{ A/N: I apologize to all Privileged Readers who read the wrong CH 104-105. I mistakenly uploaded the wrong Chapter. I apologize for the inconvenience. }
"Next up," Richard muttered as he hovered steadily over the testing range, "plasma ti."
He angled downward—both palms glowing faint cyan as the dual plasma projectors powered up with a high-pitched charge. Target silhouettes popped up from recessed floor panels, spaced out across the steel floor like a kill gallery.
{ Plasma projectors online. Charging sequence complete. Fire at will, Sir. }
"Let’s see what you can do."
He pointed his hands down and fired.
Twin beams of searing plasma erupted from his palms—white-blue, vicious, and screaming with ionized energy. They struck the targets with explosive bursts of heat and light, reducing each one to molten slag within seconds. Steel warped and hissed. The air shimred from the residual heat trails.
"Ho-ho-ho," Richard cackled mid-air. "I am Ironman—without the lawsuit!"
He swept sideways, spinning once in the air, and fired another barrage. The Protheus armor auto-compensated for his erratic movent, plasma trails carving arcs of white-hot death through the dummy line.
Below, Lina remained calm, arms behind her back, her synthetic body still as a statue.
"Well done, Sir," she said. "Accuracy remains at 96.7 percent. Do you wish to proceed to dynamic combat testing?"
"Oh, absolutely," he grinned.
Lina tapped a command on the remote pad.
Across the range, containnt pods hissed open. Half a dozen androids stepped out—sleek, humanoid machines in matte black combat fras. Each one ard with blunt-force limbs, reinforced joints, and glowing red visors.
"Test paraters: close-quarters stress engagent," Lina said clearly. "Opponents will use randomized patterns. Attack algorithms set to lethal intent. Do proceed with caution, Sir."
"Don’t worry," Richard muttered. "I’ll go easy on them."
{ Warning: Combat Test Initiated. Predictive Analysis Mode: ACTIVE. Movent Assist: ENABLED. Gravitic Dampening: ONLINE. }
The bots charged.
Richard t them midair—rocketing downward with a sonic clap, fists blazing. He smashed the first android with a shoulder-tackle so hard its torso caved in. The second swung a bladed arm—he ducked low, railgun flaring as he fired point-blank into its hip. The bot exploded in a burst of sparks.
The HUD pulsed.
{ Incoming high-speed projectile – left quadrant. }
He twisted sideways—micro-thrusters firing to counteract inertia—dodging the blow by inches. A vibro-blade ejected from his left wrist with a tallic shink and slashed diagonally, cleaving an android in half.
Three more closed in from different angles.
"Co on then!" he roared.
Richard slamd into the cluster like a wrecking ball, grappling one and hurling it into another. His plasma beam ignited mid-swing, burning clean through an attacking unit’s faceplate. Steel shrieked as another droid tried to flank him.
{ Critical strike detected – dorsal. }
Without thinking, Richard threw himself forward. The armor responded with a kinetic pulse from the back-thrusters, propelling him into a tumbling roll that crushed one android beneath his boot as he righted himself. The predictive systems lit up his visor in layered overlays—arcs, vectors, calculated intercepts.
He moved like a man possessed. Or more accurately—like a beast set loose with the wisdom of a god.
Each move, brutal and imprecise by martial standards—but devastatingly effective. He didn’t fight with elegance. He fought like gravity had grown fists.
{ Armor integrity: Nominal. Hydraulic systems: Green. Neural link latency: 0.01 seconds. Continue engagent. }
The final android tried a diving lunge.
Richard caught it mid-air, lifted it by the neck with one hand, and drove it down into the steel floor—cracking both the bot and the plating beneath.
Silence.
Steam and sparks floated lazily through the air as the Protheus armor’s glow began to dim from combat-high.
Richard exhaled, catching his breath inside the helt. "Damn. That felt good."
Lina approached calmly, scanning the wreckage. "Armor damage: superficial. Systems performance exceeded baseline by 27 percent. Combat efficiency: above expectation."
He turned to her, still panting lightly. "Above expectation?"
"You are a force of nature, Sir," Lina replied with quiet deference. "But not one without calculation. The armor adapts to you because you et it halfway."
Richard grinned. "We make a good team."
{ Shall I prepare aerial maneuver exercises next, Sir? }
He nodded. "Yeah. Let’s fly."
The Protheus armor rose again, wings of ion fire blazing behind him. As Lina watched from the edge of the range—she smiled perfectly composed, hands behind her back—there was a hint of admiration and pride as she watched her master.
Later...
Richard hovered over the main testing chamber, slowly descending to the floor as the last of the aerial maneuvers wrapped up. His thrusters disengaged with a soft hydraulic hiss, boots clinking against reinforced alloy.
{ Aerial maneuver diagnostics complete. Hover control within 98.3% precision range. }
He cracked his neck, still grinning from the earlier chaos. "Not bad for a first dance."
From behind the central control station, Lina’s voice drifted into the comms, formal yet playfully edged.
"Sir," she said smoothly, "we are now ready to initiate the next phase of evaluation: Dynamic Flight Combat Test."
Richard groaned—half-dreading, half-thrilled. "You’re not giving a breather, are you?"
A rumble echoed through the chamber.
The far wall hissed and retracted, unveiling a massive tunnel beyond—a sleek, curved passage lined with beacon lights, segnted tallic arches, and teletry nodes. It stretched like a six-kiloter bullet-track, wide enough to simulate pursuit and dogfight conditions.
From the shadows, more androids erged—sleek aerial variants, each equipped with fold-out wings, stabilizing thrusters, and mounted pulse cannons. Their glowing optics synchronized, moving in eerie, silent precision.
Lina’s synthetic body stepped to the edge of the tunnel. Her arms were folded behind her back, posture formal.
"With respect, Sir," she said gently, "this phase will push both you and the Protheus Mark 6 to your absolute limits."
"Terrific," Richard muttered. "What’s the goal this ti?"
With a soft chanical click, a floating orb the size of a basketball materialized from a chamber beside the launch platform. It glowed with a faint red pulse and hovered silently.
"This is your objective, Sir. Retrieve the Escort Core and carry it to the designated exit platform—located after a full circuit of the tunnel."
A new panel slid open near the far wall. The glowing words "END ZONE" shimred in white text above a recessed alcove.
"Total distance: 6 kiloters. The opposition will attempt to intercept, disable, or delay you. You must complete the lap and return with the core intact."
"...Seriously?" Richard sighed. "A space football run with murder-bots?"
Lina allowed herself the softest smile. "I modeled the scenario after your past interest in high-pressure escort missions. From older video gas, I believe."
He laughed. "I regret ever talking about that now."
"Noted, Sir," she said primly. "Comncing in three... two... one..."
The orb zipped forward, hovering just ahead of him. The tunnel lights flared green.
{ BEGIN TEST: Flight Combat Simulation - Escort Mode }
Richard surged after it.
Imdiately, the android squad scattered and accelerated—blazing after him from all sides. Pulse fire lit the tunnel. The escort orb zipped ahead like a nervous drone, and Richard was forced to zigzag hard, his thrusters whining as he dodged plasma streaks and kinetic bolts.
"Lina, this is insane!"
"Course teletry is stable. You are performing admirably, Sir."
He yanked hard to the left, spiraling around a twisting turn as two drones zipped past him, firing wildly. One bolt clipped his shoulder—no damage. Then another tagged his back.
He felt that one.
"AGH—shit, that stung!"
{ Warning: Plasma impact. Rear plating at 82%. }
"I thought you said these things were training units!"
"They are operating at 70 percent lethality. Adjusted for your tolerance level, Sir."
"Next ti, ask first!"
Another burst of pulse fire ca screaming toward him. He twisted vertically, flipped midair, caught the escort orb, and blasted upward with twin jets—dodging by sheer instinct. His HUD flooded with threat vectors, predictive paths, and timing curves. Every turn had a warning. Every corridor, a trap.
But he adapted. Boosters roared. Railgun fired back mid-flight. Plasma bursts seared the edges of the tunnel. Richard gritted his teeth, twisting between foes.
Then—
Another bolt struck his back. Hard.
Pain flared again, and this ti he spun out midair, slamd into the wall, and tumbled downward. The orb bounced beside him.
For a mont, all he saw was red.
The laughter was gone.
"Okay. These bastards totally pissed off."
He hit the floor, crouched, and let out a breath.
Then he launched—no more running, no more dodging. Richard turned, flew straight at the remaining bots, fists out, railgun blazing. Plasma projectors ignited mid-flight as he shredded two, then speared another with the vibro-blade on a drive-by slash.
Sparks. Explosions. Screams of twisted tal.
He tore through the enemy squad in a full minute of rage-fueled destruction, his fury almost overriding the predictive systems entirely.
By the end of it, the tunnel was a graveyard of slag and burning circuitry.
Only silence remained—and the soft hum of the orb beside him, waiting.
He grabbed it, hissed through his teeth at the sting in his back, and resud flight—this ti without resistance.
The last stretch of the track passed in quiet echoes. He reached the end zone, lowered the orb into the slot, and let it dock with a quiet ping.
{ OBJECTIVE COMPLETE }
He dropped to one knee, armor steaming.
Lina’s voice returned—soothing, respectful.
"Test concluded. Result: Success. Structural damage: moderate. Reaction ti: above dian. Emotional modulation:... unfiltered."
Richard groaned. "That wasn’t a test. That was attempted murder with bonus aerobics."
From across the hall, she gave a respectful chuckle.
"Forgive , Sir. I may have overestimated your threshold slightly. I will adjust the test paraters accordingly."
Richard exhaled, leaning against the wall. "No, no... It was perfect."
He looked down at the armor’s scorched plating and smiled faintly. "But next ti, maybe another layer of defense wouldn’t hurt."
Lina nodded. "Understood. Energy defense research is already underway. We are currently experinting with gravitic deflection fields—a temporary kinetic barrier projected around the armor to redirect incoming ballistics."
She paused, then added, "However, energy shielding remains in its early developnt phase. Plasma and laser-based attacks still require alternative mitigation thods."
Richard gave a lazy wave. "One step at a ti, Lina."
He looked back down the ruined tunnel.
"One glorious, violent step at a ti."
The Protheus Mark 6 disengaged with a series of smooth chanical clinks. The chestplate split open, exhaling steam as Richard stepped out onto the platform, drenched in heat and lingering adrenaline.
Scorch marks marred the inner lining. Thin spider cracks laced the surface armor near his spine. Scorched plasma scoring ran across the shoulders.
He ran his hand over the damaged plating, muttering, "Yeah... definitely needs a few layers more."
Behind him, Lina approached, a clipboard-like holo-interface materializing beside her.
"Your assessnt aligns with my diagnostics, Sir," she said respectfully. "The structural core remained stable, but the plasma impacts breached surface integrity beyond ideal thresholds."
Richard nodded. "We’ll need heat-seeking and laser-guided missile counterasures—no excuses. Maybe deployable flares or vector-disruption emitters."
"I have recorded the specifications," she said. "They will be incorporated into the next generation."
Richard added, half-smirking, "Also... a cloaking system. If possible."
Without hesitation, Lina’s eyes lit briefly cyan. "Cloaking and optical field modulation are within reach. Adaptive camo sh will be prototyped imdiately. Processing fabrication queue to Protheus Mark 7. AMFS units have begun construction on the second level."
He smiled. "You’re faster than I think, sotis."
"I am rely efficient,
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