Chapter 42: level 7
BOOM!
Wind whipped violently past Arbus as he dodged the concussive pulse that flew passed him in a blur of motion. It was strong enough to make the entire room quake.
He glanced back for a moment, noticing the dent the bot's attack had left on the room's damage resistant walls.
Arbus turned the moment he noticed its arm aim toward him again, his senses kicking into overdrive.
"Damn it!" The words left his mouth instinctively as he rolled away from another blast, jumping to his feet as he began running in circles around the bot.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The bot didn't move from its spot at the center of the room. It just whirled in place, its gaze following him. Its attacks were always barely missing Arbus due to his last second maneuvers.
He could hear the shouts coming from above, in the observation deck.
"Solis! Shut it down! Shut it down now!" Kate shouted, enraged.
"I can't! I keep trying but I can't! It's not budging!" Solis screamed back as she kept trying to shut down the entire room's systems to no avail.
It was clear something had gone severely wrong.
"What's happening exactly!?" One of the blue Mornan trainees asked his peer loudly.
"I think... the half-breed is stuck down there." Another answered in surprise.
"That can happen!? Shit, I went down there first today. That could have been me."
Kate's teeth clenched tightly as she turned her gaze back to Arbus, who was fighting for his life below.
The simulation room was designed to only open up after the bot had been defeated or deactivated to prevent any accidents.
Which meant there was no way for him to leave without shutting the bot off.
BOOM!
Arbus frowned slightly the moment one of the robot's attacks finally managed to land a glancing hit against his arm.
He felt his shoulder dislocate, almost getting ripped off entirely.
'Its power isn't anything to joke about!' he thought inwardly.
Moments later, his regeneration quickly locked it back into place.
The pain was excruciating, but he had dealt with far worse than that before.
BOOM!
He stopped moving, barely avoiding getting hit with an attack the robot had aimed in front of him.
It was starting to adapt to him quicker than Arbus had expected. This bot was clearly different from the mindless ones that came before it.
In truth, there was no real danger to his life, even if he stopped.
The only problem would be his regeneration being revealed.
Bastian had instructed him to keep it a secret for as long as possible. At least until he got the heart shard to cover it up.
Arbus glanced toward the observation room, wondering how long he had to keep running around like this.
He noticed the trainees' shocked expressions as they chatted amongst themselves.
As expected, most of them didn't seem to care about his situation.
Then, he noticed the three white Mornans close to the observation deck window.
Alexander was against it, watching him with a worried expression. Rin stared down with a frown, her gaze fixed on the bot. While Prince Jet followed Arbus with his eyes, his expression blank.
When Jet noticed he was looking at him, a small smile appeared on the prince's face for a brief moment.
'That bastard, did he have something to do with this!?' Arbus cursed inwardly.
'No, that shouldn't be possible.'
He noticed the two instructors had already left the room, most likely to shut this bot down from somewhere else – or to get someone to open the doors.
Arbus wasn't sure he had that much time.
...
Then, he glanced back at the robot, suddenly realising the attacks had stopped.
'Was it shut down?'
He immediately noticed that wasn't the case.
Its hands were clasped together, a white light emitting from the center.
His eyes widened as Arbus remembered something similar happening years ago.
'An area wide attack! I won't be able to avoid that!'
At this rate, he wasn't even sure if this room could take an attack like that.
Arbus would no doubt survive the attack. But the same couldn't be said for the trainees above him.
"..."
'No choice then.'
He let out a breath, his hand tightening around his blade.
Arbus no longer had the luxury to hold back anything, like before. Not if he wanted to keep his promise.
His eyes darkened as they locked onto the bot.
BOOM!
In the next moment, he kicked off the ground in a burst of speed, aiming directly for the stationary bot.
It had become clear to Arbus that the bot was stuck in place, unable to move out of that spot.
That was a weakness he could exploit.
The bot noticed his charge a moment later.
If it had any emotions, Arbus had no doubt surprise would be what it would feel right about now at his sudden attack.
Like he predicted, it stopped its charge as it shot all the built up energy towards him.
'Perfect.'
He shot upward with all his might, reaching the room's ceiling as the blast went off against the room's wall.
BOOM!!!
This time, even the trainees in the observation deck felt the quake, forcing some of them to stumble slightly.
That wasn't enough for them to consider leaving, though.
They watched with stunned expressions as Arbus kicked off the ceiling and shot towards the bot.
Its arm raised as it tried to launch another attack at him.
Fortunately, his attack was faster.
Slash!
Its arm went flying as he sliced through it with as much force as he could muster.
In that moment, Arbus realized how tough the bot's body was.
Immediately after he landed behind it, Arbus whirled back faster than it could and stabbed right through its head, just as it faced him.
Loud breaths escaped his lips as he watched the bot for any sudden movements, creating the illusion of tiredness.
Thankfully, the bot's sluggish turning stopped a few seconds later as it finally deactivated.
He let out an audible sigh as he stepped back and dropped down to the floor.
Arbus heard a voice from the observation deck a few moments later, breaking the silence.
"Did he just.... take out a level 7 bot?" Maze muttered in disbelief as he stared at him, his mouth agape.
The other trainees had similar shocked expressions, even Alexander.
The only exception was Jet, whose expression was unreadable.
Arbus didn't really care about that at the moment.
BOOM!
The doors of the training room flew inward a minute later as instructor Ty stepped into the room, taking in the scene.
Kate and Solis walked in behind him, their eyes showing their surprise. Though, there seemed to be a bit more than that in Solis's expression.
"Hahaha!" A few moments later, boisterous laughter echoed through the room as Instructor Ty walked over to where Arbus sat with a smile on his face.
"Truly, a genius indeed!"