“Well that was a bust,” I said.

We had just finished exploring the factory on the west side of town. Unfortunately the only thing we found was traps, traps, more traps, and a pair of enemies that used hit and run tactics and dressed as ninjas. My kinetic sense had picked them up every time they attacked, but they were fast enough to do damage and fade back out of my range each time.

Their last attack was the hardest hitting as they managed to send Jacob and Rebecca for respawn with their opening ambush, but over extended trying to take Arya out as well. Like our training time she showed that a well trained combatant that can read your moves ahead of time is a dangerous opponent no matter how fast you are; managing to cripple her adversary. We had disabled the factory’s power, which made the only motions within the ninjas and ourselves. It seemed like they had decided to retreat, and now we were waiting for our teammates to rejoin us.

Jerome was still fuming at not being able to help much in that fight, “No shit it was a bust. I can’t tank what I can’t catch.”

Arya tried to interject some logic as she said, “Look that was the wrong type of opponent for you. They couldn’t hurt you and were smart enough to avoid direct engagement because of it. If I were to put a party role to them it would be that of damage dealers, not front line fighters. The dino-borg we saw earlier was a tank and you handled him just fine.”

I thought about what I knew of various games, which granted wasn’t a whole lot, and asked, “Aren’t there usually aggression tables or something like that for these things?”

Jacob’s voice pointed out, as he stepped through a doorway formed in the side of a large vat, “Yes, but I don’t think that is the case here. The classic roles are still useful, but things like agro don’t seem to matter when an opponent is able to think.”

With Jacob back it shouldn’t take long for Rebecca to rejoin us, depending on how her conversation with Thanatos went. Jerome asked, “Then how am I supposed to effectively do this?”

Rebecca stepped out of the door behind Jacob and said, “It’s like when we were in the field, adaptability. Right now you’re specialized to hit and get hit, that doesn’t mean you have to stay that way.”

“Except I chose the spike pattern for my power set, all I get is the enhancement and defensive abilities related to density,” he responded.

“Did you limit yourself to full body changes?” I asked, my mind analyzing the various possibilities.

“No, Savira just suggested the density limitation based on my description; why?” he asked.

“Because it sounds like you might be able to do partial shifts and fading, a partial shift might allow for increased mobility. I remember when I took Physics that adjusting the weight and balance of an object could affect its velocity,” I said.

“I don’t get it, and what do you mean by fade,” Jerome replied.

Jacob spoke up, his voice taking on the tone of a professor giving a lecture, “If you could do a partial shift and time it correctly you may be able to launch yourself in a particular direction. For example if you increased the weight and density of your right arm and threw it forward it would carry the rest of your body behind it. You would need to practice rapid shifts in density to really become effective with it though. As to fading, if your limitation isn’t positive density then you should be able to reduce your density enough to allow objects to pass through you, or you through them. Also are your powers limited to only affecting yourself?”

I couldn’t see his face through the helmet, but Jerome’s response had the tone of one who was deep in thought as he said, “No, the only limit is density based abilities. I’ll have to think about that. I only go two techniques at the start but they started out fairly strong. It is something to look into after we finish the tutorial adventure.”

Arya spoke up, “Now that everyone is back, let’s head for the church. Switch back to our usual communication method.”

She then continued mentally, “Zero, armor up and take point. Kickback you’re in the center with us to give us coverage in case of more ambushes. Schattenstein take the rear guard.”

It took me a moment to recognize the hero name I had chosen. I still wasn’t really satisfied with it, but in a roundabout way it fit the concept of kinetics and passed the naming policy the game had. Arya’s mental voice interrupted my thoughts, and I had a sneaky suspicion this was a private chat, “What do you think we will face at the church?”

“Could be the church, could be the docks. Either way though I’m pretty sure we will face the ones that got away. Those two ninjas, the minion controller from earlier, and likely a new opponent; if the dino from earlier was still around it would probably include him too. With them one down the minion controller will likely create something that can go toe to toe with Schattenstein, unless the final person is a tank archetype,” I responded after a few moments of thought.

“What’s your basis for that?” she asked.

“They bugged out instead of trying to take us out individually. While it’s just my guess I don’t think they can communicate with each other over a long distance. The ninja’s were honestly the toughest fight we have had yet, but they didn’t target our team the most effectively. They picked correctly going for Zero first, but then they also went for Jacob; while he isn’t helpless they would have been better off taking me out to remove my radar sense. So either they can’t communicate or they haven’t figured out that I have that technique let alone that you can effectively duplicate it while I’m focused on combat. They used swords which would have been effective at bypassing my kinetic armor; it isn’t very good at defeating melee attacks. Back to my point though, since each major opponent save the cyborg retreated and we haven’t seen them since then it stands to reason that they are gathering their strength to fight a group with a group,” I answered.

“Planning on informing the group of your suspicions?” she asked.

“Nope, Jacob is a very linear thinker so would be thrown for a loop if that wasn’t what happened. The siblings are adaptable and experienced enough to go with the flow on whatever fight we encounter. You’ve been riding shotgun in my head to use my radar sense, so I assumed you were catching the rest of what I was thinking,” I answered.

“While yes I’ve been riding shotgun, the telepathy doesn’t work that way. I’m not sure if it’s a privacy control the developers put in or not, but I only get conscious thoughts that form words or images. Half the time I can’t read you, from our discussion earlier I am guess that is because your mind doesn’t settle into specific thoughts unless your focused on it such as when you’re answering a question,” she countered.

“How did you read my moves in our sparring session then?” I asked.

“You focused on what you were going to do, fighting isn’t second nature for you yet, you haven’t reached the point of action without thought,” she answered.

That was intriguing; it also explained how I managed to counter her in the fight. I hadn’t gone with anything technical after I stopped focusing on the fight. From what I knew most experienced fighters had trained and drilled reactions into their bodies that allowed them to respond without conscious thought, while I may eventually get to that point it wouldn’t be soon.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she interjected, “Some styles of combat are considered easier to get the basics of, and if there is a way for you to increase the power of your techniques your speed will be a large advantage. Your biggest hurdle is going to be if you encounter an opponent as fast as you that is more skilled at hand to hand combat.”

One more item to add to the research to add to my offline pile; between that and the research I was doing into various ways kinetic energy could be used this game was requiring more homework than my senior year had. Arya’s mental giggle followed that thought and I smiled beneath my mask.

“I’ll ask my sensei what he would suggest when we log off. He might know a good style for you to begin with,” she offered.

“I would appreciate that. What about you though? How are you planning to advance your own capabilities,” I asked.

“I have to talk to Savira about the options, but I was thinking of trying to create a healing technique. That first ambush with the mantis-bots showed me that one of us needs to do something for first aid. Other than that I was thinking clairvoyance,” she answered.

“Clairvoyance?” I asked

“Remote viewing, seeing something without line of sight,” she answered.

“So you’re planning to be able to see things from our eyes, your eyes, and with no eyes present,” I joked.

“Hey, it’s a blind girls dream to be all-seeing.”

We both laughed at that, getting curious head tilts from our team indicating the private conversation was now over.