Chapter 34 The Greatest Strength Part 2

“See, on this slide is the bit where I defeat you with cunning and trickery, then the next slide is when I imprison you and have you watch this power point presentation of all my plans.” - Megalovania, S-Class Super Villain.

There was a small lull.

Four students down, one frozen in mid air, only ten more left who wanted to try their hand at fighting a teacher.

And a few of them seemed to be backing down.

Only a few though.

“Right now our best bet is the rest of us all ganging up on her,” Vince said. “If we overwhelm her with different abilities, then it’s very likely she won’t be able to keep up.”

“That would need all of you to share your abilities though,” Jun commented, quickly helping Aiden dust off some grime that had gathered in the moment she dragged him.

“I’m not sharing anything,” a girl called Ashley said.

“We don’t have to, we just need to all gang up on her-”

“For shame!” a girl yelled, a girl named Lea, if Aiden recalled the roll calls correctly. “She’s given us every advantage and you’re still trying to make it unfair?”

A person put up his hands, stepping back, a tall boy with a mop of red hair called Christian, “You guys have fun with that, I know I can’t win anymore.”

“Tick tock,” Trist suddenly said, glancing at the frozen Hyde. “You might want to come to a decision before I take him out ‘officially’.”

Lea stepped forward, “I’m next, and I’ll do this alone.”

“I challenge you, Trist Brake.”

Suddenly, both of them disappeared.

A few exclamations of surprise were yelled, Aiden himself glanced rapidly around to find the two disappeared people.

“That girl has a teleportation type effect,” Darius muttered.

“That or she can make two people invisible.”

“Why would she do that though? She must’ve brought Trist away, either to hide the full extent of her power or use a favourable environment-”

Darius could not finish, as both reappeared, now, Lea was face planted on the ground, clutching her hand.

“Good idea, but you didn’t understand my ability enough for it to work,” Trist chided, helping the girl up.

Lea nodded, still clutching her hand, which looked bruised, slowly limping back to the crowd.

“We’re next,” Vince declared.

Beside him, was the pale skinned girl called Lilian, and a boy called Ejohar.

“Wait,” Ashley stepped forward. “I’m joining you three.”

“I thought you didn’t want to reveal your ability?” Lilian asked.

“I did, but we can win if mine goes off. I just need a few distractions,” Ashley answered.

“Oh we’re distractions now?” Ejohar asked.

“You’re entering as a four?”

“Yeap!” Ashley answered as she stepped forward.

“Are we sure about this?” Ejohar asked.

Vince shrugged, “She can’t be more harm than good.” He then glanced at Lilian, who shrugged as she reached into her school bag, and pulled out a blood bag.

It was shaped almost like a plastic jelly pack, with a mouthpiece that allowed for drinking.

She drank the small bag of blood, drinking it dry before she put it away. “Gah, stale blood.”

Ejohar and Ashley both spread out, both circling the teacher at a distance. The former was irritated at the other doing the same thing, but didn’t comment. Meanwhile, four dice appeared to be floating next to Ashley, changing in position as if slowly counting down.

Both Vince and Lilian stepped forward.

“Both of the big name families huh?” Trist said, “Unlike the others, you along with Hyde don’t have the safety of anonymity, your families are well known enough I have a general idea on what your abilities are.”

“That is why we have a reputation to uphold,” Vince answered, before he raised his right arm up, looking at the watch on his wrist.

Lilian stepped forward, and burst into a massive colony of bats.

The sudden flutter of bat wings was deafening as they spread out all across the room, yet Aiden still heard something, a click, then a slow ticking as Vince stepped forward.

Vince rushed Trist, and she dodged to the side, moving to counter the blow Vince was throwing-

‘One second.’

And she was kicked over by a leg that had passed through her blindspot.

Trist instantly framshifted, getting back into a standing position, but every move she did, it was as if Vince expected it. Predicted it.

‘Two seconds.’

Vince was fighting as if he were perfection incarnate, zero wasted movement, flawless predictions of all of Trist’s moves, smoothly transitioning from attack to attack. For the first time, the teacher was forced on the defensive in a purely hand to hand fight.

Lilian’s bats had spread out into a ring encompassing the two, whenever Trist tried to jump away, they gathered and pushed her back, the combined strength of hundreds of bats enough to keep her within this ring.

Outside of that ring, Ejohar finished circling around the battle. Everywhere he stepped, he left behind a glowing footprint, leaving a ring of golden footprints.

Aiden realised their strategy, Lilian formed the first ring, the bats pushing Trist back into direct combat with Vince, who seemed to be completely outclassing her in hand to hand, even displaying no blatantly supernatural ability. While Ejohar formed the second defensive circle, all to keep Trist trapped in a direct fight with Vince.

‘Three seconds.’

Suddenly, Trist frame shifted again, and Vince, for the first time, paused in his smooth dance of combat.

“You can see the future?” he asked over the deafening sound of bats.

‘Four seconds.’

Suddenly, they were evenly matched. Vince still moved nigh perfectly, but it seemed like he couldn’t predict Trist’s movements anymore, leaving them both trading and countering blows with equal measure. Vince moving supernaturally perfectly and Trist’s wealth of battle experience, in addition to her ability to instantly change her own posture and position.

‘Five seconds.’

“Lilian! You have to take this!” Vince yelled, loud enough to be heard by everyone over the beating of bat wings.

‘Six seconds.’

The watch on his hand sounded as the timer was up, Vince tried another punch, but Aiden could see the difference. It was a good punch, but it was clumsy compared to his earlier perfection. The difference between a baby and an adult.

Trist easily locked the outstretched arm, sweeping Vince off balance and letting him fall as Lilian coalesced from the bats and swung at her. Lilian’s pale body seemed supernaturally fast,

But she was not as fast as Jun.

Lilian was frozen, and Aiden rushed to turn to where Hyde was.

He was falling, where his previous position was standing in midair, right now he was in a push up position.

A position where he was not flying.

As Hyde fell to the ground with an oomph, Aiden realised Trist never said she needed to be touching a frame to rewind it.

Ejohar rushed Trist before she could knock the Lilian frame down, but Aiden was beginning to see the problem.

None of them were hand-to-hand combatants on the same level as Trist.

Even with a hand tied behind her back, she easily sidestepped Ejohar’s clumsy right hook, backhanding his neck and knocking him forward.

But moments before he lost balance and touched the ground, Ejohar disappeared, Aiden’s eyes quickly found him again, and this time Ejohar was actively teleporting around the gym. Disappearing and reappearing exactly on top of where he left those glowing footprints.

It was a mistake, because in that second, Trist did the same frame release attack she did on Jun. Releasing Lilian the instant before her sweep made contact, knocking her onto the ground.

At that moment, the final die floating beside Ashley fell to one.

“Your Turn to Roll.”

In that single instant, Ashley disappeared. Instantly reappearing mid punch right beside the teacher, Trist’s nose broke from the blow as she staggered back. It was the first good blow anyone had yet landed on the teacher.

“Time stopper,” Aiden heard Trist say through gritted teeth.

But the dice were back on countdown and in that instant Trist recovered, her ability rewinding her to before she was punched, and Ashley went down before her dice could count down another second.

Now all that was left was Ejohar.

Maybe he hoped he could get a lucky shot in, but he wasn’t able to, and all Trist needed was a single touch to instantly lock him in place.

Ejohar couldn’t knock her down either, in the rare occasions where the teacher was knocked down, she quickly recovered through frame shifting, and Ejohar simply didn’t have the power or skill to do so.

So it was simply a matter of time.

But something else happened, Hyde, still on the ground angrily raised a glowing fist at the back of the teacher, Aiden began taking a step towards-

Vince stepped in front of the downed Glory, glaring at him with wrath in his eyes.

The light dissipated from his hand, as Hyde spat on the ground and pulled himself up.

Ejohar soon fell.

“You guys relied too much on Vince as the crutch of your plan,” Trist explained, “Vince, Ashley, and Sterling, all three of you relied on your ability to win you the fight, but did you consider what would happen if it failed?”

She pulled Ejohar back up to his feet, “And Lilian and Ejohar, you two did your job, and did it well enough. I know your main fear was me escaping where Vince couldn’t reach me for his checkmate to finish me off in time, but the moment his ability failed, you should’ve rushed me and tried to salvage the situation.”

“We can discuss the results later, but until then, is there anyone else?”

The remainder fell back, despite knowing more about what the teacher was capable of, all that knowledge accomplished was making them realise how out of their league they were.

All except one.

“I’ll have a go, Ms,” the girl with pigtails, Judy, said. “But… I just want to test myself against a real opponent.”

Trist grinned, and this time it seemed genuine.

A hand raised, Sterling, “Can I have a retry as well Ms?”

Another hand raised, “Me as well!”

Trist laughed, “You’ve all had your turn today! Wait till next time, for now, I presume this is our last match?”

The few students who didn’t step up nodded in unison.

“And don’t call me Ms, I told you it makes me sound old. And don’t talk until I call your hand!”

“Yes mam.”

“Next time you do that you’ll be doing pushups, so make sure to remember,” she said as Judy stepped up.

“Can I use a weapon?” Judy asked.

“Sure.”

Aiden blinked, along with a bunch of other students. ‘That was an option?’

Judy went to the gym equipment room, coming out with a large, padded bo staff.

Walking towards Trist, she began speaking.

“My ability is a Geneline one, it doesn’t have an official Name like yours do, but I’m aiming for ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil’ or ‘Three Wise Monkeys’. What it does is that the first three times I hit an opponent, I first seal away their sight, then hearing, and finally speech, in that order.”

She twirled her bo staff, “It works through weapons as well, which is why I have this. It only works on one target at a time, and I need to deactivate it on the previous target to affect someone else.”

Aiden felt something imperceptible slot into place, suddenly, Judy seemed much more… noticeable. As if she suddenly became more.

“A classic and proper Hand Reveal,” Trist nodded. “But pure Hume does nothing for physical strength and skill, if you can’t hit me with your ability then that Hume is wasted.”

Aiden understood what Jun meant by a mid fight power up now.

Whereas Sterling had used his Hand Reveal as a condition to activate his secondary ability, Judy got pure Hume to spend however she wanted.

Judy began circling Trist, who patiently stood there and waited for her to come.

Seeing the teacher waiting for her, Judy became the attacker, rushing in with her staff pointed like a spear.

Then she swung.

Trist easily ducked, not even frame shifting as the staff was swung over head.

But then something unexpected happened.

A mechanical cymbal monkey appeared right in front of her. Loudly clapping its cymbals.

And Judy dropped her staff mid swing, rushing forward to deliver a palm strike.

Trist frame shifted out of the palm strike, landing an elbow strike onto Judy’s outstretched arm and knocking her down.

A sigh was let out in the class, somehow, they thought she might’ve been able to take her down, being the last to come up.

But Aiden had noticed something.

He wasn’t sure if anyone else had noticed it, but judging by the body language, Vince might have suspected.

Aiden was already good at sensing blows, watching the human body move as it fought, and after the fight with Johnjohnjohnjohn, he’d been constantly enhancing at least two of his senses. It gave him weird looking ears, but it honestly wasn’t that odd compared to kids like Tusk and the sparse scales on his body, or Lutrin Aya with her unnaturally smooth looking hair.

That final palm strike Judy attempted, it was exactly the same as the ones Trist had been throwing out this entire time. Not a practiced copy, but exactly the same, down to the way her skin and muscles contorted.

And he heard Trist say something as she helped Judy up, something low enough the rest of the class couldn’t hear.

“Jesus kid, how many abilities do you have?”

Judy nervously laughed, and answered, “Three.”

“So,” Trist began, looking at the class before her. “Why did all of you lose?”

A hand raised. “Ejohar?”

“Because you’re better than us.”

Trist nodded, “Obviously, but where am I better?”

Sterling raised his hand, and she nodded towards him.

“Your power is better.”

“Is that it though?” Trist asked with her head slightly tilted. “Tell me, if I suddenly swapped powers with someone in this class, do you still think I would be able to beat all of you?”

The students glanced around at each other, all mentally calculating, ‘If she had mine, or someone else’s power, would I still be able to beat her?’

No one could answer that question with absolute certainty, though many hesitantly shook their heads. ‘No, I don’t think I can,’ was the general consensus.

“If that’s not it, then what’s the other difference between you and I?”

Aiden raised his one hand.

“Aiden? What’s your answer?”

“You are more adept at martial arts, you’ve weaved your ability into your fighting style, and you are also probably physically fitter than everyone in this class.”

Trist clapped her hands, “That’s it!”

“Well, now that you know that, I want you all to put that as your goal before you graduate,” she said. “This is the minimum you need to achieve if you want to be useful for your four-year term.”

“A lot of you don’t have physique or brick powers, meaning you're still a squishy human meat bag. You might not be able to change that, but you can at least be a muscled human meat bag who knows eighty-seven different ways to break an elbow with a pen. And for those of you with physique or brick powers, I want you to be able to train your physical limits to its max. Being able to surpass human limits doesn’t mean you don’t need to train, only that your limits are higher up somewhere else for you to find.”

“I know this will not apply to all students,” she continued. “Some powers do have the unfortunate detriment of limiting your natural physical ability, but I don’t believe any of you are one of them. If I am mistaken, feel free to consult me personally.”

“But other than that, you will also need to learn to analyse powers,” she once again raised her palm. “All the feats I demonstrated today could’ve been predicted and seen through from my explanation of my power. Yet most of you were all surprised when I pulled out a new trick. You need to develop the skills to figure out all the possible applications of a power from the barest information. That way, you can not only predict opponent capabilities and better strategise around it, but discover new ways to apply your own.”

She put her hands on her hips, “To do all that, I expect respect. When in class, raise your hands and wait for me to get to you before talking. If I ask you to get down and do push ups you should be getting down before I finish my sentence. Am I clear?”

Nods all around.

“Good, then everyone get up and start running laps.”

They froze.

“Chop chop,” Trist said, “I will hold this class back for lunch if you tarry.”

Aiden raised his hand.

“Yes Aiden?”

“How fast should I run?”

She smiled, “Fast enough to be panting by the end of the period.”

He nodded, and started running. The rest of the class followed after him with only a bit of hesitation.

Aiden understood the difference, and he was sure everyone else was beginning to grasp it as well. By the standards of his old world, the class and the general population were fit and healthy well above the norm, enough to qualify as major gym rats.

But Trist Brake was an Olympic Gold Medalist.

While she was holding back.

That was what he needed to reach.

He did enjoy concrete goals.

“Earlier I asked you all to classify yourself as either ‘weak’ or ‘strong’,” Trist said, circling the exhausted and panting students. “Tell me, why did you make the decision that you did?”

Sterling raised his hand, “Yes, Sterling?”

“Because my ability has narrow use cases, it can be easily resisted if the opponent knows what it is, and I often need people to cover me?”

Trist nodded, “Good answer, what about you Lutrin Aya?”

The girl froze, stuttering as she slowly answered, “Because… um… I’m an otter.”

“You’re a physique package who could probably outswim everyone here underwater, you can become practically immune to hypothermia and you have an extra limb,” Trist answered. “Tell me, did you self classify as weak because these traits are useless or because you think these traits are useless?”

‘Not to mention otters are some of the most horrific monsters in the animal kingdom,’ Aiden silently thought.

Lutrin Aya nervously looked away.

“Vince, why did you think you were strong?”

Vince put down his hand, “Because with my power, I can face anyone and defeat them in six seconds.”

“Then why was it your ass that fell to the ground?”

“You had an application of your power which countered mine.”

“And did you consider that possibility when constructing your plan?”

Vince shook his head, “No mam.”

“Hyde, what about you? Why do you consider yourself strong?”

“Because my ability is strong,” Hyde answered.

“It is,” Trist easily agreed, “however you were overconfident when facing me. You failed to keep track of where I am, or consider how a landlocked person might be able to reach you through the environment. Your ability is strong, but it isn’t omnipotent.”

“Why didn't you fly up to me?” Hyde asked, “I saw you do it with the sleep idiot.”

Sterling shot a dirty look at him.

“Because if I flew up to you, you would just say my ability matched yours,” Trist answered. “That isn’t the lesson you need to learn, but that a well fit and well trained human with a special trick or two can take you down.”

“You had to use it to dodge my last attack,” he shot.

“Even if that bisected me in half, do you know how long a human brain can continue to function after something like that?” she asked. “If someone were truly determined to take you down, they would grab onto your foot and unleash their attack while their lower half crashed to the ground.”

She looked over all of them, “All of you have to realise there are no absolutes in this world. Nothing is truly impossible to accomplish. No one is truly invincible. There is a decent chance that out there in the wider multiverse, there is an ability that is the perfect counter to yours. That no matter how strong you are, how much Hume you have, will completely defeat you.”

“The first semester of your Senior Self Defense course will focus on rounding you out. Figure out your weaknesses and create ways to mitigate them, figure out your strengths and create ways to consistently apply them. The best way to do this is to constantly train and experience a variety of different situations, abilities and enemies. As such, the passing requirement for this class is defeating at least five of your peers or teachers in spars like we just had.”

There was a collective pause, as everyone considered the people around them.

“Before you ask, these don’t have to be one on one encounters.”

And another collective pause, as suddenly the options increased.

“These obviously can’t be unregulated brawls, you’ll need me and another teacher as supervision, and you can’t go for maiming or killing shots. You are however encouraged to try and face as large a variety of different students as possible, so you may team up with or face students from other classes, so long as they’re within your year level.”

A hand rose, “Grenda?”

“What’s stopping some of us from gathering into groups of ten or so, and ganging up on a single person?”

“I am,” Trist answered. “You can choose to outnumber the opponent, who will also have a good learning experience facing multiple enemies, but I won’t allow any extremes, anyone who fights needs to present me with a good reason, and all parties need to agree to spar.”

Aiden paused, catching the strange phrasing. He raised a hand.

“Yes Aiden?”

“By ‘all parties’, do you mean that there can be more than two groups in any spar?”

Trist nodded, “Yes.”

She looked around at all of them, “Be clear, that you shouldn’t see this as a checklist you need to mark off to pass,” she continued, “but as a learning opportunity to acclimate yourself with a variety of situations. I won’t allow you to choose five people you perfectly counter for your spars, or taking only a single fight against five people, or forming a singular group for all of your fights. Anyone who uses this chance to its full potential will receive full marks, after all, five victories is only for passing.”

“Any questions?”

A few hands were raised, and Trist answered them, mostly the same questions she had every year, before finally the bell rang.