The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 140

“How long do we have to do this?” Sighed Kiran, wiping his brow.

“It’s only been ten minutes so far, so assuming we go for about three hours-,” I began to suggest.

“No way, I draw the line at two hours!” He protested immediately.

“In that case…as much as I hate to do this, let’s put it to a vote.. That means you’re the tiebreaker,” I remarked, as I turned to Bytra.

“I, um…well, it’s just, three hours might be a bit much on a weekday,” She replied, fidgeting a bit.

Today’s the 10th of October, the following Monday. And with no change to the combat training sessions, I’d had enough, so here we were, in a training facility in the North Quadrant.

We booked a large training room and rented twenty training bots…they’re basically older, inferior versions of the combat androids. Their combat programs are a fair bit simpler and they don’t have any built in weapons…they’re also a lot less durable, but even if we do end up breaking all of them, the charge for damages isn’t all that high, more than affordable with my current level of savings.

Anyway, to start with this training session, I was having the other two fight the bots without the use of any XFE, in a two vs three bout, while I was taking on two bots by myself.

And in hindsight, that might have been the wrong choice. I was having no trouble fighting two against one, but the two of them were really struggling. Neither of them have particularly remarkable hand to hand combat skills, so take away their XFE manifestations and they don’t have much else.

It only took a few minutes for me to see that they weren’t going to get anywhere this way, so I decided to take an early timeout in order to get things back on track.

“Okay, we’re scrapping this no-XFE handicap, it’s clearly not working, and that’s my bad. And as for the three hours…I’m not scrapping that outright, instead, I’ll assess things at the two hour mark and decide if we can keep going for another hour. Is that fine?” I proposed, after thinking it over.

“…it’s better than nothing, I guess,” Sighed Kiran, standing up, “So, what kind of training are we doing?”

“Start using your XFE, but the equation’s gonna change from two against three to two against five. I’ll continue to do my own thing until you two can take out ten of them in one minute without taking any hits,” I instructed.

“Is that…even possible?” Responded Kiran with a raised eyebrow.

“Um, isn’t it less effective if only two of us pair up?” Chimed in Bytra meekly.

“First off, yes, that’s easily possible. And second, my role will be to cover you two from behind, so unless we face something really powerful, I’ll be at mid to long-range, while you two will be at mid to close-range…so it’s more important that you’re in sync with each other’s movements and attack patterns, that’ll make my job of backing you up easier,” I explained objectively.

I may be well-rounded at any range, but in most team combinations, my long-range skills will be the most valuable factor I can offer, since most X-Warriors are mainly proficient in mid to close ranges, while those skilled in long-range attacks are pretty rare in the Sanctuary.

And I doubt that’s going to change any time soon, thanks to the combat androids and drones. Those machines have highly accurate aiming functions, once they’re in widespread use, they’ll probably be included in teams for Missions, as an option with long-range attacks.

If and when that happens, it’ll most likely only serve to demotivate X-Warriors from putting serious effort into developing their long-range skills. I can’t even imagine neglecting that aspect of my fighting style though, it’s just such a ridiculously valuable and convenient skill to have up your sleeve, and one that I heavily rely on.

Not only is it great for sniping unsuspecting targets, but it’s also extremely useful in a one on one fight too, the ability to fight from a distance gives you a much better opportunity to gauge your opponent’s abilities without needing to take much of any risk.

And on top of all that-…never mind, I should really focus on my training for the next hour or so. I already have an idea of what to do for the second hour, but until then, I have no intention of slacking off…

…

An hour later, Kiran and Bytra were both sprawled on the floor, battered and bruised while struggling to catch their breath. They’d made good progress, I suppose, but they were still a ways from being able to fight off ten bots in a minute without taking any hits.

And now, it was time to change things up a bit. I told them to take a short break to rest up, while I headed for the reception desk to place a request to rent something that I figured would be necessary for what I had in mind. Specifically, I wanted a Duel Field drone, along with the collars that trigger the teleportation, of course.

Once I rented it, I headed back to the training room, where the other two were still laying flat on the ground, sweating profusely. Considering that it was a pretty intense hour of training for them, their stamina isn’t bad at all, but…it could be a lot better.

I’m still good to go for a while yet, and since they’re Prodigies, they have greater physical potential than I do, which means that if they put in the work, they could build up stamina reserves that far surpass my own. But from the looks of it, they’ll have to put in a LOT of work to accomplish that.

“Five more minutes and it’s break over!” I called out, as I entered the training room and headed towards them.

“Could you maybe freeze time so that we have more time to rest?” Requested Kiran, who almost looked like he was melting.

“That’s not how my time freezing power works, just focus on recovering as much energy as you can for the next five minutes…and looking at this, I can see that three hours will probably be impossible, so…we’ll be done after one more hour, ‘kay?” I remarked, as I sat down beside him.

“We better be done by then, any more and I’ll probably drop dead,” Sighed Kiran in reply.

“Um…what are we going to do for the next hour?” Asked Bytra.

“A three-way sparring session…in other words, we all three fight each other at the same time, with each of us perceiving the other two as enemies,” I replied.

She’s a bit less timid than she was when this group was first formed…guess she’s figured that, until this exam is over and done with, I’m suppressing my grudge and spite towards her. It’s starting to get tougher and tougher to keep it in though, especially the more comfortable she seems to be getting.

I’m doing my best to stay neutral around her, and for now, I think I’m pulling it off convincingly enough. I just hope I can keep it up till this exam is over and done with, and after that, I’ll never have to interact with her ever again.

“A three-way sparring session? That sounds like a pain,” Grumbled Kiran with a frown.

“Yeah, well, it should be highly effective…not only will we each get some practice fighting against multiple opponents, but we’ll also get a sharper idea of what each other is capable of, that’ll make a big difference,” I pointed out.

“I already figured as much, something like that would not only help us get in sync with each other, but also could help us point out each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and subsequently, how to complement them…I’m just saying that the idea of this kind of training sounds messy and complicated,” He replied with a sigh.

“You know, you sure do complain a lot, but despite that, you still take this seriously…so I was wondering, could you do it without complaining?” I requested with a wry smile.

“That’s gonna be a no. If you want me to take this seriously, then the least you can do is let me complain to my heart’s content,” He countered dryly.

“Fair enough, I’ll give you that,” I relented.

“By the way…you better not be working us this hard just because we didn’t do much during the week you were absent. Because that was your fault,” He stated with a frown.

“First off, no, I’m not trying to make up for that week or anything…if I were, we’d probably be going up to four hours, maybe more. And I was sick, so technically, not my fault,” I replied, not very honestly.

“Somehow, I doubt that. Out for a whole week when it isn’t even flu season? Seems unlikely,” He remarked with narrowed eyes.

Tch, sometimes he’s annoyingly perceptive. Oh, well, not like he has any proof, and besides, anyone else in my shoes would probably have done the same thing.

“You’re being paranoid,” I shrugged off his suggestion.

“Yeah, maybe…or maybe you took a week off because Tairo was being super creepy and you didn’t want to deal with that?” He responded, hitting the nail on the head.

“Hmph, well, who knows? Anyway, it’s been more than five minutes already, so let’s get started with the sparring, shall we?” I suggested, as I stood up and cracked my neck.

Now, then, let’s see how this goes, shall we…?

_____________________________________________

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.