Rise of the Omnimage

"Rise and Fall to formation!"

Sorin's eyes snapped open, and he jumped out of his cot, body screaming in sore agony. It felt like he was one huge cracking scab as he got to the foot of his cot in the position of attention.

"Today is a rest day. You get to have time to yourself so that you don't go insane. You have two requirements. One! washing your disgusting clothes. Two! Receive healing." The soldier pointed to a slender older woman in a white and silver martial arts robe. Form cut with baggy legs to allow for movement.

The soldier continued; "Failure to complete those two tasks will lead to your removal and collaring. Dismissed!"

The soldier left the bay and Sorin immediately just sat down and hung his head letting his mind blank out.

"I'm Ardwyn." A raspy male voice from his right said.

Sorin looked over at the man, an elf exactly like the legends from earth said they were. Slender cat like build with slightly larger eyes there were in this case a greenish blue that were not obfuscated by the bruising and dark circles.

"Sorin." was the reply that he gave back to the elf not knowing what else to say.

"This is pretty.... rough." Ardwyn said rolling his hand forward in a circular motion during the pause.

Sorin snorted a sarcastic laugh.

"Yeah, no kidding. Way worse than anything I'm used to. More like gladiator training."

Ardwyn tilted his head "what is a gladiator?"

"Men who were usually slaves who fought sometimes battles to the death for entertainment." Sorin said. "Not too different from our situation. I was a farmer on my world, so i have little experience with this stuff. However, Chorus over there is military. She is a ranger from my city." Ardwyn gestured to an elven woman across the bay and down from them on the left who at the sound of her name looked up with a scathing glare and got up.

She came to a stop in front of Ardwyn. "Did you ask if you could share my experience with a random stranger? No, you didn't so how about you keep your mouth shut before I help you?"

Ardwyn reeled back with shock and fear on his face.

"Relax, nobody in this place has any more advantage than anyone else regardless of our experience. We have all seen each other in action and already know who has training and who doesn't."

Chorus snapped her eyes at Sorin.

"You are not our kind human, and you know nothing about tactical advantages."

Sorin giggled and shrugged her off

"You disagree?" Chorus asked with a sarcastic air

Sorin looked up at her and took her in. Slender cat like build, platinum blonde with light blue almost grey eyes and exactly what the legends and single nerds fantasized about elves would talk about. Sorin cut the thought off and responded.

"Yes, I do. I am going to assume you're older than me, in spite of the fact you look like you're in your early 20's, but mentally you're probably younger than me. I have been in the military of my world for the better part of 20 years and have plenty of experience when it comes to tactical and strategic advantages. Knowing someone has training only makes one more cautious but doesn't give anyone any insight into their skill especially when we are from different worlds and difference species. For example, do you know what types of martial arts I'm trained in or how far I can shoot a gun and hit a target accurately?"

Chorus raised her eyebrows.

"I don't even know what a gun is so no."

Sorin nodded.

"Exactly. You know I have military experience so odds are you will be overthinking a lot what I can do which may slow your reaction time allowing me to target many of the standard human vital points I would try to exploit. So... you can relax and try to make allies to prop you up when this training period inevitably gets worse."

Ardwyn seemed so lost at the exchange between Sorin and Chorus that he remained silent and picked at the blisters on his hands.

"You suggest an alliance?" Chorus asked almost indignantly.

"Yep. Running solo will only get you so far in environments like this." Sorin responded getting up and gathering his dirty clothes stripping out of the ones he had and wrapping a rag around to observe what propriety he could.

Chorus and Ardwyn glanced away to respect his dignity.

"You mentioned tactical advantage, but I mentioned that and strategic advantage. We would be stupid to try to match these assholes in standard brute power training in the same manner they do, using their standards. Why would I fight on a battlefield always chosen by my opponents?"

Chorus seemed surprised and now curious.

"Before I continue, lets wash our stuff and get to the healing line."

The two elves went to their cots, stripped and gathered their belongings then met up with Sorin and went down to the bathing pool to wash their clothes.

"As I was saying, we can't hope to match these people playing their game. We have to flip the script and find an advantage using what we know from our own worlds. I have already messed with the system, and I think I have a path forward that might let me circumvent what they think is invulnerable. They are arrogant and I might be able to use that. If what I think I'm on to is accurate, I could render even a tier 100 person vulnerable to my attacks and even circumvent collars."

Ardwyn and Chorus listened intently as the three tried to get the blood stains out of their clothes.

Sorin continued, "What is the one thing that makes us all equals?"

Ardwyn spoke up first "Humanoid?" Sorin Shrugged "Yeah...we all have that in common but that is hardly something worth taking into account right away."

Chorus spoke up next "The system?"

"Bingo." Sorin replied.

"What?" the two elves said at the same time.

"Just a word from my world we use when someone gets something right. You are exactly right though. The system. We are all empowered by it and bound to it. It runs off aether which if my theory is correct is called something else in my world and in time, I think I can exploit it. I don't want to go too far and give you guys hope until I've tested it more but so far, I think what I have in mind will work.

Sorin said as he scooped his clothes and began to leave the pool for healing now that the line had gotten shorter.

The elves followed him up and into the line.

"Look in my world there are more than the five elements, in fact there are 94 naturally occurring elements my world has discovered with 24 that are synthetic and all of those have something in common especially when you think of it in the terms of natural laws that bind our universe. If I'm correct...I might be able to use the system to undermine their strangle hold on us." Sorin explained.

Chorus and Ardwyn looked at each other with a look of such confusion that Sorin just let out a sigh.

"Look let me test things and if I'm right I'll teach you what I know. We need to have allies."

The elves just nodded and Ardwyn spoke up.

"At this point, I don't really care how we can get free and get home as long as long as it's viable chance. We either die as fodder, escaping, mining, or we get free."

Sorin nodded. "Exactly."

They received their partial healing and went back to Sorin's cot.

"Let me work on things for the next few weeks and I'll get you both an answer." Sorin said as he sat down getting ready to start in using the rest of the day off.

Chorus nodded "Works for me." She walked off and Ardwyn followed suit leaving Sorin alone.

Sorin took a deep breath and prepared to go internal and see if he could find some exploits.