Lexie's body felt electric as she walked through the tunnel leading to the arena. Her breath stuttered in her chest, nerves and anticipation melding until they became one. She flexed her fingers as she went over her plan in her head. She just needed to win. This time, she wasn't wouldn't be bothered by how slow or fast the win came, or if she was entertaining at all. She just couldn't lose this one. She needed a win.

As she followed behind the two ushers leading her to her starting point, she got a ding in her SI. It was a text from Conrad that read, Are you sure? There's still time to end this.

Lexie couldn't recall any fight being terminated right as the fighter was about to go on the pitch. That would undoubtedly be embarrassing for both the fighter and their coach. It would tell the world that Lexie was scared of Diana, and it would reflect poorly on Conrad, too. The organizers and AFC officials would probably chew him out for that. Yet, he was still offering her this possibility.

Lexie took a breath and quickly texted him back, I'm fine.

Conrad sent back, I can't pull you without your sign-off. But I really don't think this is a good idea.

Lexie responded with, I'm fine. Seriously.

She could see the sunlight, and the arena quickly approaching. Some of the seats were low enough that she spotted the people sitting on them. All the seats within her vision were full. She wondered if the entire arena was like that. She didn't know if Abernathy and Doyle were at this game, but they probably were, considering Arcadia was close to where Doyle lived.

The commentator was still talking about the last match, which had ended in a very exciting and simultaneously disappointing double KO.

When Lexie finally reached the edge of the opening, she spotted Diana at the other side, checking her bullets. The other girl looked up, smirked, and winked at Lexie. Lexie glared back.

"Watch out for that one," one of the ushers said. "She's a killer."

"I think I'll be fine," Lexie responded.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the commentator's voice boomed. "Get ready for the fifth match of the day, and let me tell you it's going to be an exciting one. This has been one of the most debated fights on the forums due to both fighters' connections with the famous Jane Phoenix. Now, it's finally here. Let's welcome, first and foremost, our glorious sharpshooting princess with the unbeatable aim, Diana!"

When Diana walked out, there was a huge reaction from the crowd. The people Lexie could see jumped to their feet, clapping wildly. They pulled out placards saying, "Diana, we love you!" and screamed pretty much the same thing.

Diana waved and blew kisses at them.

Once she was done posturing, the commentator said, "For our second challenger, we have the new girl on the block, trained by Conrad Grace himself. She's a fighter who uses card magic and is also rumored to be the daughter of Jane Phoenix. Let's welcome the very adorable Lexie!"

Lexie walked out, and she was met with thunderous applause as well. It wasn't what Diana had gotten, but it was more than Lexie expected. She even heard a few people call her name. She made a show of smiling and waving, but her heart wasn't into it. She was too pissed and depressed to fake enjoyment. She just hoped it didn't come off on the PHORB.

As she reached the center of the field, she kept her eyes on Diana, who rolled the muscles in her neck and swiveled her waist.

Ten minutes, Lexie reminded herself. I'll try to make the fight last ten minutes for Conrad. But if she pisses me off enough, I'm going to say fuck it and take her down.

Lexie's heart felt like a rabbit the moment the countdown began. She was over the list in her head again. Diana was smiling and pulled her gun, unlocking the safety. Lexie began activating her first card.

"Ready boo-boo?" Diana asked when they had five seconds left.

Lexie raised an eyebrow. "Ready."

The bell dinged, and almost immediately, Lexie completed the activation of <All Around Protection>. Good thing, too, because Diana had drawn her pistol and started shooting at her.

The bullets bounced off the shield, but these weren't normal bullets. At first, they were merely striking, but slowly they began to morph. They began exploding on contact, and even though Lexie didn't feel it, she knew that it was attempting to shatter her shield.

The bullets had started as simple, AFC-approved rubber pellets, but they changed multiple times until they became metallic, explosive bullets that caused hairline fractures in her shield.

What the heck? How was a gun that powerful allowed?

The announcer was quick to explain. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, Diana is using what she calls a variable bullet. It changes based on what kind of resistance it needs to overcome. With metal or forcefields, it will trigger an explosive effect, but when the bullet comes in contact with skin, it will be a simple, blunt, AFC-approved pellet."

Ah, that was how she'd gotten away with it.

Lexie activated a variation of <Can't Touch This>, using the reverse magnetic field to send the bullets back to Diana's way. Diana stopped shooting to duck and roll on the floor, and Lexie took off running.

She wanted to set a trap for Diana, one where she would knock herself out with her own bullets, but she needed to get in the right position first.

As <All Around Protection> ran out, Lexie was already activating <Lightfoot>, tuning it down to its lowest potency. Diana was racing after her now, and Lexie dialed up her speed just enough to stay ahead of her. She considered hitting Diana with <Getting Out of Hand>, but her velocity made targeting hard, and she didn't want to waste mana.

Giving up on the chase, Diana stopped and began shooting again. Lexie jumped and somersaulted in the air to avoid it, but then the bullet ricocheted back, nearly getting her in the eye if she hadn't ducked at the last minute.

Damn target-seeking bullet.

Diana smiled as the bullet aimed for Lexie again, and while she ducked and rolled, she activated another card, using a variation of <Return To Sender>.

What that did was reverse the target for the bullet missile, but Lexie only completed activation after she distracted Diana by getting close and aiming a confetti blast to the head.

As Diana snapped back to avoid it, Lexie completed activation, and the bullet zoomed for Diana, hitting her in the midsection and exploding with enough force to send her back.

That got a cheer in the audience, and the commentator said something about a replay, but Lexie wasn't paying attention. Diana was already on her feet.

She looked pissed, yelling as she materialized another gun, a semi-automatic rifle. Rounds of gunfire peppered the air, but Lexie activated <Back to Sender>, which trapped the bullets in the card, and <All Around Protection>, which blocked the ones it couldn't catch because it was at capacity.

She held the bullets in the card to be unleashed as her final move. In the meantime, Lexie pre-activated <Lightfoot> to run when <All Around Protection> was about to elapse. Her head hurt badly, veins pulsing in her temple. Shit. She was doing too much. She was already feeling the mana drain.

Nevertheless, she kept going. She didn't want to give up now.

She planned on eventually raining the trapped bullets on Diana, but it wouldn't be enough to take her out now, especially since Diana could probably control the bullets and had that phasing ability. She needed to be weakened first before the bullets would take her out of the game.

As Lexie was thinking of how to do that, sudden pain exploded in her left elbow. She screamed, and as another one hit her in the shoulder, waves of bone-melting agony swelled from the point of contact outward.

Even worse. Her arms went numb.

By the time Lexie realized what was happening, she was on her knees, right shoulder in extreme, debilitating pain. It made Lexie's vision a little wavy, and she had to breathe through her mouth. Damn it, she hadn't even seen it. A bullet had phased through her shield from behind and gotten her. Another had followed, and combined, they'd brought her to her knees.

So," Diana said, smiling. She'd stopped shooting now and was sauntering over to gloat, to give the audience a show. "You should probably know that my bullets are also poison-laced. They're not going to kill you or seriously injure you, but they're going to hurt for a long time, and they're entirely resistant to system healing, since it only affects your pain receptors, without actually damaging you."

Lexie glared at Diana as she breathed harshly through the pulsing agony. It freaking burned, but she kept her brain moving and kept thinking through the haze to discover just what she would do next. This would be a great time to take a break to let her mana refill, so she should probably just Diana talk. The other girl probably assumed she'd won and wanted to take a victory lap. Lexie had to let her.

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But holy shit it hurt so damn much.

"You know when they said you were the archmage's daughter," Diana said, rounding her. "I didn't believe it. He's the most powerful mage in centuries. How could he spawn a random C-Rank card user? And they had to tack on to the ridiculousness with that whole Jane Phoenix thing. A weakling with no physical ranking, being Jane Phoenix's daughter? Give me a break." She chortled as she squatted. "Tell me. You started that rumor for attention, didn't you? To give yourself some legitimacy even though you know you have no place here."

"You don't fucking know anything about my place." The pain was spreading, intensifying, but on the bright side, it alleviated the numbness in her hand. Lexie pretended like she was about to crawl away and got a kick in her stomach that sent her crashing down, and trapped her left hand underneath her when she fell. Perfect.

"Ooh. Look at the little girl swearing." Diana laughed. "Alright, tell you what? If you say you're sorry about starting that disgusting lie, and admit that you're not really Jane Phoenix's daughter, I'll go easy on you and end your pain right here and now."

Break over.

Lexie wasn't completely rested up yet, but she got the sense Diana was getting to the end of her speech. Lexie drew the cards, and another bullet hit her in the knee, but she didn't scream. She let the pain fuel her instead, let the suffering drive her even as Diana laughed. She pointed at Lexie's other knee, about to shoot, when Lexie screamed, "Stop! Alright!" Diana paused, and Lexie said, "You want an apology? Is that what you want? I'll give it to you."

Diana seemed surprised but leaned in. "I'm listening."

Lexie took a page out of Frank's book and whispered, "Eat lead, asshole."

She completed activation and rolled away as the bullets rained down on Diana.

Lexie didn't stop to witness the carnage. She activated <Lightfoot> and <No Pain, But Gain> and ran. She knew realistically that Diana wasn't out. Probably not all the bullets hit Diana, and the other girl might have an antidote for the pain poison. Nevertheless, the crowd sure did love Lexie for that move, judging from the thunderous applause they gave.

"Don't run you little shit," Diana snarled as she stumbled up to her feet after. The bullets had hurt her, but she was sturdier than she looked to take all that. Either that or she'd taken the antidote. "If you are Jane's daughter, then face me."

"Why would I want to look at your ugly face?" Lexie wished she could use Wind-Killer right now and trap Diana and all her damn bullets on the ground but she didn't have the mana for it. She was exhausted, actually. Damn it how long had it been already? Probably not even five minutes. Her energy was flagging fast, and the realist in her told her she was doomed.

Still, she didn't want to give up.

Diana came after her again with bullets, and Lexie ran.

Another bullet hit her back, but this time, the pain didn't knock her off her feet, thanks to <No Pain, But Gain>. She kept running, but she was tired and on the verge of burnout once more. She stared at the sky for a second, cursing whatever system gave her so little mana to work with. It was so unfair.

What could she even do here? How could she win?

As <No Pain, No Gain> ran out, Lexie tried to activate it again, only to receive a warning migraine that felt like her eyeballs were being gouged out by something eating into her brain. She didn't care. In her escape, Diana had somehow materialized three self-firing machine guns, and all of it was targeted at Lexie. She was also shooting. Though Lexie could see the strain on the other girl's face, Diana didn't flinch. She was just as determined to beat Lexie as Lexie was to beat her.

Lexie disliked Diana with a passion, but she could appreciate that the other girl was giving it her all and pushing past her limitations. Lexie had to do the same.

She needed all the protection she could afford, especially since the mutable bullets were so good at phasing through her shield.

I need to win. Even as her heartbeat and her mind throbbed in warning, she kept on to that. I need to win.

When she activated her next card, she thought she saw it glitch before it steadied. What was that? She didn't have time to think about it. Diana was charging up, and <No Pain, but Gain> wore off, thrusting Lexie back into the agony.

Pain and hatred fueled her.

Despite everything, Lexie still forced a smile. "Fine. You want to dance, Diana? Then let's dance."

Diana started emptying the first clip, and Lexie zagged left and right to dodge them. She didn't succeed, and some bullets still hit her, but she didn't let the pain stop her.

Lexie activated <True Windbreaker>, but the pathways got twisted around as she leaped into the air and targeted Diana. She hit Diana with a gust of wind in the chest, sending her flying with a cut-off scream and crashing into the ground. Lexie didn't know how she did it. She wasn't thinking when she created that effect; she'd simply wanted it to happen, and it did. It was instinctive, like her power transcended logic and simply reshaped the card she'd made to do what she wanted it to do.

Once it was done, the card turned off, though it was supposed to last another twenty seconds. Maybe because the card realized, internally, that Lexie didn't need it anymore, and rather than wasting her space and mana, it simply deactivated itself. Neat.

Another strange thing was that Lexie was no longer tired.

Diana gave another battle cry as she returned with a vengeance. More guns, more artillery.

The bullets all curved towards Lexie, seeking her out.

Lexie knew logically that her mana should be at zero, that she should have passed out by now, but she hadn't, so she kept going. <Lightfoot> remained active, keeping her nimble and quick. Her shields remained steady and seemed to be morphing as Diana's bullets morphed, becoming an unbreakable wall to the unstoppable force. She wasn't controlling it. The shield was simply reacting in time to protect her, and Lexie didn't even know how. All she knew was that she had a counter for every counter, and she laughed genuinely for the first time that fight.

The strangest thing was that it all felt effortless. Lexie was just acting without thinking it through. Later, she would worry about what it all meant. For now, she let the instinct move her.

"You wanna know a very interesting rumor I heard?" Diana snarled, frustration squeezing her features into a scowl, as she continued shooting. "That your father killed your mother."

Lexie's humor died.

That was when she lost it. It was everything, the screaming crowd, the burning pain in several parts of her body, the endless mocking from the bitch who seemed to want her dead, her argument with her father. All of it fueled her and brought about a cruel intent.

Lexie suddenly very much wanted Diana to feel pain. Endless pain.

Moving on instinct, she pulled three of her blank cards and formed a convoluted pathway with them. The pathways twisted around on their own to form the path only she could see, the magic imbued, all governed by a single intent:

Make her hurt endlessly.

Once the cards glowed and shattered, Lexie danced around two bullets aimed at her chest. She spun out of the way and targeted Diana.

The effect was immediate.

Everything stopped.

Diana's face went slack, and she released a blood-curdling scream, dropping to her knees and wrapping her arms around her belly. She jerked and twitched her body before throwing herself to the floor and writhing like a snake as though to get away from the torture. She was jerky as though suffering a seizure. She kept screaming and thrashing, and it pierced through the haze of rage in Lexie's head.

A splash of reality dulled the fire and left her cold.

Oh no. What have I done?

Terrified, Lexie ran to her. "Are you okay?"

Diana didn't answer. Tears poured from her eyes, her face contorted, her voice hoarse. She reached for Lexie, jerking. "Make it stop. Please make it stop!"

"Halt the fight!" one of the ushers yelled uselessly because Lexie wasn't fighting anymore. The magic-cancelling silvers surrounding the arena glowed, and they should have stopped the magic's effect, but Diana kept screaming.

Medics and ushers ran forward, pushing Lexie out of the way. They tended to Diana, trying to find her vitals and gain access to her system healing. Diana was delirious, but when they finally got her to approve, one of them frowned. "Everything's reporting back fine."

"How is she fine? She's in severe pain."

"Yeah, but that's not what it says on here."

"I don't know what's going on."

Lexie, unable to look away from Diana's expression, thought she might have an idea. Diana's pain was induced by her pain receptors, but there was no actual harm. Just like Diana's bullets had done to Lexie. Now, the shoe was on the other foot, and Diana felt the pain severalfold.

She was trapped in a nightmare.

Lexie stood in shock, wondering what had happened. She stared at her SI and found that the blank cards she'd used were still active, glitching and shaking. There was no timer on them, and she didn't know where the magic was coming from. It had no name.

"Stop," Lexie whispered. She wanted to deactivate, but she didn't know how. "Please. Stop."

"What did you do to her?" One of the medics turned to Lexie with an accusing gaze.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? What card did you use?"

Lexie opened her mouth again, but before she could say a word, she saw a figure cutting across the field.

"Dad." It was a whisper of relief and shame.

"Lexie." He reached her and pulled her into a hug first. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and felt tears pushing behind her eyes. "I'm sorry. I messed up. I don't know how to stop it. I don't know what to do."

"It's okay." He cupped her cheeks, his eyes shining with reassurance as though he didn't hear the hoarse, gargling screams. "Everything will be okay, alright?"

She nodded.

"Take a deep breath, alright? Breathe in and out. Try to relax as much as possible."

Lexie did, inhaling deeply, then exhaling. She tried not to show how tense she was.

"Okay, now you're going to pull the magic back out of her pathways into yours. It's going to hurt, but you need to do it. I'm sorry."

She nodded. She didn't care, as long as she could stop Diana's torture.

"Close your eyes. Connect to her pathways, identify your magic, and pull it back. Be careful not to damage your pathways because it would be easy to." He gave her a reassuring look. "You can do this, Lexie. I believe in you."

Lexie closed her eyes, and when she focused, she very easily identified the swirling magic inside Diana. It was far more chaotic than Diana's, and the minute Lexie's magic psychically touched it, it connected and reached for her.

Lexie bit her lip to keep from screaming. She felt the excruciating pain Diana was under, and without hesitation, she pulled it into herself.

It was certainly worse than what the bullet had done to her.

She let out a little cry as it entered her pathways, but after the initial burn of entry, it cooled and dissipated. Lexie's pathways were not that flexible, but the magic felt familiar and so they moved to accommodate it.

When she was done, the screams subsided. Lexie opened her eyes to find everyone staring at her, and Diana passed out.

"I'm sorry," Lexie said to the unconscious girl. "I'm so sorry."

No one responded. One of the medics put a hand under Diana's nose. "She's still breathing, but not very well. We need to get her stabilized."

Lexie felt the guilt build. The entire arena was silent, and she didn't want to turn around and face them. It was too much. She felt so horrible for what she'd done, like a lowdown piece of shit. She'd let her emotions get the best of her and had nearly tortured someone to death.

Even worse, she'd dragged her father into this mess.

She'd ruined everything.

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