Reincarnated Into Destiny Universe - Volume 1 Chapter 16 You're The Best Around.. Prt. 2
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- Volume 1 Chapter 16 You're The Best Around.. Prt. 2
After sending out a handful of Kinetic Slashes, Isaac fell back to his team’s defensive position.
“Did you do what you needed to do? If so, I also have some tests to run.” Koren asked.
“Yep, I’m good. I got your back. Go ahead and do your thing.” Isaac responded.
Hearing these words, Koren dashed out to meet the Hive swarm. Koren had been spending most of his Days of Reflection trying to increase his strength. Zavala had told him the story of the mighty Saint-14, of all of his glorious conquests that he had accomplished all on his own. Upon hearing this tale, Koren felt overwhelmed by inspiration and determination. He had immediately set his sights on those lofty peaks and made it his ambition to crest those peaks and surpass them.
When the Hive assaulted him, he made them pay for their hubris by snatching them up and using them as weapons against each other. He grabbed a Thrall by the head and smashed it into the skull of another Thrall, killing both instantly. After a couple of skull crushing bashes to clear out some of Thralls, he grabbed an Acolyte by his leg and began hammering his allies with it, until it died. Whenever one enemy weapon would die he would simply cast it aside and pick up another. ‘When the enemy is your weapon, you can never run out of ammunition.’ Koren thought as he continued his massacre.
Of course, Koren was using LAMP to increase his strength to the appropriate level. At the moment, he was simply trying to nail down the proper movements required to effectively use each enemy against its comrades. If he wanted to match Saint-14 much less surpass him, he would need to continue increasing his strength at every opportunity.
After a few minutes of carnage, Koren was satisfied with the progress he had made. He then tried to visualize a new Void ability that he had wanted to try. Koren knew that the Sentinel Subclass required a decent amount of Warlock training to use effectively and he had every intention of getting it at some point.
Until then however, he wanted to improve the viability of his Ward of Dawn. It was fine for blocking projectiles but anything the barrier didn’t recognize as a projectile could simply walk through his ward and attack them. The Ward of Dawn was a rather simplistic application of Void Energy requiring it to only block projectiles and take a spherical shape.
Koren maintained an evasive movement pattern as he tried to visualize his new and improved Ward of Dawn. He need it to be destructive like a Warlock’s Void Bomb but to maintain its same spherical shape and duration. Koren finished his visualization and threw out his ward. A dome shaped wall of Void Energy appeared around Koren that had a much deeper and darker purple color to it.
The wall started at Koren as its epicenter and quickly spread outwards. Every Hive that was hit by the ward was obliterated. The remaining Hive that foolishly attacked or attempted to enter the ward were also destroyed. The ward only lasted about seven seconds, however, and Koren realized that this alteration to Ward of Dawn was going to take a while to master.
Koren continued practicing his enemy smashing technique for a few more minutes, before heading back to Isaac and Daniel. Seeing that Koren had returned from his solo run, Daniel took this opportunity to do his own training.
“Alright, guys, I’m heading out. Be back in a jiff.” Daniel said, as he rushed into the Hive swarm.
Daniel landed among the Hive, drew his Shock Blades, and began refining his ability to pinpoint enemy weak spots and bury his blades into them. He utilized his fastest manageable speed while trying to sharpen his senses and reaction time. He wanted to be the fastest Guardian ever but he realized that no matter how fast he was, if even he couldn’t keep up with his own speed its usefulness would be severely reduced. He needed to sharpen his mind and keep his reflexes at a level that allows him to make the most of his speed.
He had spent most of his Days of Reflection testing different combinations of Kinetic Energy applications. Figuring out where and in how many places he needed to apply Kinetic Energy in order to get the most effective and efficient results.
While being able to increase his strength by covering a large area of his limbs with Kinetic Energy was great, increasing his speed to the next level beyond that required compressing the Kinetic Energy and forcing it all out within a very tiny cone. Each cone needed to be specially placed on each limb so as to maintain a balanced power output. It was very much like hitting a billiard ball. In order to make it go in the direction you want, you needed to make sure that your cue stick landed at just the right place and just the right angle.
Once he had gotten the hang of this method, however, he soon realized that his speed increased so dramatically that he could no longer react in time to control it effectively. With this gap in his speed and reaction time firmly in mind, he continued pushing his reflexes to the limit and occasionally increasing his speed.
After nearly ten minutes of attempting to sharpen his reflexes, he was satisfied with his progress and decided to try one more thing, before heading back to his teammates. Daniel recalled the ability Cayde had recently taught him.
Since Warlock training was one of the requirements to learn the Night Stalker Subclass and Daniel had already done some Warlock training, Cayde decided it would be ok to give him a little peek into the Night Stalker Subclass, so Cayde taught him how to create the Void Wall Grenade.
Daniel, however, upon seeing the effects of this grenade knew that this Void Fire would be his new Energy Cloak for his weapons. Being a speed demon was all good and well but it left him without much in the way of firepower. Golden Gun was powerful but required him to conjure the gun itself every time and precision. While Daniel was the best in his fireteam when it came to precision, when it came to the speeds he was trying to reach conjuring the gun, aiming, and firing was just too much. Both Arc Blade and Strider, however, required a constant supply of his Light charge to maintain. He needed a more efficient and effective approach that could allow him to keep moving and hitting the target while dealing damage.
If he could master this Void Fire to a sufficient degree, he could cloak his blades in a special Void Fire that would increase the duration of any already existing Void Fire effects applied to enemies. If he modified the Void Wall Grenade to simply catch the enemy on fire instead of forming a wall, then he could utilize his speed to continuously land blows with his blades to keep the fire burning. Due to Void Energy’s destructive nature, once he gained the Night Stalker Subclass his enemies covered in Void Energy, from Shadow Shot, would receive massive damage.
First however, he needed to test his Void Flame Grenade. The rest could wait until he had more powerful foes and he was more proficient with this ability. Daniel easily avoided the Hive’s attacks as he visualized his new ability. Forming a ball of bright purple energy in his hands, he unleashed it into the swarm and the grenade landed on the head of an Acolyte and exploded. The Acolyte was immediately wreathed in purple flames along with six of the surrounding enemies. The Acolyte was incinerated almost instantly and the four Thralls, caught in the flames, burned a bit slower but eventually turned into Hive ash. The other two Acolytes managed to survive but only barely. They had whole limbs missing and much of their chitinous exterior had been burned away. Two quick successive shots from his hand cannon ended them easily.
Seeing the destructive results of his new ability, Daniel smiled evilly as he continued to sharpen his reflexes against the Hive’s assault. Daniel continued his sharpening for another ten minutes, before heading back to his teammates.
“Alright, guys, if we’ve all got our training out of the way, let’s clean up this riffraff. Speed Creamin’!” Isaac ordered them.
The three all switched to Titan and began clearing out the area around them, while keeping their backs to each other. Once a large enough area was cleared, they all switched to Hunter and activated different Energy Cloaks on their weapons. Isaac used Void, Daniel used Arc, and Koren used Solar. The three dashed away in different directions and then tossed out their largest area of effect grenade. They landed near their grenades and began pushing the Hive into the grenades AOE and slicing up others.
They worked their way around their grenades and after making a single loop the grenades expired. The three then began slicing their way through the Hive moving counterclockwise around the room. The Hive, unable to deal with the Guardian’s speed and power, all fell within a matter of minutes. When the last enemy fell, the veil of darkness was dispersed and their levels were increased to seventeen.
“Nice! It shouldn’t take more than two more of these rooms to get us to twenty. Let’s head back to the hallway and regroup with the others, before continuing.” Isaac commented.
“That’s just more practice for me. Let’s do it.” Daniel agreed, excitedly.
“Agreed, let’s go.” Koren consented.
The three of them walked out of the room and found the other three already waiting for them.
———-
Ferra and her team walked into the Hive chamber and once again recoiled slightly at being disconnected from the Traveler’s Light. After taking up a defensive position in the middle of the room like Isaac’s team, Ferra left her teammates to their Titan tasks and jumped into the Hive swarm by herself.
Ferra had been inspired by the Scatter Grenade that Ikora had shown her and wanted to create something similar but with a Nova Bomb. Ikora had told her that creating any kind of ability that would seek out and kill an enemy on its own required that she be able to pour her killing intent into the designated energy. The more powerful the killing intent the more aggressively the energy would seek its target.
With this guidance in mind, Ferra set herself to this new task. After visualizing her ability, she unleashed a massive Nova Bomb into the air towards the ceiling. It stopped about halfway there and hung suspended in midair. It was spinning violently and looked ready to explode but it didn’t.
Only a single second after it stopped traveling, the violently rotating ball of Void Energy began raining Scatter Grenade particles onto the Hive below. Not a single particle was wasted, as they homed in on their prey. The Nova Bomb slowly began to lose mass and after nearly ten seconds the last homing particle was created from the last of the Void Energy.
Ferra looked around at the massive destruction she had wrought and grinned wickedly. There wasn’t a single Hive on the floor with them. The Hive were still pouring in from the side rooms and balconies but her ability had efficiently wiped out the entire floor that had been covered in Hive. Her teammates were astonished and couldn’t help but be amazed by their leader.
Having accomplished what she came to do she, Ferra made her way back to the defensive position and prepared for the incoming Hive. Bravo looked at Laurel and she nodded her head in response. With that acknowledgement he rushed forward to run his own tests.
Ferra and Bravo had both been seduced by the magnificent power of the Warlocks and so Bravo decided he would create a Hunter Subclass that channeled the full power of a Warlock. Ferra on the other hand, was attempting to create a Titan Subclass that did the same. The Night Stalker, Arc Strider, Sentinel, and Dawn Breaker subclasses dabbled in it but never utilized the full potential of a Warlock.
Knowing what he had to do, Bravo landed amongst the Hive and began ending them one after another. He utilized his recently acquired Arc Strider Subclass and summoned an Arc Staff. While slicing through the Hive like butter, Bravo visualized what he wished for his next ability to accomplish. Once everything was sorted, he cleared a space around him just wide enough for him to take a solid stance and thrust his Arc Staff into the air. As the Arc Staff reached its highest point and the ability was unleashed, a massive surge of Arc Energy rained from the ceiling, in a pillar that traveled through the Arc Staff and Bravo, and began surging across the floor in waves.
The Hive were annihilated once again. There were still Hive on the floor when Bravo’s attack was finished but not many. After clearing the room once again, Bravo prepared himself for the reinforcement Hive’s arrival. Clearing his mind of everything except the number, type, and positioning of his enemies, he drew upon his Titan training and, similar to Koren’s technique, he began tracking enemy projectiles and maneuvering in such a way as to cause their attacks to land on their allies.
After practicing this for a few minutes, he mixed in some Kinetic Energy to try and redirect their projectiles. Using both of these methods, he continued his slaughter until his Light charge was nearly empty drained and then returned to his teammates.
“Sweet, finally my turn.” Laurel exclaimed, as she took Bravo’s place among the swarm.
Laurel, despite being a bit more enthusiastic and outgoing than her teammates, she had a deep appreciation for the silent stealthy approach to combat. Her goal was to be the stealthiest stealther that ever did stealth the seven shadows. After seeing the Vanish ability that Cayde had demonstrated, she knew what she had to focus on and master.
She had every intention of taking Vanish to the next level. So far she had been struggling to activate it outside of her Arc Blade mode. This was the first step she needed to take and, while she hadn’t yet succeeded, she had taken a page out of the Warlock’s book and not only increased her Arc attunement but also tried to learn as much as she could about light and its interactions with objects. She was certain that she was close and this time she would get it.
Laurel cleared her mind of everything except her knowledge of Arc Energy, light, and Vanish. She visualized herself becoming completely invisible and the light passing through her completely undisturbed. She willed the effects to manifest and a flickering of her image could be seen. Several parts of her body became transparent and then visible once more. ‘Damn, another failure. Wait a minute, haven’t I been focusing on placing the ability on myself but whenever I visualize it I see myself completely disappearing armour, weapons, and all. If this is going to work I need the target of the ability and the visualization to be in sync.’
Laurel reviewed the concept of the ability that she had and modified it to include her weapons and armor. She then visualized it as being cast on all three targets and achieving the same effect as last time. ‘Alright, I think I’ve got it this time.’ Laurel thought, as she released the ability and completely disappeared from sight. ‘Sweet!’
Having finally achieved the first step in mastering the stealth based Subclass she envisioned, she began moving in and around the Hive insta killing them by taking their heads off with a single swing of her Shock Blade wrapped in Arc Energy. After playing around with her newly acquired Vanish ability, she once again concentrated on what she wanted this next ability to accomplish.
She unleashed a carpet of Arc Energy that covered a twenty foot circle around her. When she felt the Arc Energy around her, however, she knew that she hadn’t achieved what she had hoped for and it was also much smaller than she had aimed for. What she wanted was a nearly forty foot area that allowed her to utilize her Blink ability without discretion or hesitation. An affinity field of sorts that would decrease all of the requirements for activating Blink and allow for precise targeted acquisition of her destination.
Although she hadn’t accomplished this, she could sense that this failure was one directly tied to her affinity with the Light and her attunement to Arc Energy. So she wasn’t completely disheartened and knew that she would acquire this ability in time. Spending a few more minutes practicing her Vanish ability, Laurel finally made her way back to her teammates. The three of them broke apart and cleaned up the remaining Hive. Once they had cleaned up and reconnected with the Light, they returned to the hallway, realized they were the first ones to finish, and then waited a couple of minutes for Isaac’s team to finish.
———-
“Hey, you guys finished up before us, huh? Did you happen to make any progress in your training?” Isaac asked.
“Hell yes we did. Ferra made this massive Nova Bomb that sent out loads of homing particles, Bravo channeled a huge pillar of Arc Energy through him and into a wave of devastation, and I finally managed to use the Vanish ability without entering Arc Blade mode, among other things.” Laurel speedily recounted.
“Wow! That sounds pretty incredible! I guess you guys have been working pretty hard. As for us, Koren developed a modified version of Ward of Dawn and a new combat technique, Daniel managed to increase his speed even further and modified a Void Grenade to set enemies aflame with Void Fire. Sounds to me like we should do some group training, during the next week to exchange notes. What do you guys think?”
“Absolutely, I can’t wait!” Laurel said, not bothering to hide the particularly ecstatic mood this mission had put her in.
“Same here, I was actually going to suggest the same thing.” Ferra agreed.
“No objections here, anything that can make our team stronger is worth the time and effort.” Bravo added.
“Nice! In that case, let’s hurry up and get these levels knocked out and then we can catch some power Z’s, before our training begins.”