Leta tried to reduce the intensity so that he wouldn’t go flying again with some success.
This time, Koa wasn’t thrown across the room, but he did falter as he pinwheeled to stay upright.
‘This isn’t sparring.’ She thought to herself. ‘This is just me tasering people over and over.’
Despite her awareness of her power output, he was still stumbling back with twitching muscles whenever she touched him.
He always got to his feet, albeit unsteady. At this rate, everyone would end up in the infirmary.
[The Host has learned the skill Static Armor.]
Leta glanced at Atreus, “I don’t think we should keep doing this. I promise I’m pulling my punches, but the electricity is too dangerous to play with.”
“I agree,” Doctor Kudela nodded from her seat next to Afra, who was leaning against the wall with a dazed look. “I can see Oletta is making an effort to restrain herself from doing serious harm, but she’s still hitting them with the electrical force of a defibrillator. The only reason Koa’s not incapacitated right now is his Warrior skills and endurance.”
Atreus sighed, his expression not exactly defeated but certainly disappointed as he ran a hand through his hair.
“What’s the verdict?” Allister asked as he helped Koa onto shaky feet.
“Her power is substantial, but she has no concept of combat, much less how to keep herself alive.” He crossed his arms and scowled at the floor, thinking. “Although she can trip up her attackers with a word or see in the dark, her inexperience prevents her from utilizing these powers effectively. The static around her is promising, but I worry that she cannot discern between friend and foe with it. She could just as easily injure a friend with a clumsy high-five as she could skillfully deflect a fatal attack.”
Leta winced at his words.
He wasn’t mistaken. When she wasn’t in the thick of it, she’d use her voice like when she had been caught in the car with Tariq. When the lights went out in the hospital, she had forgotten to activate her night vision.
Atreus continued, “As surprising and frightening as her power is if she doesn’t know how to use it, she’s useless in a fight - a proverbial glass cannon that is just as likely to smite her enemy as a friend.”
She huffed, “Ouch, jeez. Did I do anything right at all?”
“She has control.” Doctor Kudela pointed out, “That’s more than can be said for most of us fresh from our Rising. When you ask, she listens and tries to comply to the best of her abilities. She’s trainable, Atreus. You can work with that. I’ve seen you turn utter buffoons into deadly weapons.”
“Hey!” Allister put a hand to his heart as if he took great offense to his words.
Yelena and Samuel chuckled from their perch on the second floor.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Atreus snorted, amusement softening the hardness in his eyes slightly. “At least you’re not as bad as most of the Crowns I’ve heard about.”
“And…?” Leta rolled her wrist for him to keep going.
“That’s the limit of what you will receive. Take it and hold it close because you won’t get any more sympathy to cherish.” He declared with thin lips, his eyes calculating as he returned to business. “The facts have not changed. If you lack training, I can’t send you on raids in good conscience, and we still don’t have the personnel required to be as effective as we once were. While you may have melted all the Goblins in Greece, the Blessed will regroup and gain the advantage.”
The courtyard fell silent as everyone thought about the situation.
The Blessed had taken a beating, but so had the Chosen. If they stayed still to lick their wounds, the Blessed would soon have the numbers to push back.
“Our saving grace at this point is their interest in the dig site.” Atreus crossed his arms, his feet shoulder-width apart and looking like a real General as he addressed the group, “The Blessed are putting substantial resources and manpower to use in their skirmish with General Mic’s marine unit from Cyprus, so the number of Blessed slinking through the city is fairly low. Their main focus is on controlling the site, leaving their dens understaffed with only skeleton crews until the artifacts run out. We have a brief chance to take out these dens before the the Blessed can gather their strength to defend them.”
They would split Atreus, Allister, Koa, Hayato, Afra, and Kaviah into groups to patrol the city in shifts and investigate possible dens. If a den was confirmed and they had the means, they would proceed with the attack.
Patrols would rotate between two shifts, leaving at dawn and returning to the Sect before sunset.
He turned to Allister, “Kaviah, you, and Bonnie will be on this afternoon’s shift. Be ready; report to the war room at noon.”
“On it.” The giant nodded, pulling a phone out of his pocket and getting to work.
“Hayato, you will be with Afra and myself. We leave at first light. Be ready. Eriene is on standby to treat injuries. Samuel, Yelana, and Huda will be on rotating shifts and assist in the war room. This is our life going forward until reinforcements arrive.”
He then turned to Leta with a no-nonsense frown. “We will review your abilities after break today. At dawn, you’re reporting to either Allister or myself for weapons study. We will have a single break for lunch, and then you will shadow those in the war room.”
At her confused look, he added, “Training is more than fists and steel. You want to bring down the Blessed? Good. Watch us and learn how we do it as a unit. No one, not even a Queen, fights alone. For today, we are breaking for lunch, and afterward, you’ll be back here for your first hand-to-hand lesson.”
[Warning. The passive skill of a foreign entity is affecting the Host’s physical and mental response. Passive skill: General’s Orders partially successful.]
Leta instinctively pushed her shoulders back and nodded before Gada’s caution finally registered. The involuntary action and the strange sense of excitement to fight made her pause and tune out the rest of the commands Atreus was issuing to the others.
‘What was that?’
[The foreign entity has a passive skill called General’s Orders. At its core, General’s Orders is very similar to the Persuasion skill. However, this skill produces both a physical and mental response after the entity gives instructions. The Host was partially affected by this skill and experienced a subdued version of the desired response.]
She frowned while looking at Atreus with a mix of surprise and disappointment.
‘You mean he could just tell me to jump, and I’d want to do it?’
[While the skill is active, the Host should expect some response when an instruction is given. However, while the skill will generate initial responses, it does not change the Host’s base mental state, memories, or thought patterns.]
‘Still not a fan of it. I don’t care if it’s hypocritical, but being compelled to obey commands is unacceptable.’
[The skill affects those with a lower Mental Fortitude than the entity. Increasing the skill will decrease the ability for the skill to affect the Host.]