Catra stood onto of a grassy hill looking down upon a grassy field as her tail twitched. She stood with one hip cocked, just in case Adora was looking at her right then, and smirked. "I gotta say, I wasn't expecting them to be so colorful," she said.

"That is a very pink frog," Adora said, solemnly, moving up beside Catra. "Also big. When they were talking about giant frogs I was expecting something us-sized. Not something that looks like it could eat Kyle for breakfast and Lonnie for lunch."

"It makes sense though. If they weren't dangerous you wouldn't need to hire someone to take care of them," Catra said.

"Still, they're pretty big for something that is considered an opponent for beginners," Adora said.

"Phsh, we can handle it," Catra said, dismissively, idly picking at her claws.

"Well of course we can. We're the best fighters of the Horde and Alliance respectively," Adora said, confidently.

"I mean, I am, of course. But I'm not too sure about you," Catra said, teasingly.

"What do you mean?" Adora asked, with an exaggerated frown.

"Well it's been a long time since you actually fought as Adora. Are you sure you can handle it without She-Ra to fall back on?" Catra asked, mockingly.

"Oh? Oh ho ho? You think I need She-Ra? Well Catra, just for that, I'm going to kill all five of these frogs by myself," Adora said, faking a laugh.

"Pfff, sure. I bet you can't even manage one frog before I need to step in and help," Catra said, smirking. Adora smirked back and pulled out her adventurer's card.

"Okay, let's see here. Umm, Holy Might! Armour of Faith! Blessing!" Adora glowed with magical might as she cast buff after buff on herself. "Alright, let's do this thing!" she charged down the hill, yelling. Two frogs immediately turned to face her, tracking her movements with their giant heads. One tongue lashed out, and Adora dodged out of the way. The second frog's tongue tried to grab her, but Adora slid under it.

"Ha!" she shouted, swinging up and cutting a line down the tongue as it retracted. "Now take this," she added, running past the frog, dragging her dagger through its flesh as she did. The frog jumped away while the other launched its tongue at Adora again. She slapped it aside with a faintly glowing fist and raised her sword to the sky. "For the Honor of Greyskull!"

Nothing happened. "Ooooh right," Adora said, sheepishly, moments before being grabbed by a tongue and swallowed, her legs sticking out of the frog's mouth.

"Adora!" Catra shouted, panic surging through her. She had been enjoying the fight but the thought of Adora dying was too much to bear. She began running down the hill when she heard a muffled shout come from the frog before it exploded. Adora staggered to her feet, covered in slime and frog guts.

"Hey Catra!" she shouted, waving cheerfully, before the next frog ate her. Catra paused, waiting with wide eyes and sure enough Adora shouted something and the frog exploded. Adora staggered to her feet again and glanced around, looking for Catra. When she spotted her, she waved again and started moving over. "I figured out their weakpoint," she called, as she walked over.

"Clearly they are deathly allergic to blondes," Catra said, plastering a smirk on her face and trying to get her heart rate to slow down.

"Ha ha," Adora said, wiping some slime off her face with the back of a hand. "But seriously. Ends up if I use my Smite spell while they are trying to swallow me, it tears them apart completely."

"I can see that," Catra said dryly, looking at the eviscerated frog corpses. "And what? It won't work unless you've been eaten first?"

"No. I mean, maybe. Look, it's kinda hard to use alright? I've got to cast the spell on the knife, hold it there, and dodge the frog's attacks until I can stab them with it. And yeah, it'd probably do a lot of damage, but it wouldn't be a guaranteed kill. When they eat me, all I got to do is cast the spell and immediately release it. It's just easier," Adora said, shrugging.

"What? Your experience as a princess not helping with magic?" Catra asked, teasingly, her tail flicking back and forth.

"Hey, I was a pretty awful princess!" Adora argued, getting a weird look from Catra. She blushed. "There was a reason I only ever tried to hit you with my sword. Apparently She-Ra was capable of all sorts of magic, but I never really was any good at it," she admitted, sheepishly.

"And nobody tried teaching you?" Catra asked, doubtfully.

"I mean, I had Lighthope, but half the time she was glitching out and the other half the time she was completely unhelpful. I mean seriously, 'let go of all attachments.' Sure, like that's so easy to do!" Adora said, sticking her tongue out at the memory.

"Okay. Well you're going to have to learn now I guess," Catra said.

"Ehr?" Adora looked at Catra, puzzled.

"I mean, sure, it works out today with the frogs. But letting the monster eat you, and then casting the spell won't work against something that actually has teeth," Catra explained. "So yeah, practice against the frogs, and if they eat you, just blow them up like you did before."

"Oh, these spells work completely differently!" Adora said, brightly. "I just have to say the spell and concentrate. My emotions don't come into play at all."

"Cool. So get to work, dork," Catra said, giving Adora a playful shove. Adora stuck her tongue out at Catra and ran off to find another frog while Catra wiped her hand off against the grass and watched. The first frog went badly. Adora clearly paused as she cast her spell, and was quickly eaten as a result. One exploded frog later, and Adora was ready to try again. This time she tried casting it early. It worked, in the sense she didn't get eaten, but by the time she had dodged the frog's tongue and stabbed it, the spell had worn off. What resulted was a frantic series of dodges, stabs, and deflections as Adora fought the frog and actually managed to kill one without being eaten.

"Go Adora! Kick their slimy butts!" Catra cheered. Adora gave her a brief wave to show she heard, and charged the fifth frog. The blue frog's tongue lashed out at Adora, but instead of dodging Adora braced herself on the ground and caught the tongue with both arms. Her body glowed with magical might as Adora powered herself up with buff spells, and incredibly she managed to keep a hold of the frog's tongue that had easily pulled her in to be eaten three times now. They stood in a standoff for a few moments, before Adora let go of the tongue. The frog gave a mighty ribbit, and jumped toward Adora. She gave a warcry and charge back at it. The frog's mouth snapped down to gobble up Adora, and she stabbed it in the head. There was a flash of light, and the frog was blasted backwards by a sudden shockwave, falling to the ground in two pieces.

"Whew," Adora huffed, sitting down on the grass and panting as she tried to catch her breath.

"There you go! Looks like you're finally getting the hang of it," Catra said, sauntering over. "What is that spell anyways?"

"It's called Smite. It multiplies the amount of damage dealt by my weapon and increases how much it multiplies it by depending how much mana I put in the spell," Adora said, looking up at Catra.

"Well it certainly works," Catra said, inspecting the devastated frogs Adora left in her wake. "How much mana were you putting in each Smite anyways?"

"I dunno. It's kinda hard to tell. I was just putting as much mana as I could," Adora said, shrugging.

"I guess there's no kill like overkill," Catra said. She stood there, waiting patiently for Adora. For about thirty seconds. "You going to stand up?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Give me a hand? I'm wiped," Adora asked, holding a hand up and still breathing heavily.

"Really? Are you that out of shape from being She-ra?" Catra asked, grabbing Adora's hand and hauling her to her feet. She stared at the slime on her hand, gave it a sniff, and then stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"I am not out of shape!" Adora protested. "Using that much magic really tires you out!"

"Uh-huh. Sure," Catra said, dryly.

"If you don't believe me then test it for yourself," Adora said, leaning forward and glaring. "Go on, cast a spell."

"Alright, fine. Let's see here," Catra said, pulling out her adventurer's card. She looked through what skills she knew. "I don't really have that many spells. But here's one. Mark Target!" she said, pointing a finger at Adora. Nothing appeared to happen.

"...Did it work?" Adora asked, hesitantly.

"I think so," Catra closed her eyes, and turned her back on Adora. She walked a few steps away and then spun around three times. Afterwards she pointed directly at Adora. "Am I pointing at you?" she asked.

"Yup,"

"Cool, then it worked. So long as I keep the spell up, I know which direction you are in," Catra said.

"Neat. Can you have multiple marks up at once?" Adora asked, a small smirk appearing before she quashed it.

"Let's give it a shot," Catra said, shrugging. "Mark Target, Mark Target, Mark Target, Mark Target, Mark Target!" Catra repeatedly cast her spell, pointing at a different frog in the distance each time. "There. Now if it works, those will be the frogs we kill tomorrow."

"Neat. What's that like?" Adora asked, as they started to walk back into town.

"Kinda like having a compass in your head pointing to where the target is. Having six going at once is like having six compasses at once, all pointing at different directions," Catra explained.

"Isn't that confusing?"

"A little. But if I focus on them, I can figure it out. And when I'm not focusing on them, I can just ignore them," Catra said, shrugging. The pair walked on, and Adora noticed first when Catra started to slow down.

"You alright?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm fine," Catra said, shortly, scowling. But despite her words, she soon began to lag, and then pant, as they walked. Finally Catra sat down, glaring at the ground as she tried to catch her breath.

"What's wrong?" Adora asked, frowning and sitting down in front of Catra.

"Nothing," Catra insisted, even as she trembled from exertion. Adora rolled her eyes.

"Alright. Well clearly you aren't in pain. And nothing attacked you. Hmm," she reached over and grabbed Catra's cheeks, forcing her too look at her.

"Let go of me before I claw you," she hissed, trying to yank her head back. Adora let go, and stood back up.

"You aren't feverish either," she said, humming to herself as she thought. "Aha! It's from your Mark Target spells! I told you casting spells really takes it out of you!" she said, triumphantly slapping a fist into her palm.

"Don't be ridiculous. I pointed my finger at some frogs. That shouldn't tire me out," Catra said, gasping.

"Magic doesn't really make sense," Adora said, shrugging. "Using it making you exhausted makes about as much sense as anything else it does."

"Well I'm not letting it beat me," Catra said, forcing herself to stand.

"What are you doing?" Adora asked, exasperated.

"I'm going to walk all the way back to Axel and keep those marks up the whole time," Catra declared, taking a wobbly step.

"Catra don't be ridiculous," Adora said, sighing. Catra didn't say anything, just glaring at Adora. She made it about a dozen steps before she started leaning on Adora. By the time they could see Axel, Adora was practically carrying her. Finally Catra's legs gave out altogether, and Adora scooped her up, bridal style.

"M'fin," Catra mumbled.

"You can't even walk," Adora said, to no response. She looked at Catra's face and saw that she had passed out. "And people call me stubborn," she huffed to herself as she hauled Catra back to the city.

/*/

When Catra awoke she found herself with her head on Adora's lap, as they sat on a bench in the city. What would normally be a pleasant experience was ruined by the fact that Adora was still covered in frog guts and slime. And her face was pressed into Adora's sodden shirt.

"Awk, gross gross gross!" Catra yelped, rolling off Adora's lap and falling on the ground. "Ow," she groaned.

"Did you have a nice nap, Catra?" Adora asked, pleasantly.

"Bleh," Catra said, rubbing her face. "Ew, I can't get this smell out of my nose, argh."

"Come on, lets go get a bath," Adora said, standing up and offering Catra a hand.

"What about our money? We still need to cash in the quest," Catra said, taking her hand and pulling her self up. She gave Adora's hand a quick squeeze, and glanced around to see who was watching them. Besides the occasional person frowning at their appearance, nobody was.

"Already done," Adora said, beaming as she squeezed Catra's hand back. "And I payed back Chris too, so we're in the clear debt-wise." Adora kept chatting as they made their way to the baths, and was content to keep on talking with only minimal participation from Catra.

"-and so it ends up that the Adventurer's Guild actually cooks those giant frogs. So we lost out on a bunch of bonus money by destroying them so thoroughly," Adora said, pouring a bucket of water over her head.

"Eh," Catra grunted, slowly scrubbing her fur.

"But in good news, I leveled up! What do you think I should spend my skill points on? A new spell, or should I upgrade smite?" Adora asked.

"Wait, you leveled up? From just five frogs?" Catra asked, finally looking over at Adora.

"Yup! My card says my stats went up and gave me three skill points," Adora said, cheerfully.

"Arrgh, and I missed out! I just sat back and did nothing. I should've been killing things! Then maybe I wouldn't have been so weak to pass out from a freaking radar spell," Catra said, splashing water bitterly.

"Catra, you aren't weak!" Adora immediately protested, "just because you don't have that much mana doesn't mean you still can't kick butt!"

"Oh that's easy for you to say! Your spells were literally exploding frogs with a single stab. And you still walked home afterwards. Me? I-"

"Have almost no mana to work with," Adora said, cutting off Catra's rant, who glared at her. "Catra don't be ridiculous. This is like when you were jealous of me being taller than you. It's something out of your control. You have less mana to work with, and that's the reality of the situation."

"Great, so I get to be weaker than you, and I just have to learn to accept that," Catra said, bitterly.

"That's not what I was getting at," Adora sighed. "It's like...remember back when you tried to beat my weight lifting record?"

"You mean that time I made a fool out of myself, threw a barbell at Lonnie, tried hiding from Shadow Weaver who tracked me down, pulled me by the tail with her magic, and then publicly humiliated me in front of the squad and everyone else in the gym?" Catra asked, sarcastically.

"Er, yeah. That time," Adora said, awkwardly. There was a few moments of silence before Adora cleared her throat. "Anyways, do you remember what you did next? You stopped trying to be like me and started playing to your strengths. You're fast, sneaky, and absolutely lethal with your claws."

"And completely unable to use magic. What's the use of all of these skills if I pass out from only using five of them?" Catra asked, bitterly.

"Oh!" Adora exclaimed in relief. "That's what's bothering you. I asked Chris about that. She said the majority of assassin skills don't actually use any mana. She told me that the guild girls wouldn't let you sign up for a class if you couldn't use it."

"Really?" Catra asked, doubtfully.

"Uh-huh," Adora said, nodding. "She also said that you can raise your mana by leveling up."

"Fine. In that case, I get to kill all of the frogs by myself, you got it?" Catra demanded, turning to look Adora in the eye.

"Sure thing. I'll only interfere if you get eaten," Adora said, nodding.

"Ha, fat chance of that happening," Catra said, her usual arrogant attitude returning.

/*/

The next day they were back at the same hill they were at before. Catra stood in front of Adora, inspecting her card as her tail flicked back and forth.

"So how do you use these skills again?" Catra asked, glancing over her shoulder.

"I think most of them you just say the name of the skill out loud. And then it happens. It's kinda confusing honestly," Adora said.

"Alright as stupid as that sounds. Lurk!" Catra said, disappearing from sight. Adora moved over to the edge of the hill and looked eagerly at the closest frog. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, just as she started trying to find Catra, she popped out of her concealment, and slashed her claws across the frog's back, carving four deep cuts through the frog's back. Catra grinned and jumped after the frog when it retreated, but her next attack only left shallow cuts. Catra looked at her hand in shock.

"Catra look out!" Adora yelled, as the frog tried to grab her with its tongue. Catra flipped out of the way and lunged at the frog, growling. She cut into the frog again and again. Dodged, and repeated. Until finally she shouted something, and the frog died when her claws next tore through its skin. Adora cheered and trotted down to meet Catra.

"There, see? Not a drop of slime on me," Catra said, breathing heavily.

"Good work Catra! But what happened there?" Adora asked.

"My first skill was Sneak Attack, doing extra damage if I attack from surprise. I thought that would be enough to trigger my next skill, Finishing Blow, which kills an enemy who is weak enough. But nope!" Catra explained. "I'll do better next time." With that Catra disappeared into the grass, stalking the next frog. Adora went back to the top of the hill and settled in to wait. She watched the frog closely, trying to spot Catra. Finally Catra appeared from the grass and landed a brutal slash to one of the frog's legs. Before the frog could respond, Catra had bounded behind it and disappeared from sight once again. The frog moved its head from right to left, scanning for the deadly cat. Catra pounced, and crippled another leg. From there she gave it one final slash, killing it with Finishing Blow.

"That was a lot faster!" Adora yelled, encouragingly, from atop the hill. Catra waved back, pointed to her next frog and disappeared again. And the fight went basically the same. It took Catra a fair bit of time to sneak up on each frog, and to get away to hit it with another sneak attack, but the frogs never managed to touch her. Finally the fifth frog collapsed and Catra let out a deep sigh, relaxing.

"And done! Plus I didn't get eaten once," Catra said, stretching her arms above her head as she rejoined Adora.

"Yeah, well, I was done faster," Adora said, huffing in mock anger.

"Uh-huh. But this time we won't need to get a bath. And my frogs are all intact. So I earned more money too," Catra said, cocking a hip and smirking at Adora.

"Hey, if I had a proper weapon instead of a dinky little dagger, I wouldn't have even needed my magic AND I would've still been done faster," Adora claimed.

"Oh yeah?" Catra asked, walking up and poking Adora in the chest.

"Yeah!" Adora said, smiling down at Catra, who grinned back.

"Sounds like a bet to me," Catra purred.

"Yeah? And what do I get when I win?" Adora asked, blushing as she stared into Catra's eyes.

"Oh, Adora," Catra breathed, standing on tip toes and caressing Adora's face. "That doesn't matter cause you'll never beat me," Catra added, turning her caress into a poke to Adora's forehead. She laughed and turned away, her tail flicking.

"Geeze Catra," Adora whispered, her eyes following Catra as she blushed. She shook her head to clear it. "Hey wait up!" she yelled, chasing after Catra.

/*/

The pair walked into the marketplace and made their way to where several blacksmiths had brought out a selection of weapons to be sold. Catra watched with amusement as Adora ooohed and awwwed over the various weapons on display.

"So what are you thinking? Some kind of sword?" Catra asked, running a claw down a blade, carving a groove with her razor sharp nail.

"No, I prefer something with more reach," Adora said, inspecting the spears.

"Wait really? Then why did you always use a sword as She-Ra?" Catra asked, surprised. Adora flinched and didn't answer. "Really? Okay Adora, how bad is it?" she asked, sighing and moving over to Adora's side.

"It's nothing," Adora said, refusing to look at Catra.

"It's not nothing," Catra said, rolling her eyes. "You're doing your stupid thing where you pretend a problem doesn't exist, but literally everyone can tell there's something going on."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Adora said, stubbornly.

"Yeah? Hey old man!" Catra said, catching the attention of the blacksmith.

"I'm not old, ya damn punk. Whadda want?" the man snarled, giving Catra an evil eye.

"Yeah, whatever. Tell me, does she look alright?" Catra asked, pointing at Adora. The man looked over Adora who squirmed and looked away.

"Nah, somethings eating her alright. Hn, I'd guess she embarrassed by the fact that she doesn't like to use swords and thinks something like 'proper heroes use swords', cause that's what they use in stories and art," the man said, staring at Adora who stared back, mouth wide open.

"Wait, you got it right?" Catra asked, in surprise, glancing between Adora and the blacksmith.

"Your girlfriend is really easy to read," the man said, shrugging. He turned away and started looking over his swords. "Hey!"

"Crap. Gotta go Adora," Catra said, grabbing Adora's hand and dragging her along as the man yelled and ranted at them. They ran through the marketplace until they took shelter in a nearby allyway.

"So should I ask what that was about?" Adora asked, amused.

"Nope. I'd rather talk about your weird sword issues. So come on, spill already," Catra said, poking Adora in the ribs.

"Fine, but it's stupid," Adora said, sighing. "So to begin with, I didn't always know the sword could transform, alright? If I had, maybe I would've always used a staff or spear. But for a good year or so, I was stuck with the sword. And in that time, we were doing all this research and stuff to try and find out what She-Ra could do and how."

"And?"

"And in every single story, tapestry and vase we found, She-Ra always used a sword. So that was clearly the weapon She-Ra was supposed to use. And I was already a really bad She-Ra. I couldn't use magic right, wasn't able to bring balance to Etheria, and couldn't protect people from the Horde. So I didn't want to be an even worse She-Ra by not using a sword, you know?" Adora explained, poking her fingers together sheepishly.

"You know that's really stupid right?" Catra asked, flatly.

"Yeah," Adora muttered, looking ashamed.

"I mean, for starters, you saved plenty of people from the Horde. Like, if it wasn't for you, I would've conquered the world and defeated all of the Princesses years ago," Catra said, surprising Adora who sharply raised her head to stare at Catra.

"But I couldn't save everyone all the time," Adora protested.

"Wow, that's...actually crazy," Catra said, giving Adora a sympathetic look. "Do you actually think the past She-Ras never failed at anything?"

"Well, there was never any stories about them failing. Besides Mara going crazy, but I'm pretty sure that one was a lie," Adora said.

"Are you kidding me? The only example of them failing, and that's the one you clue into as a lie?" Catra asked, exasperated.

"To be fair I believed it for a long time, and it was only shortly before the...um, you know, that I found evidence that there was more to her story than her going crazy and misusing She-Ra's power," Adora said.

"That's not a good thing Adora," Catra said, face palming. "I forgot how horrifically naive you are. Okay, to be clear, people don't typically spread myths about their heroes failing. Particularly of their 'prophesied chosen ones' failing. That doesn't mean they never failed, it means people preferred to think about their victories instead, and eventually their failures were forgotten. So yeah, the past She-Ra's weren't perfect. Secondly, and more importantly, if you felt you were failing to live up to being She-Ra, how does using a weapon you are worse at do anything but make you fail even more?"

"Because it's the more Princessey weapon?" Adora said, hesitantly.

"That's stupid. But you know what? Whatever! Brand new world with no old baggage! There's no past She-Ra for you to live up to now, so there's no reason to use a sword. What do you want to use?" Catra asked.

"Ooh, so I was thinking a staff, because, you know, that's what we were trained with," Adora said, immediately cheering up. "But a staff wouldn't do anything to those giant frogs, and what if other monsters are the same? So I was thinking maybe a spear, or some other polearm."

"Not a bad idea," Catra said, rubbing her chin and nodding. "Alright, let's go take a look over hear," Catra added, pointing to another weapons shop, located far away from the shop with the vandalized sword. Adora was looking over the various spears, testing a few out, swinging them around, when she suddenly gasped and rushed over to where a shiny new halberd was on display.

"That looks so lethal," Adora said, sighing happily.

"Yeah, it's a beauty alright," Catra agreed, standing next to her. "Expensive though," she added. Adora turned to her, frowning and giving her puppy eyes. "Ugh, fine. We can afford it, and a weapon is an investment after all," she said, caving instantly.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Adora yelled, throwing her arms around Catra in a massive hug, and squishing their faces together.

"Get off of me, you gigantic dork," Catra said, giggling as she shoved a hand against Adora's face. "The money is as much yours as it is mine, anyways."

"Sure sure. Excuse me Sir! I would like to purchase this fine halberd you have here," Adora said, releasing Catra and calling over the blacksmith. A quick conversation, an exchange of money, and Adora was happily lugging around her new instrument of destruction. "I can't wait to try it out."

"It does look like fun. Maybe I'll borrow it after our bet tomorrow," Catra said, stretching her arms above her head.

"Did you mean what you said about the bet?" Adora asked, watching Catra stretch out of the corner of her eye.

"Of course," Catra paused. "You don't stand a chance against me," she said, smirking.

"Oh, it is on," Adora said, grinning in challenge. "Tomorrow, I'll show you what I can do."

Author's Notes: Time for the Konosuba tradition of characters being eaten by frogs. Well Adora. Catra is too good at dodging. Anyways, this chapter was mostly to establish their abilities and to ask why Adora stuck with using She-Ra's sword when she only ever uses a staff as Adora.