<span style="font-weight: bold">"I wouldn't worry about my safety for this form is stronger than the previous and yet there are still two forms I've not used since I returned to the world of the living, and besides I'm not called the Wind Mage for nothing."</span>As Vaati spoke, Doce barely held in a groan.<span style="font-style: italic">I give up,</span>she thought.<span style="font-style: italic">This fake world is torturing me on purpose.</span>Carefully, she stacked the last two cards at the top of the tower, resting Frahlah's elbow on his knee and his cheek on his hand as she stared at the fragile tower.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">It's so frustrating,</span>she thought.<span style="font-style: italic">Don't get angry,</span>she imagined a better her arguing.<span style="font-style: italic">Don't get angry when it's not going to help anything.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Well what then,</span>she imagined her lesser self retorting.<span style="font-style: italic">This is awful-- I wanna cry.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">You can't cry yet either,</span>the better self said softly.<span style="font-style: italic">In a world filled with losses, the tears would be wasted on your own petty woes.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">This place is no good,</span>she thought, existing now as a middle ground.<span style="font-style: italic">It's not enough to get home. I have to destroy this place.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">You haven't the power,</span>doubt argued.<span style="font-style: italic">Not even with Frahlah's abilities.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Incorrect,</span>said strategy.<span style="font-style: italic">With Frahlah's abilities, my self, and this setting, I have just enough power.</span><br/><br/>Doce took a calm breath and put Frahlah's cards away.<span style="font-style: italic">Behold the internal-management powers of an introvert,</span>she joked, standing and stepping closer to the windows to watch Vaati's fight.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>She was impressed, in that Vaati seemed to wield great power, but at the same time the display didn't thrill her. Maybe because he was a game character, as opposed to an anime character? It more or less meant that his max level was his<span style="font-style: italic">max</span>level. It a long-running anime like Slayers, the cast would repeatedly grow stronger to deal with bigger and badder foes. This was also true of game protagonists. But, for an antagonist, like Vaati, his abilities were strictly controlled so the protagonist would win in the end. The very fact that Link ended up surrendering, then, meant that there was some human consciousness inside Vaati, even though he seemed to "actually" be the wind mage. The abilities of that consciousness (and perhaps contributions from other worlds, usually unavailable in the world of Zelda) would be the only way for a character like Vaati to get stronger that he already was. Frahlah was a natural protagonist, so even if she did nothing, he would continue to grow stronger.<br/><br/>So perhaps the reason she was passive to the awe of the battle before her, was because it looked like a "dead end." She waited in anticipation as Vaati and Dark Link's rankings were assigned (and was glad that they were in a different section than her, since their ranks were higher), and in the moments directly after, until Adam spoke up, asking for a new volunteer. Part of her had been hoping for a last minute plot twist that would foreshadow greater things to come. That twist could still happen, but since it hadn't then, it could be days, even weeks, before it did. She was somewhat sure of this, since the rules of games and anime had to apply here, or none of them could exist in their current states.<br/><br/>"Congratulations, General," she said to Vaati after he downed some strange potion. It didn't seem to heal the gash Link had made on his chest, and she gestured at it. "Want that patched up?"