Hello everyone, and welcome to chapter 27 of Limit Breaker! It's mid-February as we're writing this and we've just finished chapter 24 of Before: KH, so now we get to go a little CRAZY for a while!
Creativity: I thought we already were crazy.
Author: We are, but that's besides the point.
We're working on a ton of stuff right now and we're very excited about all of it! Twilight Blade is coming along nicely, Resurgence is slowly creeping back into my head and we're ever so slowly reaching the point at which my super special project will be ready.
Creativity: And it will be glorious…
Author: But enough about that, you're here for Limit Breaker! But before we get into discussion, let's answer some reviews:
Archer: I dabble in a few. I've been meaning to check out JoJo from the beginning as well as Goblin Slayer, but really I only have the Dragon Ball franchise and Fairy Tail under my belt, and I'm not even through season 2 of Fairy Tail yet. Like I said, I'm a dabbler. Oh, wait! I got No Game No Life too, but I don't wanna write for it.
Raos: This is more my rule for writing super powers, but I always say "Consequences, consequences, consequences!" and yes, I'm perhaps a little too pleased with myself for that Pyrrha rework.
Potassium: Well, I got… how many is it now? Four? Five? Well, it's either of those numbers of projects going on, and since Limit Breaker's chapters tend to be longer, they take longer to write. As for Ingo, doesn't matter what you ask or plead for, I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do. I will say though, that I never thought of him as a villain. He's a scared and confused kid who already had incredible power but doesn't have faith in it now.
XxHawktalonxX: Things just sort of lined up that way. Like chapter 25 coming out on Christmas day.
Avenger: Only time will tell…
cbustroyer: There's definitely the factor of inexperience, but if Gula was to get his Aura unlocked, he'd get seriously messed up. No ifs, ands or buts. Now, as I've thought about it more, it might be a different story if you started opposite of Ingo, unlocking and training Aura first, then adding ki to it, but you'll have to wait for a definitive answer on that.
FallenAssassin9: Good to see you around outside the Discord server! I'd say that an issue of 'being too short' amounts to 'can I get some more'. And yes, you can have some more.
SuperSaiyajin4Vegeta: Like is said via PM, it ain't Super Saiyan. It's the Wrathful Form.
Hawkeyestratos1996: Like I said above, Gula's already so powerful that if he was to throw Aura in there with his ki, he'd get really screwed up.
Author: And that's all the reviews for chapter 26! Now then, brief story discussion!
So, I'm not sure if I mentioned this last time, but I'll be adding another perspective to the story: Pyrrha's perspective! After all, I did all that work keeping her alive and giving her an overhaul in her fighting style. Ditching her right after that would just be wasteful.
On that note actually, I'm going to spend a little more time with the baddies as well. I've got a few ideas for them that I think you'll like… heheheh…
Creativity: Ooh, boy… he's slipping again…
Author: Now then, before we go further, here's the Discord password: R23A8zG
Alright, now we begin! We now proudly present chapter 26!
The morning air was calm and still. The birds were chirping, the soft whisper of a breeze drifted through the woods.
All of that was shattered by the sound of four gunshots echoing out from the Rose-Xiao Long property.
Pyrrha stared down the scope of her new weapon as she eyed the targets that had been laid out for her. The center of each one had a small, smoking hole in the center of it. Pyrrha smiled a bit as she hefted her weapon and carefully rose to her feet, using her Semblance to support her bad leg. The special braces in her armored boots helped when it came to walking, but she still needed to be careful when getting up, especially from the crouch she'd been in for her sniping practice.
It had taken some time to get used to the heft of her new weapon, Legionnaire. Miló and Akoúo̱ had been much lighter and designed to capitalize on her speed and agility. Since she couldn't rely on that anymore, she needed to rely on what she did have; her strength and her Semblance.
In between training sessions with her armor and weapon, Pyrrha had been undergoing an intense regimen to increase her strength and stamina, as well as increasing the amount of mass she could control with her Semblance. She'd had to be careful with exercising her bad leg, but she could tell that she was stronger than ever, as evidenced by how little Legionnaire's weight and recoil bothered her now. In addition to that, she'd done plenty of practicing with her armor to better master flight. If she was ever in a situation that called for mobility, that was how she was going to do it.
Her two modes of flight, one controlling her armor and the other controlling the razor plates she used for range and armor as a disk, had their own distinct advantages. The plates made for less effort when it came to her Semblance and was easier to control. However, they required more setup as she had to link the plates together and then get aboard. During a pitched battle, she might not have such an opportunity. Meanwhile, controlling her armor directly was more effort, but she didn't have to worry about balance or setup. She just had to lift herself off the ground and she was good.
So, she had to be practiced at using both. She'd even already worked out what situations were better suited to which approach. If she needed to reposition for sniping, it was better to just go straight for armor flight. If she was going to be engaging in melee while in flight, it was better to have the platform. Those were just two of the scenarios she'd trained for. With Mr. Xiao Long's aid, she'd developed and refined her new style as best she could to become a surprisingly mobile, but virtually immovable tank. If she planted herself somewhere and decided that she wasn't going to move, then come hell or high water she would not move.
"You know, I've got some targeting disks we could use if you want to practice mobile aiming."
Pyrrha turned to see Taiyang standing behind her, watching her practice.
"That would be good yes. While the weight itself isn't an issue, I haven't had to practice against moving targets yet." Pyrrha agreed before she converted Legionnaire from rifle back into spear while she waited for Taiyang to return with the targets and used it to support her bad leg. A few minutes later, Taiyang returned with the targeting disks. They had obviously seen plenty of use, likely by Yang and Ruby. Taiyang got into position and waited as Pyrrha returned Legionnaire back to its sniper rifle form and settled into a crouch, weapon at the ready. Taiyang tossed the first disc and Pyrrha carefully tracked it before she pulled the trigger. The bullet rocketed through the air and sent the disc spinning before it fell to the ground. Two more disks flew into the air, followed by two swift gunshots that had the discs spinning towards the ground.
By the end, Pyrrha hadn't missed a single shot, though there were a couple of near misses, due to the fact that Legionnaire was a bolt action rifle, so Pyrrha needed to manually remove the spent cartridges. Still, she'd managed to hit every target, so she was clearly managing pretty well.
"I'm going to head inside, Mr. Xiao Long. I'll continue training tomorrow." Pyrrha informed Taiyang, who nodded at her with an understanding smile. Pyrrha walked inside, using Legionnaire as a walking stick as she made her way upstairs to her temporary room and sat down at the desk before opening up a training log on the desktop scroll.
She'd made dramatic progress in developing her new fighting style and the new approach to what she prioritized in training, as documented in the log. If Yang was feeling like her usual self, Pyrrha might have considered asking her to spar with her as a gauge of where she currently stood. She knew that Taiyang was waiting on something for Yang. She wasn't sure what it was but given how secretive Taiyang had been when Pyrrha accidentally happened across him finishing a call with someone, it had to be pretty important.
Setting aside the fact that she hadn't tested herself properly yet, there still was one part of her that wasn't quite as content with her training. Sure, her training regarding physical prowess and reinventing herself had gone incredibly well so far, but she knew that wouldn't be enough for the danger they were about to walk into. She needed something else; an equalizer of some kind.
"I'd rather see what Aura is capable of if pushed to new heights. For all we know, it could be just as powerful with experimentation and dedication."
That was one of Pyrrha's biggest regrets from her time at Beacon and at Sanctum before that. When she'd discovered her Semblance and discovered the level of control it gave her over a fight, she hadn't done a whole lot to develop it afterwards. After all, she had her prodigious skill in armed and unarmed combat. Coupled with her Semblance and she was practically unstoppable.
Until she wasn't. Until Cinder had decimated her and left her crippled. Perhaps things would have played out differently if she had done as Gula did and developed more of a power all her own.
Pyrrha shook her head. Those thoughts wouldn't change how that fight had gone down. However, it now had her wondering; what was the limit of her Aura? Her Semblance?
She'd seen Gula truly fight two times. If you wanted to get technical, you could say it was only one or three. However, she'd bared witness to three displays of his power before they'd been brought here, two of which she'd seen the whole affair.
Thinking about Gula's singlehanded annihilation of the Grimm during the Breach made Pyrrha's head swim. She found it hard to believe that she could ever get up to the level that Gula had exhibited during the Breach, but surpassing Cinder's current level? Somehow, that goal felt more attainable, especially if she took Gula's belief that Aura had more potential beyond where it was now. First thing's first, she'd have to adjust her training again to put more focus on testing her Aura and Semblance, trying to strengthen it and find new uses for; evolve into something beyond her current self, if such a thing was possible.
Well, if it was, then she'd have to really press her nose to the grindstone to become that strong. Of course, that was only half the battle. Once she managed to catch up with the others, she'd have to track down Gula to get some pointers. Hopefully he'd have some idea of where to start. In the meantime, she had a long, hard road ahead of her. If she was to somehow match and surpass Cinder without life energy powers or magic, she needed to start taking steps down that long, hard road.
Something was up.
Cinder knew that Salem was keeping something from the whole of her allies, and she was willing to put a good deal of lien and her Maiden powers on it being related to this mysterious Red Warrior that had gotten in her way. That infernal Faunus had been taunting her in her dreams, right alongside that damned girl. The former had matched her in single combat while incredibly wounded, and the latter had stripped her of an arm and an eye. Cinder couldn't recall a time when she felt more despair, rage or humiliation than when she woke up in her mistress' domain to find a bandage wrapped over her left eye and even more wound tight over the stump where her left arm had been! And on top of that, she'd been robbed of her voice. Her voice.
It was on the mend, slowly but surely, and Salem had seen fit to do something about her arm, but that still didn't change what had been done to her! She was a servant of the most powerful being on Remnant! She was the Fall Maiden! How could a freak of nature and a little girl bring her low like this?!
The worst part of it was that Salem fully believed that this could easily happen again, and hinted that she had expected this to happen, at least when it came to the girl. It infuriated Cinder to no end.
And now, she was being kept out of the loop. To be fair, Watts, Hazel and Tyrian were also as in the dark about their mistress' new plans regarding the flying, energy shooting, monkey-tailed wrench that had been thrown into their carefully assembled scheme. Cinder wasn't surprised that Watts was being kept out of the loop. On the very off-chance that he was discovered, Watts would probably be the quickest to crack under interrogation. Watts was a force of nature when he was in control of a situation, but the moment he wasn't, or at least believed he wasn't, he'd crumble. Hazel was effective, surprisingly so, and he knew how to keep his mouth shut, but he wasn't nearly loyal enough to Salem to be given that information. He always accomplished Salem's tasks as specified, but he'd often do it in his own way. Tyrian was loyal, that was without question. He was feverish in his devotion to Salem and would likely tear out his own heart and eat it if Salem asked him to. However, he was also loose-lipped and, well, completely and utterly insane. Not exactly a person you'd want to entrust that sort information to.
However, aside from her failings at Beacon, which Salem had publicly and privately forgiven Cinder for, Cinder could not think of a reason why she was being kept out of the loop regarding Salem's plans for this anomaly.
Well, that wasn't quite true. Cinder had seen the look on her mistress' face whenever she was asked about the Red Warrior in any capacity. Cinder had seen it on very rare occasions, but it had been there. Salem knew something and was deliberately withholding that information for a big reveal. Cinder's taste for theatrics hadn't come from just anywhere, after all. Salem always took a certain level of delight in her flair for the dramatic.
It didn't make Cinder any less frustrated with her, though. She was careful to not let herself feel that way when Salem was handling her daily 'treatment' to bring her voice back and handle her new appendage. Salem undoubtedly knew about it, but Cinder knew that letting her emotions hamper her progress would only displease her, and that was the last thing Cinder wanted right now. Better to reserve such emotions for training and battle.
It wasn't like there was much time to speak to Salem regarding these secrets, anyway. Salem was spending as much time as she could in her private laboratory. Cinder shuddered as she recalled the few times she'd been down there. The most recent time was to help sort out her dismemberment. The laboratory was deep in the depths of Salem's castle and was more like a horrid fusion of torture chamber, dungeon and ill-maintained morgue. There was a black pit of dark essence that constantly frothed and bubbled in the center of the room. Salem used that pit for experimentation; creating new Grimm, testing new applications for the pitch-like substance, enhancing already existing Grimm, so on and so forth. Cinder remembered when she'd first seen Salem's private laboratory. She'd been about fifteen years old and Salem had been in one of her moods. Specifically, the one where she was equal parts angry and happy. These were often brought on by anger at an individual, combined with glee at being able to make them suffer.
In this case, it had been a woman in her mid to late twenties that had been shackled to a slab of dark stone on the wall. She'd started shaking with terror when Salem had walked in. Cinder had never learned the woman's name; only that she'd served as a sort of spymaster for Salem in Vacuo, until something went wrong. Cinder learned that either, only that it had resulted in Ozpin's secret club discovering the identities of at least three of Salem's agents that were operating in the region, and that the subsequent events had involved one capture, one kill and a suicide. Apparently, the spymaster hadn't been doing a very good job of endearing herself to Salem before this, so Salem opted to make an example of her.
It hadn't been pleasant to watch. In fact, it was an event that Cinder still had the occasional nightmare about, not that she'd ever admit it to anyone. Salem had, for want of a better term, 'fed' the woman to the bubbling black pit in the center of her laboratory, and then something else came out. Cinder later learned that it was in fact an Apathy, one of many more 'humanoid' Grimm that Salem had been experimenting with over the centuries. She technically didn't need humans to make them, but Salem insisted that taking human essence and using it in the process made for a far more effective creature. Apparently, all the 'upper ranking' humanoid Grimm had involved human sacrifice during their creation. However, Cinder didn't really believe that Salem actually needed humans for these special Grimm. She'd seen her mistress create far more terrible creatures without sacrifice. No, she just did it this way for fun.
Cinder shuddered before she chased such thoughts from her head. They always seemed to crop up when she came back to the land of her mistress, and it was unwise to dwell on them. It made the Grimm get… antsy.
Cinder wasn't sure what was going on in Salem's laboratory, but given how Salem had been behaving in the spare moments that she'd emerged from the room, Cinder knew that it was going to be something big. Perhaps some new form of Grimm? A weapon of some kind? If Cinder was lucky, it would be something she could use to prove that, barring her mistress, she had no equal in this world. Hell, she'd settle for just getting her damn voice back.
Speaking of which, it was almost time for her to head to the council chambers for the day's treatment. She turned a corner and saw Emerald already waiting obediently at the door. Seeing Emerald waiting for her dutifully filled Cinder with equal parts gratitude and humiliation. On the one hand, she at least had someone she could rely on to speak for her at meetings, so she wasn't relegated to suffering in total silence, or having to deal with sign language while one of her arms was… misbehaving. On the other, it was utterly humiliating to have to speak to the others through Emerald, even more so when she had to deal with Watts' barbs and prods. If he wasn't so useful, Cinder would skin him alive in front of Salem before she cauterized his entire body, for all the good it would do him.
Cinder gave Emerald a curt nod before pressing her right hand to the door and pushing. The magic of the castle did the rest and the doors swung into the room before Cinder strode inside and took a seat next to the Grimm queen's throne. Emerald waited a respectful distance away, hands clasped in front of her as she waited for Cinder's gesture to approach. Minutes later, Salem walked into the room, stepping serenely to her throne before she seated herself on her throne.
"Now then, have you been keeping up with the exercises?" Salem asked without preamble. Cinder nodded wordlessly. Salem smiled a little bit.
"Good. I'm not expecting immediate results, but they will most certainly assist with your rehabilitation. Now then, let us begin." Salem stated before a blood red sigil appeared in the air, in the image of Salem's 'eye'. Salem gestured to Cinder's left arm, which was currently laying on the table. Cinder winced as the sigil moved and enshrouded her arm. Immediately the roiling, twisting sensation began on the left side of her torso and neck. She could feel squirming around her heart, but she'd learned through experience to push through the discomfort. Instead, she grit her teeth and remembered what her mistress had taught her. This arm was hers. It would obey her, one way or another. She ignored the way she could feel her innards twisting and turning. This act of rebellion would be quelled once the arm had been fully melded to her and she'd remastered its motor skills. And once she'd done that, she could begin her training in earnest in preparation for the toppling of Haven and claiming the Spring Maiden's power. And once she was done with that, she was going to make a point of tracking down that girl so that she could take her time burning those damn eyes out her head, and she would damn well cackle like a witch while doing it.
It was about six in the morning, by Amber's estimate. She didn't have a clock on hand to check, but she could assume by the way her eyes cracked open blearily, as she had done ever since she accepted Gula's offer to train her. If she wasn't so used to it by this point, Amber would have cursed Gula for forcing her to get up at this ungodly hour for training. Instead, she was just resigned to it and got up before pulling on her training clothes and stepping out of the room she was renting in Grassbed for the last two weeks. Well, it was more like Gula was renting… sort of… All she knew about the situation was that there was a freak Dust accident and Gula had helped to rebuild the inn, so the owners gave him special privileges when he was staying as thanks.
As she shook off the sleepy cobwebs on the way to the clearing where Gula trained her and the others. The telltale snap of a branch underfoot indicated there was someone behind her. She didn't bother turning around. She'd sensed them on the way to the clearing some time ago.
"Hey, Ash. How'd you sleep last night?" Amber asked. The fellow trainee shrugged as he pulled up alongside her.
"It was Alright. I managed to get to bed early last night. It's been difficult to get to bed with Gula always on the move during the night. I swear, I don't know how he gets enough sleep to handle training us, training himself and do those patrols he keeps going on." Ash muttered as he rubbed his eye tiredly.
"It's one of life's great mysteries. Like how he can somehow consume more than his own body weight in one sitting." Amber muttered before they reached the clearing. Gula was already there, meditating again. He was sitting cross-legged and cross-armed as sparks of red energy leapt from his body and the veins on his arms and forehead bulged. Amber was a little concerned by whatever he was working on, but she knew better than to bother him about it. Besides, he probably sensed them already and was just waiting for the others to arrive. It wouldn't be more than a couple minutes. Amber could sense them approaching.
"What's with those patrols, anyway? No one's come near the wreck since it became a wreck." Ash asked as he started doing some stretches to warm up.
"I think he's just worked up, what with the whole Vale thing, the wreck and worrying about Ingo." Amber replied. She wasn't really lying, but it wasn't quite the truth either. She knew very well why Gula was doing these patrols; it was because he was genuinely scared, which was in and of itself terrifying.
"Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be a very long week?"
Amber glanced at Gula sympathetically. It wasn't exactly the start to his return home that either of them had been expecting. However, that didn't mean they couldn't salvage it.
"My name is Amber. Gula saved my life and he's been training my on the road." Amber introduced herself, hoping to take some of the attention away from Gula so that his trainees wouldn't pester him. Plus, it had the side benefit of getting introductions out of the way.
She'd just gotten the names of the twins, Lila and Violet, when Gula suddenly let out something between an enraged bellow and a terrified shriek. Immediately, everyone rushed over to Gula, expecting some horrible tragedy. Instead, they were treated to the image of Gula staring at a pile of wreckage, glaring at it while his chest heaved up and down. The others looked confused. However, Amber recalled what Gula had told her, regarding the circumstances of him joining her in the 'near-death' club and felt a chill go up her spine.
"Ummm… What was that all about?" Lila asked hesitantly as she examined the wreckage.
"How long has this been sitting here like that?" Gula asked with hints of hysteria in his voice.
"Uh… since it got here? I think it got destroyed before you disappeared." Garrow answered. Gula just stared at the wreckage for a moment before a red aura erupted around his body and he suddenly rocketed off towards a nearby mountain range.
"What was that all about?" Ash asked.
"I have an inkling as to why he's upset. Why he's going to the mountains, not so much." Amber replied. The group just stared in silence off in the direction that Gula had flown off in.
"So, are you a Huntr…" Violet started to ask before they heard something in the distance. It was a bit faint, but it was definitely there.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!"
In retrospect, hearing Gula's scream when he discovered that someone (who he greatly suspected to be his sister) had apparently been rifling through his stuff, and possibly sleeping in the cave he'd been calling home for his time on Remnant was actually pretty funny. However, the bit that had Gula (and her) on edge was that, if his assumption was correct, Gula's sister was possibly wandering Remnant, completely unchecked. According to Gula, she was much stronger than he was. He'd only won because he'd tapped into some other power that had turned the tide in the battle.
Wherever she was, neither Gula or Amber could sense her and without the CCT, they wouldn't be able to get news of any potential sightings of a terrifyingly powerful monkey woman causing havoc across the nation. So, all they could do was train, with Gula alleviating some of this stress with his patrols, even if he never detected so much as a speck of energy that wasn't already accounted for.
Gula was convinced that Aspera was going to seek him out again to fight, and while Amber wanted Gula to be wrong, if what he'd told her about his people was true, then it was practically an inevitability, especially considering what she'd been told about Saiyan sibling relationships. Hence, why Gula was behaving so vigilantly and was pushing his own training to extremes that had Amber convinced that Gula was indeed insane. Just the other day, he'd launched an attack she'd never seen before into the air; twelve blasts that fired from Gula's hands simultaneously. They'd shot straight into the air, then peeled off and shot straight back down and slammed into him with a terrific explosion! She'd made it a point to avoid him when he was doing his private training. Calling it hazardous was putting it lightly.
"Sorry! I hope we're not late!"
Amber turned around to see Garrow and the twins emerge from the foliage.
"I think you're fine. Gula's just in the middle of… something. I'm not sure what." Amber replied. It was about at this point that Gula stopped sparking and came out of whatever trance he'd been in and slowly rose to his feet.
"We're going to be taking your training up a level today. Follow me." Gula stated before he suddenly took off. After a few moments of confusion, they took off into the air after him. He had a head start on them, but it wasn't that hard to follow him. He wasn't going too fast and he was deliberately casting off more red aura to make it easier to follow him.
Eventually, they reached their mysterious destination, which turned out to be an ancient machine of some kind. After they landed, they saw Gula flying around the machine, presumably making sure that it was still in good shape.
"What do you think this hunk of junk is?" Garrow asked as he knocked on it with the back of his knuckles.
"I have no idea, but it looks old. Really old." Violet commented as she examined a few of the markings on the side of the machine. Amber joined her and eyed the markings carefully. She'd was sure she'd seen these markings somewhere before, likely in a book. She just couldn't for the life of her remember where.
"This machine generates a gravity field, making anything inside that field experience a higher level of gravity than normal." Gula explained as he finished his inspection of the machine. Satisfied that it hadn't been tampered with, he went up to the machine and motioned for everyone to step into the area of effect.
"We won't be using this setting every day, since it takes time to get used to. Alright, brace!" Gula called out to them before he started slowly adjusting the gravity level, monitoring the energy levels of his students before he found just the right level of effort.
"Alright, let's start. We won't be adding any additional weights yet, but they will come eventually. But first…"
A small grin began to creep across Gula's face before a transparent, silvery aura erupted around his body before he cracked his neck.
"These first few days will be spent acclimating you to increased gravity, specifically your speed and reflexes. And what's the best way to do that?" Gula asked as his grin widened.
"Please don't say it, please don't say it, please don't say it…" Garrow begged under his breath. Amber was right there with him as she hoped and prayed that against all odds, Gula wouldn't say it.
"Combat 101. DODGE!"
And with that last bellow, Gula shot forward, getting a cry of alarm from all the trainees, who immediately powered up to counteract the gravity and bolted to avoid Gula's rapidly approaching fist. Unfortunately, the gravity was a bit too much for them to rely on flying right now. Instead, they had to stick to leaps, pivots and footwork to avoid Gula's strikes.
Amber yelped in surprise before she went into a backbend to avoid an energy blast that passed just over her nose before the gravity tugged her off balance. Spinning onto her elbow to roll out of the way of Gula's foot landing right where she'd been standing, she on her back and managed to launch herself off the ground with a one-handed shove, spinning away before she landed on her feet. Luckily, Gula was otherwise occupied with making Ash cry as he was jumping out of the way of a stream of energy blasts. Gula's attention quickly turned to Garrow and Lila, who noticed that Gula was eying them with a gleeful gleam in his eye.
"HEEEEEEELP!" They both shouted before Gula shot towards them, throwing punches and kicks that would undoubtedly leave more than a few bruises. Suddenly, Gula vanished. Amber's eyes widened before she immediately began checking for his energy signature. She was more mad that she hadn't been doing that already.
Almost immediately, Amber could detect Gula's energy… right behind her…
A swift kick to the back sent her tumbling through the air before she managed to right herself as Gula was hurtling downward, fist poised to strike! Amber jumped out of the way, but now she had the problem of a red energy sphere of pain whistling towards her. She managed to glide out of the way, but the blast still struck Violet, who had also apparently been in the line of fire.
In short, they were getting destroyed. Not exactly surprising, as this was what typically happened in a Gula training session that wasn't practice or one on one sparring with someone who wasn't Gula; get knocked about like a beach ball and hope that his attention shifted to one of the other four beach balls that were getting batted around.
Eventually, and inevitably, they were all sprawled around the floor of the gravity machine, groaning in pain. They'd lasted about five minutes; about half as long as they could have, or at least with fewer injuries. Gula didn't seem phased by this. It wasn't exactly surprising. The increased gravity really was making their training that much more difficult, but it would hopefully get better once they acclimated to it.
Which they'd likely have to do very quickly, as Gula had that gleam back in his eye.
"WHO SAID WE WERE DONE?!" He thundered before he lifted both arms up, energy spheres materializing in his palms.
"SCATTER!" Amber yelled desperately before they all bolted, just in time for the blasts to detonate where'd they just been catching their breath! Gula was howling with laughter as he began his rain of pain and despair once more. Amber really hoped that this training was worth it. As it was, this was slowly turning from training into Gula's stress relief. Although, considering how high-strung he'd been ever since they got back to Grassbed, maybe some stress relief was exactly what he needed. She just wished it didn't come in the form of chasing them around, firing energy blasts at them that promised pain.
Finally, Gula decided to stop with this exercise, and they transitioned into practicing ki basics; powering up, flight, energy blasts and waves, though no energy sensing. Gula hadn't taught the Grassbed teens how to do that yet, and Amber had kept quiet about her own knowledge of the technique.
As per usual, Amber was still struggling with the energy waves. Charging was fine. She could gather more than enough energy and concentrate it for the blast. She just couldn't maintain the beam when she fired it, and no one was more frustrated by this than her. She'd studied his physical form and the way his energy behaved and for some reason, she just couldn't get it. Whatever was blocking her, she couldn't for the life of her figure it out.
Eventually, it all came to an end and Gula deactivated the gravity field. The sensation when the field vanished was strange. There was an odd weightlessness that had them walking (and flying) a bit strange. The flight back to the village was quiet and uneventful. They were still battered and exhausted from the training after all. Or rather, the warmup. Gula was going to let them have breakfast and rest for an hour or two, then they'd start going over technique again.
After that, it would be what one of the academies referred to as 'a free study period', wherein they were free to train however they liked, so long as it was training. That could be anything from developing their own techniques, meditating, sparring with each other or any other number of things.
Obviously, Amber was trying to overcome her problem with energy waves, though she began with meditating. If the block was psychological, then meditation was probably the best place to start. However, she also made sure to monitor energy signatures, reaching her senses to the village and past it. Then, something caught her metaphorical eye; a massive bright spot, isolated in the forest opposite them.
It was undoubtedly Ingo, likely continuing to train on his own. Amber frowned sadly when she thought about Ingo. She'd known him for barely five minutes and now he was bubbling with resentment for her. Well, it wasn't specifically her, but she was in the crowd.
Ingo hadn't been handling Gula's choice to kick him out of training very well, and Amber had a feeling that Gula wasn't handling it very well either. However, Amber wasn't sure how to try and mend their relationship. After all, even if Ingo decided he'd made a bad call by going behind Gula's back and getting his Aura unlocked, it was still unlocked. You didn't just go back on that decision. Normally, that wasn't an issue for people, since who didn't like quick healing, shields and a special power unique to them? However, given the… unique situation that Amber and Ingo were in, reconsideration was far more important.
She'd seen it in Ingo's eyes. His fear of not being strong enough to protect the village; of being forced to watch as the Grimm overran it. She couldn't imagine that ever happening, what with the powers at the village's disposal, but she'd thought that of Vale once, and there they were.
Even worse, tensions between him and the other teens were now strained as he saw them as cowards, idiots and had even heard the word 'sycophant' float around, though she wasn't sure how exactly it was applicable. Point was, he felt betrayed by not only Gula for kicking him out, but by no one else for sticking up for him.
And then there was Gula. It wasn't hard to see that he'd taken personal offense to Ingo's decision. Setting aside that he'd expressly forbade them from doing what Ingo had done, the biggest thing that had Gula pissed was that Ingo had taken the quick and easy route to power in his fear and confusion. While he could hold some sympathy for the fear and confusion, he still had lost a good deal of respect for Ingo. Even if it was hard to tell at times between Gula's blunt attitude and the way he knocked them around, he did respect all of them for the fact that they were not only sticking with it but improving. However, Ingo had lost that when he had his Aura unlocked.
All in all, it was a mess. The worst part of it was that, while Ingo's body seemed to be slowly adapting to its unbridled power, he still was filled with too much energy; literally too strong for his own good. Amber worried that tragedy could be waiting and despite Gula's alien psychology, she knew that it would bother him for the rest of his life if they didn't at least try to patch things up.
It would have to start with Ingo. Much of Gula's ire centered around Ingo's ongoing refusal to back down from his decision and an apology from him would likely quell most of Gula's anger. It would be more difficult to get Gula to apologize for how he went about ending Ingo's training, but she was confident that, if done carefully, she could get Gula to see reason. She hoped. With Gula, she couldn't be sure.
Well, that was a conundrum for later. For now, she had an energy wave to figure out. She had the power and she had the knowledge.
Now she needed to put it to use and master this technique. Gula had given her a second chance to fight; a chance to avenge not only herself, but everyone who had suffered at the hands of Cinder. She wasn't about to let Gula down and waste that second chance.
And we're done! So, a few perspective shifts in this chapter, but I really enjoyed it! Plus, I got some nifty ideas for some Aura stuff in future…
Creativity: Bit of postproduction trivia, we were initially planning to have the Cinder section set from Salem's perspective, but we decided to go with Cinder's to preserve a certain air of mystery over Salem's plans. And also to give you that mild body horror scene. You're welcome.
Author: So, this was hinted at with the Pyrrha thing, but I'm looking to expand the scope of Aura a bit, and to that end, I'm probably going to have a few more chapters where Gula will not appear as a POV, even if he is in the chapter. Reason being is that, aside from the strain between him and Ingo, there's just not a whole lot to do with him right now, aside from reacting to stuff, and we don't need his POV to do that.
Aside from that, well… I got a few ideas… hehehe…
Creativity: I got a feeling you all are going to like where we're going with this.
Author: Well, that's about it from us! Time to sign off for now!
Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time!
