Your fists collided with Victor's again, the shockwave cracking the reinforced walls of the Echo Nexus chamber. Sparks rained from exposed wires. Glass shattered across the floor, and the remaining clones froze in place, caught between neural signals and chaos.
Victor's body trembled from the blow, not from pain, but fury.
"You were never meant to evolve this far," he snarled, spitting blood. "You're the byproduct of a failed experiment—"
You struck him again, cutting him off.
"No," you said through clenched teeth. "I'm the future your program couldn't control."
Victor moved in with brutal speed, hitting with years of experience and augmented power. But this time, you didn't dodge. You learned.
[Adaptation Level 2: In Effect]– Pattern Recognition: Enhanced– Power Absorption Threshold: Expanded– Combat Intuition: Accelerated
Every punch he threw became slower in your eyes.
Every feint, every muscle twitch — you saw it all before it happened.
Victor grabbed you by the shoulder and slammed you into the ground — but you used the recoil to flip up and wrap your legs around his neck, hurling him into a tank behind you. Glass shattered. Fluid sprayed. One of the clones collapsed.
"You don't get it," Victor gasped, pushing himself up.
"I do," you said, eyes glowing now. "I get it more than you ever did."
You reached out — not with your hand, but with your evolving core. The data, the bio-energy, the sheer experience you had gained through every fight, every adaptation… it coalesced in your chest.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: You are under extreme threat.Adaptive Core Evolution Conditions Met.]
[Would you like to evolve "Adaptation" into "Superior Adaptation"?]– Confirm: Y/N
You grinned.
"Yes."