Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 40

When I arrived in the bleak world of Krato’s training sim, he immediately had me step up on the platform and being hovering. He hovered across from me on the opposing platform.

“Your skill has grown, so today I will begin to push you.,” Krato said. “Your goal is to remain hovering and stabilize yourself without going over the platform’s edge. Let’s begin.”

We were a dozen yards apart, but that didn’t stop his blast of Othisi from pushing into my chest.

My stance widened, as did the angle of my push from my back foot. I fought my need to flail backward and didn’t teeter back and forth like I would’ve a few days ago. My correction only took moments.

He disappeared from his platform and arrived at my flank. Another push punched into my shoulder.

I hadn’t been ready for his change in angle, but I didn’t grumble. Throwing my feet into a power slide, I lowered myself and fought. Krato was rarely generous with his instructions. Why would he change now?

As soon as he moved, I spun to meet him. There was rarely a good reason to give someone your back.

“Not yet,” he objected. His blast of push was so intense, I literally flew from my platform, past his, and toward the ground.

The platforms he used for my training were much more reactive to Othisi push, but that didn’t mean the ground wasn’t.

Before crashing down, I dragged my feet beneath me and channeled more energy into push. It was like being caught by a mattress of air. I dipped toward the ground but didn’t come in contact with it. The angle was so acute that I had to lower my hand and push to keep me upright.

“Return and don’t turn to face me,” Krato demanded. “This is a drill, not a fight.”

With two bounding strides I reached his platform, then used a burst of energy to jump to my own. As reluctant as I was, I turned my back to him.

His push came immediately after. It was manageable this time.

My hovering ability had improved rapidly. Even though there were some close calls, I didn’t fall off the platform for the rest of our session.

As always, when I was running low on energy that he stopped the drill and upped the psionic pressure while I held my walls in place. It was during this tempering that I asked my questions.

“Krato. You’ve mentioned before that there have been rank E warriors that were able to fight rank D warriors and even were rewarded the status of Krato. How is this possible?”

He observed me momentarily before answering. “The most common way is for lower rank warriors to rely on physical enhancements. Exoskeletons are often the cheapest ones that make it possible, but rarely will you find females willing to marry you so few would dare to use this method. This isn’t the questions you’re meaning to ask, I think. You’re wondering how you could fight against rank D warriors in your current state.”

“Yes.”

He showed a rare crease in his brow as he considered the question seriously. “Time and training are the surest approach. If there’s another, it would require you to develop an offensive ability able to harm Krato level warriors. This is not an easy feat, which is why it’s so rare. However, you have unlocked the full spectrum of psionic abilities. There are subskills that are much more lethal than energy casting and weapon enhancement. There is no guarantee you will be able to make use of them despite your talent. At least not without years of training. A better method might be to develop your own. As a specialist, I have little experience with such things, but I’m familiar with it in theory. It's called, skill layering. I’ve seen you do it already during our fight together. You cast energy at my attack to repel it, and when it wasn’t enough, retracted your energy to shield yourself.”

So using push to feel for an attack and slow it, then blocking it with shielding energy was what he called layering.

“If you want to develop your own offensive layered skill that is more lethal than it will take a lot of experimentation, but you already have the basic tools you’ll need to develop it.”

“Are there layered attacks you faced in the past you can tell me about?”

“I will not. I have given you a hint. It is better for you to figure out yourself.”

After leaving the training hall, I was sifting through my own memories of layered skills I’d already seen as I headed to the recovery chamber. I’d already developed a few defensive layered skills out of necessity, but never had applied the same approach to offense. That didn’t mean I hadn’t seen it before.

Before Krato had appeared during Vanguard’s first day event, there were hobgoblins with psionics that we thought were bosses. Ma and Isamu had fought the one at the gate I was in charge of. It was then that Isamu had enhanced his blade. That wasn’t uncommon, but he had sent the enhanced energy from his blade flying as if it were a giant bolt. It looked as close to a layered offensive skill to me as I’d ever seen. But how had he done it? Was it enhance followed by bolt that allowed him to cast it? Or was it push? I didn’t think he had unlocked Bios, so things like heal, shield and push should be off limits to him.

The Combat Development Team would be meeting soon, so I could pursue answers to my questions then. It also made me wonder if all subskills were technically layered. Heather’s stunning ability required her to switch between two abilities rapidly to cause the effect. But that couldn’t be right because Barrell’s ability to extend his weapon enhancement past his weapon’s point was an advanced use for the same skill.

There was another problem apparent as I was considering Isamu’s castable energy blade. Using psionics through weapons, even those made of the best materials, added resistance to any skill used through them. So casting a bolt without a weapon would always be more powerful than casting it through one. To create the most powerful psionic layered skill possible, did that mean I needed to forgo using a weapon entirely?

I immediately thought of trying to use Isamu’s ability with my bare hands. Theoretically it could work, but if I was too close and hit my target with enhancing energy still coating my knuckles, then my hand would be left a broken mess. With the right timing though, and maybe the addition of shielding energy to protect my fist after casting the energy, it might work. It might even enhance it further…

Reaching the recovery chamber, I spent my recovery time meditating on all the possibilities.

***

Now that the Combat Development Team had been meeting for about a week, a few smaller teams had developed naturally by people that wanted to focus on different things they were interested in.

Vector and Drool spent most of their time with Cornelius theorizing about small group fighting strategies and not an individual’s abilities. Harrison and Hwan spent a lot of time with them when they weren’t developing stealth team tactics. Kline came in and helped as well, but he was like me and was focused mostly on developing the individual.

Many of the theories developed were put in the practice soon after during Vanguard. Some of them worked well, while others needed further development or scrapping all together. Because our men were constantly fighting during Prodos’s expansion, it put us in a great position to learn from trial and error.

Kline, Barrell, Mel, and I worked almost solely on trying to improve ourselves while developing training methods to help others do the same. Heather and Mara spent more time with us then Vector and Cornelius, but they also did their own thing. Improving themselves was their focus, so they fit cleaner into our group then the other.

I breached the topic of layered skills, and soon found out that many of them had developed their own. Kline would often use his aura for movement, but at the end of an attack, for instance, he would tighten his internal walls. Its effect was most obvious when he was fighting barehanded. An aura strengthened the body, but walls hardened it almost like weapon enhancement. The impact wasn’t as big as it would’ve been if he could use enhancement. It also had a secondary effect of strengthening against psionics. In other words, as long as he timed it correctly, he could smack a psionic bolt from the air without it affecting him.

“If you used your aura for movement, then enhanced a blade, or fired a bolt, would that be considered layering?” Barrell asked.

“No,” Mel replied without hesitation. “Technically, skills are being layered, but the purpose of their use is different, even if they indirectly affect the following skill or skills.”

“I think that either way of thinking about it is correct,” Kline said. “Let’s just pick one to limit confusion.”

“Agreed,” I responded. “Let’s not include movement techniques. The term isn’t one I made up myself, and my source didn’t include them at the time.”

“Works for me,” Barrell said.

Heather was the next to show off her ability. She was unique in that she had unlocked weapon enhancing from the Fotia side of the psionic spectrum and shielding from Bios. She also had the basic aura and internal walls. Peter had said that more advanced Ekseliksi often had corresponding abilities like she did. What was truly unique was her ability to switch back and forth between the two causing a psionic tremor that could stun. In a sense, it was a rapidly switching layered technique.

“It’s okay. Everyone just touch me already. I’m not shy,” she teased, extending both arms.

I’d already been stunned by her before, so I was the first to do as she asked. I did make a point of grabbing her shoulder since it seemed like the least awkward place.

When everyone was holding on, she just had to delay. She looked from person to person, enjoying discomfort.

Mara was immune to the act and didn’t hide her snicker.

Clearing my throat did the trick.

She active her skill and I immediately felt the pulses of energy flowing through and interrupting my psionics.

I’d seen Krato muscle through it with brute strength, so I tried to do the same. Moving wasn’t exactly difficult, but it was like trying to do it when the blood flow had just returned to your limbs.

Now that I was confident I could manage it, I focused more on exactly what she was doing than what was happening to me. The pulses came so rapidly that it was hard to keep up with the pace. The only person I’d seen capable of something similar was Mel with his rapid-fire bolts.

I let go and let my psionics return to normal. Most of the others were still stunned in place. Heather was having too much fun to just let them go, and it wasn’t harmful, or painful for that matter. It was just, strange.

Kline was the first person to pull off. He came to stand beside me. “That’s messed up. My walls could hardly defend against it.”

“Wait, you defended against it?” I asked.

“Not at first, but I was able to get my walls up after a few seconds.”

“I didn’t even try. I don’t think I could’ve if I wanted to…”

“It’s like training your grip. You just have to work on it consistently.”

Heather had let up and the others were quick to take their hands away.

“How long can you keep it up?” I asked.

“It’s not difficult,” she replied. “I’d probably run out of energy in fifteen minutes or so if I kept at it at full strength.”

“Do you mine doing it again so I can try something?”

She shrugged, then held out her hand.

Placing my hand on her shoulder again, she didn’t wait to start this time.

As I thought, I wasn’t able to bring up my walls. There were a few other possible options though. I turned to trying to shield myself. Unlike trying to summon my walls, I felt like I was able to at least begin the summoning process, but her pulses interrupted me too quickly. It seemed my shielding skill was strong than my walls at least. The only other option I had that didn’t have the danger of attacking her directly was to try to push my way free.

As soon as I started, I found I had the same problem as with my shielding. I could only start my summon, but not complete it. Remember the fight with Krato, it gave me an idea.

“Brace yourself just in case,” I said through gritted teeth.

Building up energy wasn’t possible. Taking control as Kline has also seemed beyond my current ability. What if I didn’t try to control it though?

I did my best to prepare myself. Then with a stammering breath, I pushed. I didn’t direct my energy or try to hold on to it. Just as Krato had sent out a blast in every direction I tried to do the same. Since I couldn’t summon an ability and execute it, I decided to simply skip the summoning step.

Heather jerked away from me, stumbling to regain her footing. It was no where near Krato’s push of force, or it had actually worked.

When she’d regained her footing, she gave me an offended glare.

“I warned you,” I said.

“Yeah. And that makes violence, okay?”

“Sorry. I didn’t know it would work. Nothing else did.”

“Well, as long as your remorse is genuine, and I get paid.”

I lost any sense of concern as her tone changed. “Paid, huh?”

“Yup. I girl gest thirsty. Where’s the shakes?”

Mara was there the next instant grabbing Heather’s hand and she declared, “Shake break.”

I didn’t even say anything, but my mule drone came hovering toward us anyways.

Mel betrayed the rest of us guys and walked over to get one as well. After that, Kline and Barrell joined in.

Destiny’s voice chimed in when I didn’t join the others right away. “It seems your push ability is amongst your strongest. Likely its because of all the extra training you’ve been doing with it lately.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised,” I replied. “It’s the best movement ability I got, so if I had to chose one to be good at it would probably be it.”

“I’m assuming you want to try to use it to recreate something like the skill Isamu used with his katana?”

“Yes, but without a weapon. I’ll need every advantage I can get to create something that could injure a Krato level enemy.”

“I’ll put together a list of all the possible skill combinations and highlight the ones that are most likely to be effective.”

“Thank you, Destiny.”

***

The Prodos expansion continued as normal. It was unnecessary for me to step onto the field to get any action, as usual. It was possible my quiet days watching from a far would soon be coming to an end though. The reason for this was because most of the pre-discovered locations on Hectate, the ones currently utilized outside of the Prime Simulation, were nearly all taken over by Prodos at this point. That meant that we’d soon turn our attention to conquering new areas of interest. It was only speculation, but the rumor was that these new areas wouldn’t just been occupied by manticore.

To the average soldier under my lead, the manticore themselves were each like a boss battle. They did very in level though, so many of the stronger soldiers had faced off with the smaller ones and defeated them alone. The largest ones, like the one I’d fought when testing my rank E psionics, usually required a squad to a full platoon of men to defeat them. That was to keep fatalities to a minimum. If new enemies appeared, things might get interesting.

Because we finished early, I still had a few hours until it was time for sleep, so I headed to the training hall to get some combat training in. Entering in the bandit fortress, the first floor was impossibly large compared to what you saw on the outside. I had no intention of changing it.

The reason was because Destiny had recreated the Jungle on this first floor. Instead of keeping my battles on even ground, I now fought my opponents here.

Destiny first summoned a manticore. I always felt bad not getting to fight with my men, so after I’d requested to fight the monster the first two time, she began starting me out with one without me having to ask.

I faced off with the scorpion-tailed dragon on ground level amongst the Jungle’s cityscape. Most Ekseliksi attack on humans were in similar settings. It was a good place to start.

Firing off a silvery psionic bolt, I took off running to the closest build at my flank.

The manticore was summoned at the ready, so it lunged out of the way of my bolt before taking off to chase me.

I jumped at the wall, then pushed myself a full story over the manticore’s head, but its feline agility was enough that it caught me quickly as it leaped to swat me from the air.

I’d learned the hard way not to try to meet it force to force, so I sent a burst of energy from my foot that pushed against its face and propelled myself further into the air. When its claws reached out I was already well overhead.

I still had to calculate my landings, even if they were coming more natural to me. I reached the side of another building, a few stories up, and pushed off at a downward angle to send me speeding toward it.

Rushing toward the ground still left me anxious. That’s exactly why I forced myself into those very situations.

As it realized I was coming for it like a ball of meat tossed lovingly from master to pet, it backed up in a crouch and readied to intercept me.

I’d already miss timed this more than once. The collision would likely kill me before I’d have to suffer from being eaten alive.

The trick was to anticipate its lung. I’d fought enough manticore now that I had a decent idea what they were capable of, but no two were identical. Destiny made sure of that.

As I halved the distance, I could almost sense the monster’s muscles tensing. I reached out an empty hand and a silver Voli bolt flew.

Before it had reached its target, the manticore jumped. That all but guaranteed my bolt would land, but it also meant I had its momentum to contend with. That was the tricky part.

My bolt plummeted right into its open mouth. Its entire body tensed like it was about to vomit.

All that I had to do was find the angle to divert my trajectory, but it was coming on directly. In that split second, there was no obvious course I could take.

Throwing my arms and legs forward as if I was going to land on its snout, Othisi burst out of me. At first, my energy didn’t seem to slow it or my decent, then I was suddenly flung back.

I covered my back and skull in the strongest shielding energy I could summon before slamming into the building behind me.

Blacking out momentarily, I woke to find myself face down on the ground. As soon as I heard the ruckus, I scampered to my feet and away from the manticore that was spasming uncontrollably while still on its feet.

My head throbbed as I found the corner of the building to shield me in case the manticore stumbled in my direction. I sent healing energy to the source of the pain.

After a few seconds, I was sure the monster was dying. It wasn’t going out easy, so I took aim and tried to time its movement. When it slowed for just a moment, my bolt struck it upside the head.

Destiny appeared to me in a Mara style ballistic suit with pink trim. She wasn’t happy. “Look, I know you are trying to get used to falling and flying about like a daredevil squirrel, but can you please stop almost killing yourself every time you do it. If you would’ve just stayed in the air above it, you could’ve bombed it with bolts and remained perfectly out of harm’s way.”

“What fun is that?” I retorted, rather surprised to see her so concerned.

“It’s sane. That’s what it is, Lucius. I get that pain-is-the-ultimate-teaching nonsense, but I don’t like it.”

I moved to hug her, but she jumped back.

“None of that either. You think you can sway me by giving me a serotonin rush?”

“I don’t, but I think you need one.”

She seemed to thing about it before throwing her arms around my waist. “Fine. Answer me this. Do you ever expect to actually kamikaze toward a grounded enemy in a real fight?”

“Probably not, but if they’re faster than I am and I develop a layered offensive technique that only has a melee range, then it’s possible.”

“Why did I even ask?” She shook her head but wasn’t letting go. “I forget you did something similar against the world boss in Freedom. It’s so stupidly dangerous.”

Here in the bandit sim which she had taken over, this was the only place where she could take on the shape of anything she wanted. This human form she’d designed was how she always appeared. She was rather touchy feely, but I didn’t blame her. All of this was new to her. She was like a real little sister in many ways.

I ran my finger through her hair because my mother had always liked it. She couldn’t take after her in any real sense, but she definitely shared this preference with her.

She let out a weak little moan, then returned to lecturing me. “How about you let me design a game that will challenge your movement abilities without the same consequences if you fail. That way you don’t have to try so many dumb things in the middle of combat training.”

“I would happily play any game you make for me, but I do them both together to save time.”

She pulled back without letting go and put her index finger an inch from my nose.

Before she could say anything, I said, “Fine.”

There was a sparkle of hope in the way she looked up at me. “Really? I promise to make it as challenging as anything you’ve ever face, but instead of being chastened with pain and death if you fail, there will be rewards if you succeed. It’ll be fun.”

“I’m really starting to think that no two people have the same definition of fun.”

“Well, maybe you need to figure out your own definition.”

“And if it includes pain and death.”

“Then you’re wrong.”

I chuckled at her insistence. “Okay. Okay. I think we should move on to fighting simulated Krato.”

Her expression darkened. “You’re impossible. No crazy flying squirl nonsense, kay? You’ll be dying enough as is.”

“Yes, ma’am.”