There were three of them, and so he needed to prevent coordination. Cover would be essential, so without further thought, Remi cut left, hugging a column to break the angles on all three. His movement wasn't panicked, just fast. He remembered from his earlier inspection of the creatures that some of them had ranged attacks. The Sear in particular could shoot essentially a laser, and he hoped that hugging a stone column would limit the effectiveness of that. Placing his back against the stone monolith, he hid to cut them off from line of sight. A quick peek around the column allowed him to orient himself.

  The system pop-up told Remi that it was a melee creature with 180XP. It was heavy-bodied and had a paper-shredder mouth. It was mounted on treads, so looked a bit like a miniature tank. Its mouth chomped open and closed, eager. It, and all of them actually, reminded him of something he might have seen on the TV show Battle Bots, except these were made of ancient school tools. The type that modern life had made outdated. They looked like they had been placed in storage for a long time, and were pissed off about it.

  The Shredder had moved from the top of the room to a position closer to Remi’s entry point, and therefore to Remi himself. It moved surprisingly fast for something that appeared so bulky and quickly positioned itself in the southeast quadrant of the space.

  The Shredder lunged forward. While its two companions were taking stock, it seemed too eager. Too linear. Its only purpose was to vivisect, and Remi was what it needed to tear apart.

  It started its movement just as Remi had, but couldn't readjust. Its treads didn't allow for quick movements, so it had slammed into the column as Remi had tucked himself into safety.

  It slammed into the pillar with a crunch, metal squealing, sparks flying as it damaged itself against the column.

  The Looper extended a trailing filament across the floor. Remi knew the Looper was behind his right shoulder now, drifting just north of centre. It had the clearest line on him and was closer than the others; it was in the open. The ancient film machine was probably his easiest target. It had by far the lowest XP at 120. So he spun out from cover, pivoting low, his open palm raised instinctively. The Pulse surged from his fingertips; purple shockwaves radiated outwards as they cracked across the floor and caught the looper in the middle of it, ejecting some film. The drop in its health wasn't much, but the looper staggered, tape unspooling in a flutter of magnetic panic. He slipped back into cover. Aware that the other two were still tracking him.

  Nothing moved, but the air hummed with its anticipation. The monsters seemed to be calculating their next move, given the sounds of whirs and clicks he could hear coming from behind the pillar. Instead of reaching into the murse for his metre stick, he dug deeper into the bag, opting to trust the narrative. Several times today he had been rewarded for doing what the story seemed to want him to do. So instead of thinking about the firm edge of the stick, he asked the murse for its help in this situation. One ability of the bag was to provide something useful during each scene, so it was this mystery object, and not the stick, that Remi reached for.

  He felt the heat from the object before he could see it; a dented thermos materialized from the bag. The note, “TEACHER FUEL,” written on the attached tag. The lid was cracked, allowing steam to escape. Remi never thought a day would come where he would ever be disappointed to see coffee, but this wasn't what he had been hoping for. A gun would have been great; this wasn't a gun. Yet, in that moment, he remembered that the system had told him the object would be useful. The note said it was fuel. What are the chances they were being literal?

  Remi quickly unspun the thermos lid and knew by the smell that this wasn't regular coffee. It had a sharp metallic smell; it had notes of industrial acidity. No amount of sugar was going to salvage this sludge. What Remi had wasn't caffeine; it was combustion. He now knew that what he held wasn't a gun; it was, in fact, a bomb. He spun to his left, around the column to where he knew the Shredder was still trying to extract itself from the column. As it came into view, he slammed the container down on its back. The liquid splashed outward. Remi narrowly missed the splashback. Which was good, as the liquid appeared to be corrosive. As it landed on the Shredder, it shrieked; the molten liquid sizzled against its metallic chassis. A few seconds after contact, and as Remi spun back behind his column, he could see it burst into flame.

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  He was feeling in control of this battle. The shredder burned, the looper recoiled, and the Searer appeared unable to lock in on him for now. Its head rotated back and forth as he spun around the column, trying to track him, but it couldn't target him long enough to fire. Remi didn't stop when he returned to the safety behind the column; instead, he continued his momentum and allowed it to carry him back around the other side of the pillar. He reached back into the bag as he did so and extracted his metre stick. In a single fluid motion, he brought the weapon out and down, slamming it into the disoriented shredder. Simultaneously, he used his free left hand to cast another pulse at the looper. Two types of blunt force trauma, on two different Monstergears. He wasn't thinking, just reacting. Pulse. Strike. Finish it. Both hits landed, one with a Thrum! and the other with a Thwack! His hand flared violet as another Mana Pulse snapped out across the floor. His other hand tightened on the stick as he brought it down hard on the Shredder’s shoulder with a brutal crack. The Shredder reeled, armour dented, HP: 157 / 180. The Looper flinched again, tape sparking mid-spool. HP: 109 / 120.

  And then it all unraveled. The Looper’s chest blinked. Remi had failed to notice in his triumph that it had been watching. All this time, and recording what he had been doing. The spell he’d just cast surged back at him—reflected perfectly. A glowing arc of violet energy slammed into his ribs like a cross-check. He grunted and staggered. Remi stopped moving, trying to catch his breath. Just as he felt the blood stop pumping in his brain, the Searer’s lens flared. He had stayed still for too long. A targeting reticle briefly locked onto the tile. Then the beam fired, slicing downward and splashing fire near his feet. Heat raced up his leg as his life bar dipped. And then the Shredder moved, its maw slammed into him low and fast—no dramatic windup, just a brutal chomp. Steel raked the fabric as a sharp line of pain scored his side. Three hits in fast and unforgiving succession. His was down about 10 percent in health in what felt like an instant.

  He stumbled back behind the pillar, panting. They had moved together! What had just happened? He wasn’t sure if it was Archie helping or the Crucible doing what it just did, but something pinged across his HUD.

  [PATTERN SATURATION DETECTED]

  They were not just measuring what he did; they were watching how often he did it. They were looking for his patterns and using them against him. He hadn't been winning. They had been recording, and now that he was becoming predictable, the tides were turning in their favour. Remi needed to do something unexpected. Something that would allow him to be unpredictable, but would give him some room for exploitation. Like many of his ideas, he was unsure it would even work, but the system didn’t reward certainty. It rewarded story.

  Remi left his position of safety and sprinted wide, running towards the southeast pillar, letting his lash trail behind him. He made it to the first column before the machines knew what he was doing. The shredder spun on its tracks as the looper had to circle wide to reposition itself. Luckily, AV carts are notoriously hard to move, and so it couldn't simply spin on its axis. That left only the Searer able to react, only needing to turn its lens to send a beam of fire lancing towards Remi. He had been prepared for this, so dropped low and slid feet first, just like he was trying to steal home plate. The Searer’s beam tore past inches above his chest, lighting up the wall beside him. He used his boot soles to create traction, which vaulted him back to his feet. He stumbled slightly but kept running without a pause. In the confusion, he rounded the second and raced past the third pillar.

  Remi continued running straight, right to the wall where the monsters had entered. He needed to get the lash behind them. As he rounded the third corner, and came out facing west. He was behind the monsters, but the Looper and the Searer were positioned on his left flank. He raised his left hand mid-run, palm flaring as two quick pulses cracked through the air.

  He didn’t aim to hurt them, rather to herd them. His spells were to push them to where he wanted them: into the center of the ring.

  He finished his race around the last column and ran to where he began. As he reached home, he crossed the Mana Lash lines, set his metre stick across where they joined and cast Edit Strike on the lash. He thought about the line of light and envisioned the taught bungie cords he needed. They were an essential component of any wrestling ring. The line snapped into existence. Light became line, transparency became boundary, and the Monstergears were now in the middle of a ring of Remi’s making. They couldn't exit the squared circle. As Remi ducked under the westernmost rope, he had just created. The system recognized his intent and provided the appropriate Michael Buffer moment.

  [System Message] DING! DING! DING!

  Let’s get ready to rumble!

  Remi exhaled once, pulse steadying—time for the smack down!

  [Footnotes]

  [Reader Comments]

  [Steven.M]: Give ‘em the Teacher’s Elbow, Remi!

  [AI]: Technically, it is the Corrector’s Arm.

  Remi: Don’t be that guy, Archie—everyone wants to throat punch that guy!