Worked Up While Working Out (Beyril and Aesop)

Rosa stepped back and admired her handy work. A crude cutout monster was taped to a tree with yellow glow tape. It had been colored with bright markers in order to contrast against the dark night. It's fangs and claws were zigzags of silver marker. Large, angry, orange eyes glared down at her. It looked like a five year old's rendition of what was hiding under their bed. But it would suffice for now.

With a few minutes to spare she ran to hide behind another tree, out of the "monster's" sight and patiently waited for her partner to show up.

Addy arrived at precisely midnight at the large training ground, tilting her head as she looked at the strange monster taped to a tree, "Hmm... Interesting..."

"Psst! Hey, what the hell are you doing?" Rosa hissed from her hiding spot, "Get over here! Do you want that thing to kill you?" She did her best to sound frantic, for authenticity's sake. She had remembered Addy's remark about how her emotional state controlled what came out of the staff. As someone with siblings, Rosa knew how intense and emotional merely playing pretend could get.

Addy nodded, ducking down and hiding behind a tree as well to play along, "How should we approach it?" she whispered to her partner.

"From the information we have, it's got above average defense and strength but below average speed," Rosa whispered, "We need to keep our attacks long distance. We can outrun it easily. But it will take a while to wear it down, giving it a chance to get with attacking range. We need to be able to attack it without it attacking us." Rosa paused in thought, weighing her options. She looked up at the tree she was leaning on. That could work.

"Transform," She told Addy, "We'll attack from higher ground." She pointed up at the tree branches.

Addy nodded, shifted into the long gnarled quarterstaff. As Rosa held fast to the staff, it twisted around in her hands, taking on a shape more unique to her as she held it, the caged end opening up to a tree.

Rosa took a quick glance at the quarterstaff she was holding. It looked... Different than before. But she didn't have time to ponder that now, they had a kishin egg to kill. With one free hand she bound up the trunk and used her free arm to swing herself onto one of the thicker branches. With her heel pressed against the trunk and her other leg bent, Rosa leaned forward and aimed at the 'kishin egg' before them.

The high of the darkness and imagination was beginning to get to her. She could feel her heart race as she stared down the paper monster. As she steadied her weapon she wondered, What does fear do?

The green glow shifted to black at the end of the staff. A sort of swirling black hole opened up and shadows lept from the staff and raced across the ground and surrounded the cardboard nemesis. The circle stopped around it like shadows extended from a campfire, then stood straight up like tombstones. One by one, the shadows opened to give way to monsters of all sorts. Skeletons, zombies, ghouls, and spirits tore the cardboard to shreds ravenously.

"Oh, damn..." Rosa watched in awe as the real monsters tore her cardboard creation apart. They were really going at it to, as if it were an actual threat. She wasn't sure if it was really cool or really terrifying. Probably both. She could imagine an actual kishin egg in it's place, thrashing it's claws and fangs in order to get away. She almost felt bad. Almost.

After the target had been destroyed, graves opened up in the ground beneath them, and buried them back below. Addy shifted back and smiled, "How did I do?"

"Oh, man! That was seriously jacked up! But in a good way, of course," Rosa assured her, "I think I may need to practice some emotional control though in order to cast more than one type of spell. What may work to kill one kishin egg may not work to kill another. But yeah, I think we got a pretty good start so far."

Addy grinned brightly, "I don't even know what I do sometimes... It's all up in the air depending on the meister. It looks like you gave me a little extra push, though, I've never seen that one before."