The White King's Arrogance
Even though I had passed the Team Harmonize test, I couldn't jump straight into the next training session. It was impossible to run with a cast on my leg, after all. Instead, I tagged along to Amy's training grounds. The place where Amy trained was rather special. Rain was there too. The only people using this vast space were Rain, Amy, and Victor.
"Is this place only used by the three of you?"
"No, originally other team leaders used it too... but most of them are too busy."
I nodded at Victor's explanation. It seemed this was a training facility reserved exclusively for Team Leader Level individuals. Even so, there didn't seem to be any particularly special equipment around.
"Jeff!"
Rain waved at me from a distance. Sitting in my chair, I waved back at her.
"Rain seems exceptionally excited."
"Is she usually like that?"
"No, usually she just lies around. She hates training."
"I see."
Rain had told me she was going to show off her cool side. Her eyes sparkling, she raised her hands toward the sky. Standing inside a massive circular dome, Rain activated her ability. A colossal droplet of water began to gather above her hands. Intrigued, I watched her closely.
"What is that place over there?"
"It's for people with wide-range abilities. Since their powers can easily leak outside, they usually train inside those domes."
"Then shouldn't I be training in one of those too?"
"You had me right next to you. There was no need for you to go inside."
I nodded blankly. With Victor's power, he could easily suppress and control my electricity.
The massive sphere of water that formed above Rain's hands suddenly swallowed her whole. Just as I flinched in surprise, the giant water orb began to bounce around, with Rain inside it.
"Whoa..."
She looked incredibly thrilled, rolling and bouncing all over the place. Rain looked exactly like a hamster inside a hamster ball.
Boom! A violent explosion echoed. Startled, I turned my head to see Amy throwing a punch toward a massive target. A faint white light shrouded her arm. Without stopping, Amy unleashed a relentless barrage of punches. Every time her fist struck the empty air, the white flash enveloping her hand shot forward in a straight line.
Boom! Boom! The seat beneath me vibrated slightly from the consecutive blasts. Unable to withstand the direct hits from the flashes of light erupting from her hands, the target crumbled into pieces. Watching Amy's power, I asked Victor,
"What exactly is Amy's ability?"
"It doesn't have an exact name. We just call it whatever feels right."
"But surely there's a common name for it."
Victor glanced at Amy in the distance as if it were a difficult topic to broach. But as I kept staring at him expectantly, he let out a sigh and spoke in a low voice.
"Baekwang. Or the White King. That's what people usually call it, but Amy hates the name."
Victor stood up and began to stretch. His light jogging looked like a warm-up for some intense exercise.
"Curious why they call it the White King?"
"Yes."
"You're about to find out."
Having finished his warm-up, Victor leaped onto the large ring in the center.
"Let's get started."
Victor called out to Amy. Hearing him, Amy turned around and replied with a playful smirk,
"You've been avoiding me, claiming you were injured, and now you're showing off just because Jeff is watching?"
Instead of answering, Victor pulled a metal rod from his pocket. The rod, held between his fingers, was enveloped in a blue light. Seeing his silent response, Amy slowly walked toward the ring, wrapping bandages around her hands.
Both of them stepped onto the ring. Victor stood on the right end, and Amy on the left. The lighthearted atmosphere between them vanished in an instant, replaced by a heavy tension.
Their sparring match began the moment Rain's water sphere popped with a loud noise. A flash of blue light shot toward Amy. It was an attack so blindingly fast that my eyes couldn't even register when he had launched it.
The flash surged forward. The moment I registered the sight, Amy's arm was enveloped in a white light. Simultaneously, a sharp sonic boom erupted.
Clang! A metallic screech rang out, a sound hard to believe came from a human arm colliding with a metal rod. The blue-shrouded metal rod snapped effortlessly the moment it made contact with Amy's hand.
What about his ability? My confusion was only natural. Victor hadn't just thrown a metal rod; he had infused it with his power. Yet Amy acted as if it hadn't affected her in the slightest.
Boom! Amy thrust her hand into the empty air. Instantly, a white flash shot out in a straight line. Just before the white light could strike Victor, his figure blurred and vanished.
It was too fast to track with the naked eye. I immediately activated my ability. A wide-spreading current of blue electricity swept across the entire ring.
Victor was moving at an incredible speed. Faint crackles of blue light flickered in midair—proof of the brief moments Victor paused. Yet, his actual form remained invisible. He was moving that fast.
Ping! At that moment, blue light flashed in the air. Bolts of blue electricity rained down on Amy from all directions—front, back, left, and right.
Amy immediately stomped her foot. A brilliant white light erupted from her body like an explosion.
Boom! The white light wrapping around her body looked like a protective suit of armor. The white lines radiating behind her back resembled a flowing cape. Looking at her, it was impossible not to think of a monarch.
To put the word "King" in the name of an ability... some might call it arrogant, but seeing her now, one couldn't help but agree.
The attacks couldn't reach her. The white light shrouding her body completely repelled every single one of Victor's electric strikes.
"Are you just going to keep testing the waters from a distance?"
Amy spoke to the empty air. Then, Victor dropped down from above, replying,
"How about your rest period?"
"I think it's pretty much over."
"Then let's do this properly."
With those words, Victor's body was enveloped in blue light. An immense current of electricity, incomparable to before, surged from him. Even from a distance, I could feel it. The information sent back by my widely spread electric field made my skin tingle.
My hair stood on end. My own power, which shared the same attribute as his, was starting to resonate.
The light exploded. Like a streak of blue lightning, Victor pressed Amy with relentless speed. Or rather, it only looked that way. Amy moved as if she already knew exactly where his attacks were headed.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Violent shockwaves erupted every time the two clashed. White and blue lights tangled and scattered in the air.
Victor is at a disadvantage. Reading the information sent by my electric current, I bit my lip.
The moment Victor and Amy collided, the current wrapping around Victor's body momentarily dispersed. It was a split-second opening. Amy seized the opportunity to launch her next strike, but Victor was faster. Enveloped in light once more, Victor vanished along with the flash.
"Jeff."
"Ah. Rain."
"Did you see how cool I was?"
"Yeah. You were really cool."
As I watched Victor and Amy's spar, Rain approached from a distance and asked. I nodded, recalling her hamster-like appearance. She beamed, clearly delighted by my response, and sat down next to me.
"Do they always train like that?"
"Yeah. Today is actually on the lighter side."
"That's light?"
Boom! No sooner had I spoken than a powerful gust of wind blasted toward us. I frowned, holding down my fluttering hair.
"Yeah. I think it's because Amy's rest period just ended."
"I've been wondering about that. What does 'rest period' mean?"
"It's related to Amy's ability."
"The White King...?"
"Yeah. It's an arrogant ability, just like its name. Once she uses a massive amount of power, she has to rest for a while."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"That's why she doesn't go on external missions during her rest periods."
"What exactly does the White King... I mean, Amy's ability actually do?"
"It's a mass of inexplicable energy. She can use that energy to reinforce her physical body or shoot it out like a long-range attack."
"And why doesn't Victor's ability work on her?"
"The White King is arrogant. In front of that power, all other abilities become utterly useless."
"You mean they don't work at all? Even your ability, Rain?"
"Yeah. The moment it clashes with Amy's power, my control over my ability just vanishes."
My mouth fell open. The ability known as the White King possessed possibilities that defied imagination. A mass of inexplicable energy... If that power were to be used for research...
"The devices used to suppress supernatural abilities were also made using Amy's power." Rain's subsequent explanation shut my mouth. Only now could I truly understand why Amy detested the ability research labs so much.
"Just because they have special abilities, being dragged to a lab to spend their entire lives there... it's too cruel." Amy's words suddenly flashed through my mind. I quickly shook away the thoughts of research. It was a terrible thought.
"It's almost lunchtime." Amy's clear voice pierced through the air. At the same time, she stomped her foot hard. Thud! With a violent boom, a flash of light, incomparably larger than before, erupted from her body.
My ability vanished. The widely spread electric field lost its power and began to dissipate. The flow of information from the current was abruptly cut off. My eyes widened. If my ability had vanished, it meant the same had happened to Victor. Victor, who had been running at high speed, lost his momentum and tumbled across the floor.
"Ah..."
"Let's go eat."
"I told you not to do that."
Victor lay sprawled on the floor, refusing to move. His ears were slightly red.
"Why? Embarrassed to show Jeff?"
Victor didn't answer. He merely covered his face slightly with both arms.
"Get up." Amy walked over to Victor, stretching, and offered him a hand. Victor, who had been covering his face, peeked through his arms at Amy before springing back to his feet.
As the two stepped down from the ring, not a single drop of sweat could be seen on their faces. That meant neither of them had been going all out.
"Are all the team leaders that strong?"
"No. Only those two are special."
I let out a sigh of relief at Rain's explanation.
"Let's go, Jeff." Amy scooped me up from the plush chair I was sitting in and gently placed me into a wheelchair.
"I'll push!" It was at that exact moment. Rain, who had been sitting quietly and watching us, dashed forward and grabbed the handles of the wheelchair.
"Rain?" The wheelchair fell completely under Rain's control. And just like that, I became Rain's personal kickboard, hurtling down the hallway.