Chapter 126: Chapter 125 : Training With Chloe

Swoosh!

The Fated String whipped towards her wrist with a whistle. Like a constrictor, it looked to coil around its target. Chloe though was having none of that. Darting in, she swatted it away like the nuisance it was and then with the same hand, formed a fist and unleashed a hefty straight.

Bam!

Struck, Ralf and his circular shield zoomed backwards, leaving long tracks in the sand with his boots.

Chloe’s fist bloomed into a palm and Psi began gathering just off of it, looking to form a large Psi projectile. However, midway through this attack’s construction, she dismissed the Psi entirely, letting it scatter into blue particles before dissipating into nothingness.

“Already ten minutes, huh, time sure does fly when you’re having fun.”

Ralf, already out of battle mode, nodded. He leapt to the empty stands, took a seat and floated over his prepared snacks and drinks. Chloe showed a smile before joining him.

What was Ralf doing here?

Having enjoyed yesterday’s affair, Ralf showed up at the Duke’s place this morning and requested that Chloe spar with him again. Importantly, he specified that they spar in the Combat Arena ring.

The Duke gave the go-ahead and Chloe agreed, but only after securing a mass anime transfer. She had been hooked by the medium and wanted everything the duo had made so far. Ralf happily made the transfer. Having a Rank 6 to spar against was an invaluable experience after all.

Over the last hour of sparring, he had learned much from Chloe. He also managed to perfectly map out the environment.

“You’re still holding back, right?” Chloe started.

“Hmm, what makes you think that? I’m going all out,” he denied while twirling his biscuit in the air.

Chloe squinted. “Don’t lie to me, I can tell.”

“Oh, you can,” Ralf showed a look of feigned surprise before plopping the biscuit in his mouth. Munching on it, he nodded and swallowed. “I see, then I’ll admit it. I’m holding back. I’m only using one percent of my true power.”

“Only one percent huh…so you can beat me at will then?” She narrowed her eyes as she questioned him.

“I wouldn’t say that. You’re much stronger than me. I’d need very special circumstances to win against you, otherwise, I would lose.”

“Very special circumstances, like what?”

“For instance, if we fought in that corridor yesterday, I’d most likely win. I don’t doubt your ability but enclosed spaces are my speciality. That spot was perfect. A few Slicing Strings to the surrounding pillars would send everything crashing down. Enormous weight brings with it enormous pressure. Unless you’re used to that last second crunch, you’ll end up being crunched yourself,” Ralf bit into a biscuit after saying.

Chloe’s brows furrowed up. “And you’re used to it?”

“Yeah,” Ralf said flatly before wolfing the treat down.

Chloe was slow to respond as she processed the absurdity of the young man’s words.

After a while, she sighed. “You’re a real monster Ralf…for the love of this world, please keep your skills strictly to the entertainment industry.”

Ralf rolled his shoulders. “If this world allows me to, I’d gladly keep it there forever.”

Chloe’s face became complicated at the words. While approving of his intention and believing it to be true, she couldn’t help but feel that the world wouldn’t be accommodating, especially for one as talented as Ralf.

One day sometime in the future, things would definitely go awry and when they did, bloodshed was sure to be spilt in mass. She heard from Vincent that along with Lawrence and Nikolas, there were already many suspicious people roaming Popleigh even now.

She shook her head from the unpleasant possibility and latched onto the previous topic.

“What about in this place? Collapsing the corridor makes sense, but what about this sandy ring. If it was a fight to the death, could you best me in these circumstances?”

“Hmm, before I answer that, I want to try something. Use your full power to bind me in a telekinetic lock. I’ll try to resist it.”

“Sure, here goes.”

Following her words, Chloe’s tsunami of Psi rushed to smother and lock him in place.

But…

Chaotic Disruption!

‘Huh, how?!’ Chloe’s eyes bulged as she watched her Psi being beaten back by Ralf’s technique.

‘This is his Psi Disruption?!’ She observed the shuddering air around his figure with an awestruck look. She couldn’t quite believe her eyes. Of all the things Ralf had shown, this was by the far the most ridiculous thing in her mind.

Psi Disruption.

It was one of the most basic techniques. The technique’s purpose was to disrupt another psionic’s technique formation by quickly vibrating one’s own Psi.

Psi Disruption varied from partial to full body, near to far. The further away from one’s body one activated Psi Disruption, the weaker it was. Most of the time, it was used to defend against direct telekinesis attempts. Due to the priority increase gained from one’s Personal Domain, it allowed lower-ranked psionics to resist higher-ranked psionic’s aura...up to a limit.

Resisting someone three ranks above using their full power as Ralf was currently doing was unheard of. To Chloe, it was no different than an impossibility.

So what was the difference between his Psi Disruption (Chaotic Disruption) and a regular Rank 3 Telekinetic’s Psi Disruption?

The answer: the number of moving parts or rather individual segments.

Before revealing the stark difference, let’s take a look at how a normal Psi Disruption technique was created.

Simply put, Psi Disruption were made from smaller Psi Disruption techniques.

The number of smaller Psi Disruptions depended on how many slots of Conceptual Memory one could simultaneously activate. The usual number was between three to five, with those who had high Mental Energy capable of ten and higher.

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll work with the number five. If this was your number, you’d have to divide your MPE into clumps of fifths. Disregard all but one clump and split that clump into the smallest divisions you can. Usually, this number was identical to the previous number.

Now, with those five segments in ‘hand’, have them shake violently, using only the allotted Psi present, and then save it all in one Conceptual Memory slot. Once done, repeat five times. Now, that you have separate mini Psi Disruption techniques, activate them all at the same time.

In the brief moment that all of it is running as one, save the whole thing to one Conceptual Slot, and viola, you have a ‘twenty-five segment’ level Psi Disruption technique, which you can summon whenever you’re in a bind, literally.

Now, looking at this process, one might think they can abuse the system to continue to increase the individual segment count. However, increasing individual segment count through Conceptual Memory hijinks wasn’t possible, for the simple reason that Conceptual Memory slots were very limited in how much information one could store in them. There were of course differences in slot size between psionics, but these differences weren’t too large. But even if they were, complex information like those involved in active movements, for instance, vibrations, ate up a lot of space.

So even through perfect optimization, having an individual segment count reach three digits was extremely rare, and placed one in the top one percent of all psionics.

David Dench, an aberrant among psionics, held the record for the highest individual segments at a stunning 1728 individual segments.

Chloe had curiously known about this fact and recalled it upon taking in Ralf’s technique.

So how many individual segments did Ralf have? Chloe couldn’t tell exactly, but one thing she was certain about was that it was far more than 1728.

The answer: 9001!

Yes, he had over nine thousand individual segments making up his Psi Disruption technique, a truly absurd number. Thanks to his Mental Energy, each segment vibrated quickly. Not only that, due to their arrangement, they constructively interfered with each other, producing an even greater effect.

Chloe’s Psi wasn’t just kept at bay, but actively pushed back by the technique. She was flabbergasted at the result; all her mental cogs abandoned ship and unhooked themselves in an attempt to run away from the task of having to process this absurdity.

‘Works even better than expected, excellent excellent.’ On the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, Ralf was surging with joy and satisfaction at the result. ‘Ray will be happy to hear about this. I wonder if we can do the same against Walton. We’ll have to test that out.’

Deciding on this course of action, a now smiling Ralf turned to the still befuddled Chloe. “Thanks, that’s enough.” Chloe let up her Psi and Ralf dismissed his technique a moment later.

“How?” Chloe uttered, finally giving up on trying to find a reasonable answer herself.

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“That… hmm, not telling. It’s a secret.”

Chloe prodded his cheek. “Hey, don’t hold out on me. I’m curious, spill it.”

“Nope, not telling,” Ralf held fast, even shaking his head.

“Hmph,” she pulled back with a squint. “I’ll just ask Hana, she’ll tell me.”

Ralf rolled his shoulders. “Go ahead, it’s not like mom knows about it either.”

“She doesn’t?”

“She doesn’t,” Ralf repeated before looking to his half-empty biscuit tin. He floated one not to his front but Chloe’s.

Chloe stared at it for a bit before finally grasping hold of it. “This is not enough to silence me,” she said and a second later was silenced by her own munches.

Ralf smiled. “Of course not. Well, never mind that, I’ll answer your initial question.”

Reminded of the question, Chloe’s mood quickly switched. The ‘how’ of his technique greatly interested her, but the answer to her initial question even more so.

“Fine.” Chloe conceded as she cupped her head in her hands and awaited his next words.

“Is the circumstances such, that I could best you in a life-and-death duel in this ring?”

Ralf reiterated the question while floating a biscuit to his front. “The answer, yeah.”

His tone was dry, as though simply stating a fact. Chloe read this clearly and squinted.

“Odds?”

“If we went right now, I’d say seventy - thirty, in my favour. Thanks to this,” he said as he lightly kicked the guitar case resting near his foot.

“Huh?” Chloe’s eyes that had begun narrowing with danger flickered with confusion and then understanding. “The grendo gun is in there?” she asked, having put two and two together.

“Yep.”

“I thought you were going to play a song or something, but it was just to hide that, ever the sneaky one Ralf.”

Ralf shrugged. “I have to be, I’m still a small fry.”

“Really, you don’t carry yourself like one.”

“To roam, a fox has to don a wolf’s cloak.”

‘A wolf’s cloak huh, what you’re donning seems much scarier than that,’ Chloe couldn’t help but comment.

“I plan to carry it wherever I go, hidden in some way. The element of surprise is half the attack power after all.”

“Good thinking,” Chloe responded with a look of approval. She was continually impressed by the young man’s foresight and preparation. “I see, with that, those percentages make more sense. But what about without the grendo gun? What would your odds look like then? Would you still have a shot?”

Ralf pondered the question or at least looked like he did as his gaze locked onto the shiftless sand.

“If you keep your distance and throw ranged attacks, then I have no way of winning.”

“So you have a chance in close combat?” Chloe caught on.

“Yep, a chance. It’ll still be very slim but I have a few tricks up my sleeve that could even spell trouble for a Rank 6.”

“A few tricks?” Chloe repeated, her voice thick with intrigue. She thought back to yesterday’s match, more specifically the end. Ralf had managed to successfully stunlock her and get in close, but with her barrier still up, she didn’t believe he could harm her.

She rested well believing this, so Ralf’s claim that he could best her as long as he got close came as a bit of a shock. She had to know, lest her thoughts eat her up at night.

“Like what?” she inquired, her gaze burning with a dazzling light.

Ralf roasted in the light for a few seconds before he could bear it no longer.

“They’re secrets, but since it’s you, I’ll reveal one of them. How about that?”

Chloe’s eyes lit up and an excited smile rose to her face. “Understandable, go ahead then.”

Ralf floated a biscuit to the air before saying, “Twists and bends, that’s it.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep, it’s that simple,” he nodded. “I’ve noticed that most psionics’ Second Skin and Psi armour are very susceptible to these types of attack. It’s like built-in weaknesses. From observations, your Second Skin seems to have the same weakness.”

“It does?” Chloe asked, a bit shocked.

Ralf got to his feet. “Yep, it does. It can handle powerful direct attacks like punches and slashes, but not these types of attacks. The most glaring issue lies in the neck region. Put up your barrier for a sec.”

Chloe did as told and a moment later, she was wrapped up warmly in her blue coat.

Ralf circled to her front. Reading the Psi on her figure caused him to shake his head.

“Knew it, this has the same problem. Want me to demonstrate?” he asked, gesturing with his hands.

Chloe understood and nodded.

Given the go-ahead, Ralf’s hands moved forward. His left held her shoulder and his right, her head. He then applied a bit of force and pulled his hands into opposite directions before stopping and letting go.

“Side to side, back to front, or vice versa, if done quickly enough with a large enough force behind it, the base of the neck will tear and not long after that, your head will plop right off. And from the looks of it, twisting will produce the same result. To solve this, you’ll need to program your Automatic Aura to immediately harden the surrounding Psi to lock your head or limbs in place so that it can’t be bent or twisted, or have force absorption Psi rush toward these areas with more urgency. These solutions present their own issues, but they’re better than what you have now. After you were stunned from the light attack yesterday, I could have activated Chaotic Disruption and ripped your head off then and there.”

His ending words could be taken the wrong way, but Chloe didn’t. In fact, her feelings after his explanation were overwhelmingly positive, and her face reflected that.

“Thank you for pointing it out. I’ll make the change right away,” she said, truly grateful for the young’s man’s advice.

Ralf flashed a smile and returned to his seat to resume the important duty of snacking away.

True to her words, she began inputting the instructions into her Automatic Aura right away.

Eating and drinking, Ralf watched Chloe’s tinkering with great amusement. It was very different to how he and Ray created their techniques in the Mental Space after all.

After a minute of silence, Chloe’s eyes opened.

“Done?”

“Yep.”

“Good.” Ralf stood up again and looked towards the ring. “Let’s continue then.”

Hopping back into the ring, the two continued their sparring.

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