The elemental Automatron did not stand there as she began to approach. Unlike the previous two Automatrons that excelled in close combat, it seemed to favour long range and utilised its advantageous environment to launch icicle-like projectiles towards her.
Ayna was prepared for this and was doing her best to evade, yet she was quickly forced to draw on her precious energy reserves to counter the Ice with her Flames.
You are a very troublesome opponent.
Ayna knew the fight was going to be tough, yet it was her first time experiencing a confrontation with not only another Esper, but one that counteracted her primary powers.
She never practised with Stormflash or the other supers, a clear intention from Dr Xavier now that she came up against one for the first time, and she felt her limit being pushed.
Ayna soon found herself chasing the Elemental Automaton, which was not only strong but also intelligent. It effectively utilised the same strategy she used against the first Autromatron; it knew it had an environment that immensely supplemented it, whereas she would eventually be worn down, so the Automatron did not engage her head-on.
I need to drag this fight to somewhere more advantageous for me; fighting it in a drawn-out battle only favours the Automatron.
The arena was chillingly cold, and the blizzard raged even harder. Ayna actively fought it off as she felt her powers naturally repel the cold.
Ayna felt her energy naturally drain to fight off the sharp, numbing cold, and her newly maxed-out Basic Energy Absorption, which gathered energy as she fought, evened out as she was unable to restore the energy lost fighting off the Automatron ice blasts.
Ayna felt the situation had grown dire, and as the large blue eyes of the Automatron fixed on her, it replied in a chilling voice that resembled her own, “You are not special. I can do the same thing with the same resources; you are inadequate.”
Once again, she felt it was Lamia directing those words. The artificial intelligence was another mystery in this facility; it displayed far more emotional intelligence than it should have.
Artificial intelligences have multiple restrictions for good reason; one of the calamitous events on the scale of Thaumavore involved a Legion of Machines controlled by a rogue artificial intelligence.
Though Ayna felt more frustrated, the machine was correct. Despite it being less armoured, the Automatron was far more mobile and agile, making it hard to pin down. Her shooting skills proved useless as the Automatron formed a continuous shield of Ice, utilising the Blizzard as a protective sphere.
The only thing that could punch through the Ice shield was her Pyrokinesis, yet it burned much energy to do so, and the Automatron was swift enough to evade her before she could inflict impactful damage.
She tried to push more and corner the Automatron, yet soon realised something daunting.
The Automatron is likely a low E grade. It is too strong for me to chase like this; my only chance is to get it to engage me head-on foolishly, yet Lamia should be far too intelligent for that, unless?
Ayna eventually realised the one thing she had not considered was Lamia's emotional stability. Despite being a cold, analytical machine, it showed that, at times, it acted on something profoundly human: emotion.
Yet, she knew the Artificial Intelligence had only shown specific reactions towards undermining her in front of Dr Xavier.
So for the first time, she responded directly to the Automatron, “I thought you were meant to be superior to me. All you are is utilising a superior machine to equal what I have already accomplished; it seems Dr Xavier failed when it came to you, inferior to an inadequate Test Subject.”
At first, Ayna thought she had failed, yet the Automatron changed its movements.
“Is that what you think? I wanted to drag this out, but I will show you the difference between us.” The Automatron replied sharply.
Ayna thought it was an exaggeration until she saw the Automatron completely change its approach.
The Arena felt suffocatingly small as the Blizzard grew more intense by the second. As the Automatron fixated her in its gaze, it began to utilise its outrageous speed in attack rather than evasion.
Ayna swiftly went from aggressor to defender as the Automatron threw fist after fist, kick after kick; it was relentless, and she felt her unarmed combat skills pushed to the limit.
She felt the chilling cold of her body freezing over, the Automatron's fists turning to ice. Ayna attempted to coat her body in bursts of fire, yet found the Automatron was too fast and too adept at manipulating Ice to be caught.
A few times, Ayna went all out, burning up large amounts of energy to launch blasts of fire towards it. Yet, the Automatron proved equally capable of forming endless walls of Ice and launching endless streams that met her raging bursts of Fire head-on.
Facing off against a low E grade was a leap in power that put her at a significant disadvantage, and Ayna struggled to rival it, facing both a level disparity and an environmental disadvantage.
In retrospect, she has already shown an impressive level of capability, not being entirely dominated in the exchanges, which frustrated the Automatron.
Ayna felt her energy reserves plummet to dangerously low levels. She had already given up trying to utilise a firearm on it as it was too swift, and her unarmed combat skills proved inadequate against a low E-grade Automatron with stronger physical attributes.
She felt her body slacken as the Automatron landed a vicious strike, sending her reeling to her knees.
At this point, the Automatron stood over victoriously and gripped her tightly as it sharply said, “Inadequate Machine? You are the failure. Now Freeze.”
Ayna felt a chill run through her as she realised what the Automatron intended to do.
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It wants to engulf me in Ice and freeze me to death.
The Automatron had forced Ayna to expend much of her energy at this point and knew she was vulnerable, yet as she felt it try to invade her body with its energy, an oppressive force rose within her.
Ayna felt a raging fire within her as something broke, and as she made the breakthrough, the Automatron made a fatal mistake: instead of backing down, it tried to suppress her energy further.
The Automatron began to feel its energy pushed back as the quality of her energy improved, and Ayna felt the enhancement in her flames rising in challenge as she pushed the Automatron's energy out of her body and began to oppress it.
“Another breakthrough? How? You only received the power of flames a matter of months ago. How have you pushed it this far?” The Automatron said, confused, as it did not understand her at all.
Ayna smiled. She knew it meant she had pushed the Fire Affinity to its maximum level at F grade, something not all E grades accomplish, and now the Automaton, despite the rank difference, found her naturally suppressing its power.
“It turned out you are inadequate,” Ayna said with a casual indifference, before the Automatron's body was invaded with flames.
Ayna observed that its outer armour began to crack, and as the flames raged through its system, the glass that framed its blue eyes shattered, forcing Ayna to stare directly into familiar silver human eyes.
“What the?” she mumbled, as a chilling realisation occurred, the thing before her was no mere Automatron, it was a cyborg, a mix of flesh and machine.
Hurriedly, she stopped releasing her flames. She had already struck its power core. The cyborg was more machine than human at this point; it was dead regardless.
The Automatron, without its power core, fell powerlessly. Ayna began to remove its helm as she found its silver eyes and voice eerily familiar.
Dr Xavier's voice was already blaring in the intercom as he said, “Another success! Oh, what is this? I was about to instruct you to lay off, yet you did this on your own initiative! As you can see, this Automatron is somewhat unique. You should begin utilising your power on it now! Two conflicting powers are the perfect test to see whether my experiments work.”
Ayna had already phased out his voice as she saw something deeply shocking; the face under the heaps of metal was her own.
What is this? What am I? Am I some clone? Just how many versions did Dr Xavier create?
She knew the woman before her was likely older than her; her power was developed, and as she stared into the face that resembled her own, she suddenly heard the notification that the former Test Subject, inhumanely turned into a machine, had finally died.
You have dealt a fatal blow!
You have killed Test Subject 432 {Lvl 27}.
You have gained experience towards [Esper (Novice)] and [Soldier (Novice)]
[Esper (Novice)] has levelled up.
Lvl 10 > 13
Energy +15
Intelligence +6, Willpower +3, Charm +3.
You have received 6 attribute points.
[Soldier (Novice)] has levelled up.
Lvl 8 > 11
STR + 3 END +3
You have received 3 attribute points.
Your main class skill [Fire Affinity] has advanced to level 10 [MAX].
Your subclass skill [Athletics] has advanced to level 9.
Your general skill [Unarmed Combat] has advanced to level 10 [MAX].
She was up against a Lvl 27? That made complete sense, though a low E grade should have been more than enough to overpower her.
Ayna only beat it because of factors, such as Test Subject 432, who had been modified into a cyborg, had definitely possessed a lower skill level corresponding to her Fire Affinity.
It evened out the gap in rank and even allowed her to overpower it in the end, as each ten levels in a skill was usually a significant enhancement.
Additionally, though the gap between a typical F grade and an E grade was reasonably large, it had the least significant gap between ranks, which only grew larger as you advanced.
In the end, I was fortunate. Though Dr Xavier is a complete and utter maniac with no regard for life, that is evident in what he does to his previous failed Test Subjects.
“What are you waiting for, One? Enough, with this nonsense, stop waiting around and extract the only thing of worth remaining in that failed Test Subject.” Dr Xavier's voice barked, laced with a threat.
By now, the Arena was reverting to normal, and Ayna already felt her body recovering.
Ayna knew she could no longer avoid Dr Xavier's commands, so, despite some reluctance, she placed her hand on Test Subject 432, and words appeared on the interface.
Your Esper power, Ability Absorption, has detected the Ability Cyrokinesis. Would you like to absorb?
Power will fill 2/2 of your current available slots.
Ayna selected ‘Yes’ and viewed the notes of energy travelling towards her body.
Unlike the raging fire that came from assimilating the power, Pyrokinesis, this time she felt a chilling cold that, despite her initial resistance, soon felt inviting and comforting.
The chilling energy was far smoother and calmer than the raging fire of her previous power.
As assimilation continued, the cyborg remains of Test Subject 432 began to disintegrate. However, unlike Ember, bits and pieces of discarded machinery were left behind, whilst the flesh was broken down. Ayna's eyes could not leave the silver eyes of Test Subject 432 as she saw a copy of herself break down in front of her.
The interface's glowing text reappeared.
Your Esper power, Ability Absorption, successfully assimilated the ability, Cyrokinesis.
You have acquired a new ability: Cyrokinesis [2/2]
You have acquired a new class skill: Ice Affinity.
You have gained experience towards [Esper (Novice)]
[Esper (Novice)] has levelled up.
Lvl 13 > 14
Energy +5
Intelligence +2, Willpower +1, Charm +1.
You have received 2 attribute points.
Ayna found herself levelling once again, though she believed she must have been close to the next level from defeating the E-grade cyborg.
She believed this would be the only notification until another shockingly happened.
Her body felt a sudden change as her genes stirred once again from the integration of yet another power.
Odyssey solution further absorbed.
+ 1 Endurance.
+1 Constitution.
You have received the Trait: Adaptable Physiology
A new trait, what is that?
Ayna was about to investigate further when she saw a creepy smile from Dr Xavier on the screen, as he said joyfully, “Finally! Finally! Finally!”
At that point, something different happened; she found her body trembling as if resisting something.
Before she could react further, a sudden loud noise was heard in the vicinity as she felt the ground shake.
Dr Xavier's face quickly changed from jovial to rage as he said, “What now? Couldn't those fools pick a better time?”
At that point, Ayna felt something change. Is this finally the opportunity to escape?
