I take a deep breath and ball my hands into fists. As I do so, I adjust the cosma conduits in my wrists, raising their frequency by a few dozen hertz and leaving it there. My gloves hum to life, a slight yellow glow playing around the knuckles. It looks good, stable. This level of energy seems very sustainable. I tap my knuckles experimentally against a rock in front of me, and it gets nudged a few feet, as if I'd given it a good solid shove. Everything seems to be working right.

I'm in a ravine on the outskirts of town that one of the maintenance tunnels opens into. Victoria gave me directions, and there doesn't seem to be anyone around, as expected. I've been working on my gloves for a few weeks, as well as a breastplate and mask to protect my vitals. Those parts were much easier, it's pretty simple to set up a cosma configuration attenuated to improve the durability and shock absorption of the metal it's set into. Outputting energy through gloves, but only away from my hands, proved much more complicated, which is why I'm taking care not to overdo it. Things seem to be running smoothly, though, so I turn toward the rocky edge of the ravine and give it a good solid punch.

Well, I try to anyway. I can't resist my instinct to hold back from slamming my knuckles full-force into a rock, it's not the kind of thing that's produced good results in the past. Even with my weak, half-committed punch, a thin crack appears in the rock at the point of impact, and my hand doesn't feel a thing. This is more than promising, it's fantastic. After all these hours spent tinkering and tweaking my design, I'm finally seeing real results. All I need to do now is train away my instinct to hold back, to protect my frail, fleshy body from harm. I'm certainly not impervious with this stuff on, but I'm a hell of a lot less vulnerable than I've been for more or less my whole life.

I spend some time punching rocks, gradually building a disregard for the safety of my armored knuckles. Before too long I'm pulverizing the stones around me, reducing them to gravel in the bed of the ravine. I take another swing at the wall of the ravine and this time I punch a hole in it, my hand embedding in the layers of striated earth in front of me. A little too embedded, actually, I can't seem to pull it back out. After a few moments of struggling, I decide to take a different tactic. I focus in on the conduits at my wrists again and nudge the cosma frequency up a smidge higher. This produces a commensurate increase in output from the gloves, enough to shake apart some of the rock surrounding my hands and free me. I'll have to keep that in mind, micromanaging my cosma could have a lot of utility.

I reset my gloves' conduits to their base frequency, just protection, no output, and examine the joints for any signs of damage. They look fine, but I'll need to take them back apart and look at the individual components to really get a good sense of how they're holding up. I should probably do that before I do anything else with them, so I start taking them off.

I've only gotten one clasp undone when I hear a soft clattering next to me. I turn back towards the wall I just extricated my hands from; cracks are beginning to spread from the hole I punched in it, and as I watch, a few small chunks of it fall to the ground. I turn and dive away from it, barely avoiding getting buried under the rubble I accidentally produced.

Well, that's not a mechanical flaw exactly, but definitely something to keep in mind. I make a note to be a bit more careful about the structural integrity of whatever I'm punching. Wouldn't want to make that mistake in a scenario where I can't get out of the way of whatever's coming down, like in the maintenance tunnels.

For now, though, I should get back home and check my gear. I finish taking my gloves off, followed by the breastplate, then shove it all in my bag and climb back into the maintenance tunnel. It's a bit of a walk back, but I don't mind it too much. I've gotten a lot done lately, having some time to just walk and think is a welcome rest.

I think that if I use it properly, this armor should be plenty. I've still got plenty of weak points with it on, of course, but I don't have enough metal to make it cover my full body and that would be a much more difficult engineering challenge anyway. What I do have should be enough to keep me alive. It covers all my vitals, at least, and I can compensate for the holes with proper active defense.

I think I'm going to have to get Victoria to help me test the resiliency of the armor, and to help me learn how to make up for its shortcomings. It's not ideal, but I don't really have a better option. Penny certainly wouldn't know much about it. What I've got now is certainly very sturdy by the standards of mundane weapons and armor, it'll stop a bullet no problem, but who's to say if it stands any chance against an enchanted, flaming sword? Or any kind of magically-augmented gun, for that matter. It's specifically through cosma that its durability has been improved, so I'd like to think that it'll hold up better to magical weaponry than even the best armor crafted through normal means, but that's not an assumption I want to be walking into combat with, I need to know.

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First thing first, though, it's time to see how the gauntlets are doing. I enter the bunker and lay out my gear on one of the desks as soon as the door shuts behind me. The chestplate and mask are fine, obviously, they haven't taken any beatings and the enchantment on them is definitely simple enough to just leave on passively, so I set them to the side and begin disassembling my gauntlets. I set the pieces out neatly on the table in front of me, one by one as they come off the gauntlet. Each one has a small amount of cosma conduit drawn onto it, and I'll have to check all of them in order to ensure that nothing's gone wrong. I'm sure most people would get annoyed at this point. It takes a lot of pieces to make a gauntlet that doesn't restrict movement, and they get pretty fiddly. I don't mind it though, it's gonna take a while but I honestly just love working with mechanisms like this. It's more of a practical issue than one of boredom, we don't have infinite time to get all our shit figured out.

"I take it the trial run was a success? The things didn't seem banged up at all until you started taking them apart, and neither do you." I turn to see Victoria standing next to me, looking over the components on the table, while Alice sits on the floor behind her, trying to work some cosma.

"I think so, yeah. If anything I underestimated how effective they would be. I haven't really tested the protective capabilities yet, though, and I need to make sure there wasn't any subtle damage to the gauntlet components that might become a more pressing issue in an actual combat scenario." I still can't say I particularly like interacting with Victoria. She's still abrasively inconsiderate, and her "ends justify the means" routine is hard to tolerate. I'm trying to play nice, though. Much as it pains me to admit it, she has been pretty instrumental in our survival up to this point, and seems keen on continuing to do so. And I don't think any of us can deny that her cause is worthy at this point. For what it's worth, she hasn't been antagonizing me, either. Alice takes some knocks while they're sparring, sure, but nothing that Penny can't quickly fix. And she seems to actually be pretty interested in helping me get combat-ready, too.

Victoria stares intently at the intact gear I set on the edge of the desk."Judging by the frequencies running through that breastplate, even without testing I'd pretty confidently say you're safe from any normal blade someone might decide to swing at you."

"Sure, but how many normal blades do you think we're going to be up against?"

"Probably a few. But I see your point, you're gonna want something that'll stand up to a little more. I'm guessing you could use some help making sure that this stuff fits the bill?"

"Yeah, exactly. Not right now, but soon. The gauntlets take priority. I need to be able to deliver punches, being able to take 'em is just a bonus."

"I could always test them while you're working on the gauntlets. The durability enchantment works passively, right?"

"Oh… Uh, yeah, I suppose so…"

"Pass 'em here, I'll put em through their paces."

I do so, and she carries the breastplate and mask off to a corner away from everyone else. There's a nasty hiss as she ignites one of her sickles, and an even nastier one as its bright yellow flame is pressed against the breastplate, but it doesn't seem to penetrate at all. Same goes for the mask, it sounds awful but there doesn't seem to be any damage. Satisfied that they can hold up to such gentle ministrations, Victoria lifts the sickle above her head and swings it down on the armor. It doesn't show any sign of damage. I nod in satisfaction and turn back to my work, leaving her to it.

One by one I inspect each and every component of my gauntlets. There doesn't seem to be any major damage, although some of the conduits seem to be wearing a little faster than expected. I already have a few ideas about what to do about that. I'll apply each option to a few components, and once I've taken them for another spin I'll see which one holds up the best. Once all the conduits are painted, they've got to set for a while before they can be put back together, so I go and check in on Victoria. My armor still seems unscathed.

"Everything alright with the gloves?"

"Nothing I'm not confident in my ability to fix. Looks like the rest of this is holding up pretty well."

"Yeah, seems that way. Of course, that's only half of what it'll take to keep you alive out there."

I nod, picking my mask up and inspecting it more closely. It's pretty minimalist, mostly just flat metal with some transparent sections so I can see through it. "Yeah. I'm gonna need to learn to make sure the incoming strikes actually land somewhere that's covered by this stuff, right? We can get started once the cosma conduits on my gauntlets have set properly."