The next morning, every cadet was standing in front of the Armory at 0700 sharp, along with the two officers in charge of their group, as well as a third officer Jake had never seen before.
“I’d like you all to meet First Lieutenant Breyr. He is the commanding officer in charge of the armory, and quite the craftsman.” First Lieutenant Gwyra declared.
The officer looked very much like Officer Gwyra herself, if not for the fact that he was exceptionally wide for an Akira. He had large bulging muscles and even larger hands, as well as a huge pair of horns that were at least twice as large as Officer Gwyra’s. While their training officer was extremely terrifying to begin with, she looked like a harmless child next to the mountain of muscles that stood in front of the cadets.
“Greetings, cadets.” He said, his raspy, gravelly voice echoing deeply into the hallway.
“Once we’re inside, I’m going to give you a basic rundown of everything available to you. Note that you will not be able to exchange this equipment once we’ve departed for our assignment in a couple of weeks, so choose well. As for the equipment itself, your neuroimplant will be in charge of helping you out with choosing what’s best for you depending on your specific abilities and preferences. ” He continued.
Seeing as nobody had any questions for him, the giant simply shrugged and opened the gigantic gates leading to the Armory with a wave of his hand, after that, the three officers stepped inside the hall, followed by the cadets.
At first glance, the room looked almost as wide as the training hall, although it felt a lot smaller since it was littered with various pieces of equipment all across the floors and walls. Among the chaos was strewn a great variety of weapons and armours, guns and a plethora of things Jake didn’t recognize, and there was barely enough space for the cadets to navigate inside the room without bumping into one thing or another.
“You are free to choose one set of armour, one melee weapon and one biotic gun amongst everything that is in this room. You’ll have to come to see me once you’ve made your choice so that I can take note of what you want delivered and look over your choice of gear. Be aware that if you break anything, I’ll break you. Now go.”
“Yes sir!” The cadets shouted back, and they all went their separate ways in a flash.
Jake looked around for a second, a little bit overwhelmed, and that was when Ed spoke up.
[Don’t wanna be rude or anything, kiddo. But there aren’t a ton of options available for you, given your lousy energy reserves.]
I know, let’s just take a look at what I can use for now.
Most weapons are dependent on biotic energy to be wielded properly, and some of them — like biotic guns, especially the bigger calibres — require a lot of it. Taking into consideration his particular limitations, choosing too many weapons that are reliant on biotic energy would be akin to a death sentence to Jake, as he would run out of energy long before he’d be able to kill even the weakest of enemies. As a result, he needed to choose weapons and armour that would allow him to kill without spending too much energy, or even none at all if possible.
Jake made his way to the right under Ed’s instructions, who was guiding him around thanks to the GPS functionality of his implant. Finally, he stopped in front of a dozen suits of armour that looked very different from one another, and he was shocked to see three of the suits light up moments later, where he instantly recognized one of the features of his implant.
The first one glowing on the far left was made out of slick plating so thin it looked almost identical to his simple military uniform made out of ultra-thin metallic mesh. It was a black, needle-thin armour plating intertwined by deep blue lines that were most likely acting as biotic energy channels, which were needed to power the armour.
One that was in the very middle was a chunkier version of the previous armour and had a similar design, although this one suit at least looked like armour, as the plating was a lot thicker in most vital areas, although not by much, and the same thin blue lines were etched into the armour’s plating in a similar way to the previous armour.
Which only left the rightmost armour, which was made out of metal plating many times thicker than the armour in the middle, although it sported the same blue lines as the two previous armours.
[All biotic armour feeds on the wearer's biotic energy reserves to supplement some of their functionalities, which is why it is highly recommended to wear an armour whose energy cost is smaller than your base biotic recovery. For you, however, your recovery is so low that the only armour you can wear is the one on the left, and that’s taking into account your amulet. It has no protective shielding whatsoever, no other defence other than the one that comes from its thin plating and has no helmet. It's essentially a model that is close to your training uniform, although there is one slight difference, and that is the fact that the armour will absorb 1 point per minute of your biotic energy and give back a very minor boost of +1 in strength, dexterity, recovery and constitution. Thanks to your amulet, you will be able to use this armour indefinitely but your recovery rate will be back to where it was before.]
So basically, you’re telling me this one sucks but it's the only one I can get?
[Pretty much, yeah.]
Wouldn’t it be best if I wore no armour at all, that way I can focus all my biotic energy on improving my specs?
[It depends on whether or not you want to survive your first assignment, but it is up to you.]
Jake sighed as his implant’s GPS flared up again, and he followed the implant's indications until he arrived in front of a wall littered with various weapons.
[Now that your armour is using up almost your entire regeneration, I’m afraid you’ll have to find a weapon that uses no biotic energy to wield. Those things are pretty rare, especially among cadets.]
On his right, a pair of metallic bracers suddenly lit up in his field of view. The plating on the bracers was barely thicker than the one that covered the suit he’d chosen moments before, and they were made in a similar design, although they lacked any blue lines etched onto their surface.
[These are pugilists gloves. They are essentially just gloves made out of the same alloy as your suit, although they don't grant any bonus in attributes nor do they use up any biotic energy. With this, you’ll be able to kill most creatures you’ll probably encounter on your assignment if you punch them a few dozen times, unless their dexterity is higher than yours, or if their resistance to damage is too high. If that happens, you’ll be fucked.]
Anything else that’s not completely useless?
Another weapon flared to life, farther to his left this time, and Jake’s eyes landed on a giant sword that must have measured almost two and a half meters in length, and at least a foot in width. The blade was so thick that he doubted the thing could actually cut into anything, and the whole thing was entirely made out of a pitch-black, glossy metal.
[Again, this sword requires no biotic energy to run, although it is far from an ordinary weapon. It’s made out of oblivium, an alloy known for its strength and resilience, although it has the downside of being extremely heavy. It is also a weapon of choice for the awakened as it is a natural biotic energy conductor, which allows its wielders to infuse the weapon with its biotic energy, provided they know an appropriate skill of course.]
As Ed kept going on and on about the advantages and disadvantages of the alloy and compared it to the bracers they’d seen earlier, Jake couldn’t help but stare at the sword. Its carbon black colour gave off a domineering aura, and thin reflections of a dark, deep red gave the impression that the blade was covered in dried blood.]
[With a weapon this size, you’re looking at around 173.4 pounds of solid metal alloy, and just swinging the thing around with enough speed to kill anything will likely require you to reach around 20 units in your strength attribute if you want to be able to wield it decently enough. With that weapon, I doubt you’ll be meeting any enemies able to resist your attacks any time soon, although enemies with high dexterity will kill you easily, and you’ll have a lot of trouble against swarms of enemies. Also, don’t be deceived by its bulky appearance, that thing can cut even metal in half as you’d cut through butter with a surgical laser.]
Which one should I choose?
[You’re choosing the sword of course, although I want you to be very aware that you probably won’t even be able to use it properly, even when using a strengthening skill until a very long time, which defeats the purpose of choosing a weapon that doesn’t require any biotic energy to use.]
Even if I keep improving my attributes?
[You’ll be lucky to even be able to swing that thing by the time of your first assignment, kid. While gaining proficiency levels in skills and specs is very easy in the beginning, you’ll soon notice it slowing down tremendously, to a point where it will take weeks even to raise a single level.]
Jake looked at the sword and the bracers for a few seconds, but in the end, he chose the sword. It’s not like the bracers were a bad choice or anything, but Jake knew that he needed a weapon that would one day make up for his limitations, and the bracers weren’t up to that task.
Finally, for the last piece of equipment Jake needed, he made his way toward the opposite side of the room where hundreds of biotic guns were etched on the wall. Guns were a lot more popular than the melee range weapons, as they were easier to wield and could do some nice damage provided you had enough energy to power it, and it was the weapon of choice for a good portion of the military. It also meant most craftsmen spent most of their time designing biotic guns or weapons above anything else, as they usually sold for the highest price.
When he finally reached the wall on which were displayed the guns, only two rifles started to glow under his implant’s visual features. On the left, a large shotgun looked to be able to dish out some serious firepower, and Jake was wondering how he was supposed to fire this thing taking into account his energy limitations. On the right, an even larger sniper rifle looked almost as disproportionate as his new sword, and he was once more left wondering whether or not he’d be able to fire the thing.
[While all of these weapons were made to be used by cadets, and are thus not very energy-hungry by design, your horrendous biotic abilities once more leave us with almost no viable options. Incidentally, the only two options open to you are also the two weapons that require the highest amount of energy per shot among the whole lot. The reason why I chose them is that they are the two most energy efficient, as they are both designed to kill with one blast.]
Like always, Jake was amazed at the implant’s ability to guide him through his new life as an awakened, and he was immediately reminded once more of the word the First Lieutenant Nielr had imparted him with on his first day at the academy.
Which one is best?
[In this case, I will let you choose which one is best for you as they both offer a lot of upsides and downsides. They both require 50 units to fire each blast, which means you can’t even shoot with any of them once as you are right now. The shotgun is perfectly designed for close-quarter combat and will provide you with an excellent way of dealing with enemies that are too fast for you to cut down with your sword. The sniper, on the other hand, will add some versatility to your arsenal as you will be able to offer ranged support when you are not actively fighting in the melee.]
Both of these were very strong choices in Jake’s opinion. However, he still decided to take the sniper in the end, with his reasoning being that he wanted to be able to be ready for every situation, and the shotgun wouldn’t allow him to fight enemies from a distance which meant he would probably be worthless in a siege situation where he had to defend from behind fortifications. Moreover, his sword was already designed for close-quarter combats, and he couldn’t count on his biotic abilities to grow to a point where he’d be able to blast things off from a distance in a couple of weeks, meaning he would most likely benefit from the sniper more than the shotgun in the end.
[Interesting choice, but a good one. Now let’s go tell the First Lieutenant about it.]
Moments later, Jake was standing in front of the giant Akira, and he was telling him about the gear he’d selected when the officer's face lightened up at the mention of the sword.
“You really want the sword? It’s my newest creation, and I dare say it is also one of the best ones I’ve ever made on top of that. I’m guessing your implant has already told you everything you know about this weapon, but you still chose it regardless. Interesting, although I do have to warn you that the chances of you being able to swing that sword in a matter of weeks are almost none.”
Although the officer's revelation did come as a shock to Jake, he still nodded and after a quick salute, made his way back to where Owens was currently sitting a few meters from him.
“What did you choose?” She asked as soon as he sat down next to her.
“The ultralight set of armour, some regular iron fists and a sniper rifle. You?”
“Really? I would have thought you’d have chosen something that's a little more… unique.”
She looked at him with somewhat of a raised eyebrow for an instant, like she was asking what exactly he meant by that, but she still answered in the end.
“Using biotic weapons will not only keep you from improving your skills, but they also need you to sacrifice a lot of the biotic energy that could be used toward improving your specs or skills, which makes them completely counterproductive in my opinion. Moreover, they will also stop being useful once you’ve reached a certain level of mastery with offensive skills. Believe me, the strongest awakened are very rarely the ones with the best tech, on the contrary.”
“If you say so. By the way, I got the same armour you did, as well as the sniper. As for my weapon, I chose some weird sword that’s heavier and bigger than I am.”
In response, Owens only gave him a puzzled look that said she wasn’t sure whether he was exaggerating or not, but she didn’t get to question him further before Ryan made his appearance, looking quite pleased with himself. Naturally, both of them asked him about his choice of gear, and Jake had a feeling as to what the giant had ended up getting.
“I took the ultralight armour, the shotgun and this very cool axe I can infuse with my energy to increase its damage output.”
“Good choice. Everyone who takes anything other than the ultralight armour is an idiot. We’ll need to focus all the energy we can spare to use our skills especially once we start learning some of the more potent ones they teach here.”
“You think we’re going to learn some better skills before we go on our first assignment?” Ryan asked, intrigued, and even Jake’s attention was caught at the mention of powerful skills, even though he probably wouldn’t even be able to use them.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Yes, although it probably won’t be anything too taxing on our energy reserves. My guess is biotic strengthening and biotic bolt, both are pretty standard amongst the awakened and pretty cheap to cast.” Owens answered in turn, looking strangely sure of herself.
He was about to ask her what the skill of biotic armour was when a few lines of text appeared in front of him.
[Biotic strengthening: Reinforce your strength, dexterity and resistance in exchange for 10 units of biotic energy per minute.]
Jake simply nodded at her. It would truly be helpful to be able to boost his attributes, especially now that he needed to swing around an almost 400-pound gigantic sword.
[You wouldn’t even be able to cast biotic bolt once before your core ran dry, so don’t go hoping for too much, kid.]
It was true. During the entire week, his core had only gained 10 additional points, and although it meant he’d improved by 50% his energy reserves in under a week, 30 points were still way too low to cast anything even remotely powerful.
Jake silently took out the marble from one of his uniform’s pockets and cast telekinesis on it, making the small piece of metal wiggle around the palm of his hand for a few seconds.
He’d taken the habit of casting the spell every time his core was full, but even with that he’d realistically only used the skill a few times a day since he’d learned it, so it wasn’t surprising that the effects of his training were making themselves scarce.
After a few more minutes, they all exited the building and went back inside the training hall, which was only a few minutes walk away. Like they’d been doing for most of the last week, they spent the rest of the day fighting in pairs and practicing their telekinesis spell, and going through conditioning drills during their downtimes, which ended up being a good portion of the class for Jake.
After dinner, however, Jake went back to the training hall accompanied by Ryan and Owens for the second night in a row. He and Ryan had spent the whole two hours duelling yesterday while Owens had spent that time practicing her telekinesis, and they planned on doing the same thing tonight. When they arrived at the training hall, however, a small surprise was waiting for them on the mats.
In the middle of the open area, a tall, blue-eyed blonde was staring right at them. Behind her, two boys were talking to each other but quickly shut up to stare at the trio once they entered the training hall. Jake’s group had barely reached the training mats when the girl spoke up.
“I heard you guys were going to be in here tonight. So I thought, why not be a good roommate and help each other out? How about we entertain you rejects with some duels?”
To his left, Jake could see that Owens looked ready to blast the three of them away with her telekinesis, and he knew she could. Thankfully, Ryan kept his cool and answered back to King.
“I’m sorry, but I think it’d be best if you guys stay out of our way for the night. We wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of the week with Officer Neilr, after all.”
At first, Jake had thought Ryan would try and defuse the situation. However, it was apparent his goal had never been to step down from the fight.
On King’s face, Jake could read her annoyance transform into outright fury at Ryan’s words, and she looked about ready to kill them all.
“We’ll see about that. Here’s how this is going to go, our implants will assign three duels at random, and we’ll each fight one after the other — ”
She hadn’t even finished her sentence that Jake abruptly cut her off.
“Nah, we’re good here. Thanks though.”
As his words echoed out inside the hall, Jake could see King’s face distort even more under the anger, and she looked ready to kill.
“What the fu — ” King started, but Jake cut her off again.
“We don’t need to fight, do we? I mean, not to be rude or anything, but you guys aren’t much of a challenge.”
Since his interruption, Owens had practically looked ready to rip Jake’s head off his shoulders. But then, a look of understanding appeared on her face, and she couldn’t repress a small smile from making its way onto her face.
“We aren’t much of a challenge to you? Comon now you can’t be — ”
For the third time, King began talking but didn’t get to finish, and if she’d already looked angry before, this time she looked nothing short of furious.
“Pretty much yeah, I mean I consider myself quite humble and all but I wouldn’t even look your way if I wanted a 3v1, so no, I’m not going to fight. Don’t see why I should.”
To his left, Owens spoke up for the first time.
“Yeah I agree, you guys aren’t worth the time. We’ll just stay out of your way and fight some real duels over there.”
Immediately, Ryan nodded and spoke up in turn.
“Yeah good call, although you guys make sure you don’t come too close, or it could be dangerous if you’re not careful.”
In the end, King’s furious expression had settled into a much more neutral one. At first, Jake had even thought that his taunt had failed, but she immediately proved him wrong as soon as she produced three strange little vial-like objects out of thin air and raised them in the air for all of them to see.
“Fine, I’ll give you one of these for each duel won.”
At first, Jake hadn’t even recognized the things, since he’d never seen anything quite like it before. But then, Ed’s voice flared up inside his mind.
[BIOTIC STIMS!! We need those things, kiddo. I’ll explain later, just trust me.]
Jake still wasn’t sure what the strange vial was supposed to be, but he still chose to accept her offer before she had any time to think it over.
“Sure, let’s roll.”
King’s face brightened for a moment, but it quickly darkened again an instant later, as a notification appeared in Jake’s field of view.
[MATCH 1 — Cadet Luke Ryan vs Cadet Shaun Evans.]
A small smirk appeared on Ryan’s face as he made his way onto the designated mat. Jake thought it was pretty funny he was only learning the name of his new roommates after a whole week of living together, and under such ridiculous circumstances what’s more.
It was the chunkier of the two brothers that was now facing a few feet away from Ryan on the mats, and both of them were already in readied stances when Jake’s implant flared up again, with a notification appearing in the corner of his eye.
[MATCH 1. Start!]
With a grunt, Evans dashed toward Ryan and threw a side kick toward his left knee, hoping to get an advantage in mobility for the rest of the fight. However, Ryan stepped back with surprising agility, his opponent’s kick slicing through the empty air in a swoosh sound, before he jumped on the occasion to counter now that Evans was within reach. Evans didn’t get enough time to move away before a boot came flying toward his chest, projecting him a few feet backward due to the impact, and he fell flat on his back with a thud. Instantly, Ryan dashed forward the cadet, who barely had any time to get up before being assaulted by a series of strikes. The cadet had only lasted for a second before one of Ryan’s fists connected with his left ribs, and he was left on the floor curled in two and gasping for air. The giant simply took a few steps backwards and waited for his opponent to get up.
“Enough already? Funny, I thought the fight would last longer after all that big talk earlier.”
Evans’ face crisped in anger and pain as he painfully got up on his feet and resumed his assault. However, the fist to the chin from the giant had apparently caused a lot of damage because the boy’s dexterity had simply plummeted since he took that hit. It only took Ryan a few seconds to finish him off with a kick to the head, and Jake winced at the scene.
That’s gotta hurt.
The cadet almost seemed to fly over to the side from the force of the impact, and it wasn’t long before Ed declared the winner of the match in his head.
[Winner, Cadet Luke Ryan]
“Well fought!” Both Jake and Owens shouted to Ryan as soon as he stepped off the mat.
“Thanks, it was nothing much though.”
Some distance away, the other three cadets were visibly fuming in anger at the giant’s snide remarks.
Still, they had to give it to her, King wasn’t the kind of cadet to get discouraged easily.
“Next fight!” She shouted in answer.
[MATCH 2. Cadet Isaac Evans vs Cadet Noelle Owens]
“Time to take out the trash” Noelle mumbled to the two boys before making her way to the mat.
On the opposite side, her opponent was already placed in a readied stance and was glaring at her with murder in his eyes.
[Match 2. Start !]
What happened after the match started had almost felt unreal to Jake at the time. Never before had he seen biotic skills powerful to that extent, except maybe the time their training officer had disappeared out of thin air, but Noelle Owens’ title as the strongest trainee wasn’t a joke by any means.
As soon as the start of the fight was signalled, Cadet Evans simply rushed over toward Owens with impressive speed. However, the girl was unimpressed as she simply struck a hand out in front of her, and her opponent froze. The two of them stayed there, unmoving for a moment before the girl made a thrusting motion with her hand, and Evans was sent flying almost a dozen meters backwards, outside of the mat.
[Winner. Cadet Owens!]
After the announcement, she simply made her way back toward the two boys, whose mouths were still wide open from the shock.
“What?” Owens asked.
“Nothing at all, we’re okay here.” Both cadets answered in unison, almost like they’d practiced.
Then, a few seconds later, Ryan gave Jake a poke in the ribs with his elbow, before he whispered only loud enough for Jake to hear.
“You have to promise to never piss off that woman, under no circumstances will we make it out alive if you do.”
“Why me, what did I do?” Jake replied on the defensive.
“You piss everyone off, it’s a thing.”
Jake raised an eyebrow at the remark. Although Grandma Al had repeatedly told him just as much, he’d only met the cadet a couple of days ago, and he hadn’t done anything to get himself into trouble that recently, except maybe piss off King and her friends so badly they were currently facing them in a duel after class.
Jake was about to argue that he wasn’t responsible for the mess they were in when Ed’s voice echoed inside his brain again.
[MATCH 3. Cadet Jake Hawkins vs Cadet Laura King.]
He hadn’t put much thought into that fact earlier when his friends had been fighting, but he couldn’t believe he — the weakest member of their little trio — was facing off against their opponent’s very best.
This is probably not going to end well for me.
[Nope. Ahah.]
For a moment, Jake almost felt pissed off at the implant for his utter lack of encouragement, but he quickly refocused on the matter at hand as he made his way to the mat.
In front of him, King looked furious, and Jake knew that she wouldn’t be content with a victory this time, she’d try to eviscerate him, as an act of revenge for her two teammates and the bet she’d just lost.
[Match 3. Start !]
Right at the sound of the alarm, Jake dashed forward to quickly reduce the distance between the two of them. Among the other trainees, only Owens had proven a better biotic energy wielder than Laura King, and he desperately needed to strike first before she had a chance to push him outside the mat with her telekinesis, just like Owens had done with her opponent minutes before.
He’d only reached halfway through to her when King suddenly stuck both hands in front of her, and Jake stopped dead in his tracks, bracing for impact.
But while he’d expected to be pushed off the mat with telekinesis, he was instead surprised when he was suddenly slammed down on the ground, landing flat on his stomach with the wind knocked out of his lungs.
He didn’t even get the chance to get up before he was lifted and slammed back down again, multiple times over until he coughed a mouthful of blood.
But Jake got up, and he looked at King, who was still holding both of her hands in front of herself, panting.
She’s growing tired.
Out of options, Jake did the only thing he could think of at the moment, and he made a mad dash toward the girl out of desperation.
Sweat was pouring down her face, and she looked almost as tired as he felt, he could see it on her face. Even then, she still kept her hands up and used her telekinesis again. This time, however, he wasn’t slammed to the ground like he’d been before, but a blazing pain suddenly erupted in his left elbow, and the pain alone was enough to bring Jake to his knees in horror.
He looked down at his arm, which was dangerously being pulled inward, threatening to break in two at a moment’s notice.
“Give up, or I’ll take your arm,” King stated in a cold, icy voice, and Jake knew instantly she wouldn’t hesitate a second to break his arm in two.
However, he also knew from the desperation in her gaze she would likely be unable to follow through even if she did break his arm, as she looked so pale Jake suspected she was almost out of energy.
“Go fuck yourself, break that arm and I’ll break both of yours as soon as I reach you.”
And then his arm snapped. The pain was insane, although not nearly as much as Jake had imagined.
[I’ve nullified some of the pain although I couldn’t do much on such short notice. You’ll thank me later, you weirdo.]
Jake gritted his teeth, and a smirk appeared on his face as he felt the pressure from King’s telekinesis disappear completely from his arm. She was empty, and although he just had his arm snapped in half, he was still very much full of energy.
For the second time, Jake dashed toward the girl with all the speed his battered body could muster and it only took him an instant to reach the poor girl as she tried to create some distance between the two of them. In the end, she had barely even taken her first step back when she suddenly fell to the ground, exhausted, and a small notification appeared in Jake’s field of view, with Ed’s voice echoing inside his mind.
[Winner. Jake Hawkins]
For a moment, Jake stood over King in silence, and the girl looked at him with a mix of fear and anger carved on her face. He only looked at her for a few seconds, however, before he gave her the most arrogant smirk he could manage under the tremendous amount of pain he was in. She’d gotten off easy after taking his arm, but he wasn’t about to beat the hell out of her while she was near unconscious. Revenge was best served cold, it seemed.
[Your left arm was completely snapped in two, and you’re currently suffering from internal bleeding. We need to get you to the academy’s hospital as soon as we can.]
The adrenaline from the fight was slowly wearing down, and the blazing pain that radiated from his left arm and torso only kept getting worse with each passing second.
From the corner of his eye, Jake could see both of his friends making their way over to him, looking slightly concerned. But Jake didn’t even get the time to utter a word to them when a cold, icy voice echoed inside the training hall.
“I grant the six of you access to the facilities after hours and this is how you make use of this opportunity, by crippling yourselves like a bunch of mindless beasts. Pathetic.”
Near the entrance stood the tall and impressive form of their training officer, who looked nothing short of furious.
“Since you all seem to be having a lot of trouble managing this excess energy of yours, I’ll be more than happy to help you out with that. Starting tomorrow, every one of you will meet me right here at 0500 sharp for extracurriculars. Is that clear?”
Every cadet gulped at her words, none of them having a shred of a doubt they would be in for intense suffering the next morning.
“Yes, ma’am.” The cadets answered.
“Now, everyone but Hawkins can fuck off and get back to your dorms, immediately.”
“Yes ma’am.” The cadets echoed once more, and everyone except Jake exited the training hall in a hurry, although both Ryan and Owens shot back nervous glances at him.
“What’s your status, cadet?” The Akira suddenly asked as soon as the others had gotten out of earshot.
“Broken arm and internal bleeding, ma’am,” Jake answered with a few repressed grunts.
While he was in a lot of pain at the moment, he didn’t believe for a second now was the right time to complain about it, or let it show.
“Take this for now, and go see Officer Neilr tomorrow if your implant judges it’s necessary.” The officer said as she threw a small vial at him that radiated a deep, green light.
“It’s a healing stim. That on top of your implant should patch you up rather quickly, although you probably still won’t be able to use your arm until next week at the earliest, but at least, the internal bleeding will be gone by tomorrow morning.“
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now, go back to your dorm, cadet.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Instantly, Jake made his way toward the training hall’s only exit in a hurry, as he felt like he’d already pushed his luck enough for the night. Although the feeling of having triumphed over one of their promotion’s finest awakened was exhilarating, getting punished by their training officer had instantly tempered his spirits. As he stepped out of the door, Ed finally spoke up inside his mind again, with his usual fervour.
[Take the healing stim now, and make it quick! How many times do I have to tell you that you’re DYING?]
Slightly embarrassed at having forgotten something so important, Jake simply chuckled lightly as he stared at the small green vial that had been in the palm of his hand for quite some time now.
[What are you doing? You have to drink it! Do I have to tell you everything? HUH?]
Slowly and painfully, Jake opened up the small vial the best he could with his broken arm, which sparked another bout of horrifying pain. In the end, he managed to open up the vial after a few tries and swallowed its contents in one gulp.
For some reason, he’d expected the thing to actually alleviate his symptoms or even start healing him right away, but no such thing happened as he made his way back to the dorms.
When he finally reached the dorm, he painfully stepped inside the room, only to be met with both Ryan and Owens sitting on the couch. They both looked nervous and instantly rushed over to him as soon as the door opened.
“Are you okay? You took a few big hits back there, we were pretty sure you’d get rushed back to Officer Neilr.” Owens instantly asked Jake.
“Honestly, everything hurts, but First Lieutenant Gwyra gave me a healing stim, although it doesn’t seem to be working yet.”
“Of course not, healing stims can only accelerate your body’s natural healing ability, it is far from an instant cure. It’s going to be patching you up for around 24 to 48 hours before the effect of the stim wears out.”
For a moment, Jake looked mortified at the thought of being in such pain for so long, but he finally let out an exasperated sigh after realizing there wasn’t anything he could do other than wait.
Still, he looked to the two cadets for a moment, before a wide smile drew itself on his face. He’d been so focused on the pain that he’d forgotten all about their bet with King earlier.
“Where is King?” Jake asked the other two.
“Looking for this?” Ryan answered as he took out three identical blue vials from one of his pockets.
Jake looked at the biotic stims with clear enthusiasm, and he almost forgot all about his battered and painful body as Ryan handed him one of the stims, already opened this time by Jake’s request.
It didn’t take much longer for the three of them to gulp down their vials in a hurry. One thing that once again surprised him was that the contents of both vials he’d just consumed had been entirely tasteless, with not a single aroma or flavour coming from the liquid.
“Great fight, by the way. You gave quite a show when she snapped your arm like a twig and you brushed it off with a smile. It was kinda creepy though.” Ryan suddenly said to Jake.
“Yes it was, but the fight was also awesome. Well done” Owens added.
It was almost an hour later that Ryan made his way back to his dorm before the curfew, and both Jake and Owens went back into their separate rooms. They had spent the whole time talking about their respective fights enthusiastically, and Jake was now headed for the shower. Taking off his uniform had been a true nightmare thanks to his broken arm, but he had finally managed it after great effort. He didn’t waste much more time after that and brushed his teeth, then went straight to bed. Once more, just getting under the covers had been a painful ordeal, and he struggled to find a comfortable position to sleep in. But after a few seconds lying in bed, Ed’s superpowers once more came into play as he fell asleep instantly, thinking back to the way he'd just won his first real fight.