Initial Testing
"Do you feel any lighter?"
He flexed his arms, testing range of movement. A soft hum accompanied every little shift. The ablative plating was snug, but it felt no heavier than his skin.
"Faster, maybe. Too minimal to say."
"Sensors are calibrated."
He nodded, the figures around moving carefully away. To him they appeared to tread through liquid, each movement flowing into the next. Closing his eyes against the sight, he waited until they were gone before opening them. Focusing on his hands, he lifted them, slowly closed his fingers into fists. He jabbed, a quick forward thrust of movement. The force nearly pulled him off his feet. Training took hold and he relaxed, falling into a roll that quickly returned him upright. A moment passed as he caught his breath.
"No muscles torn."
"...it's as if the muscles perceived his intentions."
A murmur passed in from beyond the chamber where they watched.
"Proceed with the exercise."
He hesitated, the figures waiting expectantly beyond metal and glass. Releasing his breath he exploded into a flurry of martial motion. Increasingly complex, he ceased at the Ninth Cadence, drawing air deeply.
"Movements barely register on visuals."
"Internal systems are stable."
Even as he listened their voices had begun to bleed together. He barely registered what they said.
"Begin live fire procedure."
Realization came in a wash of heat. The mechanism's environmental systems compensated, keeping the sensation at his periphery. Armor plates kept it from burning flesh. Motion sensors indicated a target behind as four others approached from all points. The first swung its staff, a shimmering displacement of atmosphere marking the passage of a burst of raw heat that combusted on contact, the flames skimming over his body. Reaching out, he took hold of the staff, pulling back as he stepped aside. The attacker was sent flying into the opposite wall where it stuck in a foot-deep dent. Retaining the staff, he punctured the second's chest, crushing the third's with a backhand swing. The fourth was immolated by raw heat, body visibly sagging as metal blended with flesh and was reduced to slag. Regarding the weapon, he discarded the device carelessly as he approached the attacker still standing. Unhindered by its efforts, he methodically tore it apart.
Sensing the figures beyond glass and metal he stopped. They still moved as if suspended in liquid. It made sense. He didn't even feel the impact as his fist hit the glass.
A web of cracks spread through the pane with its second strike. On the third, it began to give. Before the fourth he was engulfed by a wall of fire. The mechanism attempted to compensate but the effect filled the chamber. When his armor gave, internal systems quickly failed.
As the flames subsided his corpse was left standing, fist raised. A statue of fused metal.