Chapter 241: Chapter Two Hundred Forty Two

I was in pain. So very, very much pain. I was considering inventing a  new word to describe this sensation actually, because pain seemed like  it was underselling exactly how much this sucked. Not even agony was  enough. I raised my head from the dirt to glare at my tormentor, seeing  his ever present grin shining down at me as if in mockery of the state  he'd left me in. I peeled my lip back in a snarl. "Die."

Well,  I tried to say die. It come out more like "duuuuuh". I like to think my  eyes made the message clear though. My hatred was clearly visible. It  had to be. I rolled over as best I could to check on Callie, who was  lying on the ground staring up at the ceiling. "Ugh." I moaned, finally  managing to speak language again, even if the attempt was hoarse and  barely understandable. "How are we in this much pain? And why can't I  heal us?"

The snicker Abel had been holding back finally  burst forth, the rabbit masked man howling with laughter at our pain.  "Impact. Vitality has less effect against higher ranked opponents. We're  the same rank, so it's not so exaggerated, but there IS a wait, and  that shit adds up. I've just hit you so many times today that your  bodies literally can't keep up with the repairs. I didn't use any Skills  or anything, so it'll fade. As for healing, because it disrupts the  learning process. No pain no gain and all that."

"Listen."  I said seriously. "I hate you." He glanced down at me quizzically,  clearly expecting my declaration to have more to it. I just stared at  him for a second. "That's it. I hate you. Message over. Die." That one  got enough howling attack of laughter as he turned to walk over to a  small table off to one side, picking up a bottle of water. My sore  throat convulsed looking at it. "That look's...good. Can I have some?"

"What?"  He said in confusion. "But you hate me? I can't share water with you  since I'm supposed to be dead." I just glared at him so viciously it  probably would have killed him if it had been an attack. He rolled his  eyes. "Oh fine, you huge baby. Here. Drink up." He walked over and stood  above me, I opened my mouth to ask  what he was doing and he poured the  water right down my damn throat.

I hacked and coughed and  gagged, rolling over and pounding the ground as my soaked face dripped  into the dirt. He sucked his teeth in sympathy. "Pretty sure you're  supposed to swallow that stuff. Doesn't do much if you spit out. It's  your show though. You do you." I turned to fix my furious gaze on him,  only to see him walking away. I caught a slight smirk on his lips as he  turned, but I knew that it didn't matter.

He came back a  second later with a towel he tossed me, and I groaned hard as I sat up.  Then I mopped my face clean as Callie sat up with a loud groan. Abel  chuckled at the performance, but eventually trailed off. "Alright you  two. It's just after noon. I want you to go and have some fun. Enjoy  your day. No training. As important as working is, you also need time to  adapt to the changes. Especially for your awareness of each other,  spending time together casually will be a huge help as you learn. You  earned some downtime anyway. Go enjoy yourselves."

That  hadn't been what I was expecting him to say. "Oh. Um...ok? Sure. We can  do that." I turned to look at Callie. "What do you say babe? want to go  on a date today?" Callie let out a wheezing puff of air that couldn't be  described as a word or grunt of affirmation even by the most generous  of people, but I decided to assume it had been a yes. I rolled over a  few times, back and forth, to build up the momentum to get up on my  hands and knees so I could crawl over to her. Slowly. I moaned. "Oh  gods, please let me use some healing."

"Nope." Said Abel  callously. "Enjoy your downtime. I suggest going to get food. It should  help. Trust me, you should be glad I didn't let you eat when I had  breakfast. You'd have puked it all up ten times over by now. Never do  really hardcore exercise on a full stomach. Anyway, I'll leave you to  it. Meet me back here tomorrow. You should be healed up by then, and we  can move on to fighting team vs. team."

I refused to think  about that as he left. The idea of Mel joining that beating was too  awful. I dragged myself over to Callie and pulled her head into my lap,  stroking her hair. "Hey love. How are you feeling." She wheezed out  another small sound, that may have been the word 'bad'. I winced. "Yeah,  I think he went harder on you to compensate for your higher Vitality.  Never been so glad I don't focus on that stat enough." She glared at me.  "Sorry. Here, lets sit you up, maybe that'll help."

I  pulled on her, ignoring my body's groans of protest. Luckily lifting  something human sized was literal childs play, even when I was this  sore. It was such an infinitesimal effort that my condition literally  didn't matter. Huh, I guessed the suppression was gone. Which made sense  since we were allowed to leave. Guess he wanted our Vitality patching  us up so we didn't die.

"Ow." Callie said as I get her  vertical. "Ow. Ow." She paused. "Ow, wait, no. I meant bastard. I need  to relearn the words for things. Ow is for how I'm feeling, bastard is  for Abel. How about you sweetie? How are you feeling? You don't look  much better than me."

I grinned at her. "Well you look  like a goddess, so that leaves me in great shape. But to answer your  question ow works for me too." I forced myself to my feet with a wince,  helping pull Callie up by the hand and letting her fall against me. "I  decided if we were going on a date, I didn't need my mask, and she  didn't either if she didn't want to wear it. "So, before we leave, I  figure we split up and change into our civvie clothes. The pavilion  keeps work out gear around, we can change into that and take a walk  around the circus. What do you think?"

You are reading story Wish upon the Stars at novel35.com

Callie  was thrilled at the idea, even if the execution was tough, and we both  hobbled off to the locker rooms to get showered off and changed. Being a  giant clubhouse for battle maniacs, an area to change and clean up was  essential. It was one of the many spots we'd discovered when looking  around when we first toured the Pavilion after we got control of it. The  place was much bigger than it looked at first glance, with large  sections underground (well all of it was technically underground, but  large chunks were under THIS ground).

So  I knew where to go to find the shower and rinse off. It only took me  fifteen or twenty minutes to get ready, stash my gear in a gym bag, and  bring everything back up to the ring to meet up with Callie who  looked...amazing. Granted, Callie always looked amazing, whether it was  an Ascendant thing or she was just naturally beautiful, my girlfriend  was kind of a shock every time I looked at her. Something about her now  though, in workout clothes with her wet hair up in a ponytail, just made  me stop and stare.

She  noticed me there and raised an eyebrow. "Come on, I don't look that  gross do I? I cleaned up at least, so I know I don't smell." She gave a  sniff. "Neither do you, which is impressive. They must have good soap  here. You usually smell like guy." At my offended gasp she just gave me a  warm smile. "Downsides of high Perception. It's not noticeable unless  you look for it. But we should find out what kind of soap they use. Most  of the ones that are thorough enough to counter high Perception are  overwhelming. This is kind of neutral, I like it."

"Okay."  I said helplessly. "I'll see if I can get a few bars. For the record  though, YOU don't smell, and you look gorgeous, that's why I was  staring." I frowned down at myself. "You could really smell me all this  time? I don't see how that could not be in a bad way. Nobody wants to  smell."

She  limped over, wincing at the motion, before standing on her tip toes to  give me a quick kiss. "Stop that. It's not some sort of weird character  defect. Everyone smells like something, unless they use special soap  like I mentioned. Your scent isn't bad or anything. Kind of...papery.  With some ink maybe? And leather from the armor. It's hard to explain if  you aren't at the point where you pick it up. Scents are kind of  unique. I don't focus on it much. I know people who literally track  using scent, but I'm definitely not one of them."

I  waved her off. "Ok, this is getting off track. We can do the smell  lesson later if you want. For now, I'm clean and showered and ready for a  day out at the circus with my girlfriend." I put an arm around her,  starting us toward the entrance. "You got the worst of it today, so why  don't you pick what we do? Anything you want, as long as I'm spending  time with you I don't care one bit." I paused. "Well, nothing physical  obviously. But other than that."

She  let her head slump against my shoulder softly as we walked. "I don't  care much either. It'll just be nice to be together. But I am pretty  hungry. How about we hit the corn dog stand. They have those pancake and  sausage ones. I know it isn't exactly breakfast time, but who cares?"

"Seriously."  I said with derision. "I'll eat breakfast whenever I want. Anyone who  has something to say about that can suck it. I'm a grown ass man, no one  but me decides the timing with which I consume whatever food I see fit  at the moment." I stared off into the distance stoically for a second  before winking at her to show the pompous declaration was just a joke  for her benefit.

She  rolled her eyes, but her lips were quirked in a smile. "You aren't  nearly as funny as you think you are. But despite what a huge nerd you  are, I still love you." She poked my side. "Being a giant wall of muscle  DOES help kind of offset the terrible sense of humor though. Just don't  start making bad puns and we should be fine."

I  gave her a scandalized look. "There are no such thing as BAD puns, you  philistine. But fine, I see how it is. I can lower myself to your level  for the sake of my affection for you." She giggled at that and I pulled  her close, reveling at the sense of serenity in my heart. Something  about being here with her, especially when I was so fresh from training,  just felt...right. This was where I was supposed to be.

I'd  expected to be nervous or anxious about the coming tournament, but  oddly, I wasn't. I'd been training my ass off non stop, and I hadn't  even realized how exhausting it was because it had been so engaging.  This though...this was relaxing in a way I hadn't know I needed until  now. I smiled down at Callie and then around the busy circus as a whole.  The tournament was months away, for now, time with my girlfriend was  the order of the day, and I had absolutely no problem with that at all.  My stomach grumbled a bit. Those corn dogs were definitely the first  thing on my list though. I wondered if they had syrup for dipping?

You can find story with these keywords: Wish upon the Stars, Read Wish upon the Stars, Wish upon the Stars novel, Wish upon the Stars book, Wish upon the Stars story, Wish upon the Stars full, Wish upon the Stars Latest Chapter