[spoiler]I'm gonna be really lazy here, and reuse a post that I made back in June for A New Home, but with an added scene at the end. I may have missed some comparability edits, so just gloss over those. And for size edits, I'm keeping it in a spoiler so as to not annoy anyone. [/spoiler] [spoiler]Eric carefully places himself into the pod, making sure that his neurally connected to the simulation before he closes the hatch. Connecting can be a dizzying experience for some, but Eric is practiced at it, and the phase hardly bothers him. - Inside the sim, he faces off against ten men, all armed, while he has but his arm and a little cover, in the form of a car. The simulation gives him a second of preparation before the men start shooting, and Artemis quickly analyzes their guns. 5 are using assault rifles, utilizing high-caliber, but not armor-piercing rounds, thankfully. 3 of the others are using SMGs, which ARE using AP rounds, which could be very problematic. The other two both carry marksman weapons. - Eric quickly pulls a door off of the car, and lifts it to protect against the incoming fire. He uses the door handle as grip as he hold it in one hand, while his other arm turns into a coil-gun. This particular one, a gauss cannon, utilized an asynchronous linear-induction motor to propel rounds at Mach 40, and is capable of completely obliterating a target upon impact. He quickly gets behind the car to escape their fire, and fires through the transparisteel windows at his foes, choosing his targets with prejudice. One of the assault rifle users went down, quickly followed by another, until they finally got the hint and went behind rubble for cover. A deathly silence fell over the battlefield, and Eric used his anti-grav boots to levitate him off the ground, without a noise. Echolocation revealed the locations of the nearest 4 targets, 2 assaults, and 2 SMGs, and he proceeded to kill them with his particle blade; a stealthier weapon by far. Five down, five to go. He heard the sound of the marksman rifle before he saw it, and instinctively raised the shield; he did so far faster than any regular human could, reacting within milliseconds thanks to Artemis. The force of the bullet knocked his shield back, but he used the backwards momentum to aim his Gauss cannon and take out the sniper. An unfortunate assault trooper who was trying to flank Eric got slashed across the throat instantly. Now it was two against one, more than fair odds, but Eric's luck changed fast. His gauss cannon suddenly disappeared (it turned back into his prosthetic arm), as did all the dropped weapons on the battlefield. The assault trooper quickly rushes at Eric, trying to take advantage of the situation, while the sniper covers him. Eric detected them, and knew that he only had a second to react. He suddenly burst out of cover, activated his boots, and flipped in front of the soldier. The boots reflected off of the man's chin, which snapped his neck. Finally, it was down to him and the sniper. Still in midair, Eric threw the shield in desperation towards the sniper. It was a one-in-a-million throw, but somehow it sliced through the soldiers bodysuit like it was made of butter, and the world dropped away in front of him... - Only to return seconds later, in a disorienting miasma of light. He was in the same place, but this time, he was fully geared up, and he faced but one opponent. The opponent in question, however, took the form of a mythical Ignus Brawler: a savage machine warbeast designed for CQB combat. It stood 30 meters from him, on the other side of the virtual clearing like an unholy mix between the body of a gorilla, the head of a dinosaur, and the armor plating of a tank, topped of by the fanatical zeal of an Ignus machine. With a metallic roar, it charged Eric, knocking aside the husks of cars debris that scattered the ground. Eric fired a gauss round at it, which fragmented the machine's impressive left shoulder pauldron, but barely harmed it. He chambered another round, but was forced to leap aside as the beast came crashing into him, knocking him aside with a backhanded swipe that broke his left shoulder... And the gun attached to it. Eric hit the ground hard, the cement winding him as the beast menaced over him. It dismissively picked him up with a single metal fist, and looked him in the eyes with its unfeeling crimson eyes, before grabbing him with its other hand, and slams him into its chest in an embrace meant to kill. Eric's shields began to falter under such oppressive force, and he was unable to move his arms... Until he remembered his ace. Telepathically he tells Artemis to render his shields frictionless around his torso and face, as he revs up his chainsaw gauntlet. He slides out of the beasts grip gracefully, as his torso offered zero resistance, and jams his gauntlet into the beasts chest as he falls, the chainsaw creeping down its body as Eric's feet touched the ground. With a flourish Eric spins, the blade dancing to slice off the beasts left leg, and bringing it to its knees, where he jams the blade into its face plate. - Moments after the massive corpse falls to the ground, the world begins to swirl away from under his feet, this time, for good. [/spoiler] (Open for comments/conversation).