Calista Elise Medley
Kappa Member
Level 5
XP: 73/100
HP: 100/100
EP: 80/100
RP Status: Controversial— Points Uncalculated
Weakness Lvl 10
Lílitha was fighting Geija Herifa, a raspberry-red skinned Paeseoan with medium-cut green hair and yellow eyes. Calista had offered her a friendly smile, but the woman merely glared at her and turned away. Another Paeseoan who was definitely not the sweet and friendly stereotype.
She paced in the arena dugout as Lílitha and Geija’s fight played out. She stole a few glances, pleased to see Lílitha doing very well. The little woman made sure to retract her limbs quickly enough so Geija wouldn’t snap them and weaken them. Miraculously, she hadn’t attempted a bite.
The Earthian girl was brought back to when she took her pressure exam, hearing applicants’ names, Levels, and grades being called out, and watching them leave in tears or even unconscious after facing the fearsome Piranha. Who would’ve thought she and Lílitha would end up being Guild-mates?
Five minutes into the fight, Calista stepped into the Changing Station and got her orange combat armor on. As much as she hated the color, it still looked pretty good. It made her look stronger, it was light and easy to move in, and her name was printed in white on the back of her helmet and back plate, changing intermittently to ‘Kappa Guild Member’. The large number underneath was ‘2’. She was relieved it didn’t adhere to her ‘default’ Favorite status.
“GAME OVER!”
Calista’s heart leaped. Her turn was approaching. Looking outside, Lílitha had won her match; Geija was rolling on the ground in pain, her hands covering her eyes, while Lílitha pumped her fists. The smaller half of the crowd in Kappa orange was cheering madly while the yellow Theta-supporting half was mellow and grumbly.
The next student going after Calista teleported into the dugout. It was a male Martian student from the Iota Guild— Catherine ‘Lasso’ Graham’s group—, wearing an all-white uniform.
“Hey, uh… good luck out there,” the Martian boy said with a small smile.
Calista was momentarily stunned by the overture, so it took her a minute to respond. “Thanks. Uh… y-you too.”
“Who are you up against?”
“I don’t know yet. It’ll be random.” Calista gulped, trying to moisten her dry throat.
The boy bit his lip, hesitating. “Um… good luck.”
“Thanks…” Calista quirked her brow, watching the boy shift on his feet, averting his black eyes. She heard the crowd starting to cheer excitedly outside.
“Calista Medley to the arena. Repeat, Calista Medley to the arena.”
Task Acquired: Complete Practicum Exam Match— 20-25 XP
Calista breathed in deeply and pressed down on her helmet. It was only ten minutes, less if one of them won before time was up. It would be over before she knew it…
Then again, with her likely opponent, she’d probably draw it out.
Lílitha entered the dugout, giving Calista a reassuring high-five. “Good luck,” she said, heading to the Changing Station to get out of her armor and teleport back up to the Favorite capsule.
“Calling the underdog of the freshman class… the first Kappa member in years… sitting at Level 5… Calista Medley!”
Calista felt a bit of encouragement from the cheers in the arena as she exited. She did her best to mimic her usual, confident model walk, waving gracefully at the stands. She glanced up at her new freeze shot, which looked positively fashionable. Even her mother would love it.
“And the unknown challenger… a great surprise! Calista Medley will be testing her mettle against…”
Most of the arena turned from yellow to bronze. Calista had expected it, but her stomach still dropped.
“Delta member Hillary ‘Gravity’ Kaye!”
I… knew it. Calista closed her eyes. This only proved that no matter how much one denied reality, it would never bend to such denial. She had been praying and begging for this outcome to change, but alas, her demons would continue to face her.
The Paeseoan woman walked out in her bronze combat suit, waving smilingly at the crowds. Cheers swept across the arena for her, nearly everyone changing their colors to bronze. She smiled cockily and turned her grass-green eyes onto Calista.
Now was the formal exchange of respect before the fight. Hillary approached Calista, holding out her fist. Trying to get past her nerves, Calista accepted the fist bump. Hillary leaned over and said, “What, you thought I wouldn’t have the guts?” She chuckled. “A moment of rage doesn’t make you a good fighter, human. But you should have learned plenty by now, right? You’ve been studying so hard.” She pouted her lips with pity.
-5 Rel-P
Calista’s eyes narrowed, her panic turning to anger at her condescension. Now she remembered why she’d beaten her senseless in the hallway. “Yeah. I’ve learned plenty,” she said coldly.
“I’d like to see it.” Hillary smiled sweetly.
Task Acquired: Beat Hillary Kaye— Unknown RP
“Get ready! 5, 4, 3…”
The women backed away and got into position. The crowd got louder. “GRA-VI-TY! GRA-VI-TY! GRA-VI-TY!”
Everything Calista had studied was starting to blank out of her brain. She couldn’t remember what discipline she’d planned to use or what weapon she had stored in her main arsenal. She needed to calm down and focus. She owed it to herself, to Harrison, to her siblings— she needed to come out of this without any humiliation.
“FIGHT!”
Hillary didn’t give Calista room to start. She instantly attacked with a jab at her face, then a punch in her stomach. Calista gasped and tried to regain her bearings, getting some distance between her and the other fighter.
-2 HP
The ‘HP’, in this case, wasn’t actually affecting her Health; the armor made sure of it. However, if it reached 0, the match would be over and she would lose, and she’d feel the pain of the damage even when there was no damage.
Her arms moved, working to block the rest of Hillary’s strikes. She felt every sting and graze through her armor. She tried to see past the thunder of adrenaline. She needed to concentrate.
-1 EP
-1 EP
-2 EP
She turned her attention to how Hillary was striking, taking in the way her feet stepped and her arms moved. She knew this style. It was called… a weird Mercurian style. Dape-something. Dapeda?
This style consisted of various fast strikes. It was a reckless way of fighting, but it worked great as an opener, depending on the fighter. They would have to catch their opponent off guard in order to get the upper hand, which came easy to Hillary.
The disadvantage was that the fighter would get tired. Most likely, Hillary planned to change to a more civilized style once she locked the fight in her favor. Calista needed to find an opening and turn it around before that happened. She glanced at Hillary’s tag, which showed her Energy Bar draining.
She stayed on defense for a few more moments before backflipping high in the air. “Whoa!” The suit was a bit more powerful than she thought. She landed on her feet, but wobbled unsteadily.
Hillary laughed arrogantly and walked casually towards her. Her overconfidence was getting on the Earthian’s last nerves.
“You can use your anger, Calista,” Lindsay advised her. “Just control them.”
She ran forward and jumped high, aiming her foot at Hillary’s face. The woman caught Calista’s foot and heaved her away. Calista caught herself, flipping back onto her feet, and struck again. She didn’t hit Hillary, but at least she wasn’t humiliated yet.
-2 EP
“You’re going to have to show a lot more than that, humie.” Hillary’s suddenly equipped a sword.
“What the-” Calista yelped, dodging a swipe. Since she hadn’t expected the sudden weapon, Hillary was able to use Dapeda again. Her sword grazed her armor, not injuring her, but the pain came through.
-4 HP
-3 EP
“Lindsay!” she called her Pet. “I need to… push her off!” She grunted as she blocked another strike. A pulse emerged from her chestplate, sending Hillary flying to the other end of the arena.
+1 Damage
“You have to use weapons! That’s part of your grade, you know!” Lindsay reminded her, speaking through her helmet.
Calista chose her standard baton and ran to Hillary, lifting it to hammer down. As Hillary rolled over and dodged it, flashing a confident smile, Calista changed the course of her swing.
Hillary’s smirk disappeared before the baton slammed into her like a wrecking ball. Calista had used her full strength, and coupled with the armor, it was a great force. She flew into the arena wall and landed on the sand in a limp pile. The crowd groaned, completely taken aback. Calista momentarily hoped she was unconscious, but was dismayed when Hillary stood again, her face contorted in rage.
-10 EP
+5 Damage
She panted, leaning on a knee to try and recover.
+1 EP
+1 EP
“Take the offense before she does!” Lindsay shouted.
Calista ran forward as fast as she could, but the lack of energy slowed her down, giving Hillary enough time to leap into the air, using her boots as a boost. Calista heaved her baton with all her might and threw it at Hillary. Her throw wasn’t nearly strong enough, and Hillary deflected it off her arm plate. She equipped a mallet on the way down.
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“Oh, glitch!” Calista moved to dodge her.
Her breath was completely taken away when Hillary and the mallet slammed into her stomach. Without the armor, she probably would’ve been cut in half.
-10 HP
-8 EP
“And that’s why they call her ‘Gravity’…” Lindsay commented.
“Yeah, I got that,” Calista wheezed, barely able to speak. Trying to remind her brain that she wasn’t really injured, she took a deep breath to deactivate the pain receptors and respite. She stood up with a struggle.
+1 EP
+1 EP
“I’ll give you points for that, human. I didn’t want an easy fight,” Hillary chuckled, the mallet weighing down her hand.
With the baton gone, Calista equipped blade fans. She had only just unlocked them, but she’d worked enough with throwing blade fans, so they weren’t too different. In fact, they were much like the props she’d use for choreographies back in her old career.
Hillary laughed at the sight, looking at the crowd to ridicule her opponent. “Is this a dance battle now? With your stupid spins and twirls or whatever the glitch you trained to do?”
Hillary had given her an idea. Calista twirled the fans in her fingers, spinning around. As her opponent bent over in laughter, Calista smacked her across the face with one of the fans. The visor protected her face, but the pain stopped her guffaws.
+3 Damage
“Don’t stop!” Lindsay quickly advised her.
She followed with a high kick, her leg stretching to its fullest. Her body turned and pirouetted so she could kick Hillary in the stomach, using her boots’ jump function to shoot her away. The mallet fell to the sand.
+3 Damage
+2 Damage
-6 EP
The Paeseoan girl screamed as she hurtled into the sand far away. She coughed and gasped from the sudden, powerful barrage the Earthian had unleashed. As Calista approached her, the crowd got louder, and both fighters had to pause when they realized what they were saying.
“CA-LIS-TA! CA-LIS-TA!”
The women’s eyes met. Calista felt a confidence she had never felt before, or at least, not in a long time.
+1 EP
+1 EP
+3 EP
“Quastaneth!” Hillary screamed in her language.
-10 Rel-P
She bolted towards Calista. Calista also ran to her and slid low to trip her. While Hillary dodged her foot, she didn’t notice the Earthian’s hand wrapping around her ankle. Calista yanked hard, sending her to the floor.
+2 Damage
She prayed her muscle memory would serve her as she twisted Hillary’s arms behind her and wrapped her limbs around her to keep her from moving. The woman struggled, visibly enraged, as she tried to shake the Earthian girl off her back.
-2 EP
-2 EP
“You just need to hold her for twenty seconds,” said Lindsay. “Just keep her from-”
Hillary activated her boots, forcing them both into the air. She turned so Calista’s back was facing the ground, and she let gravity do its job, slamming her onto the sand. One of the fans flew far away from her.
-15 HP
-10 EP
“…doing that,” Lindsay finished.
Calista was once again unable to breathe, but she tried her best to keep herself focused. She forcibly sucked in a breath of air as she held her arms up in an ‘X’. Hillary pinned the girl down and overwhelmed her with fast, incessant strikes.
-3 HP
-4 HP
-2 EP
-2 EP
Harrison had taught her how to get out of pins, but this was a lot more difficult than the CD-Sim. She’d have to incapacitate her.
Calista jammed her knee into Hillary’s side and freed the hand holding the other fan. With a yell, she swiped it across, striking Hillary’s invisible visor.
+3 Damage
-5 EP
WARNING: Approaching 50 EP
She closed the fan so the pointed blades at the ends could make one, single, jagged knife. She stabbed it into Hillary’s arm, giving her a shock of pain, then again in her shoulder.
+4 Damage
+4 Damage
She pushed the other girl off and reversed their positions. Pinning wasn’t Calista’s strong suit, requiring a lot more energy than what she had. She instead punched Hillary’s face to disorient her and quickly got to her feet, looking for the other fan, which was tossed about twenty feet away.
+3 Damage
Calista ignored her Energy Bar and bolted to the fan, hearing Hillary close on her heels.
ADRENALINE RESERVE ACTIVATED: +15 EP
She dove forward, rolling as she grabbed her weapon, and swiped around.
Hillary ducked under her blow and lunged for a grapple, but Calista easily dodged. She growled in frustration and got reckless in her strikes, getting angrier as Calista’s reflexes successfully avoided them all. Her grass-green eyes spotted the mallet she’d left fallen on the sand.
+1 EP
+1 EP
As she bolted forward, Calista aimed her folded fan at Hillary’s foot. It just barely struck her calf, tricking her body into thinking it was cut open by the blade. She tripped forward and let Calista catch up.
+4 Damage
The Earthian girl leaped over Hillary in a pretty, yet clumsy grand jeté jump, racing towards the mallet.
-5 EP
The Paeseoan followed behind, growling as she jumped forward and reached the mallet first.
-10 HP
WARNING: ALMOST 50 HP
Energy Loss Increase Imminent
Calista cried out at the awful pain in her hands, her fans flying out of her grip from the force. She clumsily ducked under the follow-up blow and inhaled deeply, commanding herself to bear the pain.
-6 EP
Adrenaline Boost: +3 EP
“Flash grenade!” she yelled, falling as she dodged another attack.
The grenade materialized in her hand just as she rolled over, evading the hammering force of the mallet. She threw the grenade straight at Hillary’s face and closed her eyes, avoiding the piercing light.
She kept her eyes down, seeing the mallet fall. She cartwheeled forward, her hands grabbing the handle, and stumbled again from the weight of the hammer. She’d need to expend the rest of her Energy for this.
When Hillary opened her teary eyes, the first thing she saw was her favorite weapon rushing right at her.
+20 Damage
-30 EP
DIRECT HIT!
WARNING: BELOW 50 EP
Both women remained on the ground for a few moments. The timer continued despite the lack of exchange. Calista’s limbs shook violently, her hands tenuously gripping the mallet. She finally pushed herself to her feet, breathing deeply and slowly.
+1 EP
+1 EP
Hillary did not get up. She was lying on her back, breathing heavily. When she finally moved her head, Calista froze, shocked at the sight of green ooze all over her nose and lips. The visor protected a fighter’s face, but there was an unprotected spot: the bottom half.
She’d… broken it again?
-20 Rel-P
Achieved: Archenemy Status
+Rumors VI (MAX)
+Insults VI (MAX)
+Exclusion VI (MAX)
Hillary wiped the blood off her nose, staring at it on her glove. After a few seconds, she slackened, her Energy Bar depleting. Her Health Bar was far below 50 HP. The timer finally stopped at 5:08 left.
“GAME OVER!”
Looking up, Calista saw her dazed live scan projected, announcing the winner. “Victory goes to Kappa Calista Medley!”
Calista could hardly believe her eyes. She blinked a few times, wondering if she’d wake up in her capsule. When she didn’t, she looked at the cheering crowd. The Hillary-supporting half was clearly upset, clapping begrudgingly. Some of the crowd had changed loyalties and now sported orange, covering half of the spectators, and they cheered fiercely. A Medic drone hovered above her and restored her Health and Energy, eliminating the dazed, confused sensation. In Hillary’s case, the Medic bots had to hover her out of the arena for treatment.
Task Complete— WINNER!
Achievement Unlocked: Beating a Rival— +30 XP
Status Unlocked: Admired— +20 RP
LEVEL UP!
Level 5 -> 6
She could barely process all the Level Up perks she was receiving. She could barely process what just happened. Did she really just do… this?!
“Don’t just stand there, do a helmet throw!” Lindsay said.
“A what?”
“You just won your first fight! Take off your helmet and throw it in the air!”
Hesitantly, Calista took off her orange helmet. Finally feeling the joy catch up to her, she smiled and hurled it up in the air. The crowd cheered again, watching it soar up, then fall down. Calista reached forward, clumsily catching it. She blushed, embarrassed at the goof, but the shame didn’t outweigh her happiness at all.
===
Calista was surprised once again when she finally entered her dugout chamber. A pair of strong arms suddenly embraced her and lifted her from the floor, spinning her around. She squealed, startled, then laughed. “What are you doing?” she said as she was put down.
“You hit her in the face with a mallet!” Harrison exclaimed, his sapphire eyes practically sparkling with joy, pride, and… that something else Calista could never decipher. “I… you… you’re amazing! That was… amazing!”
+15 Rel-P
Approaching Best Friend Status
Calista felt her face and ears burn red and she looked at her boots, suddenly unable to hold his gaze. “It was just something I thought up. I didn’t think it would work.”
“Everyone just saw you beat a fighter that’s hundreds of Levels ahead of you… it goes to show.”
“Goes to show what?”
“You can’t be underestimated. Everyone out there, even Hothead and Savage, they all know that they can’t treat you like a joke. Now they’ve seen what happens.”
Calista chuckled modestly. “I don’t think beating a Hajjian is the next boss I’m planning on…”
“I mean that now they see why you’re my student.” He held her shoulders. “Why you’re in this school. What VP Kalley saw in you at your test.”
+8 Rel-P
“You… you deserve this.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out the familiar orange box with ‘KF’ glowing on the top.
“Harrison…” Calista was speechless as he placed it in her hands.
“There’s no way you can say you haven’t earned that.”
She tapped it, melting it away to see the pentagon-shaped badge again. ‘Kappa Favorite #1’.
“I thought Lílitha was number one now?”
“I asked you first, so you’re still number one. Her badge says ‘2’. She told me to bring the badge today, actually.”
“She did?” Calista gently picked up the badge, gazing at it as it reflected the light. It was one of the best pieces of jewelry she could ever own.
She wordlessly gave the badge back to Harrison and rushed to the Changing Station to get out of her suit. Only now did she realize that the next fight was already ongoing between the Martian boy from Theta and his opponent.
She returned to Harrison in her orange bodysuit. “Okay…” She brushed her hair off her shoulders and stood at attention. “Ready.”
“Calista Medley, you are now officially…” Harrison attached the badge to the suit, right below her collarbone. “My first Favorite student.”
Achievement Unlocked: Kappa Favorite
+30 Intelligence
+10 RP
-3 Weakness
+Kappa Favorite Badge
Once he was done, Calista squealed and jumped up to hug him again. “You have no idea how proud of you I am,” he said, hugging her tight. She savored his warmth and sweetness, especially after the tiring bout she just endured. She didn’t want to leave…
+30 Rel-P
+25 Rom-P
Achieved: Best Friend Status
Approaching Interest Status
+Meeting VIII
+Gossip VII
+Trust V
Screaming interrupted them and they quickly parted. Calista exclaimed as Camelithia ran to her at full speed, her hair popping in yellow and orange. She squeezed her in a painful hug. “YOU DID IT! THAT WAS AMAZING! You beat the absolute knocking glitches out of her!”
+10 Rel-P (Cam)
Behind her were Belinda and Lílitha, who were a lot calmer, but still quite excited about the fight. Belinda’s face was beaming and Lílitha remained impassive, though Calista knew she was just as happy by the active twitching of her ears.
She couldn’t wait to see the looks on her family’s faces when she told them.