Careful Not To Break Reality

Rydel have been waiting anxiously for the sign of the star system for such a long time, when it actually shows up in the star charts in his room he didn't even notice it. When he got bored of the light blue map hologram on his desk, he looked up into what was once simply an endless void of space with the occasional stars highlighting the darkness. The star system where the Absolute Academy is located had gone from a single shining dot of light that he can miss if he blinks to something slightly bigger. The curvature of space still doesn't allow for him to look at the different planets in the system, but he knew they are close.

Throughout the first day or so of the journey,oi he had rarely interacted with the other recruits of the academy, but he came to realize that some degree of social interactions might be necessary for the success of his mission, if not something enjoyable. Adding on the fact that he simply cannot avoid social interactions just by moving about on the ship, and Rydel found himself sitting in the middle of the living room with a bunch of others and a hot drink in hand.

Rydel looked down at the twirling steam that rises from the golden surface, and wondered if Aquarian Shocker would taste good in this.

'...so I just went hunting, and the whole nest of 'em ain't nothing in front of a good pair of pistols and a charged staff.' Edward Silver, who is an absolute human giant even compared to Aquarian sizes, tried to find a place to place his uncomfortably long lower limbs as he told the story of how he destroyed a group of bandits harassing his farm while he went on a tour of duty with the space force, 'though farming is nothing like the disaster fighting days, I do like things chilled, ya know?'

'Which makes sense that you have signed yourself up for the most intense illegitimate personal development training program out there.' Roloni Rilo said, Rydel couldn't remember which planet he said he was from, but the sleek Aquarian appeared to be quite a thinker.

'Well, if it's cheap, I ain't complaining.' Edward laughed awkwardly, 'you know how tough it is to get a job nowadays. And now the bandits are gone, the old men wanted me to go out and see the universe, and I found this opportunity.'

'Yeah?' Roloni tilted his head and asked, 'what do you think?'

'No idea. First time going out this far.' Edward shrugged and turned to look at Rydel, 'do you know what the wild region is like, Rold?'

'Wild.' Rydel answered as he nodded rhythmically and his mind drifts away ever further from this conversation.

'From what I heard, it is a great vacation destination.' Roloni said with a normal expression on his face as he turned and waited for Edward's reaction, 'people don't come back once they got in, that's how much they like it.'

'Oh really?' Edward genuinely thought Roloni is being serious, but Rydel shook his head and said:

'You know he is kidding, right?'

'Oh.'

'Well, Edward my friend, you got to be careful around here.' Roloni chuckled and shivered a few times as he seemed to enjoy the inside joke quite a bit. He stood up to grab some food from the counter and left Rydel with Edward.

'Well...' Rydel shook his head slightly and brought his mind back from the wonder, 'what's your background in space force again?'

'Disaster-relief, mostly.' Edward pulled up his sleeve to reveal a variety of scars on his long arms. He pointed to various points and explained each of their origin, 'This one by the wrist, was from the first mission I went on. A piece of machinery malfunctioned on an orbital space ship, I went in to grab the last of the astraunaut as it blew. The blast was nothing, but a shard almost cut through the arteries...'

'...the burnt scar was when a chemical plant went critical right as it was opening, some say it's industrial sabotage, but I think it's just shit engineering...'

'Ah, this cut was when I was helping a group of teenagers away from a structural collapse, should have demolished that building long ago...'

'...the Aquarian's really have a way with their architectures, but the once in a hundred year turbulent pocket is something quite serious...'

'...I only went to the Rockies region once, and one of their nuclear reactors just happened to blow. Not the best experience, and I vomited more than I have ever had, thankfully treatment saved my life, and the nano-drone injection left a permanent entry here....'

'But yeah, not too bad.' Edward rolled down the shirt and was about to make it untucked to show more to Rydel, but he kindly rejected the offer, 'so, what about you? What's the deal with your hand?'

'Well...eh.' Rydel coughed slightly, the story of his is nothing as hardcore as Edward's, 'it's for... spiritual reasons, yeah nothing too special about it.', implying that it really shouldn't draw much attention, but Edward's eyes opened up wide and he leaned in close.

Great.

'What material is it made out of?' Edward blinked his eyes a few times and tried to look at the glove in closer detail as he picked up Rydel's hand, 'metallic, soft, pretty, and most importantly...clean. Amazing.'

'Yeah, when it was done, I was also quite shocked.' Rydel tried not to act too rash, but are also careful with the artifact so that he won't accidentally pop Edward's head off.

'I now, declare you two husband, and husband!' Roloni's voice came from the side, and the two sitting there turned and looked at him. The whole living room filled with ten or so recruits went dead silent, and all eyes are focused on the Aquarian holding a total of six drinks in all of his arms.

'What? Aren't you holding onto his hand? Is that not how humans propose?'

The last few hours of the journey were just more meetings between the recruits, and they all exchange stories and pleasantries, with Rydel returning to his room and check on any new messages from Cellica. Most of the recruits have some sort of a military service background, or extensive professional training of some sort, and it does seem like Absolute Being like to pick people with extraordinary talents and mindsets. What the organization planned to do with all these spectacular beings, is the real question. It is also what Rydel plan to find out.

However, he had a feeling that he would end up finding out more about himself in the process, which isn't exactly a bad thing.

From now on, he would have to judge the different scenarios and proceed accordingly, without outside help or guidance. And maybe that bastard Zel would get in touch with him some time.

Oh well. Rydel looked at himself in the mirror, and glanced over to the pulsing artifact.

The ship soon approached the planet and began to drop down. As the ship entered the atmosphere, an alarm went off on the ship, and a mechanical voice thundered through the speaker, 'Attention, recruits! Your first exercise will begin the moment we landed! Weapons, shields and equipment are hidden in various compartments of the ship. Your aim: to take down the target with whatever means possible!'

As the voice became silent, a hologram of Gold in a full grey armor showed up in all of the projectors around the ship.

'What?' Edward stopped as he held a plate with three slices of Victoria Sponge cake and was in the middle of sending the first slice down the shoot.

Roloni didn't say a word, but instead stood up straight and started looked around with all his arms poking at various places. He accidentally poked a button at the bottom of his seat, and a medium sized upper body standard military armor rolled out from the hidden compartment.

'Let's get to work, big guy. Eat later.'

'That's too small.' Edward pointed at the armor as he threw the cake in and put the plate down, 'even for you.'

'Give it to me.' A slightly crackly feminine voice came being them two, and they turned around to see a skinny yet athletically built dark skinned human female standing behind them with hands around her hip, Edward can't really remember her name.

'Oh...Right. Here you go.' Edward bent down and picked it up for her, and she smiled in response.

'There must be armors all around the ship, check your rooms, toilets!' Someone yelled, and the rest agreed and quickly dispersed.

'What's the timeline?' Another recruit asked.

'Ten minutes, maximum!' Someone that stood by the window answered the question, and the remaining people in the room all went around and started examining every inch of the room.

Meanwhile, Rydel was fiddling around the room too, and he had successfully found a single pistol and a pair of military trousers. This is at least better than last time he tried anything like this, and it seems like he doesn't need to take apart any furniture soon. He checked all around the room, and is even tempted to use his artifact to feel the hidden spaces around him, but that would just be too obvious, and easy.

He won't truly progress if he constantly fall back on using his artifact to get him out of difficult situations like this. Seeing nothing can be found in his room, he simply put on what he could and took the pistol out.

There has already been piles of equipment being placed in the middle of the living room, and a tall blonde haired human male has taken the lead and started distributing the items. Rydel got the rest of the gear he needs, though the helmet is a little tight on his head. A shield generator and a creative mind is all that matters to him, though. He also picked up a pair of light axes from the pile of melee weapons that nobody else took. At least it's somewhat similar to the clubs he used to take down Gold, and he had spent a little bit of time perfecting his technique as part of the training.

As he's feeling the weight of the axes, a marker pen is passed to him, and he wrote 'Rold' on his jacket just like everyone else.

'Alright, let's divide the squads up and circle him...it's a him, right?' The recruit named Charlie Leader turned around with two rifles around his back and yet another one on his hand and began the briefing. At this moment, everybody knows there is no time to debate about the leadership roles, and since that guy even has leader in his last name, he must be legit.

Supposedly.

'Yeeeees, it is a him.' Roloni answered haphazardly, and there is a small chuckle among the crowd.

'Cool. This would be the first drill together for us, and we may not get the chance again until quite a bit later down the line. So let's do our best!' Charlie turned around and pointed at the recruits, 'look out for each other, work as a squad, watch each other's back, and shout when you need help!'

'He would be strong, but let's show him what we've got!' He spun the rifle around in a circle around his arm as his fingers quickly ran up and down it's body to check the ammo and unlock the safety. Meanwhile, the ship everyone is in gently touches down with a soft bump.

'Let's go!' Charlie said, and then the recruits stormed out of the ship.

Five groups of three were formed as they quickly spreaded outwards once they exited the ship and started scanning for the sign of Gold. Rydel, Edward Silver and Roloni formed a squad of their own, and is the second last group to exit the ship. They have landed in a forest, as the tightly packed trees obscure anything that's twenty meters away. This would be perfect for someone incredibly strong to pick everybody off one by one.

But Rydel wasn't too nervous about all of this, as he knew what Gold's fighting style was like, and was rather comfortable when facing him last time over. However, he does not have access to the same club that Torelamri made, nor will he use his artifact in this fight.

Undoubtedly, it's a fight to show the obvious gap between the recruits and Gold, and will be used by most as a sort of motivation to train and improve. Rydel would be the same. Now it's time to see what his baseline abilities are after all the training he had gone through.

'All clear?' Someone shouted, and the rest of the groups scattered around in a five point formation about the ramp of the ship responded positively. So far, there is no sign of Gold. The whole forest is incredibly quiet, with only the occasional cracking of the dried leaves populating the sound spectrum. Rydel can hear his own heartbeat, and a single swallow sounded like a lump of food marching through his digestive ducts without a single worry in the world.

Something is wrong. Rydel knew it. Then, it happened.

There is the light sound of magnetic boots uncl.i.c.k.i.n.g away, followed by a gentle scratch of the metal. Then, something landed right behind all of the groups and the impact itself created a gentle stomp.

'Behind us!' The thing moved, and took down the closest recruit with a single strike. However, he was able to let out a scream that alerted everyone to his presence. By the time everyone turned around, the very first squad have all been taken out. Rydel only saw the last bit of his moves, but there is no mistake.

The golden armor was worn proudly by the Aquarian warrior, but something is different about him this time. When Rydel looked at him, he felt like he could see through his facial modifications, but Gold's stare didn't linger for too long before he struck the ground hard and propelled himself towards the second group.

'Fire at him!'

'Wait, our shields aren't up yet!'

'Ah!!!'

The moments hesitation by Charlie Leader's group directly cost the recruits yet another group. Nobody was expecting a confrontation directly after exiting the ship, let alone someone coming from above.

'Scatter! Spread it!' Rydel growled as he ran back and out, leading his group to increase the distance between Gold and himself, 'beware of crossfire!'

The remaining three groups used the time to create some distance, and Gold simply spun through the second trio, knocking all of them out with a clean hit using the blunted side of the blades. He is only using four blades at the same time, and it seemed to Rydel that his movements are completely different from before.

Rydel is no expert in the Aquarian martial arts, but he knew that Gold is definitely not doing what he did back on the planet B1. His moves are more fluid, faster, and a lot more aggressive. He has changed his style? Or maybe just added another one to his arsenal?

The second option seemed more likely.

From the moment the second group went down, all of the recruits opened fire just as Gold switched his shield generator back on and bounded away behind woods.

His movements are so much faster. Rydel grips his rifle ever tighter. Then he turned around, and saw Gold appearing behind the group between Charlie leader and themselves, and he used his arms to swipe away the three recruits there at the same time. Their unconscious body flew back a few meters before landing and rolling in the leaves. Then, Gold quickly back pedals away at an inhuman speed and disappeared behind the woods again.

Rydel signalled towards Charlie and made the two groups get closer. From the corner of his eye, he saw Gold dashing in between the trees, but no one was quick enough to make a clean hit.

'Edward, Roloni...' Rydel gave the two teammates a nudge, 'I am trying to land a hit on him, but I need you two to create an opening...'

'Sure.' Edward shrugged and looked at Roloni, 'just make sure it's worth it.'

'Ah I love trusting a stranger in such life or death scenarios.' Roloni said with disgruntlement, but agreed to the plan nonetheless.

It became evident that Gold would like to pick on singled out targets when they are separated and far from the reinforcements, but now that there are only two groups left and that they have gotten closer together, but still have some distance in between the individuals, it should be relatively easier to help each other, and maybe Gold would become more cautious.

Or not.

It only took Edward rolling his big green eyes sideways to scan his left hand side for Gold to appear on his right. He sliced Edward's shield generator in half, and then knocked him over, making him run over Roloni.

'Get out of the way!' Roloni yelled as he tried to find an opening, but just added two burn holes on Edward's back instead. Gold had one hand on Edward's body, and threw him to the side as he prepared to attack Roloni. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw Rydel looking at him and opening fire.

His shield generator absorbed most of the damage, so Gold just continued on with his slaughter, but suddenly, he felt a gentle tap on his side, and heard a dry chuckle from Roloni.

'Got you, bastard.' He said it as he dropped his hand and shivered in excitement. With Rydel momentarily distracting Gold, Roloni have used this chance to turn off his shield generator.

'Nice one!' Rydel shouted as he pulled the trigger, the energy bolts shot through the air towards Gold, but it stopped inches before contact.

This is new.

Rydel opened his mouth in a wide O-shape, but kept on firing around him. None of the bolts made it pass that invisible shield, but rather than being dispersed or reflected, the bolts simply froze in mid air. These sort of phenomena is nothing Rydel have seen before, then, something came to him.

Could this be the doing of an artifact? Rydel looked at him, and saw the twisting stripes on Gold's arm. It flashes orange, exactly like Rydel when he uses his very own artifact. He could feel his gloved left hand getting warmer as it anticipates a conflict, and he had to suppress it down.

Without a moment's hesitation, Gold planted hard into the ground, and spun around the region of bolts as he charged towards Rydel.

In two lightning fast steps, before Rydel could even reach his axe as he planned for close quarter combat, Gold has already closed the distance between the two. The next thing Rydel saw was the handle of a blade, and everything went black.

Gold definitely got faster, and Rydel couldn't do a damn thing.

It wasn't much difficulty after for Gold, as he quickly cleaned up the rest of the recruits. When all is done, he brought up his personal interface and called for Lady Lily.

'Was it a good lesson, Gold?' She asked wihle looking at some files in front of her.

'It was certainly a quick one.' Gold looked at all the recruits lying in various positions on the ground and said, 'nothing too special. Let's get them stitched up.'