The building’s insides turned out to be pretty normal, but presentable and everywhere she looked, she found normal people doing normal things. The inside was a club, so people were doing club things, dancing, drinking, dancing while drinking and she even though she saw a couple kissing and heavily petting, while going to the restroom together. Yes, everything looked normal for a club, until she showed a totally forged, but real looking invite for the fights to the bouncer and things started moving in another direction. A man was called over and Penny was escorted through the club to a VIP area, then through a few doors, corridors and basements, a secret door until she arrived at the robot fight venue. She made sure to remember every password and secret handshake she witnessed, just in case.

Now this place, it looked nothing like the club upstairs and was certainly not a presentable one. Sure it was clean, but if she tried hard enough, she could see places that were missed and there she could identify spots colored by dried fluids, oil, Greece and even blood, which was reminder to her that the place was illegal fighting ring where previously people or animals would fight for the entertainment and bets of others, before her “leaked” schematics would transform it into a robot fighting ring.

Time passed, people started appearing and a crowd gathered and soon the entertainment would begin. An announcer entered the center stage and started talking about tonight’s show, because for most people that is what this was, a show to relieve the boredom of rich or powerful people. Then when the announcer presented the first fighter, a door opened and a 3 meters tall robot walked out, followed by a mechanic and the controller of the robot, a muscular man with a few scars here and there and a crooked nose. Everything indicated he was previously a fighter on the ring on which now a robot would take his place, but all his skills would be used to control it and hopefully win the fight. Then the announcer presented his opponent and another door, on the opposite side opened and another robot 3 meters tall walked out, followed by another mechanic and controller, this one looked like he hadn’t seen a fight in his entire life. His face was clean and symmetrical, if a little pale and there wasn’t any evidence for a gram of muscle more than an ordinary person would have. This one was probably a gamer, RC car, plane, robot enthusiast or something similar. Probably heard about the fights from somewhere and decided to try his hand at it without having much experience in these kinds of circles.

The two groups settled at two opposite sides of raised octagon and started equipping the controllers with their control devices. The man, who was previously a fighter was presented with pieces of a haptic suit imitation, probably a failed attempt to create something from the market, but still incorporating the needed control censors. Gauntlets, elbow guards, neck brace, belt, knee guards and grieves, or things looking like them were put on him and then handles like a Wii or VR joysticks were given to him. He moved around a little, played with the joysticks and the robot followed his movements and changed the hands from fists to blowtorch hidden in one arm, then saw in the other and then back again. He was ready and just waiting for the starting gong to ring.

On the other side, the geek, as Penny was calling him, just took out a complex looking RC controller with a lot of buttons and switches, and started pushing and verifying them. Instead of hands, his robot had hammers, which after the press of a button started to piston in and out of the arms. Another thing she paid attention to were pipes on the arms connected to hoses going to the upper parts of the arms and if she had to guess their use, she would say they were launchers for something. Once the geek checked his control of the robot, he walked it into the octagon and waited to hear the starting bell.

It didn’t take more than one minute for the fight to start and the two robots walked to the center of the octagon and started pounding one another with their hands. The fighter dodged a few blows and was able to counter or land hits at the same time as his adversary, so things were starting to look good for him, until he landed a hit and the opponent stepped back from the impact and created distance between the two. The geek’s robot aimed an arm and a pneumatic hiss shot out a weight with a chain that wound itself around the fighter’s robot’s legs and prevented him from moving them, then he activated the pistons and approached his opponent. The fighter pressed a few buttons on his joysticks and activated the blowtorch and saw and immediately started working to remove the chain and keep the other robot at bay. He used the saw to cut the chains and bobbed and weaved, while using the blowtorch to aim at the exposed tubing at the outside of the other machine. And when he was able to free himself, he was a lot more effective at countering the opponent’s attacks. Then. After 3 minutes of fighting the gong rang and both fighting robots received 5 minutes to affect repairs and change batteries and whatnot. The fighting was just like the rules in boxing, except for the longer breaks and the robots were allowed to kick, if their operators weren’t afraid of losing balance and falling.

During the break both mechanics opened their robots to check the damage and made quick repairs to the cables, changed pneumatic tubes, filled up oil reservoirs and changed batteries, then closed them back up and left the rest to the operators. The next round went a lot better for the fighter, he kept his opponent close, not allowing him to shoot his chain again and dodging the hammer hands, while dishing punishment with his robot’s hands and the saw, but in the end his adversary was saved by the bell.

During the break both mechanics did more repairs, but the damage was beginning to accumulate and they could do just emergency treatment, before sending the machines back to the octagon. At the start of the third round, the geek shot another chain from distance, but the fighter was prepared and only one foot was entangled. Still for the geek this was enough to make him activate the pistons and approach his opponent, but just then, something no one, except Penny, in the venue could believe happened. The fighter’s robot jumped in the air and drop kicked the opponent, making both of them to land on the octagon’s mat and the announcer to start counting from outside. There was no way he was going to stay on the octagon between hundreds of kilograms of metal clashing together. He wasn’t suicidal after all. During the countdown the fighter’s robot managed to stand up, but the geek’s had suffered damage from the saw, blowtorch and in the end, the kick probably dislodged something important, so he was only able to twitch and jerk the robot ineffectually until the count of ten and the match was ended with the fighter pronounced the winner.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Penny could see a lot of potential in the future of this kind of sport, but by the reaction of the crowd to that drop kick, she could tell that the operators were just getting started in uncovering the capabilities of her robot designs. And once she started selling her console and the haptic suits could be bought and used as a control mechanism for the robots, the fights would become that much better and hopefully the operators much more creative in their control of the machines. Still she didn’t waste her time coming here and she even got the idea for a new prank she could pull without too much trouble on her part. It could also help her run a new experiment with how her powers worked. So, she received her invite for the next fight, thanked the owner and then went back home without raising suspicion.

Back home, Penny shapeshifted back into her normal look and got to work in her lab. First she created a new weapon, a spear, out of a few fantasy metals and engraved it with a number of runes and magic diagrams, copying some of the most powerful effects of weapons from diablo and making them more powerful by changing the numbers in the magic. When she was done, she had Elena test the weapon to make sure everything worked as it should and then teleported her and the weapon in the game on single player mode. She had previously used a real world weapon and changed it with the help of a blacksmith and the Horadric Cube, but now she wanted to try something else. She checked the weapon through Elena, to make sure everything was engraved in earth magic language, then she gave the weapon to the Player character to try and see its statistic. It wasn’t possible to do, even after using and identification scroll on it, it still registered as an outside item. The next part of the experiment required them to store the item in the chest of the Player character and then restart the game, after she retrieved Elena. And as luck would have it, her power worked in both ways, translating the earth magic language into diablo 2 runes and engravings and other magic stuff that made the weapons what they were. She just had to leave the weapon outside her sphere of influence or maybe restart the world with the item in it for the changes to take effect, but after than the item started working on that world’s laws and principles. Now, she just had to construct the most powerful end game weapon ever seen, the kind that broke all balance in any game and then get to work delivering it in some unsuspecting world.

For the next few days Penny researched the best weapons for every character class and build in the game Neverwinter and built weapons that made their performance look like toothpicks in front of mithril spears. She used everything she knew about earth magic to make their performance through the roof and then started working on the delivery mechanism. At first she thought it would be funny if she made robots imitating some first level mob, which would drop the game breaking weapons when defeated, but then thought that the players should work for their power. And the request in the comments that asked for a super powerful boss totally different in genre from the game it was put in didn’t have anything to do with The Author’s decision to make it so. Not one bit. Okay, maybe it had a little to do with it, but only because he is the only one who comments at every chapter and presents ideas. So, Penny was working extra hard to construct a carrier that could beat a raid boss with ease and take its place and then disintegrate and leave behind all the weapons stored inside it once it was beaten. Now she just had to make it convert to the game’s world system and pray it allowed technology this advanced to exist in that world.

The day of the next raid, something extraordinary waited the players participating and since The Author only lightly skimmed what the game was about and has never played it, you will all accept that the raids had scheduled time and not everyone could do them at any time they wanted and stuff. So, Penny waited for a raid to start to be broadcast on live streaming platform, before she let A.I.C.A. to take control of a 5 meters tall humanoid robot armed with machine guns, lasers and rockets mounted on its shoulders and start fighting the boss. With all the power of the weapons and the enchantments Penny put, the boss didn’t last even five minutes and when it was dead, the giant humanoid robot turned its gaze on the gathered players and started attacking them next. Penny warned A.I.C.A. to create patterns and attack opportunities after beating the boss, so the fight with the players wouldn’t be completely hopeless and also because she wanted to see what effect the weapons she left them would have on the game.

The next 30 minutes were spent in an epic fight between the two forces with exchange of sword blows and magic against modern weapons like machine guns, lasers and missiles. A lot of player characters died, a ton of mana was spent and spells and abilities cast, before the fight could come to an end. And since this ending is being written at 23:00 o’clock at night, you will have to be satisfied with this much. In the end, a player was able to destroy a crucial part in the robot and activated its disintegration spell, leaving not a trace of its existence in that world, except for all the weapons that were dropped from within its storage compartment. The surviving members of the raid collected their loot, not suspecting just how powerful the weapons were and the problems they would cause to the GMs by using them in the future. But that is a story for another time or an interlude, if The Author ever decides to write it.