Chapter 98: New Powers
Hugo headed downstairs and found Sunny in the common area, typing away on his communicator. When Sunny noticed him, he looked up, and promptly froze.
"What in the Spell are you wearing?"
Hugo flashed him a smile as he puffed up his chest.
"This, my boy, is called divine fashion. What do you think?"
"I think it looks completely and utterly ridiculous," Sunny said.
"Well that's not very nice of you, but alright. Anyway, Sunny, would you care for a spar? I would like to test my new body and abilities."
Hearing this, Sunny did get a little excited. It seemed he had developed a love for combat in the last two years.
"Sure. Let's go to the training grounds... And please change that ridiculous outfit once we get there, I don't want to be seen with you wearing that" he said.
Hugo clutched his chest dramatically. "You wound me more than any wound, Sir Sunless."
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The two masters were now standing in one of the underground training basements of the Immortal Flame Manor, wearing the standard training outfit. Which was a pair of light black commando pants and a sleek black shirt.
Hugo, much to his annoyance, had dismissed the outfit that Uniform Mode had granted him in favor of this lackluster black outfit.
Hugo stretched a little, as he listened to Sunny say:
"I assume you have an idea on how to control your powers?"
Ascended were naturally stronger than awakened were, both physically and spiritually, and so, they needed to learn how to use their powers.
Hugo clenched his fist slightly "I'll manage"
He had experience being an ascended creature, after all he used ascended transformations during the second nightmare. However, he was never an ascended human before and most importantly, as an ascended alien, he never had to control his powers output, instead he simply unleashed everything he had whenever he Transformed.
But Hugo was one of the most adaptable people in the world, being able to adapt to nearly any form in existence, so he could manage in this new body without much trouble.
"Do we go with weapons first or without?" Hugo asked.
"Let's do hand to hand melee first"
With that, both fighters took a step back, preparing themselves.
Neither Hugo nor Sunny augmented themselves with essence for now, simply relying on their base physical stats.
Sunny launched at Hugo first, closing the distance in an instant and brought his fist towards Hugo's face.
Hugo barely managed to dodge it by twisting his head, noticing that Sunny was incredibly fast and nimble thanks to his size but that was not the only reason for his inhuman speed...
Shortly after, Sunny used his other hand and delivered a sharp punch to Hugo's side.
Hugo felt pain flood his body, however he quickly recovered and kicked Sunny in the knee before launching a fist aimed directly at his jaw.
Sunny, being the martial artist that he was, managed to swat Hugo's hand away and break their lock, moving away from him.
The two circled each other for a moment, analyzing and processing the movements of the other.
Hugo had noticed something strange in Sunny's movement. Back in the Forgotten Shore, he had always been nimble and fast, moving like a shadow.
But now, Sunny felt like an actual flawless shadow in human form. moving and changing depending on his circumstances, almost instinctively.
Hugo might be the most adaptable awakened in the world but Sunny definitely beat him in terms of being more adaptable in combat.
After all, was there anything in existence that was as adaptable as a shadow?
'Maybe it's his awakened or ascended abilities?'
Hugo slowly moved to the weapon racks, and grabbed an alloy spear, before grabbing a sword and tossing it to Sunny.
Sunny grabbed the blade calmly and looked at Hugo. "Not so confident in your hands?"
"Yes. I have no chance at beating you in hand to hand combat, but it's a whole different story with a spear."
With that, Hugo launched forward, thrusting his spear towards Sunny.
In response to this assault, Sunny used his sword to change the trajectory of the attack, quickly swiping it away and aimed the sword towards Hugo's chest.
Before it could land, Hugo changed his stance and used the spear to block the sword slash.
Sunny's eyes narrowed slightly as he recognized the change in Hugo's stance.
Sunny pushed on the offense, delivering multiple brutal slashes, however Hugo stood firm, not even moving as he blocked each other with an alien precision. Then, when the chance came, he delivered multiple strikes using the shaft of the spear that even Sunny had trouble blocking due to how violent they were.
The switch between defense to offense had surprised Sunny, as he did not expect Hugo to be this skilled.
There were three types of awakeneds in this world: ones that relied on their aspects in combat, ones that relied on their memories and ones that relied on their skills.
Hugo belonged to the first catagory, while Sunny was an amalgamation of all three, a True anomaly in battle.
As they traded blows, both masters switched between offense and defense, showcasing their battle arts.
Sunny had the advantage here, as he was not only faster but he understood the principal of Hugo's battle art. Perhaps more than Hugo himself.
After a few minutes, they backed away once again.
Sunny pointed his sword towards Hugo.
"You are using the battle art of the Stone Saints... How did you..." His expression suddenly changed, as he seemed to recall something. "Of course. You scanned Saint back on the Forgotten Shore and practiced her battle art, then you copied it in your human form..."
"Guilty as charged," Hugo responded, almost terrified by how smart Sunny was when it came to battle, and by how fast he deduced all of that.
Hugo had indeed adapted the battle art of the Stone Saints into his human form, using his photographicmemory, granted by his [Extraordinary Memory] attribute to replicate the movement.
Of course, remembering a battle art and actually using it were two very different things. There were too many factors to consider, such as the difference between Hugo's human body and the Stone Saint's form and more importantly, the fact that his combat instincts only truly awakened when he was Transformed, leaving his human movements comparatively sloppy.
"I practiced that battle style myself with Saint, you know," Sunny said, looking at him intensely. "It's a good battle art, relying on three simple foundations: simplicity, firm defense and violent offense. However you have not mastered it yet. I would say you are merely an apprentice when it comes to using it."
His words were not harsh, just brutally honest.
Sunny was clearly holding back in their fight, not to embarrass him but to push him forward. He was testing Hugo's limits and gauging his skills in terms of combat and movement.
"Still, the fact that you're someone who mainly relies on their aspect while still possessing such a battle art is remarkable. It's more than what most awakened manage these days" Sunny added, as he moved towards Hugo once again.
Hugo smiled, taking his stance once again "This humble junior appreciate his senior's kind words"
The following was a beautiful masterpiece of attacks and clashes, with both combatants dancing together to weave a beautiful symphony of combat.
In the end, Sunny had won by shattering Hugo's spear in half with a precis blow.
Hugo exhaled, not tired yet but shocked at how skilled sunny had gotten in just two years.
"Oof, good fight," he said throwing the broken spear aside.
Sunny put the damaged sword back in its place and nodded. "It was. You should keep training in that battle style, it's extremely useful against humans and nightmare creatures alike."
"True... But now that we finished basic combat, let's get to the real deal," Hugo said, giving Sunny a wild smile.
Sunny shivered slightly. "Oh boy"
Hugo raised his arm, and touched the main faceplate of the Omnitrix, causing a dial in the shape of a circle to manifest above it.
The aliens in the holographic dial represented the creatures of Playlist 1#, they were previously all awakened, but now, with Hugo's increase in rank, each and every one of them was an ascended.
Hugo was excited to use his old aliens, and he even had a certain alien in mind to use in this fight.
Reaching it after circling for a while, he let go of the faceplate and watched as it opened up, revealing the core of the Omnitrix.
Hugo slammed it down gently, and felt the familiar rush of energy rush through his body.
His skin shifted from pale skin to deep crimson, and his body suddenly grew in size, becoming more muscular and robust.
An extra pair of arms emerged from his new big torso, accompanied by two extra eyes.
"Four Arms!" Hugo shouted the name of his transformation, reveling in his newfound strength.
He had never felt the power of Four Arms as an ascended so it was a new experience.
Hugo had used his Master Control to only utilize four of his Omni-Cores as Four Arms, that was done to make it a fair fight between him and Sunny, who was currently a devil as well.
Imprint: [Tetramand]
Imprint Rank: Ascended
Imprint Class: Devil (Titan)
Imprint Description: [The most powerful champions of the red Colosseum, the true children of war knew no equal in battle, their sheer might alone rivaling all other noble creatures but they too found the mercy of shadow once the daughter of war, Solvane unleashed the madness of hope upon them]
Imprint Attributes: [Titan Blood], [Brawler], [Acrobatic], [Battle Master]
Imprint Abilities: [Exceed], [Empower]
[Titan Blood] Description: [The Tetramand's physical power is unmatched]
[Brawler] Description: [The Tetramand's battle art is engraved within their blood]
[Acrobatics] Description: [The Tetramand mastered war, eventually reaching the conclusion that mastering the movement of the body was the key to winning any battle]
[Battle Master] Description: [A Tetramand's intelligence shines brighter in battle]
[Exceed] Ability Description: [You can burn soul essence to gain monstrous strength]
[Empower] Ability Description: [You can empower your allies]
As an ascended noble creature, Four Arms' abilities had not gotten any new abilities from ascending in rank, instead the imprint had gained a qualitative increase.
[Exceed] was now capable of empowering him even further than before and [Empower]'s range increasing drastically, making him the perfect alien in terms of pure physical power.
To make the battle more fair, Hugo activated [Empower], making Sunny's body boil with newfound strength.
Sunny's eyes widened as he clenched his fist tightly, feeling his entire body being empowered by robust strength.
"This is insane..." Sunny muttered.
"I'm giving you a buff to make sure you don't die on me," Hugo said with a smile "I'm not done yet by the way"
Sunny raised an eyebrow "What? Are you going to use that Omni armor thing?"
"No, I was thinking about testing my new awakened ability."
"Awakened? Don't you mean ascend-"
Before Sunny could finish his words, blue electricity suddenly manifested from the Omnitrix symbol on his chest as he activated his awakened ability, [Omni-Enhanced].
Omni-Energy, which was usually exclusive to the Omnitrix's internal battery, flooded Hugo's body, saturating it with power.
Omni-Energy was far more potent than soul essence, and it was different from usual essence, as it gave its user multiple unique attributes.
His skin hardened as dark gray, rocky armor materialized, locking into place over his upper chest, shoulders, and head before forming into a helmet-like crest. At the same time, two new glowing blue hands burst forth from his upper arms, fusing with them and increasing his total count to six arms.
The Omni-Energy reached deep within him, augmenting the rest of his existence. His body, soul, spirit, shadow and mind were all augmented...
The full scale of this augmentation was still unknown to Hugo, but he was planning on figuring it out in this fight.
Sunny examined Hugo's new form, fascinated by it.
"Your shadow... It suddenly got a lot deeper," he said getting closer. "It's as if you had gone up a rank... Wait no, that's not right. You still feel like an ascended, but the quality of your shadow definitely increased... It's just not at the level of a True Transcendent just yet."
Of course, Hugo was aware of this, but they could do more experiments later.
He rubbed his fists together "Let's chat later. For now, let's see if you can take me on"
Sunny smiled, which was unsettling considering he doesn't do that often.
"Ah, Hugo my dear friend! You seem to be under the misconception that you're the only one with fancy transformations, let me reassure you, you are not the only one with fancy tricks."
"I'm not?" Hugo was confused now, did Sunny gain a transformation ability as he awakened and ascended?
Instead of answering his question, Sunny simply summoned a pitch black lantern memory, which looked... almost divine.
He then opened the lid, and strangely, shadows emerged from the lantern, shocking Hugo even more. The shadows around the room moved as well, surrounding Sunny entirely and engulfing him in a tight mantle before he himself became a shadow, formless and dark, and accepted those shadows into his embrace.
The rest of the shadows joined him in this bizarre transformation, and soon enough, the shape of a bizarre monstrous creature started to take shape.
A fearsome creature almost three meters in height, with onyx black skin and a bestial demonic face. Its mouth was full of sharp fangs and four long horns crowned its head, protruding from dark, coarse hair.
The creature had four hands that ended with sharp claws and a long twisting tail. Its eyes were entirely black, with no irises and two vertical, furious pupils.
Seeing this, Hugo eyes widened in shock... And excitement.
"Sunny, are you cosplaying me? That's so wholesome! And also so cool!" Hugo walked over, gushing over Sunny's new form.
It looked fearsome, terrifying and absolutely badass! Infact,Hugo sort of wished he could transform into it.
He had to give it to Sunny, he has style.
"That was not the reaction I wanted... Nevermind, aren't you interested in how this works?"
"Oh of course, please explain if you don't mind," Hugo said, still looking at him with wide eyes.
"This is called Shadow Shell, a pseudo transformation ability I developed by mixing my dormant, awakened and ascended abilities together. I created it in the hopes of mastering Shadow Dance... Also, you were basically the inspiration for this whole thing, so I guess you deserve to know about it."
"Shadow Dance?" Hugo inquired.
"It's my Aspect Legacy, which has seven steps in totals. Each step must be mastered thoroughly to gain its benefits and a reward. I'm currently at the third step, still working on the fourth. I just need to integrate Shadow Shell with the steps I've already learned, but that's easier said than done." He cracked his knuckles. "Enough talking. Let's fight."
The two monsters backed away from each other, assumed their stances, before launching at each other, engaging in a fearsome brawl.
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Author's note:
1- this sunny doesn't have the fourth step of shadow dance, he has developed shadow shell earlier then canon but he has not achieved the fourth step yet.
2- Hugo is the weakest of the divine aspect wielders when it comes to skill, it's not his strong suit but he's improving
3- hope you all are enjoying this new writing style.