Work Smarter, Not Harder

Rui and Judgment weren't letting up with their blows.

Valkyrie's thought: This is bad. I could just turn him into broken steel in an instant, but I can't risk killing him. Nekross aren't all that tanky. Even the simplest of chemical changes could kill it if it's executed too well.

Moro's thoughts: That's your biggest flaw, Valkyrie. Your inability to trust others. Because of that, you don't trust that Judgment could land a good blow without killing Rui. Because you always let the other members of the student council handle yourself dirty work and your only known strength, you've gotten too strong. So strong, even your weakest attacks could prove too dangerous. This is why I chose Rui over Eternity. I'll use your own strength against you.

"I grow tired of this game." said an annoyed Valkyrie. "Judgment, get out of there." Judgment turned his arms, face, and torso into oxygen, allowing him to escape. "Use Eco Lens to manipulate the technology space around you."

"Figures. This is going to be rough."

With a snap of his fingers, Judgment turned the entire arena into a giant computer. They were now inside a digital search engine.

"This is why I think Anubis's abilities are stupid. It's about perception. Computer science is still a science. It's still technology. I don't know how that borderline omnipotent ability isn't considered Black rank."

"Quit your talking and just fight. Or, I guess I should say lose. You can't win in here."

Judgment uses the size scale on the right of the screen to lower his scale, which makes his blows softer. With this, he could fight at 100% without killing Rui. However, with this, Moro smiled.

"I think I know how to win now."

Judgment used the screen size changer to shrink the screen, practically flash stepping over to Rui and kicking him through the digital screen. He ended up crashing into Twitter. Rui was getting slammed through multiple tweet threads that felt like she was getting speared through mountains. He felt his curcuits ache in his body.

"Rui, use catagash to shield yourself. Give me 30 seconds to complete my strategy."

Rui nodded and obeyed his master's command.

"Useless." Valkyrie said. "You're only delaying the inevitable. Judgment, attack Rui."

Judgment kicked Rui into the search bar, which made the background behind him turn into several machines created by humans. While he was still reeling from the pain, Judgment fired forth the talons from his death claws, but Rui managed to jump and spin kicked them away. Once he landed, Rui started running towards him.

Judgment spawned two mini black holes in his hands. He fired the first one like a projectile, which Rui dodged. At a closer range, Judgment fired off the second one, but Rui dodged again. But Judgment used this as a distraction, and Rui got gut-punched, making his eyes constrict in pain. Judgment slammed him through the screen background, launching Rui into a new area. This time, he was on an AI art website.

The two began training blows again. Rui could keep up with him speed-wise, but Judgment's strength was far greater than his own.

"That's it! I got it! Rui, use the dissection of the search bar."

Rui did as Moro said without hesitation and then... all hell broke loose. The dissection didn't cut the search bar. Instead, the search bar searched up the bisecting, and the entire screen (which was the entire arena) started to rain down Rui's dissection technique. For the nanoseconds of calculations the normal computer made, another dissection came raining down on Judgment. He had to dispel the field to stay conscious from the constant barrage.

"Judgement, what are you doing?! I didn't tell you to dispel the computer!"

"Gotcha. Rui, Stream Claw!"

Rui ran up, and his stream claw hit Judgment with a direct attack. It was so great, he was brought to his knees. He tried to regenerate himself, but he ran out of energy.

"And, scene."

"N-No... that's not possible."

"Mistress..." said a weakened Judgment, I'm afraid I can't fight anymore."

"No, don't give me that crap! Get up!"

"There." Moro said while pointing at Valkyrie. "That right there is why you lost."

"Huh?!"

"You don't understand your partner. You don't know your partner's limits, their emotions, their weaknesses, none of that. An anubis's brain works at the sub-supercomputer level. That, combined with their ultimate skill, is why they're so dangerous. But you, being the control freak you are, tried to order him around in a situation where you should have just let him do his own thing. And Judgment dispel the computer would have been one of those things, but you're loud, controlling command threw him off. And I took advantage of that. The reason you lost is because of your own incompetence."

"That's foolish! We're called masters for a reason."

"True. But the real problem is you don't know your partner. Answer me this. What is the anubis's greatest weakness?"

"..."

"Precisely, you don't know. In truth, they're greatest weakness is themselves. When they use their ultimate skill, or I guess I should say when Eternity uses her ultimate skill, is that every time she uses it, she needs 0.000025 seconds to recover before she can use it again. That's a 25-microsecond window. Thankfully, Nekross's have a hidden talent where they can move at 40% the speed of light when they do so in a quiet burst. Though using it too much will let destroy them, so I use it once per battle... See, that's why you lost. It doesn't matter how strong you are. What matters is how much you know both your allies and your enemies. Work smarter, not harder. After all, the smarter fighter comes out on top."

"I..."

"Now, if you'll excuse me. I have to cash in a make-out session with my wife."