82 || The Original Apex Arrives!

Tara, even in her current adjustment phase, could fight hypothetically three grown untrained people easily. Luckily, Tara doesn't have to worry too much about taking action on her own. Tara does not panic, even at the sound of gunfire she's only heard in movies, as her memory and recall match that of her virtual body now.

Firstly, every hover car Tara has ridden in since childhood, is not the standard issue average civilians can buy nowadays. Instead, they've been specially made models using the material for space faring, Ahanite! In order to explore the expanse of stars, brave asteroid collisions, or simply travel from Earth and Mars with relative ease and speed, what could an earth made gun do to such a material? Furthermore, an interlocking but invisible hexagonal hardlight shield enveloped the car for double protection!

Secondly, all of her drivers were no pushovers! In order to become a licensed gun carrier outside of certain armed forces, one needs to take extensive plus time consuming lessons. The experience was so arduous it made some military training look like a cake walk, and that was just the basic handgun.

It just wasn't worth the effort to the point where it drove archery back into social and hunting spaces. As such, every driver of a Starshine Executive or their family were trained with a variety of guns and other weaponry! Her driver Charles was one of their best and had actually driven to the laboratory to pick Tara up personally to protect her!

Third and finally, and most assuring for her, the exact moment the collision occurred her family was alerted immediately. A small map appears on a display case showing their current distance away from her.

Her aunt Tanisha had all but shoved her uncle out of the driver's seat before doing several illegal driving maneuvers that had several police cars behind her.

The room in which her grandma and mom had been working was suddenly several degrees cooler than before. Though Ahana herself is not an Expert, the woman had spent enough time among them that she had developed her own intent. Given her mental network akin to a Support Expert since birth, affecting the atmosphere and those around her was easy to practice. The two women immediately gathered a dozen of Starshine's personal guards to make a move on Tara's location.

They will only arrive after the mercenaries are taken care of except for a sole survivor. The six masked men and women, three of each, who are unloading bullets in hopes of finding a weak point in the shield don't notice a figure strolling towards them.

A man in his late 30s, he is tall and lean, with a handsome sculpted face with clear East Asian features, obsidian black hair down his back but tied into a ponytail. He's wearing an unassuming black jogger's outfit with a single red stripe starting from the sleeves and aligning down to the ankle cuffs.

"What seems to be the problem here?" He asks smoothly as he appears silently beside one of the men. Startled, the man whips his gun at the new arrival--only for it to be dismantled before his eyes a moment later. "Careful with that, you could put your eye out."

That was the last bit of advice the mercenary heard before his body crumpled with a 'thud!'. This immediately caught the attention of his still breathing allies. In only a second one of them was down for good. Whoever this person is, they were more skilled than all of them for certain. Even if they all attacked in melee as one, they most likely wouldn't do much harm.

However, he was only human, and they had guns! They all turned in sync and fired a hail of bullets at this man.

The man in return slowly does a triangular sweep of his left hand. The bullets either stop directly in front of him, deflect to the side just before reaching him, or the scariest option of him dropping them from an encased right hand.

Only one of the people left recognizes that move called <Triangle Shield>. It's a high level Retention Technique where either a melee weapon or type of energy is swept in three points multiple times in succession forming a triangle. The connection forms a triangle barrier that can mitigate and deflect impact. Couple that with a defensive Skill or a powerful shield's stats and one would be immovable. He had been attempting for a decade now and even with his Master level skills couldn't do it. Now he met someone who could use it in the natural world...

At the sight of recognition in one of their masked faces shifting to utter horror, the man smirks and allows them to turn and run. He's found the one who got to go through interrogation.

Like a burst of wind, he appears before each of the others rapidly and dispatches them painlessly without pause. The straggler barely makes it 60 feet away before his neck is below an open toe sandal.

"You knew that move, impressive! Now what would you say if I told you I was--"

"Gong Gong!" Tara's voice calls out as the shield around the car fades with the threat gone. Even a sniper wouldn't risk taking a shot after witnessing such a display.

"Hello, my little Star!" Chuckles the strongest player of his or any generation, River Crosser or Jiang Boying! The man beneath his foot eyes rolls back into his head from fear at who killed his comrades. The one person in both worlds you don't want to piss off!

"What are you doing here?" Tara rushes over to him and gives him a huge hug! Though nearly 60, her grandfather looks half that age!

"Why I was on my way to see you, of course! My how you've grown in the month I've seen you!" He laughs, twirling her in his arms as if there weren't fallen bodies not too far away. Boying places her down and looks her over as he notices something different about Tara's energy signal. "You've broken through?!"

Her grandfather had at 20 gone through a double breakthrough at the time, nearly killing him. Thanks to his own training and willpower he was able to push through. Still, even with the aid of the current technology assisting and perfecting how to enter natural Expertise, Tara's situation is extremely rare. Before she can reply, Tara's aunt and uncle arrive only minutes before Ahana and Karuna!

"Little Nisha, would you be so kind as to hand this gentleman off to your favorite student? I know she enjoys a good interrogation!" Boying smiles at her. In all her life, Tara finally sees Tanisha's mask break into a bright grin that causes everyone's hearts to skip a beat.

"Sure, Uncle! She'd be happy too!" Tanisha lifts the fainted man with one hand, stepping away to call someone she personally took under her wing. The smile previously was almost like a mirage when her neutral face returned.

"Granny, what did you do to our granddaughter?" He asks Ahana as her force works with the police to clean up the scene while debriefing Charlie of what happened.

"Nothing that wouldn't have happened in time. But you knew that already, geezer." She fires back.

It was not a coincidence he had arrived here. Long ago, Boying had found a special Retention Technique. It allowed him to place an energy mark on those close to him, herself included. He would then be able to locate them within several miles but had placed his own restriction to only use it if true danger was imminent. Tara's new brain function had read as intense stress to his Technique and so he appeared! Tanisha later informed Tara of this.

"You'll look after her, won't you Uncle?" Karuna asks, pulling Tara close to her. Her entire body was trembling. This kind of thing had only happened in stories she had been told as a teen to her mother and Uncle Boying.

"She'll have to be absent from school for at least a week, but she'll be in the safest place on the planet." Boying ruffles Tara's head as he promises, "I'll even give her one on one lessons after her adjustment training."

Tara is taken to the Blueriver HQ Building along with her grandpa. Her uncle had been given the task of gathering her classmates except for Kingdom Lock and Crafty Goliath who lived in the dorms with their families. Her mother would bring Iris, Renee, and Kristen after explaining why Tara wouldn't be at school. Tara, for how harrowing the last half hour had been, was more bummed out by two things.

She wouldn't be able to sign up for this round of the Youth League tournament, which are daytime events. Tara wanted her to join her class, as is the case for most high schoolers unless they were already recruited by an organization or had an in.

Every classroom had an A team and B team of combatants. Sometimes this meant crossing paths during the Labyrinth or Matchups while Raid usually counted a class as a sole entity. Most of the time the A team would advance, using the B team as reserves. It was only unless someone acts particularly outstanding during a round that a swap is done. However if the deadline wasn't met, new members couldn't be added to their overall roster unless they reached State. Only then could they add from other fallen teams within their districts.

Tara was also not looking forward to using the helmet after being in the virtual reality pod. The immersion and senses she felt during the last two sessions seemed so real.

It was true what had been said: she could grow in the natural world while playing the game, with her breakthrough being all the evidence Tara needed.

Her grandpa leads her through a hidden entrance only he has knowledge of before leading her to his own private holochamber. Instead of an arena style space, it's a room fitted entirely with the electromagnetic hard light projectors and generators. In fact, the second they step into the holochamber, the two go through a transformation.

Tara is in her usual Dark Saber robes. Her grandfather is wearing black leather armor over a white long sleeve t-shirt, the arms hidden within a gray long coat made of some sort of scale. Black boots lead to gray trousers and a belt with several pouches attached. But what stands out the most is twin longswords that move Tara's heart and soul!

They were like pieces of art, simple and clean yet alluring and powerful. The left blade from her perspective was made out of a black crystal engraved with a number of runes while the right was made out of a sleek white metal. Etched onto each blade is her grandfather's in-game name River Crosser in Chinese characters on the middle of each sword. Boying's eyes flash when he sees his granddaughter's expression.

"When you become the first Grandmaster Forger in the world, you never really lose those skills, even if the system changes. Whipped these up really quick once I joined my Story." He admits as he takes them off his hip.

Tara gently takes them and sits down cross legged to inspect them. The materials are basic but the technique is well beyond her abilities. They're Silver Grade at a minimum, but likely beyond that. Tara can't even tell what's so special about the white sword which is runeless as she turns it over and runs her hand over it.

Boying simply watches her with amusement. She eventually shakes her head before returning them.

"You can't tell what I did to the white sword, hm?" He chuckles as his familiar dip of the brow appears on her face. Tara nods, her eyes shining with curiosity! Anything she can learn from her grandfather will definitely help her own creations. "I call it an armature lattice. Like how a diamond is a perfect crystal lattice, I've done the same with this blade's structure."