The mine I chose was an empty one,empty in the way abandoned places usually are. It felt… paused. Like something had been here once and simply stepped out for a moment and never came back. Dust sat undisturbed in shallow lines along the ground, and one of the overhead supports creaked intermittently, not from stress, just from settling. The sound came and went without pattern. I found myself listening for it again after each pause.
"This location is suboptimal," Angel said.
I nodded. I chose this mine because it was far enough away from everything else, even though she didn't need the explanation. My boots scraped lightly against the ground as I shifted my stance, testing the surface,loose gravel, uneven footing, one slightly raised plate near the entrance. Not ideal, but nothing here was ever ideal.
"The place is still manageable, right?" I asked.
"It is… manageable. We can use this place," she confirmed.
Did she just take a pause? The voice in my head was adjusting.
I didn't stretch. I didn't prepare the way I had seen others do. There wasn't any point pretending I knew what I was doing.
"Okay, I'm ready. Let's start… whatever it is we're starting."
The change came too fast for me to brace for it. My chest tightened, and a short breath escaped me before I could control it. It wasn't pain, but it wasn't comfortable either. It felt like something had reached in and taken hold of a set of controls I hadn't known existed.
My right foot shifted back slightly, the action so smooth I felt it rather than initiated it. My weight followed without asking me. My shoulders adjusted. My hands came up,with the intent, the promise of violence. That was the part that caught me off guard. There was no hesitation in it, no searching for position.
I tried to move my fingers.
They didn't respond.
Because something else was already using them.
The first strike cut forward before I could think about it. There was a sound,sharp, like air being split cleanly,and for a second I almost turned to see what I had hit before realizing there was nothing there. My arm pulled back on its own, not snapping, not stiff, just… returning. Like it had done that a thousand times.
Another strike followed. Tighter this time. Closer to the body. I felt my shoulder rotate slightly, my elbow guiding the motion instead of forcing it. It landed somewhere in front of me,imaginary target, real intent.
I wasn't thinking about any of it.
"This is crazy. How are you doing that?"
"I am taking over your muscle synapses for the moment; the training module will be ingrained into your muscle memory," Angel replied, her response curt this time.
My stance shifted again, lower. My balance dropped just enough that I felt it in my hips. Then my leg moved,a sweep, low and controlled, fast enough that I heard it before I fully registered it. If someone had been standing there, they would have gone down. No question. I had seen the move used often among the pit fighters.
The movement reset itself.
And then it started again.
There was no pause between actions. No "next move" feeling. Everything connected. One motion fed into the next, like a chain I couldn't see but could feel tightening with each repetition. My breathing stayed steady,too steady, actually. I should have been gasping already.
The sensation was unfamiliar,confidence, maybe, but narrower, tied to this place and what I could do in it.
Sweat started building anyway. It rolled down the side of my face, caught briefly along my jaw, then dropped. My shirt stuck to my back almost immediately. I could feel it pulling slightly every time I twisted.
I wasn't tiring the way I should have, which meant Angel was compensating for something internally, whether I liked it or not.
I tried to focus on that,on the lack of fatigue,but just as I was getting distracted, my body shifted into another sequence and the thought slipped away halfway through forming. A jab. A step. A turn. My elbow drove forward again, sharper this time. I felt the alignment in my spine as it happened. That part stayed with me.
Angel wasn't talking.
She didn't need to.
This was… something else.
Time stretched, or maybe it didn't. Hard to tell. There was no reference point in here,no sunlight, no noise from outside, just that occasional metal creak and the sound of my own movement. At some point I noticed my hands weren't shaking between sequences. They stayed steady. Ready.
I was learning,more like cheating, actually.
Then something changed.
"Unnamed fighting style: variation unlocked."
The difference showed up immediately, but not in a dramatic way. The structure stayed the same, but the way it flowed shifted. Movements connected differently. My strikes stopped feeling like separate actions and started blending. One motion curved into another instead of stopping and restarting.
It reminded me of the fight at the pit.
Not exactly the same. Slower. Rougher. But the idea was there.
Which meant Angel was learning just as I was. The AI had somehow formulated new variations of the style from one fight I saw at the pit. That meant a lot of things, but I couldn't dwell on it in the moment. I was pulled back into the flow.
I stepped forward,this time I felt it was something I initiated,and my arm came up in a tighter angle than before. A quick strike, then a second that followed from underneath. My body turned slightly with it. I felt the adjustment in my foot placement before I saw it.
It worked.
That was the strange part.
It worked.
Even though I had never done something like that before.
The sequences kept building on each other. I was constantly adjusting, testing. My muscles responded like they'd been waiting for this, even though I knew they hadn't.
At some point, I stopped trying to apply logic to every movement. It was too much. Instead, I went with the flow. I felt myself becoming in sync with an entity I didn't fully understand yet,the way my shoulder dipped before a strike, the way my hips turned just before impact, the way my stance never fully committed in one direction unless it had to.
Then it stopped.
No slowdown.
Just… control.
Back.
I stumbled half a step before catching myself, breathing heavier now. My leg felt heavier than it had a second ago, like something had been holding it lighter than normal and just let go.
I stood still for a moment.
Then I raised my hands.
Slow this time.
I tried the first movement again. It came out rough. Slower. But the shape of it was there. My arm followed a path that made sense, even if it wasn't perfect. I adjusted slightly and tried again.
It wasn't clean, but it held together enough to be useful.
I exhaled and rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the damp fabric of my shirt cling to my skin. Still not tired enough, despite what should have been an intense session. That part still didn't sit right with me.
"You're using something to offset fatigue?" I asked.
"Minimal optimization has been applied. Portions of the mental load are being offset," Angel replied.
Minimal.
Right.
I looked down at my hands again, flexed them once, then let them drop.
I could fight now.
Not like the Silver Prince.
Not even close.
But not like before either.
And I knew enough,just enough,to stay away from people I couldn't handle.
That mattered more than anything.
"This might actually work," I said.
"Are you asking if you are strong enough now?" Angel asked.
I almost laughed before answering. "Uh… yes," I said, hesitantly.
A short pause.
"Weak."
I nodded once.
"Yeah," I said. "Fair. That's enough training for today. I should head back."
It didn't sting as much this time. Maybe because I could feel the difference myself. Small, but real. Like the start of something instead of the end of nothing.
I turned toward the exit and started walking back. The path felt shorter now, though I knew it wasn't. My steps landed cleaner,less drag, less wasted motion.
Halfway out, I caught myself adjusting my footing without thinking when I stepped over a loose plate.
That was new.
"How long before that changes?" I asked.
"Progress is variable, mostly dependent on duration of exposure to this planetary environment," Angel said.
I kicked a small stone out of the way as I walked, watching it bounce once, then disappear into a darker section of the tunnel.
"Right," I said.
Outside, the air felt different.
I took a breath, rolled my shoulders again, and kept walking toward the settlement.
Not thinking too far ahead.
I will get strong enough.
And then,we leave this forsaken planet.