Until We Break (20 page)

Ev nodded, satisfied. “I think it’s decided then. Unless someone else has objections.”

“Not me, mate.”

“Me neither,” CiCi said.

Brandon said, “All right, good. Report to the gymnasium in one hour for special training under Atlas.”

* * *

“You’re late,” Atlas said as they entered the gymnasium.

“Sorry, sir,” Ev replied.

The bald, muscle-bound god sighed. “Never-mind. I’ll explain how this is going to work. I’ve set up some exercises to help you hone your skills. We don’t know what those lunatics aboard the
Midgard
have planned for these God Games, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you go in there half-assed. You will be as ready as you possibly can be when the time comes.

“First off is Bannen. Right this way.” Atlas led Ev to an area of the gym with four odd contraptions arranged in a square. Each one consisted of a six foot pole with four metal arms, almost like a bizarre tree. “Stand in the middle here.”

Ev took his place in the center of the formation. “OK, what am I supposed to—?”

His words were cut off as one of the devices came to life and bashed him in the head with a metal arm. There was a flash of light across his vision while he collapsed to the floor.

“To answer your question,” Atlas said with a certain smugness, “you’re supposed to not get hit. Those training dummies are going to go all-out on you, and you’ve got to be ready to defend yourself. Put on your metal gauntlets and block, block, block. And if you feel like it, get in some shots of your own. Don’t think they’ll go easy on you, either. As you just saw, they pack enough punch to take down even someone as strong as you.”

Ev picked himself up and redirected energy to his head to heal. It was a good thing he could do that, he thought; were he human, he most likely would have a concussion right now, or worse. Atlas wasn’t kidding about the strength of these contraptions.

Summoning his steel gauntlets which covered his hands up to his elbows, Ev prepared for the next assault from the training dummies. He was not disappointed. They came at him one at a time at first, and he had little trouble blocking their attacks. But gradually, all four of them joined in, and he found himself being battered silly. He soon went down once again, his body a mass of nasty bruises.

Maya ran over to help him, but she almost got hit by the training dummies and had to jump back to avoid their blows.

“Careful,” Atlas said. “They have motion sensors. They’re designed to attack whenever someone approaches. And as I’m sure Ev can tell you, they hit pretty damn hard.”

Maya stood there, uncertain as to what to do next. She looked from Ev to the hard-hitting devices, evidently trying to decide how to proceed.

Ev spoke up. “It’s OK, Maya. They can’t hit me while I’m on the ground.” Indeed, the lowest of their arms couldn’t reach him. “Just give me a moment to heal, and I’ll be fine.” It wasn’t as easy this time, though. He had to redirect energy to multiple spots to heal all the damage that had been inflicted. After a minute, his body returned to normal.

He soon leapt to his feet to resume the painful sparring session. The dummies attacked with renewed fury, and Ev was once again on the receiving end of countless blows. However, this time, he put forth a better showing, countering more attacks by using his legs as well as his covered arms.

Inevitably, he went down again, covered in lumps and moaning. “You had the right idea,” Atlas said. “By using your legs you can block more attacks. But your legs aren’t protected like your arms. You need to cover them as well.”

Ev nodded, in too much pain to speak. As soon as he was healed again, he set about summoning protection for his lower limbs. He imagined something akin to his gauntlets, except longer. Within moments, a pair of tight greaves appeared around his legs. They were
too
tight, actually; they quickly threatened to cut off his circulation. So he pounded and clawed at them to get them off. He then dropped them to the floor in pieces. In addition to having made them too tight, he had made them too brittle as well.

“Let’s try that again,” he said. He focused more on the gauntlets he had already succeeded in covering his arms with. He thought back to when they had first appeared during his battle with Arcturus.
Remember what you were feeling
, he told himself. During that fight, he had been desperate to save all of mankind which had effectively been locked in Gehenna by Arcturus. If Ev couldn’t save them, they were all going to die of exposure in that dark vacuum. When Arcturus bore down on him with his swords, Ev raised his arms and desperately wished for a way to protect himself. Before he knew it, the steel gauntlets were on his arms, shielding him from Arcturus’ attack.

He imagined his one-time friend slicing downward with his blades, only this time to cut his legs.
Remember what you were feeling
. Several moments passed as he lay on the ground, and when he looked at his legs he saw proper steel leggings covering them. He gave them a solid knock and found them to be far more durable than the previous pair. He then wriggled his legs—carefully so as to not set off the training dummies’ sensors—and to his delight, they did not encumber movement.

Atlas said with pride, “’Atta boy, Bannen. Your conjuration skill has really come along.”

Jaysin, for his part, laughed. “Glad to see that. Couldn’t have watched you get beaten to a bloody pulp for much longer. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I could.”

“I think what Jaysin means to say,” CiCi said with a smile, “is that he’s glad you’re better able to protect yourself now.”

Daryn just nodded slyly. He was enjoying this as well, but not out of spite as he would have the day before.

“I’m proud of you, Ev,” Maya said.

“Thanks,” Ev replied. Her words meant more to him than he could ever say. “But now I think it’s time to put these babies through their paces.”

He got up and once again challenged the dummies. This time, he made effective us of all four limbs and did a far better job of countering attacks. He still took his lumps, but not nearly as many now.

“Keep it up, Bannen,” said Atlas. “Now then, Maya. Right this way.”

* * *

She was reluctant to leave Ev, but he had things well in hand, so she went with Atlas to another area of the gym where a dozen cylindrical tubes atop plastic boxes were set up in a circle. “These things right here are pretty simple.” He walked to a nearby computer console which had wires running from it to each of the tubes. He pressed a button on the computer, and a disk shot out of one of the tubes.

“Target practice. This exercise is designed to hone your archery skills.”

Taking the hint, Maya made her way to the center of the disk launchers and conjured her bow. Atlas pressed a button, and there was a puff sound behind her as a disk was launched. She whirled around and fired an arrow, but it didn’t even come close to hitting it.

Atlas said, “It’s completely random. You don’t know which of the launchers a disk will be fired from, so you have to be ready to shoot in any direction at any time.” That would definitely be a challenge, she thought. Still, she was happy to take it on if it meant giving them a fighting chance in the God Games. “Oh, and this goes without saying, but no using your homing arrows.”

“Understood,” she said.

“All right, then. I’ll begin the program for real now.”

“You can do it, Maya!” CiCi cheered.

There was another puff sound to her left, and she turned to get a bead on the disk being launched. She quickly acquired it and fired an arrow. This one also missed, but it came much closer than her previous shot. “Better,” Atlas said.

Another puff sound, this time to her right. This time, instead of pointing her bow at the launcher, she pointed it upwards in anticipation of the shot. The disk was hurled into the air, and she quickly took aim and fired. The arrow hit the disk and knocked it to the ground.

“Great job, Maya!” Jaysin said.

Even Daryn nodded. “I have to admit, it was pretty good.”

CiCi ran over and hugged her. It seemed the girl with the pink hair was recovering her bubbly personality at an impressive rate.

After several more minutes, Maya found her aim greatly improving, and she was hitting her targets nearly half of the time. It was a far cry from the level she needed to be at, but the day was still young.

Atlas said, “You’re getting there, Maya. Keep practicing. Let me know when these things run out of disks.

“Now for CiCi…”

“Ohhhh,” she said, excited. “What’s
my
exercise?”

“It’s simple, really. I’ve hidden a lem somewhere in the gym. Using your reconnaissance chakrams, I want you to find it.”

“What? I have to search this entire gym for a coin?”

“Yes. That’s what I just said.”

She sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it.” She closed her eyes and held out her hands. The chakrams appeared hovering a few inches above her palms. Once again, her eyes were in the center of each one. Maya had forgotten about her own exercise and was focused on her friend’s bizarre display.

CiCi sent one chakram to one side of the gym, and another to the opposite side. They began flying over the bleachers, searching between the seats.

“CiCi, what is that like?” Daryn said. “I mean, what do you
see
?”