herself being much more vulnerable like this as well. Murasaki broke her out of her train of thought.

“Uh. Hey, Amber?” Murasaki said.

“What is it?” His hand pointed to a person passing through the crowd of salesmen converged in the square. His voice could be made out from where she was, even without her glorious ears.

“Come everyone of-” He started, before looking at a piece of paper, presumably to remember Atlas’s name. “Atlas to watch the famed, annual event run by Karl Jak himself!”

Amber’s hairs stood up on ends. That was a name she hadn’t heard in a long time.

“Yes, Dante’s Abyss is live once again, and will be viewable in a special, Syntech location! Any primes wanting to earn fame, glory and even prizes should find their way to the Abyss. Sign-ups are near the Nexus gate.” He said before going on to repeat himself again a few seconds later.

“I’m leaving.” Amber said before taking off almost instantly.

“Amber, wait!” Murasaki called out, but she didn’t stop.

The faunus-not-faunus summoned her snowboard and rode towards the Nexus gate, which was visible from the front doors of Atlas. It only took her a few minutes to get there.

“Hello ma’am, are you here to-” The Syntech employee started before the girl cut her off.

“Just give me the papers to fill out.” The woman behind the desk, who was visibly freezing in the cold winds of the Frozen Fields was surprised at her, but nevertheless slide the sign-up paper across the table and offered a pen. When she was done filling out the information, she stepped through the mobile portal to the Syntech station where Dante’s Abyss would be hosted. The first thought that came through her mind was to find Karl Jak.