Marzette was not a novice. She had seen a great many battles in her time. And she had dedicated her life to the study of inner energy in all its forms.
But this was completely new to her.
Her people didn't have a name for one's inner energy. They simply called it any variation of life energy or inner energy or whatever. Clearly though, Knox's people did. His arrogance was mildly annoying, but she couldn't deny that perhaps he truly did know more about it than her.
Ki, he called it.
A power she thought was aligned to empowerment and destruction. His questioning of why she was capable of flight unsettled that notion, but this completely shattered that worldview.
'Is it... me?' she wondered.
Marzette glanced down at her hands, flexing her claws almost unconsciously. She was the strongest up until he came, of that she had no doubt. Every tragedy that she overcame forged her into the disciplined warrior she was today.
But there was no denying one painful truth: she had never left her home world.
Her mind drifted upward, toward the vast night sky. The stars above twinkled faintly, scattered across the darkness like a thousand distant fires.
Something about it overwhelmed her in that moment. A stark reminder of just how small she was in the cosmic scale of existence.
How vast the universe truly was.
Her knowledge of Ki wasn't primitive because she was primitive. It was because she had never seen the universe in its infinite depth. Everything she understood came from the narrow lens of her upbringing.
She had spent so long mastering her world's systems, building power within the confines of what her people had deemed possible, that she had never thought to truly question what 'impossible' was.
For the first time, she didn't feel frustration or irritation toward Knox, only grudging respect.
He was impulsive, reckless, and disgustingly arrogant... but none of that had stopped him from refusing to be confined by the boundaries of what others thought possible.
Yet she had long ago accepted that she had reached her limit. That the only thing she could do left was nurture the next generation to surpass her. It was half of the reason she tended to treat Knox like a child; he reminded her so much of her own students.
...But her mandibles clicked as a fragile, long-lost flame rekindled within her. The quiet dawning of a truth she had once forgotten.
'There's still so much left to learn.'
She shot a final glance at the glittering sky, then focused her Ki, propelling herself upward after him in a blur.
__________
Knox swiped away the notification hovering in his line of sight with a casual motion.
[Psychokinesis (F)] skill acquired!
Through focused mental prowess amplified by ki, you can move and manipulate matter without lifting a finger.
+1 MIND multiplier for acquiring a mental skill.
The details faded from view as his bloodied hand dropped to his side. His smirk grew as he flew closer to the pods and ship, now sitting pathetically grounded amidst the rocky terrain, their engines sputtering as the crew scrambled to fix them.
They were panicking. He could see them scurrying about here and there, trying to repair whatever damage he caused.
Knox landed on a shallow incline, casually kicking a small rock aside with his foot as he stood at the edge of the chaos. He took a moment to crack his neck and let his energy swell around him, watching with glee as they all turned to him as their scouters beeped.
"Alright!" he bellowed. "I do not have the patience for this shit, so listen up and listen well! You've got five seconds to clear outta that ship before I blow it sky-high with all of you in it!"
He began to raise his hand, letting the faint glow of Ki collect in his palm, just enough to make the point clear. "Five…!"
The sound of muffled yelling emerged from the ship, one voice eventually rising above the others.
"Five what?! What's a 'second,' you lunatic?!"
Knox's smirk instantly turned razor-sharp. Instead of answering, he held his hand steady, watching as more frantic movement erupted across the ship's decks.
"Four!"
The counting alone seemed to unnerve them. Several figures flew out of an adjacent escape hatch, their gray jumpsuits visible under the dim light of the ship's emergency flares. But Knox didn't react to the escaping slaves, none of them were important enough to waste energy on.
"Three…!"
A small squadron of soldiers shot out of the main opening, a clear difference in their composure from the expendables who had bolted earlier. Knox's smirk widened as the armored soldiers set themselves in formation midair, shouting commands to one another to contain him.
"Gotcha~" Knox muttered.
Before they realized what was even going on, it was over. In an instant, he vanished from their line of sight. Their bodies all froze mid-movement, the realization that they were done for dawning far too late.
Now, their bodies weren't under their control anymore.
'Psychokinesis is so useful. Why didn't any of the Z Fighters focus on using techniques like this?'
Knox reappeared above them and squeezed his hand. Following that motion, all of them were yanked into a single point in the air, bodies clamoring over each other.
Their panicked screams were horrifying as he opened up his hand and released all the Ki gathering under the surface. The Ki lashed outward, devouring them in a single deadly cone of pure energy.
[—Enemy Slain—]
[Level Up!]
Level 3 → Level 4.
All stats have been increased by +1.
[!] New Level Requirement: Kill a [6,250] Power Level enemy.
Knox exhaled deeply as the resulting glow illuminated the battlefield for a fleeting moment, casting shadows across the remaining soldiers as their comrades disintegrated into nothing.
His muscles hummed with latent strength, his mind sharpened as though a veil had been lifted.
For a fleeting moment, the rush lapped at his mind like waves threatening to overwhelm him. His breaths deepened, his fists tightening, his aura crackling faintly at the edges.
But this time, he took notice.
With a deliberate inhale, Knox activated [Thought Acceleration].
His perception slowed, the euphoric energy coursing through him suddenly stilling within his mind. He let the feeling wash through him, but instead of clinging to it recklessly, he observed it.
'There it is again,' he thought. Maybe it was because he was finally aware of his own mental ki, but his clarity felt boosted to high heavens. And finally, he could see it.
Every time he gained a level, increased a stat, or did anything to gain more power… his aura reacted. It shifted his instincts unnaturally. Paranoia, aggression, impatience. Subtle shifts that gradually warped his perception.
'It's that damn [Evil Aura],' he concluded. 'Just like a mosquito, constantly bothering me.'
Even acknowledging it made him bristle, but Knox forced himself to let go of the tension building in his chest. He steadied his breathing, letting the energy settle until it no longer burned against his control.
When he blinked and returned to the present moment, the manic wildfire of sensation had been replaced by an efficient blaze.
"But every time I get stronger," his smirk vanished as he rolled out his shoulder. "It gets stronger. Soon I won't be able to hold it back from influencing me anymore."
Predictably, it was chaos below him.
The moment the ground troops realized what had happened, panic erupted among the ranks. Soldiers scattered in every direction, scrambling into the air or sprinting toward the pods. Knox hung in the air above them, watching them as they went and keeping track of them with his impossibly fast mental energy.
But now Knox didn't have the urge to incinerate them all for the hell of it.
Far off, another loud explosion tore through the horizon as Marzette arrived in an unmistakable streak of white. Knox turned slightly, catching her trajectory as she took down a few soldiers on her way in bursts of pinpoint power.
She arrived near him moments later, her aura flickering faintly. "I thought you'd be done by now," she commented, wiping away blood from her claws.
"Oh, trust me, I could wrap this up in a second. Just pacing myself, you know?" He lied. She didn't need to know he was just getting himself under control.
Marzette stared for a while, and he was unsure if she believed him. But instead of commenting on that, she turned to survey the fragments of the battlefield. "There's no point in dragging this out much longer."
Knox dropped his hands to his sides, his aura shifting faintly into view. "Yeah, yeah. Alright," he said. "Guess I'll get this over with."
He raised his arm again, locking all of the soldiers his Ki latched onto into place. With casual-
"WAIT!"
A voice boomed from the main ship, the sound reverberating to all corners of the battlefield and stopping Knox in his place.
A hefty man with a blaster attached to his arm adorned in a tattered cloak over his armor flew into view. His chest was heaving as he rose up, both hands raised in a placating gesture.
"If you don't... stop this... senseless slaughter… you will… sorely regret it."
"..."
'Is… is this guy serious?' The urge to simply blast this man through the face was quite possibly stronger than his Evil Aura.
But Knox refrained, curious. He floated closer, his arms crossed with a mocking grin on his lips. "What could you possibly do to me that could make me regret anything?"
He hadn't checked it yet, but he was fairly certain that level up put him firmly in the five digits club power level wise. Not a soul would be able to threaten him for a while.
The soldier flinched but didn't back down. Instead, with a trembling hand, he reached onto his face and pulled off his scouter. It beeped faintly, as if already struggling to keep up with the sheer turbulence created by Knox's overwhelming energy.
"Not me…" the soldier said, holding the device up with an almost cocky grin. "But our fleet commander. H-he wishes to speak with you. And you'll want to hear what he has to say."