Jack tossed the flail forward hard in time with the whistle, slinging it through the air-

Wham. As soon as it left his fingers, he staggered as he felt a wall of grogginess hit him like a train, driving him senseless for a tiny, split moment. Alarm bells then went off and carried him back out, adrenaline screaming, 'Nooo! Threat levels maximum!' His eyelids physically drooped as he struggled with his footing briefly, and an odd utterance came from his lips, half-grunting nonsense. "Hhrrluah…" Whatever it was supposed to be was lost in the fog of his transition out of the spell.

An instant later, his physiology was pulling him out of it. Something lingered on the outside of his blood-pumping awareness. A faded dragging down; drowsiness, and a need for a nap.

Temporarily holding off Fatigue Status: Minor. Hypothetically, this can be done for something shy of a minute-and-thirty with combat activity, but the attack is ongoing, and it is unclear how quickly you'll worsen. High Allotment output levels are not suggested due to the nature of this threat.

Son of a-!

The flail thudded into the grass. Far, far ahead of it, he saw Dozer downfield, small enough of a figure to hide him behind a thumb with his arm outstretched… running… but not forward! He was sprinting diagonally away, as if headed off-field.

That little-!

Jack collapsed his memorite into the flail and launched it as hard as he could. As it flew, he went sprinting after it. Without winding it up for a heavy arced throw or the like, he couldn't get the flail even close to across the distance between him and Dozer. Instead, when it was just falling to the grass, he paused in his run and launched it ahead again — this speed, at least, gained rapidly.

Dozer slowed suddenly and turned his head back, likely sensing the gains-

Jack tripped and went face-first into the grass, as another wave of grogginess hit him hard — he turned it into something of a sideways roll and stumbled back up, quite disoriented for a spell.

Damn, he's another Bogus Pocus! For people, anyway.

But, as different as the results were, Jack felt it wasn't quite as bad as the first time, at least in terms of actually knocking him out. He recovered quickly to see Dozer sprinting away, nearing the end of the official field, and his flail maybe 35 meters or so from his target. He launched it once more and then ran after it at something less than a sprint. He almost tripped again, not entirely steady on his feet.

Damn it! This is going to get worse, isn't it?

Slowed down, barely having closed the distance with his physical body, and seeing Dozer's back… Jack decided he was going to use projectiles, after all. He took control of the hurling flail, specifically focusing on a spike facing the right direction, and utilized a combination Shape and Throw technique, more or less to fire a spike off the flail's head at Dozer's back.

Even if he wanted to guide it, it was out of his range for manipulation after it launched — a sprinting, deliberately evasive-maneuvering target, firing from a base way out from him in the first place… It all made his judgment of the right angle piss poor. That was also without accounting for his wooziness…

He missed; no surprise. It did a decent job passing through where Dozer was a split second before, but that wasn't good enough.

On the other hand, Dozer spun around immediately after, spooked by the projectile being so close, no doubt seeing and/or hearing it. He presented his shield, and his eyes flicked around wildly in panic, eventually glancing at Jack.

Hmm. Shock and awe have their uses, even if close only counts for hand grenades.

Jack was ready for the inevitable pulse this time, slowing down and bracing himself for the hit. Bam. A new Wave of Woozy trying to make his eyes roll back. His vision blurred slightly, briefly, but he barely stumbled, and more or less kept his forward momentum going.

For a split moment, he also realized he'd detected the Allotment use right before feeling it. It was the briefest of warnings, and lacked really substantive details — probably due to his ensuing impairment — but it was something.

Damn, I forgot to talk about that with L- Okay, not now, Jack! Focus, focus…

There was a treeline, perhaps another few sprint sessions in the direction Dozer was headed. He was quickly working up his nerve to go for it, but remained hesitating, facing Jack with his shield and sideways hopping in a tactical sort of retreat.

Jack could not see worth a shit as his vision was still refocusing, but he didn't waste a moment, instead utilizing Interpret to find his buried spike, grab it with Control, and sling it in the direction of Dozer at the far end of his control range. He had no chance of hitting him with it, but he tried primarily for 'close' and maybe 'above,' focused on a little, newish trick — violently ripping apart the fragile material and-

What close counts for!

In a fairly weak, but noticeable burst, the spike exploded into many small shards that peppered the area immediately around its source location — thankfully, this was over the head and behind Dozer, and he got peppered, too. The actual attack lacked proper power against the forcefield, but this didn't matter. Dozer let out a wordless cry and spun around with the shield to protect his flank, panicking again and now even a bit thrown into confusion.

Shock and awe.

Jack used the dead pause in his foe to run forward, grabbing the flail and throwing it again, quickly and haphazardly, just to set it up, while bumping his total output to 90% and splitting his efforts. With a lesser portion of his Allotment, he grabbed the slew of little pieces left over from the spike and flicked them at Dozer, trying to aim for the shield to keep him facing like he was, and hoping to extend the shocked state a little longer.

A second more was gained, maybe. The flail in range, Jack in range, Control seizing the weapon, moving it-

Jack noticed a stutter of movement in his foe; a hesitation. Between that, and that 'feeling' he recognized, he just barely shifted gears and prepared himself for what came — a blind hit of Dozer's 'sleep punch,' without him turning around.

Fatigue Status at Minor. Additional 'pulses' of this attack will worsen this. Impairment is temporarily high, akin to a stunning and disorienting effect. It will decline from 80% reduction of general coordination, including [Control], to perhaps 40-45% in a few seconds. Fight it as much as possible, Jack!

Jack stumbled and wobbled but didn't fall, and, most importantly, he did not get stripped of his 'grip' on the flail. His vision went blurry and doubled for an instant as he stopped dead in his tracks with one foot forward, boot ripping up the grass, arms flailing, like a drunkard trying to keep from pitching himself in a world gone mysteriously topsy turvy.

Again, he made some stupid, involuntary utterance with his lips vibrating absurdly, and some spittle was sent flying. "Brrrrrbb!"

He didn't care — he had all of his focus forward, and more effectively via Interpret, because vision was one giant, blurry mess like a drink spilled on a watercolor painting. Nonetheless, he spun his wobbling cable-flail at the 'person and shield blur' to bring it in range, refusing to squander even a split second of his advantage.

When Jack's vision blessedly cleared up, his flail was finally nearing Dozer, who was pivoting and presenting his shield defensively forward.

Jack pushed aggressively, following through on the attack to keep Dozer from pre-empting with another sleep pulse. The spinning flail came in like a boomerang, and Jack tried to simply overpower from overhead, to send the spiked ball around the shield. Crude, simple, effective, all logical, he felt, when he was working under the constant debuff of his full Control.

Dozer was phenomenal with the shield — he jerked the big barrier upward, mitigating the flail-head's follow-through and even leaning and ducking away bodily. There was a combination of sounds, mixed between a dull thunk and many twangs, as the head slammed with great momentum onto the inside of the shield somewhere. It sent fragments from both the spikes and the shield cascading.

Jack quickly tried to whip the other side of the flail around-

Bam. Another sleep-ball hurled right into the brain and body, forcing brief but nasty senselessness as his body wanted to conk itself out. The juice had been kicked up and poured like liquid lead. The totality of another's Allotment, All-In, like something terribly viscous draping and coating his own structures, aiming to drown and bury it. Jack saw stars on the edge of his vision as his eyes fluttered, and he felt the drag in his bones, almost entirely crumpling to the ground.

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He desperately kept the last tough knot of his will between consciousness and the shut door of darkness and sleep. That final catch allowed him to fight back rapidly — like opening the door — bursting into awareness with his heart pounding and a new dose of adrenaline waiting and ready to surge into him.

Temporarily holding off Fatigue Status: Serious. Adrenaline will not assist for much longer. Impairment at around a 25% reduction.

Estimating a high likelihood of the avoidance of Serious-Unstable from an ensuing attack, with immediate output reduction to 80%. Psyche-up tactics may also help…

As the thought-speed report of Mini flashed through his head, Jack found himself fallen to a knee, one hand on the grass. Not being laid out had to be a partially subconscious effort.

His head came up to see Dozer running for the trees, his shield with the embedded flail-head tossed aside. He didn't appear to be quite sprinting… because he looked exhausted. Nonetheless, he was rapidly getting close to cover.

Jack immediately reduced his output to 78%. Utilizing his enemy being blind for the moment, he silently used Shape to pull a lesser portion of the flail-head off of the fallen shield, separating it smoothly, leaving much of it still embedded. He also had an idea for Throw with the cable — he held it perfectly straight, keeping a bit of his memorite retained within it to hold it continuously in flight. In essence, it became a spear, albeit with an unbalanced head. But it was better than the cable flapping and working against the flight in a spin.

He tossed it, adding a slight upward trajectory. Jack couldn't risk staying silent any further due to the distance gap constantly getting worse, so he burst himself up to begin running as the 'spear' launched.

The stiffened cable-flail crossed the distance between them swiftly with Throw. As it neared Dozer, Jack collapsed all his memorite back into it to take control, flaring out and going for his opponent's legs.

Dozer flicked his head back at the last moment. He might've wanted to mount an attack, but he caught sight of the cable right at his feet and all thought of that clearly fled. He shifted himself quickly, planting and attempting a haphazard jump over the cable, into a roll that would land him on his arm and shoulder.

Jack had seen this sort of maneuver multiple times from Lindsay, and with more speed and agility. On the other hand, he was still debuffed and working at his extremes of range. He pivoted almost instinctively, abandoning the legs, putting control on the end of the cable and turning its momentum into a snap change of direction — he shot it at his opponent's neck and head, curving up from behind.

Dozer noticed this and tried to twist mid-air to keep it in front of him — but it was hopeless. His body control was too suspended in the process of his roll. It was a dodge maneuver that had simply been read too quickly and executed too poorly.

Like a snake, the cable wrapped around his neck from behind and went into multiple wraps immediately, quickly applying intense pressure. Jack felt the counterpressure of the forcefield immediately. He didn't hold back.

As Dozer hit the ground in a disorderly tumble, Jack pumped his output to 100% and went for his life to tighten the cable and squeeze, hoping to trigger the end of the match. Dozer twisted and flopped around in the grass, hands on the cable at his neck, most certainly panicked. Recalling the warning of Mini, Jack did something to psyche himself up: he let out a wordless, guttural warcry, throwing out a clenched fist, slowing down in his run and bracing himself on every level for what he expected as the last-ditch response.

Unsurprisingly, even in his panic, Dozer knew his only chance now, perhaps even instinctively: attack. The heavy hammer of sleep came knocking again, slamming forcefully into Jack's biology harder than ever. Much as before, he was drenched in senseless blackness but for the tiny window of his willpower's light, and had to fight and claw his way back to consciousness.

Fatigue Status is barely holding at Serious. Current output will drain you to Serious-Unstable within seconds!

When Jack came to, he was sitting down on his butt, slouched, but with his hands still clenched and shaking out in front of him. His subconscious instincts had not failed him with his Control and Create, keeping the choking cable held firm, if having let up in full pressure. Dozer had twisted to his knees, hands futilely pulling at the wrapped cables around his neck. He swayed, obviously deeply disoriented by some AR simulation facsimile of being strangled.

Jack afforded him no mercy and did not reduce his output. He bellowed again and squeezed with all of his power, digging the cable hard into the forcefield barrier, his hands out in front of him, clenching as if to help the choke effect just a little more.

Dozer seized once, then flopped sideways limply into the grass.

"Critical condition dealt!" came the loud voice of Lifeguard through a bullhorn nearby. "Jack is the winner! Gonna clear the threat, dudes!"

The cable ripped itself into multiple pieces and fell away, as Dozer instantly jerked upward briefly, looked around woozily, then plopped back down sideways, sucking in breath.

Jack collapsed his memorite back into him and flopped in the grass, too. His heart was pounding hard, and he was sweating. As for breathing… Well, he was breathing steadily and needed to. That meant the equivalent of exhaustion for him.

"Sadly, I gotta veto match two, bros," Lifeguard continued. "Dozer pushed a little too hard just now and has to be in Powers' Timeout. Fight it out another time, m'kay, dudes?"

Jack muttered, "Sure thing." Dozer just flopped a hand up briefly.

Your Level has improved to 2.0! Please enter the trance and Calibrate, as this changes your total Allotment. Note: Please allow time for decision-making between the three options available with a full Level change. You also have 1.0 to allocate to any Tertiary statistic.

Control: Cord improved to 1.2!

Control: Throw improved to 1.6!

New Technique gained! Transmute: Fluidity 0.1 has been added to your stat bio.

"Yes!" Jack practically screamed to the heavens as he thrust his fists up.

"Did you… level?!" Dozer asked excitedly as his dirty face lifted, even out of breath.

"Yeah! Level 2, man!" Jack forced himself up with a grunt, so he could walk over to his former opponent.

Dozer grinned with a measure of pride. "Awesome." He lay his head back in the grass, his eyelids a bit droopy.

Jack plopped down into a cross-legged position next to Dozer. He had to stifle a yawn because he was very sleepy. Having detected some pride in that grin, Jack pointed at the young man emphatically and said, "All thanks to you, dude. I owe you one. Seriously."

"Aw… don't mention it, s-... Jack." With a long groan and great effort, Dozer pushed himself up to sitting and leaning on his knees. Panted for a bit, sweat dripping down from his forehead. "Leveled… a couple of techniques. Recovery… and Shield."

"Recovery," Jack repeated. "But not your Level, at all?"

Dozer shook his head. "Doesn't happen… after battle. Not for most. Usually in the morning. But at random times. Predictably steady… if you're doing well on training, duels… so on." After a pause, he added, "Recovery shortens the charge time after an intense pulse… and the maximum I can recover over time. I kinda, um, drain fast? Get fatigued quickly. So I need it."

Jack nodded along, fascinated by the peculiarities of someone else's power. "I guess your name has a dual meaning. You run over people, slowly but inexorably. A bulldozer."

The teenager smiled faintly and looked off, nodding finally. "Yeah. Gotta stall fights, though. Without that range gap, you would have instantly cooked me… and most people aren't as unused to that sort of drain. Er… sorry."

Jack smirked and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Glad I got my feet wet against you, now, rather than bumping into something like it when it counts. For me, there is literally always something else to learn. And you… You're gonna be nasty in tactical situations, behind cover."

"If I'm against you, I hope the cover isn't metal."

Jack chuckled. "Stick to the trees! So, is your Domain Modifier the Degenerative source, if you don't mind my asking?"

Dozer shook his head. "Alchemical. Probably because it's mostly physical, if supernatural or whatever."

"Ah! You know, if you ever learn some melee follow-ups, that blackout trick and good timing could be deadly as hell. So to speak."

"Fiver says the same thing. I just suck at melee. Except blocking. Weak strength, though."

"Defense is a good foundation. You're probably going to be able to bulk up in the following years. Will help. And you might get one of those killer growth spurts."

Dozer shifted uncomfortably but nodded. "Yeah, a lot of people say that…"

"See? Confirmation." Jack knew the kid was doubting it, though. I probably sound like a typical patronizing 'adult.' Yawn! "Time will tell, bud. Anyway, I think I'm going to go home and meditate on whatever Memoria has waiting for me. I'm anxious to see that. But, hopefully, we'll chat again."

"Sure. I'm game. See you around, Jack. It was good meeting you. And dueling."

"Definitely. Hey, you need some water before I go? I can fetch it real quick."

Dozer waved his hand. "Nah, I'm good. Thank you. I'm, uh, just gonna sit here for a minute for the Fatigue to cool down, then head out."

"Roger that. Later, bud!"

Jack stood, stretched, and yawned, shaking his head to clear it away. Begone, sleep! I banish thee! No way was he going to nap before Calibration!

He headed out of Power Park, though not before getting two Infused energy drinks from a vending machine, downing one in a single chug, belching, and starting a sip on the second. Between that and the apparently natural fade-out of Dozer's drowsiness debuff, he quickly pepped back up and was back into a Fatigue: Minor state by the time he got back to the door of his room quarters.

He took off his coat, shoes, and socks, and sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of his couch, closing his eyes and getting into a meditative state.

It was Calibration time! His first whole-numbered level up awaited him.

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