Chapter 211: Creating a Standard Soldier

When the attacks on the Kraken escalated, two figures could be seen floating at the dark, stormy seas. Unlike Cliff's team that used extreme balance and specific positioning to withstand the waves and wind, these two simply stood up casually over the waters.

"Looks like we made it on time." Sammy Theoden sighed in relief.

"That Seeker really knows how to create a good surprise. If he called us any later, we wouldn't have made it for this party." Richie smirked.

"What do we do with this force field? It seems like if you were to make a powerful attack, we'd get detected." Sammy asked.

"Just wait. There should be an instance when this force field will weaken. Don't underestimate those coming here. For one, Grant Hermes finally makes his appearance. He's been on my bounty book for years, but no one ever could have captured him. Of course, since he can fly, it's no surprise that no on managed to catch him!' Richie laughed.

"But, are you sure that that person is inside the Kraken?"

"The best place to hide is to be right where your enemies are. The fact that your instincts led us here means he really did the impossible."

"What are your theories as to how he did it?"

"Love. That person was wanted for many things in the WGP's list. But none of them were true. He must have done something that the WGP wouldn't admit. His apparent death was well hidden. It would have been almost impossible for him to hide his identity or fake it. This proves that it was someone within the WGP that gave him his new identity. What else could lead to him being here, but that?"

"How sure are you with that deduction?" Richie raised an eyebrow.

"Listen, I know that since that whole cuckolding-dragon event, you've been skeptical of my deductions. But the fact that you managed to find him here only increases the chances of my deduction. He fell in love with someone he shouldn't have and that someone couldn't renounce her position. Who else would this be but an Empress? I'm sure that one of the Emperor's who is currently guarding the Kraken is this Empress!"

"Fine. I'll believe you. Anyway, I'm sure he's inside there. Your mission is to simply convince him to join our side."

"He will. If he can find the strength and standing to stand by the Empress, he will surely take it."

"That's only true if your whole love theory is- oh? That must be that Lilibeth that Lowengren talked about."

Richie stamped his feet on the water. A ripping soundwave zoomed through the area and passed through the water.

As it wasn't a form of attack or anything physical, even the force field couldn't stop the waves from passing through.

Several seconds later, and the sounds returned. A mental map of the Kraken appeared. Anything or anyone connected to, or standing on the Kraken was mapped.

The information rushed back, and the expression on Sammy's face grew pale.

"Did you find them?" Richie asked.

"No! Of course not! That was too fast! I couldn't remember all of that! My mind, even if it's Unlocked, can only remember so much."

"Come on! You're smart! Do that memory thing that the kid Cliff has!"

"I'm not a monster like him!"

"Didn't I make you one already? I should be a third weaker than my prime since I gave you that." Richie laughed.

"Whatever. I just need to get next to that kid! Since he knows Realm Somatotopy it'd be easy for him to find that man!"

"I guess you should go now. Since Lilibeth is inside, he could rush in and kill the Commanders."

"Fine. But what about the force field?"

"Look up. Richie smirked.

As Sammy glanced upwards, he could make out a small figure that looked like a giant man.

"Are those the Dragon's Fangs?"

"Typical is on the move. That little squirt has grown!" Richie laughed.

"Go now." Richie ordered.

A powerful sound rushed around Sammy and threw him upwards.

Sammy knew the reason for the sudden aerial throw. Their entry had to look like a force field received tremendous attacks from the enemies above.

"Let there be… Light!" Richie declared.

The sounds that vibrated around Sammy started to vibrate and move in a disorderly manner. The sudden creation of kinetic energy and the raw force of Richie's sound rushed towards the force field and created a bright light.

BOOM!

A strange muffled explosion resounded as the sound contained the force of the impact, making the damage more powerful.

"Pangean attack detected!" One of the soldiers inside the Kraken alerted.

"Is the shield damaged?"

"No, Sir! It reformed immediately."

"Ignore all breached attacks where the shields reformed. Focus on that big one in the sky!" The Commander gave his orders as he continued to watch the battles that occurred in the heavens.

As for Sammy, he managed to enter through the breach that Richie's attack made.

The repelling armor almost disappeared on impact.

"That felt like I became a Pangean Eradication Bomb!" Sammy cursed. He then moved silently and used a strange force to push away the enemies that approached.

Soon, Sammy managed to locate Cliff and his teams and prevented the impending trouble that could have killed Stanley.

"Sammy Theoden?" Cliff repeated the name. This name was not among the list of soldiers or people of interest that Seeker revealed to him.

Sammy's figure emerged next to Cliff.

Cliff immediately felt it. The remaining Origin power was mysteriously pushed away from the area around Sammy.

"What's going on?" Cliff was more worried about that. It was then he realized that the figure could not even appear even when using his Realm.

"You are manipulating the Realm around?" Cliff was shocked. The area around them had no Realm, and Cliff couldn't sense him except through sight.

"The Origin energy around you has confused your senses. If you extend that sensor of yours a bit further, you'd be able to sense me."

Cliff was surprised at his comment. Immediately, Cliff concentrated and could sense an empty space around him. The Origin energy enveloped him as if he was underwater. But inside this ocean was a small chamber that he could not sense through unless he focused harder.

As Cliff managed to extend his reach, he finally felt the presence of Sammy.

"What is this resistance? It feels like something is repelling me. Vibration?" Cliff guessed.

"Right. Richie gave me a portion of his power." Sammy explained.

"He what?"

"Don't ask me to explain the wonders of these Overcomers. Even I can't deduce their powers." Sammy shook his head, recalling a specific painful incident.

"Anyway, I'm here to ask for assistance. I need to meet a Commander of the Kraken. He is part of the team that Richie intends to form."

"Go with Roselyn and Stanley. They are the ones who will infiltrate the Kraken. The rest of us would just hold the line and create more distractions."

"I know. I already deduced that. I need you to do something. This will help me get that Commander out in the open. Also, here are some weapons courtesy of my boss." Sammy then handed over a cluster of small metallic balls.

"Balls of Thunder!" Cliff almost shouted in joy.

"I believe this is what gave my boss the inspiration to give me this repelling power."

"He's here?!" Cliff asked immediately.

"He's outside. Don't count on him helping, though. He's going to distract the other Progenitors seed. It's part of the arrangement Arthur made. Crap! I have to go now. That Empress you fought is out of her shield!" Sammy frowned.

Sammy immediately moved away from the direction that Cliff and his team were headed to.

"This is what I need you to do." Sammy then relayed his instructions through a sound link.

The words he spoke made Cliff's eyes widen in surprise.

"There was such a thing?!" Cliff was amazed.

As Cliffs group prepared to face the Empress' wrath, another group's battle was reaching the climax.

Earl, Scribbs, and the rest of the Small Time Drug Dealers continued to harass the Lumberjack.

The Lumberjack's body was almost twice its size as it continued to absorb more and more of the broken Exoskeletons. As the Lumberjack's body grew larger, it continued to move forward and was no longer unaffected by the Lightning Bolts.

Most of the absorbed metal was slowly turning into the liquid metal that made up the Exoskeleton. The Lightning Bolt's penetrating power was made useless as the piercing effects were nullified. The protruding bolts that were pinned on the Exoskeleton's body slowly disappeared as the Lumberjack grew larger.

More needle-like limbs appeared on it's back, and it was glowing red. 

"My turn to attack!" The Lumberjack sneered as it rushed forward, shooting with the needle-like limbs while some would pierce the nearby Exoskeletons.

Counter, Hank, and Zidane retreated but only to assume that formation.

Unlike the rest of the specialized teams of Arthur and Lowengren, the rest didn't have the luxury of receiving specialized gears that suite them. They were given a unified technology that has a wide array of diverse capabilities. They weren't in any way strong at anything, but neither were they weak on any aspect.

"As for the standard soldiers, all we have to do is give them the right training. Since Advance Recall even affects muscle memory, all we need to do is to constantly have them fight powerful Unlocked opponents. We make them get used to facing enemies that are faster, stronger, and deadlier than them. That means everyone here would have to fight and train with soldiers at least once a month." Arthur explained.

"The diversity of your Paths and Skill, the speed, cunning, and intellect will be used to shape our soldiers. Seeker and I will conduct training seminars and create a standard manual that will instruct our soldiers on how to fight. We instill the basics in them, and then they will just have to fight monsters."

Such training was applied since the three-month period began. 

When the giant figure of the Lumberjack wielding dangerous weapons stepped forward, the soldiers and the drug dealers didn't even flinch. They've been punched, smashed, hacked, and burned several times. Each would sustain a critical injury at least three times a month. And every training session would leave them with severe wounds.

The fear that the Lumberjack should have instilled was pointless to these soldiers. Even with the uncertainty of how to damage the new form of the Lumberjack, they simply rushed through.

"Same tactics!" Scribbs ordered as he rushed backward with Earl and shot more Lightning Bolts.

Several rounds of the Light Bolts struck the Lumberjack, but the Lumberjack simply ignored these attacks. The penetrating force was easily nullified as the body of the Lumberjack became partly liquid.

"Now!" Hank exclaimed.

The Lightning Bolts had a specific electrical charge that could create a pseudo-electro-magnetic chain. These Lightning Bolts were made with a little help from Lennox's living lightning. For simple commands, it was easy to create a similar version that even Pangean techs could replicate. 

The places where the Lightning Bolt struck became a beacon or a marked place. The marks that remain on the Lumberjack's body, the Exoskeletons that the Small Time Drug Dealers piloted now had a target.

Upon activating the Marked Enemy mode, the thee Exoskeletons suddenly charged off and delivered a powerful strike. The Lightning Bolt was used as a Lightning Rod and attracted the Lightning energy inside the Exoskeletons that Counter, Hank, and Zidane piloted.

Three flying kicks sank into the different body parts of the Lumberjack. A kick sank on its head, and the Lumberjack's neck was bent in a way that would have killed a normal human being. Another kick sank deep into the Lumberjacks chest, and its right leg was cut off because of the last flying kick delivered.

While the liquid metal reduced the damage from armor-piercing attacks, the blunt strike from the Exoskeletons caused the liquid metal to scatter.

A magnetic charge, where the Lightning Bolt was, erupted and caused the three Exoskeletons to be repelled backward. This was the second function of each Lightning Bolt. It allowed a magnetic reaction that pushed and repelled the Exoskeletons. The created polarity was so fast that the legs of the three Exoskeletons which had kicked on different places allowed were immediately retracted.

The Lumberjack began its counterattacks in vain. The repelling force moved the Exoskeletons beyond the reach of its limbs. The ranged attacks also missed as Earl and Scribbs shot at the limbs.

Several more Lightning Bolts struck the Lumberjack's blade-like limbs. And once more, another triad strike composed of two kicks and a Punch happened even before the Exoskeletons could fully retreat.

And this scene went through four cycles in two short seconds. The blunt attacks, the polarity that caused Cliff's minions to be pushed away and assume another attack, and another round of Lightning Bolts striking the Lumberjack cycled. 

The excess limbs were the next target. The Lightning Bolts struck at the middle region of these limbs, and Hank's team would then use the sharp edges installed on their legs and elbows to slash it.

At the destruction of these limbs, the cycle continued again and again.

After the four cycles, the Lumberjack was basically back to a pile of scattered puddles.

The living metal quickly retreated, while some parts even seeped through the gaps of the Kraken's metal floor.

"That was easy." Hank smiled as he observed the scattering liquid. Counter and Zidane started to shoot the escaping pools of water.

"Yeah. But it took all of us to get one of those down. And look. Whoever was piloting that Businessman changed his strategy. Instead of a First-Person hack-and-slash shooter combo, he switched to RTS." Earl pointed to the distance.

A large group of small Businessmen was running towards their area. They were about one-third of the size, and their hands had transformed into various weapons.

"We gotta run." Hank frowned and began to retreat.

As the five retreated, a figure stood at their path. It was the Clown. The blades on his limbs were dripping with blood. His main body was slowly transforming into a more solid form. It's legs, and lower torso was in its liquid state. It was slowly eating up and breaking down various Exoskeleton parts.

"Where was that damned kid!" The Clown growled angrily. He just killed an entire platoon of Exoskeletons due to a misunderstanding. And as he was killing this platoon off, another platoon spotted him.

"That damned kid made me kill two platoons!" The Clown's roar could be heard clearly.

"Form a perimeter!" Earl immediately ordered.

"I don't think we can fight that Clown and a small army of Businessmen." Counter hesitated.

"We just have to hold on. You three deal with those robot midgets. We'll deal with this Clown." Scribbs replied.

"I don't know. I'm with Counter on this one. I still think we should be focused on retreating. This situation. It's just dangerous." 

"Dangerous?" Scribbs laughed.

"Hey, Earl. Remember when Seeker fought against Lynd, Meryl, Cliff, and Arthur? Even General Arthur didn't want to do that training session!"

"I remember that. General Arthur said that it was too dangerous to have such serious training."

Counter, Hank, and Zidane remembered that scene. Watching their seniors' fights was one of their constant hobbies, and that battle was the one they viewed the most. Outnumbered and alone, Seeker fought against four of the strongest in the army.

"Remember what Seeker replied when Arthur kept saying it was too dangerous?" Scribbs laughed as he recalled that scene.

"Of course. It was the first time I thought our cocky little General looked cool." Earl laughed.

"Dangerous is fun." Zidane smiled as he recalled Seeker's answer.

"Outnumbered and outmatched. This looks dangerous, alright." Even the hesitant Counter showed courage as he recalled that battle.

"Let's go have some fun." Hank laughed.

Seeing the rising morale of the five, a figure smirked in the darkness. For some reason, no one could see or sense him. He immediately turned his attention to the other side of the battlefield.

"Oh? That looks dangerous. I guess I better go save Cliff." He immediately moved stealthily towards the direction where Cliff was.