The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 142

This is so exciting…I can barely contain myself! Today’s the 13th of October, and I was currently outside Ruby’s place, knocking on the door. Yesterday had been the second training session with my temporary team, and things had been a little bit tense between Bytra and I, after that ‘conversation’ we had in the bus.

It wasn’t significant enough to disrupt the training though, so I didn’t bother addressing it, nor do I plan to. The tension still annoyed me though. But then, once I got home, I got a bit of a pick-me-up. Ruby gave me a call, to inform me of the completion of a couple of the weapons I’d requested…well, more specifically, they were mostly upgrades to a couple of my current weapons, but the technicalities don’t matter.

I’d been a bit worn out last night, so I told her that I’d come pick ’em up the next day, which is now today.. It was around 6 PM, I’d made my way over here after classes, since I didn’t feel like waking up early.

And besides, there was no rush. But now that I was actually here, I was brimming with anticipation. The door then opened and Ruby poked her head out, her eyes lighting up as she saw me.

“Hey, Zax! Took you long enough, I’ve been waiting,” She remarked with a smile, as she pulled me in and shut the door.

“My bad, I was busy with Academy stuff,” I replied, as I entered her room…messy as always, no surprise there.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Anyway, you gotta see this, I’m like, so proud of what I’ve done with this!” She exclaimed enthusiastically, as she handed my a pair of X-Blade handles, that looked similar to the ones I was currently using.

“Right, I asked if you could make these sharper, so that I cut stuff more easily…I know that was kinda vague, sorry about that,” I said apologetically.

“Never mind that, just activate them,” She replied with a grin.

Okay, her enthusiasm is contagious, now I’m really curious to see what she’s done to improve these…

“Woah, this is…!” I exclaimed in surprise, “Holy crap, this is awesome, the energy blade is…vibrating! Oh, this’ll do nicely, you never fail to impress me, Ruby.”

“Heh, flattery will get you nowhere…except in my pants. Well, not that I’m wearing pants, but you know what I mean,” She responded with a seductive smirk, as she grabbed my butt and gave it a squeeze.

Well, she’s as frisky as ever. And as usual, she was wearing nothing but a zipped-up hoodie, though this one was dark blue instead of the usual black one she wears.

“Right, so, uh…you also said that you had finished the backpack?” I inquired in anticipation.

“Oh, yeah, I have! I finally managed to achieve what I think is an acceptable level of flexibility of the armor mode, and it’s a bit more energy efficient too!” She replied with a grin, before walking over and picking it up, “By the way, see this metal belt? It contains the flight mechanism, it should fly smoother now. Another thing, it’s XFE resistant…there’s this new kind of lacquer that I came across and bought online, paint it over something and it’ll form an XFE resistant layer, so it’s some pretty handy armor.”

That must be what the combat androids are coated with. She then handed it to me, and I put it on with a growing sense of excitement. Here goes…I activated the armor mode, the backpack rapidly changing shape and wrapping around my arms, hands and chest, forming a protective layer of armor.

Woah…I barely even notice it, it’s so light…and it’s not restricting my movements at all. This is pretty awesome, it significantly boosts my defense without compromising my offense. I then deactivated the armor, feeling more than satisfied.

“I’ve got no words…you’ve outdone yourself, this is seriously incredible,” I remarked in genuine awe.

“H-hey, now, you’re gonna make me blush, cut it out,” She responded with an embarrassed grin, averting her gaze slightly.

“This is gonna make a big difference to my fighting style, so cool!” I exclaimed with a goofy grin, unable to keep a straight face…it’s not often I’m this giddy, these are some seriously impressive upgrades.

“Well, I’m glad to hear it…,” She smiled, before adding as she began to unzip her hoodie, “So, now that we’ve taken care of business, I think it’s time that we-…actually, on second thought, screw the foreplay…get over here and fuck me right now.”

Woah…

“…yes, ma’am!”

…

About an hour later, I was on my way out, immensely satisfied in more ways than one. Initially, I’d planned on going home for a bit after this, to rest up before going to train, but I can’t wait…I want to test out my upgraded weapons right away!

So, yeah, I was on my way to a training facility, I’d just finished booking myself a session schedule to begin in about thirty minutes from now, since it’d probably take me around twenty to twenty-five minutes to go back home and get all my equipment and stuff and then head over to the training facility.

I took a bus home and hurried into the building, going up to my room and equipping my weapons, before rushing back out again and taking another bus to the nearest Teleportation Point, teleporting to the Recreation District and then making my way to the facility.

After confirming my booking, I headed for the designated training room, after renting ten training bots. Once I entered the room and shut the door, I began stretching and warming myself up, before taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling.

Alright, first, let’s test out the backpack. Looks like it’s got enough XFE charged into it to last for about two hours continuously in flight. The maximum capacity is twenty-four hours, which in terms of XFE, is about 2.5 times my maximum capacity.

I then activated the armor mode, the lightweight metal covering my arms, chest and neck, while the items I’d been storing inside it were firmly secured to my back with metal bands, that restrained the items as soon as I activated armor mode.

It was just a water bottle, a change of clothes and a towel, so nothing too heavy. In a real fight though, if I’m carrying something that could weigh me down during the fight, I can simply let the items fall off when I activate armor mode. Oh, and this thing still flies even when in armor mode, thanks to one of the new features Ruby had added.

When I put the backpack on, there’s a metal belt that I need to secure around my waist, and that’s what contains the flight mechanism. In other words, even if the rest of the backpack is completely damaged, so long as the belt remains intact, I can still fly.

It’s really amazing how light it is…a metal belt sounds uncomfortable as hell, but I hardly even notice that it’s there. Same goes for the rest of it too. Like the armor extends up and fully covers my neck, but I don’t have any trouble moving my head around or anything, I’m not losing any flexibility.

I then flew up slowly, gradually picking up the speed before zipping around in zigzags, getting the hang of it in no time. Ruby was right, this flies way more smoothly than before, it’s almost scary how easy it is.

After flying around a bit more, I descended back down towards the ground and deactivated armor mode, before taking off the backpack and setting it down. I then took out my new X-Blade handles and activated them, as I also activated four of the training bots to spar against.

Before, with the previous versions of my X-Blades, stuff like decapitation against these training bots would require a lot of momentum, so it was always more practical to thrust the energy blade at them, especially aimed at their joints.

Let’s see if these new blades make a difference, shall we? As one of the bots then charged at me and drove its fist towards my face, I ducked underneath its punch and activated one of my X-Blades, before whipping the blade up at the bot’s neck…and cutting it off like a hot knife through butter.

Woah…it’s even more effective than I hoped. That was so easy that it almost felt like I was cheating. I barely even put much of any force into that swing, it was more like a casual flick of my wrist, I probably wouldn’t have left much more than a scratch with the previous versions of these X-Blades. On top of that, this version feels more satisfying to swing around, I can feel the vibrations cutting through the air each time I swing it.

Anyway, after taking down the remaining three bots in no time, I decided to focus on my regular, basic training. I then formed a clone using Copy and Paste, before sparring against myself…literally, since I’m controlling both my own body and the clone’s as well. I can now control upto three clones with relative confidence, so four minds and bodies including myself.

Forming a clone costs five percent XFE, which makes them last about one minute…of course, it also copies my clothes, though not all of my equipment. My X-Blasters, X-Blades and barrier bracelets are all fine, but my Square Blaster and jetpack backpack thingy-…I’m calling it Jetback from now one…-can’t be copied without costing extra XFE.

Oh, as for my poison smoke bombs, I might never have to ask Ruby to make me another batch…because I can just copy the ones I have on hand if I need to use them. When I make a copy of something, the longest they last is ten minutes before disappearing…but with the smoke bombs, that’s more than enough, all I really need is a couple of seconds.

My fighting style is now close to ideal at my current level of ability and skill, both my powers and weapons are at satisfactory levels, for now anyway…well, except for one thing. The Anomaly version of Manifestation Overdrive, I’m not quite there yet, but…I’m close to triggering it, I can tell. And somehow, I can also tell, that when I finally do trigger it…it’s going to make a huge difference…

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