Atticus felt a surge of power coursing through his body, just like the last time during his battle with Alvis after enduring that bombardment of attacks.
'To think he could replicate that in a single second… damn,' Atticus thought as he fixed his gaze on Magnus, who stood at a distance. His grip on his katana tightened. No matter how much he witnessed it, he desired that power.
Atticus's figure blurred before multiplying into a staggering number of afterimages. Countless azure slashes filled the space before they converged into a crescent slash many times larger than before. The whole training room rumbled as it shot forward at intense speed.
The crew members, along with Dario and Yotad, who had gathered outside, fixed their gazes on the large red door. They had felt the rumble from outside. For the shockwave to reach them despite the room's specifications, they could only imagine what was happening inside.
However, just like before, the same thing occurred—the crescent slash met an impenetrable force before it could reach Magnus, its form scattering in the air.
"Better," Magnus's simple remark would have normally elicited an awkward reaction from Atticus, but currently, he didn't care.
His exosuit streamed back into the stump on his chest, and he felt his body become completely and utterly weak.
'Just like back then,' he thought, recalling how the exosuit had lost power after unleashing such strength in his fight with Alvis.
"I see. So that amount would make it shut down. What about half of that?" Magnus asked, but he didn't immediately attack. Instead, he patiently waited.
"Also, I believe you made a mistake when determining the cause of your suit's shutdown. How do exosuits function? In general," Magnus continued.
Atticus, breathing raggedly as he caught his breath, felt thoroughly exhausted. "From mana?"
"Be more specific," Magnus urged.
"The mana in the air," Atticus clarified.
"Good. Which means that as long as there's mana in the air, it should theoretically keep functioning, right?"
Atticus nodded. Mana was practically its fuel, which meant that as long as there was mana, the suit shouldn't run out of 'energy.'
"If it didn't run out of fuel, then…"
"Yes. Even the strongest of human or machines would feel fatigue when they're used past their limits," Magnus explained.
"In essence, it's resting?" Atticus asked.
Magnus nodded and said nothing further. While technically the term "energy" was correct since the suit had depleted its reserves and was forced to rest and recover, it was clear that Atticus hadn't meant it that way.
Considering the current facts, it was clear that there was no speeding up its recovery, even in an area with high mana density.
Since they had both determined that the suit needed rest, Atticus sat down and meditated, attempting to speed up the recovery process.
About four hours passed, and Atticus could feel the suit's presence once more. He stood up and informed Magnus, who immediately began his "torture" again.
A second later, Atticus felt a surge of power, though of lower intensity than earlier—about half. After unleashing the third art at Magnus, who effortlessly blocked it, Atticus was relieved to see that his exosuit still had enough power to function.
The power Atticus just unleashed hadn't been enough to wear down his exosuit, though it had still been significant. If he had to guess, he would say it was about the equivalent of a grandmaster level power output and speed.
Magnus bombarded him once more, this time using the other half of the energy. After feeling the surge and unleashing the third katana art, Atticus noticed the drain but was surprised that his exosuit remained intact.
However, the third attempt did the trick. As soon as Atticus unleashed it, he felt the usual drain, and his exosuit shut down.
'So it takes about three tries at the grandmaster level, and just one at the grandmaster+ level, to deplete it,' Atticus thought.
He had quantified the energy levels corresponding to the ranks of power they could handle: 50% for grandmaster level and 100% for grandmaster+.
After coming to this conclusion, Magnus immediately shifted the focus of their training to a more critical aspect.
For Atticus to use this effectively in battle, it was crucial for him to be able to gauge when the attacks he had absorbed were sufficient.
It would be pointless if he intended to use 50% of the power but ended up with 100% instead. This required a great deal of precision and came with a significant amount of pain.
Unfortunately, the suit didn't have any alarms or indicators to alert him to the energy levels. Instead, Atticus had to rely on his intelligence and perception to assess the weight and power of each blow he received.
This involved considering a multitude of factors: the amount of mana coursing through his opponent's arm, the mana enveloping their arm, the muscle mass and bone density of each strike, and the force behind each blow.
There were even more factors to consider, but Atticus was eventually able to master them over time. However, this progress came at the cost of enduring a relentless barrage of beatings—punishments that he could never quite get used to.
Magnus's punches had something unique to them, something Atticus couldn't quite explain. It felt as though any one of those punches could end him at any moment.
The day passed in the blink of an eye, and soon the next day arrived.
"They're still at it?" Amara, who had left after a while yesterday, entered the training room in the morning to find a crowd already gathered.
"Yeah. I could feel the tremors all night. Don't they know how to rest?" one of the other crew members responded.
However, Amara and many of the other crew members had taken it differently. The crew members of the Aegis airship were undoubtedly the elite of the elite. But there was a reason why a bunch of master+ ranks were manning the airship instead of being at the elemental sanctums: they had already attended the sanctums.
In essence, the entire crew of the Aegis ship had attended the sanctums and had been deemed unfit to ever form their domains.
They each had their own reasons and motivations driving them to keep moving forward. They still trained every day, but deep down, they knew that this was as far as they would go.