"Unreasonable like how?" Ame has to ask.

Also, "Fal, is there a way to tell by looking what your arrow's gonna do, if one of us sees you nocked and aiming? And Bys, how many shots does each of your guns hold?"

"The all-metal ones are the dangerous ones, mostly. I can shout when I'm about to unleash something big? But that just warns enemies..."

"Most monsters cannot understand human speech."

"Yeah but like, bandits."

K'nak shrugs. "Yes, I should probably be specific. In my rage, I will attack the nearest living thing, friend or foe, unless I realize it's a friend and overcome the rage through will. Don't count on that. Little if anything can end a rage except waiting."

Bys is counting on her hands and muttering some numbers. "...Three double-shot heavy pistols, a six-shot revolver and an eight-shot revolver, Three single shot rifles and one lever action rifle that holds nine shots including one in the chamber, two double barreled shotguns making four heavy blasts, and a holdout pistol with two shots and one shotgun shell. So thirty nine shots in total. And three grenades. The revolvers are fastest to reload so I will be using those if there is an extended fight. And I also have my harpoon, I am not completely helpless in melee."

"I'd suggest learning to recognize the sound of each of your guns, so we could count your shots by ear," Ame says to Bys, "but that's probably a long-term project, if anything."

"Fal, if the arrows that do different things look different, then you can just show us and we can memorize which arrows do what?"

"If anyone has to approach you while you're raging," she says to K'nak, "it should probably be me. Unless your rages leave you with enough tactical ability to recognize me and go for my head but still not recognize that I'm on your side?"

"I don't think you can read little runes moving at over a hundred feet per second."

K'nak shrugs, embarrassed. "I don't actually remember much from those experiences. Though I recall that having food thrown at me lets me focus on the food instead of more violence."

Nice deflection Fal; maybe she just doesn't want them to be able to recognize her arrows. Which isn't unreasonable.

Ame lets that go and smirks at K'nak. "Well that gives me the obvious idea which I hope we won't have to find out is actually a terrible idea."

"The obv- Oh. I suppose it is obvious. Yes, hopefully."

Fal snickers.

"So are we going to show off to each other or what?" Asks Abyssia.

"Sure. How about a race to... the top of that almost-hill up ahead? And then we spar two-on-two in every combination?"

"Just to first blood or yield or two minutes," Fal hedges. The other two shrug.

K'nak doesn't bother counting down before sprinting ahead, long strides and immense strength making him faster than his DEX would indicate. The other two are running almost as quick.

Ame drops into a sprinter's crouch when she spots K'nak eyeing the finish line.

And the race begins. Ame surges forward... and slams face-first into a wall of wind.

That's what it feels like. She's "leveled up" significantly, and then doubled up on that with her Axiom-based self-enhancement, since the last time she sprinted over open ground; there's an energy that fills her body, that accelerates her as she launches herself to quickly reach a speed that would make a race-horse feel inadequate.

There's something under the effort in her sprint. Something more, greater, a sort of final power lying in wait...

The green-skinned wall of charging meat and the graceful loping strides of a wolf-girl can't keep up. But Abyssia is leaning so far forward she's almost horizontal, her shoes digging up clods of earth every time they blur and pump, her arms pistoning back and forth to keep steady as she sprints forward with singleminded focus. A strange sight that the slim girl is moving so quickly, though she's left her pack in the wagon and is only carrying a white harpoon.

Abyssia gets to the 'hill' first, and nearly collapses, panting.

The sense of something greater mixes with the other new sensations. Is she imagining it?

Bys is fast. If Ame dropped her pack and her weapons she might be able to keep up... maybe. As it is, she has to flip over and gouge her shield into the dirt to stop herself at the top of the hill, having tried her best to catch Bys at the end there instead of slowing down.

Ame breathes hard exactly once, before straightening up and going over to offer Bys a grin and a refreshing hand.

Flushed and grinning, a strange look that's not entirely lust in her eyes, she leans in and kisses Ame on the cheek for it instead.

(Fal wolf-whistles, quite literally, as the remaining pair jog towards them.)

Ame could have intercepted that and made it a real kiss, but Bys is skittish and has a ready-made excuse, so Ame just giggles and lets the cheek-kiss stand, for the purpose of healing. Ame does pull Bys close as she recovers and runs a hand over her ass as she does.

"Mmm, dryfolk are warm..." She leans into Ame for a few seconds as the other two arrive, but soon pulls away and turns to face the group. "So, fast runners versus slow for the first bout?"

"Agreeable," K'nak nods. "And Ameron, it seems you are as impressive a sprinter as Abyssia! This bodes well."

"I must be doing something right."

She shakes a clump of dirt off her shield and eyes K'nak's axe. She draws her gladius.

They all spar in various combinations for a while. K'nak relies almost too much on being overwhelmingly strong, a simple and brutal style that ensures any hit or grab will be devastating, though he is fairly good at occupying attention and keeping someone busy. He's also visibly holding back. Fal's moves are all about footwork, positioning, pacing, and maintaining distance. It works well against K'nak and Abyssia, but not at all against Ameron. Abyssia is clearly the least Skilled melee fighter, but she still has that eerie flash-speed and a slightly scary amount of strength packed into her small frame, though fights that last longer than a minute turn the advantage decisively against her.

With a little practice, fighting K'nak is almost too easy, yet also a little frustrating. She can dodge all of his attacks, but she can't hurt him unless she wants to go lethal, which she doesn't. Because sparring.

When she fights Fal, its almost the opposite, except Fal doesn't have the speed advantage. Ame has to hold back and fight defensively to get a sense of Fal's style, and then the fight lasts long enough to make the others impatient.

Going up against Abyssia is intense, a blurring storm of move and counter-move, too fast to think. But that intensity is nigh-constantly interrupted to restore Bys' stamina, or by Ame's greater skill ending the bout in the first second. It's still fun, though, and concludes with Ame letting Bys grapple her and falling so they end in an embrace with Bys on top of Ame.

Bys springs up with a blush almost immediately.

"Girl, don't get off her on our account," comments Fal. Bys blushes more.

K'nak shakes his head and comments, "I think we are done here. We have a good idea of each other's abilities now unless Fal and Abyssia wish to have a shooting demonstration."

Abyssia shakes her head and Fal comments, "Nothing to shoot around here."

The tank nods again. "The rest can wait, I expect."

"Yeah. I think we're at the point where we won't trip over each other in stupid, avoidable ways," Ame agrees.

She goes to hold Bys' hand for the walk back down the caravan, keeping up Axiom continuously. But also low-key lewding Bys' fingers with her own fingers, not just holding her hand but feeling it up in a subtly suggestive way.

And there's Elizabeth and her dudes. Ame waves, with her free arm.

They're practicing some sort of formation, with their armor and weapons covered in thorny vines sustained by Elizabeth by taut lines of ghyran! She glances at Ame and smiles but doesn't acknowledge her beyond that.

Bys... Doesn't pull her hand away. Instead she asks, "Where are you two from?"

"Elizabeth and me? I'm not sure, actually. I met Elizabeth in a village called Traver Hollow a short while ago and I don't remember if she told me where she was before that. I'm from a city called Brockton Bay, and I couldn't begin to guess how to get there from here."

"Unmoored? ...I'm going home, some day. Hopefully. To not know how to get home sounds terrifying."

Ame snorts. "You wouldn't say that if you'd ever been there. If I never see the place again, I'll count myself lucky."

"...We are from very different places. My home is extremely collective and not perfect but trying as best it could. I think. It sounds like yours was - oppressive. And we're different species."

Ame shrugs. "I don't really think about it much. I was never a part of that place, in the way it sounds like you were a part of your home. What was it like for you? Why did you leave?"