Three days until testing.
Pastoral tapped his right toe against his left heel. He grinned at his opponent of the day.
Chord stood across from him, beating his chest, working his arms in massive circles in their sockets. This was a hand to hand fight, and just one of Chord's massive mitts was almost as big as Pastoral's whole arm. He was the first industrial robot, and one of the few who had ever stood his ground against General.
Something that Pastoral had little time to train for.
"Show 'em who's boss, Pastoral!!!" Cresendo lifted one balled fist into the air, cheering on his comrade.
"YOU WANNA GO NEXT, CRESENDO?!" Chord turned and barked, his square jaw hurling words like bolders.
Cresendo lowered his head. "Nosir."
Pastoral cracked his knuckles. "I'll go first. Since I know you're tough, I'll give you all I got right away!"
Chord patted his fist in his palm. "C'mon then!!!"
Pastoral charged. His feet clacked against the metal floor of the open air, unfinished building. His arms moved in perfect sync with his legs. His running algorithm was focused on building speed for a barrage of attacks.
Pastoral leaped, and met his opponent with a massive punch. Cresendo felt the weight of the blow. As a robot master built for strength, even he was impressed.
The blow was blocked by Chord's melon sized wrist armor. Pastoral landed, and worried Chord's guard with a reign of blows. He dropped to his knee, sweeping Chord's leg. Chord didn't budge, flexing his knee and repelling the attack.
Pastoral circled chord, throwing jab after jab. Chord swung his arm in a huge circle, but Pastoral ducked the blow, and leaped back, avoiding an impressive hit.
His fists did no good. Pastoral paid the fact no mind. His strongest melee attacks were delivered by his legs. He leaped, and bent his knees, preparing to attack.
Back shoot!
Pastoral's boot slammed against Chord's forehead. He kicked off of Chord's dome, and swung both boots down with immense force, stamping Chord on the face.
"GAH! What a kick..." Chord wavered, losing his balance, as Pastoral stood on his face, folding his arms. "I should be tough... but I'm gonna... fall..."
Chord leaned back on his heels. For a moment, Pastoral smiled, thinking he'd knocked Chord out cold.
"Or NOOOOOOOT!"
Chord swung his palm, and smacked Pastoral harder than he'd ever been hit in his life. Chord's fist buried in Pastoral's chest armor. He felt his microfusion reactor reset. His central processor was forced to hard reboot.
Everything went black for five seconds. He quickly realized he was soaring through the air, a dull pain in his chest.
He noticed the stupid expression on his face, his teeth gritted, air escaping his lungs. He hurtled through the air, and attempted to right himself.
"PASTYYYYYYY!!!"
Pastoral noticed how far the attack had sent him. Cresendo sounded far away.
His boots swung up and over, and he landed on hard dirt. He ground to a hault slowly at first, his fingers and boots tearing at the ground beneath him. His lips pursed, as he breathed through his mouth, the pain registering with him.
Chord leaped down from the building, and landed with an eruption of sheer weight. Cresendo followed, landing a bit more gracefully than Chord.
"Pastoral? You alright man?" Cresendo patted Pastoral off, but he shrugged off Cresendo's helping hands, wiping his nose and composing himself.
The strongest robot master, huh? I should thank you. General may be the most "powerful," but now I know how hard he can hit.
But Pastoral did not thank Chord, who stood with arms folded, a proud, satisfied grin on his face. "Still want to spar with me, Pasta-Kid?! I've eaten Spaghetti tougher than you, PASTA-KID."
And he's tauntint me now? Hooray. If he hadn't pissed me off now, I might have backed down.
"That all you got? I figured you'd throw me father!" Pastoral grinned. "You must be TIRED. Need an oil change, old-timer?"
Chord's face shifted to cold, prideful annoyance. "I'll make a CUBE outta ya, then I'll throw you to the MOON!!!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pastoral sipped an E tank. It tasted genuinely horrible, but the taste grew on you. It made his core burn a bit hotter. Heightened his power output by nearly 40%.
"It isn't fair." Chord looked down at Pastoral. "Don't get me wrong, if anyone else has a shot, it's you, but why's General give you a hard time?"
Pastoral shrugged. "He wants to make sure I've got what it takes to BE a combat unit."
"Of COURSE you do. You've taken four Malevolants with power outputs higher than yours, and fought them to a STANDSTILL. Some people would say you technically won that fight."
Pastoral looked up at Chord, "Would YOU say I won that fight?"
"Heck no. I'd have turned them inside out." Chord grinned, and patted Pastoral on the back.
"You've fought General before. How did you do it?"
"Don't try to take him at a long range. His Imperial Cannon was enough to burn my armor." Chord looked up, remembering his fight with the General. "You rely too much on reflex and instinct. I want you to GET IN THERE. Worry him like a GORILLA."
"I can't beat him, can I?"
"I'll cheer you on if you land just ONE good punch." Chord raised his massive energy tank. Pastoral raised his. "A toast, to hopeless fights and unfair tests."
The two clanked their E tanks together, Pastorals almost comically smaller than Chord's, and drank.
Training Log:
I was fast enough to avoid most of his attacks, and getting slugged a few times taught me a few things about endurance. I'm surprised I wasn't put offline after two hits.
I stayed on my feet even after getting slugged ten times. I've been hit by a TRUCK before. Chord's fist is like twenty trucks, each with the weight of a dying star.
He gave me a few E-tanks afterwards. I should hang out with Chord more often.
I still haven't told Octave about the...different criteria of my combat evaluation. It's best if he doesn't know until afterwards.
I'll train with him tomorrow. Time is running out, and I need to grown another level in terms of skill if I can stand a chance.
I'll lose, but I'll lose with pride.