Rhea tried her best and pushed the training puppet in its pillar form into the underground structure through the small gap. Albur also helped pull and finally made it through the gap. Albur pressed the remote of the puppet which made it change to puppet form. Rhea pushed the pipe and lantern into the underground structure.
"I put extra lubricating oil on that puppet, it should attack a lot more quicker."
"Alright."
"Be careful, don't get hit by it. Remember, you are one arm down." said Havoc.
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
Albur stood in front of the puppet and put the lit lantern nearby. He held onto the pipe firmly. It feels strange when his right arm isn't there. He entered battle stance, Rhea carefully observed Albur's movement through the tiny gap with the help of her night vision glasses.
Albur dashed towards the puppet, but before he could even reach it, he tripped and fell on the ground.
"Wow~~~" Havoc said in a mocking tone.
Albur slowly stood up, but struggles at it. Rhea sighed and shook her head.
"I think, before we get to how you can fight normally, we should work on how you can walk and run normally."
"Dang, I guess so...."
Albur pushed the puppet aside. Then, he turned to Rhea, who is thinking with her head lowered.
"Huh, how did I did that again?"
Albur turned to look at Havoc, who just smirked.
"Do you have like uh, any gadgets that can help? Like some kind of, robot arms or...?"
Rhea blinked, she took out her battle bot suit in its keychain form. She recalled every gadget she could find in the suit. And slowly shook her head.
"I don't think so. I only have the area scanning device, medkit, weapon cool down..."
Albur sighed, he looked at the pipe and threw it on the floor, making a loud thud followed by the sound of it rolling away.
But then, Rhea thought of something.
"Robot arm..."
She looked at the battle bot suit. And had an idea.
"Hey, Albur!"
Albur turned his head to look at Rhea. Rhea plucked out the battle bot suit's right arm.
"Take this."
Rhea threw the arm down, Albur walked to it and caught it. Surprisingly, it is quite heavy despite its small toy-like size.
"What can this do?"
Rhea signaled Albur to step closer to her. Albur looked for a steep dirt slopes and stepped on it to reach Rhea. Rhea pressed the button on the tiny arm, it enlarged to the size of the fist of the normal arm of the battle bot. Rhea customized the settings and attached the arm onto the right side of his body.
"Nervous system connected."
Rhea slowly let go of Albur, the arm is extremely heavy for Albur. He must use a lot of his strength to lift it up.
"What's with this?"
"Right now, I'll lend you my battle suit's right arm. You'll need to train your balance, momentum and adapt."
Albur knelt down and let the right arm rest on the ground.
"How will extra weight help?"
"Since it is extra heavy, you will have to learn to always pull it up. Imagine it isn't there and its purely cosmetic. Try to run and fight without using it to help with your balance. But you could if you really have to."
"Huh?"
"That way, you'll have to rely more on your left arm, legs and body to maintain your balance. When the weight is eventually removed, your body should be more accustomed to compensating for the missing arm. Theoretically..."
Albur turned and stared at Rhea.
"Theoretically? So its not guranteed to help?"
"Just try it."
Albur slowly lift the heavy right arm up.
"Now, try running."
Albur slowly walked while trying to lift the hand.
"Don't use your left hand to lift the right hand, use your body strength."
Albur let go of the right hand. He slowly increased his walking speed. But its just too heavy for Albur to handle with just his body. He knelt down and rested the arm on the floor after walking a few more meters.
"Keep going, kid."
"I'm not a kid....."
Albur tried lifting the arm. But his body strength gave in, the hand dropped onto the ground, creating cracks. Albur quickly took a few steps back.
"Careful, this place is weakened already. Walking on it is already risky."
Albur dragged himself and the arm back to the gap where Rhea could see him. He sat down on the ground, panting.
"Albur, if you want to get better with only one hand, you have to keep going."
"But....this arm is.....a little too heavy....."
Rhea sighed.
"Then let's not train walking now. How about this, trying lifting the right arm in the air as long as you can."
"Wait....let me catch...a breath...."
Albur rested for a while. Then he stood up and tried according to Rhea's instructions. Rhea opened her computer programme and found stop watch mode.
Albur lifted the arm in the air one meter above the ground. He stayed like that.
5 seconds,
8 seconds,
11 seconds,
Albur stop applying strength, the arm dropped onto the ground. Rhea stopped the stopwatch.
"11 seconds."
Havoc gave a burst of laughter. Rhea took a pebble and threw at him. Hitting his flash drive body.
"We'll rest for a minute, and we try again."
Albur sat down on the ground. He want to take off the arm for a while but realized it is connected to his nerves which cannot be removed by directly plucking it out. A minute passed by very quickly.
"Alright, now again. Don't lift it up more than a meter, we trained by lifting a meter first."
Albur stood up again and lifted the arm.
His body begun tilting and shaking the longer he held the arm in the air. He begun to try and use his legs to steady his stance and let the arm lift longer. Rhea stared at the stop watch.
4 seconds,
7 seconds,
10 seconds,
13 seconds,
16 seconds,
19 seconds,
"Nice, nice, good."
Albur gave in when the stopwatch hit 21 seconds. Rhea slowly nodded.
"Not bad, not bad."
"Oh my days, this is gonna be rough..."
Albur rested for 2 minutes and tried again. Then again after.
17 seconds,
23 seconds,
16 seconds,
7 seconds,
26 seconds,
Albur kept lifting the hand up over and over again. Some surpassed his best, some didn't. His face is strained red, puffing and huffing to even stand up. Rhea sighed as she stopped the stopped watch. .
"26 seconds....how long do you need to rest now?"
Albur didn't say anything. He is so strained that he is about to vomit. Rhea stopped pushing him. She think that they should call it a day.
"Alright, enough for today. You should rest now."
Albur puffed and looked at Rhea.
"Wait...what....? That's it.....?"
"What do you mean that's it? Look at you, you look sick...."
"I...I can still do it...give me....five minutes...."
"No way, rookie. Its enough."
Rhea closed her stopwatch screen. She reached to Albur and deactivated the nerves connecting system and removed the arm from Albur before shrinking it and take it back.
"Before you rest, move your legs a little and slowly cool down, suddenly resting ain't good for your body."
"Oh....right."
"Havoc, stay with him and watch him. If he have any issues, use the walkie talkie to contact me, alright?"
"K."
Rhea stood up, she sighed.
"Good night."
She walked back to the moon hut.
Albur grabbed a bottle of water and took a huge sip. He slowly move his legs and took deep breaths. Calming down himself.
Havoc looked at him, and glanced at Mysty. Her eyebrows are pulled together a little, looks like she isn't having a good dream. He sighed as he watches Albur's pant become slower and slower.
Then, the panting vanished. Replaced by snores.
Havoc looked at Albur for a moment.
"Heh."
Then, he entered sleep mode.