The Cyborg System-Chapter 56: Awakening

Lenny had still been struggling to settle on a weapon for Melee Arms but eventually found that two daggers suited his up-close-and-personal fighting style quite well. He’d gradually worked his way up the ranks in sparring too. The tag around his neck now showed the number: 171, putting him right in the middle of the yellow sashes, just below Rose. That an orange sash had done so well had not gone unnoticed, but he had refrained from using his Adrenaline Rush skill, avoiding raising too much suspicion. He was still finding some of the abilities he went up against tricky, and even with all his enhancements, he wasn’t winning every match. His opponents were just too varied to come up with counters for each.

However, Hand-to-Hand combat class was going well, especially with his Fists of Steel and his extra strength and speed from his enhancements. It suited his build quite well. And over the last few weeks, he had gained a further 2 points in his stamina, and 1 in each of his strength and speed from training alone. He wasn’t too far off his next level up either but was unlikely to be doing so today.

His current stats were as follows:

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[Name: Lenny Hope]

[Ability: Transmogrification]

[Strength: 17]

[Speed: 15]

[Stamina: 13]

[Perception: 8]

[Spirit: 22]

[Health: 15]

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By this point, he had sparred with everyone from his Hand-to-Hand Combat class and there were only two who gave him any problems: Vee, who was so damn technical with endurance for days; and Sam, the green sash with a hardening ability. The few yellow sashes were good practice too, but it was only Sam he was yet to defeat.

It seemed ironic that his system would only reward him 25 EXP for beating Vee as a ’common opponent’, but 100 EXP for beating the yellow sash "scavenger hunters", which he would find significantly easier to deal with. Although this was largely because he had studied them and learnt how to deal with their skills.

Julie was strong with her strength enhancement, but she would punch herself out, and by blocking her punches with his steel reinforced forearm, he could slow her down significantly. Finch was quick, and his phase ability would make some of Lenny’s strikes completely ineffective, but his ability used up far too much essence, and he would quickly run out. As for Jacob, his scouting related affinity was practically useless in a fight.

However, when Lenny entered the Hand-to-Hand sparring class that day and had been paired with Vee again, he was surprised when his system had stated: "Unranked hunter detected. Beat them for 50 EXP." Lenny was taken aback.

"System, scan..."

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[Name: Valentina ’Vee’ Stapleton]

[Ability: Unknown]

[Strength: 13]

[Speed: 15]

[Stamina: 24]

[Perception: unknown]

[Spirit: 5]

[Health: unknown]

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"She’s finally done it, then? She’s awakened her affinity..."

Lenny pondered the implications of this for a few moments. What even was her ability? It couldn’t have been that strong with only 5 essence points to play with. Was it the same as Master Berg’s? However, the time for speculating was over, as Vee quickly moved to close the distance.

She was fast, stepping in with a double jab, cross, left hook. Lenny used his head movement to slip the jabs, countered, ate the cross and rolled underneath the hook. He tried to return with one of his own, moving off the head roll, but the counter was too well known by Vee, who simply leaned back, moving out of his reach.

Their first foray had been aggressive, but also, surprisingly little landing clean. Now it was Lenny’s turn... he stepped in with a jab, then changed levels and followed up with a hook to the body. For the first time, Vee winced, but quickly landed an overhand right to his face and a tight lead hook followed.

Lenny backed up.

Why did fighting Vee always feel like a game of chess? At least with Sam, he could understand why he lost... his damn hardening was just too strong... like he was being hit by a bat. Although, he imagined that’s how his opponents must’ve felt too. The problem was, Sam’s stats were good too, he just didn’t have the range and repertoire of strikes that Vee had, making her a lot better in reality than she should have been on paper. And now, he had to worry about some strange unknown ability in the mix too.

Sensing his hesitation, Vee set up a jab, cross, slipped a punch and came back off the slip with a more powerful cross. This time, Lenny blocked the strike with his forearm, and Vee felt just like she did when sparring with Sam, like she was punching rock. Her hand stung, but instead of taking a moment to cradle the injury, as many others did, she instantly changed levels and came back up with a clean uppercut to his chin.

Lenny returned a big right hand, and tried to follow up with another strike, but by now she was out of range. Just as he was deciding what to do next, something strange happened. A bird seemed to fly out from her hair, flying straight for his face. Lenny punched the bird, it was black and solid, and despite being batted away, it was still very much alive... or still moving anyway. What kind of an ability was that anyway? A summoning one?

More punches came Lenny’s way, while the bird attacked him from different angles. It was incredibly distracting. In trying to deal with both simultaneously, he was inevitably not doing great at either. After being struck a few more times, he decided to concentrate on the bird and after a forearm smash with his full brute force, it retreated back to Vee, going over to her collar.

He hadn’t spotted it before, but she had a tattoo on the side of her neck that was usually covered by hair. The beast settled, unmoving, on her skin.

Lenny looked over to Master Berg, with tattoos all over his body. The large snakes with tails intertwining in intricate knots on his arms now seemed to have a new purpose. So that was their ability? Some kind of tattoo manifestation?

However, he’d wasted too much time putting the pieces together and was punished for it. A big hook had landed, rupturing his ear drum and giving him immense pain down the side of his face. Lenny could continue if needed, but in that moment, he just didn’t want to, and figured his opponent deserved the win.

"I submit," said Lenny. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The others in the room gasped. Lenny was the strangely strong one who had put most of them to shame at one point or another. Even Sam, begrudgingly, respected his strength. In truth, no one really believed he had no affinity, they just couldn’t work out what exactly it was. Either hardening or perhaps some form of general enhancement ability. How could someone they had struggled against so much lose to a red sash though? Although, they had to admit, she was a tricky opponent. And what was that bird thing about?

Master Berg smiled. "I’ve been waiting to give you this," he said, holding out an orange sash. "Technically, we unlocked your ability earlier, and it’s already been added to your student record, but I thought we should find a more suitable time to reward you with it." Although it was typical to wait till the following year for the regrading process, this was not the case if someone unlocked their ability.

"Thank you," she said, bowing to her teacher.

Lenny stretched his jaw, feeling the pain of his ruptured ear drum shooting down his face. It was nothing Rose couldn’t heal, more of just a painful inconvenience. "Good fight," said Lenny, after losing to Vee for the first time.

She merely nodded in response.

However, this gave Lenny an idea. "Hey, do you already have a team for the expedition?"

"No."

"Well, there’s just me and Harry so far, but you’re more than welcome to join us... if you want."

"I’ll think about it," she said, replacing the red sash on her vest with an orange one. The number on her tag also updated to 171 and Lenny’s now showed 172 instead.