“Take the cheese with you and leave, Philippe. I must deal with our uninvited guest,” Stylus snapped, fatter in the face than his twin brother downstairs. Sitting behind a desk and feasting all day would add a few extra chins, Carmen thought.
His aged butler carrying the plate of food glanced down at her and back at Stylus, asking something in French.
“I know! Just go — now!”
With haste, his butler fled the room with the tray of food, slamming the door behind Carmen. Menus floated between them, displaying each other’s stats and giving Stylus the option to accept or deny the challenge and lose his rank immediately. He scanned Carmen’s stats and scoffed.
“I don’t know how an A Class little girl like you made it past my security, but save us the time and cancel your own challenge,” Stylus said, rising from his seat. “Before more people tune into the live stream.”
“You’re afraid of them seeing you lose.”
“I’m not afraid of that, you fool. I’m afraid for your sake, of being thrown flat on your face in front of all those spectators for trying to step into a world you aren’t ready for. I defended this position for years. I built my wealth on popularity,” he shouted, jabbing a finger towards the floor. “And you think you can waltz in here and take it from me? Take your challenge back!”
Carmen clenched her fists. Past Stylus’s stats, the indicator for the amount of people watching the fight hadn’t started increasing yet. But, as the iconic “Millionth Man”, there was no telling how many people had notifications for his fights. They didn’t have long before thousands would tune in to watch. Not just her parents, or the board at Jazz Hands Insurance, but anyone from actual fans to casual viewers to gamblers seeking to make a quick buck.
Stylus knew that, too. Beads of sweat rolled down his fat face, and he loosened his tie, grimacing. “Are you listening to me?”
“I’m listening enough to know you’re desperate,” Carmen said. “You don’t even want the chance of losing all this fame for being the unchallengeable ‘Millionth Man’.”
“Desperate?! You’re lucky I—” He gripped at the air, taking a deep breath. “Fine. Perhaps I don’t. Perhaps I’m even willing to give you hundreds of thousands if you take this challenge back before—”
It started with one person. Then ten. Then two hundred. The numbers soared before her eyes, rising into the millions in a mere few seconds.
Stylus let out a shout of pure rage, reddening like a tomato. “Dammit! You leave me no choice then, Electrica,” he mocked, disdain thick in his tone as he unbuttoned his suit jacket and tossed it aside.
He continued, unbuttoning his dress shirt and tossing his T-shirt aside, too, until he was completely shirtless, belly hanging out and all. It wasn’t for a risque display; a vest and shirt was tattooed into his skin, covering his entire upper body in ink, all the way to his wrists.
Stylus gestured outwards from his chest, pulling at the air. The tattoos shimmered before a black shirt underneath a shiny white vest materialized, catching the light in a harsh, comic-like shading.
She’d done her research. Stylus’s powers let him bring anything he drew to life, whether on a piece of paper or, apparently, embedded in his own skin. Slips of paper hung from the many pockets along the inside and outside of his vest, each likely carrying summoning glyphs for use during Fights.
Carmen glanced over at the menu displaying his stats and his Platinum Class.
[https://i.imgur.com/4EAjbMy.png]
Though they matched in Speed, Stylus had higher health and Broken Long-Range, trumping her levels in both. In exchange for the Broken Long-Range, her research said he didn’t have any special attacks for close range, and on top of that, he traded Broken Meter Gain for the ability to do damage with physical attacks.
Carmen still had the higher Close-Range and Combo-Potential. Getting close was her only solution, especially if he couldn’t fight back with his fists. He’d be slow, likely compensating with traps and hit-and-run techniques. She just had to be faster.
Stylus pressed the button to accept the Fight, and the referee appeared in the middle of the room. “Electrica VS. Stylus. Best of three! Fighters, enter your starting positions!”
“I’ll show you just how foolish you are, and win this two to none,” Stylus spat, pulling out a drawing pad and a marker from his back pocket as he stepped into his starting position.
Carmen stepped over into hers, too, summoning Chip and entering her stance. Not long ago, she would’ve been quaking in her boots at the thought of losing with this many people watching. But it wasn’t about them, anymore. She set her heart on taking him down two to one, too, for her sake, because if she could do it without using the Memory Mint, she didn’t need it at all.
“Round one!”
Neon lights from the exhibit flashed through the window, lighting the dim room in pink and cerulean. Behind Stylus, she noticed the commotion around where Carole used to be. The arguing had turned into him openly fighting off the security, and before long, another Fighter might challenge him, too.
“Ready?”
Carmen focused her attention on her opponent, standing on top of his desk, and she especially focused on the drawing pad in his hands. By her research, if he sketched out their entire arena, he could manipulate space and summon projectiles anywhere by simply drawing them into existence.
She had to get close. She had to be fast.
She couldn’t let him draw.
“Fight!”
Immediately, Stylus’ marker squeaked across his paper, but as Carmen closed the distance with Chip in tow, he paused and flung two pieces of paper from his vest pockets. One expanded into a giant glass barrier, while an eagle emerged from the other — first the beak, then the golden wings, then the razor-sharp talons.
The eagle swooped around the glass barrier. Carmen set Chip to punch right through the glass as she dodged the eagle, but all it did was buy Stylus time.
Chip clasped his hands together, and Carmen vaulted off of them, throwing herself straight at her opponent. Stylus clutched his pad of paper in his mouth and drew with one hand as he dived from the desk, throwing a summoning glyph at its surface.
The summoning glyph rose into an exact copy of Stylus’s twin brother, in all the glory of his broad shoulders and his beaming smile. Carmen crashed into the clone, and it burst into a cloud of smoke, filling the room, obscuring Stylus from her vision.
No!
Down, Forward.
Carmen fired an Electroshock at the floor, clearing the smoke in that direction. Stylus was gone. She grit her teeth, turning on a dime, only faced with more thick gray smoke — more cover as he continued to draw.
At this rate, he’d have the entire room drawn, which would give him full control. But, she’d faced smoke clouds before. Chip floated behind her, back to back. Electricity cracked and snapped through the air as they both kept firing Electroshocks randomly in every direction, clearing out the smoke with every blast.
The thick smoke faded enough for her to see another glyph on a scrap of paper at their feet expand into a round, black, cartoon-like bomb. Carmen’s breath hitched in her throat. She couldn't put her guard up in time before the explosion filled her vision and banged through her ears. On top of her not blocking, Chip wasn’t blocking either, and she felt the blast two-times over.
Her back met tile, and she coughed weakly with Chip nowhere in sight, temporarily destroyed by the blast. Through the dying remains of the smoke cloud, Stylus still scribbled away across the room.
Hurry!
Carmen rolled backwards to stand and kicked at the air, launching herself forward with an Electrokick, knocking his drawing pad right out of his hands. He couldn't do damage himself, and from this close, he couldn’t summon anything in time either.
Stylus didn’t look afraid at all.
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He tossed a summoning glyph a moment before Carmen’s fist met his face. Without Chip, she had to punch and kick and blast her way through the punishing combo on her own, knocking Stylus to the ground from the final midair hits.
But, she heard a vile caw from behind; another golden eagle emerged from the summoning glyph, firing razor sharp wings that stabbed into her back. Carmen destroyed the eagle with an Electroshock, but it gave Stylus time to pick his drawing pad back up. He scribbled on the floor and rolled to his feet before continuing to draw, a smile growing on his face.
She didn’t have long. Acting on instinct, she ran towards him, but she heard a click on her second step. His scribble on the ground matched the bomb glyph from earlier. A second cartoony bomb materialized, with a single second on the timer.
A second too short for her to react. Light and smoke burst through her vision once more, and she hit the wall before landing on her shoulder against the tile. Her healthbar pulsed red at her wrist, her muscles ached, and she had to pop her shoulder back into place. And yet, Stylus was only down a quarter of his health, and the grin on his face broadened.
“Now, we will see where my Artistic Vision takes us!”
Left, Right, Down, Forward, Back, Down.
Red, green, yellow, purple — a spectrum of light shimmered through Stylus’s eyes and leaked from his pen as he scribbled away. The light leaked from his marker and paper, consuming the arena around them, even the ground below Carmen’s feet.
She shielded her face against Stylus’s blinding ultimate. Goosebumps rose along her skin, whether from the assault of color or from the chill wind. Her surroundings gathered into coherent shapes, mostly a lot of brown and white, but even more cold.
When she opened her eyes, they weren’t in his office anymore, let alone the same climate. They were dead in the middle of a mountain’s steep slope. Stylus stood on the half of the arena atop the balcony of a winter log cabin, while Carmen stood in the half that was only frigid snow. But, a thick cloud of white descended from the top of the mountain.
An avalanche was coming.
She would’ve thrown herself if she could use Chip. Instead, when she tried running, she slipped and fell in the snow. The avalanche tumbled down the mountain with a thundering rumble. As Carmen struggled desperately for a solid foothold in the powdery snow, Stylus cackled and sent a golden eagle straight towards her.
Trees audibly snapped against the force of the avalanche. Mere seconds ago, she could’ve seen up the entire mountain, but now, the river of snow rushing towards her consumed her vision.
She only had one option left
Carmen felt the scorn in Izan’s glare the first time she used it, and felt the eyes of her parents watching, the anxiety of what they would think of watching her use the Memory Mint.
But this wasn’t about them. This wasn’t about what others thought anymore; she would go down a class if she lost. To defeat a Platinum Class, to take the highest rank out of the group, she had to be perfect — and she wouldn't be perfect without the power from the Memory Mint.
Carmen dug into her pocket and swallowed the Memory Mint in one go. The intense, frigid minty taste rivaled her cold surroundings. Then her senses cranked up to eleven. The avalanche roared closer, spraying her face with snow and twigs.
Instead of fear, Carmen saw footholds.
She sprang into the air, hopping from fallen tree to fallen tree like skipping across stones in a river of white. Carmen vaulted over Stylus’s eagle and used it to jump even higher, falling towards her opponent on the cabin balcony.
Stylus raised his guard, but her mind worked overtime; she only had a few more seconds until she could use Chip.
“Burst!”
Enhancing her fist with an Aggroburst, Carmen shattered through Stylus’s guard with a punch. Throat, solar plexus, the kidneys — Stylus doubled over after her third quick blow, but she summoned Chip and he continued the combo, before she blasted Stylus off of the balcony with a final Electroshock.
Stylus fell into the passing avalanche, disappearing out of bounds.
“Down! Ringout!” the referee yelled, floating in the air past the cabin balcony and swiping her hand down.
Carmen caught her breath. In the below freezing temperatures, every heavy exhale left her mouth as a cloud of exhaustion. She was wrong to think she could take on Stylus without the Memory Mint. There wasn’t anything wrong with using everything at her disposal; all it did was unlock her potential.
The avalanche continued down the mountain, but up here, past the cabin balcony, the snow along the other half of the arena had settled into a thick pile. The referee teleported Stylus to the top of the peak, fuming.
He was so mad, he cursed at her in French before switching languages. “How dare you! I spent my entire life getting here. I’m not letting you take that away from me!”
“Round two! Ready?”
“Then don’t,” Carmen said. “Get serious and stop me.”
“Fight!”
Stylus swiped across his pen and paper. Carmen ducked right before an invisible force ripped across the space above her, tearing through the cabin walls. He summoned two eagles from thin air, right in front of her face. Yet, she dodged their sharp feather projectiles and fired an Electroshock.
Stylus summoned a glass barrier to protect himself, and his marker continued to fly across the paper. The columns supporting the balcony let out a wooden scream — he must’ve slashed through them. As the balcony collapsed, Carmen jumped onto the roof and summoned Chip where she would land. Without missing a beat, he clasped his hands together, vaulting her towards her opponent atop the snow mound.
Her opponent, who began shuffling back and forth.
Left, Right, Down, Forward, Back, Down.
A spectrum of line shimmered through Stylus’s beady eyes, repelling Carmen as he drew ten times as fast. His hand blurred back and forth as the scene warped around them once again. This time, she didn’t have to close her eyes; her eyes were strong enough to face the assault of color head on until it formed into coherent shapes.
Above a colorful city of jagged Picasso-style buildings, a shower of stars followed meteors across the night sky. Carmen and Stylus stood atop a gigantic pair of sunglasses with the nose bridge between them, and space itself reflected across both tinted spectacles.
Tears leaked from Stylus’s eyes. “This setting, it’s…magnifique. Perfection! You’ve helped inspire me, Electrica. Once I put you in your place, I must use this for a new painting!”
Wings flapped from behind. Chip tackled the eagle rushing from behind, but while they were distracted, Stylus started drawing once more. He rigged the bridge of the sunglasses with barriers and bomb glyphs written into the ground to block Carmen’s way, and drew fearsome golden eagles into the space around the bridge. He summoned eagles into the space around the bridge, rigging her entire way to advance.
“And now, face the stars!”
He dragged his marker downwards. The meteor shower shifted, plunging straight towards her.
Carmen smirked. Two minutes ago, she would’ve been overwhelmed.
She leaped into the gap beside the bridge of the sunglasses as the sky came crashing down on the lenses behind her. Like skipping clouds on a river of air, she leaped from eagle to eagle, dodging their talons and sharp feathers. She grabbed one by the neck until it pulled her high into the air, so she could fall right onto her opponent.
He tried to crush her. Brick walls appeared on both sides of her and flew together. Carmen steeled herself and pushed against the powerful brickwalls, fighting for each breath between two rocks and two hard places. Stylus was trying everything, anything to keep her from getting close, as he was only a few feet away from losing by ring out once again.
But, if he wanted to fight with the environment, he could be beaten with the environment, too.
Carmen summoned Chip to continue ahead, and he swatted an eagle on his way to the ground next to Stylus. Stylus tensed up, preparing for an assault, but she didn’t place him there to attack.
Forward, Back, Down, Back, Forward, Right, Punch!
Chip shuffled back and forth, punching at the very end. A bar of Meter drained away from the indicator on her wrist, and golden, electrifying power crackled through her forearms. Stylus tried attacking Chip with an eagle while he was open, but she dispelled Chip, and he faded away through the attack. With a shout, she shoved the brick walls away, thrusting her palm towards the giant sunglasses’s bridge.
“Electrobeam!”
After a high-pitched whine, a thunderous beam of lighting erupted from Carmen’s hand, blasting through the thick black plastic. The glass shattered and the sunglasses collapsed, plunging into the river far below. Stylus summoned an eagle below himself and rode it higher, creating solid ground for himself as the arena collapsed.
Just like she knew he would.
Carmen summoned Chip below her feet, vaulting upwards from his hands and kicking Stylus’s paper away. He gasped in surprise, but she muffled it with a welt to the jaw.
Throat, stomach, chin, and a final kick to his temple sent Stylus falling past where the arena floor used to be.
“Final ring out!” the referee announced.
In flash of color, the scenery changed around them, and returning to Stylus’s dim office. Stylus himself returned on the ground a few feet away, face down like a beached whale. The referee raised Carmen’s hand into the air.
“Electrica wins!”
A menu appeared showing the fruits of her labor. Her Class rose to S Class, and she took Stylus’s rank as the new one millionth-ranked Fighter in the entire world.
“No, no, no!” Stylus screamed like a child, watching as his own rank dropped into the hundreds of millions, barely high enough to be numbered at all. “You thought I would let you have that so easily? I challenge you to a—”
A beam of light kindly interrupted Stylus’s rematch, knocking on his one-way mirror and blasting through with all the manners of a battering ram. The glass shattered into a thousand stars. Carmen’s eyes darted past the window, to the commotion below. In the time they were gone, Carole’s fight against the guards had become a full-on brawl against another fighter, and high-society attendees and security guards rushed out of the building, fleeing from the chaos.
The Memory Mint’s effect started to dissipate. Carmen’s mind still worked a mile a minute, and she ordered Chip to shove Stylus through the window. Stylus screamed like a mouse in a field among the roaring battle of lions, before his twin brother caught him below. It wasn’t so the public would finally see what a lie they both were; from this far, he didn’t have a chance of challenging her to a rematch.
Behind her, Stylus’s older bodyguard, Philippe, threw the door open. “Sir! Security says more Fighters are coming through the entrance to challenge Carole! We must — wait, what?”
Carmen ran past him as the Memory Mint’s effect finally ended. She didn’t even regret using it anymore. In fact, as she dashed through the dark hallways, she silently thanked Mei. Not was the sensation itself indescribably amazing, but her team’s research let her win perfectly, two to none.
For now, she had to find Mr. Stone and get out of here fast enough. Being this close to a Fifty’s fight was the last place she wanted to be.