I could already foresee how the fight would go with Miss Toontastic if I didn't change things up.

She would dive in, and I would be on the backfoot.

She would move so fast I would have to slow down my perception of time, which would give me the edge I would need to counter her dangerous clawed swipes.

How things would escalate from there I wasn't sure. What I did know was that I wanted to avoid that predictability.

Stop relying on slowed time perception, I told myself.

It was then Miss Toontastic did a little bounce off one foot with gravity defying springiness.

Here she comes, Slip resonated inside my head.

And Slip was right, because Miss Toontastic kicked off the garden grass and hurtled towards me.

It was mesmerizing watching the way she twirled through the air, her cream-coloured prom-like dress rippling, particularly around her ankles, like flames.

The cost of not slowing my time perception was fighting Miss Toontastic again in real time.

Don't go easy on her Burgess, Slip resonated inside my head.

There wasn't any time to consider what Slip said. Miss Toontastic was too fast for that. So, instinctually, I listened to Slip's suggestion without hesitation.

I bounded forwards and upwards with as much strength as I could muster in my Slip-bodied legs.

My right knee roamed in on Miss Toontastic's head. She twirled just out of reach of my attacking knee in a way, yet again, that seemingly defied the laws of gravity.

Her claws carved into my waist, tearing away three long strips of flesh.

I thrashed wildly with my left arm to deliver a counter-blow to Miss Toontastic, but she soared out of reach, struck the ground with both hands and then sprang away, summersaulting through the air before landing deftly again.

The pain at my left hip joined the searing sting and aches across my chest.

I landed on the grass with both feet. For a split second I was able to register the pain, and the sensation of warm blood leaking like stream water from both open wounds.

Miss Toontastic wasn't relenting however.

She sprang into action again, this time remaining low to the ground, soaring a few inches off the grass.

And then she seemed to freeze.

And everything became quiet.

Because the slowing down of my perception of time stretched all noise to near silence.

It hadn't been my choice to do this.

It was Slip's.

What are you doing? I thought.

Giving you time to think, Slip resonated.

I was trying to think without slowing things down, I thought back.

It wasn't working, Slip resonated, Use this opportunity to figure things out. It's not wise to avoid slowing your time perception when you haven't replaced it with something else.

It was then I noticed the pain in my chest and hip where the flesh was torn, was also climbing. Worse, the pain doubled, and trebled - the more aware of it I became the more it hurt.

My face grimaced in slow-motion, my teeth baring.

Oh no, I thought, desperately, I can't take this pain much longer.

Burgess, concentrate, Slip resonated, Just focus on how you're going to improve. We'll worry about the rest after.

There was something about the way Slip spoke inside my mind that made it very difficult to disagree with him.

Okay, I thought.

The pain had quadrupled from its original searing and stinging; like the sharp pain of pulling loose skin around a fingernail but magnified to eye-watering torture.

Miss Toontastic had moved a half-inch closer in the time it had taken for me to have the brief exchange with Slip inside my head. I had hardly moved either, and still I seemed to hardly have any time to figure out my next move.

Slip help me, I thought, I don't know what to do.

Yes you do, Slip resonated, reason out what you need. Focus.

I did as Slip suggested.

I need to counter Miss Toontastic, I thought, but I don't want to slow things down. It would be far easier if I could predict what she was going to do next.

And then I had an idea. A smile started to ease onto my face in super slow-motion. Pain be damned.

Slip, I thought, I want to tap into the Intuition ability I have.

The same as when you predicted the Sub-Divisioners were soon to attack the mansion? Slip resonated back inside my head.

Yes, I thought, But I want to use it for combat. Is that possible?

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There was a pause. Which in this slowed-down state meant there was no distraction from the ever-building pain like fire cooking my chest and hip. Worse, the pain throbbed every few seconds with an ebb and flow in tandem with my beating heart pumping blood through my Slip-body.

We'll use your Intuition ability on Xandra, AKA Miss Toontastic, Slip resonated inside my head, there's no telling what consequences there'll be for using the power in this way, Burgess. Prepare yourself.

And then I saw it. The smudge. Both in my mind's eye, but also directly in my field of vision like a dirty smear over a windscreen.

Beyond the smudge was Miss Toontastic, and she was almost within reach of me. Worse, her body was completely poised for attack, where I was still standing without even my arms raised to protect myself.

What to do? I thought.

The smudge remained in my field of view, obscuring Miss Toontastic. Which then gave me an idea.

Move the smudge over Miss Toontastic, I thought.

Slip, who appeared to be some kind of mediator for the power to achieve this, worked in tandem with my mind and the power. And then the smudge started to move in my field of vision, like a wisp of fog which wrapped around Miss Toontastic.

The strain inside my head was reaching an intensity I hadn't prepared for. It was like the nitro-fuel burn of slowing my time perception but several times worse.

The power was working however.

In fact, it worked so well I was certain the intense neural activity going on inside my head in line with the power should have killed me. It was Slip, as a mediating force, that took what would have been a life-ending amount of mental overload and chopped it up into smaller, less lethal pieces.

What's happening? I thought.

My eyes were straining, and my nose was freshly clogged with blood which hadn't yet leaked out because of the slowness with which time was moving.

It's pure information and understanding, Slip resonated inside my head, Far more than your mind is able to take. I'm breaking it down as fast as I can – get ready, Burgess. This is going to be rough.

Miss Toontastic reached me, her clawed hand drawing steadily closer to my face. It took an incredible mental effort to force my arms up to block the attack, whilst also ducking my head back out of the way. The motion to do so had started, but at the rate everything was moving it would take the equivalent of five minutes for the act of blocking and ducking away from Miss Toontastic's swipe to play out.

I didn't have that kind of time. Not within my own mind. Not anymore. My brain felt as if it were on the verge of exploding.

And then my slowed perception of time stopped, and normal speed resumed. The pressure in my head relented, and instinctively I batted away Miss Toontastic's clawed swipe, sending her off-course.

It was clear as day to me what Miss Toontastic was going to do next. She began to spin again through the air, with unnatural momentum.

And I knew that there was going to be a split-second as she spun that her eyes weren't on me.

I reached out and took hold of Miss Toontastic's neck and pressed down with a great deal of might in my Slip-bodied arm.

THUD!

Just like that I had Miss Toontastic's face pressed down against the back-garden grass.

Could deliver a crushing blow to the back of her head, I thought.

But I didn't want to hurt her like that.

So I let go of the back of her neck and leapt backwards, creating distance between us again.

Miss Toontastic was in shock. She recovered in an instant, her raccoonish face speckled with mud and blades of torn up grass.

The doe-eyed look in her huge toonish eyes asked a simple, perplexed question: How did you just do that?

I needed time to heal. She wasn't going to give me that time. That is, unless I said the right things.

"Don't you find it strange," I resonated, "That you're fighting way harder right now than you did against the Sub-Divisioners?"

Miss Toontastic's already wide eyes widened to a degree that seemed deadly.

She lacked grace in the way she climbed to her feet.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she said.

I entered into a power stance and commanded the power to heal my chest and hip wounds.

After a brief delay the power kicked in. I rasped from the pain, but it was far less agonizing than how it had felt when experiencing pain whilst my time perception was slowed.

"I mean," I resonated, knowing just what buttons to push, "You seem way more comfortable tearing me to shreds than our enemies."

"That's not fair!" Miss Toontastic shouted, "How can you say that?"

My wounds were starting to stitch themselves shut. To get them fully closed I needed more time.

"I know how strong you are," I resonated, "So I guess what I'm saying is – well, I guess I was disappointed by how little you did when we fought the Sub-Divisioners."

She's going to be hurt by what I said for a few moments. And then she's going to become indignant, and angry, and then she's going to spring towards me. But, when she gets close, she's going to spring upwards, twirl through the air, and then attack me with a drop-kick.

And, as if I had predicted the future, that was exactly what Miss Toontastic did next.

She bared her fangs, and leapt forwards.

And it was the sheer level of control over her movements which was amazing to behold.

She's blood-bending, I thought.

That was how she was able to adjust her movements so unnaturally whilst in mid-air. Before, when I had lost control to the Fox-Frog-Monster a second time, Xandra had used her own blood as spears with which to attack.

Back then she had also taken a moment to flood her body with additional testosterone to give her the focus and anger to take the fight to the Fox-Frog-Monster, despite how afraid she had been.

Miss Toontastic sailed forwards, feigning to swipe for my legs.

But then, just as predicted, she brought her swiping claws downwards to the grass and pushed off with incredible strength and agility, and with the addition of the blood in her body pushing her upwards too. The degree to which she could control the blood in her body was small, and very limited, but enough that she could influence the kinetic force of her body to have much greater overall control.

Having seen all of it coming, fighting back against her kick was as simple as reaching upwards and grabbing hold of her ankle. I yanked down with as much strength in my Slip-body as possible in that instant.

Miss Toontastic hadn't expected me to react so fast.

She flung her arms out to prevent herself from falling face-first into the grass a second time.

She's going to extend her legs and feet to surprise me with an elastic double-kick.

The prediction was so clear it was as if it had already happened. I let go of Miss Toontastic's ankles and squatted as fast as I could. And, as predicted, with piston-like power her legs and feet shot over my head, extending several inches longer than would be natural for a non-rubbery pair of legs.

I threw a fist up, striking Miss Toontastic square in the gut.

Her body was tough, and took the blow well. It was enough however to temporarily knock the wind out of her.

I rolled away and stood to my full height.

Miss Toontastic slumped onto her side, nursing her gut, curling into a fetal position.

Her face was filled with confusion and rage.

Drip.

Blood continued to leak from my nostrils onto the grass.

Crap, I thought, Haven't healed that yet.

Miss Toontastic was beside herself with frustration. She thrashed on the ground, pulling up blades of grass.

Finally, her frustration subsided, and she calmed. She looked up at me and showed off her fangs again with a smile.

I finished healing my bleeding nose by the time Miss Toontastic rose slowly to her feet.

"You're using the power differently?" she said.

I nodded.

"Okay," she said.

And then she smiled with genuine enthusiasm.

"Thanks for not going easy on me," she said.

"Wouldn't dream of it," I resonated.

Miss Toontastic entered into a fighting stance, placing her wrists together and spreading out her clawed fingers.

"You're right," she said, "I was afraid to fight back when we were fighting the Sub-Divisioners. I won't freeze up next time. Ready for the final round?"

I put my left hand behind my back, and extended my right arm out in front of me, palm facing the sky, fingers together.

I wagged my fingers, beckoning her to begin her next attack.

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