Inside the room, Blaine had teleported them so they would be in the same position. Her hands were pinned by their weapons. He leaned in and kissed her passionately. He could tell she was still trying to catch her breath so he didn't kiss her for long.
"I'm so very proud of you, you know that? What you did just now. That was amazing."
She chuckled, "yet you aren't even winded."
Blaine smiled sadly, "we had weapons in our hands from a very young age. Not only did you not have that, but you quit touching them as well. You truly have no clue how amazing you are, do you?"
She chuckled, "I guess not…"
Blaine smiled sadly then his eyes started to twinkle. "Let's eat. I want you to spar with Duff after we eat to see the difference between the two of you."
She nodded, "deal."
Not long later, Lana stacked the dishes, put their weapons in her bracelet, wrapped her arms around Blaine's neck and he gently put them back on the ground below.
"Done so soon?" Kattie asked with a smirk.
"Yes!" Lana said with a smile, "Dinner was delicious, guys. Thank you so much for cooking"
She looked round for Duff and finally found him seated towards the end of the table. "Once you're done, we are going to spar. Blaine wants to see what we can do. Wait. Yours are beast gear..." She looked to Blaine expecting a response.
"Did you forget we got him practice ones as well?"
Lana chuckled, "Uh, yeah. I did."
While Lana waited for Duff to finish eating, she decided to play with her new toys. Back in the day, she did a routine that was meditative many times each day. It was meant to be done with sai but she used her clubs instead. She closed her eyes and tried to remember.
As Lana simply tested one hand, she started to remember. With her eyes open, she started going through the motions. She smiled softly as her body memory seemed to take over. These weapons amazed her at how smooth they flowed in her hands. By the time Duff was ready to join her, the weapons felt at home in her hands, an extension of her arms.
Duff approached her with practice sai in hand and reverence in his eyes. "Can you teach me to do that?"
Lana chuckled, "yes. Let's begin."
For the next hour, that's what they did. Lana worked with Duff. Blaine supervised the sparring matches with everyone else. The teams tried to make it feel like business as usual but they knew that wasn't the case. Fighting beasts was one thing. Their next foe would be human.
The rest of the week seemed to race by with no word of plans. Lana evolved Kent every morning and let him recover during the day. With each evolution, he gained another pair of tentacled flanking his spine. By the time he was level 5, he had 10 to play with. He was still small but his muscle structure became more dense. He went from a 1-pound kitten to a 5-pound kitten.
Friday morning at breakfast, Lana got a message from Dilly. Her clothes were ready. Since Fridays just consisted of club class, Lana arranged to meet her during lunch. After a grueling time helping Doctor Tall, Lana happily raced to meet her seamstress.
Kattie accompanied Lana to the seamstress classroom. Dilly pulled them to her work area. There were three mannequins that were covered in sheets. There was also a sheet on her workstation.
Dilly removed the first sheet. This was an all-black outfit that covered her completely. This was created for stealth and looked similar to a body stocking. It was form-fitting. If this were a game, the defense rating would be 90. The boots had a passive skill called Silent Step which caused her steps to be quiet without any prompting by her. The whole outfit had elemental resistance to water. A game would give it a 75% damage reduction to water attacks.
The torso portion had a once a day skill called Rebound that reflected damage to the caster. The legs added to agility to make her faster and her acrobatics more effective. The arms added to her strength. The gloves also added to strength but had an added skill that acted as a dimensional pocket for small items. The example given was she could hide a max of four beast crystals between her gloves. Lana had a huge smile on her face after Dilly explained this all to her.
The next outfit was a shirt and pants with a jacket. The colors were red, yellow and black. The outfit looked like a blazing inferno. The shirt had spaghetti straps but seemed to support her quite well. She'd be able to move in any way she wanted and all her parts would stay where they were supposed to.
The jacket looked like a standard leather jacket a biker would wear but no zippers could be seen, even though they were there and had pockets on top of that. Her jacket had pockets on the inside as well which made her really happy. She felt there was a war on girls' clothing against pockets.
The boots had a small heel that was barely perceptible. She was able to move her foot in all ways with no decrease in her flexibility. She already liked it without even knowing any of its special attributes. The defense was the same on all three outfits. This outfit had 75% resistance to fire on all parts. The boots had speed on them as well as Wind Walk. This was a skill that allowed her to move faster but had a 5-minute cool down period.
Her torso also had an enhancement which absorbed a certain amount of energy from attacks and added to her MC. This meant she would take partial damage and absorb the rest. If this were a video game, it would state 35 points would be absorbed. There was also an active kill of heal which could only be used once every four hours. Her jacket had the active skill Bewilder which would cause an opponent with low intelligence to be distracted for up to seven seconds. It had a 30 minute cool-down time.
The dress looked like a blue sparkling evening gown with form-fitting ¾ sleeves. The skirt portion was flowing which would allow her full kicking range. Under the skirt was matching underwear which attached to the top so she had to step into this dress rather than pull it over her head. The boots matched and had a small ½ inch heel.
If this were a video game, there was a 75% chance the dress would shock anyone who hit her. It also had elemental resistance of 35. Her boots had an active skill called Electric Eel. For two minutes, she could shock anyone she kicked. This had a 30-minute cool down.
Lana was exceptionally pleased. Then Dilly unveiled what was on the table under the sheet. There was a choker, what looked like a cloth version of bracers, and another thing she didn't quite recognize. All were reversible so they could be worn with either outfit.
The choker had a light crystal in it that resembled an opal when not activated. The setting was mirrored. She simply needed to touch it, and she could see in the dark. To reverse it, she needed to hold the setting and press the stone. It moved the stone to the other side of the fabric yet held the stone firmly. It also had an active skill of Amplify Voice. She had unlimited uses of this.
The bracers snapped on around her forearms. She was surprised at the weight of them. She looked at Dilly in askance.
"They have an added something extra. You can use them to block attacks up to level-7 like with normal armor but these build up energy. Once enough has built up, they send out a spark at the attacker."
Lana smiled even brighter. She then picked up this small thing that was rounded.
"For your hair. Your ponytail. It does a few things. One, it keeps the rain off you, so you stay dry and your visibility doesn't get affected by rain in your eyes. But it does the same thing with wind, blowing sand, things like that. Now, if it's an ability wind or water, for example, above level 7, it won't help but it won't get damaged unless it's hit."
Lana squealed. This was the perfect thing she didn't know she needed. She put on the jacket, bracers, choker and hair piece after its use was demonstrated. She then asked Kent to sit on her shoulder. She moved around and he stayed put with his claws and no damage was done. She carefully packed her new clothing in her bag and realized the black outfit was thin enough to be worn with the other two.
Katie and Lana returned to their room where Lana finished changing. She put on the thin black outfit then the black flaming outfit.
"How do I look, Kattie?" Lana looked doubtful in the mirror.
Kattie smirked, "good enough for the hottest man in the school."
Lana giggled as there was a knock at the door. Lana answered it to find Blaine looking as handsome as ever in his finer clothing that he rarely wore on campus.
He glanced at Kattie then spoke a little more urgently to Lana. "I think we need to hang out with Paul for a few minutes," he glanced back at Kattie, "come with us."
On the way up, Blaine leaned down toward her ear, "you look amazing. This outfit was worth every penny."
Lana smiled, biting her bottom lip.
With her bag on her back and Kent on her shoulder, they all walked up to her adoptive brother's room. Paul saw her outfit and her cat and realized that would not do. He asked for her bag and made it taller. This way Kent could rest between her shoulders and the bag and be hidden by her hair.
They were now as ready for Barica as they could be.