Careful Not To Break Reality

The Black Wolf didn't wait for even a single moment, he aimed at Gold for a split, and opened fire. At that exact moment, Gold flicked on his shield generators, and charges forward. Underneath Black Wolf's helmet, he smiled a little.

The first wave of bullet came into contact with Gold's shields in a fraction of a second, too quick for anyone to see, but just quick enough for the nanotech-enhanced Gold to react. This isn't any ordinary attack, however, as the contact between the bullet and the shield created a short yet sharp reaction that generated a localized shock wave, shoving him a few meters back and causing him to fall on his sides. Gold immediately reached out into his pocket and took out a small cover grenade before gently tossing on the floor.

The Cover Grenade is one of the newer technologies devised in the wild regions, but is yet to be widely utilized in the settled regions. Due to the scarcity of resources, especially ones that are highly refined like the particles in the physical side of the shield generators, the people in the wild regions that doesn't have access to such production forced themselves to find an alternative, and hence the Cover Grenade is born. The way it works is remarkably simple, and the only reason that it's not invented before is due to the chemical composition of the reactants.

When the Cover Grenade is tossed onto the floor, the two different chemicals stored in the compartments are being rapidly mixed within the grenade before spewing outwards in a violent eruption and creating a giant chunk of extremely heat- and impact-resilient carbon based material that can be used as an emergency shelter, or cover. Further settings can be added into the grenade itself, such as the delayed opening that the Black Wolf used in his grenade that he tossed onto the floor.

'Shockwave bullets?' Gold is rather surprised by the shear inventiveness of the weapons and gears in the wild region, and he feared that the cover is not going to hold much too long. It's designed for laser based energy shots and normal bullets, but something like the bullets that just hit him is just gonna keep pushing it backwards, or worse, create cracks within the covers.

The second wave of attack came quickly, and the cover behind his back shook multiple times before getting tilted off the floor and started nudging Gold backwards. If he is going to do anything, he will have to do it now.

Gold held some actual grenades within his hands mixed in with some cover grenades, and tossed it out of the cover towards the Black Wolf, and then flipped over the very cover behind his back and sprinted towards him. The grenades glided through the air and explodes at various timings that he set. This provided enough of a distraction, especially as the Cover Grenades exploded in mid air and spewed out a lava of warm black materials all around, making a thin black sheet that provided an excellent visual cover for Gold.

'Tricky!' The Black Wolf laughed, and shot right at the thinned cover. The bullet and the subsequent shock wave tore a hole through the thin layer of black material, and Gold jumped through it with blade in his arms and furiously attacks the Black Wolf. The electrified blades collided and immediately shorted out the Black Wolf's shield generators, but it did not bother him one bit. His armor is specially made for close quarter as well as shield-less combats, and he knew this Aquarian favors melee combat.

He kept backing off to maintain a safe distance between him and Gold, but the Aquarian pursued him with continuous attacks that flowed like a flurry of chaotic waves, never giving him a chance to relax. Multiple blades struck Black Wolf's Rifle in quick succession.

If Dolon is here, she would be gutted at how poorly executed these movements and footwork from the Flurry of the Chaotic Waves are, but that's about as much as Gold could learn about this martial in such a short amount of time. The accelerated learning bonus from the nanotechnology enhancement certainly did him a favor, but work still needs to be done, and hours still needed to be put in.

Strike one, and half the barrel is gone.

Strike two, and Gold can already see the loading chamber and its inner details.

Strike three, and the Black Wolf let go of the rifle to save his fingers while Gold slashes the rest of it in half.

The Black Wolf continued backing down as quickly as he can while drawing two pistols and rained down fire upon Gold, but he is faster. He threw one of his blades at the Black Wolf and it pierced through the very first layer of his armor, but before he could react, the Black Wolf saw a brown rounded object flying towards him still.

It's a grenade, and it's about to explode in his face!

The safety was pulled, and the timer is set. Gold turned his feet and slid in the sand with an ancient ice-hockey style stop and covers his facial areas by overlapping all of his arms on top of each other as the grenade went off. No matter how well designed the armor of someone's are, an explosion in front of his face should do a decent amount of damage.

A loud bang proceeds, and Gold dropped his arms and looked at the aftermaths. The blade he threw was shattered into many pieces as it was still attached when the grenade went off, and Gold hoped that the bones of the Black Wolf is much of the same. But when the smoke cleared, Black Wolf is still standing exactly where he was, not moving by an inch.

The shard of the grenades are held, mid air, and was held still. The fire of the explosion is also held within the same region of space, and didn't expand outwards like what Gold is expecting. From his point of view, it seemed like he is watching a movie, and someone just hit pause. He felt a cold tingle up his spine, and for the first time in this fight, stress creeps up his spine.

Is this the power of an artifact? To pause time?

'You are indeed tricky, Aquarian.' The Black Wolf stepped from behind the blast that was locked down in space and acknowledged Gold's power, 'you have forced me to use my artifact's power. I have to give you that.'

'What the hell is that?' Gold looked up at him, and saw two intertwining and twisting white stripes that travels alongside the Black Wolf's right arm from the shoulder downwards towards his hand. The White Stripes glowed orange, and became more and more intensely intertwined towards his hands before joining at the palm of his hands in the symbol of a...lock?

'Ah, this is the artifact I own, Lock Down. Thankfully, your boss have kindly offered this to one of us as a thanks for offering a whole small galaxy for Absolute Being to operate in.' The Black Wolf answered, 'A hell of a weapon, and now this is how you die!'

He pointed his right hand at Gold, and the whole glowing twisting stripes on his arm began to flash. Gold swallowed hard as he felt the air next to him becoming tense and heavy, and he can feel everything inside him beginning to slow down. This isn't good. He planted his feet hard and shot sideways. The nano-enhanced strengths pushed him outwards like a bullet, and he rolled to the side before continuing his movements.

Gold looked back at where he was standing, and the sand particles he stirred up when he escaped was frozen in mid air. He looked back at the grenade blast, and it's held still still. So this guy can freeze, or lock down multiple area in space? Is this a time manipulation power?

If this is the case, how can he even beat this person? Gold had thoughts racing through his head, now he had finally realized how strong the upper echelon's of Absolute Being are. Even with the help of nanotechnology enhancements, it is still incredibly difficult for anyone to compete with an artifact user.

He needs more intel! With more information gathered, then Gold will be able to figure out what to do!

He reached into his pocket, and threw a Cover Grenade right at him while making sure when it explodes, the material will be right on top of him.

The grasp on the sands are released, and the exploding cover grenade is frozen in place right as the chemical reaction is completed, and black goo began to spew out. Black Wolf looked at Gold, and taunted, 'You will never be able to beat me, Squidman.'

Gold didn't reply. He needed more information, and stirred up a bunch sand in the air before tossing a blade through all the dust and dirt. When the dust clears and dirt drops, the same thing happened, and the blade is held in place.

'Not very smart, are you?' Black Wolf commented, 'if you insist on throwing away your weapons, then go ahead.'

Gold calmed his shaking hand, and threw the last of his grenade at him. It's a smoke grenade that he just took in just in case, and the timer is set 0.7 seconds. The Black Wolf turned and looked before reaching out with his right arm, and locked the grenade in place before it was even set off. But while he is doing this, the blade was dropped onto the ground.

This is everything Gold needed. From the moment the blade is released, he had already went into a low stance and shot out towards Black Wolf with the rest of his blades in his hand. If Dolon can defeat him with only four blades, and he shall be able to do the same.

In two short steps, he had already accelerated enough to tackle the Black Wolf at top speed, and he tossed yet another one blade right at him, taking a move straight out of Rydel's play book. He had pondered for many hours on how exactly that lowly human humiliated him, and his unconventional fighting style had begun to influence him subtly.

'You!' The Black Wolf certainly wasn't expecting Gold to come charging towards him, and was instead thinking of an easy win as Gold became too afraid of what the power of the artifact can entail. He drops the smoke grenade onto the ground as it began to sizzle and shot out smoke. But then the blade was held in place too. And then, Gold closed in and within half a second, slid open his armor near his knee joint.

The blades spun aorund in Gold's hands, and completely exposes Black Wolf's flesh, revealing a hairy quadriceps and scarred kneecap.

'No!' The Black Wolf screamed and hopped backwards, hoping to escape the range of Gold's blades. Gold pretended to slice down low, but instead rammed into him and shoved him backwards until he fell onto the ground.

A certainly embarrassing development that's aired in the whole region.

'You!' Black Wolf screamed as he got up, 'I will crush you!'

He reaches out with his hand, and applied his power onto Gold. But before that's even set, Gold had closed in even further, and kicked him right in the c.h.e.s.t, pushing him back into something.

Something hot, and spiky.

It doesn't matter! Black Wolf still kept his hand outstretched, and concentrated his power on stopping Gold right on his tracks and killing him on the spot. However, before he had any real control on him, an explosion went off behind him, and something easily broke through his armor and dug into his flesh. In a flash, he lost sensation of his whole right arm as the damage to his spinal cord became worse and worse by the moment. Before he knew anything, his legs collapsed under him, and the Black Wolf was dropped onto his knees.

He looked up to see Gold standing over him, and he swung his blades straight up by his right hand side, cutting off the arms with the artifact attached to it. A flash of bright light and a burst of radiation energy was given off, and the right arm that was rolling on the floor became completely burnt.

'How...' The Black Wolf struggled to comprehend the sequence of events and the fact that he is defeated, and moments later the meaning of defeat began to dawn on him, 'no...'

'You are proud, and arrogant.' Gold replied as he pointed his blade at Black Wolf, 'you held power. You are strong, but you can be stronger.'

'Stronger?' Black Wolf looked down at his detached arm, and murmured to himself before exploding in a burst of anger, 'You have NO IDEA what I have been through! What I did to master this artifact! You have no....'

His shouting was cut short when Gold pressed the tip of the blade against a slit in his helmet.

'I was you.' Gold looked downwards, 'but I grew. I got better.'

'You could clearly only use your power on three regions in space, and every time you have to lock something else down, you released the other objects.' Gold drew the blade back, and squatted down near the arm, 'fittingly so, the artifact with the power to lock down space, also locked down your progress. I will not let it happen to me.'

'Progress...?' The Black Wolf looked at Gold, as he went in deep thought.

'I thank you for this opportunity.' Gold shed away his glove, and touched the artifact with his lower right arm. The artifact flashes, and a silver stream of liquid metallic material began to crawl away from that arm into Gold. The stream then split into two, and started intertwining on his arm.

Gold felt a surge of energy inside of him, but it's nothing he couldn't control. In less than a minute, the transfer of artifact is complete, and Gold became the next owner of the artifact Lock Down. He looked down at his palm, and didn't see a symbol of the lock, but rather, a triangle. No, it looked more like the symbol the Steady of the Unyielding Ice uses.

This represents his lack of progress in the past years, and Gold smiled gently in his helmet.

From now on, it's only up from here. He turned to look at the previous owner of the Black Wolf, only to see him dead on the ground next to him. The drones he set up to capture his victory, only broadcasted his downfall.

Meanwhile, at the Absolute Academy, the Master and Lady Lily sat in a sofa and looked at the hologram of Gold.

'That kid really do have a lot of potential.' Lady Lily commented, and looked at the Master. He had both hands behind his back and is just relaxing on the spot, 'how did you know?'

'Well, I just know things people don't usually know.' The Master said, 'call it my special quirk?'

'And now, he will enter the trial of the artifact.....' Lady Lily turned her head to look back at the hologram. The official broadcast was ended immediately after, but an alternate feed that she set up replaces what was on the screen previously. Gold appeared to have struggled slightly as his artifacts began to flash more and more, and then he kept on spinning around in a circle as he fights invisible enemies all around him.

He was knocked down many times, but got up nonetheless. And then he knew what to do. His artifact began to glow a bright yellow, and he waved around that arm and pointed it at four different directions, activated the power and went to each location and swung his blades around. From this point of view, he just looked like someone that has just lost their mind, but this is how the trial of the artifact works.

The artifact's internal programming interacts with the user's minds, and projected an image of a battle of some sort where the user have to utilise the power of the artifact on the spot to defeat the enemy, and from what Lady Lily is seeing, Gold is doing exactly that, and he is almost through.

He went ahead and swung his blades in four different locations before returnining to the real world.

'See, it is possible to lock down four locations, you idiot.' Gold looked around the dessert, and said to the lifeless corpse of the Black Wolf before collapsing on the ground.

'Go pick the kid up.' Master said to Lady Lily as he moved out of the sofa, 'He is ready to become one of us now.'

'Yes, Master.' Lady Lily nodded towards the Master as she also stood up and went to turn off the feed, 'maybe now, the other Aquarian will finally be satisfied.'

'Maybe.' Master said, 'she is a nasty one, for sure.'

And that's where Gold's story with the artifact Lock Down began. Since then, he had been trying to figure out how his artifact fits into his style of martial arts, but the combination of the two had proven much trickier than what he had to adapt for his nanotechnology enhancements. But that's okay, since the Master didn't really give a timeline as to when he need to figure everything out, and he still haven't fought the other Aquarian yet. From the sound of it, she might be a formidable opponent, and he can learn a lot from her.

But right now, he needs to focus on delivering a convincing defeat for the oncoming recruits. It shouldn't be too hard, Gold thought to himself, as he began to practice Steady of the Unyielding Ice for the first time in a little while, for old time's sake.