Opera in Underland

17. Insert Mandatory Training Montage Here

This was much more difficult than Ophelia had anticipated. She'd never been much of a fighting spirit, and considering her rather scrawny frame - which she was still inclined to blame on Nergal - she was definitely not going to beat anyone by brute force alone. They were being forced to explore other options.

She hadn't been able to summon any lightning since the trial. Even when she tried to draw on her anger or whatever Dark Side emotion drove it, she was staying determinedly static free.

Nergal had his own theory as to why that was. "We all have to practice controlling our abilities, my dear. Even Junior had a learning curve. It's very likely that for the time being, your shocks only come through exceptionally stressful circumstances."

Ophelia gave a huff at that, frustrated and tired from being up most of the night and looking for solutions to her fighting problem. "Well that doesn't help us. There's got to be something we can use. We have, what, less than twelve hours to go now. Mandy and Grim may not have their freedom riding on this, but I do."

"Yes, yes, but you have to stay calm," Nergal told her again, even as he looked very tired and annoyed himself. "If they take advantage of your lack of composure and control in a combat situation, whatever that may be, it could cause you to make a fatal mistake. The last thing we need is to lose the best chance we have because of a simple slip of our focus."

He was right, of course. But they were both tired, and this was an unstoppable force against an immovable object if there ever was such a thing. They really were mirrors of one another, stubbornness and all.

Ophelia actually managed to growl a bit under her breath, gritting her teeth and marching away. In all their head-butting, she was starting to understand why her sister had given the former god a punch in the jaw. Instead of giving her trainer bruises, she turned to the punching bag Junior had brought up from the Core, and started practicing her technique.

Even though she was not the strongest that ever lived, her agility and superior balance meant that she had gotten the hang of martial arts fairly quickly. On the surface she had even taken a few lessons when she had the chance. She had never learned in depth; her situation, both social and financial, had prevented that from happening. But at least it was all coming in handy now, when Nergal was attempting to teach her some basic self-defense.

He seemed to be taking a break as well. In the glass of the window on the wall, Ophelia could just see his figure reflected, tense and trying to breathe. They both had to constantly remind themselves of who the enemy was when they were under so much stress.

After a few moments, he turned to study her punches and kicks, nodding in approval. "Good... bit higher. Wide stance, remember to keep yourself rooted... yes, good force, but not tiring yourself too much..."

They went on like this for some time, until Rosalind and Junior returned with news. The pair had been sent out to see if they couldn't gather a bit of information on the type of combat anticipated.

While both Junior and Opera sat listening, eating some breakfast while they did, Rosalind went over the plans with Nergal.

"Since it's just Mandy and Grim we're fighting later, I don't think they're doing an all-out brawl. Which actually would be good for us. Can you think of anything that might be more suited to their strengths that they'd want to pick? If so we should probably try to study for that."

Nergal seemed to consider his options for a bit, stroking his chin thoughtfully. He looked back up at Rosalind, talking out the solution as he went. "Well, Grim was never exactly one to use brute force, you're right about that. He rather likes games. If I can remember, it was a botched limbo game that caused him to be enslaved to Billy and Mandy to begin with."