Descargar la aplicación
4.72% The Rising of the Anomaly / Chapter 19: Chapter 18 - First Training Exercise(Part 4)

Capítulo 19: Chapter 18 - First Training Exercise(Part 4)

Alright, it's my turn now. As I stood up from my spot...

"Heh, so the Dud finally worked up the courage to go for it, this should be good," Laughed Tairo condescendingly.

"Wait, so a Dud really did pass the entrance exam? I thought that was just a rumor," Exclaimed Misaki in surprise.

"Haha, that's hilarious," Chuckled Makoto with a smirk.

Tch, how annoying. To my surprise, a few of the others looked at those three disapprovingly, while some looked indifferent. At any rate, no one else joined in, guess not all Prodigies were arrogant assholes. I suppose I should have figured, my sister was also a Prodigy, after all.

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Save>," I mumbled inaudibly under my breath.

I decided to ignore the comments and stepped forward, heading for the middle, but as I reached the edge of the sidelines, I felt myself losing my balance and falling forward, I quickly put my palms out in front of me to keep my face from hitting the ground.

"How pathetic, the little Dud couldn't even avoid being tripped, so sad!" Laughed Tairo, who had stuck his leg out in my path.

"Hey, that was kinda uncalled for...," Alex spoke up with a frown.

"Yeah, that wasn't cool, man," Agreed Andre with a look of disdain.

Tch, I'd been too busy focusing on ignoring them to pay attention. Whatever, this never happened...

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Load>," I grumbled, returning back to a few seconds ago.

Alright, this time, I'll get the last laugh. I stood up and walked towards the training area, acting the same way I did before, showing no signs that I was expecting to get tripped. Wait for it...

In my peripheral, I saw Tairo start to move...almost there...now!

I swiftly turned my gaze downwards, his outstretched leg inches in front of me. I could step over it and resolve this peacefully, but fuck that. As I took a step forward, I raised my foot over his leg and...stomped down on it as hard as I could without making it obvious that I did it deliberately.

"Aaargghhhhh!!!" He yelled in pain, as I pretended to stumble with a surprised look on my face.

"Oh, my bad...your annoying chatter was so distracting that I wasn't watching where I was going. But what's wrong, did a frail little Dud really hurt a mighty Prodigy like yourself?" I inquired in an innocent tone.

One of the others stifled a laugh and tried to pass it off as a cough, while a few others snickered quietly.

"Y-you bastard, you did that on purpose, didn't you!?"

"Hm? I have no idea what you're talking about."

I stopped myself from smirking by biting the inside of my lower lip and continued walking towards the instructor, switching my weapons' output settings into Phantom Mode, while also increasing the output setting on my X-Blasters to the maximum.

"Okay, whenever you're ready," Said the instructor, clicking his pincers a couple of times.

Here goes...

I sprinted towards him rapidly, taking out one of my X-Blades with my left hand. I flung it straight at him, he responded by deflecting it up into the air using his stinger. I then fired a few shots from my X-Blasters at him, as he brought his pincers in front of himself to block my Phantom energy bullets. Since I had increased the output to the maximum, the force upon impact made him stumble back a bit.

I put on a burst of speed and shot towards him, springing up as high as I could as I neared him. The X-Blade he'd deflected up earlier was falling back down, it still had about five seconds before it would disappear, and the base of his balance wasn't stable...as the X-Blade dropped within my reach, I spun my body across in mid-air and slammed my foot against the back of the handle, kicking it down at him while simultaneously firing a barrage of shots.

The blade pierced into his left pincer, cracking it out from the point of impact and staying embedded, though the blade wouldn't stay manifested for more than another couple of seconds. The shots I fired forced him down onto one knee, and I shifted my weight across while still in mid-air, slamming my foot down at him. He began to whip his stinger towards me, but I was expecting that, and deflected it away with two well-aimed shots at the end of it, my right foot slamming down onto his left shoulder uninterrupted.

I then quickly sprang away and got some distance, as my X-Blade dissipated and the handle fell off his pincer. He fixed the cracks in his Manifestation and shot towards me, leaping up and swinging his stinger down at me as he closed the gap, I evaded it by swiftly rolling forward till I was positioned under him, and fired a barrage of shots straight up at near point blank range.

He was unable to avoid it since he was in mid-air, keeping his legs from getting hit by positioning his stinger below him, taking the brunt of my attack, severely cracking the Manifestation...but despite the damage, I wasn't able to destabilize it, his level of concentration was deceptively strong.

I backed away and fired a few shots at his back as he landed, he swiftly spun around with a quick shuffle of his feet and blocked my attacks using his pincers, before countering with a couple of fireballs. I ducked backwards under them, using the momentum to flip back while firing another handful of shots, which he blocked again using his pincers. My shots cracked them all over again, which he was quick to fix.

Repairing damage to his Manifestations had to consume some extra XFE, in which case, I'll move in close and see how I do against his grappling techniques, I was curious to see if I could counter those...I'll create a Save point now and if he gets me in a lock or tackle, I'll use Load to go back and-.

"Okay, that's enough. Next!"

...never mind, I guess.

I walked over and picked up my X-Blade that had fallen earlier...hm, the handle was slightly cracked but I don't think it was broken or anything. Kicking it down had been a bit reckless, I hadn't planned to do that and only did it because he deflected it upwards, it probably wouldn't have even crossed my mind if he'd deflected it down or off to the side.

Anyway, I headed back to the sidelines, noticing that more than few pairs of eyes were on me. I ignored the attention and sat back down, as the final person stood up and stepped forward. Kiran Sigdel, the guy who had picked a spot in the classroom next to me, with the black face-mask and dark blue hoodie.

"Alright, last one! Let's wrap this up," The instructor declared, with a look of relief.

"Yeah, let's get this over with," Kiran muttered while scratching the back of his head with a yawn, "<Primary Manifestation: Expansive Swatter>."

A green energy swatter appeared in his hand, I'd say bigger than a tennis racket...seriously, his Primary Manifestation was an oversized fly swatter? He'd placed eleventh in the first stage of the entrance exam, and obviously won his second stage duel, which meant that he had to have some degree of skill...but a swatter, really?

He walked towards the instructor with no visible intent or aggression, he was absolutely oozing lethargy...he raised his swatter, and it rapidly began extending and expanding, with each side of the flat square end of it about twenty-five meters long...in other words, it was massive.

The instructor's eyes widened in alarm and he begun to spring away...but it was no use, Kiran slammed the swatter down with a whip of his wrist, pressing the instructor's arms down to the ground...till he deactivated his Manifestation and broke free, since the Phantom Mode swatter only pinned down his Phantom Mode XFE Manifestations, not his physical body.

"Well...that was embarrassing. But at least it's over. You can all go home now," Declared the instructor, letting out a dramatic sigh of relief.

Sweet, glad that's over. I stood up and headed for the exit, after the instructor wasted no time in leaving the training hall. I guess today had been a sort of follow-up to the entrance exam, in order to gauge what each of us were capable of. I'm assuming that the data they gather on us from the entrance exam was inadequate, since luck played a huge role in passing it...those with long-range and rapid-fire attack options at their disposal had the advantage in the first stage, and in the second stage, the right match-up could result in an easy win.

But today's exercise was different, all sixteen of us were made to fight an opponent who was stronger than us, which was arguably the best way to accurately gauge our capabilities. After all, even with Instructor Satou holding back, none of us actually landed a real, solid hit...well, except for Kiran at the end there. Sure, he was caught off-guard plenty of times, but his incredible reaction time and reflexes meant that he was always prepared to evade or counter at a split second.

Is that even humanly possible, I can't imagine my own reaction time getting that good no matter how hard I train. Oh, well, no sense in worrying about what I'm not capable of, I'll just focus and improve on what I am capable of. I had to say, I was looking forward to classes starting...seeing all those X-Abilities on display today got my blood pumping, I wanted to get stronger than all of them, while letting them believe that I'm nothing more than a Dud the whole time.

In the past, my life had put me through hardships thanks to factors that were completely out of my control, but things were different now, I'm much stronger than I used to be, and I had my X-Ability as well. I'll use both it and my natural abilities to slowly but surely get stronger and stronger, till I'm strong enough to achieve my goals. In the past, my life had constantly been thrown into disarray by factors entirely out of my control, and I planned to use my ability to make sure that won't happen again...the thing I wanted more than anything, even more than revenge...was control...control over everything...

_____________________________________________

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.

Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask me any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join:

https://discord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP


Capítulo 20: Chapter 19 - Breaking Point

Two weeks had passed since I'd started classes at the X-Warrior Academy. And ever since that first day, things had been...pretty uneventful, all things considered. I had initially prepared myself to face a whole lot of condescension from my Prodigy classmates, but to my surprise, it wasn't nearly that bad.

Of the fifteen Prodigies in my class, only four of them were openly and spitefully condescending towards me. Namely, Tairo Najimi, Bytra Lichood, Makoto Amano and Misaki Aki. Of the others, Taayin Sharma and Jian Lee clearly underestimated me and didn't think much of me, but they weren't all that condescending about it, they just treated me like I was weak. I could deal with that no problem.

The rest of the class was either indifferent or politely friendly towards me, though I didn't get particularly close to anyone, I just acted polite and returned greetings and stuff. Basically, I did just enough to avoid the 'loner' label, but I wouldn't call any of my classmates my friends, at most I'd say they were acquaintances.

Classes had been going well, the theory classes were boring but the topics we were made to study were pretty simple so far, passing the written exam shouldn't require anything more than a basic memorization effort. As for XFE training, for now we were just made to fight robotic practice dummies using XFE in Phantom Mode. And finally, teamwork training...actually, the classes for this hadn't started yet. Apparently, the instructor who was supposed to be in charge of it was tied up elsewhere, but he was supposed to show up for the first time today.

Instructor Jin Satou was in charge of the XFE training classes, and he'd been given temporary responsibility over the teamwork training classes too. He made it clear that he wasn't happy about it, accidentally letting it slip in his frustration that he wasn't getting paid for the extra workload, and as a result...he had made us all pair up and play badminton using Phantom Mode rackets and shuttlecock during every teamwork training session, with the goal of keeping a single rally going for an long as possible. It was stupid and unproductive, to say the least.

The instructor in charge of theory classes was a woman named Joan Anderson, she was a regular Paragon in her early-thirties. She had light blonde hair tied up in a bun, green-framed glasses over dark blue eyes, and a slender, tall build. She was nice enough though seemed kinda on the timid side, and her teaching style was good enough, if not a bit dull.

The best part about her classes was that Tairo and the others kept quiet regarding the whole Dud stuff, since they couldn't exactly insult me for being a regular Paragon without offending her since she was a regular Paragon 'too'. Today was a Monday and I was currently in one of the training halls along with the rest of my classmates, towards the end of the second session of the day.

We were evenly split up across four training halls, and each of the four halls were segmented into four equal quarters using high-tech barrier technology, for a total of sixteen quarters. We were each placed in one quarter with a handful of robotic training dummies and had to fight them in Phantom Mode. It was relatively productive, but there was only so much you could learn from fighting machines that attacked in set patterns. They were just like video games, once you figure out the pattern, fighting them becomes child's play.

Instructor Satou was supposed to be monitoring all of us from a seperate room, and send us directions and advice and whatnot to our I-Watches, but I highly doubted he was actually paying attention. For one thing, keeping track of sixteen people simultaneously was no easy feat, and knowing that unmotivated sack of laziness, he wasn't going to expend that much energy willingly.

Well, I'm not going to judge his teaching style, I couldn't care less about whether he was good at his job or not. If he has nothing useful to teach me then I'll just teach myself, as I had been doing for the past few years. I sighed and fired a couple of shots at the training dummy as it got up after I had knocked it down a couple of minutes ago, knocking it down again. This was really boring.

My I-Watch then received a notification, as the training dummy powered down. I brought up my holo-screen and opened the message. It was from Instructor Satou...

'I'm ending the session early, go gather in Training Hall 11 for the next session after your lunch break, which, finally, I won't be in charge of! You'll meet your new instructor for the teamwork training session there. That's all I need to inform you all of, so I'm done here.'

He must have sent this to everyone. Great, guess I'm done here. I turned off my weapons and headed out the training hall. Sweet, I had an extra fifteen minutes of lunch break thanks to the day's second session ending early, which means that there'll be less of a crowd in the cafeteria right now. I made my way up to the first floor and to the cafeteria, where I was the first to arrive. In other words, I didn't have to stand in line.

I got myself a chocolate cream bun, chocolate milk and a donut for dessert. As I picked a table to sit at, some of my classmates began streaming into the cafeteria. I sat at the table by the back corner, it was nice and cool over here. Usually, by the time I got to the cafeteria, this spot was already occupied. It was right under a vent, so it was a lot cooler than pretty much any other spot in the cafeteria, it was really comfortable and chill, no wonder it was so hard to claim. Hopefully, no one will try to sit on any of the empty seats in this table, at least not until I finish eating.

I took out my earphones and connected them to my I-Watch, before plugging them into my ears and played some music. I then picked up the cream bun and bit into it...hm, could be better, but not bad. Today was the first time I was ordering something sweet from the cafeteria, I was curious to see how they tasted...yeah, these are okay at best, I'll stick to sweets from Delectables.

I then noticed someone approaching me through the corner of my eye. I glanced in that direction to see who it was. It was Suri Patel, one of my classmates. She wasn't the most social person, generally keeping to herself and seeming to have a permanent frown for an expression. Huh, come to think of it, I saw her seated at this table pretty often during lunch breaks...in fact, in the very seat that I had claimed today.

She stopped and stood by the seat directly across me, a slight frown on her face. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she wasn't happy about her usual spot being taken by someone else, but if she asked me to move or something, I definitely won't, even if she asks nicely. After seeming to mull it over for a bit, she sat down across me.

"Mind if I sit here?" She asked, though she said it more like a statement than a question.

Tch, clever...asking that after sitting down makes it awkward for me to say no, well played.

"You don't need my permission," I replied with a shrug.

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone have a meal made up almost entirely of chocolate," She remarked, as she took a bite of her lunch, a chicken sandwich and ice tea.

Grr, don't bother me when I'm eating...I hate being interrupted during a meal, the best way to enjoy eating is to do so in silence and relaxation. Well, I suppose I shouldn't be antagonistic towards her, it's not like she was deliberately doing this to piss me off...

"To each their own and whatnot," I responded half-heartedly, taking a sip of my chocolate milk.

She didn't respond, and a peaceful silence ensued for a couple of minutes. And then...

"So, uh...are those any good?" She asked, a bit awkwardly.

Huh, was she trying to make small talk? No, she seemed like she genuinely wanted to know...she didn't seem like the type who'd be super into sweets, but then again, I doubt I looked that way either.

"Oh, well, uh...they're not bad, I guess. Certainly nothing compared to Delectables-...oh, uh, that's a bakery in-."

"I love Delectables, they've got the best sweets ever-...!" She exclaimed, before trailing off as nearly everyone in the cafeteria turned their heads in our direction, her face red with embarrassment, "A-ahem, sorry about that...I just really like that place is all."

Oh? Now, that, I could greatly respect.

"Yeah, me too."

"Cool...so, when you say 'not bad', is that closer to bad or good?"

If she was a fan of Delectables, then it was only natural that she'd be curious about the sweets here...and I don't mind helping out a fellow sweets-lover.

"Well, let's see...the chocolate cream bun could be sweeter, and the bun's kinda dry, the chocolate milk tastes fine but is a bit on the watery side, and as for donut...," I trailed off, picking up my uneaten donut and taking a bite, "...pretty good, actually, the glazed cream's a bit bitter but it's all nice and rich, the dough is lightly sweet and soft, and the caramel on the inside is gooey with a sugary crunch to it...not bad at all."

Oh, crap, I got way too into that, she's probably weirded out by-...huh, actually, she seems to be drooling.

"...I have got to try that," She stood up with a look of determination, heading for the front of the cafeteria.

Well, I'm just about done with my lunch, so I'm gonna go to the classroom, which should be empty right about now. There was over forty minutes left before the next session would begin, so I might as well relax till the time's up. I definitely can't relax here, it was starting to get pretty crowded and it probably wouldn't be long before some strangers decided to sit at this table...and that'd make me super uncomfortable.

I made my way back to the classroom and opened the door...it was empty except for one person, Kiran Sigdel. Unfortunately, that meant that the path to my usual seat was blocked. Asking him to move for a bit wasn't a real option, because he was asleep...and I would never do something as awful as waking someone up when they were trying to get some rest. And besides, he was grumpy and anti-social, I don't think I'd ever seen him talking to anyone in class. Even when greeted 'good morning' or whatever, at most he'd just grunt in reply.

Well, since directly interacting with him is off the table...I'll just jump over him. I bent my knees and sprang up, flipping myself forward to land on my feet, on the chair in the middle of the row. I then got off the chair and sat down in my usual corner spot. Alright, let me just set an alarm for 3 PM...cool, that's done. Time for a quick nap...

...

...

I stifled a yawn as we waited for the new instructor to show up. It was a few minutes past 3 PM, and we were all in Training Hall 11. I was leaning against the wall, feeling a bit drowsy and half-asleep. Maybe I'll just doze off for a little bit...I opened my eyes with a start as I felt a pressure push down on my right foot. Ow, what the-...oh, of course.

"Oops, didn't see you there, Dud...scary death glare you've got there, chill, it was just an accident!" Sneered Tairo, walking past me.

He'd had a few failed attempts to trip me and stuff over the past two weeks, but I managed to evade each time. Tch, my foot hurts, nothing was broken but still...

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Save>."

Okay, I was pretty pissed off, this should alleviate that...

"Alright, that's it...I've reached my breaking point, I've had it with you. Fucking die, you piece of shit," I growled, swiftly pulling out my pistols and firing a barrage of energy bullets at his back.

My shots hit their mark with pinpoint precision, riddling his back full of holes, blood oozing out and deeply staining his clothes red.

"Wh-wha...y-you bastard, you shot me...!"

Everyone else was stunned silent, staring at me with wide eyes. Doesn't matter, none of them will remember any of this anyway...

Now, then...I was really tempted to go for a headshot, but I better not. That didn't mean I wasn't going to enjoy this as much I could though, plus it looks like he was in too much pain to bring forth his Primary Manifestation...

"I've had it with you...," I remarked with a blank glare, firing a shot at his right knee and eliciting a satisfying cry of pain from him, "You made most of my school life hell, just for the sake of it, I'll be damned if I let you walk all over me ever again," I added, before firing at his other knee, forcing him to slump onto the ground, "You deserve to die a hundred times over, and it still wouldn't be enough, you're nothing but a spiteful, narrow-minded piece of trash who gets off on childish bullying, you make me sick."

"P-please, no more- arghh!" He began, trembling with tears in his eyes, before I cut him off with a shot fired at his crotch.

"After everything you've put me through, do you really think I'd ever feel sorry for you?" I inquired coldly, viciously stomping down on his bloody crotch, slowly turning my foot as he screamed in pain.

"H-hey, you should stop this-," Began Alex, before flinching and stumbling back as I glared at him.

Oops, didn't mean to do that, my expression had been stuck in a glare and I forgot to change it when I automatically turned in his direction when he spoke. Everyone was looking at me with fear and indecision...if anyone was thinking about intervening, they knew that they couldn't stop me with Phantom Mode attacks, they'd have to fight for real...and that was making them hesitate. Additionally, they might be in too much shock to concentrate hard enough to maintain their Manifestations.

"E-enough of this! Hey, Kilzachs, I totally get that you're pissed, man, it sounds like you have good reason to be...but don't you think you're going a bit too far?" Andre chimed in, speaking to me in a calming tone to try and reason with me.

"Don't patronize me. And no, I wouldn't say I've gone too far...I mean, he's still breathing, isn't he? That's still too good for him," I replied, firing at Tairo's shoulder.

"I-if you don't stop, I'll have to...," Andre began, a bit shakily, putting up his arms, "<Primary Manifestation: Arm->!"

"What is going on here!?" A loud voice cut him off before he could activate his X-Ability.

Everyone turned their attention to the direction of the voice, including me. A look of surprise crossed my face as I saw the person who'd just spoken...what the...? It was a kid.

_____________________________________________

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.

Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask me any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join:

https://discord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP


Load failed, please RETRY

Regalos

Regalo -- Regalo recibido

    Estado de energía semanal

    Desbloqueo caps por lotes

    Tabla de contenidos

    Opciones de visualización

    Fondo

    Fuente

    Tamaño

    Gestión de comentarios de capítulos

    Escribe una reseña Estado de lectura: C19
    No se puede publicar. Por favor, inténtelo de nuevo
    • Calidad de escritura
    • Estabilidad de las actualizaciones
    • Desarrollo de la Historia
    • Diseño de Personajes
    • Antecedentes del mundo

    La puntuación total 0.0

    ¡Reseña publicada con éxito! Leer más reseñas
    Votar con Piedra de Poder
    Rank 200+ Clasificación PS
    Stone 9 Piedra de Poder
    Denunciar contenido inapropiado
    sugerencia de error

    Reportar abuso

    Comentarios de párrafo

    Iniciar sesión

    tip Comentario de párrafo

    ¡La función de comentarios de párrafo ya está en la Web! Mueva el mouse sobre cualquier párrafo y haga clic en el icono para agregar su comentario.

    Además, siempre puedes desactivarlo en Ajustes.

    ENTIENDO