Training Ground pt.4

As the training dummy pries open Helios' defense, it follows up with an upward strike which launches Helios to the air as the dummy prepares its follow-up blow.

But Helios quickly released some of his compressed cosmic energy armor and reformed it midair to turn it into a platform to allow Helios to remain afloat. As the dummy reaches for Helios, it bumped into this invisible platform causing the dummy to fall back to the ground, stunned.

'looks like I can use this to my advantage'

He then released all of his cosmic armor including the platform he created midair, and reformed it into two large slabs of highly compressed cosmic energy as Helios comes down to the ground and uses the slabs as a giant fly swatter, smashing the dummy in between the two invisible cosmic energy slabs.

After taking a huge hit, the dummy was now in the defensive, as it tries to analyse the whole room and tries to predict the location of Helios' next attack. Helios manages to land several more hits using the giant invisible fly swatter, but after a minute or so, the A.I. managed to find a breakthrough in that Helios body shows a particular gesture that reveals where he will attack next. And a few moments later the dummy was now easily dodging all of Helios' fly swatter attack.

Seeing his attacks are now being easily dodged, Helios remolds the cosmic energy swatters into a barrier to block the path of the training dummy.

When the training dummy noticed that it wasn't being attack by Helios fly swatter anymore, it slowed down its charging momentum as it is cautiously watches out for any surprise attack from Helios.

The dummy was already nearing Helios when it almost hit the barrier but the dummy managed to clutch back as it felt the slightest sensation of the invisible barrier as it jumps backward and whorled its staff to see if there are any more invisible object in its surrounding.

When this was happening, Helios seized the opportunity and rushed into the dummy's position and gave it a downward strike which the dummy responds by blocking Helios attack with its staff, then the dummy follows it up with a reverse strike that was about to hit the right side of Helios' head, but Helios ducked just in time and countered attack by sweeping his leg into the dummy's feet.

The dummy jumped avoiding Helios sweep, while in the air the dummy poked one end of its staff at Helios which he dodges by rolling away.

As Helios recovers from his rolling dodge, the dummy had already prepped a downward smash which Helios scrambled to use an overhead block with his staff, but the dummy follows up with an upward kick, Helios lowers his staff to his chest to block the incoming kick but the dummy's attack was swift and the moment Helios blocked the attack the end of the training dummy's staff rebounds which causes it to hit Helios chin leaving him feel slightly dizzy, while the dummy prepares its next attack, Helios jumps away backwards barely escaping what would have been a final blow from the dummy's staff.

Helios spins his staff in a figure-eight while he shakes his head a little to bounce back from the dizziness, the training dummy rushes into his position but half way through the dummy's path the staff that Helios was spinning suddenly extends its length hitting the training into the left side of its forehead, then it was followed up with an upward strike to its chin which launches the dummy a few feet into the air, while it was in the air Helios' smashes the dummy downwards causing it to crash land on the floor as he returns his staff back to its original size.

Helios rushes towards the dummy to secure his victory, but when he was about a few inches away the dummy suddenly gives Helios a leg sweep which catches him by surprise causing Helios to fall out of balance and dive in to the floor.

The dummy immediately gets up and as Helios was trying to get back on his feet, the dummy launches a tornado kick hitting Helios in the head and sends him flying towards Rizal's feet,

"Damn, this bot is hard!" Helios remarked,

"That's how experts fight. They don't always use flashy and powerful attacks," Rizal smirked,

"Aren't you going to get up?" he added.

"Naw, I-I think I'm good here. I kinda like the floor's texture, ya know," Helios replied, as it was obvious, he was exhausted and ashamed to go on any further after his second humiliating defeat with the training dummy.

By consistently reforming and recompressing cosmic energy during the battle, it took a toll on Helios' mind and body causing leaving him exhausted and unable to get up, so he stayed like that on the floor until he recovers as he watches how the others would do.

Everyone in the room was now tense, as Helios and Andres managed to show them how scary the training A.I. can be on its hardest difficulty, literally attacking trainees at their weak point and analysing their every move.

" So Aemie, do you wanna give it a try?" Rizal asked Aemie, with a little bit of hesitation after what happened to Helios and Andres.

"Yes, but why don't we start from the bottom. The easiest difficulty, and then we can work our way up," Aemie suggested.

Rizal agreed and set the difficulty to Easy Mode practice and a new training dummy materializes in front of them.

"By the way, why didn't the training dummy chase after me when I got blown away here?" Helios asked while he was still laying on to the floor.

"That's because you're out of the battle zone," Rizal explained.

After hearing that from Rizal, Helios looked around the room and started to notice a faint circular mark.

"Is that the mark you're talking about?"

Rizal nods his head as Aemie enters the battle zone and prepares to fight the training dummy.

Helios and the others watch anxiously to see how Aemie's fight turns out.

Aemie starts off with a straight left punch to the face but the dummy dodges it easily by tilting its head. But the punch was just a diversion as Aemie immediately follows it up with a roundhouse kick with her right leg as the dummy's head rebounds from dodging forcing it to get hit by Aemie's kick.

The training dummy's body bend into an awkward position as it rolls into the floor and tries to stand up.

But Aemie didn't let the training dummy recover so she chases after it and gives it an axe kick, pummeling the A.I. back to the ground and defeating it.

"Simulation terminated," the voice from the terminal said as it displays the stats from the battle giving Aemie an 88% efficiency in combat.

"Tch, barely passed!" Aemie reacted as she saw her score.

"But you still defeated it!" Janet said to Aemie after congratulating her.