The Stray and The Radio Demon

Ch 34: A Home of Their Own

"Faster, Olivia!" Vaggie exclaimed as Olivia just barley dodged another shadow spear.

Vaggie and Alastor stood beside each other, watching Olivia dive and twist as she worked on her evasion. She had always been quick, but it didn't hurt to continue to improve. It was a week until Vox's Arena and Olivia had been practicing almost every day. Gaining her strength and speed with Vaggie, enhancing her magic ability with Alastor and learning the layout of the map with Charlie. Angel helped her with a new outfit as well. He would be damned, again, if she didn't look fantastic killing demons on live TV. He took her out shopping for hours, finding the perfect outfit. Angel and her had chosen a dark grey tang top with a cropped dark red leather jacket with a hood. Her pants were black leggings with a dark red wrap around her waist and knee high black wedge boots. They topped it off with red fingerless gloves. Olivia never dressed like that, feeling more comfortable in her normals dresses, but she couldn't help thinking she looked hot as hell. Charlie had given her a gift by enchanting her jacket. It would be extremely durable and would repair itself after any damage it had taken within a few minutes, looking brand new.

"Gah!" Olivia grunted as tentacle wrapped around her ankle and slammed her into the ground. "Oh come on!" She yelled in frustration as she quickly shot up and took off again.

"Do you think she will be ready?" Vaggie mumbled as Olivia continued to jump away from the oncoming spears.

"She has to be." Alastor spoke quietly, his eyes never leaving Olivia. "She will be."

Olivia grunted again as she jumped behind a pillar, pressing her back against it but gasped when multiple tentacles zoomed past on either side of her, turning in to wrap around her. Her eyes widened before they closed, awaiting the feeling of the tentacles crushing her. A cold feeling burst through her chest, travelling down her body quickly  and she heard Alastor and Vaggie gasp. When Olivia opened her eyes, she was a few steps ahead of the pillar instead of against it. When she turned, she saw a clone of herself made of black ice, wrapped in the tentacles and pressed against the pillar. The same pillar she had just been standing at. Alastor and Vaggie ran up to her and stared at the clone. The clone lifted its head before shattering into ice particles. Silence rang between them before Olivia exclaimed.

"What was that!?" Olivia's eyes remained wide as she glanced at Alastor.

Alastor placed a hand on his chin and chuckled. "The best way to explain is that it is a form of shadow cloning, except yours is made of ice." His voice held much admiration as he looked at her. "That is an incredibly powerful feat, darling!"

"It must be a quick escape, to get you out of trouble in tight situations." Vaggie mused.

"Wow." Olivia looked at her hands. "I need to learn to control that. It sounds very handy." Olivia huffed a small laugh, before sighing. "Though it seems to use a lot of energy."

"You should leave it as a last resort them." Vaggie placed a hand on Olivia's arm. "Ready to keep going?"

Olivia nodded. "Let's do it." Olivia summoned an ice spear and Vaggie summoned her own weapon.

They spared for what seemed like hours, honing Olivia's combat skills, then they moved onto target practice. Olivia was already a master at this with her needles, but it didn't hurt to keep practicing. She was even able to make them more powerful by coating them in ice. As she swung her hand over and over, she hit each target dead centre. What she had learned to do with this attack was when each needle hit, she could take the ice on each needle and cause it to spread from the point of penetration, freezing the surrounding area. As she hit the last target, Olivia pumped her fists in celebration, feeling great about her skills.