Given An Unwanted Second Chance

Chapter 14

Cross let me lead the way to the training rooms, allowing me to figure out how to read the well-detailed map he'd made.

I'm proud to say I didn't get us lost at all.  And no, that wasn't sarcasm, I actually managed to find the training rooms!

"At least I can read maps decently enough."  I chuckled, folding the map up and placing it in my pocket.

We opened the door into a pretty large room.  It looked like a typical training room with a padded mat that covered most of the floor and inanimate dummies along the sides.  A rack with wooden weapons sat along the far wall.

"Horror, Killer, why don't you guys go spar?  Dust and I can handle teaching these two."

Horror summoned an axe, grinning at Killer.  "Try not...to lose so...hard this time, bud."

Killer grinned right back.  "Uh huh, like I was the one who lost last time!"

Cross facepalmed slightly.  "Horror, the training weapons, not yours!"

"You worry...too much, Cross.  Not like...we're gonna kill...each other."

The two ran off to the far side of the room and began sparring.  I chuckled at their enthusiasm.

Gradient looked around the room before looking at us.  "So...how should we be learning to fight?  I dunno if I can summon weapons."

Cross looked thoughtful.  "Well, both Ink and Error summon bone attacks, and from what I remember from the fight, you have the ability to summon strings like Error.  He doesn't have a typical weapon like most of us, but Ink uses that large brush of his to sling his harmful paints around.  Both of them can also summon gaster blasters."

"Gaster blasters?  Is that what you call those scary head things they were riding on earlier? "

Dust nodded.  "Most Sanses can summon them save for the magic-deprived ones like Horror."

"Does that mean I can? "

"I don't think so.  Actually, the only weapon I've ever seen the boss use was his tendrils."

"That seems dangerous to me since cutting the tendrils hurts like heck."

Dust grinned.  "That's actually something we discovered with the boss.  Not all the tendrils are directly painful to cut.  The four you currently have summoned are connected straight to your soul.  Hits on them are painful.  But when you summon a multitude of tendrils, you may notice that they're thinner and somewhat weaker.  Those ones aren't connected to your soul and thus aren't painful to cut off."

"Wait...I think I did something similar when fighting Dream.  I remember him cutting off a bunch of the tendrils, but it didn't hurt.  But Killer slashed one of the main ones and it really hurt...that's interesting."

"How do I summon a blaster?"

Dust and Cross looked thoughtful before Dust answered.  "Well, it was something that we just...knew how to do.  Hmm..."

"Focus on the energies around your soul and call it forth to manifest a blaster.  That's how I learned."  Cross said after a moment.

Gradient tilted his head and got a focused look on his face.

It took a moment, but a small blaster manifested by his head, making him jump slightly.

It was an interesting looking blaster.  It was dark gray with mismatched eyes and seemed to glitch in places.  And it looked to be slightly dripping ink.