“Faster, Clay! You’re as slow as my grandma!” yelled Drill Instructor Ormanno. Sarah gritted her teeth and tried again to go faster, to no avail. Peter passed her, lapping her for the second time. He gave her a smile full of pity before continuing forward.

Sarah was mad. If only I could use my ki, I’d leave them in the dust! Sadly, the Drill Instructor forbid her from using her ki.

“If you want to do your own thing, then go join a mage organization and have fun picking flowers all day. If you want to be a soldier, then SHUT UP and run those laps!” he yelled when she asked why she couldn’t use ki.

While Sarah’s body was surprisingly fit for a civilian, she was nothing compared to the soldiers in Arthur’s elite squad. Sarah would’ve collapsed long ago if not for her secret weapon.

A brief flash of regeneration ki healed her damaged muscles, and gave her a burst of energy. The tests done by Erica revealed that her regeneration ki healed muscles stronger than before, and supplied them with oxygen. Therefore, bursts of regeneration ki made her growth skyrocket, and helped prevent her from collapsing out of breath.

By the time morning training was over, Sarah was sweating twice as much as any other soldier, and yet she was the least tired. After a quick meal for lunch, she raced back to the training grounds. She wore a smile on her face and there was pep in her walking.

Afternoon training was reserved for ki practice, and best of all, Drill Instructor Ormanno wouldn’t be leading the training. There was no teacher for ki practice, as the subject was so new. If anything, Sarah was the closest person to an instructor.

She arrived at the field and picked a random soldier to spar with. They both circulated their ki to empower their bodies, and went at each other. Within five seconds Sarah was knocked into the dirt. She groaned, and sent a warm pulse of regeneration ki to relieve her pain.

Despite being much better at circulating ki, Sarah repeatedly lost her sparring matches. Part of it was her weaker body, although her regeneration ki was helping her quickly catch up. Most importantly, she was a complete newbie to fighting.

Sarah didn’t let it get to her. The purpose of the spar was to get better at ki manipulation; unarmed combat wasn’t very important to her. While her zombie-self fought unarmed under the mold colony, Sarah resolved herself to use weaponry of some kind.

Sarah shook hands with her last sparring partner for the day. He looked unremarkable, and Sarah couldn’t tell whether she had seen him before, or if he was someone new. Every soldier would repeatedly go out on patrols, killing mold-zombies and goblins in a wide radius, and so Sarah would be placed in different training groups all the time. Sarah was the only combatant who wasn’t going on patrols.

She didn’t know how to feel about it. On one hand, she wasn’t ready for more fights. She still had lingering trauma, and felt untrained. Without a combat oriented ki intent, and without gun training, she wouldn’t be helpful except as a healer. On the other hand, Sarah wanted to show Arthur that she, too, was a good person.

Sarah was startled out of her musings by the sight of a familiar blonde-headed scientist.

“Saaaraaah! I finally found you! Come down to the lab, I have more tests to run,” Erica said. She eagerly dragged Sarah across the military compound to a building taken over by scientists. Ever since Sarah gathered enough determination to be productive a week ago, Erica had started running tests involving Sarah’s ki and samples of supernatural mold. Sarah shivered at the thought of what was to come.

“Uh, I remembered that David wanted me to help awaken the ki of a few more soldiers today, so I gotta go,” Sarah quickly protested.

Erica just shot her a critical look. “Stop trying to get away. Pretty much every soldier in the U.S. has ki now, thanks to exponential growth. My lab work is a better use of your time. Besides, I want to test if you can heal wounds that the body can’t naturally heal.”

And with that, Sarah was sentenced to another evening of applying her ki and regeneration ki to various samples of alien flesh. Conclusion: her regeneration ki only amplified natural healing.

***

Sarah opened the door to the armory. There was a desk at the back of the room with a young desk worker absorbed in paperwork. Unlike her expectations, there were no guns or ammunition belts hanging on the walls. Instead, there were posters listing different types of weaponry. She saw pistols, rifles, grenades, and bullets of all different calibers. Everywhere not covered by a poster was dull grey plaster.

The man at the desk finally noticed her. “Can I help you, miss?”

“Yes, you can,” Sarah replied. A couple seconds passed before Sarah realized this was probably another example of ‘unspoken implications’ that Erica had taught her- the man likely wanted her to elaborate what she wanted.

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“Arthur sent me here to talk to the quartermaster about getting equipped?” she said uncertainly. Sarah mentally cursed at her lacking memory of how social interactions worked.

The man nodded and exited the room through a door. A minute later, the quartermaster walked in. He was a tall man, with shoulder length brown hair and a scruffy beard. Even with Sarah’s amnesia, she knew his clothing was abnormal, from the overabundance of leather.

“Hello, Miss. I’m Drake Skallagrim, the quartermaster of Arthur’s little armory here.” He motioned at his surroundings. “What can I do for you?”

Sarah replied. “I’d like armor, a gun, and a cold weapon. I’m a ki user, so I’d like some advice as to which weapon to pick.” Drake nodded and grunted. “Oh, and my name’s Sarah,” she added as an afterthought.

“Alright, Sarah, I see why Arthur sent you directly to me, instead of giving you the standard. Follow me.” Drake led her deeper into the building, until eventually she arrived at a spacious room with obsolete weaponry hanging off the walls. Swords, spears, shields, plate armor, and more were kept in pristine condition.

It surprised Sarah why the army would have a room like this.

Drake turned around and looked her in the eyes. “Let me give you some background. The job of a quartermaster is to manage and distribute supplies. Every weapon in this facility passes through my hands. I’m good at my job. Really, really good, to the point that little Arthur boy made some concessions to get me to work for him.”

He paused and motioned at the medieval weaponry. “You see, while I know everything there is to know about guns, my true passion is medieval warfare. I’m a HEMA expert, swordsman, spearman, and part time blacksmith. I told Arthur I’d only work for the military if I got to keep doing my hobby, and he agreed.”

Sarah interjected. “That’s really lucky for us.” Drake grinned.

“Exactly, miss. With the ki you’ve been spreading around-” Sarah realized that Drake already knew about her “-and the sturdy monsters we’re facing, cold weaponry will resurge in popularity.”

He examined her with a critical eye. “Tell me about your supernatural powers, and I’ll help you choose a weapon.”

“I’m good with ki, which acts as an all-around general boost. I can create regeneration ki, which drastically speeds up my body’s ability to heal itself, to a speed visible by the naked eye. My regeneration ki also increases oxygen circulation, so I never run out of breath, and it heals torn muscles, allowing me to put on muscle quicker.”

Drake nodded, but Sarah could tell he was disappointed. “Regeneration as a super power has already been very well explored. I’ll give you long daggers and plate armor. Regeneration’s biggest weak point are cuts, attacks that have potential to rip off limbs. Plate armor is very effective against cuts. Plus, your ability will prevent the armor from tiring you out. Daggers are a good choice because you no longer have a reason to fear getting up close, at which range daggers are the quickest method to deal damage.”

The Swedish historical European martial arts expert continued to elaborate on his choice of equipment, commenting on guns, information on aliens, and more. Sarah, however, had stopped paying attention. Something about the image of her in plate armor wielding daggers seemed weird, and wrong.

Drake noticed, and stopped mid-way. “Is something wrong?”

Sarah immediately replied, “Yes. This is the wrong path.”

Drake scowled. “I assure you, this is the best choice of-“

“No. I think my future will be limited this way,” Sarah cut him off. She continued, saying, “This isn’t a superhero comic, where heroes get one ability, and are stuck with it for life. Ki, and possibly mana too, have infinite potential. Regeneration won’t be the only intent I can create.”

“Oh my gosh,” Drake uttered. He leaned onto a wall and slid down into a seating position. “You’re right. I had the wrong mindset, and was blinded by my bias.” Despite his mistake, he grinned for the first time. Drake loved a challenge.

The two spent the next hour discussing the potentials of ki, and eventually she and Drake came to a conclusion on her most likely fighting style for the foreseeable future. What most influenced the decision wasn’t her regeneration ki, but rather the only other intent she had made progress on: speed ki.

With super speed, Sarah would be able to control the distance between her and her opponent easily. As such, Drake recommended she use a spear. One of the biggest weaknesses of a spear is dealing with opponents that get too close, but with super speed that would not be a problem. Plus, spears are safer than other weapons, as a longer reach is extremely vital, and allows more time to react to unknown supernatural occurrences.

Spears have a smaller blade than swords, making cutting attacks harder to line up correctly, but super speed would give her the time to adjust her grip along the shaft of the spear and line up the edge of the spear blade correctly- if she even needed to cut.

Spears are nimble poking weapons. All she needs to do to overwhelm an opponent is send hundreds of stabs in a short timeframe, and no one can do anything but hold up a shield and defend.

Sarah needed to prevent herself from being pinned down, where a monster could rip off her limbs. If she kept her distance using her spear and speed, then any projectile attack could be regenerated.

At that point, Drake walked over to a crate on the floor and pulled out a black vest. He tossed the garment to Sarah, who was surprised at its light weight. It was thick, and felt like synthetic fabric. “Kevlar,” he grunted at her. “It’s a thinner version than normal. As such, it won’t stop bullets, but it’ll slow them down enough for you to easily heal the damage.”

Then, he tossed her what looked like a leather coat. It was small, and barely covered more than her shoulders. It left Kevlar vest exposed, and the sleeves didn’t reach her wrists. Seeing Sarah’s confusion, Drake rolled his eyes. “We just talked about this, remember? This treated leather is great against cuts, and only cuts, and its sole purpose is to prevent your arms from being cut off. It doesn’t cover more than it needs to.”

Next, he handed her some padded army slacks, a pistol, and a holster. Sarah wouldn’t have much need for a pistol, but it would help in worst-case scenarios.

Finally, Drake picked a spear off the wall. It was long, but short compared to some of the spears on the wall. The blade on the top looked like a metal diamond that was truncated and adjoined to the shaft, which was made out of slick hardwood.

“It’s amazing,” Sarah whispered. Drake grinned for the second time. “Yes, yes it is.”