5 Chapitre 5 : Armada

'What's the fuck is he doing ?!' Mars asked himself as he saw the grenades being pulled out.

'When you don't know what strategy to adopt, you have to fall back on the basics, said Instructor David. And the diversion technique is the most basic and effective strategy that I know. Even a God would fall for it if some of the factors are put together'

In the end, all this was just about surprising the God of War.

At least the first part.

The God of War waited for Maalick to enter his range and ripped the holster from his holster and tossed it into the air.

A flash and explosions echoed through the training room. Yet Maalick did not give up. He drew his knife from the inventory and went for his jugular.

Mars watched Maalick's movements carefully to see where he was going to aim 'You are a strong candidate, but too predictable'

At the last moment, the Olympian avoided his attack by moving his head slightly.

In his momentum, the young soldier took his white weapon in reverse and tried it again. But this time, he made a feint.

Maalick bent down to attack his leg.

Mars just went around him at a divine speed and provoked him by flicking his neck "I told you before, you think too much in an academic way. Be more creative, combine all the martial arts you know for example"

Maalick was annoyed 'You want creative, I'll give you some creative'

The little genius turned around, spread his feet slightly and put his left hand in front of his face to protect himself. He put his other hand slightly in front of him and lowered his chin towards his collarbone.

Mars immediately recognized this stance 'Muay Thai combined with... British special forces knife attacks? Finally something original'

Maalick moved sideways around him, looking for a flaw in the God of War's posture 'He has become much more relaxed, his guard is wide open and his legs are all stretched out. It doesn't look good, if he doesn't even take me seriously anymore'

Maalick circled around for a while to find the right timing. Then he acted.

He moved closer to Mars in one move, while keeping a foot of distance and started with a side-kick.

As since the beginning of the fight, the God of War dodged with a disconcerting ease. But Maalick followed up with a circular high-kick, aiming at his shoulder.

Except that to Mars' surprise, he stopped halfway and changed his footing to throw him a lateral reverse side-kick.

The Mediterranean man shifted to the right and Maalick followed him, trying to kick him in the chest 'I know I can't win head on, so I might as well make you break your own rules'

Mars could see his strategy from a thousand miles away, so he surprised him by doing a back flip to outrun him further "You only have one minute left candidate"

'I can't change my plan now and I'm getting tired. I need to be more creative, more free with my movements!'

The soldier remembered the SAS motto, Who Dare's Wins. He didn't have many options left, time was running out and he had a God of War dodging all his attacks.

'I haven't worked all this time for nothing. I have to go back to Earth to kill him. To kill Happy Face!'

Maalick took a deep breath and ran to Mars. He put all his years of training in his room, in the army and in the SAS into practice.

The young man began his offensive with a downward kick. After Mars' usual dodge, he threw his knife at him, which he avoided.

But what the God of War wasn't supposed to know was that his goal was to move him to a certain position, to a certain spot in the square, right in the corner.

'You will not escape me this time!'

Maalick closed the distance between himself and Mars to throw a left hook at him, 'You're going to move!'

However, Mars used him as a trampoline and jumped over him, putting his foot on his shoulders "Your time is up. You have lost"

The winner dropped to the ground.

Behind him, Maalick's legs were shaky, and with his numerous kicks and with the pressure, he fell to his knees.

The young soldier was exhausted "All these years of mental and physical training. All of this... for nothing"

His Entity flicked the back of his neck again "You lost, but you passed my test. You've earned a piece of my power"

Maalick stood up, his legs trembling from the exercise "Wait... I-I lost. So why do you want to give it to me? Me, a soldier who has never been to war, who only uses the army to kill someone?"

"It's true, I would have liked to have something better. When I was told that my compatibility level with you was 20.3%, I was... disappointed. But I chose to not rely on the Designer's statistics. I chose not to read anything about you so I could judge you myself and I was right"

Mars was embarrassed "I'm not used to giving compliments, but... you're incredibly talented. You know how to stay calm under pressure and you adapt quickly to the new issues that you face"

Maalick was proud that the God of War recognized the fruits of his efforts. 'All that sweat, blood and tears were finally worth it'

Mars went to get the packet of sheets he had mentioned earlier and pulled out the one at the bottom and gave it to Maalick.

"Can you take this for a second?"

The young soldier took the sheet.

Mars unbuckled his belt and it turned into a two-tone sword. He tore the pile of sheet into a thousand pieces with a single vertical sword slash.

"I don't need to read this to know who you are. During the second part of our fight, I felt that you had a strong anger. This emotion can be a very good fuel, if you learn to control it... Maalick" he said, looking at a piece of a page with his name written on it.

"Yeah... I noticed that," he said bitterly, remembering the episode in the graveyard.

Mars had reactivated his telepathy. He could feel Maalick's anger and fists on his victim.

'You and I may not be so different" he said, remembering everything he had done as Ares.

But the Olympian looked the other way as Maalick handed him the sheet.

"Alright, we can start creating your Armada. By the way, this power is not something I give to you, it's more of a contract between you and me. Besides, we'd better hurry, it's almost midnight"

Maalick looked at the clock and indeed, it was almost midnight. To be more precise, it was 11:45 pm.

"Is it going to take us long to create this "Armada"?" asked the Mars candidate.

As he read the sheet, he replied, "It all depends on your imagination"

"My imagination?"

"Well, after reading the sheet, I know what to do now. But first I think I'll show you the document. You'll understand better on your own"

Mars snapped his fingers and several notifications appeared right in front of the human.

[ Armadas are contracts between the Entities and their candidate, which allow them to have various powers known as [ Skills ]

[ This document stipulates several clauses that the candidate will have to respect for it to be truly signed ]

[ Clause n°1, the Bond of Affiliation ]

[ If the candidate does not know what his Entity represents. He will have to explain it to him ]

[ In a concrete example, a candidate creating a power related to ice can't have it, if his Entity is related to fire ]

"It's pretty... simple to respect it as a clause"

Mars put his metal sword around his waist "Yeah, I know. The Designer wanted everyone to understand"

"So I have to think of a power related to war?" determined Maalick.

"Yes and it's okay if you don't have a specific idea. The System will take care of creating something from what you have thought"

Maalick closed his eyes and began to imagine a power about war. A power about what he had learned in the army, about himself and his physique, as well as his analytical mind.

When he opened his eyes, a faint orange aura began to emanate from him and he began to float. Which made him panic a little bit.

"Don't worry, this is totally normal" Mars assured him.

Another system notification appeared in front of the young man, as if to signal him that he was in the right direction.

[ Clause n°2, The Principle of Equal Exchange ]

[ Following this, the candidate will have to apply one or more restraints on him that he will create with or without the advice of his Entity ]

[ These restraints are unlimited. They can be related to statistics, actions to be done, to handle a single type of weapon etc... ]

[ The stronger the constraint(s), the more powerful the Armada will become, and therefore the [ Skills ] as well ]

[ The more powerful the constraint(s) are, the more powerful the Armada will be ]

"I understand now why you said that everything depends on my imagination"

Mars closed his arms "Is it going to be a problem for you?"

Maalick began to think 'I have the general idea. But the problem is that I don't know what I'm dealing with. I know absolutely nothing about this other world'

The candidate asked his Entity "Can you give me more information about Lockarte?

Mars took the time to choose his next words carefully "All I can tell you is that Lockarte is a fantasy world. So there will be monsters, magic, dungeons. That kind of thing and everything with it"

Maalick began to shape his idea 'Forget the magic. It would take me too long to understand it and from what Mars told me, if there are monsters, I'd rather stick to what I know. All the skills that I have learned in the army are more than enough to help me survive'

The God of War saw Maalick rise a little higher in the air and his aura became brighter 'The Designer warned us that if our candidate's aura becomes stronger, then so does the Armada he created. But that means that the constraint(s) he has placed on himself are huge'

[ Clause n°3, Evolving or Complete Type ? ]

[ Finally the candidate will have to choose of which type his Armada will be ]

[ The Evolutive type, gives the candidate the possibility to improve their "Evolutive" skills up to the rank [ Transcendent ]. The last rank which gives them the possibility to have a power of the same level as some Entities ]

[ But in exchange, they will start at a much lower level and their constraint(s) will become more binding, if their abilities are too strong compared to the the Completes ]

[ If they choose the second option, the Complete type. They will start at a higher level and their constraint(s) will lighten compared to the Evolved ones ]

[ But they will have a glass ceiling, in other words, a rank that their [ Skills ] conferred by their Armada that they can never exceed ]

"Even though the Evolutionary types start at a much lower level and will have more restrictive conditions. They will have a much greater number of possibilities. So I think you should take that option" Mars suggested.

Maalick's brain raced to determine which option was best 'The Complete type would allow me to develop faster, but Mars is right. There will be endless possibilities with this type and I don't know what kind of dangers I can expect out there'

The candidate of the God of War decided "Okay, I trust you. I'll take the Evolving type"

Not even a moment after choosing his type, the system had finished creating his Armada.

[ Armada : Blessed by War ]

[ In exchange for having no mana in his body, which will prevent him from using any type of magic spell ]

[ The candidate will have physical stats that are much higher than normal as well as mental stats in a lesser extent right from the beginning of his transmigration, and he will have to train every day ]

[ These points will obviously be more easily earned ]

[ Skills ] :

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