With no mercy, Itsuki pulled the trigger. Two submachine guns spewed their gunfire. Amanda, the first to notice that he was attacking, ducked for cover as fast as she could.
“What the hell are you doing!” She screamed, not understanding this turn of events. She tucked her body to make sure nothing was exposed as she dove for the concrete barrier nearby.
Clattering sounds filled her ears as her cover was blasted and she thanked her lucky stars that it had been so close. Though, being fired upon by a guy that was shooting bullets at you was not as lucky as she wished to be.
But that wasn’t what had made her shout. It was what Itsuki was wearing and doing. Out of nowhere, he began shooting at everyone.
The large ammo box on his back did not bode well. Additionally, he was armed to the teeth with an additional two submachine guns that were mounted on his back behind each of his shoulder blades. They made him seem even more dangerous and deadly.
All around him, a ruined cityscape surrounded him and he stood in the middle of a street, buildings on either side of him. While somewhat empty and secluded from prying eyes, Itsuki could sense figures moving around him in the hollow spaces of the half toppled buildings.
No matter, he pressed on, firing his two submachine guns at Amanda’s position, going for the kill.
“Hey! Over here!”
Itsuki didn’t need to turn to see who had shouted at him. The visor he had on was connected to the miniature cameras and sensors on the exosuit he was wearing. It was an old design, so it looked more like the exoskeletal support frame used on earlier models of augment suits in the 2000s.
Bulky, its protruding metal frame wreaked havoc on his mobility, but it had many modular hard points he could use to attach more equipment.
It came in handy right now, since the mounted miniature cameras and sensors let Itsuki see who was charging him from behind. The bold perpetrator was Richard, who was aiming to slip in close to get a hit on him.
He likely thought that Itsuki hadn’t seen him when maneuvering behind at the start of this fight. Itsuki thought for a moment, why would Richard shout as he attacked?
Itsuki’s mind raced in that split second, and he saw through Richard.
“Almost.” He mumbled. “But too straight forward.”
Jumping, Itsuki engaged the jetpack module on his waist, yet another bulky component. His heavy frame moved, sluggish yet at a speed that was still comparable to a regular grunt class explorer.
In the last second of his ascent, Richard thrusted the thin and long fencing sword. This was his manifested weapon. It had a feather style hilt and the blade seemingly cut through the air like a hot knife through butter. There was absolutely no air resistance.
Even with how fast he was, it came short, just inches from departing Itsuki’s heel.
“Tch! I’m sorry guys! It’s up to you now!” Shouted Richard, and just as he did, Shisuki came bolting from above.
The ruined buildings around them had many places to get an overhead view of the street. As soon as the situation turned, Shisuki was keen enough to set herself up to attack from a unique angle. Not only that, but it had many places to hide.
“I got him!”
Shisuki, jumping from the roof of a building, was above Itsuki now and threw out a flurry of dagger shaped projectiles. They streaked with aqua blue luminescence and headed straight for Itsuki’s head.
At this point, Itsuki should have been dodging out of the way as he made his approach to her, instead, he angled his thrusters and shifted his weight forward. It brought his vision down to the earth and away from Shisuki which gave her projectiles a clear shot at his back.
A strike there would be fatal, his suit would be compromised and he’d get blown up by the remaining propellant in his waist jet pack units.
She believed her strike would hit, though she reconsidered just a hint. She knew her Teacher very well, begrudging as it was to know she was far behind him in skill and combat.
She was right.
With a mechanical whirring, Itsuki’s exosuit’s protruding frame moved and two appendages on Itsuki’s back folded out. These were auxiliary manipulators. Their finger-like appendages came in handy and grabbed the weapons affixed behind Itsuki’s shoulder blades.
In tandem, his hands moved to aim the two machine guns down below at Richard and Amanda while the two new mechanical appendages on his back adjusted their sights. Using the input data from his visor’s retinal tracking system, Itsuki locked his lines of fire.
His visor beeped and he pressed the trigger, holding it down hard.
4 flashing glints of gunfire came from Itsuki. Two aimed down at the ground 10 meters below him, and the other two aimed at the projectiles 5 meters above him.
Shot out first from their trajectories, Shisuki’s thrown blades scattered into particles of water, while below, Richard and Amanda turtled up, their core energy forming a layer of protection. They then found out that they didn’t need to.
Itsuki wasn’t aiming at them, he was countering the sudden 3rd sneak attack they had layered on with the first and second.
Hidden behind their own concrete barriers, Ikki and Stella had rushed up and out of their cover as soon as Itsuki had jumped up with his jetpack. The purpose of Richard’s shout was to get his attention.
Itsuki deduced that they all likely knew he could see them in a 360 degree view, attributed to how Richard knew of the model of exo suit he wore.
Richard was smart, book smart, and in this situation, logically, wanting to draw Itsuki’s attention would be the best method to subvert his advantage of experience and terrain surveillance. But, Itsuki had hunted both explorers and monsters alike.
He foiled Richard’s logic by ignoring him and moving to get a bird’s eye view. Richar’s choice was reasonably sound, though to Itsuki, it lacked any real awareness of the full combat situation and ever changing flow of battle.
With his new view of the battle from above, this gleamed the truth of the 3rd sneak attack that Shisuki was trying to veil from him. More cards were at play and adjusted himself ahead of time when he was in the air.
The minute he got airborne, his cameras and sensors found Ikki and Stella, so he made a snap decision and engaged all three of them.
Itsuki laid into them all, showing no mercy for any comradery and association they had. Shisuki, unable to evade in the air and how he was coming right at her with his jetpack's momentum, was pelted with gunfire, staining her crimson.
“NO!” Amanda shouted as she watched Shisuki go down. Gritting her teeth, she took off from her cover to rush at Itsuki. With a pillar of ice she made jut up under her, she launched herself up and shot off a burst of ice arrows.
Stella supported Amanda in kind, and fired her own bolts of fire.
The girls’ projectiles traced up at Itsuki. He engaged his jet packs thrusters at max and pulled himself out of the line of fire. He flew a block away and the thrusters sputtered out, the last of the propellant used up.
It had a lower fuel capacity due to the model of exosuit he used was inefficient for the sake of the numerous modular hard points.
Landing with a roll and a thump, Itsuki sluggishly turned around just in time to find Ikki charging, already a couple meters away from him. Ikki had followed him, preempting where he was going to land.
Just behind him, another trailing barrage of fire and ice followed to attack Itsuki.
It was a three pronged frontal attack and if Itsuki tried to dodge only one, the other two would get him.
No way out, Itsuki did what he knew best.
He blasted everything in front of him. To him, it was a certainty that whatever was in front of him would go down.
The two auxiliary appendages on his back swerved around and pointed forward. He did the same with the submachine guns in his arms, their barrels still only lukewarm.
Ikki saw what Itsuki was going to do. He strained every last inch of energy and power out of himself. His mind was seared with unending pain as he over enhanced himself to the limit.
He had already gone well beyond his limiter, though if this was the max, then why was he not out of energy yet?
To Ikki, this must have meant he still had some room to push himself but couldn’t do it yet. He screamed, internally frustrated that he wasn’t at the apex of his power and tried to push himself further. Just another step, if he could just get a bit closer before Itsuki pulled the trigger…then.
Ikki engaged his technique, [One blade of Hell], and was trying to swing his long reaching odachi down to slash Itsuki. Just as it was about to crest the top of his swing, Ikki was blasted in the chest, the full focus fire of 4 submachine guns on full auto.
It blew Ikki away, his brain feeling as if it were turning to mush. Stella caught him, in the next second, she found herself battered by gunfire as well. Her red hair stained an even deeper red, she fell to the ground with Ikki gently cradled in her arms.
“Stella! Ikki! Not you too!” Amanda was in disbelief, this was a 5 on 1 battle and they were getting trounced. Ikki was down and her ice arrows, along with Stella’s bolts of fire, were shot down as if Itsuki were swatting a fly.
They should be winning, but the power of a true explorer seemed to dawn on her and Richard.
Itsuki was as relentless and merciless as the grunts in those simulated records from Cyno’s class. He fought like his life depended on it, and didn’t hesitate, no matter how crazy his actions were.
“No way…this is…impossible.”
Richard stepped back, too shocked by the results. Logic seemed to be thrown out the window in this fight. He had thought that his distraction would have worked, the numbers and facts all made sense.
He had read that grunts usually used tools to fight, but to this kind of proficiency? It was absurd, unheard of, and had only been thought to be done in theory. No person could react so deftly, if they could, they weren’t “human”.
Richard was splattered red as Itsuki mowed him down, he fell like a stack of cards, his manifested weapon clattering to the street’s asphalt.
“AH!!!!!!!!” Amanda screeched as the full brunt of fire was hailed upon her. Crumbling to her knees, red stains colored and dripped off of her,
Itsuki scanned the surroundings, his guns trained in case if any one else was going to attack him. He saw 5 bodies knelt to the ground, defeated.
Confirming, he sighed.
“Targets eliminated.” Pride tinged Itsuki's voice, he sounded proud and glad that his skills weren’t dulling.
“Screw you Itsuki!” With hate in her eyes, Amanda rushed up to him and glared at him as he pulled his collar up. “This was totally overkill! Did you have to shoot us that much!”
They were in a simulated cityscape in the academy’s training grounds, luckily, no one was disturbed by her shouting that could have been heard for miles.
The ribbing scream came flying at him from the defeated girl, but Itsuki ignored her and shot back.
“Not my fault Amanda, I don’t decide how fast my guns shoot.”
“YOU! JESUS!..You suck, you know that right. Just look at us.” She huffed and squeezed the hem of her now stained gym clothes, red color dripping from where he had shot her. “How are we supposed to get all this paint out of our clothes!”
“Simple.” Itsuki turned to Shisuki who was already working her magic. “Shisuki? If you would please?”
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“Of course Teacher.”
Shisuki created and collected water into 5 individual balls that floated around her. They moved around and touched the part of her gym outfit that was stained and dirtied.
Each ball sucked the stains right off of her and moved onto everyone else. Though of course, Shisuki took her time with Stella, on occasion, she “accidentally” squirted some water in her face.
“Will you quit it!” Shouted Stella, her arm already rubbing her eyes for a fifth time.
“Stay still you boar, this is hard enough as it is. Your fat under boob is holding a lot of the paint, so I need to get down and under that dirty crevice.”
“I! Am! NOT! A! BOAR! You take that back, and stop calling them fat! They are my symbols of future motherly pride.”
Shisuki scoffed and wanted to say, “more like symbols of future indecency”, but she held her tongue. Her brother was here, and she promised to get along, well, a little… at a time.
Ikki sighed like usual at their exchange and Amanda was still fuming with anger at Itsuki. She shook him, getting right in his face.
“What the heck are you using today? I thought this was supposed to be a light training match!”
“It is, I told you we were going to have a match using the concept of tag and that I would be hunting you. If you hit me once, I lose. I thought I was pretty clear.”
“Yeah! I get that! But did you have to freaking use 4 machine guns? You could have put it on single shot mode instead of rapid fire AT LEAST, OR! I don’t know! PLAY REGULAR TAG AND NOT MAKE THIS INTO A GUN FIGHT! I know the bullets were made of paint, but come on, that’s overkill!”
“You can’t deny that it was a good opportunity for you to learn how to evade this kind of attack. You’re getting better, almost at Ikki’s level.”
That compliment took Amanda by surprise. It didn’t settle her grudge with him but she couldn’t help looking at Ikki, as if he were some kind of amazing creature. Had he really stood up to such a barrage before? Just now, he got absolutely caked in paint, so how?
Ikki overheard them and nodded. “Yeah, I actually can deflect Itsuki’s bullets with my swords, though, it leaves me with no option to attack or move, so it backs me into a corner.”
“Really?” Amanda thought it was impossible to fend off such a hailstorm of bullets with only a sword. She herself could do it with her conjured ice shields, but Ikki? With only his swords? That was something Amanda needed proof on.
“Perhaps a demonstration of my little brother’s skills is in order.” Said Shisuki, who finished cleaning Stella up after splashing just a bit of water into her face for one last time. “Teacher? Would that be alright?”
Itsuki glanced at Ikki, who nodded back.
“I’ll give it my best.”
“You sure?” Itsuki knew Ikki was probably still in pain and reeling from the self-inflicted mental damage he had put himself through in his final desperate attack.
Ikki nodded once more and rolled his shoulders. “I can’t go at 100%, but I can still block your bullets if I focus enough.”
Getting into position, Itsuki stood 10 meters from Ikki and had his 4 machine guns pointed forward as Ikki as his target. With a count from Shisuki, they started and Amanda was amazed.
Ikki had gotten into a defensive stance with both his long and short katanas out in front of him. As Itsuki fired, Ikki predicted and was already slashing at the incoming paint bullets. They bursted into puffs of red particulates just a couple feet in front of Ikki.
The speed at which Itsuki was swinging his sword kicked up a stormy wind, so much so that they had to cover their eyes.
Paint got on his clothes somewhat, but Ikki didn't mind it.
About 5 minutes into the barrage, they finally stopped when Ikki couldn’t withstand moving and slashing at extreme speeds for so long.
Itsuki’s guns were firing at 850 rounds a minute each. With four of them, that totaled to just over 3000 rounds in a minute, so Ikki had dodged and slashed at 5 times that amount.
Ikki huffed, tired and exhausted.
“That was incredible.” Amanda beamed at his brilliant display of defiance, maybe she could do that one day. “How can you even do that?”
“Huff, well, it’s a combination of skills and hand eye coordination.” Ikki panted and Shisuki moved over to give him some water. He took a swig from the bottle to clear his dry throat and continued with a clearer tone.
“You’ve probably noticed, but I tend to observe my opponents and surroundings closely. It’s a habit from my childhood and my upbringing.”
“You mean, when you were disowned?” Stella was cautious to bring up this topic. She had already told Amanda about this and Richard knew the situation as well from Shisuki. Even with understanding people around, Stella knew this was a sensitive topic and so did Shisuki.
“Miss Stella!” Shisuki walked up to Stella, about to subvert this conversation. “I suggest that you do not bring up such-“
“It’s okay Shisuki, I told her the story.” Said Ikki. This startled his big sister.
“You did?” Shisuki eyed Stella up, who had a stern expression on and a serious look.
Stella wasn’t backing down and gazed back at Shisuki with eyes that seemed compassionate, or, what Shisuki thought was compassion.
She huffed her annoyance and let up on her glare, so Ikki continued.
“No one taught me anything back when I was in the Eastern Bloc and there was also little opportunity here during my time in Andromeda.”
“But weren’t you with Itsuki, didn’t he train you like he did with Shisuki?”
“No, not exactly. I didn’t get to know him until last year. Initially, I came to Terracolony Andromeda unofficially when I was younger. My grandfather called in a favor with the headmaster and got me a temporary space to live at for a while.”
Ikki reminisced about those days. It was exciting to be in a new place that had so many differences from where he was from. But, it was also lonely. He didn’t know anyone here. He then thought to that day, when he decided to sneak into the training grounds of the academy to get a look at how students here trained.
“You? Snuck In?” Amanda’s mouth hung open. The thought of a teenage boy sneaking into a highly guarded and secure facility like the academy seemed impossible.
The place was like a maze if you didn’t have a holo map and if you got spotted by security, or their high tech cameras, then it would be seconds until you were arrested.
Ikki smiled wryly, acknowledging her disbelief and let out a small chuckle.
“Heh, no. I did “try” to sneak in, but I failed as soon as I turned the corner of the building I was trying to get into. I didn’t know who it was at the time, but that’s when I got tased by a guard, technically, that was the first time I met him, though I didn’t really care to get his name. He was pretty abrasive.”
Amanda gave Itsuki a blaming look, though she sighed soon after since that sounded like a very Itsuki thing to do.
“So? What happened after that?” Asked Amanda, and gave Itsuki a wider berth.
“After that, I was hauled off the academy by Itsuki, I tried again the next day and this time got further, but a kick to my stomach from Itsuki sent me flying out of the academy. I was glad that I learned how to reinforce my body back then, if not, I’m not sure how I’d land.”
“You would have been fine, I could tell you had control over your core energy.” Said Itsuki, as he had done nothing wrong. “You were young so I did worry I may have broken your young bones. It was a good thing you landed upright.”
“No kidding, I’m glad for that, but did you really have to start shooting rubber bullets at me on the third time I tried to sneak in?”
“Why not? You were getting better at this, so I upped my game.”
“Are you sure you’re not just nuts?” Amanda groaned. Just how violent could a person be, especially to a teenager.
“Hey! I’m not the one who kept trying to sneak in.” Argued Itsuki. “But it turned out my little security work actually helped train Ikki, by the 2nd year of his attempts, I finally let him into the training grounds for the sake of saving time and keeping an eye on him.”
“Yup.” Ikki smiled, thinking back as if that was the happiest moment of his life. “That’s how and when I truly began to learn how to deflect Itsuki’s bullets. The rubber ones are easy, but the paint and metal ones fly a bit differently. Plus, now that I got to meet some other students, I began trying to learn as many styles of swordsmanship as possible. I’m limited on my abilities due to my core affinity, so learning anything that I could seemed like the better option. I’ve also been focusing on muscular training and meditation, both of which Itsuki introduced me to.”
“Meditation? How does that help?” Amanda really didn’t know for sure if meditation had any benefits for an explorer. It sure did great for your focus, but, what else was there to it?
“It’s the basis of my style of fighting.” Answered Ikki. He put his hand out and circulated his core energy to form what looked like a black and white water droplet. “My manifested power is directly correlated to my brain's pain and nervous centers. The more I tax them, the more pain I feel and the more power I obtain. Usually, I could only enhance myself 2 or 3 times more than my base strength.”
This didn’t sound too impressive to Amanda. She herself could enhance her body over 10 times more. She continued to listen though, as did everyone else. Ikki had his own strengths, something Stella was always desiring to learn to improve herself.
“So in order to get past that limit, I had to take control of my own mind and senses. Meditation helps to focus on influencing those aspects of myself. It makes the pain manageable and I’ve been able to reach a new level of power.”
Everyone was confused by what Ikki said at the end, they wondered what this new level of power was, so Itsuki continued for him, breaking down the details.
“What Ikki is saying is that his manifested powers changed. At first, it was just a simple cause and effect exchange of pain for power. But now, it's more of a technique like Stella’s [Crimson Dragon] attack. In this case, Ikki’s [One Blade of Hell] uses the basis of explorer body enhancement and it’s kicked up to levels unhindered by our mind’s limits. Usually, everyone here thinks they put 100% effort into their attack, but if that was true, then there was no way any one of us could still move.”
They nodded as they too understood. Using 100% of their power seemed to leave them exhausted but not entirely immobile or unable to attack again. Itsuki then pointed to Stella.
“Stella here can use her strongest attacks more than once because she’s unconsciously letting herself keep some power in reserve. Ikki here has allowed himself to go past that while also multiplying the power he has with his ability. There are downsides, psychological ones and physical ones. He’s literally tearing himself apart to gain power and has enough fortitude to put himself back together, so it isn’t almighty. His [One Blade of Hell] has a core energy rating that is probably enough to take down a A rank Lord Class monster by now. Maybe S tier energy? I’m not sure though since we never measured it yet.”
“No way! Is that true?”
“Can he really do that?”
“Aren’t those things able to destroy whole cities?”
The group seemed to eye Ikki as if he were some walking titan, even Stella couldn’t believe Itsuki’s estimation of him. But it made sense to her. Ikki had cut through her S rank core affinity powered defensive aura, something that not many people could do.
Amanda raised her hand, and Itsuki gave her a look.
“What is it?”
“It’s about You, Itsuki, I’m wondering how exactly you know Ikki could kill one of those things? How can you be sure?”
Itsuki gave Amanda a pointed look and sighed.
“You do know I’m a full time explorer, right? I don’t have a license in the Western Bloc, but I’ve been around the world a few times.”
“Yes, but I’ve never seen you fight for real or gauge how strong you really are. You always use guns and seem to almost never run out of core energy, or use any of your manifest abilities. I don’t even know what else you can do. Now that I think about it, you held back in our first fight, what’s the deal with that? Is there a reason? A trick you’re using to conserve your energy or some unknown tool you’re hiding?”
To Itsuki, it sounded like Amanda was questioning his abilities again. He didn’t hold it against her though, she was right, he had been holding back in their first fight and it was a matter of time before she figured it out. So he thought, Why not, better show her now than later.
“I’ll show you, This time, it’ll be one on one, and I’ll use a blade to fight you with all my core energy. How does that sound? This will probably go faster if I do this rather than explain with words.”
Amanda shrugged, a bit amped to fight Itsuki seriously and at close range, with both of them with blades. While she didn’t like combat all that much, she was intent on one day putting Itsuki under her boot, or at least getting a victory over him, eventually.
With that agreed on, Amanda and Itsuki squared up. This time, Itsuki only wore his gym clothes and held a combat knife in a reverse grip in his right hand.
“Is that all you’re using? Regular knives can’t cut through core energy, so how do you intend to take me down?”
“You’ll see.”
“Hmph! Guess I will.”
Amanda readied her sword as Ikki counted down. Itsuki let out a controlled and steady breath. It howled in a low tone from his lips. Immediately, everyone could hear it and feel a rising sensation as Itsuki stirred his own core energy.
The tepid wisps of transparent energy coming from his body's lines were on display, their colorless forms then morphed. Amanda felt her heart drop. Itsuki’s wispy core energy turned silver and a weight fell on everyone’s shoulder.
Ikki took it the hardest, while people with higher ranked core affinity seemed to be able to withstand the pressure.
“Wha? What is this?” Amanda’s hand trembled, as did her sword.
“This.” Itsuki said, his posture in a ready and slightly hunched position. “This is another use of core energy. The energy is of a different quality so it makes sense that all of you are trembling. Eventually, you will all learn how to do this, but right now. Focus!”
Amanda forced her legs to stop shaking and steadied her grip. Ikki finally adjusted to the pressure of the energy and stood up as he finished counting down. When he signaled the match, Amanda took a step forward, intending to close the distance in a flash.
She suddenly stopped when she took a second step forward. Already, a sensation on her neck caught her attention. The touch of Itsuki’s knife was apparent.
To her eyes, he had disappeared and then reappeared in front of her, a straight trail of silver wispy energy connecting from the spot he stood right under her neck and then the position 10 meters away.
Was it teleportation, or just plain speed? Amanda had not a clue or inkling of how this had played out.
Itsuki added to how real this was for her and pressed his knife closer to Amanda’s neck. She didn’t bleed, Itsuki took care to have firm control on how deep he pressed it.
At any minute, he could kill her. A sobering realization for Amanda. This was him getting serious and she could truly see murder in his eyes.
“This is what you’ll learn after the basics.” He said and retracted and sheathed the knife. Amanda let out the breath of fear she was holding in her lungs, and panted.
“So, just….what was that?”
“It’s the more advanced version of core energy manipulation. By manifesting and getting used to manipulating core energy, you can condense your own core energy. The efficiency of the condensed core energy used in techniques is exponentially increased. There are downsides though.”
Itsuki patted Amanda on the back to help steady herself.
“Going back to the heart of your question, about how I know that Ikki’s max power could kill an A rank Lord Class creature, it's because I’ve killed a few in my record as an explorer.”
Itsuki pulled up a few pictures on his wrist device and a holo image appeared for everyone to see.
This made everyone’s eyes go wide. The image of the Lord Class creature was of a size that didn’t even fit on the wide shot of the image. If the holo simulations from Cyno’s class were anything to go by, Itsuki had fought such an enormous creature and lived to tell the tale.
They had only seen tactical class monsters before in the render simulation videos and anything higher seemed like something she’d never want to fight.
Perhaps this was why so many people made rumors about him.
He was a grunt class explorer that seemed like a person you’d never want to get on the wrong side of since he seemed incredibly strong once you got to know his record. With how Itsuki likely had gotten misunderstood for his glaring looks and what methods he usually used to convey his grief about it, the rumors made sense.
He really is monstrous, in a good way, I guess? Amanda thought, still processing her opinion on him. Reliable and stern came to mind, but a hard ass who’s insane made more sense to her.