"Begin the trial run," Falco said.
Xander and Erebus locked eyes with one another. Erebus didn't even so much as make a move against Xander first, and Xander reciprocated the gesture in kind. Erebus's katana rested gently next to the boy with tip pointed downward. Xander had yet to manifest his own vector weapon—knowing how to do so from the rudimentary tests done before.
"Any day you feel like making a move would be nice. Take the chance while you have it; you won't get another one!" Erebus yelled at him, ticking Xander off.
How kind of you, Xander thought.
Immediately after Erebus's quip, Xander's arm clanged and morphed. Metallic scales appeared first, before shifting and sliding downward along the boy's appendage to form the makings of a gun. As the process continued, his arm looked more like a sniper rifle, with the area for the stock missing, as it was attached to his arm. It was futuristic, more like a railgun because of the ability to see the barrel and its inability to reach the end of the weapon. Near the base of his arm was the rear grip, and at the end of the barrel—where two metallic prolongs for electricity bullet control—was a fore grip. The weapon had no scope, even with its long-ranged nature—a vector's eyes was all the scope a person would need.
Xander pulled the rack pin of the weapon, a nice, loud click! shooting through the arena. With no hesitation, he then fired the weapon moments later. In seconds, a plasma-based bullet whizzed right past Erebus, tearing into the wall behind him and leaving a small yet impactful indent. Yet Erebus didn't seem the least bit perturbed.
Erebus then rolled his eyes. "Damn, I actually don't think I needed to dodge that."
He then turned around to confirm his suspicions. "For a plasma-based rifle, that thing is pretty weak. It barely left a dent in the wall."
What!? Xander thought, absolutely mystified at the boy's nonchalant composure, despite the noticeable hole in the wall behind him.
[He is right, Xander]
You're not helping!
As Xander scolded his AI, the subtle taps of a sword against a metallic surface could be heard. Erebus was tapping his sword in rhythm to the makings of a song he was listening to. The taps were fast-tempoed and erratic in style; Soon, Erebus began to smile.
"Alright!" he said, before dropping his voice into harrowing distortions. "My turn."
Instantly, the place where Erebus sat broke. Left behind was a broken, shattered edge of where he had sat. He leapt from cover to cover, the power behind each step leaving the edges of each wall chipped in some fashion. He reached Xander in milliseconds, appearing above with his sword overhead.
[Evade right!]
Without a second delay, Xander's legs metallized and sparked with blue electricity. He had evaded to the right, leaving far smaller craters in his place where he once stood like Erebus's own.
Light on his feet, isn't he? Flight or fight can be a hell of a thing, huh? Erebus thought, resolving to test this hypothesis.
From his position, Erebus moved to gash Xander across the face with a south to north diagonal slash. No callout came from Xander's AI this time to warn him of the incoming threat. The blade nicked Xander's cheek, Erebus having planned for that perfectly. The assassin had not forgotten his operative duty.
Following his combo-chain, Erebus next moved to low-sweep Xander's front leg in hopes of causing him to stumble. As Xander tried to catch himself, in one theatrical move from out of a movie scene, Erebus planted his free hand on the ground to perform an overhead Pele kick. Xander was caught off guard due to his lack of real martial training.
This guy is insane! Xander thought.
Seeming like the ten-second recharge window was up, Xander's AI was back online.
[Block High!]
With his gun arm and his regular arm high, Xander blocked the blow that sent a slight tremor through the room. Erebus was a little impressed, but not enough to really compliment it.
Cartesia always said that move was a little predictable. But it looks so damn cool to perform!
Following this, Erebus used the same leg for the kick to break Xander's guard. Using the momentum of his own kick's tremor, Erebus then hopped off the ground and spiked Xander to the nearest facility wall. The staff members watching on were stunned by Erebus's ability to change on a dime, many of them not having the luxury to even watch the boy in his older time as a F-ranked Vector. He was such a prodigy that exceptions had been made for him, courtesy of Dr. Falco and his original doctor, Dr. Ledger. Kaiser had only heard of this kid's prowess, and seeing it for the first time, even he felt unnerved by his efficiency.
"Are you sure this is okay, Falco?" Kaiser asked. "He is A-ranked for a reason, and seeing it now…I understand why."
"A+-ranked, Kaiser. And he knows what he is doing," Falco said, before turning an eye to Kaiser, "I didn't know you had an attachment to subject #665."
Kaiser was dumbfounded by the statement, never having insinuated such a thing. But evidently, his voice must have been telling enough to the doctor. "Listen here, you four-eyed brainac, I never said anything like—"
"Then shut it and watch. Or your jobs may be in jeopardy—you know what that means, right?"
With a gasp and a grunt, Kaiser went immediately silent. He then went back to watching the display as Falco continued to update his Codexius.
Erebus continued his onslaught, zig-zagging with his body low to the ground whilst his blade sliced through the burnt ozone of the room. Xander tried to track his movement, his gun crackling with charged plasma. He released another charged round after racking the gun's pin. The bullet released a minuscule tremor as it flew towards its target. But with no regard for it all, Erebus raised his blade and allowed it to scrape itself off to the side. He seemed to enjoy listening to the shrill! of the bullet against his black blade.
"Combo-time!" Erebus gloated, cleaving his blade heavy into Xander's gun, breaking the weapon with one slash whilst shallowly gashing Xander.
In Xander's eyes, his Ceriumium amount had taken a massive dip, dropping from 80% to 60%. His body was working overtime to reconstruct his gun arm and heal his wounds, blue ceriumium pouring out of his flesh.
How was I meant to even keep up with this!? It's like he's just five steps ahead of me every time!
Xander was then clocked in his face by a quick jab by Erebus, then a low-kick to his leg to drop him to a knee. Dropping his sword hand to the other side of his body, Erebus moved for the making of his patented south to north cleave. But that's when Xander's companion moved to alert him of the most danger.
[Roll right!]
Xander followed as directed, diving to the right as the blade slash whizzed past his face. Erebus carved a gigantic slash racing up against the facility wall. It released a black shockwave, destroying more of the cover that surrounded the two.
I've got to say, he sure knows how to keep himself from taking the worst amount of damage possible. There may be something here. Erebus thought, watching him slide onto a knee and levy his remade gun at him.
Dodge this!
With the fraying electricity coming from Xander's weapon, a voltage shot rang through the room. But with effortless grace—or like the tenth time in a row—Erebus danced around the near point blank bullet. In the same moment, with a spin and quick drop of his body, he tried to perform a move to end this bout.
"Upsy-daisy!"
Erebus then cleaved Xander right across his chest upwards into the air, scattering room debris with him. Erebus had vaulted into the air along with him, shadow appendages growing from his back. Ceriumium liquid filled the stratosphere, dropping Xander's amount even more substantially. The end of the trial was near.
It can't end like this. I won't let it end like this! This is the one chance I have, and I'm going to stake my life on it! Xander thought furiously.
[Already ahead of you.]
Xander's other arm had transformed into his sniper, draining more of his ceriumium but finally seeming to get a reaction out of Erebus.
What? He has two? No, it's the same gun, but why would he—?
In the same moment, Xander's rifle sparked to life, releasing a devastating round of energy. The staff, Falco and Kaiser, were left agasp, the blast far more powerful than any Xander had done before. At that moment, Erebus thought about breaking the rule he was keeping on himself to keep this fight fair—not using his teleportation. But resolving against it, and even going against Falco's thought process of his favourite child, Erebus raised both hands to instead try and parry the bullet.
It struck Erebus's blade, throwing him back and pushing him towards the skybox where the others were. He deflected the round extremely late to the cover down below him, destroying a good portion of the area it landed on. Xander crashed to the ground below, landing on his belly with a thud! but not out. Erebus landed on the wall next to the window of the skybox. Shadows entangled and leaked off his body from openings in the metallic scales on his legs, keeping him bound to the wall in a crouched position.
Falco slowly stepped close to the windowpane with a slightly puzzled look on his face. Erebus's own shared the same bewilderment. How had Xander done that, his vector should haven't had nearly that kind of power?
"Lysander…how powerful was that bolt just now?" Falco calmly asked, looking at his prized vector.
Before Lysander could even respond, Erebus chimed in after double-tapping his headphone.
"C-ranked…definitely C-ranked," the boy said, stunning all that heard his message that was played over some speakers in the room.
"He's not lying, sir," Lysander affirmed. "His power just underwent a massive spike; his emotional state has changed as well."
"That must have been a fluke," Falco said, looking at his Codexius to see if it mentioned any abnormal power spikes with the boy. The entry had nothing to say about such matters.
"Hey, chief?" Erebus said, "I ain't gonna lie, what rank is this guy?"
Falco immediately snatched Lysander's headset. "F-ranked, Erebus."
"Nah, that's not right. I know I'm not trying and all, but come to think of it, I don't think any person, let alone an F-ranked vector, would stand right back up straight like that after the amount of attacks that I hit him with. He's bleeding a lot, but he still seems ready to go, like his durability ain't normal."
"How so?"
"Normally I keep track of how deep I cut someone. That last slash I made should have put him in the red zone for ceriumium, even if he was a D through B ranked vector. I don't know how he's standing right now."
Falco looked at Lysander, then to Kaiser. The look on his face sent both of them a bit of uneasiness. It was the first time they had actively seen Falco at a loss for understanding, the man's eyes twitching like he was trying to find a retort.
"Maybe you just miss-judged it, Erebus."
"When was the last time you saw me misjudge a slash, you idiot? I know what I'm talking about. That kid's hide ain't normal!"
"Hey, Falco," Kaiser said, pointing to the end of the sparring room.
Xander was standing firm, staring daggers of hatred at Erebus. His body had blue ceriumium fluid running down it, railgun twitching and snapping itself into place like it was trying to morph.
"The fuck he looking at me like that for? I was just following orders," Erebus said, still sounding mostly unperturbed and joking, but Falco and Kaiser weren't the least bit on the same page.
[Did you hear that? They're noticing you. You have one more chance to solidify their thoughts.]
How much…ceriumium do I have left? Xander struggled.
[30%, you need something big or else this will all be for naught.]
Is that worry I hear? I didn't…know an AI could worry about me.
[Worry? I do not understand. Perhaps I need to look through more of your memories to understand.]
Preferable, not, Xander told it. "And their big surprise is right here. Divert all power to my gun. I'm going out with a bang."
[5% will be left over to keep you alive. Fire when instructed.]
Xander racked the pin of his gun arm, the barrel of the weapon spinning like a cyclone hurricane. Pieces of debris around him quaked in response to the sudden surges in power, spiking the readings on Lysander's computer more. Slight tremors in the air swayed around Xander's stance point, the boy holding it in the air.
"C-ranked power spike, not going any higher," Lysander reported.
"Yo, the recoil on that is about to be insane! I don't think his body can handle that." Erebus said.
Falco watched the boy charge more and more. The site made Falco confused and contemplative about what could have caused this. In the same breath, he was growing more intrigued with Xander, seeing the child's mounting potential.
He's a bit rough around the edges, but everything points to him having some untapped power I may have missed. Falco thought before wanting to test that hypothesis. "Erebus, meet the attack."
Kaiser and Lysander spun back to look at Falco with incredulous stares. Kaiser was left speechless, and Lysander immediately warned against this. "Sir, I don't think these F-block sparring rooms are equipped to withstand—"
"I don't give a damn!" Falco snapped, breaking composure, and with a wide smirk on his face, "Erebus! Do it!"
Hearing his creator's faith and good ahead statement, a wide smirk of Erebus's own jumped onto his face.
"Alright, gramps. Calling Ultimate!" Erebus said. "Just enough to match the kid."
Shadows enraptured his blade, flowing out of his body from behind his metallic scales as blue electricity crackled. The dark, hooded assassin slid his hand along the blade as it expanded into the form of a regalia purple scythe attached to his arm. Erebus launched himself from the wall with harrowing speed, the force leaving an enormous crater in its wake. In moments, he was halfway Xander, Xander's energy still mounting.
[Wait…]
Xander was antsy, ready to unleash his vector's might.
[Fire.]
Without a moment later as Erebus was about a few paces from Xander, he released the full power of his vector. A charged beam of pure plasma met with Erebus's shadow-infused scythe. The space erupted from the two forces of power, equally matched and equally unyielding. But at that moment, Erebus saw a few cracks in his blade form, leaving him stunned.
Oh…oh to hell with my rule! Sorry, chief, that blast has some property I don't know of, and I ain't taking the risk!
Erebus then teleported out of the way of the blast, much of its power slowly disintegrating as Erebus had taken much of it with his scythe.
What? Where did he—?
But as Xander tried to understand where Erebus had gone, he appeared behind him, tripping the boy and face-planting him to the ground with so much force that a dust cloud erupted in the sparring room. The onlookers couldn't see all of what had happened, so they were left to speculate until the dust cloud subsided.
The fate of Xander and Erebus was left unknown.
*******
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[AUTHORIZATION - PROJECT SENTIENCE - SECTOR: NEVADA PROVINCE 4]
[VECTOR CODEXIUS - CLASSIFIED ENTRY #665 (UPDATE ADDED BY SPECIALIST DR. FALCO)]
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VECTOR RANK: F-ranked (APPRAISAL TO D-RANKED VECTOR LIKELY)
VECTOR TYPE: Pure Long-Range
VECTOR ABILITY: Able to manifest plasma-charged sniper rifles in place of his arms[CHANGE IN PRIOR ASSESSMENT] Able to switch between two modes of fire: charged sniper bullet fire and long-sustained railgun beam fire (Heavily taxing).
SPECIALIST'S NOTES(TO BE ADDED UPON ORIGINAL NOTES):
During the first trial run, I believed he was going to be another failure. Either he could read to the room and see how much was riding on his success for his future in the program, or pure luck, but he had exceeded those expectations. I have seen many vector evolutions before, and his own is no different. With time, taxation of the new ability will decrease. But, if that is to happen, and what Subject #100 said is to be believed, this child may have a brighter future than even I can see. And so does his cellmate.
Vector Evolution: [CHANGE IN PRIOR ASSESSMENT] Underwent evolution, evolution was successful, highly likely for more.
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END OF ENTRY - ACCESS CODE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: VNP4-665
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