The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 133

Watching other people puke makes me feel like I’m about to puke myself…though I was already feeling a bit nauseated before Hebi starting throwing up. It wasn’t just me, Director Silva and Zarina were also looking a bit green around the gills, so to speak.

How and why? In a nutshell, because of that last attack…when Altan activated his Secondary Manifestation and blasted out that deafening sound wave, it affected us too, though I imagine not nearly as badly as it’s affecting Hebi.

“Oops…I, uh, might have gotten a bit carried away, my bad,” Apologized Altan with a sheepish grin, as he saw out nauseous faces and Hebi puking his guts out..

Hebi then stumbled away with a dazed mumble and collapsed onto the ground, letting out a weak sigh.

“Yes…you…did…,” Groaned Director Silva, her face pale as she nodded as the puddle of vomit, “That’s why…you’ll be…the one who…cleans that…up.”

“Oh. Do I…do I have to?” He responded with a look of slight dismay.

She wasn’t kidding or just saying that out of irritation…no, she actually meant it. And once he figured that out, he let our a defeated sigh and went to get a mop…his power is seriously impressive, but right now, I’m too sick to care…

…

About half an hour later, he’d finished cleaning up and the rest of us had more or less recovered from his sound blasts, though I still felt a bit off. Hebi had fallen asleep at some point, a drained look on his face. Altan’s the type of opponent that would be a real pain to go up against, his powers won’t be easy to get around. He certainly justifies his ranking as an Ace…

“Hey, don’t those sound waves affect you at all?” I asked Altan curiously, as I started feeling better.

“Hm? Oh, nah, not really, I feel perfectly fine, see?” He replied with a flex of his arm and a grin.

Not sure what muscle has to do with that, but okay…

“I see…gotta say, that last attack after you activated your Secondary Manifestation, that’s gotta be really useful when heavily outnumbered,” I remarked in intrigue.

“Well, yeah, I guess…but it also affects my allies, so I don’t get to use it very often, that’s why I got carried away during the duel,” He replied with a sheepish sigh.

“Huh, I see…have you learnt how to activate your Manifestation Overdrive?” I asked curiously.

“No, I haven’t. I think I’m getting close being able to trigger it, but no dice yet,” He admitted with a wry smile.

“Guess the difficulty varies from person to person, huh?” I responded thoughtfully.

“More and more people seem to be figuring it out though, last I heard, we just got ten people confirmed to be able to trigger it at will-…or, well, eleven if we count Hebi. And so far, all of them had previously mastered high levels of XFE control, so that definitely seems to be a key factor,” Chimed in Director Silva.

“Hey, why am I even here? Can I go?” Spoke up Zarina, an irritated look on his face.

“I mean, I guess I got all the information I wanted regarding Hebi’s powers following the Awakening Procedure, but I’d like to have a couple more sparring bouts to get a better sample size. So once he recovers, I’d like you to go up against him,” Responded Director Silva, before adding as Zarina began to ask something, “And yes, you can leave after that.”

“Hmph, fine, but it better not take too long-,” Zarina started to reply.

“H-hey, uh…I don’t think…I can…do any more…fighting today…,” Interrupted Hebi weakly, his eyes slightly glossed over as he sat up and nearly hurled again from the motion.

“So it seems…,” Sighed Director Silva, before noticing Zarina staring at her expectantly and added with a roll of her eyes, “You can leave now if you want-…and she’s gone.”

The moment she said the words ‘leave now’, Zarina immediately jogged over to the teleportation platform and left.

“So, uh…now what?” I inquired, turning to look at Director Silva.

“Well…guess we should wrap things up and leave too,” She replied with a disinterested shrug.

Wow…she’s totally demotivated after seeing that Hebi was done for the day. Talk about an abrupt finish, I really thought that this would take all day…well, whatever, I’m not complaining, guess I might as well get back to enjoying the rest of my week off…

…

…

Today’s the 2nd of October, 2116, on a Sunday. It was also my last day off before I’d have to return to classes at the Academy. I told my teammates, both the temporary and permanent ones, that I had a bad cold, and that’s why I was absent.

I mean, it’s probably not a good idea to tell them that I got a week off as a favor from the Director of the X-Warrior Zone, it’d be stupid to feed the rumors that I benefit from favoritism and whatnot.

True, those rumors had died down a fair bit after I revealed my Anomaly powers, but still, why stir them up again unnecessarily, you know?

Oh, and Director Silva had come up with an idea that she thought was a stroke of genius, a notion that I firmly disagreed with. See, she was concerned over the negative reception to Hebi’s inclusion as an X-Warrior from most of the X-Warriors that knew about it, and felt that teaming him up with X-Warriors that don’t want that would be counterproductive.

Admittedly, I couldn’t disagree with that. But there were hardly any X-Warriors willing to team up with a Wight, Altan was one of the few exceptions, but since he’s an Ace, not to mention what his powers are, teaming up with him would be difficult from a practical standpoint.

And so, the director made her decision…on a medium-term basis, perhaps a couple of years, Hebi will be working alongside my team. I mean, yeah, he’s pretty strong, easily at the level of a K-Rank, and I get along with him just fine too, but…my team is already too big as it is!

As the assigned team leader, most of the responsibility falls onto me, including the responsibility of what happens to my teammates…covering four people is tough enough, doing so for five sounds like a real hassle.

I vehemently refused at first, turning down every one of Director Silva’s attempts to convince me to agree, until she offered me a shocking amount of money, an amount that would effectively mean that I could retire right then and there and live a life of luxury till the day I die.

I’m not proud to admit that I accepted the offer, but come on, who wouldn’t? I mean, with this, no matter what may happen in the future, I’m pretty much set to do whatever I want if I ever quit trying to become an X-Warrior or something.

So, yeah, in the end, I agreed to have my team work with Hebi on Missions, strictly on the medium-term duration that Director Silva had proposed, and after that, I’m free to stop with that.

Well, whatever, it’s not a concern right now, I’ll worry about it if and when we actually get a Mission, which is relatively rare since I’m still a student. Anyway, I was currently in my apartment, sprawled on the floor and struggling to catch my breath as sweat poured down my face.

I was working on trying to trigger the Manifestation Overdrive, or whatever the Anomaly equivalent is…and gotta say, this is incredibly frustrating. There were so many times where it felt like I was getting really close to triggering it, and then right before I could do so, I lost control and slipped, failing to trigger it.

I let out a slow exhale and stood back up again, before closing my eyes and focusing. Alright, come on…I can do this, no sweat…no pun intended, because I’m very sweaty right now-…okay, seriously, concentrate, stop getting distracted.

I began channeling my XFE into the spot between my shoulder blades, relaxing my body in order to ensure that I maintain stability while channeling the energy into that spot…okay…little more…almost there…

I then felt a surge of power right as my back started to feel like it was about to burst, with close to eighty percent of my XFE channeled into that spot, but I forced myself to stay relaxed and avoid tensing up, since that was what had resulted in most of my failed attempts.

It begins to trigger once I’ve channeled about eighty percent of my XFE into my back, but that’s when the hard part comes up…even the slightest loss of concentration and it fails, the tiniest twitch of a muscle could be costly, so I have to stay in the zone until it’s complete…okay, this is the point where I usually mess up, I’ve got it this time though…that’s it just stay focused-…my eyes then shot open as I felt an instinctive impulse, a very familiar feeling…this is…an activation chant…!

“<Unleash Anomaly: I-…>…!” I blurted out, a black mist starting to form before I suddenly got cut off as I lost control of the XFE I’d channeled and collapsed onto my knees, my breathing strangling as all the XFE rushed back throughout my body, spreading out evenly through my energy circuits.

Damn it…damn it, I almost had it there! The sudden impulse to recite the activation chant caught me off-guard and I stiffened in surprise for just a fraction of a second, and that was enough to make me lose control of the whole thing. Well, that’s another failure.

Still, I should be close to triggering it now, especially since I know what to expect-…wait a second, something feels different. I…I think that…that something about my powers has changed. But…I’m not sure what, exactly…

_____________________________________________

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don’t forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.