Sidekick by Carl Stubblefield (spicy books to read TXT) 📕

appeared and Gus opened the new menus. Reading the description of a tab labeled ‘Adaptive Training’ Gus had a smile spread across his face.

Adaptive Training: Opponents generated in waves, with successive waves increasing in difficulty and learning attack styles and defending against them with greater efficiency as levels progress. Future training sessions will retain this information, creating an ever-changing challenge for the user.

Gus started the session and a single pillowbot slid to the center of the arena. Gus dashed and punched. With his Enhanced Strength, the pillowbot flipped and rolled out of the circle that demarcated the confines of the arena.

After a brief pause, two more combatants appeared. Gus dashed to attack again, but the speed of these pillowbots was unlike any they had ever shown before. Two rapid punches to his kidneys surprised Gus as he dodged out of the way. He had never even seen the pillowbot move behind him. He almost triggered Hyper to double his Agility and increase his own speed—but caught himself. What if the system ramped speed up even more? Would he even be able to compete at those speeds?

He jumped up and got a view of how the bots were arranged in the arena, his descent slowing automatically as he reabsorbed the kinetic energy as gravity pulled on him. This allowed him to direct his fall and kick into one of the bots. He got a good kick to the head in, but it quickly dodged away, reducing the potential damage to half of what it should have been. He tried to dash and punch but the bots were just too quick for him, anticipating his attacks, and since there were two of them, they outmatched him, one getting in a punch while his attention was focused on the other.

Enough of this. Gus reviewed the description for Electronic Mind.

Electronic Mind: Facilitated communication with non-biologic entities, as well as intuition in construction and repair of all constructs meant to interface with biologic tissues.

Since these were essentially robots, maybe he could detect the location and how the two bots were communicating. Maybe even influence it somehow. Gus felt an incoming attack on his flank and was able to block and execute Sweep the Leg. His leg shot out and toppled the pillowbot.

Have I ever done that without Jet?

Gus punched the ground where the pillowbot had fallen, but missed. It had barely managed to turn, over and over, while Gus pounded futilely at the mat, chasing it. Gus followed until it rolled out of the arena, signaling a loss. Gus sensed the other bot jumping at him with a kick, and he found that he could exactly time his attack. He sidestepped and grabbed the outstretched leg, swinging it so the robot followed its partner outside the ring. That type of win was much easier than brute force.

Gus realized that he would have to stay clever, and not become too reliant on using physical strength, especially as green as he was with these new attacks. He wouldn’t have the nuances and utility as a super that had used fewer powers in various situations.

It just felt good to punch things like a beast though! Turning, three robots had reset in the arena. This would be a test of stamina too, as the levels increased. He wondered if they would keep adding pillowbots, too.

They all sprang to life, dashing towards him. Gus took to the air, confident that they could not fly. One bot leaped to the shoulders of another and launched toward him and grabbed him. No fair, was my last jump considered a Bound? Probably, if his landing was affected.

The dome around the arena was only about fifty feet high, and he really didn’t have that much maneuverability with flying. On reflex, he activated Intermediate Shielding before he hit the ground. It saved him from having the wind knocked out of him.

Crap. Would the next wave have shields now?

As far as Gus could tell, the pillowbots could not use techniques until the next wave, so he might as well take advantage. He placed shields around two of the attackers, and fixed a shield embedded in the floor of the arena, only leaving the head of the last pillowbot exposed. Gus jumped to the top of the shield and began punching the pillowbot until it deactivated in defeat.

Gus could see the other bots punching the shields but making no headway. The shields turned out to be extremely resistant to melee style attacks. Gus focused on one and shrunk the dimensions, constricting it and folding the robot into the diminishing space until it went limp.

Gus went to finish the last robot, but the shield had expired and it was free. Gus activated Electronic Mind again and found that he could sense where the robot was going to move, but then the signal fuzzed out after ten seconds, changing something about its frequency so Gus attempted to use Electronic Mind again to sense the robot’s planning again to no avail.

What the hell am I doing fighting these mercs, just send out these OP robots! The robot began jumping around at increasing speeds and Gus couldn’t even find out where to attack. It found ways to jump behind him and rabbit-punch him in the back of the head before he could respond. He began to get pissed at his inability to retaliate.

Looking at the new abilities he hadn’t used yet, he decided to try a new one, but a little less conventionally. When the robot punched him again, he tried to activate Absorb.

Absorb: Extract energy and store for later use, most effective when directly draining MP and HP from others.

Gus wondered if the ability would even work. Did pillowbots even have simulated HP? Another punch interrupted his thoughts. He gritted his teeth as he missed the timing on the first two hits, but on the third, it activated and Gus felt a jolt of energy as he pulled energy from the bot, replenishing both his HP and MP.

After being drained,