Chapter 135 - 134 - Combat Androids(Part 1)

"From the look of it, these androids have a strong resistance to XFE, but they're not completely resistant to it, so they can still take damage...," I informed them, as I read out the information that had been sent to our I-Watches. 

"They can also analyze how much damage they're about to sustain, and once they take a certain amount of damage, they'll be teleported out," Added Kiran, who was also reading. 

Bytra was just standing off to the side, fidgeting awkwardly and nervously, her eyes darting about and looking away every time I so much as glanced in her way. 

"Alright, guess we might as well get started," I sighed, as I glanced at the time, "You two pair up first, I'll be a part of the second and third pairs.."

"Sure, fine by me," Replied Kiran with a shrug, as he headed for the middle of the training hall, Bytra following after him. 

The Duel Field activated around them as one of the androids activated and stepped forward, the countdown starting as the barrier activated. These androids have pretty simple designs, with sleek white metal bodies made using tungsten and coated in a lacquer that's resistant to XFE manifested attacks. 

Their faces are oval shaped and have two eyes that double as cameras. They also have hidden weapons in their arms and stuff, though I wasn't sure of the specifics. 

Now, then, the countdown is almost over, I'll watch closely too see how compatible these two are with working together and see if I can think of ways they can improve on that. They'd both already activated their Primary Manifestations and were standing on opposite ends of the space inside the barrier, with the android between them. 

Decent formation, though it's only natural that they had gotten to an at least basic level of cooperation after a whole week. Let's see how they actually execute...the instant the countdown ended, Kiran bent his swatter manifestation backwards and then let go while simultaneously expanding the manifestation rapidly, without killing any of the momentum. 

The android quickly jumped straight up to evade it, though was unable to avoid its legs getting clipped a bit, causing it to lose its balance...it didn't seem to have sustained any damage from that though.

As it began to drop back down towards the ground, Bytra swung her whip manifestation at the android, which wrapped around its leg firmly. She then swung it down with all her strength, pulling it down towards the ground rapidly. 

Right before it could slam onto the ground, propelling jets burst out from its palms and feet, countering the downwards momentum just in time and halting itself in mid-air. It then grabbed the whip manifestation that was still wrapped around its leg and pulled, dragging Bytra towards it. 

She quickly dissipated the manifestation before she lost her balance and sprang back, right as Kiran snuck up behind the android and unleashed a barrage of swings with his swatter, landing several hits. 

Suddenly, a sharp metal blade extended out from the top of the android's wrist, which it drove towards Kiran swiftly, who quickly expanded his swatter to block the thrust, right as Bytra unleashed a rapid series of strikes with her whip using incredibly wristy flicks and admittedly impressive control. 

But what's most impressive is that android's durability, at least against XFE attacks...it's weathered several strikes and appears almost completely unscathed, except for a few small scratch marks, probably from the thorns on Bytra's whip manifestation. 

The android then flew up and swooped down at Bytra, and right as she began to swing her whip up towards it, it pointed its arm blade at her...and fired it out, sending out a blindingly rapid, and deadly, projectile zooming towards Bytra, who wasn't even able to react in time as the blade closed in on her and got her teleported out. 

It then quickly landed and shot towards Kiran as he swung his expanded swatter at it, swiftly shrinking it down as his mechanical opponent began to close in on him and parrying as the android extended out a blade from its other arm and slashed at him. 

He deflected the slash off to the side using his swatter, before rapidly expanding it as he swung it forward along the length of the metal blade, the swatter slamming onto the android's face with immense force and knocking it off its feet, but before it could fall onto the ground, it fired out powerful jets from its feet to quickly get some distance from Kiran. 

Kiran began to swing his swatter towards the android while expanding it, but right before his attack could land, the android pointed a finger at Kiran...and a gunshot like sound burst out from it, and in the next instant, Kiran was outside the Duel Field. 

"Wow, uh...that bucket of bolts might be stronger than most X-Warriors," I remarked in surprise, at how comprehensively they were beaten.

"I don't know about that...," Sighed Kiran, as he dissipated his manifestation, "It's resistance to XFE makes dealing damage really difficult for us, but Wights use physical weapons too, right?" 

"Well, yeah, that's true, I guess...but it's not just the XFE resistance, the combat program that the AI is using seems to be really good too. Also, I'm pretty sure it was holding back a lot, otherwise it would have used that finger gun move earlier," I surmised, after thinking it over. 

"I suppose so...well, so long as they're on our side. I don't like the idea of going up against an army of these things," Replied Kiran with a grimace. 

Yeah, neither would I... 

"Alright, no time to waste, let's get the next round started...you and I are pairing up, we'll have a more detailed discussion once all three pairs have gone once," I remarked, as I headed for the middle.

"Yeah, okay," He replied, standing up with a sigh and following after me. 

Bytra was still quiet, looking away as I glanced at her...yeah, I deliberately made it so that I'd be pairing up with her last, and I was dreading it quite a bit, because after this round, there'll be no more delaying it anymore. 

Swallowing my pride is harder than I thought, it isn't easy to just set aside my personal feelings and approach this situation a hundred percent objectively. But...I need to at least try... 

"Hey, have you tried triggering Manifestation Overdrive?" I asked her. 

"H-huh? Oh, u-um...I've tried a bit, but not much-," She began to reply. 

"In that case, during this round, work on that instead of just sitting around," I instructed her. 

"O-okay, I'll do that," She responded, looking a bit surprised. 

Hope she doesn't get the wrong idea, I'm not trying to reconcile or play nice, I just want to maximize my chances of passing the exam, that's all. 

As the barrier activated around us, I draw out my X-Blade and activated them, as Kiran activated his Primary Manifestation and we began to split up to either side of the android... 

"Hey, try attacking the joints, those points should be vulnerable," I suggested, as he responded with a nod. 

I then got into position, setting my X-Blasters to sniping mode at maximum output, taking aim as the countdown ticked down...let's see if my bullets are good enough to take one of that thing's eyes out of the equation. 

As soon as the countdown ended, I swiftly fired, my energy bullet zipping towards the android's eye. Right before it could pierce through, the android dodged the shot, twisting it's head out of the way just in time to avoid it...tch, that's some reaction speed, a human definitely wouldn't have been able to dodge that. 

Kiran then extended his swatter straight at the android, the edge aimed at the left elbow joint. But it noticed what he was upto and quickly flew up into the air, narrowly evading his attack...the fact that it reacted is a good sign, though, in the previous round there were a lot of attacks that it simply didn't bother dodging. 

And the fact that it dodged that, as well as my opening attack, means that it's very possible that those attacks would have done some damage to it had they landed. Well, only one way to find out for sure...land an attack that it tries to dodge. Yeah, easier said than done. 

The android then fired its left arm blade at Kiran, who quickly shrunk his manifestation to just barely deflect it from piercing his head, the edge of the blade grazing his cheekbone just underneath his left eye.

The android then took aim and fired a clip of bullets at him, which he managed to deflect the first few shots of, but they were too fast for him to continuously react to, and he got teleported out before long. 

The android then turned its attention over to me, extending out its right arm blade and swooping down towards me while firing out some bullets from its left fingers. 

I quickly crossed my arms in front of myself to activate my barrier bracelets, forming an spherical energy shield around myself, which blocked the fired bullets, a few small cracks spreading out from the points of impact.

Okay, you know what, I refuse to lose to a machine, even if that means using powers that I'd otherwise opt against using while training. 

As the android began to close in on me, I swiftly dropped my arms and sprang back, partially deflecting a couple of his bullets with my X-Blades, one grazing the side of my left thigh and the other brushing past my right hip. 

I then focused on the android's arm blade, before chanting inaudibly... 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Three: Cut>."

It then halted in apparent confusion as most of the blade on its arm vanished seemingly abruptly, and then... 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Three: Paste>." 

An electric spark burst out of its head as the blade reappeared right in the middle of its face, the mechanical body collapsing on the ground in a heap, the glow in its eyes fading as it shut down. 

Fortunately, there were two spare combat androids in the training hall, and one of them powered up and activated a few seconds after I beat the first one. 

I then let out a dreaded sigh as I glanced back at Kiran and Bytra...two rounds down, and there's no more delaying it any further...it's time for me to pair up with Bytra... 

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