After a good long while and a somewhat nice sleep for all three of the bearers, they are finally arriving at the nearest acceleration gate. Rydel ended up just going to bed instead of trying to get any useful work done as he cannot stop thinking about what happened just a few hours prior.
He has received mental training for such scenarios when he first joined the space exploration fleet, but so many years have past and the words of the psychiatrist merely became shades within his rusty memories.
Rydel turned around in his bed yet again, and someone knocked on his door.
'Yo!' Rydel mustered up some energy and answers, 'come in!'
Cellica walked in as she rubs her eyes and yawns, 'How are you?'
'Fine.' Rydel turned to face the ceiling and shuffled to the side as Cellica came and sat on the edge of the bed, facing away, 'I just need to practice some of the techniques they taught at the space fleet to calm myself down.'
'Yeah. Those are good.' Cellica answered plainly and her voice sounded as if it's coming from another room. Rydel unconsciously raised his eyebrows slightly as he realized Cellica is being a little hesitant about something. There is something she wanted to say, but she is equally cautious about saying it.
'Do you have something...' Rydel asked but was interrupted by her before finishing the sentence.
'My turn. Do you blame me for making the call?' Cellica asked and her back slouched over, 'do you hate how I only allowed us to monitor from a distance?'
'I can't possibly comment on that...Not after the fact' Rydel sat up and bounced his way to next to Cellica, 'You are also following the rules and regulations of the bureau right?'
'That would be a very convenient excuse to fall back on, yeah.' Cellica shook her head and her golden hair tied up in a pony tail swung from side to side, 'That's part of the job, and I am fine with it. Or I thought I was, but...things...I, I don't really know...'
Rydel looked at her as she struggles for words and reaches out to her, putting his hand along her shoulders. But instead, she stood up and headed to the door.
'Can I have some time to figure something out?' She asked without turning around.
'Sure, but if you need someone to talk to...' Rydel felt a tinge of sadness and uncertainty. He is confused as to what's bothering Cellica, but all he can do now is let her figure out on her own. Probably.
Half an hour later, Dolon was the one the came to the door of his room. 'Kid.' Dolon leaned against the door and pointed the Lightning Rod at him, 'We are heading back to Athena 3 now, since we are stuck now with eyes out of commission for a few days, and the marker she placed is also disabled just now.
''Ah.' Rydel opened his mouth wide open, 'So... what now?'
'Now, we prepare.'
Dolon wiggled her way to in front of Rydel and pressed the tip of the Lightning Rod on her third left arm against Rydel's chest, 'or should I say, I prepare you.'
'Huh?'
'Right, so no matter what the GBI plans to do, it seems like we will have to confront them, one way or another.' Dolon explained further, 'right now, all that Cellica can provide for GBI is the intelligence of an organization being guilty of robbing multiple scientific instruments for some purposes and their whereabouts. She might be able to hint towards high level weapons being manufactured, but there is no saying her superiors will really believe her, regardless of what cards she is playing.'
'So... I see.' Rydel thought about it seriously and understood what Dolon is implying, 'so the forces will take care of the illegal base, but the locating and rescuing of Zel will be left to us?'
'Most likely, as they would have no idea who that is.' Dolon nodded, 'now, have you done any sort of training in this area?'
'No, not really...' Rydel shook his head, 'and would there be enough time to get me up to speed?'
'Nope.' Dolon made it perfectly clear, 'it's not possible especially with how you humans learn. But Aquarians have a special strategy to get you up to speed, quickly.'
'Is there a caviat to such a technique?'
'Obviously, it would be quite an effort, and a little painful. Just a twinge.'
'How painful is a twinge?'
'Well, how much do you want to progress.....?'
'As much as I can.' Rydel clenched his fist and looked straight at Dolon, 'I will not be denied. Pain is subjective anyway.'
'That's what I like to see, kid. Get some rest when you can over the next little while.'
'Right...tell me again why we are here in the gaming room?'
Dolon dragged the tired Rydel to the room where he logged on to War Game last time literally the minute they have arrived back on Athena 3.
'Because this is where your training is going to take place.' Dolon answered as she went and opened the drawer in the corner of the room and quickly went through all the things inside to locate a carton of unknown glowing green liquid, 'now, last chance to pull out.'
'Nope. Let's go.' Rydel picked up the helmet and was ready to put it on, but Dolon grabbed it with two of her arms and slapped a handful of the green fluid on both his head and in the helmet. The fluid is rather viscous and sticky, but cool to touch, 'Ok, I know I have the resolve to go through this and all, but what is going on here?'
'You are about to enter an accelerated learning process, according to human standards, but this is how we share knowledge and skills across different individuals for Aquarians in times of need or laziness.' Dolon said as she slapped the helmet onto Rydel, 'however, our nervous systems are strong enough to handle it, and we really have to slow it down for you guys. This fluid will help reduce any side effect of the learning, like a dampening fluid to slow down the blunt of the impact, at least for us. So it should help you too.'
'Not sure how much I trust that leap inlogic, but...' Rydel swallowed the bitter pill and allowed Dolon to do whatever she pleases, 'now what?'
'Log on, dummy.'
Rydel could barely remember his password to the War Game since the last time he signed on was a while ago, but thankfully it finally went through after what felt like ten tries. Just as he got in, Dolon has also logged on using a much smaller War Games gaming set. She has the same normal outfit for a mediocre player, and Rydel have to admire the subtlety.
'So I have mentioned before about the accelerated learning skit. Basically, we will set the brain-computer interface speed to high and slow down the in game time so you would enter a dream state where you have much longer than you would normally to practice and learn certain skills.' Dolon says as she opens up a black dialogue box that's drastically contrasting against the natural bright and colorful background of the beginners village.
'Urgh, is that a mod?' Rydel pointed at the box, then he felt everything soften as he fell onto the ground and his arms and legs felt like as if they are moving away. Then in about half a minute, he has regained control of it.
'Despite all the exterior, the War Games has one of the very best in body simulations ever, which is why accelerated learning will work awesome in this scenario. This is like one step further to when we last fought in the game.' Dolon waved her arms as the two entered yet another custom made room with a terrain similar to Athena 3, 'obviously, these kind of learning is better for certain skills than others. But yeah...I hate talking, so let's get going.'
Funny enough, there is already a game mode that simulates entrance and extraction, and the accompanying tutorial offered by the game itself is actually surprisingly solid even by Dolon's standards. With the standard military gear of physical and energy shields, physical and energy weapons and the normal vests, helmets and everything else, it only took Rydel about two hours game time or twenty minutes real time to get back into groove.
He was never a bad shot or anything back at the space force, rather he lets his creativity and above average coordination to take the lead in combat situations and break him out of tough spots. The very training Dolon was planning to train Rydel on didn't take that long as he quickly grasped what he need to do in each situation. You don't really need to be a genius to get it, and with time and some practice, anyone can do it.
Now, as the basics are crossed off the list, Dolon now moved back to the close quarter combat training. Rather than actions to take, combat training are much more demanding technically and physically, and there is realistically no chance for Rydel to get anywhere near Dolon's mastery, but that's fine.
'When in combat, if you can subdue the enemy with superior planning, technology or weapons, then do it.' Dolon said as she stood at the end of a hallway, 'Close quarter combat should be used as your last resort, since most others will probably be more sklled at it than you.'
'Oh come on, don't be so mean.' Rydel put the guns back into his back pack and pulled out a pair of standard army knife, then he changed his idea and pulled out a pair of ultra-light modified maces.
'WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?' Dolon equipped only a pair of blades on her arms and pointed at that monstrosity held in Rydel's hands, 'what's so wrong with edge based weapons?'
'Nothing...but since it doesn't really matter...' Rydel pulled those back and stood tall, 'I don't think there is much point for me to get a crash course on close quarter combat.'
'What?! Really?' Dolon started swinging the blades around so fast that the sound effect couldn't even keep up and pointed it frantically at Rydel, 'What do you mean? Just cause I said it was the last resort doesn't mean they are useless!'
'Well...I can do this!' Rydel activated his glove and threw a chunk of metal he summoned from the walls of the hallway in game. Dolon prepared herself in a stance, and sliced the metal chunk in one smooth motion. Then she loaded her body and shoot forward with blinding speed to get in front of Rydel and pin him in between blades before he can even activate his artifact once more.
'Ok, I take it back.' Rydel shook his head, then opened his hand and those modified mace appeared and he gently kissed its head on Dolon's stomach. Immediately after contact, the mace's head looks like its shaking and suddenly expanded outwards and the impulse hit her right in the body like a motorcycle, throwing her all the way back onto the ground.
'Woah!' Rydel never thought the modified shock mace would be this powerful, this is one of those gadget melee weapons that's never too useful according to the traditionalist experts but the subtle compliant mechanisms that wind up the the surface of the mace to give out a powerful pop is what intrigued Rydel as an engineer.
That's why when he sees this is as part of the available weapons, he decided to get it out and give a shot.
'That, is some human level dirty trick weapons. For sure!' Dolon sat up and rubbed her tummy gently, 'I guess it would be useful in a scenario where you have to recreate the distance between two people?'
'Well.....I would say this is more of a meme weapon, but yeah.....' Rydel pointed the mace at Dolon as he pulled back on a string-like bob at the bottom of the mace to rewind the firing mechanism, 'this is the beauty of human engineering. And I think if I disguise this as something else than I will be able to avoid most close quarter combats by simply shooting them backwards and avoiding any actual fighting.'
'Ok...' Dolon got up, 'whatever.....for the rest of the accelerated training, let's fight enough to make sure you will at least be able to handle yourself! Use whatever means you prefer.'
Dolon, with two blades in her hand, prepared herself in a starting stance, then she immediately closed the distance between the two with just a few quick steps and stabbed both blades towards the torso of Rydel's body.
In response to this aggresive approach, Rydel stepped back quickly to regain the distance, but was immediately overwhelmed by Dolon's continuous attacks. She moved her body around like flood water rushing through a small valley and eats away Rydel's space.
Rydel did just about as well as he could to track the movement of her blades with his peripheral vision, but her superiority is obvious even to the blind.
With a swift movement of a few slashes faster than he could see, Rydel was pushed back onto the ground as his health points drops to zero.
'Again.' Dolon turned around, 'try to actually do something. Don't get too excited and stay calm.'
Rydel held the maces right in front of him just like the basic combat training taught him and got in an athletic stance to prepare for Dolon's next attack. This time, he was more focused and Dolon's movements seemed a little bit slower in his hyper-focused state. He is reading her and he even occasionally blocked the blades to the side with the body of his mace.
'Hahaha I am getting this!' Rydel sees an opening as an attack went slightly higher and over his head and went in with the mace, but Dolon suddenly turned into a blur and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground again.
'So, what do you think happened?' Dolon stood above him and reached out to pull him back up.
'I must have lost focus at the since it seemed you sped up all of a sudden.' Rydel reflected upon what happened.
'Nope, I just sped up.' Dolon slapped Rydel's ass on her way back to the starting point. There really isn't anyone more trolly than Dolon, really.
Rydel cussed at her backside, and prepared for yet another round.
With more and more rounds of failure, Rydel's awareness of the weapons became better and better and soon Dolon had to really focus to put Rydel down. Even though Rydel has not been able to land a single hit on Dolon since he is busy trying not to get knocked out, he has been able to stand his ground, somewhat. There was even one instant where the pop of the mace knocked one blade clean out of Dolon's hands.
'Let's get Torelamri to print two of those maces in the workshop, it could come in super handy.' During one of the brief rest periods, Dolon waved Rydel off and sent off the order.
'This is incredible, we have been going at it for hours now and I am not tired in the slightest!' Rydel waved his arms around and hopped around, 'is this what learning in a dream is like?'
'We do it much faster, but this is the dumbed down version yes.' Dolon clapped her hands, 'the rest is just so that your nervous system would be able to recover somewhat. You ready?'
'Come at me.' Rydel thought of something to try on Dolon and planned his attack.
Dolon laughed at Rydel's challenge and charges forward once again. Rydel is going about the usual defensive stance and only knocked away attacks that will definitely land on him and dodging backwards and sideways if he can, he even threw in a barrel roll for good measure.
'Here!' There was one moment of pause in Rydel's motion after he got up, and Dolon spotted this opportunity to close in a swipe at him. Rydel smiled at that attempt and threw a mace right at her body! It was a close range throw and judging by its speed, it will definitely make contact if she didn't stop it!
Now Dolon is left with two choices. She could either knock that mace off to the side with one of her blades and risk losing that blade all together but keeping the attack going, or she can use one of the more advanced footwork from the martial arts style Living grass and pivot around, maintaining the attack stance while dodging to the side.
She chose the former.
Despite the fact that she would continue on with her attack, the Living Grass's spin cycle maneuver will throw her slightly off balance at least for an instant before everything is controlled with the foot strike onto the ground. She can afford to stick with the basics with opponents like Rydel, and take him down with one blade. With a swipe of the blade on her left, she knocked the mace to the side, but she couldn't hold on to the blade either. That's to be expected and Dolon's momentum was not moved by an inch.
The right blade is going to hit regardless!
Then, she saw a sneaky smile on Rydel's face. He reaches out and grabbed onto the blade with his left hand. The blade disappeared.
It was as if the blade didn't make contact, and Dolon couldn't stop her forward momentum as Rydel pivots around to let her go past him and winds up the mace on his right hand for a lethal blow.
At the last moment, Dolon opened her equipment pack to drew out the last two blades and crossed it behind her back.
The weapons clashed, and Dolon rolled forward as Rydel was yanked back slightly.
'So we are using four blades now?' Rydel was more than frustrated about not being able to land a clean hit on her.
'Kid, you are the one to start using the artifact here.' Dolon stood up and transfered the blades to her middle two arms so she could spare one to point at Rydel, 'but not bad! You caught me off guard again.'
'Bet you didn't see that coming!' Rydel laughed as he takes in all the compliments and blow up his ego, 'I knew the in game physics is altered in such a way, but I am not sure it will work in real life.'
'yeah, and in real life I won't be able to have the weapons in my arms in point three seconds.' Dolon clincked the blades together to make a 'ing' sound, 'but you know what?'
'What?'
'In real life, ya fabulous girl will be using four blades.' Dolon opened her pack to take out yet another two blades and have one in each arm except for the lower middle pair since one of them has the lightning rod on it, 'get ready!'
'Are you serious...'
'You know what? This game is pretty amazing.'
After god knows how many days of basically training and sleep, Rydel is finally logged out after Dolon suggested so. The helmet now stinks of sweat and he almost gagged at it, seems like a shower is in order, 'And what's amazing is that I feel so much stronger and more skilled with all the weapons and stuff!'
'You sure are passionate for someone that's just started in his journey to become as strong as he can be.' Dolon rolled all her eyes at Rydel, as that's a universal facial expression across the three species.
'Yes!' Rydel snapped his fingers and pointed at Dolon, 'isn't that what makes it exciting? Plus I finally landed some hits on you too!'
'With the help of your artifact!'
'Did you mean...with the help of one of the powers within my arsenal?'
Dolon raised her hand and gave Rydel a little zap, causing him to scream and jump.
'Right, before you go clean yourself, I got something.' Cellica's voice came through from the door side, 'I found Zel, and we will move out as soon as we can!'