Techniques

Ezekiel responded as fast as he could, raising his fists to defend against the terrifying punch. His dad might have limited his power to the F rank but it was still enough to cause his gauntlet to creak, showing the stress it was enduring from the attack. The mechanic almost cried recalling how much it would take to fix the machine if it broke.

"Ha!" The thrusters on his gauntlets suddenly burst out with psionic energy, allowing his punch to achieve startling speed as he aimed a fist at his dad's toothy grin.

"Gotta do better than that." Matthew chuckled, using his palm to block the attacks from reaching his face. Unfortunately, the mechanic wasn't done. He unleashed a barrage of fast moving punches aided by the amethyst energy leaving the thruster and the compartment at his wrist allowing him to abruptly change his trajectory.

"Heavy fist mode!" The gauntlet immediately retrieved the thrusters while a shaft opened at the side allowing additional steel slide over the knuckle region of the machinery to bulk up his fists.

"Oh no you don't." This wasn't the first time he had fought his dad with the heavy fist design so the man immediately recognized it. His body shifted, attempting to fuse with his shadow once more, but Ezekiel seemed to have expected this.

He pointed his left palm forward. Suddenly, Matthew winced as a loud ringing sound rang in his ear, interrupting his action and allowing the mechanic to punch forward.

The layer of metal that coated the normal gauntlet compressed, pressing down against the gauntlet before suddenly releasing the moment it made contact with Matthew's stomach, discharging the stored kinetic energy and sending the C ranker flying.

Ezekiel didn't let up, flying forward with psionic energy trailing behind him while both the gauntlets returned to the base balanced mode. He raised his hands once more, releasing the siren emitter while launching a Psion blast at his dad's crashed figure.

(Ez, below you!) Laura's timely warning didn't help much, after all the mechanic didn't have that type of scary reaction time. He could only cover his vital spot with his gear, risking damaging them, when four shadow tendrils shot upwards and met with him. Luckily, his gear had managed to hold, but the numbness that afflicted him was still quite worrying. (Now behind you.)

Ezekiel managed to respond quickly this time, launching another sound attack while he kicked the figure that had appeared behind him. Unfortunately, the attack from before seemed to have reduced the efficiency of the Siren emitter in his right hand, causing less disturbance for his dad and allowing the man to successfully block the kick.

"Too slow!" Matthew smiled and smashed down on his son with both hands, sending the boy crashing into the ground.

Ezekiel coughed from the pain but quickly reacted, activating Psionic flight and slowing his descent before cursing. "Fuck. Dad, what happened to not attacking with my own shadow?!"

His father lithely landed on the ground, hands in his pockets while he smiled. "I'm teaching how the world works, son. You think I'd listen to such a bullshit condition if I were your enemy?"

"Then don't mind me activating my gifts." The mechanic responded with a sinister smile of his own, launching a Psion Blast from both hands and forcing Matthew to retreat while blocking the attacks. But a sudden explosion caught him off guard, sending him flying from the impact meanwhile pieces of shrapnel threatened to pierce him.

The Mage drew on his mana, transforming his arm into shadow whips that struck at the shrapnel. But since he was preoccupied with this, he didn't notice that Ezekiel had already snuck to his back. He turned around his senses picking up on something, unfortunately he was too late, since he was sent into the air by the mechanic's heavy fist mode.

Matthew clicked his tongue. Due to the special state his son had, not having even a speck of mana in his body, it rendered the favorite and most reliable skill of all Awakened, Mana sense, completely useless. This left him using his normal 5 senses to locate Ezekiel's position, something most weren't used to.

He had found this much easier whenever the mechanic used Psionic flight due to the engine like sound his boots made whenever its thrusters ejected Psionic energy. But Ezekiel had one-upped him, making use of the Bunny hop attachment to increase his land speed and silently approach him. And though he found it annoying, the Mage reveled in the fact that his son's enemies would be even more pissed off than him, especially Mages. "Hahaha! Good work kid, we can say that your strength is at the peak if the F rank. Let's end the practice here and discuss other stuff."

Ezekiel heaved a sigh of relief. He knew that if his dad went further and used the rest of his Mage skills he would lose way too fast and worse, his gear would be damaged once more. He plopped down to the ground beside his dad, disengaging his gear and storing them within his Dimension ring, a spatial item that could store inanimate items like his earlier suitcase. Since he had managed to pass his parent's challenge, they had gotten him a better spatial item.

"I think your current battle awareness is strong enough, Ez." Matthew smiled and placed his hand around his son's shoulder. "So we're gonna talk about techniques now."

"Techniques?" Ezekiel's brow rose. This was the first time he was hearing that word.

"Yup, techniques. They're very useful in the world of Awakened, although they're only used by the Brawler class, some rare Forgers who battle and Mages. They're not as destructive as spells but are useful when it comes to conserving your energy and quickly taking down your enemy. They're quite taxing on the body though, which is why most Mages and Seers don't bother learning them." He explained, before glancing at his son with a sinister smile. "I also learnt some battle techniques, but if I used them in our spar… Hehe, it would take only a minute to mop the floor with you even if I reduced my prowess to the F rank."

"They're that useful?"

"Of course they are. But it still boils down to one's affinity towards the techniques and their talent. Still, I can only boast like that because I spent my life learning multiple techniques but never fully diving into them, instead I use them to polish my own self-created Battle technique. This is why it's better to affirm one's future path when deciding which technique to begin learning. So, Ez, what path are you taking? Learning or creating?"

Ezekiel smiled. "What choice do I have dad? My special state means there's a high chance that mana driven techniques won't work on me, so I'd have to create my own. Still, I look forward to creating a fantastic technique that'll force all to bow before me!"

"Atta boy, that's the attitude." Matthew smiled, playfully smacking his son's shoulder. "Let's hit the library then, you have a technique to forge, kid!"