As all the freshmen whoop and cheer at Sean’s performance, to which he gracefully bows, he, after Simon does first, demorphs while Serpanz, trying to hide her annoyance, speaks loudly and strictly over the freshmen’s cheers, “Moving on, class! While we are on the subject of close combat with sharp objects, another very common kind of battle morph are the Beasts. These Alkalians transform into a kind of animal and use their primal strength and speed to fight foes in savage fury. While there are nearly as many kinds of Beasts as there are animal species, a large percentage of them are…”
At her gesture, another of the intermediates steps forward and morphs, changing into a large cat, colored blue with black stripes, and flexes her claws and yawns to expose her big fangs. The freshmen, by then paying attention, all jump a little, except for Matt and Rose. Serpanz says, “Mammal predator types, like this Tiger here. Otherwise, there are more specific, rarer kinds of Beasts, which are usually found only within family blood-lines. Are there any questions about Beasts?” Waiting for a hand to go up, one does and she says, “Yes, Roger?”
“Yeah, um, I’ve heard about Beasts that can use guns or magic to fight with, besides tooth and claw. Is that true?”
“To an extent, Roger, yes it is. Most kinds of Beasts can only fight with their body’s arsenal, but there are some, due to heritage or added effects by special drugs, who can also use guns or magic spells as weapons. Now, speaking of guns, that is the next basic ability of Alkalians we shall discuss.”
When the Tiger demorphs and steps back, another intermediate takes her place, and she morphs to have leather-like, brown armor, and her right arm twists and shape-shifts into a small rifle while Serpanz explains, “The Alkalians who mainly use firearms, which are commonly called Gunners, are divided into types designated by what kind of firearm they can use. For example, here is a simple Rifle Gunner. But the other types can be anything simple, like the Handgun or Shotgun, or they can be immensely powerful, like the Turret, Grenadier, or Sniper.
“The way Gunners fight is primarily by shooting bullets made of energy from their guns. They can fire bullets from their guns for as long as the energy core, the small chamber in the gun, produces the energy for the bullets without overheating. Once the energy core overheats, or is harmed by a foe’s attack, it is disabled and the Gunner cannot use the gun. If it overheats, she can wait until the core cools down, but if it is damaged, it is disabled for the rest of the time in her battle morph. Now, we shall demonstrate how a Gunner fights.” Turning back to Sean, who has just returned to her side, she tells him, “Remorph and fight Stephanie here.”
Looking at the rifle serving as Stephanie’s right arm, Sean sighs and says, “Well, I guess I’ll be holey after this. Get it?”
While a few of the freshmen giggle, Serpanz states, “Yes, I get it. Morph and fight.” She then steps back with the intermediates, and Stephanie levels her rifle towards Sean and aims the barrel at his chest. Sighing again, Sean remorphs, and in instant reaction Stephanie begins shooting at him, the first three bullets hitting him square in the chest before he dashes out of the way. She runs after him, steadily firing more shots at him, but his swift agility on air balance allows him to avoid the bullets as he leads her away from the group of students.
After about ten seconds pass by with her chasing him towards the wall of the arena, Stephanie’s gun finally stops shooting as the core inside it overheats. Hearing the firing end behind him, Sean makes his move as he propels toward the wall, plants his feet on it, and kicks back off it towards her in a burst of speed.
Not being prepared for the quick counterattack, Stephanie is about to try another round of shots when he crashes into her, sending them both into a mid-air roll where he grapples onto her gun arm and viciously tugs on it, breaking it with a distinct crack. After disabling her gun, Sean releases her so that she tumbles across the ground while he smoothly lands.
With more cheers from the freshmen in the background, Sean walks over to Stephanie, who has rolled over onto her left side and cringes at her crippled right arm, which glows a dark orange. Once he stands over her, he says, “It was a good try, but without your gun, you have no way to fight me. It just wouldn’t be nice of me if I had to beat you into demorphing.”
When he finishes the polite suggestion, Stephanie rolls to be face-up at him with her left arm then a rifle instead, and fires more bullets into Sean, who exclaims, “Spirits, why!?” as he falls over. As the freshmen gasp, she jumps back onto her feet, plants her right foot in Sean’s yellow chest wounds, and aims the barrel of her gun at his face, giving him a look saying he should go ahead and demorph.
Serpanz smirks and turns to the freshmen to explain, “It seems Sean didn’t listen completely to this presentation last time, or else he would have known that Gunners can usually turn either of their arms into guns. The reason why they don’t simply have both arms as guns is because they are more accurate with one gun and they would have to worry about two gun cores instead of one. So, are there any more questions about Gunners before we move on?”
When no hands go up, and after Sean and Stephanie demorph, she continues, “Very well. The next basic form of combat we’ll talk about for today is magic. The usual kinds of battle morphs that can use magic are simply called Magicians, but there are the rare examples of other kinds, like the Beasts mentioned earlier, who can also cast spells. To do so, the Alkalian has a specialized, vein-like system in its body that charges the energy for the magic, focuses it into the point it will be cast from, and then releases it into existence. Most spells that are cast are mass-destructive, therefore giving magic users a high advantage in any battle situation, and there are some spells that can be used for defensive purposes or are unique to the Alkalian’s specific type.
“However, Magicians and the like have a few obstacles to worry about. The first is they not only have to charge enough energy for a spell, but they also have to charge it in a certain pulse, hence the system of veins in their morphs, or the spell will not stabilize and it will be just a waste of energy. The second problem is if the vein system within the body is obstructed enough by wounds, the magic pulse system will be disrupted and some spells will be unusable. And the third problem, which mainly applies to Magicians, is they are not as armored as most battle morphs and therefore are easier to greatly wound. Now, we shall see an example of a spell caster in action.”
At her cue, the last of the intermediates steps forward as Sean and Stephanie return to the group, and out of his morphing flash he is adorn in yellow robes. He turns to Sean intently, who glances at Serpanz’s cold stare and mumbles, “Ach, here comes round three. You know, those fifty laps are starting to look good right about now.” As soon as he morphs, the Magician raises his right palm toward him, cries out, “Wavequence!” and launches waves of energy towards him, flipping him up, blowing him over, and dragging him across the ground away from the group of students.
Quickly flipping back onto his feet, Sean, with dark orange wounds on his chest, side-thrusts away from another spell used by the Magician, which smashes into the floor where he was standing, and dashes towards the wall of the arena again, forcing the Magician to run after him. Noticing the color of his wounds, one of the freshmen speaks up, “Excuse me, Professor, but what exactly happens if Sean’s wound energy becomes red? Is it true that he could be, uh, you know…”
“I’m glad you asked that. Once an Alkalian’s wounds turn red, it indicates the morph’s health energy is dangerously low, and any further damage done to it could carry over into the human form, or even kill the Alkalian. However, to prevent the chances of a fatality occurring, it has become customary, perhaps even instinctive, for the Alkalian to demorph as soon as his wounds become red. In today’s era, we as a people shouldn’t have to worry about killing each other, and so we only battle until one’s wounds become red and demorphs. In another time, the Age of Chaos specifically, we fought each other to the death, and therefore it didn’t matter if we demorphed or not.”
/> As she spoke, the Magician continues to throw spells at Sean, who dodges them with air balance dashes and drifts along the stone wall that is being pounded by the blasts. Finally getting tired of his spells missing, the Magician uses another Wavequence, spreading it for a wide range.
Having been waiting for this particular spell, Sean suddenly launches himself straight up into the air, allowing the spell to break against the wall below him and awe all of the students, even Matt and Rose. One of the freshmen asks Serpanz, “Wait, is Sean actually flying? How can he do that without wings?”
While Sean roosts himself on the top of the arena wall, Serpanz replies, “Well, Larson, he is just well talented at air balance. As you are implying, the only Alkalians who should be able to fly on air balance are those with wings, which enhance their air balance in order to do so. There are a few cases, though, where the individual can be so skilled with it that they don’t need wings, like Sean. Air balance is, after all, displacing energy into the air around you and using it to move your body. If one trains himself to, he could give himself the ability to fly, dash at incredible speeds, or even command the winds.”
Sean jumps off of the wall and propels himself into a swooping glide towards the Magician, who tries to intercept him with a cast bolt. To his misfortune, Sean spirals past the spell, then collides into him with his elbow, throwing him off his feet and leaving a bright yellow wound in him, grabs him by his legs, floats them both into the air while they spin like a wheel, and hurls him down to the ground, where his face smashes against the floor and sprays orange energy.
Sean isn’t finished with his assault yet. Ending his spinning, he lets himself fall down towards the Magician and lands next to him, bringing his left fist into his wounded ribs for a crushing blow that causes red energy to erupt. After the Magician demorphs below him, the freshmen cheer for Sean as he walks back to them, bowing to them like a victorious matador, while the intermediate slowly gets back on his feet and limps back to the others.
Stepping forward to get their attention, Serpanz says, “We shall conclude today’s lecture with a few more pieces of basic information. Now that you’ve seen the four generic kinds of Alkalian morphs, you should yet remember that there are types that have combat styles specifically for an individual’s unique type or traits available in his morph. We’ve already hinted at these kinds with the Beasts who have guns or magic, and then there is Sean, a Brawler, as you observed him. The last thing we’ll talk about is a technique every Alkalian can potentially use, but at their own risk. The Ultimate Attack, as it is commonly called. Does anybody know what that is?”
Serpanz waits for any of the freshmen to raise their hands, and calls upon the only one who does, Rose, who answers, “The Ultimate Attack is a powerful technique developed by an individual Alkalian and used to deal the greatest single serving of damage to one or more foes, and since it is developed by an individual, Alkalians of the same type can have different Ultimate Attacks. However, one does not usually try to use it, as it costs so much energy to execute it leaves the Alkalian drained of power and defenseless for a moment. Therefore, the Ultimate Attack is reserved only for a finishing blow or as a desperate response in a dire situation.”
“Very well put, Rose,” confirms Serpanz. “Would you care to give us a demonstration of an Ultimate Attack?”
“Of course, Professor.” Stepping forward from her curious classmates, she then warns everyone, “You all might want to get far away from me,” as she morphs and puts her palms together. While the students and Serpanz get at least fifty feet away from her, a great amount of green energy gathers between her hands until it stabilizes as a sphere that covers her whole torso.
Compressing it down into her right hand, Rose slaps the floor before her, releasing the energy and shouting, “Ultimate Attack, Head Hunter Tree!” From out of the floor bursts into existence a huge tree of blood red bark, with wickedly curved and sharp branches without leaves flailing about and thick roots rising up and breaking apart the ground around it. Surprising everyone, even Serpanz, with its size and ferocity, they jump back from the searching tips of its roots and look at the top of the tree, where Rose stands perched on the base of one of the branches.
Only a few seconds after she summoned it, she gets rid of it by demorphing, causing the whole monstrosity to vanish in a flash of light while she lands on the ruptured ground, breathing heavily and sweating from exhaustion.
Walking up to her from behind, Serpanz pats her on the shoulder and then tells the still amazed freshmen, “As you can see, an Ultimate Attack can be a very powerful and dangerous technique, and that it causes a great recoil to its user. You may also have noticed that Rose’s battle morph is another uncommon type, an Elemental Artist. However, we will talk more about Elemental Artists, Brawlers, and other kinds of morphs another time. For now, we shall watch as the basic morphs shown to you duel each other.”
As the freshmen return to sitting on the ground while two intermediates step forward and morph, one the Swordsman and the other the Spearman, Matt asks Rose, “Hey, are you alright, after that?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
Seeing she is okay, Sean nudges her and asks, “So, that was your Ultimate Attack, huh? You just summon a big, bloodthirsty tree.”
“Yep.”
“Hmm. How useful is that? I mean, it’s a tree. It can’t really go and chase down a guy, can it?”
“Well, no, that’s true. It’s meant for if I’m facing a foe much bigger and stronger than me, so I summon it right next to them, and then it ensnares and tears them apart.”
“Ah, I see. But then, why didn’t you use it on that Golem yesterday?”
“Hmm. I guess there are a few reasons for that. One, I didn’t need it to defeat him. Two, it might have been dangerous for him to get caught by it. And three, he wasn’t big enough of a foe to use it on.”
“…Indeed. So Matt, do you have an Ultimate Attack, too?”
“Oh, yeah, I have one of my own,” he replies. “I call it the ‘Countdown to Destruction’. I would show you guys, but, as the name implies, it’s very destructive!”
“Hah, if you say so.” Sean pauses a moment while the intermediates began dueling before he moans, “Dammit, I’m the odd one out again!”
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is I don’t have an Ultimate Attack! Since I didn’t know how to even fight, I never really thought about making one for me. But now that I do know my powers, perhaps I should get working on one! And, I will guarantee you now, it will be so incredible that it will make yours and Rose’s Ultimate Attacks look like child’s play!”
“Haha, I would love to see that happen, Sean!” Rose remarks before the three watch the intermediates dueling for the rest of the class hour.
***
Some time after gym class ended, Matt emerges from the dark stairs leading down below ground in the college building, hauling a large bag over his shoulder. Groaning as he sets it down, he wipes some sweat from his brow while looking around the quiet and deserted hall. As the rest of the students have been dismissed for the evening, he is the only soul left wandering the halls. Taking out a slip of paper from his jacket, he goes over to a map of the building to compare room numbers, and soon finds the room that is supposed to be the study for Lyn and her company. Unfortunately, the room is on the far side of the building from him.
Groaning again as he returns to the heavy bag, Matt realizes that, if he was in battle morph, he would be able to carry the bag easily. To his startled surprise, however, he does not morph, no matter how much he concentrates. Curious to why he couldn’t morph at the moment, he puts the thought aside as he lifts the bag over his shoulder again and trudges off down the hall.
What feels like a long time passes by as Matt carries the heavy bag down the building’s corridors with him having to stop every minute or so to rest before moving on. Soon, in a more narrow section of a hall he turns into, he finally reaches the room he is look
ing for. Coming up to the door on his right, he drops the bag with a loud thump, huffs in breaths, and wipes away more sweat from his face, composing himself to look presentable.
Shrugging his sore shoulder to stand up straight, Matt sighs one more time, calm and collected, and knocks on the door. A moment passes before he hears a female voice just on the other side of the door say, “Who is it?”
“It’s Matt. Matt Calamos.”
Another moment goes by before there is an unlocking sound from the door and it opens inward, where a woman in the tux-and-slacks suit stands before him, no undershirt beneath the vest and her cleavage clearly visible to him. Smiling nicely, she nods to him and says, “Please, come in.”
His composure almost shattered upon viewing a woman’s cleavage again, Matt smiles nervously as he nods back, picks up the bag, and walks in. As the woman closes the door behind him, he looks around the apparent study hall in curious awe.
The large room seems more like a suite from a hotel than a study hall. In the center of the room are two large, brown couches facing each other with a coffee table between them and a red carpet on the floor beneath them. In the wall far off to his left is another door that leads somewhere else, his guess being a bathroom. On the wall to his right is a long wooden table with a few chairs and a computer console in one corner of it, and in the wall opposite him is a wide window that overlooks the rolling fields outside the college building and purple curtains drawn open to its sides. But what catches his eyes the most is not how exquisite the room looks, but how it is full of women, the most of them sitting on the couches and a few at the long table.
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