A few days went by of Cast giving Rhea all sorts of orders, from simple to complex, to condition her body to respond to him instantaneously. By this point, she had been through all sorts of scenarios and had even won a few fights with the help of Cast's direction.
In a short period of time, her body had undergone significant changes. Cast explained to her that by putting her muscles through intense exercises that tore them, they would grow. Her regeneration would then activate and repair them better and faster than it would for others. With time and effort during exercise, this would make her stronger.
She had to admit that she was growing due to his guidance, but there were still a few moments when he would ask her to do something, and she'd fight the order. However, the duration of time she was able to resist was considerably shorter than before. One such instance that she would fight is when Cast asks her to kill a Pal for one of their meals.
"I won't do it. You can't make me."
"I think we both know that I can, but for the sake of time, I've simply prioritized your training over ensuring you can do this type of thing, but my patience is running thin. How do you expect to become an Alpha if you can't kill a living thing?"
"I wasn't expecting to become an Alpha, remember? That's something you want for me."
"And when are you going to want something for yourself?"
I don't want to admit it, but he's kind of right. All I keep thinking about is that I want freedom...and to get off this stupid island.
Rhea didn't want to keep exchanging words with him. If this continued for long enough, he'd increase her training regiment and put her through a quick hell. She was proud of her progress but didn't welcome the pain it took to make it happen.
"If I do everything you want me to do, and I mean everything, would you help me with what I want?"
"I can't say I've always been the type to negotiate, but I'm listening. What is it that you want?"
"I want to stop being pushed around and leave this island for good."
"Becoming an Alpha will make sure you're never pushed around again, ya know?"
"Of course you'd say that."
Cast paused for a moment, taking a longer sip than usual from his coffee mug. He looked down at the contents of the mug as steam rose from the dark brew. When he looked back up, Rhea had her eyes trained on him, her arms folded.
"Leaving this island is nearly impossible. You know that, right?"
"You said nearly impossible. That must mean there's a way."
Plus, how does he expect to exile all humans from the islands if nobody can leave? That doesn't make much sense...
"You know something, don't you? What is it?" Rhea had a gut feeling that Cast knew more about being able to leave the island and inquired more on the subject.
"I'm not sure you've earned that sort of information, but you're right, I do know something about leaving the island."
I knew it! Someone with his amount of power is bound to have more knowledge than the average person here.
"Okay, I'll make a deal with you!"
"I'm listening."
"I'll put more effort into doing what you want in exchange for the information you have about leaving the island."
"I'm tempted, but I'm curious; how would you determine the moment in which you've done enough to earn said information?"
"Wouldn't that be up to you? I mean, you could tell me now...or when I become an Alpha..."
"I like that..."
"What? Telling me when I become an Alpha?"
"No, the fact that you said when you become an Alpha. Shows that you've already begun to focus on what needs to be done and it's an actual goal of yours."
I didn't realize I had said that myself.
"Well, I'm pretty serious about leaving the island..."
"And I'm inclined to believe you, but I have one more question; are you sure you want to leave the island? You're still reeling from the fog and barely know anything about yourself. How do you know there's anything out there for you? What if you came here for a reason and you just can't remember it?"
Rhea was at a loss for words. She hasn't had the time to think about all the different possibilities of how she had found herself on the island in the first place or what her life was like before. Cast really had a point, but what else could she do?
"I'm as sure as I can be with the knowledge I have of myself in this moment. I don't like it here, and maybe that changes over time, but...right now, I'm sure I want to leave."
"That's good enough for me".
"So, you'll help me then?!"
"...I'll accept your deal, but only if you can prove you're serious about your training."
"And how will I do that?
"With the first mission, of course."
——-Later that day...
He can't be serious...
Rhea stood behind a large tree atop a hill overlooking a familiar shoreline. Cast had sent her on a mission to retrieve some goods from the shipwreck she came in on. At first, she thought it would be as easy as picking up seashells while taking a stroll on the beach, but it wouldn't be that easy.
The condition Cast gave her was that she'd have to retrieve the supplies on her own, which would've been easy enough, except she wasn't alone. From where she was hiding, she could see a large pal rummaging through the goods. And so, what stood between her and the information she wanted from her captor was whatever this creature was.
To find out what the species was and possibly learn something about it that would help her complete her task, she quickly pulled out her Paldeck and aimed it at the creature.
*** #33 Mossanda ***
A Pal so powerful it's hard to believe. In one experiment, this Pal tore through 3,000 sheets of paper at once! It's only by some miracle that this Pal isn't a meat-eater.
Pal Type: Grass
Heath Points 100
Base Attack 90
Defense 90
I'm not even sure what to do with this information. On the one hand, I'm happy it's not a carnivore. I might be immortal, but I'm in no rush to experience being eaten by a monstrous pal. On the other hand, it's insanely powerful, so I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to make this happen.
Rhea looked a bit closer and studied the Mossanda for a while trying to learn what it was doing, but she couldn't figure anything out.
What is he doing here, anyway?! He looks almost bored. He looks as if he's just curious about all the stuff from the shipwreck.
She wondered, for a moment, if she should just wait the pal out and try to get the supplies afterwards, but quickly dismissed the idea because the pal could very well take whatever Cast was looking for.
He had told her that bringing back all the supplies would be an amazing feat, but if she could at least get her hands on the barrels that looked to still be intact, that would suffice.
Are those the gunpowder barrels I saw when I first got here? No doubt he just wants it for ammo or something.
She was doing everything she could to distract herself from doing the one thing she had to do. She knew she just had to jump in and learn how to fight this thing from hands on experience. Since her training with Cast had begun, it was the quickest way to learn anything about Pals because they were all so unique. Even pals of the same species could be inherently different depending on what traits they were born with.
Rhea took a seat to prepare for the inevitable. She had been practicing a new technique of her own that helped her focus during high intensity training sessions. Sitting Indian style on the ground, she began inhaling and exhaling at a steady pace. She took deep breaths as she focused on nothing but breathing. This was meditation.
She'd gotten the idea from the conversation with her heart. During some downtime from training, she'd recalled that she could hear her heart beat when in the Palsphere because it naturally blocked out all the noise, so she had been working on learning to do this without its help.
It took her a while, but eventually she could spark conversations with her heart once again. Recently, her heart had discussed a state of mind she could induce that would allow her to move more efficiently with her body called Flesh Sync. As long as she was acting in line with her ambitions, her body would yield to her mind and move as efficiently as possible for a set period of time.
This state of mind is what she was calling upon in this moment, and had succeeded.
I'm getting pretty good at this, but I'll get even better eventually.
When she opened her eyes, they gleamed a brilliant azure color as she stood up and revealed herself to the Mossanda. It was startled at her presence, but quickly got into a defensive position as she walked towards it, calmly.
She was confident in what she had learned, but still harbored fear and nervousness. So far, she had only fought with low level pals found in the less harmful regions of the island. Even this shoreline was supposed to be a place where stronger pals like Mossanda didn't appear, which made it even more odd that it was here, but she had to do what she had to do.
When she felt comfortable about the distance between the two, she stopped and waited for the pal to make the first move. She didn't want to get too close to him because of how top heavy he was. Getting within striking distance would spell trouble for her, quickly.
Her goal, until she could find some sort of weakness, was to keep her distance and dodge his attacks at the apex of their range. Ideally, she'd download his attack patterns and come up with a counter strategy. At the very least, she was hoping she could simply outrun him if need be.
As if to stop her thoughts in their tracks, the Mossanda started things off by quickly punching the ground. When its fists connected with the earth, vines riddled with thorns materialized out of thin air and tunneled through the ground towards her.
What in the world?! A ranged attack?
Rhea was expecting the pal to try closing the distance before throwing out an attack, but her quick thinking allowed her to smoothly dodge the vines sent her way. Although, she wasn't out of the woods just yet as the vines kept barreling towards her. At this point, she was just running from the attack. Even with her movements being slowed down by her feet in the sand, she still had plenty of speed to outrun the vines.
She was faster than she remembered herself with the Flesh Sync, but knew she was going to have to do more to complete the mission. When she looked back at the pal, she noticed he was punching the ground with his other fist, which sent another string of vines towards her from another direction. This was a minor inconvenience as she needed to adjust her running angle to stay ahead of both.
She was managing this quite easily until she saw the pal begin pummeling the ground with ferocity. The waves of vines that began coming her way at this point had her maxing out her agility skills trying to avoid being cut by their thorns. She ran, jumped, and even found herself vaulting on her hands just to stay out of reach of them.
Suddenly, and without warning, the vines stopped as she caught her breath. Her regeneration allowed her to maintain high levels of stamina consumption with more ease than others, but she could still reach levels of exhaustion if pushed to her limits.
I did it. I outlasted his ranged assault. He must've gotten tired as well though.
When she turned around to check on her opponent, she began noticing the layout of vines spread across the beach. They were sprawled all over the place, but were tightly packed into a neat circle that surrounded the shipwreck and the two of them.
Oh shit...
Rhea realized the reason the Mossanda sent out the vines in the first place. The goal was never to actually hit her, but to ensure she had no way of avoiding a close combat style fight. It was just them two within the confines of its vine made arena. Of course, she could escape by enduring the pain and healing up later, but she'd have to cross the thorny moat later to complete the mission anyway. The best option was to stand and fight the large pal and learn what she could from it.
When she went to square up with it, the pal simply cocked back its right arm as if to wind up a powerful blow, but Rhea thought it looked quite goofy doing so.
What sort of wind up is that?!
Shortly after, the prepared fist began to glow as little balls of green light flickered and moved closer to it. Eventually, a solid ball of green light could be seen glowing around its fist, and when it lunged forward, its entire body blinked moving faster than Rhea's eyes could follow.
Suddenly, Rhea felt something crushing against her entire frame as her body began lifting off the ground. Mossanda's fist was slamming into her, exploding with green light in all directions. The light seemed to pull her in until her body absorbed the full brunt of the blow, and then it sent her into the air at a blinding speed.
She wasn't sure how hard she had been hit, but she was flying through the sky at an astonishing speed and felt her body slam onto the side of a ridge elevated much higher and further away than where the shoreline was.
When she hit the ground, everything ached and she couldn't move her head an inch to assess the damage. Her labored breathing was all she could understand, but even that added to how painful everything was. She felt pain she had never felt and in places she couldn't fathom. Judging from the outcome of the fight, she knew she would need to take some time to rest and heal before making her way back to the shoreline.
She hadn't learned much from the short fight, and knew that this wasn't going to be the last time she lost against that insanely strong pal, but she had no other choice but to jump back in the ring with it. She didn't like having to expose herself to such dangers, but trusted her ability to regenerate, even if it was beyond painful.
She closed her eyes and focused on the taste of her blood while she waited for the healing to bring her back to her feet. The only silver lining of it all was that no one was around to see how embarrassing her first attempt was.
This is the definition of hell, but I'm determined to see it all through if it means becoming stronger. I'm going to find a way to beat that Mossanda!
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