Zac had called for the next group, but Team Watabe still had not come forward. Zac couldn’t force anyone to step onto the training ground if they did not want to. The only Team Watabe member who seemed to be on the move was Ume. She had walked several laps on the outskirts of the training ground. Zac watched her every move but did not figure out precisely what she was trying to do. She walked a final lap around the training grounds before stopping in front of Watabe and the others.

  “This should be enough,” Ume said to the group.

  “What do you think our chances are?” Genkei asked.

  “Before that fight with Micheal, I would have said 50% success. Afterward, I’d say about 30%. That’s being generous.” Ume shrugged in defeat.

  “That’s a little better than I was expecting,” Watabe commented.

  “Well, I’m accounting for one or more of us letting our potential explode. Outside of that, our chances are even slimmer.” Ume was straightforward with her assessment.

  Zac had been conscientious about showing only some of his cards. Until now, she was confident that she only saw him dig into 3 of those pockets on his person. From what she could see, those cargo pants had about 10, and he hadn’t even used his firearm; he simply pulled it out to pacify Micheal. There was no telling what functions those things could have.

  “We’ll just have to do our best. Ready up; we’re heading in!” Watabe commanded as the group began to walk toward Zac.

  “Initiating Program: Stockpile. '' Genkei called out as his body twitched. He clenched his fist, and the fingerless gloves and slick tactical vest that had on began to glow purple,

  “System Start: Block Breaker.” At his command, a loud thump and a gentle shockwave metered out from Genkei’s location.

  “Helena, that crazy bitch.” Zac mumbled as he watched Genkei’s body lightly jolt under that vest and glove combo.

  “Initiating Program: Flare.” Akiko’s unnervingly calm voice sounded. She pulled out her katana; it seemed blunt and had glass tubing lining its edges. Before Zac could figure out what was going on with that blade, Plasma appeared within the tubing. The tubing retracted, and that light blue Plasma began to hum.

  “Is that a fuck’in lightsaber?!” Zac exclaimed.

  “Is that a fuck’in lightsaber!!” Many of the other Mentors back in the Skybox mimicked Zac’s reaction. Everyone looked over at Hachiman,

  “Program: Flare does not mix particularly well with the way of the sword. She thought of superheated gas to form a plasma blade to alleviate that. However, she is still too fresh to her abilities. So we had the twins quickly put this together. The base is shaped like a typical katana, and Argon Gas is released into the tubing.” Hachiman stopped his explanation there. The rest was easy enough to figure out.

  Argon had a low boiling point; likewise, turning its gas into Plasma was relatively easy. From there, she could focus her full attention on steadily increasing the Plasma's heat and maintaining the Plasma and its shape around the katana base. It basically acted as training wheels.

  “Damn. And you guys call me crazy!!” Helena began to laugh, and everyone avoided looking at her.

  What Hachiman and Akiko came up with was ingenuity; what she came up with for Genkei was just glorified torture. It was lucky that Genkei had the Program he did. Any other recruit would have died by this point while being mentored by Helena.

  Ume looked over at Akiko’s blade and smiled. Akiko told her what she was capable of. However, seeing was far different from hearing. Ume looked over at Watabe, who nodded his head.

  “Initiating Program: Ion” Watabe’s body twitched. Then a pair of daggers appeared in his hand, and then 5 more daggers floated from under the blue and gray camo Renegade cloak that Devin gave him. Electricity sparked off of each one of the blades as they rotated around Watabe.

  “Initiating Program: Zero. Boot Up: Replica. Cycle: Full Arsenal and Ion.” Kenji smiled as he saw the look on Zac’s face, as mist escaped Kenji’s pores, turning into two pistols.

  “You gotta be kidding me.” Zac deduced what the kid’s Boot-Up system could do at that moment. He could also imagine the uproar going on in the Skybox. More than anything right now, he wanted to beat the hell out of Franky.

  Zac always thought Franky’s Program was the most impressive Program he’d ever seen. He thought it was criminally underrated, and he knew it was mostly because most of these Chasers struggled to think out of the box. He had discussed several ways to improve and enhance the abilities of that Program with Franky. However, there were several holes that neither could figure out how to close. But Program: Ion solved all of that.

  “Son of a bitch.” Zac muttered as his mask shuttered around his face. Zac stood up on the dirt mound and got into a ready position. From what he saw, this was going to be an actual challenge. If he could kill them, he wouldn’t have to worry so much, but for someone like him with no Program, not being able to kill these kids was a considerable handicap to have.

  “You’re already so defensive, Sensei. Don’t tell me just this as much has startled you.” Ume said with a pleased expression on her face. Zac looked over at his pupil and smiled under his mask. He was curious to see what his cute Tiny Tot had come up with in his absence.

  “Initiating Program: Bloom.” The ground began to quake at her words, and Zac looked around in confusion. Suddenly, giant roots sprouted up from the ground and attacked Zac, who quickly evaded. Giant roots and vines continued to assault Zac from all angles. Zac gracefully dodged the rapidly attacking foliage as he danced like a leaf in the wind.

  “She must have done something while walking around the edges of the training grounds, But I didn’t see anything.” Zac thought to himself. The attack then suddenly stopped.

  He looked around to see that the training ground had been completely transformed. What first looked like a battleground in a destroyed city was now overgrown with plant life and foliage. All of which were under the control of Ume.

  Program: Bloom; allows the user to manipulate, control and create all forms of plant life, foliage, and their by-products. It was an exceedingly rare Program whose capabilities had yet to be fully explored.

  “Shall we begin?” Watabe said with a smile on his face. At his command, Genkei and Akiko charged out in a familiar pattern. Watabe trailed behind them as the three charged forward into the forest thicket created by Ume.

  Everyone was staring over in Franky’s and Devin’s direction back in the Skybox.

  “What?” Franky asked.

  “What my ass! Are you serious? That Boot-Up can copy Programs?!” Mawu asked.

  “Yep,” Franky responded bluntly.

  “Devin, did you know about this?” Someone else asked.

  “Of course, Franky alerted me as soon as he was made aware.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us about something so remarkable?” Another Mentor commented.

  “Oh, do forgive me. I wasn’t aware I was your secretary.” Devin said rather blandly, but the look in his eyes told a story of its own. The Mentor instantly closed his mouth, and everyone looked at the training grounds.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “This Team Watabe… they may actually be able to take him down,” Duendes said with a smile.

  Zac cursed under his breath. The terrain had been completely changed, and there was no point in relearning it. Ume could change anything with a thought. She was abnormally efficient with her Program the moment she got it, like she had been training it for years already. She could make this place a damn maze of roots and vines if she wanted to. This was the first time Zac was put in a genuinely passive position. His annoyance only lasted for a moment before he chuckled,

  “Now I’m excited!” Zac’s Metallic voice shouted out as he watched 3 people approach him.

  It was Watabe, Genkei, and Akiko charging forward. It was the same formation as Day 3. However, they now had more confident looks and were more formidable than before.

  “Different song, same dance.” Zac pulled out a gun and fired off several rounds at the three of them. Blasts of electricity shot out the tips of Watabe’s daggers, reducing those bullets headed towards him to dust. Akiko made several slashes, also reducing those bullets to dust. Genkei stretched out his hand and caught the bullets headed his way. He held out his right hand and flicked out a bullet with his thumb.

  “Shit!” Zac shouted as he dived out of the way.

  That thumb-flicked bullet blew a human-sized hole in the root behind Zac and shattered the root into splinters. Zac looked over his head to see shattered wood splinters levitating in the air.

  “Oh, you gotta be fuck’in kidding me.” Zac thought to himself.

  Ume could perceive everything that was going on within this foliage of her creation. That, too, meant she could control everything, including these damaged wood splitters, to attack. Zac jumped out of the way as those wooden splitters lodged themselves where Zac was previously standing. As he jumped to his left, he heard the humming sounds and looked over his shoulder to see Akiko standing with her sword above her head.

  In this situation, Zac would typically throw his dagger and pull himself out of harm's way. However, everything was now under Ume’s control, and doing so may put him in a more dangerous situation. Zac twirled his body around and crossed his daggers in front of him. The plasma blade clashed with the daggers knocking Zac onto his back with a grunt. Akiko’s blades continued to press down on Zac’s daggers. Every moment that passed, the heat from the Plasma increased.

  “Shit!” Zac cursed as he saw the dagger blade being melted.

  He jerked Akiko’s blade to the side while throwing away his daggers and rolling out of the way. He looked up to see Genkei standing over him, sending a punch. He rolled over again, but as Genkei’s punch landed on the ground, it caused an upheaval. Sending Zac flying through the thicket. As he was sent flying, the foliage and the vines wrapped around him, binding him in place. The vines stretched out his arms and legs and had him suspended in the air.

  “It can’t be that easy, right?” Akiko asked as she and Genkei trailed behind Watabe, who stopped in front of the suspended Zac.

  “Do you yield?” Watabe asked as his daggers pointed in Zac’s direction.

  “You know better than that,” Zac responded with a smile.

  “Yeah…” Watabe mumbled to himself. His Daggers fired out 5 blasts of lighting.

  Those lightning bolts would be enough to punch holes through bone and reduce most things to ash. Watabe knew holding back was foolish. Those bolts crashed into Zac’s body but seemed to bounce off him harmlessly. Watabe's eyes widened.

  “System Start: Nano-Armor.” Zac sighed.

  “Whatever he’s doing, stop him!!” Ume’s voice shouted out through the forest.

  Without asking questions, Watabe, Genkei, and Akiko all charged toward the suspended Zac. and attacked, but it was too late. The attacks from the three smashed into Zac’s body, which shuddered for a moment before his left foot ripped free from the vines binding it and whipped across the faces of all three of his attackers. From Zac's mask flowed an odd-looking liquid that started to go into his shirt and pants covering his skin in black metal.

  The three of them rolled on the ground, surprised. None of their blows seemed to do anything to Zac, who broke free from his bindings. There was a loud thud of metal as Zac straightened his back. Watabe got a good look at Zac and saw black metal covering his skin and aquamarine lines flowing over the top of that metal.

  “What the hell is that?” Genkei asked as he gathered himself.

  “Nano-Armor. Something The Twins and I invented for me. I figured I’d get to test it out today. Didn’t think I’d have to use it so soon.” Zac’s metallic voice chuckled.

  If this was a life or death situation killing the Tiny Tots would be easy, as they were now. However these little ones were more impressive than he’d thought they’d be. He hadn’t even gone up against Kenji yet. Nano-Armor enhanced Zac’s physical abilities by another level and was equipped with several abilities of its own. Nano-machines malfunctioned and vanished when they entered his body, so Zac decided to try keeping them on the outside.

  However, to only respond to Zac and his commands, the Armor ran on bioenergy produced by Zac’s body; he drew this idea from Franky’s Full Arsenal. Meaning it feeds on his blood as biofuel to maintain itself. Being a Taboo Child, Zac’s body was highly abnormal. His blood produced far more bioenergy than average, and he produced blood at a much higher rate. But this still could not last forever; he was limited to 15 minutes of use with the current model. Any more came as a risk to his health. As far as Zac was concerned, it meant for 15 minutes, he was officially a Chaser.

  “Here I come.” Zac mused.

  “Get over there and help them now!” Ume shouted at Kenji, who immediately ran off into the distance, while looking back at Ume, he gave her an understanding nod and playful wink.

  Zac’s body shot out like a rocket as he closed the distance instantly. Akiko sent a slash at the approaching Zac, who simply sidestepped and sent a punch toward her temple. Genkei stretched out his arm to receive the blow and absorb the kinetic energy behind the punch. Zac’s fist opened as he locked fingers with Genkei and then twisted.

  “ARGH!!” Genkei shouted as his fingers were broken and twisted.

  “Interesting.” That is all Zac said as he kicked Genkei away.

  It was clear to him that Genkei could only “store” the type of force he was expecting. He couldn’t “store” all forms of kinetic forces at will. At least not yet. After Genkei was kicked away, Akiko continued her assault, and Zac narrowly dodged each slash. Zac noticed that she was slowly building heat as the fight went on, and he was sure of the level of heat that Plasma had reached. It was best to avoid her blade as much as possible. If he could, he’d put her out of commission first.

  “Now!” Zac thought to himself, As Akiko performed a slash that left a small opening. He sent a quick kick to the side of her knee and went to knee her in the face, but before he could deliver the blow, he was knocked off his feet by a stream of lightning. He rolled onto his feet to see Watabe charging his way.

  Watabe began a flurry of attacks at Zac; the 5 daggers floating around him stabbed at Zac from all angles while Watabe attacked directly with the daggers in his hand. Zac’s daggers were already destroyed by Akiko moments ago, so he was forced to defend himself with his bare hands. Luckily for him, the Nano-Armor was more than capable of defending against the slashing of those daggers. However, Watabe seemed to have picked out several weak points in the Armor and stabbed them at every opportunity. Zac was aware of these weak points but didn’t know how Watabe had marked them so quickly.

  “Dammit,” Zac exclaimed.

  While focusing on Watabe, he didn’t notice a root had wrapped around his right ankle to stop him from moving. Watabe shouted as he gathered a massive amount of electricity into his Daggers and went to stab Zac. He was trying to overload Nano-Armor like Zac had previously overloaded the Nano-Machines of the Chasers. Before the daggers connected, the Nano-Armor wiggled, and two black Daggers emerged and parried away Watabe’s attack. Zac then used his free leg to kick Watabe away. He sliced the root holding his foot and started to chuckle as he looked at the daggers in his hand.

  “So this is how it feels?” Zac said.

  The Nano-Armor could form weapons from the Nano-machines it was composed of. Any weapon stored in their data could be assembled. It was similar to Franky’s Full Arsenal by design. However, depending on the weapon, more Nano-machines were directly removed from Zac’s protection. Zac looked at the black daggers as they started to burn his blood to create bio-energy. As they did so, a light green glow emerged on the dagger’s edge. Zac played with the daggers and then charged toward Akiko.

  Akiko quickly brought up her blade and began to attack. This time Zac didn’t dodge; he brought up his dagger to meet Akiko’s plasma blade. The blades collided, and there were no signs of the dagger melting this time. Akiko looked shocked as she was sure she had increased her blade's heat. Zac then kicked her away. She was no longer the primary concern he had. So he would not waste time on her.

  Zac ran past her and headed straight toward Genkei, whose broken fingers had just been reset and healed. Genkei saw Zac charging his way and got into a fighting stance, only to find him leaping over his head.

  “What the hell?” Genkei looked confused.

  “He’s heading towards Ume!!!” Watabe shouted out.

  Moments later, Zac had Ume in his sights. Like before, Ume assaulted Zac with numerous large roots and vines. However, Zac sliced and weaved through them with ease. Ume went to form a protective dome around her, but Zac managed to slip through. His metallic chuckle sounded,

  “Sorry, my Tiny Tot.”

  “You shouldn’t be, Sensei.” Ume smiled at Zac.

  At that moment, multiple gunshots rang out, and yellow bioenergy weaved through the openings in Ume’s dome, assaulting Zac from all sides. Zac was knocked to and fro by the explosive force of those shots. Once he recovered, he looked up to see Ume being carried away by a vine as she disappeared through the foliage, leaving Zac trapped inside the dome of plants. Zac looked over his shoulder to see Kenji standing on a tree branch in the distance, two guns trained on Zac’s location.

  Zac heard Ume command Kenji to go help the others, but in all this foliage he had no idea where he would come from. He assumed he had slipped past him at some point, because he had not been able to pick up on Kenji’s location at all.

  “How about you be a good normie, and help me with some target practice?” Kenji joked, as he let loose another volley of energy bullets.

  Zac started to laugh,

  “Well, shit.”