45 Impact Armor!
"Doesn't look like that guy's here... Is he skipping practice??"
Among the 50 or so students who had gathered on the training fields today, Ella scanned through the people that're standing by the sidelines together with a group of coaches.
All the people there were likely to be the official new recruits of Ravenville's Arena team that had gotten in through invitations,
The 1st year Battle Arena student athletes of Ravenville.
Today, they were all helping the coaches to monitor and help with the try-out for the large number of applicants. And if what Irvine had said about himself were true, Ella thought that he should really have been among them.
"--You mean Irvine? Well, he did say that he doesn't know anything about the try-out process after all."
"..."
Beside her, Wilson just shrugged as he also looked at the number of students participating alongside the two of them.
There were really more people than he would like to compete with.
Just the day before, Ella had warned him that there usually would be 50 to 100 people from various departments and majors who'd try their hands on joining the team every year.
They ranged from people wanting to try their hands at Arena on college, to people like Ella who was staking all her future into this.
But as Wilson had known as well, only around 10% of all those students would have the chance to barely enter the Illusions' 3rd string.
'10%... So every year, Ravenville only accepts 5-10 walk-ins from the dozens of player applicants.' He mumbled.
Wilson's nerves started kicking in the closer they got to the starting time.
The Ravenville Illusions usually bolstered the power of 40 to 50 players between their 3 different strings.
15 of those number fell into the core team that was the 1st string.
And then, the 2nd and 3rd would have an average of 20 players in each.
Between the two, The 3rd string would almost always carry the majority of the freshmen within their bulk of 20. Half of which would be the invited while the rest were the walk-ins.
But make no mistakes, the high number of these freshmen wouldn't be constant throughout their 4 years of college.
Most of them would eventually decide to quit the team midway through.
Some during their sophomore years. While many would choose to do so during their junior or senior years when they realized that they might not ever reach the 1st string with the time they had left.
An elite team was always a cruel climb to the top, and this was especially true for regular walk-ins.
But more importantly, it was a climb that both Wilson and Ella had decided to undergo, each with their own very different form of resolve.
.
Ella was still a bit caught up with her own thoughts when Wilson turned his head to look at her worriedly,
"It's almost 15:00 o'clock now Ella, you should start preparing yourself both mentally and physically if you don't wanna fail this."
"Yeah..." Ella nodded almost subconsciously, but then she really started to digest his words,
"--Hey, where do you get off worrying about me! You should focus on keeping up with me yourself!" She retorted.
"Haha, don't worry, I'll be right behind you the whole way through."
Noticing that his friend was becoming more focused now, Wilson simply rested his hands behind his head and grinned.
Before long, the whistle was blown by one of the coaches. Signalling the try-out participants to gather up.
*FWEEEEET*
.
.
At the same time, inside the Ravenville University Stadium.
"WALLACE! Go right!! You should've already memorized the new terrain's map by now!!"
"Follow the timing and course of the formation properly!! Otherwise you're just improvising!"
"Remember, only improvise when the unexpected happen beyond the scope of our formations!"
"Lang! don't spend too much time on the halfway line, either retreat or push forward!"
"!!!"
"!"
Series of shouts kept resounding on different player's comms all through practice. Nobody was left behind without at least one criticism in their plays.
On the frontmost audience seats on top of the pit, Head Coach Lark was supervising the entire Arena Field and several active battlefields at the same time.
If a fight took place in the building's interior of the terrain, he would quickly shift his sight towards the screen that would automatically show scenes of the fight through the micro cameras within.
As a high-end stadium, the place that all the 1st string members used for training everyday contained all the necessary technologies for a standard official match.
And just like any official matches of Battle Arena, it was made so that the audience could get their money's worth in experiencing live battles.
For matches held in stadiums, any obscured locations that existed in any given landscapes would all have very small cameras of different angles installed near them.
The feeds from these cams would then be shown on the giant monitor of the stadium in real-time with almost no delay at all when a fight occurred, automatically capturing the best angles for it.
The monitoring system installed in a landscape or a terrain was equipped with the latest auto-detect technology to always show the most optimal angles for not only casual viewing but in-depth analysis by commentators during a match.
Currently, Lark himself was using it to collect data and issue corrections whenever he found faults on the play.
.
*BEEEEP*
The practice went on for a while, but eventually, the signal that marked the end of the formation training echoed on the field.
"Alright, take five everyone!"
The message sent to all the players immediately gave them a great sense of release from the torturous training they've endured for this past two hours and a half.
Everyone had had a varying degree of relief after hearing it.
Players with less stamina than others couldn't even walk straight before sitting themselves down without the chance to take out their helmets.
*PANT* *PANT*
It was at times like this that Irvine truly understood why everyone said that Stamina Enhancement was a must for any Battle Arena athletes. And that the earlier you got them the better off you'll be.
Currently, he himself was still standing in the middle of the road inside the field, trying to catch his breath after such a rigorous formation practice.
When suddenly,
"Think fast Lang!"
Irvine was just about to relax his muscles when a single crossbow bolt flew towards him with great speed!
The speed was mostly because the shooter wasn't even hiding when releasing it at a relatively close distance in front of him.
The only one who used any kind of crossbows on the team was Clint. The guy had released the arrow when he was just passing by as if trying to walk out of the field.
Noticing the shot in time, Irvine's eyes turned sharp once again as he lifted his forearm in front of his face.
Within a split second, the air around his raised forearm was warped as if the lights that were passing through that particular area was bent out of shape because of the density of air.
The moment the tip of the crossbow bolt entered his zone, Irvine quickly swiped and rotated his arm while releasing the condensed pressure of the air.
However, unlike the usual explosion that happened when he'd release a ball of pressurized air with a loud bang, the one that was currently molded into the tight-fitting form of his forearm didn't blow up.
*WHOOSH*
Instead, the release of the compressed air had seemed like a wild and violent gust of wind, redirecting the arrow aimed at him towards the relative direction of Irvine's swung arm behind him.
*thwack*
And caused it to pierce the ground below.
Although the gust of air that Irvine had released was not at all gentle, it could be said to be a way softer version to his usual bomb-like release of overly compressed air.
Instead of bursting the bubble all at once, what Irvine had done this time was akin to poking a hole to the compressed air and then dispersed them out slowly little-by-little.
The end result was just like what had presently occurred.
A wild and forceful gust of wind that could redirect oncoming attacks blew the arrow away from its track.
.
.
*phew*
"Heyy! Sorry, sorry~ It's not me, the coach told me to, really!"
After seeing how Irvine repelled his shot at close range, Clint didn't continue his attempt a second time and instead confessed truthfully.
The serious look that he'd shown right before ambushing Irvine had seemed like a lie when his expression had changed back into his usual smiling self.
"...Yea, I figured." Irvine himself waved it off saying it wasn't a problem.
Truthfully speaking, even if the arrow bolt had hit, at most it would just get stopped by the exosuit, dropping his HP by a not-so-few percentage.
That was why there's really no way for the shot to be meant for harm.
On the contrary, he was even a little bit pleased that he could successfully employ this new move in such a pinch.
"...So that's what Derrick told me about, the thing you've been working on since last weekend? A softer dispersion of compressed air to lightly repel and redirect attacks..." Clint gave his accurate interpretation of the technique.
"Yea... but it's still far from complete. Right now the [Impact Armor] could only coat parts of my body and I couldn't maintain the compression for long."
"Wait, your intention is to... Make a stable mold of compressed air to cover your whole body at all times? That's crazy."
Clint's words were not baseless or meant to dissuade Irvine in any way.
Irvine's intended level of stability and control was beyond the limit of the supposed use of [Blast] Ability.
To put it into perspective, it would be like someone with [Overload] trying to perceive the slowed-down world around them until it was near stillness.
Nobody had ever been able to bring out the Ability to such an extent.
For [Blast], the essence of its Ability was just like its name, to create a blast of compressed air.
The focus of the ability was the release of the compression, not holding it indefinitely.
Even players who focused their proficiency on [Blast]'s control wouldn't be able to do that.
"No no, I don't need it to be able to cover my whole body at all times. But the current version was just too small and too unstable. I think my control can still be improved further."
"That's... True, I guess. But why create a gradual dispersion like that? Wouldn't blowing them out worked just as well or better?"
"It's more cost-friendly this way. I don't need to fully stop oncoming attacks as long as I can redirect them. Like this, I can use the armor more frequently before exhausting myself. And plus..."
"If I'm fast enough, I think I can blow up the rest of the air that haven't dispersed during the process. It's just more versatile overall."
"Mm..."
*CLAP* *CLAP*
"Very creative indeed."
.
Before Clint could reply, Head Coach Lark had come down onto the field at some point in time and was now approaching the two of them.
"That's the culprit." Clint quickly snitched.
It was the Head Coach that had instructed him to try and ambush Irvine after practice through the comms.
For several times during practice, Lark had noticed that whenever Irvine was facing an attack or two, he always acted like he was about to do something but changed his mind at the last second.
This, of course, hadn't escaped Lark's notice.
From such behavior, he could deduce that the thing Irvine was trying to do was not yet complete for him, but can at least already be applied in real combat to some extent.
Lark was just trying to see if he could bring it out of him by getting him into a very close situation like just now since he wanted to judge what it was for himself.
"...[Impact Armor] is it? By coating your body with compressed air even for a short time, you could have the options of parrying or simply blowing away oncoming attacks. Very versatile indeed."
"Thank you."
"So. Don't use it for our sparring match against the Thorns."
"Sorry?" Irvine was caught off-guard by the statement.
*sigh*
"...One, it's a sparring match, not much use in showing off all our cards there." Lark lifted one of his finger before following with his second point,
"And two, I already have some plays in mind that could make use of such a move after seeing that, but it's not yet complete right now." He explained,
"I'd rather not have other schools thinking up countermeasures for it when we haven't even perfected it yet. You get me?"
"...Yes, sir."
"Then one last thing..."
"Do tell me beforehand when you're coming up with stuff like this Lang. Don't you think I'll be able to direct you in a more efficient way of training them, I AM the Head Coach you know?"
"Ah!" Irvine's eyes actually widened a bit at this point.
It was true that because he was too focused with improving this technique, he hadn't stopped to ask for any advice.
Irvine thought that that was truly an oversight on his part. Any progress would move faster with feedbacks no matter how small they were.
'I'm too caught up in things and forgot that I can do that...'
"...Go rest then, we're restarting in 10 minutes. You too Silver."
""Sir.""
.
Back on the locker room.
Irvine and Clint entered the area together after their sudden face-off against each other.
When he arrived, Irvine quickly noticed that Medea was already looking at him with burning eyes from the locker next to his.
"..." After finding that look, he could only smile wryly and walk up to the direction of his own locker himself.
*step* *step*
"That's your new secret move?" She asked straightforwardly.
"You saw us back then?"
"Many people saw, you guys are in the middle of the field..."
"Right... Well then it's not exactly secret right?"
"...Nn." Medea nodded,
"Hey, think up some techniques for me too."
"..."
"...What?"
"I want a new move too." She repeated herself.
"I'm not a Ranger."
"You don't have to be. Just think something up. Also, you haven't told me how to counter Silver yet."
'This girl's becoming less and less reserved...' Irvine was a bit stunned at her blunt request this time.
