New Beginning (Honkai Impact Fanfic)

Chapter 11 Core Transfer

Liana POV

"Einstein, can you give me some pointers about improving my fighting abilities?"

I am inside the training simulator while Einstein is on the control panel. The last fight with Otto proves how weak I am. Even with nee-san's help, it still is a struggle. Now though, I don't know where nee-san is or her condition. I would like to search for her and the others but I must improve myself.

"Hmmm, if my observation is correct, every time you use your portal to defend, it takes quite a while for the [exit] portal to materialize. That means you will be vulnerable for around 0.892 seconds this is enough for some attacks to come your way with you having no way to defend" Einstein explained. "We need to improve your portal generation speed."

"Yeah, I do notice that the second portal's generation took a lot more effort and energy. But how can I make it faster? I already try to go faster but it doesn't work."

"Hmmm" Einstein is thinking while I took a rest. "Liana, can you tell me what is your thought process when using the portals to defend?"

"Well first I think roughly the trajectory of the attack, then I materialize a portal right on the attack's flight path. After that, I think about the flight path of the attack through the imaginary space and create the second portal."

"Hmmm, it seems that it is too complicated, how about we simplify it?" Einstein suggested

"How?"

"What if you think of the action less like a set of steps and more as one command, say rather than generating the first portal and then the second portal, you should think of making them both at the same time with a fixed distance between them, I would say it is akin to functions in programming, rather than typing the code over and over again for frequently use codes, we can just create a function and whenever we need it, we can call it," Einstein explained

I don't quite get the programming analogy but I have a rough idea of what she is suggesting.

"Let's try it"

I think about making 2 portals immediately with a fixed distance between them, both of the portals materialized on the front and the back of me. It turns out not hard to do and I was wondering why I haven't thought about this sooner. But it still feels unnatural and forced.

"Yes, I did it, still feels weird though"

"Well done Liana, I am surprised you did it in one try, it's normal to feel weird since you haven't gotten used to it, practice it a couple of times and I am sure it will feel more natural. Since we have a defensive function, maybe we should make more functions to cover offensive strategies." Einstein said.

"I'll leave the thinking to you, I will just follow your instructions."

"Ok, I will go to Tesla to help me develop more." Einstein said as she leave the room.

I was left alone in the room.

Functions, that might help me increase my battle capabilities. I should also learn how to utilize the other cores in a battle scenario. Back in the theater of domination, I can build laser turrets but only with Bronya's help, I never tried summoning one myself. The last time I use the reason core is when I create the HOMU tracker and that takes a lot of brain power that I probably can't afford in the middle of a fight. I just don't have enough usage hours to be proficient in using the reason core. The flame core is easy enough to master and I can utilize it in battle quite efficiently, the Sentience core is a bit iffy since I am not sure how to use it in an offensive and defensive way. Wait... Senti uses it in both offense and defense, maybe I could take my fight with her for the inspiration to use the core, why I didn't think about that before? Also although I can't ask Bronya for tips on using the reason core, I can ask Welt who is Bronya's teacher and have possession of the core far longer than Bronya did.