Relovan just stared at Rhee, before glaring and baring his teeth.
“…he just had to go and call my place small, didn’t he? He’s the one who is absurdly large!” Relovan barked as he sat up, before grinning himself. “Anyway, that’s not important… I finally saw him, Rhee.”
“Saw him? What do mean?”
“I mean that I was finally able to follow him with my eyes – I was able to keep up.”
“….and that means?”
“It means that I can finally fucking train, my blue friend.”
The look in Relovan’s eyes changed as he said this. He got to his feet with his fists clenched and a grin on his face – which lasted all of two seconds as he felt woozy and ended up collapsing. The following morning, Rhee entered the Training Room to find that Relovan was already in the next room, inspecting the training equipment. It really was superior to the stuff he had, and Relovan looked somewhat excited as he carefully looked at what would be best suited for the training menu he was concocting in his head.
“Enforcer.” Rhee said as he entered.
“Oh, Rhee. You might not be needed for a while, so why don’t you go back and spend some time on your Walker?”
“As much as I would like to, I have been assigned to stay here for the duration of your stay. In fact, even if I wasn’t, the fact that I can’t teleport like the Void Lord and those stupid twins means I’m stuck here.”
“…stupid twins? Those… Dee women?”
“DeeDee? Yeah, them.”
“How do you all even address them?”
“If you know which of the sisters you’re trying to address, she will just… know that you’re speaking to her and respond. It’s all very weird.”
“I’ll bet.” Relovan said with a shrug and a nod. “Anyway, I’m planning on getting started with my training after breakfast.”
“You’re actually going to eat properly?!” Rhee boomed.
“Is it that surprising?”
“Yes, well it was difficult enough to get you to eat these past two weeks, so…”
“I just wanted to use the time with that damn Chief as effectively as I possibly could. Factoring the duration I was unconscious and healing, eating wasn’t all that high on the list of priorities.”
“Just what was a priority then?”
“Seeing enough of the Chief’s movements and speed to build up an adequate mental image. Now I can actually get used to his speed and without the threat of death.”
“I’m not sure I follow, Enforcer.”
“You don’t have to, Rhee.”
Relovan said this while tinkering on a computer that was in the room. A few members of Nura’s staff brought a number of small meals into the room, and Relovan ate them while acquainting himself with some things on the computer. Once both the food and the crash courses were finished, Relovan took some time to let his body process the food before moving to a less cluttered space within the room. He closed his eyes and assumed his fighting stance and took a few deep breaths as he focused completely. Rhee watched on in silence, wondering just what was going on when something started wafting off of Relovan’s body. Some kind of purple smoke or vapour floated gently through the air, before converging to a point just in front of Relovan. The Enforcer produced more and more of the substance, and it took some time for Rhee to recognise what it was, but when he did, he was kind of taken aback.
“Essence!”
The Essence flowed to a point, and once enough had gathered, it began to form some kind of shape. Whatever it was forming into was huge, and tall. Rhee watched on as the shape became clearer and clearer, and the Void Knight stood with his mouth wide open as Chief Nura’s silhouette was perfectly mimicked. In under a minute, an Essence Clone of Nura had been created, and although the figure was almost ethereal in appearance, it was still almost a perfect likeness of the massive Adonian.
“Rhee.” Relovan called out with his eyes still closed. “You might be wondering what I’m doing right now, but I am shadow boxing. I visualise my opponents after having observed them for a period of time, and then spar against them. This does tend to get pretty intense, so if I look like an idiot dancing and flailing about on my own, just keep that in mind.”
“…uh, sure.”
Rhee watched as the clone version of the Chief dashed forward, closed the distance between itself and Relovan, and unleashed a punch exactly as the real Chief had done so many times in the past two weeks. And much like when the punches connected, when the clone’s punch hit Relovan, the Enforcer was launched off his feet and flew backwards. The only difference was that this time, after eventually coming to a stop, Relovan hopped straight back up to his feet and took a deep breath.
“Well, that worked pretty well.”
Relovan rolled his neck a few times as the Essence clone broke apart, and the Essence returned to him. He then went straight for his bag, pulled out a fresh set of gym clothes and changed into them. Afterwards, he rummaged through training equipment and pulled out a set of ankle, wrist and body weights. He put them all on and adjusted their respective weights. After doing that, Relovan then secured the chain of a ‘sled’ to his waist while also setting its weight. Once all the extra weights were set, Relovan went back to the computer, and did something, before stopping and looking like he was in deep contemplation. He then looked at Rhee and smirked.
“…you know, you might be needed here after all.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m just saying, I think it’s actually a good thing that you’re forced to be here. Also, just as a heads up, I’m going to be altering the gravity within this room. I know that you’re currently stronger than I am, but I figured it would only be proper to warn you.”
“Yes, thank you for the – wait a minute! You’re wearing those weights and you’re increasing the gravity in here?! Are you trying to kill yourself, Enforcer?!”
“Not at all.” Relovan said with a grin. “On the contrary, I am trying to live. The goal here is to obtain strength, and I will do what I have to in order to do just that.”
Rhee looked at Relovan with unblinking eyes as the Enforcer set the gravity to that of Planet Bfoom, which had twenty times the gravity of the Blargon planets. There was a tangible and very visible effect on Relovan, who looked as though he just had something extremely heavy dumped on him. He looked at Rhee with an expression that told him to get out, and he did just that, leaving the Human to do his thing. The first training session was especially brutal and it all looked dangerous, particularly because Relovan was doing a lot of agility training. It didn’t take long for Rhee’s services to be called upon as he had to rush in when a double ended punching bag smacked Relovan square in the face and practically knocked him out. The healing and subsequent recovery were much quicker comparatively, and this meant that the Enforcer could get back to work earlier than he had when he was training with Nura. This was pretty much the pattern of things for the next few weeks, and towards the end of the second week, Rhee was looking particularly concerned. Mishaps were still happening, so he was still healing Relovan, and despite the time that had elapsed, progress appeared to be marginal at best. The Human Enforcer had set the gravity simulator to deactivate whenever somebody else would walk in, so apart from the first time it was set, Rhee had never been in the room with Relovan when the gravity was altered. Relovan, who was sitting in the room taking a short break and having something to eat, was interrupted when the door opened and Rhee walked in. Bumps, bruises and scrapes adorned almost every bit of exposed skin that Relovan had, and he looked at the Void Knight and nodded.
“Rhee.”
“Enforcer.”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing really, just checking in on you. Do you need anything? Any healing?”
“No, I’m alright.” Relovan, who was looking about as shabby as he had ever been said as he chewed. “If anything, I could do with more food.”
“More food?!”
“Yeah, my energy requirements increase when I do strenuous activities.”
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“…and that’s all that you need?”
“Well right now, I need to get back to work, so that means I need you to leave.”
Relovan shooed Rhee away dismissively as he stood up gingerly and stretched a bit. The Void Knight left the Enforcer to continue with his workout, and much like the previous occasions, he watched through the windows as Relovan struggled with his work. The following morning, when Rhee came through to see Relovan, the windows had all been covered, and there was a note on the door.
“Void Knight, I need to focus so I ask that you refrain from coming in until I actually call for you, or come out myself. R.”
Rhee read the note out loud, before looking at the door and sighing.
“…why does he only refer to me as a Void Knight on paper?”
After letting out a slight sigh, Rhee sat down cross legged in front of the door and waited patiently. He figured he would be waiting for possibly a day or two, but when a full week went by, Rhee thought about forcing his way inside to check and see if Relovan was still alive. It had been quiet for entirely too long, and he was worried that something had happened to him. There was a boisterous hubbub outside, with the hubbub sounding as though it was approaching the Training Room, and the closer it got, the louder and more chaotic it sounded. A few moments later, the door almost disintegrated as it exploded open. Nura triumphantly strode in with his customary grin on his face.
“Rhee!” He boomed. “It feels like it’s been forever! How are things going?”
“I really don’t know, Chief Nura.” Rhee said with a shrug.
“Huhhh?? You don’t know?”
“I really don’t. The last time I saw the Enforcer, he didn’t look like he had made any progress, and then he left me that message on the door.”
Nura looked towards the note and read it from a distance, before grinning and stomping towards the door.
“LAWMAN!” Nura thundered. “I’M COMING IN!”
As the Chief raised his foot to kick the door in, it slowly swung open before he could do anything. It was ominously dark within the weight room, and as soon as the door was open all the way, the same Essence vapour that the Nura clone was made from flowed out from the door, before Relovan’s silhouette appeared. He walked out of the room slowly, and a pungent smell flooded the nostrils of the two men. Rhee tried to maintain his composure, but failed miserably. His nose was particularly sensitive, and he was struggling hard not to react. Nura on the other hand inhaled deeply, and seemed to bare all his teeth as he looked at Relovan with a glint in his eyes.
“…that smell… is that the Enforcer?”
“It’s the smell of progress, my dear Rhee!” Nura said as he stepped closer to Relovan. “Yo, Lawman! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Doesn’t feel that way to me, Chief.” Relovan replied as he looked up at Nura. “In fact, it feels like I was just with you.”
Nura looked somewhat confused, but just brushed the statement off and continued to look at Relovan. There was a discernable difference with the Enforcer’s physique – namely that he had actually gotten quite a bit bigger. Nura eyed Relovan in silence, before clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles all cracked a little bit too loud.
“How about it, Lawman? I know I just got back, but how about we administer the test again?”
“Do you mean right now, Chief?!” Rhee asked.
“Yes, right now.”
“Enforcer Relovan was locked in that room for a week! Who knows when last he ate, or slept? …or bathed.”
“I have no problem with that if you don’t, Chief.” Relovan confirmed.
“Huh?!” Rhee said as his gaze switched over to Relovan.
“But considering my physical state at the current moment, it might be advisable that we do this right now. I don’t know how much longer I can remain conscious.”
Relovan said all this as he walked past Nura and towards the centre of the Training Room. The Adonian stood silently as he looked first at the floor, then up towards the ceiling.
“So you’re saying you’re confident enough to evade my fist while half-awake, huh Lawman?”
Relovan didn’t answer Chief Nura, and turned to face him in silence. Nura joined the Enforcer in the centre, his gaze unmoving and his eyes unblinking. Relovan, who was yet to assume a fighting stance blinked his eyes, which was apparently the signal for the test to start, as Nura pushed off from where he was standing and absolutely barreled towards him. His giant frame moved with almost unbelievable speed, and the distance between the two men was closed in an instant. A cocked right fist was then thrown with such ferocity and venom, it looked to Rhee as if the Chief was actually trying to kill Enforcer this time. Relovan, who still had his eyes closed, simply tilted his head to his right looking rather casual while doing so. As Nura’s fist reached his face, Relovan’s eyes opened and they both looked at the massive fist as it actually flew past his left cheek. The sound the fist made as it zoomed past was akin to that of an aircraft of some kind flying overhead and once the punch reached its natural conclusion, there was a literal explosion that echoed through the room. Steam rose from the Adonian’s fist while Relovan’s gaze shifted from the Chief’s arm to his eyes, and he looked up at his superior with no fear. In fact, with the huge arm still right by his head, Relovan bent his knees somewhat, placed his left foot in front of his right, raised his guards, and tucked his elbows in by his sides. It was an altered stance to the one that both Nura and Rhee had seen before, and was a far more defense-oriented stance than what he employed even during the fight with the Void Knights all those weeks ago.
Nura said nothing as he pulled his arm back slowly. His stared right back into Relovan’s eyes, and took a few steps back, before assuming his own fighting stance – with absolutely no guard and slightly bent knees.
“Apologies, Lawman. It seems I got a little excited and jumped the gun. Let’s do this properly.”
Relovan said nothing again and the silence persisted as the air and the atmosphere changed. Rhee had completely forgotten about the smell and was completely flabbergasted by what he had just seen. Before he could even process what was happening properly, the Chief leapt into another attack, moving even quicker than he had before. Instead of going for a single straight punch this time however, Nura first threw a left jab, and then a straight right – completing a quick combination. Each punch was snappy, and produced the same sounds as the punch that was thrown while Relovan was supposedly off guard. In the process of the punches being thrown, Relovan stepped back ever so slightly to create a little more space between himself and Nura, and then swayed his torso back, moving his face out of range of the jab, before tilting his head to the side to avoid the straight. Relovan grimaced ever so slightly before shaking his head a bit.
“It still hurts if I don’t dodge completely.” He said to himself as he focused again.
Nura charged the Enforcer again, and launched a flurry of blows, starting with a one-two, digging the body with a series of left and right hooks, throwing a short uppercut with his left and then a looping overhand right. The Chief mixed the order of the punches up, threw in a few feints, tried to grab the back of Relovan’s head to force it into the path of an uppercut – all to no avail. Despite the impressive looking speed and multiple explosions, nothing landed, and after going at it for a bit, Nura stopped throwing punches and took a moment to just watch Relovan was doing. Despite there no longer being any attacks coming his way, Relovan didn’t stop moving. His guard was still up, and his torso was moving at speed. Nura watched as the torso went forwards, backwards, to the left and to the right, but with so many course changes, it almost looked like Relovan was connecting a series of dots with his body. Front right to left rear, up to the front left, then diagonally to the right rear. Right rear to the lower side right, diagonally to the upper side left, across to the upper side right, then down to the lower side left.
“…a-an octagram!” Rhee said in disbelief.
Nura dashed towards Relovan once again and immediately went on the attack. He felt as though he had the timing of the movement so he jumped in with the blows. Things didn’t quite go as planned however, and despite the speed with which the blows were being thrown with, Nura continued to hit thin air. The quicker he went, the quicker Relovan himself went, however Nura didn’t appear to be flustered at all. The two men were moving so quickly, they were a literal blur and mini shock waves pulsed out from them across the Training Room floor. Rhee’s clothes actually started to flutter as he bore witness to the sparring match, and he just watched on without even daring to blink – lest he miss something. Nura, who had been throwing punches exclusively, feinted as though he was about to throw yet another one, yet he planted his left foot, twisted his hips and let fly a thunderous kick that was aimed at Relovan’s head. The Enforcer had no time to create enough space to evade the kick, so he raised his left fist a little bit higher in order to block the kick. He placed the palm of his right hand against his left forearm to brace it, and when the humongous foot made contact with the arm, the loudest explosion of them all filled the Training Room. A massive shockwave flew towards and hit Rhee directly, prompting him to shield his face for a little while. Upon blocking the kick, Relovan, who had been standing flat footed, suddenly stood on the balls of his feet as he bent over and hunkered down. His arms had been brought back down and tucked in tight to his sides again with his left forearm still steaming.
“Small and compact! Small and compact!”
Relovan repeated this to himself, with both Rhee and Nura noting that he looked like a coiled spring. The Enforcer’s right foot buckled ever so slightly before he sprung forth with such speed and force, that the other two were caught by surprise. Nura’s personal space was completely invaded and Relovan tucked his arm in like he was fixing to throw a short uppercut. Unfortunately for him, Nura was a bit too tall, which meant he had to improvise. Whilst still in his hunched over position, the Enforcer leapt into the air while simultaneously throwing the punch. Nura, for the first time in a while, found himself tiling his own head to the side to evade a blow. The Human’s fist zipped past his superior’s head and also produced a loud boom at the end, which only surprised one person in the room. Nura, who had already cocked his left arm and was shaping to throw a counter with said arm, saw something in both Relovan’s face and demeanor that made him change his mind and throw the counter with his right hand instead. Relovan, who was still in the process of pulling his right arm back, thrust his left arm down and extended his legs with as much strength as he could muster, as if trying to have both feet on the ground as soon as he possibly could. Unfortunately for the Enforcer though, the moment his feet did touch the ground, the Chief’s colossal fist landed square on his face, hitting him flush. There was a massive grin on Nura’s face as he connected with Relovan’s face, and shockwaves blasted out from the back of the Human’s head. Just as it appeared that Relovan’s body was going limp, his open hands suddenly clenched tightly, his legs both buckled and his entire body stiffened up. A muffled wail which quickly turned into thunderous roar came from behind the fist that was still pressed against Relovan’s face, and purple glow enveloped his body. The glow became brighter and brighter as the roar got louder, and Nura, whose eyes were now large, grinned even more as he himself let out a roar before being enveloped by his own glow. His was golden in colour, and the two glows began to clash, with shockwaves, crescent shaped energy beams and violent gusts of wind emanating from the two. Whilst the clash only lasted a matter of seconds, it felt as though it went on for an eternity, and as one might have guessed, gold was superior to purple and it won. The Chief’s feet actually cracked the tiles below and dug into the floor as his fist completed its course, bending Relovan’s back all the way, kicking his feet off the ground, then smashing the back of his head hard into the floor, cracking the tiles once more and driving the Enforcer into the floor so forcefully, it was like he was trying to bury him.
The force of the entire thing caused the ground, as well as the structure to shake violently, with the noise it produced making the staff fear for their lives as they all thought the compound was under attack. It took around ten seconds or so, but things did calm down, and once they did, Nura stood up to his full height while shaking his now open right hand slowly. He looked down at Relovan, whose body was practically embedded in the floor, and grinned while nodding.
“You’re the real deal, Lawman. Fucking hell.”
Rhee, who was still in something of a daze after watching the conclusion of the fight, stared on in silence.
“Excuse me, Rhee? I think this might be the best time to heal the Lawman, unless you want him to die.”
“Yes, of course!”
Rhee scrambled as he moved towards Relovan, however he quickly stopped moving as what he saw before him shocked him once again. There was a bit of a twitch that came from his right leg, but then Relovan’s fists clenched as he tried to remove himself from the floor. Due to how firmly he had been embedded in said floor, it was a bit of a struggle to free himself. He managed to do it however, pulling each arm free first, before sitting up with a fair amount of effort. His face was a bloody mess, and Relovan had clearly sustained breaks and fractures to said face, but for the first time after being on the receiving end of a punch from the Chief, the Enforcer was still conscious. His breathing was ragged, and his face was an absolute shambles, however he was conscious. His eyes began to glow as he looked at Nura and he slowly struggled to his feet without looking away from him.
“I will… not perish.”
The declaration made Nura laugh and clap like an infant.
“You’re damn right you won’t! Not even Vox will be able to kill you!”
Relovan just sneered before nodding and snorting triumphantly. The snort proved to be a painful endeavor, and blood shot out of the crushed nostrils, causing Nura to laugh even more. Relovan himself joined in, letting out disturbingly wet sounding laughs before suddenly flopping over and losing consciousness. Rhee rushed over to the Enforcer while Nura continued to laugh, and as he began to heal the Human, the Chief looked at Relovan while shaking his head slowly.
“This guy… you said he locked himself in the other room for a week, right?”
“That’s right, Chief.”
“Did you see how he trained?”
“I did… he equipped a bunch of weighted items and used the gravity machine. That said, I didn’t see what he did when he shut himself in there – he lowered the shutters from the inside.”
Upon hearing that, Nura turned around and made his way to that room. He turned the light on and couldn’t believe what he saw. He entered and used voice commands to bring up usage log of the Gravity Simulator. A holographic display appeared, and Nura broke out into a cold sweat.
“Rhee.” He called out, using The Voice. “Once you’re done there, I need you to come in here.”
Once Relovan’s body was floating in an artificial bubble of the same fluid he had been in during his time on Nala, Juxtae’s Void Walker, Rhee got up and went to join Nura in that weight room. Before he even walked in, the aroma hit him hard. After which, what he saw left him absolutely gob smacked. All of the body weights that Relovan had equipped were in the floor. Not on it, but in it, as if they had been tossed onto the ground while the gravity had been altered. There were multiple holes in the floor and walls, some of the barbells were bent in the centre, benches and treadmills were in pieces, a crazy amount of non-lethal combat drones were all in pieces on the floor, with some of them still smoking. There were refuse bags filled with food scraps and plates, while the entire supply of toilet paper was depleted. As Rhee looked around at the damage, Nura waved him over to where he was standing. The Void Knight walked over to him, and looked at the status screen that was hovering in front of the Chief, who simply pointed to it. Rhee’s eyes scanned the screen and then almost popped out of his eyes.
“He set the gravity in this room to that of Planet Ouji?! That’s almost a hundred times the gravity of this planet! How?!”
“I told you before, didn’t I Rhee? Lawman is going to be an absolute fucking MONSTER.”
“…you really weren’t lying, Chief.” Rhee said as he swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded in agreement.