We left Old Dan’s house in a good mood, making the trek through the forest again, this time without Payback, who we assured didn’t need to come. The intention of the training wasn’t for anyone to get hurt .

It was more about team tactics and cooperation. That was the idea, at least. On the way to the dried lakebed, we talked about theories on powers; the subject coming around after I commented on how Old Dan seemed to have a smaller energy source than the rest of us.

Swordjuice kept to her life force idea, while Spotlight said it was mana. I said my pieces, contesting their arguments or raising new possibilities ‘it could be soul strength’, but not really committing or defending any of point.

LED just wasn’t that interested and mostly kept to himself. Although he would counter a point when he found a hole in it.

When we arrived on the lakebed, everyone spread apart in a wide circle. LED started up the exercise;

“Okay, today we’ll do the last one-against-all fight. Now, Matrix, you can take up almost anything, but you don’t really take the offensive, so that’s what I want you to focus on.”

I nodded at that, seeing his point. My powers weren’t that geared to being offensive, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t be more proactive in fights.

“What are you waiting for, then?” LED asked, a hint of taunt in his voice.

I shook my head. Just starting an engagement like this out of nowhere felt weird, but, well, let’s go.

I jumped into action, quickly covering the distance towards Spotlight. Starting him into moving away, trying to mess with my attention at the same time.

My matrix respondent immediately, I knew this situation, his power. And then, I knew what to do.

The transformation was immediate, my matrix changing the way my attention worked, activating the enhancement on processing speed so that I could detect anything meddling with my mind.

Spotlight tsked, feeling his attempt failing. I went for a straight punch. He blocked with both arms, the strike too fast for him to avoid.

Spotlight grunted, falling back with a frown of pain in his face.

I left him there, quickly running my eyes around, Swordjuice was taking one of her pills and I had two options, I could try to take her down before she took one or more pills or I could try to impede LED buffing the team as I couldn’t really stop him buffing himself.

I pick going after Swordjuice as the best choice. If I left her to it, she might reach the levels of raw powers she used in the Marble-room, which made her the biggest threat on this exercise.

She finished taking a pill in the second it took for me to reach her. I was already striking even as her shroud started forming, all out of control due to her needing to rush it.

I punched directly into it. She, with good reflexes, as always, blocked my punch from hitting her face, stumbling away from the force.

The closing gash along my arms told me the type of energy she had chosen, maybe trying to dish out more damage quickly.

Once again though, I felt that sensation, akin to a déjà vu, and a simple mental prompt made me equipped in a set of protective scales.

Not only that, though, it seemed that my ability to remember other powers goes further than what it just encountered, but also pulled from what I knew and who I was fighting; I knew that Swordjuice also had explosion and the blunt force and so my transformation already came with the under layer of protection against those forces.

Swordjuice attacked with a chop using her good arm, the other cradled against her body.

I blocked the slash, but it was strong enough to cut into my protection instead of sliding along the surface.

Even then, it only left a mark not really that deep and my matrix agitated itself, preening and changing, like a shoal undulating a color through it in the sea.

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This addition it made was implementing the recent addition from Victor’s powers, giving the scales a silver shine as they now assumed the hardness of steel, even while keeping their flexibility.

I didn’t even know if they were made of chitin, bone or teeth enamel. Never having stopped to analyze the transformation, as it only occurred when I was already in the middle of a fight.

Swordjuice sent another barrage of flying cuts in my direction as LED approached her from the side, touching her arm to give her a buff, indicated by the now shining circle on her forehead. Swordjuice immediately took out another pellet.

The slashes of cutting energy barely affected me, and I rushed her before the new power took effect.

But LED jumped in front of her, redirecting my fist to the side. Smart of him to not take it fully on. I smiled when our eyes met.

I started a relentless attacking pattern as LED tried his best to redirect all my attacks, and, failing, taking some punches.

I could see his forearms bruising from the constant blocking and redirection of my metal-like skin.

He disengaged, jumping away as Swordjuice behind him came forward. Probably with two shrouds under her control thanks to LED’s buff.

She attacked, the energy around her fist coming forward like a sun’s coronal explosion. It had sharpness and brute force, forcing me a step back.

So, just like energies of the same type accumulated when used on the same object, different energy types also enhanced each other, as evidenced by my bleeding and bruised arms.

The damage healed over, using a little of my energy. Even then I was still in good shape, not having spent much energy on anything until now.

What would drain me more was reforming large portions of my body and creating new mutations to resist new things. Both of which weren’t happening in this fight.

I attacked this time, entering again in contact with the energy, my matrix active as always was totally in sync with my mind, it even felt weird thinking about it as something separate, because for as much as it was my power it was also me. Not a separate part, but something that functioned in tandem with my mind.

Swordjuice was aggressive as she fought me, relying heavily in the shroud to protect herself. LED didn’t let her fight me on her own, assisting from the sides trying to position me into an opening or get a lucky attack on.

Really, I could stand in place and they wouldn’t be able to do much to me. It was bizarre how strong I was now, and I would just keep getting stronger.

The fight dragged on as the opposing Dawnbreakers weren’t giving up so easily, Thinking about how to finish the fight I was entering a flow like state, I was completely in sync with my matrix, every modification it did, feeling how it altered my body by altering itself.

Pulling from my training in having better control of my matrix, I tried influencing it in doing more than the minimum, in giving me more to win this fight. My muscle mass increased, making me visibly bigger. I then increased the density of my bones, rattling the ground as I stomped with all the extra weight.

The eyes of the two fighting me widened as my attacks doubled in heaviness and force, sending them tumbling away, cradling the arms they used to block.

This extra transforming spend energy, but it was interesting to see that I could direct my transformation so much while in a fight.

It was at this lull that I felt Spotlight trying to sneak up on me, not having forgotten about the sneaky speciality and having a modification that made me passively detect any alteration to my attention I could detect when my mind kept sliding off of a certain area.

I just rotated throwing a punch in his direction, feeling Spotlight’s attempts to distract me stopping abruptly, just as my fist stopped only a couple centimeters from his torso.

Spotlight held the pose of surrender with his arms ups, knowing I caught him.

“Yeah, I think that’s enough.” LED called as he approached me at a slow pace.

“We had no chance from the start,” Spotlight said, sighing.

“Oof matrix,” Swordjuice said, shaking her bruised arms, “you’re already stronger than yesterday.”

“Yeah, Victor’s power helped me along in a big way, and they still have more possibilities. I’m at a point where I can start branching out with more strategies in a fight.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Well, from now on, it’s more training to get used to our powers and to each other.” LED said, nodding as he too massaged his forearms, turning to address me, “you have some healing liquid, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve been creating some before sleeping. They take a while to work so they work best to speed recovery overnight if taken before sleeping, but you’ll get purple patches if it heals any visible part.”

“That’s doesn’t mind, does it?” he asked the other ones who shrugged.

“Even so, let’s try to not hurt each other too badly.” Spotlight pleaded with a grimace on his face.

“Yes, of course, it’s more an insurance and so that we can fight and train every day.”

“For that, it works wonderfully,” I told them. “The cells healed by this method are better and stronger than normal ones, so as it should do great as a supplement to a heavy training routine.”

“Okay, Swordjuice needs to work on her control,” LED said, turning to look at the girl, “and you can really benefit from pushing yourself with this supplement, stronger muscles will help cover some of your stamina and base strength issues.”

Swordjuice nodded at that, a determined look on her face.

“Spotlight, you need some fighting lessons. You're terrible at hand to hand.” Spotlight only rolled his eyes

“And you, Matrix. I guess you’ll want to keep training your powers.”

“Yeah, testing things, getting better and faster at making the right choices in the middle of battles, developing even more options as we go along and adapting quickly to those.”

“Good, let’s go then.” LED said, clasping his hands and starting us on the first of many workouts to come.