Choice (Conti.)

"I'll make this quick," She said and I barely saw the first attack before it hit me. I heard metal scraping and saw starlight gleam of a razor edge as a sword unfolded behind her, held by nothing and multiplying abruptly with a sharp sound—and then I was sent flying back. The White Tiger's Hide held under the impact for a moment before shattering, tearing apart with a rush of sensation that I felt against my very being as the blades bit further inwards. I felt my MP drain as my Aura took the hit, soaking it in place of my body, but didn't have time to check on any precise numbers as I was hurled back into a wall.

Or, more accurately, through a wall.

And the one behind it and the one behind that. I felt cheap wood breaking under my body and I was flung into what seemed like a small work room, over several small desks or tables that I only noticed peripherally, out the other side into the street where I was sent for a rough tumble into the dirt, hit something like a curb, and was sent flying into a thin metal shutter of some kind. The door crumbled beneath me and I went rolling across a warehouse floor.

It hurt. A lot.

But only for a second before the pain faded, swept away by the Gamer's Body. Still, for a moment all I could do was lay there, stunned by the pain and the confirmation it had carried with it. I was strong and I had trained hard and I'd layers my defenses. Between me and any attack was the White Tiger's Hide which soaked a large amount of damage before failing, my Metal Aura which reduced any damage by a large fraction, and my Aura which made damage roll over to my MP before touching my HP, to say nothing of my Physical Endurance, which also reduced any source of damage by a large fraction. It was a powerful effect, taken altogether, especially with how highly I'd leveled all my skills; for someone my age, for someone who'd only trained for a month, it was an amazing defense.

And if not for all of that, this fight would have ended in that one blow. Penny had hit me with enough force that even with all of that, she'd still stripped away nearly half my MP—and I was pretty sure she was holding back, especially since I'd felt the blade draw away from me a second after impact. I wasn't surprising, really; I'd always known about the difference between me and some of the ridiculous opponents I fought. Hell, just earlier, I'd killed a bunch of robots a little less than half my level effortlessly and the difference between Penny and I was a fair bit larger. Even if I hadn't gotten to experience it first hand, 'a hit from an opponent nearly forty levels above you would hurt like a bitch' went without saying.

So I wasn't surprised, really. I wasn't even scared, really, even ignoring the effect of the Gamer's Mind. As I lay on the warehouse floor for a second and just stared at the ceiling, I just…accepted it. She was vastly stronger than me and she had the speed and versatility to back it up. She was, in every sense of the word, above my level.

But I got up because that didn't change anything. I still had a job to do, I still had things to fight for, and I was still going home, somehow.

I tried to think of a plan. I considered trying to fly away or at least out of range but there were more than a few problems with the idea. Levant could lift and hold a single person fairly easily now, allowing me to walk on air or even carry me around. But…that wasn't quite the same as being able to fly myself. Ideally, Levant would be materialized and holding onto my back as she had during our practices, at which point I would either relay instructions to her or let her do what she thought best—and either way, the result was amazing but not ideal for a fight. In the former, there was a delay between thought and action, like telling someone how to drive in your place. It was a short delay since I could rely on Levant for most things, but if there was something precise or if I needed to dodge something fast, the fact remained that I wasn't doing it the moment I thought about it, I was thinking of it, telling someone else to do it, and waiting for them to.

Levant was amazing, but adding steps to a process like that was going to cause delays no matter how good you were. Leaving things to her was better—a lot smoother, certainly—but it had the problem of someone else being in control of my movements. Even if Levant didn't need to focus on evacuating the Faunus and could manifest and guide my flight, having another person effectively controlling my legs while I fought was not going to make this any easier. And if that first hit was any indication, if I made a mistake once, there were decent odds I wasn't going to get a chance to make another.

All of which was a moot point, I supposed, because of the situation. I couldn't be certain of the range on those blades of hers, but they hit fast and from what I'd seen, could be used without her touching them. Given that, I pondered what I would do if I were designing such a thing and figured they probably had a pretty huge reach. Being able to hit at a distance was rather the point of a ranged weapon, after all. Even if I could afford to draw Levant's attention away from evacuation—dealing with the effect splitting her power would have on both my mobility and the time it meant I'd have to buy—whether it'd be enough to save me was, ironically, up in the air.

If I was just trying to run away…maybe, but for this? No.

Stealth, perhaps? I'd leveled it up some, though it had never been a focus given the plan. Still, I might be able to lead her on a chase for a bit while remaining unseen—assuming that no one involved with the construction of a super robot had considered the numerous advantages of sensors and enhanced vision, which seemed rather unlikely. If you were creating a combat robot for…whatever reason, why would you stop at normal human capability for such a major thing? I wouldn't have. Hell, if it was me, Penny would have been able to see Ultraviolet light bare minimum, and as much of the rest of the Electromagnetic Spectrum as I could manage. I didn't know the limits the top scientists in Atlas might have in that regard, but hell—they'd created life. Assuming they'd had fun thinking of ways to ruin things they sent their robot at seemed reasonable.

Can't talk, can't fight, can't run, can't hide, which kind of left me out to dry. No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't think of anything that had a real chance of stopping Penny. Or slowing her down. Or doing more than momentarily inconveniencing her.

Which was worrisome, since I could feel her approaching.

I looked around, prioritizing quickly. Right now, I needed to survive long enough to figure out how to keep surviving. I scanned the warehouse for a way out or anything useful—

I paused, suddenly realizing where I was. All around me were neatly arranged crates, boxes, and various other storage containers, all looking read for shipping. Given this town's purpose, it wasn't hard to guess what was inside them and a quick check with Observe confirming it regardless.

I was in a storage warehouse surrounded by tons and tons of Dust—all of it carefully stored and prepared but no less potentially explosive for that fact. If something happened to a warehouse like this…Well, assuming whoever was responsible for looking over my remains gave me a funeral, they'd be able to bury me in a petri dish. There was enough Dust in here to wipe away this whole town easily.

Maybe even enough to take down an unbelievably strong android, a cold—or maybe just frightened—part of me whispered before I hushed it. That was a horrible strategy no matter how I looked at it for many, many reasons. From a practical standpoint, while it may well have been enough to defeat even someone as powerful as Penny, uncontrolled close-proximity explosives did not lend themselves well to survivable strategies and there were a lot of people who could be caught up in one as big as this. I would be endangering the very reason I came here on such a desperate strategy and I'd probably die pulling it off besides.

Just as importantly, if it could take down Penny, it may very well kill her in the process. Desperate attempt to buy time or not, I'd meant the things I said and I couldn't do that. It seemed kind of unfair that I had to worry about the safety of my opponent as well as myself, but I couldn't endanger her like that. If I had a lot of time, full knowledge of Penny's abilities and limits, and had a lot of experience with using Dust in such a way, maybe, but setting of a bunch of explosives and crossing my fingers? No.

Although…

It gave me an idea. Not a very good idea, unfortunately—it would have been more honest to call it a fool's hope, but that seemed self-defeating. But as the Gamer's Mind kept me calm and all my other options had run dry…

Vulturnus, I reached out to my Lightning Elemental and he was by my side in an instant. Though he was immaterial, I couldn't keep a shiver from going down my spine as I saw him standing in a room full of Dust, imagining it exploding. Vulturnus didn't even look at me at first, gaze focused towards where Penny must have been.

When I told him what I wanted, however, he shifted to look at me. The uniform color of his entire body made it hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure he was staring at me in disbelief.

You're my only hope, I told him seriously. Go.

He remained as he was for an instant—and however long that must have been to a Lightning Elemental—and then was gone. I felt him in my mind, crossing my senses like the element he represents as he flashed towards Penny.

And as he moved right passed her, leaving he untouched and unaware of his presence.

I will return. He whispered back as he stopped near the edge of my range. Don't fade away.

Then, with a sound almost like static, he fell silent and my awareness of him slide to the back of my mind to join Levant.

I tried not to feel any less confident then I did already, but with Vulturnus gone I had one less Elemental by my side and I'd gotten used to their constant presence and support. Still, he'd be more useful where I'd put him then by my side, even if he was one of the best choices for facing this situation—which had probably been the reason for his unusual focus until now. He and Crocea Mors had the best chances of hurting Penny, after all.

But they wouldn't let me win this. If Penny was something else—if she was a Spider Droid or even a super Spider Droid—I would have any reason to fear her. If she was just as strong and a normal robot, I'd tear her apart regardless of our level difference. It might be difficult in a few ways and a tad dangerous in others, but I was almost certain I'd win such a fight. Crocea Mors could let me tear strips of metal from the White Whale's hull with about as much effort as lifting a bed sheet. Vulturnus could reach into and cause havoc on any electrical system, tearing up the power and letting it run loose. Between the two of them, I was certain that if I had to face a Spider Droid or two or even three, I would win. Not so much because I was powerful, but because I could literally just reach inside them and turn them off.

But Penny wasn't just a super advanced robot. She had an Aura, a soul—she was a real girl.

And that changed things. I couldn't reach into her and mess with things, even if I wanted to. I could sense her, the metal and electricity that made her run, but I couldn't control it—or at least, not like I did with everything else. It was a matter of my Aura and hers and it would mean a clash that she'd almost certainly win. If I could touch her, fight it directly, and hold on for a while, maybe I could do something, but I was pretty sure what would actually happen was that my body would be introduced to realms of physical discomfort previously unheard of.

There was a serious risk of me dying in fact, now that I thought about it. Though I had no desire—and limited ability—to hurt Penny and doubted she really wished to injure me, as far as she'd be able to see, her attacks would seem ineffective because of the Gamer's Body. It was possibly that in her attempts to take me down, she might instead drive me to the grave because nothing would happen until I lost my last HP point.

I briefly entertained the idea of explaining that to her. My power was strange enough that I was sure I could buy a fair amount of time with that explanation—but no. There was a better then good chance that anything I told Penny would find its way to the people above her, one way or another. It might save me from dying here, but if I was captured and they knew about my power…

I'd take my chances risking my life. Besides, seeming invulnerable gave me a psychological advantage, if one probably lost on Penny.

Instead, I tore open one of the boxes and palmed one of the Dust crystals. A yellow one, reminding me of Vulturnus.

"I'll buy you some time," I murmured to myself even as I opened my Status Screen in preparation. "Soulforge Restoration."

I felt power and vitality flow into me on the wings of strange sensations—a crispness to the air, a scent of the wind, hair standing up along my arms, water on my face, and the distant rumbling of thunder. I felt my HP and MP return to me and exhaled slowly, looking at the window that appeared before me.

The Status Effect, "Haste", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

God, I hoped this worked.

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