That said, every phantom attack he threw made him feel better. His movements were smooth and clumsy at the same time, for his natural speed had increased. Not up to Saiyan level, but about halfway there. Previously he’d transformed into the hyper mode just to make sure it was still there…and it was…but he couldn’t stay in it more than a few seconds before getting so tired he could barely make it back to the tent. Since then he’d chosen not to touch it again, and was instead exploring his normal ‘base’ form, and somehow part of his Saiyan speed had been incorporated into it.
Yet a large part of the Saiyan speed was the mental processing, and he wasn’t having trouble keeping up with his own body. In fact the reverse was true, as if his mind had been sped up even more than his muscle cells, making his increased speed seem easily trackable. Each punch he threw he could see with his eyes clearly, as well as feel the position of his arm…
Paul stopped, then began posing in various positions with the transitions between them shortening. It looked like he was dancing at first, but then the air around him began to churn as he twisted and turned too fast for it to remain stable. His body began to object with a wave of fatigue, but Paul kept at it, trying to accomplish the same speed with less force, as well as seeing what his sensitivity was, bringing his arms and legs closer and closer together, almost touching as they brushed past one another at dizzying speed.
“Ka!” a voice shouted, shocking Paul into a twirl away from the sound as he took an extra step of distance as he spun down and focused on the source…seeing a Zen’zat in full armor standing before him. “Jo negga af keev.”
Before Paul could say anything the image fizzled out, disappearing as if a mirage, leaving the Archon standing there with a weird tingle running down his spine…along with a wave of fatigue that would have grounded him if his combat instincts weren’t blaring louder.
He stood there in silence for what felt like forever, checking his senses and blinking his eyes trying to figure out if that was real or a hallucination. His Pefbar had never connected, but his senses were so well refined that a hallucination would have been vague and patchwork, given the fact that it wasn’t real and had to be produced by the imagination. This Zen’zat had been in crystal clarity, so unless his imagination had also undergone an upgrade…which it might have…then it wasn’t a hallucination.
“Paul, is something wrong?” Cal-com asked as he ran across the sand from the other side of the tent where he had been doing his own calisthenics, but the sight of Paul suddenly going as still as a statue had caught his eye.
“It happened again,” Paul said, blinking his eyes to keep the sleep away. “I saw a Zen’zat, briefly.”
Cal-com did a quick check of the area with his senses and sensors. “There is no one here but you and I.”
“I’m not so sure,” Paul said, suddenly taking a knee but refusing to go down completely. “Now I’m drained again. Not just from the training.”
“Did this Zen’zat say anything?” Cal-com said as he lifted Paul up and began dragging him back to the tent in an upright position with his friend as limp as a rag doll.
“It spoke in V’kit’no’sat…and warned…me to stop…pushing.”
“Your body is depleted of resources again,” the Voku said, hacking into him with his armored shoulder plates melting into tendrils that connected to Paul’s body. “The original vision parameters are a close match. You need foodstuffs before you sleep again.”
“I’ll try,” Paul said as Cal-com laid him down inside the tent with his back resting on a stack of packs in what had passed as a lounge chair the past few days, but with the Human’s butt still sitting on the tent floor.
“Good,” Cal-com said as Paul chewed up one of the cubes, despite seeing his eyes roll multiple times as he fought to stay awake. “Keep eating. I will review your memories and discuss this when you wake. Get as much down as you can,” he said, handing him some water as well.
Paul sipped at it, then crunched another food cube before drifting off seeing the side of the Voku’s hand on his head. Only a moment seemed to pass, then the fatigue faded partly, enough for him to eat some more at least.
But the tray of foodstuffs was no longer sitting next to his right leg…nor was the bottle of water. Cal-com wasn’t here either, and Paul wondered if this wasn’t another vision taking place.
He looked around, then pulsed his telepathy and found Cal-com’s mind nearby. A moment later the larger biped came back into the tent with an apologetic look on his otherwise stoic face.
“I’m sorry. I did not expect you to wake yet. Your mind was deep in sleep a moment ago. What woke you?”
“How long was I out?”
“8 hours.”
Paul frowned. “I blinked a few times. I don’t remember sleeping at all.”
“Well you did, but very few upgrades this time. I think the drain came from somewhere else, but I can’t physically locate a source. The choice of a Zen’zat is curious. Why not impersonate me again?”
“You think it is someone?”
“Either someone else, or a part of you manifesting in this way. You were over pushing…as typical for Archons. Especially trailblazers.”
“Then it wasn’t a part of me,” Paul
