Xenophon’s practice apparatus was producing the desired result. Unlike the earlier blind attempts at training, all questionable in their efficacy, the machine had been developed to help its users master the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, and that was exactly what it was doing.
Kuklo and the others─who had the required specs, so to speak─quickly took to the machinery and handled it well enough within a few days. By the time a week had passed, they moved in it freely. Once they had the knack down, their bodies reacted without the assistance of conscious thought. They’d probably be spared any more head-butting the ground and blacking out.
The skills mastered during this training worked for the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. Though they couldn’t quite fly around with total freedom, they were able to move up, down, left, and right. Tight turns and precise motions still eluded them, however, and they were by no means ready to be sent into combat.
I’m like an ape in this. Using the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, Kuklo weaved his way between trees. Behind him were Cardina and Rosa, and behind them followed the rest of the team. Compared to back when all they did was move up and down repeatedly, this was a dramatic improvement indeed. Yet, Kuklo still wasn’t tracing the trajectories that his mind’s eye drew. Something is lacking… What is it?
“Monkeys on the move,” the other recruits derided, and in fact Kuklo’s team hopping through the woods must have looked like nothing more. Kuklo bore the mockery since he felt much the same way. Right now, he needed to devote every waking moment to the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment.
He looked straight forward and glimpsed a giant mannequin fifty meters ahead of him.
There! Kuklo inserted both of his controllers into the scabbards hanging on either side of him. He felt a slight but certain sensation in his palms. All right!
He nodded and pulled the controllers back out to reveal slender silver-gray blades─single-edged swords. Their shockingly sharp edges justified Xenophon bragging about them. Kuklo cut away the twigs and branches in his way as he continued to charge forward.
Soon the giant mannequin came into view in its entirety. A large dummy about five meters tall, it was the same Titan mockup Kuklo had taken on in the factory city. Upon hearing that the recruits were now wielding the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, Xenophon had brought it for them to train with.
Scanning the area around the Titan dummy, Kuklo hammered the positions of everything he saw into his head. Approaching the target wasn’t enough. He had to attack it, then escape safely, and that required a route. More than one route, actually. He needed to prepare multiple paths in the blink of an eye. Unlike the dummy, a Titan wouldn’t stand still for him.
Although Kuklo managed nothing close to his intended trajectory, he somehow found himself closing in on the Titan’s back. He dealt its neck a single blow on his pass and disengaged. His fellow recruits followed suit.
This won’t do. Straying from the path he had in mind meant that in a real fight, he would have exposed himself. Against a Titan, that equaled death. He needed to be able to move more precisely as well as swiftly if he were to ever slay a Titan.
Kuklo picked a towering tree ahead of him, sinking in an anchor and moving in its direction. Managing his controllers and maintaining proper balance, he shot toward one of the branches that stretched from the trunk and landed with ease as if he were stepping over a puddle. The others followed him, each choosing a branch.
The world they saw from ten meters off the ground was breathtakingly beautiful. While the scenery from the top of Wall Maria was pretty grand, getting to where they were on their own via the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment offered a special joy.
“Honestly, I never thought I’d be able to use this thing so well,” Cardina shared from the branch below.
“I guess you can say your hard work paid off,” Rosa chimed in from a different tree.
“The training machine was the trigger we needed. Without it, we never would have been able to graduate from the old Equipment.”
Cardina was absolutely right, but there had to be more to the machine. Wielding it to get to the top of a tree was a major achievement, but not a game changer. The revolution Xenophon talked about hasn’t happened.
“Not yet. I can’t defeat Ogre like this,” Kuklo spat, jumping off his branch without hesitation.
“Hey, hold on! We need to move as a group!” Rosa yelled after him.
But there was no stopping him now. Kuklo set his sights on a nearby tree and pressed a controller lever.
✦ ✦ ✦
With graduation a month away, the recruits were training more intensely than ever. Moreover, royal government officials and military brass had been invited to a contest to be held in a week’s time. The recruits were all eager to pitch themselves.
The reason for their fervor was clear: they wanted to apply to the Military Police Brigade. While graduating recruits could only apply to the Brigade if their grades put them in the top ten, making a good impression on the brass during an inspection match offered a plausible way in. Recruits naturally dreamed of joining the Brigade.
One particularly fervent aspirant was Xavi, a shoo-in for the top ten. Nevertheless, he didn’t feel relaxed at all and fretted mightily. The cause of his angst was the contest, or to be more precise, the reason it was being held in the first place. Officials and officers wouldn’t care to sit through a contest among recruits. Nor were there any records of such an event being held in the past. In other words, something had happened that necessitated it, and the flunkers with their Vertical Maneuvering Equipment were the most likely culprits.
Why them? Xavi grumbled in his heart, his face a picture of raging frustration. Though he was on guard about Kuklo and Cardina, the flunkers were just a bunch of losers who meant absolutely nothing to him. Just the other day, he’d seen them going from tree to tree and mocked them, comparing them to apes. The other recruits all did the same.
And yet! The situation had been reversed, and the flunkers and their remedial lessons were the talk of the academy. It was even rumored─though it was nothing more than a rumor─that they were almost certain to be among the top ten.
I’m the one who’ll be applying to the Military Police! Clenching his fists, Xavi tiptoed through the darkness.
It was late at night and the barracks were silent, with only the occasional snore wafting out of a room. No other recruits would be awake at such an hour provided they hadn’t slacked off during the day’s training. If they’d taxed their bodies, they were simply too overcome with drowsiness by the time they returned to their rooms after dinner.
He had to be the only one prowling around the barracks. Of course, as someone aiming to join the Military Police Brigade, Xavi had given his training his all. He was tired, and he felt sleepy. Still, there was something he had to do.
He headed to the locker room in the barracks. The soldiers changed into their uniforms and put on their equipment there before heading to training, and Kuklo’s band was no exception. The only difference between them and the other recruits was the harnesses they wore to control the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment.
Xavi reached the locker room without encountering another soul. Once there, he quietly opened the door and stepped into the room. It was filled with a thick, tangible darkness, and he couldn’t see everything in it even though his eyes were adjusted to the dark.
But he was familiar with the room. As long as he minded his steps, he’d reach his target without trouble.
Xavi halted once he arrived in front of a specific locker. He suddenly grew tense and gulped down a glob of saliva. The locker in front of him was not his own. The plate on it read “Kuklo.”
Xavi placed his hand on its handle and carefully opened the door. He examined the locker’s contents and immediately found what he sought: the harness. Grabbing it, he pulled out a knife he’d hidden on himself.
“You’re an eyesore, all right?” Using his knife he cut into a part of the harness. “There we go. There…”