“Enclosed building huh? Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

  I was standing alongside Pinky within the second floor Fight Club of The Common Ground as she scrolled through a tablet to register a slot for us to fight.

  “Don’t try to mind trick me, Loophole, I know you can fly. If I put us in a city you’ll just float around and do that little yo-yo trick of yours until you had taken me down,” she said without looking away from the screen. She tapped a few buttons and the layout changed to show several random hallways with a large question mark at the center. “Gonna need to go with something just a bit more random.”

  While the system normally would apply a variable Equalizer buff/debuff to us to even out our stats for the battle, I had been surprised when I approached Pinky and discovered that she had managed to jump two levels up to match me at 14. When I asked her about it, she would only tell me not to look at the leaderboard and to just wait for Axio’s announcement. Though my curiosity wanted to make me peek, I decided it really didn’t matter too much and figured there would be something in the highlight videos that she wanted me to see.

  Surprisingly, unlike when I had upgraded my Optical Refraction knowledge, not all of my abilities rooted in Quantum Mechanics evolved when I selected the stat to increase to level 6 after installing the Tome of Many Things into my Display Case, but the two that had evolved gave me a few options to work with. While I hadn’t exactly kept up with Pinky’s skills, I had at least the memory of our first fight to work off of. Part of me was hyper aware of the fact that my brawling focused powerset was probably not the best matchup where Pinky was concerned, and I resolved myself to stop back in the bookstore following my fight to try and stock up on a few options that would give me more ranged possibilities.

  “Okay, we are all queued up. Platform 2 is just opening up and I snatched it before anyone else could,” Pinky said, waving a hand toward one of the raised white platforms.

  The crowd was relatively light, though the other nearby platforms were each still partially surrounded by onlookers with several making their way toward our platform as they saw the lights above it change to indicate a fight was about to start. The other Augments were dressed in a rainbow of colors that drew the eye, from a girl wearing a red and yellow themed outfit that I was pretty sure skirted the line of copyright infringement on a certain speedster, to a guy dressed in a deep black trenchcoat and full face mask that was all trimmed in a rich purple color. I wasn’t even the only one wearing orange, though most of the others I could see with it in their outfits had it as a secondary color instead of a primary.

  I hopped up onto the platform, walking over to one side as Pinky got into position opposite of me, shaking her arms out and bouncing on the balls of her feet as she waited for the switchover to happen. The first time we had done this, I had been surprised when the transition happened, but this time I was ready for it and the flash of white light only mostly blinded me. As my vision returned to me, I found myself standing in a long empty hallway that felt like an underground bunker.

  With a loud ringing sound, our names dropped out of the ceiling and hung in the air. There was an accompanying sound of an announcer that I tuned out as I started to try to make sense of the battlefield that Pinky had selected for us. My mini-map had disappeared from my vision the moment I had entered the Common Ground and it didn’t return to me now as I planted my feet. It didn’t exactly seem like Pinky had chosen a field that she could make use of her powerful charges in, so there had to have been a reason she chose this outside of just removing my flight capabilities.

  I let my Area Sense start to spread outward, reaching past the walls on either side of me to try and explore. I wanted to assume it was some sort of office building, but as I felt the obstructions within my zone, it became clear that on the other side of the walls next to me were just more hallways. My sense could actually reach far enough to find even more space on the other sides of those walls.

  “Is it… a maze?” I muttered as I reopened my eyes. I was just about to start moving when I felt a large mass enter the edge of my zone. Logically I knew it didn’t matter that there were walls in the way and I threw myself backwards just in time as a large pink blur came crashing through the wall on my left.

  Pinky didn’t slow down as she struck the opposite wall, crashing through concrete bricks as easy as paper. I could hear her continue to crash through concurrent walls, with the sound of rubble hitting the ground slowly muffling into the distance. I slowly approached the hole, stopping next to it and once again planted my feet to let my Area Sense activate again.

  “That’s still one hell of a charge,” I yelled through the hole, hearing my voice echo. I was expecting some sort of banter back, but before I even felt her break back through the threshold, I could hear the clap of her feet on the concrete floor. That sound only preceded the charging force entering my zone by a few seconds, but I still took the small bit of warning that it had given me.

  I slid out of the way as she crashed through the wall again, further opening the hole in the wall she had already made. Before she could strike the opposite wall, I activated Weighted Clothes. While I knew it wasn’t going to do much to her, I needed to get her to stop charging around like, well a berserking boar, and to start trying to fight up close.

  “I’ve got plenty of charge already, but thanks Loophole,” Pinky said through gritted teeth. She managed to raise a foot up before she slammed it into the ground.

  There was a sudden burst of energy that rippled through the pavement like a wave, cracking the concrete with pink lines of energy before a delayed explosion sent it all scattering up and into the air. I barely managed to activate the Fortune’s Shield ability on my jacket before the debris hit. The shield it provided absorbed some of the damage, but the attack still managed to shred at least 25% of my health bar away.

  Although I hadn’t released the Weighted Clothes ability, Pinky apparently didn’t even care and I found her bearing down on me, her tusks having extended outward into what almost resembled a battering ram. She bucked her head to the side just as I activated Float Like A Butterfly and skipped backwards over the shattered floor.

  She was relentless as she stayed on me, bucking her head with each step. Unfortunately for her, I already knew one of the weaknesses of her abilities and her slowing down to try and gore me made it at least possible that I could do some damage. I threw a punch just as she moved her tusks in a way that easily could have gored me and caught as her lips curled up a smile before she cocked her head to the side.

  Just before my fist connected with the metal of her tusks, I added a 25% Gravity Punch into the strike and continued my follow through. The smile on Pinky’s face turned to shock as she went stumbling backwards from the force of the blow. While the knockback of the strike had only partially worked, I was even more shocked when I looked toward her health bar and saw that it hadn’t budged even an inch. I wasn’t positive if my Weighted Clothes still being active had lessened how far the knockback of my Gravity Punch would go, but she had proven I couldn’t let myself get distracted wondering what was going on.

  “Fucker, you broke my tusk,” Pinky said with, of all things, a laugh and I watched as one of her tusks cracked, splintering off and falling to the ground beside her.

  “How the hell did you know where I was?” I asked and she gave me a devilish grin just before a portion of her health disappeared and a sharp, fresh tusk erupted from the broken stump.

  “A girl’s gotta have some secrets,” she said. I hadn’t noticed it at first but she had been tapping one of her feet. It had started to pick up as she began moving from side to side and pink sparks were starting to bounce off of the shattered, uneven floor.

  This time I was ready for it as she bounced backwards, planting a single foot on the ground before expelling her built up kinetic energy to come bursting toward me. I activated Fun House and at the same moment, I activated the ability that my Phase Step had evolved into after I had increased my quantum mechanics knowledge, Echo Step.

  “Echo Step. Level 1 Movement Ability. This ability was evolved from Phase Step. This ability allows you to teleport to a location within your area that you can visibly see or to anywhere you have an active afterimage. After activating this ability, leave behind an afterimage in your place. This afterimage lasts for up to 5 seconds or until an opponent comes in contact with it, at which point the afterimage will explode, applying the Staggered debuff to all enemies caught in the explosion and dealing 350 points of damage. This ability costs 500 points of Stamina per jump unless you are jumping to a location where a version of you (i.e. an afterimage) already exists, which reduces the cost of this ability by 90%.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  I jumped to an after image that had appeared behind where she had launched from only a moment before she would have struck me. She crashed into and through my afterimage and a bright orange explosion sent her stumbling over her feet and tumbling over the uneven ground. She maintained her momentum as she rolled and skidded to a halt on her knees.

  “That’s new,” she grunted, turning until she made eye contact with me. I held up a hand and waved at her.

  “You know… out of curiosity since I haven’t exactly had to deal with getting stabbed just yet. If those tusks hit me… will they actually gore me? Cause I feel like that would hurt, like, a lot,” I said reaching up and tapping at my chin.

  “Don’t worry, it’ll only hurt till they declare me the victor,” Pinky said as she punched the ground and got into a runner’s pose. Her feet began to move as if she was doing mountain climbers as she focused her attention on me and slowly started to ramp up the energy that was cascading off of her feet. “I’ve got you locked in now, it’s only a matter of time,” she said with a wink.

  It was clear that she had grown her ability to stack her kinetic energy much faster than when we had first fought and I started planning my next move as I took in the area around me. I had three other afterimages still in place thanks to Fun House and thanks to the evolution of Echo Step, I was no longer bound by having to see a spot in order to teleport to it. The moment she began charging back for me, I stepped to an afterimage tucked on the other side of the far wall.

  I waited for her to crash into the afterimage and prepared to rush toward her when she came bursting through the wall, rushing right toward me. If my eyes could have popped out of their socket, they just might have as I scrambled to the side. I wasn’t nearly fast enough and she slammed into me, sending me hurtling into the nearby wall. My health chunked down by another 25% and I used Echo Step just in time before Pinky could crash into me again. She hit the wall and then took a small chunk of damage as the afterimage exploded, but she still shrugged it off like it was practically nothing.

  “You can’t fool me with fakes, Loophole, I’ve got homing instincts now,” Pinky said as she pulled her tusks free from the wall, dusting the debris from her outfit as she slowly started to bounce to collect energy again.

  “Sure as hell explains how you keep finding me,” I said and brushed some of the dust off myself. My worry from before we had started to fight came back into focus as I considered my options. I had focused almost entirely too much on just brawling and while I could certainly hit like a truck when I needed to, Pinky was either moving with too much force for me to land a solid blow on, or she could simply absorb my strikes when she was holding still.

  I had thought that if I could just get her to slow down enough that I could make contact while she attempted to attack, I would be able to damage her, but the way she had blocked me with her tusks was problematic in its own way. I needed to be able to get her not just moving, but moving without choosing to do so. It was a gamble, that much I knew because if it didn’t work I was going to be at a severe disadvantage, but what was the point of Super Luck if I didn’t take a gamble every so often. This time I charged her and she looked almost amused as she put her fists up to block me. Only a few feet away from her I pushed off and pulled back an arm.

  I activated Gravity Punch and threw every last bit of the stamina I had left in my stamina bar into it. Unlike my first try, this one came with a lot more force, totalling at 60% of my stamina. While she unfortunately didn’t take any of the damage from the strike, the force of the knockback was more than she was able to withstand. Unlike the slight stumble that my first Gravity Punch had resulted in, this time she was lifted off of her feet as she flew backwards down the hallway from the stacked knockback effect that had resulted from pouring in so much of my stamina. I couldn’t risk her getting out of my local area, so as I landed on the ground, I rushed forward and after her as she flew. With her now moving and my stamina bar emptied, I prepared to activate a few of my abilities in rapid succession. First I activated the evolved version of Schr?dinger’s Surge, Quantum Overclock.

  “Quantum Overclock. Level 1 Activated Ability. Instantly refills and overfills your Stamina to 125% capacity, after 15 seconds you regain 50% of your Stamina and one instance of the Exhausted debuff is applied, reducing your natural Stamina and Health regeneration by 25% for 30 minutes. If you do not already have an Exhausted debuff when you activate this ability, refresh the cooldown on all abilities with cooldowns 10 minutes or less. This ability has No Cooldown and costs No Stamina but cannot be utilized if you have two or more instances of the Exhausted debuff. This ability and Schr?dinger’s Surge cannot be on the same action bar.”

  It was like an electrical surge as my stamina filled past its maximum capacity and I activated the sole new ability I had created following the upgrade of my Quantum Mechanics knowledge, Paradox Chain.

  “Paradox Chain. Level 1 Activated Ability. If activated within 5 seconds of landing a physical strike, create a Quantum Echo that strikes the same opponent from any direction of your choosing, dealing 100% of the original strike’s damage and all associated effects. This ability can be reactivated up to 4 times, losing 20% of the original strike’s damage with each activation. This ability costs 10% stamina for the first activation and 20% for each subsequent activation. This ability has a 30 minute cooldown that starts after you go 5 seconds without activating this ability.”

  As I continued my chase, I watched as an afterimage of me appeared and struck Pinky again, this time sending her crashing down another hallway that I had luckily noticed part way up the path. As her flight was redirected, her health bar finally went plummeting downward by nearly 40%. I skidded around the corner as I continued to follow and even activated Echo Step and jumped forward to stay with her as I reactivated Paradox Chain and another afterimage of me appeared, striking Pinky yet again before vanishing in a flash of orange light. Her health chunked down yet again, though this time by quite a bit less than the first strike. She was well below 50% of her health, but I didn’t have time to focus on her bar as I continued my chase.

  “Ah fuck!” Pinky shouted as I activated the ability a third time and yet another afterimage sprang to life. This time, Pinky managed to move her head just in time, her tusks growing up just in time to get in the way of the third strike. They spread up and outward like a shield that caught the strike, redirecting the knockback so she went crashing down into the ground. A small cloud of dust filled the air around her as I came to an abrupt halt. While I could have activated Paradox Chain a fourth time, it would have eaten another 20% of my stamina to only deal a fraction of the damage.

  Her health bar flashed above her head as the dust began to settle and I could see her struggling to her feet. While her health bar wasn’t quite flashing critically, it was far closer to empty than even half full.

  “I’m not… I’m not done yet,” she said, huffing out rapid breaths. While I still didn’t have a perfect grasp on her abilities, I was pretty sure I had put most of the pieces together and I was almost positive that she had drained most of her stamina. With her health as low as it was, I was also pretty sure she couldn’t keep manipulating the size and orientation of her tusks.

  Before she could start moving to gather more of her energy, I launched into action. The follow up effect of Quantum Overclock activated and I regained 50% of my Stamina. Pinky didn’t look shocked or amused this time as I rushed toward her, and she wasn’t going to wait for me to reach her either. With a burst of pink sparks, she let out enough force that the cement on the ground below her shattered and went flying back behind her.

  Just before she could reach me, I activated Echo Step, stepping and appearing above her. She struck the afterimage, causing it to explode just as I threw a 75% Gravity Strike down and into her. It was probably overdoing it by a bit, but I couldn’t risk it not putting her down for the count. The staggering effect of the explosion coupled with my strike sent her crashing down and into the ground. Her health bar bottomed out and a fanfare of sounds echoed throughout the room before the world flashed around us.

  Pinky was prone on her stomach facing away from me and she slammed a fist down into the ground as the cheers of the crowd around us became prevalent once again. I slowly walked around her and held a hand down to her. She stared at it for only a moment before sighing and taking it, letting me help her back up as she moved to brush more of the dust off of her outfit.

  “You didn’t tell BrainCraft you could do all of that…” She muttered and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Well I only promised him the basics, I didn’t exactly have to explain everything I could do, now did I?” I said and then found myself unable to stop myself from adding, “I do love a-”

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” Pinky said, pointing a finger at me briefly before she hopped off of the platform. I briefly considered dropping it but just shrugged as I followed.

  “I do love a loophole,” I said, and she let out a loud, pained groan.

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