Dominic grinned the moment Emma finished explaining.
That grin never meant anything good.
Alex saw it too and folded her arms. "No."
He put a hand to his chest. "You don't even know what I'm asking yet."
"I know enough."
Dominic laughed and stepped into the combat simulation area anyway. "Come on. Just one round."
Alex stared at him for a second, then looked at Emma. "He wants to borrow your buffs."
Emma, who had already started drinking something to recover mana, raised a brow. "That is an ugly sentence."
"It is also accurate," Joanne said.
Dominic pointed between himself and Emma. "I want to gauge how her buffs feel in a real fight."
Alex's eyes narrowed. "Against me."
Dominic spread his hands. "You are the best test target."
"That is a very flattering way to say you want to jump me with support."
"It is."
Alex let out a breath through her nose, then stepped into the ring. "Fine."
Phong stayed at the edge with Selena, who looked much too interested in the outcome for someone not participating.
Emma joined Dominic's side once she had enough mana back to function. She rolled one shoulder, summoned the three ethereal blades, and looked at Dominic with the calm expression of a woman who knew exactly how dangerous one minute could be.
"Don't waste it," she said.
Dominic's grin widened. "Wouldn't dream of it."
The moment the match started, Emma sang.
Do.
Re.
Mi.
All three notes rang out almost together.
The blades vibrated in answer, and the buffs hit Dominic in a wave strong enough that even people outside the ring felt the pressure shift.
Phong saw Alex feel it too.
Her posture changed instantly.
Dominic came in like a storm.
And this time, he was not trying to be the immovable center/ the Greencap bunny captain's lesson showed in every step. Dominic leaned harder into the raging side of his Raging Judgenaut path, using the strength buff not to anchor, but to overwhelm. His movement had more violence in it now, more momentum, more willingness to break the line in front of him by force instead of merely holding it.
Alex reacted at once.
Psychic light exploded into being around her.
A spear.
Two bows.
Two shields.
A vajra.
A rapier.
Seven constructs, all stable, all under control, all moving with the terrifying precision that made her who she was.
The first bow fired before Dominic closed half the distance.
He twisted through the line, fast enough that the shot grazed instead of hitting him square on the chest. The shields came down low to cut his angles, the spear stabbed for his shoulder, rapier flashed in from the side, then the vajra hovered just ahead of his most likely path, forcing him to stop or get a concussion as consolation prize.
Under normal conditions, that much control would have turned almost anyone into a pinned cuishion.
But today, with Emma behind his back, Dominic plowed through.
Re made him fast enough to keep up with openings that should not have existed. Do made every committed swing and shoulder check heavy enough that Alex could not treat them lightly. Mi let him absorb the punishment of getting through her first layers without losing the pressure he needed to stay in her face.
For the first time in a while, Alex was forced fully onto defense.
Her two shields smashed out to redirect him, one bow got broken apart and reformed to her left. The spear met Dominic's advance head-on, only to be battered wide by sheer force. The rapier flashed up under his guard, forcing him to twist, as the vajra dropped across his next step. He took it on the shoulder and kept coming anyway.
Jake let out a sharp whistle from outside the ring. "Oh, that is disgusting."
Joanne nodded with dark satisfaction. "I love having her already."
Dominic slammed into one psychic shield hard enough to send a crack of force through the air. Alex's other constructs shifted at once to punish the opening, but he was already inside again. His grin wild now, eyes bright with the joy of getting to be an actual problem for her.
Emma held the song.
That alone was impressive.
Phong could see the strain already building in the way she clenched her jaws, the way every second mattered as mana vaporized from her being like it was a runaway effect.
Alex held too.
She gave ground, but always in control. Every half step back was measured, backed up with newly created constructs. New defense lines formed, while the old one reshaped and adapted to Dominic's new position. Even being pushed, she was still Alex. Dominic had to pay for every inch.
Then the minute ended.
Emma's voice cut.
The glow on the blades dimmed.
And just like that, the balance of the fight snapped.
Dominic had one glorious heartbeat where he realized what had just happened.
Then Alex beat the living crap out of him.
The spear slammed into his guard, then the rapier slipped through the next opening and tagged his ribs. One shield hit him from the side hard enough to turn him. while the vajra had already moved to block his retreat. The bows changed angles faster than he could recover. Dominic tried to reassert pressure and got punished for the attempt so badly that even Janet winced for him.
Within seconds, he was back to the familiar state of being manhandled by an Arbiter Mindblade who had run out of patience.
When the match ended, Dominic was on his back, breathing hard, staring at the ceiling with the look of a man who had briefly touched greatness and then been violently reminded of his place.
Alex stood over him, one psychic spear resting against her shoulder.
"You had fun?" she asked.
Dominic wheezed. "Actually, yes. Aside from the pain in the brain. I hate that passive from Mindblade with a passion."
Emma was bent forward with her hands on her knees, breathing much harder than she liked letting people see. "Good," she muttered. "Because I'm paying for it."
After she recovered enough to stand straight again, the second test started.
This time, Emma walked to Alex's side.
That alone made everybody else immediately less happy.
Dominic pushed himself up and stared at the two women. "Oh, come on."
Alex gave him a small smile. "You wanted to test things."
Emma summoned her three blades again. "So why don't we make a raid boss at home?"
This time it was Alex and Emma against everyone else.
Everyone combat-oriented, anyway.
Dominic. Janet. Joanne. Jake. Jack. Séline. Camille. Alexei. Vanessa.
Phong and Selena stayed outside the ring, as there was no point putting them in. Selena's role was not front-line combat, and Phong was Phong. He could be manhandled by Rico without his plants.
That did not stop Emma from looking his way several times once the "prepping ritual" began.
Because prep, in Camp Stymphalian's case, was absurd.
Phong handed out the consumables.
Snow Lime.
Stoic Garlic.
Weeping Onion.
Relaxing Shiitake.
Empathy Enoki and Arrogant Ginger were added just in case, since Camille class had poison in her toolkit.
Berserking Strawberries were obviously banned from sparring, as "overdrive fruits are meant for war".
Still, he handed out an arsenal of system breaking buffs almost willy-nilly, like he was handing out school lunches.
Emma accepted hers almost automatically at first, more focused on the upcoming test than the vegetables in hand.
Then she started hearing what each one did.
Her expression changed.
Then changed again.
By the time she had taken in the actual numbers, the durations, the lack of immediate self-harm, the stack rules, the cooldown logic, the fact that these were edible and portable and could be prepared ahead of time, she almost forgot to sing.
Almost.
"Emma," Alex said.
Emma blinked, swallowed hard, and looked from the food to Phong to Alex and back again.
Then she said, very carefully, "I think I finally understand how scary Phong and his garden are."
No one laughed.
Because she was right.
She looked down at the Snow Lime and Stoic Garlic in her hands like they had just become much more dangerous than blades.
"With proper storage," she said slowly, "he could do what I do. Not exactly, but functionally. Wide, scalable stat enhancement." Her eyes lifted to Phong. "Without the same side effects."
Phong frowned a little. "That seems dramatic."
Emma stared at him in disbelief. "No. Dramatic is me on a battlefield."
She held up the buff food.
"This is logistics."
That made Selena make a small approving noise from the sideline.
Emma continued, mind already running faster now. "If your crops were stored the way nations store rockets, rationed, protected, deployed to units at the right time…" She exhaled once. "You alone could turn the tide of wars."
The room stayed very quiet.
Even Jake had stopped joking.
Emma's voice lowered.
"Modern wars too. I couldn't predict what old ones where foot soldiers were deployed, air raid and drones were sent for bombing. But wars between super soldiers with classes and skills? You could make or break a nation..."
That landed with the right weight.
Because coming from anyone else, it might have sounded like theory.
Coming from Emma, who had just explained exactly why the government valued her, it sounded like a warning.
Phong looked at the vegetables in everyone's hands and felt, not for the first time, the strange chill of seeing his farming through someone else's eyes.
To him, the plants were insurance. Something to help the people he care about survive the dungeon, and protect them where his defensive plants couldn't.
To the wrong people, they were national assets.
Or worse... bio weapons, same as the Super Soldier Serum.
Alex looked at him once, briefly, and he knew she was thinking something close to the same thing.
Then Emma shook herself out of it, took position beside Alex, and said, "Later. We can panic about the geopolitical implications of your garden later."
Joanne groaned. "That sentence is horrible."
"Accurate though," Vanessa said quietly.
Emma raised one hand.
The swords hummed.
"Ready?"
Across from them, nine people settled into stance.
Dominic rolled his shoulders.
Janet lowered her center of gravity.
Jake spun his daggers once.
Jack's fingers brushed the ground.
Séline and Camille angled apart already, preparing to become that trident point the Greencap captain had described.
Alexei looked almost happy to be on the wrong end of a terrible idea.
Then Emma sang.
And the second test fight began.