The Cyborg System-Chapter 58: Forming the Team

A few hours later, when Lenny finally came to, Rose was stood over him with her eyes closed, still trying to summon any last few scraps of essence to heal him. She was wearing short pink pyjamas, unlike anything she had worn at Sanctuary. She must have bought them from the shop with her credit allowance. Realising his eyes had wandered, while one of his best friends tried to save his life, he changed his focus and cleared his throat.

"Lenny?" she said, her voice full of relief. However, it was quickly replaced by something more firm. "What the hell was that?! What happened to you?"

Lenny scratched his head, then said one word: "Prey."

"Pray? You want to pray?"

"No, sorry, I took on a prey tier beast. I went back to the Jade Garden."

"Obviously you weren’t ready for that," she said. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Actually," he pulled a dull marble from his pocket, offering it as a kind of response. It had been a hard-fought victory, utilising his Adrenaline Rush at the right moment to finish the fight. After holding back the past weeks, it had been good to cut loose and test his enhanced body to its new limit. He wasn’t disappointed. That was twice now he had killed a prey tier beast, but this time, it was not injured to begin with, and he’d had no help. This time, he’d really done it.

Rose still looked concerned, and seemed to be mulling something over in her mind. "Do you want me to pull out?" she asked.

"Of what?"

"The team. Ivy’s team. I don’t know what we do about the predator core, though. I’m not sure Ivy is the forgiving type. Unless you can think of a way to replace it?"

"Why would you drop out?"

Are you serious?"

"Everything’s fine," said Lenny.

"Everything’s not fine," she said firmly. "If you do this again, I... I won’t bother healing you, just to teach you a lesson."

"You don’t mean that," he said playfully.

"Next time, you bring me or Harry."

"Okay."

"No, seriously, I want you to promise. Next time, you won’t go back there alone."

"Okay, okay... jeez. I promise."

Rose’s expression softened. Then, suddenly realising what she was wearing and how exposed her body was, she quickly made for the back of the door and pulled off a dressing gown to cover herself up.

"You cold?" he asked with a wry smile.

She punched his arm. "Get out of here anyway, that’s not your bed."

*

The next morning, in Spirit Studies, they had all been going through some survival tips if they were to get lost. Such an outcome was unlikely, but it happened from time to time, and it was important they were prepared for any such eventualities. Where they were staying was one of the safer spots, but they would be travelling out during the day and if a portal was to open up, there was a good chance some of them would run away and get separated from the main group.

It turned out there were a number of edible plants and spirit beasts on the planet. However, there were many things that were poisonous or toxic too. Although they would each be given some supplies to purify tainted water sources, there were also some vines which could be cut with perfectly drinkable, and even a little sweet, water flowing through them.

It was fair to say that the upcoming expedition was on everybody’s mind. Most people had already chosen their teams, with Lenny and Harry being some of the only ones to be without. However, surprisingly, they had had some movement on this in the session. Vee came up to them.

"I’ve been thinking about your offer," she said. "I accept."

"What offer?" said Harry.

"I asked her to join our team."

Harry eyed up the orange sash on her vest. He could have sworn she was a red sash before. "We’re still two short," he added.

One of the red sashes in the room, overhearing their conversation, came over to try his luck. "I’ve got no one else to go with," the boy said.

"The more the merrier," said Lenny.

"Got room for one more?" said a deep voice from behind them.

Lenny turned to see Nicholas, the Salamander boy, staring at them.

"How are you not already in a team?" Harry asked.

"I couldn’t decide on what I was looking for in a team," he said. "I think this one will do nicely."

"You’re not gonna set any of us on fire are you, like you did the indigo sash?" the boy’s question had been quite brazen, but the thought had occurred to others.

"I hadn’t planned on it," he said with a smile.

"Great, then that makes five," said Lenny.

*

Not being a member of the Group Warfare class, none of them exactly had access to the Jade Garden, or at least this was not something Lenny would have openly admitted to. So instead, they went to the Great Hall for a practice session after the combat classes for the day were finished. There was a good few hours before the building was locked for the night, so they thought they would practice using their skills together.

"Summon as much earth as you can," said Nicholas. A mound appeared in front of him, raising several feet in the air and Nicholas began to apply his own fire essence to it. The result was a kind of molten earth, not quite lava, but certainly a dangerous material to come in contact with, sure to cause serious harm to any beasts they were to face. However, it took a while to produce this state and so they wondered if it would still be practical in the heat of battle.

"What about you?" he asked, looking at Vee.

"I can do this," she said, summoning the black bird from her neck.

"Can you see through its eyes?" he asked.

"No, but I can attack with it."

He looked a little disappointed, as if he had been hoping for a scout.

"And you?" he asked.

Lenny stared at him for a moment, wondering what to say. The official line was that he had no ability, and yet, surely his team would see him use his skills.

Vee listened intently at this point, curious if they would hear a different answer from usual.

"He hasn’t unlocked his ability yet," said Harry.

"Naturally spirited?" Nicholas asked. "That’s supposed to be good luck. What weapon do you use?"

"I’ve been practicing with two daggers in class, but I prefer Hand-to-Hand."

"Oh really? Let’s see..."

Lenny and Vee looked at one another. They were the ideal sparring partners in this group. Vee’s speed and strength were a little worse than his own, but that stamina, technique and fight IQ was to a level that, even Lenny had to admit, was impressive. Though she was in many ways the personal student of Master Berg, always staying behind for extra training. This amount of one-on-one coaching had undoubtedly given her an edge, not to mention that she had foregone practicing with a spirit weapon too, as Lenny was doing.

After a few rounds of technical back-and forth boxing, Nicholas had been eager to try too. Instead of using his flames to attack, he would shoot them out from his elbows to generate force. Combining this with the extra resilience he had from his high spirit essence, he was an interesting sparring partner for both of them. He felt like a gifted brawler, full of brute strength and speed, shockingly resilient, yet no technique to speak of. Or at least, he had that natural punching style, full of force but untechnical and full of holes in his defence. Even so, they struggled to capitalise on them. It was incredibly frustrating to fight such an opponent, but at the same time, they had to admit, it was good practice for a whole different kind of foe, and a training partner it would be hard for them to replicate.

Nicholas had also been impressed, both by the endurance of Vee and the impact of Lenny’s strikes. It felt like he was being punched by someone with a hardening ability, something he had faced in his initial entrance ranking.

That left only Ollie, the boy with a red sash. He’d been stood off to one side while the others sparred.

"And you? What can you do?" asked Nicholas.

The boy scratched his head. "I can run. I can run a lot. Like, if you need anything carrying or you need to get a message to someone, I’m your man."

Nicholas scratched his head. If they needed someone to transport things, a teleport or portal ability would provide much more utility than simply sprinting across the battlefield. Still, they could always use him as a kind of forward scout if the need arose. "Okay, well, that’ll do for today. We’ve got sparring tomorrow, one day to rest up, then it’s all go."