Chapter 98 - Weapon Lessons

<---Chapter 97 - Engineering Improvements|Table of Contents|Chapter 99 - Payback Preparations--->

Monica can't remember the last time she's been pushed this hard. Not even the war with the Ilysian Punks or Gunther's union had her struggling this hard without a glimmer of hope of winning. At least when she fought against Damian and Sasha, she could at least see or visualize what she needed to do to close the gap, or understand what she was lacking in.

This? This was just a one-sided humifaction by Kyle, who hardly broke a sweat as he smoothly dodged each of Monica's punches without moving back too much. Monica gritted her teeth as she roared, through a few more punches, trying to get a clean hit on Kyle's body.

"You're too slow with your punches. Far too much emphasis on strength and brawling. A good skill to have learnt from your years growing up in Raktor, but not enough to face off with the best." Kyle pointed out as the fight concluded, Monica exhausted beyond her limit and dropping to one knee

"Well I don't have an tattoo or equipment backing me up unlike Damian and Sasha!" Monica shoved the blame aside, trying to deliver one last desperate kick, hoping to catch Kyle off-guard.

Instead, she found the ceiling swirling around her vision as her leg was grabbed in one hand, Kyle tossing and twisting her onto the ground with an expert martial grip, her shoulder blades scrapping the rough stone floor of the vast training chamber.

"They could beat you without using their engraving or equipment as well. I too have neither." Kyle shrugged.

Monica opened her mouth to retort, but decided better against it. She had heard of Kyle's 'transformation' from a weak member of the old Seven Snakes to an irrationally strong, violent and confident leader, which still made no sense to her.

"I understand you are specialized in using your fists. Gloves or knuckledusters should work the best for your style, but with your current weaknesses its far too easy to overcome. In the new age, guns and artillery are the main things that will kill you in a battle."

"So what, you want me to wear a shield like Damian? Fuck that, if I'm going into a fight, I'm going in to pummel their faces."

"It simply means that your equipment has to cover for that weakness. Your biggest flaw was proven just now - you could hardly catch up with me. And by my estimation, no matter how much you train, someone with a more compact body will always be able to outpace you if you were on equal terms." Kyle explained, though it sounded more like he was talking to himself.

"Are you calling me fat?!"

"So you will need something that can slow down the person if you want to catch him..."

Monica struggled to get up, her hands gripping her knee as she supported herself upwards. "I don't care about that, what I want is that the moment I catch them, they are dead. That's all."

"Hmm, but you also don't have enough brute strength through break through a defence."

"Then I'll keep punching and pushing until I do! I don't need one hit wonders, I just want to be sure to finish them off. Anyway, enough chatting. Again!"

The one hour training session concluded the same way as Niko's did: utter devestation with Monica not being able to hit Kyle's chest at all despite having specialized in a weapon. Kyle had also alternated attack and defense spars, allowing Monica to better visualize and internalize learnings of how best to cover her weaknesses.

"Tomorrow, I will use my handgun. Try your best to think on how to deal with it."

"WHAT?!"

Kyle left the flabbergasted Monica behind in the training chamber, returning to the Oracle Chamber once more where the variations on the exosuit arm frame was finally completed, displayed to him in various holograms. Selecting the best variation with material cut out and reduction in overall envelope size, he finally had what he deemed was the final exosuit arm frame design. Now, time for the engravings.

With no more Kusal Corporation Fabric to utilize, he decided to settle on using layering within the metal plate itself. However, the integrity of the metal would be lost if it had too many layers to begin with. Melding the different metal layers together would also result in warping and disfiguration of the engraving, which may result in unwanted effects. Kyle certainly wouldn't want his exosuit arm to suddenly burst out into insect eggs during combat.

He decided to utilize three engravings - a point defence engraving copied from the military breastplate, coupled with resistance and strength engravings as a first test run, seeing if the different skills could be combined into one single arm. Sending the designs of the various engravings off to the factory, he could only wait for the manufacturing to be complete, the lead time being three days.

Next up was the improvement of the taboo knife. As expected, the blueprints for the taboo knife had engravings within the knife itself, a total of three separate sequences as well. He already had practice copies of the design, the most interesting one of them all being the blood infusion engraving.

Apart from the explanation of how the taboo knife actually worked, the rest of the side effects were already familiar to Kyle, having experimented on a few hundred humans already. What truly worried him was the usage of Toxic Nodia and Dzi Flower Sand in the process.

However, with the influx of prisoners from Raktor ready to be part of a greater cause, Kyle felt confident enough to begin experimenting on them, though carefully, setting up control tests and creating a rigorous testing procedure. Best to select a simple engraving, one that is easier first. Choosing the same force-increasing enchantment from Riker's pipe that he used on Sasha, he began to vary the quantities of Dzi Flower Sand and Toxic Nodia, arranging them in separate flasks while ordering the goblin slaves to restrain the prisoners down to tables.

There were only a hundred humans delivered, with about of third of them still suffering from Absolute Euria withdrawal. Without knowing if there would be any complications with the withdrawal symptoms, Kyle decided to work on the rest, some of whom were already disabled or maimed. Too bad there is no anathesia

Segregating them into separate chambers, Kyle began to experiment, screams and shouts echoing through the chamber from those who still had the strength to attempt to fight back. The testing was brutal, lasting through the night as Kyle meticulously carved the skin with the sharp tip of the taboo knife like a surgeon, goblin slaves helping him to bring cloths that soaked up the residual blood. Arcite ore was placed nearby, acting as replacement for the ambient arcia energy in the environment if Kyle needed it.

Over the first ten humans, already seven became feral, with three surprisingly surviving the process, those that had Dzi Flower Sand applied to the carving and Toxic Nodia subsequently poured over it. Kyle had to wear a gas mask to avoid the toxic fumes billowing out from the reaction, dark green swirls of rancid smoke spilling into the chamber. For the patient, a simple wet cloth was placed, which both muffled the painful shrieks and reduced the effects of the toxic fumes.

However, as he began to increase the dosage of the additional material, the eleventh human's body began to bloat significantly, as if it was getting pumped up like a balloon. The test subject's eyes widened in horror as he tried to speak, only for a sickening green liquid gushing out of his various orficies, leaking like a sinking ship before the skin drawn taut finally burst apart in a bloody mist stained with Toxic Nodia, peltering Kyle in a shower of flesh and ungodly fluids. The unnerving scene frightened the goblins, but Kyle was unfazed, merely moving onto the next subject as per planned. "That was not good."

Finally, as he began to slowly tweak the quantities lower and lower, he found the procedure, managing to succeed on five test subjects in a row, a feat previously unachievable with just the taboo knife alone. A 1 to 3 ratio , Dzi Flower Sand to Toxic Nodia. Kyle had the procedure down on lock, though, save for the placement of the Dzi Flower Sand beads. This method also gave an interesting insight into how current arctech engravings can be improved, as the amalgamation between Toxic Nodia and Dzi Flower Sand seemed to be a natural enhancer to the efficiency of the sequence that it is placed in.

Over the next three days, Kyle perfected his movements and procedure during the surgery, becoming akin to a meticulous surgeon with steady hands. Soon, the prisoners had achieved a near 75% success rate, though there were still some issues of rejection and uncontrollable descents into madness, but Kyle considered them a sacrifice that he was willing to make. However, as soon as he stepped across the threshold of having more than one engraving in the body, the same bloating issue occured for all test subjects, the bodies violently refusing to accept the new engravings. Kyle needed to find someone who was compatible with the Dzi Flower Sand to see if a human body could hold more than one engraving, for he knew that he now had more than one skill thanks to the System.

The three days also saw Niko, Damian, and Monica improving by leaps and bounds. Niko had yet to choose any weapon, but the fundamentals were getting stronger and stronger by the day. Monica had finally began to fully visualize both sides of attack and defense, elevating her combat skills another notch. Damian himself had only grown far more resistant to incoming damage over time as well as improving his reaction speed to imminent attacks, even able to pre-emptively stop Sasha's falchion with his custom-made tower shield.

Sasha, on the other hand, felt like she was hitting a wall, unable to progress any further. The falchion that she had obtained from the Snow Song's shaman was indeed a boost to her own power and strength, but it did not really feel like it was a part of her. She was very much a flexible fighter like Niko, able to use any weapon effectively but not to a master level, unsure of whether she should specialize in the falchion. Not knowing how to move forward, she went to Kyle, noticing the clear improvements in the engravings and Kyle's conundrum on doing multiple engravings. [Sir, I volunteer.]

Kyle immediately shook his head, though his steady surgical hands hardly budge as he still carved away on a body. "No. Out of the question. The procedure for getting a second engraving currently has a 100% death rate."

[I have an affinity with the Dzi Flower Sand.] Sasha reminded Kyle of how the original ceremonial bracelet presented to them had seeped into her skin. [I am the best candidate by far.]

Kyle pondered for a moment. He didn't consider any vipers irreplacable, not even Sasha, though the setback in terms of time, effort and resources put into training them was irreversible. He might have agreed back in the Galactic Era, as there was a large population of willing humans, but here, Sasha was unique and still had leads that he had yet to explore. "Once I'm done with this body, you and I will carry it up to the Snow Song tribe and seek advice."

Lugging the unconscious patient in a conspicous body bag, Kyle and Sasha made the same trek back up again, this time moving much faster thanks to their previous experience. Sasha dropped the body at the feet of the terrified Shaman, who's expression of fear was soon melted by curiousity at the engraving. <Human, this is the best ritualistic engraving I have seen in my life!>

"Do you have any champions that have borne more than one engraving? I'm looking for clues on how a human body can support more."

<Only two, both of whom are dead. Humans were never meant to support even one engraving in the first place.> The Snow Song Shaman shook his head again.

"I just need to know traits, quirk, any unique features."

<Hmm.... For one, they can absorb Dzi Flower Sand into their body directly upon reciting the ritual words. She too can do it.> The shaman pointed a gnarly finger at Sasha's hopeful expression, but Kyle was still unconvinced.

"How many times have you tried to impart more than one."

<Thirty times. Or was it fifty? I can't really remember, my head is foggy...>

Kyle and Sasha tried to search the area for more clues, asking other members of the Snow Song tribe, but to no avail, only hearing rumors and tall tales that were clearly fabricated by storytellers over the decades. With nothing left to go on, the duo returned back to the training caves, Sasha pushing hard for Kyle to go through with the procedure. [Even if we took the shaman's worst case scenario of fifty, that's still a 1% chance, not 0.]

"That's far lower than what you originally went through. It's too risky." Kyle was still hesitant. "We will see next week when I am more prepared. I will study more on arctech engineering."

While he left the hopeful Sasha waiting, Kyle began to plan for Niko's and Monica's engravings as well, knowing that he had a very high success rate with just a single engraving now. The issue was to what engraving he should impart. As of now, Damian had a defense engraving, while Sasha had a force engraving. Theoretically, both Niko and Monica should also receive force engravings, but Kyle felt that they could be better specialized to their needs instead of having a generic one, something that should really elevate them to the next level of power.

He focused on Niko first, thinking carefully about his supposed growth plan. "What engraving would you prefer?" Kyle asked Niko during one of the individual weapon's training sessions, Niko now using a bow and arrow amateurishly.

"Uh... I don't know. Something that makes my enemies go boom!" Niko grinned, mimicking an explosion with his hands, simultaneously reminding Kyle that Niko's opinions hardly mattered now.

Instead, Kyle began to lean towards an engraving that could help in training rather than in combat. He needed an engraving that could accelerate Niko's weapons training faster without fatigue or time for rest, making use of every minute. He scoured the various arctech textbooks, looking for a relevant arctech engraving before finally finding a theoretical one that fit the bill.

The engraving listed in the textbook was clearly rudimentary and have not been improved on, a small little note mentioning that it was a theory at best and yet to be implemented on any living creature, the research department of the University of Raktor clearly abstaining from human experimentation. Publicly, at least.

Kyle naturally took the note as a mere suggesstion, quickly practicing the engraving before his Arcia Engraver title kicked in, swirls of information and hints at how to improve the quality surged into his brain like a rapid waterfall, akin to a cranial implant of sorts. He worked feverishly through long hours in the night, finally managing to improve the engraving.

Kyle took the engraving back to some of the remaining prisoners, practicing on them again. For each engraving that he had to do, the placement of the amalgamtion beads were different, so Kyle had no choice but to put in the hours necessary to ensure Niko did not die.

Surprisingly, Kyle faced less of a problem than the force engraving of Riker's pipe, Kyle able to successfully impart the engraving onto five more prisoners in a row. Feeling the momentum, he hurriedly ordered the goblin nurses to call Niko in.

Soon, Niko found himself strapped in tightly into a clearly blood-stained table, with bits and pieces of exploded skin and flesh still strewn around the floor. He could feel the cold gloves of Kyle marking out the engraving's location on the back. "This isn't going to hurt, right? I'm not a prisoner!"

"You're not." Kyle smirked as he sharpened the edge of that taboo knife while Niko's mouth was stuffed unceremoniously with a cloth. "But it will definitely hurt. Just think of all the girls you can hit on once u get this sorted."

"Reall- ARRGGGHHHHHH!" Niko belted muffled profanities and curses in such a combination that would annihilate anyone and their ancestors if they were the target at hand. His hands and legs flailed wildly, taking nearly four goblin slaves to hold him down on a single limb while Niko clenched hard onto the cloth in his mouth.

The procedure was longer than expected, Kyle having to smack Niko unconscious at one point to prevent him from potentially disrupting the surgery with the continuous squirm, as well as for Kyle's own sake due to Niko even throwing some vulgarities his way over the first ten minutes.

Finally, the carving was complete, with Niko's breathing still steady while the goblin slaves wiped the blood off his skin, revealing a slowly healing engraving glittering with the beads in specific places. Kyle confirmed the accuracy of the sequence with the textbook and his improved reference, before finally concluding the surgery by pouring a healing potion directly onto the wound.

Next was Monica's turn, and she already had a clear idea on the engraving she wanted. "The main issue with my combat style is that I need to keep close to the target to be able to finish him off in one combo. Any engraving that would slow the enemy would work well."

Kyle agreed, and rummaged through the engravings in the various books and notes he had kept since coming to Raktor. He recalled one of the arctech equipments he had seen a long time ago, the engraving on it being a potential candidate.

However, such an engraving would require Monica to suffer a hit first, which was a downside that Kyle could not accept when it came to it being a human tattoo, as any direct blow on the body could have killing potential. Kyle flipped through a few books, coming across some slowing auras, but all of them required massive arcia consumption that Kyle himself wasn't sure his body could sustain.

If we can't slow the enemy, then we need an engraving that makes sure the opponent is finished off. Kyle pondered a bit, laying out a few options. He could give Monica the generic force engraving, but he doubted it would be what she wanted. Niko's advice of making things go boom momentarily appeared in his head, though it was dismissed just as quick. Explosive engravings were dangerous as Kyle did not know how they performed on a human body. Kyle had a few more equipment on hand, checking their effects.

Speed engravings like that of the Aero Shoes would help Monica catch up, but Kyle still felt that she was lacking the power to really break her opponents apart. Even if Monica were to be able to get close to one of Harrison's hitmen, Kyle suspected that her punches would not be able to make a dent on the exosuit arm armour.

The Enchanted Flaming Hammer on the other hand, was a good engraving, something that could quite literally double Monica's strength and also prevent the target from escaping once a hit lands. Kyle began the usual procedure, testing and practising on other bodies first before calling Monica over.

Monica was far more stable than Niko was during the surgery, though the engravings were not on the back like Niko's, but only on her right hand. Kyle wasn't about to put a second one on the left hand lest he lost Monica as well, the risk far too high. Thankfully, the surgery went off without a hitch, Monica awake through out the entire procedure. She clenched her rapidly healing hand, seeing the embedded Dzi Flower Sand in her knuckles.

"Can you feel the engraving? You should be able to sense it as part of your body." Kyle instructed Monica on how to utilize it, having Sasha also guide Monica on acclimatizing to the inclusion of the tattoo. Monica threw a few punches, putting her focus on her right hand as the engraving began to glow slightly.

Kyle had Sasha and Monica go a practice round, with Monica still getting used to the engraving. However, the effects of it were immediately clear when Sasha tried to swing her falchion in. Instead of dodging, Monica slammed her right engraved fist into the flat side of the blade, knocking it askew while retaliating at Sasha.

Sasha easily dodged the counter-attack, taking one step and was about to launch another attack when a sudden blow from nowhere nearly knocked her falchion out of her grip, prompting Monica to pounce on the opportunity and rush Sasha.

While the duel still ended with Sasha successfully grappling Monica to the ground, the new inclusion of the Delayed Assault skill was proving to be a clear boon to Monica, who couldn't stop grinning. "Now I'll be able to punch twice, literally."

However, the very next day, there seemed to be a problem as Kyle found out Niko was still unconscious, missing his individual training session. He wasn't waking up from his deep sleep, his breathing peaceful as he laid on a small single bed, Kyle and the other vipers gathering around him quietly. "How long has he been like this?" Kyle asked Damian.

"Not sure, sir. About eighteen hours." Damian bent down and placed a finger near Niko's nose, checking for a breath.

"Did something go wrong in the surgery?" Monica asked.

"Not that I am aware of..." Kyle pondered a bit, crouching over and testing Niko's pulse on his wrist. "Seems like he's truly unconscious."

The air in the room became slightly solemn, Damian's mood worsening as he looked at the peaceful face of Niko, contemplating the chance that Niko might be in a coma. "What should we do, sir?" Damian looked around the room. "We could try to get some smelling salts. Perhaps have a doctor come and -"

"No. A smelling salt won't fix a botched surgery. He is a replaceable viper anyway, plenty of others willing to fill his position. Have the goblins chop him up and cart him off to the maggots-"

"WAIT WAIT WAIT!" Niko suddenly lunged out, grabbing Damian's arm with a desperate grip. "I'm okay, I'm okay, I was just pretending to be asleep! I just wanted some proper rest!"

The tension in the atmosphere broke apart like clouds parting, the other vipers all groaning in unison while Kyle had a small smirk on his face, already knowing Niko was faking it. "Good, so now that you had a proper rest, you should be able to do proper training. Damian, work up a physical routine twice as hard. With his new tattoo, he can handle it, don't worry about pushing him to the limit. Reduce his sleep hours as well."

Leaving the pleading cries of Niko behind, Kyle now only had Damian and Sasha's engraving left to be upgraded. The upgrading of an existing tattoo had never been done before even by the goblin shaman, so Kyle was definitely in the dark here, continuing his exhaustive work to attempt the new procedure of re-carving. It was also a mystery on whether he would be able to remove already existing engravings on the body, especially if the upgrade required new symbols in the middle of the sequence rather than at the end.

He started with Sasha's force engraving first, improving it on the metal plate before continuing to modify existing ones.

The improved version had a lower cost as well as a longer uptime overall during combat, proving to be far better than the one Sasha currently had. Luckily for Kyle, the upgraded engraving only required three more symbols attached to the end, so it was a simple job to simply extend the engraving.

In this fashion, both Damian's and Sasha's engraving were upgraded, though Sasha was still insistent on receiving the second engraving. Kyle had tried over the next few days to improve his success rate, but failed to see any measurable effects that could increase his chances. Sasha was simply too critical to run the test on.

With a week passing by like this, the training was progressing better than expected, each of the vipers hitting a new high in their capabilities and fighting strength, while Kyle obtained better engravings. The exosuit arm was all that was left for Kyle to attempt, before moving on to his own self-upgrades. Yet there was another problem that appeared - the prisoners who successfully survived the engraving process, many of them receiving the force-engraving, stamina recovery or delayed assault. "Sir, what should we do with them? We should try to recruit some." Damian offered his suggestion.

"How is Culo doing now?"

"He's currently capped at three feral humans, and he's getting much more ruthless over time."

"Good. Send the prisoners to him one by one. I expect that after a week of that, we will have a new top fighter in the Seven Snakes."

<---Chapter 97 - Engineering Improvements|Table of Contents|Chapter 99 - Payback Preparations--->