“Gravity powers?” Miles looked amazed. 'So that was what she was depending on.'

“How much can you increase it? Do you think you will be able to beat me with it?” Miles said and looked at her with disdain. Extra gravity would put stress on his body, but Lucy was only Grace-rank High-tier. She couldn’t crush Miles with her powers alone.

“Oh, no. You got it all wrong.” Lucy said and took a step back.

Miles felt the gravity on him subsided, he could lift weights easily, but because of earlier weight, he used too much force and ended up thrusting his arm. He felt his tendons stretching beyond their capability.

“You see, I am not trying to crush you with your own weight. I admit I am simply not strong enough to do it yet. But I can increase and reduce the gravitational force on you, and in the end your body will go into emergency guidelines in your genes to protect you. What do you think will happen?” Lucy smiled devilishly and took another step towards Miles.

Weight on his arms mounted once again. Miles was thinking of a way out of it, but he couldn’t find a way to get rid of the powers. Superpowers were as such, he could beat the person using them, but in a situation like that, his hands were tied.

He placed the weights back on the rack and rose to his feet. He noticed that the weight was increasing with every step of Lucy, and when she took a step back, the mountain on his shoulders got lighter. He assumed that her powers were working with the distance. It was logical because she is the center of the circle. She wasn’t getting any effect from her powers, so all he had to do was keep his distance to not get affected by her superpowers.

As soon as he took a step forward, Lucy took a step back. He realized then he was wrong.

“I love humans!” Lucy looked at Miles with the same smile and said, “Monsters can’t think, they only act with instinct so fights get boring after a while. When they can’t figure out what is pressing them to dirt, they either attack with everything they have or they bolt away. But humans, they think, they assume, they plan. Just like you did. You thought the distance is the key right?” She laughed.

“Sorry, but it is not. I am the key! I am the queen of my powers and the circle I create. In the domain I create, I am the law. I can use my powers to affect you or not, I can increase gravitational force for you while reducing it for me. You see, I can control everything.”

Miles felt the gravity force on him, rising and falling constantly. His internal organs were having a hard time keeping up with the constant changes. It was like Lucy said, humans could adapt to anything, but the chaos was the bane of the human race.

Gravity is not just a force, it's also a signal — a signal that tells the body how to act. For one thing, it tells muscles and bones how strong they must be.

In zero-G, muscles atrophy quickly because the body perceives it does not need them. The muscles used to fight a gravitational force like those in the calves and spine, which maintain posture, which can lose around 20 percent of their mass if not in use. Muscle mass can vanish at a rate as high as 5% a week.

In the small changes, Miles's body wasn’t reacting as dramatically, but he was still having side effects of the same guidelines. Genes in his body ordered every cell to act according to situations. When gravitational force increases, his bones become denser, and when gravity force decreases, bones become weightless gradually.

A shift in blood pressure also sends a signal. The human body expects a blood pressure gradient. Higher blood pressure in the head raises an alarm. The constant change in gravity will create problems with the circulation of blood. Contrary to slowly increasing gravitational force, where the body adapts as it rises, increasing and decreasing gravity force will create ruckus in the heart.

Miles felt as if his heart was about to explode.

The last increase was higher than he expected. The change in gravity made him dizzy. He was having vertigo. He tried to hold on to anything but found himself on the ground. He could hardly open his eyes, and he was about to pass out. If he were to lose consciousness, he would lose the wager.

He tasted iron in his throat and let out a mouthful of blood. It has only been 10 minutes, but he was already on the ground, vomiting red fluid.

Lucy was on top of him, looking down at his sorry state with the same smile. “Ready to give up?” Lucy looked at him triumphantly.

Miles ignored her. As much as he wanted to act cool and say, ‘I will never give up!’, the reasonable side of him stopped his childish side.

He closed his eyes and felt the pressure on his body. Firstly, he had to get rid of vertigo. Thus, he blocked his senses as much as he could. Then when pressure was low, he rose to his feet and threw himself to the couch and held on to the armrests. Now that his body was stable, all he had to do was stabilize his blood and muscles. It was easier said than done. Even though humans could control their blood pressure and heartbeat to some extent, full control was nothing but fantasy. Yet, some things could reduce or increase blood pressure. So Miles did that.

As soon as gravity on his body fell, he imagined Lucy naked with him all alone in the Gravity Lounge. The image increased his blood circulation and nulled the effect of the sudden drop in gravity. And as soon as it increased on his body, he focused his mind to calm his heartbeat and reduced his blood pressure.

Miles could fight against the powers on him, and he felt much better just in 20 minutes. By now, the gravity was already 1.6 times that of Earth’s.

With Lucy’s increase, it was going up to 2.5G and falling to 0. Even when gravity was higher than normal, her influence on gravity was lesser than the higher gravity went. It was like controlling a car. When it was slow, one would have full control over it. But the faster the car, the harder it would be to turn. Now that Gravity was higher, she could only increase it so much, and couldn’t even reduce it to 0.

“What is happening?” Lucy’s face was rigid. She wasn’t getting the reactions she expected from Miles. He was calm and stable. Even with the constant change in gravity, he wasn’t influenced one bit.

Miles opened an eye to look at Lucy's sweaty body. Her tank top was soaked in sweat, and her skin was glistening. Her chest was heaving up and down.

“When you were increasing gravity, my blood pressure was scaling up, so I focused to clear up my mind to reduce it. And when you were reducing gravity, my blood pressure was going down, and making me fuzzy, so I imagined things to increase my blood pressure. Can you guess what I was imagining?” Miles smiled and looked at Lucy lasciviously

“You!” She pointed her finger at Miles as her face went pink. The embarrassment made her chest heave more, and the sight was spectacular.

Miles grinned and watched her. Lucy turned her back and hid her body from Miles, but her control over gravity also got weaker. Not long after, she couldn’t reduce it anymore, even for herself.

She couldn’t take it anymore and left the room.

Miles heaved a sigh of relief, “I almost lost to her.” he said when Lucy left the room.

“You wager for her to stop pestering you, but I think she will badger you to death from now on.” Coin said.

“Well, then I will have to remind her this day, right.” Miles said with a smile and walked back to the training.