The End of The Meteor

Her eyes were glowing green, but they were a deeper green than the arena's creations. While the arena made neon green creatures, her eyes were deep forest green.

Her eyes exuded a feeling of tranquility, yet they still gave off an aura of power.

I looked at the surroundings and saw that there were no living plants in the area.

'Just how powerful is she right now?'

{Enough to deal with the meteorites.}

'No shit.'

I refocused on where the meteorites were and noticed that they were speeding towards Celeste.

I was glad to see that they were eager to see their doom.

'Now, what will she do to deal with them?'

My mental question was answered immediately.

Celeste began moving towards the speeding rocks, quickly closing the small gap between them.

As soon as she reached the rocks, she reached out towards the closest stone to grab it, and it was soon within her grasp.

As soon as she touched the rock, a sprout appeared on it and it immediately grew into a handle. She grasped the handle of the meteor chunk and used it as a makeshift pickaxe.

'That's a... unique way to deal with them.'

{She's someone who understands the rules, and she knows the way to work around them.}

I watched as she wielded the makeshift pickaxe, swinging the flaming tool at the meteorites. I was only able to barely perceive the movements of the 'weapon', only seeing a blur before a piece of meteorite fell to the ground.

'That's really fast...'

I continued watching the battle, and she soon changed her tactics to deal with the rocks faster.

She grabbed another meteorite piece and made another pick, ending up with her dual-wielding pickaxes to deal with the meteorite swarm.

She began to deal with the meteorites at an even faster speed.

I watched as she dashed even deeper into the swarm of meteorite chunks, mowing through the rocks with an absurd accuracy.

It only took her a few seconds to be done with the mass of smaller pieces, each one lying on the ground lifeless. She took no time to move onto the medium-sized pieces.

As soon as she reached a medium-sized piece, she stomped on the ground.

I was confused for a moment before I saw what had happened with her stomp.

Vines had grown out of the ground and had grabbed onto some of the smaller pieces. The vines had bundled up the smaller pieces and seemed to rear back for a moment.

I watched in astonishment at the scene of a vine whipping around and launching a bundle of small meteorites at the dryad at a very high speed.

I was soon even more astonished when I saw the dryad weave through the medium pieces of meteorite, swinging their pickaxes at the smaller pieces.

Each piece hit was immediately attached to the pickaxe, slowly growing the tool larger and larger.

It only took the dryad a minute to catch all the smaller pieces, ending up with pickaxes as long as their arms.

'Holy shit.'

{A little showy, but it was cool to look at at least.}

'That was fucking awesome.'

Celeste had begun their attacks once more, using their newly enlarged pickaxes as double-sided scythes.

'It still counts as a pickaxe?'

{As long as it functions as one it is.}

'That can definitely be exploited.'

{Exhibit A.}

I watched as she swung her picks around with both grace and power.

It took several hits to take down a medium-sized chunk, but the dryad was moving fast enough to strike one down every second, each one fusing into the ever-growing flaming 'scythes'.

I watched as she mowed through the opposing forces like they were a field of grass, completely lost for words at the sheer power shown through the display.

She soon moved onto the larger pieces, quickly approaching the hulking chunks of ore.

She danced around the larger pieces like they were as slow as a snail, jumping off of them as if they were unmoving platforms, and attacking them like they were nothing more than rocks.

It only took moments for the larger pieces to be taken down because while they may have been able to take a few hits, they were extremely large targets.

As soon as every space rock had lost their life, her 'pickaxes' broke down, dissipating like ashes in the wind.

I watched as her eyes slowly lost their glow, dimming back to their normal tranquil verdant green.

I immediately ran up to her, still excited by what I had just seen.

"That. Was. Freaking. AWESOME! How the hell did you do that?"

Celeste seemed stunned by the enthusiasm in my voice but still answered anyway.

"I take my strength from all the plants around me, and much of that strength came from what used to be my home."

I quickly calmed down after hearing their explanation and remembered a question I had from before the fight.

"By the way, why did you do this for me? The use of that ability must be traumatizing to use, even after all this time."

She seemed to realize why I was asking and spent a moment contemplating her answer. A minute later and she answered me with a serious tone.

"While I indeed hate using that ability, if I can save someone using it, I would gladly use it even if it reminds me of the things I lost while using it."

I was stunned by her words and noted her resolution in making that choice.

"That takes some real strength to do."

As soon as I said that though, the dryad collapsed onto their knees.

I rushed to catch them before they fell to the ground completely.

I looked at the dryad and noticed that there was a slight problem: They were completely unconscious.

And it was at this point that the voice of a person I had forgotten about popped up.

"Um... Can we go to your home now? I think that I need some rest after all of this."

I looked at Tinker, noting that they seemed mentally fatigued by everything that had happened.

"Yeah... I think we all need some time to rest our minds right now."

And that was how my first challenge ended. Chaotic and confusing as always.