Apparently, I have a killer poker face. I wasn’t even trying.

“I really can’t tell whether you have an amazing poker face, no emotions, or simply no understanding of the cards… your win streaks prove the last one untrue, but the other two…” and other such things were said.

I dismissed myself and approached the group of men gathered in the centre of the room. Doing a quick head-count I counted 21 men.

Frowning, I started scanning the crowd for anomalies. I did think they might have just been bad at maths, but someone might not belong here. Oddly enough, that was the thought that let me find the anomaly; a man who didn’t belong to the clan, he was standing off to the side of the group. In all honesty, I forgot about him after the Viper clan arrived. Their head… whatever his name was, didn’t even hold control of the group so I lost interest afterwards.

I stopped in front of the group and stared at the outsider. Even after the group finished forming ranks, I continued staring at him.

“Why is he here?” I asked, genuinely curious. Had he held any real hostility against me, he would not have willingly shown himself before me unarmed.

He gulped and some of the men encouraged him to step forwards. It seems he wants the relationship between us to be something other than hostile; whether he’s looking to be excused or make friends is still undetermined.

“Uh… hi… I came to… ask a favour.” He said nervously.

“You’re smart enough not to antagonise me unnecessarily, I’ll listen to your plight… but what’s in it for me?” I asked, intrigued by his unexpected behaviour.

He paused for a moment before speaking resolutely, “If you can do this for me, I will be able to pledge my loyalty to you.”

“… Understood. If it is within my power, I will do this for you. What do you need done?”

Relief spread across his face, “Thank you. The Viper clan was in truth run by the right hand, the snake kept us in line by threatening our families…” there were some giggles at the use of the word ‘snake’ but he continued his story all the same, “My wife and daughter were imprisoned by the clan, and if I step out of line they would kill them. If you free my family, then I will be able to pledge my loyalty to you.”

“Fortunately, we’re going there to assimilate the Viper clan and take over, your request is hardly out of the way. Consider it done.” I said with a smirk.

“Thank you.” He said and bowed, “If you do the same for everyone then others will likely follow.”

I nodded in acceptance and gestured towards the door with my chin to dismiss him. He understood the gestures and left.

I faced the men again and scowled. There was almost no uniformity in their weapons; most had only a gun or a blade, some had both, and even among each type of weapon there was some clear variation in model and make.

“Weapons?” I grunted.

“Forgive us, milady. This was all we could scavenge, most of them come straight off Viper bodies…”

I sighed, there was little I could do about that seeing as even my weapons are basically scavenged.

“Alright, let’s get going.” I said and walked towards the transports, Felsi and Greg were our drivers for today. They were already waiting by the transports.

I walked up the ramp into the back, this brought some confused murmurs which died down after a moment. Everyone was questioning it but didn’t dare vocalise their curiosity lest they incur my wrath.

A minute later we were all inside the transports and moving out.

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Meanwhile, inside the Dragon’s Nest mansion sat three figures; a man, a woman, and a very feminine man. These three were Tiama’s mentors: Grace, Nordon, and Chesnokov.

“Are you completely sure we shouldn’t support her today?” inquired Nordon.

“I never said we shouldn’t support her, I only said that she should sort this out herself.” Responded grace casually.

“Is it not the same, Kal-Sakura?” asked Nordon, using his native formalities to address Grace as his superior.

At this point Chesnokov inserted himself into the discussion.

“Net, we can still support her from the shadows. Prevent any interruptions, weaken their defences…”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Hmmm… I see where you’re coming from, I’ll agree to that.” Admitted Nordon.

“Alright. Now that everything is settled, we should leave just after them so we don’t fall too far behind.” Said Grace authoritatively.

The others nodded and they left the room.

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The transport began to move and I pulled out several small stones to practice my psionic powers. I held one stone atop my palm and elevated it, but unexpectedly the stone drifted towards the back of the vehicle, falling after touching the back panel despite me continuing to apply the upwards force.

I raised an eyebrow, questioning the occurrence. When I was sitting in my room, the stone lifted off the floor without drifting. Why would it move in a way I did not tell it to? Is it because we’re moving? That doesn’t make any sense, relative to the floor of the vehicle… that’s it.

When I was taught this trick, I lifted it in relation to ‘the floor’. Perhaps, it is now rising relative to ‘the floor’ in the way I originally perceived; the floor of the mansion, specifically as a part of the district arm and its simulated gravity. If true, this would mean that it was not the stone that moved backwards but the transport that moved forwards. Assuming these facts to be true, what would happen if I willed it to be relative to something else?

I took a second stone out and raised it similarly to the first, willing it to stay in place when compared to my position rather than the ground. It worked, the stone hovered in front of me without drifting away. I lifted my head to look at it and it fell, even though I was still expending energy to maintain its position.

Puzzled, I picked up the stone and tried again. Much like last time, I lost control when I moved my head.

Trying once more, I elevated the stone and maintained its position in front of me. This time I didn’t move my head. The stone remained in front of me until I tried to reach out to it with my hands.

I grinned as I began to understand. The reason that I lost control was that I never considered the movement of my own body. The question I have now, which is a better fix for the problem? Do I change the relativity to a more specific part of my body or simply try take the movement of my body into account?

First test, making the relative anchor more specific.

I thought about which parts of the body don’t move much, the bones would probably be the best solution since they are rigid. I decided to use the skull since it was a large target and lifted the stone again. This time, I could feel the extra weight attached to my skull; it was minor, but I could feel the stone. It was like the stone was attached to a weightless pole. Moving my arms didn’t break my control but the stone fell the moment I shifted my head in any significant manner.

Second test, accounting for the movement in the relative anchor point.

Moving along with the experiment, I tried to make the anchor point more malleable. I instantly found that this was much more taxing on the mind but I successfully moved different parts of my body without losing control of the stone. I could even perform small movements of the torso while maintaining control so long as my perception of position didn’t change.

The second method seems to be a more viable route to adaptable control.

Feeling a headache starting to appear I stopped practicing with the stone and busied myself with other means. I started checking my pistol, it was a physical projectile model; explosion-launched.

Explosive launching was the first high-power projectile system that humanity invented, it was often considered rather primitive but had become the most reliable system after other major progressions.

Magnetic launching came after explosive and were capable of propelling projectile far faster than the explosion system, this system became unreliable after the discovery of psionic power. Psions can easily disrupt magnetic fields and effectively disable magnetic weaponry within their territory, while a powerful Psion can still redirect the bullets it is significantly harder. This remains a popular system for sniper rifles.

Non-physical weaponry came after that, but both varieties had their own problems.

Beams were practically pure energy, they have the highest velocity of any known ranged weapon but the beam’s energy disperses rapidly when fired within an atmosphere. This makes beams impractical for troops but ideal for any spacecraft trying to defend itself.

Plasma weapons can deal the most damage but suffer from much slower velocities than any other projectile weapon. It was the favoured system among foot soldiers before the invention of the dispersion field. Plasma weaponry is usually used for close-quarters ship-to-ship combat as it can rip ships apart, it is also sometimes used when hunting Psions; interference fields hinder psionic powers and a bolt of plasma is almost impossible for a Psion to manipulate due to its nature as a cloud of particles.

Most medium and short ranged guns these days utilise the explosion system as it is the most universally reliable system.

Similarly, melee weapons became popular due to the various anti-projectile countermeasures that have come into existence over time. Melee weapons come in two varieties: alloy and tech. Incorporating tech into a weapon increases its effectiveness significantly but also lowers the durability, it takes advanced countermeasures to disable the tech factor and it is costly acquire such countermeasures. Alloy weapons rely purely on their own edge and durability to inflict damage, while they can easily be stopped by combat armour a skilled soldier can easily find a weak point.

Melee weapons also have the added perk of being included in your psionic domain, making it impossible for a rival Psion of a similar level to interfere with it. Most Psions rely on melee weapons when duelling, this develops an affinity for melee weapons with most Psions. Ranged combat can typically be performed with their powers and thus Psions with guns are few and far in between.

That said, Psions with decent potential are also quite rare. Everyone has some potential but only the few that can access their domain are considered gifted. Fortunately, psionic powers are very difficult to awaken so there is no risk of potential Psions killing themselves accidentally. Typically, it takes years of studying to unlock even just the node. The record for unlocking the node is merely twelve years old.

… Do I count as the new record holder?

<( Probably… but outwardly, you look about seventeen – Which happens to be the average – so don’t get your hopes up. )>

Anyways, Grace is ‘Emperor Class’ which is first class in the psionic community. There are stronger people out there, but if this were a medieval kingdom then she would roughly equate to lower royalty; something like the fifth son or daughter of the king. Conversely, I would equate to a baron as I am. The gap between us is huge, but considering my apparent potential, the gap will quickly shrink.

The driver’s voice breaks my line of thought.

“There’s we’re surrounded by armed vehicles, they haven’t fired yet but we’re deadlocked… what should we do?”