Elemental Knights

Chapter 28

Keith stood in the middle of his training hall shadowboxing. Practicing various punches and kicks that he had learned over the years and pouring it all into that moment.
It was still surprising that Principal Margret had been reported absent, the only answer he had been given when he asked was that she had left to handle something that came up abruptly.
Being completely honest with himself, the news had left him feeling quite relieved and disappointed. He really wanted to get stronger as fast as possible, but he was also in no way eager to repeat the hellish training he had gone through the first time around.
However, now he was starting to worry. He had hoped to continue his training with Aiden when he got home, only to realise that Aiden had also had to leave on an emergency mission that he was not allowed to know about.
Keith knew that it was too much of a coincidence to not be related, especially when he questioned the servants around the house and learned that she had actually dropped by his home to talk to Aiden before they had both left. That was three days ago.
Finishing with a high kick, Keith sat down in the middle of the hall, letting his gaze and thoughts wander until they settled on the large cylindrical shaped compartments that lined the shorter walls of the hall. He stared at them for nearly a minute before getting up and walking towards one.
Out of curiosity, he had asked Professor Michael their purpose and although he has initially been reluctant, he quickly caved in and told him their purpose.
Apparently they were advanced training robots that had a strength settings of one to five and each strength value was meant to be equal to an essence beat from between E to A class.
Keith has been a little too overeager when he heard this and had placed the setting at level three point eight, the same level as a peak C-class essence beast and the flame wolf he had fought. Just like the flame wolf, the robot had beaten him sore but he had won by the skin of his teeth. He was clearly stronger than the first time around but he wasn't yet strong enough to beat it like he had done the D-class essence beasts, nevermind the E-class.
He hadn't touchef the machines since then, but if Principal Margret was going to be out for much longer than this, then he'll have to take another go, which was what he was about to do.
Injecting some of his essence into the panel at the side of one of the capsule, he watched as it opened and he saw the machine sitting inside.
Reaching up to the dial where it's level could be selected, he put in level three and stepped back.
A series of whirrs and clicks rang out as the central processing unit took the command and fired up the rest of the machine. Essence was drawn along thick cables of a special alloy made to conduct essence and pumped into the machines core to match the essence level of the strength value entered. Which was the same as a low tier C-class essence beast.
A few seconds passed, befor the machine fully powered up, activated and stepped out.
It was about eight feet tall, possessed four arms, was humanoid shaped, and was clad in a metallic body that was painted white.
"VOICE ACTIVATION REQUIRED TO BEGIN COMBAT," it said in a feminine voice. Keith grabbed a sword of the weapon rack in the hall and took a battle stance. Taking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves, he looked up at the machine and said, "begin!" And it lunged at him.
Wind essence artifacts and arrays at its feet propelled it forward as it drew its fist back and punched at him with its two left fists. Water and earth essence guided in a similar way surrounded its respective top and bottom fists as it shot forward towards him.
He ducked to the side of the blow before before bringing his sword up in a stab at its side. An aura of flame essence wrapped around the blade and focused at the tip as he thrust forward, mini bursts of essence in his elbows driving the blow forward faster.
An audible clang rang out as a shield of pure earth attribute essence surrounded the machine. The single bubble shape glowing with the yellow aura of the earth.
Then area he had struck flickered and crackled with energy but held on causing Keith to scowl.
After his first fight he had taken time to learn about the abilities of the machine. First was the shield. It activates when the machine is first attacked and stays on for the rest of the fight.  Thankfully, the machine can't attack you while the shield is on and has to deactivate it to do so which creates some form of balance.
Level one setting doesn't have a shield. Level two and level three have shields but three is stronger than level two. Level four and five are annoying because their shield are made of multiple hexagonal plates. Due to this, while one powerful blow the right way can shut down the previous shields until they recharge, doing the same to these will only lead to one plate going down and the rest still protecting the machine as the damaged plate will be rotated to a less critical part of the machine and the rest will hold strong. The true hacker is level five, since that is the only setting where the machine can actually launch powerful attacks through its shield.
He leapt backwards to put some distance between he and the machine as it chased him. Without warning, the shield vanished and its upper right fist shot forward clad in wind. The limb detached from the rest of the body at the elbow, connected by a chain as the wind propelled it towards him at frightening speed.
He dodged the fist and bolted to the machine, knowing that the shield wont come back on until the limb was back in place.
The machine bolted towards him, the chain drawing its arm back in place as it closed the distance while prepping its lower right fist which was now clad in flames for another attack.
Keith took a deep breath and readied a spell he had been practicing for a while. He wasn't sure it would work on the machine since it was a skill that only fooled the sense of sight, but it was worth a shot.
Focusing essence in a layer over his body, he held it tight until he was close enough to the machine, then he released it.