Max held one bead between his fingers, an inert bead that he hadn't enchanted yet. He narrowed his eyes at the target, triggered Daliko’s “grasping limbs” ability, and his hand shot forward. He managed to release the bead, but it didn't come anywhere close to hitting the target. Instead, it zipped into the floor so fast that it penetrated the rubber mats and then disintegrated against the concrete underneath.

  "Oops," said Max.

  He decided the experiment had been a success, but had some caveats.

  It definitely gave him an advantage over his normal throwing. Max was strong and fast, but winding up for a throw telegraphed his intentions too much and there was still a limit to how fast he could throw using his previous abilities. After all, as a fighter, over two lifetimes now, Max had focused more on footwork, movement, and swinging his sword appropriately. Throwing things he could manage, but he definitely wouldn't consider himself an expert.

  Daliko’s help allowed him to throw a bead almost as fast as a pistol shot. It would probably take some time and effort to get to where he could hit anything, but he could definitely see the obvious advantage now. With this ability, if he held beads in one hand or plucked them off of his wrists, he would be able to throw them out almost as fast as if he were shooting from a gun. At least after some practice. It was an exciting new development. If he mastered throwing his beads, he might even be able to use Daliko’s power on other parts of his body, like his legs for kicking.

  For the time being, this gym would be great to work on his mana body and train in other ways, but maybe it wasn’t the best place to throw beads in, at least until he got it dialed in. Once he could reliably hit the target range portion of the training area, he could use this space for bead-throwing practice, too.

  Luckily, the second ability Daliko had informed him about was much more complex and probably had the highest utility.

  “Daliko, armor please," he said.

  Suddenly, his body was cloaked with a shimmering force field that quickly hardened and darkened. On his back, a cape extended. With a thought, the cape melded into the armor on Max's back, strengthening it as it was absorbed. With another thought, the cap extended and transformed into a total of four wings, two larger up top, two smaller below, similar to an insect.

  Next to the glinting wings on his left side, Lavinia appeared to his normal sight. She was examining his new armor just as closely as Max was. "How strong is it?" she asked.

  Max poked himself in the chest rather quickly and willed the armor to stop it. He raised his eyebrows. "I think it's actually stronger than the armor I get from your spirits. It’s at least on par."

  To her credit, Lavinia didn't seem offended at all, only curious. She said, "What are you thinking right now?"

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  Max grinned. "What I'm thinking is, without needing to use your spirits for armor, I have a lot more utility now without sacrificing defense. Or, maybe I can even have you form your spirits into extra material for Daliko’s wings to stay in the air longer. Actually, maybe you could even add your ectoplasm armor panels on top of or below Daliko’s armor for more protection."

  Next to Lavinia on the floor, Daliko to Max’s normal vision as well. She cocked her mantis head to one side and asked if her abilities could truly be combined with Lavinia’s.

  "Only one way to find out," said Max. Then he winked. "Lavinia, armor." Almost immediately, the familiar glowing ectoplasmic armor started to form on his body. Interestingly enough, it did actually lay on top of Daliko’s armor, adding another layer of protection.

  Fascinated by this, Max dismissed both sets of armor, then called for Lavinia to supply armor first. Then, once his body was armored with the ectoplasm plates, he asked for Daliko’s armor. This time, the mantis spirit’s armor laid on top of Lavinia's armor. Max wasn't entirely sure what this meant or how it could be used yet, but he filed it away for future consideration.

  What was currently running through his mind was the fact that when he attained a four-star mana body, his body would undergo yet another qualitative change, making him much stronger and more difficult to damage. But on top of that, he also just got this new armor upgrade. Granted, if he was using Lavinia's spirits in any kind of support capacity, he wouldn't be able to double up his armor. But if he needed to, he could make himself extremely tanky now.

  He was absolutely thrilled by this new development.

  Max's fighting style had always focused more on maximizing his speed and talent for evasion–to not get hit. However, between his overlapping sets of armor and the excellent shield that he could manifest using Blackmist Incident, he decided that exploring some new ways to fight might be appropriate too. "This is exciting," he said out loud.

  Anansi's voice suddenly rang out through the gym. The divine remnant’s tone was lazy as he said, "If you say so, Maxy. It would look better if you got more legs. However. I do admit that your new look is still much more dashing than your old one."

  Max ignored Anansi and instead continued with his experiments. He willed Lavinia's armor to disappear off of his body. As soon as it did, Daliko’s armor filled the gaps and laid down flat against his body like it would if he originally called for her to armor him first.

  Then, willing his desire to Lavinia, he cast a hand out and manifested a spiderweb of ectoplasm the way he had before while practicing. However, after that, he tried the same thing while snapping his arm forward using the help of Daliko’s spirits. The ectoplasm spider web slammed into one of the weapon racks, hitting it so hard it bounce off the wall and scattered its contents all over the floor.

  Max winced, but still crowed, “It works!”

  Even while wearing armor, he could use Daliko’s other ability. After a quick conversation with very few words, he learned why. It turned out that since his body was covered with her spirits already, they could still assist a quick violent movement in their armor form.

  He tried throwing another web of ectoplasm at the target range. The projectile went the wrong way, opening as it sped across the entire warehouse until it impacted one of the heavy steel walls with a dull thud that sounded like dropping a car from thirty feet up onto a skating rink floor.

  "I think you need to improve your aim," said Anansi dryly.

  Max frowned. "I think you're probably right."