The plasma bolt cast stark shadows on the ground beneath it as it raced towards the target. Jonathan couldn’t take the time to admire the beauty of the simulated surroundings. He adjusted his aim slightly and fired off another two shots, then darted forward. Not straight towards Chad, he didn’t want to make it easy to return fire, but off at an angle.

The first bolt caught Chad square in the chest just as Jonathan started to move. His shields flared as they absorbed the impact. His flight pack flared, too, as Chad was forced to pour on more power in order to make his jump. The second bolt caught his mech in the leg and knocked him off kilter. The third flew past harmlessly, but Jonathan had already secured a solid opening advantage.

He still had a lot of work to do to secure the win. Chad took aim with his own rifle the moment his feet touched the ground. He took his time, making sure his aim was just right. Jonathan changed direction, his mech's feet clawing out plumes of sand as he did his best to throw off Chad's aim.

Moving in a zigzag kind of motion would become much less effective at medium and short range, but when both of them were pushing the theoretical limits of how far their plasma rifles could reach, hitting a target that was actively dodging was a real challenge. Jonathan wouldn’t have bothered taking a shot from such a distance if Chad hadn’t been moving towards him in such a nice straight line.

Jonathan took a few pot shots as he moved. Chad wasn't moving, but Jonathan still had little chance of landing a shot from such a distance. Keeping up the pressure at least kept Chad off balance, as his long range shots didn't accomplish anything more than throwing up columns of dirt when they missed. Jonathan managed to get one lucky hit in.

As long as it stayed a long range fight, the winner would be determined by who ran out of energy first. Jonathan had staked himself out to an almost insurmountable lead. Not just three hits to zero, but also forcing Chad to burn extra energy on flight. If they were even remotely evenly matched, then a duel at midrange would just be a long slow process of grinding through Chad’s energy reserves until Jonathan’s inevitable victory.

Chad could run the numbers just as well as Jonathan. He obviously wasn’t interested in dragging out a loss. Jonathan had harbored hopes that he might charge forward and try to close into short range, making himself an easy target. To his credit, though, Chad took the most annoying option. As soon as Jonathan closed to mid range, Chad simply hopped backwards and dropped into the canyon that he had just leaped over.

Jonathan frowned. At their level, they didn’t regenerate spiritual energy very quickly. Not enough to make up the gap between them in any reasonable length of time, at least. The smart play would be to approach the drop off at an oblique angle. Take his time finding his prey, and rain fire down on him from the high ground. Just squeeze the life out of the fight.

He shook his head and launched his mech into a mad dash, each footstep digging a great trench in the dirt as he passed. Jonathan didn’t want to win by methodically turning a modest advantage into a decisive edge. He wanted to seize the initiative and smash Chad into the dirt.

Their initial exchange hadn’t just been a lucky break. Jonathan had reacted first, and his shots had been more accurate. He was simply the better pilot. After all the time he’d spent fighting the mechs generated by the system, Jonathan could feel when he had the advantage. And he had it right now.

He didn’t know if Chad’s challenge had been purely based on bravado. Perhaps Jonathan’s slow progress through the entry tests had given him a misplaced sense of confidence. Either way, he’d screwed up. He should have spent less time running his mouth and more time practicing his fundamentals. Jonathan meant to make him pay for that mistake.

He didn’t slow as he approached the edge of the plateau. He didn’t jump, but rather made sure to push off the edge to keep moving forward. The other wall soon filled his vision, but mere stone wasn’t the same problem for a mech that it would be for a squishy human body. Jonathan rotated his mech in flight so that it hit the wall feet first. He ignored the shattered rock rattling off the skin of his mech and leapt back the other way.

Jonathan wanted to catch up quickly, but he needed to keep his movements at least a little unpredictable. Simply hopping off the side and trying to follow directly in Chad’s footsteps was an easy way to eat a beam saber to the face.

Jonathan scanned the canyon floor as he flew, finally spotting his prey when he was about halfway down. Chad was racing away from him along the floor of the canyon. He was already out of easy rifle range. Jonathan poured energy into his flight pack, pushing himself towards Chad as quickly as he could. If there was ever a moment to trade spiritual energy for speed, this was it.

He rained down a flurry of plasma bolts. Most of them crashed into the ground ahead of Chad’s mech. Even if a mech could wade through the storm of plasma unscathed, that was only if the pilot was willing to push through. As Jonathan had hoped, the shock of the attack was enough to convince Chad to come to a halt. Now that he was sure he was going to reach his target, Jonathan slung his rifle across his back and drew his beam saber. Chad barely got his own saber up in time.

Jonathan hit the ground at the same time as he brought his saber down in a heavy overhead chop. The shock of impact sent dust flying all around them. Chad managed to intercept the blow, but the force of it sent him staggering backwards. Jonathan let his momentum carry him into a crouch, then exploded forward, bringing his saber around in a low cut. Chad had transitioned from his high block to a downward slash, a desperate attempt at a counterattack. Jonathan twisted his mech's back just enough to prevent him from getting a clean hit. The beam saber skittered off to the side with a flare of clashing energy as his own blow struck home.

They both still had relatively full charges going to their shields. That was why Chad’s cut had failed to cut through anything important. Similarly, his shield flared up as Jonathan’s saber struck home. It was enough to keep Jonathan from cutting off the leg of his mech. It wasn’t enough to prevent disaster, though, as the impact sent Chad tumbling to the ground.

Jonathan kept moving forward, pulsing his flight pack for a boost of speed. He held his beam saber angled low, allowing it to drag through whatever part of Chad’s mech it could reach as he positioned himself for the finishing blow. It scored a deep line along the mech’s upper thigh with a hiss of scalded metal. Not a crippling wound, but the contact drained the last of the energy from Chad’s shields.

Jonathan didn't mean to give him time to get his shields back up. He changed his grip on the saber and lifted up to chest height. The tip of the blade was poised directly over the pilot’s compartment. Chad was still in shock, not making any move to defend himself.

Jonathan had his opponent at his mercy. He didn't have to worry about tactics or strategy. All that he had to do was finish what he'd started.

Jonathan hesitated. He had cut down enemy mechs in job lots. Jonathan never felt any compunction while finishing off computer-controlled opponents. In the end, they weren’t any more than sophisticated training dummies. This felt different.

He wouldn’t really be hurting Chad, of course. They were in a simulation. Albeit, a realistic simulation. Jonathan had experienced enough deaths during the testing process to know the pain he was about to inflict. He didn’t particularly want to inflict that kind of suffering on another human being.

In the end, though, he didn’t have any choice. The duel would continue until one of them was unable to fight. Carving up Chad’s mech piece by piece until the computer called off the fight wouldn’t be any kind of act of mercy. The duel could also end with surrender, but if Chad had given up then the computer would have notified Jonathan already.

He steadied himself and drove the beam saber down.

His moment of hesitation had given Chad just enough time to get his wits about him. His mech rolled out of the way of the descending blade in a cacophony of crashing metal. Jonathan’s beam saber plunged into the ground nearly up to the hilt, with nothing to show for his effort but some molten rock flowing from the point of contact.

As Chad’s mech finished its roll he swept its arm forward, sending a wave of dirt and debris into the air, all headed in Jonathan’s direction.