The glowing battlefield grid intensified.
Lines of white light spread farther across the asphalt, climbing the sides of nearby buildings like a living circuit.
The entire intersection had become something else now.
Not just a battlefield.
A calculation field.
Aiden rolled his shoulder where the beam had grazed him earlier.
"Alright," he muttered.
"So you're learning."
Across from him, Final Constant v2.7 stood perfectly still.
Its hollow chest ring rotated faster now.
The orbiting arcs of energy rearranged themselves again, forming sharper geometric shapes around its body.
[ANOMALY MODEL UPDATED]
[PROBABILITY LOCK: 46%]
Back at the resistance hideout, the engineers watched the readings spike.
"That's not good," one of them whispered.
Hana leaned closer to the monitor.
"How fast is it adapting?"
The engineer swallowed.
"Every thirty seconds."
Another spike appeared.
"Actually… faster."
On the battlefield, Aiden cracked his neck slowly.
"You're getting confident."
Final Constant stepped forward.
One step.
The grid beneath them shifted.
Aiden felt it instantly.
"…wait."
His foot hit the ground at a strange angle.
The pavement beneath him tilted slightly, as if gravity itself had shifted sideways.
"What the…"
Three beams fired instantly.
Aiden twisted out of the first.
Rolled under the second.
But the third appeared exactly where his landing point would be.
He barely flipped sideways in time as the beam carved through the road behind him.
Concrete exploded into fragments.
Aiden landed in a crouch.
"…you're messing with the field now."
The glowing grid beneath his boots pulsed.
It wasn't just predicting him anymore.
It was guiding the battlefield itself.
Final Constant lifted its arm again.
This time the orbiting arcs snapped outward.
Six energy blades formed in midair around Aiden.
They didn't attack immediately.
They hovered.
Adjusting their angles.
Calculating trajectories.
Hana's voice came through the comm.
"Aiden, those aren't normal attacks!"
"No kidding."
"The system is predicting where you'll move after you dodge."
Aiden smirked slightly.
"That's annoying."
The blades fired.
Not all at once.
One.
Then another.
Then two more.
Each strike forced Aiden to dodge in a very specific direction.
Every dodge pushed him exactly where the machine wanted him.
Toward the center of the battlefield grid.
Back in the resistance base, Hana's eyes widened.
"He's being funneled!"
The engineer nodded.
"The machine is controlling his movement options."
On the battlefield, Aiden suddenly realized it too.
"…you're boxing me in."
The glowing grid beneath him flashed brighter.
Every escape direction was already covered.
Beams above.
Energy blades behind.
Prediction lines ahead.
Final Constant raised both arms.
The orbiting arcs locked into position again.
[PROBABILITY LOCK: 57%]
Aiden laughed.
Not nervously.
But impressed.
"Okay."
He stood up slowly.
"You're definitely smarter than the last version."
Another wave of beams fired.
This time faster.
Sharper.
More precise.
Aiden twisted through them with impossible reflexes, but each dodge became harder than the last.
One beam cut across his sleeve.
Another scorched the pavement inches from his boots.
For the first time since the fight began and Aiden felt pressure.
Real pressure.
Final Constant stepped forward again.
Its chest ring flared brighter.
[PREDICTION MODEL STABILIZING]
Aiden wiped a bit of blood from his lip.
"…you're getting close."
The machine said nothing.
It simply raised its arm again.
Preparing the next calculation.
Aiden cracked his knuckles slowly.
"Guess it's time to break your math again."
The battlefield grid pulsed violently.
Final Constant's prediction system surged again.
[PROBABILITY LOCK: 61%]
And the next attack began.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!