3b.) Arthur

" No stay. " This time it was Alex, who stayed quiet for most of the conversation. " Me and Echo, we'll "

Echo chimed in with him on that last word, " get stronger, we can only get up to B rank for a short period of time, but if we had a way to train here before we fought the lords, we could increase our power and take on these guys. "

Tesla's ears perked up. Echo had mentioned training to increase their powers, and Arthur had questioned a lack thereof. It was enough.

Tesla glanced thoughtfully at Erik, then turned to Arthur.
"So...are there any fast ways for us to increase our powers?" she asked shrewdly.

Alan responded to Tesla and Erik, with the obvious answer: "Just do a hologram battle with Echo... the humans can increase their spirit potential without actively weakening your own bodies... on top of that, you won't have to worry about structural damage or getting anyone caught up in it... you'll be able to fight at your maximum power without being sensed, because there will be nothing to be sensed..."

Alex and Echo turned to Tesla and Erik. " You guys ready? I could connect my (c)XLR8 to yours and we could have a ghost battle, same experience, and we could get stronger. Though we should have a few, so that we both get plenty of experience. If only one of us wins it would be pointless. "

"I'm ready," Erik said, already fiddling with his XLR. Before he did anything, he opened up the battery case and retrieved two of the four batteries; apparently he wanted to save them for something else.

Tesla looked over Erik's shoulder as he connected to Alex's device. When he felt her breath on his neck, he turned around, greeted by a face that said, 'If-you-don't-win-bad-things-will-happen.'

In between the two connected XLR8s, was a giant holographic field that was barren on the floor. The floor of the hologram seemed to be squares. While there were no walls, a faint blue seemed to surround the 12 by 12 inch box. A suspended flat roof seems to be suspended also by 12 inches. A mini Echo and Tesla were each at one end of the field. Each were one foot high and took up one square.

As Erik, Alex, and their partners, as well as many DaCre who had never seen the phenomenon of a 'video game' featuring them before, were focused on the ongoing battle outside of the ward, Alan seemed to be looking up at above ground, at a fixed, moving point, as if tracing something.

Arthur sensed this too, and stepped beside him, looking at the same place. "It seems someone is going on ahead of us..." Arthur said. Alan frowned slightly.

"A pity..." Alan whispered. "You think it would be harder than this... use the route we discussed..."

Arthur nodded, and ducked out, moving out of sight of the other DaCre, as Alan pulled out his device, and focused on it...

As soon as the field was formed, Erik wasted no time in the imperative process of sitting down against a wall and making himself comfortable, facing the field and his XLR. He then tapped the 'rank-up' button, prompting the holo-Tesla to attempt to rank up to C, both fighters starting in their D-form. Since it was right off the bat, it had a decent chance of succeeding, but Erik was ready in case Echo tried to interrupt the rank-up.

Alex, having the same idea in his mind, pressed his rank up button at the same time as Erick. Echo, mumbling about how weak the hologram made her look. Turned her gaze to Alan and Arthur. Her ears had been tuned into what Alex was saying completely. But when she stopped blocking out everything else, among the things her brain processed from her advanced hearing was " Use the route we discussed ".

~ Use the route we discussed? Is Alan going back into the desert? ~

The holo-Tesla, upon ranking up, charged up a crackling javelin of electricity, which she then proceeded to toss at Echo with a quick under-hand throw...It was a weak throw, so from such a distance it wasn't even clear if it was going to reach Echo...Nonetheless, it would reach an area near Echo in a few moments if she did not respond.

The real Tesla was immensely interested and somewhat amused by the fight that was taking place, never having a chance to spectate, herself. She had almost missed Arthur leaving, but she'd felt his data signature weaken and leave from the numerous ones she could sense.

The hologram Echo flew up above the Javelin by two squares, and screamed. The wierd thing about this super sonic scream, is that, unlike the real Echo's, this one was slow. And the scream was defined in a blue circle that grew wider and taller as it went at Tesla.

The Hologram Echo, after screaming, put her hands foward and fired off three claws at the hologram Tesla. These were fast, and were intended to pierce the torso.

As it merely a light toss, Tesla had had plenty of time to dodge to the left almost before the anticipated attack. Just before her javelin hit the ground where Echo had been moments before, it slowed and halted, then turned up and sped towards Echo. The spear was directly underneath Echo, so it was quite possible the attack would go unseen.

As Tesla concentrated on moving the spear, she charged up another in her right hand.

The Hologram Echo flew back, the buzzing of the electricity loud in it's large digital ears. Shooting three more spikes right at the base of the twisting electrical spear. Since it was coming up, and Tesla was busy charging, it was unlikely the electricty could dodge as Tesla had only managed to make it go in straight lines.

With it's ears and right hand focused on the buzzing, the digital Echo had it's eyes and left hand focused on the real Tesla.

Since Tesla earlier had moved to the left, it was against the wall, all the way to Echo's right and Tesla's left. Since it was all the way against the wall, Echo didn't have to waste ammo on shooting at that side.

The thumb spike went at Tesla's stomach, the pointer finger was shooting at the head, and the middle finger was shooting above it. Each would arrive at the same moment. The remaining two spikes were to Tesla's right, so that if it moved to the right, it would still be impaled at the waist and chest, while it's shoulder would be impaled by the spikes aiming for it's body now.

They were all travelling fast, and would arrive at the same time. Since Tesla was concentrating on the Lance and charging her own, she would be a little slow to react due to using her concentration on three things at once. Dodging, controlling, and charging.

It would be hard to dodge.

There was no need for Tesla to dodge. The claws had been shot just as Tesla had charged up electricity; she merely directed it into another attack. A humming shield of electricity quickly materialized in front of Tesla, large enough to cover her entire front and negate any threat from the claws. She allowed the spear she'd thrown earlier to discharge itself into the claws...

She was just visible behind the shield, charging up a third time for another attack...

Echo, just repeated herself, this time using her both her claws. Shooting four at the body, two above, two Tesla's right since she was against the wall and two near her head to the right. This was a swarm technique so that even a repulsive shield couldn't possibly take them all.

For good measure, Echo then screamed, little blue digital circles sprang from the pseudo Echo's mouth towards the Digital Tesla in the circle.