Sighing, he readied for the match to start. He threw up a shield and the robots darted in, hitting it repeatedly until it began to sound like popcorn popping in the microwave or hail on a roof. He reviewed how Krackle worked and decided to give it a try.
Krackle: High energy burst attack of concentrated cascading spheres of energy.
The effect consumed one of the pillowbots, charring the material covering the robotic skeleton. Gus dropped the shield, preparing to trigger Absorb. When he fired the ability, nothing happened, and he knew he had gotten the timing wrong.
One more ability down. What else was on the list?
Warp: Distort reality in a localized area, either crushing or expanding items in a 1-meter diameter sphere.
Xyzzy: Bamf! Form wormholes to create portals and transport from one location to another. Base range is 5 feet. Each additional level extends this range another 5 feet.
While Gus tried to figure out what to do next, he saw one of the robots was using the downed robot as a bludgeon to hit him, while the other tracked behind, skirting to one side or another, awaiting its turn to attack. This extended reach kept him from having direct contact and draining them again. He was running out of tricks.
Let’s see how you like this… Gus activated Warp on the arms of the bot and the downed pillowbot-club. The two were crushed together, and part of the active bot’s forward leg was included in the effect, significantly reducing its mobility.
For the first time in the session, his TimeSight activated and gave him a warning. He used Xyzzy and focused on the other side of the arena. He reappeared a couple feet away as the last bounding robot brought its clasped arms down, hitting its fellow robots now that Gus had vacated that space. He hadn’t even noticed the other robot slip away.
As they tangled together, Gus dashed in and attacked the mobile robot and then finished off the crumpled one. The robots reset; mashed robots being replaced with two others. Gus raised his hands in defeat and walked out of the arena.
Hearing a slow clap, he looked up and saw Aurora watching from the side of the arena. “Good job. I’m impressed. Are you ready for some sparring?”
“Give me a minute.” Gus sat on the edge of the mat, his hands on his knees.
“Okay, I’ll give you a break then. For now. Have you eaten yet? You look a little faint.” Gus just shook his head. “Let’s go then.” She motioned and they headed to the cafeteria.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Holding in the World
Gus checked his logs and saw that the Adaptive Training was a great way to gain XP.
You have completed (4) waves of Adaptive Training. Final difficulty rank: B.
20,000 XP awarded.
LEVEL UP! Congratulations, Level 17 reached!
500 FP awarded.
You have (5) additional stat points to assign.
5,700 XP to level 18.
Gus shivered as the post-level euphoria faded. A big smile crossed his face at how fast he was leveling now. Maybe taking that XP boost with his guiding principle wasn’t a bad idea after all. He dropped two points into Constitution and three into Intelligence, bringing them both to 45. Once his HP hit a thousand, he’d put them all into Intelligence.
He wondered if the influx of new powers was so rare that it triggered some compensatory XP when they were used. He remembered having to work an entire three hours to get one new skill. He was already planning future sessions, anticipating himself power leveling with the new discovery.
“You just leveled again, didn’t you?” Aurora asked.
“Yeah.”
“I hope I don’t look like that.”
“Like what?” Gus asked, a little concerned now.
“Full on ahegao.”
“How do you know what…?” Gus asked as he flushed deeply.
“Daphne told me.”
“Oh.” Gus was at a loss. He could wait to check his logs until later from here on out.
There was an awkward pause and Aurora finally broke the silence. “Here, why don’t we grab something to take with us? I spent the morning on the beach and it was perfect.”
“I’m down,” Gus said, grateful for anything to change the subject. He ordered some food to go. Their meals arrived in a large bag, complete with utensils. “I have to do this more often. I wouldn’t have even thought it was an option if you hadn’t suggested it!”
“I imagine it’d have to be with a facility this size.”
They headed out to the beach and kicked off their boots. They ate in silence, watching the waves.
Gus massaged his feet in the soft sand. “Man, some days I wish I could just sit here in the sun with no responsibilities, powers or not.”
“Someone told me that it doesn’t matter how much power you have, there’s always responsibility.”
Gus sat up and looked at her. “Who said that?”
“He was an older super in Purple Faction. He retired a couple years after I started. I forget his name.”
“Hmm. What did he look like?” Gus’ grandfather had always said that to him and he always attributed the tenet to him, but it was probably just part of Purple Faction training. Still, what if it was Grandpa?
“I don’t know. Old? Gray hair, typical super build. I never talked to him directly, he just gave us a pep talk before one of our practicals. It was pretty typical for them to try to give us a bunch of advice pretty much all the time.”
“Was any of it useful?”
“Yeah, sometimes. You heard the Purple Faction tenets a lot, and while I didn’t understand them all, at first, you got to see why they were there after a while. Some advice only really sticks after you see what happens when someone is seriously hurt or dies from ignoring it.”
“Sometimes I feel like I’m like that guy in Greatest American Hero.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s
