Chương 93: Chapter : 93

Ken Eliot did not duck gracefully. He completely threw his entire body onto the hard stone floor, covering his head with his hands just as a small, bright orange fireball zoomed right over his back. The fireball hit the training dummy behind him with a loud smack, leaving a smoking black mark on the wood.

"Timeout! Timeout!" Ken yelled, keeping his face pressed against the ground. He waved his hand wildly in the air.

"I call a foul! That fireball was way too fast! You are breaking the speed limit of this training session!" Laxmi, who was standing across the courtyard tossing another flame between her hands like a baseball, just laughed out loud.

"Fire doesn't have a speed limit, Ken! If you want to survive the real fights, you need to move your feet. Stop diving into the dirt like a frightened turtle!"

"I like turtles!" Ken complained, slowly peeling himself off the floor. He sat on his knees and started brushing the dust off his pants. He was wearing his usual, comfortable, slightly wrinkled training clothes. His brand-new, fancy navy blue suit was safely hanging in his closet, far away from the dirt and fire of morning practice.

"Turtles have shells! They don't have to deal with intense morning cardio!" Naomi walked over, tapping her foot impatiently. She had her arms crossed tight over her chest, and she looked completely fed up. Even though Ken had saved her life during the Doom Tower mission, she was absolutely determined not to let him stay a useless slacker. She had taken on the job of being his personal drill sergeant, and she was taking it very seriously.

"Get up, Ken," Naomi ordered, pointing at the center of the courtyard.

"You cannot just run in circles and hide behind me every single time we get into a battle. You have to learn how to fight back. You have to learn an offensive move." Ken let out a long, dramatic groan. He pushed himself up and slouched his shoulders, letting his arms hang lazily by his sides. He gave the two girls a goofy, confident smile.

"Actually, boss lady, you are in luck," Ken announced, puffing out his chest.

"I was doing a lot of deep, intense thinking while I was taking my nap yesterday. I realized that my normal magic is just too basic. So, I decided to invent something totally new. I have developed a brand-new, ultimate move." Laxmi stopped tossing her fireball. The flame popped and vanished. She raised an eyebrow, looking genuinely curious.

"An ultimate move? You? The guy who shoots tiny blue sparks that feel like static electricity?"

"Those sparks were just the prototype!" Ken declared proudly, raising his index finger to the sky. He was completely serious, acting like he had just discovered the greatest secret in the universe.

"This new move is completely different. It is a highly advanced, super-destructive technique. I call it... the Charge Beam!" Naomi let out a heavy sigh, already feeling a headache coming on.

"The Charge Beam? That sounds like a name a five-year-old would come up with. What does it even do?" The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"It does exactly what it sounds like!" Ken explained, walking back and forth like a smart professor giving a lecture. He used his hands to draw invisible shapes in the air.

"I take my normal magic, but instead of just shooting it out right away, I hold it in. I squeeze it. I pack it together. It is four times stronger than my usual magic! If I hit a bad guy with this, they are going straight to sleep!" Laxmi grinned, putting her hands on her hips.

"Okay, color me impressed. Four times stronger is a big upgrade. Let's see it, then. Hit the training dummy with your ultimate Charge Beam. Show us what you got."

"Alright, but you guys need to stand back," Ken warned them, waving his hands to shoo them away.

"This technique requires absolute, total concentration. Do not distract me. Do not make any loud noises. The sheer power of this move might blow your hair back." Naomi rolled her green eyes, but she took a few steps back to stand next to Laxmi. They both watched him closely, waiting to see if the lazy farm boy actually had a hidden talent. Ken stepped into the middle of the courtyard. He planted his feet wide apart, bending his knees slightly into a very low, very dramatic combat stance.

He pulled both of his hands back to his right hip, pressing his palms together in a cup shape. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut, completely wrinkling his face, and took a massive, deep breath.

"Here we go!" Ken shouted.

"Commencing the charging sequence!" Then, Ken started to make noises.

"Hnnnnnnnnnng!" Ken grunted loudly, gritting his teeth. He started to shake his arms on purpose, acting like he was struggling to hold onto a massive amount of invisible energy.

"Powering up! I am currently at ten percent capacity!" Naomi and Laxmi stood there, watching him. Nothing was happening. There was no glowing light. There was no wind. There was just a boy standing in a weird pose, making grunting noises like he was trying to lift a heavy refrigerator.

"Twenty percent!" Ken yelled, his face turning a little red because he was holding his breath too long.

"The energy is flowing! I can feel it in my elbows!"

"Ken," Naomi said flatly.

"What are you doing?"

"Do not interrupt the flow!" Ken shouted back, keeping his eyes squeezed shut.

"Thirty percent! It takes time to gather this much raw power! The universe is lending me its strength! Forty percent!" Laxmi tilted her head, watching Ken vibrate his hands.

"He is literally just standing there," she noted, looking over at Naomi.

"Is he trying to lay an egg?"

"I think he has completely lost his mind," Naomi replied, crossing her arms again.

"Or he is just trying to waste our training time so he doesn't have to do push-ups."

"Fifty percent!" Ken announced loudly, completely ignoring their conversation.

"We are halfway there! The beam is getting heavy! My fingers are tingling!" Naomi let out a long, tired breath. She looked up at the morning sky, then looked over at Laxmi.

"Hey, what time does the kitchen usually serve breakfast? I am starting to get hungry."

"I think Princess Iris asked the chef to make scrambled eggs and bacon today," Laxmi answered casually, completely ignoring Ken's dramatic performance.

"Maybe some toast, too. I love it when they make the toast really crispy."

"Ooh, bacon sounds perfect," Naomi agreed, leaning against the stone wall.

"Do you think we have any of that spicy hot sauce left? I like putting it on my eggs."

"Seventy-five percent!" Ken shrieked in the background, squatting even lower to the ground.

"Almost there! The danger level is critical! Evacuate the area!"

"I think we ran out of hot sauce yesterday," Laxmi told Naomi, crossing her arms and chatting like they were hanging out at a coffee shop.

"We should ask Sayma to buy some more when she goes into the city later. Oh, and maybe some orange juice."