Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 45

When I didn’t message Victoria at all the following night, she made an excuse to have me come in person to report to her the next day.

I was still careful with what I said, but I wasn’t shy in the way I looked at her. I made it very clear I still felt the same way and wasn’t going anywhere.

She looked relieved after our interaction even if she didn’t breech the topic.

With the Vanguard’s quarterly event nearing, we became even busier than normal, if that were possible. There were also a few very positive things happened in our favor.

Two days later, the second person in Prodos unlocked rank E psionics. As much as I thought it was going to be Mel, I’d been wrong. It was one of Kline’s poleaxe users, so suddenly he was leading a man stronger than he was for the first time. Not that it would interfere with his ability to lead, but I needed all the material I could get to give my friend a hard time.

Krato had added elements to the hover training until it became a sport unto itself. The platforms remained in the same place, but I was now allowed to leave them and hover on the ground of the immediate area. The reason was simple. His role was to chase me and knock me to the ground with Othisi. My role was to evade, block, divert, and remain hovering by any means necessary. The only thing I couldn’t do was use other forms of psionics.

On my first day of training with him, I’d been able to hover without stopping for twenty to twenty-five minutes before exhausting myself. Now I could do it for more than an hour. My psionic power hadn’t increased much, but just as Peter had said it would, my maximum energy just kept climbing. It had more than tripled.

Psionic Status

Psionic Level: Rank E

Psionic Energy: 977,656 (Units)

Psionic Power: 313 (Maximum energy use per second)

Psionic Recovery Rate: 9.93 (Units of Psionic Energy recovered per second)

The main drawback was that my recovery rate had only doubled, so I couldn’t recover my full energy in a day without the help of the recovery chamber. However, if I was not using my psioncs at full power at a constant rate, I could go for days. Destiny estimated that I only used an average of 227 energy per second when I was fighting all out. It meant I’d reached a level of sustainability that was nearing that of normal Ekseliksi soldiers.

Krato said the reason for my increase in Psionic Energy was because I’d reached rank E. Not only did it make me more powerful, but my body had reached a state of balance where it readily accepted the energy it could produce. The recovery chamber environment only accelerated the process.

I flew across the dry, cracking earth. Destiny and I had tried researching the hovercraft of the past to try and glean some secrets I might be able to use in my skirmishes against Krato, but even modern tech had the same problem. It had the problem of a power to weight ratio. Also, because the hovercraft relied on thrust and not the propellent, magnet-like force of Othisi, it was a lost cause. There was something unique about psionics that seemed to be designed just for human use. Where hovercraft had difficulty turning, I could cut corners with bone-groaning speed. Changing direction took an extra push, but it was as easy as lunging from side to side.

My energy output was higher than needed to simply hover. I pushed at the ground in front of me at such an angle that I kept accelerating backward. It was similar to a sprinter at full speed where only the balls of his feet were gliding across the ground. Of course, even someone with a rank E aura couldn’t possibly keep up with me.

It was a mixture of experience, anticipation, and feeling Krato’s psionic pressure, that caused me to lean and loop my retreat sideward.

I threw out my hand and blasted a push of force at where I thought he would be.

He brushed it aside with his hand and used its push to spin in the air where he flew. He redirected his feet. An instant later he was on me. His push hit me in the shoulder, and I used it to propel myself away.

My feet repositioned themselves at the right angle without me having to think about it, and I never touched the ground.

I was off again, and he continued his chase.

When he approached again, I cut a sharp arch. He was coming right at me, so I’d skirt around his flank, or so I thought. It looked like I’d made it when a powerful blast of energy struck me high on the back. I tried to catch myself with Othisi through my hands, but my momentum was too much and I’d acted too late. I leaned back and greeted the ground chest first.

I’d learned the hard way that I needed to keep track of him even when hitting the ground. I launched myself sideways from all fours to distance myself from the position he’d taken in front of me. And so the game continued.

In theory, if I could get my body and psionics fully under my control, then regardless of the angle he attacked me it would be impossible for me to fall. I’d come a long way, but still had a long way to go.

After I was almost entirely drained of energy, Krato commanded me to return to the platform and he began applying his psionic pressure as was our custom. As he did, he viewed the recording of the layered techniques I’d been developing to give me his assessment.

“Where did you get this name? Phantom Fist? And this, Wind Walking,” he asked without looking up from the screen.

“I made them up… since I needed something to call them.”

For maybe the second or third time since I met him, he smirked.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“They are not the names for these techniques.”

“Oh? What are the right ones?”

“I will not tell you. When you meet the Ekseliksi, they will find this humorous.”

It was a struggle not to say something obnoxious. He’d basically just called me an idiot and wouldn’t give me the info to fix the situation.

He looked up from the screen. “Why are there so many?”

“I’ve been researching all the different possibilities to try and figure out which ones are the most powerful.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Do you appreciate how rare it is to be able to execute so many—and with only a year’s training?”

I lowered head. “Yes.”

“No you don’t. You know technically how rare it is, but you don’t understand it. How could you? You have no context. But you’re beginning to.”

He suddenly leaped from his platform to land on mine to tower over me. It wasn’t contempt that stared down at me, but fervor that he’d never shown before. “Such is the rarity of the ability to heal that even if you were never to increase in rank you’d be worshipped among my people. That alone would give you a status equal to Krato. But to have status isn’t the same as deserving it. To not grow complacent, apply yourself to your other gifts, and continue to seek to perfect them is the true meaning of what it is to be Ekseliksi.”

He grabbed my shoulder in a vice grip and held me in place. “I put the possibility of a stronger technique before you, and, without guidance, you discerned many. What you have started to develop is only at the beginning stages. You should strive unlock their full potential, and you must. I have been watching you long enough to know that you walk the path of Teleios in earnest. It’s a concept—a way of life—as much as a person. I’ll now give you advice, young Ekseliksi. Never stop.”

Letting go of my shoulder, he added. “Now go.”

I needed to recovery some energy before the Combat Development Team’s meeting, so I didn’t have the time to remain there while I thought through what had just happened. But even as I left, I couldn’t stop replaying what he’d said and done in my mind.

Normally, trying to get information from him was like pulling teeth from a tiger. This time he’d just come out and said what he was thinking.

His advice wasn’t really advice at all. At least, not what I’d been looking for. Despite not getting direct help with my techniques, I felt what I’d received was worth far more. Since when had his approval mattered? Had I even once sought it out? I’d still been considering him the enemy, but now…

And what he’d said of the healing ability Therapeia was completely unexpected. I knew it was rare, even among the Ekseliksi. Besides myself, only one other person out of all the Genesis and Freedom participants had unlocked it, and it and Apotho shielding were his only techniques. Of course, he was a member of Lethal Accord. Mel was the next closest to unlocking it. Using Victoria’s analogy, it was like a note just out of his range. In rare cases, he could hit it, but would quickly lose pitch.

It made me wonder what the Ekseliksi would think of a Krato that could heal.

During the Combat Development meeting, most of my time was spent as it always was. Half of it was grappling with Kline, and the other was perfecting my combat techniques. I’d submitted myself to the grappling out of sheer necessity, knowing that there were other monsters like Kline out there who were a terror once they got ahold of you.

That night, after finishing up with the day’s Prodos expansion, I returned to my technique training. I’d dropped the weight and agility training, replacing them with extended hours of combat to get ready for the Vanguard event. I was still desperately looking for a technique that might give me some hope when fighting a Krato level combatant, but even phantom fist wasn’t at that level yet.

Destiny had designed a dummy in the training hall that simulated Krato’s physical stature. It was just as tough as his body was, but simulated different psionic techniques, like shielding.

The technique I was trying to figure out wasn’t new in concept. It added one more layer on top of phantom fist, which was a solid coating of Akonizo over my knuckles followed by a Othisi push. The end result was solidified psionic energy shotgunned at a target at close range. It didn’t really produce a stronger attack, but a different kind than a Voli bolt. Voli often seeped past armor almost like electricity might and spread out from the entry wound to injure a target internally. Phantom fist was an attack of pure force that took advantage of Akonizo’s nature to increase the damage of a physical attack. If applied directly with your fist, it could hurt you as much as your opponent, but through a weapon, or blasted from a distance it became harmless to the user.

The three-layer attack I was working on was similar. I took it slow as I stood before the dummy. I started with Akonizo enhancing my knuckles, then I used Othisi to push the first layer at my target as I took a slow swing. It was then that I followed up with Apotho shielding over my fist. Like a hammer to a stake, I pounded the Akonizo energy into the dummy’s chest.

Its defense had been toned down to give me better feedback. A shallow crater in the shape of a fist was looking back at me.

It was almost like a double impact attack. It was possible to miss with my follow up, and getting the timing right seemed difficult.

The problems didn’t end there. I’d lost count of how many times I hadn’t summoned shielding over my fist in time. I shook out my fist at the thought of it. It was like attacking Barrell’s psionically enhanced blade barehanded. Once or twice it was bad enough that I had Destiny cheat and reset the entire training simulation.

I’d also experimented with replacing push with a voli bolt, but it gave me less accuracy. It also didn’t propel the Akonizo projectile as quickly as push did.

Ultimately, it came down to energy control and timing. Krato had been helping me with both indirectly, but I’d only figure this part out by putting in the hours. I’d figured out a few tricks, like using a weaker Othisi push so that the follow up shielded fist attack was more accurate, but even then, it was only slightly more powerful than phantom fist itself. Still, it was progress. It was coming along well enough that I decided to give it a name.

The first couple that came to mind were… amusing. Gernada, as in a feminine version of grenade, sounded good for about three seconds. There were also more generic ones, and silly ones, like power fist, power shot, atomic bonk, atomic head bonk… Destiny suggested super-duper poke, super smash, and pound it. None of them stuck.

I had a feeling Krato was making fun of me for not using more generic names. In the end, I went with Dragon Slayer. It sounded as haughty as Destiny had accused me of being, but its name wasn’t based on me or what I could do with it. It was based upon my spear’s sauroter, a thick spike also called the lizard, or dragon killer. I believed that once mastered, this could become the dragon slayer of energy techniques.

I continued not to message Victoria at night any longer. It wasn’t out of spike, or desire for revenge. She knew exactly where I stood and needed time to figure out what to do with what I’d told her.

With the Vanguard event closing in, we received more good news as it did. Once the first guy leveled up to the next psionic rank, more followed soon after. There were two others who beat Mel to it, but he did end up unlocking his a week before the event started.

That night, I took some time off from my training to congratulate him and finally make good on my bet I lost with Kline.

It was my first time visiting the sports bar they’d told me about that was located on base. As I walked through the front door, the room was lit up almost entirely by wall panels and holographic screens. There was a booth close to the entrance that was still empty that’s wall was split into a dozen panels with a variety of programs playing. Most of them were live sporting and gaming events. I noticed a few playing Vanguard content, and in the center of the table was a hologram with Mia’s live commentary. Her’s was a face I hadn’t seen in months, but she reminded me of my many nights in Freedom when we ate and relax in placed just like this.

Well not like this. The establishment was filled with a few generation old tech. It wasn’t uncommon for restaurants to provide an environment where people could remove their headsets while still engaging in their media of choice with their friends. Glancing around the room, the off-duty soldiers seemed to embrace it.

There were no servers. A hologram would appear to direct you if you didn’t have your headset strapped. Since I did, Destiny drew arrows on the floor to direct me to my friends. She didn’t enter herself with her master drone, but the little purple orb drone followed behind my shoulder. It wasn’t necessary for her to send a drone to keep an eye on the room, but she wanted to be present to enjoy it herself. As strange as it sounded to know that her actual brain would be outside processing the information while this extension of her body would be with us, it worked for her.

I found Mel, Barrell, and Kline setting at the table with the wall panel already clear of all but Mia’s Haven playing.

As soon as they saw me, Kline of course came to his feet and shot for a double. I got in my hooks and sprawled.

“Gotta keep you on your toes,” he boomed. Straightening, he swatted me on the back.

“You need to learn some new tricks, old man,” Barrell scoffed, as I returned Kline’s smack on the back.

“You think you’ve learned everything, eh? Get up and let’s find out.”

I picked that moment to chime in. “You sure you guys want to break everything before we eat?”

Glancing around the room, I found far fewer eyes watching us than I’d have guessed. Rowdiness must have been a common occurrence there.

Kline threw himself into his seat “Steak,” he proclaimed as if that explained every mystery.

I slid into the seat next to him as we shared a round of snickers. He had a point.

“Hey, guys,” Destiny said with Kline’s same energy. Her orb hovered at the seatless end of the table and she appeared above it in a Kline faced t-shirt and long skirt.

“Yes!” Kline said at seeing the shirt. He held out his fist, and she disappeared momentarily as her orb gave it a bump.

Barrell and Mel greeted her cheerfully in turn. She had become such a fixture in Prodos that she was probably more recognizable than I was. I still hadn’t spoken to Victoria about her, but she gave her a lot of freedom to add some personality to the general communications the battalion depended on. These three also knew she was at least semi-sentient and treated her like a little sister—not even the annoying kind.

I watched her interact with them and realized she didn’t just enjoy this, she needed it. Whatever kind of creature she was, she was a social one.

I caught Mel looking at me, and immediately congratulated him on ranking up.

Barrell huffed. “With you two, the rest of us might as well stay home during the event.”

“Since when were you a whiner,” I badgered.

“Me?” He let out a fake chortle. “Whatever. My psionic power rating is only 293, so I’m still a few months away. I just don’t like being last.”

“Ha,” Kline without the same enthusiasm from before. “I’m at 288, but I’m not complaining.”

“Yeah, but you can headbutt a psionic bolt a whole rank high than you out of the air. You don’t count.”

Turning to him, I asked with a slightly more serious tone. “Wait, you headbutted a rank E bolt?”

“Three of them, actually. You don’t remember? You’re the one that healed me after that overlord nearly had his way with me.”

I was certain now. He was one of those dwarfs out of fantasy legend. When I’d healed him very little of the damage had been to his head and neck region.

“You should develop a headbutt technique,” Mel suggested.

I wasn’t sure if he was joking, being serious, or both.

“It will have to wait,” Kline said with a hum. “My secret weapon should be ready for the Vanguard event.”

We all asked him at once. “Secret weapon?”

He placed his hand over his mouth and no matter how much we tried he wouldn’t budge.

Our food arrived a ten minutes later, and we turned our attention to Mia’s show. Her hair was now purple with a thick yellow stripe in her bangs which was combed to the side.

There was a guy discussing what the Vanguard event might entail. She responded with a slack jaw to one point, a grimace to the next, followed by a whimper. She certainly hadn’t lost her charm.

“Are you excited about going on her show? Kline asked.

I looked across from me from Barrell to Mel, and found them both looking at me. Turning to Kline, I found he’d been talking to me. “What?”

He laughed breathlessly, then bumped me with his shoulder. “Oh, you don’t know?” he said sarcastically. “I don’t know what you did to infuriate Prodo’s queen, but she’s been cranky for the last week. She’s probably waiting to spring it on you until the last minute in hopes that you’ll embarrass yourself and learn your lesson.”

“You’re being serious? I’m going on Mia’s show?”

“Yup. Me too. She’s interviewing the Left Hand tomorrow and you’re going the day before the big event.”

I felt like I’d been struck like a drum.

“Don’t worry too much. She’s sending Marabella with you. That girl is a pro at that kind of stuff.”

The conversation continued mostly without me. I became so distant that Kline excused the both of us. “We’ll be back in a minute boys. Time for some man talk, and I don’t want to embarrass you kids.”

“Don’t listen to a word he says,” Barrell jeered.

Mel on the other hand gave me a sober nod.

After being practically shoved out of my seat, Kline led us outside. We took the corner to the side of the building where no one was and Destiny’s master drone was there and microdrones were soon surrounding us.

Kline gave her a complicated look.

“Peter introduced me to this tech,” she said answering his unasked question. “I’ve made some improvements of my own. You’re free to converse without limit.”

“That’s convenient,” he replied. “Anything?”

“The Ekseliksi, Victoria, anything.”

Turning to me, he looked impressed. “So what exactly did you do to get Victoria so riled up? Propose to her?”

Giving him a sheepish look, I replied. “You’re not far off actually. She came at me saying she couldn’t let our relationship continue because she knew it would hurt me. I told her that if she wasn’t going to run off with me and have as many babies as humanly possible, then I was going to keep training to beat down her fiancé whether she liked it or not.”

He sniffed. “I’m sure it went just like that.” He looked up star covered sky. It was a rare sight where I was from, and the base was spread out in a less populated area. He looked down at me from the corner of his eye. “She’s right, you know.”

I stepped up beside him and looked passed the screen created by the microdrones to the stars above. “There’s no doubt about it.”

“And you’re not going to stop?”

“Nope.”

“I’m not going to try to get in your way, but there’s something I gotta say. It’s completely confidential, got it?”

I looked over to see his eyes had drifted downward and drifted off into the distance. “I do.”

“I’m old enough now to understand a little something about women. It’s not as impossible as people say. I’ve never been good with women.”

“What?” I said, lifting my voice.

He pounded his fist into my shoulder. “Don’t make me slam you.”

“Just messing with you.”

“Yeah. Yeah… I was shy growing up, believe it or not. But as a young fighter that was coming up when mixed martial arts was having a bit of a resurgence, I won some big fights and found myself with a lot of money. You can guess what happened next. There are girls that have a thing for fighters, and even more than like money. Let’s just say that my shyness vanished incrementally with the number of women I was with. If you didn’t notice, I’m a lot less shy.”

“I’m started to feel dirty just standing next to you.”

He bellowed. It took him a moment to catch his breath. “With my shyness so went my money. So the first thing I want to tell you, is don’t do that. Although you have enough money that you could probably get away with it for a century or two.”

“Are you giving advice or trying to talk me into being a lecher.”

“You’re a smart kid. You’re much better at controlling yourself than I was at eighteen. You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t chased any women since you met me.”

I cleared my throat to cut him off. “I remember a waitress or two in Freedom.”

“That’s just flirting. Making someone smile is free. There’s something they don’t tell you when your ready to find someone to spend the rest of your life with. Even if it’s said, often its condemned as nonsense or overlooked. Then you try looking and it becomes obvious. It’s hard to find a woman that’s worth investing in. The women worth the investment have the same problem finding men. I’m saying this because you’re skipping over opportunities right now that you’ve been too blind to see.”

I knew where he was going before he said it, but this was Kline, so I let him continue.

“That Marabella girl has already fallen for you. She’s also only had one or two boyfriends—trust me, my AI told me so. Girls like that don’t come along very often, and I guarantee you that if you wait too long someone will scoop her up. One I know you haven’t noticed is Heather.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. “Heather Esper? Her mind is preoccupied with other things right now. Trust me.”

“That doesn’t mean things half to stay that way. You know I don’t have to actually be there to watch what’s going on around you.”

“You’ve been watching me?”

“You’re like a little brother to me. Of course, I check in on you now and again. Peter also said something.” He nudged me with a grin. “And I’ve seen the way that girl looks at you when your back is turned to her. I should say the way girls look at you. It’s annoying how popular you are, and you don’t even know it. Victoria has seen it too.”

“I know it,” I said with certainty. Maybe I wasn’t that certain. “I work hard to distance myself from distractions.”

“Yeah. I’ve seen that to. The point is this. In Victoria, you’ve found someone that would be worth investing in and would respect the sacrifices you make for her. That is, if she wasn’t engaged to an energy monster from space. How someone that intelligent and wealthy ended up anything other than a hyper-conceited villainess, I have no clue. But you’re in the rare situation where there are other exceptional women who are crazy about you that have the same worth. Chasing Victoria isn’t just putting yourself in a position of losing the time and energy you invest in her, but you’re giving up opportunities that most men will never have.”

I let out my best Kline inspired sneer. “That’s all under the assumption that I’ll lose a fight.”

“I’ve never seen an Ekseliksi royal in person, but I’ve seen footage. Their like demigods from old legends. In comparison, the Krato are like we were to him.”

“I won’t lose.”

“Then there’s nothing else to say,” he grinned, and almost tackled me a moment later before leading me back into sports bar.

When I left later on, I headed directly to the recovery chamber so I could mediate as I got some training in. The day had been all over the place. Krato had come out and very nearly praised me, and then Kline questioned my reason for continuing to pursue Victoria.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when Peter arrived a few minutes after I started hovering in the middle of the chamber.

His microdrones did their job and made it so that we could have a secure conversation.

“It’s good to see you, Peter,” I said, trying to keep the sarcasm from my voice. “I’m assuming you’re here to talk me into leaving Victoria alone?”

He gave me a once over, then smiled and then turned away. He walked around the chamber as if performing an inspection. “You know as well as anyone that I’m sensitive to your cause. I won’t forbid you from trying to convince her. I just wanted to give you a little reminder.”

He stopped and faced me directly. “If you push too hard, she may feel she must cut herself off completely.”

“I do know what you mean, but… If I don’t push hard enough, she will never believe I can do the impossible.”

“But what you’re trying to do is impossible.”

“No.” I hadn’t forgotten what Achilles had taught me.

Every time new tech had come out that was supposed to revolutionize athletic performance, he had managed to do the impossible and defeat his opponents without fail—for decades. It’s not that the medical science was wrong, but he was just constantly competing against all the predictions. With the level that science had reached, it shouldn’t have been possible. He wasn’t an anomaly because of his genetics or talent, but because he believed that science was limited by what it observed. Just because something had never been observed before didn’t mean I couldn’t accomplish it. Achilles had retired as psionics emerged. He’d made a promise to his wife, but, even after I became the first person to defeat him, it was clear. If he had decided to join Freedom as a participant and not a trainer, he’d likely be the one on top right now and not me.

“Peter, I want to say this in the most respectful way possible. I’m not like you. I don’t mean to diminish you in any way, but whether its possible for me or not is not something you or anyone else can say. If there’s a limit, I will find it—and then figure out how to break it. There’s already hints that I’ve found a way.” After all, I didn’t need to become Vasileia. I just needed to be able to kill one. Krato, Peter, and Victoria all seemed convinced I’d at least reach the level of Krato eventually. If I could master my dragon slayer technique, or something like it, I might just have a chance.

He waved his hand as if to dismiss all offense. “It’s just a warning is all. We’ve reached a point where you’re both going to have to work together whether you like it or not. Try to keep emotions to a manageable level is all I’m saying.”

“I will try.”

“Great. I’ll let you get back to it. Some of us actually need to sleep.”

I walked him out and did my best to seem grateful that he had come. It just seemed like it was beat up on Lucius day. Now I had even more to think about.

***

Oliver was waiting for him outside the recovery chamber in ballistic black. The microdrones swarmed them both.

“Is he still insistent,” the brown skinned Ekseliksi asked while standing at ease.

“It’s as Krato Aeneus said. He’s just like Victoria’s father.”

“Careful, old friend.”

With a tilted nod, he acknowledged the man’s point. “I don’t say it lightly. He’s just as unyielding in his belief in his ability to ascend to impossible heights. My vision must be going bad, for I never foresaw this kid developing to this extreme.”

“You wish to make him a eunuch for her highness?”

“You have a way with words. Is that how you see me? Don’t answer that.”

Oliver bowed his head in response.

“No. Not an eunuch… This might be a real opportunity for us.”

“His eyes are too high. He will fall into depression once defeated, or worse, he’ll get himself killed.”

“And if he doesn’t? You’ve seen how he trains. He is well acquainted with failure. Think what it would mean for our cause if we had a champion from Earth that could actually kill Krato—and what would it mean if he could fight Vasileia. You could remain in hiding for much longer, and this could all be said to be under Victoria’s tutelage.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Just like with a young prizefighter, we carefully stoke the fire. There’s a delicate balance between unfaltering confidence and insanity. When the time is right, in a few years, you will take over his training, and perhaps…”

“Perhaps?”

Peter shook his head. “I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, we continue observing. Also keep an eye on Mel. If only he was as unyielding as Lucius is.”

“Very well.”