Chapter 14

It was only three days later that the changes in his body stabilized. To make sure nothing was amiss, he stayed inside the Bacta tank for one additional day.

When he woke up today, he was greeted by Corvus und surprisingly Dunn that was somewhat curious as well.

Motioning for Corvus to empty the tank it didn't take more than a few minutes that he finally emerged. His body seemed slightly bulkier and at the same time more defined. As he landed on the ground, a dull thud rang out as result of his changes.

"How are you feeling, captain?" Corvus asked, curious himself as he wanted to jump onto the chance as well as soon as possible.

Valin didn't respond immediately and moved his body while observing his own actions. He seemed far lighter compared to before, but if the sound he made when landing was anything to go by, he would weight more than before his changes.

With every movement, he gained more control of his body and that was big relief for him. He didn't want to spend weeks to get accustomed to his own body again after all.

"Let me get a quick shower and meet in the training area. Then we can test any physical changes in detail." He replied.

Both nodded their heads as they already made their way to their later meeting spot.

Valin took his time to clean himself. While he didn't get dirty inside the liquid, Bacta still wasn't something he would use as deodorant.

Wearing some light sportswear, he made his way towards the training area, only to be greeted by the core part of his crew. Even Bogo and the two Mirialan children came to take a look. After a few days of absence, it was nothing out of the ordinary that word spread among his crew.

"You look different, captain." Sabe said as she looked him up from head to toe.

"You look stronger." Thwak said with a grin that he shared with his brother.

"And I am, the only thing left is to find out is exactly how strong I have become." Valin replied with a small smirk. It was difficult to suppress the high he was feeling at the moment. Drastic changes such as these would make one feel invincible, but he knew he was anything but invincible when confronted with the real heavy hitters of this world for now. What he was however was on the way to get to that level in the future.

"Let's make a few tests then. Why don't you run a few laps to warm up and test your stamina first?" Dunn suggested. He was responsible for the training and knew what he was talking about after all.

Valin nodded and began to run at a fast pace. Five minutes, fifteen minutes, thirty minutes and he barely broke a sweat.

"How are you feeling?" Corvus asked.

"For now, it feels as if I could go the whole day, not that I'd like to run around the whole day." Valin joked. He had no problem running either same the distance or for the same period before, but it was definitely not as easy or fast.

"Let's go with the next one then. How about you sprint along the shooting range, it's slightly over 100m and should give us a good idea of you acceleration and top speed." Dunn further instructed, to which Valin only nodded and began as Sabe stopped the time.

The result? 9,7 seconds. Only slightly slower than the world record of his former life.

What followed were a few more exercises to check his reflexes and his reaction time. One of them was just him shooting at moving targets that made him feel like a super soldier. In just one breath, he could destroy around 7-8 targets of varying speeds and distances with only one gun. There was no comparison to before.

Next were the strength exercises that were not really his strong point before. Now he was able to bench press 310kg and squat 420kg, something he never expected to one day achieve and it was only possible because of the power of science. While those numbers were still lower than the records of his former world, it was a ridiculous number for his lean athletic body and height.

Following that they made a few more tests like his jumping ability and weighing his body weight. It was no surprise that he was confronted with a row of hanging jaws in the end. Hanging jaws and an overly excited duo that were now confirmed to be slightly weaker in their physical aspects than him.

"Hey captain, how about a spar?" Brachium spoke and it was slightly unnerving for Valin. He got a lot stronger after training with the twins, but he knew they were always holding back, and it seems now they were done handling him with delicacy if that word even existed in their dictionary.

"Alright, then. How do you want to do this?" Valin asked, steeling himself for the challenge.

"Both of us against you of course, that way we will see how much you managed to grow." Thwak answered for them, and his grin seemed completely unnatural now. For all their relaxed attitude, they were the craziest when it came to a good old physical fight.

"Are you making the referee Dunn?" Valin inquired.

"Of course, captain." He answered with a smile. It seems even the seasoned veteran would enjoy a good fight once in a while.

"HHRRRGRNN!". Voshtudrrl contributed in support.

"Thanks buddy!" Valin smiled at the encouraging words of his friend.

They quickly took their places on the training mats, this time without any kind of weapon. Valin began to analyse his situation. Obviously, he was at a numerical disadvantage and the brothers were both bigger than him, meaning they had more reach. His advantage now lay in his strength that was elevated slightly above Brachium and Thwak, his reflexes and most of all his newfound speed.

The brother on the opposite site were doing the same and came to the same conclusion. That was the whole reason they wanted to fight him together, to completely push him to his limits, only then would he be able to estimate his chances in fights with possible enemies and grow stronger.

When they first saw him earlier and how much he had grown with that one procedure, they didn't dare to underestimate him.

Dunn who was watching them get ready, was lost in his own thoughts. Compared to the analysis of the other two parties, he had a different opinion. The reflexes and quick reactions he could observe were highly unusual and not something a normal human would be able to do only by getting stronger. The only way he knew to achieve this was experience, experience that Valin obviously still lacked.

He was sure it had to do with the overall improvements Valin went through. His higher processing power, coupled with better senses and a quick transmission of signals would do the trick. In his opinions this would be the deciding factor for the outcome of their spar.

Seeing that they were ready, he gave the signal and the brothers immediately dashed towards Valin.

Valin in return positioned himself to the side to only confront one of them in the first exchange. Brachium threw a fist that he avoided by a hairs breath by ducking to the side and went to strike onto his opponent's liver, only to get interrupted by a kick from the side which he quickly avoided by further rolling to the side.

Taking distance from him, Brachium and Thwak took to opposite sides as they circled him. This one exchange surpassed their expectations as he managed to react faster than anticipated.

Valin meanwhile was surprised himself. His processing speed and multitasking were working wonders in tandem with his slightly sharpened senses.

One blink later, the two were on him again. For every hit he managed to get in, he took two, but his body still managed to take the punishment. A few exchanges later they were back to circling him with the difference of a bruised lip and slightly hurting rib on his side.

Valin however made a discovery that made him smile widely in contrast to his current situation. His instincts were honing themselves at a ridiculous degree while he was fighting at the limit and at first seemingly insurmountable odds. He somehow managed to locate them even when the attack came from behind. Was it because of his sharpened senses or some kind of sixth sense? He didn't know, but he had time to find out about it when he wasn't in a taxing fight later.

As they began to attack again, he let his instincts take over completely and rotated his body to the side and before any of them could react, he kicked Thwak to the side of his knee, forcing him to the ground. Instead of pursuing him however Valin put up his guard with his left arm, intercepting a punch from Brachium before he jumped forwards while raising his knee forcing him to dodge and lose his balance, rolling on the ground himself and out of the way to avoid further attacks.

Valin quickly turned around again to the now barely standing Thwak and attacked with a roundhouse kick slightly below his head. As expected, Thwak avoided it, but didn't expect Valin to use his momentum and throw a quick back kick that squarely landed on his guard, forcing him to the ground.

Valin took his distance again after the successful attack and as expected, both were ready to continue already. All of them were only broken out of their focus when they heard Dunn again.

"That is enough!" He shouted for them to hear.

Valin took a moment to get his breath into order again. Their onslaught was nothing to scoff at after all and even with the changes, he lacked experience. Still, it was mindboggling to even stand his ground against both of them together. They were absolute beasts in CQC after all.

"Not bad, Valin!" Bogo clapped him onto his back with a cheerful expression on his face and handed him the dishtowel he had slung around his shoulder.

"Thanks." Valin replied with a smile as he held it against his split lip.

"How about I make all of you something to eat?" Bogo proposed.

"Soo cool!" Tyria and Devos had stars in their eyes as they ran up to him, before Valin could reply his trusted cook.

"Can we get as strong in the future?" Devos asked excitedly.

It seems only learning to cook won't be enough for their curiosity, but it's better that way. It never hurt being able to defend oneself.

"Sure, we can teach you how to fight as long as you do good in your work with Bogo. The procedure is only for adults however, so you should be satisfied with learning the basics for now." Valin replied as he patted their heads.

Bogo looked relieved at that. If it was because of possibly losing his apprentices, them learning to fight or undergoing such a big change was unknown to all but him.

As they made their way to the cafeteria, Corvus and Dunn came closer to speak with him.

"When will the others get to use the resequencer?" Corvus asked.

"Well, I thought of letting you go next. You helped me a lot those last few weeks and earned it. It shouldn't take too long to prepare. Plus, you need the gene to use the technology as soon as possible. Afterwards we can work together to get everyone else done."

They both nodded at that. Getting such a big upgrade was no joke for warriors like them.

"I'm looking forward to it." Dunn said.

"We all do!" Freia shouted from the back, bringing a small smile on Valin's face.