Zach had no idea that his life had become the trendiest topic among a government agency.
He was instead in the training room practicing the bending styles.
He kept at it until he felt his energy getting low.
He sat down and crossed his legs.
‘I should probably look for some weapons techniques and refine my body more with the breathing technique I have.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the stronger I am, the better, something is going to happen where my strength will be needed.
I should also see if I can upgrade the formation.’
He went to the store and saw his budget was 58,000oc.
‘This should be enough for everything.
I most likely will be broke at the end, but it will be worth it.’ Zach sighed and looked for any upgrades for the formation.
The first upgrade he saw cost 250,000oc.
[Natures Core].
Zach didn’t even bother looking at the description.
He filtered for things around his budget.
‘Too shiny to touch, so why even look?’ He shook his head and looked at the new list.
It was much shorter and depressing in Zach’s eyes.
The available upgrades were [Nature’s Grace], [Nature’s Call], and [Nature’s Veil].
Zach read through the descriptions of each and sighed at the prices.
[Nature’s Grace- Allows all members healing, learning, and combat abilities to be enhanced by 10%.] Price: 58,000
[Nature’s Call- Allows all members to teleport to the formation location and to different levels and send the members back to their last location.
The leader will have the power to allow or deny access to members.] Price: 50,000
[Nature’s Veil- Increases the formation’s hiding ability and lowers the chances of being discovered by non-members or technology.] Price: 56,000
Zach bit his thumbnail in frustration.
‘I want all of them.’ He paced but finally settled on [Nature’s Call].
The moment he purchased it, he felt he could teleport home or anywhere within the formation.
Zach tested it and then told Fred and Blair about it.
Fred was grounded and lost his car, so he wasn’t going anywhere, at least not on foot.
Blair was still at home pretending to be hurt in bed.
They both messaged in the chat they understood.
Zach closed the chat window and went back to the shop.
‘I am learning close-quarters combat(CQC) at the gym already.
I need a weapon for close-range, mid-range, and finally long-range.
The weapons also shouldn’t interfere with my bending styles either.’ Zach thought about it for a while.
He took out the elemental metal and thought about it splitting.
It split into two, transforming into twin daggers.
He then willed it to transform into a suit of armor.
He was able to cover his entire body and still had plenty of metal left over to shape into weapons.
He let the metal go, and it returned to being a ring on his finger.
He tested out different forms and logged his findings in his journal.
‘The maximum I can stretch out the metal while wearing armor without losing defensive ability is about 20ft.
Which begs the question, can I use arrows, and if so, are they limited by this rule?’
Zach thought of a bow and held it in his hand.
The string wasn’t there.
He moved his other hand closer to where it would be, and a thin silver string appeared. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
He pulled back, and a silver arrow was conjured up.
He gently let the string go, and the arrow disappeared.
‘It’s safe to assume all the projectiles I fire will be made from my energy.’ Zach thought about it deeper.
After a while, he decided on knuckle knives for CQC, a double-sided glaive for mid-range, and settled on gun shooting and archery for long-range.
He didn’t buy any techniques for the knuckle knives since he was already learning CQC at the gym.
Zach sat still as the knowledge flowed into him.
Once he had digested everything, he wrote it all down in his journal just in case.
‘Can never be too cautious.
At least until whatever is throwing me off is handled.’
He stood back up, ignoring the now-empty balance of Omni-coins, and started practicing.
He first warmed up with some boxing before making a pair of knuckle knives on his hands.
The blade was single-edged with small hooks at the end.
‘These hooks should give me a chance to catch my opponent’s weapon and either disarm them or damage their weapon.’
A darker thought appeared in Zach’s mind.
‘Even if they don’t use weapons, the hooks are sharp enough to penetrate and cause more damage on the way out.’ Zach started to do boxing drills before switching to the glaive.
The greatest part about creating the weapons himself was that they were always the perfect length, weight, and deadly.
Zach dropped the glaive numerous times before switching to long-range training.
He set up targets and started shooting.
In the beginning, it was with small-caliber guns, but he got into a groove.
He didn’t realize that a huge smile was on his face as he shot guns and practiced with them.
Reloading, taking them apart, cleaning them, and even practicing shaping them with the metal.
Eventually, he switched to the bow.
He tried different arrows and bows.
The one that felt the most comfortable in his hands was the longbow.
It took him longer and tired him out faster, but he got the hang of it.
He was at least able to hit a target 20 meters within the circle.
Zach stretched his muscles and went home.
He went down for dinner.
“We just got a phone call from the school, and they said the school would be closed for the next week or so.
I still expect you to show up at the gym.
I’ve already talked to Fred’s parents, and they agreed to let him come to the gym.
I told them I wouldn’t make it fun or easy for him and to stop by if they wanted.”
Zach nodded at Henry while checking his messages.
[Dude!
No offense to your grandpa, but he sucks!] Zach coughed and replied to him.
[We have at least a week before school starts up.
Pretty sure Cynthia doesn’t have a place to work out…] Zach didn’t get a response.
“Also, your parents will be coming back home for a little while to see you,” Diana said casually.
Zach coughed on his soda.
“What?
What for?” Henry patted him on his back.
“What for?
Because of you!
Did you think we weren’t going to tell them about the attack?
They are your parents, for Christ’s sake.” Diana handed him a napkin.
Zach cleaned up his mess.
“When do they arrive?”
“Your mother will be here tomorrow, and your father the day after that.” Zach nodded.
“By any chance, did you tell them about the other thing?” Henry answered him this time.
“Oh yeah, bucko.
I told them both, so there’s no way out for you.” Zach groaned and asked to be excused from the table.
Diana let him go back upstairs.
On a plane flying back to the USA
“Thank you for letting me take leave this easily, Madam.” The woman in question waved her hand.
“Nonsense, Nyla, your son was caught up in a horrific attack.
It’s only natural you want to go see him for yourself, and I’ve told you before to call me Fiona when we aren’t in public.”
Nyla smiled softly.
“Of course, I understand, Fiona, but you are the first lady, so I need to show at least that much respect.” Fiona shook her head.
Before she could say something else, a boy and a little girl rushed in.
“Mommy, Jake keeps saying the plane is going to fall because I am too heavy.” The little boy spoke up.
“Mom, I only said that so she could leave me alone.” Fiona gave him a stern look before she knelt down to the little girl.
“Sasha, ignore your brother.
The plane isn’t going to fall.” The girl wiped her tears.
“Really, Mommy?” “Of course, sweetie.
Besides, we have Nyla here to make sure that never happens.” The little girl perked up and went back to playing.
She gave her son a stern look before sending him away.
“I hope that boy matures a little more.
I heard your son helped carry someone to safety.
He might just take after you instead of Jared.”
Nyla smiled.
“One can only hope.”
Cecil’s Office
Donald stood before Cecil and handed over the files.
Cecil took them and flipped through them.
“Father is an ambassador, and mother is a secret service agent.
At least there’s little chance of him being a spy.
He is organized, which can either be a good or bad thing.”
Donald watched Cecil go through the files.
“No extracurricular activities besides the gym training and going for walks in the park.
Hangs out with two main people, rarely on social media, and is passing all of his classes with ease.”
Cecil leaned back in his chair.
He propped his feet up and sighed.
“The only question left is whether to recruit him or enlist others to befriend him.” Donald didn’t say anything and waited for his decision.