“So here’s what’s gonna happen next,” The armoured alien girl said, “I’m gonna head out to the training arena. If you can make it there, we’ll have to see about getting some kind of a tournament going. But trust me, getting there ain’t gonna be easy.” 

She was gone in an instant, blurring away at velocities a comic book superhero would be proud of. 

The moment she disappeared a heavy thumping began from outside the building. 

It sounded as if something very big and very hostile had begun to trudge its way to the hall that we were all sitting in, and as the footsteps got louder and the vibrations in the floor got more noticeable more and more of the aliens began to look even more concerned. 

[I mean, you’re not wrong, that’s exactly what’s happening,] The AI said, I couldn’t tell if its tone was amused or just as worried as I was feeling. 

And then all hell broke loose. 

The thudding stopped and the collective aliens began to whisper to one another, that whispering was cut off by a colossal cracking sound from above us. 

Five immense metal fingers tore their way through the massive stone bricks of the building as if they weren’t even there. 

They hooked themselves around the roof of the building we were in and simply ripped it free, revealing the mid-morning sky. 

Looming over us was a gigantic robot, at least fifty feet tall, with guns and weapons systems bristling across every surface. 

I swallowed thickly. 

Before we even had a chance to get to the tournament itself we clearly had to qualify… by getting past that. 

Getting past it was probably the main goal, anyway. The girl who had rushed off in a blast of magic-enhanced speed hadn’t said we needed to fight the thing, just that we needed to get over to the training arena. 

But… the chances were that there we were already being judged on our performances, and if that was the case, then we would probably be seen favourably if we were able to do any damage to the megalithic mecha in front of us. 

[As the AI that is unfortunate enough to have been put inside your head, it’s my humble duty to let you know you’re thinking like an absolute madman,] My AI cut in, [Not only have you never used magic before, all you have access to is some strength boosts and some energy blasts. Do you really want the first thing you attempt to do to be… well… that?]

With the AI’s admonishment still rattling around my head I decided that you know what, I think I did want that to be the first thing that I attempted. 

Sure, maybe it was an absolutely insane course of action. Maybe the first thing I should have done was to try and make an escape, avoid the fight altogether. 

But I’d lived in the background of my own life for so long back on my homeworld, and I just wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that trend continued. 

“How strong am I compared to the others here?” I asked under my breath. 

The AI took a moment and then replied reluctantly, <With the power you can currently access you’re probably still somewhere within the top 5% of people in this room.>

“Sounds like I’m still pretty top tier, then,” I said as I cracked my knuckles and stood up from my chair. 

It was like a switch had been flicked or a button had been pressed. 

One moment I felt like I always had, a pretty standard and average guy from the planet Earth with nothing too special about him. 

In fact, I’d still sort of been holding onto the idea that I might have been having a dream the whole time. 

Now, though, the truth was something I couldn’t deny. 

I’d watched enough anime. I’d read enough light novels. I knew what this was, I was going through my very first power-up, and it felt incredible. 

I could feel it surge through my system. Every fibre of my being was being enhanced. My speed, my strength, my durability, hell even my perception had all been increased. 

[Okay, so at the moment you’re working with somewhere around a quarter to a half of a per cent of what your theoretical max is,] My AI explained, [Even that is a devastating amount of power, so show a little restraining and try not to get anyone dead.]

Clearly, the amount of power that I was giving off was impressive, because the moment the surge of energy washed through me the robot that was looming over the group of aliens had flicked its head toward me. 

I bounced on the balls of my feet and grinned at how agile I felt. 

Back on Earth, I’d never been one for athletics or fighting or… well… sport in general. The most I’d managed to achieve in the sporting arena was a bronze medal in a swimming competition when I was 12. 

This was going to take a lot more effort than that. 

I rolled my shoulders, twisted my neck from side to side to crack out the kinks, and then leapt into the air. 

The ground beneath me was ripped apart in a spiderweb of cracks as I soared into the air, a small trail of debris following me in an arc toward the giant machine. 

It moved faster than I could have expected for such a large machine. I’d expected its movements to be slow and clunky, but just like me it was as fast as lightning. 

The thing snatched me out of the air with a single hand and closed its fingers around me into a fist. 

The metal of the robot was odd. I’d been expecting a hard and unyielding surface, but it was soft and almost like skin. 

That softness didn’t matter when the mecha began to clench its mechanical muscles. It was trying to squeeze the life straight out of me. 

I wasn’t going to let it.