The bout hadn't lasted long after that decisive strike. While Tox struggled to overcome the effects of the toxin, Dust Devil was even worse off. The dust caused Tox to experience muscle spasms and interfered with her ability to move effectively. She fell from the air but managed to maintain enough control to land without injuring herself.
The Bugbat was able to stay airborne longer but was clearly suffering. After a moment of continued flight, it too chose to decend landing on the ground. While Tox struggled to move attempting to keep distance between them, the bat shuffled forward awkwardly clearly unsuited to moving across the ground. More than the bat seemed to grow weaker with each passing moment. Tox on the other hand was regaining her control slowly but surely.
It seemed that her small size had actually served to reduce the amount of toxin she was exposed to. Though it didnt take much for her to get an effective amount, once the initial dose started to wain, there was no more dust for her to ingest. Her carapace prevented her from absorbing it through exposed skin, and the little bit that got in through her lungs mouth and eyes was quickly being over powered by her innate toxin resistance.
By the time Tox was recovered enough to take to the air once again, her opponent had collapsed.
The reps called for the end of the match and patricia handed Flicker off to her rep to hold before lowering herself into the pit to administer the anti-venom she had prepared. Once that was done she felt her fingers growing numb and felt tiny spasms running through her hands and forearms. When she went to climb out she found she couldn't, and had to accept help and an antidote as well before the jerking calmed and the numbness faded.
---
Once she was back to her waiting room, she surveyed the mental state of Tox. Just as she had expected the stinger was in high spirits. Countering a beast that relied on a similar method to overcome its enemies seemed to be the source of a lot of satisfaction for the beast.
With that confirmed, Patricia tried to deepen her emotional connection to the beast in a similar way as she had with physical sensations, but soon ran into the familiar wall that marked the extent of her abilities. Instead she turned to hope and opened herself to the stinger. The doubling of sensations happened again and hope froze clutching to the bars of her cage. Patricia waited and when the stinger moved she could feel it. She raised her own arm and saw the stinger shift its head with interest. Patricia focused and tried to wiggle her wings. At first it felt like trying to shift a mountain, but then Hope relaxed her own control and the wings began to move easily. Patricia tried her best to relax her own control of her body and though she could feel a vague twitching in her arm. It seemed hope lacked the strength of spirit to move the unfamiliar limb, however.
"Now that is interesting." Patricia said. She closed her own eyes and dived as deep into the sensations of her stinger. She sent a mental request to Little Hope asking her to fly around her cage as best she could. The stinger complied lifting from the bars and flying in a small circle before stopping and hovering in place. Patricia could feel how each muscle flexed, pulling the wings and shifting the weight of her body to facilitate her path.
She had Hope land on the bars once again. Then, she attempted the same flight on her own. It took over a dozen attempts before she could complete the full circuit without hope having to pitch in to keep herself in the air. She had the hardest time with hovering in place. The precise balancing and minute movements required were so intricate even wrapping her mind around them was difficult. Eventually she got the hang of it though.
She continued to experiment eventually moving on to the other stingers. Unsurprisingly, none were as easy to control as Hope. Buzz was the most stubborn barely tolerating her intrusion let alone giving her any control. The other 3 conscious stingers were a mix. Tox was hardly more accepting than buzz; being stunned durring the battle had bypassed her resistance it seemed. Crabs apeared to not be bothered by his master's presence but had trouble not seizing back control without meaning to. Blister was ok with Patricia's controlling his body but would intentionally take back her agency whenever he disagreed with a course of actions.
It releived patricia that she couldn't force her beasts to do anything they didnt want to. Maybe with practice she could overcome that obstacle, but she wasnt entirely comfortable with userping the agency of another being without consent.
She had attempted to allow the stingers to control her own body, but all had failed. Patricia wondered wht caused that inability. Was it in the nature of the bonds origin being her own ki? Or maybe, it was due to the stingers limited mental and spiritual states. Maybe some other factor came into effect that patricia was unaware of. No matter what, this option seemed beyond her reach for the time being.
She thought hard about diffrent advantages this ability might grant her stingers in the coming matches. Outside of very specific circumstances like the stunning sonic pulse however, she didnt see much point. In general the stingers own ability to control their bodies far exceeded patricia. The biggest advantage was the sharing of perspective which may allow her to see something the stinger missed. But this came with the drawback of dividing the stinger's own attention by adding the sight and sensations of another body.
She only had a handful of minutes before she was likely to be called to her next match when a possibility occurred to her. Her having the perspective of the battling stinger might not help much but what if she could share those sensations with a third party.
Crabs was too vulnerable to continue to face opponents. What would she do if an opponent came whos abilities would be best countered by his natural proclivity for prediction? What if there was a way to give crabs a first person perspective on what was happening? Would he be able to predict the opponents actions, and would patricia be able to communicate that to the combatant.
She tried opening two connections, one to Crabs and another to Hope. She was eventually able to succeed, and quickly discovered a problem. Two perspectives may have been disorienting, but three was nearly too much to bare. Eventually she had settled into a seat closed her eyes and done her best to ignore her own sensations. It worked, if only just.
"Ill need to practice seeing from multiple perspectives." She said to herself.
The next issue was the two stingers didnt seem to share their prospective with each other, only with patricia herself. She eventually managed to overcome this by tricking her brain into thinking Hopes perspective was her primary senses. She wasnt sure why but this enabled crabs to see and feel through hopes perspective. Hope was still unable to perceive crabs however. So patricia had to make herself into a conduit for the two. interpreting crabs impulses before broadcasting these to hope second hand.
It was clunky and patricia lacked the time to polish this technique. She also could feel her ki draining from her far quicker than she was used to. While sharing prospectives didnt seem any more draining than her weaker ability had been before, chanelling two while also facilitating the communication of the two stingers put a strain she was unfamiliar with.
She knew many ki users had to train and practice to grow their capacity to maintain their abilities, but she had never been one. Even after using her ki for hours on end she almost never noticed any change in her reserves. Now that had changed. She decided she would have to begin doing ki exercises to increase her capacity.
Releasing her ki she sighed in relief. "I guess even a trickle adds up with enough holes in a bucket." On top of that her head was hurting with the effort of maintaining multiple perspectives.
It was to the point that when the knock came at the door she first mistook it for the pounding of her head
She only responded when the door opened and her representative asked if she was ready for her next bout. She smiled through the pain and rose from her seat. Time to go again.