The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 136

“U-um, what do you want me to do?” Bytra asked me timidly, flinching a bit as I looked at her.

I need to stop looking at her as a person, since I hate her as a person…instead, I need to start looking at her while only focusing on her abilities and completely ignoring everything else about her.

“Hm…can you keep the android restrained with your whip?” I inquired, after mulling it over.

“I, um….y-yeah, I think so,” She replied nervously.

I’m still getting annoyed when I look at her…oh, maybe if I stare at her forehead instead of making direct eye contact…

“Alright then, once the countdown ends, I’ll attract its attention, use that opportunity to restrain it, preferably one or both of its arms. Got it?” I instructed, avoiding eye contact…okay, this is slightly more bearable.

“Y-yes, okay.”

As the Duel Field activated around us, the countdown began and we split up, on opposite ends of the area inside the barrier with the android in between us. Hm, I should avoid using the same move I used before, if I break this one, then there’s only one spare left in this training hall.

Bytra activated her Primary Manifestation with a nervous, fidgety expression…she was definitely a lot more composed when she was paired up with Kiran. What, is she afraid of me or something? Maybe trauma from that time I beat her up during the team vs team exercise in that underground maze?

Well, whatever, I won’t say anything so long as she executes her role properly. I got ready to use my X-Blasters as the countdown ticked away, nearly over…and then, the moment it ended, I fired a shot at the android, striking its chest right in the middle.

The robot reacted, shifting its gaze in my direction…Bytra then raised her whip with her wrist cocked, before stiffening as, suddenly, the android turned its head around, locking its sights onto her.

I see, it must have computed that my bullets are no threat to it, and then shifted its gaze to Bytra to see if she was more of a threat…talk about bad timing, why couldn’t it have turned around after she cracked the whip?

Suddenly, it shot towards her at top speed, extending out a blade from both arms as it zipped forward, Bytra freezing in response…ugh, seriously? Tch, I hate to help her, but…

I then, as fast as I could, selected her and myself, before reciting the activation chants for Cut and Paste in a rush, just barely managing to remain coherent and avoid invalidating the chants, and then instant I finished the second chant…I swapped placed with Bytra, swiftly crossing my arms to form my barrier as the android closed in and swung both arms out, striking my barrier and cracking it.

Should I use my Square Blaster to-…before I could finish that thought, Bytra’s whip sliced through the air and struck the android’s right arm, before wrapping around it firmly and restraining it. Huh, not bad, she actually pulled it off.

I then dropped my arms to deactivate my barrier, the android immediately slashed at me with its left arm blade, which I ducked under and countered by swiftly taking aim at its left elbow joint and firing, my energy bullet sneaking in through the tiny gap and hitting its mark.

As I fired, the android’s left forearm slumped and stopped working, as an electric crackle burst out of the elbow joint. I then took aim at the right shoulder joint and fired again…but right before I could strike, the android teleported out. Huh, that wouldn’t have done much damage, other than cause it’s right arm to stop working.

Guess it doesn’t just take into account the degree of damage, but also the effects…a more powerful XFE strike to the torso could be ignored, while a weaker attack aimed at the joints may be taken more seriously. Good to know. These things are pretty well-programmed.

Also, aiming for the joints makes these things a lot easier to defeat…they seemed really powerful at first, but once I started targeting the joints, it was a lot easier. Have to admit that, as much as I hate to, this round might have been a bit trickier if Bytra hadn’t restrained the android.

Alright, I can do this…it’s just for less than a month, which will fly by in no time, all I need to do is swallow my pride during that time and ignore my grudge against her to ensure that this works…y-yeah, I can definitely do that, n-no problem at all…

“That was, uh, nicely done,” I remarked reluctantly as I walked past her, earning a look of surprise from her.

“That was a short break,” Sighed Kiran, standing up as we returned, “I guess I have to go again now, huh?”

“Yup, each possible pairing has gone once so far, so we have to do that again and then it’ll be all three of us against an android. By the way, try using a strategy that we didn’t use in the first round of sparring bouts, it’s fine if you end up losing as a result, the aim here is to find new options you can use during a fight instead of only relying on a handful of tactics,” I replied, as I sat down.

“Okay…so what kind of strategy should we use?” He inquired in response.

“What’s the point of me telling you? I’m not involved in this bout, so don’t rely on me, otherwise you’ll probably just freeze up in a tight situation,” I pointed out.

“I know you’ve got a point, but still…,” He sighed in reply, “That sounds like a lot of work.”

“Yeah, yeah, and to me, that sounds like a lazy excuse,” I countered with a smirk.

“Dick,” He retorted with a grumble, as he walked away and started discussing strategy with Bytra as they headed for the area that the Duel Field covers.

As it turned out, their pairing lost again. Their strategy actually hadn’t been a bad one, Bytra had restrained the android’s torso with her whip and Kiran then began to expand his swatter manifestation with the edge pointed at the android’s neck joint, but before he could strike, the android flew up with the repulsers in its feet, lifting Bytra up with it, and then rapidly spun around, unraveling the whip wrapped around it and sending Bytra plummeting towards the ground.

Naturally, she got teleported out. After that, Kiran managed to last the full ten minutes, but he was almost completely on the defensive, he did well to block and deflect the android’s attacks, but he wasn’t able to counterattack at all.

“Well, that could probably have gone better…though it sure seemed like the android was fighting a lot more competently than in the previous rounds,” I mused, as the two of them came walking back.

“I hate this…,” Sighed Kiran irritably, “I’m covered in cuts and grazes, this feels awful. I should’ve just let myself get teleported out.”

“Maybe so, but your defensive skills are really good, you’d be pretty tough if you had a strong offensive attack…have you tried triggering Manifestation Overdrive?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I’ve been trying for about an hour a day for the last couple of weeks…no dice though,” He replied with a grumble.

Hm…then it’s probably a matter of XFE control. Sakura is still working on that, and probably won’t be able to trigger whatever the Anomaly version of Manifestation Overdrive is until she gets a firm grasp of controlling her XFE.

“Have you ever practiced XFE control?” I inquired curiously.

“Hm? No, not really, I ignored it like most people do, since it wasn’t that important,” He shrugged in response.

“I figured as much…alright, listen, from what I’ve seen, triggering Manifestation Overdrive isn’t possible until you have an at least basic level of XFE control. Like you said, most Prodigies ignore that technique since their activation chants automatically control the XFE flow to trigger the manifestation, and instead focus on maintaining stability in their XFE flow, to prevent their manifestations from destabilizing. But, as it turns out, XFE control is vital to learning Manifestation Overdrive…Katie’s been working on her XFE control for a long time, that’s probably why she triggered and mastered Manifestation Overdrive so quickly,” I surmised.

“Wow…that sounds like way too much work,” Groaned Kiran, his expression losing all trace of motivation, not that there was much of it to begin with.

“U-um…I’ve actually practiced XFE control since I awakened as a Prodigy, I-I think I’m fairly good at it,” Spoke up Bytra nervously.

“Oh, that’s right, I asked you to try triggering Manifestation Overdrive during the second round, when Kiran and I were paired up and you were sitting out…how’d it go?” I inquired, doing my best to stay civil…the urge to insult her is hard to ignore, but I can’t let myself give into that urge unprovoked.

“Well, I…um, it didn’t work, I kept slipping and losing control of the XFE channeled into that spot on my back,” She answered timidly.

“Alright, then work on that in your free time or whatever, though if it feels like you won’t be able to master it before the combat exam, then don’t put too much focus on it,” I instructed, after thinking it through.

Damn it, this is so hard, just talking to her normally while pushing down my spite and hatred…

“O-okay, I’ll do that.”

“Well…,” I then remarked, turning to Kiran, “It’s our turn to pair up again, let’s go.”

“Ugh…do we have to right now? I’m tired after fighting for the entire time limit in the last round,” He grumbled, before reluctantly following me as I shook my head…if I’m doing this, then I might as well commit to it instead of approaching it half-assedly…

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