Its day 5 in the tumor. 2 more days until the next core rises.
"Beep, beep, owner..."
Albur clicked his watch, stopping the alarm. He sat up from the bed, and yawned. He looked at the table next to the bed, Havoc the flash drive is still in sleep mode. Albur sighed and knocked him with the back of his finger lightly.
Havoc's system booted up, he glowed with a faint light.
"Woah, pretty early huh. its just 6:30 in the morning."
"We're going for morning training no?"
"It is at 7, we move on at 8."
"Just, shut up, let's go."
"Ok, but....wait....do those bruises still hurt?"
"Oh, they....not really, the puppet is holding back."
"Puppets don't hold back, even a toddler know that very well."
"Just shut up already."
Albur plugged Havoc into his rifle and stood up. He walked to the dining room and turned on the lights. He swallowed a nutrient capsule and took a bottle of water with him. He stepped out of the moon hut, he looked left and right to make sure no virus lifeforms are around.
He walked out of the hut, he looked around to find where is Rhea and Mysty. He soon spotted the 2 of them. They are near the research laboratory, they seemed to have started training very long ago.
Mysty is kicking Rhea while backing away after each kick. Rhea swung her fists in a quick pace, Mysty struggled to block some but wasn't affected too much by them. Rhea blocked most of her heavy kicks and neutralized the strike kicks.
Rhea then grabbed Mysty's leg again and raised her into the air. This time, Mysty twisted her legs while spinning her body to break free from Rhea's grasp. And to prevent directly falling on the ground, she kicked Rhea to change her direction of falling and turned her position to land safely.
Rhea sighed, and twisted her wrists.
"Well done, it seems like you have a steady close melee combat ability."
"Heh, thanks."
"Just, considering you're a support fighter, most of your kicks don't have to be high damage. Avoid kicking too hard to keep stamina, and use more annoying rapid kicks on opponents. That makes the opponent distracted, allowing the rest of the crew to land heavy damage attacks."
"Noted."
Rhea soon noticed Albur was already standing near them, looking. She cleared her throat, Albur snapped out of it.
"Pretty early huh."
"Morning, Albur."
"Morning, I'm just thinking, if we nailed the training faster, we could get to the next core quicker, am I right?"
"Quite smart huh."
Albur flicked Havoc, he shut up. Mysty chuckled, Rhea sighed as she tossed Albur's metal pipe to him.
"Does your bruises still hurt?" Mysty asked.
"Oh, they don't really hurt anymore. Though that place you hit still aches."
"Heh."
"Alright c'mon, Mysty, I will need you to train with that puppet. it have a waist that could bounce it forward when you kick it hard ain't it? You will need to attack it quickly until it couldn't even bounce back using elastic force."
"Got it."
Mysty walked to the puppet. Rhea turned her head to Albur, he put down his rifle nearby and gripped onto his pipe.
"Remember the training yesterday?"
"Of course, we trained for straight 2 hours, how would I forget?"
"So, I assume you have a quick reaction speed?"
"M-maybe?"
"I'll be the judge of that. Relax, I will hold back."
Rhea cracked her knuckles, she took her own pipe and pointed at Albur.
"Ready?"
"Sure thing."
Rhea prepared to attack, but, suddenly, the ground begun trembling. Mysty turned around and looked at the two of them. They looked around, they are all confused by the sudden tremble.
"Is this an earthquake?"
"I don't think so..."
Albur looked around, then, he saw something. There is something at the window of the research laboratory. Its an eyeball, a white eyeball with purple pupils. It rolled to look at Rhea.
"R-r-r-r-....Rhea....."
"What?"
"Behind you...."
Rhea looked behind her, when she saw the eyeball, she was shocked. She backed away and entered battle stance. The eyeball looked away, the trembling became even more intense. Then, the research laboratory started to crack. Suddenly, the ground near Rhea sank down, she stepped back, a large purple tentacle emerged from it. The arm is 5 meters thick and very very long. At the other side of the building, another tentacle rose.
The whole research laboratory begun to lift up. The crew stepped back and entered battle stance. The tentacles are seemingly what lifted the building, which you could tell by the tentacle is attaching to the building. The building stopped when it rose to 15 meters. Then, several eyes emerged from the windows. There are 4 tentacles to help lift the building.
The building looked at the crew. They aimed their weapons at it. But strangely, it didn't attack the crew, instead, it just walked away. Each step it took shook the earth, the building just walked away in front of the eyes of the crew.
"Uh, huh?"
"What the...."
Rhea scanned the building, the screen shows that it contains lots of virus energy.
"Its a.....virus lifeform...."
"But, its so massive!"
Havoc thought for a second,
"Hmm, if that building is literally a virus lifeform, let's name it tower lifeform."
Albur stared at Havoc.
"When did I tell you to name it?"
Rhea blinked, she quickly scanned the tower lifeform and gathered lots of information. She took a small recording of it so she could give it to UTD for investigation.
"That is surprising..."
Albur turned to Rhea,
"So, the training....."
"Oh, yeah, come on, show me what you got."
Albur raised his pipe. Rhea steadied her stance and dashed towards Albur. Albur looked carefully at Rhea's attacks. After spending the night getting beaten around by the puppet, Albur improved pretty well. Albur parried every strike Rhea sent and dodged every slash she performed.
Rhea tried quicker, Albur had some trouble keeping up, but he has his own ways. He dropped on the floor, Rhea performed strikes and slices, but Albur could block them and even use his feet to redirect Rhea's attack. Rhea switched the way of holding the pipe and prepared to stab Albur. Albur quickly rolled away and stood up.
Albur looked closely at Rhea's attacks. He dodged the strikes and parried the lunges. Rhea stopped attacking, and backed away.
"Huh, looks like you improved."
"Of course....a whole night of being beaten wasn't for nothing...."
Albur panted as he stood up. Mysty clapped, happy for Albur.
"Welp, looks like you're ready for the next lesson. But...I wonder if you could do better."
"Wh- AWWWW SNAP."
"I.....accept this level, but I want better. Juggler is much more stronger than me you know."
"Really? You comboed him. But, fine, I guess."
Albur continued to train with Rhea for another half an hour. In mean time, Mysty practiced with the puppet, she understood what Albur meant now. After the puppet was given lubricating oil, its arms spin so fast like a helicopter propeller. She kicked away its attacks rapidly and used kick barrages at it.
While the crew was training, Covie who just woke up stared at them from afar at the moon hut. She looked inside, at smiled, excited to show the crew something.
After the crew finished their training, they went back to the moon hut, ready to move on. Covie is already at the living room, packing their stuffs and the resource box.
"Morning Covie."
"Morning guys."
Covie finished every packing, she sighed in relief.
"Oh yeah, by the way, Albur, Mysty, I wanna show you guys something."
Albur and Mysty looked at each other, and then at Covie.
"What is it?"
Covie flew to her room. She grabbed 2 things. One is a long box while another is a small square box. She gave the long box to Albur and the small one to Mysty.
"What is this?"
"Open it."
They both were confused, they started to open the boxes. Rhea looked at the 2, curious of what is inside. When Albur unboxed his stuff, then, he was surprised. It is a long black sheath with blue outlines, with a white handle and a small attachment at one of its end.
Albur hold onto the handle, and pulled it. Like what he was thinking, it is a sword. Albur's eyes widened as he pulled out the whole sword. It is black in color, with blue outlines. Rhea and Mysty was surprised.
"This is....."
Covie giggled bitterly,
"Its your shadow rifle. I modified it into this."
Albur looked at the sword in amazement. He put down the sheath. He held onto the sword and swung it. It is sharp, light, and much more cooler than the pipe.
"Can I test it?"
"Go ahead."
He raised the sword, and performed a slice. Then a stab, and a lunge. Albur was overjoyed.
"Man, this is cool."
But then suddenly, a crack sound is heard. The crew turned to the source of the sound. Its the dining table, it was split in half, and fell on the ground. Rhea looked at the table.
"Its...being sliced by something sharp.....what the....."
Albur stared at the blade, eyes widened, mouth opened.
"Wait, that's so sick! I...wasn't even near the table."
"Do you like it?"
"I love this! Its much better than having a second rifle!"
"Haha, by the way, you see that attachment?"
Albur looked at the handle, indeed, there is a cuboid attachment on it.
"Yeah?"
"Its like the rifle's power slots."
Albur looked at the slots. He pressed slot 1's button. Then, the blade was coated with white energy, similar to Disabling Shot.
"Wow, this is amazing!"
Albur pressed slot 2's button. The blade glowed lime green with lightning on it.
"How do you modify it? I thought this was just a shadow illusion?"
"I used master's wrench. These shadow illusions are objects that can be modified and changed if handled carefully. I yet to find why won't it disperse, since Cluster's powers are known as sorcery. But, I managed to carefully cut the edges to make it sharper and give it some handles and stuffs, took me all night."
Albur stared at Covie.
"You stayed up all night, to make this....for me?"
"Sure did. Mysty too."
"Wow...thanks Covie!"
"Welcome."
Mysty unboxed her stuff. Then, she found a small thing inside. Its a set of metal frames and daggers made out of shadow illusions. Mysty looked at them, confused.
"These are...."
Covie took the frames and adjusted it on Mysty's twin pistols.
"Now, try to put your taser and grapple hook in there."
Mysty understood what Covie meant now. She put her taser and grapple hook in each of the pistols. The pistol she is holding in her left hand is accompanied with the taser while the one at the right is accompanied with the grapple hook hiking stick.
Covie then took out a few metals. She used the wrench and applied them on the pistol. The pistol now have 2 triggers. One is for the pistol shots, another is for the taser and the hiking stick.
Covie then took out 2 daggers. She attached them onto the pistols. The pistol is now a long range weapon and a close range melee weapon as well.
"How is this upgrade?"
Mysty looked at the pistols, in amazement. Albur stared at the 2 other daggers.
"What will these be for?"
"Oh, they uh, are extras. Mysty, where do you want to put them?"
Mysty stared at the 2 spare daggers, she thought for a second, and had an idea.
"Hey Covie, can you some how apply them on my shoes?"
Covie stared at Mysty's shoes, and thought for a while.
"Hmm.....I could make a frame that attach the dagger on it, and you could wear it. Hold on a second."
Covie flew to her room, she looked at the parts, she took out the wrench and started making stuffs. Rhea looked at the clock, and sighed.
"15 minutes before we move on."
After 10 minutes, Covie finished. She made two frames resembling boots with the dagger attached at its side. Mysty wore the frame, it isn't too heavy, and her kicks are now strengthen by the dagger.
"Now this is what I call a massive upgrade!"
Covie scratched her head while laughing.
"Do you guys like them?"
"Like? We love these!"
"Yeah, thank you so much, Covie."
Covie chuckled.
"We're a team, remember?"
The 2 of them smiled.
"Yeah."
"Oh yeah, uh,"
Covie flew back to her room, she took out 2 items resembling the shadow illusions.
"These are?"
"The laser power device in the shadow weapons. They make laser bullets to be fired out. Do you two need these?"
"Eh....no, I don't think we need them."
Covie looked at the laser power devices.
"Ok, then, can I take them?"
"What do you need them for?"
"For....something."
"Can you guys snap out of it now? We gotta move on!" Havoc yelled in annoyance.
"Oh, yeah, right."
The crew exited the moon hut.
They are ready to continue their journey.