Chapter 28

"I am." Orchid stepped up.

Cherry appraised her from the top of her short, spiky hair to the top of her black combat boots. Orchid returned the favor.

"Go ahead."

"Fauna Fairy." She introduced.

Cherry perked up at this. "Who's your 'Helper'?" 

"A black widow spider, Mira." She continued coldly.

Cherry made a face. "I see."

"I can do basically anything she can, I can spin razor sharp, unbreakable webs and coat them in venom."

Eden flinched at this.

Cherry leveled her a dark look. "You feel like you do not need my help and there is nothing to improve on." 

Orchid shrugged, unmoved. "I just feel like I'm pretty damn good at what I do."

A deathly silence at Orchid's bold words, then Cherry burst out laughing. "Very well then, privileged Hero, how about a duel?"

Gasps rang out.

"Orchid?" Poppy called in warning but she ignored her, stepping forward.

"Challenge accepted."

Eden stifled a groan at the proud Fairy, in her opinion, Orchid needed to get her head out of the clouds.

Cherry got up from her perch and brushed off her impeccable clothes, a habit she fell into whenever she tried to collect herself.

Cherry smiled inwardly at the turn of events, she had thought that the twins were being annoying when they kept fawning over the Heroes but now she could see why.

They moved to the center of the clearing, the rest of the Heroes still waiting patiently in line, the sun had started to set and the lights came on, illuminating the training space.

Cherry stretched a bit then settled down, widening her legs into a fighting stance.

Orchid did the same and soon they faced off like it was a very serious affair, Orchid drew out her steel like webs and stretched them tight between her nimble fingers.

Cherry tapped the ground lightly and an armor of stone coated her arms and legs, Orchid blinked at this but didn't back down.

"The first to give up loses." Cherry detailed out and Orchid agreed, Eden had a feeling that she would have agreed to just about anything.

They circled each other slowly, each waiting for who would be the first to strike, Cherry did, sending a sharp edged rock ricocheting right at Orchid.

With quick movements of her hand, she had the incoming rock in pieces in front of her, it was her turn to attack.

It came so fast that the Heroes standing and spectating could barely track it, a line of web shot at Cherry, sharp enough to divide the Fairy in two.

Cherry wasn't distracted, raising a stone covered arm to deflect the incoming web, it chipped at the makeshift armor but the Trainer wasn't running out of materials to renew it.

This went on for a while, rocks and boulders shot at Orchid who sliced and crumbled them to pieces and Cherry who kept on evading Orchid's now poisonous webs.

Cherry was starting to get bored of the cat and mouse game, unimpressed she raised up the earth around Orchid's feet to trap her.

Orchid wasn't expecting this so she fell right into it, she cursed as she lost her balance from the firm grip of stone that had no give, her wings flapping helplessly.

"Giving up yet?" Cherry mocked.

Orchid scoffed, the sound full of disgust and shot more rapid fire webs at Cherry again.

"Tch, this is getting monotonous."  She muttered, raising up a slender block of stone to trap both her arms at the same time. The hard substance flowing over the palms of her hand like liquid.

"You're done." Cherry pronounced, turning her back on Orchid. "All bark and no bite." She shook her head. "As expected." She hummed at Orchid and made a show of trying to get out of her stone restraints, a livid expression in her face.

"I think I'll leave you there a while as a warning to anyone else who's growing too big for their breeches." She added for the benefit of the remaining Trainers who stood gaping at the outcome of the battle, it had been quick.

Cherry started for her makeshift chair but didn't get far.

"You keep looking down on Heroes and making us come off snobbish." Orchid finally spoke, a creaking sound coming from one of her hands trapped by the firm looking rock.

Cherry halted at this.

"Don't forget that we never asked to be born the way we are." The creaking sound grew louder. "It must be fun not to be supposed to exist, no one expects anything from you then!" She ended on a yell, breaking free of one restraint to reveal a clawed hand, the claws resting atop a furry paw.

Cherry whipped around in astonishment, staring with a morbid interest as the Hero broke free of the other restraint, another clawed paw revealing itself.

It wasn't just her hands that were going through the transformation even her face got slightly furrier, her red eyes slanted.

Orchid's two paws hit the ground in front of her and with a little movement, she also broke free of the rocks holding her feet down to reveal more clawed paws.

Even her wings were not left out, they grew thinner and more streamlined, staying close to her back like a tail of sorts.

Cherry took one look at Orchid's eyes and fell into a fighting stance, contrary to what she had thought, the duel was far from over.

She threw more sharp edged rocks at her but the Hero had gotten even faster, evading them or smashing them to bits with her powerful claws.

Cherry found herself backing up often and her eyes hardened, she stopped running and faced the oncoming Fairy who was running at her on all fours, deadly determination in her eyes.

Cherry went still and started to go through a series of hand and body movements that did not look like good news.

Just as all hell was about to let loose, the Fairies were blown away.

"Alright! Time out!" Lotus exclaimed from where she stood, her powerful wings having dislodged the Fairies from their spar that was getting dangerous.

Cherry got up and dusted her impeccable clothes, while Orchid looked like she had been rolling in the dust, Eden was suspicious of them.

"So you can use the ability of any animal you chose?" She asked coolly like the past several minutes never happened.

Orchid replied in a pant. "Yes sir, as long as I've seen the animal and know what it can do." 

"Have you ever tried using the abilities of more than one at a time?" Cherry asked, looking thoughtful, she was back on her perch against and Orchid stood at attention in front of her, Lotus had returned when she was satisfied that they weren't going to continue.

Orchid's eyes widened subtly, it was obvious that she had never thought about that. "I don't think that's possible." She said bluntly.

"We'll never know till you try." Cherry shrugged. "I see that you're more comfortable with using your Helper's abilities so we'll begin with that, spin a web on your left hand and try to create a claw with the other." She ordered reasonably.

Orchid did as was told, as expected, spinning the web wasn't the issue. She concentrated harder till a finger morphed into a claw, from there she could actually call up a clawed paw but it kept on glitching between her hand and the clawed paw.

"That's a start soon you'll be able to use as many different abilities as you need at once." Cherry concluded. "You may return, next?"