"Ready, Marcus?" Heatblast's voice crackled with anticipation. Without waiting for an answer, Ethan thrust both flaming hands forward. A thick, incandescent pillar of fire, roaring like a contained inferno, shot directly towards Marcus. Caught off guard by the sheer intensity, Marcus instinctively crossed his arms in a desperate block. The torrent of fire only lasted for three intense seconds, but it felt like an eternity to him. When the pillar of fire finally dissipated, Marcus was left panting heavily, the clothes on his upper body completely incinerated, revealing a physique sculpted with well-defined, powerful muscles that gleamed with a light sheen of sweat.
Heatblast whistled, a sound like air rushing through a forge. "Nice muscles, Marcus."
Marcus managed a shaky grin, still catching his breath. "Puff~ puff~ Well, of course! Years of hard work!"
"I just wonder," Heatblast mused, a mischievous glint in his fiery eyes, "what the muscles on your lower body look like."
Marcus blinked. "Huh? What do you mean?"
A wicked, almost devilish grin spread across Heatblast's flaming face. "Hehehe, if you don't concede defeat right now, buddy, I'm going to aim a little lower and burn those pants right off you."
Marcus's eyes widened in disbelief, then horror. "You… you're so damn vicious! That's below the belt, literally!"
"Serves you right for laughing at me earlier!" Heatblast retorted, already beginning to gather another swirling vortex of fire between his hands.
Marcus, seeing the flames intensify, yelped in genuine alarm. "Hehehe! You're actually serious! Seraphina! Seraphina, stop just watching! Help me out here! Put on a shield or something!"
Seraphina, who had been observing with a mixture of shock and amusement, raised an eyebrow. "Now, now, Marcus. This is a fight between you two. It would be rather unfair if I interfered, wouldn't it?"
Marcus spluttered, "How would that be unfair?! Didn't you just see he can turn into two completely different, ridiculously powerful things? By all rights, we should have two fighting powers on our side too, just to even things out! Worst case scenario, I'll… I'll accompany you on one of your… uh… those dreadful shopping outings! No complaints!"
Seraphina's expression remained impassive, though a tiny smile tugged at her lips. "..."
Marcus, sensing his impending doom, added desperately, "If you don't agree, then forget it! I'll just… I'll take my chances!"
Seraphina finally relented with a dramatic sigh. "Oh, I agree, I agree! Honestly, the things I do for you. Hurry up and prepare! Or what's left of your dignity will be completely gone!" She clapped her hands together sharply. A deep yellow, earthy light glowed brightly from her body, then flowed outwards, slowly materializing around Marcus, coalescing and hardening to form a suit of tough, interlocking rock-like armor that covered him from head to toe.
Ethan, as Heatblast, didn't rush to attack. Instead, he quietly watched this scene unfold, a flicker of interest in his fiery eyes. After all, this was just a friendly spar. Being able to see his opponent's trump card, their full capabilities, and also gauge their strongest defensive state was a pretty good learning opportunity. Before long, Marcus was completely clad in a formidable suit of rock armor, looking like an animated stone golem.
"Hahaha! Taste the power of Seraphina's Bedrock Armor!" Marcus roared, his voice muffled slightly by the stone helmet. He charged towards Heatblast, radiating an aura of newfound confidence. "Come on, Ethan, let me give you a good, old-fashioned pummeling now that the playing field is even!"
Heatblast looked at the charging stone behemoth with feigned, exaggerated terror. "Oh dear, folks, who gets it? A grown man, empowered by his girlfriend, uses a 'palm technique practically falling from heaven' and now he wants to mess with little old me." With a theatrical sigh, Heatblast quickly touched the Omnitrix symbol on his chest.
"XLR8!"
The moment the word left his lips and the green flash subsided, Heatblast was gone. In his place stood the sleek, velociraptor-like form of XLR8, who immediately dodged Marcus's clumsy, armor-encumbered charge with extreme, contemptuous speed.
Marcus skidded to a halt, looking around wildly. "Holy crap, there's more?! Are you actually, seriously hacking the universe, Ethan? How many forms do you have?!"
XLR8 zipped to a stop a few meters away, tapping a clawed foot impatiently. "What do you mean I'm hacking? If the anti-cheat isn't going off, does that mean my build is perfectly legitimate, or just that the admins are asleep?"
"You…!" Marcus had just uttered a single, frustrated word when XLR8 became a blue-and-black blur. He zipped past Marcus, merging his three-clawed hands into two sharp, awl-like points, and began to strike Marcus's Bedrock Armor with incredible, hypersonic speed. Although Seraphina's Bedrock Armor was exceptionally hard and durable, Ethan, as XLR8, employed the classic tactic of "using a concentrated point to break through a resilient surface." His speed was also overwhelmingly, impossibly fast. In just three seconds, Ethan had struck the same spot on the armor hundreds of times, each impact a tiny, chipping blow.
A network of fine cracks began to appear on the armor, centered on that single, relentlessly targeted point. The cracks started to spread outwards like a spiderweb. Marcus finally reacted, swinging a ponderous, stone-clad fist at the blur that was XLR8. But it was useless. Ethan dodged the slow attack with ease and continued his relentless assault on that one vulnerable spot.
Finally, after what must have been more than a thousand lightning-fast, pinpoint strikes, that spot on the Bedrock Armor finally shattered, breaking open into a small, fist-sized hole. XLR8's awl-like claws, without a moment's hesitation, shot through that hole and struck Marcus's unprotected skin beneath.
"Aaaah!!!" Marcus screamed, a genuine, high-pitched yelp of pain. The spot Ethan had so cleverly chosen to target was, very precisely, his waist, just above the hip – a notoriously sensitive area.
"I lose! I lose! I surrender! Stop! Stop, Ethan, please!"
XLR8 immediately stopped his attack, skidding to a halt. Marcus collapsed onto the ground, the remnants of the Bedrock Armor crumbling around him, sweating profusely and panting heavily. Ethan transformed back to his human form with a flash and gave a triumphant thumbs-up.
"Oh yeah! Victory is mine!"
Marcus, while still panting and rubbing his sore side, looked up at him with a mixture of awe and utter bafflement. "Okay, okay, we both technically have beastification-type abilities, right? So why in the world are you so ridiculously different from everyone else? Is it just because you have that extra, fancy watch?"
Ethan grinned, patting the Omnitrix. "Yep, precisely because I have this extra, very fancy watch, I'm just a little bit stronger, a little bit more versatile, than others."
Marcus groaned. "Even if you are hacking the system, you can't be this unreasonable about it! It's overkill!"
Ethan shrugged. "Well, since I'm already hacking, why would I bother being reasonable about it? Go big or go home, right?"
Marcus stared at him, then slowly shook his head. "..." Then he sighed. "That… that makes so much infuriating sense, it's not even funny!"
Ethan chuckled. "Alright, Mr. Moneybags, don't forget you said you'd treat us to dinner. My alien forms worked up quite an appetite."
Marcus struggled to his feet, still wincing. "I know, I know, a deal's a deal. Let's go. I'll treat you guys to a big meal. You definitely earned it, you monster."
After leaving the Linley family's combat gym, Marcus, true to his word, took Ethan and Seraphina to a surprisingly bustling, upscale-looking restaurant. The sign above the door, in bold, stylized characters, read: "Apex Eatery."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Nice… 'Apex Eatery' name. Very subtle."
Marcus grinned proudly. "Right? Not only is the name 'Apex Eatery', the food here is absolutely 'Apex' too. Top-tier stuff. Let's go, let's go!" Marcus led the way in with the confidence of a regular, Ethan and Seraphina following closely behind. As soon as he stepped through the ornate doorway, he shouted, his voice echoing slightly in the busy foyer, "Yo, Ren! Table for three!"
A sharply dressed waiter in the bustling crowd heard his voice and immediately looked towards the entrance, his face breaking into a welcoming smile. "Hey! Young Master Vance! Good to see you! The private room has been kept for you, as always. Same as usual, right?"
Marcus snapped his fingers. "Correct. And add an order of your best roasted suckling pig to that."
The waiter bowed slightly. "Excellent choice, Young Master. Alright, please wait just a moment."
Then, Marcus, without even waiting for the waiter to formally guide them, confidently led Ethan and Seraphina through the restaurant to a secluded, well-appointed private room.
Seraphina looked around, impressed. "You're pretty familiar with the people here, huh, Marcus?"
Marcus settled into a plush chair. "Yeah, you could say that. It's mostly because I have that Earth-rank talent, you know. Even when I was just ten, the talent had already started to physically manifest in my body. Back then, to properly train me and build a foundation, my family made me exercise my muscles like crazy, non-stop. The food at home, while nutritious, wasn't very… exciting. It was mostly big portions of fish and lean meat, but it was also incredibly bland, very little seasoning. I'd eat the same monotonous stuff for two or three days straight without any change, and I got so sick of it. Later, I happened to discover this restaurant during one of my 'escape attempts.' It's just an ordinary, non-psionic restaurant, but the food is incredibly good, and there's a rich variety of dishes, so I often used to sneak out here to eat on the sly, just to taste something different."
Ethan leaned forward, intrigued. "Is it really that good? And more importantly, Marcus, do you have enough money on you? I'm warning you, I might eat a lot today."
Marcus scoffed. "Tch, Ethan, with your relatively small human frame, how much can you possibly eat?"
Ethan's eyes twinkled. "Did you forget I can turn into the mighty Four Arms? If the food here is really as good as you say, I'm worried I won't be able to control myself and will just want to eat more, and more, and more. And when I transform then, to accommodate my appetite… hehehe!"
Marcus's confident expression faltered. "..." Then his eyes widened. "Right, I completely forgot about that monstrous form of yours! Never mind, then! Eat as much as you want! You think I, Marcus Vance, can't afford to let you eat till you're completely broke? Bring it on!"
After a truly spectacular array of dishes arrived, filling their table, the group ate and chatted, the earlier intensity of their spar replaced by easy camaraderie.
Ethan, after devouring a large pork bun, paused. "Hey, guys, I've always been curious about something. For those watersheds in each psionic rank – you know, Level Three to Four, Six to Seven, and so on – besides the obvious difference in overall combat power, what else is there to them? Is there some other significance?"
Seraphina sipped her fruit juice elegantly. "That, Ethan, involves the topic of extremely rare Aura Cores. It's not something you would normally know about unless you had access to specific family knowledge or advanced psionic theory."
Ethan's interest piqued. "Aura Cores? The ones from monstrous beasts?"
Seraphina nodded. "That's right. You should know by now, after a person awakens their ability and successfully breaks through to Rank One, Level One, they can typically have one innate talent skill – the one tied to their core awakening – and one additional rank skill, which usually manifests upon reaching that first rank."
Ethan nodded. "Yeah, I know that part. So, at Rank One, a person can normally only have a maximum of six distinct skills through the entire rank – the innate talent, the initial rank skill, and then potentially one more for each of the four watersheds within Rank One, if they can acquire them."
Ethan frowned thoughtfully. "Wait. I get a new ali… I mean, a new beastification hero, a whole new transformation, every time I advance a level within Rank One so far. Heatblast at Level One, XLR8 at Level Two, Four Arms at Level Three… That should count as an exception to the 'one rank skill' rule, right?"
Marcus, mouth full of suckling pig, managed a thumbs-up. "Beastification hero, eh? That name you came up with is pretty good, actually. And you're absolutely right, Ethan. You are indeed a massive exception, and an incredibly enviable one at that. Besides your unique case, normally, a person at Rank One, even if they reach the peak of Level Ten within that rank, can have at most six skills tied to that rank."
Ethan processed this. "Six… Okay, so one innate talent skill, one initial rank skill… that leaves four. Are those four additional skill slots specifically for the four watershed stages or breakthroughs within the rank?"
Seraphina nodded again, impressed by his quick grasp. "That's right. However, simply breaking through a watershed to reach the next stage – like going from Level Three to Level Four – doesn't automatically grant you new skills directly. Those extra skills, those watershed skills, they need to be obtained from other places, acquired through specific means."
Ethan leaned forward. "From those rare Aura Cores you mentioned?"
"Correct," Seraphina confirmed. "Aura Cores themselves are extremely rare finds, especially high-quality ones. And those particular Aura Cores that contain discernible, absorbable skills are even rarer among the rare – true treasures. Psionicists who are exceptionally lucky or wealthy can acquire and absorb these types of skill-infused Aura Cores to comprehend and integrate the skills contained within. But it's not an unlimited absorption; there are conditions and limitations. For the four major watersheds within each psionic rank, successfully breaking through each one typically unlocks the potential to absorb one such external skill, if a suitable core can be found."
Ethan's eyes widened as the implications hit him. "Oh, wow. So, if a person has ten psionic ranks, and there are potentially up to five skills per rank they can acquire (one initial rank skill + four watershed skills), plus their one unique innate talent skill they get at awakening… doesn't that mean a super powerful psionicist could theoretically have as many as fifty-one different skills by the time they reach the peak?!"
Seraphina chuckled softly. "Where in the world did you get the idea that it's that simple, Ethan? The higher the Aura channeling rank, the exponentially harder it is to break through. Just reaching the later ranks is a monumental feat. As far as publicly available knowledge goes, the strongest currently active human psionicist is only confirmed to be at the peak of the Eighth Rank, and they've reportedly been stuck at that pinnacle for over ten years, unable to advance further. As for the original Space Supreme, Master Zephyr… he went into seclusion after making that historic agreement with the Beast King centuries ago. There's been no reliable news of him since. No one truly knows what rank he might have reached by now, or if he's even still alive."
Ethan absorbed this sobering information. "So, reaching a high rank is that incredibly difficult. Right, you also just said that normally, a psionicist in Rank One can only have a maximum of six skills. What about… abnormal situations, then? You mentioned I was an exception."
Marcus, who had been listening intently, nearly choked on his drink. "Heh! Good question, Ethan!" he sputtered, wiping his mouth. There's this kind of maneuver, looking for loopholes already? he thought with amusement.
Seraphina shot Marcus a brief, warning glance before turning back to Ethan, a thoughtful expression on her face. "That is indeed a very good question. Normally, as I said, a person can only awaken one innate psionic ability. But this world, this new age of Aura, is never short of exceptions and marvels. You're not the only unique individual out there, Ethan, though your particular manifestation is certainly one of the most versatile I've ever heard of. There are some incredibly heaven-defying individuals, exceedingly rare, who can awaken two, or even, in legendary cases, three distinct innate abilities. Furthermore, there are also whispered legends of extremely rare natural treasures, unique mutated plants, or psionically charged artifacts found in the world that can, under the right circumstances, help a person awaken a secondary or even tertiary ability, completely separate from their first."
She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in. "Such people, those with multiple innate abilities, can naturally possess two to three times the number of potential skills as other psionicists of the same rank. It can be said that once a fight starts, if all other factors are equal, they almost always hold an overwhelming, often insurmountable, advantage due to their sheer versatility and power."
Ethan nodded slowly, his mind racing. "So that's how it is. Multiple abilities, more skill slots… This world is even more complex than I thought." And his Omnitrix, he realized with a thrill, was essentially granting him exactly that – a new "innate ability" with each new alien form. He was, in his own way, one of those heaven-defying exceptions.
Shiny stones motivates me to throw CHAPTERS so throw them on these fic