Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 192: Advice

The first day of training remained strictly on weapons combat with no other powers used at all.

Stanley was even forced to stop using his time powers to just focus on the mastery of his sword skills.

Max used the right amount of speed in his attacks so that Stanley wasn’t overwhelmed at all. He fought with his spear that moved like fish in water, weaving in and out through Stanley’s attacks while hitting back with the side of the spear when he could.

There were little cuts all over Stanley’s body by the end of the battle, but most of it was already healing thanks to his Varinox shot that he had gotten some time ago.

Max stopped attacking and stepped back, letting Stanley catch his breath.

Stanley looked at Max in between his breath with a weird look on his face. "How... how are you not tired at all?" he asked.

He had thought he had a strong body, but this seemed more ridiculous.

"Why would I be tired with just a bit of training?" Max grinned.

Stanley looked at his face and frowned. ’This bastard is definitely showing off,’ he thought.

Max looked at Stanley with a thoughtful look. "You know, you have a major flaw in your power," he said.

"What flaw?" Stanley asked.

"When you slow down time, your body remains unaffected," Max said. "However, as a result you end up using up energy along with air at a much faster rate. Unless you can somehow change the flow of time for just your nervous system, you won’t ever be able to use to use your powers to the maximum."

"Just my... nervous system?" Stanley asked. "That’s impossible is it not?"

"Damn near," Max said. "Thats why you will have to find another way to deal with your problem so that you can continue fighting in slowed down time for a long time."

Stanley thought for a moment. "I can’t really think of any way to deal with that," he said.

"I can," Max said. "Use oxygen cylinders."

"Oxygen cylinders? Whats that?" Stanley asked.

"You haven’t caught up to everything, have you?" Max asked, shaking his head. "Basically, you get these small finger sized cylinders that hold a lot of pure oxygen. Create something that you can use to fit those oxygen cylinders and then breathe that while you’re fighting."

"Ask the design team. I’m sure they can add something like that easily," Max said. "After all, they already made one for Gray, so making one for you shouldn’t be that difficult."

"Huh?" Stanley looked at him. "Gray uses that to breathe? Why?"

He wondered if Gray had difficulty breathing because of his powers, or if he had a condition that made it hard for him to breathe.

"He’s afraid of poison, that’s it," Max said. "That’s why he wears that mask at all times. Anyway, you need to find a way to breathe while time is slow."

"I’m assuming you don’t have the problem?" Stanley asked.

"Nope," Max said. "But don’t compare yourself with me. My case is a little weird. There is not a single being in existence that is like me... yet."

Stanley frowned. "What does that mean?" he asked.

"Like I said, don’t worry about it," Max said.

Stanley sighed. "Just how strong are you? You don’t seem that strong, and yet you somehow seem unbeatable," he said.

"Well, what if I told you that I am barely strong at all," Max said. "I have yet to grow stronger. Just give me a couple more years, I will make easy work out of even someone the likes of Gray."

Max’s grin was too telling of his wish to get some sort of revenge on Gray.

"Do you know what Gray’s powers are?" Stanley asked.

"Not really," Max said. "My sister probably knows, but she won’t tell me or anyone else because she cares about Gray’s wish to keep his powers private. As far as I know though, it has to do with some sort of aura that is always around him."

"Aura... huh?" Stanley thought. That didn’t help him much in understanding anything at all. Still he got some sort of answer that the others couldn’t even give him.

"Alright, so I have to get oxygen cylinders, got it," Stanley said. "Anything else?"

"Umm... give me your sword for a second," Max asked.

Stanley tossed it at him and he casually caught it before flipping it around. He looked through the sword before tossing it back at Stanley.

"Yeah, your sword is way too heavy for you," Max said.

Stanley frowned. "But I can’t do anything else," he said. "I need a strong sword to go along with my powers."

"I know," Max said. "But its a burden for you when you have the time slowed down. Are you purposefully stopping yourself from going slower because of the sword."

"A little," Stanley said.

"Come attack me without the sword," Max said. "Let’s see what speed you can reach."

Stanley nodded and slowed down time. From Max’s perspective, Stanley had suddenly disappeared from where he was and had turned into a blur before attacking him.

He saw the fist come to his face, but it was very fast. There was nearly a 20% if not more increase in Stanley’s speed after ditching his sword.

Max dodged to the left, but he felt the shockwaves from the air fly past him. He was a bit too late overall, but that was alright.

For the next attack, he ducked. However, to his surprise, Stanley was already hitting him with the knee. He put his palm together to block the knee and was sent flying backward.

Max slowed down in the air for a moment befor elsowly floating to the ground.

Stanley paused and looked at Max with a bit of surprise. He couldn’t believe that he got a hit against Max in a direct fight that he had been expecting.

"Not bad," Max said. "See how much you improved after taking away the sword?"

Stanley sighed. "But I can’t get rid of my sword," he said. "It’s my best weapon."

"Well, I told you what I could," Max said. "The rest is up to you."

Stanley had to nod for that. "Anything else you noticed about my fighting style that needs fixing? Please tell me so I can fix it," he asked.

"Hmm, there is still some problems in swordsmanship, but I don’t really have much to tell you about it just yet as you are still learning," Max said. "I think your problem really is just your stamina."

"Once you deal with that, you will be unstoppable," Max said.

Stanley thanked the young man and fought once more until he was tired and couldn’t do it any longer.

After that, he went back to the AAA with Max.

Max left him outside the association before leaving, but not before telling him that he would be returning tomorrow too.

Stanley walked into the association under the gazes of many people. He couldn’t tell if they were looking at him with caution because he was a nova, or with reverence because he was a nova.

After entering, he went directly to the top floor to meet with Amy so that he could get checked up for anything that would be a lasting injury.

Amy looked him over and healed the superficial wounds that were on his body. "My brother might be a rough fighter, but he knows how to treat a trainee with care. Don’t worry, nothing important has been damaged," she said.

"I see," Stanley said. "Thank you."

Amy nodded. "Did he help you though?" she asked. "Did you learn anything?"

"He gave me several good advices," Stanley said. "I will have to spend some time trying to understand and put it all into practice."

Amy nodded. "You can leave now," she said.

Stanley nodded and left. He went to engineering department to meet with the group of people that were making his new suit.

"Hi, how is my suit coming along?" Stanley asked.

"Oh," one of the people jumped in surprise. "Sir Stanley. your suit? Uhh... it’s coming out fine. We have to make some tests and adjustments, but that should take no more than a week. If you need it urgently, we can do it in 3 days."

"No, I don’t need it urgently," Stanley said. "But I do need to add something to it if it’s possible. I know it’s late, but I’ve only now realized that I need it."

"Uhh..." The team looked at each other, each one hesitating to tell him that it was indeed too late. However, no one wanted to tell a Nova that.

"May we ask what it is exactly that you want us to add?" one of the men asked.

"I need to add an oxygen... uhh, cylinder added to the suit so I can breathe," Stanley said. "Is it possible to add it?"

"Oh! Just an oxygen pouch, yeah that is easy to add to the suit. No problem," the mechanics said.

"Umm, the air will have to come out very quickly. Is that possible too?" Stanley asked. "It had to force its way into my lungs."

"Huh? That’s not safe, sir," one of the engineers said. "You won’t be able to breathe anything out if the pressure keeps pushing everything in."

"Hmm," Stanley thought for a second. "But I need that though. How about you come up with a solution? When you can. I’ll leave it all up to you."

The mechanics had no choice but to nod. After he was done there, Stanley left the area, going back to his room to rest.