Zephyria 14 To Play

The entire team was floored within seconds as the hall rattled under the immense pressure. If this were a regular room with regular people the room would have collapsed in on itself, however the technology and their display stands were incredibly durable and st.u.r.dy, and the knights possessed incredibly trained bodies to withstand it.

As the darkness and gravity continued to pour out of his hand, Yami stood baffled at the situation. For one, he did not experience the heaviness that his comrades seemingly suffered from. However he was more surprised by this black, foggy substance just oozing out of his sOr. In the six years he spent with it, he had never witnessed such behaviour.

Ryan was not keen on allowing Yami to casually contemplate at a time like this. As he lay on the ground, his hand harness illuminated and sp.a.w.ned thousands of microfibres to form five hypertensioned cables, each binding to one of his rings. These cables ripped through the air towards the naked sOr in Yami's hand and binded with it. With a flick of the wrist the cables whipped, yoinking the sOr out of his hands and into the socket of the (right) gauntlet which was held up on the display platform. Once locked in, the darkness subsided and the entire room was relieved from the pressure.

"You.. should've.. waited.. till I was.. ready" Ryan grunted as he struggled to his feet.

As everyone recovered from this kerfuffle, Hikari turned to Yami, disturbed.

"What was that?"

"I.. have no idea. I've never seen that in my life." Yami seemed genuinely confused.

"Yami's [Ma.s.s] sOr seems to lack a protective coating" Ryan noted. "Its stability collapses when unbinded with my sOr tech, meaning the power it contains shows no restraint in its naked form."

The prince relaxed and walked over towards the gauntlets, one of which he had just sOr'ed up. Ryan picked them both up and tossed them at Yami, who caught and equiped them. The gauntlets encompa.s.sed his entire forearms and the gloves were much larger than his previous set, with all the clutter removed for a cleaner.

Yami noticed that these gauntlets lacked the connecting strap that allowed sOr utility over both of his previous gloves. This set had it embedded in the right palm.

Ryan noticed his observation and a.s.sured him. "The gauntlets are connected via a virtual fibre, so though the sOr is socketed on the right, you can also utilise it through the left."

"Hm. Neat."

As Yami looked to Ryan to acknowledge him, he dramatically "woke up" (yes, this entire time he had been resting) as he recalled Ryan throwing these huge gauntlets at him moments ago. He had been a key witness to Ryan's apparent weak upper body up until this point, so it came as a surprise that the prince could casually toss these to him.

Turns out Yami was still only partially awake, as this semi-resting state delayed his reaction to the weight of these gauntlets. Compared to the previous iteration, they were a bit too easy to carry.

"A bit too easy to carry" Yami muttered. The disappointment in his voice said it all.

"Hard to please", Ryan thought. "But I've come prepared." (cue imaginary evil laughter mwahahaha)

"I made these initially out of a light weight, high impact cotton fibre complexion. Using your sOr, you can now not only alter the density of your body, but these gloves too, independently at that. They can be as heavy as you like."

Yami only heard the last part. Well, at least that's what he'd say if you asked him. In reality he only understood the last part, but that was enough to satisfy him. He raised his hands to his face and clenched his fists, instantly increasing the density of his gloves. As he made them heavier and heavier he began to struggle, but only this only pumped pure thrill into his body and visibly onto his face. These gloves could push his body to his limits, and he could not have been more happier. He had, legitimately this time, woken up.

Perhaps regrettably so, as Yami then ran off with Hikari to play fight with their new weapons. Some could call it sparring given the skill and intensity put on display by their clashes, but these dudes were having too much fun for it to be considered anything more.

"Baffoons." Gale and Amber simultaneously retorted. They turned to eachother with that "ok, now we're best friends" look, before retreating to a couch Xero was still recovering on.

Elektra had the complete opposite reaction, as she watched the two lugheads go at it with excitement in her eyes, before blinking* to Ryan and begging for her turn.

*blinking = running incredibly fast that the motion is invisible, seemingly teleporting

"I'd like to play too :c" she pleaded, offering up all four fragments of her [Volt] sOr. Her adorable face, tone and posture were too potent for the prince to resist.

"Oki oki."

His hand harness activated once again, sp.a.w.ning four threads which each binded to a ring, then extended to reach each of the fragments. He then revealed his other hand, which had been unnoticeably free this entire time. Similar to his right hand, each finger wore a white ring. He rotated his right hand slightly and four more threads shot out to his left hand, binding to a ring of their own and then flung towards four purple pieces of gear on a separate podium. He hooked on them, and his arms were now in an x-formation.

In one swift motion he pulled the fragments and the gear to each other, syncing each fragment to their allocated hardware and all four completed components lit up to a lavendar colour, mid-air.

**Time Slo-Mo** [0.1 Seconds]

(From bow on this will conveniently indicate one's super speed perception)

Elektra gazed with wonder at the weapons mid-air. As with the others' gear, they were visual (and a.s.sumingly practical) upgrades to her original set.

She strapped on the boots, which wrapped around her legs perfectly. She noticed that they were sleeker and more breathable, but the huge change came when she *switched*. Each boot was now fitted with a singlular, sharp wheel allowing for smoother rolling, deadlier kicks and increased velocity (at maximum potential she can now move at super speed WITHIN super speed; speedception).

She then grabbed the two other pieces of gear in the air. Two medium sized tonfa blades. They were much closer to the originals than her leg counterparts, but when she *switched* she noticed that the lightning output surrounding the blades was much, much stronger.

"These will do" she thought stoically.

She then proceeded to check herself out in the mirror, take a few selfies then dash to the other side of the hall. She leaped into the air and swung both tonfa blades at Hikari, who managed to just about react and block her blades.

**End Slo-Mo**

To Ryan and everyone else watching, the gear had seemingly vanished into thin air. Once they turned and saw the now three baffoons playing on the other side of hall, they roughly understood what had happened in the last 0.1 seconds and chuckled. Elektra's abilities were terrifyingly powerful, but she was too kawaii to not adore.

Ryan then, finally turned to Aloe, who had almost fallen asleep on the couch next to the marksmen and the wing girl. Who could blame her? After all, she had to stand/sit/sleep through all of these shenanigans before getting her turn.

The prince gently walked up to her and whispered something in her ear, to which she rose immediately.

"You're getting new sOrs today c:"