The training room was white, without a stain. There was no furniture or anything except the four walls and the flat lighting fixtures on the ceiling. Hiroku stood in the center, clenching his hands into fists.
"User: Hiroku Kayama. No extra gear is required. Comprehensive combat practice. Level 5." The voice of a typical female broadcaster came from the room's ceiling although no radio or speakers were present.
Suddenly, a row of five circular floor pieces detached from the rest of the floor. Each rose upward with two metallic slats holding it by the farthest edges of the circle. Between each pair of slats, a white manikin stood perfectly still under the circular floor piece.
All five of them were as white as the rest of the training room. Each had a cubic instruction light before its empty face. After all five lights turned on and red, they stepped out of the circles.
As the circles descended and fused back into the floor, the combat began.
The manikins charged at Hiroku. Their steps were awkwardly long and fast. They did not lean their body forward like normal people, and their arms were hanging straight robotically by the sides.
Hiroku spread out his right fist. A glowing violet dot levitated above his palm. The dot flitted upward. The thin outer layer of it quickly expanded into a beach ball-sized translucent lavender sphere outside the glowing dot.
The sphere halted before hitting the ceiling. At a greater speed, Hiroku was tugged to the dot by an invisible force. His waist was inside the lavender sphere, and the sphere locked it in to hold Hiroku in the air.
It was Hiroku's first technique, the Pulling Ball. The sphere he just created generated a gravity that solely affects himself. By launching it away, he could use it to dodge attacks and hover in the sky.
Hiroku reached out his left fist, aiming at the five manikins. They spread out the moment they saw Hiroku in the sky. Yet, he opened his hand. Before his palm was another shimmering dot.
The dot blinked a dazzling flash of violet light and spurted a plunging stroke of lightning. The violet thunderbolt pierced through one of the manikins. The bursting torso shattered from the center by a vertical crevice. Charred, sable fragments splashed in the air, falling onto the manikins pushed to the ground by the explosion.
As the rest crawled up back, Hiroku held his fists tight again. Each manikin could jump for at least 5 meters. They leaped toward the smooth walls and clung onto them, scrambling upward.
From four different directions, they pounced at Hiroku. The latter spread out his fists.
A pair of dots was shown in each opened hand. After four successive blinks, the lightning roared out from Hiroku's palms.
Following the deafening bang and the falling components, the voice spoke again, "Level 5 complete. Retry, or progress to the—"
"Level 10."
"Request authorized. Proceed. Level 10."
A single manikin was heaved into the room. A muzzle was beneath its cubic lighting fixture. Before it began moving, Hiroku generated six more violet dots, each expanding its translucent, lavender layer into a sphere. Then, the spheres flattened and merged into a screen, the six dots still glowing inside.
It was Hiroku's second technique, The Shield. He could change the shape of the summoned spheres and make a screen that stops attacks.
The manikin stepped forward, locking its sight at Hiroku. Three white blobs were shot from the muzzle. They popped against the screen and swelled into three cloud-shaped goo sticking on it.
Although his shield was intact, the goo did block Hiroku's vision. He could no longer see what was happening on the ground. He pulled a hand out of the sphere and clenched it into a fist. The soft radiance of his power was leaking from his finger gaps. He could only hear the manikin's rapid pace.
"Pta, pta, pta, pta, pta, ptaptaptapta."
The footsteps get faster. The robot must be using both its legs and arms. It's climbing the wall!
Hiroku controlled the sphere behind him to rotate his body in the air, locating the robot through hearing. After a single spin, he pointed his fist toward a certain direction while carefully moving the screen aside. As the manikin, crawling in the corner, entered his sight, he opened his fist.
A pair of lightning flitted through the air. One burnt the defensive goo shot by the manikin. The other was fully dodged. Sprinting on the wall, the manikin launched a volley of goo blobs like firing a machine gun.
Damn.
Hiroku held the screen in front of himself. Almost immediately, several hills of goo were built on it. The manikin kept rounding the room, and Hiroku was forced to rotate himself accordingly.
I need to attack but my shield is in my way…
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If I can move to another location fast enough, I will be able to make an attack without being blocked by my shields. That is my only chance.
With a single sphere falling back to the ground, Hiroku plummeted out of his fortress, throwing ten strikes of lightning toward the manikin's general direction. The thundering roar and dazzling flash had him momentarily deafened and blinded.
It's not done yet.
He landed safely on his lavender sphere, which, along with the rest, dissolved as he knelt on the ground. Any sense of balance was long gone. He made another dot in one hand and used the other to rub his eyes violently. That was until he merely saw the blur of the robot's remaining struggle to get back on its feet.
The goo and the lightning went out coinciding.
Only barely, Hiroku heard the female voice broadcasting his failure. He slumped to the floor. The white, slimy substance adhered to his head. Both of his ponytails were covered.
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"They are good." Loter forced the comment out from his throat while panting. The sports pain in his chest was clear and sharp. The last time Loter played basketball was when he was 13, four years ago, even before Strikelet died.
Grabbing the sports fence with a hand, Key patted Loter on the shoulder. "Nuh, Lot. you're just too weak." He snickered. No impairment of moving was shown on his injured arm.
Kiznaq yelled across the court, "See you lader, Loder Sbawman." His accent was as thick as usual.
"Bye." Loter waved and propped his hand back on his knee.
"Come on. Others must be waiting." Key started leaving. Loter barely followed.
Loter slowly recovered on their way to the dining hall. Hiroku joined them halfway. He was wearing his usual crop top and pullover. However, his hair was wet and untied, hanging like a horse's mane.
"I should also take a shower," Key said after seeing Hiroku and whiffing his own jersey.
Hiroku rolled his eyes in response. Loter leaned close to his neck, sniffing and asking, "Oh, so you shower twice a day?"
"No, no." Hiroku quickly pushed Loter off him and stepped away. As he walked closer to the two again, he said, "It's just today."
"Did you fall into a mud pit or something?" Key gave Hiroku a friendly jab.
"Shouldn't you be going back to your dorm for the shower?" In his casual listlessness, Hiroku countered.
"Nuh, no need." Key waved off while chuckling.
When they arrived at the gate, Loter saw Glacia sitting alone by a round table. She was busy tapping her pink phone, which had a pair of plastic cat ears on the phone case. A concentrated frown was on her brows. The carton of fries before her was untouched.
"Glacia!" Loter waved and exclaimed just to receive a weak "hi" he could barely hear from the distance.
She only glanced at them when they got to the table. Her fingers froze as she shifted her eyes back on Hiroku. "Why?" she asked, putting her phone down.
Hiroku groaned and rolled his eyes. He just walked away without taking a seat. The inner part of his wet hair adhered to his cheeks and neck. As Hiroku strode forward, the outer part swayed lightly in the air.
"Where are you going?" Glacia frantically asked like she was afraid she offended him.
"Getting my lunch."
"Mine's the cheeseburger!" Key loudly said as Hiroku went further away, "it's the one that 'as fresh cucumbers, not the pickled ones."
"Oh, mine is spaghetti, the green sauce one," Loter added.
"Fuck you," Hiroku replied with a faint grumble. A genuine relief was shown briefly on Glacia's face. Loter was the only one who caught a glimpse of it.
"I'll take it as a yes." Key sat down and picked a fry from the carton. Glacia did the same. However, her gloominess contrasted with Key's ease.
"What's wrong, Glacia? You don't look fine today." Loter also took a seat and grabbed some fries.
"Nothing, just some girls' things."
"Oh, ok—"
"Hey! Does anyone miss me?" Ramiron abruptly emerged behind Loter, scaring him and popping golden particles sparsely into the air. Loter started and bumped into Ramiron.
"The new kid. We've finally met." Ramiron stepped back as Loter turned toward her and reached out a hand. She smiled unrestrainedly. The corners of her mouth were pulled back to her ears.
"Oh, hi. My name is Loter Spawman." Loter shook her hands. Just by holding it, Loter could feel its firmness and the tremendous strength contained within.
"I'm Ramiron Veilora. Ram is fine, though I'm much stronger than one."
Yeah, it is pretty believable.
"How did you teleport around? It's so cool."
"I can use the power from one of those Teratiak star signs." Ramiron shrugged, her smile dimming but still present. "The one I use is called Lumarion. I can teleport and do some other stuff with it."
"Wow. I have an ordering power, although I haven't gotten the vision yet, so I don't really know the name of it."
"I heard you beat the shit out of Key, didn't you?"
"He did. Have to admit," Key replied before Loter could and casually waved his injured arm. He did not seem to maintain any grudge against it.
"That's just an accident, really… But don't fight me. It's a bad idea."
"Don't fret. I'm much stronger. You'll see it in the cross-training—" Ramiron paused her exposition in the sight of Hiroku's return. Her smile widened again. She dropped whatever she was about to say and propped a hand on the table, "Nice style, Hiroku."
Grabbing his cheeseburger from the tray and plate, Key added, "Yup, this is peak fashion."
Ramiron soon teleported to get her three submarine sandwiches and returned to join the meal. She explained to Loter that cross-training was essentially a sparring session between different squads in a simulator. Loter had a hard time understanding. Thus, she described the simulator as a video game using one's brain signals.
Loter asked Key why he did not spar with him in the simulator. Key could only awkwardly admit he was going for the surprise attack and the initiative.
Due to the excitement, Loter finished his spaghetti too early. Ramiron voluntarily gave him one of her sandwiches so Loter could continue chewing things.