Chapter 40: Simulation room.
A heavy sigh escaped Kate's lips as she glanced to the far side of the observation room, signalling for Solis to end the session from the control panel.
"Alright, that's enough."
Rin's eyes shot wide as she successfully freed herself from the steel grip of the now deactivated level 3 robot.
She had been surrounded by three of them.
The metal bodies of the ones she had already dealt with layed in smoking heaps across the room, their forms filled with large holes.
"No! Please don't. I can keep going! I was just about to break free and kill the rest of them." Rin shouted from the simulation chamber.
"I said that's enough Rin. Now come up here." Kate said with an annoyed look.
She wasn't sure what had happened to the Dune family heir in the past few weeks, but it was obvious her concentration had deteriorated considerably.
She had taken down a dozen of these level three bots with ease during most of her previous visits here. Now, she could barely handle nine.
Kate had no plans of letting the girl get herself killed when she was obviously going through something.
At least not until the final exam. At that point, it would have nothing to do with her.
Rin gritted her teeth in frustration as she tossed aside her gun and went up the stairs leading to the observation deck – where the rest of the knight trainees were watching from.
Like always, there was no scheduled class or anything of the sorts.
It was just common for trainees to spend their time here observing their peers fight.
Like the trainees, Kate often visited here whenever she wasn't busy, in an attempt to monitor the trainees growth closely.
So far, she hadn't been disappointed.
Instructor Solus meanwhile stood off to the side of the room with a bored expression on her cute but sharp features. She was the instructor in charge of handling the Aurnex control panel that spat out the robots from the pocket factory below the large base.
"Anyone else want to go down there?" Kate asked as she glanced at the trainees in the room.
Her gaze settled on Arbus who seemed as lost in thought as usual for a brief moment.
Despite her being in charge of this facility, she hadn't interacted with the human as much as the other instructors.
She wondered if that was a conscious effort to stop herself from accidentally killing him in rage.
'No, I would never do that.' She scolded as her gaze left him.
She'd found herself thinking that more often over the last few weeks after she'd gotten the news that her staff wouldn't be returning.
It seemed that Instead of a burning desire for revenge, they had chosen the only other option available.
Acceptance.
"I'll go, instructor."
Kate's eyes quickly landed on the smiling prince who had just volunteered.
'Well, not much of a surprise.' she thought.
Unlike everyone else, the prince was a consistent visitor of this room.
Whenever he came here, it was always certain that he would fight, trying to do more than he had done last time.
Truthfully, she was impressed.
'It's only natural for someone from his family I guess.' She mused inwardly.
That was not something she was willing to say out loud though, since the prince seemed to have some issues with that topic in particular.
"Alright then." Kate replied simply.
Jet nodded as he descended the stairs toward the simulation chamber.
On his way, he walked past an annoyed Rin as he quickly flashed her a look of slight disappointment.
Rin frowned at the prince in anger as she glared at him in return.
"What level." Solus asked with more excitement than usual as Jet reached the simulation room.
All the bots from Rin's round had already been swallowed into the ground, including the destroyed ones.
Jet raised his arms in a stretching motion as his usual smile spread across his face.
"Nine Level fours, please."
Kate's thin brows furrowed as she frowned.
"Are you sure about that, prince Jet? Overconfidence can often be a fatal detriment for a knight."
Jet let out a small laugh.
"Don't worry, Head Instructor. I know what I'm doing. I'd never ask for it otherwise."
Kate's expression didn't ease. She sighed again as she signaled for Solus to comply with his request.
A few moments later, Five new bots emerged from below, each completely different from the previous bulky cyclops-like models.
These ones were about six feet tall, with two pairs of hands, legs and eyes – like a Mornan.
The only difference was their strange shade of colours.
That was because they were designed to resemble Humans.
They were also far more dangerous than the previous ones.
"Weapon of choice?" Solus asked.
"Hmm. Let's go with dual blades today."Jet answered.
The floor in front of him opened up as two long duel blades rose on a glinting podium.
After he took them, the podium retracted soundlessly back into the floor.
Arbus's attention was finally drawn back to Jet as he studied the bots with interest.
"Begin."
The bots activated simultaneously, all five sprinting toward Jet with inhuman speed.
He reacted quickly, not waiting for them to reach him. Instead he charged forward at rapid speeds to meet their advance.
Just as he was about to crash into them, the lead bot already extending its hand to grab him, Jet launched himself into the air, flipping over the entire group gracefully.
Taken by surprise, the bots were a second too slow to react, their momentum still pushing them forward.
Jet quickly seized the opportunity, landing behind them and slicing through the legs of the two bots closest to him.
The two bots crashed to the ground violently as they whirled back to face him, unperturbed about the loss of their legs.
They moved to grab onto his ankle, just as the other bots turned toward him to join them.
THWACK!
Jet simply kicked the fallen bot closest to him into the others with enough force to push them back as he created distance between himself and them.
His expression remained the same as he darted forward with his blades, preparing to weave through any attacks while landing his own.
He had already gotten used to these bots after fighting them so much for the last few weeks.
The only difference today was the extra one he had asked for.
The most dangerous thing about these things were their speed and tenacity.
As long as it wasn't a dozen like he had asked for on his first day in this room, then he would be fine. Better than fine even.
"Wow, he's matching them so easily." Alexander said as he came up the stairs after going through the small corridor in the room that separated the training sector from the observation deck.
A few eyes glanced towards him briefly before quickly losing interest.
They didn't want to miss the show Jet was putting on.
He didn't seem to mind as he strode over to Arbus and dropped down to sit beside him.
"Each of those things has the basic physical strength of a Reincarnator upon their Reincarnation – according to the records."
"Which means they're all as strong as an average silver Mornan. And yet he managed to adapt this much and come up with ways to stay in the winning end. That's impressive."
Arbus glanced towards Alexander for a second.
He turned back to Jet with a small grunt, then shrugged.
"It's all right, I guess."
He remained quiet for several moments as he watched Jet take off another Robots head after almost losing his.
It was obvious to Arbus that Jet wasn't matching them as easily as he wanted others to believe.
Not that he cared too much.
These things are probably physically as strong as Reincarnators, sure, but that doesn't really mean much in the first place."
"Oh, why's that?" Alexander asked curiously.
Arbus's thoughts briefly drifted to Terytl-b and Ronan and how he had beaten the life out of him.
"What makes Reincarnators so dangerous isn't their bodies. It's their powers. Their strange, unfathomable, and terrifying powers." Arbus muttered as he clenched his fist tightly.
A second later, his regeneration quickly healed the small damage caused by his nails.
Alexander nodded thoughtfully.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Just like Renegades with the Heart shards. Not even Gold Mornans would stand a chance against Reincarnators without those."
"Yeah. just like that."
Arbus responded just as Jet split the last robot down the middle.
The prince studied himself for several moments, noticing the numerous but shallow injuries he had sustained.
An annoyed expression crossed his pale features for a brief moment before he dropped it a second later and headed back up to the deck.