William flies through the air, slamming into the distant wall without any stop. Jullieta is inevitably prone to follow his flight, but because of the pillar on the way, the rope broke off the flames, leaving William alone in his path.
With his back against the cracked wall, William finds the situation rather inadequate. Headache overlaps his mind, Emblem is unstable and his body is tensed up. Jullieta also seems like one huge bother, although he feels that her attack isn't as wild or powerful as he expects.
She just tossed him away.
That is that and now, he feels a bit better.
Perhaps it is because of his own improvements that he feels fine with the fight, while the damage is slowly becoming bearable. He isn't sure, nor he feels right to assume thigns he doesn't know at this moment. He knows he is getting better at handling his Emblem after enduring those fights, but all he has is the context from Roman. Add to that a couple of the fights before this one, he feels the progression over his Emblem is getting somewhere at last.
He needs experience. Every fight gives him some idea about the way and use of his Emblem, while there is no one else but him to figure it out. Everyone has to figure out their own ways with their possibilities and come up with simple Molds, and touches of Skills.
Calling the fight against the students too taxing isn't fine, since it is sparing to determine simple results, but Zech definitely gave him a questionable surprise. He battled with him for a good while, and they didn't even go all out. Zech didn't have the benefit of Rank 2 usage, which would work better for any beginner rank Walker. It is obvious how important it is from the way Jullieta seems to be. It gives William some context of the Rank 1 and 2 Walkers. He is still far from Rank 2, but they are half a year into their journey, so progression shouldn't be that hard to guess.
Having a focus on the primary powers and Skills works wonders, and it makes drastic differences in Walker's strengths. William likes to see it for himself. Roman or not, he is Rank 7, and beginners have their own ways to act.
“Does she holds back because she pities me? That is quite nice for my sake.” William sights as he flinches from the wall, trying to get hold of himself and his Emblem. “ Wait... Perhaps not. Where is the timer anyway? I should stall for more.” He glances around, noticing how his Inner Enchantment shatters to oblivion, and his right claw doesn't seem to function still.
The distance to the laying timer isn't that far, but he doesn't have time to take a proper look. A flash of heat flushes towards his position, and a flying flaming kick goes right past his quick sidestep, revealing his quick reflexes. He dodges Jullieta fast kick after she regains her mind and ego after her awkward landing. A nosebleed is noticeable on her face, while the additional anger and frustration after she slammed into the pillar, spreads around her face.
She is angry. Anyone would be after this sort of humiliation. She held William like a little pup, but a pup has teeth and she regrets her brief hesitation quite a bit. Though, it was an honest hesitation, and where did it take her?
“Wow, calm down!” William shouts, backing away step by step, dodging her barrage of kicks that shatters and destroys the walls without any respect. She is faster than before, and not holding back, yet he dodges it still.
“I go easy on you, and this is how you go about this? You are shameless!” Jullieta shouts with anger and more kicks fly forth, but they don't seem to be as fast as Zech's. They aren't as physical, but the heat and flame around her feet make it a bit difficult to perceive them. William feels every kick's strength even though he dodges him, the flame creates ripples of fire that follows her movement. It is making things difficult to see and the surroundings hotter. They don't hurt him, but the heat and flame aren't comforting his face or clothes.
If he would have normal clothes, they would be scorched to the dust by now. Thankfully, he doesn't have the normal kind, which he doesn't even consider. He rather backs away further, crunching and jumping like a monkey so he manages to get out of the wall.
“You are unreasonable!”
“Shut up you slippery eel! Get some taste of my flame!”
“I will gladly be an eel! And you are weirdo to think this is some sort of fight.” William argues, dancing with her without much choice for more time. The wall is more of her enemy in his eyes, but he doesn't have a choice but to move and dodge in time. He feels feel pity for this building.
Jullieta is quite savage in her methods, giving William no choice but to run, dodge and flee like a coward. Though, he feels not a speck of shame since his Emblem is yet to be ready in their Vectors. He needs at least a minute or two more to get it to restart. So he scowls and dodges some more, thinking it isn't that hard to pull fleeting off. It goes smoother than any kind of training spar that Roman made him do, so he ends up appreciating the last 9 days. There, he has been tossed so many times and so easily, that he was hoping for the day to end.
This girl, on the other hand, isn't as fast as Roman, and even Zech. There are a lot of wasted movements in her moves, but she is still quick with her kicks. They have momentum behind them, but she seems more acrobatic like a dancer, rather than Walker to kill.
“Shut up!” Julliate shouts. “I am giving you a fight, so at least fight with your Emblem like a man. You make me look bad before the people of the Academy... probably?” she hesitates as if realizing something for the first time. Still, she halts herself for a second, before tossing it behind her mind.
“People? I don't see no people.” William argues back, glancing left and right which causes a kick to connect to his shoulder. He grunts and flies a few meters, feeling the scorching feeling but surprisingly, no smoke or damage goes to his skin. It seems the fabric of his uniform stops all the flame, dispersing it out of his body, or it's flame that doesn't do much to this fabric.
“Have you never heard about cameras Outsider?” she raises her leg for a second kick and jumps forward with the other leg. “I bet not, you stupid caveman, so I will kick your ass and talk about it later!”
Seeing her continuous agitation, William hesitates, figuring she is angry about his little strategy, or is it that? He thinks of other options which could make sense. Perhaps it is like the 2nd student he met. That unnamed girl with an azure flame was somewhat angry too. Something about his lack of care for her, or the lack of motivation and this Trial.
The present situation is unlike that, however. William knows it but for the better lack of terms, he sights and notices some incoming clarity. His Vector Claw returns to its proper glory, but who knows for how long he can manage to fight all out again? Those 5 minutes, which are in truth 10 minutes, aren't that fine for his control. It is a large time limit that affects no students, and Agatha and Tiberon know it more than enough. Fighting for that long is almost impossible for the first-timers and it is quite a savage idea.
Feeling his mind jolt up, and spirit to rejoice in the clarity, the Emblem is ready to continue. So William decides to be a bit tough for his sake and decides on a couple of things. Jullieta leaves him no other choice but to endure things to the bitter ends, so he clutches his claw and jolts his Vectors up.
But before going further, he stomps the ground and flees a bit further, sweeping his right arm further from his body. Annihilation Element spreads through the Vectors again, growing wild and crazy in an explosive manner. William has no choice about this. He feels her flame is more than powerful against his Gears, let alone his regular Vectors.
She obliterated his Gear 1. So he has to come up with different strategies, so he goes with not the most powerful type of power he has, but a flexible one instead.
That is the Gear 3.
He attaches a different form of Vectors to his claw. It won't be a giant or the moderate one. This one is tiner than both, but dense and powerful in its unique ways. The annihilation storm around his Vectors calms down, trembling and folding inwards in many layers of deep crimson.
5 clawed fingers act as a center to this new form, while the overall waves of Annihilation Vectors grow dense in a wild focus. Some waves of them still linger over his shoulder, arm, and back, but most of it goes to the appearance of a crimson and dense claw that goes from his elbow forwards.
There are a lot of layers of Annihilation Vectors, making William's forearm disappear behind them. There are some small and unnoticeable spikes and waves above the elbow too, but they aren't as pronounced. Few are on his wrist and elbow, but his palm and wrist are without them.
It has sharp finger claws so that is enough, even though William doesn't know how it all occurred. He doesn't envision a thing, nor molds the Gears with his careful Touch of Vectors.
He formed them a day ago, following the principle of his Touch of Vectors and the Feel of the Annihilation. Everything then happened on its own, with Gears that follow percentages under some rulers and limitations of Annihilation. The middle - Gear 2 - has about 20% of his Annihilation Element all-out power. Gear 1 has 40% and Gear 3 is no different.
Their density is, however, quite different and their forms are unique in their usage.
The Gears forms are created on the Emblem's basis, or so William thinks. He doesn't question their creation or structure that much. He is glad to have them instead. Roman does have the same opinion, so he feels his Gears will become his finest Skills for now.
Though, he can change the percentage of their power at any time on a whim. It would only create more stress on his Emblem and mind, giving him fewer cycles that he is yet to fully comprehend. But that has a dangerous aspect of going out of control, and he can fail and drastically lose his touch with his claw. Going for more Annihilation could also change his Gear forms, but it does need more experiments and some adjustments. For example, he is yet to experiment with a few percentages added to his Claw.
What 10% or 5% would do then? It would create more Gears for sure.
The basis for Annihilation Claw - Gear 2 - is about 20%, and it is quite powerful already. 40% is without question harder to control, apart from Gear 3 which took some effort to get the hang of because of the density of the Vectors, but he manages it well by now. It is smaller, and easier to handle even though it has a complex structure and management.
Annihilation Vectors are so cluttered together, it forms a distinct shape like shiny armor. Almost, that is. One could still see the flowing and clustered Vectors of deep crimson, but from far away, they blend together.
Looking at his Gear 3, the bright strange triangle of his Emblem shines forth through the layers of deep crimson.
That is a Gear 3 of his Annihilation Claw.
It has no character or nickname in particular, but William wonders if he should name them something. Calling it Gears with numbers isn't bad, but he feels it lacks a punch.
However, William has no time to wonder about it, even though it is pretty damn good to hold not so large claw. He doesn't know how it all works, but the mobility with the other Gears isn't that great. It has something to do with the weight of the Vectors and Annihilation put together, but he never asked Roman about it. He feels that the Gear 3 has less strain on his arm but it is still a large claw.
From the vision of normal sight, one can't be sure if the Vectors weigh something. They appear like foggy lines of weird wavy energy anyway and seem almost weightless. They fly on their own in the air, following Walker's body without touching their skin. One would think it isn't farfetched for them to be weightless like a feather.
It isn't true, even though it would make physical sense. They are heavy when the Vectors form Skills and other things. From a mental and physical point, the Emblem drains everything through the cycling of the Vectors, making the notion of them quite heavy for this type of Walker. Vectors move in many cycles, stressing the body, mind, and any additional marks. It affects Vector's elements as well, but for Elementalists, it is different.
Elementalists' element is their core form. Their everything. It shouldn't be as tough to wield the core and pure element because the Vectors strain the body and mind in many ways., But caring about the element can be quite taxing in similar ways to how Vectors work. It is about mentality and dangers involving the element. It is different. That is why there are 3 Types of Walkers, making issues and advantages for either one.
In William's case, the Annihilation may have some answers to this heaviness, and his quantity of Vectors isn't small at all. After all, they had 10 years' worth of time to spread the Vecots after his Emblem's full awakening.
So with full control over his Gear 3, William is ready to come to Jullieta again.
Gear 3 is around twice the mass of his Vector Claw, but at least 4 times slimmer than the Annihilation Claw - Gear 2. William sees it as the perfect form for quick and close-quarter combat, while the Gear 2 is a bit bulkier but not as different. Gear 1 is completely outside the norm than the rest.
That goes at least according to Roman's words, and his own vision as a high-rank Walker. Roman did speak of some examples and topics, but the spar became a real fighting strategy. Words sometimes don't matter and experiencing something unique by practice is best.
Seeing his success, William glances behind, noticing the flame spreading again and another kick flies forth. Unnoticed by Jullieta, her next kick stops in failure. William has been quite fast in his fleeting changes, so he runs and swipes his claw behind, managing to catch her kick and stop her momentum.
“Caught you,” William smiles, trying to toss her to the close wall by flexing his hand, bending his knees, and huffing a grunt. He fails miserably. He couldn't move her body even an inch even when he is giving it his best. Jullieta has one leg at a horizontal angle, while the other foot is on the ground.
“I was waiting for your counter, stupid,” she tells and bends forth with her upper body. Towards her sides are always her Dragogiant Claws, but one is etched to the ground with its fingers. She grounds herself, so William wouldn't toss her like a fool.
William didn't expect this sort of move from her at all, which ends up in an awkward pause and a pain in the ass.
Still, he keeps clutching her flaming feet, revealing his intentions of not letting her go.
“Fine, but you may be stuck there for the remaining time. I will toss you the moment you will stop grabbing that floor.” William argues.
“Too bad. I don't need to.” Jullieta says, swiping the floor with her other leg, kicking William in his right hand by an unnatural angle, and even strange acrobatics.
Willaim's claw slips away, causing his grip to loosen up, because the kick puts flames to his face as well. It is an involuntary effect of that kick ~ something that Jullieta doesn't expect to work every time. It works better against humans than dark beings. Wiliam closes his eyes and flinches his face since it is a normal reaction to this sort of thing.
Seeing an opportunity, Jullieta grabs this chance by standing straigh and placing her both palms together. Both of her Dragogiant Claws form a raging flaming spike. She stomps the floor, pushing her both palms forward in a spear-like attack, that drills toward a wide-open William.
“What a mad girl... I swear.” William shakes his hand and complains but he knows he should act. He puts his shit together, quickly opening his eyes and changing his stance. It amounts to nothing but lowering his posture, and using his Gear 2's palm as a catching shield.
He is confident, and he hasn't lost his stability when he shook his head away.
In a moment, her unyielding attack arrives, pushing against William's defense. Her momentum is tremendous as the one before, pushing William back to the wall but it isn't like before. William doesn't fly or lose like a poor fool.
But once again, William has trouble remaining with his feet steady on the ground. He would prefer to stand in one place. That is his little issue, but surprisingly enough, he catches her attack with his clutched finger claws. His palm and Annihilation Vectors go against the tip of her Divining Spear, or how has she called that?
The attack doesn't hit him hard, nor he feels the pressure as if he has been hit by a tank. The only thing that did sort of damage to him is a force that moved towards his right hand, and the push that forced him to the wall. It isn't anything worst.
“You... You caught it?” Jullieta asks in surprise.
“I figured this could be harder to do, but a proper form is making a true difference, doesn't it? Another option would be a deflection, striking you in return, but I don't want to hurt such a pretty girl.” William excuses himself, tossing Julliate's Dragon Claw hard aside which causes her to step about a dozen steps away.
“Uhh... I don't care about your words at all.” She argues, blushing for a second, before going back to her fighting stance.
“My Dragogiant Claws wouldn't be defeated just because of something like this. I have to restrain myself, otherwise, I would destroy a lot of things.”
“Same,” William replies, appearing unbothered by the obvious excuse that she speaks on her behalf. “However, let me show you this. See this?” he points to his claw with his left pointer finger.
He places his clawed fingers into a spear-like pattern, pinching them together to form a singular tip.
“So? It looks small when you do it with one hand. I have two to form a drilling move, and you saw it twice. Yours is just.... lacking, yet probably quite deadly because of the curve and tip... wait. Don't attack me with that!” Julliate comes to a sudden realization and backs a few steps.
“I never attacked anyone with this before. Apart from my instructor, that is. He took it easily, I reckon, but I bet it could rip your heart out of your chest, or through back if I am a bit forceful and clumsy.” William tells in ice-cold words, sounding intentionally harsh and evil just for the sake of scaring Jullieta away.
To his surprising amount of passionate play, she speechlessly looks at him, stopping in her tracks before screaming. “You pervert!”
Placing her Dragogiant Claw around her chest, she is angry and flustered at the same time.
“N-no... I didn't mean it like that.” William tries to solve this little misunderstanding. “I have no intention of touching or caring about your Emblems at all.”
Scratching his face, he sees how Jullieta aura flares in another moment of his careless words. A flaming storm of fire spreads from her elbows, enlarging her Dragogiant Claws by another 30%. The room and floor tremble and cracks spread around her proximity. The same happens with the flames around her body, which no longer flare up inward, but a lot of it goes out, making flames dance around her as if she has some dress.
“So you watched enough? That is one more reason to kick your ass twice! Take my Gigaflame Claws!” she tells, pouncing on William, who looks at her without being sure why she is so pissed. He also questions her naming scheme. She isn't probably someone he should ask to name his Gears.
About 10 feet between each other, William put forth some defensive stance. It is a basic palm of his Gear 2 facing forward, while his other hand is behind his back and his knees are bent.
He watches the sight with some amazement, but a clear fluster arises in his mind. Jullieta is indeed crazy, but also amazing. She pulls yet another restriction away, which puts this place in danger. Though, he couldn't argue how impressive she looks.
Jullieta pulls her Gigaflame Claws forward. They appear similar to the Dragogiant Claws, but fingers are bulkier and longer, and flaming spikes spread around the knuckles. More unkept flames rage around her both arms, while her hair flicker in wider and longer flames. Flames also spread around her body, making some defense or whatnot.
She pounces forth, giving no regard for anything but wanting to kick William's ass for real. Though, it goes as one wouldn't expect. Before her face, a person appears from the waves of a void. It is a butler with a face of disappointment and absolute creeping bother.
He flickers his fingers, making some sort of barrier before his face, which works wonders. Jullieta slams at him with her both fists but it does nothing, so she even kicks it afterward in some annoyance.
“Enough of this madness, Jullieta. This is over,” he tells, watching her dive right towards the barrier with her claws.
Seeing her failure and following kicks, he jolts the barrier to hit her face, while another move slams her to the ground, stopping her altogether.
Grunting on the ground, she looks at the butler in displeasure, but more so at William, who stands in silence and relief.
“You win this time, you jerk!” she says, pointing her finger towards William after the butler restarts his barrier up again. Unknown to her or William, the timer is well over the 10-minute mark. The beeping sounds are at the distant corner, so they don't hear it in this heated moment. It is already well over a minute beyond the 10th minute.
Feeling left out, butler clears his throat, making him stand out. “Ehm. Ehm. I will repeat myself. This is about the end of your argument and this... fight.”
“I know that already.” Jullieta barks back, crossing her arms before her chest, and looking away in displeasure.
“Yea... About that...” Butler sights, and turns to face William. “It seems the 1st Trial is already over for some time. We couldn't find you, but thankfully... some girl isn't lacking the means to hold back. 3 first-timers gave up from the Rank 2 threats so this is the last floor you have reached.” he says in a clear, and helpless voice, that stems from dealing with Jullieta, but for the most part, it is about the way things went. That, or he sounds like this all the time. It is hard to tell that, however.
“What! I got so few wins!” Jullieta looks back at him, complaining wide and open. “What sort of problem this is! So unfair. Weren't like... the last Trials so much better? I remember mine to be that.”
“I don't decide that.” butler says and turns back to her. “Half the time is gone, but it goes by the reasonable Overseer, or so I wish to wish. So don't complain about it so loudly, Jullieta!” butler tells her with a rather serious attitude. The man appears to know her quite well, or he knows how good of a troublemaker she is.
Frowning in displeasure, she stomps the ground with her claws and ceases her Emblem away in a couple of seconds. The flames rage and diminish in their heat and momentum, flowing to her chest where they will rest. “I am still complaining, Uncle Ruger.”
“I know. I know. I think there will be some compensation for this, but I don't guarantee that.” Ruger tells, appearing glad that she calms after his words.
“Well, mister... Butler?” William steps forth, making a slight bow toward the man. “What now? Is it really over?” he asks, scratching his head after uttering inaudible begone. He ceases his crimson away, feeling as if a huge burden lifts off his mind. Tiredness overlaps his mind, and all limbs turn numb and strained. He has enough pain to rest up, so hopefully, the 2nd Trial won't be such a disaster. He feels he at least walked 10 miles, and add to that the fights and his cycles, he is glad that he is in one piece.
“Young man Gale, right? It is true. You are probably as confused as a lot of people but... I don't blame a thing. We are included in this... trial if it even be called that. You are one of the 10 who will go to the next one, so you will follow us to the 1st floor.” Ruger explains the situation, which seems much worse than William even assumes. If even a butler appears and speaks like this, then thigns must be quite messy.
This leaves him a bit surprised since he thought the Academy is much more.. balanced? A better form of management and organization is what is in his mind, but it is a broad term to tell. He doesn't know much about it in the first place.
“Great... I guess I did well?” William makes a small gesture with his fist in the air, appearing happy about his result so far.
His gesture goes noticed by Jullieta, who gets to her feet, and storms toward him. “Don't be so happy about it!” she tells a single foot away from his face. “Other Trials are usually many times harder. Though, this one.... is...” she halts her words, realizing her lacking ideas.
“T-that's... expected. Right?” William tells, backing a step from this girl's loud voice.
“Right, it is. Everyone should know it. It's making sense after all.” she nods in a self-assured manner.
“Before that, both of your should calm down,” Ruger tells and stops their useless conversation. He glances at Jullieta and asks. “What's your score of him? Since it's over, some things are still due and it doesn't matter if this fight wasn't supposed to be. Things became flexible.... begrudgingly.”
“Score?!” Julliate grunts, uncertain so she walks towards him with a questionable look at her uncle.
“You know the rules, you know? I am sorry.” Ruger sights again.
Frowning, she grits her teeth before answering. “I would give 3 at best. He is a coward after all,” she tells, flicking her face away from William after glancing at him for a couple of seconds.
Ruger waves his hand away, indicating William to not worry about it. He scribbles the status of her score into the small notebook in his hand, which he then places right back in his pocket.
“Alright then,” Rogers tell, pulling his hands before him. “I will send us to the first floor, so stands before me and don't cause another trouble. Got it!” he orders, glaring at Jullieta in specific.
William is looking hesitant at this man, uncertain of what he means, but Jullieta walks right away, stopping before Ruger without complaining. After all, she doesn't want to walk 30 floors right back to the 1st floor. The elevators don't work because of the Trial.
“Young Gale?” Ruger looks at hesitant William.
“Errr... Right. Coming. Coming.” William complies since he feels he doesn't have a choice in this matter.
“Never heard of Butlers and their abilities or what?” Jullieta says, glaring with her left eye toward William.
“Of course not.”
“It's just minor teleportation, boy. No need to worry about it.” Rugers, upon noticing what's going on, explain the situation.
“Not hearing anything about it is the reason worth being nervous about,” William says awkwardly, causing Ruger to chuckle.
Standing closer before him, William notices the distinct-shaped Vectors flow from his palms. Some even go around his face and body, shrouding and giving him a weird vision as if crystal clear water surrounds his body. They are tiny. Those invisible vectors have almost no visible physicality. They seem impeccable in their structure, which is worth wondering about.
Reaching some sense of crescendo, Ruger moves his palms down, where they touch the ground. A diameter of 10 feet around him is then completely engulfed with shimmering Vectors of intangible shape, and color, but purpose they have.