Chapter 35 | Fulgaris Do Bleed

Leon was sitting on the ground, entering the trance-like state he had experienced the night before. Each breath drew in unseen energy, threading it through his system, syncing with the nanites in his blood. The current was faint but enough to sharpen his senses, making Ferros' harsh landscape seem more vivid, its sounds more distinct.

Now that he was being supervised, he initiated the next protocol of Aether Flow. The second step was to filter, process, and distribute the mana throughout his whole body with the purpose of saturating it.

The nanites had been passive during his initial absorption, but now he could feel them stirring to life, responding to the mana-rich environment he was creating within his body. 

As he drew in another breath of ambient mana, Leon visualized the process beginning. The nanites intercepted the raw energy before it could scatter randomly through his system. He could sense them working, tiny molecular filters that caught the chaotic mana streams and began their delicate conversion process.

It started as a tickle under his skin, then swelled into something deeper and stranger. Where the first step had felt like drinking from a gentle stream, this was more like watching master craftsmen at work within his own body. The nanites didn't simply store the mana; they refined it, breaking down its wild essence into something his human physiology could safely contain.

Leon felt the transformed energy spreading outward from his bloodstream, guided by the nanites to specific locations throughout his body. His nerve clusters became small reservoirs, tingling with contained power. His muscle tissues developed microscopic pockets of stored mana, creating a distributed network that spanned his entire form. Even his bones seemed to develop hairline channels where the processed energy could flow and rest.

The nanites worked with surgical precision, ensuring that no single area became oversaturated while leaving no useful space unutilized. They created a living infrastructure within him. Micro-reservoirs connected by threads of managed energy flow, building a system that could both store and utilize mana efficiently.

After another twenty minutes, Leon opened his eyes and flexed his fingers. He was shocked at the difference between the first step and the second one. Where before he had felt a gentle enhancement of mental clarity, now he could sense the vast potential thrumming just beneath his skin. 

The mana wasn't simply present in his system; it was integrated, organized, and ready to be called upon at will.

His fatigue from holding the plank position had disappeared. In fact, he felt like he had fully recovered and built new muscles. His body felt lighter and more responsive, as though a subtle burden had been lifted from every movement.

Ok, maybe it's what they call a runner's high, Leon thought, in denial that he now had the advantages of a Fulgari. 

He had grown up hearing tales of their strength and resilience as though they were myths. It was hard to accept that those same abilities now coursed through his own body.

Around him, the other recruits were finishing their own absorption sessions. Some appeared energized, their posture straighter, and movements more fluid. 

Others seemed barely affected, their techniques perhaps less refined or their bodies less receptive. He caught a glimpse of Jake across the field who seemed to be vibrating with contained energy, his skin almost glowing with mana saturation.

"Listen up! First exercise will be a formation jog to the obstacle course," Instructor Zell announced, his voice cutting through the morning air. "You will be getting the first chance to tackle the course once we get there. Form up!"

The recruits got up with urgency and formed up, their movements more coordinated after the mana exercise. Leon found his place in the formation, noticing how much easier it was to stand at attention now.

"Forward march!"

"Double time march!"

The formation jogged in step, following Instructor Zell to the obstacle course. The rhythmic impact of boots on the hard-packed soil created a steady drumbeat that echoed across the training grounds. The early morning sun had fully risen, casting long shadows and bathing everything in a copper-tinged light that accentuated Ferros' alien landscape.

Leon felt great with the mana coursing through him. He did not break a sweat during the fifteen-minute jog. His breathing remained steady, and his legs felt strong, like they could carry him for hours without tiring. 

This was what it meant to be Fulgari. Not just enhanced strength, but a fundamental change in how the body processed exertion and recovered from it.

As they approached the obstacle course, Leon's enhanced vision took in the sprawling challenge before them. The course was bigger than he had expected, stretching out across a large section of the training grounds.

That has to be close to a quarter mile long, thought Leon.

"Halt," Instructor Zell commanded. "Grab a helmet and get into two lines at the start of the course. Fall out."

At the order, the recruits followed the instruction and received full-face helmets from the assistant instructors before forming two lines. They lined up perpendicular to the starting line so they could watch the recruits who went before them navigate the course.

Leon made sure he was neither at the front nor back of the line, with Nyra tagging along, but Nyra didn't fall in behind him. When he looked over to see her getting into the other line right beside him, he knew what she wanted to do. 

As she got to her position, she looked at him. Though all he could see was her eyes through the slightly tinted visor, he knew from having been around Nyra these past few days that the tilt of her eyes and the spark in them meant she was giving him a challenging smirk.

The helmet, while protective, limited his peripheral vision and muffled sounds. The interior had a faint smell of antiseptic, suggesting it had been thoroughly cleaned between users. A small mana circuit ran along the inner rim, designed to sync with the wearer's CRI for enhanced displays or communications though that feature was disabled currently. 

"Ready... GO!" one of the assistant instructors gave the signal for the first two to start the course.

Leon watched intently, analyzing how they would navigate the obstacles. The first was a low crawl under wires. The recruits dropped down and crawled fast, careful not to touch the wires above them. Their movements were precise and efficient, showing the benefit of their mana enhancement.

The second obstacle was a 10-foot wall climb. The Fulgari recruits only needed to hop once, and they had almost cleared the top, missing it by the length of their leg. They knew they weren't going to be able to clear it and had already placed a palm at the top of the wall, swinging one knee up to easily vault over. The movement was fluid and graceful, making the imposing barrier seem little more than a speedbump.

At the top of the wall was a small platform leading to another wall, this one 20 feet tall with two ropes on its face. The recruits jumped as high as they could before grabbing the rope and starting their climb. Their enhanced muscles propelled them upward at an impressive rate, arms and legs working in perfect coordination.

At the very top was a 50-foot-long balance beam the recruits needed to cross. The platform sat high above the ground, with no safety nets visible beneath.

There has to be something else. That beam looks like it's at least a foot thick, Leon thought, suspicious of the apparent simplicity for those augmented.

On cue, two machines popped up on the other side of the platform. One of the recruits was taken by surprise and hit with a projectile in the head. The impact caused him to lose balance, and he plummeted 30 feet into the mud below.

THWAK-CRK!

"AAAAHHHHH!" the recruit screamed and sat up, grabbing his broken arm where bone protruded from the skin. The white of the bone contrasted with the deep red blood around it.

Two assistant instructors went over with a large box marked as a first aid kit. One of them took some type of flexible rubber stick and jammed it into the recruit's mouth, acting as a mouth guard to prevent him from biting his tongue. They grabbed hold of his arm and repositioned it with a quick motion. Muffled screams could be heard, but the instructors ignored them.

They opened the box and grabbed a flexible sheet that shimmered with mana circuits running across its surface. They wrapped the sheet around the arm, and one instructor placed their hand on the center of the wrapped limb. The blue iridescent ring around their eyes intensified, and the sheet's mana circuits glowed deep blue, pulsing in rhythm with the instructor's breathing.

The recruit's muffled cries gradually settled. When Leon looked back at him, the body was limp. He couldn't tell because of the visor of the helmet, but the recruit was most likely passed out from the pain or from the mana-assisted healing process itself. A moment later, the instructor stopped injecting mana and helped the other one set up a portable stretcher from the first aid kit.

"First time seeing a Fulgari get healed?" Nyra asked, her voice muffled by her helmet.

He knew she was still smirking under her helmet. 

She knew the answer, but she seemed to like to tease him when he couldn't help but be obviously analyzing something new.

"Well, you might find out how it'll feel soon," she said, nodding her head back toward the front of the line.

He had been so distracted by what had happened that he hadn't noticed there was only one set of recruits waiting for the signal before his turn. He looked back at the course and saw numerous recruits navigating through it at the same time, with a couple of other recruits on the ground having fallen and being attended to by instructors.

The obstacle course was no longer just a test of physical ability in his mind. It was a demonstration of consequences. Despite all their enhancements, despite the Elite Track and their supposedly superior status, these recruits could still break. Their bones were still bones and their bodies still had limits. The realization was both sobering and strangely comforting. 

Even the Fulgaris weren't invincible. They too bleed. 

"You nervous?" Nyra asked, her tone more serious now.

"A little," Leon admitted. He flexed his hands, feeling the mana humming through them, "but also curious to see what I can do now."

"Just remember," she said, "those machines fire at movement. Keep your speed consistent instead of trying to sprint across, and you'll have better luck predicting when to dodge."

Before he could thank her for the advice, the assistant instructor's voice cut through.

"Next pair! Ready!"

Leon stepped up to the line, Nyra beside him. Through the narrow field of vision his helmet provided, the obstacle course stretched before him like a gauntlet. A challenge that would test not just his newly enhanced body, but his ability to adapt to what he was becoming.

“GO!”