The hammer hit Kínitos's shoulder with a solid *CLANG*.
The impact reverberated through the training room. The hammer bounced off like it had hit its self.
Kínitos didn't budge. Didn't even flinch.
"Can you feel that?" Dante called out.
"Yeah," Kínitos said. "But it doesn't hurt. It's like… pressure. But distant."
"Hit him harder," Dante said, making notes.
Monti looked apologetic. Then he wound up and swung with real force.
*CLANG.*
The hammer hit Kínitos's chest. Again, no movement. The force transferred directly into the floor beneath him—concrete cracking slightly under the strain.
"Still feel it?" Dante asked.
"Barely," Kínitos admitted. "It's muffled. Like hitting me through a wall."
"Interesting." Dante scribbled more notes. "Your immovability isn't just physical—it's dampening sensory input too. You're not just unmovable, maybe it's like Jes. Kinetic energy has no place to go but down making you not feel anything,"
Monti hit him three more times—shoulder, ribs, leg. Each impact made the same ringing sound. Each one left Kínitos completely unaffected. A smile grew across Monti's face. It slowly became fun in a way.
"Alright, release it," Dante said.
Kínitos let go of the immovability. The world rushed back in—sounds sharper, sensations clearer. He stumbled slightly, his body readjusting.
"You okay?" Monti asked.
"Yeah. Just… weird coming back."
Dante checked his tablet. "You held that for 1 minutes, forty seconds. Not bad for your first real test." He looked up. "But I'm betting you're feeling it now, right? The drain?"
Kínitos nodded. That static sensation beneath his skin—his paradox energy—felt depleted. Like he'd run a sprint.
"That's normal," Dante said. "Immovability costs a lot because you're fighting against fundamental forces. Gravity. Inertia. Momentum. The longer you hold it, the more it drains you."
He gestured to the open space. "Now let's test your speed. I want you to run laps around the room. As fast as you can. Keep channeling your energy into physical enhancement. Let's see how long you can maintain it."
Kínitos nodded and took off.
He flooded his muscles with paradox energy—felt them respond, strengthening, quickening. His perception sharpened. The world didn't slow down, but he moved through it faster, his body optimized beyond human limits.
He blurred around the training room. Once. Twice. Ten times.
Dante watched his tablet. "Heart rate elevated but stable. Energy output consistent. Keep going!"
Twenty laps. Thirty.
Kínitos's lungs were burning now. His legs ached. The energy enhancement was still there, but it was costing him—burning through his reserves faster than he could sustain.
Forty laps.
"And… stop!" Dante called out.
Kínitos skidded to a halt, gasping for breath. Sweat poured down his face.
"Three minutes, eighteen seconds of continuous enhancement," Dante read off. "That's actually pretty damn good. Most people can't even hit two minutes on their first try."
Kínitos bent over, hands on his knees. "Feels like I just ran a marathon."
"Because you basically did." Dante walked over, offering him a water bottle. "Physical enhancement is easier than your core abilities, but it still costs energy. The more you use it, the better your efficiency will get."
Monti was next. Dante had him practice his purple smoke manifestations—summoning the invisible crocodile jaws, holding them stable, controlling their movements.
The smoke poured from Monti's body. The air shimmered where the invisible constructs formed.
Dante threw training dummies across the room. Monti's crocodile jaws snapped out, tearing them apart with brutal efficiency.
"Control," Dante coached. "Don't just destroy. Make them precise. Hit specific targets."
Monti focused. The jaws became more controlled—striking exactly where Dante pointed, leaving clean bites instead of wild destruction.
After fifteen minutes, Monti was exhausted, smoke barely wisping from his skin.
Dante checked his tablet one last time. "Alright, you two are done for now. Get some rest. Hydrate. Let your energy regenerate."
He looked at them both seriously. "You're both low three-star. Maybe mid-three if you keep training like this. But you've got potential to hit four-star eventually. Just takes time, practice, and not blowing yourselves up."
Kínitos and Monti exchanged a glance.
"No promises," Monti said.
Dante laughed. "Yeah, I figured."
-----
### Across the Facility
Sarah stood in a different training room—smaller, quieter, with mats on the floor and minimal equipment.
Axe sat against the wall, his massive frame somehow making the reinforced chair look tiny. His axe leaned beside him. He was watching her with those calm, patient eyes.
Sarah closed her eyes, breathing steadily.
Numbers.
That's what triggered it. Numbers. Formulas. Mathematical relationships.
The Friendship Paradox—the idea that your friends have more friends than you do, on average. A statistical truth that felt wrong but was mathematically sound.
When she focused on the math, the connections, the relationships between people represented as nodes in a network—
Purple energy flared around her hands.
Sarah opened her eyes. The energy was faint, barely visible, but it was there.
"Good," Axe rumbled. "You're getting faster at activating it."
Sarah focused harder. In her mind, she visualized a network. People connected by lines. Relationships. Bonds. And when she altered one connection—
A thread of purple light extended from her hand, invisible to most people, but she could *feel* it. Searching. Reaching for a connection.
It touched Axe.
Suddenly she felt it—a bond forming. Not emotional. Not physical. Something else. A link in a network.
And through that link, she could sense him. His presence. His strength. His paradox energy.
"What do you feel?" Axe asked.
"You," Sarah said, her voice slightly awed. "I can feel your energy. Your… your *presence*. Like we're connected."
"That's your ability," Axe said. "You manipulate connections between people. Strengthen them. Weaken them. Create new ones."
Sarah pushed energy through the connection—
And gasped.
Her muscles suddenly felt stronger. Her body more solid. Like Axe's strength was bleeding over into her through the link.
"You're buffing yourself using my energy," Axe said, impressed. "That's advanced. Most people can't do that for months."
Sarah released the connection, breathing hard. The buff faded immediately.
"Again," Axe said. "Keep practicing. Learn to hold it longer. Learn to connect to multiple people at once."
Sarah nodded, closing her eyes again.
Numbers. Formulas. Networks of relationships.
The purple energy flared brighter this time.
She was getting better.
And for the first time since her kidnapping, since her paradox had awakened in terror and desperation—
She felt like she had control.