Akira glared daggers at her, but her attention soon shifted upwards to the ceiling.

  "Just so you know." Exasperation crept into Haruka's tone. "You've got over a dozen more floors to climb up to get out of the Gearbox. Feel free to try digging straight up and bury us all if you like. You'll be going nowhere fast."

  "What a pain in the ass," said Akira. "Shields, huh? That your Affinity?"

  Haruka seemed to deliberate for a second, and then shrugged.

  "Zero offense, but here we are," grumbled Akira. "Consider me well and fucked all the same. Didn't expect this from some nobody filling out the ace's forms for him."

  "That's your problem for not putting more respect on my name," said Haruka coolly.

  "You're pissing me off, but I guess I gotta give you props." Akira settled into a low bouncing stance. "Hope that's not all you got, though! Erina, coordinate with me!"

  "Sir!" Erina swiped her fingers across her butterfly clip, and several took flight as Akira rushed in for a fresh assault.

  "Haven't you figured out when to give up yet?" Haruka's shield sprang to life and blocked the barrage.

  As soon as she began to throw the kick, Akira split, and a second flanked around to strike from another angle an instant after the first. Haruka guarded that, but a third was already winding up for its own blow, and another after that, and another. The immovable stone wall finally shifted, if only for the footwork to maneuver, twisting and turning with shields flashing every which way to ward off Akira's barrage from all directions.

  Green fluttering wings trailing sparkles of energy. A swarm of ethereal butterflies surrounded the two of them, and Akira leapt back as they opened fire simultaneously. Lasers shot in on Haruka from all sides with ringing impacts, firing even as dust and smoke swept out.

  Erina's gestures slowed, and she lowered her arms. If Haruka needed to reposition and move to guard against Akira's attacks, that suggested she had openings in her defense that she had to cover. A fully simultaneous barrage from multiple angles had to have some effect. "Is that a hit?"

  "Tch." Akira clicked her tongue at the clearing smoke. "The fuck is your deal?"

  A dome-like shield fully enclosed Haruka, runes shimmering and spinning around its surface. The glowing barrier faded as she stood up straight.

  "No effect?" said Erina.

  Black and white static crackled at Akira's fingertips as they twitched.

  "So," said Haruka. "I was hired six years ago. Fresh batch of medics. Of course, everyone knows what a medic's role is. Stay out of the line of battle. Hunker down on the backline, and treat the wounded as they come. The ones who should lead the frontline are the ones whose Affinities lend themselves to defeating an opponent."

  "You got a point to your yapping?" said Akira.

  "How are you feeling? Is your heart beating faster? Are your muscles getting sore? Can you feel your mana burning up as you throw everything you have at a target that you've learned, this time, won't break?"

  Akira scowled. Erina shifted uncomfortably.

  "Akanaga Akira. All offense is focused in close quarters combat, with maximized investment in speed and power. Uses her Affinity to negate her own injuries and maintain offensive pressure. Emisane Erina. Specializes in long range combat and indirect attacks, with spatial support options."

  A sardonic smile crossed Haruka's face.

  "You'd never get it when all you ever need to do is hit what's in front of you." She stretched her arms with a satisfied grunt. "How it feels to shut down anything your enemy tries. Grinding them down, and their options, until they're all out. Achieving total control over the flow of the battle. You couldn't get this any other way. Even if it takes me longer to get there…"

  The operator's expression, ever bored and deadpan with the monotony of her job, had become a wide, eager grin.

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  "The best offense is a perfect defense."

  "That's a whole lotta chitchat for a target dummy that don't hit back!" Akira rushed in again, her figure an orange blur. "One good hit's all it's gonna take to put you outta commission!"

  Haruka's shield sprang to life, but then a green spell circle formed at her feet, and the marble ground warped and twisted. Branch-like filaments sprouted at Erina's command. Footing disrupted, Haruka lurched and her barrier abruptly tilted upwards. It was a gap that wouldn't exist for even a split second, but for Akira, that was all the time in the world!

  Haruka's other arm swiped, and Akira was cut in half at the waist.

  Erina flinched as the two halves hit the ground, entrails spilling out. Akira was already rolling away and onto her feet, clutching the phantom pain of her stomach as her bisected copy faded into static. The large bright pink arc still lingered in the air in the wake of Haruka's motion.

  "As it happens, shields are pretty useful!" Haruka stepped back, grinning as she enlarged her barrier to thrice her own height. Then, she pivoted it sideways and slammed it down with a harsh clang—not facing her opponents, but presenting the impossibly thin edge to them. "Who said the only thing a large hard object can do is block?"

  Erina started as the shield spun to life with a howling screech, sparks flying as it dug into the floor. She and Akira alike dived aside as Haruka launched it, a thin groove carved into the ground as the shield rocketed forward. It rang deafeningly as it slammed against the barriers blocking the way forward, tumbling and flipping and clattering about the arena like a runaway buzzsaw blade as it dispersed into pink wisps of energy.

  Green light surrounded Erina's hands as she thrust her arm at Haruka and spell circles appeared under her. The operator slammed her palm against the floor. Erina tripped as a glowing pink barrier spread out across the entire floor of the arena, knocking her off her feet. Her marble branches twisted and roiled under its surface, unable to penetrate the new pink floor.

  Akira's kick made Haruka's next shield ring as she deflected it aside.

  "Haven't you learned anything?" said Haruka between blows. "And what was that you called me earlier? Target practice? Can't say it's very accurate—unless your target dummy does this!"

  A huge pink arc, and one Akira fell back with her arm severed while another split off to launch another attack—

  One more blur of pink. The shield blew Akira back like a battering ram, boots scraping across the new floor as she came to a stop.

  "Credit where it's due." Akira glared daggers at her as she rolled her shoulder, testing out the arm she felt severed moments ago. "Most enemies commit and leave an opening when they attack. Punishing a whiffed move, or intercepting with your own, are the best ways to get a clean hit in. Better yet, I can do that even when I am hit. But you don't overextend at all. Either your movement is a block at the same time as it's an attack, or you've got so little commitment you can still guard after. What a fucking pain! Yeah, you're definitely Darius' number two, alright!"

  "Was that a compliment I heard just now?" said Haruka.

  "Don't get full of yourself," spat Akira.

  Sweat began to form on Erina's brow. Haruka had the agility and reflexes to fend off Akira. She had a defense sturdy enough to take Erina's fully charged railgun head-on and come out unscathed. And that same defense was an unstoppable weapon on top of that.

  Erina's spear flashed into her grip. A spell circle cast before herself, a hurriedly whispered incantation, and she flung the spear through it into the ceiling. The branches of lightning exploded downwards, spreading through the entire arena.

  "Erina?" said Akira. "That's not gonna do us any… good?"

  Confusion crept into her voice. The branches weren't fading.

  "Temporal distortion," said Erina calmly. "To cross the space of a meter, you have to cross half its distance first, and then half of that distance before that. This is the philosopher Zeno's paradox of dichotomy. By the same principle, one second cannot pass before half a second, before a quarter. If I can force the repeating of space…" A spell circle formed before her outstretched hand, a light reflecting in her bright green eyes. "I can do the same to time."

  Akira grinned, and launched herself back at Haruka with a gleeful cackle.

  "This is ridiculous." Standing amidst the web of lightning, Haruka formed a shield and pushed it straight up, beating back the branches to their source. She could see Erina releasing the temporal stretch and launching another spear to the side, no doubt to repeat the same thing.

  Her second barrier rang as Akira's boot slammed to a dead stop against it. Haruka yielded one single step, angling her body to better guard the next blow—

  The crackle of mana warned her not to take even one step further. A branch of lightning had already crossed behind Haruka's back, waiting for her to walk into it.

  A motion of each arm and a great pink swipe following them. Akira launched a full offensive, every attack immediately followed up by a clone that had already split off to throw the next hit. Haruka didn't have time to deal with Erina's branches filling the space… but she didn't need to. So long as she focused on Akira, she could hold her at bay without yielding ground. The pink spell circles flashed and swung, great arcs cutting through the air as they blocked each blow and retaliated in kind.

  Green fluttering wings. Erina set free the flock, a barrage of lasers upon Haruka, and the dome barrier came out to repel both her lasers and Akira's next kick. Haruka burst out brandishing her disc in a huge horizontal spin, and one Akira crumpled as another threw herself back into the fray.

  Undeterred, Erina tossed up an orb and multiplied it into a cloud. The cloud condensed into a single shining bolt, the accelerator formed, and the railgun howled to life. This wasn't over yet—not by a long shot.