After Robin had dealt with Timothy’s worries, he walked to the fitness room. On the flight to Rucasur he already learned that this was the most important location and the room with the most action. Throwing Patience into the mix only made it worse.
And he was right, even from the outside he heard shouts and cheers - obviously Happy was there, too.
When the door slid open, he saw Patience and Sevastian in the ring. They were in the middle of a fight and it seemed like Patience had the upper hand. Sevastian was just throwing a fist at her face which she nimbly evaded with a sidestep. In one fluid motion she ducked down to dodge his second punch and started a counter.
Sevastian also tried to evade, however her attack was only a feint and at the last moment, Patience shifted her feed, rotated her body and managed to land a nasty hit to his side. Sevastian stumbled back and Patience kept coming, not giving him any moment to find a new pacing. Her fast, nearly playful blows drove the man backwards step by step while he tried to evade each and every blow.
Robin looked on in confusion. He fought with him and knew he was much better than… that. Evading cost him too much time and movement, why wasn’t he blocking? Sure, Patience had Enhanced Strength and that would hurt like hell, but it still should be his best option to break this flurry of attacks.
When the metallic wall of the room stopped Sevastian’s retreat, Robin could see a grin flicker over Patience’s face while Hulky’s eyes went wide in panic. He ducked to the side just in time when Patience came at him with a strong right hook.
A loud bang echoed through the room and Sevastian, who had narrowly dodged the blow, sank to the ground with relief. Patience yelped in pain and held her hand but still had a big, crazy smile on her face.
Robin finally understood why Sevastian was focusing on evading so much when he saw the deep imprint of a fist in the metal wall where the man’s head had been moments before.
“Wohooooo! Another round, another win! New score: Patience 7, Sevastian 0!” Happy, who stood up on the bench next to Landom, shouted like a cheerleader.
“Patience, you are so awesome! Hulky sees no sunshine anymore!”
Patience gave Niu a thumbs up before she helped her opponent up and shook his hand.
“You got your upgrade?” Robin asked after he had stepped closer to the wall and inspected the dent.
“Yup, Moel paid for it after I achieved some success in my training. I have to pay him back, but without interest and at my own pace!”
“Good deal and that explosive force is pretty impressive. Make sure to not break your own hand.” Robin said, “Class C - Major Strength Enhancement, congratulations! You really deserve it.”
“How are you doing? Head still in one piece?” He asked Sevastian who was dragging his feet towards the bench.
“Yeah, everything is fine. She’s just a beast!” He said and grinned, “I think few can hold their ground against her in the ring.”
“Pah,” Happy dismissively grunted, “You are just out of shape, Hulky. Don’t look for excuses in her mutation!”
“What do you know, Midget? You wouldn’t be able to survive 10 seconds in the ring…” He angrily complained and Robin had to admit that Happy’s comments are a bit harsh coming from the sidelines.
“You wanna bet? Come on, let’s give it a test! You and me - if I kick your ass, it’s ‘Yes Master!’ for a week for you!” Niu actually didn’t step down and even challenged him.
Sevastian threw a questioning look at Robin and Landom who both just shrugged. Either she knows what she’s doing or this will be a tough lesson for her - the man definitely knows how to fight as Robin came to learn in their training sessions.
Niu hopped down from the bench and took Patience’s position. They circled around each other for a moment and it was obvious that the man didn’t take her lightly. Niu’s stance also revealed that she at least had some training before. In the end it was the small woman who made the first attack and Sevastian had to block a few punches. When she let her flank wide open, he sidestepped her next fist and aimed for the ribs.
Niu however nimbly evaded his blow and redoubled her efforts.
This fight quickly got into a stalemate, Niu had neither the power nor the skill to pressure her opponent in any way but therefore her Highspeed Reflexes made it nearly impossible for him to hit her.
Just as Robin thought this would end badly for her, as her endurance was definitely lower, Happy suddenly threw herself forward, dodged the huge man’s fist and rolled between his legs. Still on the ground Niu rolled on her back and kicked Sevastian directly in his arse.
For a moment everyone was quiet, only when Happy began to giggle did it finally sunk in.
“See, I told ya, I’ll kick your ass!”
A faint ‘Ouw…’ could be heard from Landom and Patience fought hard to hold back a laugh. Robin also saw Sevastian’s disbelieving face. That poor dude really had a bad day.
“You damn vixen! Was that really necessary?” Robin asked the troublemaker.
“Nah, it’s fine. She won fair and square. It’s my fault I didn’t take her condition to win so literally.” Sevastian waved it away and then sighed, “I’m on a ship with three beauties and each of them can kick my ass with ease. What fucked-up job did I agree to?”
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When Robin saw Landom fishing out a beer from who knows where and handing it to Sevastian, he gave the man a mental thumbs up. Seems like he was already working on earning the siblings recognition.
“What’s with you captain, you wanna step in the ring with me? It would be quite refreshing for me to win a fight for once today…”
“Nah, sorry mate, I already had enough training sessions over the last few days. Besides, my fighting style does not come into play in such an environment.” Robin quickly declined. It wasn’t his job to cheer the man up by playing punching bag for him.
“Oh, you have a fighting style now? Where does this come from?” Patience mocked from the side.
“He is right, Patience! Actually, you have to see that… wait a moment!” Happy chimed in and when she closed her eyes, Robin got a really bad feeling. Moments later, one of the screens to the side turned on and showed a video from a surveillance camera in a hangar.
‘Oh shit, where did she get that?’ Robin began to sweat after recognizing this scene to be his fight with Hopewing.
“Ah, Happy. Let this be, it’s old stuff, no one wants to see that.” He tried a lame excuse.
“No, I definitely want to see that!” was the instant answer from Patience, Sevastian and even Landom.
“Traitors!” Robin cursed and resigned himself to his fate.
At the beginning his friends were actually pretty impressed by the fight and how he always managed to follow Hopewing’s movements, even without a line of sight between all the ships and crates.
When the moment came where he climbed on the container and jumped down on his enemy, the reactions were split. Happy and Sevastian just laughed like crazy, Landom threw him a glance that meant a mix of ‘impressive’ and ‘moron’ and Patience just stood up and took Robin’s hand. She dragged him in the ring and stared at him for a moment.
“...”
“...”
“You little shit, who taught you such bullshit?” She scowled, “We train! Now and every coming day!”
***
“Come on, it was really funny, wasn’t it?” Niu tried for the umpteenth time already.
“You really like to see the world burn, don’t ya?” Robin muttered, still sulky. Of course he was still pissed, Patience had beat him up regularly for the last four days.
“I think your fight was impressive. You managed to use your mutation to your advantage and balance out the fact that your enemy had a weapon as well as your massive lack in skill.” Alena said.
“Thanks, I guess?” Robin said, not even wondering why even she knew about the video.
“ETA?” He asked to change the topic.
“Less than 30 minutes.” Niu answered and Robin opened the ship’s internal comm.
*Ding* - Ship’s comm opened
“Time to get to work everyone!
We will arrive at Trov S in 30 minutes and while we will probably only find some abandoned ruins, I want it to be a proper field test. I expect everyone to wear his gear and I’ll even bring ROMAS. Landom and his squad are in charge of clearing the area and securing the surroundings. The setting is: We’re about to enter unknown territory with a high chance of enemy contact.”
*Ding* - Ship’s comm closed
Over the next few minutes, Robin changed into his new gear and returned to the bridge. Alena also was back in her seat and observed their approach on Trov S. She was already wearing the helmet to hook in on the comm channel from the security squad. Only Keran and Timothy will not take part in this exercise. Timothy because he will only come out to a relic site or whatever once the area is finally cleared and Keran because he wants to be an observer to give feedback afterwards.
Robin gave Niu some instructions on the exact location he was looking for and soon their scan got a hit. While Happy brought the Hubble down, Robin left the bridge after Landom called him over. Alena actually took control over the lower turret to give them fire support from the ship if needed.
Near the elevator that was the exit, the rest of the crew was assembled. Everyone was donned in black, heavily armored suits and wore a also black helmet with a darkly tinted visor. The only way to differentiate between different people - other than body type, of course - were individual white symbols printed on the helmet and the suit’s back. The combat drone, which was now actually a scout drone because of its missing weapons, hovered next to Robin. He had introduced it as ROMAS to the crew, which allowed him to openly communicate with his AI without anyone wondering who he was talking to.
With Robin’s approval, Landom took command and organized their operation. He went first, together with Sevastian and Patience, and after the location was secured the others followed.
Landom guided them through some craters of the moon, made Alena shoot some rocks at one point and ROMAS even had to scout a nearby cave, before they arrived at the relic site.
It was another building, not unlike the one from the Vanguard, and Robin and Patience both got some bad flashbacks to their meeting with the smugglers. Here however, no criminals awaited them - there wasn’t even a door that needed to be cracked open. Landom really went all out and extended this drill to the limit, before they finally called Timothy to take a look.
The researcher only observed the dilapidated building a bit, threw a glance in each of the empty rooms and gave a short report.
“That’s an old Bih’ar ruin. They were a lowly developed race that was living under the Starborn. After the Endless Empire fell, the Bih’ar couldn’t keep up with the rapid changes and faded more and more into the background until they went extinct a few hundred years later.” He explained, “This facility’s purpose is unknown, as it is already looted and nothing of value remains.”
Robin wasn’t disappointed, he got one more entry for his legend and his team had a chance for a proper field test. All in all he was really satisfied with how this went. Hopefully Landom could earn some trust with his squad and Keran will have some helpful feedback.
While the security squad organized their retreat, Robin took a look at his updated legend.
[*** Map Legend ***] Δ Mountain ✮ Wuranger Site ✲ Vanguard Facility ✳ unknown (Eltaran?) ✸ Drel Outpost ❂ Keeper Info-Station ❉ Bih’ar Ruins