Dashing Devil Omnibus 1: Books 1-3, page 80
Chapter 2
Boyd didn’t even like sparring with Silvie, though he knew he couldn’t hurt her without using his Black Flame or Mental Domination. When he sparred with her, he simply didn’t use either power. Sparring with Raev, however, would be different. One miscalculated strike could do a hell of a lot of damage to her. Boyd could potentially kill her.
When he’d voiced his concerns, she’d gone and put on her suit. Only after she proved it was tough enough to withstand a hit would Boyd train with her. Tinker had built in some kind of a reactionary weave into the material. The big man didn’t pretend to understand all the techno mumbo-jumbo Raev had spouted at him, but he understood that it had something in it that robbed blunt-force trauma of a lot of its power.
The downside, however, was that it was less effective at preventing cutting or slicing attacks and was only fair-to-middling against piercing attacks. According to Raev, Tinker insisted that while the next iteration would be a lot better, even this one would keep her reasonably safe against Boyd’s blows in unarmed combat.
He’d still been careful, pulling his punches. He was so careful that Raev started punishing him for it. After the short break to catch her breath, Kitsune picked up where she’d left off.
She came in low, only to swing out wide before popping up into the air and spinning around to strike him with a blindingly fast kick. When he lashed out at her with a jab, she came in low, rolling under his strike to drive her small foot into his knee or thigh. She tried layering such attacks, hoping to wear him down from a hundred small injuries.
It was a fairly standard tactic for dealing with a threat too tough to damage with a single powerful blow. Wearing them down with repetitive strikes worked much better. Of course, it was a standard tactic because it was effective. Usually.
Boyd was just a little too tough for it to be a truly effective tactic to use against him. Raev did manage to get him to strain his knee at one point, timing a kick to land right when he’d overextended it. It was then that she’d discovered something like that didn’t slow him down.
Boyd’s Mental Domination quickly locked away the pain, lessening the psychological impact of such injuries on his ability to continue to fight. Combined with his ability to heal minor injuries in a few moments, the damage just didn’t accumulate the way she needed it to.
At the same time, Boyd was having a hard time landing any solid blows—partly because of his caution and partly because Raev was so damn slippery. She was quick, limber, extraordinarily coordinated, and maintained amazing situational awareness of where she was in relation to her opponent and the room, despite all of her spun and twists. She never remained in one place for more than a moment and seldom moved in a predictable pattern.
Her unusual digitigrade lower legs enabled her to spring into motion, accelerating rapidly enough to justify her D-Rank in speed and C-Rank in agility. Boyd had gotten around to reading her file in his free time, although the information was likely out of date. Seeing her in action—or rather, being on the receiving end of that action—he knew those rankings were too low.
Of course, it wouldn’t have been nearly as much of a problem if he’d been willing to hurt her. His seven-foot-long, spade-tipped tail was just as affected by his A-Rank strength as the rest of him. He could probably whip it through the air at hip level and cut her in half if he was going all out. He wasn’t about to do so, obviously. He was trying to grab her with his tail, to wrap her up. Unfortunately for Boyd, she was exceptionally adept at avoiding his tail under those circumstances.
Which brought them to now, about twenty minutes into their spar, most of which had been flurries of exchanges with a pause here and there for his smaller opponent to catch her breath. Boyd could tell Raev was trying to lure him into pursuing her. She’d come in to strike at him and then bounced away, prepared to dart further back if he pursued her.
The Bond they shared told him this tactic was partly because it was fun to be chased when nothing was at stake. But mostly, it was because Raev’s illusion Powers were more effective when her opponent was the aggressor rather than the defender. To counter that, he stayed defensive—for the most part.
He saw the moment she realized he was perfectly content to leave this as a battle of attrition. He’d keep getting closer and closer, closing off her escape angles until he got a solid grip on her. From there, wrapping her up would be easy enough. Meanwhile, she was unable to do enough consistent damage to overwhelm his recovery power.
A competitive glint entered the kitsune’s previously playfully sparkling emerald eyes. “I suppose I need to get serious,” she said, her velvet tones untouched by aggression, despite a slight hardening of her features.
“Show me what you’ve got,” Boyd rumbled back, adjusting his stance slightly.
Raev didn’t hesitate, dropping low and charging to the right to circle him. A second kitsune appeared and dropped low, circling to the left. As quick as the woman was, that complicated matters. When each of the two kitsune split again and came in at different angles, Boyd lost track of which was the real Raev as the shell game she was playing became downright hard to follow.
Unfortunately for Boyd, since he’d Enhanced her, each copy of her produced footfalls that sounded the same. If his Black Flame Vision, as Tinker had dubbed his new sense, didn’t cause him dizzy spells, it might tell him which one was the real kitsune. Boyd supposed he could snap his wings out and buffet all four of her with them gently enough that he didn’t think he’d hurt his lover.
It wasn’t very sporting, though. Besides, he knew it would almost certainly muss her tails up, and he knew that would cause her significant distress. Instead, he prepared to block what he could, but was ultimately prepared to take a solid hit and respond with a counter the moment her attack revealed which one was the real Raev.
The four Raevs closed in on him from his three, five, eight, and eleven o'clock. While using his wings would be unsporting, his tail was still on the table. He turned towards his nine o’clock to face the two kitsune that attacked from that side. Meanwhile, his tail lashed through the two that came at him from his right. Given the speed of his tail, Raev would certainly have felt it if the strike landed, but some instinct pulled him towards the kitsunes to his left and he trusted that instinct. The tail slash was just a precaution.
The three o’clock Raev rolled in low, likely aiming for his legs. The eleven o’clock kitsune stayed up, which was still low for him, though not below his waist. Each of them spun out in opposite directions as Boyd prepared to block blows from both sides. Sure enough, three o’clock aimed a driving kick at his knee, so he turned his leg in to take the kick on his thigh while his tail continued its swing around in an attempt to capture her leg.
Boyd swung his left arm wide in an attempt to corral the kitsune at eleven o’clock, which he suspected was the real Raev, while tucking his right arm into a defensive position so as to counter either three or eleven. His suspicion was correct—the eleven o’clock kitsune proved to be the real Raev.
Guessing right did not prepare him for what came next, though. He wasn’t even sure how she did what she did. As he looped his arm down and around in a hook to grab her shoulder, the next thing he knew, her hands had gripped onto his wrist, and she was above his arm.
Her arms pushed down until they were between her thighs as she swung her legs around in something that resembled a move he saw in the dance movie they’d watched the other night. Her hands spun around, rotating horizontally on his arm as she used him something like a gymnast's bar. Her knees tucked up to her chest on the first spin, so her feet didn’t connect with anything, but her tails caught him square in the face… Fump-fump-fump.
They didn’t exactly hurt him, being far too fluffy to feel like a blunt impact. It was more like being smacked with a silky pillow—not really harmful but awfully disorienting. It triggered an instinct to close and protect his eyes for a moment, though, a fatal mistake in any fight. He didn’t see it but felt the top of one of her feet collide with the side of his head. The kick wasn’t hard enough to turn his chin, but it was enough to sting.
She didn’t let go of his arm, so he tried to shake her off.
Clinging to his wrist like a young child might hold onto the candy bar his mother just told him he couldn’t have, Boyd felt her grip twist around it before releasing. Opening his eyes to track her, he was surprised to see she was spinning back towards him—a handful of emerald green fire hurtling right towards his eyes.
Raev didn’t actually strike him with it, as much as she simply tossed the strange fire into his face.
Boyd let out a grunt as a stinging sensation—almost like nettles—set into his eyes and nose. He had to blink back tears, so only heard Raev as she flipped away. The emerald fire didn’t burn his eyes or anything, it pretty much just flash-dried them. It also stung his nasal passages, making his nose crinkle in agitation.
He tried to blink his eyes open, but they stung so badly that everything was blurred beyond recognition. And since he couldn’t see anything anyway, he closed them for another moment. As Boyd used his Mental Domination to lock the pain away, Raev took advantage of the situation.
She slammed a heel into the back of his leg, trying to sweep it out from under him. Boyd’s feet were planted, however, so the strike bounced off. He tried to whip his tail back around to wrap her up, but Raev wasn’t there when he swung it out behind him.
She’d used those damn springs in her legs to leap over him, he realized, because her hands grabbed onto his horns to guide her body down into position in front of him. He felt her thick, muscular thighs as they settled around his neck and squeezed. She put the strength of her entire body into an attempt to wrench his head forward by his horns, but once again was unable to move him.
Boyd’s hands shot up to grab onto her by the hips, his hands closing like vices around her waist. His prize secured, he took control of her—deciding the outcome of the spar though still blinded.
“Well… shit. I forfeit, seeing as you could just squish me from here.” Raev sighed, after wiggling ineffectually in his grip for a second.
Boyd finally blinked his eyes open and looked up at her. It was a rather provocative position. She had her thighs wrapped firmly around his neck, while bent forward over his head and holding onto his horns. It put his mouth and chin in a position he would normally enjoy.
Raev grinned down at him, looking a little nervous. “You’re not mad I went for the eyes, are you?” she asked, chuckling awkwardly.
“No,” he replied. “That was a good, clean hit.”
“Oh!” Her cheeks turned a delicate pink, a rarity for his normally forward lover. “Maybe… ahh… you should put me down before you talk. Your voice is very… oh! … rumbly.”
He grinned back at her, tempted to start humming a nice deep tune while holding her in place. He knew she felt guilty about going for his eyes, and it was throwing her off. Now may not be the time though, he realized, for that kind of fun.
Pulling the kitsune away from his face, Boyd set her down in front of him. He didn’t, however, let go of her hips.
Raev reached up to gently place her long fingers on either side of his eyes. “They’re all red. I didn’t think I could actually hurt you.”
Boyd smiled down at her warmly, not feeling even a little discomfort at this point. “I expected you could… you’re probably A-Ranked now, remember? Your Fox Fire was C-ranked before, and now it’s likely B-ranked, same as my resistance.”
Boyd was glad that he’d read her file. It had been a good distraction during the restless hours he’d spent roaming the suite last night. He’d sat at the table in the kitchen, slowly savoring one of Silvie’s cookies, trying to make his limited supply last, while researching her powers. Raev’s Fox Fire was listed as an Energy Manipulation Power—just like his Black Flame.
Boyd sensed a wave of concern and regret through his Bond with Raev. He remembered all the times he’d accidentally hurt someone in training. The same old sickening feeling churned in his gut that such memories elicited. The most memorable of these, was the time he almost killed Silvie when they were eight.
But that event wasn’t a singularity, nor was it the worst. Accidents happened when teaching Powered children and adolescents to use their Powers in combat. Calling it good training for control only went so far to clear one’s conscience when a good friend was sprawled on the ground before you, broken or bleeding.
Boyd reached up to cup her jaw in one hand, the other moving up to scratch behind one of her perked up fox ears reassuringly. “It’s not that bad,” he admitted, “my eyes are quick to heal. I’ll be fine in a moment.” Boyd said this as gently as he could, given his voice. Speaking at a low rumble was something he’d had to practice, since a shout from him could get into triple digit decibel levels.
“On a side note,” he continued, “that felt more like a chemical burn than something based on heat or some other energy transfer. I don’t remember reading anything in your file about that.”
“Yeah?” Raev asked, looking down at her hand—though it didn’t have any green fire around it at the moment. “It only ever caused minor burns to anyone before, even those with only D-Ranked resistance. The burns it caused obviously weren’t the result of heat, but they never identified a specific type of burn.”
She frowned, looking up at him. “You think my foxfire has some kind of chemical effect, like acid?”
Boyd shrugged. “Acidic, corrosive, or caustic—one of those would be my guess.”
He’d experienced similar pains from any of the above. He’d never been fully clear on what the differences between them were, though. Some acids were corrosive, but not others. Caustic only referred to extreme bases, which were essentially the opposite of acids. Caustics and acids should never be allowed to mix outside of very controlled conditions Boyd did not begin to understand and therefore would not attempt to replicate. That was about the sum of his knowledge.
“I’m sure Tinker could help us figure out which term is applicable,” he said.
“Huh… Wait, did I just effectively splash acid in your eyes?” She looked and sounded appalled, peering into his eyes and touching all over his face.
What he sensed through their Bond made him think she believed what she had done to be a great evil. He equated it to a fan of art discovering they’d accidentally damaged a priceless masterpiece. Or, like he felt when he contemplated stealing another woman’s free will.
Boyd patiently waited for his lover to calm down. He simply smiled and let her inspect his features. Only his eyes and nose had been affected, and both were healing rapidly.
“Everything seems okay,” she muttered, after inspecting every inch of his face with both her eyes and carefully probing fingers.
“I’m fine,” he assured her.
“Good.” She settled back and returned his smile, the tension that had built within her fading into relief. “Not only would it be a crime against womankind to scar that pretty face, Silvie would skin me alive… literally. She’d probably make you a scarf out of my tails when she was done, too.”
Rave curled said tails around in front of her and hugged them protectively against her chest. He sensed that her concern was in jest—mostly. She knew that Silvie wouldn’t actually hurt her… well, his first love probably wouldn’t hurt her.
The three of them had been together with one another, had shared a single consciousness split amongst three bodies. Silvie was just as protective of Raev as Boyd was, and Raev knew it.
Boyd chuckled. “While your tails would undoubtedly make one of the best scarves ever, I’m fond of where they are. Good thing you only irritated my eyes and nose. It might have irritated my throat if my mouth hadn’t been closed.”
A surprising number of people didn’t understand they should keep their mouth closed during a fight.
Her eyes went wide, her hand coming up to cover her gasp.
“It was a good tactic,” Boyd told her, “and well executed, too. But you got greedy.”
“I know.” Raev sighed and massaged her temples.
At least Boyd didn’t sense any further self-recrimination through their Bond.
“I doubt I would have gone for it in the field, so don’t worry. Whenever I have to fight someone like you, I’ll either distract them or keep them busy until a heavier hitter like Silvie or you arrive, or distract and evade until I get them away from civilians and I can break contact.”
She snorted. “I’m not interested in getting myself squished in a fight with someone I can barely hurt.” She flicked him in the arm. “Especially if the damage I do manage to inflict doesn’t stick.”
“Good.” He nodded. “You were doing really well up until that point, but you already know that.” He smiled down at the redhead. While she had a strange issue with rejection, she otherwise had confidence in spades.
“I do,” she purred, letting her forearms drape over his shoulders as she stepped in close. “But you were holding back a little too much. I’m not that fragile.”
“I know,” Boyd sighed. “I just couldn’t bring myself to actually hit you.”
“Well, I suppose it’s good control training for you.” Raev smiled up at him. “Properly moderating your strength and all that.”
“It is,” he agreed, before scowling. “Plus, you’re so damn slippery that it’s good training against ability focused fighters, too. We’ll have to spar more often.”
“Yeah, it was fun.” Raev grinned. “I take it we are done for now?”
“We have an hour and fifteen minutes until we are scheduled to leave.” Boyd had been keeping track of the time. “I would like to take a shower and dress before that… so, yes, we are done.”
“Hmmm, a shower could be fun,” the kitsune purred.
Boyd just smiled and turned her to face the gym’s bathroom. He knew she couldn’t resist saying something like that—which was why they were stopping now. He could shower and dress in a half hour and had been told not to bother making breakfast this morning.
